this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2026
278 points (98.9% liked)
Fuck AI
8045 readers
559 users here now
"We did it, Patrick! We made a technological breakthrough!"
A place for all those who loathe AI to discuss things, post articles, and ridicule the AI hype. Proud supporter of working people. And proud booer of SXSW 2024.
AI, in this case, refers to LLMs, GPT technology, and anything listed as "AI" meant to increase market valuations.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
You're right, but I still don't understand this. I grew up watching Trump drama in tabloids and rolling my eyes at Trump-branded products and I grew up fundie, rightwing, and abusively sheltered. He was always just the weird looking guy with bad hair and I never understood why people cared so much.
I am 48 and Trump has been a public figure since i was a child. He was, however, mostly regarded as a punchline! We already used to joke about his incompetence in the 90s. I remember seeing a political cartoon as a child involving Trump and a panhandler - the punch line was that the panhandler had significantly more money (it was during one of his bankruptcies). When I heard Trump was running for president I thought it was a joke candidacy. Who could be his running mate - wily coyote?
When he won, I thought, "what the ever-loving fuck is wrong with Americans?"
Not once - not once - did I associate Trump with acumen, luxury, or quality.
It's people older than us. People who should remember the slums he was controversial for running, and his racist comments about the tenants living in them.
I watched a number of those shows about how Trump had a habit of not paying investors, worker, and vendors involved in his projects when they go belly up and I've literally seen people in their 60's, 70's, and 80's say that exact thing. It's crazy to me too, and those people are thinner on the ground every year, but they still count.
That's who those stupid ads with Melania eating diamonds were for. People like that.
He talked stupid and said bigoted things and connected with the dumber, bigoted half (30%?) of America. Simple as that.
Bigotry.
That's it.
He literally rode a wave of bigotry into the White House. Twice.
Because he was on TV and portrayed an absolute leader who gave decisive answers. He was the strong man lots of people want to be, on a scripted show designed to look like "reality".
He was in people's homes, in their living rooms, having dinner with them in their kitchens, relaxing in their dens and while they were making love in their bedrooms.
It's a form of intimacy to have a celebrity in one's home. A complete lie absolutely.. but there nonetheless.
The actor Tom Baker (Dr. Who "Doctor" #4) pointed this sense of false intimacy out in an interview he did decades ago, when talking about how some of his fans created an entire mythic life with him, where he was their best friend and confidante and expected a similar reaction from him, when they'd approach him at conventions which of course, he could not reciprocate.
Worst thing to happen for America was Mark Burnett getting Trump a TV show. It put a con-man into the most powerful office in the world.
Most thought of him as being a harmless buffoon fit for entertainment. Nobody realized at the time he was part of a complex scheme.
I think it was him desperately trying to get himself so famously known that he'd be beyond reach of his debtors.. namely one Nicedemo Scarfo of the Philly mob whom he owed money to. Little Nicky was exiled from Philly to Atlantic City because he was too violent and prone to killing people at the drop of a hat. After Trump lost the casinos, he fled to Califrnia to get on TV.
The rest is history.