Hardkill

I hate to say it OP, but I really don't think he legitimately lost the election. Yes, Musk greatly contributed to Trump's win by polluting the entire X platform with endless amounts of misinformation, right-wing propaganda, and anti-mainstream propaganda. That caused a lot of people on X to be brainwashed into voting against Harris. However, there is no definitive proof that Musk, Trump, or anyone else who is a part of the MAGA cult in America had somehow rigged the system by actually causing widespread voter fraud such as voter suppression to such an extreme or unprecedented scale. Also, Musk buying votes in swing states like Pennsylvania was totally illegal, but I highly doubt that was nearly enough to swing the election to Trump. It's absolutely disgusting and infuriating that Musk and other right-wingers and right-wing outlets such as Dan Bongino, Candace Owens, the Daily Wire, Alex Jones, and Fox News keep getting away with rotting people's minds but unfortunately none of that is illegal.

I get how angry some of you guys are about Biden for trying to run for re-election. Tragically, he is and will continue to be blamed for paving the way for Trump's return to power. Obviously, a big part of why Biden wanted to run for re-election was because of his ego. However, I don't think that Biden was being extremely selfish firmly believed that it was because Biden really thought that he was the country's best shot of defeating Trumpism once and for all given that he was the only person ever who ever defeated Trump before. I really thought that he could've defeated Trump had his party united behind him. He was the incumbent president and incumbency advantage and if you look at historical precedent incumbency has always been a tremendous advantage, especially for the POTUS. Also, the rest of Democratic leadership including Pelosi, Schumer, Jeffries, etc. should accept their real share of the responsibility for their party's loss in 2024. They too are also at fault for ruining it all. In any case, what about how extraordinarily well he governed the country as president?

Since around the early 2000s, most rural Americans have usually voted against their own economic interests by voting Republican in elections. This voting behavior may be influenced by various factors, including the pervasive presence of right-wing propaganda. But rural America used to be largely populist, with voters supporting progressive candidates who advocated for farmers' rights and labor reform. The Democratic Party's New Deal policies, implemented during the Great Depression, resonated strongly with rural voters, who benefited from programs like the Agricultural Adjustment Administration and the Rural Electrification Administration. Why do you think that is in your opinion? Is it because Democratic Party has become increasingly too socially liberal and too culturally diverse for them since the late 1900s? Is it because of how increasingly polarized the media landscape has gotten? Is it because of the significant decline of union membership in the US since the 1970s and 1980s among rural Americans, which has caused many to lose their sense of community and shared identity, and have driven them to join conservative groups such as gun clubs, Turning Point USA, evangelical church groups, and right-wing online outlets? Is it because they fear that anymore liberal/progressive economic reforms will also help out racial/ethnic minorities, immigrants, poor people in urban areas, people who aren’t Christian, and so on? Is it because the Democratic Party stopped reaching to most rural Americans for too long?

Here's a take from Dan Pfieffer on Democracy Docket on why more rural states have gotten so red:

Mr. Locario, who is black, said that when he went to Brazil that they were very forward with him.

Yeah, that's what I think it is. Though I wonder why women there are more sexually liberated in a country that's less developed and therefore more tradition-oriented than America is.

It's not just MAGA republicans. It's also the more Reagan-type Republicans who have no idea how much their policies or ideas are hated by most Americans and who have this fantasy about their party one day going back to being like that of Reagan. Don't they ever realize why the Republican party has never once won a supermajority of Republicans in either chamber of Congress since around the days of Teddy Roosevelt presidency in the 1900s decade whereas the Democrats have had supermajorities in either or both chambers of Congress a number of times since 1900? Also, moderate Democrats have to stop playing whiffle ball and play a lot more hardball.

Huh? I don't understand what you're saying. Also, I haven't had to give any money or get them something else like a green card.

Then again, has anyone noticed how conservatives and MAGA keep getting very shocked by a lot of the center-left victories we have had in the past? Even though the Left and Dems lost in 2024, the Republican party lost an extraordinary amount of big elections from 2017 to 2023. They were supposed to win the 2022 midterms when the Democratic party did uniquely well. Also, since 2022, Democrats have kept growing their power significantly at the state and local levels of government. Conservatives are just as delusional as liberals are in their own way. They are less developed overall, they are still stuck in fantasies of wanting to bring back the "good old days" that will never come back because they will never work again. Centrists/moderates are perhaps the most ground or pragmatic compared to staunch liberals and staunch conservatives. However, even moderates can really be more delusional about certain things than left-wingers and right-wingers are. For instance, moderates like Manchin and Sinema were so delusional, even more so than Biden himself was about being able to bring the country back together through bipartisanship. They eventually had to admit that the old days of great bipartisanship are gone. Moderates tend to be more spineless. Look at what happened with Merrick Garland and how he fucked up his prosecution of Trump by waiting too long all because he was too afraid of being deemed too partisan if he went ahead with the matter much faster and much earlier than he and his team did. Moderates get easily taken advantage of from less moderate people.

I wonder what happens if Musk bans all accounts of those on X who speak out against Trump.

Yeah, I feel that way too.... I generally don't believe in owning guns, but given the extraordinary circumstances we are in, I think we may need them.

Unreal..... I now want to just give up on humanity. Everyone who voted for him deserves to be deceived by him.

I really hope Trump is not serious about raising the average tariff rates on all imports, including raising the tariff on Chinese imports, to what they were during the Great Depression-Era. Not only would many millions of Americans be significantly poorer than they are now, but it could become a big contributing factor to another severe recession if not a depression in the future. The Smoot Hawley Tariff of 1930 (which imposed the second-highest tariff rate in U.S. history, after the Tariff of 1828) completely backfired by worsening the Great Depression. There's a reason why America has kept the average rate on all imports, especially the average rate on dutiable Imports, to very low levels since the late 1940s (post WWII). In fact, Ronald Reagan's presidency began a new trend of lowering tariff rates down to another level and that trend continued on as a precedent that lasted all the way to the end of Obama's presidency. Trump has been trying to change that precedent ever since his first term as president and Biden continued it but did it in a much more intelligent manner. Now Trump wants to take that into overdrive and for very dumb and antiquated reasons.

As I've already mentioned in my previous post on this thread, real wages for most workers in America have actually outpaced inflation for almost 2 years now. What's the issue is that the general level of prices of goods and services for Americans today are about 20% higher than they were around 2019-2021. According to economist, Mark Zandi and his team, you have about half of Americans whose real income increases have either barely kept up with or have significantly exceeded that of the cumulative inflation from over the past 3 or 4 years and you have the other half of Americans whose real wage/salary increases have not kept up with the cumulative inflation from over the past 3 or 4 years. Plus, even though mortage rates and Fed Fund rates have actually been historically average since 2022 and have been going down significantly since late 2024, many Americans are still having trouble tolerating even those levels of relatively normal rates largely because of the growing housing shortage we have had and was never seriously addressed since the end of the 2008 financial crisis. Also, credit card rates have been at such unprecedented high rates for years now that it's become truly usurious. That too has also been hurting many people in the US. Believe me, I've been keeping track of all the data on all of this stuff obsessively like every other day since inflation first became a problem in 2021. It's like I've been learning to become an expert on the economy for years. Last but not least is the fact that the widespread discontent many people have had over inflation and general level of prices in our country has been disgustingly amplified by the extreme negative partisanship, ridiculous drama, and the never-before-seen amount of misinformation out there from the right-wing media, the far left media, and the alt-media. The mainstream media outlets for years have done a terrible job in counteracting the falsehoods and toxic mischaracterizations of inflation and high prices projected by all of the anti-mainstream media outlets out there and the more reasonable progressive media outlets have still not been anywhere near as robust as they need to be to combat all of the misinformation and false narratives on this issue. The brain rot in this country is so real.

Alright fine... Then, I'll try my best to ask questions more judiciously.

Oh yeah, this wealth inequality situation we have going is still an absolute injustice. I was just pointing out some of the positive things that have actually occurred at the same time regarding wealth in our country that a lot of people probably don't realize.

This is why the Democrats and the Left desperately need to build a powerful left-wing media ecosystem to defeat Musk and the Right on the messaging war.

Sorry, but I don't think it's fair to say that I need to think for myself above everyone here. At least unlike a lot of people on here, I am more willing to learn from someone like you with more of an open-minded. Also, I can't believe that you think that my questions are so trivial. Another thing is that I haven't been just asking questions on this forum. I've also been giving my fair share of knowledge, understanding, and answers on various things to many people on this forum over course of several years. Very heartbreaking and demoralizing....

Yeah, they now work for them. However, isn't the CIA part of the deep state? If it is then aren't they able to pressure Trump to sign onto pro-Western policies such as continuing to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia?

Oh, but both Trump and Musk support Putin. How does the CIA tolerate that?

But the CIA is generally run by conservative-leaning people and Musk has become a right-winger. So, why wouldn't they support whatever he is doing given that their ideologies and level of overall development align with his?

The idea that the decades-long growing economic inequality in America has caused the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer is partially misleading. While it is true that the rich have gotten richer, with the top 1% and 0.1% of earners experiencing significant income growth, the story for the poor is more nuanced. According to data from the US Census Bureau, the poverty rate has declined significantly over the past several decades, from about 19.5% in 1964 to around 12.9% in 2020. In fact, the average poverty rate during the Biden presidency, specifically from 2021 to 2024, was the lowest ever compared to any other presidential term in US History. This is due to the continuing long-term economic growth and the increasing amount of targeted social policies that all have helped lift many people out of poverty, even if the benefits of growth have not been evenly distributed. The incredible period of prosperity and optimism during Bill Clinton's presidency, the strong economy by the end of Obama's presidency and the major liberal policies enacted during his presidency, the very strong economy during Biden's presidency and the major liberal policies enacted during his presidency have all really contributed to the significant long-term decline in poverty in this country since the early 1990s. However, income growth for low- and middle-income households has been slower than for high-income households, leading to increased income inequality. Additionally, many people who have risen out of poverty are still struggling financially and lack economic security. Also, unfortunately, Trump and the GOP are of course now going to make poverty worse again during these next 4 years.

Then how do we reconcile with what you said before? Is the only glimmer of hope for anything right now is to work on our life purpose like focusing on our career or preparing for some kind of war?

Is it because my posting about him have been way more overblown than yours?

Who told you that inflation is still sky-high? For almost 2 years inflation levels have been normal (~2-3% inflation) and have been outpaced by average real wage growth throughout the whole country. Also, gas and oil prices over the past 2 years have been about as cheap or as reasonable as they were during much of Obama's presidency and close to what they were during Trump's 2nd and 3rd year as president, especially when you adjusted for inflation in 2024-2025 dollars. It's the cumulative effects of inflation from 3 to 4 years ago that have caused the cost of living, affordability, and high prices of various such as housing and grocery prices along with high borrowing costs including very high credit card interest rates and debt that are altogether still the problem.