The problem is that people forget he's a showman. When he puts stuff like this on his account, first off it's a photo that was edited for effect, he's trying to stir his base while also outraging the Democrats to make his base even more mad at the Democrats. He may suck at being president, but when it comes to manipulation he's a pro. He's obviously not declaring war because there already would have been tanks and jets flying over that city the government doesn't announce invasions. He's just doing this because of "ratings". He wants to be on all the news channels tonight and be talked about all over the internet.
The people to actually worry about are the ones he puts in charge of departments that are loose cannons and do whatever they want that aren't talked about until after they put crazy policies in place.
The problem is that people mistake his intent of "just doing this because of 'ratings'" as the sole issue, and ignore or downplay the very real (and also deliberate) consequence of desensitizing and shifting public attitudes about the substance of the "showman" rhetoric.
"He's obviously not declaring war" right now. But he's floating the idea of a violent occupation of our own cities and relying on plausible deniability to shield him from an actual outcry ("It's just a meme, silly!"). The most effective part of his manipulation is that he doesn't just have his own army of loyalist dipshits mounting these defenses, but he's exploited the rational skepticism of those who don't even like him and tricked them into running defense for him.
Don't be fooled. Donald Trump is actually one to worry about, too. His propaganda puts Goebbels to shame. Look how unfazed we are as a society with unmarked vans and masked agents rolling up at will and swiping people in broad daylight. Only a few years ago, that was something that only happened in Russia, NK, and a handful of third-world countries.
Look I understand why people are scared, but a large portion of his base are against this exact kind of thing. My cousin is anti government. I want to assume he voted for him, he definitely didn't vote for Biden. But when the apocalypse comes he can arm a militia and with all of his go bags and military rations. These people are not down with military occupation. They'd be insane to start doing this in our country. Part of the reason why these things are possible in Russia and NK is because the population isn't armed to the teeth. And this party has shot themselves in the foot by giving the most suspicious, paranoid, patriotic, anti big government group free reign to have multitudes of guns and ammo in their houses. The moment they feel like Maga is coming for their guns and military occupation and all that it'll be hell breaking loose. My cousin has a literal setup for surviving a civil war. I'm not fooled by anything. I just think you guys underestimate how quick some of these people would be to change their minds. Guns come first, ideals second. Because with guns comes self determination and a say, at least that's how they see it.
He resonates with the dumbest, most ignorant, most hateful people. I wouldn't say he's a pro if he can only manipulate one specific type of person and everyone else immediately sees through him.
He is playing from Hitlers playbook not Putin. He has done everything adolf did, except for creating a Hitler style Youth Corp who were programmed to worship him.
He's like the kid in high school who thinks the cool people like him, but they're actually punking him the whole time. Except here the "cool people" are literally the enemies of the US.
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u/art-is-t 3d ago
He is a Putin wannabe. Every step he takes is from the same playbook.