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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Parks And Recreation treats them nicely enough. House Of Cards only has one monster (and his wife), everyone else is different kinds of flawed but well-meaning. The other monster is a businessman. Designated Survivor has them at worst be either ruthlessly pragmatic (while still thinking they're doing the right thing) or emotionally compromised. The Veep has them being vapid rather than evil. The West Wing presents them as tremendously idealistic, but it hasn't aged very well, and by today's standards they're a buncha pretentious pricks... but not monsters.
The only medium where monsters consistently show up as powerful politicians is the Comic Book. Luthor, Osborn, the Rourkes...
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.In fairness, Luthor and Osborn were already supervillains, and they started off as businessmen.
...Which lines up pretty well with reality, really.
Oh God! Natural light!That's because they're incomplete. The other piece of them is, "I'm not voting for Trump. I am voting for the Republican Party."
These are people who assumed that even if Trump was a piece of shit candidate barely held in check by Congress, it was a better alternative to a Democrat in office. Or a politician. Or Hillary specifically. Different hatreds, same rationale.
They're also the reason why we can't take it for granted that Trump's performance in office will ensure we win the next election. Because they are going to spend the next four years going, "Trump f*cked up so hard! Thank God the Republicans were there to keep him from doing worse! Those pansy-ass Democrats would have just bent over for him!"
Even about things that Congress, not the President, did.
edited 6th Feb '17 12:02:58 PM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.@Tobias:
100% agree with that, there's a huge problem in western culture of assuming all politicans are either evil, Well-Intentioned Extremist, historical figures with erased political beliefs or idealists completely out of their depth. We really need some positive portrayals of politicians (who aren't historical figures) in fiction.
EDIT: not talking about post immediately above, but post 172742.
edited 6th Feb '17 12:05:08 PM by IFwanderer
1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KVThis is true but hardly exclusive to America.
Funny you should mention that:
There was a story about a jewish man who spoke to his father
, a holocaust survivor and history professor, both before and after
trump got into office, and the short of it is that there are some pretty interesting historical parallels between the two. Obviously we're not at Nazi Germany level just yet, and the professor tried his best to not be alarmist, but even he thinks this is cause for serious concern.
But yes, I have said before that nothing about Trump or what he is, is new, and it feels like people didn't learn anything from history class or the media besides a vapid action movie narrative. Whether that's due to bad teaching, poor critical thinking skills, not enough emphasis on the right things, etc I don't know. Probably all of those.
edited 6th Feb '17 12:07:55 PM by Draghinazzo
Of note: those people I mentioned basically live in a world where America is a one-party nation. You either vote Republican or you hate America and everything it stands for.
They won't spend the next four years going, "Dammit, Hillary should have won the election." They're going to be going, "Dammit, Ted Cruz should have won the primary."
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.![]()
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The number of people in the comments of those articles thinking that they know better than a professor of history and a Holocaust survivor is staggering. Yeah, put away your theories of "maybe the GOP can curb his excesses" and "at least he's better than Hillary". Some people are just plain stupid enough to vote for Trump because they honestly believe having him as POTUS is a good thing.
Defending Trump is meaningless. These folks ain't looking to win debates. To them, they've already won the only thing that matters and the rest of us can just shut the hell up for the next four years.
They aren't interested in open and honest discussion because they don't even really see us as people. They see us as, at best, misguided fools who don't understand the world and, at worst, the wicked tools of Satan here to do his dirty business on Earth.
Radical Evangelism plays a big part in reinforcing that mindset. For instance, abortion. No matter how we try to engage them in discussion about it, they won't give us the time of day because they don't see it as a matter even worthy of discussing. To them, we're all sinful baby-killers who are trying to trick them into selling their soul to our fanatical baby-murder cult.
That's one of the hardest lessons for the left to learn: not everyone is interested in discussing the matter with you. Some folks figure they've got a shotgun and a Bible on their side, and to them, that's the only "argument" that really matters.
edited 6th Feb '17 12:29:34 PM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Brain power and moral are not something you seek in Trump voters. They want a cheap laugh at the government while blissfully and willingly ignore the sufferings of everyone else.
Continue writing our story of peace.It's not really about anything rational. People, by and large, do things for emotional reasons rather than intellectual ones.
For a lot of voters they just really disliked Hillary, and the reasons for why were just rationalizations or post-fact justifications, so they voted Trump because "anything is better than Hillary".
Everyone who is a minority is automatically under fire. By your logic only white hetero cisgender Protestant male righties should run for office.
Continue writing our story of peace.Yeah, well, Obama was a big tall negro, and he still got people to love him. Kennedy was Irish-American. Etc. I'm not saying "she shouldn't have run because she's a woman", I'm saying "she shouldn't have run because she sucks at popularity contests".
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Remember when nearly every autocrat in the 20th was a fool of sorts the parties and power groups though they could control?
I guess no one bothered with studying 20th history beyond WE WON THAT SHIT!.
edited 6th Feb '17 11:45:21 AM by AngelusNox
Inter arma enim silent leges