this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2024
297 points (95.7% liked)

politics

19090 readers
4467 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

As GOP leaders get in line, the outlook for democracy looks grim—in Ukraine, and even in America.

In 2016, Republicans could profess some uncertainty about the kind of president Donald Trump would be. Maybe the office would change the man? Maybe the party elite could bend Trump to its will?

But in 2024, there’s no uncertainty. Trump’s party is signing up for the ride, knowing exactly what the ride is. Pro-Ukraine senators are working to elect a president who will cut off Ukraine, knowing that he will cut off Ukraine. Pro-NATO senators are working to elect a president who will wreck NATO, knowing that he will wreck NATO.

Many top Republicans have been hoping for a way out of their Trump dilemma. That’s why Nikki Haley has raised tens of millions of dollars and Ron DeSantis has raised hundreds of millions. It’s why, even now, more than half of the Republican senators have not endorsed a primary candidate. And that’s why so many conservatives get twitchy when told that the 2024 presidential race is already a binary choice between Trump and Joe Biden. It’s also why the lopsided nomination contest will continue its fictional progress for some while longer.

But the exits are blocked. The many criminal and civil legal processes against Trump were too slow to rescue his party from him. The thesis that Trump might be disqualified under the Fourteenth Amendment awaits a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Republican contest will be over within weeks.

Non-paywall link

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] SpezCanLigmaBalls@lemmy.world 60 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Have y'all heard about Trump being the antichrist? I'm not religious but it's eery how closely it matches up. So many specifics that can't just be made up.

Here's a link if you're curious - https://www.benjaminlcorey.com/could-american-evangelicals-spot-the-antichrist-heres-the-biblical-predictions/

[–] nickhammes@lemmy.world 51 points 9 months ago (10 children)

Revelations was written down a few decades after Nero's famously-poor rule of the Roman Empire, and there had been plenty of poor leaders in living memory. There have been plenty of boastful liars who gained power in history, and so many of them have had similar comparisons drawn.

And the antichrist characteristics they describe are a selection of the ones he fits, without including those he doesn't. He hasn't (pretended to) come back from the dead, and isn't connected obviously to the number 666, for example.

That he fits into some of the classic descriptions of dangerously bad leaders doesn't seem eerie to me, but unsurprising. He's a classic con man.

[–] thefactremains@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago

The 666 connection isn't far off

[–] Kellamity@sh.itjust.works 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

And the antichrist characteristics they describe are a selection of the ones he fits, without including those he doesn't. He hasn't (pretended to) come back from the dead, and isn't connected obviously to the number 666, for example.

The article actually specifically mentions both coming back from the dead (Covid) and 666 (Kushner).

Dont get me wrong, I'm not saying they aren't tenuous and I'm 100% not saying he is the literal antichrist. But its not accurate to say they dont include that stuff

[–] nickhammes@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

Oh you're totally right, but yeah it is still cherry picked, and some of the connections are tenuous at best

[–] Anbalsilfer@lemm.ee 6 points 9 months ago (2 children)

No president has ever won an election to become president again after losing once. This is about as close to political resurrection as one can imagine.

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 13 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] Anbalsilfer@lemm.ee 3 points 9 months ago

I stand corrected. Thanks.

[–] TwentySeven@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

What about Grover Cleveland?

[–] Anbalsilfer@lemm.ee 1 points 9 months ago

I did not know about him. I stand corrected.

[–] prole@sh.itjust.works 6 points 9 months ago

He's an archetype.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I always heard that '666' was code for the Romans, because DCLXVI uses all the Roman numerals

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Not according to these scholars.

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 3 points 9 months ago

The Revd Professor David Parker, Professor of New Testament Textual Criticism and Palaeography at the University of Birmingham, said on Tuesday that the possibility that the sign of the Beast was 616, not 666, was considered by Irenaeus in the second century, but he rejected it.

Referring to the newly examined text he said: “This adds weight to those who believe that it is a reference to Caligula’s attempt to desecrate the Temple in Jerusalem, by having his statue erected there as part of the cult of emperor worship.

“There may be a reference to it in Mark [13.14], where he refers to the ‘the abomination of desolation’. But this was overlaid by the Neronian persecutions. People believed that you could get from ‘666’ to Nero because in Greek he is the emperor Neron Caesar. And 666 is one number less than the perfect 777.

“The text is quite legible to the naked eye. It was published in 1999, but it has taken people time to catch up,” he said. www.papyrology.ox.ac.uk

The article says it's a possibility, not a proven fact.

[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

isn’t connected obviously to the number 666, for example.

Yes he is, specifically 666 Fifth Avenue

[–] IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

“Papyrus 115 (which is the oldest preserved manuscript of the Revelation as of 2017), as well as other ancient sources like Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus, give the number of the beast as χιϛ or χιϲ, transliterable in Arabic numerals as 616 (χιϛ), not 666”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_the_beast

[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Who do you expect me to believe? Some old piece of paper or Iron Maiden?

[–] agitatedpotato@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

Bruce Dickinson knows how to fly planes, can the bible fly planes? I think not.

[–] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 3 points 9 months ago

I’m sure if I divide the numbers of bottles of tanner he uses on his face by the number 45, and multiple it by 13… it would end up 666! CHECKMATE… somebody.

[–] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 2 points 9 months ago

Just watch Trump have a heart attack and be brought back after being dead for 2 minutes at 6pm on June 6th.

[–] CitizenKong@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

He did survive COVID.

[–] style99@kbin.social 7 points 9 months ago

Trump is too stupid to be anything but a failure and a pathetic bully. He's obviously poison, and cynical morons who vote for him want that.

[–] KingJalopy@lemm.ee 7 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Wtf. Did I just become Christian??

Seriously though, that's almost too on the nose. If I believed in that stuff I'd be scared to death of this guy. I mean I am scared of him, but not because of this but it's fucking eerie how close all of that fits.

[–] meowMix2525@lemm.ee 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

If I believed in that stuff I'd be scared to death of this guy.

Counterpoint: evangelicals do believe he's the antichrist and actually want him to bring on the end times in order to trigger the rapture so they can check out early and reunite with all the dead believers "in the clouds, to meet the lord in the air"

They're an accelerationist death cult, and their scheme only works if we all go down with them. They know how bad trump is, they know he fits the bill as their antichrist, and they're gambling our entire planet and life as we know it on their little fairytale stories. Not to mention all the non-believers that even within the evangelical belief system would just be fucking smited I guess or go on living in the apocalypse if their rApTuRe were to ever happen.

[–] Alto@kbin.social 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's very similar with the climate. There's that certain subset of religious accelerationist zealots who are well aware as to what's happening with the climate and want it to happen, because that'll bring back Jesus or something. Just ignore that those same people would end up lynching Jesus for being brown.

[–] meowMix2525@lemm.ee 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Yep, that's what I was trying to touch on with the "gambling our entire planet" bit.

Anyways, I'm calling it now. The rapture is going to be nuclear holocaust and their "uniting with dead believers and the lord" is just going to be everyone on the planet fucking dying and receiving whatever final judgement they believe in.

At least that's what I imagine some dude in a desert 2000 years ago, who thought he was receiving divine images and words from god, that were actually just regular old premonitions of a Donald Trump-like figure bringing in the end-times via some sudden catastrophic event, could only comprehend as a divine culling. I also imagine that if quantum physics and wormhole theory have any merit in this discussion, the energy spent by a nuclear holocaust and subsequent death of humanity could conceivably send those visions/experiences back in time to that dude 2000 years ago. I'm not a physicist or anything though, so I suppose my guess is as good as the fundies' lol

[–] sneezycat@sopuli.xyz 7 points 9 months ago

I mean, it's an interpretation, so part of it is what the author thinks. For example, "he was bent on conquering", but the author says he's competitive and likes to win.

Personally I'd say a conqueror would have more to do with invading other countries, but maybe that doesn't fit Trump as well. Or does it..?

[–] Crikeste@lemm.ee 1 points 9 months ago

Don’t for one second give credibility to Christianity. Every word in those god forsaken books can be twisted and turned to fit whatever narrative you want them to.

[–] PeepinGoodArgs@reddthat.com 2 points 9 months ago

I guess I believe in the real god now? Wtf!

load more comments
view more: next ›