What To Do About Trump

[RiverDog]

I'm not sure that the pressure of the pandemic caused it as much as it's an opportunity for those extremists to do the evil they do.
They are always looking for a cause and if it wasn't the pandemic, it would be something else, in this case probably the so called stolen election.

I disagree. IMO the pandemic is a major factor in the civil unrest we've been seeing since the pandemic started. Here's a good article that has some historical evidence of how past pandemics contributed to civil unrest:

“So when our Sickness, and our Poverty Had greater wants than we could well supply; Strict Orders did but more enrage our grief, And hinder in accomplishing relief.”

That’s how the British poet George Wither explained a spreading rebellion against social-distancing rules. Seeing quarantines and lockdowns as unfair and tyrannical punishments, people were taking to the streets. The year was 1625, the place was London, the disease was plague.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/artic ... st-to-come

What we're seeing is a perfect storm: A president that keeps pushing wild conspiracy theories about stolen elections combining with the pandemic and associated shut downs and the "new normal" of mask wearing, social distancing, and business closures.

[NorthHawk]

The conspiracy theories and Trump stoking the fires was going on well before the pandemic struck.
It might have added fuel to the fire, but the fire was already raging in my opinion.

[RiverDog]

The conspiracy theories and Trump stoking the fires was going on well before the pandemic struck. It might have added fuel to the fire, but the fire was already raging in my opinion.

The election fraud conspiracy, which seems to be the biggest and most resonating of Trump's conspiracy theories, didn't get going until after the pandemic was well underway and didn't pick up steam until after Trump lost the election.

[c_hawkbob]

The conspiracy theories and Trump stoking the fires was going on well before the pandemic struck. It might have added fuel to the fire, but the fire was already raging in my opinion.

The election fraud conspiracy, which seems to be the biggest and most resonating of Trump's conspiracy theories, didn't get going until after the pandemic was well underway and didn't pick up steam until after Trump lost the election.

You mean the second election fraud conspiracy.

I agree that the covid situation merely exacerbated and already untenable situation. It is not at all the root cause.

[NorthHawk]

...the covid situation merely exacerbated and already untenable situation. It is not at all the root cause.

That pretty much succinctly sums up my thoughts. Thanks Bob.

[RiverDog]

...the covid situation merely exacerbated and already untenable situation. It is not at all the root cause.

That pretty much succinctly sums up my thoughts. Thanks Bob.

I never said it was the root cause. I said it was a major cause.

[Aseahawkfan]

I never said it was the root cause. I said it was a major cause.

These movements have been there simmering.

But the lockdown has made it all worse not because these people wouldn't buy into this anyway, but because of that old saying, "Idle hands do the the devil's work." I'm not saying this because of the religious implications, but the idea behind it is what we're seeing: lots of people stuck at home with nothing to do start going crazy against what they perceive as the group most responsible for their terrible current life. Busy people don't have time to do this kind of capitol attack, massive protesting for months, or ripping things apart. People stuck at home, unemployed, scared, future looking dark, they have time for this kind of stuff.

We wouldn't have seen the problems with the election and Trump if not for this pandemic for no other reason than working people have more to lose than unemployed, stuck at home people and they're busy doing things like taking kids to sporting events, going to church, visiting friends, going out to eat, going to movies. But right now the vast majority of Americans are stuck at home, watching TV with their kids with nothing but time on their hands to rage at everything they think is making their life miserable.

It is what it is. Things like this always need more than one thing to make them happen. Even our World Wars weren't just some charismatic guy winding people up. It was a combination of factors. Same with almost every major event in history.