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How much longer can Trump/Trumpism last?

Started by July 24, 2018 03:35 AM
140 comments, last by jbadams 6 years, 2 months ago

The problem is that Trump is not doing a good job. As a politician, you usually want people to support you and therefore do things that most people benefit from, e.g. affordable health care etc.

The only positive thing I remember that Trump has done is the North Korea thing, and I am not convinced that he did this on purpose. He threatened nuclear war via Twitter and I think Kim Jong-Un simply thought that this guy is crazy and would actually do such a thing, not like other presidents who would never have started a (nuclear) war against North Korea and therefore didn't pose a real threat.

Every other thing I remember him doing was not beneficial to the working class, including his own base. But they don't seem to understand that, I just don't know why.

11 hours ago, djsteffey said:

Trump has absolutely nothing to do with amending the Constitution.  That is a power of the House and Senate or a power of the States if enough of them would vote one forward. 

US President Richard M. Nixon was actively looking for ways around the term limit provisions of 25th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America so he could run for a third term when he was caught red-handed in active involvement in election-related criminal activities.  While it's unlikely to succeed, manipulating things to gain more than two terms is a scenario with recent historic precedent and in keeping with Trump's proudly displayed ethos.

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Maybe you want to say something like he just will refuse to leave office when his term is up. 

My guess is that as soon as his last mandated term is up, he's going to run like hell away from the presidency.  Constantly swimming in the shark talk has got to be exhausting.  It's the spooks behind his administration I'd be more concerned with: the presidency is not a one-man show (despite popular belief) and it's the off-camera puppet masters that are the sinister forces people should be worried about.

Stephen M. Webb
Professional Free Software Developer

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10 hours ago, ChaosEngine said:

Then don't read or comment on the thread? 

There are around 40 topics on the first 2 pages of the lounge; of which maybe 3 could be considered political, and only one that is specifically about Trump. Given that his administration effects nearly everyone on the planet, it feels entirely reasonable that people would want to discuss it in the lounge.

ChaosEngine, my problem is there's virtually nowhere to go anymore to *NOT* read this.  There is no where to escape the constant, constant deluge of political crap we have to endure daily. Hourly. Minutely.

I can't escape to a movie anymore without seeing a writer or actor with an agenda.  I can't watch a sporting event without an announcer or player making some political statement.  Other social media sites are a complete joke with self-professed issue experts who really know nothing about most of the topic feel the need to spew their opinions out to the ether and insight flame wars for some bizarre type of gratification.  I can't even sit down at a family dinner table anymore due to the vastly disparate views within my own family.

So excuse me if just seeing a politically-charged title in a venue where I, as a game developer, am hoping to learn, get inspired, and be able to escape from the daily din of the nonsense of politics, irks me.

I have very strong opinions on this particular topic but I would not share them here as, for me, it is just not the right venue to do so. I guess I am surprised there are few people that seem to feel the same.  

4 hours ago, dangermoose said:

ChaosEngine, my problem is there's virtually nowhere to go anymore to *NOT* read this.  There is no where to escape the constant, constant deluge of political crap we have to endure daily. Hourly. Minutely.

Nonsense. You actively clicked on a thread with the title "How much longer can Trump/Trumpism last?". Then you replied and now you've replied again. It's not like @deltaKshatriya wrote some clickbaity title and suckered you into participating. There are literally millions of vapid non-stories every day about celebrity idiots or pseudoscience diets or royal babies or whatever. All of which I think is utterly pointless and frankly, a detriment to humanity, but I somehow I manage to avoid clicking on them.

4 hours ago, dangermoose said:

I can't escape to a movie anymore without seeing a writer or actor with an agenda.  I can't watch a sporting event without an announcer or player making some political statement.

People who create movies or play sports are affected by politics too and when they feel strongly enough about something, they get to exercise their right to expression. Don't like movies with a message? Don't go to that movie. Don't like players making political statements? Just watch the game and ignore the nonsense faff around it. 

 

4 hours ago, dangermoose said:

So excuse me if just seeing a politically-charged title in a venue where I, as a game developer, am hoping to learn, get inspired, and be able to escape from the daily din of the nonsense of politics, irks me.

Again, you clicked on the one active topic about this in the one forum which is specifically set aside so members of this community can discuss non-game related topics. Just read something else. No one is forcing you to participate in this. You don't even need to read this reply!

if you think programming is like sex, you probably haven't done much of either.-------------- - capn_midnight
6 hours ago, dangermoose said:

ChaosEngine, my problem is there's virtually nowhere to go anymore to *NOT* read this.  There is no where to escape the constant, constant deluge of political crap we have to endure daily. Hourly. Minutely. 

I don't think it's hard to understand how simply reading some kind of headline about Trump has the potential to evoke strong emotions in someone, either for or against him. I've heard that when something touches on a person's core values it can evoke a fight or flight response. And I can understand how someone might get tired or trying to avoid the fights going on between people. When a place you figure you can escape to becomes touched by this conflict, and it's like there's no other places to go to, it sits with you gnawing on your mind... and so you choose "fight" and write something to defend your sanctuary. Makes sense to me.

The thing is, all this disruptive stuff that's going on is important. It touches so many people that it makes sense that the conversations are everywhere. The conversations need to happen if there's any chance of making things better. Hopefully some of those conversations include people with opposing viewpoints that are willing to understand the other's so that a better solution can be found.

I've seen political discussions here with very different opinions that have been quite mature and I've seen ones that have devolved into flame wars from the start. Sometimes you just have to take the risk that you'll get to the mature conversations.

1 hour ago, ChaosEngine said:

Nonsense. You actively clicked on a thread with the title "How much longer can Trump/Trumpism last?". Then you replied and now you've replied again. It's not like @deltaKshatriya wrote some clickbaity title and suckered you into participating. There are literally millions of vapid non-stories every day about celebrity idiots or pseudoscience diets or royal babies or whatever. All of which I think is utterly pointless and frankly, a detriment to humanity, but I somehow I manage to avoid clicking on them.

People who create movies or play sports are affected by politics too and when they feel strongly enough about something, they get to exercise their right to expression. Don't like movies with a message? Don't go to that movie. Don't like players making political statements? Just watch the game and ignore the nonsense faff around it. 

 

Again, you clicked on the one active topic about this in the one forum which is specifically set aside so members of this community can discuss non-game related topics. Just read something else. No one is forcing you to participate in this. You don't even need to read this reply!

I can’t speak for others, but this topic shows up on the front page of the site for me even if I am not logged in. I did not go to any forum at all. And yes, I would also avoid frequenting the site if it had celebrity gossip on the front page. I also would avoid buying books on programming or procedural generation or artificial intelligence if the author feels it necessary to constantly talk about divisive political topics in said book.

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28 minutes ago, richardurich said:

I can’t speak for others, but this topic shows up on the front page of the site for me even if I am not logged in. I did not go to any forum at all. And yes, I would also avoid frequenting the site if it had celebrity gossip on the front page. I also would avoid buying books on programming or procedural generation or artificial intelligence if the author feels it necessary to constantly talk about divisive political topics in said book.

Radical suggestion: don't click on topics you're not interested in.

Look, if someone starts talking about how Microsoft or Apple or Facebook are evil in a technical forum when someone is just trying to get an answer on how to use DX or Metal or whatever Facebook API, I am 100% behind you in saying that is not appropriate. 

1 hour ago, kseh said:

I don't think it's hard to understand how simply reading some kind of headline about Trump has the potential to evoke strong emotions in someone, either for or against him.

Of course. I feel a very weird mix of confusion, disbelief, nausea and rage every time I remember that he's actually president and this isn't a dystopian comedy. If you* don't want to engage with politics, well, I'd argue that's a very childish position to take, but it's certainly your* right to do that. But I'm pretty annoyed at the arrogance of someone who feels they can tell the rest of the community what they can and can't discuss in the lounge. If the mods want to ban political discussions, that's their prerogative, but I actually think this discussion has been relatively civil.

*you not being specifically you, but anyone

if you think programming is like sex, you probably haven't done much of either.-------------- - capn_midnight
7 minutes ago, ChaosEngine said:

Radical suggestion: don't click on topics you're not interested in.

Look, if someone starts talking about how Microsoft or Apple or Facebook are evil in a technical forum when someone is just trying to get an answer on how to use DX or Metal or whatever Facebook API, I am 100% behind you in saying that is not appropriate. 

Of course. I feel a very weird mix of confusion, disbelief, nausea and rage every time I remember that he's actually president and this isn't a dystopian comedy. If you* don't want to engage with politics, well, I'd argue that's a very childish position to take, but it's certainly your* right to do that. But I'm pretty annoyed at the arrogance of someone who feels they can tell the rest of the community what they can and can't discuss in the lounge. If the mods want to ban political discussions, that's their prerogative, but I actually think this discussion has been relatively civil.

*you not being specifically you, but anyone

To be clear, I do not care at all what you talk about in the forums here. I only care that I have to be told you are talking about it on the front page of the site. From someone claiming to get nauseous when being reminded Trump is president, I would think you would understand why people might not like seeing even the title of the thread.

 

The site administrators just need to decide if they want to have political threads looking like such a significant portion of the content on the site, and if they want to present these types of threads as examples of how people will be treated when using the site. It is their call, and I believe I have been clear enough in my reasons why I prefer politics be kept off the front page. But I can understand the allure of clickbait to businesses.

 

10 minutes ago, richardurich said:

To be clear, I do not care at all what you talk about in the forums here. I only care that I have to be told you are talking about it on the front page of the site. From someone claiming to get nauseous when being reminded Trump is president, I would think you would understand why people might not like seeing even the title of the thread.

 

The site administrators just need to decide if they want to have political threads looking like such a significant portion of the content on the site, and if they want to present these types of threads as examples of how people will be treated when using the site. It is their call, and I believe I have been clear enough in my reasons why I prefer politics be kept off the front page. But I can understand the allure of clickbait to businesses.

This is the most bizarre kind of tantrum I've seen for a long time

You're not only saying "I don't want to get involved with political discussions", you're also saying: "I don't want to see political threads on the front page"

Everyone knows the front page is very dynamic as newer topics soon override older ones  after a short while. And with political discussions forming just a tiny percent of the entire discussions on the forums there is no way anyone would think "political threads looking like such a significant portion of the content on the site..."

Besides your point about being "someone claiming to get nauseous when being reminded Trump is president" is a personal and subjective thing, as we all have different stuff we get nauseous about, do we then control content of the site because of that? ....bearing in mind the lounge is the only subforum allowing off-topic non game dev discussions 

Apart from (occasionally) reading the thread, I myself never intended making any posts... until I read your comments

can't help being grumpy...

Just need to let some steam out, so my head doesn't explode...

To be clear, we don't want political topics like this one on the front page for people who don't want to see it.

We're investigating possible solutions, and will then need to implement whatever solution we decide on, so unfortunately this topic is likely to continue appearing for a while.

 

Thanks for all the feedback on it! :)

- Jason Astle-Adams

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