Is anyone here from a country NOT called USA where they pile up a bunch of people in the background of a politician who then gets applause for everything?

I have literally never seen this in Europe. In Germany, we'd probably consider this "weird" in case our politicians did that. Feels a bit like clicking the thumbs-up button of my own social media post...

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[–] 81 points 13 hours ago (5 children)

I know you asked for non-USA opinions, but as someone from the USA, I have always thought this was weird. Not only are they either fake or paid or self-centered extreme fans, but they got to sign away their "show up on TV and photos" rights, all for the privilege of looking at Trump's ass while he speaks. Worst seat in the house.

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  • [–] 40 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

    Regardless of who's speaking, I always end up staring at the people sitting/standing behind them. Some part of me is waiting for them to break character, I think.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 hour ago

    i think some of the rallies, where people caught on to people acting strangly a couple times when he was signalling htem to cheer, i remember one video was a guy akwardly sitting there staring at people, while people were cheering.

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  • [–] 7 points 10 hours ago (1 child)

    Yeah, we have this in the UK, and I'm sure it's taken from the US originally.

    It is the worst seat in the house, but I get it's to try and control the background on clips from speeches. Having people cheering and fawning over everything the candidate says is effective when most people will only see a 5 second clip of whatever event it was. It's a product of modern social media and clip based news sadly.

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  • [–] 8 points 7 hours ago

    The UK trying to copy things from US politics is always eye-watering levels of cringe, remember Boris's briefing room and the bloody lecterns? FFS US-style brashness in British politics is almost always painful to watch in general, makes us look like a bunch of Ancient Greeks trying to convince everyone but particularly ourselves that the Romans aren't entirely in control these days. The briefing room itself isn't even used now thanks to Partygate starting from there and grinding what remained of public faith in the state into a fine and mildly carcinogenic dust.

    Our best post-war PM was clearly Clement Attlee and he was famously chill, his skill was managing a cabinet with a lot of the big personalities and managing consensus. Every PM since the man himself has wanted their Churchill moment, but the country would be far better if they all sought an Attlee legacy instead. Except the Town and Country Planning Act, that needs catapulting into hell with extreme prejudice; you can control US-style sprawl without giving NIMBYs a direct veto over everything.

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