1. Even dickheads love their dogs. Find a way to connect to those you disagree with. “The obvious mistakes of those who find themselves in opposition are to break off relations with those who disagree with you,” texts Vera Krichevskaya, the co-founder of TV Rain, Russia’s last independent TV station. “You cannot allow anger and narrow your circle.”

  2. Pay in cash. Ask yourself what an international drug trafficker would do, and do that.

He’s thinking about flying a SpaceX rocket to Mars and raping and pillaging its rare earth minerals before anyone else can get there. We need a 30-year road map out of this.

  1. Take the piss. Humour is a weapon. Any man who feels the need to build a rocket is not overconfident about his masculinity. Work with that.

A fundraising banner from The Guardian, an indepedent British newspaper. The centerpiece is a serif block "For f****s sake", with the letters after the f sprayed over with "act '"

  • shoulderoforion@fedia.io
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    12 days ago

    the last time trumps incompetence as president caused a million americans to die in the span of one year due to an inept and purposefully sandbagged federal global viral pandemic response. he’s going to beat that number this time.

    • zephorah@lemm.ee
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      11 days ago

      There’s a 3 part series on the Reveal podcast about how the numbers were tracked. It wasn’t the CDC. It wasn’t anything federal trump established. It was 2 guys at The Atlantic collating data of each state individually and putting it together. They had rotating volunteer helpers. That was it.

      And the federal government, and everyone else, received the data from them.

      • valtia@lemmy.world
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        10 days ago

        So you’re saying it was much, much worse than a million, and the federal government took it because it made them look better?

        • zephorah@lemm.ee
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          10 days ago

          Who knows? The larger takeaway is collating data on a pandemic isn’t even what the CDC does. It’s something left to the individual states, such that, without a body of data collectors there is NO national picture of the numbers.

          Two enterprising young men from the Atlantic made it happen, with a bunch of people like you and me who were committed to being the helpers Mr Rogers talked about, insofar as they were able.

          So for me, Trumps failure was

          1. not acting on this shit and getting experts + federal data access + federal money (this would be a worthy taxpayer dollar use for everyone)
          2. Not fully supporting healthcare workers and galvanizing his MAGAs to do the same
        • zephorah@lemm.ee
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          11 days ago

          Once again, alternative reality is the hallmark of a cluster B personality disorder. Gaslighting those who disagree with that false reality also a cluster B behavior set.

      • djsoren19@yiffit.net
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        11 days ago

        The United States was actually well set-up to defend against pandemics. After the ebola scare, the Obama administration created a task force to effectively respond to future infectious diseases, and a plan was written up to guide the U.S. through a potential pandemic crisis situation.

        Purely out of pride, Trump disbanded the task force and scrapped all of the planning that was done during the Obama era, and then 2 years later was hit by the exact kind of situation the U.S. had planned for.

        I can’t guarantee that the U.S. would have avoided lockdowns, and the exact number of Americans killed by Trump’s decision will always be nebulous, but it’s very clear that his decisions before and during the COVID pandemic were harmful.

        • TheFrirish@jlai.lu
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          10 days ago

          To defend the devil himself there would not have been much of a difference if it was the dems in charge since half the population is still brain dead anyway… They would have refused to vaccinate and spread conspiracy theories either way.

          Don’t get me wrong he is still guilty much more could have been done to prevent these deaths

          • stringere@sh.itjust.works
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            10 days ago

            With ANYONE else in charge it would have been better because they would not have been actively undermining the medical and scientific communities by telling people to drink bleach or shine UV lamps up their asses.

      • MonkRome@lemmy.world
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        11 days ago

        We had the most severe rate of COVID deaths in the world outside of Eastern Europe. That shouldn’t happen in the most powerful country in the world. We failed to do the things we needed to early on and created a culture of misinformation because our president decided to play politics in a crisis.

        Had we reacted as well as New Zealand, largely considered to have one of the better responses, we theoretically could have had 280k deaths instead of 1.2 million. (If we matched their death rate) Obviously population density and our countries complex system account for some of the difference in death rate, but it doesn’t account for the enormous gulf between us and other wealthy countries. We are the only wealthy country in the world that had a death rate as high as ours. He bungled the response and likely got an extra half a million people killed. It’s amazing that this fact alone didn’t end his political career, but Americans suck at interpreting data.

        • Free_Opinions@feddit.uk
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          11 days ago

          Sure, but the person I was replying to claimed that “Trump’s incompetence caused a million people to die,” and I was questioning whether all of that can really be blamed on him. Because I don’t think so. He was pro-vaccine from the beginning, and there were plenty of Democrat politicians saying they wouldn’t take “the Trump vaccine.”

          And no, I don’t think the situation was handled optimally in the U.S. - but that was the case almost everywhere. Obviously, Trump isn’t without fault here, but placing all the blame on him feels disingenuous

          • Aatube@kbin.melroy.orgOP
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            11 days ago

            Democrat politicians saying they wouldn’t take “the Trump vaccine.”

            That sounds wild. Could you provide an example?

            • Free_Opinions@feddit.uk
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              11 days ago

              Well apparently they didn’t exactly say they’d refuse to take it but voiced their scepticism about it nevertheless.

              In September, Harris, then the Democratic Party’s vice-presidential candidate, hesitated when asked if she would take a vaccine that was approved before the election.

              “I will say that I would not trust Donald Trump,” Harris said, “and it would have to be a credible source of information that talks about the efficacy and the reliability of whatever he’s talking about. I will not take his word for it.”

              Cuomo went further, suggesting he mistrusted not just President Donald Trump, but also the Food and Drug Administration under Trump. Asked about his confidence in the FDA, Cuomo indicated he didn’t have much.

              “I’m not that confident,” Cuomo said, adding: “You’re going to say to the American people now, ‘Here’s a vaccine, it was new, it was done quickly, but trust this federal administration and their health administration that it’s safe? And we’re not 100 percent sure of the consequences.’ I think it’s going to be a very skeptical American public about taking the vaccine, and they should be.”

              Source

              • Aatube@kbin.melroy.orgOP
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                11 days ago

                Hmm. I will say I think the skepticism of the vaccine that came out too quick was bipartisan, though, if not more among Republicans.

                • Free_Opinions@feddit.uk
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                  11 days ago

                  I don’t think there’s inherently anything wrong about scepticism towards new things like that. It’s when the disnformation and conspiracies comes in that it turns kinda sinister.

                  Probably true that it’s more common on the right - in the U.S. atleast.

          • zephorah@lemm.ee
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            11 days ago

            I’m in healthcare and I didn’t hear anyone reference the vaccine as “the Trump vaccine”.

            What I did see, what was part of the impetus that kept visitors banned for so long, even now, is the violence, treatment interference, and disruptions from people in full Trump regalia.

            It is, in part, why so many visitor restrictions are still in play. Very few of us had encountered such and incredible level of spite, derision, and interruption of care from visitors, well, ever. There are still individuals who refuse transfusions because it might be vaccinated blood.

            Doubt and such expressed by leadership encourages this bad behavior. Support expressed by leadership, especially by Trump to his MAGAs, would’ve helped quell it.

          • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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            10 days ago

            President Harry Truman had a sign on his desk. ‘The buck stops here.’ That meant he knew that he couldn’t ‘pass the buck’ and say he wasn’t responsible.

            To put it another way. When Ebola was a threat, Trump said that Obama should resign if one American died of it. By Trump’s own logic he’s unfit to be President.

          • MonkRome@lemmy.world
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            11 days ago

            Sorry you’re getting down votes. I think you’re giving your honest perspective and that doesn’t deserve the dismissiveness. I do think you undersell how much Trump specifically had to do with misinformation though. I do really believe the culture around Trump really follows his lead, so when he was selling misinformation, you saw his followers parroting his misinformation which I do think was likely responsible for a lot of death.

      • GeorgimusPrime@lemmy.world
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        11 days ago

        He deliberately downplayed the infectiousness of the virus very early stages, and then spread anti-vaccine misinformation afterwards. As the US is a major air transport hub for, this also led to casualties in countries where it would have been a non-event. Early restrictions and screening on flights from China, then subsequent following of Fauci’s recommendations would have made a huge difference.

      • nomous@lemmy.world
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        11 days ago

        He didn’t do shit except tell people not to wear a mask and to shine a light up their asses.

        Do you actually not remember 2020?

        • Glytch@lemmy.world
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          11 days ago

          Don’t forget, he also told people to inject bleach and take dangerous doses of horse dewormer.

          • Free_Opinions@feddit.uk
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            11 days ago

            Except that he did not tell people to inject bleach. That’s misinformation.

            Also, calling ivermectin a “horse dewormer” is disingenuous and saying he has made claims about dosages is a lie. Yes, it was originally intented for veterinary use but it was approved for human use too in 1987. People used to buy the paste meant for animals to treat a skin condition because at the time that was the only way to get ivermectin without a perscription which doctors would refuse to write them. That’s where the horse dewormer narrative originates from. However, it’s a legitimate drug (though ineffective against COVID) and to claim otherwise is just partisan thinking not based in reality.

            • RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world
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              10 days ago

              He never explicity instructed people to inject bleach, no. But he went on TV and suggested, as President during a press conference with doctors, that disinfectants might be helpful for internal infections. Snopes is being overly pedantic here. He fucking told people to inject bleach and we all watched it happen with our own eyes and ears. You are the one gaslighting here.

      • steel_nomad@lemmy.world
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        11 days ago

        All those down votes are what you get for trying to bring any logic and thought to the discourse. And we thought Lemmy would be better than Reddit, eh?

        • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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          10 days ago

          Wait, you think that post was bringing logic and thought? Even if they are correct in their conclusion, they didn’t bring any of that. It was just empty “no you’re wrong” and then whining about downvotes.

        • SanctimoniousApe@lemmings.world
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          11 days ago

          The topic has been debated to death. There’s no logic, nor original thought here. Just more obstinate baiting for BS roundabout arguments that keep going in circles, and never engaged in good faith.

          I wish you people would grow TF up, but we all know you never will.

        • Free_Opinions@feddit.uk
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          11 days ago

          It was to be expected. Downvotes simply mean people don’t like what I’m saying - not that it’s wrong. I say what I believe to be true even when I know it’s unpopular. I just can’t help but to call people out when they make generalized absolute statements like that. I don’t even like Trump but I also seem to be missing the gene or whatever that makes so many absolute lose their minds over him to the point they can’t even think straight anymore.

  • _bcron_@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    Find a way to connect to those you disagree with.

    I’d rather find a way to integrate them into society in such a way that they aren’t actively trying to destroy it on multiple fronts as if it’s some sort of prank

    • shoulderoforion@fedia.io
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      12 days ago

      so, it was only trump voters who died from the inept covid response, or did our side get swept up and decimated, dying in the worst ways, choking and drowning on our own bodily fluids, unable to breathe, unable to say goodbye to our loved ones, bodies piling up. i dunno maybe i dreamed that.

      • Scubus@sh.itjust.works
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        11 days ago

        Uh, what? What is your point here? That good people are going to die?

        …yeah, we voted in Trump. Everyone knows.

            • Deceptichum@quokk.au
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              10 days ago

              Yes we are.

              Name one other species that shows the levels of love and care that humans can?

              We are lead by the worst examples of humanity, but they do not represent or act like what a normal person does.

              • Chip_Rat@lemmy.world
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                10 days ago

                Lol you had so many truely excellent arguments to make about our technological prowess or our society building abilities and you chose love? Dude my cat loved me more this afternoon snoozing on the couch with me than I’ve felt from all of humanity minus my own partner, mother father sister and brother. Ever.

                Love is abstract concept, it can’t knock down stuff. -Cleopatra

    • NutWrench@lemmy.ml
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      9 days ago

      This. I don’t want to “seek common ground” with Klansmen and fascists. Their beliefs disgust me.

  • Shardikprime@lemmy.world
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    10 days ago

    So basically a reminder that, beyond all the mind killer politics memesphere we have integrated into our cortex, the other is also a human being and as such, we have the same capacities/capabilities as them and they have the same capacities/capabilities as us as neither are superior to each other.

    Huh.

    I don’t think that will fit here

    • Aatube@kbin.melroy.orgOP
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      10 days ago

      The writing is very reminiscent of a satire piece. You can see that from the parts I quoted.

        • Aatube@kbin.melroy.orgOP
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          10 days ago

          Read the rest of my post again.

          (Also, “propaganda machine”? You realize The Guardian is one of the few independently-owned news outlets?)

  • AnIndefiniteArticle@sh.itjust.works
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    10 days ago

    There are reasons to build a rocket other than fragile masculinity.

    Take the piss and make jokes about what he’ll do with them (rape and pillage)? Absolutely. That’s the fragility: his plan for wealth and power is entirely dependent on stealing it from the neighbors. Just as he’s been taking all of the federal and investors’ cash in exchange for memes for the past few decades. He doesn’t produce anything of value himself.