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[Whataboutism]Have we ever seen anything like this before?

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by FranchiseBlade, Aug 23, 2019.

  1. FranchiseBlade

    FranchiseBlade Contributing Member
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    I'm curious. Have we seen the kind of 'turning the blind eye' to a politician before like we are seeing with Trump now?

    I think everyone will put the brightest shine and whitewash whatever the dirty deeds of politicians with whom they agree.

    But this seems to me to be a new level. I'm not talking about policy positions with which people agree or disagree. I'm talking about the president's inability to carry out things, handle the basic functions of being a leader, upholding traditional American values.

    The president's ignorance of how government works is overlooked (or praised).

    The president's antagonism towards traditional allies is overlooked (or praised).

    The president's inability to negotiate, hold foreign adversaries accountable, enter beneficial deals for the United States, gather allies together to help pressure adversaries is overlooked (or praised).

    The president's inability to even staff his administration (I'm not talking about with qualified people, I mean with anybody at all) is overlooked (or praised).

    The President's treatment of the most vulnerable of people children is overlooked (or praised).

    The President's kowtowing and praising of foreign dictators is overlooked (or praised).

    The President's immoral behavior is overlooked.

    The president's basic adherence to Christian morals is overlooked by people that normally cry loudly when Presidents behaved even close to that way previously.

    The President's lack of concern for state secrets, securing government operations from our foreign adversaries, refusing to use secured communications, refusal to abandon private servers for government business transactions is overlooked despite people complaining when other officials in previous administrations were publicly ostracized for even lesser behavior of this sort.

    The President's behavior enticing public laughter at him which is far worse than any humiliation in recent administrations is overlooked.

    My list could go on and on. Again, I'm not talking about policy positions with which people agree or disagree. I'm talking about a person's ability to do the job and uphold the dignity of the office.

    This is the place for whataboutism. Which other administrations have had people turn a blind eye in what areas that end up being even close to what we are seeing with the Trump administration?
     
    #1 FranchiseBlade, Aug 23, 2019
    Last edited: Aug 23, 2019
  2. CometsWin

    CometsWin Breaker Breaker One Nine

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    He's a one man plague on humanity.
     
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  3. dobro1229

    dobro1229 Contributing Member

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    Trump can only exist in a country that has given up on its system of governance with a good Chunk of its citizens. Whataboutism only exists as an excuse for your support which is genuine, but you want to still seem objective around social circles. But “Hillary” is worse is only a thing because of this factor.

    The fact though is people who support Trump actually like what he is giving them in the end. It had nothing to do with how good he is. The end result is what they are judging-

    -The Rich Wall Street type grifters- are making out like bandits.
    -The Evangelicals - hard right judges and self fulfilling apocalyptic prophecy fulfillment... they are in.
    -Racists- in all day long for obvious reasons.
    -Libertarians- In... they don’t believe in government and think he’s doing a good job destroying it.
    -Internet troll for sport idiots- loving it as Bruce just admitted in a separate thread.

    Lastly - Many of The groups above truly believe in Autocracy and think Democracy does not work. They covet what Putin has in Russia. Evangelicals especially.

    So we get fixated on defending people or positions that get framed in stupid whataboutism arguments but we have to look past that and get to the heart of what motivation does the person you are talking to have to even try to argue that there is some sort of equivalency that justifies Trumpism. Divert from the argument THEY want to talk about because it deflects from Trump, and challenge what they think they are getting out of this destruction of our government.
     
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  4. dobro1229

    dobro1229 Contributing Member

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    He’s a plague but he’s self inflicted. He’s a tool being used to self destruct our society. All the groups above, what do they have in common?? ... self destruction. Evangelicals WANT the apocalypse to happen ASAP. I mean come on.

    I watched that Natalie Portman movie called Annihilation the other day and it really got me thinking about human nature and our nature to self implode on purpose. I think that’s very fitting for the time we are in now where we are basically self destructing as a society as we speak in the most direct ways imaginable.

    Right now humans are purposefully destroying the mechanism we have as a species that provides 20% of the oxygen we breathe just because F -it.. Im Balsanaro and screw the libs. If that’s not self destruction I don’t know what is.
     
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  5. bigtexxx

    bigtexxx Contributing Member

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    Bill Clinton lied under oath and many women accused him of rape.

    /thread
     
    dachuda86 and Silent_Bob like this.
  6. Rashmon

    Rashmon Contributing Member

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    Worst president ever. We have not seen a more unqualified, incompetent, and unethical person in our history.

    History books will refer to the aberration of this buffoon as The Great Mistake.
     
    mikol13 and BigM like this.
  7. bobrek

    bobrek Politics belong in the D & D

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    Donald Trump refused to testify under oath and women have accused him of rape.
     
  8. Spooner

    Spooner Member

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    A thread about whataboutism and what do you do? You just can’t help yourself can you?
     
  9. RayRay10

    RayRay10 Houstonian

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    Reading up on former presidents, I’d say he’s the worst parts of Andrew Jackson’s and Andrew Johnson’s presidencies.
     
  10. bigtexxx

    bigtexxx Contributing Member

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    I outed the OP's ridiculous hypocrisy.

    ...and then dropped the mic
     
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  11. KingCheetah

    KingCheetah Contributing Member

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    ...into the bathtub electrocuting yourself.
     
  12. Rileydog

    Rileydog Contributing Member

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    Wholly apart from your political views, you have shown yourself to be an arrogant, self important ass. I would hope you are more of a troll than serious, but I don’t think that’s the case. There are so many jackasses out there. Why be so common?
     
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  13. DaDakota

    DaDakota If you want to know, just ask!

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    Would be awesome if Trump had a stroke and died tonight.

    DD
     
  14. Amiga

    Amiga I get vaunted sacred revelations from social media
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    Have we ever had a cult leader as POTUS? Maybe Washington can be seen as one? On man, tell trump that and he d welcome the label.
     
  15. FranchiseBlade

    FranchiseBlade Contributing Member
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    Interesting. That would certainly be horrible if true. I am aware of two women that have accused the president of that. One of those two swore an affidavit under oath that Clinton not only didn't rape her but that he didn't sexually harass her in any way. The other one claimed that the action occurred at a time Clinton was known to have been thousands of miles away. Of those two, the second seems more likely because people can get the details wrong after even a short period of time.

    Who were some of the others of these many women that accused Clinton? Please provide some links or details.

    Did any of them have witnesses like at least one of those that have accused Donald Trump of sexual assault?
     
  16. FranchiseBlade

    FranchiseBlade Contributing Member
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    He is definitely a troll. I don't think he believes anything he posts. None of it is done seriously on his part.
     
  17. FranchiseBlade

    FranchiseBlade Contributing Member
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    That's kind of a great comparison. I think, for the most part, I would agree with you. I need to do some more research. He is the worst parts without any of the various strengths. I haven't researched enough to see if people were willing to overlook, make excuses, or even praise Johnson or Jackson's worst characteristics.

    Obviously not enough to stop the impeachment of Johnson anyway, but I do wonder to what extent.
     
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  18. Nolen

    Nolen Contributing Member

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    I hope conservatives love this game, cause we're gonna be playing it for years.
    I'll play! Just off the top of my head:

    • If Obama was sued for running a fake university in order to bilk students for money, and settled weeks after being elected president, how would Fox news have handled that?
    • If Obama insulted McCain or any other war hero saying he prefers the guys who "didn't get captured" how would Fox news have covered that?
    • If Obama had spent over thirty percent of his time playing golf, how would conservative media covered that?
    • If Obama had screwed a p*rn star while his wife cared for his infant child, how would the evangelists have reacted?
    • If Obama had funneled campaign funds as hush money for his mistresses, how would conservatives have reacted?
    • If Obama accused Ted Cruz's father of assassinating JFK, what would Fox news have said about it?
    • If Obama routinely referred to violence with opponents and protesters during his rallies, how would Fox news have covered that?
    • If during a nationally televised debate amongst candidates for the presidency, Obama took a moment to insist his penis isn't small, how would the Fox pundits have reacted?
    • If Obama said countless times that the election was rigged, then said nothing of the matter after winning, how would conservatives have reacted?
    • If Obama had a much lower attendance at his inauguration than his predecessor, and angrily lied about the attendance and had his press secretary lie that it was the largest attendance ever, how would Fox news have reacted?
    • If Obama insisted that millions of votes were fraudulent, and he appointed a commission to investigate it and found nothing, how would the conservative blogosphere have reacted?
    • If Obama had openly courted and (with or without collusion) received aid from Russia during a presidential campaign where he won the EC by 70K votes, how would Fox have covered that?
    • If Obama's personal lawyer was indicted and convicted of numerous felonies, how would Fox have covered that?
    • If Obama's former campaign manager was indicted and convicted of numerous felonies and will do years of hard time, how would Fox have covered that?
    • If Obama had people regularly leaving his cabinet and important intelligence, security, and other posts, what would conservatives have said?
    • If Obama regularly publicly praised the leadership of North Korea, how would conservatives have reacted?
    • If Obama repeatedly praised Putin as a strong leader, how would republican congressmen have reacted?

    This is just off the top of my head.

    I think we all know that many of the above hypotheticals would have had conservatives calling for nothing less than bloody revolution.
     
  19. Torn n Frayed

    Torn n Frayed Member

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    Too bad he's not caught up in this chicken sandwich kerfuffle like everyone else is fast tacking to stroketown..
     
  20. B-Bob

    B-Bob "94-year-old self-described dreamer"

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    Hahahahaha! Bold strategy, Cotton. Seems to have failed.
     
    #20 B-Bob, Aug 23, 2019
    Last edited: Aug 24, 2019
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