this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2024
109 points (92.2% liked)

politics

18828 readers
4644 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
  2. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  3. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  4. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive.
  5. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  6. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

• Register To Vote

• Citizenship Resource Center

• Congressional Awards Program

• Federal Government Agencies

• Library of Congress Legislative Resources

• The White House

• U.S. House of Representatives

• U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

• News

• World News

• Business News

• Political Discussion

• Ask Politics

• Military News

• Global Politics

• Moderate Politics

• Progressive Politics

• UK Politics

• Canadian Politics

• Australian Politics

• New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
outrageousmatter@lemmy.world
aidan@lemmy.world
jordanlund@lemmy.world
HLMenckenFan@lemmy.world
little_cow@lemmy.world
109
A simple explanation of why Trump lies, and why his base loves his lies (boingboing.net)
submitted 2 months ago by btaf45@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world
13 comments fedilink hide all child comments
top 13 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Socsa@sh.itjust.works 41 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

It's just simple abuse. It's no more complicated that that. Trump is not some genius, he's just an abusive asshole with a megaphone.

The whole point is to constantly be testing the loyalty of supporters, while punishing detractors. For the supporters, the constant "attention" is a reward. Every opportunity to say "there are three lights" is making themselves part of the lie. For the rest of us, the constant, unavoidable gaslighting is exhausting, and the visible, ever present degradation of our civic institutions is horrifying. Yet we are forced to either witness it and confront it day after day if we are to oppose it, or check out and let it happen, just hoping it ends quickly.

[–] OberonSwanson@sh.itjust.works 13 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Trump is not some genius, he's just an abusive asshole with a megaphone.

As the son of a former abusive asshole myself, there’s truth in it. A large percentage of people will accept abuse for close to a decade, but usually they inevitably snap and try getting away from the abuse. It just requires constant small losses to realize, and you can’t let them rot alone. Otherwise they fall even deeper into a cult-like thinking. Maybe it should be seen a little akin addiction, they need a reminder, there’s a small way to get back to how things were before.

[–] EatATaco@lemm.ee -1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Does he have book smarts? No, but this guy has a genius level ability to promote himself. He's increased his inherited fortune by billions by selling himself (even if he could have don't better just by putting his money in index funds). His worth is all in his brand.

Even for those of us who see through his lies, you still can't stop fucking talking about him. People are always fucking talking about him, all the time.

He has gotten half of one of the largest countries in the world to blindly support him.

It makes me cringe to say it, and he is a terrible, terrible person, but to argue this guy isn't a genius is to ignore reality.

[–] geekwithsoul@lemm.ee 0 points 2 months ago

I think he’s the perfect example of “clever but not smart.” Genius implies any of what he says or does is intentional - it’s not. But because he’s lived his whole life in privilege and the weird miasma that is the current reality, he’s able to wedge himself into a position where half the country who should despise him loves him instead.

The reality of Trump appeals to very few but the idea of Trump appeals to many with the awareness to be afraid, but neither the intellect or the courage to understand why - so they’ve latched on to the symbol of him and stick with it to avoid the cognitive dissonance.

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 40 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The Left has been correct about everything since the New Deal. Lies are the only thing they have left.

[–] GraniteM@lemmy.world 19 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Conservatives heard Stephen Colbert say "Reality has a liberal bias" and concluded that the only solution was to declare war on reality.

[–] baronvonj@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Conservatives thought Colbert was one of them at first. Then again, they didn't know Rage Against the Machine hated them or The Boys was mocking them, either.

[–] satanmat@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The Boys isn’t mocking!! Homelander is one of us!

/s

[–] baronvonj@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

He's the ubermensch!

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago

Ronald Reagan said "Born In The USA" was his favorite song.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 17 points 2 months ago

Part of it is narcissism. I see the word thrown a lot, to mean a lot of things. A major component is unable to face being wrong. If it comes out his mouth, he believes it to be true, right down to his roots.

I was 40 or so until I realized my mother had never once in life said she was sorry or admitted fault. One time my ex and I nailed her to the wall with her own words. You could see the cognitive dissonance boiling away. And compared to her, Trump has weapons grade NPD.

[–] jballs@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

First off, fuck Trump. Just wanted to get that out of the way.

Second, this article is summarizing another article that it links to at the beginning. The original article was written in 2017. If they're going to ~~plagarize~~ paraphrase another article, could they at least choose something more recent?

Trump has been convicted of 34 felonies since then and has plenty more convictions on the way. Surely they can at least try to update the article.

[–] btaf45@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

The original article was written in 2017

And more relevant than ever today

could they at least choose something more recent?

That's totally unimportant. Relevancy is what matters. Recency is only important when it relates to relevancy.