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submitted 2 weeks ago by tonytins@pawb.social to c/news@lemmy.world

After weeks of authoritarian threats to crush protests with the military, cancel elections, conquer foreign countries, and send masked agents door-to-door to round up anyone who can't prove their citizenship, Trump on Wednesday told an already uneasy room full of world leaders that "sometimes you need a dictator."

The offhanded comment came in the middle of a rambling speech at the reception dinner for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, in which Trump congratulated himself on a different rambling speech he'd given earlier that day at the summit.

“We had a good speech, we got great reviews. I can’t believe it, we got good reviews on that speech,” Trump said of the widely mocked address in which he continued to demand the US take over Greenland (which he repeatedly referred to as "Iceland") and made new tariff threats against Canada and Europe if they resist the annexation.

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[-] BillyClark@piefed.social 98 points 2 weeks ago

I see no reason you'd ever want a dictator, but I admit that sometimes, I wish I could unilaterally amend the US Constitution. I'd be able to fix campaign finance, voting methods, gerrymandering, looting the government by the rich, and a whole bunch of other crap all at once.

[-] yakko@feddit.uk 52 points 2 weeks ago

The mythos of Cincinnatus, the idea of a temporary dictator who acts benevolently and then gladly cedes power, has a strong presence in the founding of the US. Washington was regarded as one (his contemporaries were quite surprised when he willingly stepped down, it was felt that after his success in the war of independence he could have easily claimed power). That civic virtue is eminent enough to be the namesake of one of their cities. Pity it's in Ohio, of all places. I probably can't blame Ohio for the decline in American civic virtue, but I wish I could.

[-] zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 12 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Hey I know it's just a funny Internet meme to shit on Ohio, but any time someone does (especially in the current times where we need to find allies more than ever) I feel obligated to remind them that Ohio is actually not a hell hole, it just has backward rednecks in the rural areas, just like any other state with rural areas. Cincinnati is a beautiful city, Ohio is a beautiful state, and a huge chunk of the ~12 million people that live here are in fact not shit people.

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[-] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago

As an American, honestly I feel like anticommunism was a huge factor in the decline of our civic virtue. When you start praising and empowering wealth over mutual benefit you weed the ethical and the dutiful from the leadership pool, both politically and culturally. Many left wing movements of the late 20th and early 21st centuries in America prioritized civic duty separate from the state (left wing) or through it (liberal).

I think the other big damage to it was the American civic religion. The country went from a huge machine we each had to play a part in, built on philosophies that everyone was supposed to understand, to a golden calf. The constitution went from the foundational rules meant to steward us towards the goals stated in the preamble it became a holy text thats name is cited, but its goals are not cherished. People often don't actually think about how what they want fits in to a reasonable interpretation of say, the 4th-8th amendments.

Idk, sometimes I feel massively outnumbered here as someone who takes her civil duties seriously.

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[-] hector@lemmy.today 11 points 2 weeks ago

I think you might be onto something blaming ohio actually.

[-] yakko@feddit.uk 8 points 2 weeks ago

It's a land that God forgot, and it belongs on no map.

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[-] setsubyou@lemmy.world 20 points 2 weeks ago

Dictators are more efficient and agile than democratic governments. That’s why the Romans originally had them. In the early Roman republic dictators were appointed to fix a specific problem and given significant power to do specifically and only that. So for example you could have a “fix gerrymandering dictator” that would be able to sidestep normal processes to fix gerrymandering, and then disappear.

[-] GraniteM@lemmy.world 15 points 2 weeks ago

There's A Robert A. Heinlein book about how and why to be involved in politics called Take Back Your Government. At one point he talks about sharing his concerns that fascism was in fact more efficient than democracy with a person who had escaped Hitler's Germany. The friend asserts that fascism is less efficient, because under fascism, everyone is afraid of the boss, so no one wants to admit when anything isn't going according to plan, so problems pile up. Democracy, on the other hand, expects and encourages constant complaint, so the problems tend to get discovered and fixed sooner than under fascism.

You can see this process taking place right now: everyone is afraid of displeasing boss Trump, and as a result you've got all these clearly fucked up decisions being made while nobody is being honest about how bad of an effect they are going to have. In a functional democracy, representatives would be afraid of the consequences and do something to stem the damage to avoid being tossed out in the next election. In our current reality... we'll see, I guess?

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[-] ClownStatue@piefed.social 90 points 2 weeks ago

All I could think about while watching Carney’s speech, aside from how much I’d forgotten what a real leader sounded like, was what kind of bullshit word salad the orange asshole would belch out of his McDonalds hole.

[-] WanderWisley@lemmy.world 59 points 2 weeks ago

Sometimes you need a massive stroke

-the world says

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[-] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 53 points 2 weeks ago

sometimes you need to aim an inch more to the right.

[-] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 22 points 2 weeks ago

Can we go back in time and trade Charlie Kuck's shooter for the noob that missed Trump?

[-] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 13 points 2 weeks ago

Sometimes you need to buy a cheap optic.

[-] SnarkoPolo@lemmy.world 51 points 2 weeks ago

Some of us said this would happen. You called us "gloom-and-doomers."

[-] NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 32 points 2 weeks ago

I'm particularly fond of the "alarmist" accusations, implying we shouldn't be wholly and completely alarmed.

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[-] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 47 points 2 weeks ago

Sometimes you need a dictator.

Yeah, for target practice.

[-] Tedesche@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago

Target practice? No, my friend, that is the target.

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[-] Lemminary@lemmy.world 42 points 2 weeks ago

Sometimes a country needs a political assassination.

[-] ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online 9 points 2 weeks ago

He had two attempts and both were fools. Seriously, the first guy got too damn close and... used iron sights and cheap target ammo? Also his motive was random violence. He wanted to go on a rampage and start by killing the closest political figure He could find... who just so happened to be Trump who was having a rally nearby. No fucking joke, that was the reason.

Why are assassins often the most unstable nutcase who win through sheer luck instead of actual planning?

[-] TronBronson@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Man that shit was fake anyway. I remember the day it happened my “moderate republican” buddy said. “He’s going to win the election now for sure”

That assassination attempt was just a planned part of the campaign rally.

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[-] genericuser2000@lemmy.world 37 points 2 weeks ago

So this is when the revolt happens right? Surely this is the last straw, right America?

Or is he just joking again? Because words don't matter and he tweets his policy notes.

I'll sit and wait for the spineless Americans to rise up against tyranny, 2a and all the other self-aggrandizing bullshit you bootlickers spew.

[-] ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online 36 points 2 weeks ago

The 2A Americans were only interested in rising up if it was a democrat who wanted to give them free Healthcare and school lunches. Not people would hire them as death camp guards.

[-] genericuser2000@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago
[-] ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world 30 points 2 weeks ago

What are the odds that he tries to invade Iceland as well just because he can't admit that he got the name wrong?

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[-] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 28 points 2 weeks ago

To water the tree of liberty with?

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[-] darkmogool@feddit.org 26 points 2 weeks ago

Sometimes you need assassinations too…

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[-] MousePotatoDoesStuff@lemmy.world 23 points 2 weeks ago

Didn't he help depose a dictator recently?

Ironic.

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[-] Honytawk@feddit.nl 21 points 2 weeks ago

Sometimes you need an assassination as well it seems.

[-] Fedizen@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

I mean it could be as simple as mcdonalds employees in DC coughing on every burger for a while.

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[-] thorhop@sopuli.xyz 21 points 2 weeks ago

Sometimes you need a guy on a grassy knoll.

[-] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 21 points 2 weeks ago

Nobody EVER needs a dictator. That rotten orange shit pile refuses to see that.

[-] Railcar8095@lemmy.world 21 points 2 weeks ago

NRA, remember about rising against dictators?

[-] Sgt_choke_n_stroke@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

The NRA only works in the government when minorities exercise their second amendment right. Look up Ronald regan and the black panther party

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[-] Asafum@lemmy.world 20 points 2 weeks ago

You know what? He's right. We needed a dictator who wouldn't care about political appearances and would have thrown his demented ass into prison like he fucking deserves.

Instead we got Malarkey Joe and the coward of the century Merrick Garland as AG. :/

[-] cecilkorik@lemmy.ca 22 points 2 weeks ago

The problem with leadership is that the ones who most deserve it never seek it, and the ones who most seek it never deserve it

[-] Asafum@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago

"The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.

To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.

To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job."

Spot on lol

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[-] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

A Democrat president would be killed for saying this shit

Edit: just saw this. So fucking embarrassing...

he continued to demand the US take over Greenland (which he repeatedly referred to as "Iceland")

Can't even get the name right of the country he's been convinced he needs to invade

[-] Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 15 points 2 weeks ago

I, (state name of enlistee), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. (So help me God)."

[-] cecilkorik@lemmy.ca 13 points 2 weeks ago

I would like to conduct a poll of the US military to determine exactly how many believe anything Trump has done has ever been constitutional, and at what point they feel they would need to defend the Constitution from him, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like the answer.

[-] deadymouse@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago

I think he should have advised people to read Machiavelli's The Prince.

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[-] wuffah@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago

I heard that the sheer volume of shitty ideas that come out of his mouth means he never even has to poop.

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[-] vga@sopuli.xyz 12 points 2 weeks ago

Perhaps America needs a Purge.

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[-] FreddiesLantern@leminal.space 11 points 2 weeks ago

And sometimes you always don’t.

[-] TheProtagonist@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

“We had a good speech, we got great reviews. I can’t believe it, we got good reviews on that speech,” Trump said of the widely mocked address in which he continued to demand the US take over Greenland (which he repeatedly referred to as “Iceland”) and made new tariff threats against Canada and Europe if they resist the annexation.

Iceland is probably the next country to get taken over due to it's stategically important position for the control of the arctic sea.

[-] E_coli42@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago

Can you imagine how different the world would have been if trump didn't move his head a ¼ of a second earlier

[-] DylanMc6@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 2 weeks ago

We actually don't need a dictator in the United states. Seriously!

[-] OldChicoAle@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Would he say that if Kamala won?

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[-] lechekaflan@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago

The masks are already off. The bastard sees he's in a position bigger than WWE.

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this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2026
620 points (98.3% liked)

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