Here’s a shocker: the board’s dumbfuck reactionaries turned out to be dumbfuck reactionaries. I put the worst offenders on ignore back in October and ditched the brainless DT thread entirely, and the conversation has been far more enlightening as a result.
First of all, good on you for reevaluating your opinion. That takes guts.
Second:
Unfortunately, it’s not. When you’re ready, dig in a bit more on the history of this conflict. It’s depressing.
“Pro wrestling culture” is spot-on and I’ve been saying the same thing since 2015.
Trump was essentially cutting extended wrestling promos at his rallies. And his rank and file acolytes received it like wrestling fans. I remember one article in which a CNN cameraman reported that the crowd jeered him throughout a rally but, afterward, several attendees approached him to say what a great job he was doing. It was like they thought the Trump’s whole attack on the media was just a WWE storyline and each side was just playing a role. I’ve seen the same exact behavior from fans at a live wrestling show. Which might explain why Trumpers are unbothered when confronted with evidence that Trump doesn’t truly believe what he says. That’s not jarring to them because they instinctively believe he’s just playing a role.
The problem occurs when and if fiction starts morphing into reality. That Trump might not believe, for example, that the media is the enemy of the people will be cold comfort if his crowd internalizes the fictional narrative and persecutes the media on his behalf.
That before-and-after photo set nicely illustrates the core characteristic of today’s right wing: mental health issues indulged. The party is just a giant co-enabler group, its members constantly reinforcing each other's unhealthy behaviors and thought patterns. They’ve let themselves go, mentally, and they’re dragging the whole country down with them.
No one in the party is going to intervene on Guilfoyle’s behalf. No one will help. They will just nod along and encourage her to keep accelerating towards a bad end.
I chuckled this morning at the ironic condescension of posters equating slavery — a practice that was abolished in the US 160 years ago — with a colonialist policy that continues to this day. Y’all motherfuckers need Jesus analogical reasoning practice.
Younger Americans are unhappy because the American dream is increasingly unavailable to them. College is insanely expensive and admissions are unbelievably competitive. Upon graduation, they are often saddled with crushing debt and housing costs that make home ownership a pipe dream. We offer no social safety net. Health care is expensive and soulless. Pensions are a thing of the past. Our laws and courts are increasingly hostile to labor, and much of the available work is in the exploitative gig economy. States are undoing child labor protections and a wave of fundamentalist bullshit has eroded the quality of public education. Profits trump well being in critical industries like air travel, utilities, and pharmaceuticals.
Greedy assholes sold too many Americans on the false gospel of Jesus The Capitalist and they’ve dragged us back into the dark days of the Industrial Revolution. And you wonder why young Americans who suffer from the resulting policies are unhappy?