A thread of statements addressing the closing arguments of the Trump campaign

@wdlindsy I still remember the woman quoted during Trump's first presidency, complaining that "he isn't hurting the people he needs to be hurting."

That told me a lot about why people supported him.

Every Trump supporter has a list of enemies whom they want Trump to persecute for them.

They know Trump has an enemies list, too.

They assume it coincides with theirs.

It would be satisfying to watch them find out they're wrong, but I'd rather the issue simply not come up.

Vote Harris/Walz.

@wdlindsy

Trump is a dangerous man, and I think a Putin supporter.

I am more nervous about the USA elections than I was about the UK ones.

@lyndamerry484 I agree, and I understand your reason for being nervous about the US elections: they will have global consequences.

@NicoleJLeBoeuf Thank you for that reminder. Yes, isn't that amazing, that they'd say right out loud that they voted for him to hurt the people who "need to be hurt"? As you say, this tells us a whole lot about his supporters — and what it tells us is far from savory.

@SearingTruth Thank you. Beautiful image.

@SearingTruth Thank you for this insightful meditation.

@ERBeckman Works for me!

@Runyan50 Let's hope. As Robert Reich keeps telling us, the concentration of wealth and the power that a tiny elite of super-rich people now have are really unprecedented.

@Pagan_Activist That's a hopeful report. Thanks for it. I see very few Trump signs in my own city in the heart of the very red state of Arkansas, but Little Rock tends to vote Democratic, in contrast to much of the rest of the state. I wonder if people supporting Trump are outright ashamed to advertise that this election.

@SearingTruth Thank you.

@Runyan50 You're right. Modeling is essential to teaching, since those being taught watch the actions of the parent or teacher more than listening to the words.

@cowboyminer I agree. I keep thinking to myself, You can never underestimate the depths of racism and misogyny among many American voters.

@mj You're right. When your whole shtick is denying the rule of law, the common good, the obligation of basic decency in your dealings with others, what's a little plagiarism and stealing the work of others?

@glitzersachen @Deixis9 Perhaps strategies and stupidity can often go hand in hand, so that some strategies are stupid?

@MotherEarth Touché.

@deivudesu I am not and never have been a friend of Kristol. At the same time, I think that, given what we're up against in the rising tide of fascism, standing together even with people we find distasteful and whose worldview we do not share is imperative, as long as we do share the common goal of pushing back that tide. Politics is about the art of the possible, not the ideal and pure.

@wdlindsy @Deixis9

I somehow doubt that. Not to contradict you, but strategy requires a mind planning to win the war. Stupid stuff just happens, because it was the most simple/easy thing to go into this specific direction at the time. Basically following the minimum energy valley. The only law of evolution is "what survives, survives" and some to the most simple, selfreplicating structures (like the GOP mindset) are like this. ...

@wdlindsy @Deixis9
One doesn't need a primate brain to survive: Viruses, and prions are pretty persistent, too. But they don't have a strategy. Their way to reproduce/persist has just been shaped by natural selection, not designed/planned, The same for the GOP mindset: It perpetuates itself, but by very simply (though unfortunately efficient) means.

This was more or less the point I wanted to make.

@glitzersachen @Deixis9 Thank you for explaining. Yes, that makes sense. I do also think that stupidity and strategy are not necessarily opposites, and that arrogant people blinded by hubris frequently make very stupid decisions as they devise strategies, often taking many of the rest of us down with them when they fall.

@wdlindsy This is not really about electoral purity: I have no problem letting just about anyone short of the current fascist-tinged GOP express their support for the opposite side.

But I fail to see the point of platforming a man who has made ragingly rightwing takes his trademark, and whose left-demonising rhetoric of the 2000s certainly played a role in bringing us here. Plenty of others making the exact same point, with none of his intellectually-bankrupt positions on record.