Is American politics really as seemingly satirical of itself as it is portrayed?

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Mandy@sh.itjust.works⁩ to ⁨nostupidquestions@lemmy.world⁩

greetings americans, it an honest question.
Outside of america i constantly see, especially recently as your elections are coming up that…well, it looks like a clownshow?

Your recent two contenders where a hugely dept orange clown who can barely keep a coherent thought advertising a product in the whitehows, who had to have his name constantly mention when being talked to or he will be disinterested.
The other one was a senile old fossil who couldnt even say a single sentence without his dementia kicking in.

Now you have trump again as a runner up and he seems so openly incompetently corrupt its almost funny, than we have the senile man who (to my extremely limited knowledge) got replaced by this kamala woman because he was too old, said woman seems to be at least present in mind and appears to see trump as what he really is, a manchild (the famous clip of her basically laguhing at him)

Like, are outside views are just so vehemently skewed by news, people and the like? Or am i just grossly misinformed?

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ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
it is as batshit as it appears.

But for us at least, it is quite sinister as well, since Trump it quite literally attempting to instill himself as a dictator to avoid prison, and this is being facilitated by white nationalists, religious zealots, tech billionaires, and an easily decieved under-educated populace that are acting against their own interests.

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- FuglyDuck@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  this election is definitely moving “fund public schools” up on my priority list of things I care about. It’s now barely second to Climate Change quite possibly the top thing, because these idiots vote and we need the votes to deal with climate change.
  
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  - Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    20+ years ago, George Carlin discussed public education.
    
    “Just think of the average american voter. These are some dumb motherfuckers right here. Some dumb motherfuckers. And as dumb as the average one is…HALF OF THEM ARE EVEN DUMBER THAN THAT!!! Some dumb mother fuckers in this country. Some dumb mother fuckers…”
    
    And in case you were hoping he had a positive ending to that set, he didn’t. His overall point was that our government is not being held back by the voters. There is no secret set of competent politicians who could just fix things if they got voted in. This is what we voted in, because this was whats available. Don’t look for it to get better. This is what our election system produces from the pool of candidates it has available.
    
    Garbage in, garbage out. It’s just that simple.
    
    So, while I DO agree that a HARD focus needs to be placed on education, it’s not going to help the voting process. It’s not a issue of dumb voters voting for dumb people. It’s an issue of trash candidates being our only options…and at this point, it’s getting to a point of intentional facism.
    
    Like I said. Trash in, trash out.
    
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  - Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    You should put mental healthcare right up there too. The sheer craziness of it all is only possible because the lunatics have taken over the asylum.
    
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  - psycho_driver@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    Education can only get so far with inherently dumb people.
    
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  - Drunkpostdisaster@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    Its number one with me right now. The future of the climate effort hinges on this election. Harris still sucks in that regard, but she is also the better case scenario to a staggering degree.
    
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  - AA5B@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    I don’t know how yu do this when so much school funding is local. I’ve always lived in areas that valued education agiin and we’re willing to pay for it. However no matter how much my taxes increase, it won’t help those kids in places with less money or not willing to invest in it.
    
    It’s a much bigger ask to turn school funding into a national thing.
    
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- Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  Stop making me sad with facts and the truth!
  
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  - ivanafterall@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    Don’t worry, he’s just foolin’! Everything is great!
    
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- Mandy@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  that actually sounds quite a lot worse
  
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  - ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    It’s rather distressing, to put it mildly.
    
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queermunist@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
The really interesting thing about Harris is so much of her support comes from people who hate Trump and want to stop him at all costs. There’s this large contingent of voters who have never voted for a candidate they like, they’ve only ever voted strategically to stop the candidate they hate. “Democracy”

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- turtletracks@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  Yup, the two parties are pretty much right wing and right wing lite
  
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  - K1nsey6@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    Once they welcomed people like Chenay with open arms there is no lite remaining. They are firmly right wing.
    
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- DontRedditMyLemmy@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  Hate is a path to the dark side
  
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Aidinthel@reddthat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
Biden isn’t quite as bad as the soundbites make him seem, but he is slowing down (physically and mentally) in his old age and was just generally an extremely uninspiring candidate. Trump, if anything is worse than you portray. He’s way more senile than Biden, in addition to the blatant corruption, rulebreaking, childishness, and being horrifically and openly racist and sexist. Literally no decent and reasonable person who is paying the slightest attention to what he says and does would think he is remotely qualified for any position of authority. The fact that he is polling roughly evenly with an extremely qualified and intelligent person like Kamala Harris is indeed an absolute clownshow.

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paddirn@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
No, we’re seeing the same thing on the inside too. The fact that Trump actually has another chance in hell, or that he likely would’ve beat Biden, is a sign of how far gone this country already is. Do people not remember the absolute shitshow that was Trump’s 1st term?

Weekly, sometimes daily, WTF moments where I was just wondering where any of the adults were. Constant, blatant corruption and incompetence on full display. And we had to hear everything he fucking said over and over because everybody had to repeat the same news over and over again.

It’s been relatively good during Biden’s tenure, I would hear/read about him about as much as a normal president. Like, the president is the president, but I don’t want to hear everything going on with the president unless it’s important. So for us to go from that absolute shit show to relative peace (as peaceful as all this can be considered), I don’t understand how anybody would want to go back.

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- mpa92643@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  If Trump wins, all these idiots that voted for him because “thuh conomee was better” are going to act all shocked when he actually does all the really insane stuff he’s promising to do and tried to do in his first term but the handful of rational Republicans around him stopped him from doing.
  
  I saw interviews with voters recently that basically showed people don’t believe he’ll do all the crazy stuff he’s promising, that it’s just a negotiation tactic or to “keep the base onboard” or to “generate attention.”
  
  When things really go to shit, I guarantee the people that voted for him will take no responsibility for it.
  
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  - turtletracks@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
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- Mandy@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  is this kamala also at least half as decent as she appears?
  
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  - paddirn@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    I’ve warmed up to her and think she’ll make a good president, but I honestly haven’t liked Kamala for the past 4 or so years. I had actually hoped she would’ve disappeared off the face of the earth when she lost the democratic primaries, then Biden picked her up as VP and she’s been one of the most inconsequential VPs in modern US history. Considering how important/influential the VP has been since Dick Cheney seemingly redefined the role, Harris just hasn’t brought much, which is in keeping with how the role has been traditionally seen.
    
    As for Harris’ qualifications/positions, they seem like average middle of the road Democrat positions, nothing too exciting, but it would be nice to get a younger face in there who had some understanding of some modern technology.
    
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  - CrimeDad@lemmy.crimedad.work ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    She’s the only candidate on the ballot who is actively presiding over a genocide. That should be disqualifying, but I guess some people definitely decency differently.
    
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Objection@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
Absolutely it’s a clownshow.

If you ask me, the whole point of it is to get everyone to sort themselves into one of two horrific camps, where they’ll feel like any criticism of the people in power is an attack on them for voting for them - or, if they don’t vote, then they generally disengage from politics entirely. It’s probably the most effective system of propaganda ever designed, because you don’t even need to tell people that horrible people are on their side, they’ll happily convince themselves of it all on their own. It’s basically a race to the bottom where one side being dogshit allows the other side to be dogshit because there’s no alternative, and of course every politician wants to be as dogshit as they can get away with because that’s how you win favor with the corporate donors, who have no practical limit on how much money they can spend to influence the outcome.

There’s also this level of spectacle in our elections that’s above and beyond anywhere else in the world, we treat it like a reality show, and our debates are complete jokes where nothing substantive is ever discussed. We have absurdly long election cycles and entire industries around milking them for entertainment. It’s unlikely that we will ever even begin moving in the right direction in the foreseeable future, because the brainworms run so deep.

The worst part is when the spectacle becomes so eye-catching that people from other countries get drawn into it and start thinking in terms of our politics and what we define as normal or reasonable. Americans rarely learn from non-American perspectives and we have corporate influence constantly pushing in the direction of maximizing short term profits over all other priorities, and so our country is unable to understand or adapt to the changing conditions of the modern world, which is why we are in decline.

Look at us only as a cautionary tale of what not to do.

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- mindaika@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  The shorter version is: if the reds are busy fighting with the blues, then the capitalists can keep looting us without restriction
  
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  - FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    Nailed it.
    
    Both parties are heavily funded by the 0.01%, and that’s neither a lie nor a coincidence.
    
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- Mandy@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  i certainly wont draw anything from america, cant say for the rest of europe, or my own country
  
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rsuri@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
Yeah it’s terrible, but look at the rest of the world. Putin enjoys a lot of support from the same people he’s sending to die, Modi in India wins elections by a large margin on a platform of basically “Fuck Sikhs and Muslims”. Add China and basically most of humanity lives under someone who is blatantly racist, corrupt, generally horrible, or a combination thereof. And Western Europe doesn’t have a leg to stand on either, the UK ignored dire warnings and voted for Brexit without even understanding what it is.

Humans don’t believe what’s objectively correct, they believe what they want to believe. This makes feeding people what they want to hear a very successful strategy, and one that psychopaths have an advantage in pursuing.

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WoahWoah@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
No, that’s fairly accurate. It’s a clown show.

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AbsoluteChicagoDog@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
90% of Americans are no better informed than you are on how realistic of a portrayal it is. In fact, I’ve met many people who are proud of how willfully ignorant they are of politics.

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0x4E4F@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
The education system in the US is screwed beyond oblivion, that’s why this is happening.

And it’s not just the US. I live in the Balkans and things are… well, very bad to be honest. We have the lowed average IQ in Europe.

The problem is, stupid people benefit both sides, left and right. They’re easy to control, as voters. No one wants voters which can think critically.

Democracy is flawed IMO. There is no fixing this. People do rule, but at what cost. There are alternatives, but, let’s face it, none of that will be implemented, at least not in our lifetimes.

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Paraponera_clavata@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
I wonder if the issue here is you don’t appreciate how stupid your own proletariat is (i.e., as stupid and vulnerable as the American populis, but not exposed to the same intense propaganda). I think humans everywhere are surprisingly gullible and illogical.

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- bamfic@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  There are idiots in every country. They are roughly the same percentage of the population everywhere.
  
  The difference is in America the idiots are in charge of everything. Intelligence is elitism which is anti-American.
  
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tiefling@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
Yes, it’s a clown show and half the country would rather throw away the whole US than vote for a woman. Please send help, fascists don’t give up power easily.

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- 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  
  Please send help, fascists don’t give up power easily.
  
  Actually, most countries that could actually help are hoping to see you burn… because they’re your biggest contenders in world domination.
  
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Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
No. You seem to have the jist of it. Clownshow election, manchild orange oompa loompa, dementia riddled president, new woman who’s condescending of bullshit.

Congrats. You’re now qualified to write for SNL until November 5th. Don’t worry, no pressure. They have 1-2 good sketches per week, and a ton of crap sketches.

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- homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  *gist*
  
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- Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  I pretty much gave up on it when the weekly formula was “take the most successful character from the past few months, and make them say all their catch phrases in a slightly different scenario”
  
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sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
Yes, genuinely

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- 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  It didn’t used to be like that… but you had some horrible decisions made (or not paid attention to is more like it) over the years and this is the result.
  
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nucleative@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
It’s important to realize that in most democracies this isn’t a bug, it’s a feature of the system. The founders of these systems wanted to ensure that major decisions were deliberated, not rushed into, and that there wasn’t a lot of room for an executive power to make snap choices that would determine the future of the nation.

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homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
Ask not for whom the right-wing propaganda bell tolls. It tolls for thee.

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- rottingleaf@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  Oh, only right-wing. When you want to say something cool-looking, but don’t have the courage to be honest.
  
  It’s all of propaganda, but even that’s not completely true.
  
  What’s true is that humans are fucking apes. There’s no victory over that.
  
  There’s no political good.
  
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  - Sauerkraut@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    The US only have right wing parties. Neolib dems and fascist Repubs are both right wing parties.
    
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Drunkpostdisaster@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
America responds well to showmenship. Its kind of our core problem.

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NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

orange clown who can barely keep a coherent thought

Just assume the possibility that this is partly a show, in order to make people underestimate him. His way of talking in fuzzy, noncommittal half sentences is a method to distribute only suggestions instead of clear statements.

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- minibyte@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  
  Just assume the possibility that this is partly a show, in order to make people underestimate him
  
  This is a man that ran a casino into the ground. A man who has 6 bankruptcies and 34 felonies under his extensive belt.
  
  He might just be that dumb.
  
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  - Mandy@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    how do you run a casino into the ground
    its a flipping casino
    
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zbyte64@awful.systems ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
You summed it up correctly. The thing is the presidential race used to be a horse show, but that format was somehow easily hijacked by a rodeo clown.

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bear@lemmynsfw.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
Grossly misinformed. The clown show is what they want you to see. Behind the scenes it’s no longer a show, the clowns are real, the frogs are gay, immigrants eating dogs, and I have concepts of a plan.

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x00z@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
Often I think it’s because of big psyops against America.

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MojoMcJojo@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
The thing with American politics is that Americans love, LOVE TV shows and movies. Everything they do publicly has to be framed, presented, and consumed, as if it were a TV show or movie. So that’s what the political machine does. Kamala Harris raised like a $1000000000. A BILLION dollars! What does the political machine do with that much money? It puts on a damn good show and broadcasts it to the world hoping it’s a better show than what Trump is making. So yes you are watching the same show we are. It’s entertaining, horrifying, hilarious, disgusting, sad and hopeful. But if you want to see what the real work is like in politics then you will have to read the book. A LOT of books, and many Americans don’t like to read.

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