What's your thoughts on Trump?

[Zenith]

I didn't get the time to read all of your replies, but I'd thought it might be useful to share my own opinion now anyway (I'll read the rest later),

1. Despite the many things Trump did, I don't consider him a racist, a xenophobe, etc.
He's a man of "business" whose sole responsibility - in order to survive in business - is to sale dreams to people (like a guy appearing on TV telling you how you NEED to but the newest shampoo because it'll make your life perfect). I believe that he made use of people's prejudices and fears to bring shock and surprise, and thus to propel him politically. It's like a play in a theater: the actor must surprise the audience with something new, something different, even shock them with smth nobody could've seen coming, while the voters are simply people coming for entertainment. That's the way it goes in theater, that's how it goes with sales & marketing, that's what people want. I also noticed how he said everything different (that is, even the complete opposite) of what everyone else said, and that I believe, brought him votes. I don't believe he meant much of what he said, they were only for the effect.

2. I also believe Trump took advantage of the terrorist attacks that happened this year. That is, people were afraid for their lives, their safety, and that can unleash the "fight or flight" mechanism, which you could translate as a form of xenophobia. The Left (Hillary, Obama, etc.) didn't come soothing the people with "everything's gonna be alright! we have it all under control"  -- though solving this is terribly complicated. Trump instead took advantage of the public fear and assured all that he would "remove" the terrorist threat. Now whether his method would be effective, or even possible to apply, or would only make things far worse than they are now, that's a totally different matter.

3. I am completely surprised of the fact that Americans (I hear) tend to complain that lobbyists control the government (i.e. the government works for corporates and for very rich people, not for common citizens), but they decide to put as president a lobbyist - a very rich person who most surely shaped USA laws to benefit his own business. I mean, if this election was a rage of the common citizen ("labor" people) against the "rich" people, it is very odd that they put their faith in a very rich person to save them. By the way, this whole struggle of the "labor" people against the rich people (aristocracy?) sounds very much like a communist slogan.

4. I keep thinking at this as a symbol for what kind of Hero people seem to cry out for:




We can all agree that no man from the real world can be a hero like Arnold Scharzeneger in Commando. Also, anybody remember Chuck Noris? The ide is the same: A guy who comes all alone to fight against most powerful and evil forces, and by his own might, brightness, and courage does everything that no real human can hope to achieve: Beat all enemies without getting any hit, and bring peace, prosperity, and justice to the common folk.

What frightens me the most is that this is how Hitler was being perceived by those who trusted in him. And IMO it wasn't, as it is simplest to imagine (and irresponsible, perhaps), that Hitler was the evil genius and the german people innocent believers, but rather it was people who craved for a hero to come and save them all from their miserable lives, caused by the perceived evil enemy (which was, all the rest). It was the people who needed a hero - a Hero like Chuck Noris or Arnold in Commando, in movies - it was they who brought the deaths and suffering of so many innocents. And that means, that even today, it would not be a diabolial Hitler-like person the cause of great suffering, but people like us (american, europeans, russians, etc.) - people who crave for a hero to save them and bring to them a perfect happy life.

And I believe Trump managed to sell himself as the Long-awaited Hero from the old books of prophecies (anybody reading/watching fiction?) with bold statements and promises that are probably impossible to fulfill. But "Don't worry, just sit back, I'll do the impossible just because I care for you, don't ask me how I'm gonna do that!" is what such a fairytale prophecied Hero would tell.

5. I don't fear that Trump would start WW3.
Instead, I believe his inaction might allow Putin's Russia to invade Europe, and that later could be the cause of WW3. I fear that countries such as Poland or Romania may suffer the same fate as Ukraine, while Trump's USA would do nothing about it, just let it happen. If I remember well, USA won the Vietnam war, until they decided to step back and stay away from "killing people", where the russians pushed forward, so USA finally lost that war.

And again about WW3, I keep thinking about how WW2 started: The cause was not as much a "Hitler invading Poland" but "UK and France doing nothing while Germany broke all rules and expanded." And that's how I fear WW3 might start, by Trump's USA doing nothing while Putin's Russia breaks rules and expands its influence and power. It might not be Trump deciding to launch nukes at Russia, but Trump's Russia struggling to fend for itself in the very last hour.

6. Finally, I believe Trump's election, along with UK's Brexit, proved to a lot of people (me among them), that Democracy is all fucked up (I'll open a new thread for this, to explain).