You missed your calling as a stand-up comedian.

not really. He has zero sense of humor, just doesn't get it, but has realized it's kind of essential for public office and general bonhomie, so is trying to fake it...... but in true spirit can't help but try and exploit the concept at the same time. Now he's figured out people -especially those who are natural jokers- sometimes pass off outrageous comments that didn't go down well as "jokes" it's Donny open season and he's trying hard to establish a reputation as a "joker" to help with that.

It's a specific type of persuasion which causes everyone everywhere to think and speak of him every minute of every day. This is the game. I point this out at least once a year. It's a specific tactic to attract attention and suck the air out of the room for anything else. It is trolling. The media falls for it 24x7. And in this thread we are suckers once again. We do his bidding.

Well sure, it's the only way we can get to see more of Ivanka...

and maybe a pardon if we ever need one.

The words of the President of the United States matter.

They are worthy of our attention, by virtue of the office from which the President speaks.

That President Trump has corrupted this valuable and potent aspect of the office of the President of the United States is a testament to his shame. That he has disgraced this office by his words and actions, my office, my public servant, is a black mark against him, his responsibility for his words and actions. I am offended by his behavior, even if some characterize his behavior as "jokes". Even if his behavior is "trolling". I have higher standards. This country and the office of the Presidency has higher standards.

I'm not perfect, I'm a regular person. I don't consider his "jokes", his "trolling", his actions to put his name and words and face in my headspace, appropriate to the standards of the office to which he's been elected. This, *obviously*, is not an isolated or even uncommon example. It is pure, plain Trump. It is demonstrable, repeated, documented evidence of his unfitness for the office he currently holds.

Let me ask you, do you tell rape jokes? Do you casually, "just joking", talk about using your legally owned weapons to "do something" about his opponents? Do you jokingly talk about any of the factually ridiculous suggestions President Trump has repeatedly made? Would you accept without comment reports that your son has talked about "grabbing them by the pussy".

He does live in my head, but not rent-free. There's a cost, and it's accumulating, though I don't expect to collect until he's out of office. He is a troll. He is unfit for office. His actions do not have a viable path forward.

and jokes matter. the rise of the internet neo-nazi is built on the power of "jokes" to normalize atrocious behavior and to give plausible deniability. its all just jokes except when it isnt. its all just jokes, except when it's violent fascist rhetoric meant to fan the flames of unrest and violence under the thin veneer of "just joking" when the "libs get triggered" or whatever. thats just as true when the president does it as when pepefan1488 the channer nazi does it.

The People disgraced the office of the President long before Trump ever got there. People have been treating the office of President like it's a throne to be handed down by political royals like the Kennedys (Camelot), Bushes, Clintons, and there was even talk of the Obamas. People are so easily lulled into letting an elite class make all their decisions for them. The prominence of the office needed to be taken down a few notches to discourage that kind of thinking by abating the conformity to political correctness that faux royalty demands. Trump served that purpose. Whether or not it will be successful, only time will tell. Let the would-be royalists fall by the wayside.

i hate to like, have to agree with sexobon, but yeah, the office of the president was never special and never anything but the place for the most ambitious and most corrupt to aspire to. i have a little hope that this whole national ordeal will maybe help some people see why maybe having a political structure that depends on our leaders not abusing it is a mistake and why The Presidency Is Bad but we've got a long way to go to get to that

weak people are easily trolled and trolls and shitposters understand and depend on this

so ~ stop being weak ~

buck up, enough with all this self-generated misery, resentment and paranoia

and jokes are essential. and btw nobody wants to spend time around someone who is humorless

and that's for good reason

"if you have a problem with a fascist politician employing fascist rhetoric to inflame violence and rally support, you're weak, and its all just your problem, also you're no fun and have no sense of humor" isn't as compelling an argument as you seem to think is it. if there's anything they depend on its people who would never call themselves fascists, defending them the way you are now.

define fascist

a short answer would be "a political position or form of government characterized by nationalism, authoritarianism, racial/ethnic hierarchy (white supremacy), and a perception of a state of constant struggle between races/'nations' in which the strong not just will, but must, win in conflict against other 'nations'.", but since no short answer won't get a smug reply from you,
I tend to think that Umberto Eco's essay on Ur-Fascism is pretty comprehensive. it's a long essay, but i'm going to quote liberally from it here.

oh, actually, wikipedia has a really good short definition that it attributes to Stanley G Payne:

well gosh and you suggest i have defended such a thing

i suggested trump wants (small-l) liberals to defend his fascist rhetoric as meaningless, unimportant jokes that are actually not as bad as the people who care that he said them, yeah

(i guess you'd prefer the term moderate or centrist to liberal, there - i dont mean liberal as in "not conservative" i mean it in the like, sense of classical liberalism)

let's say 1990s liberal or maybe pre-2014 liberal

i didn't say not as bad, i think the triggered are slightly less at fault than the trollers

so what do you figure is the most fascist thing dear leader has ever done

what does that even mean

fascist rhetoric leads to fascist actions. what is the action which is not rhetoric that dear leader has taken that matches the definition of fascism most closely? there are many to choose from. clearing out legit protesters for a photo-op for example would match the definition. it is anti-liberalism and seeks to transform social relations within a modern, self-determined culture, with a positive view of violence. go

I dunno what "most closely matches the definition of" means here really. most egregious? most common to all fascists? most beloved by fascists? my gut instinct is to say probably expanding Obama's concentration camps into full-fledged spraying-people-with-poison, mass-sterilization, torture camps?

i would say that this wild overstatement and redefinition of terms is a much worse form of rhetoric than jokes, and gives much greater cover and "normalization" to actual fascists

and i'm pretty sure it causes more people to be inclined to vote for him

calling concentration camps concentration camps is NOT worse than running concentration camps what are you TALKING ABOUT

20 alleged hysterectomies* over six years is "mass sterilization"

because you want the gravitas of calling it that, in order to "win" the argument

this little game is everywhere now, and it's gross

3.5 million people are in actual concentration camps in north korea and china being "reeducated" and/or killed. you are giving cover to this by defining the term down

and i'm pretty sure it causes more people to be inclined to vote for him




*if it was for mass sterilization they could have gotten much further just tying tubes. or using norplant, ffs, then big pharma would have gotten a cut

you heard it here first folks. calling a concentration camp a concentration camp is actually just supporting other concentration camps in other places. being outraged over Dr. "Uterus Collector" and more confirmation of the medical abuse of prisoners in the camps is a little game to win an argument.
how many women have to be forcibly and unnecessarily sterilized by the state before i'm allowed to call it 'mass'?

Here's the thing about the hysterectomies, though--all those procedures were done by one doctor, who has been charged and convicted in the past with performing unnecessary procedures (including hysterectomies, and on white women) for the Medicaid payments. The guy's evil, and I think there's something to be said for the state having higher standards than hiring the guy who can't get work in private practice anymore--but he wasn't instructed by the state to sterilize the folks in his care. If anything, the state would rather let them die of whatever small thing brought them into the obgyn clinic in the first place, because it's cheaper. And the guy would rather do the most extreme solution, because it's more expensive. This one's all about money and nothing more, IMHO.

how can you get masses of people to vote for you, well, one way is to get the opposition to claim you are treating illegal immigrants as harshly as possible when they cross the border to compete for those voters' jobs

then get all the free media and everyone on message boards to share that idea without having to buy a single ad

omg he is putting them in concentration camps...! awesome

you are helping him and you can't even see it

"calling them concentration camps will make people who like concentration camps vote for the guy who likes concentration camps" is a scathing indictment of the system (and an illustration of how fascism is the thing that kills democracies) but not an argument to ignore or downplay them.

calling them concentration camps will help people who like to have jobs vote for the guy FTFY. Those folks don't believe they are actually concentration camps

the only winning strategy, electorally or in life, is to describe everything accurately

ETA, not insulting the electorate helps too

The spoor decided, tonight, that Biden could drive to Texas in a Chevy pickup truck, shoot half the game in the state, taxiderm them all himself, buy everyone a new truck, take the Proud Boys and their families out to Barbecue and beer, lynch a black man and he still would lose to Trump in the election.

I don't know what spores the spoor has partaken, but for me--hard pass.

Wow.

+10 on political involvement tho.

Don't you just love it when a plan comes together...

*shrug*

So the courts get packed.

And gerrymandering disenfranchises voters. And American allies are mocked and disparaged. And Kim is all but told he is permitted to build all the nuclear weapons and intercontinental weapons he wants. While American soldiers are told they no longer need to and are not allowed to train. And American withdrawals all over the world has, for example, permitted China to now become the dominate economic power in Africa. War in Taiwan, and most of east Asia has become likely - ie Sparately and Parcel Islands. American economic stagnation (to be followed four years later by massive job losses) is coming. All environmental protections (that create economic growth) are being removed. Science (the entire source of American strength) is now routinely mocked. The greatest source of American innovation (immigrants) are now being driven out. Hate now so rampant in the streets with KKK, White Supremacists, misogynists, and Nazis now publicly praises. Proving that everyone now needs AK-47s and 105mm howitzers. International economic alliances canceled. Racism inceasing. Nuclear non-proliferation canceled. Nations now producing nerve gases and other weapons of mass destruction - not condemned and even praised. American intelligence community called liars. Promised jobs in steel and coal - never happened. Hundreds of thousands dead because leaders are corrupt. Prosecutors replaced with political hacks to protect corrupt leaders. Corporations now permitted to purchase all the politician they want since corporations are now people. The world being taught by America that democracy does not work. An an increasing Gini index as more Americans continue to become poverty stricken. American companies now selling themselves off, piece by piece, to maintain profits - so that innovation and resulting jobs need not happen. Extremists and Russia now openly promoting disinformation that corrupt leaders say is good.

Don't worry. Be happy. We have a president who lies so much that we need not worry.