Coup in the USA?

[Free]

 

[Innula Zenovka]

What's with the binary thinking?

Perhaps it would help in, amongst the both-sides-ism reporting, to actually report how along with her family's hagiography, that smashing doors and windows and ignoring lawful demands from police officers are typically not the acts of a kind and conscientious person.



Hitler loved dogs. There, did I humanize him enough for you?

I don't see anything unusual about someone who generally acts in a kind and conscientious manner behaving completely differently under certain circumstances. Happens all the time, as anyone who works in the criminal justice system knows all too well.

What interests me -- because I believe that "know your enemy" is a wise piece of advice -- is how people who behave more or less like the rest of us most of the time can nevertheless end up supporting Trump (or Brexit, come to that).

I think much of life is, in fact, governed more by chance than anything else. Had Babbitt been standing elsewhere in the crowd when she arrived at the original Trump rally, or attended with more responsible or more cautious friends, or arrived at the Capitol Building 10 minutes earlier or later than she did, she'd almost certainly still be alive today and we'd never have heard of her unless she was facing charges (probably comparatively minor) arising from her role in the day's events.

What I always struggle to understand is how otherwise more or less reasonable people could have turned up at that rally in the first place to support Trump by that stage.

I can't even understand how anyone voted for him the first time round, let alone after seeing what he's like.

That many Americans can't all be crazy, or nihilists, or rampant fascists, so what makes these people tick?

 

[Free]

That many Americans can't all be crazy, or nihilists, or rampant fascists, so what makes these people tick?

We've had 5-6 years of articles about the Trump voter. Little has been learned beyond the ease of which they fall for his duplicity.

 

[danielravennest]

That many Americans can't all be crazy, or nihilists, or rampant fascists, so what makes these people tick?

A percentage of white Republicans are racists, and Trump said the kinds of things they wanted to hear. The remainder of Republicans who voted for him wanted Supreme Court justices, lower taxes, etc. that they normally want. They don't necessarily like Trump, but if he voted for the things they wanted, it was tolerable to use him.

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

I can't even understand how anyone voted for him the first time round, let alone after seeing what he's like.

He "owned the libs". That's the only reason that matters to a lot of his followers.

 

[Cindy Claveau]

A percentage of white Republicans are racists, and Trump said the kinds of things they wanted to hear. The remainder of Republicans who voted for him wanted Supreme Court justices, lower taxes, etc. that they normally want. They don't necessarily like Trump, but if he voted for the things they wanted, it was tolerable to use him.

Agreed as far as you went. But right now, post-Jan 6, we have gone far beyond "moderate Republicans", who seem to have gone extinct. Most of the more reasonable GOP voters seem to have either switched parties or are laying low fearing threats online and in RL. And their Congresspeople are moving harder Right thinking it will build more capital towards their next campaign. Or at least avoid being primaried by the MAGA wing.

I agree that a lot of GOP voters want SCOTUS and low taxes in theory, even (especially) those who don't understand the consequences of their electoral choices beyond the next Fox News slogan. That's shown clearly by the positions of their congresscritters. All they have to do is look at tax levels before Reagan compared to now to see that taxation is more the worry of the wealthy, not the "common citizen". But again, Fox myths are everywhere.

What I wonder, though, is how many of them actually believe that Trump is still President? How many of them think Jan 6 was a "tour group"? There's a deep divide in the Repub party that isn't showing up well in polling, for whatever reason.

The real issues facing us by 2022 are Voting Rights (including gerrymandering), climate change and domestic extremism. The former we could solve politically if Congress is willing. Same with Climate Change (not solve, but at least address) Domestic extremism, though, is a generational problem. We won't have a solution for a long, long time yet. If ever. It might require some sort of violent outbreak or a war to act as a catalyst. I'm not proposing that, just observing the usual motion of social institutions.

I should add a derail warning to this post.

 

[Romana]

Agreed as far as you went. But right now, post-Jan 6, we have gone far beyond "moderate Republicans", who seem to have gone extinct. Most of the more reasonable GOP voters seem to have either switched parties or are lying low fearing threats online and in RL. And their Congresspeople are moving harder Right thinking it will build more capital towards their next campaign. Or at least avoid being primaried by the MAGA wing.

I agree that a lot of GOP voters want SCOTUS and low taxes in theory, even (especially) those who don't understand the consequences of their electoral choices beyond the next Fox News slogan. That's shown clearly by the positions of their congresscritters. All they have to do is look at tax levels before Reagan compared to now to see that taxation is more the worry of the wealthy, not the "common citizen". But again, Fox myths are everywhere.

What I wonder, though, is how many of them actually believe that Trump is still President? How many of them think Jan 6 was a "tour group"? There's a deep divide in the Repub party that isn't showing up well in polling, for whatever reason.

The real issues facing us by 2022 are Voting Rights (including gerrymandering), climate change and domestic extremism. The former we could solve politically if Congress is willing. Same with Climate Change (not solve, but at least address) Domestic extremism, though, is a generational problem. We won't have a solution for a long, long time yet. If ever. It might require some sort of violent outbreak or a war to act as a catalyst. I'm not proposing that, just observing the usual motion of social institutions.

I should add a derail warning to this post.

Is it a derail, though? Partly, but partly the Foxbrained thinking he's still prez or should be is what led us to 1/6.

 

[Arkady Arkright]

I can't even understand how anyone voted for him the first time round, let alone after seeing what he's like.

Boris got in with an increased majority, so we're no better...

 

[Romana]

Boris got in with an increased majority, so we're no better...

Sometimes it is eerie how much Tories and Republicans are alike. I mean, they always were, to some extent, but I wouldn't have expected all the Trumpiness.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

He "owned the libs". That's the only reason that matters to a lot of his followers.

Boris got in with an increased majority, so we're no better...

It's not the same, though. We don't vote for a Prime Minister, and Johnson himself has no great personal following.

To my mind, the Conservatives won the last election primarily because of people were either pro-Brexit or simply tired of hearing about it, and just wanted it over, and couldn't bear the idea of PM Jeremy Corbyn.

 

[Cindy Claveau]

Is it a derail, though? Partly, but partly the Foxbrained thinking he's still prez or should be is what led us to 1/6.

I was blaming myself for the derail.

 

[Free]

 

[Cindy Claveau]

Please pardon the link. I don't trust Raw Story very far at all, but sometimes it's interesting.

DC mayor smacks down 'incorrect' Ron Johnson after he says residents don't deserve statehood

 

[danielravennest]

Domestic extremism, though, is a generational problem. We won't have a solution for a long, long time yet. If ever. It might require some sort of violent outbreak or a war to act as a catalyst. I'm not proposing that, just observing the usual motion of social institutions.

I attribute the violence to belief in the "Great Replacement" theory, and fear of losing their white privilege. The GR theory posits that in about 20 years, non-hispanic whites will become less than half the US population. This is due to differential birth rates and immigration. The theory is flawed because ethnicity and race are not absolutes. Both Obama and Harris are mixed-race, and so are one in 9 new US babies. The US is functioning as the Melting Pot describes, and becoming blended.

But both Obama and Harris are considered "black" by racists, and Biden is old. He might not be able to complete his term, and Harris would then take his place. So that's two blacks in the White House in three terms. Trump was supposed to be the answer, but he lost, so the racists are freaking out. To them, the Replacement is already happening. So they are lashing out in the only way they know how.

 

[Cindy Claveau]

I attribute the violence to belief in the "Great Replacement" theory, and fear of losing their white privilege. The GR theory posits that in about 20 years, non-hispanic whites will become less than half the US population. This is due to differential birth rates and immigration.

Have they considered throwing massive orgies to help with the birth rate? Just an idea.

 

[Clara D.]

Coup in the US?

I prefer sedans.

Finally got that out of my system.

 

[Soen Eber]

The Internet is the new printing press, what we are witnessing is the new 30 years war, and the U.S. Capital is the new Münster. That's my take.

 

[Free]

30 years, you say...

 

[Romana]

I attribute the violence to belief in the "Great Replacement" theory, and fear of losing their white privilege. The GR theory posits that in about 20 years, non-hispanic whites will become less than half the US population. This is due to differential birth rates and immigration. The theory is flawed because ethnicity and race are not absolutes. Both Obama and Harris are mixed-race, and so are one in 9 new US babies. The US is functioning as the Melting Pot describes, and becoming blended.

But both Obama and Harris are considered "black" by racists, and Biden is old. He might not be able to complete his term, and Harris would then take his place. So that's two blacks in the White House in three terms. Trump was supposed to be the answer, but he lost, so the racists are freaking out. To them, the Replacement is already happening. So they are lashing out in the only way they know how.

And of course, it's also flawed because they are positing that there's a sinister force behind it, usually "the Jews"

the "Great Replacement" is encompassed in a larger and older "white genocide" conspiracy theory,[39] popularized in the US by neo-Nazi David Lane in his 1995 White Genocide Manifesto, where he asserted that governments in Western countries were intending to turn white people into "extinct species".[40][41] The idea of a "replacement" of indigenous white people under the guidance of a hostile elite can be further traced back to pre-WWII antisemitic conspiracy theories which posited the existence of a Jewish plot to destroy Europe through miscegenation, especially in Édouard Drumont's antisemitic bestseller La France juive (1886)

Differential birth rates and immigration are things they believe they can control, so they if accept them as the cause.

 

[WolfEyes]

indigenous white people