this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2024
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Factually, that's what he did during his time in office as well. I'm not sure what they thought had changed.

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[–] Nightwingdragon@lemmy.world 340 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (13 children)

Ever play an arcade video game from the 1980s? I'm talking about the ones in the arcades where you had to pop a quarter into the machine to play.

Here's the thing about those games. The first 2 levels or so were usually pretty easy. Weak AI opponents. Easily distinguishable patterns. But then you hit level 3 or 4. And the difficultly skyrockets. With absolutely no warning. You go from "Hey, this game ain't so bad" to regretting all of your life choices. And if you don't know what you're doing, you're going to get owned, hard. Only a few people could get past a couple of levels, and only the best of the best were skilled enough to be able to play as long as they wanted until they clocked the game.

That's where we're at now. Trump played those first couple of levels. Clinton was a divisive figure in her own right and treated the 2016 race like she could skate to victory too. Biden had weaknesses that Trump could easily exploit. The real game has begun and Trump has absolutely no idea how to actually play. So Trump wants to start the game over. He doesn't want to make it to level 3 because he knows he'll never beat level 3. He's looking for a reset switch like on the Atari 2600 so he could keep playing the first two levels over and over and over. Because he knows how to beat those.

But he can't. So he's essentially stopped playing the game. He's telling everybody in the arcade how rigged that machine is, the joystick's broken, and you need to hit the fire button 10, 12, 15 times for it to fire. And he's getting jealous that all the cool kids in the mall aren't listening to him, and are circling around the new girl who popped her quarter in and has gotten to levels Trump hasn't even seen before, while he goes to the corner of the arcade, pops a quarter into the dusty, old Pong machine, and wonders why nobody fucking cares.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 152 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

Only semi-related:

Hunter S. Thompson took great pains to speak in sports metaphors, because that's the language of "middle America."

I've thought that, for a while now, video games have become the language of "middle America" and whoever can speak to the gamers in their language will capture their minds.

Steve Bannon also understood this, and that's why he succeeded in capturing many young men's minds through Gamergate.

We need people better than Steve Bannon speaking this language and leaving gamers with positive, healthy understanding of the world around them.

Anyway, I write this because I think your video game metaphor really works here, and I think that's the way to speak to a large portion of our populace now.

[–] Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works 37 points 2 months ago

Make the guy who makes tier zoo on YouTube teach all democrats.

Seriously, the devs took a big risk with the 2016 patch, they just didn’t like what the players did to that gorilla.

[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 33 points 2 months ago (6 children)

Anyway, I write this because I think your video game metaphor really works here, and I think that’s the way to speak to a large portion of our populace now.

I don't know that arcade metaphors really work for most of the population now, though. Even when I was young they were dying.

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[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 41 points 2 months ago (3 children)

while he goes to the corner of the arcade, pops a quarter into the dusty, old Pong machine

Correction, he puts a quarter into a pinball machine in the corner, then shortly after gets the tilt warning because he once again tries to cheat instead of having skill.

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[–] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 34 points 2 months ago (2 children)

But he lost on level 2. The only candidate he's beaten is Hillary, who's one of the least popular politicians in the US.

[–] Natanael@slrpnk.net 31 points 2 months ago

And he won only via the electoral college, while still losing the popular vote against her

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[–] anywho@lemmy.world 27 points 2 months ago

Picturesque and poignant.

[–] Exusia@lemmy.world 25 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

Trump is the kid who got good at PacMan. Then the arcade brought in MrsPacMan and no matter how high he scores and tries to get attention, the kid who scores well in Mrs PacMan is stealing his thunder because it's harder. And he's mad no one is paying attention to his New High Score because it's irrelevant in the face of the new game. But he can't get good enough at MrsPacMan, so he's sulking on PacMan setting new scores and slowly filling the board while his friends try to give him the new Guide for how to score better or get farther in MrsPacMan. Trying to get him to take on the new kid. But he's just broken from constantly being the loser every time he 2 players. He's scared of it because it's a new age where it's not a solved game, the enemies react to you, and he's not fast enough anymore to handle that and it scares him - no matter how much his friends try to get him to get good.

[–] noxy@yiffit.net 20 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I don't believe for a second Trump is good at a single thing.

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[–] nkat2112@sh.itjust.works 159 points 2 months ago (4 children)

This is an interesting article - thanks for sharing! I found this snippet noteworthy:

According to one former aide who served in the White House under the former president, Trump has lost the plot.

“The stakes for Trump this election are arguably the highest they’ve ever been. His criminal cases don’t go away if he loses. Yet he seems to be phoning it in, running a remarkably low-energy, undisciplined campaign,” explained Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former Trump spokesperson. “From spending days off the campaign trail golfing to coming up with frankly weak nicknames like ‘Kamabala,’ it feels like he’s lost his mojo.”

That is a good point about the criminal cases not going away if he loses, right? It's interesting how it's openly stated by the former aide.

I'm unable to muster any sympathy for the felon's perpetual state of stewing.

[–] dhork@lemmy.world 70 points 2 months ago (1 children)

He must think that "his" SC will protect him regardless, so he has an out if he loses. Or, he knows about the plan to ratfuck the election regardless of the outcome.

[–] linearchaos@lemmy.world 69 points 2 months ago (11 children)

A. Win it. (Looking increasingly unlikely)

B. Steal it. Most of the fake electors are still in place, they've had four years to hire a new sleepers

C. Coup 2.0 historically the Democrats haven't been very smart about things and it'll totally blindside when you pull it again only this time with more people. All those people that got locked up in serious consequences we'll just tell them that we'll pardon them again

D. Civil War 2.0. if he doesn't win it, and can't steal it, and if there's actually military protection around the Capital for 2.0. he'll just openly call for the south to rise again. Only this time it's not the south, it's the rural areas, hell plan a Vietnam style offensive where the rural armed people lay siege everywhere.

My real actual best guess is he's tired. He's old, he's out of shape, he's stressed to the nines and he's just trying to blow off the stress, he probably does have a plan b in a plan c. His actual plan d is probably two take a flight to Russia.

[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 26 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Even the recent movie "Civil War" didn't touch on how and why such a thing started, because it just doesn't make sense. There may be regional conflicts and riots, I don't doubt that, but there's no single organization to pull off a new Confederacy or whatever it would be. People watching the film even laughed at the union of Texas and California...what? Maybe that was a subtle message by the writers to not take the overall thing seriously, the movie wasn't about the background events but about the characters in a hypothetical situation.

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[–] Windex007@lemmy.world 34 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Also a good point that a critical measure for the leader of the free world in the mind of a Trump staffer is how strong the nickname game is.

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[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 27 points 2 months ago (4 children)

If he loses, I'm very curious to see if people in power still support him. I don't think he will be very viable again in 4 years, physically or mentally.

He may become more useful if they let him get eaten by the legal machine. Then they're able to invoke his image like they do with Reagan all the time, but with some martyrdom thrown in about how those mean libs kicked a former president when he was down, nevermind he got away with the crimes he'd be charged with for about a decade by then.

He might not ever serve time, but having everyone ignore him as useless as he sunsets might be an almost fitting punishment. We know the right struggles with empathy, so he could be facing some very frosty cold shoulders.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 17 points 2 months ago (13 children)

The best thing that could have happened for Republicans was trump got assassinated and Biden refused to step down.

Now they're stuck with trump and Dems cut all their baggage by dropping their elderly infirm candidate.

trumps only real shot is stepping down to. Letting someone else run, and counting on them to pardon everything possible and the SC to take care of the rest.

That has a chance at least, but he can't beat Kamala.

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[–] cultsuperstar@lemmy.world 114 points 2 months ago (24 children)

What worries me is we'll have a repeat of 2016 where everyone just assumed Hillary was going to win so they didn't vote. Hopefully people will go out and vote regardless.

[–] Cranakis@lemmy.one 33 points 2 months ago

Absolutely. When I saw the headline I thought the same thing. Bad actors will try to sew exactly that thought in liberal circles as long as Dems have the momentum.

We can't buy into it and need to resolve ourselves to fight like hell until election day, regardless of what "the polls" or "the experts" say. We need to make Kamala win in an indisputable landslide. We need to send a message that will make Trump and his acolytes political pariahs from now on.

[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 29 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I still curse the idiots I knew who skipped voting to attend "Hillary Won!" parties

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[–] Donebrach@lemmy.world 28 points 2 months ago

thats not entirely accurate. Yes there was not as much enthusiasm behind Hillary as there was behind Obama, and she had a lot of (mostly invented) baggage, but she lost beacause she didnt campaign in a meaningful way lost a few swing states by a small margin (because yes, most reasonable people assumed she’d be the next president—and so many reasonable people assumed that eventuality that she won the popular vote by a wide margin).

Trump is noise and makes money for media outlets so they give him a massive and constant boost of brand recognition. They could’ve all been even mildly responsible in 2020 and just stop talking about the out of office former president but instead they kept him in the zietgeist which allowed him to run again this year.

I am still finding hope in the fact he did not win reelection the first time against a ~~walking corpse~~ elder statesman, and has not won elections for most of his endorsed down-ballot candidates in the past X years.

Anyway, people who do not want him in office should go and vote against him.

(and people who do want to see him in office again, sorry you shouldn’t vote for a lot of reasons but the biggest one being they’ll know who you are and that’s how they get you and also vaccines are mandatory for the polls so you should stay away and they’ll also forcibly swap your genitals and ITS REALLY TRUE FOLLOW ME ON FACETUBE)

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[–] 800XL@lemmy.world 104 points 2 months ago (2 children)

That's because he only cares about when the election happens. He has plans in place to deny the results and to send his chud army out to terrorize. That's all he is waiting for.

[–] bluemellophone@lemmy.world 50 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Yeah… this feels right. He seems to have checked out because the real campaign starts once he has lost. They’d rather use their dollars shielding him from further judicial consequence and preparing to set the country on fire once he loses.

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[–] rainynight65@feddit.org 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Thing is though, if that's his plan, he still needs to keep his base energised. If all they see him do now is slack off and visibly not care, they may just think he's given up, and not turn up on election day. Fraud will be harder to argue with meagre turnout of his voters. They may also be harder to mobilise in November if they got disenchanted with him in September.

So in a way, by stewing, sulking and slacking off, he may just not be doing himself any favours.

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[–] PenisDuckCuck9001@lemmynsfw.com 103 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

Bullshit. They're going to keep pumping out "Trump is losing so horribly no one has to vote anymore" propaganda so then we'll have another 2016. Our rights are at stake and life is going to be harder for everyone except the elites if Project 2025 happens. All I know is I'm showing up to vote regardless of who's "winning".

[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 39 points 2 months ago

Everyone associated with the campaign is constantly on the air and saying the opposite. Got out and vote, and don't trust polls.

[–] leadore@lemmy.world 33 points 2 months ago (2 children)

The thing is, whether Harris would win without your vote or not, you still have to vote for all the other offices too, so we can have a Dem majority in the House and Senate, and more Dems at your State level in the legislature, governor's office, AG, election board, school board, etc. Those things are just as important as POTUS. Not to mention that even in states Harris winds up losing, the margins need to be made as small as possible to show how much support she really has in all states (very important for both parties to see this--it impacts what policies get implemented, what they think they can get away with), also for future funding allocation of candidates by the parties, etc.

Bottom line is that voting is tremendously important to do, no matter what! Not voting just has too many negative consequences.

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[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 84 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (10 children)

I wish every election could be this easy

Remember to still vote, there was a time when too many people just didn't because it was assured Hillary would win.

Roe V. Wade was appealed and many women are dead now as a result

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[–] Bluefalcon@discuss.tchncs.de 54 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Trump since the 80s has gotten away with deplorable crimes and was still liked. He doesn't know how to handle hate and reality that only freaks like him. Then you add a black women kicking his ass, chief kiss.

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[–] Myxomatosis@lemmy.world 52 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Trump is really weak, old and tired. I prefer the younger, energetic Kamala rather than a whining, fat old man.

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[–] exanime@lemmy.world 46 points 2 months ago (1 children)

So he is doing what he did while President?

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[–] vga@sopuli.xyz 33 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Respectfully, fuck this noise and take the thing seriously. The election is not decided until the votes are counted and the secessionists (if any) are shot or incarcerated.

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[–] Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 31 points 2 months ago

Trump is being told by his donors that the voting isn't important because they'll litigate the shit out of the election if they lose.

What's important to understand is that Trump isn't the one in charge. He's a useful idiot.

Trump's motivation isn't Project 2025, or abortion bans, or anything at all for that matter. He has no principles. He agrees with the last person who spoke with him. That's how his brain works. What Trump cares about is having the power to pardon himself and make all of his criminal charges go away.

So a bunch of fundies see an opportunity. THEY have an agenda. THEY have a plan. THEY tell Trump, WE WILL get you into power by hook or by crook. We'll pay for your campaign because we know you're broke. We'll get our people in place everywhere we can. From a vote perspective, you're going to lose this election...WE are your only chance to avoid prison and (potentially worse) no longer being useful to Putin and falling out a high window.

Trump is golfing not because he's given up. But because a) he's miserable and has no interest in being the president, but he has no choice if he wants to avoid prison. and b) He honestly believes he doesn't need the votes because his "people" (who he's stupid and egotistical enough to think that HE controls rather than the other way around) have it wrapped up for him.

[–] BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works 30 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Either it's a demotivated Trump, or it's a Trump who figures that if he's going on the offensive now, then the Harris campaign will still have time for a comeback.

Friends don't let friends get lazy, remind everyone to vote!

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[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 26 points 2 months ago

Oh! I've seen this one! This is a classic!

Let me guess, he's "growing increasingly isolated" yeah?

[–] paddirn@lemmy.world 26 points 2 months ago

How was that any different from his presidency?

[–] ryrybang@lemmy.world 25 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Trump aides alarmed that Trump is ranting about crowd sizes.

Trump aides alarmed that Trump's skin is orange.

Trump aides alarmed that Trump only cares about himself.

Trump aides alarmed that Trump is living in the past.

Trump aides alarmed that Trump is a convicted felon.

Like, who are these aides? Where were they the last 20 years?

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[–] Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 24 points 2 months ago

I love that his rebuttal to the successful DNC last week was to be the weird old guy who calls into talk shows to ramble. CSPAN energy.

[–] paddirn@lemmy.world 22 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I mean, that's literally how he operated when he was in the White House, how would this be a surprise to anybody? He's where he is because of a vast propaganda network that's working tirelessly to put him into power because he's an incredibly useful idiot that can get people riled up. He's not given up, he's just getting complacent because he doesn't believe elections or democracy matters at all.

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[–] peopleproblems@lemmy.world 22 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Wanna bet he's not even good at golf and has aides placed around the hole to toss out a good distance ball when he shanks it

[–] RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world 33 points 2 months ago (1 children)

He is known to cheat at golf competitions. He's not very good.

[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 20 points 2 months ago (4 children)

He's also known to have people cheat FOR him. There was some pictures a long time ago of a secret service agent (maybe just a security guard) with an obvious pocket full of golf balls he got called on, and then tried to hide from view of photographers.

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[–] DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

He is expecting a house contingency vote after his 70+ swing state sycophants deny Harris the 270 threshhold when he's under by delaying to certify. that's why he doesn't care

[–] olympicyes@lemmy.world 17 points 2 months ago

You know this is true because he’s not really even asking his supporters to vote for him.

[–] OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml 18 points 2 months ago

With the Democrats sucking up all the media attention

This article is desperately trying to change that

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