I admit I do love it when Trump gets trolled.

(Weirdly, the post title didn’t match the headline in the actual link, but the version Lemmy let me click on to make the title works better anyway.)

    • Hylactor@sopuli.xyz
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      1 month ago

      This right here is the problem, why he gets favorable treatment by the media, why he’s the Republican figurehead. He’s “fun to watch”.

      Here’s what will happen: Harris will release her clean bill of health, he’ll deny their veracity, he may then make an unsubstantiated boast about his own health, he may then also call into question the qualifications of Harris’ doctor, he may then close with some sort of jingoistic non sequitur, or some nugget of misogyny. He will do these things in an almost robotically simplified way, that is at once instantly digestible and yet difficult to directly quote without editing. If anything he says proves the least bit problematic, Steven Cheung will claim that this editing proves malicious intent by the media, and that Trump was unfairly taken out of context. Meanwhile his thralls will either ignore the whole interval, or accept Cheung’s version of events and redouble their support of a man who is not only unqualified, but it’s actively a national liability. This will register surprise, shock, anger, any number of strong emotions, and viewership/readership will keep coming back, generating impressions and ad revenue, desperate for the new episode, to see what happens next, as if it were a show on HBO and not real life.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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        1 month ago

        He’s “fun to watch” when he’s being a dipshit. Not when he’s being a Nazi.

        But I would like to borrow your crystal ball for next week’s Lotto numbers please.

        • Hylactor@sopuli.xyz
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          1 month ago

          Even when he’s “a dipshit”, the attention he garners legitamizes him as a candidate. Attention is the whole game. The Michael Jordan of “no bad publicity.” The entertainment you describe is just a different form of rubbernecking. And Trump attracts droves by regularly providing a new car accident to gawk at; and doing so on a fairly steady, news cycle friendly basis.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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            1 month ago

            You can’t legitimize a legitimate candidate any more than he’s already been legitimized.

            Expecting people to never talk about one of the two people who have a chance at being president next year within a month of election day is a bit silly.

            • Hylactor@sopuli.xyz
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              1 month ago

              I don’t take exception to talking about him. I take exception with people being entertained by him. Even as schadenfreude.

              The media legitimizes him by summerizing his statements. By hypothesizing what he meant instead of what he actually said. They give him the benefit of the doubt, time and time again. Age is no longer an issue, grabbing unconcenting women by their genetials is no longer an issue, felonies are no longer an issue, debt and taxes are no longer an issue, anything that has become boring is no longer an issue. It’s all about new new new.

              They push this bilge about fairness to justify giving him a platform, but really they just need a heel for their wrestling spectacle.

              He didn’t falsely claim, he lied. He didn’t accidentally reference facist rhetoric, he used it. He doesn’t deny climate change, he profits from it. Etc.

                • Hylactor@sopuli.xyz
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                  1 month ago

                  In the Emperor’s New Clothes, it is the emperor, his men, and the townspeople who are being conned by the weavers. In real life the mainstream media is more like the emperor, we’re the townspeople, and Trump and Cheung are the weavers, who in the tale successfully escape with the money for the nonexistent clothes.

                  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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                    1 month ago

                    You’re right. They should just cancel the Daily Show. All it does is help Trump. Laughing at bad people helps them.

        • Zink@programming.dev
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          1 month ago

          Oh man, same. It’s one thing to constantly hear about various privileged and lucky shitheads trying to make the world worse for others. It’s another thing entirely when the universe has seen fit to give such a bad one so much influence.

          Much like with the pandemic, I try to at least appreciate when I am living through something historic. And when it is “future history students will not believe this is real” level stupidity, dark humor is waiting right there.