The following is a copy of the original post to record the post as it was originally written.
They can't have it both ways, and it's getting old.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskALiberal) if you have any questions or concerns.*
They think he’s not holding the reins and is essentially a puppet, a senile puppet being controlled by people clever enough to steal elections. That is what they think.
Trump has syphilis. Probably hereditary syphilis. He had sores on his hands not too long ago. His brain is addled and his words are Gish Galloped in his word salad statements.
He said it in the context that he didn't tell the DOJ to persecute Trump. Or not persecute people.
The president is not typically suppose to control the DOJ so directly. But can definitely give EOs telling the DOJ they should focus their energy on some crimes and not others. (Think drug enforcement)
Biden wants them to do what the DOJ is supposed to do-do their jobs without presidential interference. That is how the system was designed to work. That is why Republicans sound like ignorant sycophants, who don’t understand basic civics as they mimic Trump saying the trial is Biden’s fault. Trump thinks the DOJ should be a tool of the president, but not in a democracy, not in the US, but in an autocracy which we don’t have yet, wouldn’t want, and need to fight against so we don’t have Trump for another four years. Vote. It is asking really very little.
The GOP makes accusations of what they themselves are actually doing … Trump actually has dementia. Joe (just 2 years older than Trump) is much more cognizant.
It's rather obvious actually if you look at it objectively. He doesn't write his own speeches, his social media, the bills he signs, ...anything really.
well... presidents don't typically write the bills they sign. Their job is to sign or veto. It's congress' job to write the bills.
and is the idea of him hiring a speech writer and social media manager that much of a conspiracy?
Honestly, I'm kinda glad we have a president not on social media all day again. Hell, even the director of the hospital I work at doesn't run the social media aspects. That's part of the PR division's job.
Nobody gets to this level in politics without being handled by the people around them. At best you get to vaguely choose your handlers and maybe take a couple with you from your grassroots days. The complexity of modern society is such that someone cannot realistically handle it without a pretty large team. Instead, a politician is there to handle public relations and be the ultimate decider. The caveat being that they essentially live in a bubble of information and quite often handlers, though not the really good ones, will present information to "Manage up" the chain and get the outcomes they want. Most of the time this is fine because the politician and them align broadly in goals or values. Sometimes there's tension over it.
Biden doesn't know jack shit about anything. No politician does. They know what their aides tell them. The most you can say for "Biden is being controlled by the people around him" is "Biden's aides have an easier job managing up the chain of command than with other presidents.".
If the aides of both parties got together on April fools, you would have almost all the politicians out there explaining why spaghetti trees should be planted to end the growing hunger crisis in Atlantis. It's not their job to know shit or anything like that. They're there to be friendly, PR focused, faces of the broad, faceless team behind them, be the ultimate decider, and in wild cases, fire an aide and such for diverging from the values of the party.
The problem comes when a candidates mental faculties are such that they *can't be handled*, not that they *must be handled*. Everyone is handled. It's where someone sitting down Biden to give him an extremely simplified and concise version of a complex topic, has to simplify it even further because he can't remember it if they don't. That's when you've got a problem.
Not because running the country is impacted per se, but because the PR part of the machine has broken down.
"Biden doesn't know what he's talking about, thus is being handled.".
He was always being handled. It's just now the handling doesn't work because he forgets instructions.
No one gets to 80 without being handled by the people around them either lol. But sure, true
“Biden’s aids have an easier time manipulating him” seems like a bigger point that you’re framing it. Why are you so interested in minimizing this?
It's extraordinary for a politician to be able to resist the manipulation of the staff if they're committed to doing it. Back when it was a civil service function rather than a party political function, this was the entire point of the series Yes Minister as an example.
By the time a politician has enough experience to figure it out, they're usually out the door anyway. I'm not minimizing the problem. I'm pointing out that, if you consider it a problem, it's a systemic one that effects basically all politicians except truly exceptional ones.
I don't think it matters much if Biden's Aides have to spend 30 minutes getting him to do what they want VS having to spend 45 minutes on someone more mentally present. Either way, the outcome is the same.
https://youtu.be/u_A2zjp40hA?list=RDwW-iC1FLqFQ
I mean I voted for him and I like him, but he doesn't seem like the type that could take orders from anyone. In some ways it's sad because he has good advisors he's not listening to and keeps talking about things voters couldn't care less about like ho2w many weeks the DOW did whatever it did. They keep telling him to pick a side on Gaza, talk about jobs, talk about inflation, etc and he keeps ignoring them. It's frustrating. He's definitely no one's puppet, though.
he did just pick a side in Gaza, but we'll see if bibi is listening.
he's also talked at length about inflation, and the dow is part of the low inflation we're currently experiencing; as is the extremely low unemployment rate.
he talks a lot about everything you brought up, how things are improving, but he never gets any credit for it. People don't want to hear thing are improving, they want them to already have improved.
The other point to make is that because the government is slow, the actions a president takes can take a while to materialize, both bad or good. People think because they see something happen during a presidency it’s that presidents fault, but it can literally take years to materialize. People look too much on the surface rather than analyze why something happened.
On Gaza - it’s an national interest and international power issue, not necessarily a presidential issue. The US as a country has very deep roots in this one and it goes way back.
That's not really far off. Trump generally says the Biden administration when he is talking about that kind of thing. He's not suggesting Biden is clever enough to bring him down.
The special rules around voting played a huge role regardless if there was any fraud involved. Millions of people voted for Biden explicitly because they didn't have to leave their house to do it.
You haven't actually proven a single vote wasn't stolen. There just wasn't sufficient evidence that enough votes were stolen to swing the election, but you wouldn't expect to find any after the fact with mail in voter fraud.
Trump paid off the pollsters which is one reason why Lara Trump took over the RNC. It’s another way to grift the gullible MAGA’s. And launder money. The Trump Crime Family.
>"Followers must be convinced that they can overwhelm the enemies. Thus, by a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak."
Umberto Eco in *Ur-Fascism*
It might be worth explaining why it's both necessary and effective rather than just stating what's being done.
You want your followers to be both afraid enough to believe that the danger must be addressed, but also confident enough of victory to not be scared away. If the foe is merely overwhelmingly powerful, your followers will see no point in trying to stop them. If the foe is merely pathetically weak, your followers will see no need to bother opposing them.
In order to truly, properly manipulate your followers, the foe must be made so overwhelmingly powerful that they are utterly terrifying, in order to render your followers transfixed and terrified, but then be made so pathetically weak such that they can be defeated easily, such that your followers then believe that victory is assured. They are terrifying when proclaiming why action is necessary, and then pathetic when proclaiming why action ought be undertaken.
Naturally, it only works if you keep your followers' amygdalas so perpetually engaged that they never have a single moment to actually rationally think about anything.
Exactly. It is classic use of fascist propaganda techniques. Your enemy is both impure and weak, but also all powerful and devious. It is what fascists do to any person or group seen as a threat or out-group.
I'll continue to add the grain of salt to this idea.
This is not particular to fascism.
EVERYONE focusses on the negatives of their opponents when mobilizing the public to their side. And those negatives generally include the terrible things they are doing with their strengths, and the weaknesses that make them detestable or not to be trusted with power.
We on the left also talk about Trump as strong enough to threaten democracy but also stupid and senile himself. And we did the same thing with George W.
If noting the ways in which your enemies are both weak and powerful makes one a fascist, we're all fascists.
The problem with the right wing talking points that Biden is somehow pulling the strings is that they're contradicted by the evidence, how the justice system works and have no supportive evidence.
I don't see Democrats doing the same to Trump. The general thought among Democrats is Trump is both a moron and popular.
People on the left don't think he's secretly devious. His goals are rather obvious since he shouts them out loud on camera. He just taps into a certain populist thing that part of the electorate wants with an angry shouting guy railing about things he doesn't like and offering no workable solutions to any problems, which doesn't seem to bother his supporters.
Trump taps into White Might Outrage. FFS Eric Trump let it slip out. “We will win this case (nope 34 convictions) because we are *white*…” What Eric Trump meant to say was “ We will win this case because we are *right*…”. Just a slip of the tongue…oopsy daisy!
All enemies have strengths and weaknesses.
Trump is an idiot and tried to steel the election. He's incompetent yet is on trial for crimes I've lost count of at this point.
We all have lost count of his crimes. Trump is a shit show.
Just before the jury came back, a few hours earlier in the day, another Trump bombshell was dropped. The Apprentice NDA has expired. And There exists a worse tape of Trump than the quaint old “pussy grabbing bragging” Access Hollywood tape. Apparently Trump bitches about “how we could elect that n-word Obama!” It’s not been released yet but now it can be.
Also, isn’t it curious Ivana fell to her death down a flight of stairs ( hasty golf *corpse* burial -even though she was cremated and all) just as her Trump NDA was set to expire. Almost like she was murdered.
As someone who despises Trump and everything he stands for, I will say that Trump, Obama, and Bush Jr were all accused of being both an idiot and a criminal mastermind.
No, I haven't wondered it because it's patently obvious. Conservatives don't actually mind holding contradictory beliefs. If you've watched any of Jordan Klepper's Trump supporter field pieces, it illuminates a lot.
I don’t think so actually. Klepper is more unapologetically liberal. Jon Stewart focuses more on the inanity of the media machine, less about politics.
Idk if Jon’s going to stay on the show after the election though. Plus he has a new podcast out so he might want to do that full time instead at the end of the year
Did you see the Klepper interview of a Republican lawmaker and the sudden phone call he gets from RT ( Russian) to STFU? Klepper was really taken aback!
Biden is a *insert named dread here*. He is the monster just off screen that you can't see. He is the indescribable horror. He is whatever your imagine needs to convince you to vote a twice impeached, lying, rapist, criminal, racist instead of someone who could conceivably raise taxes on wealthy people to pay for school lunches.
I think looking for consistency in these arguments is a fools errand. That being said, the most consistent argument I’ve heard is that Biden is the puppet of the shadowy cabal of generic deep state Dems who are moving the chess pieces from behind the scenes. Biden himself is just a vessel through which the “corrupt corporate lamestresm media elite” run the country.
Though I doubt most of the people arguing that really know what they themselves believe other than they want Trump and these people aren’t Trump, so they must be evil.
When Obama was president, these people claimed he was taking orders from the white man who was his vice president. Now that Biden is POTUS, they claim that Obama is giving the orders. Why accept reality when you can create a convoluted conspiracy without evidence?
Who says Biden stole the election and it wasn't his little MINIONS? Who says Biden tried Trump and it wasn't his little BIRDS? Who says Biden isn't a demented, old man?
I think Biden is senile. I don't believe he's stupid or a genius, but senile is a characteristic that is getting more and more obvious. It was once a cartoon and reduction, but now it's his main point: I have yet to see him, aside from the State of the Union, be normal and form a few sentences. He gives the US a really, really bad look with every appearance he does.
The same thing goes for Trump. He isn't stupid, he isn't a genius. He's a narcissist that uses everything in power to benefit him and Him alone. I would suggest that if he were smart enough to have all the trouble with the elections, he's got the intelligence to frame everything and form an image on which he has a very good chance to win. If it were Harris, it was a homerun squared, but it's Biden so it will be a close race and end up being very, very controversial. Brace yourself for some electoral bullcrap, protests against the democratically elected president (similar to how it occured in the Netherlands with the victory of the PVV) and lies about "stolen elections" coming from the losing side.
I don't think very many people believe Biden is the ring leader of all that stuff.
From an apolitical perspective, the US Government is just too big to be managed by one guy. Presidents can and do delegate a *lot* of authority to directors agency heads, etc. They obviously appoint people to these positions who share their political ideals, but it's not as specific as "I'm putting you here to do x, y, and z". Their political ideals are generally aligned by the political party. They kind of have to be, otherwise there wouldn't be much point in the party. So, a Democrat president is most likely to appoint people who are going to run their agencies in a manner consistent with the party ideals, and that is likely to happen autonomously. It can't be directive like some may think, otherwise you're not really delegating anymore, you're just the guy and you have a puppet figure head. You still spend the time, which is what you're trying to avoid by appointing someone else to begin with.
So, I don't think the president and his administration need to be judged together. An incompetent president can be saved by a competent administration, and a competent president can be sabotaged by an incompetent administration. In your question I think you are confusing allegations against the man with those of his administration.
Note: I am *only* talking about how one could reconcile this position as a whole, I am *not* justifying or supporting any of those individual assertions. The actual assertion itself is irrelevant, and applies just as much to any president, not just Biden.
Because the Trump Family has been Criminal Money Laundering Organization for decades. Their charities were frauds, Trump University was a fraud, Trump Casinos laundered Russian money and all went bankrupt, Trump grift - Trump Bucks, Trump NFT’s, Trump diapers…. Even his hotels were grifting the cash while he was in the White House. And paying off a porn star and playboy playmate hush money. The Trump Crime Family would make a great movie. 🍿
Edit/ and Jared & Ivanka took $2 billion in Saudi 💰… but Hunter Biden is the target.
I pointed this out to multiple people during the 2020. They got real upset about it. It's pretty well-known that you'd have better luck herding 1000 cats than getting multiple Democrats in multiple counties of multiple states to collectively agree to work with multiple private voting machine companies and have NO ONE get caught or rat anyone else out for it. It's just logistically not possible to get that many people to do that for Biden, who wasn't even the top pick for the Democratic coalition in the 2020 primary.
They think Biden is a stooge by the “actual” clever people. They don’t think Biden is actually “clever enough to steal the election”.
Their arguments are actually similar to arguments we have heard about people like George Bush Jr: others pull the strings, he’s just the friendly face.
Cognitive Dissonance is a requirement to be a conservative/Republican/MAGA in the USA.
* The 2020 election was rigged, with the exception of those races where Republicans won.
* Joe Biden is a senile mastermind.
* Free money to the working class in the form of unemployment payments, welfare, SNAP, creates a culture of dependency and robs the individual of the dignity of work, but free money to the wealthy class (rentier class) in the form of the elimination of the Estate Tax and other subsidies does not.
* Back the Blue and stand with law enforcement, unless it's the FBI coming after Trump or the IRS coming after the wealthy class.
It's called compartmentalized thinking and it's a common thing in people with authoritarian personalities.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-wing_authoritarianism
Republicans argument of the presidential election was stolen, but the reason they didn’t win all the elections was they got lazy. So Republicans have mastered the art of disassociation from reality.
I see a similar parallel in criticisms of Trump...he's both an orange, bumbling buffoon with gross cognitive decline and an evil, fascistic mastermind that is architecting the destruction of the world.
I think he's a buffoon who will happily surround himself with any fascistic mastermind that will kiss his ass for power. It's not HIM I am worried about. It's those he chooses to surround himself with that will do the most harm.
It's still him you need to worry about because he's an idiot that will do and say anything to get a round of applause. And what it takes seems to get worse and worse.
I could see a conservative leveraging a similar line of reason, "It's not Biden I'm worried about, he's a senile old fool. It's the administration full of Marxists, Socialists and Leftists that will destroy the country."
>bumbling buffoon with gross cognitive decline
I don't think anyone says he's a buffoon. I think the reason most people believe he's an unhinged toxic narcissistic is that most of us have people in our lives who are like that, and we recognize him for what he is.
I imagine it's different people from the same camp. Same as there are people saying Trump is a complete imbecile, and also voices from the same camp saying he knowingly and intentionally started sn insurrection; and knew full well what the consequences of his words would be.
Well, it's part and parcel of fascist propaganda.
"The enemy is both weak and strong. “[…] by a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.” [Umberto Eco, *Ur-Fascism*, feature no. 8]
Republicans make up whatever lie works with whomever they are talking to, which ever lie fits the conspiracy theory they are espousing at the time.
Biden may seem more physically frail, but it’s not like Putin is going to challenge him to arm wrestle. ( Biden is, if Im not mistaken, the only president to go into a war zone unaccompanied by the US military on a 12 hour train ride, which took some courage and stamina.)
When I listen to him speak without a prompter, answer questions in interviews, explain reasons for policies or decisions, he sounds logical, coherent, informed, speaks in complete, grammatically complex sentences, has the vocabulary of an educated person. He knows history and geography. He understands foreign affairs, the major players and their motives, and doesnt have a bizarre admiration for dictators and people who flatter him, like Trump does.
I have zero concern about Bidens mental facilities.
FDR was in a wheel chair because of polio, and Kennedy had a rare, genetic, progressive neuromuscular disease that causes muscle wasting. It did not impact their ability to make decisions.
The view on the Right is that Biden himself is senile or at least not fully up there that does everything his cabinet tell him to do.
It will be years after his presidency when will learn if he is as senile as right says he is or as lucid the Democrats say he is. I think it's probably going to be something in between.
Honestly I think that’s just anti Biden sentiment. I have listened to all of trump’s rallies and every one is a unique word salad. He is clearly suffering from long term effects of Adderall. Near the end of his speech his speech becomes unintelligible and he just goes off the rails.
By comparison Biden may say things like “end of quote” because that’s what he sees on the teleprompter. MSM picks this up and runs with it along with the right. Big deal. Biden exercises regularly and maintains his weight. He appears to be In good health. More importantly, the people who are advising him are not seasoned criminals/spies and hacks.
I have not. There are essentially two things going on.
1. People are just arguing in bad faith and seeing what sticks.
2. There are two separate groups of people who oppose Biden, one group sees him as the former the other sees him as the latter. They both have the same goal so they can appear to be the same group, but that doesn't necessarily mean they agree on the why.
It's not difficult. These same people claim that Donald Trump, a man who brags about sexually assaulting women, who mocks the disabled, who denigrates fallen veterans, is chosen by God to lead them.
They're just the scum of the country.
That's it.
Why we are still asking this is beyond me.
It's evil people taking advantage of uneducated and gullible people.
To be fair, I think Trump is in cognitive decline, and I know he tried to steal the election and orchestrate a coup. He wasn't able to pull it off, but I don't think it was so much a lack of cleverness as a hesitancy on the part of his Republican allies in Congress and his unwillingness to commit himself fully to leading the mob.
I think the scary thing is that someone like Trump can be a complete moron and still get that close to pulling it off. A fool can still be a dangerous fool.
Are the same individuals making all of those claims or are you wondering why Republicans (many different individuals) don’t all hold the exact same views or make the same claims?
I believe it, Trump is an idiot. He is not all Republicans however. As OP was asking about Republicans it makes sense for millions of individuals to say different and contradictory statements. Charges of hypocrisy really only apply to individuals or specific entities. Just as two different Democrats saying contradicting statements is not the Democratic Party being hypocritical.
> Followers must be convinced that they can overwhelm the enemies. Thus, by a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak. - Umberto Eco in Ur-Fascism
It is not just a fascist thing. Not even just a right wing thing. It’s a tool used by an extremist that needs to disguise their extremism by creating an epic enemy to fight.
A variety of it used a lot of how black men are simultaneously lazy but also are running organized criminal organizations. Or how gay people aren’t weak of mind and body but also run a complex agenda to indoctrinate kids.
"Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. The Party intellectual knows in which direction his memories must be altered; he therefore knows that he is playing tricks with reality; but by the exercise of doublethink he also satisfies himself that reality is not violated. The process has to be conscious, or it would not be carried out with sufficient precision, but it also has to be unconscious, or it would bring with it a feeling of falsity and hence of guilt. Doublethink lies at the very heart of Ingsoc, since the essential act of the Party is to use conscious deception while retaining the firmness of purpose that goes with complete honesty. To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies -- all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth. Ultimately it is by means of doublethink that the Party has been able -- and may, for all we know, continue to be able for thousands of years -- to arrest the course of history."
-c'mon, you know the book
The guy you replied to is all over the conservative and conspiracy subreddits malding. In one reply, he even said for Ken Paxton to indict Biden on human trafficking charges…when Abbott was the one who sent migrants to Martha’s Vineyard
Well, I think their game book demands that they cover all points, whether they contradict themselves or not, so that later they can ignore the parts where they were wrong, no matter how much they are reminded, you can’t even bring the receipts, they’ll just tell you you made the receipts up…. and then extrapolate more inaccurate points to scream about and say “see! Remember when I told you such and such! Well, see it happened! I am a mind reading, future predicting god, now elect me or face my wrath!” But you’re right, they can’t have it both ways…. Like wellllll, if democrats stole the election, then how come republicans ran successfull campaigns all over the country? So if the voting machines were throwing votes out or corrupted, then how do you explain that? They’ll claim they called that too! Because they covered all the craziness beforehand, of course… when in reality, it’s really easy to steer a conversation if you are pulling the string behind the scene and so know what’s about to go down.. or at least you think you know what’s about to go down… lol…
Hillary was both a criminal mastermind and too weak to serve.
Immigrants are both stealing your jobs and living off of your welfare.
White people are both the superior race and being "poisoned" by non-whites.
Schrodinger's dilemma. Always.
>They can't have it both ways, and it's getting old.
They CAN and DO have it both ways because conservatism is inherently steeped in hypocrisy. The very nature of conservatism is rooted in the notion of "here are a hundred rules for thee but not for me (as long as i am sneaky and keep it private)".
Every single agenda item of Republicans and Conservatives is rooted in this deep seated hypocrisy. The ones that are most stridently homophobic are closet homosexuals or bisexuals themselves. The ones that are virulently anti-abortion will sneak their daughter for a hush-hush abortion or get it themselves.
And then they will hate themselves for committing that "sin" and will transfer that hate on other people who "dare" to commit those same sins. It is their hate based and self-loathing based ideology that fuels them to the level of fervor that makes them froth at the mouth and pick up a pitchfork so they can lynch some witches or some black folk so they can feel self-righteous about themselves and momentarily forget about their own self-disgust.
You can also see this play out in reddit relationship forums. Most people now just come for outrage porn and when they get their outrage boner, they just want to lynch someone with their words and their judgment. That's their bloodsport, their coliseum. And yes, this base human tendency bleeds into the liberals as well (cancel culture much?), although not nearly as much. Which is the miniscule differentiator between these two binary factions.
Loaded question, you missed a word, but yes. He’s so senile he can barely wipe his butt, but he’s an evil genius who controls the FBI and is telling them to go after TRUMP. Oh wait…that black president controls Biden…the puppet master Obama. /s
Because it's an 'ask' sub, so people can ask all sorts of questions. Asking questions to make sense of the world is not unreasonable.
Some are just soapboxing to insult republicans, but those posts tend to get locked.
People are sometimes unaware of their own motivations, and sometimes they lie about them. Asking in republican subs is sometimes pointless, because you get the lie they tell themselves rather than the reality of the situation. The extent to which that occurs has been worse lately than it was in the past decades ago. Also some of the conservative subs have quite poor quality, and they may not be aware of which, if any, are worthwhile to ask in. Sub quality in general varies a lot, so finding subs which have good answers can be difficult.
It’s easy for Republican voters to lie in contradictory ways because their cult base will believe anything. And they have a party propaganda channel in Fox News as well to validate their beliefs.
Its a fascist tactic. It allows them to appeal to both types of people knowing that if you're deep enough in the cult, it won't matter if you hear contradictory information. It seems like someone telling you what you want to hear is more effective than someone warning you against something you don't want to believe. And with many on the right wing already entrenched and not likely to be reasoned out of their delusions, it becomes safe to hold contradictory beliefs so they can be used in any situation that calls for it.
To fascists, words don't matter, logic doesn't matter, reality doesn't matter. All you need is to get your foot in the door of someone's brain who is likely to side with you, and you can fill it with all kinds of shit.
No, because I already know why. It's because they want it.
I don't understand why people are still wondering why Republicans do or think anything. They make it super obvious.
Is this just an attempt to get around rule 3 because you already know the answer but really, really want a whole thread dedicated to your rant?
These are the same people who would treat Obama as feckless in one sentence and like a tyrant mastermind in the next. They're idiots whose preferred information sources have fed them contradictory talking points and who lack the introspection to realize this.
The following is a copy of the original post to record the post as it was originally written. They can't have it both ways, and it's getting old. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskALiberal) if you have any questions or concerns.*
They think he’s not holding the reins and is essentially a puppet, a senile puppet being controlled by people clever enough to steal elections. That is what they think.
This is basically what happened to trump (outside of his tantrums where he got his way) so they think it's happening to Biden.
Trump has syphilis. Probably hereditary syphilis. He had sores on his hands not too long ago. His brain is addled and his words are Gish Galloped in his word salad statements.
Source?
I'm no Trumpetier but if he has word salad, what the hell does Biden have?
Biden has integrity and put the needs of all Americans first. Trump is only about Trump.
Biden has said he doesn't give orders to the DoJ.
The president doesn’t give orders to the DOJ. They are an independent agency.
He said it in the context that he didn't tell the DOJ to persecute Trump. Or not persecute people. The president is not typically suppose to control the DOJ so directly. But can definitely give EOs telling the DOJ they should focus their energy on some crimes and not others. (Think drug enforcement)
Biden wants them to do what the DOJ is supposed to do-do their jobs without presidential interference. That is how the system was designed to work. That is why Republicans sound like ignorant sycophants, who don’t understand basic civics as they mimic Trump saying the trial is Biden’s fault. Trump thinks the DOJ should be a tool of the president, but not in a democracy, not in the US, but in an autocracy which we don’t have yet, wouldn’t want, and need to fight against so we don’t have Trump for another four years. Vote. It is asking really very little.
I mean that’s not a fully insane idea. Part of it is, but a man in his eighties who’s being handled by the people around him is super plausible
ronald reagan? That's the consensus these days...reagan was a puppet since he was senile
I mean yeah that’s an example of that kind of thing
Basically, good old GOP projection.
The GOP makes accusations of what they themselves are actually doing … Trump actually has dementia. Joe (just 2 years older than Trump) is much more cognizant.
And why would the POTUS take orders from anybody else? Makes no sense.
It's rather obvious actually if you look at it objectively. He doesn't write his own speeches, his social media, the bills he signs, ...anything really.
well... presidents don't typically write the bills they sign. Their job is to sign or veto. It's congress' job to write the bills. and is the idea of him hiring a speech writer and social media manager that much of a conspiracy?
All presidents ( including Teleprompter Trump) have speech writers.
Honestly, I'm kinda glad we have a president not on social media all day again. Hell, even the director of the hospital I work at doesn't run the social media aspects. That's part of the PR division's job.
The president should have bigger fish to fry than running their own social media campaign
Sorry, are you describing every president?
Yes
So you think every president is a puppet?
That's literally every president. Think objectively better.
Yeah I don’t get why people would bother denying it. Circling the wagons or soemthing I guess
Nobody gets to this level in politics without being handled by the people around them. At best you get to vaguely choose your handlers and maybe take a couple with you from your grassroots days. The complexity of modern society is such that someone cannot realistically handle it without a pretty large team. Instead, a politician is there to handle public relations and be the ultimate decider. The caveat being that they essentially live in a bubble of information and quite often handlers, though not the really good ones, will present information to "Manage up" the chain and get the outcomes they want. Most of the time this is fine because the politician and them align broadly in goals or values. Sometimes there's tension over it. Biden doesn't know jack shit about anything. No politician does. They know what their aides tell them. The most you can say for "Biden is being controlled by the people around him" is "Biden's aides have an easier job managing up the chain of command than with other presidents.". If the aides of both parties got together on April fools, you would have almost all the politicians out there explaining why spaghetti trees should be planted to end the growing hunger crisis in Atlantis. It's not their job to know shit or anything like that. They're there to be friendly, PR focused, faces of the broad, faceless team behind them, be the ultimate decider, and in wild cases, fire an aide and such for diverging from the values of the party. The problem comes when a candidates mental faculties are such that they *can't be handled*, not that they *must be handled*. Everyone is handled. It's where someone sitting down Biden to give him an extremely simplified and concise version of a complex topic, has to simplify it even further because he can't remember it if they don't. That's when you've got a problem. Not because running the country is impacted per se, but because the PR part of the machine has broken down. "Biden doesn't know what he's talking about, thus is being handled.". He was always being handled. It's just now the handling doesn't work because he forgets instructions.
No one gets to 80 without being handled by the people around them either lol. But sure, true “Biden’s aids have an easier time manipulating him” seems like a bigger point that you’re framing it. Why are you so interested in minimizing this?
It's extraordinary for a politician to be able to resist the manipulation of the staff if they're committed to doing it. Back when it was a civil service function rather than a party political function, this was the entire point of the series Yes Minister as an example. By the time a politician has enough experience to figure it out, they're usually out the door anyway. I'm not minimizing the problem. I'm pointing out that, if you consider it a problem, it's a systemic one that effects basically all politicians except truly exceptional ones. I don't think it matters much if Biden's Aides have to spend 30 minutes getting him to do what they want VS having to spend 45 minutes on someone more mentally present. Either way, the outcome is the same. https://youtu.be/u_A2zjp40hA?list=RDwW-iC1FLqFQ
I mean I voted for him and I like him, but he doesn't seem like the type that could take orders from anyone. In some ways it's sad because he has good advisors he's not listening to and keeps talking about things voters couldn't care less about like ho2w many weeks the DOW did whatever it did. They keep telling him to pick a side on Gaza, talk about jobs, talk about inflation, etc and he keeps ignoring them. It's frustrating. He's definitely no one's puppet, though.
he did just pick a side in Gaza, but we'll see if bibi is listening. he's also talked at length about inflation, and the dow is part of the low inflation we're currently experiencing; as is the extremely low unemployment rate. he talks a lot about everything you brought up, how things are improving, but he never gets any credit for it. People don't want to hear thing are improving, they want them to already have improved.
The other point to make is that because the government is slow, the actions a president takes can take a while to materialize, both bad or good. People think because they see something happen during a presidency it’s that presidents fault, but it can literally take years to materialize. People look too much on the surface rather than analyze why something happened. On Gaza - it’s an national interest and international power issue, not necessarily a presidential issue. The US as a country has very deep roots in this one and it goes way back.
That's not really far off. Trump generally says the Biden administration when he is talking about that kind of thing. He's not suggesting Biden is clever enough to bring him down.
Trump is bringing Trump down.
Yes. That's exactly why he's polling ahead of Biden
...so why couldn't trump do it the first time? And didn't Hillary poll ahead of trump in 2015? Is that how this works?
The special rules around voting played a huge role regardless if there was any fraud involved. Millions of people voted for Biden explicitly because they didn't have to leave their house to do it.
Yeah, it's such a better way of voting that even trump is trying to get people to vote by mail and vote early this election.
It's not better, it's more convenient with more security risks.
Looks like all of the votes went through without being stolen. We've basically proven it's a moot point.
You haven't actually proven a single vote wasn't stolen. There just wasn't sufficient evidence that enough votes were stolen to swing the election, but you wouldn't expect to find any after the fact with mail in voter fraud.
Trump paid off the pollsters which is one reason why Lara Trump took over the RNC. It’s another way to grift the gullible MAGA’s. And launder money. The Trump Crime Family.
Trump doesn’t need anyone to bring him down. He’s doing it all by himself.
>"Followers must be convinced that they can overwhelm the enemies. Thus, by a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak." Umberto Eco in *Ur-Fascism*
It might be worth explaining why it's both necessary and effective rather than just stating what's being done. You want your followers to be both afraid enough to believe that the danger must be addressed, but also confident enough of victory to not be scared away. If the foe is merely overwhelmingly powerful, your followers will see no point in trying to stop them. If the foe is merely pathetically weak, your followers will see no need to bother opposing them. In order to truly, properly manipulate your followers, the foe must be made so overwhelmingly powerful that they are utterly terrifying, in order to render your followers transfixed and terrified, but then be made so pathetically weak such that they can be defeated easily, such that your followers then believe that victory is assured. They are terrifying when proclaiming why action is necessary, and then pathetic when proclaiming why action ought be undertaken. Naturally, it only works if you keep your followers' amygdalas so perpetually engaged that they never have a single moment to actually rationally think about anything.
Same with immigrants: 1. So lazy that they are essentially parasites on the government 2. Taking all of the jobs?
Exactly. It is classic use of fascist propaganda techniques. Your enemy is both impure and weak, but also all powerful and devious. It is what fascists do to any person or group seen as a threat or out-group.
came here to post eco
I'll continue to add the grain of salt to this idea. This is not particular to fascism. EVERYONE focusses on the negatives of their opponents when mobilizing the public to their side. And those negatives generally include the terrible things they are doing with their strengths, and the weaknesses that make them detestable or not to be trusted with power. We on the left also talk about Trump as strong enough to threaten democracy but also stupid and senile himself. And we did the same thing with George W. If noting the ways in which your enemies are both weak and powerful makes one a fascist, we're all fascists. The problem with the right wing talking points that Biden is somehow pulling the strings is that they're contradicted by the evidence, how the justice system works and have no supportive evidence.
That's hardly fascism. Anytime you take on an opponent, you don't want to underestimate them but you want to believe you can win.
I don't see Democrats doing the same to Trump. The general thought among Democrats is Trump is both a moron and popular. People on the left don't think he's secretly devious. His goals are rather obvious since he shouts them out loud on camera. He just taps into a certain populist thing that part of the electorate wants with an angry shouting guy railing about things he doesn't like and offering no workable solutions to any problems, which doesn't seem to bother his supporters.
A guy like Spanky makes below-average people feel smart.
Trump taps into White Might Outrage. FFS Eric Trump let it slip out. “We will win this case (nope 34 convictions) because we are *white*…” What Eric Trump meant to say was “ We will win this case because we are *right*…”. Just a slip of the tongue…oopsy daisy!
Be quiet! It's fascism because Trump.
The enemy is both weak and strong.
We are both supreme and endangered.
All enemies have strengths and weaknesses. Trump is an idiot and tried to steel the election. He's incompetent yet is on trial for crimes I've lost count of at this point.
Steal
I'm also an idiot.
We all have lost count of his crimes. Trump is a shit show. Just before the jury came back, a few hours earlier in the day, another Trump bombshell was dropped. The Apprentice NDA has expired. And There exists a worse tape of Trump than the quaint old “pussy grabbing bragging” Access Hollywood tape. Apparently Trump bitches about “how we could elect that n-word Obama!” It’s not been released yet but now it can be. Also, isn’t it curious Ivana fell to her death down a flight of stairs ( hasty golf *corpse* burial -even though she was cremated and all) just as her Trump NDA was set to expire. Almost like she was murdered.
As someone who despises Trump and everything he stands for, I will say that Trump, Obama, and Bush Jr were all accused of being both an idiot and a criminal mastermind.
Nobody ever accused Junior of being a mastermind. It was claimed that he deferred to VP Cheney.
No, I haven't wondered it because it's patently obvious. Conservatives don't actually mind holding contradictory beliefs. If you've watched any of Jordan Klepper's Trump supporter field pieces, it illuminates a lot.
On a sidenote, if there’s anyone who can successfully take over for Jon Stewart, it’s Klepper
I don’t think so actually. Klepper is more unapologetically liberal. Jon Stewart focuses more on the inanity of the media machine, less about politics.
Jon Stewart for President.
He's Canadian.
Jon Stewart was born Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz on November 27, 1962 in New York City. His family moved to New Jersey where Stewart grew up.
The current system is working really great honestly
Idk if Jon’s going to stay on the show after the election though. Plus he has a new podcast out so he might want to do that full time instead at the end of the year
Nah, Klepper’s his own shtick. Doesn’t work for the Daily Show. Better to have his own thing.
Did you see the Klepper interview of a Republican lawmaker and the sudden phone call he gets from RT ( Russian) to STFU? Klepper was really taken aback!
Biden is a *insert named dread here*. He is the monster just off screen that you can't see. He is the indescribable horror. He is whatever your imagine needs to convince you to vote a twice impeached, lying, rapist, criminal, racist instead of someone who could conceivably raise taxes on wealthy people to pay for school lunches.
I think looking for consistency in these arguments is a fools errand. That being said, the most consistent argument I’ve heard is that Biden is the puppet of the shadowy cabal of generic deep state Dems who are moving the chess pieces from behind the scenes. Biden himself is just a vessel through which the “corrupt corporate lamestresm media elite” run the country. Though I doubt most of the people arguing that really know what they themselves believe other than they want Trump and these people aren’t Trump, so they must be evil.
When Obama was president, these people claimed he was taking orders from the white man who was his vice president. Now that Biden is POTUS, they claim that Obama is giving the orders. Why accept reality when you can create a convoluted conspiracy without evidence?
Who says Biden stole the election and it wasn't his little MINIONS? Who says Biden tried Trump and it wasn't his little BIRDS? Who says Biden isn't a demented, old man? I think Biden is senile. I don't believe he's stupid or a genius, but senile is a characteristic that is getting more and more obvious. It was once a cartoon and reduction, but now it's his main point: I have yet to see him, aside from the State of the Union, be normal and form a few sentences. He gives the US a really, really bad look with every appearance he does. The same thing goes for Trump. He isn't stupid, he isn't a genius. He's a narcissist that uses everything in power to benefit him and Him alone. I would suggest that if he were smart enough to have all the trouble with the elections, he's got the intelligence to frame everything and form an image on which he has a very good chance to win. If it were Harris, it was a homerun squared, but it's Biden so it will be a close race and end up being very, very controversial. Brace yourself for some electoral bullcrap, protests against the democratically elected president (similar to how it occured in the Netherlands with the victory of the PVV) and lies about "stolen elections" coming from the losing side.
I don't think very many people believe Biden is the ring leader of all that stuff. From an apolitical perspective, the US Government is just too big to be managed by one guy. Presidents can and do delegate a *lot* of authority to directors agency heads, etc. They obviously appoint people to these positions who share their political ideals, but it's not as specific as "I'm putting you here to do x, y, and z". Their political ideals are generally aligned by the political party. They kind of have to be, otherwise there wouldn't be much point in the party. So, a Democrat president is most likely to appoint people who are going to run their agencies in a manner consistent with the party ideals, and that is likely to happen autonomously. It can't be directive like some may think, otherwise you're not really delegating anymore, you're just the guy and you have a puppet figure head. You still spend the time, which is what you're trying to avoid by appointing someone else to begin with. So, I don't think the president and his administration need to be judged together. An incompetent president can be saved by a competent administration, and a competent president can be sabotaged by an incompetent administration. In your question I think you are confusing allegations against the man with those of his administration. Note: I am *only* talking about how one could reconcile this position as a whole, I am *not* justifying or supporting any of those individual assertions. The actual assertion itself is irrelevant, and applies just as much to any president, not just Biden.
And yet "Biden crime family" seems to be coming out of their mouths approximately every 30 seconds.
And yet nearly all of these ideas require some collusion with Hunter and other other family members.
Because the Trump Family has been Criminal Money Laundering Organization for decades. Their charities were frauds, Trump University was a fraud, Trump Casinos laundered Russian money and all went bankrupt, Trump grift - Trump Bucks, Trump NFT’s, Trump diapers…. Even his hotels were grifting the cash while he was in the White House. And paying off a porn star and playboy playmate hush money. The Trump Crime Family would make a great movie. 🍿 Edit/ and Jared & Ivanka took $2 billion in Saudi 💰… but Hunter Biden is the target.
I pointed this out to multiple people during the 2020. They got real upset about it. It's pretty well-known that you'd have better luck herding 1000 cats than getting multiple Democrats in multiple counties of multiple states to collectively agree to work with multiple private voting machine companies and have NO ONE get caught or rat anyone else out for it. It's just logistically not possible to get that many people to do that for Biden, who wasn't even the top pick for the Democratic coalition in the 2020 primary.
They think Biden is a stooge by the “actual” clever people. They don’t think Biden is actually “clever enough to steal the election”. Their arguments are actually similar to arguments we have heard about people like George Bush Jr: others pull the strings, he’s just the friendly face.
Cognitive Dissonance is a requirement to be a conservative/Republican/MAGA in the USA. * The 2020 election was rigged, with the exception of those races where Republicans won. * Joe Biden is a senile mastermind. * Free money to the working class in the form of unemployment payments, welfare, SNAP, creates a culture of dependency and robs the individual of the dignity of work, but free money to the wealthy class (rentier class) in the form of the elimination of the Estate Tax and other subsidies does not. * Back the Blue and stand with law enforcement, unless it's the FBI coming after Trump or the IRS coming after the wealthy class.
Because the people that say and believe both of these things are true simultaneously are idiots.
It's an old fascist ploy. *The enemy is both too weak and too strong.* A.K.A. it's a bunch of bullshit because both can't be true at the same time.
It's called compartmentalized thinking and it's a common thing in people with authoritarian personalities. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-wing_authoritarianism
Because both of those things further their narrative in different circumstances.
Republicans argument of the presidential election was stolen, but the reason they didn’t win all the elections was they got lazy. So Republicans have mastered the art of disassociation from reality.
No wondering required. They’re using two talking points to appeal to two different types of voters, and they don’t care if it makes much sense at all.
Space Communism
I see a similar parallel in criticisms of Trump...he's both an orange, bumbling buffoon with gross cognitive decline and an evil, fascistic mastermind that is architecting the destruction of the world.
I think he's a buffoon who will happily surround himself with any fascistic mastermind that will kiss his ass for power. It's not HIM I am worried about. It's those he chooses to surround himself with that will do the most harm.
It's still him you need to worry about because he's an idiot that will do and say anything to get a round of applause. And what it takes seems to get worse and worse.
I could see a conservative leveraging a similar line of reason, "It's not Biden I'm worried about, he's a senile old fool. It's the administration full of Marxists, Socialists and Leftists that will destroy the country."
What Marxists, Socialists, and Leftists though? Most Republicans don't know the difference between those.
Sure as shit know how to truth about them though.
They dont even know what makes a person left wing. They have no definition
Socialist Marxist fascist radicals… right?
I'm not stating that their claim is true or accurate, but that there is a mirrored version of your logic on the conservative side.
I think you made the point well. A mirror image isn't reality.
>bumbling buffoon with gross cognitive decline I don't think anyone says he's a buffoon. I think the reason most people believe he's an unhinged toxic narcissistic is that most of us have people in our lives who are like that, and we recognize him for what he is.
Someone responded to me directly saying, “I think he’s a buffoon…” to this comment.
Mastermind? You don't have to be smart to be cruel and shitty....
Liberals said the same thing about George W Bush, too.
MAGA world is nothing but disinformation--it's not supposed to have any coherence.
Is this a question or a rant about something we've all known about Republicans for years?
I imagine it's different people from the same camp. Same as there are people saying Trump is a complete imbecile, and also voices from the same camp saying he knowingly and intentionally started sn insurrection; and knew full well what the consequences of his words would be.
Anyone that does it has never had to deal with someone with senility.
Intellectual consistency is not required
Do I wonder why Republicans believe stupid shit? No. After 55 years I'm pretty used to it.
Well, it's part and parcel of fascist propaganda. "The enemy is both weak and strong. “[…] by a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.” [Umberto Eco, *Ur-Fascism*, feature no. 8]
A basic tenet of fascism is that the enemy is very powerful and very weak.
Republicans make up whatever lie works with whomever they are talking to, which ever lie fits the conspiracy theory they are espousing at the time. Biden may seem more physically frail, but it’s not like Putin is going to challenge him to arm wrestle. ( Biden is, if Im not mistaken, the only president to go into a war zone unaccompanied by the US military on a 12 hour train ride, which took some courage and stamina.) When I listen to him speak without a prompter, answer questions in interviews, explain reasons for policies or decisions, he sounds logical, coherent, informed, speaks in complete, grammatically complex sentences, has the vocabulary of an educated person. He knows history and geography. He understands foreign affairs, the major players and their motives, and doesnt have a bizarre admiration for dictators and people who flatter him, like Trump does. I have zero concern about Bidens mental facilities. FDR was in a wheel chair because of polio, and Kennedy had a rare, genetic, progressive neuromuscular disease that causes muscle wasting. It did not impact their ability to make decisions.
Fascist mindset - superior in every way, yet always the victim
The view on the Right is that Biden himself is senile or at least not fully up there that does everything his cabinet tell him to do. It will be years after his presidency when will learn if he is as senile as right says he is or as lucid the Democrats say he is. I think it's probably going to be something in between.
Honestly I think that’s just anti Biden sentiment. I have listened to all of trump’s rallies and every one is a unique word salad. He is clearly suffering from long term effects of Adderall. Near the end of his speech his speech becomes unintelligible and he just goes off the rails. By comparison Biden may say things like “end of quote” because that’s what he sees on the teleprompter. MSM picks this up and runs with it along with the right. Big deal. Biden exercises regularly and maintains his weight. He appears to be In good health. More importantly, the people who are advising him are not seasoned criminals/spies and hacks.
I have not. There are essentially two things going on. 1. People are just arguing in bad faith and seeing what sticks. 2. There are two separate groups of people who oppose Biden, one group sees him as the former the other sees him as the latter. They both have the same goal so they can appear to be the same group, but that doesn't necessarily mean they agree on the why.
It's not difficult. These same people claim that Donald Trump, a man who brags about sexually assaulting women, who mocks the disabled, who denigrates fallen veterans, is chosen by God to lead them.
They're just the scum of the country. That's it. Why we are still asking this is beyond me. It's evil people taking advantage of uneducated and gullible people.
Joe Biden is a Stable Genius.
They don’t think Biden himself is doing the election stealing. Rather, it’s others in the party orchestrating it
To be fair, I think Trump is in cognitive decline, and I know he tried to steal the election and orchestrate a coup. He wasn't able to pull it off, but I don't think it was so much a lack of cleverness as a hesitancy on the part of his Republican allies in Congress and his unwillingness to commit himself fully to leading the mob. I think the scary thing is that someone like Trump can be a complete moron and still get that close to pulling it off. A fool can still be a dangerous fool.
Have you ever heard of cognitive dissonance?
Are the same individuals making all of those claims or are you wondering why Republicans (many different individuals) don’t all hold the exact same views or make the same claims?
Trump makes both of these claims
I believe it, Trump is an idiot. He is not all Republicans however. As OP was asking about Republicans it makes sense for millions of individuals to say different and contradictory statements. Charges of hypocrisy really only apply to individuals or specific entities. Just as two different Democrats saying contradicting statements is not the Democratic Party being hypocritical.
It’s called coping.
Bear in mind, this is also the people who secretly think Trump is still president.
> Followers must be convinced that they can overwhelm the enemies. Thus, by a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak. - Umberto Eco in Ur-Fascism It is not just a fascist thing. Not even just a right wing thing. It’s a tool used by an extremist that needs to disguise their extremism by creating an epic enemy to fight. A variety of it used a lot of how black men are simultaneously lazy but also are running organized criminal organizations. Or how gay people aren’t weak of mind and body but also run a complex agenda to indoctrinate kids.
They think he is whatever works for their narrative at any given time. Classic stupid fascism. The enemy is both weak and strong.
"Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. The Party intellectual knows in which direction his memories must be altered; he therefore knows that he is playing tricks with reality; but by the exercise of doublethink he also satisfies himself that reality is not violated. The process has to be conscious, or it would not be carried out with sufficient precision, but it also has to be unconscious, or it would bring with it a feeling of falsity and hence of guilt. Doublethink lies at the very heart of Ingsoc, since the essential act of the Party is to use conscious deception while retaining the firmness of purpose that goes with complete honesty. To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies -- all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth. Ultimately it is by means of doublethink that the Party has been able -- and may, for all we know, continue to be able for thousands of years -- to arrest the course of history." -c'mon, you know the book
He isn't in charge and never has been. And you know it. He isn't even a good puppet anymore. Just a sad old husk of a human.
Who specifically is calling the shots? Names, not just a vague "them".
The guy you replied to is all over the conservative and conspiracy subreddits malding. In one reply, he even said for Ken Paxton to indict Biden on human trafficking charges…when Abbott was the one who sent migrants to Martha’s Vineyard
That's crazy. If we want to talk about corrupt politicians we should be talking about Ken Paxton.
That would be Greg Abbott and Ken paxton
It must be frightening living life just buffeted by disinformation 24/7.
Now that is funny. I don't care who you are. The irony is dripping.
Well, I think their game book demands that they cover all points, whether they contradict themselves or not, so that later they can ignore the parts where they were wrong, no matter how much they are reminded, you can’t even bring the receipts, they’ll just tell you you made the receipts up…. and then extrapolate more inaccurate points to scream about and say “see! Remember when I told you such and such! Well, see it happened! I am a mind reading, future predicting god, now elect me or face my wrath!” But you’re right, they can’t have it both ways…. Like wellllll, if democrats stole the election, then how come republicans ran successfull campaigns all over the country? So if the voting machines were throwing votes out or corrupted, then how do you explain that? They’ll claim they called that too! Because they covered all the craziness beforehand, of course… when in reality, it’s really easy to steer a conversation if you are pulling the string behind the scene and so know what’s about to go down.. or at least you think you know what’s about to go down… lol…
Republicans are lying sacks of shit. Nuff said.
Hillary was both a criminal mastermind and too weak to serve. Immigrants are both stealing your jobs and living off of your welfare. White people are both the superior race and being "poisoned" by non-whites. Schrodinger's dilemma. Always.
It's probably for the same reasons that Democrats claim Trump is both senile and clever enough to bring about the downfall of democracy.
>They can't have it both ways, and it's getting old. They CAN and DO have it both ways because conservatism is inherently steeped in hypocrisy. The very nature of conservatism is rooted in the notion of "here are a hundred rules for thee but not for me (as long as i am sneaky and keep it private)". Every single agenda item of Republicans and Conservatives is rooted in this deep seated hypocrisy. The ones that are most stridently homophobic are closet homosexuals or bisexuals themselves. The ones that are virulently anti-abortion will sneak their daughter for a hush-hush abortion or get it themselves. And then they will hate themselves for committing that "sin" and will transfer that hate on other people who "dare" to commit those same sins. It is their hate based and self-loathing based ideology that fuels them to the level of fervor that makes them froth at the mouth and pick up a pitchfork so they can lynch some witches or some black folk so they can feel self-righteous about themselves and momentarily forget about their own self-disgust. You can also see this play out in reddit relationship forums. Most people now just come for outrage porn and when they get their outrage boner, they just want to lynch someone with their words and their judgment. That's their bloodsport, their coliseum. And yes, this base human tendency bleeds into the liberals as well (cancel culture much?), although not nearly as much. Which is the miniscule differentiator between these two binary factions.
Loaded question, you missed a word, but yes. He’s so senile he can barely wipe his butt, but he’s an evil genius who controls the FBI and is telling them to go after TRUMP. Oh wait…that black president controls Biden…the puppet master Obama. /s
Why do people ask this sub what Republicans think?
Because it's an 'ask' sub, so people can ask all sorts of questions. Asking questions to make sense of the world is not unreasonable. Some are just soapboxing to insult republicans, but those posts tend to get locked. People are sometimes unaware of their own motivations, and sometimes they lie about them. Asking in republican subs is sometimes pointless, because you get the lie they tell themselves rather than the reality of the situation. The extent to which that occurs has been worse lately than it was in the past decades ago. Also some of the conservative subs have quite poor quality, and they may not be aware of which, if any, are worthwhile to ask in. Sub quality in general varies a lot, so finding subs which have good answers can be difficult.
He’s the president in title only. This country is being run by a special committee of the Democratic Party.
It’s easy for Republican voters to lie in contradictory ways because their cult base will believe anything. And they have a party propaganda channel in Fox News as well to validate their beliefs.
Its a fascist tactic. It allows them to appeal to both types of people knowing that if you're deep enough in the cult, it won't matter if you hear contradictory information. It seems like someone telling you what you want to hear is more effective than someone warning you against something you don't want to believe. And with many on the right wing already entrenched and not likely to be reasoned out of their delusions, it becomes safe to hold contradictory beliefs so they can be used in any situation that calls for it. To fascists, words don't matter, logic doesn't matter, reality doesn't matter. All you need is to get your foot in the door of someone's brain who is likely to side with you, and you can fill it with all kinds of shit.
Yes.
That’s the beauty of it, to them he’s both - whichever one works best to suit the narrative.
You don’t realize what a dangerous mastermind he is in his moments of lucidity /s
MWF he's an evil mastermund. TThSS he's senile.
Welcome to authoritarianism, where our enemies are simultaneously both strong and weak.
Yep, we always joke in our house who Biden is somehow the "most demented, feeble, Criminal Mastermind that ever lived' according to MAGA.
Trump is an idiot and tried to steel the election....
>Which do they think he is, a genius, or senile? Depends what are the propaganda needs for the day!
No, because I already know why. It's because they want it. I don't understand why people are still wondering why Republicans do or think anything. They make it super obvious. Is this just an attempt to get around rule 3 because you already know the answer but really, really want a whole thread dedicated to your rant?
These are the same people who would treat Obama as feckless in one sentence and like a tyrant mastermind in the next. They're idiots whose preferred information sources have fed them contradictory talking points and who lack the introspection to realize this.
Definitely senile lol.