There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again.
The rumor i heard is he might not have wanted to have an audio clip of himself saying "shame on me" that could have been used in any other context. But yeah he made himself look like an absolute twat that way. Not the best fast thinker.
Yeah, Bush was very much faking his dumb hick persona. He needed to offset his Yale and Harvard education to his target demographic. He bought his Texas ranch right before running for office.
The current GOP is a caricature of what he was doing.
Just watch clips of Bush when he was governor of Texas. Perfectly articulate, complete sentences and everything. He either had a major stroke in 2000 or it was just an act.
i remember living in redhatistan in 2003. it was halloween. i thought of the thing that would be scariest to my neighbors so i dressed up as an iraq war protestor. most of my neighbors immediately got it and thought it was hilarious. about 15% of them were insanely offended and two or three grown men squared up to fight me until they realized the puny disabled kid had this long board with nails in it holding a small sign. i was not unprepared in any way.
I went to a Halloween party in 2004 dressed as an Abu Ghreb detaineee. I was basically naked with flesh-colored compression shorts that had a stuffed dog biting the crotch, a black hood, chains and a leash attached to my wrists, and "property of Abu Ghreb" written on my chest. Absolutely nobody got it (this was also in the South, in a Louisiana town with a big air force base, so it's probably best that it wasn't understood).
I got garbage thrown at me in school and I was the one called to the the office over it. I didn't even have a complex opinion on the war. I was just creeped out by jingoism and I wanted to distance myself from it.
I remember in those days I was watching CNN and there was a split screen, one side was a photo of Bush, the other side was a photo of Saddam. I remember thinking "I honestly don't know who scares me more." I had absolutely no idea how bad things could get. I wish we were back to the relative sanity of those days.
Not to be too nitpicky, but the Iraq war started in 2003. 2001 was about California wildfires, the fallout from the dotcom bubble, then 9/11 and Enron.
He's ignoring the first mass murders and carpet bombing, egging on the dumb Kurds they then sold out and left to die followed by 100000's of dead children due to their cowardly sanctions.
I try not to use these blanket statements because they are never true. Lots of people were against the war, you just rarely heard about it because they don't own NBC
I know this is a meme so I shouldn’t look for historic accuracy here but a the vast majority of the US, and many of our allies, were on board for an invasion of the Middle East (Afghanistan) in 2001 after 9/11. It was the invasion of Iraq in 2003 that turned many people off.
Thanks for the info! In the early 20th c. “The Middle East” was defined as the land between India and the Ottoman Empire. The term has since changed to not include Iraq and Afghanistan. During the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the US government used the term “Greater Middle East” to encompass those two countries. That’s where my confusion lies. Learn something new every day.
Not in Spain, it was not. I think the biggest demonstrations ever recorded in Spain to this day are the ones of those days, saying a very clear NO TO WAR. The president still sent the army any fucking way.
Bush had a 90% approval rating following the attack on the twin towers. Americans were not surprised by the "war on terror", they did not resist it, they were cheering for it.
It was only later once people realised there was no obtainable goal in sight, and no exit plan. That they started questioning it. But the was years later.
In fairness, Bush's rating declined steadily after 9/11, and was in the mid 50s when he asked Congress for a formal declaration of war in Iraq.
And that makes sense - Americans rallied in the days following the attack. Bush played his role perfectly. He was very presidential after 9/11. He was serious. Somber. He mourned and offered consolation. He was dignified.
The Trump administration missed a crucial step in starting a war. He forgot that Americans hate wars of choice - and especially when the gas prices are affected.
The attack left an emotional impact that could be manipulated to brainwash support. Today's brainwashing techniques require a lot less, are more effective, and attack people's egos directly through group psychology and cults-on-demands of the engagement algorithm.
How naive can you be? Like literally, after things like Cambridge Analytica, technobro billionaire oligarchs openly buying up social networks and openly admitting that without them, their candidates would have lost elections, like after a gazillion stories about troll factories, bots, users being sold on the market because of their relevance in the platform due to reputation gaming, literally f-ing Project 2025 and the rise of technocracy zealots in power, wealth, and influence, how utterly naive is it openly acceptable to consider someone as being while believing they are a participating in good faith?
I never said you can't influence anyone through propaganda. But I do not believe Americans were "brainwashed" to do anything. I think they wanted to do it.
I don't think they're brainwashed, I think they're genuinely that dumb and uneducated.
In any other civilised country, if the government started a war without congressional approval. They would riot in the streets of the capitol and stay there until they get what they want.
In any other civilised country, if the government started a war without congressional approval. They would riot in the streets of the capitol
No, they wouldn't and they haven't. In Europe, this is what's fueling the rise of the far-right. The difference is largely that their forms of government are more resilient. You could not be any more mistaken. There are riots in Europe, just like there are in the US, but MAGA is perfectly able to organize riots and protests as well, and so are their fair-right counterparts in the EU, and theirs has much more money behind them and is much more cultified.
You are so mistaken you have to resort to false equivalence and ignore the explicit evidence given to you while you regurgitate a position whose only foundation is based on pure vibes and stereotypes - basically the same thing that fuels MAGA. You will only ever help extend the the distance towards any real solution because rather than address the psychology and the factors pushing for the division, you are yourself contributing to it.
Define brainwashing. Tell me why a farmer who lives 3,000 miles away from NYC should be emotionally affected by 9/11, but not by the countless other injustices in the world. How else do you define mass media if not "brainwashing"?
Making someone adopt radically different beliefs, often by force or severe systematic pressure.
Charles Manson would be the classic example of someone that brainwashed vulnerable people into doing things they under normal circumstances would never even consider.
I cannot tell you why your fictional farmer would or would not be emotionally affected by various tragedies... in my experience, people are different and have their own views. Some are deeply affected by attacks on their nation, some are not.
I don't think mass media is brainwashing people, because I don't think they're making them adopt new beliefs. I think they're re-affirming and confirming people's already held preconceived notions and prejudice.
If you think it's brainwashing that's fine. But I would disagree.
Yes, that's kind of my point. We all are brainwashed, from Day One. You don't have a choice which ideas you're exposed to when you are a child.
As an adult, though, you can start to exert control over the narrative. You can explore ideas that your parents and school didn't share with you. You can pick up a book, learn what you want to learn, share ideas that were previously off limits.
Mass media (esp. doom scrolling) attempts to regain control of that narrative. And, yes, of course, mass media's job is to insert new beliefs. Why else would I have an opinion on Israel, a country I've never been to, that has no immediate relevance to my life? Why don't I have a similarly strong opinion about countries like Kiribati or Abkhazia?
Isn't this saying US citizen are the dumber man (as a whole) for electing fucking dimwits again and again and again who have war crimes to their names?
The unnamed common republican is the final boss of stupidity
When i turned 18 and voted in my first election, i knew george w was astoundingly stupid. And i knew even more so every election with trump. But those that vote for them are even worse.
But lumping all Americans into one box is also dumb
Whatever makes you sleep at night.
It was about 50/50; and knowing the choice candidate for the other 'smart' voters was a senile genocider collaborator who massively put kids in cages.
Really, fuck them all
the south has a great many good people in it whose voting access has been stripped from them by criminalization schemes and gerrymandering. you want the south to stop ruining elections? federalize national reforms on voter access and gerry mandering.
the exploitation of the south isn't initiated by southerners, it's initiated by the bosses and the bankers. basically the solution to the south being a problem is to return to Ulysses S Grant's strategy of prosecuting the KKK and handing out money to poor people.
One of the varieties of voting machine (the ones made by Diebold) in use during that election used Microsoft Access as its database for storage. Only oldheads will understand how horrifying that is. Access did have an audit table (a part of the DB that records all transactions made to the data) but it was hand-editable.
Should we ask Clinton what the meaning of 'is' is in this sentence? There is not just a dumber man. There was a process, there were debates, there was an election. The problem is not Trump.
Which is the problem. He is not a problem on his own. There is the possibility for an impeachment. Trump on his own doesn't have the power to stay president.
He has this uncanny ability to bring the worst out of the worst people, and almost a hypnotic way of controlling them. Apart from everything, it's a big problem.
I don't think he makes decisions. I think he moves through life like a chthonic monster, animated by greed, lust, gluttony, and plague. You don't need to be sentient to be an agent of evil
This is a hindsight thing. He was just elected. Unlike Trump, we didn't learn until 2 or 3 years into the war that GWB was an absolute moron. In 2001, everyone got behind him and the military. And that includes just about anyone in this thread who was alive at the time, and likely their entire nation, and that's a demonstrable fact.
This is horseshit. Plenty of us knew it before he was elected. It was fucking obvious. I was a teenager in 2000, and I was stunned and appalled that we'd elected such a moron. Just because a large proportion of the country got caught up in post-9/11 jingoistic mania doesn't mean it wasn't clear from the start what a dipshit he was.
Basically his professor called him the dumbest person he ever taught and that the orange child rapist thought he already knew everything.
The fat cunt tells everyone that he graduated first of his class yet his name isn't on the Dean's list of 1968, and anyone who does exceptionally well would be on that list.
Also none of the class of 68 particularly remember him.
In short the kiddie fiddler was seen as a dumb prick, and continuously lies about being clever.
I'd say he's at least dumb in the sense that his age is getting to him. If you hate yourself go back and listen to him from 2015 when he was running and listen to anything now. He should be in a nursing home and we've got him running the country.
123 Comments
queermunist@lemmy.ml · 93 pts · 167d
There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again.
iturnedintoanewt@lemmy.world · 22 pts · 167d
The rumor i heard is he might not have wanted to have an audio clip of himself saying "shame on me" that could have been used in any other context. But yeah he made himself look like an absolute twat that way. Not the best fast thinker.
collapse_already@lemmy.ml · 12 pts · 167d
And yet he still managed to sound more coherent than president pedo.
explodicle@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 167d
He was a mere 54 when he became president!
Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 165d
Well that's not getting anyone a gold star in the notes.
Duamerthrax@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 166d
Yeah, Bush was very much faking his dumb hick persona. He needed to offset his Yale and Harvard education to his target demographic. He bought his Texas ranch right before running for office.
The current GOP is a caricature of what he was doing.
Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 165d
Play the idiot, attract real idiots that thinks they are in good company (I don't remember the exact quote).
ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 166d
Just watch clips of Bush when he was governor of Texas. Perfectly articulate, complete sentences and everything. He either had a major stroke in 2000 or it was just an act.
Now Dan Quayle, that dude was a real one.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 165d
probably faking it to his dumb hick supporters in texas.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 165d
yup, he needed to obfuscate his origins as a rich family from MAINE, which alot of like some celebrities, lke taylor swift and THE DRUNKARD kid rock.
Gork@sopuli.xyz · 13 pts · 167d
Trump would probably say he invented the old saying itself, just like how he invented the phrase "priming the pump"
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 167d
Didn't he invent "wagging the dog," too?
ordnance_qf_17_pounder@reddthat.com · 8 pts · 167d
Is our children learning? All these years later it seems that the childrens did not learned
MoffKalast@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 167d
Jury is still out if the human being and fish can coexist peacefully.
kshade@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 167d
They did make the pie higher though.
shittydwarf@sh.itjust.works · 61 pts · 167d
Americans: we can go dumber
treadful@lemmy.zip · 25 pts · 167d
We'd probably be better off if we elected a golden retriever.
gibmiser@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 167d
There's no law that says a dog can't be president...
grue@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 167d
Except they have to be over 35 years old. : (
Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca · 15 pts · 167d
What about dog years?
Typhoon@lemmy.ca · 8 pts · 167d
Golden retievers are loyal
LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 166d
AirBud except politics
Mulligrubs@lemmy.world · 42 pts · 167d
Guilty as charged.
I recall squirming in embarrassed discomfort listening to Bush try to form a coherent sentence.
GLORY DAYS
In 2001, I was one of the few against the Iraq war, and we were pariahs. Flags flying everywhere
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 167d
i remember living in redhatistan in 2003. it was halloween. i thought of the thing that would be scariest to my neighbors so i dressed up as an iraq war protestor. most of my neighbors immediately got it and thought it was hilarious. about 15% of them were insanely offended and two or three grown men squared up to fight me until they realized the puny disabled kid had this long board with nails in it holding a small sign. i was not unprepared in any way.
Mulligrubs@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 167d
I was much more outspoken then, and I learned to keep my weirdo opinions to myself. A mob madness overtakes them
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 167d
oh gods i've just gotten weirder and louder as i've gotten older.
ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 166d
I went to a Halloween party in 2004 dressed as an Abu Ghreb detaineee. I was basically naked with flesh-colored compression shorts that had a stuffed dog biting the crotch, a black hood, chains and a leash attached to my wrists, and "property of Abu Ghreb" written on my chest. Absolutely nobody got it (this was also in the South, in a Louisiana town with a big air force base, so it's probably best that it wasn't understood).
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 166d
it sounds like we would have made the best group costume
Duamerthrax@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 166d
I got garbage thrown at me in school and I was the one called to the the office over it. I didn't even have a complex opinion on the war. I was just creeped out by jingoism and I wanted to distance myself from it.
Balaquina@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 167d
I remember in those days I was watching CNN and there was a split screen, one side was a photo of Bush, the other side was a photo of Saddam. I remember thinking "I honestly don't know who scares me more." I had absolutely no idea how bad things could get. I wish we were back to the relative sanity of those days.
chiliedogg@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 166d
Not to be too nitpicky, but the Iraq war started in 2003. 2001 was about California wildfires, the fallout from the dotcom bubble, then 9/11 and Enron.
Mulligrubs@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 166d
Apologies, we've been in Iraq since the 90s (?) and it seems continuous to me in retrospect
Bloomcole@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 166d
He's ignoring the first mass murders and carpet bombing, egging on the dumb Kurds they then sold out and left to die followed by 100000's of dead children due to their cowardly sanctions.
Bloomcole@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 166d
true, but years later you couldn't find a single one who wasn't against it.
Like you could never find a single person liking Hitler after 1945.
Mulligrubs@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 166d
I try not to use these blanket statements because they are never true. Lots of people were against the war, you just rarely heard about it because they don't own NBC
Taco2112@lemmy.world · 22 pts · 167d
I know this is a meme so I shouldn’t look for historic accuracy here but a the vast majority of the US, and many of our allies, were on board for an invasion of the Middle East (Afghanistan) in 2001 after 9/11. It was the invasion of Iraq in 2003 that turned many people off.
imsufferableninja@sh.itjust.works · 13 pts · 167d
Afghanistan is in Southwest Asia, not the middle east, fyi
grue@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 167d
The middle east is also southwest Asia.
Blackmist@feddit.uk · 6 pts · 167d
Most Americans couldn't locate it on a map in either case.
Taco2112@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 166d
Thanks for the info! In the early 20th c. “The Middle East” was defined as the land between India and the Ottoman Empire. The term has since changed to not include Iraq and Afghanistan. During the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the US government used the term “Greater Middle East” to encompass those two countries. That’s where my confusion lies. Learn something new every day.
Phunter@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 167d
I dunno, the TV showed sand and camels and that's the only thing I understand to exist in the middle east.
marcos@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 167d
Natal, RN, Brazil:
https://guiaviajarmelhor.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Sonia-Furtado.jpg
marcos@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 167d
darkdemize@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 167d
Bold of you to assume most Americans knew the difference.
iturnedintoanewt@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 166d
Not in Spain, it was not. I think the biggest demonstrations ever recorded in Spain to this day are the ones of those days, saying a very clear NO TO WAR. The president still sent the army any fucking way.
Taco2112@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 166d
Spain did support the US in the war in Afghanistan after 2001. They did not support the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 165d
Fool me once!
Atomic@sh.itjust.works · 19 pts · 166d
Bush had a 90% approval rating following the attack on the twin towers. Americans were not surprised by the "war on terror", they did not resist it, they were cheering for it.
It was only later once people realised there was no obtainable goal in sight, and no exit plan. That they started questioning it. But the was years later.
MerryJaneDoe@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 165d
In fairness, Bush's rating declined steadily after 9/11, and was in the mid 50s when he asked Congress for a formal declaration of war in Iraq.
And that makes sense - Americans rallied in the days following the attack. Bush played his role perfectly. He was very presidential after 9/11. He was serious. Somber. He mourned and offered consolation. He was dignified.
The Trump administration missed a crucial step in starting a war. He forgot that Americans hate wars of choice - and especially when the gas prices are affected.
TheObviousSolution@lemmy.ca · 9 pts · 166d
The attack left an emotional impact that could be manipulated to brainwash support. Today's brainwashing techniques require a lot less, are more effective, and attack people's egos directly through group psychology and cults-on-demands of the engagement algorithm.
Atomic@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 166d
There was no brainwashing... Americans were angry and wanted someone to pay. Who exactly didn't matter. As long as someone paid.
As of now. There's no brainwashing. People are not supporting Trump because they don't know better. They're doing because they agree with him.
TheObviousSolution@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 166d
Straight from the horse's mouth: https://www.military.com/feature/2025/11/16/long-arc-of-influence-how-modern-governments-build-and-weaponize-propaganda.html
How naive can you be? Like literally, after things like Cambridge Analytica, technobro billionaire oligarchs openly buying up social networks and openly admitting that without them, their candidates would have lost elections, like after a gazillion stories about troll factories, bots, users being sold on the market because of their relevance in the platform due to reputation gaming, literally f-ing Project 2025 and the rise of technocracy zealots in power, wealth, and influence, how utterly naive is it openly acceptable to consider someone as being while believing they are a participating in good faith?
Atomic@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 166d
I never said you can't influence anyone through propaganda. But I do not believe Americans were "brainwashed" to do anything. I think they wanted to do it.
I don't think they're brainwashed, I think they're genuinely that dumb and uneducated.
In any other civilised country, if the government started a war without congressional approval. They would riot in the streets of the capitol and stay there until they get what they want.
TheObviousSolution@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 166d
No, they wouldn't and they haven't. In Europe, this is what's fueling the rise of the far-right. The difference is largely that their forms of government are more resilient. You could not be any more mistaken. There are riots in Europe, just like there are in the US, but MAGA is perfectly able to organize riots and protests as well, and so are their fair-right counterparts in the EU, and theirs has much more money behind them and is much more cultified.
Atomic@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 166d
Oh, which European country exactly launched a full scale war against another country without congressional approval?
I would love to know just how mistaken I am.
TheObviousSolution@lemmy.ca · 0 pts · 166d
You are so mistaken you have to resort to false equivalence and ignore the explicit evidence given to you while you regurgitate a position whose only foundation is based on pure vibes and stereotypes - basically the same thing that fuels MAGA. You will only ever help extend the the distance towards any real solution because rather than address the psychology and the factors pushing for the division, you are yourself contributing to it.
MerryJaneDoe@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 165d
"Dumb and uneducated" is the same thing as brain-washed.
It's not accidental.
MerryJaneDoe@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 165d
"There was no brainwashing..."
Define brainwashing. Tell me why a farmer who lives 3,000 miles away from NYC should be emotionally affected by 9/11, but not by the countless other injustices in the world. How else do you define mass media if not "brainwashing"?
Atomic@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 165d
Making someone adopt radically different beliefs, often by force or severe systematic pressure.
Charles Manson would be the classic example of someone that brainwashed vulnerable people into doing things they under normal circumstances would never even consider.
I cannot tell you why your fictional farmer would or would not be emotionally affected by various tragedies... in my experience, people are different and have their own views. Some are deeply affected by attacks on their nation, some are not.
I don't think mass media is brainwashing people, because I don't think they're making them adopt new beliefs. I think they're re-affirming and confirming people's already held preconceived notions and prejudice.
If you think it's brainwashing that's fine. But I would disagree.
MerryJaneDoe@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 164d
And where did those beliefs originate?
Atomic@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 164d
Where does any belief originate?
If you're trying to allude to those beliefs coming from brainwashing. Then we are all brainwashed by our parents.
But we generally call that "being raised". And as you're well aware, different people are raised differently.
MerryJaneDoe@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 161d
Yes, that's kind of my point. We all are brainwashed, from Day One. You don't have a choice which ideas you're exposed to when you are a child.
As an adult, though, you can start to exert control over the narrative. You can explore ideas that your parents and school didn't share with you. You can pick up a book, learn what you want to learn, share ideas that were previously off limits.
Mass media (esp. doom scrolling) attempts to regain control of that narrative. And, yes, of course, mass media's job is to insert new beliefs. Why else would I have an opinion on Israel, a country I've never been to, that has no immediate relevance to my life? Why don't I have a similarly strong opinion about countries like Kiribati or Abkhazia?
ceenote@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 167d
As long as the dumb man continues to have supporters, we must assume there are still dumber men out there. Watching. Waiting. Eating dirt.
0_o7@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 16 pts · 166d
Isn't this saying US citizen are the dumber man (as a whole) for electing fucking dimwits again and again and again who have war crimes to their names?
ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 166d
So, voting for war criminals isn't a sign of stupidity per se. Republicans generally like war crimes.
GreenBeanMachine@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 166d
kadotux@sopuli.xyz · 5 pts · 166d
Greed, sociopathy... And yeah probably also stupidity, but it's not required.
mathemachristian@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 166d
The intelligence of the american people cannot be underestimated.
HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 5 pts · 166d
The unnamed common republican is the final boss of stupidity
When i turned 18 and voted in my first election, i knew george w was astoundingly stupid. And i knew even more so every election with trump. But those that vote for them are even worse.
But lumping all Americans into one box is also dumb
HrabiaVulpes@europe.pub · 2 pts · 166d
I mean, I always assume that americans as a whole vote for whoever is representing average american the best.
chiliedogg@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 166d
Both of those men stole elections to get into office.
Bloomcole@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 166d
Whatever makes you sleep at night.
It was about 50/50; and knowing the choice candidate for the other 'smart' voters was a senile genocider collaborator who massively put kids in cages.
Really, fuck them all
eestileib@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 166d
Yup.
DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works · 12 pts · 167d
The south doesn't deserve to vote.
Suspend their statehood and keep them as permanent territories with zero voting representatives.
SupraMario@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 167d
The south isn't the only states that voted for the pedo...the midwest is filled with evangelicals who voted for him all 3 times.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 166d
yea those too, and they are also alot of anti-vaxxers, and pseudoscience believers too.
pulsey@feddit.org · 3 pts · 166d
give them the puerto rico treatment
Quill7513@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 166d
the south has a great many good people in it whose voting access has been stripped from them by criminalization schemes and gerrymandering. you want the south to stop ruining elections? federalize national reforms on voter access and gerry mandering.
the exploitation of the south isn't initiated by southerners, it's initiated by the bosses and the bankers. basically the solution to the south being a problem is to return to Ulysses S Grant's strategy of prosecuting the KKK and handing out money to poor people.
architect@thelemmy.club · 12 pts · 167d
They stole that election.
His daddy is cia.
ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 166d
One of the varieties of voting machine (the ones made by Diebold) in use during that election used Microsoft Access as its database for storage. Only oldheads will understand how horrifying that is. Access did have an audit table (a part of the DB that records all transactions made to the data) but it was hand-editable.
Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca · 11 pts · 167d
Well yeah, who's the more foolish? The fool or the one that follows him?
criticon@lemmy.ca · 9 pts · 167d
"...you can't get fooled again"
Benchamoneh@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 10 pts · 167d
Can't wait to see how stupid the next quarter-century idiot will be
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 9 pts · 165d
after bush, we had PALIN, we thought she was the worst of the gop.
Stupidmanager@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 167d
If idiocracy has taught me anything, there is a dumber person out there and they shall lead legions of idiots.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 167d
Who is the bigger fool? The fool or the fool who follows him without getting a cut of the action?
Draedron@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 166d
The worrying part is people in idiocracy were smart enough to listen to the advice of the smartest man they could find. Magahats could never.
thenextguy@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 167d
Harry and Lloyd?
Albbi@lemmy.ca · 8 pts · 167d
I love the idea of a Dumb and Dumber short or reboot with Dubya and Trump, but I can't listen to Trump-speak at all.
lost_faith@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 167d
Guard the Leaf turns his voice to a chipmunk
Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 167d
Relaaaaxxx guy
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 167d
You claim Trump is dumber than Bush, and yet Trump has made billions while President compared to Bush who only made hundreds of millions.
Hell, I'm beginning to think Cheney was dumber than Trump, at least on these grounds.
NikkiDimes@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 167d
The one thing Trump is somehow good at is grifting, Ill give him that.
ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 167d
Bush had a smarter population. Gen Z kids can't read these days. I was dumber than hell at 18, but not quite that bad.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 167d
Hypnotoad_@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 167d
A lot of people wouldn't choose billions if it means raping kids and starting wars and etc etc that he regularly does
I would argue he's emotionally dumb, morally dumb, intellectually dumb. He's not dumb at grifting? I guess that's what people like?
I fucking hate this shit
RagingRobot@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 167d
Stealing money doesn't make you smart
crazycraw@crazypeople.online · 3 pts · 167d
Ok then, so what is the next level of the inferno, Dante.
GreenBeard@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 167d
President Clavicular
PissingIntoTheWind@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 167d
Don’t worry. We’ll be at war with Cuba too.
AntiBullyRanger@ani.social · 1 pts · 164d
Growing up is learning 75% of that population are the dumbest civilians on Earth.
plyth@feddit.org · -2 pts · 167d
Should we ask Clinton what the meaning of 'is' is in this sentence? There is not just a dumber man. There was a process, there were debates, there was an election. The problem is not Trump.
Nalivai@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 167d
Trump is a symptom, for sure, but he is in fact also a problem on his own
plyth@feddit.org · 2 pts · 167d
Which is the problem. He is not a problem on his own. There is the possibility for an impeachment. Trump on his own doesn't have the power to stay president.
Nalivai@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 167d
He has this uncanny ability to bring the worst out of the worst people, and almost a hypnotic way of controlling them. Apart from everything, it's a big problem.
plyth@feddit.org · 1 pts · 166d
Does he? He is a reality TV star. How are you sure that it's him who is making the decisions?
Nalivai@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 166d
I don't think he makes decisions. I think he moves through life like a chthonic monster, animated by greed, lust, gluttony, and plague. You don't need to be sentient to be an agent of evil
plyth@feddit.org · 2 pts · 166d
The more supernatural Trump is the less makes it sense that people don't interrupt him.
chaotic_ugly@lemmy.zip · -3 pts · 167d
This is a hindsight thing. He was just elected. Unlike Trump, we didn't learn until 2 or 3 years into the war that GWB was an absolute moron. In 2001, everyone got behind him and the military. And that includes just about anyone in this thread who was alive at the time, and likely their entire nation, and that's a demonstrable fact.
Edit:
Gallup – Retaliation (Sept 2001) https://news.gallup.com/poll/4891/retaliation.aspx
Gallup – No Wavering in Public Support for War Effort (Dec 2001) https://news.gallup.com/poll/5047/wavering-public-support-war-effort.aspx
Gallup – Americans Say U.S. and Allies Winning War on Terrorism (Nov 2001) https://news.gallup.com/poll/5056/americans-say-us-allies-winning-war-terrorism.aspx
Gallup – Views Mixed on War in Afghanistan (historical polling summary) https://news.gallup.com/poll/266546/views-mixed-war-afghanistan.aspx
CNN / USA Today / Gallup Poll (Oct 2001 support for Afghanistan intervention summary) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_public_opinion_on_the_war_in_Afghanistan
JasonDJ@lemmy.zip · 10 pts · 167d
I recall being a zit-faced highschool freshman and knowing that GWB was an absolute moron.
That would be 1999.
It didn't take 5 years to learn it. It took 5 years for everyone else to accept it.
Mulligrubs@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 167d
I was alive at the time, and I knew it was a shit show from day one and said so.
Not because I'm smart, but because I'm cynical. Never cynical enough, really... things are always worse than even I can imagine
Soupbreaker@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 167d
This is horseshit. Plenty of us knew it before he was elected. It was fucking obvious. I was a teenager in 2000, and I was stunned and appalled that we'd elected such a moron. Just because a large proportion of the country got caught up in post-9/11 jingoistic mania doesn't mean it wasn't clear from the start what a dipshit he was.
FUCKING_CUNO@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 167d
False
1984@lemmy.today · -5 pts · 167d
Pretty sure Trump is not dumb. He is an awful human being but not dumb. He knows where this is going and he is fine with it.
D_C@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 167d
https://studyinternational.com/news/trump-student-wharton/
Basically his professor called him the dumbest person he ever taught and that the orange child rapist thought he already knew everything.
The fat cunt tells everyone that he graduated first of his class yet his name isn't on the Dean's list of 1968, and anyone who does exceptionally well would be on that list.
Also none of the class of 68 particularly remember him.
In short the kiddie fiddler was seen as a dumb prick, and continuously lies about being clever.
Bongles@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 167d
I'd say he's at least dumb in the sense that his age is getting to him. If you hate yourself go back and listen to him from 2015 when he was running and listen to anything now. He should be in a nursing home and we've got him running the country.
Mulligrubs@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 167d
I think he's dumb. Dumb as in bereft of self-criticism, reflection, and wisdom; dumb as only the rich who surround themselves with sycophants can be.
He's always been the exact same clown he is today
Iheartcheese@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 167d
No intelligent human being could listen to Trump speak and say he isn't a moron