Mercedes AllenThe MAGA cult is built upon a myriad of special interests that traditionally don't play well together.
Find the fault lines. Poke at them relentlessly.
Pass it on.
Esme Ciredutemps@mercedesallen do you have an exemple ?
Passenger@ciredutempsEsme @mercedesallen
The incels want to treat all women like pornographic objects, but the fundamentalists want to completely ban porn.
The libertarians want to abolish the Department of Education, but the social conservatives want to use it to prevent schools teaching that LGBT+ people exist.
The billionaires don't want to pay taxes and don't want anyone else to have any money to pay taxes with, but the cops want the cops to be well funded.
If you read Project 2025, it's riddled with this sort of contradiction. It can't be implemented without first having power struggles between the various parts of Trump's coalition.
Goiterzan/Amygdalai Lama@passenger @ciredutempsEsme @mercedesallen
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this is a social meltdown. They don't care if it "works," they are simply acting out. 💔
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this is a social meltdown. They don't care if it "works," they are simply acting out. 💔
Mark Wyner Won’t Comply 
patzearfoss@passenger I’m very much hoping this incoherence bogs the whole thing down to where its implementation is impossible
I think your hope is right, in that it cannot be successfully implemented as a whole and anyone who says it can is either stupid or lying. However, I also think large parts of it will be implemented, including some of the contradictory parts.
I've said before that we should remember that in his first term, Trump couldn't get the ACA repealed or the wall built despite controlling the government completely at that point. The man is both too corrupt and dishonest to keep all his promises to his base, and also too incompetent to do all the things he actually wants to do. However, he is still going to do a lot of very bad things, some of which are not listed in Project 2025.
I don't think this is the end. I remain optimistic that in our lifetimes, we will see the overthrow of capitalism and the birth of a better society. But the racist rapist who just got elected in the US isn't going to make the journey any fucking easier.
Fabio G.Thomas Zimmer argues that it will be different the second time around:
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/why-the-stakes-in-this-election-are
Succintly: they're better prepared, they've captured the judiciary, they've purged the Republican Party, and the right is more radical and violent than it was before.
I have respect for you and I have respect for Zimmer, I think you've both made salient points in the past, so I should read that and see if I find it persuasive on this. Thanks!
To be clear, when I said "stupid or lying" here I did not intend to insult panicking Americans who are worried about it. My apologies.
I intended to insult smug Right-wing Americans who are bragging about it. In particular, Matt Fucking Walsh, who has claimed that Project 2025 will be implemented as a law in January. Eat shit Matt.
My intent is not magic, but if you're one of the former group, please know that I regret having insulted you.
@passenger I took that it wasn’t directed at me or folks of my persuasion, for sure
Vee@passenger @ciredutempsEsme @mercedesallen
Grab. The. Pop. Corn.
Robert Link
LiverpoolWiz@passenger @ciredutempsEsme @mercedesallen You cannot expect logic from the group of ultra right-wingers since they are genuinely incapable of logical thought. They're emotional copycats of the latest book or newspaper article or social media post that spews hate, misinformation, lies, quackery of the first order etc. #incels #libertarians #billionaires #police #logic
@DevraWiz @ciredutempsEsme @mercedesallen
With respect, I'm not sure you're right.
I don't like fascists, and neither did Theodore Adorno. He pointed out that fascists are often very clever people. Not all of them, true, but then not all of any group are clever. (I'm as thick as shit, for example.) Carl Schmitt was an extremely clever Nazi. So were Werner von Braun and Werner Heisenberg. They simply wanted things that most people did not, but were capable of using their intelligence and logic to go about achieving these goals just as capably as anyone else.
Adorno originally didn't believe this. Initially he predicted that the Nazi state would collapse within six months. When this didn't happen he became depressed, but as a good academic he channelled that depression and wrote extensively about the topic. After WW2 he continued to write, including working with his friend Hannah Arendt on the topic of where fascism comes from and how it works.
I'd highly recommend both of them as theorists to better understand fascism, because right now we are better off if everyone understands fascism properly. Adorno can be very heavy going though.
@passenger @ciredutempsEsme @mercedesallen I take your point. Nomenclature is difficult. I didn't use the term 'fascist' which is very specific. I was responding to the analysis of a particular document issued on behalf, I believe, of the UK Tory party, which is full of total inconsistencies and idiocies. And what does 'clever' mean, in this context? You appear to make it mean knowledgeable, capable of developing theories. Sure, fascists are capable in this respect. Not the idiots in question.
That's an interesting question.
Our society has weird concepts of intelligence and intellectual ability. I'm a former academic and I probably know more physics than most people, but on the other hand I routinely make terrible decisions. Am I very stupid? Definitely. I thought doing a PhD would make me happy, which was the worst decision I ever made. Am I also very smart? Many people and some standardised tests say so. Am I capable of making predictions that will stand the test of time? Hell no, I was pro-Starmer in 2019, which nowadays I find very embarrassing.
On the other hand if I look at Piers Morgan and Nigel Farage, these are men who have understood a difficult industry (journalism and finance respectively) well enough to make their way to the top of it, are capable of understanding how power works to hold onto their own personal power amidst a rapidly shifting environment, and can learn and develop new ideas quickly enough to have avoided becoming irrelevant in the post-Brexit environment. So to me, calling these people idiots would be a mistake. I disagree with them ideologically but I don't want to underestimate them.
So, you tell me. What does "clever" mean? Who, to you, is the person in the world whom you most utterly disagree with ideologically but also regard as extremely clever? (To me it's Peter Thiel.)
@passenger I call people idiots, whether or not they've made lots of money or not; whether they have advanced degrees in obscure sciences, or not. It's when anybody clearly shows, by what they put in or reply to social media or news items, that they have no capacity for discriminating meaning. In the original document, there were, as commented on, a number of irreconcilable statements. One said X, the next one contradicted X. That's idiotic.
donkey@passenger @BenRiceM @ciredutempsEsme @mercedesallen Hopefully it’ll take them four years to have those power struggles..
technetium@passenger @ciredutempsEsme @mercedesallen I admire your optimism, but only the wishes of the powerful will get implemented.
The rich incel will be able to buy women and the fundamentalists will make it harder for women to set the conditions under which they sell themself.
The wealthy send their kids to good (expensive) private schools, the poor wil have to do with schools funded by fundamentalists.
Billionaires are allowed to fund their private army (a well regulated militia) cop work for them.
The rich incel will be able to buy women and the fundamentalists will make it harder for women to set the conditions under which they sell themself.
The wealthy send their kids to good (expensive) private schools, the poor wil have to do with schools funded by fundamentalists.
Billionaires are allowed to fund their private army (a well regulated militia) cop work for them.
Leiya@passenger @ciredutempsEsme @mercedesallen it's gonna crumble so fast, you have no idea. And it will make the right turn on each other because they're gonna blame each other for broken promises. It's almost funny if it wasn't that it would hurt minorities.
Chuck O'Rourke:verified:@passenger @ciredutempsEsme @mercedesallen @BenRiceM ‘Cause it’s for the syndicate and we all have a share.
Sable Shade🇦🇺🍉🗝🇵🇸🇺🇦@passenger @ciredutempsEsme @mercedesallen
If you think p2025 is an actual plan then thanks for playing SHINYSHINYHOOKGULP!
There gunna dismantle any auditing/oversight
Fucking destroy anything that diverts public funds from their interests/pockets
Set self-centric policy
PARTY PARTY PARTY PARTY
PARTY PARTY PARTY PARTY
PARTY PARTY PARTY PARTY
PARTY PARTY PARTY PARTY
GTFO out of dodge
Have fun cleaning up!
Ehproque has moved@passenger @ciredutempsEsme @mercedesallen I assume it will be resolved the traditional way: Draconian laws applied arbitrarily so the privileged are not really bound by them
66gardeners@passenger @ciredutempsEsme @mercedesallen
It should be fun watching them destroy each other.
Michael Busch@ciredutempsEsme @mercedesallen
RFK Jr. wants to ban a whole slew of very popular food products under the pretense that they are "poisons" (while allowing actual poisoning of the food supply): https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:vqtakzi5bityrtbjj4cfan4l/post/3l7ylkvghds2b
Businesses like people buying their products; from toothpaste to Mountain Dew.
Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog.ilovecitr.us)
I have now watched the RFK Jr. video and here is a list of some of the things he says he'll ban if Trump is elected: Mountain Dew Crest toothpaste Children's Tylenol Welch's Fruit Snacks Grape juice Vaseline Children's sunscreen Mayonnaise Gatorade
@ciredutempsEsme The biggest faultline is between corporate America and social conservatives. Socons have already been pushing against corporate diversity programs and while we don't want to give that more fuel, we can prompt socons to start demanding things that affect corporate profits.