• yarr@feddit.nl
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    7 hours ago

    Man, if Musk is tanking this hard, I am not sure he’s going to get re-elected.

  • Rhoeri@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    Dictators generally don’t concern themselves with what their subjects think.

  • Wren@lemmy.worldM
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    8 hours ago

    Oh no! Wormtongue isn’t popular amongst those that didn’t vote for him?

    Say it ain’t so!

  • Montreal_Metro@lemmy.ca
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    11 hours ago

    He doesn’t care about being popular or unpopular. He’s the king now, he can do whatever he wants.

    • thermal_shock@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      Oh idk, musk/zuck definitely have masculinity and self confidence issues. They have to buy their “man” card and seek approval from everyone. I think trump is similar, he’s melted down before over dumb shit.

  • maccam912@programming.dev
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    7 hours ago

    If Trump thinks in ratings, spread the word that ever since this musk character got introduced the ratings for the old Trump character are plummeting. If Elon is in the picture there is no room left for an old deal making business guy and they should write him out of the script. Although I bet ratings would skyrocket on this show if they had an episode where the tension between Trump and musk boils over while they are isolated in a bunker stuck with each other. Talk about great TV!

  • SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    He doesn’t care what people think as long as he has power. He could steer a ship into rocks, sink and his die hard supporters would blame Biden/Obama or anyone else.

        • rumba@lemmy.zip
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          9 hours ago

          Lol, so, literally true, but not for the reason they thought…

          I love it, I wouldn’t even have thought to check…

      • Devanismyname@lemmy.ca
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        9 hours ago

        We are boycotting everything the us makes. Plus when you guys get here, I’m not gonna lay down and take it and neither will the rest of us. I plan and fighting tooth and nail to stay canadian.

        • samus12345@lemm.ee
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          9 hours ago

          It’s not “you guys.” I am not my government any more than you are yours.

          • Devanismyname@lemmy.ca
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            7 hours ago

            Sorry, you’re right. I know not all of you are to blame for this. Shouldn’t have included you in that. No excuse for that.

          • Rhoeri@lemmy.world
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            8 hours ago

            There’s dumb people all over. They’re not just here in America. Some people won’t see nuance or reason, but instead, what they want things to be.

  • ikidd@lemmy.world
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    15 hours ago

    So does “tanking” mean being laid in front of a tank and run over multiple times?

    Because I can get behind this.

    • TastyWheat@lemmy.world
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      11 hours ago

      Time to start a other shitty TokTik trend!

      insert shitty AI voice “Only billionaires can afford to do this challenge!”

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      17 hours ago

      Thing is that Bronzo the Clown looks like a cuck even to a redcap when you watch fElon and Hannity talking over him, or fElon and his kid in the WH doing more talking than Bronzo as he sits there looking like he’s sundowning.

    • SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      Assuming they get off their asses and vote this time. Also they need to learn their lesson and focus on a few issues and more on working class American economic issues and less on identity politics.

    • Devanismyname@lemmy.ca
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      11 hours ago

      Lol elections. You don’t think they’ve planned for that? There won’t be elections in 2 years. He’s gutted half the government already.

      • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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        11 hours ago

        America follows the course of Nazi Germany. The US had their Machtergreifung, and if they might get the next Democratic elections in (1949-1933)=16 years, after the Americans came in and stopped the Nazis. Oh, wait…

      • rational_lib@lemmy.world
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        15 hours ago

        How are they going to stop it? Republicans have been trying to stop elections since 2017, they’re not smart enough to figure out how. They couldn’t even figure out how to schedule a press conference about it at the four seasons.

    • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
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      23 hours ago

      Approval always matters, even without democracy.

      Democracy is just a managed, fairly agreed upon process for a governed people to exercise their will. But a governed people always have the ability to exercise their will. Authoritarian tactics can make that more difficult, but they cannot ever prevent it.

      Remember, if there was nothing people could do to stop them, their propaganda would not be necessary. The fact that they are engaged in information control demonstrates that they do very much care about approval - or, at least, acceptance.

    • horse_battery_staple@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Exactly, fascists give zero fucks about public sentiment once they’re in power. All they need to do is control the media and polls will align with their goals again. Case in point is the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico

      https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-02-19/donald-trump-gulf-of-mexico-gulf-of-america

      Edit as things are moving very fast.

      Here’s an even more boldfaced attempt at controlling the media. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fox-news-newsmax-oppose-trump-ap-ban_n_67b85283e4b05145b9c53cce

    • limer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 days ago

      It’s a knee jerk reaction for many to want polls to still matter. Polls are important of course, but not this year and next year is uncharted territory.

      The only thing to do watch now is the comfort zone of the 10,000+ people in the American billionaire families; and that is the only check in power right now

      • horse_battery_staple@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        I’d be surprised if there aren’t massive changes to gun laws in the next 2 years and a giant restructure of the military in the next 3 so that Trump or one of his cronies can still be in power in 5…

        • earphone843@sh.itjust.works
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          2 days ago

          I’m wondering when private gun ownership will be banned. At the rate they’re going it might happen within 6 months.

          • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            There are basically only two lines that this administration can cross after which it will be, to employ the vernacular, on.

            • Cancelling retirees’ social security and/or retirement benefits
            • Trying to take everyone’s guns

            The major difference is that one those groups is preeminently equipped to make that process very difficult. I’ll bet you can guess which one it is.

            The one thing that every paranoid loon agrees on – left or right – is that the US government actually attempting to blanket confiscate guns is the 100% unquestionable and unambiguous indicator of everything going absolutely sideways. This is why gun bans have always been incremental; those in politics absolutely know that the end result of trying to do it all at once is only a guarantee that a lot of people get shot.

            Watching all the rednecks try to reconcile that it is in fact Trump’s gubmint that is comin’ to a’take their gunz is going to be quite the spectacle, I’m sure.

            • starshipHighwayman69@lemmy.ml
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              2 days ago

              The same 2a guys who cheered when Trump said take the guns first? Boomers who found out their precious affordable healthcare was the same as Obama care and still voted Trump twice… (X) Doubt. It’s a cult only one way it ends.

              • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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                1 day ago

                The difference is all the gun totin’ Trump voters genuinely believed, either via self delusion or with the assistance of right wing media, that Trump wouldn’t take their guns. They made up any number of excuses to rationalize what was said in order to maintain support for their man. “He didn’t actually mean it.” “He was just speaking figuratively.” “It was taken out of context.” Etc., etc.

                That will last only right up until he actually does this. Never mind that it’s already too late in that they voted for him. I am predicting that exact moment is when the realization will finally set in. I’m sure many will probably also try to cope by trying to find someone else to blame. That won’t change the fact that in the moment, regardless of the rationale, showing up in a uniform and trying to kick in a paranoid nut’s door and tell him you’re here for his guns is a monumentally stupid idea. The element of surprise will surely work in the feds’ favor only until it comes out that the first gun owner has been killed as a result of a mass confiscation incident.

                Both sides will ultimately and inevitably decide that “shoot first, ask questions second” will be the only viable strategy. Except it isn’t, when both sides are doing it. The only winning move is not to play.

          • horse_battery_staple@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            All gun control in the past has been to disarm marginalized populations and put ownership behind a paywall and within a national registry. I don’t think they’ll ban gun ownership for everyone, however I foresee ownership to be much more stringently controlled and for tax stamps to increase. Making it so that the majority of guns are still owned and operated by white middle to upperclass men, or private security and law enforcement that serve the wealthy to protect property and the current power structure as it stands.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_law_in_the_United_States

            https://socialistra.org/

            • earphone843@sh.itjust.works
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              1 day ago

              Fascism rarely plays well with personal gun ownership. Trump has already floated the idea once, so he’s definitely going to try.

    • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 days ago

      Yeah I don’t think either of them would care in the slightest about this type of polling.

      Entirely predictable.

      Trump was mocking the voting public on presidents day with that “Long live the king” quip.

      That said, it’s just bonkers that 40% of voters feel like things are going in the right direction. Honestly the whole thing is cooked.

    • Tramort@programming.dev
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      2 days ago

      How awesome would it be for him to get arrested and not pardoned because Trump blames him for tanking his poll numbers

      • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        trump controls the justice department in the executive, and GOP has firm control over the Judicial branch at the Supreme Court. Musk hasn’t made friends of the GOP Washington power brokers. So trump could vindictively railroad musk through whatever remains of the justice system, and there would be no one that would stand and fight for Musk (except maybe Putin).

        It might descend into one of those bizzaro world scenarios where “free market” Republicans call for and get the nationalization of SpaceX as a strategic asset (with its tight control of US military launch capabilities and Starlink network). Lefties would be uncomfortably cheering on the GOP for “seizing the means of production” in the form of Musk’s companies.

        • entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org
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          1 day ago

          As a lefty, no I wouldn’t. If our government is a dictatorship, then this would hardly be an example of seizing the means of production, just a change of hands from one unelected dictator to another.

          Still, funny mental image.