Oh, Trump is definitely bad. No question about it. But it's not his fault that people lack the critical thinking to see right through him. Trump is just so easy to hate. His policies are certainly not going to nurture critical thinking in US citizens. And he will be at fault for that when/if everything goes down the sh*tter. But, let's get something straight:
He is absolutely NOT at fault for the state of the voters' critical thinking apparatus at the moment of the election.
Which certainly can't be said for Obama and the Clintons who actually had a say in shaping the US educational system... Yet you are eager to blame Trump for something that is yet to happen, and happily ignore something that HAS actually happened.
And even if it's not rigged, or there's some at least partially credible information, nobody cares. I don't remember on which occasion it was, but at some point there were actual russian IPs published as some "attack" sources, and news cried russian hackers. Thing is, the very next day owner of the russian hosting provider came out and said "Guys, these IPs are from our pool, it's a virtual private hosting. We've checked the access logs and it's from around the world: UK, Italy, France, Poland. Hey, US three-letter agencies, want some logs? I'm ready to provide you with them, you just have to ask - that is, file a request." He was never contacted by "intelligence" agencies. Just that one occasion speaks volumes about fact collection and investigative techniques said agencies use.
Not blaming. Predicting. Which is fairly easy to do when you consider all the things he has said before he got elected. And then he didn't stop when he got elected. It wasn't just for show during the campaign. It's who he is.
Exactly my point. Trump is just too easy to hate and accuse. I'm not talking about you personally, but the citizens of USA were pretty content with the entrenching of certain families like Bush (you had a senior and a junior) and Clinton (husband and wife). No one raised concerns of their nepotism, but everybody throws a tantrum about Trump entrenching his family and associates in the new establishment. People were so blinded by... I don't even know what... consumerism probably... the good life... for the past decades you allowed some fractions in the USA to entrench themselves so much in the system that they could actually get away with sabotaging a presidential candidate (Sanders). If that happened in a small country elsewhere in the world, the West would be eager to invade to defend "democracy". Especially if there's oil around. And US citizens (as well as UK, German, French and other coalitions citizens) would silently approve of this.
Now that Trump got elected, suddenly people started to think about what is fake news, about lack of critical thinking, propaganda etc...
Ummm... how's that different from any of the previous administrations. Oh, I know, the previous administrations were more subtle in their techniques, and Trump is more blatant about it. Of course he is... Trumps gonna Trump. You can't blame him for being himself. You COULD blame the democrats for helping to get him elected. You could blame the previous administrations for their greed, shady business, and the general state of mind, and dissatisfaction they had created in the voter.
But Trump is just too easy to hate. To the extreme.
edit: just replaced "blame" with "accuse", since you're not blaming, just predicting.
I think the point he's making is that this thread is mostly just two people who are both in over their heads in their argument and are unwilling to chill and put it to rest. Neither is learning from the other, and reading through it just makes a 3rd party dislike both sides of the discussion. (Not to be confused with disliking them. They're fine folks who are just in a silly argument.) They're arguing for the sake of argument at this point, which is the worst part of internet discussion. This forum is usually more intelligent than people making un-cited and unverified political claims and accusations.
Their argument also isn't really tech related any more. In the "Tech and Policy News" section that can be frustrating to some.
So I warned against making this thread into a dumpster for political banter. I guess a line has been crossed. Thread has no more use to this community in my opinion. Locked.
