• Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    He did tap into it. I'm not convinced it was a conscious effort though and believe that he happened to tap into it by accident. Right guy at the right time sorry of thing. His ability to rile up people and get them enthusiastic is obvious and that's the emotional intelligence I referred to before.

    At the same time he's a thin-skinned narcissist with hardly any self control, so emotionally stunted and stupid there.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)


    If you want to prove your point, why don't you demonstrate what "smart things" Trump has done that has led to his election victory? Tell me where he's made conscious choices to do things a certain way as opposed to others that paved the way to his election?Benkei
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    My age is irrelevant but good to know you have no basis for your position and like to hide behind your lack of patience and a nice case of ageism. So no argument and no character?
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    If you want to prove your point, why don't you demonstrate what "smart things" Trump has done that has led to his election victory? Tell me where he's made conscious choices to do things a certain way as opposed to others that paved the way to his election?Benkei
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    Great non-argument as usual. You really can't handle disagreement can you? Just like Trump. You must be seeing yourself in him and therefore cannot accept he's stupid.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)


    Are you perhaps familiar with the concept of "single cause fallacy"?

    And yet he has taken over half of the world's leading superpowerHippyhead
    You're not very good at math are you?

    If you want to prove your point, why don't you demonstrate what "smart things" Trump has done that has led to his election victory? Tell me where he's made conscious choices to do things a certain way as opposed to others that paved the way to his election?

    All these processes are never the product of the actions of one man. They require socio-economic circumstances to be a certain way, populism thrives in downturns. It requires a political party prepared to back him. It requires a two-party system to garner that many votes. The idea that Trump would have been a meaningful political player if there was a plurality of political parties is quite frankly idiotic.

    There's a lot of evidence that Trump has the attention span of a fruit fly and cannot plan. He doesn't read, he walks out on meetings when bored, he's consistently described by people who know him as a fucking moron. And despite such direct testimony and evidence in his every day speeches and tweets, all you have is "but he won the election" without any ability as to explaining why he won. I've offered a theory and there's plenty of psychological and sociological work to support that theory.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    I'm getting tired of people pretending Trump is in any way smart in the conventional sense or that "philosopers" are socially inept and incapable of understanding "street smarts". He's connected, famous and he has money. That's what keeps him out of jail.

    Trump is a conman and as such is highly attenuated to the emotions of others. So if he's intelligent then we're talking about emotional intelligence and keeping up appearances. His political appeal is grounded in sounding just like other Americans and saying things out loud that they've been socially conditioned not to say. We all know how great it feels if someone's position we agree with is unleashed as a tirade on other people we disagree with in a way we never could (but wish we could).

    Trump gets away with it because he has power. And the more outrageous he is, the more normal these "social outcasts" feel and they feel heard because here is Trump saying stuff I'm thinking so "he gets me" and "he's one of us" when quite clearly he isn't. That's why we have people dress up like Braveheart and Bullwinkle J. Moose storming the Capitol. That's normal when Trump is accepted as normal.

    So to sum up: Trump is emotionally intelligent (in a very limited and specific way) and stupid in almost every other way possible.
  • Leftist forum
    Thank you for correcting my shoddy memory: heteredox economics!
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    There was a time news moved slower and we got the news behind the opinions of public figures. Now we just get reporting of opinions (whatever some public figure said) because if you're not first then nobody reads your article. Really the only thing done to meet journalistic standards is to make sure it was said or not. So a lot of opinions are catapulted into the public domain without any consideration whether it's true or to be juxtaposed with other opinions or to have nuance added. By the time someone manages to look into it, the news is dominated by something else already.

    The old way of journalism is better but not suited for modern "news" consumption I'm afraid. That's not to say there aren't excellent investigative journalists out there and good background pieces but they've become the exception instead of the norm.

    I'm at a loss as to how to fix that. The only thing I consider that would at least limit the reach and speed at which a lie spreads is to once again prohibit targeted ads, news and videos etc. So that, just because you read a conspiracy theory yesterday, you don't automatically receive the next one in your feed.
  • Leftist forum
    It's a movement that considers every economic theory had something useful to say and that economist should be aware of all of them.

    See for instance this guy :

  • Leftist forum
    Yeah, superconductivity at room temperature is one of the most important breakthroughs, allowing for the magnets to be placed much closer requiring much less size and therefore energy usage. That's the recent game changer.
  • Leftist forum
    Economists like Menger and others have far earlier shown how flawed the theories are, but the most obvious example is the little if meaningless impact of Marxian economics in current economics.ssu

    Have you been living under a rock the past 12 years? Marxist economics has been vilified for years. Like any theory about human action it's flawed but it's definitely experiencing a revival since 2008.

    The way forward is heterogenous economics and Marx is part of it.

    Just looking where most activated goodwill arises from on a balance sheet is a clear indication demand and supply isn't the whole story.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    [irrelevant wall of text whining about something irrelevant]

    Me: maybe it's you.

    You: you're clogging the thread.

    :chin: sure buddy.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    Sure. If I own a newspaper I can demand how it's run. But your original analogy was that of a consumer. I'm just not seeing it.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    The common denominator in all those interactions is you.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    What is Trump doing with his new found free time?
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    Yes, but that's libel law. If my car doesn't start as a purchaser I have rights. If I buy a paper and it's filled with lies, what exactly is the action I can bring? That it isn't fit for purpose? And the obvious defense would be freedom of speech.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    So, we should sue Fox News for pretending to offer fair and balanced news? Aren't they going to say "free speech" and tell you to fuck off?
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/journals/opis/3/1/article-p115.pdf

    Information Apocalypse is here and it's here to stay.

    Private companies, thanks to their monopolies, are effectively censoring people. I find the legal argument, that it's a private business and those censored can start their own site or social network or move somewhere else disingenuous. There's no "somewhere else" when we precisely join networks because of the inherent value of the existing network. (That said, I'm in the process of switching to Signal and dropping WhatsApp).

    To combat this, we can at least do the following:

    1. make it mandatory for any messaging app to be interoperable with other messaging apps.
    2. prohibit targeted ads, news and videos. (It's economically shit anyways: creepy ads suck monkey balls
    3. use antitrust laws.

    Although to be honest the US is probably a lost cause due to how money is married to politics there to an extent not possible in some of my favourite countries (Nordics, Germany and the Netherlands).
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    It's refreshing to see another view. My personal take is that for Democrats it's probably best if they wouldn't impeach and leave this problem festering and dividing the Republican Party. For the GOP impeachment and conviction would be a godsend.

    That's the political calculus.

    The right thing to do? Is dealing with all the underlying shit that lead to Trump and make him irrelevant. That won't happen in the US though.
  • Leftist forum
    His labour theory is a disaster.ssu

    Why don't you tell me what it is and what's wrong with it?
  • Leftist forum
    And even if marxism-leninism isn't so popular anymore, it's totally OK to promote and talk about a philosophy that has lead to hideous totalitarianism and mass murder (unlike fascism and national socialism).ssu

    Probably because neither fascism and nazism have anything useful to say about the dominant economic system, whereas communism does. Marx Das Capital is an analytical piece of work with a lot of predictions about the consequences of capitalism that turned out to be true. His labour theory of value is a continuation of Adam Smith and Ricardo.

    To really understand the problems of corporate capitalism requires acquaintance with Marx, although, perhaps nowadays we could ignore it and read Piketty instead.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    There will definitely be some convictions of regular folks soon and those fucking charlatans in Congress and the White House won't notice a thing, when we all know real culpability resides there.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    Also Giuliani needs to be prosecuted with his "trial by combat" comment.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    Likely. Nevertheless, I do think it would be the smart move for Republicans to support impeachment of Trump and convict him not to every hold picnic office to avoid a possible split of the Republican vote in the future.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    So what's the likelihood of a second impeachment with a conviction that prohibits Trump from ever holding a public office again to ensure he's removed from any 2024 election?
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    It's disgusting to suggest there's moral equivalence here with BLM protesters. There's evidence of police brutality of minorities, at the very least anecdotal, there is no evidence whatsoever of the election having been stolen - not even anecdotal. Giving voice to lies as opposed to truth. Fighting for justice and fairness is moral, fighting against the truth is immoral.

    Unfortunately, even this forum has its share of morons.
  • Coronavirus
    Glad to know someone is safe.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    Nevertheless they prompted an outpouring of anger, grief and denial from his hardline acolytes. “A punch in the gut,” said one. “A stab in the back,” another railed. From a third: “I feel like puking.” — Some Trumptards

    In reaction to Trump his denouncement of the violence last Wednesday. :rofl:
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    For the time being the plurality of political parties means any extreme view probably won't garner more than 20% support and ensures a broader spectrum of views. We have our share of populists of course but so far most of them are idiots in one way or the other. Our current popular populist hates women, which is always a nice way to alienate 80% of women.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    You ain't much if you ain't Dutch (or Norwegian, Swedish, Finish, Danish or German). All these countries have far superior, functional democracies, welfare, happiness, legal systems etc. than the US could ever achieve. And they're still problematic in a lot of areas.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    Don't waste your time on the Trumptard.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    Cool. Thanks for the clarification. Why is the definition there if it's not part of an actual crime?
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    If anyone cares about why defining terrorism is such a shitty pursuit I wrote an article on it in 2005 already but it never got published by the magazine I approached.

    Defining Terrorism
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    I think "terrorism" in general is a pretty shitty term that no criminal code should have. It's a political term to paint opponents in a certain light. So BLM protesters are ANTIFA terrorists. And here we have Qanon and Trumptard terrorists. It doesn't help. And the legal definition doesn't help either. If we think a particular intent is worse than others, there's enough freedom for justices to take that in account when establishing the sentence. You don't need a separate crime for it riddled with vague terms.

    She was guilty of tresspassing a federal building and possibly some destruction of property. Her intent cannot be derived from the facts we know but let's assume it was to intimidate and coerce senators. Not really the same as mass bombing a residential area and should hardly be sentenced similarly.

    Especially if you realise Trump was intimidated all the way in the White House when people were protesting in the street. And protest is always done to influence policy. The whole clause sets itself up for an insane amount of abuse.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    A terrorist was shot. Cry me a river.Olivier5

    No, this was certainly not a terrorist. And quite frankly if people honestly believe the election was stolen, this reaction would be totally understandable. The problem is that for any outsider not submerged in the political discourse gripping a large segment of the population this looks like insanity. Inside it this all makes sense, are brave patriots and protecting the USA from a Democratic coup intend on implementing socialism. If the election really was stolen, which it obviously wasn't, I would want all US citizens to march on the Capitol and shoot the fuckers that made it possible.

    This is also why some like to draw equivalence between BLM "rioters" and these people. The comparison fails in my view because one have grievances with actual facts (police brutality against minorities) and the others with a lie spun by GOP politicians and Trump. Where the discussion about BLM "rioters" is about the extent to which and how they should protest, the discussion here is whether they should be "protesting" at all.

    In my view, there is therefore no moral equivalence between the two. I don't have anything good to say about the posters who imagine otherwise so I'll refrain from commenting directly to them.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    The USA has, politically speaking, been marching along the edge of the abyss of insanity for four years now, widely supported by almost all politicians of the GOP. Even after Trump's defeat, many Republican senators have backed Trump in pushing falsehoods about a stolen election and voter fraud and protecting themselves and their allies from the consequences of these lies. More than 100 House Republicans backed him in this as well.

    This will not end today, it is in the interest for too many politicans to maintain the status quo by keeping the people distracted from any type of policy, anything to do with improving actual conditions for actual people. The Republicans have set the stage for the next round of elections.

    If people do not know yet what the "information apocalypse" is I urge you to read up on it. This will only get worse.