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Comment by gdulli | Hacker News Reader

Trump is a despicable person trying to do despicable things. Helping him to limp along marginally less disastrously would be a shallow, short-term palliative benefit.

Our long-term prospects are better if we stumble for 4 years and prove that flushing out competent but flawed public servants, who believe in and preserve the principles of our system, and replacing them with reality TV hosts is not an improvement.

This is an inflection point in history that will inform future generations whether winning an election with lying, demagoguery, and appeal to fear is a winning long-term strategy or a losing one.

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So how is it better for Travis to quit now rather than in two or three years after he can credibly talk about specific things the council has been tasked with?

It seems that Travis was essentially shamed into virtue signaling by quitting.

The fact that you see the world in terms of people signalling virtue and not sincerely believing in virtue says more about you than it does about them.

> not sincerely believing

At the time Travis was invited to join the council, there was already more than enough information known about Trump to warrant declining the invitation.

This is a silly statement. It's almost impossible not to think he left his position on the advisory council due to the fantastic level of backlash his company has received over the last couple of weeks. To think he is doing anything except trying to stop the bleeding seems willfully ignorant.

I don't understand. What has Trump done during his presidency that calls for such outrage?

Temporarily closing the border to foreigners may hurt the economy. It may hurt the US status abroad. It may even frighten people because we all know what closing the borders usually is a prelude to.

However it will not destroy America. It does not automatically make the US a fascist state.

My view is that the US, the UK, France, and Germany are entering a period where they will draw back from international affairs and focus on domestic policy. This isolationism in the US already reminds me of existing protectionism, and pro-homeland sentiment in Europe.

> a shallow, short-term palliative benefit.

A shallow, short-term palliative benefit is still a benefit, might make a big difference to a lot of people, and shouldn't be dismissed out of hand but weighed against alternatives.

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