People keep saying “the point of all this stuff is psychological warfare” but like I’m pretty sure the point is to do all the things they intend to do as fast as possible like their website said they would do
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The point of all this is to bring America to its knees. It's to reduce property values to the point to where Dementia Donny and his rich buddies can buy everything and then lease it back to the people who have nothing.
It's about bringing back feudalism with Trump at the top.
I don't actually know. I think I buy your story given that the people in question are *very very stupid*: them overplaying their hand like this is going to create a massive backlash very fast. A smart authoritarian would consolidate power *first* and go more slowly.
I think it is a 2 prong approach. One hand is signing EO's as fast as possible while the other hand throws a nazi salute to rally the base & distract, incite, inflame and disrupt society.
It is Shock and Awe, it keeps people in a state of fear (therefore psychological) while also overloading the legal system. There are only so many cases that can be brought at once and these firms only have so many resources to do so. This is why Dem leaders need to get off their ass and get involved
The things he said he would do to actually benefit Americans, Bernie Sanders is drawing up legislation for, and he told 45’s nominees he would. Go Senator Sanders!
Yeah no the psychological warfare is happening on social media when trolls group in mass to deny reality together and harass anyone who disagrees. This is just actual warfare.
Ohhh! That makes sense. Why haven’t we tried to run the country like a business before? That sounds like a good idea, given everything I know about businesses and governments, the two most eminently corruptible institutions on the planet
Democrats are brainwashed by their politicians in thinking that policy is an incremental slow progress to a perfect deal for everybody.
They can't comprehend that Republicans make policy by using all their available power to achieve the goals of their main voting block and show results ASAP.
They are breaking rules to get things done, but can you get organized to block? Reversals can still be easy. Once international paperwork kicks in, you done. Future status will be tenuous.
“They’re going after civil rights to crush your motivation for resistance” I think they’re going after civil rights because they don’t like civil rights
They simply must centre white, liberal "resistance" over the actual marginalised people being hurt after all!
I don't even think they realise they're doing that for the most part, sad as that is.
Besides which, what else is there to resist, that's somehow *more* important, than resisting them coming after civil rights? That's…the ONE BIG thing we ALL should be saving our resistance motivation FOR, and spending it ON!
Definitely moving the convo into "other than that, Mrs. Lincoln" territory…
Yep. This isn't psychological warfare - it's a mad power grab that was planned out over the last four years.
The fact that it's also making people feel badly is perhaps one of the less important side effects, because boy are there a lot more problems than that.
Unfortunately, "our side" tends to always try & see the best in people & give them the benefit of the doubt b/c they personally cannot conceive of anyone being evil for evil's sake.
It's why we keep getting our arses handed to us by these bastards.
My extremely conservative roommate handwaved it saying "I'm not interested in what they say. Platforms are just words. I'm interested in where they spend their money"
which, in retrospect, is both chilling and depressing.
It's blitzkrieg. Turn up fast in big numbers. You don't have to be big to do it, just fast and in numbers. Panzas are surprisingly small vehicles. But they're fast and easy to make many. Like executive orders.
hey! as someone working in AI, trust me the reality is way less dramatic 😅 most companies are just trying to deliver on their roadmaps. the real challenge is making AI work reliably at scale, not some secret psyops
Shock and awe in political terms is also just doing what you can before your political capital degrades. Doing what you can do is just political action.
That's just not true. They carry the weight of law. Now they are flimsy. The execution of the law is not spelled out. They can be undercut by legislation. They cannot overrule legislation. They are open to, and some may require, broad judicial review. But they are not just some GOP vision board.
The faster they do their thing, the more rights we lose.
An executive order can never repeal a part of the Constitution, but that didn't stop them from trying.
I am not sure if it’s going to end up like they have imagined. They are not the smartest person in the room and they lack the emotional intelligence to convince people to follow them indefinitely. Geez Trump is doing an executive order to turn on a facet in CA. not one Californian was fooled
If you read anything by the pro dictatorship "thinkers". They all say that the way to bring authoritarianism to America is to do it fast. The pace has to be fast enough to keep momentum & keep the guardrails from reacting in time. But slow enough that it isn't too jarring for the public.
I don't think they have any thoughts that most any of it will ever actually happen. They're just throwing this all out for shock and awe. They know there are literally scores and teams of lawyers lined up to challenge everything they're trying to do. They will never be able to fight it
I just don't think any of it's going to stand up when the actual lawsuits challenging most of it are official. That's why he's doing it all at once in a whirlwind. They know it takes time for these legal challenges. So they're doing it all in the first week
“Injuries, therefore, should be inflicted all at once, that their ill savour being less lasting may the less offend; whereas, benefits should be conferred little by little, that so they may be more fully relished.”
They are literally targeting everyone's interests, needs, and selves at once. I think they feel like we'll divide, if they had done it gradually we probably would have, but instead we get to be collectively angry at multiple things at once without conflict between us.
It's all calculated; the shock and awe; the purposeful appointment of incompetent admin officials; the dismantling of internal monitoring. Hell, even Musk's Nazi salute a is made to divide the nation between shameless apologists and decent people.
Musk is freaking braindead. Sure, the salute worked for him, but he couldn't calculate his way out of a wet paper bag. The fact that these politicians are striking hard and fast doesn't mean they're not unqualified imbeciles.
Seriously. They published a 900 page report explaining what they were going to do and why in detail. Their actions since taking office have been very close to what's described in that report. You don't need to come up with conspiratorial theories for this stuff.
The point is actual warfare - republicans are controlled by Russia. Russia way is to kill Ukraine and all of their political enemies. This is the new reality. Democrats and Mexicans and Canada and Greenland are the republican enemies. War not psychological war.
It's like dropping cluster bombs on the public - you don't know where the next one is coming from or where it will hit. Keep them scared, overwhelmed and divided. That's the tactic.
It's both. Wear us down, and push through the most they can before we can do anything to fight it. Throw it out there, see what sticks, and weed out any strong enough to fight
America's Disappeared.
A documentary in the making.
They will start arresting activists soon, they will call them antifa terrorists, and they will disappear them.
If they think they can get away with it, they will do it. That's how it works, and it's how it has always worked. It's up to us to convince them that they can't get away with it without the country spiraling into chaos.
It's both. Flooding the zone makes it ineffective to respond to any one thing they do. Then, if you respond to everything you're branded "unhinged" and the public can't make any sense of it.
I’m betting they aren’t prepared for resistance. It would be hard to convince me they have well thought out arguments supporting their actions to convince people they are legitimately helping.
Or both. The longer it takes, the weaker the Administration will be. By March or so, they will need to focus more on a budget strategy in Congress. By next year, every Representative and one-third of the Senate will be focused on their own futures.
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Courts have largely proven too slow, or simply unwilling to stop clearly illegal or unconstitutional acts.
It's about bringing back feudalism with Trump at the top.
"Hmm, I wonder what in the world he means by that. Grandma, can you come in here a moment? I'm trying to figure something out."
The spin is that it’s anything else.
The psychological warfare was the campaign.
This is real warfare: they are getting us with bayonets and spilling our entrails all over the street.
..its the blitzkrieg/ tsunami of tossing it all out there at once thats the psyOp
They can't comprehend that Republicans make policy by using all their available power to achieve the goals of their main voting block and show results ASAP.
I don't even think they realise they're doing that for the most part, sad as that is.
Definitely moving the convo into "other than that, Mrs. Lincoln" territory…
The fact that it's also making people feel badly is perhaps one of the less important side effects, because boy are there a lot more problems than that.
It's why we keep getting our arses handed to us by these bastards.
People need to wise up and quickly.
which, in retrospect, is both chilling and depressing.
And women.
And anybody LGBTQ+
Reminder nobody HAS to obey an executive order. Nobody.
Keep your eyes open for people who DO preemptively obey them. They aren't law.
If they quit, their replacements will be faster at implementing Trump's policies.
A chilling read.
An executive order can never repeal a part of the Constitution, but that didn't stop them from trying.
- Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince
A documentary in the making.
They will start arresting activists soon, they will call them antifa terrorists, and they will disappear them.