No I am talking about the fake Times article you are referring to. You can link the video if you like?
Edit: I was wrong and thought about a fake article where he said the republicans would believe anything. Sorry Reddit! I underestimated his clowness- huge mistake. Sad!
Were you a child when it happened and are somehow bad at using the internet? Or do you just live under a rock? He said this out loud in front of cameras.
Well no and yes. I have to edit my original comment as well but I can’t believe it.
So I am actually pretty old and for a long time a fake article was circling the net saying trump claimed: if I will ever run for president I will be a republican. They believe anything.
In my stupidity I thought he couldn’t possibly meme it like this, but I underestimated him, realty and this timeline
That’s why Trump thinks ”tariff” is such a ”beautiful word” - his supporters don’t know what it means, and if it’d been called something easier like ”import tax”, they might be more skeptical.
You think he realizes the Arab etymology of the word Tariff? and how it was diffused into the English language through the French? I'm so glad he finds a DEI woke word so beautiful.
Or realizes the same origin of numerals (*)? Or a lot of commonly used words like alchemy, alcohol, algebra, assassin, apricot, admiral, arsenal, azure, azimuth, aubergine. And that is just a few starting with A...
(*) even though actually they go back to India, hence being called Hindu-Arabic numbers
What did you expect? "Welcome, sonny"? "Make yourself at home"? "Marry my daughter"? You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know... morons.
Mel Brooks was a genius. And the delivery made it even better. Watching them both lose it makes the entire scene.
It also highlights that this type of anti-intellectualism is a cornerstone of the social fabric of our country.
The morons part of the line was unscripted. That's why they laughed like that. I love it was so brilliant that it was kept. Doesn't make it any less true.
Thats what makes them even worse. We can't even blame it on innocent buffoons just not being educated enough, they actively avoid even accidentally becoming educated. Its like they know that if they become smarter they won't be able to believe all the dumb shit they believe and that would be boring.
So to make it simple with made up numbers, say you're making $99,999 and the tax for that bracket is 20%, but you get a raise to $100,000 that bumps you into the next bracket and that bracket taxes at 30%. They now think that all of that money gets taxed at 30%. They don't understand the US income tax is progressive.
Oh, that was all Trump. Bad business deals, incompetent money laundering, failed to keep the whales happy, even had two close together and they ended up competing. He's a bloody nitwit.
Surely it should have been a clue for them when he essentially declared that education was the enemy. Or that proof, or fact-checking, should be villified. Or a thousand other things.
Just talked to someone at work and had to explain what tariffs are. I spoke with this person back in November and tried explaining all of this then, including Project 2025. At that time they said "yea, but both sides are bad." Tried to explain what that's exactly the sort of logic that gets the worst case scenario and that they have children and elderly parents to worry about but was brushed off. Some people are just perfectly happy to go through like with their heads buried deep in the sand.
I don't think they're happy to go through life that way, they're just so deluded they cling to the wishful thinking that it won't affect them and they can't get past that.
I don't know. Lots of people I talk to regularly (real life, not online) seem perfectly happy not knowing anything about politics and refusing to learn. It's really frustrating.
Nah, the problem with a lot of " Republicans " is that they have literally been groomed, a la you know what, to believe that anything a rational person says that doesn't follow the group is wrong. I had a pair of non Christian friends who were diehard trumpers. They were also both permanently on SSI.
Thought they were smart until they spent 1.5 hours before a gaming tournament arguing that an assault weapon ban was stupid because one of them could use his cane to "assault" someone.
Trump and the current GOP need to have the population as under educated as possible. I live in a purple area in a very red part of my state. Due to a systematic wording issue with ballot initiatives, our education has gone to pot. This is because the bill writers tend to write them so that scare words are all over the place.
Its been in the works since around the 70s when they started to cut education funding. Then they moved to school funding based on test scores with the higher you test the more funding the schools got so the schools started making the tests easier and its been a downward spiral since
Really a stagnation of public education over 30-40 years. We aren't getting out of this shit show. We are too dumb and we are just getting dumber given policies and support programs for the working class going away. Adult literacy in the United States has generally improved overtime, but it's actually declining in recent history.
Couple that with a dumb, fanatically racist and sexist culture along with social media propaganda and psyop efforts and we are doubly fucked. Especially since we aren't doing anything to address misinformation and foreign interference in our election process. In fact the GOP has embraced misinformation and propaganda psyops because it's what gets them elected.
Then you have the apathy, which really is the reason Trump won. If Democrats voted with the same numbers as they did to elect Biden, Harris would have won.
We have slipped on the slippery slope. The only way to really stop it was to impeach and remove Trump from office the very first time for coordinating with Russia to help get him elected. This is the downfall.
Oh for sure, which I called out as well. I mean MAGA cultural movement really started with nationalism from 9/11, racist backlash from Obama being so successful, anti intellectual cultural movement, and shitty public primary education.
Each of those things can feed back into the other, but the primary cause is primary education stagnation in the richest country in the world. Education combats all of these things.
I wonder what they’re going to blame it on. The retaliatory tariffs? The corporations for raising prices? It would be so funny if we got class solidarity out of this
Also faith. They don't understand the mechanisms of government but Trump is a racist savior to them that whatever he is doing will turn out well for white conservative Christians.
With that perspective it makes sense anyone not in that bracket is against what he's doing and thier warnings fall on deaf ears until thier face begins being eaten.
It's also scary that when his supporters start to really feel the pain of Trump's policies, they're likely to blame Biden/Kamala/Dems. Even when it's obvious that it is Trump's decisions doing this.
Oddly enough, they also rely on tRump's ignorance, which as we've seen, is bountiful. (unlike his "luscious hair") He couldn't totally bankrupt us the first go-round, but by God, he'll succeed this time! And all while playing (and winning) in every fake golf tournament his own golf clubs host. He's such a renaissance man! How many other presidents could simultaneously destroy the world's greatest economy and democracy, and STILL cheat his way to multiple golf titles? I can't believe I didn't vote for him 3 elections in a row! Excuse me while I go vomit... 🤮
His approval rating is still around 43%. The uneducated are staying uneducated. The only way this will change is by educating people whose only exposure is Fox and local news. Two problems - they don't want to listen, and we don't want to meet them where they are.
They want to believe that whatever they say is true. They think, in their daily lives, that something is off because what they think is usually wrong. But Trump goes up there and does the same thing and to them everyone agrees with him. So they get to thinking that Trump must be them. That whatever they think Trump thinks and if Trump thinks it then it must be true.
I know many people that would say that they think the tariffs will drive prices down. It's a feel. And if people just said it, then it would be true.
They think Trump is magic and if Trump is magic and he's tuned into the same magic they were always trying to do but failed, then it must be because Trump hasn't said it yet. As soon as he says it, it will be real.
So what are they really waiting for him to say that they want to believe is true?
Some people learn best by listening, some by doing, some by making lots of notes.
And then there's people that only learn if they get hit square in mouth with the truth. They're the adult versions of kids that will never listen, and will only stop trying to grab something that's hot when they badly burn themselves.
People are that stupid. I recently witnessed a guy on a vanlife sub proudly showing off his ingenious idea of having a chicken coop in the same van he lives in.
The guy was literally sleeping surrounded by bird shit, and when confronted with the criticism and links explaining the dangers of what he was doing, his response to every single one was "that's just like your opinion, man".
You can guess what his political preferences are.
People are mostly stupid. I unfortunately have to deal first hand with a lot of stupidity on a daily basis.
I do sales work in a blue collar industry. I write service quotes using the most basic sentences and descriptions to describe exactly what work will be performed.
Probably about a third of people can't even comprehend the most simple writing. They ask me the most stupid questions because they can't even comprehend 3rd grade English.
Dealing with the public is a wake up call just how dumb half the country is.
All people are mostly stupid. We don’t know everything about everything. We all have gaps. Being interested in everything and learning about life and politics and chickens is a good thing.
The issue is when you don’t want to learn about it and just think having an opinion is enough. When you google something and don’t have critical thinking skills to vet your sources or recognize that some websites are spreading misinformation. That’s when society steps in. Whoever has a stupid opinion or a hateful one has the right to free speech. But so do we. So tell them they’re wrong, how they’re wrong, if it’s hateful call it out and shut it down.
The problem is like with this example that out of lack of critical thinking skills people still don’t get it. They don’t want to learn just want their opinion to be correct and valid. Alternative facts. And in the age of social media where we don’t have downvotes, report buttons for disinformation and community notes don’t count for much, we’re platforming idiocracy and hatred. Obviously this is an easy fix but social media companies thrive on spreading disinformation, starting genocides and antivax movements, coddling incels and nazis, swinging elections, all of it purposely for their own profit and without any repercussions. Society can’t do its thing online when the platform is functioning as a disinformation spreader and silences appropriate backlash to stupid, hateful and dangerous ideas. Solution: not just fine but ban platforms that are found guilty of some of the worst offenses. Other social media companies can take their place just like how bluesky can replace twitter. There’s no loss to society if meta gets banned, Zuck and some moderators held personally responsible for their actions. We would all be better off without twitter and YouTube comments. Set a precedent and social media companies will fall in line. Set a precedent for Fox News spreading hateful misinformation purposely and news outlets will fall in line. Take away tech companies’ power, the power to sell your data and track you, and emphasize privacy of citizens instead and all of a sudden they won’t have this much power to wreck democracy for money. Easy fixes that tech companies fear more than anything.
The conservative subreddits have threads discussing the tariffs, and they don't seem to have much of an issue with them. Only a brave soul or two disagrees.
My dad gave me an essentially band-new television that he had for a couple weeks. It already has the Fox News logo burned into it, complete with the scrolling news banner and a distinct line down the middle (the line that splits two talking heads).
You can try playing a screen refresh video on youtube (I can't recommend any specific ones sorry). For model number there's likely a sticker on the back?
Idk, at first I wanted to believe it was people being disingenuous to sway people to their side. But now? I think people drank the kool aid so fast and hard that they've lost touch with reality. I talk to people who sincerely think, with 100% certainty, that we are going to go through a slight hiccup before america returns to 1950's prosperity. There will be factories and high paying jobs in every town. They'll get paid tons of money for simple jobs like their grandpa. Money will be pouring out of their pockets from the prosperity. I'm actually scared at their delusion because when reality hits them, they are going to be angry and there's a real chance they won't look inward or towards the GOP. They're going to lash out at everyone else and it will get ugly.
Social media is the first line of society for a mass amount of people. and that platform simply spreads bad or misinformation because it's sourced from unfiltered morons.
Even FOX is hesitant to give the claims that "Liberation Day" tariffs will lower costs to the consumer. Hell, even Trump himself said recently it may take a couple of years.
This person is repeating Trump rhetoric from weeks ago.
Suffice to say, there is a problem in the US not only with propaganda and critical thinking, but engagement, as well. There has been no time in my life when paying attention to politics and economics has been more critical, but you can't fix lazy and stupid. At least not the easy way.
Dont underestimate how stupid a large part of the population is. And to be clear I am not blaming them. You can't do that much if you are born with limited capabilities. I do hold the people that abuse those less fortunate. They know EXACTLY what they are doing to enrich themselves.
I mean, if you can put ONE positive on Trump winning the election, it basically makes it so painfully obvious just how fucking stupid we are overall as a country.
I think its nearly as bad that people are shocked there are this many people that are this stupid. The how is that simple, we have A LOT of people who REALLY ARE this stupid now.
I've always been the gifted kid. Always bored in AP classes, got 4s on a few AP exams (I think that was the highest?) and got college credits for it. I never thought I was terribly smart but I knew I was higher than average in a classroom setting. I know that I know next to nothing.
I genuinely thought people were smarter than they are. I had the average intelligence thing skewed towards the right end of the bell curve. I'm CONSTANTLY shocked at the lack of critical thinking. HOW can you go through life like that?!
When I became a manager I started to realize the sheer number of people who just want a job where they do a task with little to no deviation or thought required. And the reason for that is because they are absolutely incapable of critically thinking their way out of a paper bag. Since then I 100% believe all of this. I am not a smart person, but 99% of my success can all be traced back to being able to critically think. Its sad my job for a time was going to different departments having them explain their process to me in 30 min and me pointing out what all these different sections on their screen are telling them for systems I had never seen 30 min prior just from basic logic and what they told me.
The thing that annoys me the most is the complete disconnect from reality because when stuff keeps being expensive or gets more expensive, somehow it's Obamas/socialisms/someone elses fault. It's never because their orange leader doesn't know jack about shit, it's because someone is in the woodwork sabotaging their glorious leaders efforts.
As long as they keep drinking the Kool-Aid and stay in the cult, it will never change. They will be on the receiving end of a delusional madman making terrible decisions, but they will keep believing it's some fictional entities fault.
I mean... my mom is 64 years old, she went to college, she worked in the auto industry for many years, and I still had to explain to her that tariffs aren't paid by foreign countries.
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u/Beneficial-Sound-199 1d ago
I laughed so hard I scared the dog.
HOW? how do people believe this? I mean, seriously did they just break the knob off on the old black-and-white on the Fox channel?