Is America under Trump having its own Cultural Revolution moment?

One thing that's clear right now is that America has lost the trust of the rest of world.

In terms of permanent consequences @logicisall, I think Europe will become more self sufficient and innovative as the US becomes more erratic and unreliable.

I can see the end to the Two Party System. I don't think the Republican Party will survive Trump's administration. I'm not sure The Constitution will survive in tact either.

I have no doubt that we will be living alongside a stronger Russia and more emboldened Putin.

While I'm not happy about the sudden apparent affection for Putin, President Trump's changes at home make a lot of sense.

Forget Air Traffic Controllers. The democrats have been pushing that nonsense from the start. They tried to say that plane crash was caused by sacking ATCs when the only people let go were people who served on a policy board and they hadn't even gone yet. They had heard about honesty and integrity, but were having none of it.

When challenged they couldn't name one ATC who was fired or threatened with firing.

Trump has been removing illegal immigrants. Well within his right as president. The word illegal should be a clue.

He is rooting out waste and corruption because his country is in an insane amount of debt and that has caused a lot of criticism and resistance from those lining their pockets. Of course they are sad and angry.

When someone fights to stop people checking the books in a government office you know what they are don't you.

He is pulling back from paying the bills for other countries. Again this is his right. It's like an ordinary family in debt cancelling donations and extras like Netflix so they can pay the mortgage.

He has declared that women and girls have rights and that has pissed off a lot of men, but surely no one here thinks that is a bad thing?

And of course he has put a stop to drugging and operating on children to meet the demands of what is either an ideology, a mental illness or a fetish depending on your point of view, but whichever it is defending kids counts as a good thing in my book.

There are claims he has been curbing free speech. I've not seen a rational attempt yet to demonstrate that. Unless they are referring to the right to tell toddlers about anal sex.

He has apparently signed an executive order ending censorship imposed on online platforms. Presumably those worried about Free Speech are cheering that? right...?

I'm uneasy about his plans for other countries but I note that he threatened to impose tariffs to discourage his own people buying from Canada and Mexico unless they acted to stop people crossing their border into the US and that worked.

Perhaps some of his other statements were also a way to push people in the right direction. We'll have to see.

I agree that none of it makes sense and i cant see any national goal for the USA, that's why I wouldn't categorise it as a revolution. It just looks like a massive power grab for the sake of it.

More Putin than Mao.

And now Republicans are told to stop holding townhall meetings. They've been unpopular in deep red states and they won't go meet their constituents... democracy indeed...
https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/03/04/congress/gop-town-halls-richard-hudson-00210024

There's a lot going on in the world and Trump seems to be aligning America with countries like Russia.

It's odd because much of what's happening today is the result of American foreign policy. Gaza, Syria, Ukraine, Iran, Israel, and now they are pulling the plug and leaving it to rest of the world to sort out....

Back home he's curbing free speech, attacking his loyal allies and threatening to incorporate Canada and Greenland into the American flag.

He's using Americas tech giants to do things like renaming the Gulf Of Mexico and attacking media outlets that refuse to adopt it.

This is facism plain and simple and you could call it a cultural revolution but that's being too polite.

Thanks for the article @logicisall. It's really interesting to read something outside the "western" perspective.

I am not at all surprised Trump is emulating Xi Jinping.😣

‘Indeed’

I think many presidents did a lot of shady stuff that the media chose to ignore. Look at Obamas uranium one scandal involving Putin or operation fast and furious involving the Mexican cartels. The media could have written a million articles about global destabilisation but said nothing. I don’t think we need to start panicking just because mainstream news decides it’s losing subscribers

I really hope it might rouse Europe to work towards economically being more active (rather than militarily). Trying to boycott the US (or China, or Russia) is just impossible. Why is there not a credible European web browser, or payment system (Mastercard,Visa,PayPal, Applepay). Why are we going back to fossil fuels and nuclear when renewable IS the long term solution. what ARE we doing? Why can’t we work together to get these things sorted? Now is the time. Not to bear arms. Every successful change comes from economic change, not war.

Lovinghare claims not to have time to do the research needed to even form an opinion. Yet lovinghare seems to have a enough time to post AI nonsense on multiple threads.

Bad hare day!

It literally is. I thought the same and….

Please report. I have.

This is AI.

Ha this is so ChatGPT

@LovingHare can I ask if AI helped write that? Do you have a personal view?

The article gave a very neutralised picture of Trump's role in this. The 5 people who talked to the NYT clearly want Musk out (don't blame them) or reduced to the role of a big donor/corrupt beneficiary of the regime, rather than having any executive power, but aren't going to say explicitly 'Trump put Musk in and now is just spouting whatever comes into his head and it's chaos' but the remarks ascribed to Trump don't make much sense.

If the Cultural Revolution is seen as a societal disaster caused by a dictator who wanted personal adoration and to revenge himself on potential rivals, then yes, the Trump Leap Forward looks remarkably similar. Soon to be marked by millions of spontaneously cheering MAGA people waving copies of The Art Of The Deal in unison no doubt.

I couldn't read the article as it cuts off after the title for me @logicisall.

Watching America is like watching a friend's descent into drug addiction. Some things will change beyond repair but it isn't any sort of revolution. Cultural or otherwise. Just chaos and destruction.

It IS a clusterfuck!

Is it true that Elon Musk is taking a lot of Ketamine? It would explain a lot.

What Ketamine Does to the Human Brain - The Atlantic

In fact, Musk got hit quite hard at last Thursday's Trump Cabinet meeting, when the outcome was that DOGE did not outweigh secretaries of state. I don't pretend to understand the internecine bits of US governance now, but it sounds like a clusterf*ck.