this post was submitted on 12 May 2024
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Ex-president calls Hopkins’ cannibalistic Lecter ‘late, great’ while condemning ‘people who are being released into our country’

Donald Trump on Saturday praised fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter “as a wonderful man” before segueing into comments disparaging people who have immigrated into the US without permission.

The former president’s remarks to political rally-goers in Wildwood, New Jersey, as he challenges Joe Biden’s re-election in November were a not-so-subtle rhetorical bridge exalting Anthony Hopkins’ cannibalistic Lecter in Silence of the Lambs as “late [and] great” while simultaneously condemning “people who are being released into our country that we don’t want”.

Trump delivered his address to an estimated crowd of about 80,000 supporters under the shadow of the Great White roller coaster in a 1950s-kitsch seaside resort 90 miles (144.8km) south of Philadelphia.

The occasion served for Trump to renew his stated admiration for Lecter, as he’s done before, after the actor Mads Mikkleson – who previously portrayed Lecter in a television series – once described Trump as “a fresh wind for some people”.

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[–] [email protected] 157 points 6 months ago (11 children)

The article didn't have the full quote, so here it is:

Silence of the Lambs. Has anyone ever seen The Silence of the Lambs? The late, great Hannibal Lecter is a wonderful man. He often times would have a friend for dinner. Remember the last scene? ‘Excuse me. I’m about to have a friend for dinner,’ as this poor doctor walked by. ‘I’m about to have a friend for dinner.’ But Hannibal Lecter. Congratulations. The late, great Hannibal Lecter. We have people who are being released into our country that we don’t want in our country, and they’re coming in totally unchecked, totally unvetted.

[–] [email protected] 116 points 6 months ago (3 children)

I think reading that is giving me dementia...

[–] [email protected] 49 points 6 months ago (2 children)

The brain worms are having a feast again.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 6 months ago

It would be sad if an elderly family member started talking this way. The fact that a presidential nominee is talking like this, and yet the polls are close, is a bit mind boggling.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Oh god, they're becoming a Kennedy...

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago

And they say dementia is not contagious…

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

What's giving me dementia is the fact that so many Americans want this guy to be president. Again.

[–] [email protected] 76 points 6 months ago (3 children)

I’m honestly baffled as to why a movie character would even come up in a political speech, much less this incoherently.

And yes, it’s a quote, it’s a funny line… why is he using it? It’s utterly silly. I’m also confused by the ‘late, great’ as if this was an actual person who had died, as opposed to a fictional character who hasn’t died in any book, movie or show I’m familiar with. And Anthony Hopkins is very much alive as well, as is writer Thomas Harris.

It doesn’t make any… goddamn… sense.

Please don’t elect this guy again.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (4 children)

Apparently this isn't the first time that he has related illegal immigrants to Hannibal. I'm not sure what he means by this - is he implying they're cannibals?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Heck, maybe he’s hoping Hannibal Lecter likes Mexican food, if you know what I mean.

God only knows what Trump’s thinking. Though he’s likely to be as confused as the rest of us mere mortals…

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Well as a native English speaker, I didn't see how he's relating the two at all. He's just saying two unrelated things one after the other, with no segue. It's just braindead.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Maybe he's getting hungry while he's up there rambling and thinking he wants to eat them. Maybe someone told him about Swift's A Modest Proposal and he didn't realize it was satire, but maybe thought it was a good idea.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

He was just watching the movie on the flight to the rally.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

I'm thinking he's gone beyond RFK jr - he has brain worms and mercury poisoning. But also lead poisoning, possibly Adderall/cocaine abuse....

[–] [email protected] 37 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Wait is he advocating for the eating of immigrants?

Are these dependent or independent thoughts?

Also he does know Hannibal Lecter is fictional right?

And literally no person on the planet can give definitive answers.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Also, does he understand the double meaning of "having a friend for dinner"?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

If he didn't get the rest of it. No way he got that part.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

This is like early versions of LLMs hallucinating.

EDIT: I feel I need to apologize to LLMs for this comparison.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Here's the video. In context, it doesn't make a whole lot more sense than what's in the article. Here's a story that goes into the other more coherent things he said which are actually a good bit worse.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I don't know which one is actually worse.

A nostalgia themed glamourizing of brutality right next to "unwanted people". No explanation of how those two things connect, so all that stays is the association.

Kind of on a neuro-marketing like level of discours (just strenghtening your associations by creating emotions or atmosphere) he is mobilizing violence against immigrants. (And normalizing violence as a means of governing in general)

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

(And normalizing violence as a means of governing in general)

Yeah. I think as his dementia is getting more pronounced, his general admiration for people who kill you if you disagree with them is getting more explicit and weirdly specific and he's talking about it a lot more openly.

It's hard to tell even what the hell he means when he's talking about Hannibal Lecter. That's the only reason I say it's worse when he's talking about deporting protestors, because it's very clear what he means and it has more of a pathway to becoming reality. But I agree; my best guess when he talks about Hannibal Lecter and Al Capone is simply that he's playing it straight -- he admires someone who can casually talk about murdering other people, and aspires to be like that, because that means strength.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 6 months ago (2 children)

This is the nuclear speech all over again.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 6 months ago

No this is somehow weirder. He seems to be confusing movies and real people, and possibly thinking it’s still the 1980s, when silence is the lambs was popular.

Like mid stage Alzheimer’s dementia.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago
[–] [email protected] 23 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Does he... Does he just not know what referring to someone as "the late, great whatever" means? Does he just like the sound of the rhyme?

How do people in his audience come away from rallies like this one and go, "Yep, that's the guy who should be president"? Are they as brain-damaged as him?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Well apparently a lot of people didn't come to hear what he said, they left during the speech...

https://twitter.com/aliyareports/status/1789435508822561181

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Never been to any political rally or event, but do people actually stay during the whole thing usually? People leave early during baseball games to beat the traffic, even if they like baseball or the match.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

I've only been to one that was big. It seemed like most people were still in the venue at the end, and it was slow going on way getting out.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 6 months ago (1 children)

You know, usually if I try hard I can kinda figure out how his rambling stream of consciousness verbal diarrhea got from one point to another. This is just...nonsense.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

He's trying to say that the people coming into the country are dangerous criminals, but he's done the talking points so often by now that neither he nor his audience need the connective tissue between the ideas.

"Oh, now he's doing the Hannibal Lecter bit? Yeah, screw illegals or whatever."

They have their own coded language at this point where as Trump slips more and more into dementia they still understand what their adoptive hate spewing neo-Nazi grandpa dictator is talking about.

"And then the blargabaghehhhh...."

"Exactly. Fuck the blargabaghehhhh...."

Edit: I don't think I'll ever stop laughing when I see that clip, btw.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

That seemed more like a drug orgasm then a brain fart

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

This is like when a band that has been doing a song for decades plays about thirty seconds of it and some of the best lyrics...a magamedley.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

He must've just watched Silence of the Lambs on cable the night before. He always works the last thing he saw on TV into his speeches.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago