Yep. Per the article:

But what feels novel in the aftermath of this month’s hurricanes is how the people doing the lying aren’t even trying to hide the provenance of their bullshit. Similarly, those sharing the lies are happy to admit that they do not care whether what they’re pushing is real or not.

Yeah but at least he was able to send free COVID tests to his Daddy Vlad when supplies were short and Americans were dying.

I'm against the death penalty and I hate these posts that compare to Hitler but hear me out.

Though the US and world death toll in covid wasn't entirely Trump's fault, he was a major, if not the largest, contributer to it being that high through his actions and inactions. He lied about it, dismissed it, made it appear to be no-risk, egged his followers on to ridicule, hate, and threaten those that tried to protect themselves and their families.

Millions died. How many of those were needless deaths? How many were thanks directly or indirectly through the actions of orange dipshit clown? I think his death count is (obviously) lower than Hitler's, but I think it's in a similar range. I think he thinks about the deaths he caused in. A similar way that Hitler did, those that died were nothing, worthless.

If I murder more than two persons in the US, there is a good chance I get the death penalty. Trump willingly caused the deaths of millions just.tonfuether his political career. Why isn't he on death row?

I guess the quote "one death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic" is real indeed.

The slightest bit of material analysis exposes the whole thing, but the minute you add "Marxist" to that sentence everyone shuts their brain off because of over a century of red scare nonsense. As designed.

Your use of "legitimately" might be construed by some as "acceptably"

Only because he sold off all the emergency reserves (and never replaced it) when he took office

Well, and also to enrichen himself, too. Obviously.

I think it can be further boiled down to a belief that hierarchies are either necessary or good. All of the evil are cases where those higher up in the hierarchy impose their will on those lower.

Under those beliefs, the meaning of things like "respect" and "good/bad" are different than when one believes that everyone should be considered equal. The politeness version of respect is for equals, when they aren't equal, respect only needs to go one way and if it's sent the other way, it's more "effective management" and not giving respect "downwards" then boils down to a different management philosophy rather than simply being an asshole. They can even acknowledge that it is an asshole way to treat people, but there's an underlying belief that it's ok to be an asshole to lessers.

It also makes the whole "they believe in things that hurt themselves" make more sense. They just believe that those higher than them in the hierarchy deserve better treatment. Maybe there's an element of hoping to get there themselves one day, or maybe there's an element of just feeling like they are inferior to those they agree are their betters.

This is why they don't really care if Trump is consistent or if he'll help them directly. It's also why his support is wavering, because if he's not strong enough to win, then he isn't really their better and is just fooling them, which also helps explain why the ones who have tried to take his life seem to be former followers because they can't be neutral about him, it's either gotta be love or hate.

It makes sense that those who believe in it and those who don't would be at odds with each other because the two beliefs are very incompatible. I'm not sure there is a resolution. It used to be "just don't talk about politics, keep it private", but that wasn't sustainable as each side of the divide wanted to push for improvements under their belief system.

People shit on religion, but it's rarely a problem until it's conservative.

You've hit the nail on the head.

Conservatism is the mistake of assuming outright that people are evil, and therefore need to be punished and conquered into being good, or at least restricted. Where the reality is people aren't quite good or evil, they're more marbled, and if you buy the conservative misunderstanding, the punishing and the conquering are morally good, whereas stopping them is bad. What conservatism won't acknowledge or doesn't see is that when you grow, encourage, support, and develop the good parts, you can safely drop a large portion of the punishment and conquering stuff.

Most of what conservatism is defending itself against is its own way of doing things.

Conservatism

Have you ever met conservative atheists? I have and SOME of them have been the most hateful and vile people I ever met. It's like without any form of religion holding them back, you obtain the "purest form" of conservationism.

"Never let a good catastrophe go to waste"

when the deep state turns off the chemtrail plants and stop pumping microchip vaccines into the air.

/s

These themes were distilled into fiction 100 years ago

Just a nitpick: Rings of Power uses Tolkien's characters but its story is almost entirely the work of the show's modern script-writers. They don't have the rights to use anything Tolkien wrote about that period of Middle Earth's history beyond what is mentioned in LOTR and its appendices (which is very little).

The danger of populism

The wacko conspiracies aren't due to populism, it's the opposite.

People understand they have an antagonistic relationship with the government, but they don't have the theory and historical knowledge to understand the systems at play due to centuries of anti-communist propaganda, so they latch onto conspiracies that match their prejudices and don't threaten any of their beliefs.

We saw the same thing with nazi germany.

Occam's Razor would suggest this is largely a domestic problem, perhaps exacerbated by foreign adversaries but far from being all their work.

Por que no los dos?

A meek, terrified populace is ripe fruit for the picking for actors both internal & external.

I think it's been foreign adversaries meddling with our politics. Our whole country knows we need to be spending a lot more on public education. It's not a mystery. Ask anybody who's been in a public school.

And then with the grip that social media has on our masses, The ease with which social media silos us into a weird kind of social affirmation tunnel vision platform that essentially brainwashes us.

If you're a foreign adversary that's already meddling in the United States politics, it's a hop skip and a jump to start meddling in their private sector. In fact it's quite a lot easier id imagine.

I'm approaching my sixties now. I've been through a lot of the messes of recent history. The world today (and it is the world, its not just the US although that is the most flagrant example) feels genuinely different. Just the sheer amount of misinformed hate and self-destructive uber capitalism feels like its reaching a crescendo. What comes after that is worrying to think about.

Orwell wrote that book based on his personal observations from how the government already worked decades prior. All he did was 1+1=2 and he was visionary because of it. Same with Marx. Or Verne.

There's a reason dystopian fiction has reigned supreme for over a decade now. We're obsessed with our inevitable fate.

It's more that Trump read a book:

Ivana Trump told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitler's collected speeches, My New Order, which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed. Kennedy now guards a copy of My New Order in a closet at his office, as if it were a grenade. Hitler's speeches, from his earliest days up through the Phony War of 1939, reveal his extraordinary ability as a master propagandist.

"Did your cousin John give you the Hitler speeches?" I asked Trump.

Trump hesitated. "Who told you that?"

"I don't remember," I said.

"Actually, it was my friend Marty Davis from Paramount who gave me a copy of Mein Kampf, and he's a Jew." ("I did give him a book about Hitler," Marty Davis said. "But it was My New Order, Hitler's speeches, not Mein Kampf. I thought he would find it interesting. I am his friend, but I'm not Jewish.")

No time travel, it is just that Orwell and the Repubs are both basing their content partially on observations about Nazi Germany.