It's hard to wonder why...
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~32% of Americans voted for Trump. ~31% for Kamala, and the remaining ~67% voted third party or not at all.
Republicans are taking these actions, not Americans. And Democrats should have captured more of the 67% instead of going after the ~32%.
That being said, Americans are dumbbbb
130%? Might wanna check your math
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130%? Might wanna check your math
My bad. Just ran through the numbers on ballotpedia the other day.
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You seem to be doing some American math in that first line.
I fixed it. Thanks for dunking on my character rather than correcting me tho
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What the fuck do tariffs do other than make shit more expensive for US residents?
If you're trying to build domestic manufacturing capacity in a specific industry in which many other countries are competitive, placing tariffs on products in that specific sector can encourage people to buy local until your manufacturers are competitive in the global market.
Similarly, if a foreign country is flooding your market with an excess of some product (dumping) and it's depressing the price of that product and putting your domestic manufacturers out of business, tariffs can help protect them while you work through treaty processes like WTO complaints.
Trump is doing neither of those things. Blanket tariffs are more likely to collapse your economy than grow it (see: Smoot-Hawley). His tariffs on specific products like steel and aluminium are unlikely to grow American manufacturing capacity in those sectors. Modernizing steel manufacturing in the US would take decades. Aluminum smelting is really energy intensive, so US aluminium producers can't compete very well with Canadian aluminum producers because Canadian producers have access to cheap and plentiful hydro-electric power. During his last term, steel and aluminium smelting capacity in the US actually shrank and the higher costs of materials in downstream manufacturing put hundreds of thousands of people out of work.
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America was killed, by Americans, in a democratic election. And so many are still fondling the corpse, writhing with carrion bugs, and pretending it's still alive.
America was killed, by ignorant Americans
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~32% of Americans voted for Trump. ~31% for Kamala, and the remaining ~67% voted third party or not at all.
Republicans are taking these actions, not Americans. And Democrats should have captured more of the 67% instead of going after the ~32%.
That being said, Americans are dumbbbb
Oh, fuck that. Stop making excuses.
Yes, the US electoral system is all kinds of fucked up, but Trump won, and the Republicans won a majority in the house and the senate. And since then, even though he's dismantling the federal government the level of protesting in the US is minimal.
Look at the protests in Serbia or in Turkey, or even in Israel. The protests in the US aren't happening because enough Americans either support Trump or are OK with what he's doing. This isn't some merely Republican thing. This is Germany in the 1930s, one group driving the process and the vast majority either supporting or just going along.
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I didn't vote for him, but I expected his first term to be appoiting halfway competent people to run everything so he could fuck around and take the credit. I doubt I was alone.
Why would you expect that?
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Why would you expect that?
Because I thought he was lazy.
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As a resident of a Continental Country that is not the US, we've pretty much always seen Europe as a single, monolithic thing. It's hard for us to grasp how something like France, which is just slightly bigger than Minas Gerais, 4th largest state of Brazil, is a completely separate thing from the rest.
Honestly, that just seems like ignorance. It's like you don't know that France likes wine and Germany drinks beer. Or that the two were on opposite sides of two world wars.
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What the fuck do tariffs do other than make shit more expensive for US residents?
Theoretically, they encourage Americans to buy American-made alternatives to tariffed goods. In some case that will work, but the tariffs need to be targeted for that to happen. For example, putting a tariff on fishing rods might make people buy locally-made fishing rods rather than imported ones (this is an example of a retaliatory tariff Canada placed on the US btw).
This doesn't work when the tariffs are on things that aren't made locally. If you put a tariff on things that aren't made locally you just make things more expensive. If the government is sane and stable, businesses might invest in a factory to produce something that isn't made locally to take advantage of the tariffs, but that kind of thing takes time. And if you think the government might change its tariff plans before you can finish your factory, it's not worth the investment.
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Because I thought he was lazy.
He is incredibly lazy, but he's also incredibly vain and thin-skinned. Halfway competent people don't suck up to him enough, so he was never going to be interested in appointing them. It was always obvious he was going to prefer incompetent but fawning.
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One of the good things to come from this is an end to the hegemony of the US. Now I have to hope the rest of the world will choose to be better as a result of it.
Get ready for Chinese hegemony
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Oh, fuck that. Stop making excuses.
Yes, the US electoral system is all kinds of fucked up, but Trump won, and the Republicans won a majority in the house and the senate. And since then, even though he's dismantling the federal government the level of protesting in the US is minimal.
Look at the protests in Serbia or in Turkey, or even in Israel. The protests in the US aren't happening because enough Americans either support Trump or are OK with what he's doing. This isn't some merely Republican thing. This is Germany in the 1930s, one group driving the process and the vast majority either supporting or just going along.
The protests in Turkey are something I wish Americans would demonstrate. I agree.
I think the reality is that Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, they're highly individualistic after decades of materialistic conditioning, and younger generations are captured by social media instead of voicing their woes in the streets.
But there is an appetite for action. Look at Bernie's rallies. People want change, and polls reflect how people have little to no faith in the Democrats.
There needs to be an organizing principle if any political action should be effective. I'm finding the group 50501 to be that, and I try to share their plans on social media and with my friends & family. The next protest I plan on going to is on April 5th.
But you're right. Americans are distracted with their toys and treats. Make no mistake though. If Trump's decisions continue to tank the economy, and toys and treats become too expensive, even for the middle and lower class, I believe there will be more action.
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Honestly, that just seems like ignorance. It's like you don't know that France likes wine and Germany drinks beer. Or that the two were on opposite sides of two world wars.
It's like you don't know that Rio Grande do Sul and São Paulo were on opposite sides of the Farrapos war or Rio Grande do Sul likes wine and São Paulo drinks more beer.
Regional cultural differences and history don't come into question when it comes to how one country perceives others in the side of the world, so please, refrain from those simplistic ad-hominem arguments.
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Get ready for Chinese hegemony
While I'm sure it will at least partially fill the vacuum left by the US, it won't have the "soft power" the US did over the entire Western world.
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It's like you don't know that Rio Grande do Sul and São Paulo were on opposite sides of the Farrapos war or Rio Grande do Sul likes wine and São Paulo drinks more beer.
Regional cultural differences and history don't come into question when it comes to how one country perceives others in the side of the world, so please, refrain from those simplistic ad-hominem arguments.
the Farrapos war
Ah yes, the famous Ragamuffin War in which 3000 people were killed. Seems similar to World War I, in which over 15 million people died, or World War II in which over 70 million people died. In one case Brazil put down a rebellion in their territory. In the other case, nearly the entire world was at war across multiple continents. Yep, sounds pretty similar to me.
Rio Grande do Sul likes wine and São Paulo drinks more beer.
Do you mean that Rio Grande do Sul drinks slightly more wine but still prefers beer?
Please stop pretending that slight regional differences in Brazil compare to centuries of conflict between two of the historical superpowers of Europe.
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While I'm sure it will at least partially fill the vacuum left by the US, it won't have the "soft power" the US did over the entire Western world.
If the US keeps trying this trade war trick, and they'll end up realising that China is where stuff is made.
I'm Norwegian and they seem to have a bunch of soft power here by saying "if you do that, we won't buy your salmon anymore." Time'll show, I guess.
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