Honestly I’m not even upset. Props for walking outside like that.
Id give this guy a thumbs up and hope he doesn’t rage at me.
This could be in a textbook on a chapter about political zealots in 100 years.
Or, mass psychosis. Or, cults.
Don’t forget treason!
Bold of you to assume humanity will be around then.
I’m hoping the Galactic Federation’s Prime Directive has a clause for imminent collapse, like any RATIONAL version would.
These are the guys who used to bully me for my goth and scene wear. They are such tools and fools. Cowboy dumbfuck
Hey, there are some decent cowboys out there. Let’s not insult them because of this guy. “Dumbfuck” does apply though.
As someone who owns too many cowboy hats, pearl snap shirts, and works occasionally on my buddy’s ranch, I appreciate that.
I actually don’t mind the cosplay cowboys and usually turn the other cheek in matters of fashion because I just can’t give a shit. But this is fucking idiotic.
Back in the 90’s country dancing was the thing in this area. I loved the music and the clothes, and the boots! Sorry if this seemed like cosplay but it was some fun. It felt more respectful than not.
Don’t be sorry, I wasn’t judging. I could have put what I said more gently so that it was understood, but I didn’t think about how it might come across because I actually like good cosplay. I know plenty of people who have never stepped foot on a ranch, farm, or even been on a horse who dress that way. There’s no shame in that. I say bring on anyone who wants to do it. We could probably use a few more people doing it so that people wouldn’t ask if they could try on my hat when I do wear one. Hell, if you mostly cover everything when you get dressed for the day I’m perfectly happy.
It’s just this guy in that hat, that shirt, those shoes, with that tattoo that’s fucking idiotic.
Edit: I drinked and fucked it up. Cleaned up something.
The aesthetic is great and there are some people wearing it that are truly human.
Just not all of them.
And the kind of person who claims even mildly hinting that you’re gay is “shoving it in his face”
To be fair, 20% of goth angst fuel is being snide to those that disparage the fashion.
Plus, detractors make great targets to practice the Scathing Glare on.
Tell me your adult children don’t speak with you without saying it.
Additionally: Tell me you would have inappropriate relationships with other people’s children, without saying it.
Or: tell me you fantasize about sexual relations with your own children without saying it.
These types of people hate gay people for being so “flamboyant and in your face” but these types are super fabulous and the most peacocking people.
Seriously. Gold sneakers, man purse, fancy hat, and a swirly cocktail in a sugar rimmed glass. If that isn’t fabulous, then I didn’t know what is.
And, tellingly, not a single friend to eat with. Dude looks like he lost a bet.
“Lost a bet?” only thing i’d say to his face
That’s the perfect thing to say, but there’s no way I could do it with a remotely straight face.
Projection, projection, projection
It’s like when you let a little kid choose their own clothes.
Absolutely this.
“Of course buddy you can dress up like a felon billionaire”
Except not even Donald looks this garish.
Which is the worst condemnation that can be given by him.
It’s at least cute when they are young…
I’M VOTING FOR THE CONVICTED ELON
Prophetic
I love how these people openly and proudly admit that they’re voting for a criminal to run the country.
While simultaneously putting up signs that read “Back the Blue”. Critical thinking is not their strong point.
And if you were to ask them why, their response: “To OwN tHe LiBs!!1! 🤪”
He’s even got the shoes!
Omg I didn’t notice that detail
It’s beautiful.
A beautiful beautiful mess
The one thing I genuinely like about trumpers, is that they advertise that they’re stupid and a horrible person, on the outside.
You can skip over the whole “getting to know them” part and go straight to ghosting them.
You know how in nature some venomous/poisonous animals have bright colouring to warn not to touch or approach them? Trumpers are just like that.
For being so aggressively against anything seen as feminine it genuinely makes me giggle that they love to accesorize so much.
When you lack a personality of your own.
My daughter moved from Texas up to the Northeast about five years ago. One of the differences she observed is that she says it’s a lot easier to tell which people are idiots in Texas because they advertise it. The northeasterners keep it closer to the vest.
Lmao the guy who’s worried about the “deep state” has a free masons tattoo. Not only is he a walking joke, he’s a walking contradiction.
I’m a Freemason and the amount of bigotry among the older brethren is unreal. I’ve learned many new slurs for Italian people, for instance. Who’s that racist against Italians? Irish boomers.
At any rate, the younger guys (few and far between, sadly) are all pretty much equally turned off, but Freemasonry is dying and the old guys are partially to blame, in my opinion.
Youd think Irish boomers would be racist against the English, ya reap what ya sow and all that. The fuck did the Italians ever do to the Irish, the closest thing I can actively think of wad solved pretty fucken quickly by Niall of the Nine Hostages.
You can watch the documentary Boondock Saints to get a better idea
Never watch that movie. The closest Ive gotten is watching Hellsing abridged.
I’m one of the youngest at my lodge, and I feel this. It was very different when I first started. I’m building us a new website to help keep with the times, but there’s only so much that can achieve.
I’m my time I’ve observed most people fall into one of two groups: those passionate about exploring the esoterica and symbolism, and those who treat it like a social club. The old guys are mostly in the second group, young guys are mostly in the first. I see much more interest in the craft itself among gen X and millennials.
I think as the older guys start passing on in the next 10-20 years, we’ll begin to see a marked decline in that old head boomer bigotry as gen X becomes the old head. We’ll probably continue see a decline in membership for a bit in the immediate future, but I think there will be much more retention of younger brothers as focus shifts from socializing to practice of the craft.
Some old dude tried to recruit me to the Freemasons back in the 00’s. I noped the fuck out of there after I discovered the racism. Just because I look like one of you, doesn’t mean I am one of you.
Good
Who is this guy? What has he said about the deep state?
Have you somehow been insulated from all the insane ramblings of trumpers for the last 9+ years?
I feel sad for him. Watching an adult person be as dumb as a 5 year old, spending his money on those dumb grifter shoes… It’s sad, really
Hey now! Those shoes are the only part of the outfit that kicks ass. Michael Jackson would be all over those shoes.
They are trump shoes
How? They just look like blinged out Converse.
Edit: Stop downvoting people for asking legitimate questions. Some people, I swear!
Then you are blessed to be out of the loop on this. Donny two scoops put these out as a cash grab. I wish I was joking but they are official maga merch.
Yes, I was blessed. Was.
The “Never Surrender” high tops have a hefty price tag of $399, but the shoes have already sparked fierce bidding wars online due to their exclusivity.
A quick eBay search on Sunday showed a pair of the shoes going for just short of $5,000. One Maga supporter claimed to have paid $9,000 bidding on an autographed pair.
That’s lame.
His handbag doesn’t have Trump on it, he’s a fake.
It’s a European Carry All
That’s not his handbag. His wife left it there as a decoy while she “went to the little girls’ room.”
Actually she’s taken the car with her real handbag and is already 20 miles down I-80, headed to California for an abortion, a restraining order, and a new life.
I very much encourage and appreciate that these dildos continue to self-identify so I can give them a very wide berth
A highchair seems fitting
My character creator with only the free items
can someone give me a genuine reason why people are voting for the guy who is a convicted felon, has colluded with national governments, and engaged in corruption, as well as tried to literally overthrow the government. STILL refuses to accept the results of that election.
in good faith. No shitposting please, it’s funny, but i don’t fucking understand it, and i want answers.
Because it’s a cult
that’s a possibility, and if trump doesn’t win this race, it’s extremely unlikely the RNC runs him again, so the question is how many of those voters are unwavering trump supporters that would kill any chance of an RNC candidate winning again.
but it also just, doesn’t feel super likely to me either, like we’re talking about heavens gate level shit, which is possible, i think it’s more likely that these people are simply delusional, and just stupid and misinformed, as harsh as that is.
I mean, delusional and misinformed are requirements for cult membership. It’s a bunch of pathetic people worshiping his brand, image, and “tough guy” persona. He says the racist shit they want to say out loud and they love that. He’s “rich” and they love that too. He’s a poor man’s idea of a rich man. He “owns the libs”. He’s a bully. He’s a narcissist. They eat all that shit up and can’t believe there is someone out there that speaks to all they things they’re thinking but out loud. There’s also a big overlap of his base with flat earthers, klan members, conspiracy theorists/ qanon, and crooks.
Well from my understanding of what Trump supporters think let’s answer those in order.
He’s not a convicted felon, they were sham political trials by the Democrats so he’s not really a felon. The collusion with foreign governments is fake news and also Biden has done it too with the whole Ukraine and Hunter Biden’s laptop thing. He’s not corrupt because he’s rich and can’t be owned by corporate interests unlike Democrats and other Republicans. And the overthrowing the government and election stuff is him fighting for the truth because it was the Democrats who stole the election.
That’s about what they think from my understanding and the problem with fighting against that stuff is that in some cases it’s just a fundamentally different reality then what’s actually happening. They’re just in too deep and won’t ever think critically or realize they’ve been duped into believing all this crazy stuff.
that’s a definite possibility. But i feel like a significant portion of these people would also be the kind of person where if i showed up with a shotgun, and told them it was unloaded, and then had them point it at themselves and pull the trigger they would end up blown to bits.
Like i feel like if you’re this comprehensively mind fucked, you would be expected to be generally mind fucked as well, to recap, they believe the ENTIRE political apparatus is ENTIRELY corrupt and biased solely against trump.
And we do see some of this, jan 6th deniers like that google whistleblower buy just being general conspiracy theorists. But this would surely only account for like 10-20% of the vote at max. There has to be some universal reality between these people other than they’re all literally fucking insane.
A thing that really bothers me, is that this isn’t like vaccine shit where the data isn’t super readily accessible, shit like jan 6th is heavily documented and just out there for you to watch and consume what actually happened. Which is why we see the “it was a psyop” people crop up, but these people are just legitimately insane.
I mean part of it comes from echo chambers and some media outlets leaning into it and pushing the misinformation more. Of course if you actively leave the echo chamber and look for data to back up your position the point of view falls apart. The problem is a lot of these people don’t really care to do that, they get their news from their echo chambers that back up their beliefs and point of view, and anything that slips through that tries to go up against it is viewed as fake and not real. Of course there are a lot of insane people and horrible people who know the stuff isn’t real and just don’t care cause they want their side to beat the other side and go super authoritarian but like you said they’re a vocal minority. The rest who go along with it just don’t know any better and don’t want their beliefs questioned.
the thing that scares me about this option, is that people like this are literally just zombies, they have no critical thinking, and they don’t even want to do these things, they just do these things. This is the reason that the holocaust happened. This type of rhetoric and behavior is what causes fascism.
either, this is compartmentalized to politics specifically, giving them some amount of free will, or it’s just. Not at all. If it’s compartmentalized, who knows what the fuck else they compartmentalize.
I think the one thing that’s given me some amount of hope is the videos I’ve seen of people talking to some Trump supporters that show they at least understand the same fundamental problems that everyone has. They understand corporations have too much power, it’s just they attribute it to Silicon valley people like Bill Gates and Zuckerberg rather then all corporations. The Republican platform has done a good job at redirecting these actual fears and problems to point towards different causes such as Democrats, the government, and immigrants. That at least gives me some amount of hope that they could eventually realize Republicans are actively supporting a lot of the problems that affect them through deregulation of corporations and the crippling of the federal government.
i think a lot of them are either uninformed, or ignorant, there is certainly some amount of rhetoric capture in a lot of them, which is likely to be a significant barrier, but if you can break past that somehow, everything else becomes really easy.
The libs took the power and the control, they are evil. They abort babies, they change the gender of our children. Their system is what accused, judged and sentenced Trump. We have to vote for him to free this beloved country from this evil. Trump is our only guy that can do that. We have to vote for him. And hopefully after Trump is elected he will fix our broken system that brought the libs to power. And they wont be allowed to power ever again.
Not my opinion of course, but I have friends that say exactly this.
The libs took the power and the control, they are evil.
i have never once seen any evidence of this being the case, every statement about this has been pure schizophrenia in my experience. This is also like, a fucking massive claim.
Their system is what accused, judged and sentenced Trump.
who actually committed crimes, numerous times, and is demonstrably corrupt.
And hopefully after Trump is elected he will fix our broken system that brought the libs to power. And they wont be allowed to power ever again.
he was president for a single term and did basically fuck all. He passed like 5 things.
Not my opinion of course, but I have friends that say exactly this.
it takes like 12 seconds to fact check ANY of these things. Why don’t they do it?
They dont do absolutely any fact checking. And dont forget they live a completely different reality than yours. They read and watch completely different news sources. You have your own echo chamber on lemmy and progressive forums and new sources. They have their own echo chamber of forums and ales johnses and media.
i intentionally try not to engage with echo chambers too much, that’s why i focus more directly on individual and collective behaviors. The idea of being “ingrained” into an echo chamber spooks me too much, you can look through my post history if you’re curious.
I think the best answer is it varies quite a bit.
Some people it is a sunk cost fallacy. They went all in on Trump in '16 as the outside, antiestablishment candidate. They alienated friends and family either emulating him or just repeating his insults. Then once alienated from friends family they found solace in other people who experienced similar outcomes. This only reinforced their ideas that they were right all along. Trump not only winning but being right about everything is the only way they think they will be vindicated. If Trump is right then sooner or later those that cut ties with them will come back. If Trump is/was wrong, then they are wrong and if they are wrong they have lost years with loved ones, maybe the rest of their lives with those people due to their actions. Trump is all they have now and they need him to win/be right.
Others I think are just good old conspiracy weirdos. They may or may not have voted for Trump in '16, but Q Anon or Covid conspiracies or Pizzagate got them wrapped up and Trump is their winning hand. He is their way to unraveling some deep seeded conspiracy where all the bad things in the world are the fault of a few people like Bill Gates or George Soros. Trump is also their retribution for all the bad things that have happened and Trump plays into this saying they are after you but he is in the way.
There are probably a few who are just grifters. They dont give a fuck about any MAGA stuff and only are in it to make a buck. They have now seen how MAGA will turn on you if you speak out like Rogan or Rittenhouse and their only choice is to keep on grifting.
Still others I think are people who are in the right wing news bubble. Decades of Fox news or Newsmaxx/OANN, combined with right wong talk radio of hearing how all Dems are evil or working with the literal Christian devil and Trump is the only person you can vote for. Third party candidates you probably never hear of and if all you see/hear is how good Trump is and any bad things happening to him is the fault of Dems then you have no choice but to vote for Trump. I mean would you vote for someone you thought was an avatar of evil?
Finally are probably the ones who I think literally want to be part of a dictator state. Trump is a means to an end. Project 2025 lays out their plans to usurp the entire government with sycophants. They would weild the levers of power to ensure they never have a serious opposition candidate again. The chants of “lock her up” will be replaced with actions. Anyone even remotely left of them would be in danger of being labeled a radical and in need of being arrested and likely never see the inside of a court room.
Most probably hit a few of these but I think these are the major reasons people are for Trump despite his negatives. I think if you ask people though one of these will likely be the main reason.
Some people it is a sunk cost fallacy. They went all in on Trump in '16 as the outside, antiestablishment candidate. They alienated friends and family either emulating him or just repeating his insults. Then once alienated from friends family they found solace in other people who experienced similar outcomes. This only reinforced their ideas that they were right all along. Trump not only winning but being right about everything is the only way they think they will be vindicated. If Trump is right then sooner or later those that cut ties with them will come back. If Trump is/was wrong, then they are wrong and if they are wrong they have lost years with loved ones, maybe the rest of their lives with those people due to their actions. Trump is all they have now and they need him to win/be right.
yeah this seems like one of the more probable options for a percentage of them.
Others I think are just good old conspiracy weirdos. They may or may not have voted for Trump in '16, but Q Anon or Covid conspiracies or Pizzagate got them wrapped up and Trump is their winning hand. He is their way to unraveling some deep seeded conspiracy where all the bad things in the world are the fault of a few people like Bill Gates or George Soros. Trump is also their retribution for all the bad things that have happened and Trump plays into this saying they are after you but he is in the way.
i suspect this one has to be less than like 5% but it’s definitely there.
Still others I think are people who are in the right wing news bubble. Decades of Fox news or Newsmaxx/OANN, combined with right wong talk radio of hearing how all Dems are evil or working with the literal Christian devil and Trump is the only person you can vote for. Third party candidates you probably never hear of and if all you see/hear is how good Trump is and any bad things happening to him is the fault of Dems then you have no choice but to vote for Trump. I mean would you vote for someone you thought was an avatar of evil?
i think this is probably the majority of it, but my fundamental problem here is that this has gone so far that these people MUST have a fundamental disconnection with reality. I.E. be delusional, because it literally takes 5 seconds of googling, catching a random clip of kamalas campaign, seeing some of the legislation that biden passed, seeing how trump just grenades everything at every chance he gets, jan 6th literally being an attempted coup? Like there are SO many possibilities for people to realize “hey something isn’t right here” and they’ve either ignored ALL of them, or they simply don’t believe any of them, making them delusional. So either these people literally don’t interact with politics AT ALL outside of like three minutes a day. Or they’re the type of person to go bomb a government building because someone on twitter said they rape babies in the basement. There’s a fine line between “they just exist in the right wing sphere” and “the entire right wing sphere is a delusional cult” here. Fox news was also sued and lost the dominion voting machine case also, they SHOULD have heard about that, even as a fox news viewer. So either fox is twisting the truth and lying more (or the other outlets) or they literally do not see anything outside of these outlets.
Finally are probably the ones who I think literally want to be part of a dictator state. Trump is a means to an end. Project 2025 lays out their plans to usurp the entire government with sycophants. They would weild the levers of power to ensure they never have a serious opposition candidate again. The chants of “lock her up” will be replaced with actions. Anyone even remotely left of them would be in danger of being labeled a radical and in need of being arrested and likely never see the inside of a court room.
i think this is probably a subset of the first two. More than anything else.
Most probably hit a few of these but I think these are the major reasons people are for Trump despite his negatives. I think if you ask people though one of these will likely be the main reason.
yeah i would generally agree, but i’m concerned that this is still apparently at least 40% of our voter base? Like to me, it has to be SO far out there that 40% of the population genuinely cannot in good faith believe this. So either the vast majority of our population has the political acuity of a rock in front of a television, or they’re all bad faith. And if it’s the former… we’re fucked. Politics was never meant to be this surface level. It’s a functional mechanism for governing one of the largest countries by most metrics in the world. There is no “yeah it’s probably fine” here for me. Another problem that i have is that this is all behind the functioning of fascism, which means a significant portion of our population is directly susceptible to literal fascism. That as far as i am concerned, is a failure of the american project.
You see lots of people say that, “It’s a cult.” and leave it at that.
It absolutely has elements of a new religious movement. They have been brainwashed by YouTube, Facebook groups, telegram or whatever messaging app they’re using now. Real big overlap between Qanon and hardcore MAGAts.
It plays into their bias and tells them they’re special, that they see behind the curtain. Their life is miserable due to a conspiracy by the evil liberals, the 1%, and the Jews.
It short circuits logic by punching the fear and anger button. Most of them are angry and afraid.
Chump didn’t plan this shit, it’s like a perfect storm of bullshit.
Sucks real bad and I don’t think there is any way to help most of them. They’re bent for life even if Chump is gone. They’ll latch on to the next thing. May fracture into a bunch of weird offshoots. Right wing grifters have made fortunes off them. I think it unlikely that many of them ever make it back to reality.
so basically its just fascism, but america instead.
Yeah, it’s like straight out of the fascist playbook. It just sucks and blows my mind that it’s such transparent bullshit. The critical thinking skills are so poor in a large segment of our society.
yeah, unfortunately for a lot of them, it’s not just critical thinking, but more so reasoning skills. People are too quick to just believe shit they see and then run all in on it.
They’ll latch on to the next thing. May fracture into a bunch of weird offshoots
Ah, like Christianity.
Without even a mostly unified text to guide them. Best thing that could happen is they splinter into even more factions than Christianity and lose all power as a result.
“it makes the libs upset, so it must be good.”
that’s possible but then these people are potentially classified as election interference causing people, as they aren’t voting to vote anymore. But then again maybe that’s good enough for democracy.
They are voting for the anti-christ so the rapture can begin and they go to heaven.
hm. Maybe? But they also think that trump is a legitimately good candidate, this isn’t some accelerationist bullshit or anything.
A mix between it’s a cult, sadism, and not getting theirs so wanting to watch the world burn.
