18
votes
Trump claims without evidence that 3,000 people did not die in Puerto Rico hurricanes, blames Democrats for inflating toll
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- Authors
- Kevin Breuninger
- Published
- Sep 13 2018
- Word count
- 134 words
Why are we still giving this asshole undeserved attention by sharing articles about the latest stupid thing he said?
The issue is that one the one hand, these are the ravings of an ignorant, indolent, intolerant Fox News grampa. On the other hand, they are official statements of the President of the United States.
Be that as it may, why bother spreading such articles? We can't do anything meaningful about Trump; removing that assclown from office under the 25th Amendment only leaves us stuck with a fundie who calls his wife "Mother" in public as President until at least 2020.
Informing people. Changing views.
More people knowing the truth is a goal in and of itself.
Democracy isn't something that happens every 4 years or every 2 years with midterms. Democracy is an ongoing process happening every day.
Democracy entails way more than voting. If voting is were my only civic participation, I'd be doing myself a disservice.
Another important factor of this update is that Trump thinks that he did an amazing all A+ job with the last hurricane, where more people died than on 9/11. Given that we are about to be hit by another massive hurricane, those in the affected path should be worried about the Trump administration's response when this one hits.
Particularly since Congressional GOP and Trump just defunded FEMA to direct money to their border wall and detaining migrant children.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2017/08/30/house-republicans-spending-bill-includes-fema-cuts-fund-trump-border-wall/VSf07WfdiwyhOFOoOKZ7pL/story.html
https://splinternews.com/dhs-transferred-10m-from-fema-to-ice-for-detention-cen-1828985356
I guess, to me, the question boils down to whether you think a functional press would report that the President shit himself again, or pretend that the President doesn't shit himself.
I think that a functional press could get away with reporting as follows:
"The President is still a big fat liar, and white people who voted for him are still trash. And in other news..."
I do hope that you are being facetious. I really hope that (credible) journalism doesn't deteriorate into pithy name calling and pegoratives.
Hope in vain. There really is nothing more that need be said about Trump. He's the sort of asshole who gives other New Yorkers a bad name.
Tbh, I just like commiserating with people about the situation. It's a way of venting frustrations.
Because even his obvious lies are still useful propaganda for Trump.
I shared this link on recent piece about Putin, but both Trump and Putin say blatant lies for the same reason.
https://www.vox.com/2018/8/31/17804104/strikethrough-lies-propaganda-trump-putin
I think this is a great video worth watching, but this is the TL;DR
It's very important to call out all the false junk he says.
Or even more people will start believing this untrue nonsense and let that inform their actions.
Let's say someone with a huge twitter following, like Obama or some random celebrity answered every Trump tweet immediately calling out how wrong and stupid he is. Trump's platform would deteriorate.
Let's say all the large people with huge audiences did this. Doing nothing and letting him get away with feeding nonsense to anyone who will listen is not the answer.
The key is context: whenever presenting something untrue, that needs to be the angle presented. Otherwise you end up with issues of false equivalency that has enabled junk views like anti-vaxxing, flat earthism and so on.
Trump holds the office of the presidency of the United States with the platform that entails. That's the reality we all have to respond to.
We should absolutely be civil. You can point out someone is wrong, lying, insincere, deflecting and all these things without being uncivil. Making things personal and uncivil entrenches an us-against-them mentality and makes changing minds way harder.
Whenever a Democrat insults a Trump-supporter, they make reaching their goals harder. It's way satisfying to insult people and call them names but it's counterproductive.
The media absolutely should report all of the wrong things the president spouts. That's not the same as letting the president set the agenda. You can run the focused, overarching stories at the same time.
It has taken the media too long to know how to report on Trump. They still get it wrong too often. What's worse is how weak, ineffective and just useless the other politicians are. They're the ones who have to build an effective opposition. They're the ones who shouldn't get bogged down in the daily squabbles but prioritize battles in order of political importance. That's their job.
The media's job is putting important issues on the agenda, but also simply day-to-day information and what happens. The president's daily schedule and speeches are an important part of that it'd be bad to ignore.
I still think that only widens the divide and leads to further entrenchment on either side: why make martyrs out of these people in the eyes of their supporters?
The minds of top politicians certainly won't be changed by inconvenience in their daily life, so what does it accomplish other than me feeling good about sticking it to the man?
Why should I play into their hands for some seconds of counter-productive satisfaction?