Hacker News Reader

Comment by grebc | Hacker News Reader

The orange one. Duh.

He’s just one part of the explanation, it’s also all the people who are behind him. He’s mostly a front nowadays. If Trump is gone, things wouldn’t be better with Vance taking his place

It’s the voters that put him back. You could say it was an aberration the first time but the second? Americans are too stupid and selfish to be trusted with the immense power they were given.

“Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed – in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical – and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack. For that reason, greater caution is called for when dealing with a stupid person than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous.”

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison

This is brilliant. How do we reconcile it with democracy though?

Education, healthy media environment, healthy culture of understanding and respect. Exactly everything the conservatives have been pushing against since decades

> the second

The second was very clearly a systemic failure out of many factors. Those systemic failures are the point.

I mean that is the biggest factor now, but also because most of the rest of our federal politicians are also worthless and corrupt.

He's the center of gravity who's enabling the decline at the moment. It's a rare case where doing the thing would probably result in less instability instead of more.

If you blame the loss of trust in America on a single person you live in a delusion.

Don't forget that Biden and not the orange one blew up the most important gas pipeline of the most important European ally^H vassal.

How can you trust USA after that?

I'm not the one asking the question, I'm providing an answer.

That you don't like the answer speaks more to your state of mind than my own.

Evidence points to Ukraine doing it, not the US.

Consider that trust still declined so much more under the current government. How do you explain that?

No matter who did Nordstream and why, there are rational reasons that explain why the different parties might have done it. Even when you've been negatively affected, you can still somewhat understand it.

This is no longer the case under Trump 2. Since this term started, every day begins by checking what random decisions the US made to screw you over today. Treaties and agreements are torn up on a whim, and they can't even come up with halfway sensible explanations hold up to any scrutiny.

The only common denominator the world can see is the senseless cruelty being gleefully inflicted by the senile pedophile leader and his deeply brainwashed followers. The hatred spread by the US is taking root, and they will be reaping it for an entire generation if things go on.

The only difference between Trump and previous US presidents is Trump isn't concerned with facade, so it's pretty obvious to everyone in the USA and outside of it what kind of country it is and how trustworthy it is.

As someone who survived brutal attacks of American bombers during the time of some of the most beloved democratic presidents, I find Trump much better. At least he doesn't even pretend he's a good guy.

Sorry, but I can't take anyone seriously who just brushes off all the batshit insane moves Trump has been making. No, previous US presidents didn't turn the US into a fascist hellhole.

Previous presidents bombed my country. Trump didn't.

If we measure US president quality by the number of people the US directly or indirectly killed, Trump is still one of the better in our lives, despite the latest attack on Iran.

IMO it's obvious that such numbers can only be judged long after the respective government/presidential term has ended, since the effects of their actions obviously reach much further than their last active day due to the changes caused for laws, government institutions and the overton window. Because of this I would point out the many ways he deliberately deepened the political divide both locally and globally, how his government explicitly re-orients their society and institutions towards war, how he and how him fucking up the world economy AND their own ensures that the oncoming climate catastrophes will turn violent much sooner and likely become much worse due to desperation and isolationism. And I'd point out that his destruction of the US government along with establishing a para-military force basically guarantees that the far more aggressive political side will keep control over the world's biggest military as their country circles the drain.

I'm not interested in discussing whether or not only deaths during a given presidents term should be counted, so unless you're willing to discuss under that presumption we won't find common ground.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com