we had to put up with the nonsense of Russian collusion for years, — NOS4A2
*hrmph*Yes, and I think that'll have to be the crux of the matter: Did Donald do what Donald did in order to set up a violent insurrection by his supporters in the Capitol? And the answer ought to be that this cannot be established, further is unlikely to be the case.
Trump thrives on attention and adoration. He lives for it. He's a moron and a narcissist, which 100% explains his actions. He lost an election to a corpse, so he has to rationalise that both for himself and his millions of cult followers. So naturally it was a fraudulent election.
The impeachment is floating a very different version of Trump, one who is blessed with understanding of others and the cunning to use this to deliberately guide his mob into violent insurrection without ever explicitly stating that this is what he wants: Trump as master manipulator, shadowy Bond villain, astute strategist and a man of subtle means. That isn't Trump. He has none of those qualities. And yet if we wish to convict him on the impeachment charges, in the absence of an overt call to arms, we have to pretend that is what Trump is. — Kenosha Kid
Any sufficiently advanced cluelessness is indistinguishable from malice.
Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice. — baker
Two variations of Clarke's Laws come to mind:
Any sufficiently advanced cluelessness is indistinguishable from malice.
Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice. — baker
Well there is a long tradition of thought in philosophy that holds, essentially, that "evil is reducible to ignorance", i.e. nobody knowingly does bad things, everyone does what they think is the right thing to do, and is only incorrect about what the right thing to do actually is. — Pfhorrest
we had to put up with the nonsense of Russian collusion for years, — NOS4A2
The Mueller report was damning and would have been the basis for impeachment in any other administration. The problem was, Mueller left it up to Congress to act on the findings of obstruction, and Congress declined to act, because they were so thoroughly bullied and intimidated by Trump. — Wayfarer
Well there is a long tradition of thought in philosophy that holds, essentially, that "evil is reducible to ignorance", i.e. nobody knowingly does bad things, everyone does what they think is the right thing to do, and is only incorrect about what the right thing to do actually is. — Pfhorrest
Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it — NOS4A2
There's an interesting quirk of human psychology that makes us think that if we did it before we'll do it again. If, say, there was a 1 in 10 chance of being caught speeding on a particular road, that might for some time put me off speeding, but should I get away with it once, I'll be more likely to think I'll get away with it again, even though patently the more I do it, the larger my overall probability of being caught. — Kenosha Kid
Sounds like an application of the representativeness heuristic. — Echarmion
I just want to say that I feel stupefied, flabbergasted, stumped by Trump and his supporters.I think ultimately there is a normative element at work here. There is a level of basic competence that's simply ascribed to everybody, and if you want to argue that you lack this basic competence, you will have to provide the evidence. A reversal of the presumption of innocence, if you will. — Echarmion
I just want to say that I feel stupefied, flabbergasted, stumped by Trump and his supporters.
I just don't get it.
I don't understand how someone can really mean those things he says, and yet get so far in life and politics. I keep thinking that what he does is all a carefully thought out strategy.
It's all just beyond, way beyond my scope. — baker
I do things that I know are wrong, but they're little things, such speed a little to make a long journey less arduous. I'm not ignorant of the law or the good reasons for it, rather I'm cogniscent of what I can get away with and that the benefit to self appears to me to outweigh the risk to society. — Kenosha Kid
The myth that spontaneously formed right after it happened was that it was the actions of disaffected, poor, white, working class people — StreetlightX
Ah, the squeeze of political polarization!Honestly, I feel squeezed on three sides -- the same old crap from the Right, postmodern identity politics from supposed "allies" who don't realize they are corporate stooges, and utopian dreams from the Revolutionary Socialists. — Garth
But I do not think the myth is Pro-Trump. Facts, even incorrect facts, do not have ideology all by themselves. — Garth
It is also not quite what has been argued by Democratic Socialists like myself, who see the general lack of social safety nets and dearth of Economic opportunities in America as a factor in the rise of Trump. — Garth
Honestly, I feel squeezed on three sides -- the same old crap from the Right, postmodern identity politics from supposed "allies" who don't realize they are corporate stooges, and utopian dreams from the Revolutionary Socialists. — Garth
the book Les Grecs ont-ils cru à leurs mythes? (Did the Greeks believe in their myths?), Paul Veyne questions the meaning of “belief.” His conclusion is that the force of mythology does not consist in believing a metaphor literally, in forgetting about the brackets before and after the metaphoric enunciation. Mythological belief (like memetic contagion) today similarly enables a sort of pragmatic coherence in the life of “believers.” It gives sense to the world of those who heed such mythology, amidst a world that has lost any sense. — StreetlightX
Who] thinks that Trumpists “believe” in the words of Trump in a literal sense — StreetlightX
The American crisis is not generated by the perverted effects of mass communication. It is generated by the contradictions that emerge from the racist nature of the most violent country of all time". — StreetlightX
That was harder to do in the past, and a technology which facilitates immediate response facilitates emotional reaction. — Ciceronianus the White
Well, perhaps not of all time. The Assyrians were an extremely violent people/country/empire, if the inscriptions attributed to Ashurbanipal are any indication, and gloried in the violence they inflicted. — Ciceronianus the White
And lets not talk about the nuclear disintergration of Japanese civilians — StreetlightX
The internet is isn't introducing something new. It's just speeding things up. — frank
The Assyrians did not ring the earth with military bases and conduct violent military campaigns on every continent bar Antartica. — StreetlightX
Your lack of nuance amounts to ignorance that is ultimately misleading, your one bean of truth lost in your potful of fantastical fanaticism - an ignorance that becomes stupid in what it chooses and ignores. For whom or what are you an apologist or advocate - what are you for?I don't believe I stuttered. The Assyrians did not ring the earth with military bases.... — StreetlightX
As for this - I'd be more forceful. It's not just a lack - as though something just so happens to be missing. There is very much an active campaign, pursued at the level of policy and public consciousness, to maintain those lack of safety nets and economic opportunity. It's not a passive lack. There are forces that actively work against such things. The problem is political before it is economic. — StreetlightX
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