• Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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    2 days ago

    Back in 2015 Trump pled ‘no contest’ and refunded the fees for his sham University. By doing so he admitted that the whole thing was a con from the start. When I pointed this out to a MAGoo online the response was that the students were the ones at fault because they hadn’t read the paperwork.

    • mkwt@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      That was a civil lawsuit, and Trump didn’t personally “plead” to anything, because he was never charged with a crime in that matter.

      • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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        1 day ago

        I like John Oliver’s take on Trump’s lawsuit history. Trump was in more court cases than all the lawyers on all the Law And Order shows, from all the franchises.

    • callouscomic@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      Imagine holding onto an internet argument of any kind from 9 years ago.

  • lennybird@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    I talk to this Trump supporter from time to time and ask why he doesn’t trust all these groups but singularly trusts a conman like Trump. Nothing substantive. It just boils down to blind religious faith. A cult.

      • lennybird@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        They’re one of those, “Nice guy… Little on the dumb side” kind of people.

        They truly have no foresight and no capacity to see in the rear-view mirror. They’ve fallen prey to the manosphere youtube / twitter / social media fake news and have been told that any outside news is nonsense. They truly live in an alternate universe where Trump kicks ass and Democrats are the bad guys.

        Legit, he completely fell hook, line, and sinker for the “Democrats were the Slavers, so that means they’re bad today” thing.

  • Nougat@fedia.io
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    2 days ago

    “Trust no one and nothing except me.” That’s a literal no hyperbole cult.

  • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    That’s it.

    Peek into certain discords, subreddits, and so on. Or you’re uncle’s facebook feed. People live in different words, where these institutions really are already ‘gone.’

    IMO engagement optimizing social media is the root cause of all this, and I’m not sure I can ever forgive the major profiters for that.

    • krashmo@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Social media surely makes it worse but blaming the problem on that lets individuals off the hook. At the end of the day it is everyone’s responsibility to discern what is true from what is not. Being led astray does not remove your role in allowing that to happen.

      • Shapillon@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        I’m not sure I entirely agree about the personal responsibility.

        I mean, it feels right that people are responsible for the views they hold and the actions they take based on them.

        Otoh it also feels like blaming the addict for their addiction or the cult member for being exploited.

        I’m really conflicted and I don’t think I can reach a clear cut conclusion.

        • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          I’m leaning towards the cult leaders here.

          Tech companies literally pour billions into optimizing thier products for engagement, aka making them addictive. Its historically unprecedented.

          Sure, people are individually responsible, but as a whole, how is the population supposed to fight that?

          • Shapillon@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            To clarify I meant responsibility like when people act on their shitty beliefs (e.g. Jan6).

            How is the population supposed to fight that?

            I don’t know. It feels like such a losing battle.

            Maybe it all boils down to the dumb luck of coming across the right viewpoints at the right moment? But we’re in a world where you fall so easily into echo chambers where you won’t see those viewpoints, get increasingly isolated, and your social relationships hinge more and more around these beliefs…

            And that’s a scary thought.

            I was lucky and grew past my Catholic conservative upbringing. But I might’ve not as well. I would’ve missed everything that makes my current life worth living…

            In the meantime this is a situation that has been ongoing since the advent of mass media. It has evolved, became more individualized and targeted, but its core hasn’t really changed since at least the beginning of the 20th century. And still we haven’t found a satisfying response since then.