I lost a friendship because I said I was pleased Trump won the election. You are giving an example of why I said that. Would you feel better if Harris won? Were you ok with the slick and charming Obombas in office? The horrible things you describe have been on going for decades by the US national security state, wars of invasion, supporting savage regimes, and on and on. Unfortunately we have a corps of cultural influencers who blame Trump for what they call a descent into authoritarianism. Really that happened long ago. You're distracting from the problem when you pick on Trump, who, I grant you, is the most odious person to sit in that office, but he is merely a symptom of a much greater problem that keen social scientists and philosophers, many of them called 'conspiracy theorists,' have been exposing since you were a little kid.
I'll start by agreeing with you on something: America's record on foreign policy, from 1898 to the present, has been a horror show. We've supported odious regimes as you pointed out, and have been complicit in something along the lines of 80 regime changes.
Beyond that though, I'm not at all surprised you lost a friend for expressing pleasure at Trump's win. What your friend sees and you obviously miss is that Trump's entire enterprise (as in "family business") is built on top of a personality cult. No, this hasn't happened here long ago as you say, though I'll agree that the post Cold War neoliberal order ran its course and set the stage for just such a strongman as Trump.
This is a savage regime with too many examples to bother itemizing, but the Big Brutal Bill, with Congress giving away trillions of dollars to billionaires, impoverishing millions, and bloating Stephen Miller’s secret police force with $170 billion is just the latest. Oh, and the Supreme Court seizing total power for itself, giving a green light to Trump, and leaving on vacation. Perfect.
Thank you The Rick, Let me try to be more clear. I grew up outside of New York. Whenever Trump intruded upon my attention whenever he appeared in the media, which was often, I felt sick. There has been no more odious president, nor has fascism ever been more evident here. But Trump is just the most recent and obvious of a long line of sleazy puppets. They're all in the same family business. Real Estate. As someone put it, "President Obomba was America with a mask on. Trump is the mask off." That's why I'm pleased. It's right there before your eyes. I'm still hoping people wake up and organize something to get at the root of the problem. Picking at Trump is like picking at a tumor. That is not how to cure cancer....
Ha! No, although that was a consideration of my good friend Timothy Leary who signed up to be decapitated and have his head frozen until a cure for his cancer was discovered. he eventually decided against it saying publicly he "didn't want to wake up in thirty years surrounded by a bunch of humorless guys with clipboards." to me he said, "i am just exploring my options, who knows, at that moment I may decide to fuck this freezer business and have them throw me in the blender." But seriously Rick, the way you treat cancer is to first understand how it began. Is it genetic? Were you exposed to toxins? Unprocessed emotional trauma? As for political cancer, such as infects the US government and society, pick a starting point and go from there. 9/11 is one place to start. Do you believe the official story? I had a chat with Chat GBT about it this morning. Notice all the presidents have supported, (or succumbed) to the official account, although it is truly completely baseless in fact or logic. As long as the perpetrators of 9/11 are still influencing your government and media, you can cut off every figurehead and new ones will sprout, until the underlying cancer is discovered. https://chatgpt.com/share/6874fa42-2ee8-8005-96d2-f34f9c2c5a05
Thank you for once again articulating so well how to deal with the political and personal issues facing us now. Much appreciated.
Sooooo helpful!
I lost a friendship because I said I was pleased Trump won the election. You are giving an example of why I said that. Would you feel better if Harris won? Were you ok with the slick and charming Obombas in office? The horrible things you describe have been on going for decades by the US national security state, wars of invasion, supporting savage regimes, and on and on. Unfortunately we have a corps of cultural influencers who blame Trump for what they call a descent into authoritarianism. Really that happened long ago. You're distracting from the problem when you pick on Trump, who, I grant you, is the most odious person to sit in that office, but he is merely a symptom of a much greater problem that keen social scientists and philosophers, many of them called 'conspiracy theorists,' have been exposing since you were a little kid.
I'll start by agreeing with you on something: America's record on foreign policy, from 1898 to the present, has been a horror show. We've supported odious regimes as you pointed out, and have been complicit in something along the lines of 80 regime changes.
Beyond that though, I'm not at all surprised you lost a friend for expressing pleasure at Trump's win. What your friend sees and you obviously miss is that Trump's entire enterprise (as in "family business") is built on top of a personality cult. No, this hasn't happened here long ago as you say, though I'll agree that the post Cold War neoliberal order ran its course and set the stage for just such a strongman as Trump.
This is a savage regime with too many examples to bother itemizing, but the Big Brutal Bill, with Congress giving away trillions of dollars to billionaires, impoverishing millions, and bloating Stephen Miller’s secret police force with $170 billion is just the latest. Oh, and the Supreme Court seizing total power for itself, giving a green light to Trump, and leaving on vacation. Perfect.
Thank you The Rick, Let me try to be more clear. I grew up outside of New York. Whenever Trump intruded upon my attention whenever he appeared in the media, which was often, I felt sick. There has been no more odious president, nor has fascism ever been more evident here. But Trump is just the most recent and obvious of a long line of sleazy puppets. They're all in the same family business. Real Estate. As someone put it, "President Obomba was America with a mask on. Trump is the mask off." That's why I'm pleased. It's right there before your eyes. I'm still hoping people wake up and organize something to get at the root of the problem. Picking at Trump is like picking at a tumor. That is not how to cure cancer....
Talk about the audacity of hope! Sounds like your cure for cancer is to cut off the patient's head.
Ha! No, although that was a consideration of my good friend Timothy Leary who signed up to be decapitated and have his head frozen until a cure for his cancer was discovered. he eventually decided against it saying publicly he "didn't want to wake up in thirty years surrounded by a bunch of humorless guys with clipboards." to me he said, "i am just exploring my options, who knows, at that moment I may decide to fuck this freezer business and have them throw me in the blender." But seriously Rick, the way you treat cancer is to first understand how it began. Is it genetic? Were you exposed to toxins? Unprocessed emotional trauma? As for political cancer, such as infects the US government and society, pick a starting point and go from there. 9/11 is one place to start. Do you believe the official story? I had a chat with Chat GBT about it this morning. Notice all the presidents have supported, (or succumbed) to the official account, although it is truly completely baseless in fact or logic. As long as the perpetrators of 9/11 are still influencing your government and media, you can cut off every figurehead and new ones will sprout, until the underlying cancer is discovered. https://chatgpt.com/share/6874fa42-2ee8-8005-96d2-f34f9c2c5a05