Republicans will complain about literally anything to make anyone who opposes them look worse.
We should only listen to Republicans in order to decipher (it ain't hard, they aren't subtle) what new atrocities they are going to be attempting next.
He's Schrödinger's Brandon: Too strong and too weak at the same time. I wonder if there is an ideology that typically uses this tactic to define an opponent?
He's Schrödinger's Brandon: Too strong and too weak at the same time. I wonder if there is an ideology that typically uses this tactic to define an opponent?
There is, and the answer is as clear as the nose on your fascist.
Oh sure, it's clear to most, but today's conservative minds need to carefully do some warm up stretches before they can absorb this truth, or they'll tyranny ligament.
The followers must feel humiliated by the ostentatious wealth and force of their enemies. When I was a boy I was taught to think of Englishmen as the five-meal people. They ate more frequently than the poor but sober Italians. Jews are rich and help each other through a secret web of mutual assistance. However, the 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. Fascist governments are condemned to lose wars because they are constitutionally incapable of objectively evaluating the force of the enemy.
Edit: I guess I can’t bold in a quoted passage, so here it is: Thus, by a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.
Same as it ever was. The Nazis did the same thing with the groups they scapegoated, simultaneously an incompetent drain/liability and and a hyper-competent threat that cannot be ignored.
Critical thinking and reasoning must be taught, without that, people will follow their feelings anywhere, and those are easy to manipulate.
Starving public education into complete and utter ruins for half a century to cut rich sociopath's taxes, and the rise of tens of millions of proudly counterfactual, willfully ignorant nitwits as a political force is not a coincidence.
Garbage in (refusing to pay to educate kids to critically scrutinize the information they take in), garbage out (The United States of duhhhhhhhhhhh).
The saddest part for them is, I've read about studies that say a better-educated populace is a more compassionate populace. Guess who will care for them when they are too old to care for themselves?
Democrats do the same thing to Republicans though, and people on Lemmy are even worse about it. I see posts all the time about how stupid Republicans are, right next to other posts about how serious of a threat they are to democracy or to _____ rights. These are games that politicians play and always have played because it solidifies and energizes their base. It allows the base to set aside differences between themselves to focus on a common enemy. Without a common enemy, they easily devolve to infighting. It's one of the central tenets of Saul Alinskys Rules for Radicals, how to unify against a common enemy. And he was a Communist.
Ah, those times when reality reads like an onion article.
Fox News was ready to criticize Biden about his energy levels - they realized sleepy Joe wouldn't land so they had to pivot. This is honestly feeling like 1984 satire, I expect to see footage from rallies were Trump supporters are quoted as saying "Biden is so angry and sporadic, I'm voting for Trump because he's much more calm and composed" and the one guy that didn't get the memo that they've always been at war with East Asia will hold up a "Sleepy Joe" sign before being shunned and photoshopped out of the rally.
I finally just watched it, and especially paid attention to verbal missteps that people are talking about ……
….. I saw lots and took way too long to realize YouTube search had given me the 2022 state of the union. Oops
….. back on track with the current one, and the President was on fire. So much livelier and more expressive than two years ago! Definitely kicked ass and laid to rest the idea that he is too old
Why are people still even talking about his verbal missteps? I ignore anyone who rags on his stutter. He's got a legitimate medical condition, and he works hard in his speech therapy to talk as well as he does. It has nothing to do with his mental ability, as there are young people with the same issue.
Sure, however he also succeeded is coming across more confident, assertive, clearheaded than he had a couple years before. The rest of us can only dream of that when we get to his age
It's wrong for someone to talk quickly trying to destroy people with facts and logic! No President should be allowed allowed to angrily yell at a crowd in a long speech! I need to watch Ben Shapiro and Trump for hours now because I'm so angry about these things Biden did!
The comments from the article were surprisingly not bad. One made a good point:
The POTUS started his SotU speech with:
“Now it is we who face an unprecedented moment in the history of the Union. And yes, my purpose tonight is to both wake up this Congress, and alert the American people that this is no ordinary moment either. Not since President Lincoln and the Civil War have freedom and democracy been under assault here at home as they are today.”
I have watched a lot of state of the union addresses and I cannot remember one that began with this stark of warning.
Yet, all the articles being posted are about MTG and whether Biden looked/didn’t look old and who clapped and who didn’t.
That’s a 5-alarm fire bell he just rang, broadcasted out to the entire country and world, pay attention to what’s important
They always say it's an "unprecedented moment". Let's not act like there's actual American Nazis in the streets or riots. That has literally happened many times.
It's actually been the norm for a lot of US history. We live in an unprecedented time of peace where it's actually uncommon for this to happen. They just last year set aside the convictions of 110 black soldiers who were involved in a riot. None of the white police officers involved were ever punished.
You seem to be forgetting the actual torch lit rally which ended with an innocent woman being killed by a neo-Nazi. Remeber Trump calling them 'very fine people'?
And if January 6 wasn't a political riot, what would you call it?
Donald Trump was found guilty of rape. Nothing about this year is 'normal.'
Damn. I know housing is in full on crisis mode but that rock you're living under to save money is stunting your development as a seeing, thinking human being.
People forget that the point of the speech is right in the title. It's not about the health of the country or political ideals.
Once a year, the President delivers a speech on the stste of the union. It's about how divided the country is and whether or not that division is a threat to the nation.
If the country went full-fascist without a struggle that wouldn't threaten the Union. If the Republicans were voted out of existence and we became a socialist utopia that wouldn't threaten the union.
What is happening now, with one party increasingly refusing to work with the other side and intentionally breaking the systems that make government work? Yeah - that's a threat to the Union.
Which is wild because forklifts really can't go much faster than a brisk jogging pace. Not unless you strap a rocket to it. Coincidentally Rocket Propelled Forklift is my new band name
The forklifts at the sawmill I worked at went much faster than jogging pace usually, maybe 30km/h while loaded? Unloaded they of course can go quicker but safety and all. I think at jogging pace things would back up quickly at a decent sized sawmill.
That may not have been a forklift, but a piece of industrial equipment that looks and acts much like a forklift while not technically fulfilling all of the forklift checkboxes
Huh I didn't realize that was a thing but after some googling it appears forklifts rarely go over 18mph. I'm guessing it was more on the industrial equipment side since they were only for moving the piles of cut lumber around, but they may have only gone up to 30kph in the yard too and I just never realized. Thanks for helping me learn something new.
I actually laughed at that and had to explain this to my bewildered wife.
But there actually is a difference between forklifts and other powered industrial equipment that you also forks on. Logging and sawmill operations usually need more versatility than a forklift can offer and their forked equipment is usually closer to farm equipment than anything else.
Ha. Yeah, I went for the joke, but I actually used to work for a construction equipment rental company, and one of our common items was material handlers (i.e. boom forklifts). All that to say, I've driven one before!
But I stand by the joke. Glad you enjoyed it. Hope your wife did too.
honestly I hope he did take stimulants- by all accounts a river of lab grade amphetimines and benzodiazepines flowed through the trump whitehouse. gotta level the playing field
