Tom Clancy’s US Politics Thread

It’s going the other way partially, seeing an uptick of “SEE LOOK 2020 WAS RIGGED BECAUSE THE NUMBERS DON’T ADD UP”

Which is annoying.

I know he was there to talk about access to Starlink but yeah my eyebrows raised.

Lol, Musk has enough money to buy favor. Trump has no principles, either you do what he wants, or you pay him.

I subscribe to an American gaming podcast, and at the beginning of the most recent episode they did a big election thing and put links to mental health support and suicide prevention helplines.

I'm not sure what I think about that. I don't ever want to dismiss the way people are feeling, but at the same time I can't imagine wanting to end it all over an election result.

Straight, white male privilege.

Our agency was acquired at the start of the year by a big US media company and they sent a big company wide email the morning after the election with offers of support where needed (time off, therapy, helplines etc) and asking people to be kind to each other when discussing politics. Had never experienced that before, and yes that's because of where we live and my privilege.

I don't suffer from depression, but my mood was most definitely pretty low on Wednesday and I'm not going to be especially directly effected over here in the UK (although it will certainly make things worse here). I can see people who have depression, particularly if they are part of vulnerable groups or deeply care about issues like the environment, needing some extra support.

I don't know what people are moaning about, have they not looked at their portfolio this week? Up 3% this week!

Had this from my family - they’ve all admitted that with a Time Machine they would have changed their vote. Didn’t stop them constantly rowing with me and falling out - even over Xmas dinner - and with my fucking gran too. When people get infected with this kind of politics it is ALL they want to talk about. Imagine (you may not have to) having to have a forced discussion about sovereignty and shit and how politicians speaking out against it post referendum are traitors over your Xmas turkey.

‘Can we not do this?’

‘We’re trying to have a discussion. You can’t just talk with people who agree with you all the time. Life isn’t like that’

‘But it’s Xmas dinner’.

‘And another thing, these bananas…’

You can’t have isolationist economics and cheap goods unless you are willing to work for the same price and living standards of people east of you. That’s the maddening thing. It’s not the post-war period anymore.

I think that it’s probably necessary, should the yanks/the world survive it, that they live the consequences and get some shadenfreude, before they see the error of their ways. If they see the error. Again, I think I’ve said either here or elsewhere that most of the public haven’t evolved past their teens in terms of empathy and a sense of responsibility.

I’m not even touching on the Nazi side of it here. I don’t know the fucking answer to that, or why it’s a thing in 2024, well except for generational trauma and it being deliberately weaponised to promote unfettered capitalism by providing ‘others’ to blame of course.

Ultimately all of this evil will remain until governments start measuring wealth in a way that means something to people without shares/property/portfolios. I truly fear we are in a never ending cycle.

The meme-ification of all this politics is something else I’d never see coming. Don’t ask me how I got there but I’ve seen videos from Musk going on about ‘Dark MAGA’ (tied to the colour of a MAGA hat) and then he comes out in a hat with a font out of the Domesday book another time and says ‘I’m not just Dark MAGA - I’m Dark, Gothic, MAGA’.

I mean it’s just fucking pathetic, teenage boy stuff isn’t it.

There’s been speculation on the type face of this hat being a dog whistle link to Nazi propaganda posters. I’m not sure whether that level of conspiracy holds much water and if it doesn’t whether it helps the cause.

Sorry for the ramble and possibly going sixth form.

Two minds about this, as I think Farage will probably get a new president bounce with Trump’s election, but I do wonder whether this election will be in some ways a good thing for Labour. Can see things in America being pretty charged from the off with a lot of protests etc. We made some pretty stupid decisions electorally as a country but I think, maybe naively, that we’re pretty timid and don’t want anything to upset the apple cart. Tories and Reform are so intertwined with Trump that they’re going to have a hard time distancing themselves from him.

Trumps being president makes labour’s job a lot more difficult but it gives them a boundary and someone to point to as what to you do want? Us or that?

Labour still have to offer something though.



On the other hand It could open the floodgates to more culture wars and the bbc happily obliging to both sides things like abortion and the death penalty.

Trump could be a pretty handy lightning rod for any Labour political blame game. The new election being the better part of 5 years away is also plenty of time for things to completely fall apart over there.

On the other hand, the shitshow of his last presidency didn't really put people off far right populism globally. On the other other hand, there were a few adults in the room to temper the shit show last time around, this time we're probably getting the real circus.

Trump is so unpopular here that Farage or Badenoch trying to align themselves with him are just going to bunch themselves in the crotch in the attempt.