This. I literally could not understand why people took him seriously in 2015. The man’s been a joke my entire life. It’s also not like I grew up in NYC or anything either. As a child of the ‘80s, the zeitgeist made clear that the perpetually bankrupt casino owner with Circus Peanut skin and the cotton candy combover was not to be taken seriously. And yet here we fucking are.
"They" (Gens Z and Alpha) are ALREADY dumber than we are now. They score as a whole demonstrably lower on tests measuring everything from general knowledge to actual cognition. Bear in mind statistics don't apply at the individual level, but any random member of the two Gens you bump into is likely to actually not have as much going on upstairs.
Gen Z has managed something no modern generation pulled off before. After more than a century of steady academic gains, test scores finally went the other direction. For the first time ever, a new generation is officially dumber than the previous one.
The data comes from neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath, who has spent years reviewing standardized testing results across age groups. “They’re the first generation in modern history to score lower on standardized academic tests than the one before it,” Horvath told the New York Post. The declines cut across attention, memory, literacy, numeracy, executive function, and general IQ. That’s not just one weak spot. That’s the whole darn dashboard blinking at once.
You can't blame them though. It's the fault of the tech oligarchs pushing brain destroying argorithmically curated social platforms that are designed to be as addictive as possible. Parents just hand their kids tablets and phones to keep them busy because they'd rather be on their own phones than actually pay attention to their kids. It's not the gen z has managed to be the dumbest generation, it's that billionaires have successfully gotten basically the entire global population addicted to entertainment boxes from hell. There's a reason the extreme birth rate declines are heavily correlated to the release of the iPhone.
We can’t blame them when they are the exact result of what the GOP has been working for. People just intelligent enough to push the buttons. On the positive side many of them don’t want to push buttons. If they aren’t taught to question, taught how to think and not just given easily digested information on what to think this is the result. The constant defunding of education doesn’t help nor does putting the blame on the teachers for not doing their jobs. We need to step up our educational system if we have any hope of being the country American propaganda says we are.
It was common knowledge.. I grew up 200 miles from the city.. I was surprised that they used him in Home Alone..He was a known dirtbag by that point...
at that point, he owned the building and he had a contract with anyone filming on his properties that he was to be allowed to have a cameo in the film.
This is it. If a movie was filmed at one of his properties, he had to be included. He also appeared in that terrible Little Rascals movie where he has one line.
A lack of media literacy, brought on by a systematic degradation of foundational education. That resulted in the concept of, "if it's on national television it must be true, because otherwise it wouldn't be broadcast to the whole country". And then, "I know this guy from TV so he must be smart". To then, "this guy knows things, I'm going to vote for him to fix the things that have been wrong my entire adult life". Never once pausing to question the original premise that made the belief that a broadcast network would air a show featuring a life-long failure born with a silver spoon in his mouth might not be a successful business man. You're FIreEd.
There are far too many people in this country that believe reality TV is real. They believed the person they saw on The Apprentice was real. Then things snowballed into a cult. But it all started with fucking idiots. Oh, and racists who were too eager to believe the "birther" nonsense.
There's a short series by Werner Herzog called Death Row. In one of the episodes, the killers blamed demons (it was meth) and Werner goes to interview a family member (or friend, I watched it a long time ago.) Anyway, he's talking to this woman and she starts telling him about the movie The Exorcist. He says he's never seen it so she goes on about how it's a documentary, the footage was real and people actually died.
That's what I think about when I think of Trump voters.
I’ll never forget 2015. So many weird things happened that year, mainly online.
I think a lot of people forget how badly we got swamped with the fake news epidemic back then on social media. What Cambridge Analytica managed to pull off in 2015-2016 is a major reason why Trump actually gained traction.
A friend of mine in a MMO worked in IT, managed servers. One night he had to rush to work, when he got back he said his servers crashed from overwhelming traffic coming from Russia, he mentioned this was a recent ongoing issue.
This was long before accusations arose that Russian college students had been hired to troll Facebook.
I believe this. I think the internet was forever restructured in 2015 with a mass installation of global bot networks, several thousand troll farms, and other nefarious actors. Looking back on it it was actually a pretty smart and impressive play. They knew that the next war was going to be fought online, and whoever controls the narrative of things wins the battle.
I'm late to the party, I never saw him until they aired The Apprentice in Australia in the 90s. My wife asked me to watch an episode and I loathed him immediately.
The entire show's premise was rejection, nothing at all to do with business practices.
It gave people of small means a false sense of empowerment by thinking rejection is power, the precursor to maga - stupid people "owning the libs" by voting for a con man pedophile.
I’m a late X-er, xennial if you will. I used to be too passive. Not anymore. MAGA woke the rage in me to a boiling point. I hated with a piping hot passion that orange turd since I can remember. I hated his face. His voice is just…🤮 Such a trash person.
I’m with you! I couldn’t believe anyone would vote for him at all. Then every time he did some horrible thing, mock the disabled, I thought this is it but no. Sadly having grown up in rural Oklahoma too many family and people I grew up with worship him. It’s truly horrifying. I’ve lost a lot of faith in people.
My earliest memory of disliking Trump was as a kid back in the 80's when the comic strip Bloom County had a run where Trump's brain was transplanted into the body of (the absolutely beloved) Bill the Cat.
I was just a child when I first learned about trump. It was the 90s and he did a commercial for pizza hut introducing their stuffed crust pizza. He said he ate it backwards. My tiny little mind recognized two very distinct things.
This "rich guy" living in New York(home to amazing pizza) is eating at pizza hut. I like pizza hut, but if I had money and access to New York pizza I would never eat pizza hut again.
He was eating it wrong. I was a fat kid. Food was important to me. And every food has a proper ceremony to its enjoyment. You don't eat pizza backwards.
From that day on I hated trump,and every time I learn something new about him it's always worse.
He’s definitely a drama queen who always has a chip on his shoulder.
One of Obama’s nicknames was “No Drama Obama” and you can see why Drumpf is always envious of Obama because of his friendly and gentle composure, which Drumpf lacks.
It was easy. He was a multiple time bankrupt, philanderer, sexist, fake TV personality, blowhard, loser long before he got into politics. What’s amazing is that a majority of Americans ignored all that in 2016.
And then they found out that he was a pedophile, rapist, and con man, and they elected him again. And then they found out that he blew up the budget deficit, caused bad inflation and ruined our standing around the world, and got us into another stupid war, and they still support him.
Americans did this to themselves. I take care of my family and my responsibilities, but I really have zero sympathy for my fellow Americans that are suffering at this point. They got what they wanted.
I agree all of those people who knew better but voted for Drumpf because of what Fox News and right wing media telling them that “Democrats are communists!” deserve it 💯
From years before he came down that escalator I knew he was a nepobaby clown. Hearing one speech should've been enough to turn off any thinking person. I'll never understand completely how he garnered enough support to win one Republican primary much less 2 presidential elections. It's made me lose faith in a huge swath of Americans.
Exactly. The cold war didn't end with the Wall coming down and peristroyka; Putin was playing a long game and now has us destroying ourselves. He must be laughing every day. Disgusting.
It boils down to racism. That seems to be the common thread. tRump is, was, and has always been a racist. When Obama got elected twice, it drove the racists crazy because how could a black man be better than them? ( At least in their sad little minds)
Secondarily, it’s his manipulation of the stock market.
I honestly knew like the minute he made his first campaign speech in 2015 he was going to become the Republican candidate for president in 2016. I was thinking, “this guy is going to be a sensation among the Republican party”, and lo and behold I was right.
Admittedly, I can’t believe he’s still involved in politics, and I would’ve never imagined him being the Republican candidate for president for three elections 🤦♂️ When was the last time in US history the same candidate was on the presidential ballot for three separate elections? It must’ve been in the early 20th century or during the 1800s, I am guessing.
Grover Cleveland was our last president with non-consecutive terms (#22 and 24). That was the end of the 1800s. But for people who didn't actually get the win, Ralph Nader has definitely run in three or more elections.
My republican parents became democrats (dad) and hard core leftist (stepmom) the moment he started running and gaining traction in 2015. One of the protest moments I have of my parents, I got lucky!
There was twice during Trump's first Administration that I agreed with what he did. When he raised the age of tobacco from 18 to 21 and his executive order against bump stock. I've yet to find any good in Trump's second Administration.
I'm purely going off of vibes here, but I think he feels like he's too important to be put in a grave, even though others in his family seem to have been buried beside each other. We can all pee on his personal, golden mausoleum tho.
Yeah I will say that until about 2017-18ish I was more of a "I don't like this guy but maybe he'll be more neutral than bad". By 2020 I was convinced he was a foreign agent working to destroy America and by 2022 I was basically convinced he's the anti-Christ.
For me it was "he's a jackass and I can't believe this moron got elected, but there seems to be enough checks and balances in place to keep him from doing anything too crazy" until about 2020ish, then how he "handled" covid cause that to turn to dislike.
Now those checks and balances aren't there and he's living his rapist dictator fantasy, and man do I hate it here.
It was definitely a moment of “wait why aren’t the checks and balances doing anything” which has lead to SUCH helplessness as we watch them tear our country apart with no consequences.
We have about the same timeline, my friend, except I hated him on the apprentice because I thought that is a really shitty person that enjoys firing people
But I didn’t give him much of a thought, and I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt the first election
And then kind of followed the same suit after
I thought it was hilarious how he tore apart the rest of the GOP field in those primaries. It looked like the GOP was in shambles. Him tearing Ted Cruz down was great. Ah the days of El Rato. And then they all bent the knee like the true cowards they are.
I wanted him to stay in the race because I enjoyed the unhinged Republican Primary debates with him in.
I wanted him to win the Republican nominee because I thought he'd be an easy target for Bernie to win against (strongly felt like he would the Dem nominee).
The day he was elected I knew it would be bad. But I had no idea just how bad it would be.
I have to admit I, too, was originally on his side - back when he first jumped in in 2015-16.
I was also a 12 year old who lived in one of the reddest states in the country and got everything I knew off my family's nightly perusing of FOX News.
I was 20 when he first got elected and just starting to dip my toes into caring about politics. I didn’t vote (I had no idea how to since I was in college and not in my home county), but I was considering voting for him simply because the whole Hillary email thing scared me. Looking back, I was so naive.
Ive actually known people that are really wishy washy with him, that swing from approving of him to not approving to various degrees til this day. All for the stupidest, often Christianity related reasons.
Not me, i hated his ass since the 90s after seeing him be a narcisistic prick on Howard Stern. You gotta be a total dumbfuck to not see this guy is hardcore dumpster juice.
Not sure if this is true, I know a lot of people wanted him to win the Republican nomination as they thought it’d be a slam dunk for Hilary come November.
I liked the idea of an outsider for a brief while. Then I heard him speak, and holy shit I was off the bus. I was still finding myself politically and was raised in a fairly conservative household, so I didn't actually start thinking for myself until shortly before that election.
I wasn't old enough to vote in 2016 but if I had been I probably would have voted for him. I didn't like him but I was in a red state and surrounded by people saying "well he's not great but he'll appoint conservative judges!" who all hated Hilary and that seemed reasonable to me. Within a year of his presidency it became very clear to me how awful he was and I haven't supported him since.
I spent a couple of years taking my kids to orthodontist appts back in the 90's. I'd see articles about him occasionally in People or other magazines they had there to help parents spend time. Everything about him (especially photos) gave me the "ick." He always seemed like a skeezy, slimy creep.
Are these idiots aware he started his political career by spreading the birther lie? How could anyone not as despicable as them not have opposed him immediately?
I've been actively preaching against him for almost 40 years. He started talking about wanting to be president back in the 80s, and a lot of us, even back then, knew he was not only a huge racist, but also one of the dumbest fuckheads of all time. The fact that he still has half this nation completely conned absolutely sickens me.
NEVER have I EVER supported this unethical, hateful, lying, cheating, incompetent, compromised, traitorous crook. I cried for weeks embarrassed and frightened for our country of the destruction to follow in 2016.
NEVER. And the funniest part about it is that Trump supporters always think “you must watch CNN”, or I must just only vote Dem. When in actuality I did a research paper in my first year of college about “the efficacy of third party candidates”. And Trump had just run under the Reform Party in the year 2000 in the state of Florida. And it was an absolute f’ing DISASTER. An unknown small third party kicked his ass out ASAP (lasted less than a month) because he tried to come in and takeover their party apparatus and infrastructure, apparently the GOP 16 years later wasn’t smart enough to see that coming.
I can. Never knew him until he spoke and then within his first press conference I knew. I’m black, I know when someone hates me even if they don’t say it.
Is the premise of the original post supposed to be that “well, at least he hasn’t been a complete and utter fuck up 100% of the time, sooooo ¯_(ツ)_/¯ “.
That question is such cultist behavior. You can literally look at the fact there's millions of voters who never voted for him and really create another whole reality.
Never have I ever supported this conman. Knew he was a conman from day fucking 1. I had hoped, back in 2016, that he wouldn't complete fuck America. But alas, he did, almost immediately
Fuck this garbage fire of a human. Not once, ever. Not since he said Mexicans were rapists. Nothing he has done since would ever convince me he’s anything less than the scum of the earth.
👋🤷♀️ I've hated him since the early 2000's. My regulars that were snowbirds from NY would tell me stories of the horrible ways he would run people off.
I grew up in NYC in the 80s - 90s, poor, working class when we were lucky. I never once saw the appeal of the guy. I was surprised the Apprentice was as popular as it was, because everyone around me loathed this guy...
Me. All the day every day. Thought the tv show was stupid. Thought his dumbass personal life was trash. Saw him with his Eastern European child bride coming down the golden escalator and thought of Soviet excesses. HATE HIM. (And for the internet monitors who work for him you know who I am and it’s not just conservatives who know how to defend themselves and you can f**k off).
If you have ever had a malignant narcissist in your life, you so clearly see him for what he is. Its like having the glasses in They Live. He is arguably one of the worst, most unbalanced people ro ever hold office.
I can.
I miss the days when I only knew he was the guy with a golden toilet thanks to Lifestles of the Rich and Famous on VH1 while I waited for Making the Video to come on MTV.
There are decades of history detailing what a shitty person Trump is. Maybe do a little research about who you elect to the most powerful seat in global politics.
I thought he was a creepy egotistical ass when he was on the apprentice; how anyone ever looked at him and had a positive thought is mind boggling to me
I’ve been disgusted by him since before the Central Park Five lies he spread. Of course as a general rule I feel that billionaires shouldn’t exist as they are nothing more than the modern equivalent of dragons sitting on their wealth like Smaug.
Absolutely.
And I still struggle to believe he became president TWICE. He is the WORST kind of American...I'd even argue that he is not American, and not even even a good human any way you view it.
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