Official LRC President Donald J Trump Thread

Trollminator wrote:

TTH wrote:

Between the population increase and thus the number of people available to protest or participate in virtually everything over, say, 50 years ago and the coverage of it being so much more readily available it can make it seem that we are in a period of near civil war.

I don't think its good and I dont think it helped that we had a natural divider in charge the last 4 years. Contrary to what a lot of Biden supporters/Trump haters believe, I don't think it gets better at least for a while particularly if Trump does what I think most people think he will do which is to continue along seeking attention and his looney followers going right along with it.

Social media amplifies the hatred. You see content that you assume is real and make judgements about people you’ve never seen or met. It’s more transactional and less human. Before this era, things you would hear about “them” were not as vivid and didn’t hit home. It’s much easier now to get fooled and forget your values. It’s much easier for trumpers to hate those libs and vice versa.

Before, you were more likely to interact in person with your neighbors and others in your community, and therefore more likely to place importance in those engagements which were much more based on basic mutual trust. That has changed now. I look at that dude’s flag and immediately I don’t want to know anything more about him - he’s a trumper and must be all the bad things I’ve heard about. I see some dude posting trumper stuff online and immediately I’m sure he’s a mouth breather. The same thing happens with “them”. People become less human and since we don’t engage much with them we don’t care as much for them. It’s like that Twilight Zone episode where the guy presses a button to get some money and someone somewhere dies each time. He doesn’t care because he doesn’t know those people.

Racket wrote:

Trollminator wrote:

Social media amplifies the hatred. You see content that you assume is real and make judgements about people you’ve never seen or met. It’s more transactional and less human. Before this era, things you would hear about “them” were not as vivid and didn’t hit home. It’s much easier now to get fooled and forget your values. It’s much easier for trumpers to hate those libs and vice versa.

Before, you were more likely to interact in person with your neighbors and others in your community, and therefore more likely to place importance in those engagements which were much more based on basic mutual trust. That has changed now. I look at that dude’s flag and immediately I don’t want to know anything more about him - he’s a trumper and must be all the bad things I’ve heard about. I see some dude posting trumper stuff online and immediately I’m sure he’s a mouth breather. The same thing happens with “them”. People become less human and since we don’t engage much with them we don’t care as much for them. It’s like that Twilight Zone episode where the guy presses a button to get some money and someone somewhere dies each time. He doesn’t care because he doesn’t know those people.

Social media has not helped but much of what you described was already happening. The 60s and 70s created an aura of distrust in pretty much every institution, public and private. Then, in the 80s, Reagan aligned himself with evangelicals. That's when political party began to replace everything else as a primary identity. Social media and the internet in general has added fuel to the fire, but it was already going.

Trollminator wrote:

15_50 wrote:

Quick thoughts on the election:

Very pleased to see trump gone. worst president in history!!!!!

Normal republicans should be very pleased with the results of this election. they picked up seats in the house, did well at the state level, likely did not lose the senate, and are now released from supporting the albatross that was trump.

let trump quietly ride off into the sunset... no need to try to convict him of any corruption... all that will do is cause more unrest in the country which is the last thing we need.

finally even though i don't understand them, i had a few very good friends who supported trump. i can say that they were neither stupid or racist... again, i don't see why anyone would support trump but there is no need to argue with them about it. they are good people and good friends.

again... super happy trump is no longer the president... and i am very glad i was wrong about my prediction!

And what if he is committing crimes, would letting him ride off into the sunset be the right thing to do? Or should we pretend he’s still above the law?

Facts and Logic wrote:

I like that now that the election is practically over, all of the Trump trolls are gone...

My personal 2 cents on this election:

1) Florida is no longer a swing state, and ironically given Trump's rhetoric, as whites make up less and less of the population I think Hispanics are the GOPs future. Expect more Ted Cruz's and Marco Rubio's.

2) While any candidate the Democrats put up would've won the popular vote, without COVID-19 I think Trump would've still won the election. With the economy going strong, and with his anti-science positions being relegated to less tangible issues like climate, I don't think we would've saw the dip in support for Trump among white people, and I don't think we would've seen a significant portion of conservatives vote against him (which is evident is the disparity between how the GOP did in congressional races and the presidential election).

3) The GOP somehow seems to have avoided alienating supporters in spite of Trump. Or more accurately, anti-intellectualism is a very real problem in the USAthat didn't suddenly appear out of nowhere in 2016. It remains unclear where the GOP will go from here. Will they continue further into conspiracy land? Will they realize that forcing senseless partisanship isn't doing anyone any favors and maybe just chill out a bit?

4) The Democrats squeaked by on Anti-Trump sentiment and need new leadership. Pelosi and Tom Perez are not leaders. Where they'll go isn't certain. A farther left push is clearly popular as shown by massive turnout for Obama and now Biden, as well as the popularity of people like AOC, but the current makeup of the electoral college does make such a push look likely to backfire. However we don't know how that will change with the new census. With Gen Z looking very progressive and very politically active, and more conservative older generations shrinking, one has to wonder if the Democrats will finally stop being centrist posing as liberals and actually become a progressive party. Which brings me to my last point.

5) The Urban-Rural divide is only getting larger and will continue to be integral to US politics.

Facts and Logic wrote:

I like that now that the election is practically over, all of the Trump trolls are gone...

My personal 2 cents on this election:

1) Florida is no longer a swing state, and ironically given Trump's rhetoric, as whites make up less and less of the population I think Hispanics are the GOPs future. Expect more Ted Cruz's and Marco Rubio's.

2) While any candidate the Democrats put up would've won the popular vote, without COVID-19 I think Trump would've still won the election. With the economy going strong, and with his anti-science positions being relegated to less tangible issues like climate, I don't think we would've saw the dip in support for Trump among white people, and I don't think we would've seen a significant portion of conservatives vote against him (which is evident is the disparity between how the GOP did in congressional races and the presidential election).

3) The GOP somehow seems to have avoided alienating supporters in spite of Trump. Or more accurately, anti-intellectualism is a very real problem in the USAthat didn't suddenly appear out of nowhere in 2016. It remains unclear where the GOP will go from here. Will they continue further into conspiracy land? Will they realize that forcing senseless partisanship isn't doing anyone any favors and maybe just chill out a bit?

4) The Democrats squeaked by on Anti-Trump sentiment and need new leadership. Pelosi and Tom Perez are not leaders. Where they'll go isn't certain. A farther left push is clearly popular as shown by massive turnout for Obama and now Biden, as well as the popularity of people like AOC, but the current makeup of the electoral college does make such a push look likely to backfire. However we don't know how that will change with the new census. With Gen Z looking very progressive and very politically active, and more conservative older generations shrinking, one has to wonder if the Democrats will finally stop being centrist posing as liberals and actually become a progressive party. Which brings me to my last point.

5) The Urban-Rural divide is only getting larger and will continue to be integral to US politics.

Racket wrote:

Trollminator wrote:

Can’t disagree. So are we fvked?

Essentially yes, barring a major unifying event, like WW2 was back in the day. We basically need (and I absolutely hate this word because it is so overused) a paradigm shift, or a change in the aesthetic maybe (think modern -> postmodern -> ???)

For what it's worth, most scholars who sit around fireplaces in ivory towers and ponder this sh!t all day think we've already begun to do that. But these things tend to move slowly, and no one knows for sure until you can look back on it and say "oh yeah that was the moment of the shift."

In the mean time (and I really really hate myself for this tired cliche) you have to be the change you want to see. If social media is awful then quit it. If people are too quick to judge then don't. That sort of thing

Racket wrote:

agip wrote:

reminder that America has always been 1/3 Trumpist types.

But in the past they didn't have social media and Fox to stitch them together.

"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”

- Isaac Asimov

Ironic somewhat because most of that sentiment started with highly liberal academic thought in the 1950s and 1960s in my opinion. It percolated out to the general public from there, especially after Nixon and Reagan when people basically stopped trust all institutions. It was the end of post-WW2 sentiments that powered us previously.

Trump is, in many ways, a result of that - a long drawn out era of cynicism and doubt.