This is why I keep talking about the last ten years as a metastasizing misinformation crisis. Why on EARTH would you think Trump would do anything thoughtfully or strategically? If the media is giving people this impression, it is lying to them - ThreadSky

michaelhobbes.bsky.social • 80 days ago

This is why I keep talking about the last ten years as a metastasizing misinformation crisis. Why on EARTH would you think Trump would do anything thoughtfully or strategically? If the media is giving people this impression, it is lying to them

Reposted from Amanda Terkel

Laid-off IRS employee said he had voted for Trump: "I thought that someone with his business acumen would have come in with a fine-tooth comb and actually found it instead of coming in with a wrecking ball and destroying people’s lives for no reason."

www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/p...

Comments

abusesurvivorcoach.bsky.social•79 days ago

Perfect example of a low-information or MAGA voter who thought Trump had some business acumen.

ploeg.bsky.social•80 days ago

For that matter, why would you think that *any* businessperson would go through the *Federal Government* with a fine-tooth comb? Corporations are too big for executive suites to do anything but bulldozer changes. A family business owner outside his depth isn’t going to do any better.

scruffopone.bsky.social•80 days ago

For the next 25 years America's gonna be the prime sociological case study for what happens when a society is deeply depoliticized yet comically polarized.

thestupidithurts.bsky.social•80 days ago

You spelled “dumbed down” as “depoliticized”.

localqueerfool.bsky.social•80 days ago

i mean i also feel like voter disenfranchisement (real and perceived) is a huge issue here too. the brain rot is a problem for sure but like gerrymandering is too

obviouspseudonym.bsky.social•80 days ago

On one hand, there is a huge misinformation crisis.

But on the other, I don't know how a sentient adult who even halfway paid attention could have such a wildly distorted view of Trump. He's dominated the news for a fucking decade! It's genuinely hard to be this ignorant.

josemite.bsky.social•80 days ago

The media isn't. People are being stupid all on their own.

thestupidithurts.bsky.social•80 days ago

No, this guy’s just a delusional fucking moron!

decmusicology.bsky.social•80 days ago

What's amazing to me is the number of folks who apparently saw Trump reading his cues on the Apprentice in 2004, interpreted that as evidence of his success in running a business (overlooking the fact that the show was a gambit to pull him out of bankruptcy), and then never questioned it again

decmusicology.bsky.social•80 days ago

Amazingly, this requires locking in your impressions of the guy from the mid-aughts and then somehow ignoring not only all the stories about him defying the peaceful transfer of power, or spouting racism and misogyny, or separating families at the border--but also about his failure as a businessman

okinternet.bsky.social•80 days ago

I think this is the result of (1) following inane right wing social media accounts and (2) not wanting to say in the paper that you voted for the racism/misogyny/homophobia

okinternet.bsky.social•80 days ago

I mean the news is pretty bad too I just don’t think many people read or watch it anymore

inthebardo.bsky.social•80 days ago

Oh FFS. In what world? Do they not watch and listen to him? I mean seriously. It's very hard for me to take this denialism seriously. It was right out in the open and 1/2 the sane ppl in the nation were like "Hello?! He's saying he's going to do all of this (Proj 2025+)" Sorry I don't buy it.

ctrltxquilting.bsky.social•80 days ago

The media has been whitewashing Trump since 2015.

indiecredentials.bsky.social•80 days ago

Have a few IRS folks on FB sweating about their jobs. Someone had the gall parrot the "Biden hired 8000 IRS agents" bullshit right to someone (also a Trump voter or at least 'anti-woke') who knows it's false firsthand.

ghostyspook.bsky.social•80 days ago

Someone told me that the other day except I think they said 80k. I was like I feel sure this is false but without looking it up idk where it came from or what reality is

grandmasmc.bsky.social•80 days ago

Right wing media doesn't play any of the negative stuff and they spin it into a positive for their religious viewers. People in this bubble are totally consumed and brainwashed.

delbertgseasons.bsky.social•80 days ago

They managed to sell Jan 6 as a harmless demonstration in spite of copious evidence to the contrary. Otherwise they let Trump speak a billion times and people sold themselves on the idea that he was a brain genius in spite of what they saw and heard

malcomj.bsky.social•80 days ago

Probably thinks Trump is a successful businessman, instead if one with multiple bankruptcies and bailed out by family and Russians.

msdavinci.bsky.social•80 days ago

People tend to think everyone is like them. The fact that someone bought into trumps lies shows they’re inexperienced with sociopaths. They think people are like them and can’t easily understand someone as empty, cold, and inhuman as Trump. “He’s an American, like me.” Treason wasn’t on their radar.

fascistsoftwitter.bsky.social•80 days ago

Who would have thought low IQ Loki would be about stupid chaos?

litzz11.bsky.social•80 days ago

Feature, not bug. As @cultexpert.freedomofmind.com noted: Trump's rise wasn't accidental, it was deliberate.

selfindulgentclaptrap.com•80 days ago

Why would you think a man who managed to put his own casino out of business had business acumen, that's what I want to know. Just because of The Apprentice?

delbertgseasons.bsky.social•80 days ago

Because he sold steaks at Sharper Image and caused the USFL to bloom

beeadelie.bsky.social•80 days ago

“trump thinks before he acts” is a real sentence i heard a real person say out loud with full sincerity a few weeks ago

nobodyspecial3.bsky.social•80 days ago

There's a line from Ash -vs- the Evil Dead, "Shoot first, think never," that I think applies to that moron.

jlaunotjlo.bsky.social•80 days ago

WILD that someone with a position in a government entity (i.e. someone at least adjacent to politics) is saying this... wild for so many reasons

kle138.bsky.social•80 days ago

And there seems to be no force on earth that will stop the lying our media does on Trump/GOP’s behalf, even now. Perhaps this is more like “institutional rot” as opposed to “misinformation,” which conjures malevolent actors in dark rooms.

Our gravest risks are built on self-delusion & cowardice.

citizen5.bsky.social•79 days ago

Michael we need IBCK

cobblog.bsky.social•80 days ago

I feel like this is based on a broader misconception of what C-suite business ppl actually do. Historically a lot of the current executive crop come from or were mentored by Jack-Welsch era 80s types who believed in broad cuts to boost stock prices at the expense of actual business

deboraland.bsky.social•80 days ago

So many bankruptcies, so many felony convictions for business fraud, and this guy thinks it's business acumen? He voted with his eyes and ears closed, and he gets what he gets and shouldn't be upset.

delbertgseasons.bsky.social•80 days ago

Misinformation only goes so far. These people saw and heard Trump for years, they died of COVID in huge numbers, and they still convinced themselves that he was not only smart but that he actually cared about helping them. Also, Biden sucked

pophouse.bsky.social•80 days ago

it *is* the media, but lots of people -some in the media some out - grasp at any figleaf of rationality to excuse their bigotry and racism that they like about trump

corgary.bsky.social•80 days ago

Don Old Trump’s business acumen. Are you serious? He knows as much about business as a pig knows about a holiday.

shewhotravels.bsky.social•80 days ago

youtackything.bsky.social•80 days ago

It's more that people aren't even paying attention to journalism anymore.

3dogdad.bsky.social•80 days ago

"his business acumen" I know Dems have been hammering this for years but the fact that so many still believe it is just disheartening.

amymwb.bsky.social•80 days ago

Let’s not forget Mark Burnetts role in creating the myth that Trump was a smart, successful businessman.

twizznit.bsky.social•80 days ago

Why would anybody believe he has business acumen?

graydaystudio.bsky.social•80 days ago

I know people who ran their own business, hate Trump, but voted for him anyway because they thought he’d be good for businesses 🫣💀

delbertgseasons.bsky.social•80 days ago

He’s good for huge businesses and the people who run them

millhousebooty.bsky.social•80 days ago

15 years of an NBC (& all media actually) propaganda machine selling him as a genius businessman. No person ever got this amount of free publicity before going into politics. Schwarzenegger maybe-

millhousebooty.bsky.social•80 days ago

but even Arnold pr it was as a funny celebrity, not “business genius”. Press let him lie about his business since the beginning - when it was really all his father.

starrynitedsgn.bsky.social•80 days ago

They are lying to themselves. If they haven't watched one of his rallies in 10 years, where he showed he was crazy, mentally unfit, and pure fucking garbage each and every time, they are lying

lauannm.bsky.social•80 days ago

The idea of Trump knowing how to improve efficiency strategically is absolutely laughable. I know people who voted for him who actually believed this.

sydneyyyd.bsky.social•80 days ago

There’s a weird effect I see applied to certain people (Trump being one of them) where the general public simply cannot manage to recall widely known, factual information about them that’s more than like 6 months old. It’s strange!

johnod87.bsky.social•80 days ago

The same applies to the misinformation around the genius of Musk.

mse1602.bsky.social•80 days ago

Partially to blame is the general glorification of capitalism by American society. The myth that “the big business guys must be far more brilliant and clever than the rest of us because they manage highly successful businesses” is extremely pervasive.

schaddalton.bsky.social•80 days ago

"Business acumen."

Yeah, the kind that's resulted in multiple bankruptcies, TV infomercial schlock, and the inability to run a profitable CASINO, oh, and bragging about avoiding taxes.

I totally get being shocked that that guy is totally fucking inept at anything to do w/ finances.

applefarmerish.bsky.social•80 days ago

Six bankruptcies does not indicate business acumen.

sophies.games•80 days ago

leaving aside the fact that Trump is uniquely deranged, top-level execs basically *never* go to the effort of fully understanding how the machinery under them works and optimising the system, because that takes time, money, and intelligence. they just slash the budget and expect more for less.

sophies.games•80 days ago

like the real problem here is that people generally believe that businessmen are interested in or capable of finding real efficiencies, which is why they're primed to believe it about Trump.

matthewmelton.bsky.social•80 days ago

This sad trombone I am playing is going to get worn out.

sagetrace.bsky.social•80 days ago

FAFO Trump voters can kiss my ever-loving freaking ass and suffer karma x2. 🖕🏽

malibus63.bsky.social•80 days ago

In what universe does five or six bankruptcies equate to a good businessman let alone a good leader?

dollworks.bsky.social•80 days ago

The man failed at running a casino, for fuck’s sake

artisanrox.bsky.social•80 days ago

They just hate the same people and want to hurt them irreparably and he doesn't want to say the quiet part out loud

dirtydancing2hn.bsky.social•80 days ago

The man’s business has always been him being a wrecking ball

https://thetenant.org/how-rent-stabilized-tenants-foiled-donald-trump/

sprawlmaven.bsky.social•80 days ago

💯

cleverhandles.bsky.social•80 days ago

It's genuinely incredible that people - across all groups - keep inventing a version of Trump that doesn't exist over who Trump actually says he is.

kjbrowning.bsky.social•80 days ago

Thank you! I have been screaming this for several years now. The top priority is the information crisis because it drives Every. Other. Issue.

It needs to be prioritized as a national security crisis.

iaskquestions.bsky.social•80 days ago

His performance as Businessman is far more important than actually being a good businessman. He knows this. He’s a con artist. Media can say whatever they want, but it can’t compete with the character he has created over decades. The misinformation with T goes back to at least the late 70s.

nicklloyd.bsky.social•80 days ago

This is why I say we can’t do anything until we first fix the media environment. Otherwise we’re just paddling against the current.

lordlicorice.thisisnotatrueending.com•80 days ago

I kinda figured it out. The "average" American assumes that the system will safeguard radical change in their daily lives. They're comfortable and complacent, and ~10 years ago they'd have been right to trust the system. People called each other Nazis for decades, so it's more of the same. Right?

lordlicorice.thisisnotatrueending.com•80 days ago

So they see Trump being a populist blowhard and think "Hell yeah, someone that wants action!" and then assume, for all his bluster, the day-to-day government employees (the actual deep state!) will perform normally and do things patiently and diligently.

They are genuinely blindsided by DOGE.

lordlicorice.thisisnotatrueending.com•80 days ago

In specific, this IRS guy's problem is "it takes a thief to catch a thief": He assumes that, because he takes a methodical, logical, legal approach to his role in government, everyone else will, too.

Despite every single warning and red flag, he still thought, "They'll handle it like *I* would."

lordlicorice.thisisnotatrueending.com•80 days ago

From his POV, he genuinely had no idea things would turn out like this. Why would he? He's the kind of person that would be handling this kind of task, and he trusts and believes in himself. Coupled with the firehose propaganda from MSM and he was totally insulated from the threat.

lordlicorice.thisisnotatrueending.com•80 days ago

In a way, I'm glad Elmo is chainsawing the government apart on a ketamine bender. If he and his co-president were any more subtle in their approach, people would *never* figure it out. But their capricious and arbitrary rampage is impossible to ignore forever, and people are finally listening.

mbl3413.bsky.social•80 days ago

It's misinformation but also a lack of education. We are a deeply uncurious country. We just accept that someone in business is good at efficiency and cost-cutting. That's the level of analysis that most of his non-fascist supporters have.

mattstern.bsky.social•80 days ago

It takes A LOT of business acumen to bankrupt casinos. (See also Trump Shuttle, New Jersey Generals, Trump U.)

infinitelyloopy.bsky.social•80 days ago

As many astute observers have noted before, people voted for a version of Trump they created in their own minds even though it contradicted all evidence he himself was giving them.

Trump benefited from being seen as an unserious person and because of that a lot of people are going to be hurt.

bungdan.bsky.social•80 days ago

I voted for the "wrecking ball and ruining peoples lives for no reason" party and I can't believe what happened next.

unlabeledelder.bsky.social•80 days ago

Wrecking "other peoples" lives.

chelseanh.bsky.social•80 days ago

"Other" was an unspoken agreement that turned out not to be an agreement. (Always get your agreements spoken.)

unlabeledelder.bsky.social•80 days ago

Oh, it has never, ever mattered what comes out of Trump's mouth. Or any of the lying GOP, and, its obvious, the DNC as well.
Even under oath, at a confirmation hearing or a swearing in.

princa.bsky.social•80 days ago

Why on EARTH would someone think that a person who was a serial bankruptcy filer had "business acumen"? Anyone who voted for Trump and then wonder why they were fired or lost their contracts (like farmers) are living proof that Darwinism is real.

bernardoverda.bsky.social•80 days ago

"Business acumen" 🙄
Trump bankrupted his own casinos - repeatedly.
This _was_ known to anybody who bothered to actually pay attention, even a little.

Sure the media could have done a better job - but Trump supporters _chose_ to ignore even simple facts that contradicted their preferred narrative.

mspeggyhill.bsky.social•80 days ago

Acumen. And that from an IRS Agent - you’d hope they would get concepts like lying on your taxes and bankruptcy, etc. Yes, years in a misinformation bubble. And lacking good values as well.

robynws.bsky.social•80 days ago

It's also a failure of critical thinking. The amount of people who listen to a news station or a soundbite and accept it as fact without further consideration is stunning.

artsvandelay.bsky.social•80 days ago

Trump got the super-pro-Israel vote and the super-pro-Palestinian vote. And not because they thought he'd come up with a previously unknown positive-sum answer.

Raises the question, why doesn't every candidate just lie to both sides all the time?

Because the media is supposed to call them out!

delbertgseasons.bsky.social•80 days ago

Biden lied plenty

fat-teabskysocial.bsky.social•79 days ago

not to defend the media, but it's clear most voters didn't believe most of what trump said even if they heard it unfiltered. they think it's a joke and they're in on it, or did until he proved he was serious.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/14/us/elections/trump-promises-extreme-rhetoric.html

kaitfromseattle.bsky.social•80 days ago

That, plus this is how you know no one read his terrible book: he tells on himself over and over about lack of business acumen.

kaitfromseattle.bsky.social•80 days ago

Alternative response: fine-tooth comb? Have you seen his hair?

jasyo.bsky.social•80 days ago

Study after study shows that watching Fox News and other propaganda makes you less well informed than watching no news at all.

https://www.psypost.org/consuming-content-from-foxnews-com-is-associated-with-decreased-knowledge-of-science-and-society/

bocckob.bsky.social•80 days ago

Because misinformation can be accidental. This has been a concentrated disinformation campaign spanning years of selling outright lies as truth and nobody ever did anything about it because "oh noes the first amendment!"

nwgarcia.bsky.social•80 days ago

Right. You don't have to be mean or combative about it, but I think a couple followups would've been helpful here. I suspect he IS embarrassed about his vote, but he is presenting a socially acceptable reason for his choice (the businessman canard), not the real one (white, male resentment)

andrewkerr9000.bsky.social•80 days ago

The Apprentice may have had something to do with this.

Its chief marketer has apologised:

https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2024-10-16/we-created-a-tv-illusion-for-the-apprentice-but-the-real-trump-threatens-america

grungehamster.bsky.social•80 days ago

He was president and institutions held and we only had one major catastrophe late in his term so maybe that was a fluke. That is why reelecting him on his "institutions are evil, get rid of institutions" campaign promise wouldn't be a problem because everyone would keep him in check.

dadbeastlarge.bsky.social•80 days ago

Trump is doing what the rich want him to do ensuring that in the very near future there will be two groups of people in the world and the "US" : the elite 1% and the rest of us.

Period.

hostafarian.bsky.social•80 days ago

He’s more calculating than he appears. He uses the appearance of incompetence to mask malice. He leans into the bumbling persona to hide the crimes he intends to commit. I think the first time around he didn’t think he would win and never quite got his ducks in a row but this time he was ready.

reyturner.bsky.social•80 days ago

We're living in the world reality TV built.

patricia59.bsky.social•80 days ago

Clearly, these voters weren't paying full attention. They have no one to blame but themselves.

northwoodsslaw.bsky.social•80 days ago

The myth on American Business Exceptionalism knows no bounds! Like had this person ever heard about the workings of any Trump business?

restoreliberalism.bsky.social•80 days ago

THIS. We *had* him as president and he was a strategic dipshit then. Why on Earth would anyone think otherwise now?

Because of right-wing dominance in social media disinfo, backed by right-wing trad media reinforcing the same narratives.

nccassandra.bsky.social•80 days ago

We have to admit not a majority, but a significant number voted for their own revenge for what they perceive as "their" people being rendered powerless. It was NOT really the price of eggs (journalistic malpractice), though it will become about the price of eggs.

restoreliberalism.bsky.social•80 days ago

Yes, shadow boxing cultural rivals created by right-wing media. Anyone who actually voted on macroeconomics voted for Harris.

contextmatters.bsky.social•80 days ago

100%

nobodyspecial3.bsky.social•80 days ago

How blind do you need to be to think that trump has the wherewithal to actually meaningfully examine or analyze anything?

The guy is a hamfisted boor that is only capable of reacting animalisticly.

How many failed ventures does this clown have?

nobodyspecial3.bsky.social•80 days ago

If he'd just invested the $400MM that his daddy gave him in a diversified portfolio 50 years ago, he'd be worth far more than he is now after pissing it away on trump steaks, and water, and whatever new stupid money laundering vehicle he came up with.

catkins.bsky.social•80 days ago

annehberry.bsky.social•80 days ago

📌

jostewart.bsky.social•80 days ago

I would call it a metastasizing journalistic malpractice crisis.

ayosteve.bsky.social•80 days ago

Family member sent me this editorial yesterday from Karl Rove who speculates that "it's possible...Mr. Trump has thought a dozen moves ahead and has Mr. Putin right where he wants him."

madnessgrill.bsky.social•80 days ago

Now I could be wrong but didn't every single business Trump ran end up in failure? Why would you want someone who can't run businesses to ru(i)n a country like a business? If I'm wrong, still, he's a proven conman and liar. Why would they think he would care about the people he sells snake oil to?

georgiadipirro.bsky.social•80 days ago

Exactly.

pauljunhyuk.bsky.social•80 days ago

“I thought voting was like supporting my sports team and would have zero effect on me personally.”

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