It's more about hoping the cult breaks down and won't be unified anymore. Maybe vance can't jedi mind trick people the same way or something? Republican party fractures, rfk jr becomes totally irrelevant, etc.

But yes long terms the problems are still there, the hope is for some kind of respite, force the fascist elements to retreat, and democracy fashions some tools to defend itself better moving forward.

But yeah idk i really hope all the epstein stuff can come out, for example -- more witnesses come forward, actual accountability and jail time for the perps involved -- but it would not be a huge surprise if none of that ever happens

In terms of hitler, if he had died in the war or something, maybe France would have gone full fascist genocide. France was really a leader of antisemitism much more so than Germany before hitler rose to power. But of course, those are the kinds of hypotheticals that can only have absurd answers.

Yes.

Trump is the symptom, not the disease.

Its obvious the big big money players are driving his agenda.

They are daring the poor people to fight for their existence.

PS: re: Hitler. Go back in time. Take meth and cash. Find hitler. Get him on meth, buy enough art to get him notoriety, teach him punk music, let punk music advance egalitarian freedom and anarchy, so fascism has harder time gaining traction.

Perversely, the "great men" view of history that prompts us to want to kill baby hitler is an authoritarian one.

Authoritarian leaders often adopt the narrative that they are special saviors uniquely equipped to fix the problems of the world. The much less romantic truth is that even if we could trust someone with that kind of power, the problems that plague our world are too big to be solved by a single person, no matter how well-intentioned or capable that person may be.

I mean, of course, then again uniting under a single banner/man does make the faction stronger, under him they simply can't make any mistake, someone else would have a harder time getting away with the same things.

This does not take anything away from how evil they are and how they still exist and will after him

Yes and no. You're certainly right, most of Trump's popularity comes from Russian propaganda, and far more institutional issues like underfunded education, the blind eye to the Southern states after the Civil War, leftover Red Scare paranoia, and rampant lobbying.

That being said, using the disease metaphor, I think of Trump as more of a "complication" than a "symptom". Something that's drastically exacerbated a problem that was already there. Every other politician, even ones as corrupt and self-serving and dictatorial as him, all have to play the PR game and dress their rancid fantasies up as something that would benefit the public. Trump meanwhile, can transparently go back on every single promise, back stab his every last ally, out himself as perhaps the most prolific paedophile in human history, and order his fans into a street militia, and somehow, his supporters just accept it as part of his "brand".

The US was probably always going in this direction, but I still think it wouldn't have got here half as fast, maybe not even a third of the speed Trump's been disassembling it without him. I don't really know why Trump's popularity was never affected by his vile actions until this year - they would sink any other public figure. Maybe it's the right wing press playing defense for him at every turn, maybe it was his "joke candidate" status he earned back in 2015, maybe it's his history in the public spotlight. Whatever it is, far right politicians around the world have tried to replicate what Trump has, and they've all failed. Because of that, I still think that the Big Beautiful Obituary will be well worth celebrating!

I kind of agree with you, but his death will still be celebrated. When you get a mosquito it won't significantly change how many bites you get at the end of the day but it still feels fuckin great

You have to take small victories while understanding the bigger picture. It will still be glorious, although I am saving up cheap 100 proof vodka as the asshat does not deserve good booze or my money in buying said booze. I might add a champagne if it's less than 20 bucks.

Ok, but what if it really is him? I mean if we're assigning moral blame then you're right: many, many people are responsible. But negative outcomes for evil beliefs aren't a given. What if people are always just this stupid, and it took a certain person with certain traits to bring this out of them? Did people change, or were they just latently stupid but mostly harmless this entire time? Things were going pretty well for a while there, so what if we were teetering on the edge that whole time?

His death might also give some of the smarter fascists an off-ramp, which could reduce their critical mass. I'm NOT saying they deserve an off-ramp, but if it means society starts heading in the right direction again, maybe it's worth it. We'd all prefer to excise the tumor completely, but sometimes that seems impossible. Remission would still be a blessing.

I guess what I'm saying is, let's not be too cynical while we're celebrating this person's death.