I wonder what trades were made just before this announcement…

Yeah, that’s the “very little” that I have.

He works for the People

You’re assuming the old system is still in place. The position description has now changed to “He rules the people.”

That’s the big question for greater minds than my own. There was a time not too long ago when it was almost universally agreed that fascist authoritarianism and genocide were horrible, and people who subscribed to those ideals did so secretly because it was shameful. Now there are proud supporters of Nazism, and people being openly racist, bigoted, and hateful. Getting our society back to the point where those people at least hid in shame would be a good start. Of course it doesn’t make it go away, as we’re seeing right now, but there is no way to truly eradicate this type of thinking. As you said, you can’t forcibly educate those who are resistant to it, and anything beyond that gets into “thought police” territory.

I don’t know what sort of societal engineering that would take, or who would be in charge of it. I think we were all kind of relying on the fact that most people are overall inherently decent enough to instinctively oppose that kind of shit, but it turns out we were wrong.

Agreed. Heard a quote a while back, don’t remember it verbatim but it was something along the lines of “there’s no point in trying to make someone understand when they’ve already made up their mind to not understand.” Makes a lot of sense, and having that mindset saves a lot of frustration. Doesn’t matter how many facts you shove in their faces, they’re not going to change their minds.

I do. In fact, I have very little forgiveness for anyone who was stupid or shitty enough to even vote for him in 16. Pretty much anyone who has voted republican since the tea party got loud gets no respect from me. What happened, and is still happening, in Gaza, as well as the international response to it, is disgusting and shameful to our entire species. But one could make the case that standing impotently by while a country you support commits atrocities is still different from jumping in at the start to commit those atricites yourself on behalf of that country.

My eternal contempt and loathing.

I’m just holding everyone who voted for trump in 24 responsible. By that stage nobody could legitimately claim ignorance, they knew what they were doing.