ferris209 said:
That is a mere opinion that a lot of people would disagree with. Not me necessarily, but a lot of people.
A lot of people start their day with fast food breakfasts and are dying of obesity and early onset diabetes, and they think that’s just fine. Their opinion on the matter is irrelevant.
I’ve seen no evidence to suggest Donald Trump has strong character (quite the opposite) and deep convictions (ha). I challenge anyone to produce any examples at all that Trump has done anything in public to demonstrate strong character and conviction as they relate to any issue, political or otherwise.
ferris209 said:
In honor of President Barack Obama’s very very last day, and hours as President, please share your memory of his greatest speech. You know the one, that one on par with “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!,” “Four score and seven year ago,” “Ask not what your country can do for you…,” “a date which will live in infamy,” and “I can hear you, the rest of the world hears you! And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!”
You all know that speech President Obama gave that made us all shiver in patriotism, share your memories of it. You know where you were at when you heard it, just share.
ferris209 said:
DominicCobb said:
Tyrphanax said:
ferris209 said:
Tyrphanax said:
I’m going to be very interested to read these posts again in four years.
I still maintain that Trump will not turn out to be the next Hitler nor will he be the great savior. I think when it’s all said and done he will probably be a “meh” president with liberals upset that he wasn’t the catastrophe they rant and rave about and everyone who believed what he said upset that he failed to live up to 95% of his campaign promises.
I more or less agree with regards to Trump himself… I think he’s a bad person, but I doubt we’ll see anything truly groundbreaking one way or the other from him during his time in office (though we will continue to have at least one ridiculous drama or scandal or controversy per day). I’m more interested about his cabinet picks and the Republican-controlled congress.
The right wing has a chance to prove they know what they’re doing with regards to America, and we’ll see if they truly do (or not) in these coming years. They face very little opposition in congress and from the President as well as eventually the supreme court, so it’ll be interesting to see their agendas at (mostly uncontested) work.
Intersting is not the word I would use.
Fascinating. And where were you on the day that President Obama delivered his timeless historic speech?
ferris209 said:
DominicCobb said:
Which one
sigh The one! You know that speech that Obama gave that changed history. You know, that one. You surely remember that day he gave it!?!?? You’d totally remember it if I said just three words of it. Because it was historic.
I’ll give you a tip, he said “I” “my” and “me” in it. Surely you remember it?!!? It was historic!!!
History judges speeches. There are very few people capable of knowing what speeches will be remembered/quoted in the moment they’re delivered. And my guess is that if you belonged to any marginalized group, you would’ve found something beautiful/motivating/“historic” about any number of Obama’s speeches, which have largely been quite good even though he didn’t kiss all the traditionally untouchable, irreproachable asses. Like the police, for example.
Human “memory” is subject to deep corruption; any written quote referred to as “historic”, any sound bite played endlessly, any video recording played in documentaries that we’re raised watching…any of those things lead to memories and impressions of what’s historic. Lots of what you and I believe to be historic has more to do with what we’ve been told is historic by historians. We actually reconstruct and rebuild memories on the fly, so if we’re told often enough that something is important and historic, we’ll believe it and even construct memories around it if we were alive at the time. The only historic moment I can remember with any accuracy or vibrancy is the Challenger explosion because we watched it happen live in my elementary school cafeteria, and I still question my exact memories because I know how fallible they are.
If Trump is smart, he’ll avoid trying to be historic and stick to petty insults and fascist rhetoric since those are the things that inspire his supporters.
