It’s A Cult.
Like, for realsies.
Nope. Just capitalism doing capitalism things. No need frame the issue as some sort of mass psychosis or cultural pathology when it’s clear that this devolution is a response to deteriorating material conditions. Calling fascism a cult is an ideological evasion. It’s the liberals’ convenient way of characterizing trump as an anomaly as opposed to a predictable symptoms of capitalist crisis. Liberals do this because it allows them to attempt to explain fascism without acknowledging that capitalism itself gives rise to such movements.
There is no Trump cult; there is only textbook, predictable fascism - which leftists have been warning liberals about for decades only to be laughed away. Reap what you sow.
It’s a cult. It just so happens that fascism is a kind of cult. Cults pop up in all sorts of circumstances, and capitalism is one of them.
So let me get this straight, you’re saying that economic systems are cults? Your characterization of humanity is that we went from hunter gatherer cult, to agrarian society cult, to feudalism cult, to capitalism cult? This is the bizarre type of analysis that shows up when you refuse to do any sort of class-based analysis. You can’t just throw the word cult around anytime you speak about systems that large swaths of people take part in - either willingly or unwillingly.
AI image.
Arguments I’m seeing online are; it’s his genius plan to devalue the US dollar so it remains the world currency. When it’s devalued enough he’s use dropping tariffs as a negotiation tactic to get world wide free trade agreements.
The problem? The US dollar is already the reserve currency and there’s no competition for that role. The Euro comes closest in terms of the amount of physical money they have out there in circulation (1.5 trillion) and the US is still a trillion physical notes ahead of them (not to mention accepted as currency in places far outside of Europe)…
World reserve currency is just not a role any other currency has the reach and volume of notes to do.
Meaning Trump is just devaluing the dollar for no good reason.
I still have a hard time understanding how people come to support Trump. Like what led people to become like this? I can’t wrap my head around it. It’s like supporting someone who is bullying you.
A lot of his supporters are born Republicans. Their parents voted Republican, and their grandparents. To them voting Republican isn’t a choice, it’s what’s expected of them. They don’t participate in the Republican party, they just consume it, like American’s consume everything else. Those people will never once question why they’re voting that way, it’s what their parents did, their community does, and it’s what their children will probably do too.
I still have a hard time understanding how people come to support Trump. Like what led people to become like this?
It is never just one reason, it is a myriad of different reasons compounding and mixing with each other. Intentional dumbing down of population, genuine economic anxiety, wealth inequality, algorithm corralling people into their own information bubble leading to polarisation, etc. It is important to put yourself into one’s shoes and think why they think that way. You don’t have to agree with the viewpoint you disagree, you just have to understand. Understanding is the key to defeating extremism.
Don’t forget about the opposition party abandoning large swaths of the country because they’re too hard to win in.
If only one team shows up, then that’s the team you’re rooting for.
Yes and no. There are places that are 90% tribalistic and won’t vote for the opposing party. But more often than not, there are party flip in regions that used to be reliable for one party, but switch to another party. That is what happened with former industrial manufacturing hubs in Appalachia and Midwest when they used to vote Democrats, but switched to Republican thanks to jobs outsourcing. The working class weren’t provided with alternatives. Their people left, communities abandoned with no prospect, many became depressed and resort to substance abuse leading to both personal and generational trauma. These communities are ripe for emotional manipulation by demagogues.
People don’t seem to vote for a candidate any more.
They vote against the other one…
And that does seem to be something both sides are guilty of. They don’t know what they want. They just know what they don’t want.
The fact that I even say “both sides” is a sign the political systems have failed.
People need to be more understanding of Trump supporters. It’s like they say, you can’t understand a man until you’ve walked a mile with a monster third arm growing out of your back. liberals will never understand the struggle.
Just a note that this appears to be an AI generated image. Note the dude up front with an arm coming out of his back. Unless thats a whole jamon iberico that he has stuffed under his jacket, in which case I’d stand corrected.
