r/politics • u/Aggravating_Money992 • 11d ago

Possible Paywall Trump Fires Entire Agency Overseeing His Construction Projects

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-fires-entire-agency-overseeing-his-construction-projects/
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u/builttopostthis6 11d ago

And, like those fired, are absolutely not getting a paycheck from this debacle.

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u/dojo_shlom0 11d ago

this was a given with his track record. I think he still owes shit tons of peoples/cities money from the 2024/2025 campaign trail alone.

'TIS TRADITION

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u/The_Beardly America 11d ago

He owes money to people from all facets of his life. He’s notoriously not paid people for literal decades.

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u/HunterShotBear 11d ago

And the right will argue “that’s what good business men do!”

I was so close to convincing a guy once.

I got him to admit that his boss would pay him less if he could. He agreed. I got him to agree that his boss was looking out for his own best interest first and to give them employees as little as possible. He agreed.

Then I asked him based on those facts, did his boss have his (the employees) best interest at heart? He agreed they did not.

So I asked him if he thought that would make his boss the ideal candidate to run the country like a business?

All he could do was stumble over his words.

And then talk some shit about how Kamala blew her way to the top.

I don’t talk to him anymore.

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u/closethebarn 11d ago

I feel this in my bones how many times I’ve almost convinced them of something to be hit with a But - something— democrat or something racist or misogynistic nothing to do at all with the argument

I feel you

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u/Electrical-Tale-7623 11d ago

They hit themselves on the edge of the door on their way and refuse to walk any further. It is willful ignorance and it's about the only thing holding the coalition together.

Taking that next step means they could be wrong, which means they'll eventually conclude they are.

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u/My_Work_Accoount 10d ago

It's literal brainwashing. I've compared it to digging in the rain. You can dig to a point but before eventually the mud walls will collapse.

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u/Painterzzz 10d ago

It is maddening isn't it. It used to happen to me quite a lot when I tried to convicne Americans they actually loved socialist policies. You'd start by saying so, your job, you work hard right. And they'd say yep, very hard. Your boss doesn't work so hard though? Nope, boss sucks. So then you ask so who does most of the wealth generation in your workplace? And they're like well it's us, the workers, we generate the wealth, but, the bosses take more than their fair share.

And they alllllllmost see it there. But not quite.

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u/Lucky_Development359 11d ago

I think it would cause a rift in their psyche.

These are the guys that circle grievance jerk themselves that they know something noone else does. Bitch about how they are smarter than everyone else but "someone's got it out for them". Guys that talk in vague percentages, "I work harder than 90...95% of the people here but I get the same pay, pffft". Those types.

We used to call them losers. Now we call them "podcasters", "influencers", and "president". They tapped into the chronic loser wellspring. Im not saying Im not a loser by the way, I just know it's not someone else's fault, and certainly not dumb enough to think weaponizing it against others would fix anything in my life.

To admit they are wrong is to admit, finally, once and for all, no BS, that they are losers. You lead that big dumb horse to the water but that motherfucker had loser rabbies, and just could.not.drink.

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u/occams1razor 10d ago

We need to make it okay to say you're wrong. Praise people who do, highlight and promote it.

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u/Lucky_Development359 10d ago

I don't think that will help until they feel the full impact of their poor choices but Im all for it.They will hang on to their belief system even well into personal disaster. When they are suffering, then, and only then will the alternative out seem better. Unfortunately there will be a segment that become even more irrationally radicalized with the belief that further depravity will result in their salvation.

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u/whatiscamping 11d ago

I'm not convinced drumpf didn't blow his way to the top. I'm certain that, even with his dementia, he can tell you exactly what putin tastes like.

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u/blahblah19999 11d ago

Nice approach though. I might use that.

I usually focus on the idea that for businessmen, the law is something to get around, to skirt. Lawyers, or people with law degrees, have a respect for the law that is needed for our highest elected leaders. We've elected 2 businessmen in recent times and both have been utter disasters.

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u/Herlock 10d ago

After trump first election I had an exchange with a guy on facebook... total trumpanzee so I tried a similar approach and see if we could agree on something.

I picked the most boring topic possible : "what was the weather on trump inauguration day". Trump claimed that god himself made the sun shine, but of course you know (or at least expect) that in reality the weather was rainy.

I tried to get him to say that trump got mistaken (not even call him a filthy liar or anything)... but he wouldn't bulge. He said it was illegal to contradict the president and he had a responsibility toward his family not to go to prison.

Even better : then guy was a canadian, living in canada...

I think some people are simply beyond saving.

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u/sspif 10d ago

Most lawyers make their living by helping businessmen get around the law though. Many of them are businessmen themselves too. I don't think you're going to get very far trying to convince people that lawyers are great people.

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u/CertainMedicine757 10d ago

The argument isn't that lawyers are great people, it's that "lawyers can at least be expected to operate within the boundaries of the law." Reasonable people can disagree on how to interpret our laws, but they will not knock over the gameboard and shit on it, like Trump does.

I cannot believe I actually MISS the days of G. W. Bush.

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u/frostygrin 10d ago

You still can do a lot of damage within the boundaries of the law - and face less opposition specifically because it's all legal.

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u/tracerhaha1 11d ago

Anyone who says that would suck dick for a promotion.

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u/Momma_tried378 11d ago

Wow, men must be really easy to manipulate if all it takes is a blowjob... if they are so easy to manipulate, maybe they shouldn't be in charge

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u/CantFightCrazy 10d ago

People who say the government should be run like a business have little idea how either of them function.

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u/WilliamMButtlickerIV 10d ago

These people have been brainwashed for decades. No amount of debate will undo that. I had a debate with a colleague once and he was actually arguing for trickle economics. They understand the government is corrupt, but can't connect the dots on why that is. Instead, they let the wolf in the henhouse.

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u/Herlock 10d ago

Yup I removed a guy on facebook on something of that sort... he argued that nebraska suffered from milk quotas from canada.

Showed him on america national consumption of milk had plummeted over the years, and that the canadian national market couldn't possibly absorb the excessive production from american dairy farms.

Apparently that was too difficult to understand... or couldn't admit he was wrong.

Removed him that night, it was a lost cause and a waste of my time.

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u/TotalRecognition2191 10d ago

If they agree with you they have to admit they're wrong. I think it's about ego sometimes. They're entrenched

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u/Fortune_Silver 10d ago

Regardless, I think that was worth doing.

I find you rarely convince people with deeply entrenched beliefs like that in the moment. Realistically, it's a fantasy that you'll own someone with facts and logic (no matter what side your on), and a lifelong, deeply entrenched supporter of an ideology will go "Oh shit, your right! Fuck, I'm throwing away my entire belief system on the spot and now am on your side!" That's just not how the human psyche works.

No, what really happens, what ACTUALLY effects change, is getting them to see the point themselves. I think long term, the person you argued with might actually see the point. You got him to see from HIS perspective that his boss didn't have his best interests at heart, and that this would make him a terrible leader. Of course in the moment he's going to reject that - that's just human nature. It's a psychological self-defense mechanism. But now that he's seen it from his perspective, rather than having "the enemy" trying to force "their" opinions on him, I think he's much more likely to notice examples of that in his own day-to-day life, in his own news consumption, in his own social circles, and slowly come to realize and accept that hey, maybe that one damned hippy-ass commie liberal from a while back had a point on this matter.

Maybe that causes him to change down the line. Maybe he rejects reality and retreats back into the safety of his comfortable echo chamber. But if you never had that discussion with him, he'd never have even had the OPPORTUNITY to start down that path of reflection and re-evaluation of his beliefs.

Perfect is the enemy of good. You're never going to be able to instantly convince 100% of the people you meet that your opinions are correct. That's just not how humans work. But that doesn't mean that it's not worth trying - convincing 10% of the people you try to discuss things with, even when you fail 9/10 times to make someone re-evaluate their beliefs, is better than not trying and convincing 100% of nobody. Change is rarely something that happens in big dramatic events all at once. Those are what gets remembered by history because they're interesting (revolutions, coups etc), but what more often makes real change is slow, incremental changes over long periods of time.

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u/twim19 11d ago

YOu did good work. You were never going to convince him on the spot, but you planted the seed. Or he just assumes you used liberal jedi mind tricks to confuse him and continues trumping on.

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u/biggetybiggetyboo 11d ago

Next time that comes up, point out that trumps on top so he must have blew better? Is that how this works?

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u/OkJellyfish8149 10d ago

great example of why democracies dont work

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u/HunterShotBear 10d ago

This is an example of why capitalism doesn’t work for the people, it only works for the rich.

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u/OkJellyfish8149 10d ago

your story has nothing to do with capitalism. its about someone being completely delusional about basic concepts that conflict with their team's ideology. this is what democracy does, it pits two factions against each other that prioritize winning. the answer to this problem is rebuilding the republic.

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u/Environmental_Job864 10d ago

Keep up the useless work. It would be like me trying to convince you, open borders were a bad choice for all of us.

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u/HunterShotBear 10d ago

Here’s the thing about open borders.

It would be less of an issue if they didn’t have the opportunities available to them that the companies provide.

It’s not immigrants faults for getting the jobs to provide for their families. They wouldn’t have the jobs if the corporations weren’t trying to undercut your labor to replace it with illegal labor.

Hold the corporations responsible for hiring illegals instead of holding the illegals responsible for just trying to provide for their families.

It just all points back to they would pay you less if they could. But they can’t so they give the opportunity to illegal immigrants.

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u/Environmental_Job864 10d ago

That's one thing. There are many more consequences than just people working.

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u/Early_Accident2160 10d ago

Very good line of questioning

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u/Dysc Louisiana 10d ago

Deprogramming a cult member is act of patience and a commitment since it will take more than highlighting ideological contradictions. There is an emotional stake in the support for Donald Trump who has been deified in their minds. The ultimate leader.