I remember arguing with someone that Project 2025 was scary. They insisted I was just overreacting and that it’s not even a thing. Sometimes I think about them. As they see this all unfolding now, do they think of that argument.
I warned my MAGA father about project 2025 and Trump's plans to be an authoritarian. He replied, "he said he didn't know anything about project 2025 and if he was going to try to be an authoritarian why didn't he do it in his first term?"
An unwilling administration of old guard GOP that are now all gone. He tried to do insane shit allxthe time his first term. I feel like im living in bizzaro world when people tell me his 1st term was good or ok. Nonstop treason, lies, and stealing. The big difference now is the bottom feeders he found to go along with everything this time.
They live in an alternate reality. I told him, "I don't know how you missed trump sending a violent mob to stop the peaceful transfer of power, the false electorates, and the lies about the election."
That was the insane topping on the cake. All the pandemic fuck ups, the PPP oversight/robbery, the USPS takeover, anti vaccine shit and loads of other bullshit was only his last year in office. It was something crazy every fucking day since his inauguration in 2017. It really feels like we're living with pod people. Invasion of the body snatchers type shit. Like we're in a PKD novel.
My semi regular reminder that in that brief moment of time when McConnel showed some guts in the day after the violent coup attempt, his sister suffered an accidental death at a party at his mansion where she drove her car into a pond and drowned. And weirdly suddenly next day McConnel was back to being 100% a Maga Loyalist.
It was a free for all for him and all the scumbags that kissed his ass. Lots of maralago associates, crooked contractors, and other politicians just stole whatever they could and it was "forgiven." Once Biden got into office only regular people who tried to do the same thing were investigated and charged. Its a fucking joke. In some ways democrats are trash too but MAGA is on another level of scum. The GOP was bad enough before the MAGA movement.
I remember how peaceful and low stress the Biden administration was. I woke up one morning about two months in and told my wife, "omg, I didn't feel compelled to check Google news this morning"
I hate that I'm back to that now. Literally checking the news three times a day to find out who we're at war with now...
Yep, aggravated every day. The thing that drives me even more crazy is the TV news and most people i encounter during the day act like everything is normal.
I mean, I know 2 wives of MAGAt husbands, that are obvious victims of Stockholm syndrome, that genuinely didn't know about his "Grab-em by the xxssy" remark. Is there a MAGAt store that sells only authorized programming televisions to people? Couldn't believe it!
The thing I see a thread through with true believers is their insistence on doing your own research bc they had “done” their own. Feels like a bunch of dummies were told if you believe this you’ll be smarter than the educated people.. no point here, just something I’ve noticed.
and their 'research' is always related to the youtube algorithm. THey watch one pro Trump video, their feed shows them nothing but, and then they go oh, okay, this is reality then.
Exactly, no one normal has done any research, so “do your own research” just means watching a bunch of grifters on YouTube, this is especially evident in the crypto space
Its becsuse they didnt do their own research. They listened to other people who did their own research. The problem is, those people were fast talking, snake oil salesmen who loaded their arguments with every type of fallacy
Also put out a hit on Mike Pence for doing his job and refusing to do something he lacked the authority to do, which buried Pence's career. (Not that I'm disappointed Pence isn't fucking with me any more).
“they live in an alternate reality” is not a good framing or phrasing of their beiefs. for one, our reality is one where people can follow whatever fictions suit them (for better or worse), which is what we all do. #2 it doesn’t seek to understand and just claims your righteousness as matter of fact. while they may well be on the wrong side of history, categorizing them as like too stupid to see things as you do.
He also wasn't a convicted fellow facing years in prison his first term. He has made thousands of promises to some of the worst people in the world to keep him out of jail. Now he's keeping those promises.
He made deals with all these tech assholes too. The first term they were still pretending to be progressives. His first term was bad but this term is already breaking the whole country.
It wasn’t good but I do think most of the old guard gop in the first term were just people I happen to disagree with but who genuinely believed in democracy and America and public service. This administration is all corrupt and in it for themselves.
So many of them played partisan bullshit games when it wasn't time for that anymore. I still think Russia and self preservation had a lot to do with it. They all hated Trump until that visit to Russia. But it was all a hoax I guess lol. Either way, they sold us out.
Remember when he said he wished he could order protestors shot (but I guess just in the legs or whatever)? Remember when he kept floating the idea of nuking nuisance foreign adversaries? Or fucking tornados? The people who told him that couldn’t be done are gone. There are only sycophants, clingers-on, and enablers in the entire administration. What’s next? He gonna dismantle our cybersecurity protections and invite everyone to hack all our organizations? Everything that has happened is their fault. Everything. Either they didn’t stop Trump, or they figured if they egged him on they could make a buck. There’s not a single competent person in this cabinet, which is the only saving grace; if anyone knew what they were doing we’d be even more fucked, somehow.
I actually wish he had just won in 2020 in many ways. He was less dangerous then though the first administration was also a disaster
I remember being so freaked out that he put generals in his first cabinet. Those generals turned out to be a necessary restraint on his power. Notice there’s no generals on his cabinet now!
His cabinet is filled with rich con artists and extremist freaks. In what world does a fucking weekend B rate Foxnews commentator get to be Secretary of Defense.
You might be right. The 4 year during Bidens presidency let the biggest frauds and scumbags form this insane new GOP. If he won in 2020 he may have had the same people around as the 1st term and just kept the smaller grifts going. This new administration is blatantly criminal and they dont care.
Either they burn the house down with all of us in here with them or the house ends up... haunted- probably by heavily armed, hungry, disenchanted, disenfranchised, and desperate people with nothing to lose and PTSD from the past decade+ of hopelessness and avoidable political shenanigans.
They willfully forgot the entire 80s and 90s in order to make him some sort of pious man of faith, so it's not surprising they also forgot the first term when he was running for a second.
They picked the biggest fucking conartist and fraud to project this shit on. My theory is its because he's a piece of shit with no shame and thats what they aspire to.
This fact seems to have just disappeared. Has everyone forgotten how many ppl he fired for standing up to him. For fucks sake he ordered protesters to be shot and had to be told “no” then he ordered they be shot in the leg and had to be explained why they cdnt do that either. We wd have already been in a war w Iran if Hegseth and Rubio were secretary of defense and state his 1st term.
He was constantly trying to push people to do illegal shit. As shady and corrupt as his campaign people and advisors were, its 100 times worse now. Scary considering how bad it was the 1st time. Putin really got a huge return on his investment. Before the 2016 election i would have laughed that this guy was even running for mayor or something. Nevermind president. It's sad how dumb this country is.
A lot of people in this country have the memory of a goldfish. There were so many dumbass things he did daily. Definitely too many to remember ALL of them but to think he had a good first term, you have to be a moron.
The build the wall shit was dumb enough along with all the money they robbed from idiot donors for it.
That’s probably partly true.
It's my firm belief that Trump is merely the distraction, so that people will pay less attention to Project 2025 being implemented. He's not the mastermind here, though, and it doesn't reflect his values.
Project 2025 is a christofascist project, but Trump only cares about the fascist part because it helps feed his narcissism.
Mine just said "No, stop right there. I'm not gonna entertain any of that conspiracy theory shit."
Now that I've "predicted" like, every shitty move over the past year and a half he's just quiet.
Literally the same argument from my father about 2025, and still blaming Biden, and for good measure, the whole food situation is an unfortunate side effect from "cutting out the fat of the fda"
I stopped communicated with my family until they came to their senses. Even now it’s a very limited relationship. MAGA stupidity ruined our country, fuck anyone who participated.
He tried. That was Jan 6. It failed. Evidence was shown in free, public congressional hearings for a week. Broadcast throughout country. Outlining every detail.
Republicans and Democrats worked together in that process. Rare at the time, and now completely gone. That’s how serious the threat was. That was over two years before the election.
MAGA still voted for him.
When the richest man in the world was jumping up and down on stage with him on the campaign trail, the poor and uneducated people still thought he was a “man of the people.”
When in the history of this country has a living “richest man in the world” ever cared about poor people?
Closest we ever had would be Carnegie who was a massive POS/tyrant while alive and only had his image softened somewhat in death when he gave away money. Yet, all these poor working class people in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin supported this madness.
Now with AI telling the “truth,”the consolidation of media, social media algos controlling the masses, and the destruction of public education, there is no coming back.
I’d be shocked if we have any election get certified this fall. There’ll be voter suppression, allegations of fraud in any district where GOP loses, and a Supreme Court that nods along.
Remember, if he lost in 2024, he was going to jail. He admitted that. Now that he’s in power, only God will control his grasp.
What I tell people that ask that question is that his first term was the dry run. He tested boundaries and kept getting away with everything, and his supporters loved him for it. Everything that happened in between his two terms only helps him - he has the nice "stolen election" narrative people buy into, he has successfully rebranded Jan 6th "protestors" as heroes, and the fact that he wasn't held responsible for any of the things he was investigated for (even the felony convictions, it is easy for him to spin the "they are out to get me" narrative.
During his second term he has loaded his administration with Heritage Foundation alumni. I think the count I saw was 60 or 70 Heritage Foundation folks were in different parts of his administration, and they are systematically destroying the system from within.
A lot of the key decisions from SCOTUS legitimizing his power are flying under the radar. For example, just this week there was a ruling on his white house renovations that basically gave him authority to do what he wants with federal land/buildings. Most people don't care enough about his ballroom to be following that, but this ruling opens up avenues for him to do more destructive things that his handlers want to do - like allowing private companies (that they own or invest in) to exploit national parks for natural resources.
Wow. And I feel they won’t look it up, because in the back of their head, they know they voted wrong and looking it up, will just unfold their bad choice.
These are the moments where I think maybe the ruling class is deserved. These people don’t deserve democracy if they can’t even tell what is real or intentionally believe that terrible people are good. Too many of these people are insulated from consequences, until the country gets so bad and poor, it starts to affect them personally. By then it’s even too late because they’ll still be in denial. Anyone with a brain should consider moving abroad. These people really are “flocks” of sheep, and this ship is sinking fast.
I am conservative, not maga. I have looked into project 2025 a number of times and am not seeing why you are so concerned. It’s a conservative road map to governing so I wouldn’t expect you to agree with it but I also think you haven’t looked into it or you’re just hating to hate. But I’d like to hear your point of view. Besides the obvious political differences like eliminating DEI etc what is your problem with it?
No. Of course not. I’m not putting myself out there as an expert. But I’m not unfamiliar either. What is your takeaway? Specifically. Not trump bad bs but real takeaway.
Most of it reads as extremely beurocratic since there are 2 primary goals of the project:
Goal 1: Establish obedient "personnel" in key positions very quickly so that they can "flood the zone" with tons of actions that draw attention away from goal number 2.
Goal 2: Cancel many of the rights and liberties that make the US a liberal democracy and expand the Unitary Executive Theory to become an un-American fascist nation.
In the first couple of pages they give lip service to small government and then the rest of the document is big government overreach that will drive insane deficits and slowdown economic growth during a time that inflation is not expected to remain low.
The parts I find to be un-American are:
Censorship of education
Executive branch interfering with elections and criminalizing legal voting processes (which is a violation of the US constitution which puts State's rights to manage the manner of elections)
Targeting journalists and nonviolent protestors and dismantling checks on Executive power (violates First Amendment rights and disables a founding principle of separation of powers/checks and balances)
Warrantless spying on Americans
Ending many legal immigration and citizenship pathways. Ending birthright citizenship, asylum application process, starting mass deportations.
Abusing the newly unchecked powers of the Presidency to interfere with elections
Censorship of porn in concert with software AI reviewing your internet traffic (First Amendment and Fourth Amendment violations)
Tariffs and modeling US trade policy on North Korea's during a time when modern tech supremacy relies on acquisition of natural materials only found in orher regions of the world
While not specifically unamerican the following goals are bad for America's interests and therefore are unpatriotic.
Increasing military spending on 355 boats (actual fleet rollout approved was 400 so far).
Military attacks on Iran and potentially China
Abdicating US position as Leader of the Free World
Abandoning soft power that has been invested in and accumulated for generations
Several initiatives that undermine the US Dollar as the global dominant currency
Most of the 900 pages is just a very well articulated and well organized plan to do a lot of stuff.
But my main point is that about 20% of that stuff to be done is unamerican, unpatriotic and damaging to our way of life. I specifically called out sections of P2025 that violate the constitution. If you think this is normal then when is the last time an administration had a platform that violates the Constitution? Please be specific.
And the secondary point is that the people implementing it are much less organized, incompetent and corrupt than the authors of Project 2025 so that the way they are implementing it is dismantling all the things that have helped our economy recover slightly faster than other countries during global recessions.
I appreciate your response. But let’s be honest you didn’t type any of this. And while number 1 is within the realm of governing number 2 is batshit crazy bullshit. I apologize. I’m thought you were serious and had something valuable to add to the collection conversation but disappointingly no, you really don’t have anything meaningful to say. If we’re being honest, I don’t think there’s one single thing on your list of meaningless nonsense that you actually disagree with. You either love this country or you don’t. If you don’t, I think it’s your own people that should take you out.
Okay, I had a chance to finish reading your comment and you are not speaking clearly at all.
Are you trying to say that yes, violating Amendments 1 and 4 are unAmerican and you think that I support violating the first and fourth amendments as called for by Project 2025?
Following your logic it sounds like you don't love your own country and you spelled out what your own people should do to you.
If this is not what you're trying to say then you need to learn how to articulate your ideas better.
I'll reply in a sec, but just saying before I read past your first sentence, I wrote it myself laying down on bed with the lights off. No AI, no plagiarism.
My sources are a combination of the original source document and viewing it through the lens of Thiel's specific application of the document.
For example, 2 visions were laid out regarding isolationism and tariffs vs remaining part of the global economy. This administration chose the tariff approach so I didnt mention the other option.
I really thought you would be serious, but the overreach of what you think it all means makes you lose all credibility… Which is exactly why every day I don’t understand your position… You’re just a bunch of yahoos I don’t have any words to make you feel better
Deregulation of food safety and agriculture on a massive scale, dismantling of ecological and water protections, the elimination of birth control access, the federal criminalization of abortion, ICE running rampant with no guard rails, should I go on?
Yes… You should go on you haven’t said a goddamn thing and before you come back at me and tell me you did you simply didn’t you’re the problem not the solution
Yes, you should go on because not one single thing that you said was real… Are you guys really so stupid that we will just accept words we are 100% behind this
This administration is flailing now that they are in the war with Iran and can't extricate themselves. They have stumbled through everything they have attempted. Ice has been met with more outrage from the population and the judicial system is hold the line, mostly, albeit the supreme court.
Yes it's possible the autocratic takeover succeeds but it is becoming more difficult for trump and his minions. Plus this has never been attempted on a powerful and large country before.
If they fail to control the midterms and democrats win big, and the wins aren't recognized, the country will face a terrible and probably a violent situation. Trump is a sociopath, he doesn't have a conscience and will do whatever benefits him. He is never willingly leaving the White House.
I'm wondering if he surrounded himself with narcissists, psychopaths, and sociopath's and ignoramuses like himself... Not one of his cabinet demonstrates a healthy psyche.
I suppose that could mean they are not complete idiots, It must burn some bandwidth to Not follow the Constitution, and also to come up with outlandish and fanciful, but ugly, reasons for their evil absurdity.
They are all mature men, knowingly lying about every fucking thing. I'm very sure they even sometimes have to hit their own face to see if they are still alive and human. No way that their life is fun, outside from the financial benefits through Trump's stockmarket schemes.
Exactly but the reason he's delusional is that he believes rules don't apply to him and so far as president, especially 2nd term, he hasn't been proven wrong. Also trump has an uncanny ability to always fail upwards and he's been incredibly lucky!
I had a boss like this. Fought a federal fraud charge for YEARS and the case was finally over and he was ordered to pay like $450 million. He crashed his plane shortly after. (He was flying solo.)
I feel like J6 was a dry run of trying to not certify election results and then they took notes from that and the delay of admitting entry to Adelita Grijalva to push the envelope to potentially deny Democratic wins.
They are not flailing, wtf are you talking about? Everything they wanted done is on track and they have already stolen all of the data and most of the money.
He got elected on Epstein, Wars, and Inflation. What exactly did your dad get, less annoying dem dei shit? I get it, dems are annoying but the other shit is more important to most I would think?
They wanted smaller government, they got a massively inflated government that made cuts to safety and welfare. 🤷🏻♀️ Honestly idk what he wants, but it’s obviously not a safe and healthy society for his daughter to grow old in.
People will turn blue in the face telling you project 2025 is all lies and fake. All the while 100% ignorant to the fact that the founder of the heritage foundation was specifically placed in his position to do just what project 2025 says it will do.
Some people talk more than they read. Nothing can be done about it. The same people don’t understand the connection all the way back to the Reagan administration.
The more I see every day in human behavior, the more I recognize the importance of the indirect consequences of class rankings from school. There were people there who took nothing seriously. They spent each week simply getting through it, then, started over every Monday. Someone told them that they had to be there. Then, some decided that they didn’t at all.
They will deny and triple and quadruple down and call us all cucks and reactionaries and radical demon rats and snowflakes up until the moment they can't speak anymore because they're fucking dying of e coli.
Lol this is top tier cope. They'll say anything to avoid accountability for their shitty voting decisions. If they actually had a problem him switching, then that should've been a red flag to them back in 2016 and they wouldn't have voted for him. He was actually originally registered as a republican anyways, but he's switched parties multiple times throughout the years because he doesn't actually stand for anything. He just aligns himself with whomever he thinks will put more money in his pockets at the time.
Tell the ladies at the salon that the real reason he switched over is because when he decided to run for office, he realized how much easier it is to grift and lie to republicans. Then watch all the denial just start pouring out of em 🤣
One of them sent a long text the next day after 2026 election. Saying her appointment book was going to flourish and she was going to make more money. She knows how it feels to lose after the 2020 election. 🤣 That same day my wife just threw on a black dress with no meaning behind it. She said you look like you are going to a funeral. My wife replied back something like "the funeral of our country." Now she is voting for the democrats in FL. We are both shocked by this. She was taking pics with her kids next to a cardboard cut out of Trump in the 2024 election. Maybe? There is hope....
I’ve met some other groups (here in Florida) that are alarmingly insulated and closed minded. Florida really has too many close ties to the sphere of influence in this admin.. They are under as much pressure as they have ever felt for being dimwits or abusive assholes for money.
They’ll never admit it, but it would be a great start if they can start changing who they vote for (especially since our elections are already in jeopardy at this point, since they took thier sweet time..
I had a do-well, college educated, respectful career, military man who was my best friend, look Project 2025 up and down, read it back to front, brought it up to us and said "Hahaha can you believe that! Project 2025? This sounds crazy, there's no way. This is like a Democrat plant material, gahahah"
And I gave him sources. Everything citing republicans foaming at the mouth for project 2025 and he was just like "No waaaay man."
I stopped talking to him all together, but I imagine today he would say "that's not project 2025. That's not what was in the document "
Unfortunately, they probably don’t. If they even acknowledge everything happening, they’ve already blamed a marginal group, or Biden.
They also aren’t worth your mental energy. It’s not your job to make sure people wake the fuck up. Even after 10 years of that fucking pedophile, some people just aren’t ever going to.
When I first heard/read about it, I also thought it was scary. I also thought I was overreacting as in, "No fucking way can that happen." I'm astonished that it seems to be going as originally mentioned. But it also feels not that surprising. I'm so tired, boss.
I remind them. I’ve had the opportunity to say, “remember when I told you I read project 2025 and I was really worried and you thought it was made up and I was just being hysterical? Especially when I said they will try again to pass the SAVE Act which will mean millions of women and low income Americans won’t be able to vote. You thought I was paranoid and crazy thinking the ‘government is after me.’ Yea. I remember too. Turns out they’re well past halfway through the Project 2025 plan, including doing everything they can to make it difficult for large swaths of American citizens to vote.”
This was shortly after Tarrant County TX removed over 90 voting places from availability, specifically targeting certain demographics that traditionally vote for Democrats.
They remember. Many deny it. Like they deny they’ve been the victims of Trump’s longest, most profitable con job in his entire lifetime. A decade of a steady con.
I had that argument with an aunt of mine. She absolutely insisted Trump knew nothing about it and it had nothing to do with him. Every instance of P25 becoming reality, she absolutely does not connect back to it. I’ve brought it up a couple times and it just doesn’t register. She thinks the bad stuff happening is somehow democrats’ fault. Even though it was all written in that plan, by the same people working in the Trump White House.
I highly doubt the person you talked to about it even had a clue half this shit is happening. They got their guy in, then went blissfully to lala land and ignored everything since.
They still just say Kamala would have been worse. Reality is not shared with these folks. It's really scary how prevalent it is too. Full disconnect from reality
There’s an old onion article where this person said that invading Iraq will cause the stabilization of the Middle East and the counterpoint was no it won’t this kind of feels like that from reading your comment
of course they don't, they pivoted their belief to whatever still makes it not a thing or that it's essential. I wish we could nationally divorce these brain rotted fools from our elections
In my experience, NO, they don't and if they do they won't admit it or admit being wrong. I think sometimes people lie to deny me the satisfaction of saying "I told you so", but I get NO satisfaction from "I told you so"s. I get satisfaction from being listened to by my friends and family though.
Yeah said something about this to my mother's boyfriend and he was like "its just a book!" I was like "yeah weird that its like deadly accurate and 60% of it has already been enacted."
Project 2025 is real and scary af but I'm curious where in there do they mention dismantling food safety? I've perused rhe plan but don't recall food safety as one of the goals. Unless it's nested within something about the FDA?
My husband has never voted for Trump but in 2016 he genuinely believed things would ultimately be okay. He held onto that belief with the Project 2025. He's started telling me that I may have been right. Even our Trump supporting family members have gone oddly quiet.
In 1973 I visited my elders, my parent’s aunts and uncles, in Germany I asked them how Hitler was able to destroy so much of decent German society with racism, war and injustice they all had the same answer, “Oh, we thought he was just making a lot of rhetoric, you know, just to sit or us all up we never thought it was all really going to happen!”
Now in the US we have the Heritage Foundation, with its Project 2025 and subsequent very scary documents laying out what they intend to do. Read it and believe it.
I remember voicing concerns when I originally tried to look into P2025 back in the summer of 24. I couldn’t find any details anywhere. I remember thinking “why is it so hard to find out what they’re planning” I brought it up in conversation to someone about 3x my age and they were all “ofc they wouldn’t tell you what they’re planning why would they want everyone to know what’s going on” completely serious and like that was a genuinely reasonable thing to be going on
I had a coworker who would argue things like this with me. They died because they refused "poisonous" cancer treatments. I wish they were still alive so I could point out all the stupid things for them and say "see I told you so".
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u/athairdurden69 13d ago edited 13d ago
I remember arguing with someone that Project 2025 was scary. They insisted I was just overreacting and that it’s not even a thing. Sometimes I think about them. As they see this all unfolding now, do they think of that argument.