Again, I think the term “stupid” is just a pejorative at this point. If he was a democrat who kept winning upset elections and outfoxing supposedly superior opponents, what kind of liberal would talk about him this way?
For direct comparison, I agree that Biden is stupid. Though I do think he was less stupid at earlier points in his life.
He’s not fixated on looking like a braniac
He is not capable of even looking like a brainiac unless the audience is also stupid or easily fooled (which is basically being temporarily stupid).
So who really looks like the dumb-dumb here?
Trump still looks stupid. He definitely is opportunistic and he is surrounded by some people that think strategically and long-term. But he’s still the sloppy, stupid opportunist. He’s every bit the farcical version of Hitler that Marx’s quip predicts.
I feel like you’re reading into me saying he’s stupid and thinking that means I don’t think he’s dangerous. I think he’s plenty dangerous. I think he’s been continually written-off as a clown that nobody would approve of let alone vote for several times partially because of his stupidity and his seeming unseriousness. But he’s plenty serious and still plentifully, absurdly stupid.
His stupidity helped him on multiple fronts in US politics. It helped him create a frothing base of “supporters” (a term that I don’t recall many using prior to 2016), it helped his political opponents dismiss him as a serious threat, and it even helped him on the debate stage where if he could string together a series of loud words it was considered a victory for him.
I do think he was less stupid at earlier points in his life.
He rubber stamped Clarence Thomas through the judiciary committee and bought the Bush “WMDs” lie hook, line, and sinker. Also had his hands all over the Patriot Act of 2001 (and it’s iterative reauthorizations) and the Bankruptcy Bill of 2005, which accelerated us into our modern fascist state.
Evil or Stupid, take your pick. But the man who delivered Strom Thurmond’s eulogy was one fucked choice for party leader.
I think he’s plenty dangerous. I think he’s been continually written-off as a clown that nobody would approve of let alone vote for several times partially because of his stupidity and his seeming unseriousness. But he’s plenty serious and still plentifully, absurdly stupid.
I’ll spot you Trump as “useful idiot”, but he’s been very successful at getting what he wants (money, fame, power, a slavishly loyal paramilitary intent on ethnically cleansing the country).
Maybe the US is just predisposed to delivering those results and Trump was dealt a winning hand at birth. But you can only call the guy cleaning up all the chips at the table “stupid” for so long before you start looking like a sore loser.
He knows exactly what he needs to know in order to get what he desires. And they’re been nothing I’ve seen, to date, to suggest he’s less savvy than any of the “smart” politicians he crushed on the way to the top.
I’ll spot you Trump as “useful idiot”, but he’s been very successful at getting what he wants (money, fame, power, a slavishly loyal paramilitary intent on ethnically cleansing the country).
His success is on the back of 40+ years of the hollowing out of government by the duopoly of neoliberal politics. He stands on the shoulders of midgets…or weaklings, or corruption, or a pile of invertebrates or something.
Maybe the US is just predisposed to delivering those results and Trump was dealt a winning hand at birth. But you can only call the guy cleaning up all the chips at the table “stupid” for so long before you start looking like a sore loser.
Trump was absolutely dealt a winning hand at birth. He was born a rich heir to a real estate mogul in New York. He failsonned, grifted, and bullied his way through multiple (mostly failed) businesses, failed up, and lived his entire adult life during an era of rapid capital expansion.
Without his riches, as you concede, he would not have the juice he needed to make a splash on the political stage.
If you want to call me a sore loser for stating clearly the plainly visible fact that Donald J. Trump is stupid, then so be it.
The guy thought that annotations on an “explainer” photograph were tattoos despite some of the annotations floating off of the guy’s knuckles. He mused aloud in front of a national audience about injecting disinfectants to cure COVID. He’s a stupid fucking idiot.
His success is on the back of 40+ years of the hollowing out of government by the duopoly of neoliberal politics.
Like a Cordyceps, hijacking the brain of its host and spurring it on to engage in self-destructive activity. And you can reasonably claim that cordyceps is dumb as shit. But you can’t argue it isn’t getting what it wants.
Without his riches, as you concede, he would not have the juice he needed to make a splash on the political stage.
Right. Although I keep seeing liberals cling to the theory that a Gore Presidency or a Hillary win in '16 (or even '08) or a second Biden term would have somehow averted our modern moment, rather than getting here by other means. What it consistently overlooks is the habit of Democrats in leadership - even when they’ve got the supermajorities and the friendly courts and the big municipal governments and major businesses in alignment - tidying things up and then sitting on their hands until they can pass power back to the fascists.
FFS, Bush Jr had the entire finance system handed to him on a silver platter in 2008. He passed control over to Obama, who politely helps the biggest plutocrats in the country get their books back in the black, and then hands everything right back to the crooks who bankrupted the system. The '08/'09 handover set the stage for our modern economic moment. Guys like Theil and Musk and Bezos couldn’t exist in a world without Mega-Banks hyper-inflating tech sector asset prices. Tech monopolies are what created the social media that elevated Trump’s fascist movement. And here we are.
If you want to talk about a politician being a dumb-fuck, you have to wonder at what Barry was thinking when he got in bed with both the Wall Street scorpions (who would immediately stab him in the back in the mid-year cycle) and Silicon Valley (which twisted in the wind for another decade before firmly aligning with MAGA).
The guy thought that annotations on an “explainer” photograph were tattoos despite some of the annotations floating off of the guy’s knuckles.
Trump found some useful propaganda to circulate in order to get people to break his way. By the time he was done, it was the Democrats where trying to explain what an AI generated knuckle-tattoo looks like while Trump was happily cashing the checks Bidencrats signed to unleash his ICE paramilitary across the country.
And you can reasonably claim that cordyceps is dumb as shit. But you can’t argue it isn’t getting what it wants.
Totally agree.
If you want to talk about a politician being a dumb-fuck, you have to wonder at what Barry was thinking when he got in bed with both the Wall Street scorpions (who would immediately stab him in the back in the mid-year cycle) and Silicon Valley (which twisted in the wind for another decade before firmly aligning with MAGA).
I think he had a very common liberal, capitalism-sized blind spot. I’m willing to admit I had the same one at the time. He also was definitely beholden to interests and was 0% of the communist / socialist that everyone continually pretended (and still pretends) he was.
Trump found some useful propaganda to circulate in order to get people to break his way.
One of his team of lackeys presented him the annotated photograph and he confused it with reality. He’s oceans worth of stupid and there are countless examples of this.
One of his team of lackeys presented him the annotated photograph and he confused it with reality.
I mean, back in his first term he put up a table full of blank paper and made a photo-op of it, claiming it was all the regulations he planned to undo.
“Trump didn’t realize he was standing at a table full of blank paper” is a quick jab at his intelligence. But the reality was merely that Trump used a prop to sell a lie that played well with his base. And the photo-shopped knuckle tattoos were another prop to sell another lie.
Was it as cleverly rolled out and executed as the Killian documents that brought down Dan Rather or the Aluminum Tubes video that gulled Congress into war with Iraq? No. But it didn’t need to be. We’re getting the same results regardless of the fidelity of the image.
He’s oceans worth of stupid
He got Congress to sign off on a $145B increase to the ICE budget by leveraging AI generated smears. That’s not what I’d call stupid.
But the reality was merely that Trump used a prop to sell a lie that played well with his base.
His base is stupid too. We’ve already been over this. 🥱
And the photo-shopped knuckle tattoos were another prop to sell another lie.
It wasn’t mearly photoshopped. It was annotated. He insisted that the 20pt Arial annotations were actually tattoos.
If you want to believe he’s some type of genius, it’s clear I’m not going to be able to convince you otherwise. So I’ll man woman person TV camera see my way out. Covfefe!
His base has been indoctrinated over a lifetime to believe white nationalist propaganda. The Republican Party has been flirting with white nationalists since… well… Rutherford B. Hayes. But not since McKinley have they ever delivered on Trump’s scale.
They don’t care that the image is fake, either. They just want thirty years of “the brown people are invading, we have to fight back!” to pay off.
He insisted that the 20pt Arial annotations were actually tattoos.
Almost as though its value was in propaganda rather than fact.
The national humiliation that accompanies Trump’s rise is that he is clearly and painfully stupid and that it does not matter.
He telegraphs his movements. He loudly announces all of his intentions. It does not matter, because the game is rigged.
It’s not isolated to Trump. Every business idiot in the last quarter century has gotten this type of treatment (https://www.wheresyoured.at/make-fun-of-them/) despite the fact that they continually promise vague bullshit and cannot even deliver upon that.
America is a place where we tell ourselves that the “American Dream” is a real possibility, despite all of the contrary evidence. We write whole tomes based upon the supposition of “meritocracy” in a country where it is amongst the least likely to be true. Class mobility in the United States has been less possible decade after decade for the last half-century and the yet this type of “rise and grind” mythology has become even more popular. (I think these types of paradoxical phenomena are everywhere you look in America, but that’s a completely different discussion.)
The idea of the powerful, rich, famous, or the grand trifecta being complete fucking dunderheads that Peter principle their way into further destroying any justice or good works of our country on the backs of their own greed is something that is too painful for most people to fathom, but it’s nonetheless true.
He’s stupid. It doesn’t matter that he’s stupid. In fact, it’s better for the forces that are trying to accomplish real goals that he is stupid. He distracts us from the boundlessly evil ghouls who would not win an election themselves, but are vicious, ruthless, and competent.
For direct comparison, I agree that Biden is stupid. Though I do think he was less stupid at earlier points in his life.
He is not capable of even looking like a brainiac unless the audience is also stupid or easily fooled (which is basically being temporarily stupid).
Trump still looks stupid. He definitely is opportunistic and he is surrounded by some people that think strategically and long-term. But he’s still the sloppy, stupid opportunist. He’s every bit the farcical version of Hitler that Marx’s quip predicts.
I feel like you’re reading into me saying he’s stupid and thinking that means I don’t think he’s dangerous. I think he’s plenty dangerous. I think he’s been continually written-off as a clown that nobody would approve of let alone vote for several times partially because of his stupidity and his seeming unseriousness. But he’s plenty serious and still plentifully, absurdly stupid.
His stupidity helped him on multiple fronts in US politics. It helped him create a frothing base of “supporters” (a term that I don’t recall many using prior to 2016), it helped his political opponents dismiss him as a serious threat, and it even helped him on the debate stage where if he could string together a series of loud words it was considered a victory for him.
He rubber stamped Clarence Thomas through the judiciary committee and bought the Bush “WMDs” lie hook, line, and sinker. Also had his hands all over the Patriot Act of 2001 (and it’s iterative reauthorizations) and the Bankruptcy Bill of 2005, which accelerated us into our modern fascist state.
Evil or Stupid, take your pick. But the man who delivered Strom Thurmond’s eulogy was one fucked choice for party leader.
I’ll spot you Trump as “useful idiot”, but he’s been very successful at getting what he wants (money, fame, power, a slavishly loyal paramilitary intent on ethnically cleansing the country).
Maybe the US is just predisposed to delivering those results and Trump was dealt a winning hand at birth. But you can only call the guy cleaning up all the chips at the table “stupid” for so long before you start looking like a sore loser.
He knows exactly what he needs to know in order to get what he desires. And they’re been nothing I’ve seen, to date, to suggest he’s less savvy than any of the “smart” politicians he crushed on the way to the top.
His success is on the back of 40+ years of the hollowing out of government by the duopoly of neoliberal politics. He stands on the shoulders of midgets…or weaklings, or corruption, or a pile of invertebrates or something.
Trump was absolutely dealt a winning hand at birth. He was born a rich heir to a real estate mogul in New York. He failsonned, grifted, and bullied his way through multiple (mostly failed) businesses, failed up, and lived his entire adult life during an era of rapid capital expansion.
Without his riches, as you concede, he would not have the juice he needed to make a splash on the political stage.
If you want to call me a sore loser for stating clearly the plainly visible fact that Donald J. Trump is stupid, then so be it.
The guy thought that annotations on an “explainer” photograph were tattoos despite some of the annotations floating off of the guy’s knuckles. He mused aloud in front of a national audience about injecting disinfectants to cure COVID. He’s a stupid fucking idiot.
Like a Cordyceps, hijacking the brain of its host and spurring it on to engage in self-destructive activity. And you can reasonably claim that cordyceps is dumb as shit. But you can’t argue it isn’t getting what it wants.
Right. Although I keep seeing liberals cling to the theory that a Gore Presidency or a Hillary win in '16 (or even '08) or a second Biden term would have somehow averted our modern moment, rather than getting here by other means. What it consistently overlooks is the habit of Democrats in leadership - even when they’ve got the supermajorities and the friendly courts and the big municipal governments and major businesses in alignment - tidying things up and then sitting on their hands until they can pass power back to the fascists.
FFS, Bush Jr had the entire finance system handed to him on a silver platter in 2008. He passed control over to Obama, who politely helps the biggest plutocrats in the country get their books back in the black, and then hands everything right back to the crooks who bankrupted the system. The '08/'09 handover set the stage for our modern economic moment. Guys like Theil and Musk and Bezos couldn’t exist in a world without Mega-Banks hyper-inflating tech sector asset prices. Tech monopolies are what created the social media that elevated Trump’s fascist movement. And here we are.
If you want to talk about a politician being a dumb-fuck, you have to wonder at what Barry was thinking when he got in bed with both the Wall Street scorpions (who would immediately stab him in the back in the mid-year cycle) and Silicon Valley (which twisted in the wind for another decade before firmly aligning with MAGA).
Trump found some useful propaganda to circulate in order to get people to break his way. By the time he was done, it was the Democrats where trying to explain what an AI generated knuckle-tattoo looks like while Trump was happily cashing the checks Bidencrats signed to unleash his ICE paramilitary across the country.
Totally agree.
I think he had a very common liberal, capitalism-sized blind spot. I’m willing to admit I had the same one at the time. He also was definitely beholden to interests and was 0% of the communist / socialist that everyone continually pretended (and still pretends) he was.
One of his team of lackeys presented him the annotated photograph and he confused it with reality. He’s oceans worth of stupid and there are countless examples of this.
I mean, back in his first term he put up a table full of blank paper and made a photo-op of it, claiming it was all the regulations he planned to undo.
“Trump didn’t realize he was standing at a table full of blank paper” is a quick jab at his intelligence. But the reality was merely that Trump used a prop to sell a lie that played well with his base. And the photo-shopped knuckle tattoos were another prop to sell another lie.
Was it as cleverly rolled out and executed as the Killian documents that brought down Dan Rather or the Aluminum Tubes video that gulled Congress into war with Iraq? No. But it didn’t need to be. We’re getting the same results regardless of the fidelity of the image.
He got Congress to sign off on a $145B increase to the ICE budget by leveraging AI generated smears. That’s not what I’d call stupid.
His base is stupid too. We’ve already been over this. 🥱
It wasn’t mearly photoshopped. It was annotated. He insisted that the 20pt Arial annotations were actually tattoos.
If you want to believe he’s some type of genius, it’s clear I’m not going to be able to convince you otherwise. So I’ll man woman person TV camera see my way out. Covfefe!
His base has been indoctrinated over a lifetime to believe white nationalist propaganda. The Republican Party has been flirting with white nationalists since… well… Rutherford B. Hayes. But not since McKinley have they ever delivered on Trump’s scale.
They don’t care that the image is fake, either. They just want thirty years of “the brown people are invading, we have to fight back!” to pay off.
Almost as though its value was in propaganda rather than fact.
The national humiliation that accompanies Trump’s rise is that he is clearly and painfully stupid and that it does not matter.
He telegraphs his movements. He loudly announces all of his intentions. It does not matter, because the game is rigged.
It’s not isolated to Trump. Every business idiot in the last quarter century has gotten this type of treatment (https://www.wheresyoured.at/make-fun-of-them/) despite the fact that they continually promise vague bullshit and cannot even deliver upon that.
America is a place where we tell ourselves that the “American Dream” is a real possibility, despite all of the contrary evidence. We write whole tomes based upon the supposition of “meritocracy” in a country where it is amongst the least likely to be true. Class mobility in the United States has been less possible decade after decade for the last half-century and the yet this type of “rise and grind” mythology has become even more popular. (I think these types of paradoxical phenomena are everywhere you look in America, but that’s a completely different discussion.)
The idea of the powerful, rich, famous, or the grand trifecta being complete fucking dunderheads that Peter principle their way into further destroying any justice or good works of our country on the backs of their own greed is something that is too painful for most people to fathom, but it’s nonetheless true.
He’s stupid. It doesn’t matter that he’s stupid. In fact, it’s better for the forces that are trying to accomplish real goals that he is stupid. He distracts us from the boundlessly evil ghouls who would not win an election themselves, but are vicious, ruthless, and competent.