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Comment by simpaticoder | Hacker News Reader

I've paid attention, and I don't think his goal is to "destroy the USA". His goal is self-enrichment, and side-effects don't matter. He is a master at promising the world, and then deflecting blame when he doesn't deliver, and yet the people love him anyway. It is very easy to destroy something under those circumstances without having the goal of destruction. See Hanlon's Razor.

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I prefer the corollary: Any sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from malice.

At this point, whether it's stupidity, or others taking advantage of that stupidity to induce malicious actions. It doesn't really matter and they should be regarded as malicious and stopped.

There is a sense in which wilful ignorance IS malicious. Whether the fruits of that ignorance are therefore malicious is another question. I'm not a lawyer, but I know that they make a clear distinction between intent and ignorance. That is how, in fact, ignorance (or its appearance), becomes a strength. You cannot lie if you don't know. Even better is when you display ignorance but then somehow also have millions of people convinced they can read between the lines that you are not ignorant. "The best way to lie is to tell the truth and not be believed," as Twain once said.

I agree with what you’re saying here, but I think it’s important to note that as much as Mr. Trump is convinced he is in charge, there are quite obviously people pulling his strings. He’s a useful tool for more powerful people to wield, and their goals loosely align.

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