Trump 2025 - Resuming The National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity (Part 1)

Off Topic Politics & World Issues
2169

I only watched the first episode in full. It was immediately apparent to me that the people responsible for this abomination absolutely hated J.R.R. Tolkien.

They simply saw an opportunity to take something intrinsically good and beloved by many and then twist it into an instrument of power and control. It is the same thing that happened with the Star Wars franchise.

They come for EVERYTHING. Your culture, your sense of right and wrong, and especially your children’s minds.

They also happen to want all of your money, too. At the end of the day, socialism is all about…

Put the money in the hat, comrade.

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2170

Even imaginary worlds need to be representative of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

It’s kinda ridiculous if you think about it, but a bunch of people sat around and thought about how to “balance the scales” of this story, and nobody piped up and said “Wait a second. None of you motherfuckers are nearly good enough to tinker with this.”.

It would be like me trying to rewrite Great Gig In The Sky or Comfortably Numb, having only clumsily picked up a guitar a couple times as a kid.

2171

Gyllenhall RoadHouse was legit.

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2172

This is one of the fundamental problems with socialism in every form it has taken.

What’s the difference between “justice” and “social justice”? The difference lies in the belief of socialists that they can “balance the scales” through completely controlling society and the economy.

Hitler did not gain power in the 1920’s and early 30’s campaigning on mass murder and declaring war against the USA in 1941. His message was one of social justice, justified by a distorted historical narrative. Hiter’s National Socialism differed from Marx’s socialism in that it was oriented around racial characteristics, not class.

Otherwise the core of the political philosophy was the same, and it was all about “balancing the scales” through treating people unequally.

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2173

This I agree with. If you don’t like Tolkien, don’t try and tell his story.

Same shit has happened with Star Wars. The Acolyte was absolute trash.

When I add all the taxes I pay (federal, sales, property, etc…) my tax rate is barely lower than Great Britain and they at least get more out of their taxes.
They have their share of problems too, but at least they generally see more return on their taxes than we do.

2174

They didn’t try to tell Tolkien’s story. It was bad fan fiction written by socialist ideologues.

Maine is among the two or three highest taxed states, with more surely coming with the upcoming school budget vote and property revaluations. We will be told that increasing our contributions is of a moral imperative.

Put the money in the hat, comrade.

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2175

I don’t agree with taxes being a moral imperative, but I do want to know exactly where what I am paying in goes to. Getting rid of them is a pipe dream, so make it more apparent than ever where every scent is spent.

2176

DOGE appears to be working on it.

Understanding what happens to the money is, in no small part, an information systems problem. A really, really big and complicated one.

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2177

This is only based on gut-feeling, but I want to see DOGE dismantle the government waste or in other words keep doing what it’s doing.

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2178

Why is US aid funneled they’d Norway?

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2179

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2180

Because the U.S. is the largest empire in history, but doesn’t rename its territories.

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2181

I think so much of US history since WWII is going to be put into much clearer focus. Trump seems to mean every word he’s seriously campaigned on, and so does Musk.

I think Musk in particular is a guy who was a leftist/Democrat purely for broad social reasons and likely didn’t give politics a great deal of mental attention. Once he began turning his attention towards government, he began aligning with MAGA. He endorsed Trump the day he was shot in the assassination attempt.

Now he’s unleashing that brain of his in an autistic fixation of rooting out this unbelievable rat’s nest. I can’t imagine too many people better suited to this new role in the executive branch. Corrupting Elon Musk isn’t possible with money.

If you think I’ve got it all wrong, I recommend reading Heather Cox Richardson for some soothing words that will reinforce the idea that we’re watching fascism unfolding. She’s a very gifted author.

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2182

I’m not affiliated but have mentioned a few times I ride a Harley and have met people who are. You see the same faces over time in the backroad ice houses and whatever else. I’m also affiliated with B.A.C.A. and OMGs participate too, so there is some cross-over.

They do ride, like other enthusiasts. The reason they have a club presence is because they enjoy the deeper camaraderie and brotherhood of having one. Some people are just wired this way. Like in college, some kids join fraternities/sororities and some don’t. You can certainly throw a party without being in one, but all the best parties I went to were Greek. I wasn’t in a frat myself, but can objectively say that the coordination, shared budget and so on that come from an organizational structure generally led to much better parties than a bunch of kids throwing kegs in a backyard and turning on a radio. Which was also fun.

They’re just interested in the club aspect along with the motorcycle thing.

I usually ride with a regular group of buddies (who also happen to powerlift) and it’s just another thing we do together, casually. Lift, fish, hunt, drink beer, ride Harley’s et cetera. I also occasionally meet up with casual “riding clubs”, who basically post rally points and times in online groups of thousands of people and whoever wants to ride shows up and goes. Typically ~50 or so people. Sometimes you see a familiar face, often it’s a revolving group responding when available and interested. I’ve also been on toy runs and publicly visible rides with an OMG on an invitation.

Similar to the frat thing, the way they’re organized, “bought in” and coordinated makes the whole experiences feel a little elevated. And for people who are in to the broader lifestyle, it makes sense. Like going all in at a powerlifting gym. Or a pickleball league that is legitimately competitive as a team or whatever your interests are.

2183

I have (as an European) a strong sense that US is going straight to the shithole with its current problems and political atmosphere. Trump and his oligarchic companions will speed up the process.

I truly hope that I’m wrong. The west should keep together when the current global situation is what it is. It’s saddening to see that we’re ready to give it all up because of some petty culture wars.

US has some big problems to tackle for sure, but I’m not sure how well these current methods will help with these problems (and what new ones will arise).

2184

If it is true that we are a corrupt oligarchy, and I believe we have elements of it, what would be the first thing you do if you won the US Presidency?

I’d want to look at the books.

I think you can relax about the USA. We just dodged the bullet. A Harris victory, four more years of open borders and continued rigging of our elections could have secured generational power for the “oligarchs”.

There’s only one way out of a mess like that, and it is the really ugly kind of way.

We did learn that our elections are still a valid change mechanism, at least at the national level. Maine, where I live, is entirely rigged at the moment.

Our constitutions, both federal and state, also structure our government in fundamentally different ways than many European countries. This has been an effective roadblock against a true tyranny, especially our freedom of speech.

The UK, meanwhile, is busy locking people up for their political speech, further neutering their population with ridiculous knife laws and subjecting its population to a continued invasion of state dependents from distant lands.

The socialists have been much more successful in many parts of Europe. Their insane ideology is how a country like Poland gets called words like “far-right” and “fascist” for not embracing open borders. They have not seem to have forgotten anything that’s been done to them in living memory, and simply declined the latest invasion attempt.

Good for Poland.

Us Yanks will figure out how to chase modern and sophisticated corruption of of politics and then show you guys how to do it where you live.

Whatever is ahead for the USA, it sure isn’t fascism. I’m not seeing the signs in the least, whether you’re talking Italian fascism or National Socialism. All of the fascism talk is just the death throes of the grifter class and ideologues who prop them up.

Rich, powerful people will surely continue to sell lots of stuff that people want and accumulate resources, which is fine with me. That’s not incompatible with a well-functioning government that serves the broad interest of the voters.

Good luck over on that side of the pond. You guys really need it.

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2185

Immigration is a complex topic, and whoever who supports or condems it wholeheartedly from a idealistic purposes is naive.

As for Poland, there are some pretty conserning elements with some political parties, but the real problems are not connected to the immigration policy. Actually France, Italy and specially Germany (where far left and far right nationalists have similar goals) have things much worse now.

As for using ”socialist” as a general term of descripting wide range of political agendas is misleading. We’re all socialists and conservatives and libertarians to a certain point. I refuse to use words like ”socialist” or ”conservative” as a words for bad people.

The biggest conserns about Trumps administration are:

  1. it attacks straight against rule based international policies and organisations. These organisations or rules aren’t flawless, but if you threaten your allies or show no interest of keeping these organisations up, you will make democratic west weaker against authoritarian regimes which aim to bring the same organisations and rules down, so they can play their imperialist games more freely.

  2. Musks position is deeply conserning. Political power and the most wealth should not be mixed. That’s a big no no. Power consentrated will always bring up problems and weaken democracy, since there is no such thing as a ”good enough person” for such a role.

  3. He speaks stupid populistic stories and nonsense. The consequences here are more indirect, but they feed the current climate where fact based decision making is not trending in politics. We’re all turning to ochlocracy.

Generally I’ll see that the west is in big trouble, threatened from outside and within. We might be seeing a dusk of short lived liberal democracy as a whole.

I might be overreacting, and things might go well after all. I hope US will stay US in the future, most of us Europeans do like you guys, you’re our allies in more than one way.

2186

Remember when Trump said that Europe needs to start holding up their end of NATO and everybody poo-poo’d him as an ignorant rube?

Then Putin brought war to your doorsteps, and what happened?

You guys were caught with your pants down.

Now after a few years you see the sense in making nato a stronger defensive force and are holding up your end.

Thats not an attack on institutions. Thats a direct and hard fact the the body politic of europe refused to accept until missiles were flying and war was at your door.

2187

We’ll I did not. Trump was right there. Actually my country is one of the few who have some formidable defences here.

Europes military budgets are still generally way too low, if we want to defend ourselves.

2188

That’s not REAL socialism!

When I use the term I refer to Democratic Socialist of America ideas. The DSA is quite clear in their policy objectives and have gained control of the Democratic Party.

Social programs can exist without socialist ideology, and MAGA isn’t out to end the concept of public schools, social security or funding important scientific research.

Ideally this results in a net savings for the taxpayer and more funding for things like cancer research.

Sadly, due to the inevitable cuts, we may never learn if transgender capybara experience harm from being misgendered by a talking parrot.

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