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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
The fact that Trump is openly considering removing citizenship as a standardized criminal penalty is probably the scariest thing he's done so far. Never mind that the specific instance of flag burning is protected as free speech, if he finds enough people who agree with him or another scenario for implementing it, it would be an enormous threat to democracy as an institution. The fact that this kind of threat could become normalized in political discourse is really frightening.
This is the absolute bottom end of mindless nationalism, and the Democratic establishment really needs to learn how to fight against it instead of feeding it. America is not a special snowflake and we do not owe it blind, unthinking loyalty.
Furthermore, I think Guantanamo must be destroyed.@Krieger22 That video was surprisingly good.
edited 29th Nov '16 7:50:42 AM by henry42
One does not shake the box containing the sticky notes of doom!@Julian
I'm going to suggest that we stay a way from the Roman comparisons. Sure the Roman Republic sucked, but Caesar and what followed was not an improvement. I don't think either of us wants a repeat of our discussion on the subject in the ASOIAF thread.
As for whether dictatorships are bad...they absolutely are. Yes, we, as nations, have a bad habit of supporting one dictator against another, but that hypocrisy doesn't change the reality that dictatorship as a general rule is a bad thing. I say that as someone who is just as happy to condemn the likes of Castro as I am the likes of Jorge Videla (adjusted, obviously, for how bad each of them was comparatively).
Is it possible to have a "good" dictator? Sure, but it's unlikely. More importantly even the "best" dictatorship is inevitably going to start ratcheting up human rights violations simply by the nature of what it is—to be a dictator you have to suppress your opposition. Human rights violations in democracies, conversely, are not a part of the system, but something imposed upon it.
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His schtick is RT standard
. He still owes them a debt for getting his unfunny series off the ground. Insiders know that he isn't funny, much less does his own material
.
And just because he doesn't condemn Putin despite on RT isn't a mark in his favor. Ever heard of "active measures"?
I have disagreed with her a lot, but comparing her to republicans and propagandists of dictatorships is really low. - An idiotFrankly, Trump says so many contradictory things that it makes "believe the autocrat" unfeasible. Take him seriously, yes, but wait to see what he actually does before commencing freakout.
I'm not saying freakout is unwarranted, but if you burn yourself out freaking before he's even inaugurated there will be that much less energy to actually fight him.
There's a method to Trump's madness
, and certainly to Bannon's. They're (seemingly) taking cues from Putin and co, and seek to make American politics a complete cipher where it becomes difficult to tell fact from fiction and truth from lies. That sort of gaslighting is an essential part of Putin's strategy for maintaining control of Russia's theoretically democratic institutions, and thus far, there isn't really a well charted counterstrategy for opponents to deploy.
edited 29th Nov '16 8:35:28 AM by CaptainCapsase
@Krieger I'll admit that he owes some of his success to RT, but I think he's still been doing pretty well since he left them. The impression I get is that you just don't like him, and I don't intend to argue with you over that..
One does not shake the box containing the sticky notes of doom!Yeh, even ignoring freedom and the people™ and all that, the Repressive, but Efficient ones are few and far between, and not exactly easy to improve, change or limit as a terrible but democratic government is, and it's simply that what allows the creation or persistence of a dictatorial government usually aren't good for the governed. The best you can say is that in exceptional circumstances they're a necessary evil.
edited 29th Nov '16 8:43:45 AM by Stormtroper
And that's how I ended up in the wardrobe. It Just Bugs Me!The New Yorker: Protecting Journalism From Donald Trump
, it's effectively a summation of what's being discussed in the thread right now, but I think it's worth a read.
Did I seriously mess up the country name? I even read the damn article...
edited 29th Nov '16 8:57:04 AM by tclittle
"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."Don't let them pesky facts get in the way of your xenophobia.
1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KVHe was born in Somalia, spent 7 years in Pakistan, then migrated to the US with his family. This means that the Syrian refugee program had absolutely nothing to do with this. Don't try to convince anyone on the right of that, though.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"House Majority Leader, repeal Obamacare now. We will worry about replacing it later
Lol
I can't even get mad anymore. Now I'm just finding some dark comedy in this shitshow for the next four years.
New Survey coming this weekend!I want to point out that this is what Hamilton said according to Jefferson long after both of them had retired. Jefferson's selective memory is well established so there's a strong chance he's fudging the history of this incident.

How I felt about America before Trump: 'We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice. Insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure of the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. God bless America. '
How I feel about America after Trump: 'We the acid scarred victims of history of evil and hypocrisy exalt criminals to office. Vietnam, El Salvador, Chile with lovely missiles, roaring bombs of the rich and the white and the pious and burn children and torture women. Forever and ever, amen. God bless America.'
Oh Harvey Dent and Grant Morrison, the two of you sure have a way with words...