Trump's amazing stupidity

[Xywalan]

I normally don't make "controversial" political threads, but I am blown away by this story. So, as you probably know, Trump spoke to his supporters at a rally and then he made some comments about "see what's happening last night in Sweden". He later tweeted that he referred to a documentary made by someone named Ami Horowitz.
some links: http://globalnews.ca/news/3260518/tr...k-documentary/
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...-a7589031.html


Here's the deal:

To begin, the documentary turned out to be mostly bullshit: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39020962
"Sweden has generally low crime rates.
Preliminary statistics from the Swedish Crime Survey (in Swedish) show only a marginal increase in 2016 from the year before. Fraud and crimes against individuals were up, but drugs crimes and theft had decreased.
The number of reported rapes increased by 13%, although that is still lower than the number reported in 2014 (6,700), as Sweden's The Local reports.
There have been no terror attacks in Sweden since the country's open-door policy on migration began in 2013.
As British historian Simon Schama, says: "The real Swedish message: 200,000 refugees, no terrorist attacks.""


The film maker also did the typical practice of interviewing people, asking them questions, then slicing up their answers to make up a narrative: http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/...ihop-vara-svar
At least one policemen who was interviewed has complained and he has asked for his answers to be shown together with the questions (which is absolutely fair).

So Trump watched an unreliable documentary on Sweden, believed it, and he is spreading the 'fake news' around, while not caring for the real data and real statistics.

But this is what blows me away. This guy has the world's best intelligence agencies under him. He can ask for the very top secret information. He can ask his agencies to ask other governments for intelligence through various agreements US has with other countries. The power in collecting intelligence that is available to Trump at the moment is not available to anyone else in the planet. And yet he chooses to watch Fox News and believe some random dumbass film maker. This is what blows me away. This is really an unbelievable level of incompetence.

[Tartun]

The success of "Big Government" politics depends on fear generated by lies. Trumps actions, and those of every modern politician who pushes the "Big Government" message aren't dumb. They are far more malevolent than that.

Sadly, the compassionate tend only to notice the bullshit when it is directed against the weak; The practical also tend only to notice it when it is directed toward the powerful. With a generally equal split in the US between the compassionate and the practical, it means that about half the country never notices the bullshit.

[Gromgor]

Trump is a puppet.

His entire presidency is going to be carried out via twitter.

The good news is that Trump is going to do something that needed to be done - create such a terrible environment that citizens will actually be inspired to respond to it. It's going to begin with a lot of his "Executive Orders" being wrecked in court followed by a total denouncing of the US by the rest of the world, and then the citizens will get pissed too and hopefully, finally, be bothered enough to actually learn how the government is supposed to work and start demanding that it work that way.

[Sier]

Trump's current policies and actions are -exactly- why myself, the entirety of my family, and nearly everyone I know in this area voted for him. You may disagree with his policies, but he certainly adhered to his campaign promises in an exceptionally timely manner compared to previous presidents.

The media is going to "George Bushify" him at every opportunity should he make a verbal mistake, but that's part of the game which we've all seen before, but oddly everyone refuses to remember. It is kind of odd that a speech writer would not have caught that statement with a simple fact check.

[Gromgor]

I have my doubts that Trump uses a speech writer. His errors in facts, speech and morals are entirely of his own making.

[Xywalan]

@Tartun:
I'm not sure. If you bring up someone else, e.g., Rudy Giuliani, I can believe what you say because I don't think Giuliani is an idiot. But when it comes to Trump, I'm not sure.

@Gromgor:
I actually agree with the 'puppet' assessment. He's like a useful idiot, even though the Republican establishment preferred another option, they decided to make due with whatever hand they got dealt.

@Sier:
To be honest, I'm a bit disappointed to read your reply. First, of all, maybe you are implying that just because he's a Republican, the media try to paint him as an idiot. I doubt it and to show you that this has nothing to do with politics, consider Ted Cruz. I am against all of his policies but even a brief reading of his bio and accomplishments, I admit he's pretty damn smart. So it is not about politics.

And second and about this particular point of discussion here are the relevant facts: Trump is receiving very short security briefings, about a quarter of what Obama used to receive and instead, he is using his time to tweet and watch TV, and not just the news but also the stupid Fox news opinion pieces.

So do you think a guy who pretty much ignores the input of the world's best intelligence agencies and instead watches noname "documentary" makers on opinion sections of Fox News is smart?

[Sier]

Oh, I'm not accusing him of being particularly smart or clever. I think his speaking ability is on par with someone of average intelligence. It just so happens that the leftist media faucets have him under a microscope, so every detail will be scrutinized.

I am, however, accusing him of doing the "Right thing" on several occasions in regards to his policies. I didn't vote someone into office who would be able to swoon the public. I voted someone into the office so that:
1. My taxes would stop going directly into the genocide known as abortion. It's quite immoral to require that I endorse this via financing.
2. Illegal immigrants would have a hard time gaining access into the country. I lost 75% of my hours to one before and it quite nearly bankrupted me. An individual whose first act upon entering this country is to break the law is not a citizen. He/She is a criminal.
3. Countries with a blatant extremist agenda would have a more difficult time threatening my friends and family. Extreme Islam (I refer to it as conservative Islam) leaves no room for the freedoms our country takes for granted. Read the Koran. If you are willing to skip over certain passages and join what I refer to as "The Diet Muslim" community in our country, it's slightly less harmful.

To be quite frank, I would have voted for a donkey if he were to have the aforementioned policy changes. Perhaps that could be interpreted as "Taking the cards that were dealt", but the liberal media aside, Trump is doing better than I thought he would.

[Rosuav]

1. My taxes would stop going directly into the genocide known as abortion. It's quite immoral to require that I endorse this via financing.

Absolutely agree. Actually, there are a lot of other things that should stop getting government funding. Why should my taxes go to pay for a National Broadband Network when there are better ways of achieving universal internet access (and at a lower price)?

2. Illegal immigrants would have a hard time gaining access into the country. I lost 75% of my hours to one before and it quite nearly bankrupted me. An individual whose first act upon entering this country is to break the law is not a citizen. He/She is a criminal.

Dubious on this one. If someone's first act on entering the country is to break the law, then punish the breakage of the law, same as if someone's first act upon turning 37 is to break the law. Keeping slabs of the world population out of your country because some of them are likely to be criminals is not going to prevent crime.

3. Countries with a blatant extremist agenda would have a more difficult time threatening my friends and family. Extreme Islam (I refer to it as conservative Islam) leaves no room for the freedoms our country takes for granted. Read the Koran. If you are willing to skip over certain passages and join what I refer to as "The Diet Muslim" community in our country, it's slightly less harmful.

Again, very dubious. Firstly, it's people, not countries, that have this sort of agenda; and secondly, if a terrorist or criminal organization wants to plant someone in the US, they'll do it. These kinds of policies won't keep them out, just maybe slow them down a little (they'd have to forge a few more documents). And you're locking legitimate people out of the country.

To be quite frank, I would have voted for a donkey if yada yada.

[/quote]

One side of your politics is represented by a donkey anyway. I'm of the opinion that an actual donkey would be better than the lying, cheating politician that you usually get...

[Xywalan]

Oh, I'm not accusing him of being particularly smart or clever. I think his speaking ability is on par with someone of average intelligence. It just so happens that the leftist media faucets have him under a microscope, so every detail will be scrutinized.

Sure, let's agree that in terms of "raw intellect" Trump is average. But add to that dubious morals, exceptionally enormous ego, fragile feelings, a strong perception of prosecution that makes him lash out at even the slightest perceived criticism, lack of any sort of basic regard for facts and objectivity, and the conviction that he is so smart and knowledgeable, and you would get a total dumbass.

Again, to go back to the OT, what would an average person do if put on the position of the president? Very likely, they would want know things. Secret things, top secret things, very very top secret things. Apparently, Trump wants to watch TV and tweet instead. So see? Trump is your average Joe grandpa who watched TV all day long and because of it he thinks he "knows so much" the world "more than all the generals". Except that I think the average Joe grandpa would give up on the TV and instead read the top secret memos.

I am, however, accusing him of doing the "Right thing" on several occasions in regards to his policies. I didn't vote someone into office who would be able to swoon the public. I voted someone into the office so that:
1. My taxes would stop going directly into the genocide known as abortion. It's quite immoral to require that I endorse this via financing.

I don't think your taxes go towards abortion.

But this is actually a funny point you bring up because I don't think Trump honestly cares one way or the other. That means, I usually defend him when some liberals bring out "jail the women who use abortion" quote because I honestly don't think Trump cares, he just said that because was put in the awkward position by the journalist and had never thought about the subject enough to know that that's not the correct answer.

2. Illegal immigrants would have a hard time gaining access into the country. I lost 75% of my hours to one before and it quite nearly bankrupted me. An individual whose first act upon entering this country is to break the law is not a citizen. He/She is a criminal.

I don't know the exact effect of illegal immigration to US but I don't think it is as simple. It could be that they are helping the economy but I guess this is a fair point.

3. Countries with a blatant extremist agenda would have a more difficult time threatening my friends and family. Extreme Islam (I refer to it as conservative Islam) leaves no room for the freedoms our country takes for granted. Read the Koran. If you are willing to skip over certain passages and join what I refer to as "The Diet Muslim" community in our country, it's slightly less harmful.

Well, you will not like this but the biggest religious threat facing USA is from extremist Christians and not Muslims. Sure, Muslims might blow up a few things, cause casualities that is far far smaller than say those caused by gun violence but they are not going to have any sort of real power in US. Whereas Christian fundamentalists can be easily elected to high office and maybe start wars and conflicts.

Besides, you are confusing a "conservative Muslim" and an "Islamist". You can be a hardcore fundamentalist Muslim without being an Islamist and you can be a very light borderline unreligious muslim but be an Islamist (e.g., Dzhokhar Tsarnaev).

[Sier]

I don't think your taxes go towards abortion.

They do, as the federal funding of planned parenthood has a side result of supporting abortion services. Asking a Christian who is directly opposed to this to fund it is akin to stuffing pork in a Jewish individual's mouth and force feeding them. "My Body-My Choice" rhetoric should not expand to "My Body-My Choice You're Paying".

I really don't care for Trump's personal view on it, so long as the political actions result in me having nothing more to do with it.

In fact - This issue is so hot topic for many conservative Christians that it becomes the -only- factor in much of the voting thought process.

While I'm certain this is not a popular viewpoint within the threshold demographic - I feel as though my rights have been violated so hard within the past 8 years, that seeing Trump at least attempt to overturn much of the damage will earn him another vote from me in another 4 years from now.