More of the same

[luzribeiro]

Trump sharing Britain First. Let that sink in. The President of the United States is promoting a fascist, racist, extremist hate group whose leaders have been arrested and convicted.

He might as well start wearing a KKK hood. The KKK has thanked him for making the likes of them relevant again, by the way. No surprise there.

If he thinks he's somehow helping America by providing justification for Muslim extremists, he's sorely mistaken. Like about anything else, of course.

Oh, and none of what he re-tweeted was true. The guy who beat up that Dutch boy on crutches had nothing to do with Islam, and was never an immigrant. The Egyptian crowd throwing that man off the roof didn't throw him because he was Christian, or because they were Muslim - and the direct perpetrators were convicted by the Egyptian court.

But apparently, none of that matters for Trump and his mouthpiece Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Trump and his lieutenants decry "fake news" all the time, so it may be startling to see the spokeswoman of the president arguing implicitly that actual "fake news" is fine when it suits their political purposes.

As Aaron Blake noted, "The problem with endorsing the use of propaganda is that it calls into question your underlying arguments. If you need fake information to argue for a real goal, it suggests the existing evidence isn’t all that compelling. It makes it appear much more likely that your cause is unjust."

But none of that matters for Trump's supporters, does it? We've come to a point where this sort of behavior has become the norm.

Another three (or seven!?) years of the same, and America's stature in the world may be damaged beyond repair. Not to mention the internal integrity of the American society.

Comments

[mahnmut]

Someone in the Kremlin must be rubbing their hands with delight.

[johnny9fingers]

Oh surely not that old canard. We all know Uncle Vlad to be a picture of probity and a beacon to all right thinking people, all of whom admire his stalwart moral rectitude in these awful times of gay lesbian pinko lefty Muslim-lovers.

O Tempora, o mores!

Speaking as a party of one, with a constituency of one, it is my opinion that Trump’s insane demoticism echoes the insanity of human cultures perfectly. Shame on us.

It’s all gone hugely better than Uncle Vlad envisioned. He didn’t factor in the Anglo-Saxon cultures’ propensity to behave like total fucking imbeciles. Part of the dichotomous set of qualities associated with the language and the cultural notion of democracy in various forms, behaving like total fucking imbeciles as a characteristic is usually corrected by education; which costs money and resources that could be usefully wasted elsewhere on tax breaks for multinationals etc.

The Anglo-Saxon cultures work best, produce more, and are creatively more engaged when they have a benevolent big government and high standards of elite and technical education. Discuss.

Oh well.

[mahnmut]

Um, what canard?

What I'm saying is that America losing its standing in the world and the American society experiencing internal strife and division is something that America's main geopolitical rival, Russia (hence my reference to Putin), would be very glad about. That's all I'm saying. What are you talking about?

[johnny9fingers]

Context.
The first paragraph is meant as sarcasm. Which should be evident from its closing absurdity.

I’m not disagreeing. However what I am not saying is anything about Trump. Whatever Uncle Vlad had to do with 45’s election, or Brexit for that matter, we, the voters, still put Trump and Brexit in place.

Right at the moment it is a bit difficult to process what Trump has done. Jo Cox was murdered by a far right activist shouting “Britain First”. For Trump to retweet false and racist propaganda by a group of fascists who actually go under that name is a bit much. The US is our closest ally. We are all holding our tongues over here for fear of letting folk actually know what we think.

[dewline]

DT-45 is the son of a Klansman. His father was once arrested for rioting, whilst being a Klansman. Of course, he's going to believe that he's doing the USA a favour by doing such things.

[abomvubuso]

Oh, it gets better.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/11/30/donald-trump-blasted-theresa-may-on-twitter-unfortunately-he-got-the-wrong-woman/?utm_term=.a147a7f6012f

[johnny9fingers]

Right, I was waiting to see what would happen without giving my opinion first.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/30/rudd-donald-trump-bigger-picture-uk-us-britain-first

And further. Lord Adonis said "I hope the Prime Minister will now summon the United States Ambassador and tell him the President’s statements are unacceptable. I cannot think of a more insulting or destructive public communication from a US President to a British PM since the American civil war!"

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/30/evil-racist-how-the-uk-reacted-to-trumps-theresa-may-twitter-attack

It is a total disaster for the Anglo-Saxon speaking peoples for its greatest nation and its mother country to fall out. Well done Mr Trump. I don't think anyone but you could have managed it so adroitly. No doubt it will be the best falling-out, the most spectacular falling-out, the greatest falling-out ever. And we know exactly where to give the credit.

[johnny9fingers]

Also it is amazing to me that one of the significant criticisms of Barack Obama was that he had somehow insulted Her Maj (He hadn't - and Her Maj seems to like him v. much) or alienated the UK from the US because of his radical Kenyan father. Nope. Mr Obama is admired, liked, respected, and even, inasmuch as a public figure can be, loved over here. As has almost every POTUS since Teddy Roosevelt. In fact, thinking about it, all bar one, really.

The Donald - a league of his own.

[nairiporter]

It is beyond me, how can a single man undo so much in terms of policies and international relations that it would probably take decades to restore. What kind of system is that?

[johnny9fingers]

One that put him in office, and who still can do no wrong as far as his supporters are concerned.

Which is bizarre given the number of different people he has aggravated. But I guess they’ve all been abroad.

The sort of small minds who could write headlines in the ‘30’s like “Fog in Channel: Continent cut off” voted for him. The British versions voted for Brexit, cutting off the Continent in a fog of stupid jingoistic rhetoric, whilst not realising their Health Service ran on European labour.

It’s part of the package of democracy, and an integral flaw in it, that the mob has to be appeased. As a political Mrs Beeton might say, first build your mob. (“To make rabbit pie; first catch your rabbit...”)