To think that the USA is a dictatorship now?

This administration and the writers of Project 2025 pushing their ideology in the background are most definitely not women's rights advocates.

Defending the rights of Jewish students is obviously justified; using those incidents to put political pressure on institutions they don't like and impose a sweeping anti-diversity agenda, not so fine.

Yeah, that was shocking. I do think academia in the US and in the UK has become very, very unpleasant when it comes to antisemitism. And women’s rights - though in that case, in a relatively narrow way.

or calling for censure of / penalties against universities that allow free protest shows it’s only “Free Speech” when they agree with what is being said.

Peaceful protests would have been fine. When they give rise to violence and harassment of Jewish students, it because a violation of Title V of the Civil Rights act and was quite rightly investigated and dealt with. Jewish students have rights too.

www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-probes-cases-of-antisemitism-five-universities

CRT in schools has been a hot-potato topic for a few years now. Give it a quick Google.

The Democrats failed to stop some of the more out-there craziness, like trans women being allowed to compete in women's sports, and extreme radical-left activists have driven a lot of people crazy in the ways I mentioned. It's my theory that these societal influences have pushed many people to the right, and that they voted for Trump hoping he would put a stop to what he could. JMO.

No it is not a dictatorship

the recent visit of Putin and the response from many in the press and the people showing their objection to Putin being there would not happen under a dictatorship

hut Trump certainly tries to rule like a dictator and is damaging the country but the laws and foundations of the country thankfully hold him back to some degree

My theory is that the Dems’ campaign was rubbish and, as part of that, celebrity endorsements turned off far more people than they attracted. Who wants to be told how to vote by rich singers and Hollywood show-offs?

I suspect the number of committed MAGAs is far lower than the noise they make would suggest. Which makes me think that Trump was voted in - for the second and last possible time - by a mass of ordinary people who didn’t like being deceived about Biden’s senility and didn’t like being lectured by pop minstrels and luvvies.

Which schools are teaching that all white people are racist?

Which cancellations and what radical left? The main parties are mot remotely left wing.

@spoonbillstretford OP, when you say what the hell have you done to yourselves and what were you thinking, only about a third of the electorate voted for him. Just one third.

63.9% of the electorate turned out to vote.
Trump got 49.8% of the votes.
Kamala got 48.3%.

It was very close indeed. And to put it another way, two-thirds of the electorate did not vote for Trump.

Source: https://www.cfr.org/article/2024-election-numbers

Personally, I think people were driven crazy by the extreme, radical left, letting men infiltrate women's sports and teaching critical race theory in schools (which basically says that all white people are necessarily racist), and the whole pronouns thing and all the "cancellations." I think the radical left extremists went too far and it pushed people to the right. Just my theory.

Americans going on about Free Speech when their president is banning news outlets from
the white house for not supporting his “Gulf of America” nonsense, or calling for censure of / penalties against universities that allow free protest shows it’s only “Free Speech” when they agree with what is being said.

It seems all the MAGA drones have to offer is the same old DARVO whataboutery.

For me. I'll agree that saying the 2020 election was stolen was completely wrong. He should have accepted he lost and they campaigned for 4 years and then won in 2024

1. The fact that you think there no form of legal frameworks, property rights or administrative structures is a failure of your education. Clearly they would not be identical to the systems in Britain but that does not mean they did not exist.

2. Yes the British built railways in India but they did not do that out of the kindness of their hearts or for the benefit of Indian people (all the better for the transport of and export of India’s natural resources.)

As for economic development (is this a positive or negative correlation?)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/EconomyofIndia

From the beginning of the 19th century, the British East India Company's gradual expansion and consolidation of power brought a major change in taxation and agricultural policies, which tended to promote commercialisation of agriculture with a focus on trade, resulting in decreased production of food crops, mass impoverishment and destitution of farmers, and in the short term, led to numerous famines.[134] The economic policies of the British Raj caused a severe decline in the handicrafts and handloom sectors, due to reduced demand and dipping employment.[135]After the removal of international restrictions by the Charter of 1813, Indian trade expanded substantially with steady growth.[136] The result was a significant transfer of capital from India to Britain, which, due to the colonial policies of the British, led to a massive drain of revenue rather than any systematic effort at modernisation of the domestic economy.[137] The economy of the Indian subcontinent was the largest in the world for most of recorded history up until the onset of colonialism in early 19th century.[133][138][139]

Under British rule, India's share of the world economy declined from 24.4% in 1700 down to 4.2% in 1950. India's GDP (PPP) per capita was stagnant during the Mughal Empire and began to decline prior to the onset of British rule.[138]India's share of global industrial output declined from 25% in 1750 down to 2% in 1900.[120] At the same time, Britain's share of the world economy rose from 2.9% in 1700 up to 9% in 1870.

It's that Free Speech thing that Americans venerate but which us Brits have apparently lost due to the Starmer jackboot😅 we can't criticise Trump on here as you all have noticed.

Read your history books and take a look at countries with actual dictators.

There are a lot of evil people in this world, including some evil heads of state. Have yet to see a single "evil" thing Trump has done.

Also, he absolutely has a ton of pushback in the USA, not just from all branches of the government, but especially from most media sources. Probably the ones you watch!

Sure, right now the senate and the house are republicans, too...but the people voted for this, and in no way does that make Trump a dictator or the US an authoritarian government. That's not how the country's political system works.

You sound incredibly out of touch with reality. For example, a US president could never just cancel an election.

Your paranoia is extreme. There is really no use in even bothering to write this post, because you don't want to educate yourself, you just want to be hysterical.

I thought of them yes, and it is a terrifying example of how radicalised ideas can cause real life harm, but I was referring to state-mandated killings (Putin style).
Agree on the camps, that is a huge and bright red flag as to how quickly the rule of law is undermined and human rights trampled on.
I was very specifically referring to political opponents. That day may not be far but i don't think it has come yet.

Don't be ridiculous.

Having said that, there are very important hallmarks of hard dictatorships that are NOT seen at this stage such as imprisonment of political opponents or political assassinations.

We have seen political assasinations. Melissa Hortman and her husband were murdered in Minnesota and John Hoffman and his wife were wounded too. It might not have been the administration directly, but their rhetoric has certainly emboldened people.

As for political arrests, when permanent residents with no criminal record were being sent straight on a plane to CECOT, it seemed a logical next step for citizens to be next - if only citizens have due process then no one has due process because it is only through due process that you can establish if someone does indeed hold citizenship. Luckily after a hard fight Kilmar Ábrego García was returned home but had his case not been won I wouldn't put it past the administration to use the same tactics against opponents.

I mean colonial rule introduced elements like legal frameworks, property rights, and administrative structures that facilitated economic development after independence.

The British invested in the railway network in India for example.

In his first term the economy was great and thriving until COVID. He expanded the EITC, cut corporate taxes and the economy grew and US employment was at a record low. Wages grew as well. He had successful foreign policy by defeating ISIS and he negotiated peace in the middle east with the Abraham accords.

It's a symptom of Lost Empire Syndrome.

We may have a useless idiot for a PM, but at least we don't have a rapist paedophile who allowed a mob to storm the Capitol and is crashing the economy.

“I've read many economic studies that suggest a positive correlation between the duration and intensity of colonial rule and current income levels in former colonies.”

Sure you have. (It’s amazing how Britons will laud the choice to leave the EU as they don’t want foreign rule but will champion British foreign rule and other nations and never stop to question why so few talk about colonialism in glowing terms)

(Although as always, correlation and causation are wildly different things.)

Incidentally the quote you posted undermines your NHS point (and I say that as somebody not particularly wedded to the NHS model and who has my own healthcare.)

Is that why wholesale vegetable prices are up 38.9%?

He's very good at lining his own pockets, and those of the other billionaires. No use at helping ordinary people though.

The only serious black mark against the NHS was its poor record on keeping people alive.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jun/17/nhs-health

The quality of care we receive sucks, that's why I'm with BUPA.

I've read many economic studies that suggest a positive correlation between the duration and intensity of colonial rule and current income levels in former colonies.

US gun laws are about freedom and giving people the ability to defend yourself. Gun law repeals simply don't work in the US due to the culture. All it would do is mean people wouldn't be able to defend themselves.