nigel99

Thanks for clarifying your views.

It is not ‘may be a lie’ it is a proven lie that was known to be false. Vance in his own words said “if I have to make up stories to get people to pay attention…” My point about cognitive dissonance is that you are very strongly opinionated about Harris, the left and the media being dishonest - to the point you justify it as a reason for supporting Trump. Quite likely the most dishonest person to have ever served in politics. Reconciling those positions is close to the text book example of dissonance.

I’ve seen a bit of it. I think it’s far fetched, but at the same time the people who are most vocal about cheating are often the cheaters…

Very big of you. Honestly, I am sure Kamala has lied, but I don’t know of any specific ones and certainly none that inflamed hatred against a community to the point that their safety was compromised. Since I can’t off hand think of a lie, it’s ok you can safely avoid having to explain your position. Cognitive dissonance is generally rather uncomfortable and best ignored.

Well without it Trump might not have won the popular vote

You didn’t answer me at all. Trump and Vance repeatedly told that lie (you can watch them say it and don’t need to rely on 3rd party reporting). How do you rationalise accepting Trump and Vance being blatant liars?

I’m curious how you rationalise Trump and Vance “Their eating the dogs” line that they pushed hard and for a long time? It seems to contradict your very rational explanation of the internet rumour mill

Do the red pill crowd and Andrew Tate deny sexual assault happens? My impression was that they tend to encourage it as ‘women are asking for it’ and no means yes As TK mentioned, I suspect the vast majority who regurgitate these views don’t get to interact with women. Although I do agree with you, there’s a really big problem within relationships as well.

Honestly MAGA supporters will twist themselves in knots to ensure Trump is not to blame. Incite people with violent rhetoric, get them to assemble with the intent of a fight. I’m not suggesting that you should use violence ‘wink wink’ and if you do I’ll pay your legal fees. I will position myself as ‘we’ versus the police, but sorry gov’ner it wasn’t me. I was in the Oval Office eating a Big Mac and drinking a Diet Coke at the time, see here’s my receipt from Maccas. The single defining trait of Trump and MAGA is spineless lack of conviction and accountability.

I suspect the vast majority of the ‘sexual assault isn’t a problem’ are the so called incels who are busy living in mommy and daddy’s basement and feeding on a diet of Andrew Tate and Joe Rogan and the only woman on their lives is their mom.

I’m actually surprised at the hoops people jump through to justify their beliefs. I was talking to a female friend who I know who was sexually abused as a very young girl and whose life has been affected by it ever since. She’s a fan of Trump and says that ALL THE sexual abuse accusations against Trump are media and deep state lies. Mind you she is at the more extreme end of the scale and believes Clinton drinks babies blood for adrenachrome and that Bill Gates and Clinton are lizard aliens…

Came across this term today. There’s a few people circulating conspiracy theories about how Trump cheated. People saying Musk used starlink to alter voting counts etc. The comment was ‘This Blueannon shit needs to stop, we aren’t as dumb as MAGA”

Saw a funny suggestion to really screw with MAGA. Biden should resign and let Harris be president for the next 2 months. First woman president:)

This is interesting. I wanted to see if the media here was lying about the fact that the day AFTER the elections the search term “what is a tariff “ peaked on google. Got to love a stupid electorate.

I don’t understand why this is such a difficult concept to grasp. For the past week I’ve been debating whether to comment on my aunts FB post saying she’s ecstatic that Gods will prevailed and Trump, JD and Elon are going to fix America. The entire evangelical side of my family are thrilled with the outcome. This aunt is South African and explicitly stated that it will take a South African to sort out the immigrant problem in the US.

No side is perfect. I’ve certainly seen blinkered views of reality on the left side of the US political spectrum. What strikes me about the right in the US is a complete lack of integrity that appears to be endemic. JD Vance can call Trump America’s Hitler and then be elected as his VP, Lindsey Graham and McConnel who twist and turn in the wind. They appear to lack any conviction and principles- and it’s acceptable. I find the parallels here quite interesting, we’ve essentially had one regular right wing poster for a while, and even then outright support for Trump was fairly muted. Since the election the number of posters has spiked and they are happy to openly support Trump now. Although, there is still a general lack of conviction towards principles of integrity and morality (how hard is it to avoid saying rape is wrong and make excuses for it?)

You’re beating a dead horse. For some reason this election result has brought out even stronger racist and misogynistic views than 2016. A MAGA person shared this ‘joke’ on FB today “I’m not racist my girlfriend has two black eyes”

I think this highlights the fact that Trump's vulgarity and sexual abuse is not swept under the rug by his supporters, but rather it’s seen as some pathetic alpha male trait to be admired. We’ve talked about racism and misogyny a lot, this election has emboldened people that it’s ok to express your views. The news has been covering how in 21 states blacks have been receiving texts to report to the nearest cotton plantation (It’s a hilarious joke that’s 200 yrs old, so relax and don’t be uptight about it!). I’ve got a 28 year old daughter and she’s got more guts than most men. She’s a child protection case worker. Flies to work in a 172/182 on remote islands. Goes camping and 4 wheel driving in her own in the outback. She regularly goes into situations where she requires armed police support. It’s no wonder insecure men feel threatened by strong independent women. Instead they put on eyeliner, makeup, corsets, lifts and diapers and then proclaim themselves alpha males and make derogatory jokes about women.

Interesting how uninformed you are on Trumps crimes. The 34 felony charges aren’t related to missing document's.

Quite a funny take on things

The Prince is 500 years old and Machiavelli had already warned about the dangers of an erratic and unpredictable opponent. Of course Putin prefers Biden over Trump from a stability point of view. Having someone unpredictable means you’ve got to be ready to respond at all times, and strike hard. Most of the world detests Trump. Ultimately though for Putin and all the other strongmen they know Trump is a fragile and vain man who is easily manipulated. They can have him kissing their boots with a few well placed words and telling him he’s a good boy. Musk and other opportunists use exactly the same strategy to stroke Trunps fragile ego.

Putin is smart. Look at his congratulatory remarks to Trump. Stroking Trumps fragile little ego with gushing praise about how he is a ‘strong and courageous man’

I have been thinking about this for a long time. First of all I’m a bit pissed off either the armchair analysis by the media stating that the dems need to take a good hard look at what they did wrong. When things are going badly or perceived to be, then people look for alternatives and unfortunately populist simple solutions are attractive. I was shocked when I visited the US earlier this year to see the level of homelessness and prices of groceries. We see the rise of the right wing dictators but so far I’ve not really seen a viable alternative proposed. Life is incredibly complicated, changes in policy take time to flow through to change. Ironically the democratic 4 year cycle and also term limits of US presidents undermine the ability to effect significant changes. changes made by one administration start to take effect just as they leave power and there is no accountability (especially with a poorly informed and educated population). A few ideas that I think are worth considering although I’m sure each has significant risks 1. Devolve power and bring it closer to the people. 2. Consider qualified majority voting. Education level, income based, possibly a mandatory civics class. (I don’t think the long term unemployed should be allowed to vote) 3. Significantly slash the income of politicians to align them with other civil servants and remove the whole corporate sponsorship corruption/angle. 4. A Swiss style referendum on significant issues instead of allowing representatives to make changes on behalf of the people. 5. Australian style mandatory voting (helps to ensure that centrist people vote) 6. Replace the sense of community and communal spirit that has been replaced by self centred individualism. I hate to admit it, but good old traditional religion does this quite well 7. old the rich and powerful to the same standard of law as the poor and vulnerable are.

https://forward.com/opinion/633381/hitler-1932-trump-nazi-rise/ This is an interesting article.

The problem is that isolationist polices are attractive at face value. I believed that Brexit would be a good thing for the UK. Uk standard of living was higher than many parts of the EU. The way I saw it was that by leaving the EU the UK standard of living would be maintained for a longer time, but ultimately would end in a war in the long term. 8 years later it’s pretty clear I was wrong.