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100% agreed. This whole discussion reminds me of a Perun video that goes into this in quite a bit of detail in terms of what NATO does for us both economically and militarily.
Of course, Putin would like to see NATO weakened, for exactly this reason, and understands exactly what kind of simple-minded bullshit to feed to Trump that Trump will then repeat and act on, to the harm of the US and the greater Western world.
Were Monty Python performing today as their heyday, they could have written the sketch:
"What has NATO every done for us?" (instead of/in addition to "What have the Romans ever done for us?"
I mean, the very fact of Trump trying to undermine NATO is itself a pretty crystal-clear indication that it must be doing something enough for our enemies to want so badly to weaken it.
It's like when your employer pays millions of dollars to a consulting agency to make an all-out case on all fronts that your wages definitely won't go up if you form a union, and otherwise stop it from happening. Res ipsa loquitur, as the kids say.
I would love to hang in a hood where the kids drop "res ipsa loquitur".
I don't like Trump, but attacking the messenger, in this particular case, instead of the message doesn't inform those that may not have the perspective on the gravity of the message.
To say another way: I'm ignoring that its Trump that introduced this idea, and instead am addressing the consequences of following through with this action.
Perfectly fair. I'm just coming it at from the perspective of someone who already knows where Trump gets his ideas and priorities (which is only like 2 or 3 places, and as concerns geopolitics, exactly 1 place.)
One of Trump's big appeals, I think, is that he presents simple solutions to complex problems.
It persuades many to say "Yeah, its common sense. I stop paying my car payment, and I get my car repo'd and I can't drive anymore. A country that doesn't pay for NATO bill, should get its NATO coverage dropped. Common sense! Why is Trump the first one to 'get it'. If [I think] this is a simple solution, then the other simple solutions must also be right. Illegal crossing? Build a wall! No more crossings right? Simple fix! We need these common sense fixes that Washington doesn't want to do because they just want to keep their jobs by not fixing anything. Trump is the man!"
This is what I think is happening and why those that support Trump believe. If there is a Trump supporter reading this, I'm interested in your response, and I would ask others not to downvote it because I'm specifically asking for it, even if I disagree with it.
I've talked at quite a bit of length with Trump supporters in person. I think the thing that people often miss, is that they have no idea what's going on. A lot of them think Trump is a genius. They think it's proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that Trump won the election and Biden stole it. They think the cities are unlivable because of gang violence, like on the level of Somalia. The migrant invasion over the border, what's really going on with Covid... the sources of news they consume are specifically designed to produce confusion and incapability to understand the world, except for certain very simple easy (and grossly untrue) messages which are sort of programmed into them. And, they accomplish that task really, really well. It's honestly really difficult to even get a foothold talking to them, because they're (a) totally wrong about basic facts of what's going on and (b) incapable of critical reasoning to get themselves out of that.
Something basic like "if a source says one thing and then clearly contradicts itself later, stop listening to that source," is alien to them. It all just gets really big and confusing and they can't process it and they get uncomfortable. It's a hell of a problem, and I don't really know what the solution is, other than to make it illegal to construct deliberate propaganda and then pump it into everyone's brains, which, trying to regulate that brings its own host of issues...
This matches some of what I've seen of them too. The biggest indicator of a Trump supporter is the lack of travel. So many never leave their locality, much less their state. Its almost rare that they've ever been out of the country. It almost makes sense that their view of the world is the way it is because they've never seen it for themselves and just take other people's word for it.
I'll be the first to say getting a passport isn't cheap (when you don't have extra money) and it is a moderately complicated process the first time through finding and filling the forms properly, getting a photograph taken that matches the requirements, two payments, etc. However, once you have it, renewals only occur every 10 years and are much much easier than that first time through. The first step of getting a passport, however, appears to be the largest barrier.