The real problem is too many stupid people have a parasocial relationship with the businesses taking them for a ride.
If you don't recognize we live in a scam society by now, you're part of the problem.
this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2025
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Not prosecuting Nixon is what allowed for this shit.
Not prosecuting civil war traitors is what set up this shit.
I'd take it back further - Not wholesale hanging the leadership of the Confederacy and pursuing a tolerant reconciliation after the Civil War, which allowed the Jim Crow laws and the "Lost Cause" myth to flourish set the path for racism and division to flourish.
Yep. Andrew Johnson. If he had been removed via impeachment, the southern seeds of fascism could have been executed like the traitors they were.
In addition, Nixon probably would have been a hell of a lot more careful because impeachment wouldn't have been a merely theoretical possibility.
Each failed impeachment further cements the idea that presidents are untouchable, leading up to the current situation.
They got even worse after Watergate, and that's before W and Taco.
Iran/Contra was way worse than Watergate, and it was soft-pedaled like you would not believe, because "something something the nation has to heal after all the drama of the 60s/70s, we just had Vietnam and race riots and all these assassinations and Watergate and the Church Committee and why can't we just think about nice things and sweep this under the rug for the sake of moving forward to sunnier days?" or some such bullshit like that.
Ronnie Raygun had the most criminal administration in history, going by the convictions. I don't know if Donvict has beat that record yet. And yet, the "liberal media" was giving him reach-arounds at every opportunity. The guy wasn't even nearly as popular as the ensuing hagiographies that emerged soon after his exit would have you believe.
He should have gone right to fucking prison for Iran/Contra. And that's not even getting into the fact that he worked to keep American hostages from getting released under Carter...I'm sure the likes of Taco watched that and knew he could get away with all kinds of shit.
Yep. When we didn't punish to the fullest extent for what were crimes against the very concepts of democracy, we only gave permission for others to try again later, and time to better plan. They've literally been building to this since then.
Those were crimes of the past. We have to look to the future.
Yeah that was Ford's excuse at the time, too
Hanging the Dulles Brothers for high treason could have been an even better start.
^
To my fellow Americans:
Congress sat by and watched JFK get merked in front of the whole country, and Malcolm X and MLK, and RFK, and Fred Hampton, etc. They abdicated the power to declare war. They refused to prosecute white collar crime unto the collapse of the American economy in 2008 and stuffed it with “fluff”, such that the entire “recovery” is a bubble, priming a collapse of far greater scale now that the world economies have sought to subdue our influence. Now both parties are ushering in an era of complete authoritarian surveillance and control.
If you don’t believe that at this point, you’re a fucking idiot and you’re of no use.
The United States system is a complete… a C.O.M.P.L.E.T.E. FRAUD.
We need to rip the bandaid off and take our fucking medicine.
The wheel turns and our identity as “Americans” in this fleeting existence means next to nothing.
- Heritage foundation was founded in 1973.
- Mitch McConnel Elected 1985
- Reagan repealed the fairness doctrine in 1987
- Rush Limbaugh took to the airwaves in 1988
- Fox News started in 1996
- Citizens United in 2010
- Trump elected in 2016
He is both. His rise and subsequent tyranny are the result of a decades-long plan by autocratic moneyed interests, but the rapid dissolution of political norms was very much his doing.
There's also just something about the guy. There have been populists and cult of personality types before. But I've never seen a political figure so good at getting dumb people to commit violence for him.
I think the cult just likes that he allows them to be their worst selves. After being told for years that they are bad for being racist, sexist bigots finally some powerful person who is all those things becomes president and so they feel justified in being the awful humans they are.
That, and he doesn‘t make them feel stupid.
There‘s a lot of power in telling people „yes, you can say that out loud now“. But there‘s also a lot of power in not playing the same game as anybody else. There‘s power in being the guy who doesn‘t watch what he says because he‘s a politician.
Here in the UK we have a similar politician in Nigel Farage - far right, and very much able to speak to people on the level of „I‘m not like all those stuffy politicians, I‘m an ordinary bloke just like you“.
It‘s not true for him, either, and I find him equally repulsive, but I can‘t deny that they‘re both effective at making people think „he‘s one of us!“ And it‘s not that other politicians don‘t try, at least here in the UK, which is why you‘ll find endless photo opportunities of them doing things like drinking a pint in a pub. But those always seem fake and hollow.
I see Farage and Trump described as „charismatic“. I don‘t think that‘s quite the right word, because that suggests a sort of charm, I think. But I can understand on an intellectual level why some people find them appealing.
John Brown was right about everything