Supporters absorb former US president’s strategy of inverting accusations against him and turning them on his accuser. To his fans, Trump is the saviour of democracy

Snow was falling, lightly dusting the tables full of “Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president” and “Fight for Trump” and other “Make America great again” regalia. Still, in subzero temperatures, people waited in a long and winding line on Saturday for a chance to see their greatest showman.

Donald Trump, the former US president, was about to hold the biggest campaign rally yet in New Hampshire’s primary elections, where victory would put him within touching distance of the 2024 Republican nomination – and trigger renewed warnings that democracy itself will be on the ballot in November.

But his ardent supporters in Manchester, New Hampshire, saw things differently – 180 degrees differently. In their view it is Joe Biden who acts like an autocrat and Trump who is the saviour of the constitutional republic.

  • @ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    5611 months ago

    Yes, everything Trump accuses his opponents of, he usually does himself. But, I guess it’s not even a revelation that he plans to be a dictator, since he kind of already said that fully out loud.

  • @watson387@sopuli.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    3511 months ago

    I guess when they’re willing it isn’t brainwash, but they definitely live in an alternate reality from everyone else.

    • originalucifer
      link
      fedilink
      2711 months ago

      its projection.

      people have been pointing out how he wants to be a dictator, so he is claiming thats what biden arleady is. in this way, his idea doesnt sound as crazy as it.

      conservatives are master at projection, if they are claiming someone did something theres a reasonable chance they are doing it themselves.

      • Uranium3006
        link
        fedilink
        911 months ago

        it’s not a sophisticated trick, and it works because liberals are too cowardly to call it out

        • Introversion
          link
          fedilink
          1311 months ago

          And too many conservatives are too goddamn gullible to realize they’re being conned.

          • squiblet
            link
            fedilink
            611 months ago

            Why not… their religion tells them that it’s a virtue to believe as hard as possible in fantastical stories that have no evidence supporting them.

        • @Sunforged@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          211 months ago

          That’s not really the problem. The problem is liberals failure to deliver meaningful change to worker’s lives when they have majorities. The best they can do when they win at the ballot is deliver conservative bills in sheep’s clothing like Obamacare or Wall Street deregulation.

          The biggest difference is Dems ability to not run a deficit, but apparently that’s to abstract for voters to care about as it doesn’t materially impact them. Even then what is the point to a balanced budget when it includes military spending like this, a response like this when the free option is stopping an allies from continuing a genocide?

          So many bigger issues that “calling out” hypocrisy. Truly the only thing that can stop Trump is a good headline of how Biden “slammed” him.

    • @ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      1111 months ago

      The brainwashing part is just to prepare their minds to accept whatever a trusted authority feeds it. Fox News did that part between 1990 and today. So yep, they are brainwashed, though it doesn’t remove personal responsibility of course.

  • Flying Squid
    link
    fedilink
    2311 months ago

    “Don’t vote for Biden, he’s a dictator. Also, I’m going to be a dictator.”

    And his fans don’t even listen or care.

  • squiblet
    link
    fedilink
    14
    edit-2
    11 months ago

    Conservatives in 2014 insisted “Obama is a DICTATOR!” but like many things they say, none could explain what he did to make them say that.

    • circuitfarmer
      link
      411 months ago

      “Upside-down show” would have saved me reparsing it

      • “Jenna Driquier, 31, a hairdresser, added: ‘We’re living in dictatorship right now. The high prices, trying to get to communism, it’s not what this country was founded on.’”

        This woman gets told by her friends that she’s the smart one.

  • @Riccosuave@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    811 months ago

    Ah, yes, the “I know you are, but what am I” defense. Ever popular with first graders and political despots alike, I guess…

  • Introversion
    link
    fedilink
    511 months ago

    Everyone still supporting this man is too dumb to be allowed to participate in democracy. What idiots. Jesus wept.

  • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkin
    link
    fedilink
    311 months ago

    Honestly I just see this all as a case for the abolition of the office of president.

    There should be government ministers who each attend to the leadership of various necessary departments, and the necessity of a leader in crisis should be a position created during that state of crisis and then nixxed on its resolution. Also, there should be redundancy, both for the sake of making sure someone’s always able to step into a vital role, but also for accountability’s sake making sure no one person can sign orders to conceal information which would serve the public interest better in the open.

    • FuglyDuck
      link
      fedilink
      English
      311 months ago

      Such governments are usually not agile enough during a crisis, where there needs to be immediate action.

      Unless you’re saying you want an unelected person making the decision to activate the military and “respond” to a bunch of hicks with 3rd hand rockets and drones?

      • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkin
        link
        fedilink
        011 months ago

        I’m saying that unless for some reason it’s absolutely impossible to make happen, the intervention in that crisis should be lead by the minister Congress chooses to be the eye on the military or on homeland security.

        If we’re so incomprehensibly fucked that we need someone large and in charge then Congress should recognize the need and appoint a crisis minister to address the issue with their authority but also with regular reports on the status of the crisis and their work to address it.

        Not to mention how the very idea of the state of emergency has its roots with one of the leading lawyers of the third reich, and was specifically invented as the legal grounds for which a dictator should be allowed to just ignore any accountability to other authorities.

        The actual circumstances that warrant having one guy able to give all the orders are a VANISHINGLY rare occurrence compared to the instances where someone insists there’s such a crisis because there being one means they get to waltz in and take over and make everyone just shut up and deal with it.

  • Dave V
    link
    fedilink
    English
    111 months ago

    Would that these Christians would read 2nd Timothy 3