The Many Faces of US Politics...

[Armagh18]

Imagine if Starmer or Martin posted something like that, they'd be gone in 10 minutes. Don't think theres many politicians in the world could get away with a post like that, Farage probably and some of the DUP/TUV clowns wouldn't lose any voters over it I suppose.

[imtommygunn]

If they tank at mid terms it was rigged. If they don't he wins. It's win win.

(This is the mad world we live in).

[Truthsayer]

Seems incredulous even by Trump's standards. The man is absolutely sick... but what does it say of those who support him? Hitler led a population to do terrible acts

[J70]

Trumps video of the Obamas heads on monkeys.

Jesus christ.

It will barely elicit a glance.

And probably not even number ten on the list of deranged, racist, corrupt shit he did just this week.

[lenny]

Seems incredulous even by Trump's standards. The man is absolutely sick... but what does it say of those who support him? Hitler led a population to do terrible acts

Deep down the vast majority of his supporters will be silently cheering this. Not all of his supporters are racist in fairness but every single racist in the US will be a trump fan and there are plenty of them.

[Truthsayer]

Seems incredulous even by Trump's standards. The man is absolutely sick... but what does it say of those who support him? Hitler led a population to do terrible acts

Deep down the vast majority of his supporters will be silently cheering this. Not all of his supporters are racist in fairness but every single racist in the US will be a trump fan and there are plenty of them.

The process of dehumanising sections of people. American voters have a lot to answer for. The place is immoral kip.
Institutionalised racism and paedophilia now met with a shrug of the shoulders.

[Eamonnca1]

Saw a good one the other day, a short YouTube piece about Theresa May. (I always find former UK Prime Ministers interesting to listen to, they've seen how it all works, and now that they're no longer in the job they're not constrained in what they can say.)

Anyway, she remarked how you used to go into a pub there would be "old Joe" sitting at the end of the bar having too much to drink, and muttering all sorts of nonsense, conspiracy theories, maybe a dose of racism or xenophobia, and things that are just generally not true. Well in those days everybody just ignored "old Joe" and got on with their business. He didn't have a whole lot of influence because there weren't many people like him, they were spread thin across society and were never well enough organised to get together.

Nowadays, old Joe can go online and connect with similar characters like himself. Now he starts to feel like he's part of a community. Now he can talk to people like himself, and one or two of their number will have enough skills to arrange a physical meet-up. Throw in the algorithm, and it starts serving up content that appeals to him, further reinforcing his ideas no matter how outlandish they are.

The rise of the internet has had a lot of unintended consequences. America is the extreme example of this.

[AustinPowers]

Paisley didn't need Twitter or Facebook to  coax the knuckledraggers out onto the streets during the  troubles.

[Eamonnca1]

It wasn't exactly a fringe theory he was pushing. The taigs-as-troublemakers trope was already a well established foundation of Ulster unionism.

[playwiththewind1st]

The Western world is currently being led by an economic & political elite that's completely out of touch, corrupt, immoral, selfish & in some cases, deranged. They are pretty much unchallenged & their sense of sheer entitlement + the pursuit of money / hedonism is never ending. I guess this is exactly where we were due to end up, after 50 years of neoliberalism.

[RedHand88]

Saw a good one the other day, a short YouTube piece about Theresa May. (I always find former UK Prime Ministers interesting to listen to, they've seen how it all works, and now that they're no longer in the job they're not constrained in what they can say.)

Anyway, she remarked how you used to go into a pub there would be "old Joe" sitting at the end of the bar having too much to drink, and muttering all sorts of nonsense, conspiracy theories, maybe a dose of racism or xenophobia, and things that are just generally not true. Well in those days everybody just ignored "old Joe" and got on with their business. He didn't have a whole lot of influence because there weren't many people like him, they were spread thin across society and were never well enough organised to get together.

Nowadays, old Joe can go online and connect with similar characters like himself. Now he starts to feel like he's part of a community. Now he can talk to people like himself, and one or two of their number will have enough skills to arrange a physical meet-up. Throw in the algorithm, and it starts serving up content that appeals to him, further reinforcing his ideas no matter how outlandish they are.

The rise of the internet has had a lot of unintended consequences. America is the extreme example of this.

I've heard this analogy before and it's absolutely spot on. The consequence is that the cohort of people who historically would have been mildly susceptible to it but didn't really care have now become so radicalised and set in these beliefs. Alot of "semi old joes" have now become full blown old joes because of what they consume on their phone for hours every day.

Do you have a link to the interview?

[AustinPowers]

It wasn't exactly a fringe theory he was pushing. The taigs-as-troublemakers trope was already a well established foundation of Ulster unionism.

It was still  a conspiracy theory. And he had a lot of people  believing in it

[AustinPowers]

Saw a good one the other day, a short YouTube piece about Theresa May. (I always find former UK Prime Ministers interesting to listen to, they've seen how it all works, and now that they're no longer in the job they're not constrained in what they can say.)

Anyway, she remarked how you used to go into a pub there would be "old Joe" sitting at the end of the bar having too much to drink, and muttering all sorts of nonsense, conspiracy theories, maybe a dose of racism or xenophobia, and things that are just generally not true. Well in those days everybody just ignored "old Joe" and got on with their business. He didn't have a whole lot of influence because there weren't many people like him, they were spread thin across society and were never well enough organised to get together.

Nowadays, old Joe can go online and connect with similar characters like himself. Now he starts to feel like he's part of a community. Now he can talk to people like himself, and one or two of their number will have enough skills to arrange a physical meet-up. Throw in the algorithm, and it starts serving up content that appeals to him, further reinforcing his ideas no matter how outlandish they are.

The rise of the internet has had a lot of unintended consequences. America is the extreme example of this.

I've heard this analogy before and it's absolutely spot on. The consequence is that the cohort of people who historically would have been mildly susceptible to it but didn't really care have now become so radicalised and set in these beliefs. Alot of "semi old joes" have now become full blown old joes because of what they consume on their phone for hours every day.

Do you have a link to the interview?

I take your point , but all you have to do is look at what's been going on in the world to  make people sceptical.

Venezuela, the genocide in Gaza and the subsequent  Palestine Action demonisation, those cretins who meet in Davos , the Covid scams , Epstein and all his cronies , the Royals, corruption in sport, etc.

The internet, while it does spread a lot of guff , does shine a light into dark corners as to what  the elites are at , and how we're all  being taken for a ride

We all know  how the Gaza genocide has been portrayed, and closer to home , how  we're told by unionism that collusion  was a myth.  We don't need the internet to tell us they    are bullshit

[Captain Obvious]

Saw a good one the other day, a short YouTube piece about Theresa May. (I always find former UK Prime Ministers interesting to listen to, they've seen how it all works, and now that they're no longer in the job they're not constrained in what they can say.)

Anyway, she remarked how you used to go into a pub there would be "old Joe" sitting at the end of the bar having too much to drink, and muttering all sorts of nonsense, conspiracy theories, maybe a dose of racism or xenophobia, and things that are just generally not true. Well in those days everybody just ignored "old Joe" and got on with their business. He didn't have a whole lot of influence because there weren't many people like him, they were spread thin across society and were never well enough organised to get together.

Nowadays, old Joe can go online and connect with similar characters like himself. Now he starts to feel like he's part of a community. Now he can talk to people like himself, and one or two of their number will have enough skills to arrange a physical meet-up. Throw in the algorithm, and it starts serving up content that appeals to him, further reinforcing his ideas no matter how outlandish they are.

The rise of the internet has had a lot of unintended consequences. America is the extreme example of this.

And Musk with his social media ran billionaire machine played a huge role in a 2nd term of that gobshite in the whitehouse.

[From the Bunker]

I chose not to look at my phone. I much rather believe what RTE, The BBC, The Irish Independant/Times, The Guardian/Times/Independent and what our Politicians are telling us. These hold the high moral ground and we should not divert away from these reliable entities.

Looking at your phone is for people who are easily led down a garden path.