Summary
Historian Nicole Hemmer discussed Donald Trump’s strategy of exploiting tragedies for political gain, labeling it part of a broader right-wing effort to sow division.
Hemmer noted Trump’s pattern of politicizing disasters, from Hurricane Maria to the California wildfires, to attack political opponents and promote conspiracy theories.
This tactic is linked to a media environment that thrives on outrage and a conservative ecosystem that weaponizes anger for electoral gains.
This approach degrades public life, fosters animosity, and amplifies societal despair.
I do not know which is worse, the societal damage that trump is doing directly, or the societal damage that his supporters are doing. On the one hand, trump himself has the keys to project violence on you and me and every other person alive, but at least he will eventually die. On the other hand, the swelling tide of stupid that millions of Americans are flopping around in will be here forever. Sure they are a minority, but that’s only a comfort if one lives in a rules-based democracy. America isn’t that. I will always hate trump, and I hope to literally piss on his grave some day. I will probably outlive the asshole, and that is comforting. Unfortunately, the increasingly emboldened mob of drooling, bigoted and fear-driven morons that make up a lot of my fellow citizens aren’t going anywhere as a collective.
I will say this again. I cannot be more full of contempt for the United States, or its awful awful people. Fuck this government, fuck our “leaders”, fuck this hostile economy, fuck the worthless Democrats, fuck the fascist Republicans, fuck the oligarchs, fuck the corporations.
Fuck this government, fuck our “leaders”, fuck this hostile economy, fuck the worthless Democrats, fuck the fascist Republicans, fuck the oligarchs, fuck the corporations.
Fuck the religious nutjobs.
He is trying to help lower the stock market so he has room to keep growing the bubble. He already tried to raise the debt ceiling, and thay failed. I expect the market to keep dumping while him and his followers buy into the market are lows. Then then once he is in office will chill out on the Panama and Greenland BS. Tell everyone he got us a great deal. And economy will blast off with them making bank.
I really believe the oligarchs are supporting him so he’ll crash the economy again. When everything’s cheap, they just buy it up.
There was a huge effort to get a recession going when stuff was starting to pick back up after COVID and workers started to get gains. I feel like Biden was trying to keep things in one piece.
This is just normal annual sell off at this point. But if people aren’t up at least 100% by spring, that fagbag traitor will have more to worry about than staged assassination attempts. There won’t be a maxipad big enough to hold his entire skull together
Also with the last jobs numbers, the Fed ain’t lowering those rates anytime soon, so they sell.
…conservative ecosystem that weaponizes anger for electoral gains.
That’s like saying “a gun that shoots bullets to kill things”. Everyone who isn’t a conservative, (and many who are) knows that’s the only core value the ideology has anymore.
I surely wish someone in the opposition showed up on Fox and other similar propaganda machines and said pretty much this, like it is. Eventually some will see it, and once you see it, you can’t unsee it. This needs to be hammered starting right now, with the LA fires.
Mayor Pete could totally do it and get thru to some.
Most people don’t watch politics, and people that do overwhelming voted Democrat in the last election. Mayor Pete or whoever isn’t going to convince my dad that Fox news was lying to him the whole time. We really need a new media strategy that cuts the corporate network middleman out.
If the strategy is teaching people basic media literacy and critical thinking skills then we should do it. Fund the program by taxing all the “entertainment” news companies.
If the strategy is to use power we don’t have to create new educational programs, then we’re missing a step.
