r/politics The Netherlands 16h ago

Soft Paywall Obama Breaks Silence on Trump’s ‘Unimaginable’ Presidency - “Imagine if I had done any of this,” the former two-term president said.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/obama-breaks-silence-on-trumps-unimaginable-presidency/
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u/Deicide1031 16h ago

Obama probably could have gotten away with it if he had a network like Fox News spreading propaganda on his behalf 24/7.

As an example, In the 80s/90s Trump was deemed a clown and actively made fun of because of his bankruptcies and wasting his families wealth. Wouldn’t be until he was portrayed as competent on The Apprentice and later Fox News that he became bullet proof.

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u/An-Angel-Named-Billy 15h ago

Its not even Fox News anymore. Its a whole social media ecosystem created to parrot whatever Trump wants them to which directly gets into idiots brains. Fox News at this point could be the moderate view for a lot of these people.

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u/DevelopmentGrand4331 14h ago

Yeah, there’s a whole world of radio shows and podcasts, Fox, NewsMax, and the Onanism network.

u/circuit_breaker 35m ago

He was so absolutely disgusting when he would go on Howard Sterns show. I'm beside myself that people think this is someone to vote for

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u/Shipairtime 14h ago

if he had a network like Fox News spreading propaganda on his behalf 24/7.

Some chuckle head is gonna come in here and make the comparison so lets head it off.

No MSNBC is not the left wing fox.

When MSNBC goes to court for people such as Miss Maddow their argument is they are telling the truth and are willing to prove it.

Here is the direct quote from the case most people talk about:

"Argued that the challenged speech “is fully protected by California law and the First Amendment because it is an opinion based on fully disclosed facts, is not susceptible of the meaning [Herring] ascribes to it, and—even if it could be considered factual—is substantially true.”

Herring Networks v Rachel Maddow https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2021/08/17/20-55579.pdf

And here is fox news.

"Fox News again moved to dismiss. The motion argues that when read in context, Mr. Carlson’s statements “cannot reasonably be interpreted as facts”

McDougal v. Fox News Network https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/new-york/nysdce/1:2019cv11161/527808/39/

So yeah who do you trust more? The ones willing to argue in court that they are telling the truth or the ones that just flat out say that you cant take their statements as fact?

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u/ThatEvanFowler 11h ago

Yeah, but the very people who need to understand this are the ones who have already been programmed to immediately dismiss it without consideration, assuming they ever even hear about it, which they won't.

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u/WilliamMButtlickerIV 10h ago

It's fucking terrifying how true this is. My step dad, who otherwise is a very smart man, had been sucked down this rabbit hole. I told him about the Fox News court case, and he just brushed it off. The cognitive dissonance is so huge, they will ignore all facts to reconcile their beliefs.

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u/ThatEvanFowler 8h ago

I have the exact same thing with my Mom. She just doesn't believe me. Not about their repeated admission under oath that no rational person should take anything on their network as fact, not about the billion dollar settlement for lying about irregularities in the 2020 election. She thinks that the fact that she has never heard about it on Fox News means that it's not true, rather than yet another example of Fox refusing to tell them what is going on. It's a goddamn nightmare. And round and round we go.

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u/Ok_Information_9382 16h ago

No. He wouldn’t have. He’s Black

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u/JadedAsparagus9639 Indiana 16h ago edited 15h ago

Yeah the first black person had to be absolutely perfect to get elected, and Obama was. They wouldn’t have made fun of him wearing a tan suit for months if they had anything else on him

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u/KarlBarx2 14h ago

Absolutely perfect in his personal life. Obama was certainly not perfect as a President, but the public doesn't care about policy, so the most common criticisms of Obama are, quite literally, skin deep.

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u/bp92009 13h ago

That's not true, he also (checks notes) wore a tan suit and (checks again) asked for Dijon Mustard that one time.

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u/The_300_goats 16h ago

He's only half black. Is that why they're going after the penguins?

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u/terryducks 13h ago

Nah, it because penguins are not wearing ties.

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u/sabedo 12h ago

one drop of black blood in this country makes you black.

that's the sick standard they came up with

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u/DevelopmentGrand4331 14h ago

There’s also an asymmetry in the types of people we’re talking about. MAGA people are particularly conformist, dumb, and uneducated, and used to being indoctrinated into believing silly stuff. There isn’t really a comparable group among Democrats, or at least not such a large uniform group.

They’re too inclined to want diversity and non-conformity.

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u/lake_gypsy 14h ago

Crazy what funneling Russian post soviet dirty money can do.

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u/Jwave1992 10h ago

Yeah. Imagine if Obama had done this but for progressives. Just told the GOP to fuck off and did it. We might actually not be falling apart as a country rn.