Comments by "KGS" (@kgs2280) on "Even FOX can't save Trump! Anchors struggle to stop Trump disaster | Will's Take" video.
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To the Europeans asking, many, many of us Americans are asking the same questions. I have a few theories, but it would take too long to list them all, but the two most notable ones are:
1. Many Americans have a unique and intense fascination with “celebrity”. Akin to some English people’s fascination with the English royal family). Coupled with their ignorance (see #2, below), they tend to think that anyone very famous, especially actors, whose movies they liked a lot, would make a great leader. Which, of course, does not compute. For example, we had Ronald Reagan as Governor of California, then as President of the U.S., then Arnold Schwarzenegger as Governor of California, and Donald Trump as President of the U.S. That’s all it is, they are literal star struck movie goers, or, in Trump’s case, he’s a TV “celebrity”, and especially for the strong, masculine man they have portrayed, as that goes along with our Patriarchal “American Exceptionalism” trope. And,
2. You may have heard of the expression here: “The Dumbing Down of America”. It was (and will continue to be under Project 2025. [If you haven’t heard of that, please, for the love of all that is holy, look it up. There are many good You Tube videos about it, too]. The first program mentioned was launched by Ronald Reagan after some of his major donors, the billionaire Koch Brothers, who had ties (ownership?) with the organization that sends all text books to a place in Texas where they’re analyzed, generally (at least in the past) to pick the best books for the American schools, and those finalists are chosen for the schools. The Koch Brothers had a plan to only pick books with a lot of truthful history and other general information conveniently left out of them in order to, well, dumb down Americans. Because ignorant people are much more easily manipulated. (Do you remember trump telling his crowd once, “I love the poorly educated!”? This is why. They also cut out classes in civics, critical thinking, logic, and, I’m not sure, but they seem to have also left out debate in middle schools and up. It might seem odd, but they also decided to axe classes in music and art, and I think it’s because articles had been coming out around that time that stated that studying music and art improved the growth of young minds, made them smarter, and made them think more clearly and in more abstract ways, so it fits. And that’s when it all began. Now, the Heritage Foundation’s Mandate for government started up with the marriage of trump with the evangelical right to take advantage of the “dumbed down Americans and join them all together with their desire for a Christian Nationalism which rules every single aspect of governance as well as people’s personal lives, primarily women’s. Someone once described it as 1984 (the book by George Orwell) + Fahrenheit 451 (book by Ray Bradbury) + The Handmaid’s Tale (book by Margaret Atwood and TV series). I think that’s a fair description. I think I should add one more thing: so…
3. Trump sounds crazy to us rational people, but he’s a master manipulator, and he has managed to turn his followers into a real cult, just like Jim Jones did with his church. That’s why we always use the phrase “they drank the koolaid”, because, if you’re not familiar with Jim Jones, he took his people down to Guyana, and when he knew the U.S. Feds were coming for him, he forced all his congregants to drink arsenic or cyanide-laced koolaid, something like 900 of them, men, women and children, of whom almost all died immediately.
I apologize for this being so long, but there were so many things to say about the background and history of this movement and our present situation. I hope it was clear, and that it helped you understand our current situation. Of course, it would be far easier to say - and read: “because they’re all idiots”, but since you’re in other countries, I felt you deserved a fuller explanation of all the nuances. But it is a bunch of idiots being taken advantage of by very rich and very greedy people in order to turn our country into a “Christofascist” (my new favorite term) dictatorship.
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@robhughes645 Thank you for taking the time to read my too-long tirade, and for commenting. You’re right about social media, and yet it is social media like YouTube here that is supplying us with more honest news, as almost all our “mainstream media” has been either corrupted or gagged, so I almost feel like it is a self-correcting system, to an extent, and for now. But I figured that I went on well longer than most people would read, and many in these younger generations might have already figured this out (at least I hope). I’m far too aware that most people won’t take the time to read it, which is why I didn’t add even more to, but I always hope that at least one or two people will read it, and have a bit more understanding, and that they (or you) will share it with others. I can only share what I understand to be truth, and hope that others do so as well.
Sorry to add one more thing, but I watched a new YT video yesterday (I’m sorry I don’t remember who it was by, likely Democracy Now!) about the Federalist Society. I highly recommend it. The Federalist Society is essentially a judicial version of the Heritage Foundation. It explains how we got our current Supreme Court.
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@adougherty8869 I became very aware of that not long after moving here (I’m well below Los Angeles) and I admit I was shocked at how red so many people here are, but at least there are pockets of very blue areas as well, so that’s what saves me. Perhaps, if I had checked it out a little more thoroughly I would have decided on Northern California, but I like the weather down here in SoCal. I remember learning that the “Grand Dragon Poobah” (or whatever they call him) of the KKK retired and lives about 40 miles north of me. As long as he stays up there, I’ll be OK. I’ve been here about 43 years, so I’ve acclimated.
And Orange County (just below and slightly east of L.A. is VERY red, so that gives you an idea what Katie Porter is up against, bless her heart, and I mean that sincerely, not the old Southern way! I really wish her the best, as she’s very good and we, especially that area, need(s) her).
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@Ash.Crow.Goddess I’m planning to leave if for some reason (cheating) he gets re-elected. I just hope a number of countries will be willing to take us as refugees or asylum seekers. My biggest concern is that I’m mostly living on Social Security, which isn’t enough to qualify for acceptance by most countries, and if the Republicans (and trump and Heritage) get rid of SS, which they have repeatedly said they will, I’m totally screwed from acceptance by another country, and won’t even be able to afford to live here, in my birth country, except for on the streets. But, I refuse to live under a fascist dictatorship, especially (as a woman) under a Christian Nationalist one. At least I’m an old woman well past reproductive years. Maybe I could petition the new WOMAN President of Mexico for refugee status. (Yes! Mexico recently elected a woman President, and she’ll take office in October. Can you imagine her and Kamala working together? What a dream!)
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