Quote (Black XistenZ @ Jan 17 2024 04:33pm)

I neither claimed to be against Trump going after the administrative state, nor did I deny that the contemporary Democratic party has grown a strong authoritarian and collectivist streak. ;)

Still: there is an important distinction between a democratically president cutting down non-essential parts of the executive which serve at his discretion, and the president going after other democratic institutions which are coequal to the presidency, rather than subordinate. It is a very reasonable assumption that Trump will not make this distinction and thus check one typical box of fascism, even if he does't meet a lot of the other criteria. Hence, likening Trump to historic fascists is not as far-fetched as you made it out to be. I ultimately disagree with the notion, but it's not coming out of thin air.

Quote (bogie160 @ Jan 17 2024 04:06pm)

I didn't say that you did. My point is that Stalinist Russia was a dictatorship, and yet no one would think to call the USSR fascist. WW2 Japan is generally not considered fascist, and it was an expansionist, militarist state. Calling Trump fascist is to pervert what fascism is, it's just as absurd as calling Biden a communist.

Quote

We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections.

Quote (gnarjay @ Jan 17 2024 04:28pm)

idk, this quote is pretty fucking fascist to me




especially so when you consider that HE and his TEAM literally tried to steal and cheat a democratic election

Quote (thesnipa @ Jan 16 2024 08:12am)

Trump still clearly worse, but is old is a drastic downplaying of it. i dont think biden has the mental capacity left to be an executive. he's a figurehead.

that in itself is another, albeit far less serious, attack on democracy. we're not electing a president, we're electing a figurehead while his unelected cabal of handlers act as the actual president. its not unprecedented of course, Reagan shouldn't have been re-elected either.

Quote (IceMage @ 20 Jan 2024 12:58)

Vouch. Here's Biden confusing Nancy Pelosi with Nikki Haley:

https://twitter.com/BidenHQ/status/1748534604401614968

For real though, I think Biden comes across as older and more frail than Trump, but as far as mental capacity and attachment to reality, Biden is the clear favorite. Biden is older, but Trump is truly crazy. He's far more detached from reality than Biden.

And I think the whole "Biden is a figurehead" thing is mostly meritless. In some sense every president is a figurehead... do you think Trump was steeped in policy nuance? The president sets the direction of change, his people mostly handle the specifics. I haven't seen a bunch of reporting that Biden is checked out as president, he's just clearly an old man.

Quote (ofthevoid @ 22 Jan 2024 17:43)

Fast forward to around 50 second mark where Dimon starts talking on Democrats


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gnQJZW0CyQ

Quote (Black XistenZ @ Jan 22 2024 01:05pm)

He's totally right, but Democrats already escaped their much-deserved reckoning once before, in 2020, because Trump kept shooting himself in the foot. Never underestimate his ability to make a mess out of a situation which should be a layup.

Quote (ofthevoid @ Jan 22 2024 10:19am)

Or the collective forces that were determined to sling every available piece of shit under the sun at him. Don't forget 2020 was marred with years of wall to wall coverage on Russiagate and how no matter what Trump did, he did wrong in regards to Covid. Those two things alone were enough for him to lose.