• davidaprice@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    No one should be idolizing politicians. They work for their constituents.

    It’s one thing to buy a shirt or a cap, it’s another to make it part of your identity.

    • madcaesar@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      Even shirts and caps are questionable. I’ll make an exception for Obama because that was historic and his shit was actually cool.

      But all the rest of them, donate if you want, but wearing Harris or Trump in public is just cringe.

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    14 hours ago

    On the one hand, strippers want you to give them your money because that’s why they’re there.

    On the other, it’s weird to pretend strippers aren’t real people with feelings who want to like and be liked in turn, just as much as anyone else.

    The cynical “Don’t idolize your politicians” line doesn’t teach people to read the tea leaves and pick better leadership. It just teaches them to throw up your hands and assume everyone is the same.

    At some level, you need to recognize strippers and politicians alike as complex humans with both material desires and higher ideals.

    Recognizing these desires and ideals helps you know who is worth your time and investment.

    • MouseKeyboard@ttrpg.network
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      13 hours ago

      The cynical “Don’t idolize your politicians” line doesn’t teach people to read the tea leaves and pick better leadership. It just teaches them to throw up your hands and assume everyone is the same.

      Saying all politicians are the same just rewards the worst politicians because it means they face no electoral penalty for their failings, and the better ones gain no electoral advantage from not stooping to those lows…

  • ameancow@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    “This applies to both sides” How very brave of you to call out the people who drive around with Harris trucks to Harris parties decked out in their Harris jackets and hats, trading AI generated pictures of sexy Harris.

    You know, those things that are real and really happen.

    Look dingbat, calling Trump and his ilk “weird” is not idolizing their opponents, it’s simply calling a spade a spade. If you’re too cowardly to stand up for what you believe in, don’t think trying to slip in a picture of a kitchen magnet is going to make it any better.

    • PresidentCamacho@lemm.ee
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      14 hours ago

      You could take this from the point of view that if people feel they are being attacked on their views they become defensive which makes a change in beliefs impossible.

      Do you just want to smear shit on these people, or do you want to affect change?

      The world has chosen smear shit.

    • Dkarma@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I buy all my Harris nfts with my Soros bucks they put on my vaxxine microchip every month.

      So easy to pay bills.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      How very brave of you to call out the people who drive around with Harris trucks to Harris parties decked out in their Harris jackets and hats, trading AI generated pictures of sexy Harris.

      KHive really did this shit back in 2020, though.

      Also, consider the case of Eric Adams, a man who was constantly self-promoting and a serial liar and grifter, who is now indicted on a litany of charges all stemming from his Style-Over-Substance administrative practice.

      calling Trump and his ilk “weird” is not idolizing their opponents, it’s simply calling a spade a spade

      Kamala is also a Weird Politician. She talks weird. She believes weird things. She supports weird policies in order to appease a conflicting morass of regional interests. She’s awkward and insincere and frighteningly nationalistic. Because that’s what running for high office requires.

      Practically everyone running for high office is. You have to be weird to think you should be President. It’s a weird thing to think. Delusional and megalomaniacal, given the powers of the office and the history of its occupants.

      If you’re too cowardly to stand up for what you believe in

      If people say what they sincerely believe, they risk saying things that are unpopular. You can’t run in a district of tens of millions of people (as a California AG or Ohio Senator must) and sound remotely unpopular. Your opposition will eat you alive.

      So you end up with this phony caricature of a personality, making blith naive statements that only sound good superficially.

      You come across as fake and weird because authentic and normal people won’t be popular enough to win an election.

      • ameancow@lemmy.world
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        13 hours ago

        I’m not sure if this is a “both sides” spiel or a “I hate politics because I’m really pretty conservative but know my actual positions are too unpopular to actually advocate in liberal America” take.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          10 hours ago

          I’m not sure if this is a “both sides”

          This is a strategy employed by politicians to juice participation in their cohort. Turning the campaign into a consumer brand is not unique to the Republican Party. It’s also not historically very successful.

          my actual positions are too unpopular

          Candidate One: “If you like ice cream, you can eat it! I’m not here to tell you what to do.”

          Candidate Two: “Fresh vegetables are an important part of a diet. We need to make sure everyone has access to good nutrition, which is why the government should spend money to give people broccoli.”

          Who has the better policy? Who has the more popular opinion?

      • nexguy@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        A miniscule tiny handful of people doesn’t count. There is a total K-hive number of Maga cult in every big city. Not even in the same ballpark.

        • basmati@lemm.ee
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          1 day ago

          So you at least admit it’s a problem on both sides, you’re just blind to scale. You’re better than most Dems this election cycle at least.

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            15 hours ago

            It’s not a problem because some small group of people online who are idolizing Kamala Harris aren’t going to turn violent and start a riot if she loses.

          • IGuessThisIsForNSFW@yiffit.net
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            1 day ago

            Look, I’m not trying to cause a stink here, I just don’t understand what you’re getting at. Are you implying that the amount of Kamala stans is comparable to the amount of Trump stans? Or are you saying that because you can find at least one zealot for each party, this does technically apply to both parties?

            • basmati@lemm.ee
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              1 day ago

              Either you’re sealioning or you’re purposefully misunderstanding, in either case either hope when Harris either loses or proves she’s more right wing than bush, you get deprogrammed and join us again.

                • IGuessThisIsForNSFW@yiffit.net
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                  15 hours ago

                  To be fair, this was the kind of response I was expecting, I was just hoping to at least understand what they were going on about. Had to google sealioning, which is apparently repeatedly asking for proof while feigning politeness. I didn’t ask for proof, I just wanted them to clarify what they were saying and they still thought I was doing it, so I guess I should have been more rude?

  • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Not really. Democrats “idolized” their president so much they basically forced him out of the race for being too old. This applies to one side: Republicans.

        • basmati@lemm.ee
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          1 day ago

          The dnc who made him the only candidate by threatening to withdraw all funding and kick out of the party everyone that was running against him.

          • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            The vast majority of sitting presidents run completely unopposed by their own party for re-election to a second term.

            • basmati@lemm.ee
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              1 day ago

              I was talking about the first time, though yes we should have had a choice this election as well.

                • basmati@lemm.ee
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                  1 day ago

                  It is amazing how racist you people are and openly accept being, all because someone with a lot more money than you said a race is bad. In any case I hope you and all conservatives like you understand what you lose when you win.

  • kittenzrulz123@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 day ago

    “this applies to both sides” -🤓

    Kamala is many things (most of them bad), a cult leader isn’t one of them. Im all for dunking on Liberals (im a leftist), but that is just factually untrue.

  • Jumpingspiderman@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Not really. I don’t idolize ANY politicians and am happy to criticize even those I vote for when I think they aren’t doing it right. No Dem politician is selling $100k watches etc. because Dems won’t buy them.

    • theonetruedroid@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Apparently, Trump is donating a bridge to all his ultra-platinum preferred choice diamond club voters. If I didn’t dump all my money in Trump’s amazing social media project (some say the best social media company ever), I’d be first up!

  • Omega@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Bernie is idolized on the left for his character, for good reason. And even then, he’s not above scrutiny. When he was investigated for that banking stuff, everyone said “do it”.

    … that’s it. That’s all we’ve got on the left.

    • Nuke_the_whales@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      I don’t like the Bernie love cause it’s hypocrisy. How are we gonna say we want old people out of politics, except OUR old guy. Nah, he’s had his run and anything he could have done by now he would have.

      Frankly I don’t have a problem with him but I did have a problem with people pushing him as president, cause I rather win an election, and Bernie can’t win those. He can’t even get the full support of his own party why would I think he’d be a good president?

      • acosmichippo@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        we should not necessarily want old people out of politics. we should want old policies out of politics, and senile people out of government.

        But if an old politician is mentally and physically fit for office, and brings policies in line with the will of the people, they should be allowed to run.

        • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          If anything, this election has taught us that we want old people out of office, but only if their name is Joe Biden.

      • Anamnesis@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        I think people on the left love Bernie because there aren’t a lot of terrible skeletons in his closet. There are still a TON of things that Bernie could do that would make me dislike him and not support him. There is almost nothing Trump could do that would make a Trump supporter dislike him and not support him. That’s the difference.

        In other words, admiring someone for their ideals and action is not the same as unconditionally supporting them. No politician deserves the latter.

      • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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        2 days ago

        I get the impression it’s different people making each of these conflicting arguments.

        Personally I have no problem with old people being in leadership positions; experience is useful. The problem with the old white men in charge of the USA is that they serve corporations, not that they’re old white men.

      • Omega@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        I voted for him in both primaries. But that’s why I was entirely fine that he didn’t win. The people chose, and it wasn’t him.

  • psycho_driver@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    That’s an unfair comparison. On one hand you have the lowest of the low within society, someone willing to compromise any morality they might possess and sell themselves for a paltry sum of money, and on the other hand you have hard working strippers.

    • Stern@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Pretty much yeah. Dudes aren’t festooning their homes and cars with Kamala signs and hats. Blue colored hats haven’t become synonymous with one particular political group in a party either.

      • PapaStevesy@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Sorry, I’ll rephrase for clarity: it’s only happening on one side. I mean c’mon, the Democrats gave up running an incumbent president because he was obviously not up to the job (read: senile). Trump was never up to the job (read: egomaniacal racist sexist idiotic narcissistic wannabe-dictator) but the Republicans practically broke their necks slipping in their own drool running to nominate him for the third fucking time, even though last time he ran he quite literally tried to start a civil war.

        • Starbuck@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Republicans gave up on writing and voting on a party platform because dementia Don can’t decide what he’s for or against, or at least unable to articulate it in any way that isn’t just sane-washing.

          They literally don’t stand for anything anymore except whatever his latest ramblings are.

          • PapaStevesy@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            I mean, did he even show up for a single Republican primary debate? I don’t actually know, I get my comedy from podcasts and YouTube videos and stuff.

        • No_Money_Just_Change@feddit.org
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          2 days ago

          AOC has a lot of people idolizing her in between all the weirdos sexualizing her

          But definitely, the left does that to a lower degree than the cult

    • eacapesamsara@sh.itjust.works
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      Were you not alive a couple months ago when the entirety of dem social media was desperately trying to convince the world a second Biden term was a good idea?

      • PapaStevesy@lemmy.world
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        You mean a couple months ago when they begged him to stop running and then he did? Yeah, I remember well. The Democrats gave up an incumbent candidate, historically the biggest possible advantage a political party could have, because they knew he obviously was unfit for the task. It’s almost like they base their decisions on reality and common sense instead of fear-mongering bullshit and xenophobia, interesting…

        • eacapesamsara@sh.itjust.works
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          They waited until practically the last second, and up until that last second you people were hounding every single person that called for Biden to keep his one term promise constantly saying he was firnfr office and obviously wasn’t too old or too ill or too unpopular. You don’t get to rewrite that history.

          • frezik@midwest.social
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            2 days ago

            Did you also not read all the posts leading up to that on how fucked we were with Biden as the candidate? Nobody was idolizing him.

          • Hammocks4All@lemmy.ml
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            How is that idolizing him? That’s being strategic and fighting against Trump winning the election. There wasn’t a massive cult movement of people wearing Biden hats and decorating their pickup trucks with 100s of Biden stickers. Biden doesn’t have a personality cult. A lot of people who voted and would have voted for him don’t actually really like him. Still, they realize the importance of not letting Trump win.

            You’re missing the point. Good attempt trying to play “BuT bOtH SiDeS” when it’s the most clear and obvious thing that idolizing a candidate is a largely problem on just one side.

          • Crashumbc@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            Trump proved his was unfit during his first term, but yet he’s run twice with full support. And I could see him running a third if he fails now.

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            2 days ago

            I think that’s more a testament to how unlikeable trump is that people would rather vote for a sentient ham sandwich than that decroded piece of crap.

          • PapaStevesy@lemmy.world
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            Idk if he’s firnfr office or if he’s covfefe office and idc. Regardless, he’s not running and no one is idolizing him 🤷‍♂️ Trying to say anyone on the left is more undeservedly worshipped than Trump is just downright hilarious.

        • curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          2 days ago

          Because no one was idolizing him, it was worry about who would run instead so late in the process. That isn’t idolizing, that is practicality and concern.

          I was one of the people very concerned. I am so very glad to be wrong.