Randahl Fink

If someone had told me 10 years ago, US politics would fall apart because a spray tanned criminal, who swears, rapes, and engages in extramarital sex, would manage to convince religious voters, he was chosen by Godโ€ฆ

โ€ฆ I would have thought they were insane.

Apr 3, 2024 at 1:49pmIvory for iOS
Show threadJason Bellew,๐Ÿ’ป๐Ÿค ๐Ÿณ๏ธโ€๐ŸŒˆ๐Ÿปโ€โ„๏ธ๐Ÿ––๐ŸปApr 3, 2024
@randahl you have no idea. I thought we had twenty more years till this happened.
Show threadHavyhh2Apr 3, 2024
@randahl ...we do, in fact, think they are insane...
Show threadbenxApr 3, 2024

@randahl

if you look at the history of who has been voted president in the US, it's kinda not surprising tbh

Show threadMisuse CaseApr 3, 2024
@benx @randahl Yeah itโ€™s like, โ€œReagan again?โ€
Show threadTAIApr 3, 2024
@MisuseCase @benx @randahl pretenders and actors seem to be perfect for the fabrication people desire. We would never choose true leadership so we are given salesmen
Show threadLazarou Monkey Terror ๐Ÿš€๐Ÿ’™๐ŸŒˆApr 3, 2024
@benx @randahl aye, this thing has been inevitable since Reagan. ๐Ÿ˜”
Show threadxs4me2Apr 3, 2024

@randahl

In fact they are, MAGA is a cultโ€ฆ 1930s all over againโ€ฆ clear and present danger.

Show threadTruth Or Consequences โœ… ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ฆApr 3, 2024

@xs4me2 @randahl

Exactly, only today the cult is more controlled by the media and more fear driven.

Show threadphilbeeApr 3, 2024
@randahl Frankly, I still think they are insane. Quite sure of it, actually.
Show threadBob HorowitzApr 3, 2024
@randahl <sigh>
If this keeps up, I'm gonna start thinking we should have stuck with being ruled by a royal family with 10 centuries of inbreeding.
Show threadJoe Cooper ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ฆ ๐Ÿ‰Apr 3, 2024
@randahl Octavia Butler came close to predicting it in 1993, right down to the slogan, "Make America Great Again". Her character was first elected in 2024, so we're ahead of schedule in some regards, though the climate catastrophe we're in looks different.
Show threadAlexa ThyApr 3, 2024

@swelljoe @randahl I have to look into that book!! Donald Trump made me think of Greg Stillson from Steven Kings Dead Zone.

https://mashable.com/article/stephen-king-the-dead-zone-predicted-donald-trump

This 1979 Stephen King novel is a chilling prediction of Donald Trump's rise

The similarities are spooky.

Mashable
Show threadJoe Cooper ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ฆ ๐Ÿ‰Apr 3, 2024
@Elextra @randahl the Earthseed series is excellent. Highly recommended.
Show threadRon BowesApr 3, 2024
@Elextra @swelljoe @randahl I coincidentally read The Dead Zone during Covid and was like "holy crap"
Show threadderptronApr 3, 2024
@swelljoe @randahl Had to look her up. The Parable series?
Show threadJoe Cooper ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ฆ ๐Ÿ‰Apr 3, 2024
@crazyeddie @randahl yes, the Parable series (also referred to as Earthseed by some fans) is my favorite of hers. The Xenogenesis series is also lovely and weird. Most of her stuff is great, though, so I just generally recommend everybody read some Octavia Butler.
Show thread/bruฬno antuฬnษ›s/Apr 3, 2024
@randahl Just wait for the headlines in 2034
Show threadChris AhchayApr 3, 2024
@randahl I read 2000ad, I'm just surprised that it's taken this long
Show threadderptronApr 3, 2024
@randahl If you lived around and interacted with the kind of people who support Trump you would not have been so incredulous. The people they follow quite often turn out to be quite corrupt, cynical, and amoral. Genuinely mean spirited and hypocritical--and the things they say... For them it really seems that Christ is not so much a teacher as a cudgel to bash people with--the people they perceive as "enemy" anyway. I've lived in this country for 50 years and it doesn't surprise me at all.
Show threadSFborn1940Apr 3, 2024
@randahl The really scary part is that Trump, or someone like him, could convince enough people to elect him as president.
This is evidence that a significant percentage of Americans are too stupid to comprehend the damage that is being done by a pathological liar.
Show threadEleanor Abernathy โ“‹Apr 3, 2024
@trainman @randahl I think there is also the issue that many people will be voting against Biden. There is a huge amount of anger about Gaza.
Show threadSFborn1940Apr 3, 2024
@Bron1954 I doubt that their anger is enough to drive them to Trump. In the end, they will vote for Biden.
Show threadEleanor Abernathy โ“‹Apr 4, 2024
@trainman I sincerely hope so. ๐Ÿ™
Show threadAJApr 3, 2024
@randahl Exactly.
Show threadAnvil of TruthApr 3, 2024
@randahl Funny, youโ€™re not wrong, they are insaneโ€ฆ
Show threadunlucio ๐ŸŒ Apr 3, 2024
@randahl really?
I'm from the '80s and Obama aside I don't recall a US presides being much different. Starting from that Reagan with his ludicrously criminal ideas that just plastered the road to all the problems my generation now has to suck up all other the world
Idk, from outside the US we always saw you guys worship that kind of people
Yes, bigotry got a bit worse, but the base ideas seem still the same:
1) fuck the poor, they deserve it
2) individualism to the max, and fuck everything else.
Show threadAleggraApr 3, 2024

@randahl

More like chosen by Godโ€™s adversary โ€” thatโ€™s why he holds the Bible upside down ๐Ÿ™ƒ

But I donโ€™t believe in God or his adversary, just in a bunch of ignorant redneck shit-kickers who need a conman to relieve them of the little money they make.

Poor deluded slobs. If they werenโ€™t so purposely stupid, Iโ€™d feel sorry for them.

Show threadMikeReidPhotographyApr 3, 2024
@randahl Here's another perspective:
Show threadRandahl FinkApr 3, 2024
@mikereidphotography spot on.
Show threadแดฎแต‰โฟ แดฟแต’สธแถœแต‰VOTE IN THE PRIMARIESApr 3, 2024
@randahl just imagine the same, but you're american as well. extremely disturbing
Show threadRandahl FinkApr 3, 2024
@benroyce you have my sympathies, Ben. Then imagine US congress stopping the Ukraine aidโ€ฆ and sharing a continent with Russia. These are scary times.
Show threadLFpeteApr 3, 2024
@randahl
Ten years ago, it was clear that the US #RepublicanParty had not yet hit bottom. The big lie for invading Iraq was successful and George W. Bush was re-elected. So, the next #GOP creature was on its way. Trump's one term in office was as low as we could go, and still be the United States of America.
Show threadJim VernonApr 3, 2024
@randahl As someone who grew up in the 90s listening to Limbaugh (and other like him) and attending various evangelical churches in rural Oregon, I've not been that surprised. Trump has been saying things that I'd been hearing for decades. The Christians who support him also have historically had no problem overlooking the glaring flaws in their leaders and the people they idolize.
Show threadRandahl FinkApr 3, 2024

@jimvernon out of sincere interest: How do they get from โ€œeverything in the bible is legitโ€ to choosing the guy who is the antithesis to every ideal presented in the same bible?

Surely there must be young people putting up a hand to say, โ€œBut the emperor has no clothes!!!!โ€

Show threadA Sentient Glue BottleApr 3, 2024
@randahl Methinks you're confusing effect with cause, my dude. Trump is the symptom, politics were already long broken. He's just the honest face of what the system has become.
Show threadNuncio Bitis ๐Ÿณ๏ธโ€๐ŸŒˆ ๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ธ ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ฆApr 3, 2024
@randahl And the rest of the world followedโ€ฆ
Show threadHashApr 3, 2024
@randahl
He is one mentally sick Potus wannabes.
Show threadzillaApr 3, 2024
@randahl You forget the Newt guy, and the Tea Party
Show threadCoach Pฤแน‡ini ยฎApr 3, 2024
@randahl
had you met many Americans 10 years ago?
Show threadTexty the BardApr 3, 2024
@randahl They don't care. They believe he's the path to the theocratic fascist state they've been praying for/promised for generations. God often uses "flawed" vessels for his work, so Trump's awfulness just gets waved off.
Show threadNick in MoldovaApr 3, 2024

@randahl

If Donald Trump was sent to America by God, Americans must have done something utterly appalling.

PS - Trump does NOT spray tan.
He dips his face into a big bowl of orange greasepaint.

Show threadDuck Marshall ๐ŸšฒApr 3, 2024
@randahl just another cult leader, honestly.
Show threadGregoryApr 3, 2024
@randahl to be fair, his followers are the ones who convinced HIM that he was chosen by God. I'm not even sure he thinks he's been chosen, but he's going to use it to his advantage any way he can. But of course.
Show threadeduqateApr 3, 2024
@randahl "swears, rapes, and engages in extramarital sex", one of these is not like the others.
Show threadEstarriol, Terrorist DragonApr 3, 2024
@randahl don't know why, He is just G W Bush with a bad tan.
Show threadWilfried KlaebeApr 3, 2024
@randahl I do, in fact, think those "religious" voters are insane.
Show threadMarkApr 3, 2024
@randahl Only if you subscribe to the โ€œgreat menโ€ view of history. From a sociological perspective it was already cooked. He was just the one to take advantage.
Show threadOnlyBrownMastodon ๐ŸคŽ ๐Ÿ–คApr 3, 2024

@randahl

Trump is white America.

White America elected a brilliant, biracial black president to clean up after a white idiot who, for no reason, destroyed America's economy and destabilised the Middle East.

White America realised President Obama was solving real problems despite white (Republican) efforts to derail his presidency, and barely voted him in for a second term, even though his opponent was Mitt Romney.

White America then decided to destroy democracy itself: enter Donald Trump.

Show threadExcessive MinimalismApr 3, 2024

@randahl
Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Camacho for president 2026!

Idiocracy was a documentary.

Show threadsmxiApr 3, 2024
@randahl then you weren't paying attention. Sarah Palin. John McCaine looked like he was going to vomit when he introduced her as running mate. Gw bush. Mediocre child of northeast elite privilege pretending to be texan. Lazy. Surrounded with right wing extremists like Cheney. Started war under false claims. The tea party contract on america. Newt Gingrich. Increasingly insane fundamentalist backed midwest types made mockery of gop. History pretends reagan more than right wing b movie actor etc.
Show threadAviva GaryApr 3, 2024

@randahl Couple of things here but I'll start with the comments are mainly right:

1) US politics was ALREADY dead... it just didn't know it yet

2 ) You've never been to the South/Bible Belt have you son? Bc they be living this life since forever...

3) This was already baked in the cake... I'm not that old but when I saw they would forgive a Right wing man (Bush) literally anything this was always going to happen and escalate

I have more thoughts but not space ๐Ÿ™ƒ

Show thread๐ŸšŽ๐Ÿณ๏ธโ€๐ŸŒˆPollute_my_lungsApr 3, 2024
@randahl not surprised by it at all. The religious right has always embraced the worst type of people.
Show threadMike WolfinbargerApr 3, 2024
@randahl Decades of evangelical leaders with the same profile paved the way.
Show threadBlotreport: YESApr 3, 2024
@randahl For the religious, it is a matter of convenience. They know that religion in the US (and elsewhere) is in decline and it terrifies them. They can see their power and privilege (and tax-free status) coming to an end; so the only way they feel they can prevent that happening is constituting a theocracy, and Trump happened to be there when the panic hit. All that jesus stuff went out the window years ago; it is all about the preservation of power and privilege.
Show threadSteve BarnesApr 3, 2024

@randahl โ€“

The level of depravity still seems difficult to believe, but I think deceptive individuals convincing masses they have direct lines to the creator of the universe is much older than a decade and hasn't ever been too hard to come by.

Show threadCluster FckuApr 3, 2024
@randahl but once they added that he is a man of conspicuous gluttonous wealth in a country that adores such lords in life & entertainment, you would quite well have predicted the future