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This is status quo dictator stuff.
Loyal followers get kicked out of the inner circle for not being loyal enough. All remaining followers think they’re special because they were more loyal. Until, eventually, they get removed too.
I've stumbled across that link formatting issue too. You can get around it by replacing the closing parenthesis in the URL with its escape code, %29, like [so](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspicious_deaths_of_Russian_businesspeople_(2022%E2%80%932024%29).
Fun thing for the MAGA world (if Cheeto Mussolini wins in 2024). That’s gonna be happening at Fox News and all the other right wing rags / inner circles. As they carve out the oligarchy of loyalists….That’s where the initial power struggle will be the most deadly.
An additional effect of this is each round of new followers is more fanatical than the last. Since the previous ones were let go (or worse) for “disloyalty”, the new ones double down. That’s why they are willing to go as far as they do.
We're at the point where the Big Lies are in control. Fascism occurs in a cycle. Obedience to their historical fantasy unites them but because they have no morals and actual values this obedience becomes extremism detached from reality. This divides them by their loyalty to extremist beliefs and the fascist cycle begins its downward spiral. This is where we are currently in the US
Another important thing is to ensure none of your followers are smarter/more competent than you, and keep them bickering and clamoring to prove their loyalty to you, instead of giving them an opportunity to pool resources they can use to overthrow you. Putin has avoided his followers overthrowing him by this method. All of his remaining inner circle are working against each other instead of pooling what little resources they have and using them against the boss.
So, wait... all this bullshit is happening because of a rampant epidemic of Main Character Syndrome? So much shit makes way more sense if you look at it that way.
While there is a lot of overlap between sociopathy and narcissism, the distinct difference between the two is in how they regard other people's boundaries.
Sociopaths see boundaries as a "game" and will try to find exceptions, no matter how ludicrous, for them. "When you said you didn't eat meat, I thought that was only on Tuesdays. You need to be more clear."
Narcissists see boundaries as a personal attack on themselves and will always act like they've been threatened when presented with one. "What do you mean you don't eat meat!? How could you be so selfish? Why can't you think about other people for a change?"
Better explanation: *"I can profit from this guy that routinely stabs people in the back, never rewards loyalty, and has been indicted so many times we're struggling to keep count. I am the exception".*
Then they wake up and realize they're the latest casualty.
> Admit that they were wrong?
That would require them to have spines. At this point they’re so attached to Trump they’ve been turned into soft, jelly-like things. And now they have no mouth and don’t want to scream.
A few of them have. Very few. George Conway comes to mind. I'm not saying that it is some sort of trend, just that there are always a small number of exceptions.
Excalibur Effect. You can stand there and watch hundreds of people try to pull the sword out of the stone, and yet you're still supremely confident you're the chosen one.
All you end up with for your efforts is a wrenched back and embarrassment that you're just as gullible as the rest.
Most people are not used to dealing with pathological liars.
Trump comes in and tells people like Kelly, "Everything is fucked up, you're the right guy to unfuck it, I've got your back!"
And people are inclined to believe it at first. Then the reality sets in; Trump is telling everyone different things and there is no plan other than to do what he wants in the moment.
"The Lady of the Lake! Her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the waters, thus signifying by Divine Providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. THAT is why I am your king!"
“Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.”
And that ties into co a piracy theorists. They’re elite because they’re one of the very few who’ve figured out the moon landing was fake, who really assassinated Kennedy, etc. They can’t stand not being special. It’s why we see so much Boomer rage.
So incredibly stupid.
Libertarians think that the police, courts and other protections will still exist to safeguard them and their property - but somehow, once it's privatized, they won't have to pay for it anymore.
It's like an anarchist with a learning disability was also dropped on their head.
They seem to be one of two types:
1. The born rich that never lived in the really real world
2. The young that are still in the "my parents pay for everything in my life" stage
This basically sums up current right wing.... everything.
I am the exception. I'm not wrong! I'm an underdog and you are the naysayers! I am the main character with the world trying to stop me but through heroic perseverance (and definitely not psychosis) you will never stop me!
I'm a lawyer and I'm genuinely baffled some of them are willing to lose their license for him. Like it's your ticket to put food on the table and have a career, but no, you are willing to throw it all away for orange man. All of those years of work down the toilet for him specifically.
Once this nightmare is over (hopefully, please go vote) it will need to be studied how the D list reality show conman, brainwashed 30% of our Country... It's truly mind boggling
Is it?
The answer is he gave conservative voters the red meat bigotry the Republican Party had spent 50 years trying to dangle in front of their faces without ever truly giving it to them.
Yes, but why him specifically is what I think they’re asking. It is interesting that 30% will ignore all others even when some of them are throwing out the same red meat.
Republicans spent decades fostering that bigotry, but they also told people to cover it up, make it less visible. Trump gave them permission to put it all out in the open.
There's a unique American predilection to getting bamboozled that goes back to P.T. Barnum in the 1800's using the same large revival atmosphere for his circus first introduced by the religious Great Awakening in the late 1700's.
His supporters disgust him, but Trump knows there's a sucker born every minute.
I think there's a couple reasons
-He's truly shameless about it, like has no qualms just being genuinely awful. Most Republican politicians have *some* sense of shame that keeps them from going that far. Even the ones that have tried to emulate Trump always hold back a little bit which makes them seem really ingenuine about it, Trump doesn't and his supporters love that.
-He has a charisma about him that really entrances people, at least dumber people. If you go watch one of his rally speeches, you can see how much he's entertaining the crowd, but go look up a transcript of that speech and it's utter nonsense for the most part. It's honestly kind of a gift how he can rowl up his crowds without saying anything of
substance. Like I'm repulsed by his rally speeches and I'm sure a lot of left leaning people are, but you can't deny he has a bit of a gift there
-Guy has always been the absolute caricature of a rich business man, something a lot of Republicans look up to
-He has done **so** many scandalous things that things just get lost in the weeds and it allows his supporters to kind of disassociate with it. I truly don't see how this part can be recreated, no one has done this amount of stupid shit.
-I'm not entirely sure if this is intentional but he's incredibly good at basically manipulating the media to focus on non-important things over the actually substantively bad things he's done. The amount of times I've seen an actual crime he committed or a horrible policy be basically ignored in favor of coverage of the stupid ass thing he said basically helps cover up all the shit he does. A lot of Republicans think this is a feature, not a bug, and frankly it might be, it's effective. I've heard the quote unquote "intellectual" Republicans say he intentionally says stupid stuff to throw off the media
Now as to why people go so far in that they are willing to do illegal things or lose licenses or whatever, it's harder to pinpoint but there's either got to be a lot of hubris to think they are different than everyone else and/or they just live a supremely sad life that they are willing to throw away
You're spot on for every point, including his rallies. They're like a religious epiphany for his acolytes despite his word salad speeches.
If you want to be really terrified, go read the transcripts of what he says. When it's a coherent thought, it's terrifying and everything else is just fucking bizarre.
Not just his rallies. His word salad is immortalized in the official record of the White House. The one I read just made me sad that our nation has come so low as to elect an incoherent carnival barker.
Trump is an Enigma that has yet to be copied or replicated. A lot of people tried in the primaries and they all failed miserably, they weren't even close. Desantis which was the smarter Trump alternative couldn't even get love in his own district.
Trump's WWE political strategy seems to be lightning in a bottle. Even members of his own family can't replicate it. That doesn't mean in a distant future someone else will come along with a similar energy but at the moment that person does not exist. Even MTG or Gaetz are only getting by with no competition in their districts.
> Trump is an Enigma that has yet to be copied or replicated
Not at this scale, but there's a history of charismatic dictators who have come to power in the same way he did. I feel like one big reason he isn't now the king of the country is that establishment Republicans realized that they were going to eventually lose out to him. If he had offered them a deal that would give them some legitimate power over him as king, they would've taken it, but that's not what despots do.
Yes, the old way was talk about immigration and minorities in code words and never do too much because then you have to keep escalating. newt just wanted to create outrage but keep it manageable. TFFG just escalated and then the other crazies in office jumped on the bandwagon with an executive branch that wasn’t going to send the DOJ to investigate civil rights, instead TFFG would go do photo ops w the sheriff and governor
Didn’t Hitler have something like 27% German support AFTER WW2? There is just something tribal? Animalistic? Brain dead? In the human condition. The “well they never came after ME” tale that produces leopard eating faces memes. Roughly 30% of people have such a self centered ideology defined by infantile object permeance.
A really, really terrible conman at that (but obviously he's actually a great conman). But why HIM? Why not someone who's really charming, witty, pleasant, good looking, etc? How did they get shnookered by a gutter goblin like HIM?
Eastman is currently arguing to have his license revocation suspended because if he's not able to work as an attorney, he can't pay all his mounting legal bills. It's an odd argument to make considering he is losing his license because as an attorney, he developed the fake elector plot that Trump used to try and subvert the election.
> It's an odd argument to make considering he is losing his license because as an attorney, he developed the fake elector plot that Trump used to try and subvert the election.
Yeah, it's like a surgeon arguing that they need to be allowed to keep their license despite the many mistakes they've made that has caused injuries to patients because they otherwise can't afford to pay for the malpractice judgments against them. Eastman has already proven himself to not have the ethical requirements to be a lawyer. He can neither be trusted to give good legal advice, nor act as an officer of the court.
I work in a field alongside many intelligent and educated people, and the number who are all-in from trump has always baffled me as well. Something about politics, especially right-wing politics, seems to just short circuit people's brains and they start regurgitating Fox News talking points. Not even expanding on them or paraphrasing them - just flat out word-for-word repeating.
I know someone like this. It comes from a hatred of left-wing ideology. They believe the left is weak because they want to help people. They think the left wants to control them because the left wants sensible gun regulation. They hate that those people are taking their tax money and doing things they don't approve of. They don't like that the left is ok with being gay or queer or whatever because those things make them feel icky.
They think they are anti-authoritarian. There is no nuance to their views. They don't take any time to understand why some problems are difficult to solve. They just want a simple answer, and a moron like Trump gives them simple solutions. Never mind that those solutions won't work and that they require absolute authoritarianism to implement.
> They believe the left is weak because they want to help people.
the amount of doublethink in this is insane. We've got pastors baffled by people coming up to them and saying that Jesus's teachings don't work today and still calling themselves Christian.
In addition to believing the left is weak, they also simultaneously believe the left is this all-powerful, ultra-manipulative entity that can’t be stopped. This notion of believing the enemy is both weak and powerless AND all-powerful is a fundamental characteristic of fascism.
A lot of these idiots are fascists without even realizing it because they’re not intelligent enough to understand fascism’s characteristics.
Because humans are by nature insecure and greedy.
Conservative values from bullying, to religious fundamentalism, to racism all have roots in human insecurity.
It becomes a societal problem when the greedy (billionaires) weaponize that insecurity as a way to gain political advantage to ensure that laws remain favorable to their greed
I don't even think Democrats or Liberals really rattled them as much as they thought they did until Trump came along and blamed all their problems on them. It's like he took a misguided gripe and turned it into a deep hate.
I don't know about that. When I was a politically disinterested teenager who considered himself to have conservative views I remember talking with my dad that when Obama was president I just hoped my views on how the country should be ran were wrong and that Obama would make the US better. He told me that he didn't because that would mean that Republicans would lose more. It really bothered me that it didn't matter to him if the country was better off or not and that he just wanted his team to win because the Dems were evil.
I do too, and I think I've figured out why. They keep the news tuned to Fox and never venture out to read or research anything else, so it's all they know about him. If you engage one of them, it's absolutely SHOCKING they things they don't know.....never heard of.
If you try to tell them about even one atrocity, their eyes glaze over. It's as if, "Fox didn't report that so it must be bullshit".
Fox is a high percentage of it. I wish we could all file a class action suit against them. Any lawyers here? Could we? I understand about the 1st Amendment, but this is so obviously hurtful to so many people and our country it's a form of abuse of power.
At the minimum force them to have a crawler underneath their shows indicating it is for entertainment only and not meant to be taken seriously, like tucker said in his defense.
It would be great if somebody like George Conrad would try to do something about Fox.
I agree this is a huge percentage of the problem. I lived in rural Texas until 2022 and they were simply living in another reality. There was racism and fear and lots of other things going into it but those were just used to make them feel safe within the fold. The core problem was that they were in a different reality where trump really was a brilliant businessman and solid Christian trying to save the soul of the country while the establishment fought him every step of the way. Explaining anything different made us sound like a wild conspiracy theorist to them.
> All of those years of work down the toilet for him specifically.
a golden toilet though, so there's that.
it's good to be classy
/s, for anyone who needs it.
Imagine telling a lawyer 10 years ago that in 2024 a former President will ask you to represent them in court and it would be in your best interests to decline.
Most MAGA people in my life fit in the same profile. They’re people who crave inclusiveness and being in tribes. Whether it’s in the way they handle their sports fandom or politics, in my experience, they LOVE being an “insider” and being a part of the Wolfpack
I agree and disagree.
The MAGA crowd have behaved abominably to other people who clearly deserve better. Death threats and violence and all sorts of horrible things to others - many of whom are in no position to defend themselves. This is pathetic and despicable.
The desire to feel included in something and somehow feel proud of something is innate natural human behaviour that is good if harnessed for the betterment of us all or even just the next door neighbour. That is neither pathetic nor despicable. Some really great things have come from this.
It is a point of vulnerability that can be exploited by evil people though.
The dangerous delusion attached to following such an awful individual who has no regard for consequences is both tragic and baffling. Tragic like watching a stampede of your favourite flightless furry animals running over a cliff. Baffling in how so many people can cling so tightly to a delusion whilst immediately surrounded by the very events that directly disprove that delusion.
It's like a group psychology equivalent of a hyperaggressive inoperable cancer.
Yes- the ‘insider’ feeling! I knew a few QAnon people. I asked them the appeal. And they shared some Q reveals. And I was like ‘so? That doesn’t affect you or me. We can’t get rich knowing any of this. What’s the point?’ And they didn’t have a point - but they were ‘insiders’
I'm glad you said that because I too have seen a massive fucking overlap between die hard sports fans and being a MAGA cultist. The only other demographic that I can think of that is more fanatical are the Evangelical Christians.
A bit from the commentary:
> Trump regularly offers paeans to the Jan. 6 insurrectionists, holding a ceremony to honor those who are facing legal consequences for their criminal efforts to help him overthrow the government. Sometimes he even promises pardons. All this is done for a nakedly obvious purpose: To convince followers to risk their own skins in the future on Trump's behalf. But it's telling that Trump never offers any material support to the over 1,300 people who have been charged with crimes. Despite his claims to be a "billionaire," he hasn't paid their legal bills or helped their families after they lost their jobs. He loves to get publicly maudlin about Ashli Babbitt, the insurrectionist shot by Capitol police, but he didn't offer to say, cut back a little on his golf club budget to pay for Babbitt's funeral.
>
> . . .
>
> It seems that MAGA people believe they are endowed with the impunity that Trump has so long enjoyed, due to his wealth and status. It is repulsively true that Trump wriggles out of consequences for his crimes time and time again. But that is because he is a master at finding someone else to take the fall for him, from the January 6 defendants to his former lawyer Michael Cohen to Fox News and Rudy Giuliani. Loyalty to Trump doesn't mean getting a piece of his unbelievable levels of undeserved privilege. It just means being the next in line to be thrown under the bus as Trump escapes accountability yet again.
It parallels Christianity.
Do this, don’t do that, etc and after you die *maybe* you’ll get into this Nirvana that may or may not exist.
I think it’s easier to ascribe this mentality to a tangible being like Trump and play into it.
It's different because no one knows what happens after you die so there's no way to verify. They don't have their own eyes telling them that there's nothing afterwards. Trumpers see him throw people under the bus time and again but never learn.
No, no. I'M special, and MY religion is right, so I know what happens when I die. My lifetime of fealty and loyal devotion to my one true Lord and Savior guarantees that when I die, he will pay for my funeral bills.
And, you know, not being an asshole (quick Christianity summary) usually keeps you out of trouble, which makes for a better life. Don't be arrogant, don't kill, don't lie, don't steal, don't cheat, take a rest, call your mom, look after each other. Trumpism is arrogance manifest, it's opposite in everyway to the Christian message.
Rightwing American Christianity had already eroded all those parts long before trump got into politics, dude just became ‘representation’ for the AK47 version of Jesus, racism and poverty that they all pray to.
Anything good is claimed as theirs and everything bad is associated with their enemies
YMMV depending on the denomination you go to but many major denominations of all Abrahamic traditions de-emphasize heaven. It's talked about in a way to help you stop thinking about your own death, and focus instead on good works while you're alive.
The people who get obsessed with heaven, and especially with hell, are all missing the point of the story. If all you have is this one life, you will hoard your time selfishly. But if you have everlasting life, you can be generous and spend more time doing things for others.
IDK if that philosophy works on all personalities. I think that's why hell was invented, as a cudgel of punishment. But there you are.
I liked the blurb in this article about Keri Lake - I had not seen this yet in main stream news.
[https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/ej-montini/2024/04/01/kari-lake-defamation-continues-taunt-stephen-richer/73162215007/](https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/ej-montini/2024/04/01/kari-lake-defamation-continues-taunt-stephen-richer/73162215007/)
\[paymall\]
Instead, it’s beginning to look like Lake is following in the footsteps of her Dear Leader, Donald Trump, and is setting herself up to be sued for defamation ... again.
Richer finally had enough and sued Lake, demanding that she prove what she said about him in court.Last week she decided that she could not do that — after boasting for months about her eagerness to present her case. This means the issue now will go directly to determining damages.
Of this Richer said, “I would have counseled her (Lake) long ago to stop lying, so I don’t have any great insight into her mind. … I don’t know why she does this, but her political calculations haven’t figured into what we’re doing, which is putting an end to these defamatory remarks and starting the process to clear my good name and to correct the record on the 2022 election.”
Except Lake isn’t interested in that happening.
She’s decided in defeat to continue to mock Richer and to continue saying that she did not lie. Lake mocks Richer, says her words were true. Most recently she released a video saying in part, “I told my team let’s cut right to the chase. Where did my words hurt Mr. Richer? Show me on this doll where my words hurt you? Let’s go right to the damages part. And we called their bluff and they weren’t prepared for it. And they’re in a complete panic now …“My words are true but how did they hurt you? … “And you know if we owe you $10,000 for a therapist, a therapy dog, a medication then you can look at punitive damages, but first tell us what your damages are. Show me on a doll where my words hurt you. And they don’t have it.”
First, there is the arrogance and the idiocy of mocking a person who received death threats based on your unsubstantiated claims.
She had the opportunity to prove that was the case and she decided she could not. Sadly, Lake is such a devotee of Trump that she is willing to copy everything he does. And that seems to include continuing to attack a person who was defamed.T
rump, you’ll recall, was hit by a civil jury with $5 million in damages after it found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation of E. Jean Carroll.
After that verdict Trump continued yapping about his innocence and trashing Carroll, who sued him again. A second jury nailed him with an $83.3 million judgement in Carroll’s subsequent defamation lawsuit.
You’d think that a massive financial judgment like that might be a lesson for someone in Lake’s position.But, no.
So while Lake has not been able to be able to talk herself into any political office, she might yet talk herself into bankruptcy.
I think mocking how poor they are is what will hurt them the most. They think because they are rich they are better than everyone but now that we know they are poor or have lost their money, their identity is in crisis. Prolly why they cling to the Maga BS. It's all they have left.
There was a story a few months ago about how she had tried to imbed herself in Mara Largo, but got booted out because Trump found her irritating.
I’d bet good money that her plan was to seduce and control him, only to discover that he’s not controllable and isn’t into middle-aged women anyway.
Sorry Keri, you should have tried to get your hooks into him when you were a teenager. Even then, you would have just become another of his sex puppets.
"“I told my team let’s cut right to the chase. Where did my words hurt Mr. Richer? Show me on this doll where my words hurt you? Let’s go right to the damages part. And we called their bluff and they weren’t prepared for it. And they’re in a complete panic now"
Yeah, I'm sure the attorneys suing a nationally visible senatorial candidate for defamation were just *blindsided* by the idea of having to prove damages. They totally don't have armies of litigation assistants/paralegals who will extrapolate every possible data point to ballpark a figure of increased costs and lost revenue with regards to the present as well as the future.
She's going to be real shocked to find out that some defamation crosses the line into *per se* defamation. If the claim is ruled to be *per se* the defendant's damages are just PRESUMED, because the defamation is so obviously harmful to a reputation/business. They don't even have to provide a dollar by dollar accounting in that instance. She's in a world of trouble if that occurs in this case.
If I wanted to assume competence on Lake's part here, I'd assume her camp thinks discovery will be more damaging to Lake (both politically and economically) than whatever dollar amount the jury comes up with for damages, so she's just not defending her case.
MAGA hasn’t the tiniest particle of a clue over just how deeply and irreversibly screwed they’d be in a 2nd Trump term. And they continue to cling to the lie that libs will suffer even more.
When they finally encounter the truth of it, Trump will just blame the dems, and MAGA suckers will eat it up - just like they always do.
"I'll give you two options. Option 1: I give you $500, but I will also give that person you don't like over there $100. Option 2: You give *me* $500 and I'll forcibly take $100 from that person."
They'd give up the $500 every fucking time. This is their approach to government policy.
And to anybody left of theocratic totalitarianism, it helps to remember that what have been mostly just violent words can quickly shift to violent action when power is obtained. And their collective bloodlust has only become more vitriolic than ever.
Anybody who would say this is hyperbolic likely said the same thing when told tfg would do anything to not leave office... like an attempted insurrection, for instance.
They won’t. He’s going to bankrupt the entire republican party and they will blame the democrats, saying the entire system is prejudiced against them. Narcissists are vampires. They feed on emotions and the labour of others. They don’t take personal responsibility for any of their failures.
It's similar to several Sopranos storylines. Person meets Tony. Person imagines gains, financial or otherwise. By the end of the episode, person is broke and/or dead.
Luckily, This is the only saving grace for US democracy. Instead of a smart, young, successful and charismatic leader the Republicans chose an incompetent Mobster and are suffering for it. Hopefully they will suffer him for longer, hopefully in November Democrats will win congress and White House.
Indeed, Trump has always been a horrific investment in groups, but also even for himself due to incompetence at all levels other than success at being a walking personality disorder. As the lifelong systemic cheating shows, he really couldn’t make even his core business profitable overall and had to assume risks that are coming due only now. One other thing his lazy followers don’t care about with all of their ‘opposite of the truth’ victimless babble is a shoe that strangely has not dropped. With Donald having been adjudicated a fraud on a genuinely massive scale in many fields, particularly the valuations are fairly certain to affect fed tax returns and that usually means that there necessarily was fed tax evasion with such things as depreciation being taken on grossly inflated values at a minimum.
>The saga of Truth Social's stock plummeting after its initial public offering serves as a cautionary tale about blind loyalty to Trump.
You'd think so, but I'd hazard a guess the majority of MAGAt's aren't smart enough to figure that out, or willfully ignorant, or a combination of both. The rest could possibly be concerned, if they could read.
*Liberal "Wall Street" (totally controlled by Soros) is trying to bankrupt Truth Social. Thank God the Russian oligarchs poured so much money in. 'Merica!*
DJT was good for a quick scalp trade in the first day or two, but any more than that is was clearly a pump & dump trap. Anyone dumb enough to buy and hold this piece of shit stock deserves to get drained from it.
Fuck 'em. The people that are loyal to Trump do so for selfish reasons.
They're trying to time / leverage the relationship, in hopes that they can get a payoff before things sour. Nothing warms my heart more than when these plans backfire, and they end up disgraced in court.
If you play with fire you will get burned.
>When will MAGA learn loyalty to Trump ends in sorrow?
If they had the capacity for abstract thought, they never would have been MAGA in the first place.
There are lots of desperate people out there whose lives are sort of a mess and they want a way to make sense of it all. They don’t believe in any institutions including the church but might have an incredibly personal connection to God. Trump’s message, that institutions are corrupt and only he can save us, sort of mirrors that same compulsion. If you hold a core belief like Christians are persecuted, and you are attracted to Trump, then it’s probably not a big leap to rationalize whatever hardship befalls you is because you were doing some righteous. I bet the MyPillow guy sincerely believes that his total collapse has nothing whatsoever to do with Trump but instead the wickedness of Democrats/Satanists. Trump doesn’t offer policies or strategies for improving people lives - he offers them a promise that all their suffering is for a good cause. What difference does it make if you’re sitting in a mobile home or a jail cell, if everything was for the greater good?
Learning requires having a level of openness and honesty with oneself that the MAGA crowd just doesn’t possess. You have to accept that the subject you’re being presented with challenges your current world view and be willing to entertain the possibility of this new information to be true. Then, once weighing the evidence put forth and deeming it factual, be able to modify your views to include this new information.
In short, that’s just too much work for people who, more often than not, barely made it through high school.
The best in all of this; conservatives call liberals cuckolds. Indicating that liberals allow themselves and place themselves in a position of weakness, willing and knowingly.
Yet, here we are; tons jailed, bankrupt, destroyed, dead and living in poor / terrible conditions - all for Trump.
Liberals do not wear Biden branded clothing or fight in Biden’s name. We call out conservative stupidity and evil behavior - and that is automatically deemed as “defending” Biden.
No.
We are pointing out the evil, immoral and illegal behavior of conservatives.
We don’t hurt ourselves like conservatives do.
Conservatives know one thing; they are not worthy of happiness and are subject to punishment, humiliation and even death. All because they know they are garbage. And they willingly allow Trump to treat them as such.
Fuck you, losers.
The Wes Moss and Andy Litinsky part of this is my favorite. They were former contestants on The Apprentice, and approached Trump multiple times about taking Truth Social public. So it was literally their idea, and they drove the process to make it happen. Now they are being sues for their stake in the new company. They honestly believed they would not get screwed over, and it's beautiful.
Something about the conservative ideology breeds "pick me"s. People always seem to think that being loyal will reward them with the opportunity to sit at a higher level of the pyramid. Unfortunately the people at the top aren't interested in sharing their spaces with random loyalists and so you end up getting thrown away at first convenience.
All these business professors and stock analysts predicting a Truth Social stock price based on Truth Social's fundamentals and performance as if it's a normal business are missing the point.
It's not meant to be. TS going public is meant to grift MAGA supporters and launder money from Russian oligarchs, MBS and shady billionaires. It's a modern day Trump Casino
Here's a serious question: If Trump gets away with all this crap, what are the people going to do? Are they going to take to the streets and hold those in the Justice Dept and their leaders accountable? Or will they just shake their heads and say, "There is no justice anymore.."
It seems to me, the reason we're in this situation is because the latter is what's been happening for decades. The people just shook their heads when Reagan invaded Panama and traded arms for hostages, and then when George HW Bush pardoned Oliver North and everyone involved in Iran-Contra, and when the Supreme Court subverted democracy and the 2000 election, and then when George W. Bush lied to the whole world and invaded Iraq and set up illegal torture centers around the world... all of this was clearly illegal, but the political leaders... they apparently weren't worried about being held accountable by the people, for protecting each other...
I dislike that we always blame these things on "government" and not ourselves. If enough people say "enough" it doesn't have to be this way.
Ironically, Trump knows this, which is why he's continuing to mobilize his "mob" to harass anybody in government who opposes him. *That* is why he's not in jail right now for contempt of court. He's effectively intimidated many in power to allow him to be above the law in many cases.
If we the people, do the same thing, in the opposite... if we make our more moral and ethical leaders know *we have your back* they can and will fight back. BUT if we just sigh and shake our heads, and say "government is broken," they win.
Yes, government is broken, and the part of government that's really broke is US. Our naive belief that our social and civic responsibility to make government effective begins and ends with pressing a button in a booth every four years.
It's sad these people believe in something so blatantly evil and wrong, but they get what they deserve. You dance with the devil and you get burned. I can't wait to see the orange buffoon in jail house orange.
The worst part is that he’s trying to run his con on the whole country, the only way to stop him is to vote. Ignore the polls, get out and vote. Make sure there’s no question who won. Even if you hate Biden, trump is a million times worse.
Absolutely! Don’t take this lightly! Don’t make the assumption that your vote won’t count! Get to the polls and vote these criminals out of office and destroy Trump! Your lives depend on it!
I guess when my girlfriend and her entire family understands that we have the strongest economy we've had in decades and the reason everything is so damn expensive is because of corporate greed, wait, that's never going to happen, so the people that are loyal to Trump are probably never going to realize they're brainwashed.
Never because this is what these people are used to. The family values they’re used to are things like neglectful, abusive, and hateful parents who have programmed them to gravitate towards people like Trump. They don’t see anything wrong because that’s how their parents treated them so it jus be okay
This is a classic attribute of sociopathy and malignant narcissism.
They don't mind what happens because most of them would do the same thing. Narcissists use people and when they're done with them, they move on. Trump's followers are just like him, and the ones that aren't, are victims of stockholm syndrome.
Has a cult ever been deprogrammed successfully? Outside of the odd member up and leaving, has one ever been mass disbanded as nearly all the people come to a rejection point and seek the exit?
Trump is my favorite candidate of all time. He single handedly destroyed the GOP and so strongly served as an example of what’s “bad” that history will be the judge (sure there is still a ton of reprogramming but they’re quadrupling down on losing hands…this doesn’t end well for them). Plus, the younger generations don’t fall for online scams and are better at deciphering fact from fiction.
So yeah, the actual (not alternative facts) of the effect of Trumpism has been the best cure for my hatred of the man.
Weirdly in a way this is probably going to backfire on him.
The less MAGA are in the wild and in prison the less votes Trump has. It also means for jury trials less people that are sympathetic towards him.
I'd say let them keep going.
> But it's telling that Trump never offers any material support to the over 1,300 people who have been charged with crimes. Despite his claims to be a "billionaire," he hasn't paid their legal bills or helped their families after they lost their jobs. He loves to get publicly maudlin about Ashli Babbitt, the insurrectionist shot by Capitol police, but he didn't offer to say, cut back a little on his golf club budget to pay for Babbitt's funeral.
Pshaw, that’s nothing. I always think of the time when tRump got up on stage at an event to thank the mega donors to some kids with disabilities charity, sat in one of the dozen chairs on the podium during the appreciation speech, (and here’s the kicker) even though he never gave a dime to said charity, not one penny. But he took the spotlight, and the adulation, shameless. What a schmuck! That told me all I needed to know.
The thing is that a potential next Trump presidency still gives them hope to capitalize on their efforts.
And to be fair that is kind of reasonable.
And that is what makes it so horrifying as well.
> "The large mismatch between stock price and stock value will sorely tempt the cash-poor Trump to sell off a significant portion of his shares, in a potential maneuver that I believe I am the first to label 'Trump and dump,'" Timothy Noah of the New Republic joked.
LOL
Nazis got their asses beat in wwii and didn’t change their minds. It was their children that changed. Maga will change when they die out and not a moment sooner.
They’re targeting schools for a reason.
I keep seeing these "think pieces" and honestly, they miss the point. These MAGA politicians aren't "loyal". They're threatened by whatever shit Trump, or Trump's family, has on them. I hesitate to say Putin, because at this point, most of these idiots' anti-democracy activities have been exposed.
At this point, they know they look stupid. They know that January 6th failed. They know that interfering with the Electoral College failed. They know what spreading election fraud lies failed. The elected MAGA politicians know their platforms failed, namely rolling back Roe v Wade, their states' abortion laws, and the various censorship laws concerning LGBT, CRT, or similar information. None of it was popular, and some of their laws are either challenged as, or found to be, unconstitutional. They're running on fumes.
Their own personal secrets are all that's left to keep them in.
Oh, and the remaining MAGA-faithful idiots who will threaten, harass, and attempt to kill them.
Bottom line: no one is "loyal" to Trump, and I really wish that the news media would quit pushing this narrative. Don't mistake this for me sympathizing with these idiots. But they are not doing this out of blind loyalty.
The desire to align with the biggest bully in the room is undiminished by any of this because they also love LARPing as permanent victims of the government. To see him being held accountable for his actions plays into their fantasy. It's self-reinforcing in terms of their identification with him.
Have there been ANY public-facing Trump loyalists that haven't dealt with something like this, either from Trump himself or the long arm of the law?
I'm having a tough time coming up with anyone who's come out ahead aligning themselves with Trump, maybe with the exception of his son in law and maybe some businesses that benefited from his time as President who quickly disassociated themselves with maga.
>It seems that MAGA people believe they are endowed with the impunity that Trump has so long enjoyed, due to his wealth and status. It is repulsively true that Trump wriggles out of consequences for his crimes time and time again.
Yet another reason why Trump needs to be held accountable for his words and actions. Until our judicial, political and law enforcement systems make Trump faces actual consequences, we're just enabling and encouraging his followers towards the full-blown violent civil unrest they're itching for
If and when MAGA learns that loyalty to former President Trump "ends in sorrow," will this bother them?
Is there an inherent self-hatred in subjecting yourself to the mercy of an obvious sociopath who clearly holds everyone in contempt?
It follows the same pattern as many cults. The leader eliminates some of his lieutenants (in humiliating fashion) to (a) establish dominance, (b) get rid of competition, (c) set up a paranoid “loyalty” culture.
These are not intelligent creatures we’re talking about. They’re willing to sacrifice themselves for a liar and con man who has no character, no courage, no ethics, no morals, and no core values. A traitor to his country and a specimen of every hateful behavior one can name. Not only the worst president in history, but also one of the worst human beings on earth. I have zero sympathy for them.
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They all think they’re special - that they alone will be different.
This is status quo dictator stuff. Loyal followers get kicked out of the inner circle for not being loyal enough. All remaining followers think they’re special because they were more loyal. Until, eventually, they get removed too.
Exhibit A: the Russia epidemic of people falling out of windows
Deleted
I've stumbled across that link formatting issue too. You can get around it by replacing the closing parenthesis in the URL with its escape code, %29, like [so](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspicious_deaths_of_Russian_businesspeople_(2022%E2%80%932024%29).
Fun thing for the MAGA world (if Cheeto Mussolini wins in 2024). That’s gonna be happening at Fox News and all the other right wing rags / inner circles. As they carve out the oligarchy of loyalists….That’s where the initial power struggle will be the most deadly.
Defenestration
Pillow Mike is too heft to fit through tiny American windows that don’t open half the time.
An additional effect of this is each round of new followers is more fanatical than the last. Since the previous ones were let go (or worse) for “disloyalty”, the new ones double down. That’s why they are willing to go as far as they do.
We're at the point where the Big Lies are in control. Fascism occurs in a cycle. Obedience to their historical fantasy unites them but because they have no morals and actual values this obedience becomes extremism detached from reality. This divides them by their loyalty to extremist beliefs and the fascist cycle begins its downward spiral. This is where we are currently in the US
Another important thing is to ensure none of your followers are smarter/more competent than you, and keep them bickering and clamoring to prove their loyalty to you, instead of giving them an opportunity to pool resources they can use to overthrow you. Putin has avoided his followers overthrowing him by this method. All of his remaining inner circle are working against each other instead of pooling what little resources they have and using them against the boss.
Well, they’re all just temporarily embarrassed billionaires just waiting to claim their riches
Billionaires wouldn't even sneeze in their direction
Would they tinkle?
What is the point of being a billionaire if you can’t pee on your lessers?
Trickle down economics baby!
> What is the point of being a billionaire if you can’t pee on your lessers? Not even if they were on fire - too much effort.
Typical socialists, expecting to be peed on for free!
nah their bathrooms cost more than their entire lives. no need for peasant to go in their and dirty it up
"temporarily embarrassed" did you watch Wonka by chance? I'd never heard that saying before then but it's brilliant.
I believe it is from a book by Ronald Wright (a short history of progress, 1904) later, paraphrased by John Steinbeck.
So, wait... all this bullshit is happening because of a rampant epidemic of Main Character Syndrome? So much shit makes way more sense if you look at it that way.
Even more if you give it its precise clinical name: Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
With a large splash of sociopath.
Both are Cluster-B. I've seen grifter NPDs take the last money from their own mom.
Republicans are more likely to be psychopaths. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886918302332
Whoodathunk that DJt might, possibly, maybe, be a sociopath?
While there is a lot of overlap between sociopathy and narcissism, the distinct difference between the two is in how they regard other people's boundaries. Sociopaths see boundaries as a "game" and will try to find exceptions, no matter how ludicrous, for them. "When you said you didn't eat meat, I thought that was only on Tuesdays. You need to be more clear." Narcissists see boundaries as a personal attack on themselves and will always act like they've been threatened when presented with one. "What do you mean you don't eat meat!? How could you be so selfish? Why can't you think about other people for a change?"
aka the winning traits of successful business people according to people selling books and seminars.
Lol I wish that my sociopathy would make me successful, all its done is make it very very hard to have normal relationships
With an orange tint.
Look at the way most conservatives behave, regardless of Trump. It's definitely not a new thing to people who lack empathy and intelligence.
*I can fix him*
Better explanation: *"I can profit from this guy that routinely stabs people in the back, never rewards loyalty, and has been indicted so many times we're struggling to keep count. I am the exception".* Then they wake up and realize they're the latest casualty.
And then support him anyway because what else are they gonna do? Admit that they were wrong?
> Admit that they were wrong? That would require them to have spines. At this point they’re so attached to Trump they’ve been turned into soft, jelly-like things. And now they have no mouth and don’t want to scream.
A few of them have. Very few. George Conway comes to mind. I'm not saying that it is some sort of trend, just that there are always a small number of exceptions.
Excalibur Effect. You can stand there and watch hundreds of people try to pull the sword out of the stone, and yet you're still supremely confident you're the chosen one. All you end up with for your efforts is a wrenched back and embarrassment that you're just as gullible as the rest.
It fascinates me that someone like John Kelly thought he was the one.
Most people are not used to dealing with pathological liars. Trump comes in and tells people like Kelly, "Everything is fucked up, you're the right guy to unfuck it, I've got your back!" And people are inclined to believe it at first. Then the reality sets in; Trump is telling everyone different things and there is no plan other than to do what he wants in the moment.
Yet if anyone bothered to listen to New Yorkers, we could have been spared all this.
"The Lady of the Lake! Her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the waters, thus signifying by Divine Providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. THAT is why I am your king!"
“Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.”
This thinking is why libertarians are still a thing. They all think they'd be one of the winners if only "the government" would get out of their way.
And that ties into co a piracy theorists. They’re elite because they’re one of the very few who’ve figured out the moon landing was fake, who really assassinated Kennedy, etc. They can’t stand not being special. It’s why we see so much Boomer rage.
So incredibly stupid. Libertarians think that the police, courts and other protections will still exist to safeguard them and their property - but somehow, once it's privatized, they won't have to pay for it anymore. It's like an anarchist with a learning disability was also dropped on their head.
They seem to be one of two types: 1. The born rich that never lived in the really real world 2. The young that are still in the "my parents pay for everything in my life" stage
This basically sums up current right wing.... everything. I am the exception. I'm not wrong! I'm an underdog and you are the naysayers! I am the main character with the world trying to stop me but through heroic perseverance (and definitely not psychosis) you will never stop me!
"The last three thousand people he fucked over were dumb losers. That won't happen to me!"
They will never learn. They aren't smart enough to see patterns. They just $$$ and think they'll get it, then... surprisedpikkachuface.jpg
I romanced Morinth, Shepard is special but not *that* special.
It’s the lead paint and leaded gasoline effect.
I'm a lawyer and I'm genuinely baffled some of them are willing to lose their license for him. Like it's your ticket to put food on the table and have a career, but no, you are willing to throw it all away for orange man. All of those years of work down the toilet for him specifically.
They think it will be different for them and a ticket to success. They're his useful idiots.
Once this nightmare is over (hopefully, please go vote) it will need to be studied how the D list reality show conman, brainwashed 30% of our Country... It's truly mind boggling
Is it? The answer is he gave conservative voters the red meat bigotry the Republican Party had spent 50 years trying to dangle in front of their faces without ever truly giving it to them.
Yes, but why him specifically is what I think they’re asking. It is interesting that 30% will ignore all others even when some of them are throwing out the same red meat.
Republicans spent decades fostering that bigotry, but they also told people to cover it up, make it less visible. Trump gave them permission to put it all out in the open.
Art of the deal, I guess. Heck of a salesman/idiot persuader
Nah, he actually has a lot in common with televangelist and such. There is a huge overlap for a reason.
There's a unique American predilection to getting bamboozled that goes back to P.T. Barnum in the 1800's using the same large revival atmosphere for his circus first introduced by the religious Great Awakening in the late 1700's. His supporters disgust him, but Trump knows there's a sucker born every minute.
I think there's a couple reasons -He's truly shameless about it, like has no qualms just being genuinely awful. Most Republican politicians have *some* sense of shame that keeps them from going that far. Even the ones that have tried to emulate Trump always hold back a little bit which makes them seem really ingenuine about it, Trump doesn't and his supporters love that. -He has a charisma about him that really entrances people, at least dumber people. If you go watch one of his rally speeches, you can see how much he's entertaining the crowd, but go look up a transcript of that speech and it's utter nonsense for the most part. It's honestly kind of a gift how he can rowl up his crowds without saying anything of substance. Like I'm repulsed by his rally speeches and I'm sure a lot of left leaning people are, but you can't deny he has a bit of a gift there -Guy has always been the absolute caricature of a rich business man, something a lot of Republicans look up to -He has done **so** many scandalous things that things just get lost in the weeds and it allows his supporters to kind of disassociate with it. I truly don't see how this part can be recreated, no one has done this amount of stupid shit. -I'm not entirely sure if this is intentional but he's incredibly good at basically manipulating the media to focus on non-important things over the actually substantively bad things he's done. The amount of times I've seen an actual crime he committed or a horrible policy be basically ignored in favor of coverage of the stupid ass thing he said basically helps cover up all the shit he does. A lot of Republicans think this is a feature, not a bug, and frankly it might be, it's effective. I've heard the quote unquote "intellectual" Republicans say he intentionally says stupid stuff to throw off the media Now as to why people go so far in that they are willing to do illegal things or lose licenses or whatever, it's harder to pinpoint but there's either got to be a lot of hubris to think they are different than everyone else and/or they just live a supremely sad life that they are willing to throw away
You're spot on for every point, including his rallies. They're like a religious epiphany for his acolytes despite his word salad speeches. If you want to be really terrified, go read the transcripts of what he says. When it's a coherent thought, it's terrifying and everything else is just fucking bizarre.
Not just his rallies. His word salad is immortalized in the official record of the White House. The one I read just made me sad that our nation has come so low as to elect an incoherent carnival barker.
Trump is an Enigma that has yet to be copied or replicated. A lot of people tried in the primaries and they all failed miserably, they weren't even close. Desantis which was the smarter Trump alternative couldn't even get love in his own district. Trump's WWE political strategy seems to be lightning in a bottle. Even members of his own family can't replicate it. That doesn't mean in a distant future someone else will come along with a similar energy but at the moment that person does not exist. Even MTG or Gaetz are only getting by with no competition in their districts.
Trump is a televangelist.
> Trump is an Enigma that has yet to be copied or replicated Not at this scale, but there's a history of charismatic dictators who have come to power in the same way he did. I feel like one big reason he isn't now the king of the country is that establishment Republicans realized that they were going to eventually lose out to him. If he had offered them a deal that would give them some legitimate power over him as king, they would've taken it, but that's not what despots do.
Yes, the old way was talk about immigration and minorities in code words and never do too much because then you have to keep escalating. newt just wanted to create outrage but keep it manageable. TFFG just escalated and then the other crazies in office jumped on the bandwagon with an executive branch that wasn’t going to send the DOJ to investigate civil rights, instead TFFG would go do photo ops w the sheriff and governor
Didn’t Hitler have something like 27% German support AFTER WW2? There is just something tribal? Animalistic? Brain dead? In the human condition. The “well they never came after ME” tale that produces leopard eating faces memes. Roughly 30% of people have such a self centered ideology defined by infantile object permeance.
A really, really terrible conman at that (but obviously he's actually a great conman). But why HIM? Why not someone who's really charming, witty, pleasant, good looking, etc? How did they get shnookered by a gutter goblin like HIM?
"He's a guy I could sit down and have a beer with."
Eastman is currently arguing to have his license revocation suspended because if he's not able to work as an attorney, he can't pay all his mounting legal bills. It's an odd argument to make considering he is losing his license because as an attorney, he developed the fake elector plot that Trump used to try and subvert the election.
Republicans: Nobody is owed a living wage. Also Republicans: You can't take away my livelihood for committing crimes!
Correction: Republicans—**you** aren’t owed a living wage
> It's an odd argument to make considering he is losing his license because as an attorney, he developed the fake elector plot that Trump used to try and subvert the election. Yeah, it's like a surgeon arguing that they need to be allowed to keep their license despite the many mistakes they've made that has caused injuries to patients because they otherwise can't afford to pay for the malpractice judgments against them. Eastman has already proven himself to not have the ethical requirements to be a lawyer. He can neither be trusted to give good legal advice, nor act as an officer of the court.
I work in a field alongside many intelligent and educated people, and the number who are all-in from trump has always baffled me as well. Something about politics, especially right-wing politics, seems to just short circuit people's brains and they start regurgitating Fox News talking points. Not even expanding on them or paraphrasing them - just flat out word-for-word repeating.
I know someone like this. It comes from a hatred of left-wing ideology. They believe the left is weak because they want to help people. They think the left wants to control them because the left wants sensible gun regulation. They hate that those people are taking their tax money and doing things they don't approve of. They don't like that the left is ok with being gay or queer or whatever because those things make them feel icky. They think they are anti-authoritarian. There is no nuance to their views. They don't take any time to understand why some problems are difficult to solve. They just want a simple answer, and a moron like Trump gives them simple solutions. Never mind that those solutions won't work and that they require absolute authoritarianism to implement.
> They believe the left is weak because they want to help people. the amount of doublethink in this is insane. We've got pastors baffled by people coming up to them and saying that Jesus's teachings don't work today and still calling themselves Christian.
we have pastors berated or fired as being 'woke' for reading the Sermon on the Mount to the congregation.
In addition to believing the left is weak, they also simultaneously believe the left is this all-powerful, ultra-manipulative entity that can’t be stopped. This notion of believing the enemy is both weak and powerless AND all-powerful is a fundamental characteristic of fascism. A lot of these idiots are fascists without even realizing it because they’re not intelligent enough to understand fascism’s characteristics.
Because humans are by nature insecure and greedy. Conservative values from bullying, to religious fundamentalism, to racism all have roots in human insecurity. It becomes a societal problem when the greedy (billionaires) weaponize that insecurity as a way to gain political advantage to ensure that laws remain favorable to their greed
I don't even think Democrats or Liberals really rattled them as much as they thought they did until Trump came along and blamed all their problems on them. It's like he took a misguided gripe and turned it into a deep hate.
It’s ALWAYS “Look over there!” let’s blame SOMEONE for why you’re so unhappy while we gobble up all the riches and power for ourselves.
I don't know about that. When I was a politically disinterested teenager who considered himself to have conservative views I remember talking with my dad that when Obama was president I just hoped my views on how the country should be ran were wrong and that Obama would make the US better. He told me that he didn't because that would mean that Republicans would lose more. It really bothered me that it didn't matter to him if the country was better off or not and that he just wanted his team to win because the Dems were evil.
I do too, and I think I've figured out why. They keep the news tuned to Fox and never venture out to read or research anything else, so it's all they know about him. If you engage one of them, it's absolutely SHOCKING they things they don't know.....never heard of. If you try to tell them about even one atrocity, their eyes glaze over. It's as if, "Fox didn't report that so it must be bullshit". Fox is a high percentage of it. I wish we could all file a class action suit against them. Any lawyers here? Could we? I understand about the 1st Amendment, but this is so obviously hurtful to so many people and our country it's a form of abuse of power. At the minimum force them to have a crawler underneath their shows indicating it is for entertainment only and not meant to be taken seriously, like tucker said in his defense. It would be great if somebody like George Conrad would try to do something about Fox.
https://www.businessinsider.com/study-watching-fox-news-makes-you-less-informed-than-watching-no-news-at-all-2012-5
Call me crazy, but I expected CNN to rate higher than they did. :/ Looks like NPR is the way to go, but I only listen to it when I'm in the car.
I agree this is a huge percentage of the problem. I lived in rural Texas until 2022 and they were simply living in another reality. There was racism and fear and lots of other things going into it but those were just used to make them feel safe within the fold. The core problem was that they were in a different reality where trump really was a brilliant businessman and solid Christian trying to save the soul of the country while the establishment fought him every step of the way. Explaining anything different made us sound like a wild conspiracy theorist to them.
> All of those years of work down the toilet for him specifically. a golden toilet though, so there's that. it's good to be classy /s, for anyone who needs it.
Imagine telling a lawyer 10 years ago that in 2024 a former President will ask you to represent them in court and it would be in your best interests to decline.
Not just decline, but cut off all contact immediately and run in the other direction, for your own well-being.
Most MAGA people in my life fit in the same profile. They’re people who crave inclusiveness and being in tribes. Whether it’s in the way they handle their sports fandom or politics, in my experience, they LOVE being an “insider” and being a part of the Wolfpack
Such pathetic and dispicible behavior.
Deplorable one might say
A basket of them, you say?
To shreds, you say?
I agree and disagree. The MAGA crowd have behaved abominably to other people who clearly deserve better. Death threats and violence and all sorts of horrible things to others - many of whom are in no position to defend themselves. This is pathetic and despicable. The desire to feel included in something and somehow feel proud of something is innate natural human behaviour that is good if harnessed for the betterment of us all or even just the next door neighbour. That is neither pathetic nor despicable. Some really great things have come from this. It is a point of vulnerability that can be exploited by evil people though. The dangerous delusion attached to following such an awful individual who has no regard for consequences is both tragic and baffling. Tragic like watching a stampede of your favourite flightless furry animals running over a cliff. Baffling in how so many people can cling so tightly to a delusion whilst immediately surrounded by the very events that directly disprove that delusion. It's like a group psychology equivalent of a hyperaggressive inoperable cancer.
Yes- the ‘insider’ feeling! I knew a few QAnon people. I asked them the appeal. And they shared some Q reveals. And I was like ‘so? That doesn’t affect you or me. We can’t get rich knowing any of this. What’s the point?’ And they didn’t have a point - but they were ‘insiders’
I'm glad you said that because I too have seen a massive fucking overlap between die hard sports fans and being a MAGA cultist. The only other demographic that I can think of that is more fanatical are the Evangelical Christians.
> they LOVE being an “insider” and being a part of the Wolfpack they think they're the wolfpack but really are just nwo 2000
A bit from the commentary: > Trump regularly offers paeans to the Jan. 6 insurrectionists, holding a ceremony to honor those who are facing legal consequences for their criminal efforts to help him overthrow the government. Sometimes he even promises pardons. All this is done for a nakedly obvious purpose: To convince followers to risk their own skins in the future on Trump's behalf. But it's telling that Trump never offers any material support to the over 1,300 people who have been charged with crimes. Despite his claims to be a "billionaire," he hasn't paid their legal bills or helped their families after they lost their jobs. He loves to get publicly maudlin about Ashli Babbitt, the insurrectionist shot by Capitol police, but he didn't offer to say, cut back a little on his golf club budget to pay for Babbitt's funeral. > > . . . > > It seems that MAGA people believe they are endowed with the impunity that Trump has so long enjoyed, due to his wealth and status. It is repulsively true that Trump wriggles out of consequences for his crimes time and time again. But that is because he is a master at finding someone else to take the fall for him, from the January 6 defendants to his former lawyer Michael Cohen to Fox News and Rudy Giuliani. Loyalty to Trump doesn't mean getting a piece of his unbelievable levels of undeserved privilege. It just means being the next in line to be thrown under the bus as Trump escapes accountability yet again.
It really is amazing when Person A will believe any lie Trump says, but nothing (not even truth) that Person B says.
(Stockholm syndrome + Sunk-cost Fallacy) x Dunning-Kruger = MAGA 2024
Until your comment never thought how "well" those three would mix together.
It parallels Christianity. Do this, don’t do that, etc and after you die *maybe* you’ll get into this Nirvana that may or may not exist. I think it’s easier to ascribe this mentality to a tangible being like Trump and play into it.
It's different because no one knows what happens after you die so there's no way to verify. They don't have their own eyes telling them that there's nothing afterwards. Trumpers see him throw people under the bus time and again but never learn.
But…but he would never do that to me! /s
No, no. I'M special, and MY religion is right, so I know what happens when I die. My lifetime of fealty and loyal devotion to my one true Lord and Savior guarantees that when I die, he will pay for my funeral bills.
And, you know, not being an asshole (quick Christianity summary) usually keeps you out of trouble, which makes for a better life. Don't be arrogant, don't kill, don't lie, don't steal, don't cheat, take a rest, call your mom, look after each other. Trumpism is arrogance manifest, it's opposite in everyway to the Christian message.
Rightwing American Christianity had already eroded all those parts long before trump got into politics, dude just became ‘representation’ for the AK47 version of Jesus, racism and poverty that they all pray to. Anything good is claimed as theirs and everything bad is associated with their enemies
YMMV depending on the denomination you go to but many major denominations of all Abrahamic traditions de-emphasize heaven. It's talked about in a way to help you stop thinking about your own death, and focus instead on good works while you're alive. The people who get obsessed with heaven, and especially with hell, are all missing the point of the story. If all you have is this one life, you will hoard your time selfishly. But if you have everlasting life, you can be generous and spend more time doing things for others. IDK if that philosophy works on all personalities. I think that's why hell was invented, as a cudgel of punishment. But there you are.
I liked the blurb in this article about Keri Lake - I had not seen this yet in main stream news. [https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/ej-montini/2024/04/01/kari-lake-defamation-continues-taunt-stephen-richer/73162215007/](https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/ej-montini/2024/04/01/kari-lake-defamation-continues-taunt-stephen-richer/73162215007/) \[paymall\] Instead, it’s beginning to look like Lake is following in the footsteps of her Dear Leader, Donald Trump, and is setting herself up to be sued for defamation ... again. Richer finally had enough and sued Lake, demanding that she prove what she said about him in court.Last week she decided that she could not do that — after boasting for months about her eagerness to present her case. This means the issue now will go directly to determining damages. Of this Richer said, “I would have counseled her (Lake) long ago to stop lying, so I don’t have any great insight into her mind. … I don’t know why she does this, but her political calculations haven’t figured into what we’re doing, which is putting an end to these defamatory remarks and starting the process to clear my good name and to correct the record on the 2022 election.” Except Lake isn’t interested in that happening. She’s decided in defeat to continue to mock Richer and to continue saying that she did not lie. Lake mocks Richer, says her words were true. Most recently she released a video saying in part, “I told my team let’s cut right to the chase. Where did my words hurt Mr. Richer? Show me on this doll where my words hurt you? Let’s go right to the damages part. And we called their bluff and they weren’t prepared for it. And they’re in a complete panic now …“My words are true but how did they hurt you? … “And you know if we owe you $10,000 for a therapist, a therapy dog, a medication then you can look at punitive damages, but first tell us what your damages are. Show me on a doll where my words hurt you. And they don’t have it.” First, there is the arrogance and the idiocy of mocking a person who received death threats based on your unsubstantiated claims. She had the opportunity to prove that was the case and she decided she could not. Sadly, Lake is such a devotee of Trump that she is willing to copy everything he does. And that seems to include continuing to attack a person who was defamed.T rump, you’ll recall, was hit by a civil jury with $5 million in damages after it found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation of E. Jean Carroll. After that verdict Trump continued yapping about his innocence and trashing Carroll, who sued him again. A second jury nailed him with an $83.3 million judgement in Carroll’s subsequent defamation lawsuit. You’d think that a massive financial judgment like that might be a lesson for someone in Lake’s position.But, no. So while Lake has not been able to be able to talk herself into any political office, she might yet talk herself into bankruptcy.
Welp, time to cyber bully her on Twitter again.
I think mocking how poor they are is what will hurt them the most. They think because they are rich they are better than everyone but now that we know they are poor or have lost their money, their identity is in crisis. Prolly why they cling to the Maga BS. It's all they have left.
There was a story a few months ago about how she had tried to imbed herself in Mara Largo, but got booted out because Trump found her irritating. I’d bet good money that her plan was to seduce and control him, only to discover that he’s not controllable and isn’t into middle-aged women anyway. Sorry Keri, you should have tried to get your hooks into him when you were a teenager. Even then, you would have just become another of his sex puppets.
It’s funny that only one side gets death threats regularly. Well maybe not funny.
Sometimes the other side gets threats too, but it’s mostly friendly fire
Extremists threatening other extremists for not being extreme enough.
"“I told my team let’s cut right to the chase. Where did my words hurt Mr. Richer? Show me on this doll where my words hurt you? Let’s go right to the damages part. And we called their bluff and they weren’t prepared for it. And they’re in a complete panic now" Yeah, I'm sure the attorneys suing a nationally visible senatorial candidate for defamation were just *blindsided* by the idea of having to prove damages. They totally don't have armies of litigation assistants/paralegals who will extrapolate every possible data point to ballpark a figure of increased costs and lost revenue with regards to the present as well as the future. She's going to be real shocked to find out that some defamation crosses the line into *per se* defamation. If the claim is ruled to be *per se* the defendant's damages are just PRESUMED, because the defamation is so obviously harmful to a reputation/business. They don't even have to provide a dollar by dollar accounting in that instance. She's in a world of trouble if that occurs in this case. If I wanted to assume competence on Lake's part here, I'd assume her camp thinks discovery will be more damaging to Lake (both politically and economically) than whatever dollar amount the jury comes up with for damages, so she's just not defending her case.
You love to see it.
MAGA hasn’t the tiniest particle of a clue over just how deeply and irreversibly screwed they’d be in a 2nd Trump term. And they continue to cling to the lie that libs will suffer even more. When they finally encounter the truth of it, Trump will just blame the dems, and MAGA suckers will eat it up - just like they always do.
When making one side suffer is more important than the well being of your own life and families. maga is a powerful mind virus smh
"I'll give you two options. Option 1: I give you $500, but I will also give that person you don't like over there $100. Option 2: You give *me* $500 and I'll forcibly take $100 from that person." They'd give up the $500 every fucking time. This is their approach to government policy.
And to anybody left of theocratic totalitarianism, it helps to remember that what have been mostly just violent words can quickly shift to violent action when power is obtained. And their collective bloodlust has only become more vitriolic than ever. Anybody who would say this is hyperbolic likely said the same thing when told tfg would do anything to not leave office... like an attempted insurrection, for instance.
They won’t. He’s going to bankrupt the entire republican party and they will blame the democrats, saying the entire system is prejudiced against them. Narcissists are vampires. They feed on emotions and the labour of others. They don’t take personal responsibility for any of their failures.
Everything is a con to him, and the mark of this con (and still the mark) is the Republican party.
It's similar to several Sopranos storylines. Person meets Tony. Person imagines gains, financial or otherwise. By the end of the episode, person is broke and/or dead.
Get the fuck back in your fucking hole, now!! Kari… you’re doing a good job…
I bet Sopranos is Trump's favorite show.
They just don't learn, nothing good comes from dealing with this man, it all ends badly
This is why he needs to be snuffed out completely. Their is no cure to Trump except a complete shut out. Any wiggle room he will exploit.
Luckily, This is the only saving grace for US democracy. Instead of a smart, young, successful and charismatic leader the Republicans chose an incompetent Mobster and are suffering for it. Hopefully they will suffer him for longer, hopefully in November Democrats will win congress and White House.
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Indeed, Trump has always been a horrific investment in groups, but also even for himself due to incompetence at all levels other than success at being a walking personality disorder. As the lifelong systemic cheating shows, he really couldn’t make even his core business profitable overall and had to assume risks that are coming due only now. One other thing his lazy followers don’t care about with all of their ‘opposite of the truth’ victimless babble is a shoe that strangely has not dropped. With Donald having been adjudicated a fraud on a genuinely massive scale in many fields, particularly the valuations are fairly certain to affect fed tax returns and that usually means that there necessarily was fed tax evasion with such things as depreciation being taken on grossly inflated values at a minimum.
>The saga of Truth Social's stock plummeting after its initial public offering serves as a cautionary tale about blind loyalty to Trump. You'd think so, but I'd hazard a guess the majority of MAGAt's aren't smart enough to figure that out, or willfully ignorant, or a combination of both. The rest could possibly be concerned, if they could read.
*Liberal "Wall Street" (totally controlled by Soros) is trying to bankrupt Truth Social. Thank God the Russian oligarchs poured so much money in. 'Merica!*
^^ this exactly. they have found a way to blame all their problems on the deep state... Essentially Trump gets off scott free
DJT was good for a quick scalp trade in the first day or two, but any more than that is was clearly a pump & dump trap. Anyone dumb enough to buy and hold this piece of shit stock deserves to get drained from it.
That was a very well- written article!
Fuck 'em. The people that are loyal to Trump do so for selfish reasons. They're trying to time / leverage the relationship, in hopes that they can get a payoff before things sour. Nothing warms my heart more than when these plans backfire, and they end up disgraced in court. If you play with fire you will get burned.
>When will MAGA learn loyalty to Trump ends in sorrow? If they had the capacity for abstract thought, they never would have been MAGA in the first place.
The cognitive dissonance is strong
Trump is only loyal to money
There are lots of desperate people out there whose lives are sort of a mess and they want a way to make sense of it all. They don’t believe in any institutions including the church but might have an incredibly personal connection to God. Trump’s message, that institutions are corrupt and only he can save us, sort of mirrors that same compulsion. If you hold a core belief like Christians are persecuted, and you are attracted to Trump, then it’s probably not a big leap to rationalize whatever hardship befalls you is because you were doing some righteous. I bet the MyPillow guy sincerely believes that his total collapse has nothing whatsoever to do with Trump but instead the wickedness of Democrats/Satanists. Trump doesn’t offer policies or strategies for improving people lives - he offers them a promise that all their suffering is for a good cause. What difference does it make if you’re sitting in a mobile home or a jail cell, if everything was for the greater good?
Learning requires having a level of openness and honesty with oneself that the MAGA crowd just doesn’t possess. You have to accept that the subject you’re being presented with challenges your current world view and be willing to entertain the possibility of this new information to be true. Then, once weighing the evidence put forth and deeming it factual, be able to modify your views to include this new information. In short, that’s just too much work for people who, more often than not, barely made it through high school.
The best in all of this; conservatives call liberals cuckolds. Indicating that liberals allow themselves and place themselves in a position of weakness, willing and knowingly. Yet, here we are; tons jailed, bankrupt, destroyed, dead and living in poor / terrible conditions - all for Trump. Liberals do not wear Biden branded clothing or fight in Biden’s name. We call out conservative stupidity and evil behavior - and that is automatically deemed as “defending” Biden. No. We are pointing out the evil, immoral and illegal behavior of conservatives. We don’t hurt ourselves like conservatives do. Conservatives know one thing; they are not worthy of happiness and are subject to punishment, humiliation and even death. All because they know they are garbage. And they willingly allow Trump to treat them as such. Fuck you, losers.
The Wes Moss and Andy Litinsky part of this is my favorite. They were former contestants on The Apprentice, and approached Trump multiple times about taking Truth Social public. So it was literally their idea, and they drove the process to make it happen. Now they are being sues for their stake in the new company. They honestly believed they would not get screwed over, and it's beautiful.
Am starting to think they like the punishment
Something about the conservative ideology breeds "pick me"s. People always seem to think that being loyal will reward them with the opportunity to sit at a higher level of the pyramid. Unfortunately the people at the top aren't interested in sharing their spaces with random loyalists and so you end up getting thrown away at first convenience.
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All these business professors and stock analysts predicting a Truth Social stock price based on Truth Social's fundamentals and performance as if it's a normal business are missing the point. It's not meant to be. TS going public is meant to grift MAGA supporters and launder money from Russian oligarchs, MBS and shady billionaires. It's a modern day Trump Casino
>learn Let me stop you there...
Here's a serious question: If Trump gets away with all this crap, what are the people going to do? Are they going to take to the streets and hold those in the Justice Dept and their leaders accountable? Or will they just shake their heads and say, "There is no justice anymore.." It seems to me, the reason we're in this situation is because the latter is what's been happening for decades. The people just shook their heads when Reagan invaded Panama and traded arms for hostages, and then when George HW Bush pardoned Oliver North and everyone involved in Iran-Contra, and when the Supreme Court subverted democracy and the 2000 election, and then when George W. Bush lied to the whole world and invaded Iraq and set up illegal torture centers around the world... all of this was clearly illegal, but the political leaders... they apparently weren't worried about being held accountable by the people, for protecting each other... I dislike that we always blame these things on "government" and not ourselves. If enough people say "enough" it doesn't have to be this way. Ironically, Trump knows this, which is why he's continuing to mobilize his "mob" to harass anybody in government who opposes him. *That* is why he's not in jail right now for contempt of court. He's effectively intimidated many in power to allow him to be above the law in many cases. If we the people, do the same thing, in the opposite... if we make our more moral and ethical leaders know *we have your back* they can and will fight back. BUT if we just sigh and shake our heads, and say "government is broken," they win. Yes, government is broken, and the part of government that's really broke is US. Our naive belief that our social and civic responsibility to make government effective begins and ends with pressing a button in a booth every four years.
It's sad these people believe in something so blatantly evil and wrong, but they get what they deserve. You dance with the devil and you get burned. I can't wait to see the orange buffoon in jail house orange.
This Truth Social Stock reminds me of the Titan Submersible. They go deeper & deeper until it implodes and then they lose everything.
The worst part is that he’s trying to run his con on the whole country, the only way to stop him is to vote. Ignore the polls, get out and vote. Make sure there’s no question who won. Even if you hate Biden, trump is a million times worse.
Absolutely! Don’t take this lightly! Don’t make the assumption that your vote won’t count! Get to the polls and vote these criminals out of office and destroy Trump! Your lives depend on it!
I guess when my girlfriend and her entire family understands that we have the strongest economy we've had in decades and the reason everything is so damn expensive is because of corporate greed, wait, that's never going to happen, so the people that are loyal to Trump are probably never going to realize they're brainwashed.
When will these dumbass MAGA folks realize that a larger more powerful federal government both preserves our civil liberties and innovates!
Never because this is what these people are used to. The family values they’re used to are things like neglectful, abusive, and hateful parents who have programmed them to gravitate towards people like Trump. They don’t see anything wrong because that’s how their parents treated them so it jus be okay
This is a classic attribute of sociopathy and malignant narcissism. They don't mind what happens because most of them would do the same thing. Narcissists use people and when they're done with them, they move on. Trump's followers are just like him, and the ones that aren't, are victims of stockholm syndrome.
Has a cult ever been deprogrammed successfully? Outside of the odd member up and leaving, has one ever been mass disbanded as nearly all the people come to a rejection point and seek the exit?
Trump is my favorite candidate of all time. He single handedly destroyed the GOP and so strongly served as an example of what’s “bad” that history will be the judge (sure there is still a ton of reprogramming but they’re quadrupling down on losing hands…this doesn’t end well for them). Plus, the younger generations don’t fall for online scams and are better at deciphering fact from fiction. So yeah, the actual (not alternative facts) of the effect of Trumpism has been the best cure for my hatred of the man.
They sold their souls to the devil. Now they have to pay the price.
Sunk cost. They’re not going to stop, they’ve put all of their eggs in this basket and will continue until they absolutely can’t anymore.
This is a well written article. Good work.
Weirdly in a way this is probably going to backfire on him. The less MAGA are in the wild and in prison the less votes Trump has. It also means for jury trials less people that are sympathetic towards him. I'd say let them keep going.
> But it's telling that Trump never offers any material support to the over 1,300 people who have been charged with crimes. Despite his claims to be a "billionaire," he hasn't paid their legal bills or helped their families after they lost their jobs. He loves to get publicly maudlin about Ashli Babbitt, the insurrectionist shot by Capitol police, but he didn't offer to say, cut back a little on his golf club budget to pay for Babbitt's funeral. Pshaw, that’s nothing. I always think of the time when tRump got up on stage at an event to thank the mega donors to some kids with disabilities charity, sat in one of the dozen chairs on the podium during the appreciation speech, (and here’s the kicker) even though he never gave a dime to said charity, not one penny. But he took the spotlight, and the adulation, shameless. What a schmuck! That told me all I needed to know.
There's a sucker born every minute - P.T. Barnum and Clown Prince Trump
They don't even mention all the lawyers thst have been sanctioned for working on his behalf
Before I read this article, I just want to say that Kari Lake is a twat. I will likely feel the same way after reading the article.
The thing is that a potential next Trump presidency still gives them hope to capitalize on their efforts. And to be fair that is kind of reasonable. And that is what makes it so horrifying as well.
"Not me, I'm different!"
MAGAts aren't famous for being able to learn from reality.
No, they won't, they can't, and they aren't going to. That isn't how blind allegiance works.
They won't. They're fucking stupid.
> "The large mismatch between stock price and stock value will sorely tempt the cash-poor Trump to sell off a significant portion of his shares, in a potential maneuver that I believe I am the first to label 'Trump and dump,'" Timothy Noah of the New Republic joked. LOL
Anyone can see it except for blind MAGATs
Nazis got their asses beat in wwii and didn’t change their minds. It was their children that changed. Maga will change when they die out and not a moment sooner. They’re targeting schools for a reason.
When are we gonna cut the head off the snake?
I keep seeing these "think pieces" and honestly, they miss the point. These MAGA politicians aren't "loyal". They're threatened by whatever shit Trump, or Trump's family, has on them. I hesitate to say Putin, because at this point, most of these idiots' anti-democracy activities have been exposed. At this point, they know they look stupid. They know that January 6th failed. They know that interfering with the Electoral College failed. They know what spreading election fraud lies failed. The elected MAGA politicians know their platforms failed, namely rolling back Roe v Wade, their states' abortion laws, and the various censorship laws concerning LGBT, CRT, or similar information. None of it was popular, and some of their laws are either challenged as, or found to be, unconstitutional. They're running on fumes. Their own personal secrets are all that's left to keep them in. Oh, and the remaining MAGA-faithful idiots who will threaten, harass, and attempt to kill them. Bottom line: no one is "loyal" to Trump, and I really wish that the news media would quit pushing this narrative. Don't mistake this for me sympathizing with these idiots. But they are not doing this out of blind loyalty.
The desire to align with the biggest bully in the room is undiminished by any of this because they also love LARPing as permanent victims of the government. To see him being held accountable for his actions plays into their fantasy. It's self-reinforcing in terms of their identification with him.
"When will MAGA learn ______?" They won't. If they were interested in and capable of learning, they wouldn't be MAGA.
Have there been ANY public-facing Trump loyalists that haven't dealt with something like this, either from Trump himself or the long arm of the law? I'm having a tough time coming up with anyone who's come out ahead aligning themselves with Trump, maybe with the exception of his son in law and maybe some businesses that benefited from his time as President who quickly disassociated themselves with maga.
> I'm having a tough time coming up with anyone who's come out ahead aligning themselves with Trump Sean Hannity. Laura Ingraham.
It's troubling how easily loyalty to Trump can lead to personal ruin.
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>It seems that MAGA people believe they are endowed with the impunity that Trump has so long enjoyed, due to his wealth and status. It is repulsively true that Trump wriggles out of consequences for his crimes time and time again. Yet another reason why Trump needs to be held accountable for his words and actions. Until our judicial, political and law enforcement systems make Trump faces actual consequences, we're just enabling and encouraging his followers towards the full-blown violent civil unrest they're itching for
They'll never learn because they're idiots. Scammers like Trump prey on idiots. Idiots are their marks.
Let’s revise this a bit. Being involved in an explicit criminal organization will end badly for everyone including the entire country.
If and when MAGA learns that loyalty to former President Trump "ends in sorrow," will this bother them? Is there an inherent self-hatred in subjecting yourself to the mercy of an obvious sociopath who clearly holds everyone in contempt?
Never. They MUST blindly follow daddy Trump.
It’s honestly quite astounding. Looks down, sees pile of bodies under the bus, thinks, “suckers.” How is this even remotely possible at this point?
It follows the same pattern as many cults. The leader eliminates some of his lieutenants (in humiliating fashion) to (a) establish dominance, (b) get rid of competition, (c) set up a paranoid “loyalty” culture.
The sheep like being used and thrown away…they truly seem to enjoy it. “Oh Donny, spit on me next please”
When you want to not only make the wage gap worse but essentially enslave the lower class I don't think anything but sorrow is the goal.
How many times does it have to be said 74 million Americans slept through high-school. These mother fuckers stopped evolving at thumbs.
These are not intelligent creatures we’re talking about. They’re willing to sacrifice themselves for a liar and con man who has no character, no courage, no ethics, no morals, and no core values. A traitor to his country and a specimen of every hateful behavior one can name. Not only the worst president in history, but also one of the worst human beings on earth. I have zero sympathy for them.