Seems to me like Trump is just a symptom of a larger problem. Already before Trump announced he was running for president there was a lot of pushback against Obama from the right. Also the left was getting more and more extreme in their demands during that time. Remember that it was while Obama was in office that a whole bunch of LGBT stuff became official (regardless of your opinion you have to realize that conservatives aren’t going to like it) such as gay marriage, being openly gay in the military, transsexuals in women’s bathrooms, and more. Not to mention Obamacare, which was a problem for anyone earning more than minimum wage.
So Trump obvious has some flaws, to say the least, but if it wasn’t him it would be someone else. Part of the increased polarization is both sides pushing back against each other, but on the left there are certainly people pushing more extreme ideas and I don’t doubt the same is happening on the right.
It seems to me Trump popped the zit hanging out under the surface for a long time.
How many decades have people complained that an outsider needed to come in and clean house? Well, here ya go!
What did you think was going to happen? Was there a scenario where such a thing was going to be pretty?
I agree with this. It is part of the parties being more polarized. I think our primary system is at fault a bit (generally, more extreme left or right show up to primaries). Things like rank choice would help.
Maybe it is just more exposed, but I think we are seeing a rejection of critical thought. We see debates at colleges and other venues get shut down because people won’t listen to a different view. This is a both sides issue.
We see this on the Left with many people very quickly jumping to conclusions about the Kenosha shooting. Just assumed it was an attempted murder without looking at the facts. We see it on the Right as well. How many people on the Right are still refusing to accept that Obama was born in the US. Almost more troubling is many on both sides refusing to change positions after being shown evidence to the contrary of their claim.
I don’t know if I would give him that much credit, he is part of the swamp that he was talking about draining. The main thing he has going for him is that he isn’t going to destabilize America.
That is part of it. However, I’m actually not aware of any incidents where right wingers shut down a left wing event or speaker, while the other way around is what happens all the time. Maybe I missed something, but either way this is only worsening the situation.
Was there actually any evidence shown? I never followed that because I just don’t care, but I remember George W Bush’s scandal about whether or not he actually served in the military. No evidence was shown, just some false evidence was discredited and somehow everyone forgot about it.
This is standard political strategy now. Put some shite out there, it gets discussed for 4 weeks until the next outrage rolls along.
When evidence that the first event was full of shite emerges it gets talked about for 1 day because it is being drowned out by the new outrage.
Two weeks later all folks remember is the 4 week shitshow and not the fact it was bullshit
We shouldn’t put up with this but it’s impossible to stop. Notice how there is a friggin political crisis every other week nowadays? Too many news hours to fill, too many journalist are advocates. Bad mix
I never took it too seriously and like I said, I don’t care. But if there was some sort of scheme to put a foreign-born Muslim in the white house then it wouldn’t be too hard to make a fake birth certificate, right? I just don’t see why they would want to do that in the first place, and what was even more ridiculous was these allegations that Obama was a closet Muslim and planning to enact sharia law. Because of course sharia law includes gay marriage and transsexuals in women’s bathrooms.
Do you remember how that story went? Someone gave Dan Rather fake evidence showing that Bush did not serve in the military, it was presented in the news before it was revealed to be fake, Rather was forced to resign, and this incident was taken as some sort of proof that Bush did in fact serve in the military when there was nothing actually showing that. The fact that the media dropped the story right there shows how they are a propaganda tool, and Bush was a lying sack of shit.
Things are much weirder nowadays because on top of the left-leaning mainstream media there is also right wing “alternative” media, some of which is pretty much mainstream now and is equally biased and full of propaganda. The question is which set of lies do you choose to believe?
Was there ever any doubt? Of course you have people on both sides who only listen to propaganda from their own side, but to people with critical thinking skills it should be obvious.
But what else did they offer as proof? I think it wouldn’t be that hard to do, there just isn’t a good reason for it. Also it seems like a smokescreen for something else that could have been a scandal if anyone paid attention:
Funnily enough, I worked with a guy who had a long history of politicians in his family. Guy was slimy AF, even without a career in politics. I remember when I found out about it, all his behaviour suddenly made sense haha There’s something in the blood of people who go into politics
I don’t trust mainstream media. I have moved to independent journalism and local news. If there is a story in a city, I like to go to that city’s local news. There is less opportunity for bent from on-scene.
The thing below, where a violent image is accompanying a story or headline about mostly peaceful protests is happening pretty often. Too broad to be a small group of troll editors, too consistent to be an accident IMO.
Thoughts on what is going on here? Nothing? Normalising the violence seems too obvious…
Mainstream left wing media is vastly overestimating liberal tolerance for violent crime, BLM, racebaiting, anti-police rhetoric, etc. Anything positive that could have come from the George Floyd incident was erased once the media started labeling addicts, criminals, the mentally ill, etc., as the good guys. The average liberal looks at Antifa and BLM rioters and thinks, “no, that is not me.” But CNN’s hate for Trump had them exercising poor judgment. They call Antifa rioters in Portland anti-racism protesters while their viewers are thinking “what does any of that have to do with racism?”
I read an article in which the author asks why is it the police shot the Antifa guy who murdered the Trump supporter in Portland but they didn’t shoot the 17 year old kid in Kenosha. How about one guy was the subject of a manhunt who decided to go down shooting and the other surrendered to cops before the cops even knew a possible crime had been committed. People see through this BS agenda based reporting just like they can see through an image of a neighborhood in flames and a caption calling it peaceful.
Surely they are not that silly and if they are surely they are not that slow to react. Although the politicians seemed to be slow but they have taken a bit of a change now, the media not so much.