So the richest man in the world spent $130 million to elect Donald Trump.

Now he's being put in charge of a "government efficiency" agency while controlling corporations with billions in government contracts that are also under federal investigations.

See how this works?
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[–] 108 points 2 years ago (29 children)

If you live in Europe and think your democratic system is resistant to these things: it's not.

Don't wait until your version of Trump gets elected. Start organizing now.

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  • [–] 18 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Italy elected Berlusconi (a corrupted tycoon who had ties with the mafia and bribed his way to the top of the Italian broadcasting world) in 1994. Y'all just catching up.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Don't wait until your version of Trump gets elected. Start organizing now.

    No worries, he already has been elected last year!

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (2 children)

    Dick Schoof (yes, English speakers, that really is his legal name) is our Trump?

    I'd say Geert Wilders matches that description, and he did not become PM...

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Dick Schoof didn't get elected though, at least not by the people... Wilders was

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    Correction: Wilders received the most votes from the people, but could not become PM as his party needed to form coalitions to gain enough seats. Essentially, he did not get elected PM because most others did not want to work together with him.

    Was our parliament filled with lunatics vehemently agreeing with him, we'd have Wilders as PM.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago*

    Absolutely, over here we’ve recently elected a horrible party as the biggest one, with 25% of the votes. Dark times.

    The difference is that in many European countries the head of state is more of a ceremonial position (at least in practice) and the head of the government holds nowhere near the amount of power a US president does. With proportional representation, the biggest party often doesn’t have an absolute majority and needs to form a government together with other parties, or might even end up in the opposition. Together they agree on who’s going to be the head of government (usually the head of the largest party), who will be the ministers and what will be the policy. If it doesn’t work out because of disagreements, the government breaks up and new elections will be held.

    My point is: the risk is real, populism is growing, policy is shifting, but the dynamics are different. Having a first past the post system and concentrating so much power into a single political position feels like an accelerator.

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  • [+] -28 points 2 years ago (19 children)
  • [–] 66 points 2 years ago (14 children)

    And yet the "blame everything on immigrants" strategy seems to work quite well here too.

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  • [+] -34 points 2 years ago (13 children)
  • [–] 26 points 2 years ago (11 children)

    I see you're already on the right track to a fascistic ideology. Way to prove me right.

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  • [+] -24 points 2 years ago (10 children)
  • [–] 16 points 2 years ago (9 children)

    You are literally parroting the talking points of fascists, though?

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  • [+] -16 points 2 years ago (8 children)
  • [–] 14 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    You literally just blamed "crime" and "terrorism" on immigrants.

    My dude, that's racist as fuck, and the exact same bullshit the fascists in the US say.

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  • [+] -8 points 2 years ago (2 children)
  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)
    1. Immigrants commit crimes at much lower rates than citizens in the US. Probably because they're afraid of deportation, so they don't do anything to draw attention to themselves. Also because they want to be here and participate in society.

    2. The overwhelming number of terrorist acts committed on US soil is done by white conservative men.

    Got any more racist talking points?

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago

    Know thyself. The cancer of fascism is fed by fear of people, which is used to acquire and consolidate power, and spread more fear.

    The fact that you already associate crime and terrorism with immigrants means that the cancer is already growing within you.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago

    Considering, low crime, and no terrorism, it’s more along the line: “We want it to stay that way”

    You really don't think painting immigrants as criminals and terrorists is a common fascist talking point?

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago

    People don’t want to leave their homes to begin with, only to face people like you. Make sure you don’t vote for politicians who promote wars or instability if you don’t want anymore refugees. Your right wing politicians are pro-Israel so they will be causing more refugees to move to Europe and they probably don’t realize it.

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  • [–] 14 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    far less trusts politicians

    crazy thing is... that is the exact reason why trump is winning in the States. Someone comes along, crass, rude, claiming to be a layman and the people here ate that up, thinking "now here is a person like us, not like the established politician class" and despite the rhetoric, or due to it, along with suppression and disinformation, he got elected.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago

    Whoever thinks Trump is 'people like us' can drown in piss

    How can someone think a spoiled rich boy is one of the working class?
    Eroding education seems to work for those shitheads...

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