It would be so nice to imagine that Donald Trump was a lone anomaly, and once he’s defeated in an election, the problem will go away. Unfortunately, the real problem is the dumbasses who are supporting him now — they’re just going to find more cocky fascists to prop up. Watch this and weep:
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
I really wish people would stop referring to Trump followers as “supporters.”
By followers, I mean, specifically, the right wing authoritarian flavor.
I was honestly expecting the focus group to cover Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Zeppo, with guest group memberships for Curly, Larry, Moe, Shemp and Curly Joe.
Still, in some parts of the world, guns are attached to the wall in bathrooms. A cheap version of a bidet.
http://www.lowes.com/pd/Big-John-Products-Chrome-Handheld-Bidet-Sprayer/50084690
Yeah, if that looks like the kitchen spray nozzle, it’s because it actually is, only relabeled and price, erm, adjusted.
Still, it’s more sanitary than smearing poop all over oneself.
A word of warning, should anyone wish to use a bidet in the Persian Gulf in the summer, low pressure water is supplied, so there’s a pump to a rooftop water tank to supply water to homes. Sitting in the sun, that water can exceed 104 degrees fahrenHOTdammit! Only the highest priced housing includes a water chiller, a cooling unit the same size as the split A/C unit that one needs two of to cool a decent sized room.
One easily recognizes newcomers by simple expedient of the yelp of pained, scalded surprise upon first arriving and attempting to use the thing.
Hmmm, smeared poop or second degree burns of the perineum…
No contest there!
And no, that isn’t a joke. That’s a fact of life in the Persian Gulf summer.
Yeah, but these people are all plants – its just a setup for comedic effect, right?
Right?
I mean, nobody who can tie their own shoe laces is that oblivious… surely….
… Somebody please tell me these people aren’t representative of any significant slice of the actual American electorate. If they are, then it is not just the US that is screwed, but most likely the entire world.
My mother confirmed what I suspected: my brother and sister-in-law are pro-Trumpers. I’m loathe to call them “dumbassess,” but I’m close to it. Fortunately my mother thinks Trump is disgusting, so she’ll cancel one of their votes.
I, I…okay, only made it 8 minutes in, couldn’t take any more. I had thought, for a moment, that the bald man at the back of the table, who looked horrified over the guns in lavs ad, and perplexed by others, that he might have had some sense, but no. You could almost see him talking himself into this shit making sense somehow.
More than a couple outright bigots there, too, laughing about Mexicans and our President being a woman. An extraordinarily bad way to start the day.
All human beings have a difficult time admitting that they may be wrong. It takes a great deal of self awareness, empathy, education, and some intelligence to learn how to control the urge to just stubbornly double down on one’s misconceived notions. It is extremely difficult for those who have wrapped their bad ideas into their life philosophy. That’s why the republicans have worked so hard to equate patriotism and religion with political affiliation. People don’t like to doubt their personal beliefs and sense of belonging, so tie political views into that and you have a group that will not change their views for fear that their whole world view may crumble.
Yeah, I almost gave up when the woman objected to zapping Mexicans with ‘bling’, and instead proposed injecting all Mexicans with a ‘vaccine’ that would zap them if they tried to cross the border. There was a hell of a lot of implicit dehumanizing going on.
Is there a less-lethal way of “vaccinating” against teh trum-prat ? I imagine the demand would be quite high.
(And does it work on teh trum-prat himself?)
kdemello1980 @ # 1: I really wish people would stop referring to Trump followers as “supporters.”
congaboy @ # 6: All human beings have a difficult time admitting that they may be wrong.
Combined, these perspectives add up to why I prefer calling ’em “Trump Chumps”™.
Yeah, it generates resistance, but creates openings for some hypothetical Nice Guy to point out problematic details. Kinda like (ah, such nostalgia) confrontationalist/accommodationalist double-teaming in atheism, only with more immediate consequences at stake.
Indeed, unless they’re contributing significantly in some meaningful way, either financially or via volunteering their time, they’re not supporters.
They’re followers.
Humans are a combination of herd instinct and pack instinct creatures, monsters like tRump have capitalized upon that throughout history, driving their followers into a frenzy to acquire and retain power, as well as to commit atrocities.
re 10:
gotcha.
How about hoarde? or minions? or effluvia?
yes, they sure seem like exemplars of “herd mentality” Cheering at Drumph saying the most incomprehensible, as long as he’s attacking something the herd doesn’t like.
ummm disgusted, off to wash my ~~whatevah~~
There’s another addiction we need to worry about: Think what Trump has done to the “news” media. I can only assume putting the angry orange face on every screen is making them money.
They will not want to give that up, just because the election passes. You can bet they are working hard right now to find another madman to prop up in front of us. Someone that says only outrageous lies and slanders, with bigotry and open racism and continuous calls to his followers to break laws and attack the United States. Cha-fucking-ching for the “news.”
Corporate-owned media is becoming one of the worst threats to our safety.
Only tangential to this, but Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (who started AFAIK during the early Late Night with Conan O’Brien” show) seems like “crass” comedy, the kind whose authors would constantly complain about people being “too PC” for their jokes, but this is what Robert Smigel had to say about it earlier this year, it was a bit surprising, seeing as how comics are almost always prone to defend their material to such criticism without even trying to listen. Basically tells the story of one of his bits, where everyone thought it went great, but before airing it “trickled up” the writing chain that some interns (at Late Night) weren’t happy with one of the jokes, and he says thank goodness they were absolutely right, and no one besides them could see it at the time.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-jokes-comedian-robert-smigel-wont-make-anymore_us_57a38835e4b0ba82648a8530
So you take a group of the most ardent supporters of a political candidate, and you show them dumb ideas supposedly endorsed by their favoured candidate, and you somehow expect them to disagree? This is a setup guaranteed to get most people to agree to most anything.
Only radically anti-authoritarian individuals are likely to disagree with statements made by someone they have already pledged allegiance to.
One doesn’t have to be an anti-authoritarian to say “… wait a minute, this seems ridiculous, is this real? Is this a hidden-camera show? Are you parodists?”
Similar to Caine at #5, I was hopeful, even delighted at Bald Guy’s initial expression, but could only shake my head at the reasons they came up with on the rare occasion that they disagreed with anything at all. The fact that they all seemed genuinely happy at the ‘capture illegals in trap households’ thing was the nail in the coffin.
But those testimonials… were they genuine? They had me wondering if the whole thing wasn’t actually a prank.
Come on, people…this video is quite obviously a joke. Half the time those people were supressing their laughter, and when that guy introduced “Donald Trump” on the phone, he almost burst out laughing.
Where is your skepticisim? I don’t believe this is real even for a second.
blondeintokyo @17
Is this also a joke?
I mean, if not, holy shit, declarations that others aren’t skeptical enough, while you swing your beliefs so as to oppose directly the viewpoint which you think most of us hold. Ain’t much skepticism in that, especially with such a disappointing array of evidence for your beliefs.
It’s late.
I’m tired.
Did anyone really think this was an actual focus group?
Really?
@chiqau, to quote Father Lonergan, “Well, I can’t say it’s true, and I won’t say it’s not, but there’s been talk”. ;)
wzrd1
it’s chigau not chiqau
.
re: Lonergan
Jesuit
Pope’s Ninja
can’t trust them
Dyslexia, creeps up and bites me when I least expect it.
I recognize the desire to remain unconvinced for what it is: people shouting “fake” at a video that may or may not be a farce.
Being decidedly in one group or another is the fools game here. It’s plausible that these people were sincere. There are sure as hell enough of them showing up to Trump rallies to support this conclusion.
Actively claiming the opposite is the case – that these are normal people in on the joke – so that you start to be in a minority opposition group seems to be a self-serving effort to exhibit keen insight that common people just don’t have.
Sure, you’ll get burned. Sometimes. But at least in the occurrences where you were right and in the minority, you at least get to say “I told you so”, then add it to your list of events that help confirm your bias that you’re the greatest ever at spotting fakes.
Did everyone who thinks this was not entirely scripted watch the final minute?
Even if it is faked, the fact that it’s conceivable in the broad strokes still speaks poorly.
I had lunch today with someone who believes that it is illegal in New Zealand to grow a vegetable garden.
Heh, I remember that New Zealand “illegal garden” hoax. We have a very similar one here, “Bossier City chickens” should find it easily enough.
In our case, it’s illegal to raise chickens on private residential property for commercial purposes, but it’s still legal (with some health ordinances to protect humanity health and sanity) to have a backyard chicken coop.
I seriously considered establishing a backyard chicken coop, just out of reprisal (posting pictures of it, the growing pile of eggs, etc), but considered it too much of a nuisance to bother. Chicken coops can get stinky in the extreme and chickens aren’t exactly willing to share their eggs with one without some significant degree of distraction.
So, five minutes spent disproving the bullshit, two minutes weighing pros and cons of splattering the intertubes with pictures of a backyard chicken coop that’s allegedly prohibited.
Not worth the effort when eggs are $0.89/dozen and cheaper in bulk (during the winter, I can go through a *lot* of eggs, as then, it’s baking season). Add in a wife with an extra sensitive nose, yeah, domestic tranquility is quite important.
Besides, I’m getting too damned old to be chasing chickens if they escape confinement.
#1, kdemello1980
Is there a technical term for goldfish poop? Y’know, the stinky, slimy waste products that stick to the behind of a rather dim orange creature?
I couldn’t even make it past the introductions.
people like this make me physically ill.
Interesting social experiments, but also an example of peer pressure. These people are among other Trump supporters across a nice man seemingly responsible for Trump’s ads, so of course, they’re gonna try to fit in the group, and quell any qualms they may have. The silver lining is that they probably do have some rational voice inside their heads, as their initial facial expressions may tell, but as soon as they open their mouths, that little voice is pushed aside. Typical human herding behaviour.
I saw the same last minute you did chigau (違う). I didn’t see any reason to believe that these people were anything other than sincere, although a bit awkward, and willing to read the cue cards in support of their preferred nominee. Was there some sort of tiny disclaimer in there that said that these people were in on the gag?
wzrd1 #27 Then of course we have the people that are not joking but trying to make people feel fear and feel outraged. Like those in the altright and altLibertarian that repeat that governments are outlawing the gathering of rain water. All of their followers tend to think that if they save some rain runoff in a barrel they’d run afoul of some local or state government regulations. Whereas this is far from the case, and is said for clickbait and fear-mongering reasons.
Well, there are rainwater collection restrictions in some areas. That, however, is not out of any form of control beyond mosquito abatement.
I guess malaria, yellow fever and zika virus (to name only a few diseases carried by mosquitoes) are OK in the paranoid’s handbook.
Meanwhile, collecting rainwater, but preventing mosquito growth is universally allowed. You know, covered containers.
Real or fake, this video was surely produced in the metropolitan Cleveland area, possibly at the time of the Republican convention. It might have been made in the facilities of a legitimate public opinion research company in a western suburb – I’ve been there. There were also specific references to places in greater Cleveland, such as the city of Pepper Pike where I grew up, and Clark Avenue, a street in the west side of Cleveland.