To think that now is the time for powerful voices to speak up…

I said trump seems 'a little more dignified' than he was before and I gave a reason. And you didn't read what I said and went straight to telling me I was an idiot and hadn't seen his speeches and all the crazy things he has said.....

And I think that proves my point.

David Lammy called me a dinosaur, hoarding rights. Keir starmer told me I shouldn't say only women have a cervix. I get safeguarding training on how to spot FGM, forced marriages, how to spot CSA, but heaven forbid anyone should even mention grooming gangs.

Should I vote for them anyway? Despite the contempt they have for me?

I said trump seems 'a little more dignified' than he was before and I gave a reason. And you didn't read what I said and went straight to telling me I was an idiot and hadn't seen his speeches and all the crazy things he has said.....

And I think that proves my point.

David Lammy called me a dinosaur, hoarding rights. Keir starmer told me I shouldn't say only women have a cervix. I get safeguarding training on how to spot FGM, forced marriages, how to spot CSA, but heaven forbid anyone should even mention grooming gangs.

Should I vote for them anyway? Despite the contempt they have for me?

I saw some very dangerous and absolutely crazy ideologies take hold in education - I work in a school. I was given lesson plans showing that if girls wanted to cut their hair they were boys, and that George Floyd was murdered because he was black. Noone said a word when kids started to come into school wearing cat ears and pony tails, and despite there being readily available evidence that Iamne Khalif was a man he was still being reported by the BBC as a woman, and a marginalised one at that.

I blundered quite unsuspectingly into a conversation on Gaza - no expert am I, but I was amazed at how people were angrily and vehemently calling me a Nazi at the same time as supporting people who kidnapped and murdered Israelis. Honestly, it was baffling to me.

And we aren't chained to the BBC or the guardian or even the times or the mail now for information on which to form our opinions. I read, and listened, and frankly I think they are all a bunch of liars. I have faith and confidence in a very few independent journalists and commentators. They inform, present evidence, listen and consider, they don't align strongly with a tribe, they are respectful to people with opposite views and challenge those who they do agree with.

People change their minds when given decent arguments that hold water after respectful debate, they change their minds when given evidence and facts, and I see a lot of lying, obverscation and downright bullying from people I previously aligned with.

The same as millions of others, I will bet.

You want the pendulum to start swinging back the other way? Bloody well listen. Don't call me an idiot. Even if I didn't have an elevated IQ, I won't be won over by people telling me I am stupid and I should shit up and just think and do what they tell me.

Did I say they were? No. It’s not my fault you don’t understand the nuances of history.

Did I say they were? No. It’s not my fault you don’t understand the nuances of history.

The "far left" were not in power 5-6 years ago. Wtf are you on?

The working class thought they’d be saved and they haven’t. We are facing huge squeezes on living costs, on top of: job freezes, redundancies, wage stagnation, etc. People don’t feel heard

Like the 1930s. Facism wasn’t the answer then and it isn’t now.

@ThenUm he seems to have listened and learnt. He's a bit more dignified. I think he sees his political comeback as vindication and old Trump may have gloated, but this Trump is a bit more humble.

He takes so much criticism and ridicule and contempt on the chin, but I think because he is confident of public support behind him, and the comedians and actors and pop stars who take aim are out of touch with the real lives of the voters. He's done something amazing, whatever you think of his politics, and he's gracious in his victory.

And no matter how much anyone disagrees and voiced their feelings, the people voted for him. Do you agree with democracy or not? Or do you think only people who pass some kind of IQ test should be able to vote?

@ThenUm he seems to have listened and learnt. He's a bit more dignified. I think he sees his political comeback as vindication and old Trump may have gloated, but this Trump is a bit more humble.

He takes so much criticism and ridicule and contempt on the chin, but I think because he is confident of public support behind him, and the comedians and actors and pop stars who take aim are out of touch with the real lives of the voters. He's done something amazing, whatever you think of his politics, and he's gracious in his victory.

And no matter how much anyone disagrees and voiced their feelings, the people voted for him. Do you agree with democracy or not? Or do you think only people who pass some kind of IQ test should be able to vote?

Meh. The west have been moving to populism for quite some time. The issue is people haven’t spoken up and in fact tried to shut people down. The far left really need to look in the mirror there. No good hand wringing now. The damage is done. Not addressing people’s concerns around immigration, wealth, tax, jobs, etc, etc. People have moved to populism and people who think they will ‘hear them.’ It happening here in the UK and across Europe. We aren’t far behind voting in populist leaders. Especially with the car crash that is Labour. They aren’t the answer people hoped for.

People try to shut it down shouting racist, far right etc and it just fuels it further. It almost seems unstoppable now. The time to speak and listen was at least 5/6 years ago.

The working class thought they’d be saved and they haven’t. We are facing huge squeezes on living costs, on top of: job freezes, redundancies, wage stagnation, etc. People don’t feel heard

Like the 1930s. Facism wasn’t the answer then and it isn’t now.

Yes I cant work this bit out. I am hoping it is a sign of lots of stuff happening behind closed doors.

@ThenUm he seems to have listened and learnt. He's a bit more dignified. I think he sees his political comeback as vindication and old Trump may have gloated, but this Trump is a bit more humble.

He takes so much criticism and ridicule and contempt on the chin, but I think because he is confident of public support behind him, and the comedians and actors and pop stars who take aim are out of touch with the real lives of the voters. He's done something amazing, whatever you think of his politics, and he's gracious in his victory.

And no matter how much anyone disagrees and voiced their feelings, the people voted for him. Do you agree with democracy or not? Or do you think only people who pass some kind of IQ test should be able to vote?

You think Trump and MAGA aren’t idiots and liars? And is there really a hard left in America? The Democrats are as soft left as they come -- more like our Tory party.

Sure, the left needs to dump the excesses of gender politics and so on. But none of that was in the wider public sphere in 2016, and Trump was still a mendacious thick liar then. He hasn’t improved in the intervening years.

Musk was on Twitter/X today telling a genuine NASA astronaut some total bollocks about how he had offered to send up SpaceX spaceships to rescue astronauts at the International Space Station, and Biden had refused. SpaceX can’t even get a rocket out of the atmosphere without it blowing up. That’s the level of total, absolute, ketamine-fuelled, copper-bottomed delusion that’s going on at the top of American politics. (Last month the man was caught pretending he was a top scorer in a computer game he hired other people to play for him.) The level of absolute delusion and batshittery is, if you’ll pardon the pun, out of this world. And this is who is running amok “advising” Trump, the man who thought you could cure Covid by injecting bleach into your lungs.

@ThenUm he seems to have listened and learnt. He's a bit more dignified. I think he sees his political comeback as vindication and old Trump may have gloated, but this Trump is a bit more humble.

He takes so much criticism and ridicule and contempt on the chin, but I think because he is confident of public support behind him, and the comedians and actors and pop stars who take aim are out of touch with the real lives of the voters. He's done something amazing, whatever you think of his politics, and he's gracious in his victory.

And no matter how much anyone disagrees and voiced their feelings, the people voted for him. Do you agree with democracy or not? Or do you think only people who pass some kind of IQ test should be able to vote?

Trump is just withdrawing the US from (expensive) stuff that he doesn't think they should be involved in. Totally fair enough. Every other country in the World can step in to fill the void if they want to.

I'm in the US and the dead silence from every Democrat but Bernie and AOC has been notable and dishesrtening. The moderate Republicans too. They're all MIA.

Bearing in mind the minute someone writes on here about their parent behaving uncharacteristically, many MNetters immediately say 'he/she may have dementia', I'm really surprised that no one has suggested this about Trump. After all, when you look at how Joe Biden went downhill, and Trump is only 4 years younger, and talking the amount of shit that it does, it certainly makes me wonder whether he's lost his marbles.