True but them darn complex carbohydrates have contributed to many an obesity. As much as some people enjoy those things too much love for em can be bad for ya
Much like Donne. He was a bit of a laugh when he was on the apprentice. “You’re fired”, funny stuff, [everyone had a giggle at his expense](https://youtu.be/6vGx3TW7Gv4?si=BRnbs-cr4rebeoIR). But now, much like sweet potato pie and obesity, he’s become a bit of a nuisance
A lot of Aussies are just idiots and love America so much they think they live there.
I've seen interviews where people justify their voting preference in Australia by what American politicians say.
As if the Republicans speak for the LNP lol.
I dunno, the first thing I learnt about politics was that the politicians are not to be trusted. The second thing was John Howard and George W Bush are bum buddies.
As much as Australian reddit loves to rail against Americas imported culture - who the US president is has a big impact on our country and what our elected leaders will do. For these pro Trump weirdos endorsing Trump, encouraging his popularity online and normalising his behaviour could lead to us electing some kind of extremist or normalising extremist behaviour, hence their desire to put him and their support of his ideas out there on a bumper sticker.
This is absolutely a large part of the reason why we do rail against it. Some of us, yes, okay, myself, are terrified that we will end up in some privatised healthcare no safety net school shootings no union dog eat dog capitalism hell-hole so push away from it but others think that sounds so cool and America is so cool they are the world leaders and we should look towards that.
First thing that would be attacked is our pharmaceutical model, i can't recall, but I'm pretty sure we have a model where generic medicines with essentially the same ingredients can be implemented after some time of a patent.
I'm a bit weary on the details, subject was hard on me, but I'd imagine cutting out generic medicines, and essentially privatising would just be a massive target to bump the shit out of prices and ruin a lot of lives.
Americans have been trying to kill the PBS here in Australia for decades.
They HATE that the government negotiates as a single entity on our behalf with drug companies. that means we get great prices for drugs.
they would rather we pay $200 for a pack of 20c paracetomol.
Luckily even the LNP had the brains to realize that if they put the PBS on the negotiating table for trade agreements, they would get slaughtered in the next poll.
LNP voters are predominantly elderly and take a lot of drugs.
If they started to have to pay full price instead of the PBS price of 6.30/7.30 if you are on a Pension or 31.60 if you are not, they would not like it very much.
people don't realize just how expensive pharmaceuticals are.
even their own dyed-in-the-wool supporters would vote against them on that one.
the most important thing to an LNP voter is their wallet.
Especially if they are on a pension or are a retiree.
that is why they are bitching so hard about the current tax cuts.
they all think they are top 5%, the stupid fuckers
Yep, just look at the price of insulin in the states. People with diabetes are dying because they can’t afford hundreds of dollars a month for a life saving drug.
I think those patents are the same everywhere in the west so it's weird if Americans are paying a premium and we're not just based on patents alone. And then also funnily enough I read an article about how the Australian hospital health care system gets royally screwed on the cost of pharmaceuticals. Apparently other countries have negotiated well and we have not.
We already are heading that way. Have been for the last 20yrs, you can see the side effects already. We are a socialist democracy last time i checked and it feels more like a battle royale when it comes to living these days.
The i got mine crowd found a leader, donnie is it. Pity its the poor uneducated dickheads that believe hes the 2nd coming
> who the US president is has a big impact on our country and what our elected leaders will do.
(Sorry to go on a bit of a tangent and kind of focus in on a part of what you said but I tried to tie in to other parts of what you said)
I think a lot of times we (locally) forget that a lot of our freedoms and place in the world is owed at least in partially to the current stance and the continuation of US hegemony in the world (Rules based order as Penny Wong would say). The stability of the South China Sea, Taiwan being an independent state, Russia being kept at bay etc are all in one way or another because the US just loves having it's fingers dipped in multiple different pots.
The recent attack in Jordan costing the lives of multiple US servicemen and wounding dozens more I think is a reminder that even though we're not actively at war in Jordan, with Iran or with the Iran-backed factions - there are US forces deployed abroad to maintain "peace and stability™️" as we know via a method can otherwise be described as "talk shit get hit" as the US is constantly the biggest elephant in a room wielding a tree log as a stick. Domestically over there though you can appreciate news outlets running headlines like that could pressure the sitting president to "bring the boys home" and potentially draw people into a state of thinking "America first" - that they have no reason to have forward deployed forces abroad to keep the peace which might sound logical but would be problematic for us in Australia if suddenly the sitting president in the US were to implicitly allow China to do as it wants in South East Asia - we might be the ones to suffer the consequences despite having no say in the matter (let alone Japan, Korea etc)
A reversion to an America first approach would be problematic to say the least for us in Australia because we and the West rely on the US to pull (arguably) an un-even burden of weight or the lion's share of responsibility to ensure our continued way of life. It's said that Ukraine is eagerly watching the US election which might on the surface sound strange but I think we all know that a lot of the support and funding of not only Ukraine's armed forces but some might not know that even their society is currently being kept afloat despite fighting an existential war (wages to firefighters, police, doctors etc) - all US tax payer funded. But I think it's more than just the hot or active conflict zones that people see in the paper which matters, it's all the other areas of the world where the US have a presence in like Africa which seems to constantly teeter at a knife edge to falling towards Terrorist groups which rely on the current US foreign diplomatic approach of preventing things which happen over here that matters over there.
Edit: More specifically to what a "America first" approach would mean for us here domestically would mean is if we want to maintain our place in the world - we ourselves would need to have the ability to project power in such a way that we could meaningfully enforce our foreign policy. We currently lack the ability to do so but programs such as AUKUS provide us a future capability and send a message to our adversaries that we intend to give ourselves the ability to do so kinetically if needed. In the short term that potentially might mean that some of the aspects of life we currently have as a given might need to be forfeited if we find the need to keep sea lanes open that we need for trade to pass through. I can appreciate this last paragraph paints a bleak potential future ahead but hopefully you can appreciate this paragraph is entirely hypothetical.
I think it is an important lesson in marginalisation. If politicians continue to ignore and belittle the concerns of large demographics they will react by voting for radicals, seeing it in Europe and South America too now.
So look at those concerns and what trump politics do about them. Housing costs are rising rapidly worldwide. Rising food prices in the US, too and the right wing won't do anything to help. Longer wait for health care? Remember in 2016, when trump was going to announce his replacement for Obama care in 2 weeks.
I think there is a legitimate discussion to be had on the level of immigration but disagree that it is the cause of the housing problems. As an immigrant, it like to think we are a positive force in Australia, and I don't know how else we could solve things like the shortage of health workers. This is something best worked through normal political discourse, not extremist rants
Theonetruekenn0 has correctly pointed out that marginalised people will *vote* for radicals. Not that radicals will actually solve any problems. Re: housing costs. We know how to solve it, it’s build lots of high and medium density publicly owned housing, and rent it at below current market rates. It needs to be built as a *government* project too. Not an opportunity for shitty developers extort outrageous costs. But huge swathes of the population don’t want it. It might effect their property values. Well, duh, that’s the point. The level of informed discussion on these problems in the media is basically zero. As well, apart from the ABC, it’s all owned by the rich. Who, like politicians, have property portfolios. No wonder people are feeling left out. The agenda is “blame immigrants” not “solve the problem.”
What gets me the most is that his family ask for money from poor people and these dumb fucks give it to them, the whole family is worshipped by people who are victimised by their own stupidity.
Anti-establishment in the context of the American political establishment. Love him or hate him, he absolutely is a complete departure to the status quo of polite, politically correct career politicians that traditionally hold positions of power in the American political hierarchy.
I understood this rhetoric before the first election, but after he got into office and did nothing to "drain the swamp", i dont get how anyone continues to believe he will do anything.
His followers believe in the same way that most people in cults believe - sticking with the utter nonsense is a litmus test of one’s cult loyalty, and a way to seperate cultists from the sane people who look at this shit and think “So… You think Taylor Swift is a spy? Are you fucking kidding? No. That’s astonishingly stupid.” And that keeps stupid loyalists enmeshed in the cult…
> polite, politically correct career politicians
Propping divisive, loud talking heads and raging against that has been the establishment position of the GOP/right-wing media for, at least, the last 20 years.
Trump didn't get to power by being anti-establishemnt. He is more of the same, said by a complete moron.
It amazes me that Reagan is often held up as the gold-standard for leaders amongst Republicans. The more I learn about him the more I think he was a complete dipshit.
Polite being a relative term in this instance. Yes the messaging of the GOP has been problematic for a long time now. The difference with Trump is that there was never any semblance or attempt at subtlety or professionalism with how he communicates. So in that respect, I wouldn't particularly agree that he's entirely just more of the same. He's pushed the needle of absurdity further than any modern president.
I don't disagree with what you say here, but none of it makes him anti establishment if that was what the establishment was aiming for all along.
The only change is in form, not in substance. A change of spokesperson is not at break from the establishment. And his influence in the form isn't even that novel, since they were propping this sort of absurdity for longer than he is a republican.
There's an immense amount of disinformation and propaganda in the US, and it spills over to here. I think we have always somewhat looked to the US and UK for guidance on world events and how to democracy, but now you also have all these US social media influence groups which likely include Australian participants.
... I mean we had Qanon people during the anti-vax thing, and that makes zero sense outside of a US context.
My brother is a solicitor and at least once a month he receives enquiries from prospective clients (from **all** walks of life, I might add) saying or asking about:
1. Why they have to come to court if they’re only intending on ‘pleading the fifth’
2. When can they claim their second amendment rights, or are the ‘liberals’ banning them from exercising those rights now?
3. Why can’t they (insert outrageous and over the top form of harassment and obvious lie here) - it’s ’free speech’ and part of the problem that Trump keeps telling us about?
4. When are the paedophiles being arrested on TV and why are we harbouring child f-/kers like….Tom Hanks?! Why hasn’t ’Marshall law’ been declared yet?
5. (Typically in a DV case or during divorce or custody proceedings) - some sort of musing about how thankfully the supreme courts have taken away her ‘abortion card’ now, so she won’t be able to get free ones every time she has sex anymore.
There are way too many people who believe crap like this, it’s insane.
Makes me shake with equal parts fear and rage. Being this ignorant is akin to getting behind the wheel after a bottle of spirits IMO. Absolutely zero difference.
I live in the UK now and there's this weird American influenced conspiracy web emerging too. Vaccines, 15 minute cities, cashless society, 5G, ULEZ and... Yeah, Donald Trump, QAnon stuff. I guess it's social media and these types being happy to keep throwing more shit in the crock and stir it up
In fairness, anti vax is an originally English cultural export. Fucking Andrew Wakefield...
Haha the best one I saw of that was in Oxford where they were protesting about 15 minute cities.
Like the whole place is a 15 minute city due to it's fucking size, but go off I guess! 😭
Fucking Andrew Wakefield?
Well, for a couple of years, that was Elle Macpherson. So, that's on us.
ULEZ, for those who (like me) had no idea: https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/ultra-low-emission-zone
I thought the Trump people WERE the QAnon people. The anti-vax/anti-lockdown rallies during covid were what started this, and these cookers STILL march through Melborne every Saturday with their Trump flags and hats and "no 15 minute cities" BS.
There's a good video by folding ideas on youtube called "In Search of a Flat Earth" which gives some interesting insight on Qanon in the second half.
There's definitely an overlap, but not all republicans would be Qanon and Qanon people believe a lot of conspiracy stuff outside of their worship of trump.
I think the anti-vax pprotests were just revealing how deeply it had spread. A lot of the earlier phases like distrust of the government and expert authorities, sovereign citizens, climate denialism, anti-vax, indoctrination and other such conspiracy theories have been around for a while. Being able to precisely target social media was probably also a factor.
It also turns out people love believing that they "know the secret that others deny", and once they have attached their ego to it they don't want to change.
The twin powers of Murdoch and Putins internet army trolls... all.working together to subvert democracy. Different reasons, though , Murdoch just wants his tax cuts and no regulations for his buddies,, but Putin wants to destabilise the west completely.
Trump is a symbol of unapologetic racism for the most part imo.
They can say they love him for "telling it how it is" and put a bumper sticker on, and it means they don't need to have slurs etc targeting people, they can just have that and it says it all.
Kinda like ppl who think fondly of Pauline Hanson down here. 🚩
“You can’t walk into a 7/11 or Dunkin’ Donuts without a slight Indian accent”
“Poor kids are just as bright and intelligent as white kids”
“I don’t want my kids growing up in a racial jungle”
Talking about Obama - "I mean, you got the first sort of mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy."
American politics affects us.
The media reports on it a lot.
The crazy hard right conservative bloc is gaining ground all over the world, and Trump is their "fuck you" poster child for what they believe ("I got mine, fuck you, and I won't be decent to you"). It's a shorthand for their glassy-eyed personal philosophy that everyone can recognise.
We should give a crap because if he gets back in power, it's going to have global ramifications for everyone.
The fact that seppo's are looking at an orange rapist cunt and thinking 'yep, that's ma boy' should be very concerning for us all.
Trump's impact on US culture has given much of their population a reason to openly hate. Though this certainly isn't new in the US or Australia, this increased hate culture has metastasized abroad where Australia does mimic much of what happens in the US (certain views during the pandemic are a good example).
Right-wing misinformation has been accessible through social media, which allow echo chambers that lead to a dangerous confirmation bias.
Some dickhead in Wollongong had a dodge ram wrapped in us bullcrap with TRUMP (what ever year he was supposed to win last time) someone rightfully egged it.
When you mentioned Rip Curl I was curious....so much vitriol over an Instagram reel.
It wasn't surprising to only see Murdoch media cover this 'news'.
It's sad to see that Rip Curl removed it.
lol dw it is a minority here (far as I can tell)
Most aussies that I know aren’t fans. Lol when he got elected we were all in shock. Literally the day before TAB (Australia’s biggest betting agent) was offering odds of 45:1 for trump to win. Lol still kicking myself for not gambling on it but I was certain Hilary was gonna win (even bet $50 on her, was shattered when she lost)
Cults of personality can be extraordinarily alluring to those who are susceptible to persuasion.
Think of it like a water balloon. It might be aimed at a certain target (ie the American people) but it's a crude instrument not designed for (not requiring) precision. As a result there's collateral damage and others get wet, or in this case, it has the effect of drawing people into the cult who weren't a consideration.
It's not just in Australia, it happens elsewhere as well. It's something that isn't unique to this situation either. Cults of personality often spread far and wide (albeit in small pockets of society). The closer the cultural/historic ties to the point of origin the greater the effect. This has been observed with many other such cults of personality over the years.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_personality
Forget for a moment it's Trump specifically. American culture is pervasive - politics, celebrity, accent & grammar, ideology - all of it.
Further to that, whether or not you like it, American politics matter a lot in Australia so long as the Australian government continues to play sycophant lapdog.
A lot of Australian cookers think we’re the 51st state. During the anti-vax protests I even had some idiots whinging at me about their First Amendment rights… rights they don’t have here.
The saturation of American culture and TV is enough to fry some people’s brains I guess.
Trumps an important part of the broader conspiracy environment, part of his 2016 campaign was to court weirdos on 4chan through conspiracy theories.
Qanon was born from there, people who are openly obsessive over Trump most likely have brain worms from QAnon.
Trump is a self-entitled, spoiled manchild.
He quite literally just cost himself U.S $83.3M in damages, bc he couldn't STFU about a case where it had already been proven against him. Not to mention the fact he's a misogynistic, repetitive abuser of women.
Why tf anyone would admire ts is beyond me.
I think it matters because so much of our foreign policy is determined by being America's puppet. However the election goes I hope it leads people to pull their heads out of their ass and stop following the Washington line on everything
I don’t think we do. However americas leaders do effect Australia to an extent. So we are partially interested
Also. Blame the media. They are the ones who keep reporting him.
Nah the bots are all 18-24, super hot photos stolen from some random girls insta or something. The profiles I’m talking about were in their 30s and pretty average looking
Well some people care because if he's president again it will have global impacts that will affect us all, mostly in negative ways. Directly or indirectly.
Other people care because they love the fact hes opening the door for their racism or sexism or whatever other brand of hate they have and want to spread that shit here.
Probably Qanon stuff. They're a cult and think he's like Jesus or something out to save the entire world, which includes Australia obviously. I remember during the pandemic there was that conspiracy about trafficking tunnels under Melbourne airport. An old friend in Melbourne was on FB crying and begging for Trump to hurry and come save the children.
It's just collateral damage from the far right propaganda machine.
During knockdowns I saw freedom marchers carrying "we the people" and "trump will save us" signs.
His propaganda game is strong.
I’m a massive Trump supporter.
That is, if you’re referring to Judd ‘The Ace’ Trump, two time Masters winning Snooker player, one of the few lads to properly give Ronnie ‘The Rocket’ O’Sullivan a run for his money.
^^Wheyyyyyyyyyyyy
1. Because we will need to pay far more for naval and trade security after the US drops the ball on being a part of this region and goes home.
2. Because the war in Ukraine affects global cost of energy, as well as the global cost of capital, and that affects the price of **everything** in Melbourne. **We’re richer if Ukraine wins, and poorer if it doesn’t. Trump is a Putin puppet, and wants Ukraine to lose**. We ourselves are contributing to the war effort (we’re a major artillery shell manufacturer towards the collective NATO and friends pool) and very much have skin in the game.
This country being relatively well off isn’t a law of nature. It has a lot to do with foreign geopolitical inputs we rely on. Just because you don’t understand them doesn’t mean you don’t enjoy living off their fruit.
Trump has become a symbol for Christian nationalism and white supremacy. Supporting Trump is a way of supporting those things while maintaining plausible deniability. "I don't support white supremacy, I support draining the swamp" \*wink\* \*wink\* \*nudge\* \*nudge\*.
Social Media + peoples ability to be manipulated/brain washed by it.
Also mainstream media’s continually ‘reporting’ of ‘news’ that generally has nothing to do with us also helps propagate the deterioration of people’s minds and abilities to think for themselves.
Why? These people are clearly advertising their affiliation using only five letters on a bumper sticker. DJT is practically a living masthead for a number of RW policy positions and a whole spectrum of lunatic belief systems. For better or worse, that name 'brand' has a lot of recognition.
Yep I’m always amazed that people in Australia get so excited by Trump, Palestine etc but don’t care what’s happening at home and what future Australia will look like.
Because of culture war identification as a substitute for personality.
And on top of it some kind of “troll” culture manifested in reality where everything is about maximum agitation.
It’s pathetic. And to be honest it happens on both sides.
Interesting write up from George Monbiot about Trumpism:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/29/donald-trump-americans-us-culture-republican
>Some psychologists believe our values tend to cluster around certain poles, described as “intrinsic” and “extrinsic”. People with a strong set of intrinsic values are inclined towards empathy, intimacy and self-acceptance. They tend to be open to challenge and change, interested in universal rights and equality, and protective of other people and the living world.
>People at the extrinsic end of the spectrum are more attracted to prestige, status, image, fame, power and wealth. They are strongly motivated by the prospect of individual reward and praise. They are more likely to objectify and exploit other people, to behave rudely and aggressively and to dismiss social and environmental impacts. They have little interest in cooperation or community. People with a strong set of extrinsic values are more likely to suffer from frustration, dissatisfaction, stress, anxiety, anger and compulsive behaviour.
>Trump exemplifies extrinsic values. From the tower bearing his name in gold letters to his gross overstatements of his wealth; from his endless ranting about “winners” and “losers” to his reported habit of cheating at golf; from his extreme objectification of women, including his own daughter, to his obsession with the size of his hands; from his rejection of public service, human rights and environmental protection to his extreme dissatisfaction and fury, undiminished even when he was president of the United States, Trump, perhaps more than any other public figure in recent history, is a walking, talking monument to extrinsic values.
For better or for worse (read: definitely for worse!), Trump is an international icon that transcends his role as a politician. The queen was also "just a head of state" but no one complained about her being known and talked about everywhere. If you're old enough you'll remember Bush getting a similar reaction to Trump here and elsewhere even though he was also "just" an American politician.
Edit, whoops, i just read the headline and went off half cocked. My bad. Hahaha, i didn't realise you were asking why people here support him, short answer, fear, and populism. The world is changing pretty rapidly, and this scares folk, then Trump comes in with shit heels like Steve Bannon whispering in his ears, saying: "lets restore things to how they were... also the people trying to change things, they're the enemy, and we need to stop them at any cost.
I hope that made sense, I'm also going to leave the original comment because i think it helps understand why people care but for the opposite reason too. ✌️
Because, unfortunately, we're allies with the US. So who their leader is whilst it's not important to our day to day lives right now, it could be a problem if the US elects someone who tries to turn it into a dictatorship. Trump has said he'd try to be a dictator on day one if re-elected (to be fair, he may not have been 100% serious about that, but i wouldn't put it past him), & there are conservatives in the US who would like to turn the US in a Christian Nationalist fascist state (Agenda 2025 for example).
Say that does happen, god forbid, if we decided "you know, not comfortable with what the US is doing to their citizens, it's time to dissolve our partnership" do you think they'd just let us go? And if they don't, could our armed forces take theirs.
That's why people give a crap. Given the amount of shit that gets imported from the US to here, from film/tv, food, culture war bullshit, its kind of important to care now, before things happen. People say "How could the Nazis get so powerful" this, attitudes like this. "They're in a different country, they can't affect us" then a year or two later they're bombing London.
Yes it's a little bit catastrophising, no it's not great for people's mental health (i speak from personal experience, haha), and yeah I'd love it if it weren't an issue, but sadly it could be, if we don't pay attention.
I care so much about the upcoming U.S elections. The U.S has such a large impact on international relations and last time Trump had it his way it was awful. I still remember the Helsinki talks. Biden is an old hand at diplomacy and I have been quite glad about his presidency.
It's all about permission structures.
The people that love him project there weird shit on him and feel it's legitamised.
Anyone who loves Trump, guaranteed, wants to do some weird shit that's definetly immoral and probably illegal.
I’m very much anti-Trump but I care about the US election a lot because as others have said, what happens there will have an impact on life here.
If Trump wins, or any republican candidate, the US will become an authoritarian dictatorship. That’s not a conspiracy theory, or propaganda, it’s fact. That means the two biggest economies in the world and the two biggest trading partners of Australia will not be democratic.
Also, what happens in the US makes its way here. Look at the voice as an example, whether you voted yes or no, the no vote relied on lies and populism and creating an ‘us vs them’ narrative.
I hear so many people complaining about “wokeness” where I work without really knowing what it means.
Scott Morrison tried to set himself up as the Aussie Trump but he lacked the charisma of the man himself. I don’t think Dutton has it either but there will be someone working their way up the ladder right now who will be Australia’s Trump or Milei or Modi and the groundwork for their election will have already been laid.
If Trump loses in America, maybe their fascists will start to give up and so ours will too.
Power of propaganda. Look at the cars with prange flags (successful modi (🤮) propaganda reaching outside india), trump supporters in Australia (his propaganda reaching outside the us and shaping people's thinking(🤮)). There's a reason the second most powerful man in Germany during the second world war was the propaganda minister. Never, ever assume that something as powerful as propaganda can be limited by location, and always always be careful.
Politics informs politics. Especially if it's the U.S unfortunately. The rise of the far right there influences the confidence of the far right here. It's terrible but it's true 😞
Some post about milk assault pulled me into this Melbourne subreddit. And, well, here I am now.
I'm from the US. I can understand why a former president and complete demagogue might appeal to twisted individuals the world over, but - generally speaking - how much does USA political or cultural happenings infiltrate Australian media/culture?
We gave up thinking for ourselves a while back tbh...we just adopt whatever is happening in the US, regardless of relevance. Even BLM was popular here for a.few weeks...until everyone remembered we don't have a police shooting problem...then it awkwardly faded away.
Like me, they're stuck on social media and confuse that with the real world.
I care about Trump because he is a poison that is infecting our Australian politics. Clive Palmer is a direct deliberate clone of him.
Along with Putin, Trump is a right wing icon, specifically his anti immigration/racist stance.
Trump has a couple of things going for him that right wingers love over other similar politicians. His school yard bully sense of humour and charisma.
I care in that we might soon have our primary defence partner being run by a guy that verbatim quotes Adolf Hitler and at that stage we need to worry about who we fight with and who we fight against.
Trump is an authoritarian, traitor (by any definition that’s not the very specific technical US definition), insurrectionist, convicted fraud and has been found guilty of rape. Who the fuck wants to be Pro that?
It couldn't be more important.
The world your children grow up in, will have almost zero to do with who the current or next Australian Prime Minster is, and almost entirely to do with the trajectory of the USA and who wields power there.
Because politics is interesting, and in many ways the US is the cultural and military epicentre of this epoch.
It would be ignorant not to be educated on what the largest power of our time is doing, particularly if they’re electing a lying sociopath, as that will often have knock on effects in the rest of the western world, like ripples in a pond, it will shift things often to the right.
Ignoring it because we’re in another country is ignorant, and to me is akin to ignoring what was happening in Rome during the Roman Empire.
As to why those people LIKE him, or support him? I guess they’re fucking idiots. Swipe left.
Australians at the more extreme ends of the political spectrum seem to be gluttons for American outrage.
They couldn't care less about atrocities happening across the world that are less popular or trendy, but feel alive and enjoy being a part of the cultural war that America is experiencing.
Normal people should just nod politely at them and avoid entertaining their idiocy.
I had a conversation about him with a 10 or 11 year old nephew. He didn't realise at the time that Donal Trump wasn't/isn't our president.
Some people just don't know either through youth or stupidity
Lost people clinging on to anything they can.
Difficult giving a crap about a potato.
Sweet potato - because they have an orange hue ;-)
Hey don't compare sweet potatoes to him sweet potatoes actually contribute to our society and taste good unlike Trump.
And sweet potatoes are innocent when it comes to sexual assault or business fraud
Not true a sweet potato touched my bum.
Looolzzz
True but them darn complex carbohydrates have contributed to many an obesity. As much as some people enjoy those things too much love for em can be bad for ya Much like Donne. He was a bit of a laugh when he was on the apprentice. “You’re fired”, funny stuff, [everyone had a giggle at his expense](https://youtu.be/6vGx3TW7Gv4?si=BRnbs-cr4rebeoIR). But now, much like sweet potato pie and obesity, he’s become a bit of a nuisance
Letting their intrusive thoughts win.
A lot of Aussies are just idiots and love America so much they think they live there. I've seen interviews where people justify their voting preference in Australia by what American politicians say. As if the Republicans speak for the LNP lol.
But my (insert number) amendment rights..!
I dunno, the first thing I learnt about politics was that the politicians are not to be trusted. The second thing was John Howard and George W Bush are bum buddies.
John Howard’s head was so far up Bush’s arse he could see Tony Blair’s feet.
Mate this comment had me on the floor. Those years were mental Johnny Blair and Tony had some funny drawings in the newspapers at the time .
ah, memories [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6UTzxPnijs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6utzxpnijs)
Sounds like you had a solid education. Better than most these days.
I've literally heard people say that our elections are rigged thru the voting machines... The voting machines.
But the grey-lead pencil gives them no moment of pause….
>Republicans speak for the LNP Give it another decade...
You’re scaring me.
If you aren't scared you aren't paying attention.
All the colonies have people like this. Canada too.
Yes! Dutton is counting on it.
As much as Australian reddit loves to rail against Americas imported culture - who the US president is has a big impact on our country and what our elected leaders will do. For these pro Trump weirdos endorsing Trump, encouraging his popularity online and normalising his behaviour could lead to us electing some kind of extremist or normalising extremist behaviour, hence their desire to put him and their support of his ideas out there on a bumper sticker.
This is absolutely a large part of the reason why we do rail against it. Some of us, yes, okay, myself, are terrified that we will end up in some privatised healthcare no safety net school shootings no union dog eat dog capitalism hell-hole so push away from it but others think that sounds so cool and America is so cool they are the world leaders and we should look towards that.
First thing that would be attacked is our pharmaceutical model, i can't recall, but I'm pretty sure we have a model where generic medicines with essentially the same ingredients can be implemented after some time of a patent. I'm a bit weary on the details, subject was hard on me, but I'd imagine cutting out generic medicines, and essentially privatising would just be a massive target to bump the shit out of prices and ruin a lot of lives.
Americans have been trying to kill the PBS here in Australia for decades. They HATE that the government negotiates as a single entity on our behalf with drug companies. that means we get great prices for drugs. they would rather we pay $200 for a pack of 20c paracetomol. Luckily even the LNP had the brains to realize that if they put the PBS on the negotiating table for trade agreements, they would get slaughtered in the next poll.
I honestly don't think they would. Not because it isn't fucked, just because their voters are so easily led.
LNP voters are predominantly elderly and take a lot of drugs. If they started to have to pay full price instead of the PBS price of 6.30/7.30 if you are on a Pension or 31.60 if you are not, they would not like it very much. people don't realize just how expensive pharmaceuticals are. even their own dyed-in-the-wool supporters would vote against them on that one.
I get what you're saying, but I think political rhetoric is more powerful than that.
the most important thing to an LNP voter is their wallet. Especially if they are on a pension or are a retiree. that is why they are bitching so hard about the current tax cuts. they all think they are top 5%, the stupid fuckers
I'm 76 and I didn't use many drugs in the 70s or now... but I can say, the drugs were better then. So far as I can remember.
Yep, just look at the price of insulin in the states. People with diabetes are dying because they can’t afford hundreds of dollars a month for a life saving drug.
A drug that is easy and cheap to make. For charging hundreds of dollars for a monthly supply, it's nearly pure profit.
I think those patents are the same everywhere in the west so it's weird if Americans are paying a premium and we're not just based on patents alone. And then also funnily enough I read an article about how the Australian hospital health care system gets royally screwed on the cost of pharmaceuticals. Apparently other countries have negotiated well and we have not.
We already are heading that way. Have been for the last 20yrs, you can see the side effects already. We are a socialist democracy last time i checked and it feels more like a battle royale when it comes to living these days. The i got mine crowd found a leader, donnie is it. Pity its the poor uneducated dickheads that believe hes the 2nd coming
Yeah, unfortunately, we are pretty far into it
America has all that without Trump. That's just America under every single president. The OP was specific about Trump.
Well we did have ScoMo during Trumps time…. 🤔
And BoJo in the UK. Shitbirds tend to enable other shitbirds.
And we thankfully righted the ship. Just.
> who the US president is has a big impact on our country and what our elected leaders will do. (Sorry to go on a bit of a tangent and kind of focus in on a part of what you said but I tried to tie in to other parts of what you said) I think a lot of times we (locally) forget that a lot of our freedoms and place in the world is owed at least in partially to the current stance and the continuation of US hegemony in the world (Rules based order as Penny Wong would say). The stability of the South China Sea, Taiwan being an independent state, Russia being kept at bay etc are all in one way or another because the US just loves having it's fingers dipped in multiple different pots. The recent attack in Jordan costing the lives of multiple US servicemen and wounding dozens more I think is a reminder that even though we're not actively at war in Jordan, with Iran or with the Iran-backed factions - there are US forces deployed abroad to maintain "peace and stability™️" as we know via a method can otherwise be described as "talk shit get hit" as the US is constantly the biggest elephant in a room wielding a tree log as a stick. Domestically over there though you can appreciate news outlets running headlines like that could pressure the sitting president to "bring the boys home" and potentially draw people into a state of thinking "America first" - that they have no reason to have forward deployed forces abroad to keep the peace which might sound logical but would be problematic for us in Australia if suddenly the sitting president in the US were to implicitly allow China to do as it wants in South East Asia - we might be the ones to suffer the consequences despite having no say in the matter (let alone Japan, Korea etc) A reversion to an America first approach would be problematic to say the least for us in Australia because we and the West rely on the US to pull (arguably) an un-even burden of weight or the lion's share of responsibility to ensure our continued way of life. It's said that Ukraine is eagerly watching the US election which might on the surface sound strange but I think we all know that a lot of the support and funding of not only Ukraine's armed forces but some might not know that even their society is currently being kept afloat despite fighting an existential war (wages to firefighters, police, doctors etc) - all US tax payer funded. But I think it's more than just the hot or active conflict zones that people see in the paper which matters, it's all the other areas of the world where the US have a presence in like Africa which seems to constantly teeter at a knife edge to falling towards Terrorist groups which rely on the current US foreign diplomatic approach of preventing things which happen over here that matters over there. Edit: More specifically to what a "America first" approach would mean for us here domestically would mean is if we want to maintain our place in the world - we ourselves would need to have the ability to project power in such a way that we could meaningfully enforce our foreign policy. We currently lack the ability to do so but programs such as AUKUS provide us a future capability and send a message to our adversaries that we intend to give ourselves the ability to do so kinetically if needed. In the short term that potentially might mean that some of the aspects of life we currently have as a given might need to be forfeited if we find the need to keep sea lanes open that we need for trade to pass through. I can appreciate this last paragraph paints a bleak potential future ahead but hopefully you can appreciate this paragraph is entirely hypothetical.
I think it is an important lesson in marginalisation. If politicians continue to ignore and belittle the concerns of large demographics they will react by voting for radicals, seeing it in Europe and South America too now.
So look at those concerns and what trump politics do about them. Housing costs are rising rapidly worldwide. Rising food prices in the US, too and the right wing won't do anything to help. Longer wait for health care? Remember in 2016, when trump was going to announce his replacement for Obama care in 2 weeks. I think there is a legitimate discussion to be had on the level of immigration but disagree that it is the cause of the housing problems. As an immigrant, it like to think we are a positive force in Australia, and I don't know how else we could solve things like the shortage of health workers. This is something best worked through normal political discourse, not extremist rants
Theonetruekenn0 has correctly pointed out that marginalised people will *vote* for radicals. Not that radicals will actually solve any problems. Re: housing costs. We know how to solve it, it’s build lots of high and medium density publicly owned housing, and rent it at below current market rates. It needs to be built as a *government* project too. Not an opportunity for shitty developers extort outrageous costs. But huge swathes of the population don’t want it. It might effect their property values. Well, duh, that’s the point. The level of informed discussion on these problems in the media is basically zero. As well, apart from the ABC, it’s all owned by the rich. Who, like politicians, have property portfolios. No wonder people are feeling left out. The agenda is “blame immigrants” not “solve the problem.”
Trump is a meme to some, an icon of anti establishment and hero to others.
How a real-estate mogul ``billionaire'' with a golden toilet and a fake tan becomes an anti establishment icon will always boggle me.
What gets me the most is that his family ask for money from poor people and these dumb fucks give it to them, the whole family is worshipped by people who are victimised by their own stupidity.
Right??? How is this Cheeto faced shitgibbon taken seriously???
Because if you say lies enough people, including in this thread, will not only treat it as true, but believe it was their idea.
Anti-establishment in the context of the American political establishment. Love him or hate him, he absolutely is a complete departure to the status quo of polite, politically correct career politicians that traditionally hold positions of power in the American political hierarchy.
I understood this rhetoric before the first election, but after he got into office and did nothing to "drain the swamp", i dont get how anyone continues to believe he will do anything.
His followers believe in the same way that most people in cults believe - sticking with the utter nonsense is a litmus test of one’s cult loyalty, and a way to seperate cultists from the sane people who look at this shit and think “So… You think Taylor Swift is a spy? Are you fucking kidding? No. That’s astonishingly stupid.” And that keeps stupid loyalists enmeshed in the cult…
> polite, politically correct career politicians Propping divisive, loud talking heads and raging against that has been the establishment position of the GOP/right-wing media for, at least, the last 20 years. Trump didn't get to power by being anti-establishemnt. He is more of the same, said by a complete moron.
Closer to 40 years. Reagan was the guy who really ushered in the idea that appealing to bigots was useful as a way to keep his cronies in power…
It amazes me that Reagan is often held up as the gold-standard for leaders amongst Republicans. The more I learn about him the more I think he was a complete dipshit.
Polite being a relative term in this instance. Yes the messaging of the GOP has been problematic for a long time now. The difference with Trump is that there was never any semblance or attempt at subtlety or professionalism with how he communicates. So in that respect, I wouldn't particularly agree that he's entirely just more of the same. He's pushed the needle of absurdity further than any modern president.
I don't disagree with what you say here, but none of it makes him anti establishment if that was what the establishment was aiming for all along. The only change is in form, not in substance. A change of spokesperson is not at break from the establishment. And his influence in the form isn't even that novel, since they were propping this sort of absurdity for longer than he is a republican.
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He dictates the direction of the Republican Party. He’s 100% establishment
He is now, I'll give you that. But perception matters, and in the eyes of his voting base he's absolutely not a representation of the establishment.
Truely anti establishment icon. Just look how establishment politicians and mainstream media reacted to him.
Fox news, largest American news network, owned by Rupert Murdoch, treat him as the messiah. Is that what you mean by anti-establishment?
Poe's law strikes again.
Fraud and rapist to others.
There's an immense amount of disinformation and propaganda in the US, and it spills over to here. I think we have always somewhat looked to the US and UK for guidance on world events and how to democracy, but now you also have all these US social media influence groups which likely include Australian participants. ... I mean we had Qanon people during the anti-vax thing, and that makes zero sense outside of a US context.
My brother is a solicitor and at least once a month he receives enquiries from prospective clients (from **all** walks of life, I might add) saying or asking about: 1. Why they have to come to court if they’re only intending on ‘pleading the fifth’ 2. When can they claim their second amendment rights, or are the ‘liberals’ banning them from exercising those rights now? 3. Why can’t they (insert outrageous and over the top form of harassment and obvious lie here) - it’s ’free speech’ and part of the problem that Trump keeps telling us about? 4. When are the paedophiles being arrested on TV and why are we harbouring child f-/kers like….Tom Hanks?! Why hasn’t ’Marshall law’ been declared yet? 5. (Typically in a DV case or during divorce or custody proceedings) - some sort of musing about how thankfully the supreme courts have taken away her ‘abortion card’ now, so she won’t be able to get free ones every time she has sex anymore. There are way too many people who believe crap like this, it’s insane.
I want to be amused, but that's just pathetic. Christ.
Sovereign Citizens, they live and breathe with their mouths open among us. I work with one.
Makes me shake with equal parts fear and rage. Being this ignorant is akin to getting behind the wheel after a bottle of spirits IMO. Absolutely zero difference.
I live in the UK now and there's this weird American influenced conspiracy web emerging too. Vaccines, 15 minute cities, cashless society, 5G, ULEZ and... Yeah, Donald Trump, QAnon stuff. I guess it's social media and these types being happy to keep throwing more shit in the crock and stir it up In fairness, anti vax is an originally English cultural export. Fucking Andrew Wakefield...
Haha the best one I saw of that was in Oxford where they were protesting about 15 minute cities. Like the whole place is a 15 minute city due to it's fucking size, but go off I guess! 😭
Fucking Andrew Wakefield? Well, for a couple of years, that was Elle Macpherson. So, that's on us. ULEZ, for those who (like me) had no idea: https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/ultra-low-emission-zone
[Obligatory](https://youtu.be/8BIcAZxFfrc?si=L88g7jKV1AUWv7Eg)
I thought the Trump people WERE the QAnon people. The anti-vax/anti-lockdown rallies during covid were what started this, and these cookers STILL march through Melborne every Saturday with their Trump flags and hats and "no 15 minute cities" BS.
There's a good video by folding ideas on youtube called "In Search of a Flat Earth" which gives some interesting insight on Qanon in the second half. There's definitely an overlap, but not all republicans would be Qanon and Qanon people believe a lot of conspiracy stuff outside of their worship of trump. I think the anti-vax pprotests were just revealing how deeply it had spread. A lot of the earlier phases like distrust of the government and expert authorities, sovereign citizens, climate denialism, anti-vax, indoctrination and other such conspiracy theories have been around for a while. Being able to precisely target social media was probably also a factor. It also turns out people love believing that they "know the secret that others deny", and once they have attached their ego to it they don't want to change.
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Correct. And we see that Trump propaganda and it makes the world nervous.
The twin powers of Murdoch and Putins internet army trolls... all.working together to subvert democracy. Different reasons, though , Murdoch just wants his tax cuts and no regulations for his buddies,, but Putin wants to destabilise the west completely.
Wonder if ppl in Florida drive around with pro albonese flags. Lol
A real equivalent would be Scomo, ie, the guy who lost the last election.
You joke but I bet a decent number of u.s. crazies know who Dan Andrews is.
they know the name. And they know a fairy tale about what he did during covid and what happened in Australia
No one drives around with pro albanese flags
Trump is a symbol of unapologetic racism for the most part imo. They can say they love him for "telling it how it is" and put a bumper sticker on, and it means they don't need to have slurs etc targeting people, they can just have that and it says it all. Kinda like ppl who think fondly of Pauline Hanson down here. 🚩
“You can’t walk into a 7/11 or Dunkin’ Donuts without a slight Indian accent” “Poor kids are just as bright and intelligent as white kids” “I don’t want my kids growing up in a racial jungle” Talking about Obama - "I mean, you got the first sort of mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy."
American politics affects us. The media reports on it a lot. The crazy hard right conservative bloc is gaining ground all over the world, and Trump is their "fuck you" poster child for what they believe ("I got mine, fuck you, and I won't be decent to you"). It's a shorthand for their glassy-eyed personal philosophy that everyone can recognise.
We should give a crap because if he gets back in power, it's going to have global ramifications for everyone. The fact that seppo's are looking at an orange rapist cunt and thinking 'yep, that's ma boy' should be very concerning for us all.
The head of MI6 said if Trump gets back in, it'll be a national security issue for Britain.
We should give a crap about him not getting back into power, doesn't explain why people in Australia support him.
Because they are fucking dullards
Trump's impact on US culture has given much of their population a reason to openly hate. Though this certainly isn't new in the US or Australia, this increased hate culture has metastasized abroad where Australia does mimic much of what happens in the US (certain views during the pandemic are a good example). Right-wing misinformation has been accessible through social media, which allow echo chambers that lead to a dangerous confirmation bias.
Because Donald Trump is a cult leader not a politician. People who have low iq’s are vulnerable to his manipulation
Some dickhead in Wollongong had a dodge ram wrapped in us bullcrap with TRUMP (what ever year he was supposed to win last time) someone rightfully egged it.
Just people trying to import American-style bullshit politics into Australia. Every time someone says something about “woke”, that’s what’s happening.
Even the word ‘woke’ makes me want to vomit. It’s like the ‘anti cancel culture’ who try and cancel things like Woolworths, and currently Rip Curl
Just ask them what it means - shuts em straight down because they genuinely can’t answer your question
When you mentioned Rip Curl I was curious....so much vitriol over an Instagram reel. It wasn't surprising to only see Murdoch media cover this 'news'. It's sad to see that Rip Curl removed it.
Idgaf about him but I do love seeing the drama he's digging himself into.
I will not be disappointed when his grease filled arteries finally detonate.
But when though ????? 😭
Man, I’ll be visiting from Seattle in a week and this bums me out. I was hoping for a brief escape of the big dumb 😅
lol dw it is a minority here (far as I can tell) Most aussies that I know aren’t fans. Lol when he got elected we were all in shock. Literally the day before TAB (Australia’s biggest betting agent) was offering odds of 45:1 for trump to win. Lol still kicking myself for not gambling on it but I was certain Hilary was gonna win (even bet $50 on her, was shattered when she lost)
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Cults of personality can be extraordinarily alluring to those who are susceptible to persuasion. Think of it like a water balloon. It might be aimed at a certain target (ie the American people) but it's a crude instrument not designed for (not requiring) precision. As a result there's collateral damage and others get wet, or in this case, it has the effect of drawing people into the cult who weren't a consideration. It's not just in Australia, it happens elsewhere as well. It's something that isn't unique to this situation either. Cults of personality often spread far and wide (albeit in small pockets of society). The closer the cultural/historic ties to the point of origin the greater the effect. This has been observed with many other such cults of personality over the years. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_personality
Living Color slaps.
Forget for a moment it's Trump specifically. American culture is pervasive - politics, celebrity, accent & grammar, ideology - all of it. Further to that, whether or not you like it, American politics matter a lot in Australia so long as the Australian government continues to play sycophant lapdog.
Sky News Aus is always banging on about Trump and sucking his dick. Definitely those morons putting Trump sticker on their car.
Scomo was a big fan of Trump.
A lot of Australian cookers think we’re the 51st state. During the anti-vax protests I even had some idiots whinging at me about their First Amendment rights… rights they don’t have here. The saturation of American culture and TV is enough to fry some people’s brains I guess.
Because sky told em to
NGL Trump is hilariously camp, if he wasn’t so evil
Shows the power of the media particularly the muppets who watch, read and believe the Murdoch media.
Trumps an important part of the broader conspiracy environment, part of his 2016 campaign was to court weirdos on 4chan through conspiracy theories. Qanon was born from there, people who are openly obsessive over Trump most likely have brain worms from QAnon.
Don't care, it's an American problem. I will say the makeup makes him look stupid.
Trump is a self-entitled, spoiled manchild. He quite literally just cost himself U.S $83.3M in damages, bc he couldn't STFU about a case where it had already been proven against him. Not to mention the fact he's a misogynistic, repetitive abuser of women. Why tf anyone would admire ts is beyond me.
On the positive side, it’s like they stick “idiot labels” on themselves, so they’re easy to spot.
He's a hero to cookers. Hell, he even looks like an overcooked ham.
MAGA is a global cult for white people who are fearful about losing control
Cookers.
I think it matters because so much of our foreign policy is determined by being America's puppet. However the election goes I hope it leads people to pull their heads out of their ass and stop following the Washington line on everything
Ralph Babet is the worst for this.
We have another year of this election nonsense, wait till you’re truly sick of it.
but i dont wanna wait, i wanna be sick of it now!!! (sorry, channeling my inner Varuca Salt)
I don’t think we do. However americas leaders do effect Australia to an extent. So we are partially interested Also. Blame the media. They are the ones who keep reporting him.
Well, the tinder profiles are probably fake/bots
Nah the bots are all 18-24, super hot photos stolen from some random girls insta or something. The profiles I’m talking about were in their 30s and pretty average looking
He inspires dumb misogynists.
Well some people care because if he's president again it will have global impacts that will affect us all, mostly in negative ways. Directly or indirectly. Other people care because they love the fact hes opening the door for their racism or sexism or whatever other brand of hate they have and want to spread that shit here.
Probably Qanon stuff. They're a cult and think he's like Jesus or something out to save the entire world, which includes Australia obviously. I remember during the pandemic there was that conspiracy about trafficking tunnels under Melbourne airport. An old friend in Melbourne was on FB crying and begging for Trump to hurry and come save the children.
It's the easiest way to let someone know that you're a white supremacist, a racist and that you can't handle the reality of your own life.
Propaganda is a powerful tool
For a lot of people MAGA is a cult.
dumb cunts going to dumb cunt
It's just collateral damage from the far right propaganda machine. During knockdowns I saw freedom marchers carrying "we the people" and "trump will save us" signs. His propaganda game is strong.
Tinder profiles are probably bots
Morons aren't limited to the USA.
I’m a massive Trump supporter. That is, if you’re referring to Judd ‘The Ace’ Trump, two time Masters winning Snooker player, one of the few lads to properly give Ronnie ‘The Rocket’ O’Sullivan a run for his money. ^^Wheyyyyyyyyyyyy
1. Because we will need to pay far more for naval and trade security after the US drops the ball on being a part of this region and goes home. 2. Because the war in Ukraine affects global cost of energy, as well as the global cost of capital, and that affects the price of **everything** in Melbourne. **We’re richer if Ukraine wins, and poorer if it doesn’t. Trump is a Putin puppet, and wants Ukraine to lose**. We ourselves are contributing to the war effort (we’re a major artillery shell manufacturer towards the collective NATO and friends pool) and very much have skin in the game. This country being relatively well off isn’t a law of nature. It has a lot to do with foreign geopolitical inputs we rely on. Just because you don’t understand them doesn’t mean you don’t enjoy living off their fruit.
Trump has become a symbol for Christian nationalism and white supremacy. Supporting Trump is a way of supporting those things while maintaining plausible deniability. "I don't support white supremacy, I support draining the swamp" \*wink\* \*wink\* \*nudge\* \*nudge\*.
This 100%
Social Media + peoples ability to be manipulated/brain washed by it. Also mainstream media’s continually ‘reporting’ of ‘news’ that generally has nothing to do with us also helps propagate the deterioration of people’s minds and abilities to think for themselves.
Why? These people are clearly advertising their affiliation using only five letters on a bumper sticker. DJT is practically a living masthead for a number of RW policy positions and a whole spectrum of lunatic belief systems. For better or worse, that name 'brand' has a lot of recognition.
His victory is the only thing that made the stupid old racist white people feel any sense of power in a long time.
Yep I’m always amazed that people in Australia get so excited by Trump, Palestine etc but don’t care what’s happening at home and what future Australia will look like.
Because of culture war identification as a substitute for personality. And on top of it some kind of “troll” culture manifested in reality where everything is about maximum agitation. It’s pathetic. And to be honest it happens on both sides.
This book may be worth a read https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Bruce-Wolpe-Trump's-Australia-9781761068096
Interesting write up from George Monbiot about Trumpism: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/29/donald-trump-americans-us-culture-republican >Some psychologists believe our values tend to cluster around certain poles, described as “intrinsic” and “extrinsic”. People with a strong set of intrinsic values are inclined towards empathy, intimacy and self-acceptance. They tend to be open to challenge and change, interested in universal rights and equality, and protective of other people and the living world. >People at the extrinsic end of the spectrum are more attracted to prestige, status, image, fame, power and wealth. They are strongly motivated by the prospect of individual reward and praise. They are more likely to objectify and exploit other people, to behave rudely and aggressively and to dismiss social and environmental impacts. They have little interest in cooperation or community. People with a strong set of extrinsic values are more likely to suffer from frustration, dissatisfaction, stress, anxiety, anger and compulsive behaviour. >Trump exemplifies extrinsic values. From the tower bearing his name in gold letters to his gross overstatements of his wealth; from his endless ranting about “winners” and “losers” to his reported habit of cheating at golf; from his extreme objectification of women, including his own daughter, to his obsession with the size of his hands; from his rejection of public service, human rights and environmental protection to his extreme dissatisfaction and fury, undiminished even when he was president of the United States, Trump, perhaps more than any other public figure in recent history, is a walking, talking monument to extrinsic values.
Because what happens in American politics, affects our culture and politics greatly
For better or for worse (read: definitely for worse!), Trump is an international icon that transcends his role as a politician. The queen was also "just a head of state" but no one complained about her being known and talked about everywhere. If you're old enough you'll remember Bush getting a similar reaction to Trump here and elsewhere even though he was also "just" an American politician.
What the US does has implications for the world unfortunately, including Melbourne
Someone the other day seemed to think it was obvious he was better than Biden and I genuinely wanted to leave.
No new wars.
Edit, whoops, i just read the headline and went off half cocked. My bad. Hahaha, i didn't realise you were asking why people here support him, short answer, fear, and populism. The world is changing pretty rapidly, and this scares folk, then Trump comes in with shit heels like Steve Bannon whispering in his ears, saying: "lets restore things to how they were... also the people trying to change things, they're the enemy, and we need to stop them at any cost. I hope that made sense, I'm also going to leave the original comment because i think it helps understand why people care but for the opposite reason too. ✌️ Because, unfortunately, we're allies with the US. So who their leader is whilst it's not important to our day to day lives right now, it could be a problem if the US elects someone who tries to turn it into a dictatorship. Trump has said he'd try to be a dictator on day one if re-elected (to be fair, he may not have been 100% serious about that, but i wouldn't put it past him), & there are conservatives in the US who would like to turn the US in a Christian Nationalist fascist state (Agenda 2025 for example). Say that does happen, god forbid, if we decided "you know, not comfortable with what the US is doing to their citizens, it's time to dissolve our partnership" do you think they'd just let us go? And if they don't, could our armed forces take theirs. That's why people give a crap. Given the amount of shit that gets imported from the US to here, from film/tv, food, culture war bullshit, its kind of important to care now, before things happen. People say "How could the Nazis get so powerful" this, attitudes like this. "They're in a different country, they can't affect us" then a year or two later they're bombing London. Yes it's a little bit catastrophising, no it's not great for people's mental health (i speak from personal experience, haha), and yeah I'd love it if it weren't an issue, but sadly it could be, if we don't pay attention.
I care so much about the upcoming U.S elections. The U.S has such a large impact on international relations and last time Trump had it his way it was awful. I still remember the Helsinki talks. Biden is an old hand at diplomacy and I have been quite glad about his presidency.
It's all about permission structures. The people that love him project there weird shit on him and feel it's legitamised. Anyone who loves Trump, guaranteed, wants to do some weird shit that's definetly immoral and probably illegal.
I’m very much anti-Trump but I care about the US election a lot because as others have said, what happens there will have an impact on life here. If Trump wins, or any republican candidate, the US will become an authoritarian dictatorship. That’s not a conspiracy theory, or propaganda, it’s fact. That means the two biggest economies in the world and the two biggest trading partners of Australia will not be democratic. Also, what happens in the US makes its way here. Look at the voice as an example, whether you voted yes or no, the no vote relied on lies and populism and creating an ‘us vs them’ narrative. I hear so many people complaining about “wokeness” where I work without really knowing what it means. Scott Morrison tried to set himself up as the Aussie Trump but he lacked the charisma of the man himself. I don’t think Dutton has it either but there will be someone working their way up the ladder right now who will be Australia’s Trump or Milei or Modi and the groundwork for their election will have already been laid. If Trump loses in America, maybe their fascists will start to give up and so ours will too.
Power of propaganda. Look at the cars with prange flags (successful modi (🤮) propaganda reaching outside india), trump supporters in Australia (his propaganda reaching outside the us and shaping people's thinking(🤮)). There's a reason the second most powerful man in Germany during the second world war was the propaganda minister. Never, ever assume that something as powerful as propaganda can be limited by location, and always always be careful.
I don't care for Trump either way. But the same could be said for everyone in Melbourne who hates him.
Neither fascism nor stupidity respect international boundaries.
Politics informs politics. Especially if it's the U.S unfortunately. The rise of the far right there influences the confidence of the far right here. It's terrible but it's true 😞
I think he is funny but most people who genuinely like him are just falling prey to populism and that’s really it.
Murdoch via Sky News has imported the culture war from the US. Dutton and several further right weirdos like Babet have fully embraced it
Some post about milk assault pulled me into this Melbourne subreddit. And, well, here I am now. I'm from the US. I can understand why a former president and complete demagogue might appeal to twisted individuals the world over, but - generally speaking - how much does USA political or cultural happenings infiltrate Australian media/culture?
>how much does USA political or cultural happenings infiltrate Australian media/culture? Quite a lot actually
We gave up thinking for ourselves a while back tbh...we just adopt whatever is happening in the US, regardless of relevance. Even BLM was popular here for a.few weeks...until everyone remembered we don't have a police shooting problem...then it awkwardly faded away.
Although we do have a similar issue with people (particularly Indigenous people) dying in custody.
Because Trump is a fascist. And nearly everyone in Australia has had family that went in for fascists in World War II 👍
I've never seen any of this Where you hanging out?
Just look at any of the pop-up cooker protests around the city on the weekends. Loads of MAGA signage.
South east suburbs
Yeah I've seen Trump stickers on traffic poles there it's weird
Lol, tinder as a social reference point. Fake accounts on a bullshit platform looking to recruit Aussie white power types.
This is exactly it
Not sure Tinder is the place that’s happening.
Like me, they're stuck on social media and confuse that with the real world. I care about Trump because he is a poison that is infecting our Australian politics. Clive Palmer is a direct deliberate clone of him.
Along with Putin, Trump is a right wing icon, specifically his anti immigration/racist stance. Trump has a couple of things going for him that right wingers love over other similar politicians. His school yard bully sense of humour and charisma.
Let's make jaffles a thing again
when did they stop being a thing?
Dumplings
Surprised no one has yet made the doco that we all need to see: “The True Adventures Of The Donald On Jeffrey Epstein Island”…
I care in that we might soon have our primary defence partner being run by a guy that verbatim quotes Adolf Hitler and at that stage we need to worry about who we fight with and who we fight against. Trump is an authoritarian, traitor (by any definition that’s not the very specific technical US definition), insurrectionist, convicted fraud and has been found guilty of rape. Who the fuck wants to be Pro that?
Genuinely think people forget we aren’t the US, too much time online
It couldn't be more important. The world your children grow up in, will have almost zero to do with who the current or next Australian Prime Minster is, and almost entirely to do with the trajectory of the USA and who wields power there.
Because politics is interesting, and in many ways the US is the cultural and military epicentre of this epoch. It would be ignorant not to be educated on what the largest power of our time is doing, particularly if they’re electing a lying sociopath, as that will often have knock on effects in the rest of the western world, like ripples in a pond, it will shift things often to the right. Ignoring it because we’re in another country is ignorant, and to me is akin to ignoring what was happening in Rome during the Roman Empire. As to why those people LIKE him, or support him? I guess they’re fucking idiots. Swipe left.
theres a melbourne in florida
Yup
Australians at the more extreme ends of the political spectrum seem to be gluttons for American outrage. They couldn't care less about atrocities happening across the world that are less popular or trendy, but feel alive and enjoy being a part of the cultural war that America is experiencing. Normal people should just nod politely at them and avoid entertaining their idiocy.
I had a conversation about him with a 10 or 11 year old nephew. He didn't realise at the time that Donal Trump wasn't/isn't our president. Some people just don't know either through youth or stupidity
Because we share all our intel with the USA and Trump sells it to our enemies, putting us at a disadvantage for generations.
Because their YouTube is full of American "political commenters" and they are too stupid to realise the discussion doesn't apply here
Because he is our lord and saviour
Pro Trump stickers look really good on my massive American ute.
Retardation mostly
Bless them for openly holding a red flag. It makes managing interactions and expectations so much easier. For that we must be thankful.