408
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Hyperrealism@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

W. was the dumbest president the world had ever seen.

Went to Harvard and Yale. First president with an MBA. SAT score was good. His folksy act was just that. An act. He was told to dumb down his language by Karl Rove and others. There are videos of him speaking before he became a presidential nominee, and the difference is obvious.

Relatively intelligent man pretending to be stupid.

And to his credit, it worked. Got elected twice and to this day people are more likely to blame the Iraq war on evil mastermind Cheney. And unlike plenty of supposedly intelligent leaders, he's smart enough to keep a low profile now he's retired.

[-] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 10 points 4 days ago

Relatively intelligent man pretending to be stupid.

You can actually look up footage from when he was Governor of Texas in the 1990s and he was well-spoken and intelligent (despite his saying very little that I agreed with). Did he have an aneurysm prior to the 2000 election? Not very likely, especially when Republicans have been consciously targeting their rhetoric at a fifth-grade reading level for decades.

I don't understand why we're so willing to believe that the people who have completely taken over the United States of America with minimal effort have somehow done this while being literally stupid.

[-] Hyperrealism@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I don’t understand why we’re so willing to believe that the people who have completely taken over the United States of America with minimal effort have somehow done this while being literally stupid.

Overused, but might be Dunning Kruger. Less intelligent people, overestimating their own intelligence, and underestimating that of others. If so, it would explain why the same people who are certain Bush is a moron, are often unwilling to change their minds when presented with evidence to the contrary. That and it feels nice to think you're smarter than other people. Vanity is the Devil's favourite sin.

Not that I like Bush, just want to make that clear.

Also, Trump likely is stupid, from what I can tell. Although I have heard critics say he has or at one point had a measure of cunning, which certainly may be true given he won the presidency twice.

Not that this changes Trump being a dangerous man.

Trump is literally a reality TV star, which means his public persona is sort of loosely based on who he really is but also heavily improvised and scripted at the same time in order to increase his entertainment value. Based on my familiarity with him from before all of this bullshit (in the '80s), he's no genius but he's not especially stupid either. Like a lot of rich people, he doesn't bother being smart because intelligence is of no real use to him.

[-] Hyperrealism@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

He is good at flooding the zone/firehosing/deadcatting. That's for sure.

Not a great way to run a country, not sure if it's always deliberate and/or pathological, but good for ratings and helped get him elected twice.

I do think he has declined mentally since the 80s. He's an old man, doesn't always look well, and appears increasingly erratic. Not a doctor though, so what do I know. I've grown cynical about his supposedly imminent demise, just like I've become cynical about his supposedly imminent jail sentence.

[-] prole 8 points 3 days ago

Were you alive and old enough to remember GWB's term? Or are you going entirely on second hand information?

Because I am, and he was definitely a fucking idiot.

For fuck sake, Donald Trump went to Wharton. It just means they had rich and well connected parents.

[-] Hyperrealism@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Were you alive and old enough to remember GWB’s term? Or are you going entirely on second hand information?

Yes. I was studying political science at the time.

No, I am not going by second hand information. I'm going by how he spoke before Karl Rove told him to dumb it down.

Donald Trump went to Wharton

At least one of Donald Trump's professors has said he's an idiot. Not true for Bush, who scored relatively well on his SATs. IRC John Kerry's transcript scored lower than W Bush's. IRC Bush's air force qualifying test was also relatively high.

To be clear, I'm not saying he's a good president. If anything I'm saying stupidity isn't an excuse for what happened during his tenure.

[-] eugenevdebs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 days ago

Remember when Dubya was the dumbest one?

[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago

Oh look, another plain-speaking “smart” republican that needs interpretation and rationalization to tell us who he really is and what he really means.

Sure man. Canned speeches vs real time. Not even in the same league as Obama. Dude got the job because of the family name and thought it would be an easy ride until reality hit him right in thr nose. Then he got all fundy and stubborn. Know who else graduated from prestigious schools and is president? Yeah, bet you can guess.

[-] Hyperrealism@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Nope. Saw him speaking off the cuff before he was a presidential nominee.

Relatively high SAT score. Score higher on his transcript than John Kerry. IRC scored relatively high on his air force qualifying test too.

He purposely dumbed down his language and it helped him get elected.

As opposed to Donald Trump, where at least one professor has said he's a moron.

To be clear, I'm not saying Bush was a good president. Quite the opposite. If anything him being relatively intelligent makes him more culpable for what happened.

this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2025
408 points (100.0% liked)

Lefty Memes

6269 readers
345 users here now

An international (English speaking) socialist Lemmy community free of the "ML" influence of instances like lemmy.ml and lemmygrad. This is a place for undogmatic shitposting and memes from a progressive, anti-capitalist and truly anti-imperialist perspective, regardless of specific ideology.

Agitprop (I.E. everything that would be more fitting on a poster than a meme) goes here.

Serious posts, news, and discussion go in c/Socialism.

If you are new to socialism, you can ask questions and find resources over on c/Socialism101.

Please don't forget to help keep this community clean by reporting rule violations, updooting good contributions and downdooting those of low-quality!

Rules

Version without spoilers

0. Only post socialist memes


That refers to funny image macros and means that generally videos and screenshots are not allowed. Exceptions include explicitly humorous and short videos, as well as (social media) screenshots depicting a funny situation, joke, or joke picture relating to socialist movements, theory, societal issues, or political opponents. Examples would be the classic case of humorous Tumblr or Twitter posts/threads. (and no, agitprop text does not count as a meme. Please post agitprop here)


0.5 [Provisional Rule] Use alt text or image descriptions to allow greater accessibility


(Please take a look at our wiki page for the guidelines on how to actually write alternative text!)

We require alternative text (from now referred to as "alt text") to be added to all posts/comments containing media, such as images, animated GIFs, videos, audio files, and custom emojis.
EDIT: For files you share in the comments, a simple summary should be enough if they’re too complex.

We are committed to social equity and to reducing barriers of entry, including (digital) communication and culture. It takes each of us only a few moments to make a whole world of content (more) accessible to a bunch of folks.

When alt text is absent, a reminder will be issued. If you don't add the missing alt text within 48 hours, the post will be removed. No hard feelings.


0.5.1 Style tip about abbreviations and short forms


When writing stuff like "lol" and "iirc", it's a good idea to try and replace those with their all caps counterpart

  • ofc => OFC
  • af = AF
  • ok => OK
  • lol => LOL
  • bc => BC
  • bs => BS
  • iirc => IIRC
  • cia => CIA
  • nato => Nato (you don't spell it when talking, right?)
  • usa => USA
  • prc => PRC
  • etc.

Why? Because otherwise (AFAIK), screen readers will try to read them out as actually words instead of spelling them


1. Socialist Unity in the form of mutual respect and good faith interactions is enforced here


Try to keep an open mind, other schools of thought may offer points of view and analyses you haven't considered yet. Also: This is not a place for the Idealism vs. Materialism or rather Anarchism vs. Marxism debate(s), for that please visit c/AnarchismVsMarxism.


2. Anti-Imperialism means recognizing capitalist states like Russia and China as such


That means condemning (their) imperialism, even if it is of the "anti-USA" flavor.


3. No liberalism, (right-wing) revisionism or reactionaries.


That includes so called: Social Democracy, Democratic Socialism, Dengism, Market Socialism, Patriotic Socialism, National Bolshevism, Anarcho-Capitalism etc. . Anti-Socialist people and content have no place here, as well as the variety of "Marxist"-"Leninists" seen on lemmygrad and more specifically GenZedong (actual ML's are welcome as long as they agree to the rules and don't just copy paste/larp about stuff from a hundred years ago).


4. No Bigotry.


The only dangerous minority is the rich.


5. Don't demonize previous and current socialist experiments or (leading) individuals.


We must constructively learn from their mistakes, while acknowledging their achievements and recognizing when they have strayed away from socialist principles.

(if you are reading the rules to apply for modding this community, mention "Mantic Minotaur" when answering question 2)


6. Don't irrationally idolize/glorify previous and current socialist experiments or (leading) individuals.


Notable achievements in all spheres of society were made by various socialist/people's/democratic republics around the world. Mistakes, however, were made as well: bureaucratic castes of parasitic elites - as well as reactionary cults of personality - were established, many things were mismanaged and prejudice and bigotry sometimes replaced internationalism and progressiveness.



  1. Absolutely no posts or comments meant to relativize(/apologize for), advocate, promote or defend:

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS