Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Valdhammer]

What? What the fuck is this supposed to mean? Spanish doesn't help anyone right now? Were they supposed to just appease all of the racists for no reason? That's stupid.

I agree that we shouldn’t be appeasing racists but I am also generally in favor of not giving the racist cult that wields all of the political power at present further ammunition in their calls that Spanish speaking immigrants are “taking over” America because doing that will result in more deaths and more misery.

It’s anecdotal and may not mean much in the grand scheme, but I watched the game with a group of friends that included two latino couples, and they were all quite irritated by it. They feel unsafe every day as is and didn’t think this would help diffuse the tension. They were quite visibly uncomfortable and it made me feel really bad.

[Kaleredar]

I agree that we shouldn’t be appeasing racists but I am also generally in favor of not giving the racist cult that wields all of the political power at present further ammunition in their calls that Spanish speaking immigrants are “taking over” America because doing that will result in more deaths and more misery.

It’s anecdotal and may not mean much in the grand scheme, but I watched the game with a group of friends that included two latino couples, and they were all quite irritated by it. They feel unsafe every day as is and didn’t think this would help diffuse the tension. They were quite visibly uncomfortable and it made me feel really bad.

Saying “don’t give them excuses” isn’t really relevant… because they’ll make them up regardless. So might as well actually give them the middle finger instead of having them afterwards make up that you were giving them the middle finger in who knows what other way.

There are a lot of people unhappy with the Trump administration who are quite heartened to see people intentionally nettling and pissing him off. Doing it on such a national scale helps crystallize common points of disappointment and spurs dialogue, rather than happily pretending everything is fine while stepping on eggshells while everyone quietly despairs.

Fascists don’t care if you’re angry at them, they’re fine with that and even use it to recruit more to their cause because it makes them look powerful. What they hate and can’t stand is being made fun of and publicly ridiculed

[Fugus]

So what all was the halftime like?

[Endus]

I agree that we shouldn’t be appeasing racists but I am also generally in favor of not giving the racist cult that wields all of the political power at present further ammunition in their calls that Spanish speaking immigrants are “taking over” America because doing that will result in more deaths and more misery.

Bowing to their whims and avoiding Spanish-speaking artists is giving them all that political power for free. It's an act of fear. You're giving them exactly what they want without even contesting it, because you're afraid of what they might do if you don't.

They're gonna spew their racist bullshit no matter what you do. We learned that appeasement does not work with the Nazis. Repeating that mistake today wouldn't just be a moral failure as it was back then, but also willfully ignorant of that history.

We do not need more Neville Chamberlains.

[Bwgmon]

So Trump had a lot to say about the half-time show...

Damn, I figured the Kid Rock special would bomb, but you'd figure Trump would at least pretend he liked it.

[alach]

This article headline is really trying to make it seem like the tariffs, or Trump, are trying to better things.

Do you want another one?
Trump’s Selective Comparison Overstates Trade Deficit Decline
and
Trade deficit soared 94% in November and was higher than a year ago, despite tariff efforts

We aren’t that lucky I’m afraid. I also don’t know how having a halftime show entirely in Spanish will help anyone in this moment that we find ourselves in. It wouldn’t have killed them to have one person on that stage that the other half of the country can relate to.

I sure Bad Bunny was purely - like always - a money thing. He is the #1 artist at the moment. It just makes financial sense to book him. Hell, I'm surprised K-pop Demon Hunters didn't show up given how popular they are, but then Maga would have been angry at the South Koreans.

So Trump had a lot to say about the half-time show...

Celebrating the American ignorance of other languages and playing the "think of the children" card....ffs.

When I was a wee lad we had wholesome SuperBowl concerts where Justin Timberlake innocently ripped the shirt (battle armour?) off Janet Jackson.

Sounds like boss baby did *alot* of hate watching yesterday. He had issues with the Olympics as well.
Trump calls Olympic skier ‘real loser’ after athlete expresses ‘mixed emotions’ representing the US

President Donald Trump called Olympic skier Hunter Hess a “real loser” on Sunday after the athlete expressed “mixed emotions representing the US right now” in the Winter Olympic Games.

I think this is a good thing. The more time he spends infront of the idiot box the less time he spends working on Making-America-Great-Again-For-A-Select-Privledged-Few.
Just kidding, I know he doesn't do any work.

And since trump has invaded our film entertainment as well as sports, and basically everything else in regular people's lives. One more story,

Meanwhile “Melania,” a documentary about the first lady of the United States, plunged to the No. 9 spot with $2.37 million from 2,003 theaters, representing a steep 67% decline in ticket sales.

from Variety

[Dontrike]

So Trump had a lot to say about the half-time show...

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Celebrating the American ignorance of other languages and playing the "think of the children" card....ffs.

He brought up his dancing like I'm sure his father brought up the way Elvis kept "swinging his hips in a suggestive manner." There's not enough clouds for him to scream at.

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I agree that we shouldn’t be appeasing racists but I am also generally in favor of not giving the racist cult that wields all of the political power at present further ammunition in their calls that Spanish speaking immigrants are “taking over” America because doing that will result in more deaths and more misery.

"Don't make them upset," isn't a reason to not do something.

It’s anecdotal and may not mean much in the grand scheme, but I watched the game with a group of friends that included two latino couples, and they were all quite irritated by it. They feel unsafe every day as is and didn’t think this would help diffuse the tension. They were quite visibly uncomfortable and it made me feel really bad.

Personal anecdotes are not evidence of anything past those two having feelings for something.

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Damn, I figured the Kid Rock special would bomb, but you'd figure Trump would at least pretend he liked it.

My stepdad was watching it and it had 4.8 million viewers at that moment, and boy were the four seconds of watching that chat enough evidence to suggest a lot of them were bots. They were spamming "USA," american flag emojis, and other things like that.

[PhaelixWW]

So what all was the halftime like?

In case you're still waiting on an answer to this, the set by Bad Bunny was entirely in Spanish, without even English subtitles available.

For reference, Bad Bunny is Puerto Rican, which obviously means he's American, not that the MAGA crowd are capable of admitting that.

[Fugus]

In case you're still waiting on an answer to this, the set by Bad Bunny was entirely in Spanish, without even English subtitles available.

For reference, Bad Bunny is Puerto Rican, which obviously means he's American, not that the MAGA crowd are capable of admitting that.

Yeah, from what I read, it was unapologetically Spanish. Was wondering if they did something to actively mock MAGA or did they just pretend that MAGA didn’t even exist was the thing that set them off.

[alach]

My stepdad was watching it and it had 4.8 million viewers at that moment, and boy were the four seconds of watching that chat enough evidence to suggest a lot of them were bots. They were spamming "USA," american flag emojis, and other things like that.

I don't believe that isn't the mental limit of an average trump supporter. I watched NASCAR once.

Also, as I am sure most of you are aware, the vast, vast majority of the free world listens to music that they don't understand the words to. I used a K-pop reference earlier, but I talking about other countries and nationalities and languages that really enjoy english pop music. You can turn on a radio anywhere in Europe to hear Elton John or Lady Gaga - without the population being fully aware what they are singing about.
The entire argument against singing in Spanish is just stupid, just like complaints about Bad Benny being a foreigner (he isn't) on a stage that hosted Shakira and the Rolling Stones and Drake?

[DarkTZeratul]

Yeah, from what I read, it was unapologetically Spanish. Was wondering if they did something to actively mock MAGA or did they just pretend that MAGA didn’t even exist was the thing that set them off.

They had a big banner that said "The Only Thing More Powerful Than Hate is Love" and boy did MAGA seem to flip their shit over that.

Everything I've heard from viewers who weren't screaming racist hatemongers, though, suggests that it was an entertaining halftime show, at least for the people who enjoy his music (personally, it's not really to my taste, but he won Grammies for both Best New Album and Best Global Performance literally a week ago so what do I know?).

[Cthulhu 2020]

Bro I thought we were in cool fascism man. That Turning Point USA half time show sucked more than a donkey and hooker show. Holy shit that was god awful. Fucking embarrassing for MAGA

Here's what I don't get, MAGA has all the world's richest men ruling above them, and they can barely manage to put on a half time show that rivals the local high school homecoming half time. Isn't this supposed to be COOL fascism? Isn't that the aesthetic of LE EPIC MEME CULTURE take over that you all promised? Why is everything lame? Why is everything plastic and fake? Why do all these billionaires fucking suck?

[PhaelixWW]

Yeah, from what I read, it was unapologetically Spanish. Was wondering if they did something to actively mock MAGA or did they just pretend that MAGA didn’t even exist was the thing that set them off.

The latter. It may have been unapologetic, but it wasn't antagonistic.

I can definitely appreciate that approach, though it for sure still triggered all the smoothbrain racists out there just as much as if it had been antagonistic.

[Veggie50]

I don't believe that isn't the mental limit of an average trump supporter. I watched NASCAR once.

Also, as I am sure most of you are aware, the vast, vast majority of the free world listens to music that they don't understand the words to. I used a K-pop reference earlier, but I talking about other countries and nationalities and languages that really enjoy english pop music. You can turn on a radio anywhere in Europe to hear Elton John or Lady Gaga - without the population being fully aware what they are singing about.
The entire argument against singing in Spanish is just stupid, just like complaints about Bad Benny being a foreigner (he isn't) on a stage that hosted Shakira and the Rolling Stones and Drake?

I would argue Europeans on average have a much better understanding of English than Americans.

[PhaelixWW]

I would argue Europeans on average have a much better understanding of English than Americans.

What do Europeans know about English?! They're halfway around the world from where it was invented!



...



Or something.

[Kaleredar]

Bro I thought we were in cool fascism man. That Turning Point USA half time show sucked more than a donkey and hooker show. Holy shit that was god awful. Fucking embarrassing for MAGA

Here's what I don't get, MAGA has all the world's richest men ruling above them, and they can barely manage to put on a half time show that rivals the local high school homecoming half time. Isn't this supposed to be COOL fascism? Isn't that the aesthetic of LE EPIC MEME CULTURE take over that you all promised? Why is everything lame? Why is everything plastic and fake? Why do all these billionaires fucking suck?

To put it simply… the uber-wealthy oligarchs don’t care about the dog-and-pony show aspect of it. They don’t look to their supporters with anything other than disdain. To them they’re just useful hot bags of air, not worth spending any additional money on beyond what keeps them in a stirred and angry fervor.

Though I will also say that today’s billionaires are absolutely classless ghouls as well. The uber-wealthy in the past, while also brutal and uncaring misanthropes in many ways, at least had some damn class in how they dressed, what refinements they enjoyed, and how they built and appointed their mansions. And many of them went on to build museums or music halls or other such things. Which doesn’t forgive their egregious treatments of their workers or their own political and social skullduggery of their respective times, but at least the common man got something worth seeing and doing.

Now all we have is the cheap chintz of Trump and the soulless dead-eyed cold minimalism of the tech bros.

[Dontrike]

Bro I thought we were in cool fascism man. That Turning Point USA half time show sucked more than a donkey and hooker show. Holy shit that was god awful. Fucking embarrassing for MAGA

Apparently Kid Rock was lip syncing, at least what I've heard so far.

[DarkTZeratul]

To put it simply… the uber-wealthy oligarchs don’t care about the dog-and-pony show aspect of it. They don’t look to their supporters with anything other than disdain. To them they’re just useful hot bags of air, not worth spending any additional money on beyond what keeps them in a stirred and angry fervor.

Though I will also say that today’s billionaires are absolutely classless ghouls as well. The uber-wealthy in the past, while also brutal and uncaring misanthropes in many ways, at least had some damn class in how they dressed, what refinements they enjoyed, and how they built and appointed their mansions. And many of them went on to build museums or music halls or other such things. Which doesn’t forgive their egregious treatments of their workers or their own political and social skullduggery of their respective times, but at least the common man got something worth seeing and doing.

Now all we have is the cheap chintz of Trump and the soulless dead-eyed cold minimalism of the tech bros.

I saw someone comment the other day that for all his faults, Andrew Carnegie still left behind a wealth of museums and libraries and performing arts centers. Meanwhile, if Elon Musk dropped dead today, the only things he will leave behind are the increased popularity of EVs (which likely would have happened without him), and a bunch of artificial meteors filling our orbital space.

[PhaelixWW]

Meanwhile, if Elon Musk dropped dead today, the only things he will leave behind are the increased popularity of EVs (which likely would have happened without him), and a bunch of artificial meteors filling our orbital space.

SpaceX is more important than just its StarLink component (assuming that's what you meant).

But he's also responsible for the (further) enshitification of Twitter, so...

[Iphie]

I saw someone comment the other day that for all his faults, Andrew Carnegie still left behind a wealth of museums and libraries and performing arts centers. Meanwhile, if Elon Musk dropped dead today, the only things he will leave behind are the increased popularity of EVs (which likely would have happened without him), and a bunch of artificial meteors filling our orbital space.

Don't forget his eugenics project...

But yes, for all their faults the old rich are very different from the modern rich. (and I'm not even talking about the "old money" vs. "nouveau riche" division since that's a different beast altogether.)