And the Hillbots and Khive Kritters

Bro, touch grass

Lines don't always go up, but a "good" executive can always make it look like it's going up.

Behold, the smartest person on the internet.

Reading comprehension seems to be a problem for both of you.

I mean, I can understand each of you pretty easily here, but neither one of you seems to be able to do that.

It's probably just emotions getting in the way, though, I suppose. Sometimes Reddit arguments happen on Lemmy.. wel, more often lately

Of all the bad things that social media has brought us, the worst is making stupid people feel intelligent because other stupid people agree with them.

-Abraham Lincoln

Much like your point about line goes up, Americans are also taught that high pay and degree equal smart. At the same time know a high paying position can be gained through affiliation, decite, bribery or reputation and a degree can be gained by affiliation, decite, bribery, reputation, or simply being good at memorizing. All of those things can be accomplished by stupid people.

In example, Elon Musk is a ketamine addicted nazi who mails sperm to influencers and is also the richest person alive.

Average Americans aren't economicly benefiting from the Trump administration.

The Dow might be up, but probably would be doing better under Harris.

It... Kinda is though? Obviously xenophobia is baked into human biology, true, but why people are not xenophobic is because they've been exposed to lots of different things/people by their parents/society. The reason you're not and I'm not is because we came in contact with lots of foreign things/people, so "our system" (meaning the immediate people around us that had the most impact on us) contributed to removing our natural xenophobia.

So essentially, other people, who did not learn to reduce their xenophobia, were "failed by the system". Because the system allowed their parents, neighbors, friends to not reduce their xenophobia, like it should have happened.

May as well rant about it here.

Whenever someone say about trump "But he's a good businessman!" As some sort of defense, I get immediately annoyed. He is an absolute garbage businessman. He has failed or run so many businesses into the ground. He made a casino go broke, you know the business that thrives on basically just letting people come in and throw their money at you and leave?

What he is good at is lining his own pockets. He goes into anything and lies, cheats, and schemes, then shovels as much money into his pockets as he can before someone notices and the bills come due. He makes deals with contractors, then refuses to pay, then drags them through courts until they give up and claims he got a discount. That's not "good business" that's theft. It's despicable and gross.

Every allegory we have for a corrupt, lying, thieving businessman is embodied in Trump. He is not good for business. He's good for himself until the business fails then he moves on to the next persons pile of money to steal.

And that's what he is doing as president. He is selling the country piece by piece to line his own pockets, then once everything goes belly up he'll take his money and walk away.

Fuck Trump.

Not just USA, it's everywhere. I blame social media and the lack of literacy.

Ooh so that means forty more years of "two weeks" and then we get to bomb the taxes! Awesome!

There is a big difference between Intelligence and Critical Thinking. Critical Thinking is how humans are supposed to think, but it takes training and practice to get really good at it. If you aren't introduced to Critical Thinking Skills at an early age, then you substitute a sort of chaotic thinking, that tries to connect dots between known data points, and extrapolates weird conclusions, instead of thinking through the evidence with proper Critical Thinking Skills.

That's how you end up with smart people who make dumb decisions. They have the intelligence to retain knowledge, etc. but if you can't think properly, then you can't apply that knowledge properly. Eventually you end up on a weird path, applying your intelligence to a poorly designed strategy.

Nothing helps citizens resist propaganda like Critical Thinking Skills, which is why Republicans have actively suppressed the teaching of Critical Thinking Skills in schools for decades, because that creates citizens who will listen to the Conservative Propaganda Machine without questioning it. That makes them easy to manipulate, which is the objective of every politician.

A murderer will still give you his fingerprints, but he won't show you where the body is buried. The "release" is purely a distraction tactic, he's already claiming he's "fully exonerated" even though nobody has said that and the files aren't fully released. He's covering his ass and he knows it.

The few "smart" ones are going along for personal gain--they're in on it. The masses of MAGA, though, are literally stupid.

What they need is to feel the pain of their Dear Leader's choices. And, they are. That's why the administration is trying to take over the mid-term elections. They know they'll lose anything that looks like a fair election, small tweaks won't cut it.

The "smart ones" are doing the grifting

I know several Trump voters this probably applies to.

During the run up to the last presidential election, they made comments along the lines of "I know who my life was better under" in the same conversation where I had to prove to them that Biden wasn't the president in 2020 -- a fact that I had to prove to them by showing them on "Google".

Attempts to draw the line from Republicans' and Trump's disastrous policies, such as the record setting deficit spending PRIOR to the COVID era, and state of the country as the Biden administration took over were met with the equivalent of "Golly Gee that's way over my head". Same thing with discussions about how the Trump administration's policies (for this term) would/could be a disaster for future generations (i.e. your grandchildren). It was met with statements like "it's too complicated for me to understand, all I can do is vote for what's best for me right now."

Like, social media developped by american gafam?

Slight counter thought on the 'business man' thing -- Trump's clearly done well for himself. Yes, his businesses all tended to fail, he was convicted of fraud, etc etc -- he made a stock market entry based solely on his brand name. His entire reputation is based on vapor.

But that's not much different than a lot of celebrities these days. They're also rich as fuck, with basically no real 'deliverables' to speak of in terms of productivity benefits for the broader community. It's practically the definition of an influencer.

Also consider the standard advice that young people get in regards to work/business -- that they should essentially constantly change jobs / jump around to try and ratchet up that salary. That sort of behaviour is inherently reducing their overall benefit/contribution to the businesses they work for, and is entirely about lining their own pockets.

Americans inherently tie having large sums of money, to being a good business person. It's not about productivity, sustainability or supplying a need / service or anything of that sort. So lining his own pockets, is him being a good business man by the American definition of what that means.

Aren't the 'cubans' a special case, seeing as they're the people who fled because they couldn't practice modern day slavery with money, have been living in america for more than a generation, and hate cuba?

Seriously, you've read this exchange and believe Soup has a reading comprehension issue?

Yeah, ok — you're right that Lemmy definitely has a lot of reddit-brained people.

That's not "good business" that's theft.

Implying capitalism is anything other than a bunch of fancy legalese to make mass theft sound legitimate

Well, the leopards ate their faces too!

I think you're correct that this is how Americans define "good businessman". But there's some missing cognition when they then decide that he should run things.

"A 'good dream' is when you're in a dream and enjoy yourself. Freddy Kruger has many good dreams. Therefore, I hope Freddy is in my dream."

His casinos were just a money laundering operation for the Russians.

Yeah, no argument here. Though I think that's been a societal norm in America for a very long time, and in many western/capitalist countries. People have value based on wealth, not on historic/potential benefit to the broader public.

I always think back to the time Gene Simmons from KISS had his reality show, like back in the 90s or something ancient like that. One of his asides, he basically says he wants to amass money, and he wants his kids to amass money, cause money is what demonstrates how much value you've added to the world. That sort of thinking, I reckon, is baked into Americans. So Trump, Elon and Thiel and them have billions/trillions of dollars, they've 'clearly' been the most positive forces in American life in recent decades, and are inherently 'good' business men. Regardless of how they made that money, or whether anything was delivered. It's flawed, but as noted, that sentiment's been around for decades.

Mike birnigglia is a top tier shitpost name

There's two major types of businessmen: Those that are good at business, and those that are good at scamming. MAGA cannot discern between the two. That's why a lot of his influencers peddle in obvious scam bait. And ever since meme stocks became a thing through social network engagement cults-on-demand, it doesn't matter how much they get scammed out and lose as long as they can do so communally on a communal circlejerk while claiming someone else is the real loser. Trump is the materialization of all the efforts to manipulate and profit from society that led up to him

Don't worry, many of them will just be dieing sooner than expected, as a result of the policies they voted for resulting in cuts to social security, increases in property taxes and home insurance, skyrocketing healthcare costs, and thier 401ks and pensions poofing out of existence, again due to the people they keep voting for.

Whole lotta farmers are already pre-empting that!

What, am I supposed to have sympathy for these genocidal apocalyptic death cultists?

Fuck em.

Hope they die horribly, soon, quickly, alone, miserable, and confused.

Stupid is as stupid does.

That doesn't absolve them of responsibility and make them a victim though

Realistically, there is no difference between being good at business and being good at scamming. Both involve stealing, businessmen just steal from their employees instead of their customers.

This is a hard pill to swallow even for the people against him.

But when it comes to the state of America, we are all to blame.

Elon and Peter are not Americans. Like not in any way culturally or physically are they American.

Elon is a fucking illegal on top of it.

As bad as this country is you really think that? Truly? There are countries that don’t have proper plumbing and don’t give a fuck about having that “luxury”. Countries that chop clits off babies so they will never enjoy what life has to offer. These kinds of comments make you people seem stupid and racist.

I agree with you, but you must know that a high paying job and a degree aren't reliable indicators of intelligence.

1. wouldn't start more wars,
2. bring on more debt, and
3. release the Epstein files.

Does the "wouldn't" apply to 1 and 2, and not 3? If so then a "wouldn't" should be added before "bring".

Also, 3 is partial.

Or scamming your subsidiaries, Scamming your investors, scamming the government etc

Long before Trump was in politics, the thing most people knew him for was not his business acumen, but that he was essentially the physical avatar of avarice and greed and everything wrong with capitalism. He was not an aspirational role model, he was a caricature of the negative stereotypes embodied by the average American businessmen, everything dialed up to 11, including his contempt for the common laborer.

He was well hated before getting into politics, and it had nothing to do with his political opinions at the time.

The truth, amen!

Assuming the American election is not fixed.

I have doubts its a fair election.

🤓☝️☝️

So Elon allegedly became an American citizen in 2002. He immigrated, sure, and seemingly spent 10 years as an illegal, but he's as American as any other immigrant that America's taken in -- you can't realistically say he isn't, unless you want to expand the anti-immigrant rhetoric coming out of the current administration. Peter Thiel's been an American since he was 1 year old, and was naturalised I guess. So similar story on that front.

Point there being that if you want to make a case that they aren't Americans, you'd need to accept the current administration's take that immigrants aren't Americans. Which seems un-American historically (I mean, statue of liberty quotes and all...).

However at the same time, Americans, in the eyes of the current administration, are white protestant sorts. Like how they're kicking out "immigrants", but generally haven't been deporting the absurd number of Canadians who immigrated south, because the Canadian immigrants are generally white protestant sorts (even if non practicing, the same sort of work ethic). To accept the current administration's take on immigrants, you need to be a white nationalist, like Jack Posobiec and the Trump administration that lauds him.

And to reject the current administrations take on immigrants, you'd need to accept that Musk and Thiel are American.

This is all really the fault of The Apprentice, who made him seem as if he were some kind of business genius.

Trump was decent at making himself seem like he was a good businessman. But, all his self-promotion had to compete with all his failures. Eventually he would have run out of money to self-promote.

Then the people behind The Apprentice came along and did everything in their power to make him seem like he was the best businessman in the world, and idiots bought it. People watched a fictional reality TV show where contestants had to do silly "businessey" things, and somehow they concluded that the guy at the boardroom table set was actually good at business, rather than competent at acting.

This barely competent idiot who had inherited / stolen half a billion from his father and was slowly burning through it with his various failures had worked his entire life to try to create a myth that he was a genius businessman. That attempt had almost failed as he ran out of money. Then the guy who made Survivor came along and made his dreams come true. Finally, he was on TV all the time playing the character of a shrewd businessman, and somehow getting paid for it. This show lasted a decade, and by the end of it, idiots were convinced that Trump was a business genius, and the rest is history.

Oh, and incidentally, Mark Burnett, the guy who created The Apprentice, is now "United States Special Envoy for the United Kingdom", appointed on Trump's inauguration day in 2025.

Trump's clearly done well for himself

No he hasn't. If he'd just kept the money he stole / inherited from his dad and retired, he'd have come out ahead. The timeline diverges when he manages to get elected and starts being able to funnel billions to himself. But, until then, his story was mostly about self-promotion and failing at business.

I mean, Berlusconi got rich thanks to his mafia connection, so it kinda seems like making lots of money somehow involves utter disregard for human life.

Read it just before Trump ordered bombing Cuba

His stock market name brand did well. The apprentice did well, and was arguably the launchpad for his presidency. He's owned his Mar-a-lago mansion since 1985.

He seemingly spent his time travelling between his gaudy mansions and a child sex island in a warm climate where he raped people with zero accountability due to his prestige. That sort of freedom / luxury / depravity is not something afforded to the normies.

Even if built on bullshit, his life hasn't been one of failures in regards to his personal urges and lifestyle. Compared to 'commoner' Americans, he's rich and successful. And that he was able to get away with it, we can use an American quote: "Don't hate the playa, hate the game" (Ice T). To succeed via corruption and gaming the system, is as American as apple pie.

You should. Even if everything about the elections was exactly as advertised, it's still an unfair election. Citizens United, lobbyists, gerrymandering, voter suppression tactics, party controlled primaries, and FPTP voting are inherently and deliberately unfair.

Then there are the (currently unproven) allegations that Musk may have done something sneaky with voting machines, not to mention the fact that the Dems ran with an unpopular, no-primary "take it or leave it" non-progressive uninspiring candidate at the last minute, seemingly losing on purpose.

Biden promised to be a single term president, and if he hasn't lied about that, we wouldn't be in Iran right now.

Typical american who never left his country comment lol.

Your country:

• run by literal nazi pedophiles,
• 3 americans alone owns 800+ billions while 50% of the population owns less then 86 b.
• life expectancy in the US ranks 60, under countries like Kuwait, Albania, Slovenia
• no universal healthcare
• gun violence is the leading cause of child death

So you might want to rethink " they will never enjoy what life has to offer" , while most of your citizens don't have the "luxury" to not die before 79.
And btw, "stupid and racist" is litteraly the first thing that comes to mind to anyone when thinking about "you people".