The United States(!) of A

wax24 wrote:

Ya know...... a feature of the conspiracy thingy.... is that a person who feels they have no voice (i.e. no respect, no dignity, no prospects), or worse, feels they Had one at one time and no longer do, can become a real know-it-all and speak knowledgably on stuff in that realm. It's a kind of drug for lotsa people i know who have gone down the rabbit hole. They get a bit puffed up with it all. "Look at how smart i have been all this time!" Or something like that. When these folks were told the reason they have no voice (but once did) was because of The Left.... well.....

Great post Wax, and Mick66 above. And some mighty fine riffing from the usual suspects. Love the sound of banjos in the morning. Carry on.

Bravo Mick.....
All the best to you and Waxy.
We have an election coming up here soon, and hopefully we don't vote in the so called cuNTsErVativEs.
What saves Oz from extremes is compulsory voting. Hope that stays the case.
Peace...

As a Seppo I concur with everything Mick said. America is rife with misinformation and conspiracy, which sometimes seems odd since it is so easy to fact check. But when you consider that half of my country has a 6th grade reading level it all starts to make sense. They may not know how to phrase a proper question to research an issue. They probably believe that the only truths are those being fed to them by their president, party, or official specified websites. This also explains their the lack of trust in science, history, America's educational system, other news sources. When reading is work (as it is for those with low reading levels) people won't do it. I see this in my classroom as well in social media. As a result information is garnered through headlines and video but only from approved sources for the MAGA crowd.
There also seems to be a lot of anger behind the MAGA. They are angry about the border, inflation, corruption, America spending their tax payers money around the world when we have problems here that need fixing. But in many cases when you discuss an issue with them they refuse to use logic or fact and respond with vitriol and hyperbole and then throw the label of liberal at you which is their catch all term for the enemy. Sadly, in most cases these beliefs they are so sure of, do not fit any factual narrative. You also have a large number of Americans who voted MAGA because they wanted to shake things up in government getting rid of the status quo or the deep state they always hear about, or the swamp. They learned what little they know from podcasts like Rogan. They jumped on the Trump bandwagon. Not realizing that the swamp, the deep state, was exactly what they did vote for. Now they are having a bit of buyers remorse. Not all of them of course, many still think given enough time everything they have been promised will come to fruition. But by then it may be too late, the America they know may be gone.

Supafreak wrote:

Oh jeffy get juliang or heeby or someone, anyone , to explain to you what was written but don’t get confused to explain it because then you won’t get a clear understanding .

Yeah Marky , soupy , roadhead or whatever your name is, keep it factual , not what you believe.
I think esco above might have more of an idea that the media did play a role in Trumps victory, despite your thoughts to the contrary.

esco wrote:

As a Seppo I concur with everything Mick said. America is rife with misinformation and conspiracy, which sometimes seems odd since it is so easy to fact check. But when you consider that half of my country has a 6th grade reading level it all starts to make sense. They may not know how to phrase a proper question to research an issue. They probably believe that the only truths are those being fed to them by their president, party, or official specified websites. This also explains their the lack of trust in science, history, America's educational system, other news sources. When reading is work (as it is for those with low reading levels) people won't do it. I see this in my classroom as well in social media. As a result information is garnered through headlines and video but only from approved sources for the MAGA crowd.
There also seems to be a lot of anger behind the MAGA. They are angry about the border, inflation, corruption, America spending their tax payers money around the world when we have problems here that need fixing. But in many cases when you discuss an issue with them they refuse to use logic or fact and respond with vitriol and hyperbole and then throw the label of liberal at you which is their catch all term for the enemy. Sadly, in most cases these beliefs they are so sure of, do not fit any factual narrative. You also have a large number of Americans who voted MAGA because they wanted to shake things up in government getting rid of the status quo or the deep state they always hear about, or the swamp. They learned what little they know from podcasts like Rogan. They jumped on the Trump bandwagon. Not realizing that the swamp, the deep state, was exactly what they did vote for. Now they are having a bit of buyers remorse. Not all of them of course, many still think given enough time everything they have been promised will come to fruition. But by then it may be too late, the America they know may be gone.

Yeah thanks @ esco ,
10 minutes of Fox News, explains a lot about Americas mindset, if that is their go to
News source,
And then the mainstream news sources,
tend to normalise Trump , like he is just your average, run of the mill US President .
Not reporting all the Project 2025 stuff and other hypocritical corruption.
Although that is changing now that it’s become so obvious.
Good luck with it all.

The internet was supposed to be the information superhighway, but humans have turned it into the misinformation freeway.
Half the worlds 8 billion people were born in the internet age and actually believe they are doing their own research by watching unqualified influencers and bloggers making money from their ignorance.
Now we have a crazy conspiracy nutjob for leader of the (former) free world things can only get worse.

mick66 wrote:

indo-dreaming wrote:

seeds wrote:

I’m sure he understands them quite well Indo. He lives amongst them. With them. Bloody hell you take the cake sometimes

Sorry but he clearly doesn't.

Im a conservative i understand them, cause i think like them maybe the only thing i dont get is the gun culture thing.

And i see what they are saying online in social media and listen to USA conservative media.

It's no different to here in Australia. you might think you understand conservatives in Australia but you dont at all.

And even as someone who use to be a Greens and labor voter, i still dont understand those on the left these days, im often baffled by how the left think these days on a range of issue's, it's often so self destructive or just unrealistic and detached from reality its like you guys live on some other planet.

I won't get into a back and forth about whether I understand conservative voters here in the US, as whether I do or don't can't be proven. I would point out however that I have many, many people that I know well and family members who voted for Trump. As with any voting bloc, they vary in their reasons for voting for him. As I've pointed out in previous posts, there were certainly reasons people didn't vote for Kamala, including a poor job on border security, supporting "gender-affirming" procedures for minors, etc.
That said, because I know so many of Trump supporters personally and I try to read news from sources from a wide range of perspectives, I can come to general conclusions.
1. They are, by and large, quite conspiratorial. QAnon believers. Vaccines implant micro-chips. The moon landings were fake. Climate change is a hoax. Why do they believe that way? Because they get their info from the Murdoch media, Joe Rogan, Ben Stein, FB and IG influencers, various cuckoo podcasts etc etc.
2. They are, by and large, really into guns. Which is often related to the belief that the Democrats will one day turn on them, that one world government is a thing, and various related conspiracy theories.
3. I would also take issue with what you consider "conservative." Conservatives, traditionally, were just that. They didn't want radical change. The basic premise was that taxes should be low, the welfare state minimal at best, and that people should be self sufficient. I completely understand this point of view, and I think there is a healthy situation when various parties keep the others from going too far one way or the other.

What we have here is not conservatism. It's radicalism. Conservatism was also about following the rule of law and the constitution. Today the White House confirmed that they disregarded the judges order to halt deportation flights. Because the Supreme Court granted him absolute immunity, he can now do whatever he wants. Literally whatever he wants, with no consequences.
Again, as you understandably don't have a clear picture of the current movement in the US, "conservatives" believe in a limited role for the federal government and clear checks and balances between the presidency, the courts and Congress. The opposite of what the MAGA movement believes.

Many of his supporters are also evangelical Christians, but who are OK that he is a serial philanderer, who has been found guilty of sexual assault. His right hand man, who they are also all about, is an atheist with 13 kids by various women.
Again, the opposite of people who would be supported in the past by religious conservatives.

Anyway, hopefully that gives a better idea of how things are on the ground here, at least from one person's first hand perspective.

Thanks Mick

wax24 wrote:

Ya know...... a feature of the conspiracy thingy.... is that a person who feels they have no voice (i.e. no respect, no dignity, no prospects), or worse, feels they Had one at one time and no longer do, can become a real know-it-all and speak knowledgably on stuff in that realm. It's a kind of drug for lotsa people i know who have gone down the rabbit hole. They get a bit puffed up with it all. "Look at how smart i have been all this time!" Or something like that. When these folks were told the reason they have no voice (but once did) was because of The Left.... well.....

You just described a mate of mine here in Oz
:-)

People think that if an
influencer/ podcaster has enough followers
es Musk and Rogan , they must be telling the truth, when in fact they do fool you with some interesting and factual content,
but then throw in some subtle anti left , pro right wing, persuasion, which average guy accepts as factual as well.

Confusion wrote:

People think that if an
influencer/ podcaster has enough followers
es Musk and Rogan , they must be telling the truth, when in fact they do fool you with some interesting and factual content,
but then throw in some subtle anti left , pro right wing, persuasion, which average guy accepts as factual as well.

Jeffy, I know you dream of going left or right...but going straight in the white wash mustn't be impressing the girls very much?...I bet they are getting sick of you wearing my MAGA T shirt and cap too.

Rogan's podcast is great. I love an opportunity to hear guests express themselves in a long form conversation. It's really more about the guest than it is about Rogan. He did around 2200-2300 episodes? Probably some 500-600 are shit, same number is probably average and same is good. Who knows, it's subjective. And a massive chunk is not political at all. My wife also likes it, probably more than me. We mainly listen to it during long drives every few months. We stay away from heavily politicised episodes. Huberman is my go to podcast. His topics are what I'm most interested in.

quadzilla wrote:

Confusion wrote:

People think that if an
influencer/ podcaster has enough followers
es Musk and Rogan , they must be telling the truth, when in fact they do fool you with some interesting and factual content,
but then throw in some subtle anti left , pro right wing, persuasion, which average guy accepts as factual as well.

Jeffy, I know you dream of going left or right...but going straight in the white wash mustn't be impressing the girls very much?...I bet they are getting sick of you wearing my MAGA T shirt and cap too.

Sorry I didn’t mean to hurt you Rogan fans .

Confusion wrote:

quadzilla wrote:

Confusion wrote:

People think that if an
influencer/ podcaster has enough followers
es Musk and Rogan , they must be telling the truth, when in fact they do fool you with some interesting and factual content,
but then throw in some subtle anti left , pro right wing, persuasion, which average guy accepts as factual as well.

Jeffy, I know you dream of going left or right...but going straight in the white wash mustn't be impressing the girls very much?...I bet they are getting sick of you wearing my MAGA T shirt and cap too.

Sorry I didn’t mean to hurt you Rogan fans .

Yes, RoganJosh is pretty good.

Its your 2 month anniversary Thursday ,are you going to Florida ...I hear donny will shout you a free lesson at his school there.

@wax24, mick66 and esco.

Thanks for your insight on the current situation.

Much of what you say is becoming increasingly apparent in Australia. While we have historically followed US trends it has been largely cultural with politics rarely raising its ugly head. We now have sections of the media openly supporting Trump and his policies (even those to the detriment of Australia), with calls from MAGA hat wearers to “drain the swamp”. Even our political conservatives, the LNP, are now imitating some of Trumps “initiatives”. DOGE for example.

I’ve long held the opinion the “Right” cannot exist without an enemy, real or imagined, and the “woke” whoever or whatever they may be, now fill that role. They are the cause of all the ills plaguing the economy etc, and must be eliminated.

Trump has now clearly displayed he has no respect for the electoral system, the role of the judiciary, basic human rights and even democracy itself.

The question is, “where does all this end?” The Democrats appear unable (or unwilling) to challenge Trump in any way. Bernie Sanders has voiced his views on numerous occasions, but without much apparent support. Others have raised their concerns over social media, and small public demonstrations are taking place.

Is there any mechanism in place to mitigate his madness, or is a civil uprising only a matter of time?

interesting posts

largely void of context...

maybe, just maybe... conspiracy theories wouldnt be so rife - and the public not so prone to them - if the media were not so full of shit...

we just lived through one of the biggest, years long, state sanctioned, media driven misinformation campaigns the world has ever seen

prior to that was russia russia russia

trump this, trump that...

wmd's, globalism is an inherent good, no we're not just printing money, no immigration is not pumping house prices, 'men' can have pmt, periods / babies etc, china is not our enemy - except for now, no there is no agenda 21 - except the one on the website, unelected billionaires are not running the world - except for now... and on and on and on it goes...

all supported by 'evidence'

from a 'compliant and servile' academia...

but yeh, everything is msm misinformation except jeffy's sources...

who were the purveyors of all of the above

sheesh!

pm driven choose your own adventure is most certainly the order of the day

fuck me!

Yeah there’s no evidence that Trump said Ukraine invaded Russia , or a non elected nazi billionaire is running the US and wants to push for more,
Blame it all on the woke media or the right wing media or the mainstream media or anyone else you can think of.

and, as to the 'fascist' brown man round up...

yep, pretty ugly stuff

however, maybe certain forces wouldn't feel the need to break every rule in the book to oust them...

if certain forces didn't feel the need to break every rule in the book to in them...

whilst informing the public all the way...

'no that's not happening'

'it's a conspiracy theory'

'you're crazy for believing so

it's you!

not me!

(and my team... tribe...)

I'm sorry, the gas lighting has been off the charts boys...

you reap what you sow

fafo

and all that jazz...

what the fuck are you talking about jeffy?

I raise a few examples, and you go off on some bullshit tangent...

again

mr. sexxyjeffywhataboutty...

you're a fucken clown

and a fucken problem much more than anything remotely resembling a solution

Confusion wrote:

People think that if an
influencer/ podcaster has enough followers
es Musk and Rogan , they must be telling the truth, when in fact they do fool you with some interesting and factual content,
but then throw in some subtle anti left , pro right wing, persuasion, which average guy accepts as factual as well.

Dude that MTN channel and half the shit you post is just over the top hyperbole propaganda trash, and you constantly miss use the term Nazi to describe anyone you dont like.

sypkan wrote:

what the fuck are you talking about jeffy?

I raise a few examples, and you go off on some bullshit tangent...

again

mr. sexxyjeffywhataboutty...

you're a fucken clown

and a fucken problem much more than anything remotely resembling a solution

Funny you asked Jeffrey what he's on about, when i can't for the life of me work out what the fuck you're on about except a whole heap of condescension of everyone except you. What a load of waffle. I need an interpreter.

Hahaha, he’s the riddler.
Sprechen Sie Englisch

Good to see you back to normal syp, you made a couple of reasoned and thoughtful posts last week and I was concerned for your welfare. Back to the usual supercilious, vitriolic abuse and victim blaming. Glad you are feeling better.

Looks like Elon suspended the Dropkick Murphy’s twitter / x account after they criticised Trump and Musk during their St Patrick’s Day gig.

Y’know, free speech absolutists and all that.

Went to the DM’s gig in Boston on St Pat’s in 2008. Fucking epic show. Come to think of it, that was an epic day all round.

We know the NBC news poll was bad, but another poll by CNN shows the same thing

"Nightmare poll shocks Trump's opponents

Hooooo boy, the Democrats are unpopular. Historically unpopular.

A new poll from NBC News has shown the party’s approval ratings falling to an unprecedently low level.

Twenty-seven per cent of respondents, barely a quarter, said they viewed the Democrats favourably. And only 7 per cent “very” favourably. Meanwhile 55 per cent had an unfavourable view.

This isn’t a one-off, by the way; the party’s favourability was at 29 per cent in a CNN poll that came out a few hours earlier.

“With these numbers, the Democratic Party is not in need of a rebrand. It needs to be rebooted,” data guy Jeff Horwitt, who ran the NBC poll, told the network.

“The Democratic Party has reached an all-time low in popularity,” NBC reported.

“The slump is partially driven by fed-up Democrats, according to the polling data, after they watched their party lose to Trump in 2024. And now, in a reversal from Trump’s first term, self-identified Democratic voters say they want their party to hold the line on their positions even if it leads to gridlock, rather than focus on finding areas of compromise with the President.”

That same poll has the Republican Party’s favourability at 39 per cent, incidentally. Still not great, but closer to the historical mean."

https://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/us-politics/us-politics-live...

"CNN Poll: Democratic Party’s favorability drops to a record low"
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/16/politics/cnn-poll-democrats/index.html

ok southern, it's not jeffy's media boogie men that facilitated the covid debacle

from lockdowns, to masks, to vaccine efficacy, to the inconceivable 'conspiracy' that covid developed in a lab...

it's not jeffy's media boogie men that concocted stories about russia, pee tapes, kompramat, russian loans, donny's a plant, etc. etc.

it's not jeffy's media boogiemen that spread similar rumours about tulsi gabbard

it's not jeffy's media boogiemen that for decades have flatly refused to talk about anything negative about immigration, only to culminate in a massive world over housing affordability crisis that has become the all encompassing death blow to anything resembling 'left' politics...

there was a massive distrust in media long before trump came on the scene, and 'the lefts' media minions response?

from the msnbc, nbc, abc, cnn, cbc, bbc, abc again, nyt, wa-po, la times, the guardian, etc etc.'s of the world...

is to lie about basically everything!!

with covid being a particularly telling example

if you need an interpreter to understand that...

I cannot help you

problem:

massive decades long distrust in media and institutions

trump comes along in his big bombastic prone to bullshit manner...

bombs 'the narrative'

with essences of 'truth' of what normal people are seeing to be patently obvious...

the machine reacts with bunkering down and doubling down on blatant bullshit

over a ten year period the machine is proven to be more bullshitting than not...

and presto... we have an environment rife for and filled with 'conspiracy theories'

who woulda thought?

Hey you two, you know who Im talking to, where’s Larry?

https://m.

lame frown...

so fucking lame and boringly predictable

carry on...

Ok that was a bit easier thanks Syp.
The media's a tool. To be used and abused by the powerful if they so wish.
To be drawn to and fed on or ignored by the masses if they choose to. Enter at your own risk kinda stuff ;-)
We all have a choice. It's all good.

Wow how sensitive are the Joe Joe fans?
Sorry I just skipped the last 9 posts, after seeing some of the pseudonyms and I want to make a coffee.

etarip wrote:

Looks like Elon suspended the Dropkick Murphy’s twitter / x account after they criticised Trump and Musk during their St Patrick’s Day gig.

Y’know, free speech absolutists and all that.

Went to the DM’s gig in Boston on St Pat’s in 2008. Fucking epic show. Come to think of it, that was an epic day all round.

Why an epic day, Eta? Got a good story?

etarip wrote:

Looks like Elon suspended the Dropkick Murphy’s twitter / x account after they criticised Trump and Musk during their St Patrick’s Day gig.

Y’know, free speech absolutists and all that.

Went to the DM’s gig in Boston on St Pat’s in 2008. Fucking epic show. Come to think of it, that was an epic day all round.

All that money and skin as thin as tally-ho paper. Pathetic.

Hey waxy, Just a solid day of Irish-themed shenanigans. Had a work colleague who happened to have an apartment in Beacon Hill, which he wasn’t using at the time. So he flicked me the keys.
I posted up for a few days prior, did a bit of exploring, made some ‘friends’ at the local pub. Got to really get into the historical side of things - I’m a nerd for that stuff.

On St Pat’s Day itself I started with breakfast at my new local pub, then made my way over to the parade, then rode the wave of joviality through the afternoon back to ‘my local’, picked up the girl working behind the bar who I’d become mates with and then we hit the Dropkick Murphy’s gig. It was awesome.

St Patrick’s day isn’t really a big thing in Australia. It was a cool cultural experience to see what the fuss was all about in Boston - one of the most ‘Irish’ of US cities. Having red/blond hair and an ‘exotic’ accent helped make friends too.

I’d been living in the south (NC) for a few months by that point and hadn’t really ventured too far north of DC. So it was cool to see the contrast between cultures across the Mason-Dixon line.

Unreal @etarip!! Sounds like a blast!

Looks like Trumps “tariff madness “ might put a stop to this year’s predicted ,
mortgage interest rate cuts in Australia
Yay

Nice Eta! That would be a great area to explore and nerd out on history. My ex wife is from Connecticut and has lotsa family around Boston. So, i've splored those parts myself. (and have red/blonde hair too! well, grey now, but.....)
I have watched you Aussies use that accent to Get The Girl a great many times, glad it worked for ya then.
I stopped enjoying St. Paddy's day a looong while back (other than the excuse to eat corned beef and cabbage, which i love.) But the bar scene on that day? Too many amateurs. Right up there with Halloween and New Years Eve.
Gimme the professional drinkers that you can have wonderful convos with (if a bit slurry) over the WooHoo Crowd any day.

The Aussie accent pulls weight in Ireland too. Irish and visiting Swiss lassies.
Ah those were the days.

"ah, those were the days"
Such a classic phrase, Seedsy. I think it's gonna gain more significance as we go down the road.
(see that? segue back into politics! tho i dunno why. talkin old bar days seems a better time...)

Shit Waxxy, those were the days and back in my day may be more palatable to the young folk after this current period.

Nah, it's is the job (and priority) of all groms to roll their eyes at stuff we say. (stuff like that, anyhow)
I was told, in Boston, that I had an accent. A Californian one. Which is just weird, cuz my speech, like most native Cali's, is pretty clean. (I know there is an affected Cali accent, with lotsa "dude" tossed about.. but that is not natural, and i don't talk that way.) But they were sure on it in those Boston pubs!

Clean as

That's the affected accent! Good Lord (sorry, Opti). There's alot of young nurses around me, plus workin with kids, so i stay current on how to sound cool. (i just don't practice it... mainly cuz i can't pull it off, lol)

seeds wrote:

Clean as
https://youtu.be/n-5F_7DwPpo?si=NNDYcaxFLKgAH5At
I’m pretty sure you don’t sound like that.

Average Fox fan !

I can't upload a vid here from work..... but check out Kai The Hitchhiker on YouTube. Funny as.