What are some obvious or not so obvious silver linings of Trump's disastrous policies? if any
What are some obvious or not so obvious silver linings of Trump's disastrous policies? if any
100 comments
-
When we rebuild government, maybe it will actually improve service as we prioritize what is important now vs what was important historically
-
it means that the us empire is definetly going away soon.
-
He seems to have united the world... regrettably against us.
Also the word "bigly." I use it all the time.
-
I've picked up the gardening hobby and actually seem to be keeping up with it.
Nothing like a crisis where food is looking to be a concern to get ones ass in gear.
-
Ditto, never was into gardening but I'm going to try growing some herbs and tomatoes this year.
-
-
He brought defeat to the Canadian conservatives from the jaws of victory.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Canadian_federal_election#Opinion_polls
Look at that comeback 🤣
-
La Remontada!
-
-
The ever-accelerating demise of the American empire will remove their fingers from every political and economic pie in the world, creating a small chance that something even worse doesn't fill the gap.
-
Maybe then we can finally just focus on improving ourselves instead.
-
-
The way I console myself is by saying that likely, the only way the US elects a true socialist democrat (AKA Bernie Sanders / AOC) that can bring about a Brand New Deal, is by having the pendulum of American politics first swing so far to the right, that everyone with a conscience is forced to get out and vote in retaliation.
But the idea that we could simply vote our way out of a rising fascist dictatorship seems a fleeting fantasy.
-
We're already going through the great depression v2.0, so FDR v2.0 should be coming up next, right?
-
-
Canada was watching, pulled a 180 and didn't elect their own Trump Wannabee.
-
Didn't elect their own Trump wannabe yet.
Fascism is on the rise globally, so we must all be vigilant. There are enough warning signs that Canada could be just around the corner.
-
Australia has a federal election this weekend. Fingers crossed that hopefully they can make the correct choice.
-
This is what has me so depressed. This is a forever thing. They lost there for now, but they're just going to get better at their manipulation as "they" have globally. Reich wing asshole billionaires have been solidifying control of all major media. It's only a matter of time when fascism runs most major countries. :(
-
-
The Conservatives increased their share of the vote compared to the last election (+7.5%), in particular among younger voters. The Liberals only scraped together just enough for only a minority govt because the vote for other parties plummeted.
-
-
From my European perspective:
- Countries are finally starting to push for independence from the US when it comes to defence etc
- The UK and Canada moving closer to the EU, increasing political and economic cooperation
- Brain drain from the US leading to American academics moving to Europe, bolstering our economy and research
- Hopefully seeing how fucked up the US is will eventually lead some people to reconsider voting for the far-right in Europe
-
Europe has a handful of upsides. The growing independence is great to see, as well as an increase in domestic defense budgets.
-
The AfD nutters aren't reconsidering. They just see the deportations and go "yay".
-
Yeah, but I don't think the nutters make up the full quarter of the voting population currently willing to vote for them. Lots of them are protest voters who are just vaguely "against". Besides, I don't think it'd be the deportations making some people reconsider, but the sheer economic stupidity of the Trump government as well as their attitude towards Europe. I fully expect Americans to be far poorer and more miserable in 2-3 years and that might do wonders to dispel the myth that the far-right could "fix the economy".
-
-
I'm secretly hoping for another housing crash so I can afford a larger house and have my dad move in with me. Donald Trump seems to be my best chance at that
-
Similar hope here, but even then I feel like it's a lost cause.
Right now houses are expensive because land and materials are expensive, and so no one is building. You've also got investment firms and landlords buying up whatever properties they can find so they can just lease them to people and make more money over time doing basically nothing.
The economy could tank, but I don't think that would help. There would still be no one building houses, and corporations and landlords will still have more money than me. The coming die-off of the Boomers might be a better chance, but even then I don't have too much hope.
Wonder what would happen if some region passed a law capping corporations and landlords from owning no more than 2 residential properties.
-
The Dems had a proposal in the works giving hedge fund instruments 10 years to divest from single family residential homes.
That would have helped immensely but it was blocked by corporate backed representatives.
-
-
I'll keep the secret, I promise
-
-
The Canadian people are united like they have never been before. Canadian dollar as been rising. Canada is getting more doctors and high level professionals as some flee the U.S. Canada has been expanding trade ties around the world (exception is U.S.). Traveling Canadians are welcomed around the world.
-
People will feel the economic impact like a freight train here pretty soon, and hopefully that pisses off the idiot cult enough to make them turn on the republican party. They might not ever turn on trump, but I think his base will turn on the party quick once they start to really struggle. Then maybe we can rebuild some of this madness, invest in science and education, and have a reasonably well educated populas; and then maybe fascism will die.
Most likely wishful thinking. I've lived long enough to see my political efforts fall completely flat or get reversed outright. The people who share my viewpoints either can't be bothered, for some fucking crazy reason, or insist to "play by the rules". Fuck the rules, they don't play by the rules. It's time to get a fucking spine and fight back, but we've been given too much bread and too many circuses, so much that at least half of us would rather collapse society than share or take less.
We are vain, narcissistic, horrible little parasites that feel entitled to impose our will how we see fit. Yes, at the moment I mean this strongly about Myself and fellow Americans, but this disaster is far from unique to us. Countless species extinct, counteless lives taken, countless pain inflicted. Human beings are the apex invasive species, and there is no one at all to put us into check. It's hard to feel like any of this is undeserved, and it's foolish to think we deserve anything at all.
I generally try to be positive, and you can save your fingers from debating with me. I just don't care anymore. We could kill ourselves tomorrow and I would only feel relief for the life that will thrive without us fucking it all up. Fuck every last one of us.
-
we’ve been given too much bread and too many circuses
For a while I celebrated the idea that we were in the "Golden Age of Television." So many amazing shows, stories being told so exquisitely. But the more I think about it, the more that the ancient roman proverb of Bread and Circus seems more apt. I sit in front of a computer screen all day for work. On my breaks, I browse Lemmy on my phone. When I get off, I work out while staring at another screen in the gym. While making dinner I put on whatever NBA game is currently playing. While eating dinner I watch a show. After dinner I watch a comedy series while I eat dessert, occasionally browsing the internet simultaneously. My whole day, from when I wake up, to right before I go to bed, consuming content from a screen.
I wonder how many are like me, and how many of us are successfully using this constant stream of info- and entertainment to dull the pain of living like this. And what would it take for us to truly resist.
I think you're right in that it would take hardship. We're all mostly two missed paychecks away from our living standard collapsing, that could do it. But then that begs the question, how does one resist the rise of fascism? Because I'm beginning to think that voting may not save us when those in power are completely divorced from public outcry or consequences. When peaceful opposition is made impossible (or illegal on certain college campuses), when they round up and deport those that would publicly question their authority, when our elected leaders wring their hands in mocking frustration over all the nothing they've tried... well, perhaps violence is the answer after all. What other means have they left us?
-
We have lost the ability to be present in the moment, unable to confront reality without media to filter it...
-
Oh I saw a great quote about this, but I can't remember who it was. It said something like:
Orwell worried about a future of censorship and thought control, but [???] worried instead of a future where we have every distraction we could ever wish for, that we just get too distracted to combat our own exploitation.
-
-
-
-
It's an accelerationist's wet dream. Things are gonna get real bad here soon, and the best we can hope for is the when the backlash comes it will be swift and lasting.
-
The removal of DEI related protections at large corporations show who really was LGBTQIA+ supportive and who was just riding the trends.
-
And honestly, the way DEI has been handled in some cases really was not very good. I support the basic principles behind the movement but IMO the proper way to ensure that underrepresented groups get their chance is to address the problem at its roots - improved education, improved political representation, improved access to utilities and financial support and so forth. Hiring quotas are counterproductive. So I'm hoping that after the rubble settle and a new progressive movement eventually rises from the ashes it'll have the opportunity to take a better approach.
-
-
We're getting a heavy dose of "You don't know what you've got till it's gone".
It's become apparent to even people that normally don't pay attention that, despite being less than we want, a lot of our tax money actually does go toward things that help the citizens.
Other than that, I got nothing. These policies, decisions, and the people making them are all a disaster that are going to take decades to repair.
-
Yeah. It also seems, at least where I am, to be attracting the attention of the “voting doesn’t matter they’re all the same” crowd. Serious consequences are hard to ignore.
-
-
i appreciate the BuyEU and BuyCanada movements.
also uniting both canada and eu in terms of defense is a good move, imo.
the amount of incompetency people didn't think would exist, we now have a good example of! maybe it is not incompetency, but *retrograde thinking*.
-
One silver lining that I'm hoping for is that the collapse of American global influence might result in a rollback of the insane intellectual property regime they've been pushing on the rest of the world for generations. There were already hints of this sort of thing happening back during Trump's first term; the Trans Pacific Partnership treaty originally included a bunch of clauses protecting American IP but when Trump withdrew the rest of the signatories redesigned the treaty to remove those clauses.
The withdrawal of American foreign aid sucks, but likewise may end up removing roadblocks to various good things like family planning, sex ed, and so forth being offered. A lot of America's foreign influence was a mixed bag due to their puritanical demands.
-
That's a really good point... God Loves Uganda was eye-opening about US aid.
-
-
It has radicalized my previously centrist brother-in-law to the left and continues to do so.
-
I’m a US citizen looking for a way out and it’s probably not going to happen because I’m not rich and I’m not important.
The good news is I will likely be killed over this horseshit soon enough so I won’t have to suffer that long with it.
-
the silver lining is that you die?
-
For a lot of us even before the election. Yup.
-
it's that i escape but yes
-
-
-
We're seeing the beginnings of further European integration. Who knows, there may even be an EU military in the future.
-
When someone shoots him in the fucking face, I won't feel even a little bad about it.
-
The people that didn't vote against this shit are going to suffer for it.
-
The people that did vote against this shit are going to suffer as well.
-
Silver linings, not the obvious bad ones
-
-
He will reduce mindless consumerism of cheap garbage, so there is that.
-
"Instead of having 30 dolls, the kids will have 2 dolls... and they may cost a bit more" - donald (paraphrased a bit)
-
A tiny microplastic lining.
-
-
-
Well it hasn't happened yet but if house prices collapse, it will be good as long as we can keep our jobs. So many people I know work here but can't buy a house. I bought my first in a market crash in the 1990s. He's been so bad for the economy, I am hoping the house values crash.
-
there are 3 things that concern me about future house prices/ mortgage cost:
- feds not lowering interest because high inflation.
- reduced construction labor force.
- increasing maternal cost.
-
-
Other contries can use it as a fire against far right forces in their own countries. (That is, if the left is compenent to use it properly).
The USA is losing it's soft power on many countries making them more independed from the US.
-
By crashing the US economy, he is teaching a better lesson about fascism than any history professor.
-
It’s also improving sales of used and handmade items from small businesses and craftspeople. My eBay sales are up 10% and I expect even more in the next few months.
Hopefully it will also alienate his big business cronies or accelerate the demise of their businesses I’m up for either.
-
-
I never stopped doing organizing work since Trump 1, during the Biden regime a lot of people went back to brunch, it was harder to find volunteers. Now they're all back and ready to be mad at the government and do work.
-
Freedom has to be fought for every day. A lot of folks stopped fighting, now it has become much harder.
Thank you for keeping the fight going.
-
-
I used to experience a lot of negative emotions when I thought about the second ammendment
-
Every time he replaces an experienced government leader/ worker with a loyalist, he gives the Resistance the Gift of Competence.
The military is now run by absolute morons, while the previous leadership, who is highly experienced, moral, serious, and COMPETENT, are all on our side. Do you think they are all just hanging out on the back porch, drinking scotch and waiting for Wheel of Fortune to come on? Just ignoring the oath they actually took seriously, as the nuclear inventory that they spent their lives and highly successful careers protecting, is in the hands of the most corrupt traitors in American history?
We haven't heard a word from those people, and it can't be because they just don't care. They are definitely making plans for the day that HitlerPig declares Martial Law, and suspends elections, habeus corpus, due process, etc. When they call for the current military members to make a choice between the MAGA wannabees, and operating under real military leaders, most will choose Competence over Chaos.
-
They are definitely making plans for the day that HitlerPig declares Martial Law, and suspends elections...
Unsubstantiated bullshit dreams like this keep real resistance from forming.
"Someone else will save me!"
No, they won't. There's no "competent cabal" just waiting to make their move and pretending that there is keeps you from forming or joining the resistance yourself.
No one is going to save you or the people you love, and the price of waiting for Superman is suffering and death.
-
Do you think they are all just hanging out on the back porch, drinking scotch and waiting for Wheel of Fortune to come on?
Maybe. Or maybe they're as powerless as the rest of us and are doing the same nervous doom scrolling we are. There's no reason whatsoever to suggest that there's some secret gang of competent former govt employees banding together to form the resistance.
We haven't heard a word from those people, and it can't be because they just don't care.
It can be. Or it can be because they're out looking for new jobs in a shitty economy.
This is pure fantasy. Come on, be realistic here.
-
Realistic? Realistically, those military leaders are not the kind of people who are just going to accept this. They have spent their entire lives protecting America, amd our nuclear arsenal from threats. I doubt they are going to just fold up in the face of comically blustery MAGA Nazi intimidation.
Pure fantasy is thinking that somehow this situation is going to resolve on its own, or believing that these guys held normal jobs, and are now on Indeed, sending out resumes, and going to job interviews.
This won't resolve in a positive direction without tough leadership, and the best military leadership in the world has been benched. I'm sure they'd love to get back into the game, especially with such an important objective in the line.
-
-
-
I have never wanted to not be from the US more than the last 6 months.
-
My wife is no longer hostile to the idea of me owning guns.
I still don't have any other than two collectors pieces that shouldn't ever be fired except as a last resort, only one of which still has ammunition manufactured for it.
-
America continues to support Ukraine and seems poised to continue that support into the future. Ukraine was my #1 issue in November and I expected much worse from Trump.
-
They're being exploited to avoid death, compare that to what Macron wants from them. If anything, the good news is that EU won't abandon Ukraine.
-
no change is hardly a silver lining
-
Once the stores are empty and food is too expensive/sparse I absolutely guarantee you won’t even be thinking about Ukraine anymore.
Poor priorities.
-
-
The end of the US empire.
-
People worldwide see the true American heart.
-
I don't think people are seeing the true American heart. I think Americans are seeing the truth in their neighbors' hearts, though. We've been in denial about who we are and our responsibility to the world, because we trusted that our core values (freedom, equality, justice) would endure through scandals and fraudsters and would-be tyrants. Americans were lulled to sleep by casual prosperity and nominal world-leadership. We believed that the critics of America "hate freedom" or were jealous of our well-deserved success. Trump is the inexorable conclusion of that laziness, the funhouse mirror reflection of our own indifference to the world.
I believe most people, anywhere, are good people and want to be good people. The differences arise from defining what is "good" but largely we all want freedom, justice, and equality for ourselves. Extending that to others is a question of empathy, and empathy is created by exposure. America's heart is our diversity, our multiculturalism, and we let that heart become overrun with bigots and tyrants.
That's what the world is seeing, and has seen for 100 years. Bigots and tyrants, claiming moral superiority. It is the Americans who are just now seeing it for the first time.
-
because we trusted that our core values (freedom, equality, justice)
Are those really American's core values? It sure hasn't appeared that way from the outside, and that's not a new thing.
-
Intreaguing that Americans didn't see this on 9/11. It was, among other things, a nod at American exceptionalism.
-
-
-
So apparently, from what i read, USAID, while it did some collateral good, was used for covert CIA foreign interventions meant to carry out incredibly damaging experiments for no reason other than CIA being CIA. A lot of these harmful missions were done under covert names like "sex changes in x country" or "lgbt support in y country". Allegedly Trump saw this and killed the program, just out of bigotry, either before the CIA explained it to him or despite it.
Now i had doubts about this myself so i checked online from several sources and the consensus seemed that it checks out. Major news outlets wrote pieces on it. Even USAID defenders always say some variation of "even though USAID was involved in CIA operations destabilizing foreign governments, that was not its main purpose".
So if this is true and as far as my research has lead me, i have no reason to believe it's a fabrication, thank goodness USAID is dead. I thought the US CIA programs of destabilizing foreign governments for shits and giggles was a thing of the past, but i was unfortunately wrong and i now realize that not even aid should be accepted from the US and I'm glad Trump destroyed that program.
-
People in the leisure industry in the US are going to do well. With the low value of the dollar, more people are going to choose to vacation in the US, and it makes vacationing in the US more attractive to foreigners. If they choose to ignore their government's travel advisories about the US, that is.
Given that Trump is in the leisure industry, this is no surprise. In down markets, staycations (or, vacationing within the country) always go up. It may be the one industry that sees an uptick in business.
-
more people are going to choose to vacation in the US, and it makes vacationing in the US more attractive to foreigners
Come to the US and stay in one of our luxury ICE detention centers, and then get an all expenses paid vacation to Cuba or El Salvador!
-
Yeah, that's whyfor the travel advisories.
Past recessions when the dollar's dropped against the Euro, the domestic leisure industry has benefited. I honestly don't know how much the whole hostile-to-foreign-nationals aspect of the current administration is going to affect that pattern. Probably at least some, but I suspect most white Europeans will ignore it. A weak dollar makes a US vacation cheaper, and that's an emotional decision.
As evidence, I present the Nationalistic trends in EU countries, Brexit, and British vacationers. They're not immune to believing what they want to believe.
-
-
Maybe you should put your pink glasses aside?
-
Hey, the challenge was to find silver linings. It's not like I think they were a good idea.
-
-
Pass me some of what you’re smoking
The supply chain is about to get demolished and tens/hundreds of millions of people are going to lose their jobs without one to replace it. On top of that things are going to explode in price due to inflation and tariffs.
Yet you think people are going to ramp up their vacations. lol.
-
Jesus H Christ on a cross. The question was about silver linings. It wasn't whether or not we think it was brilliant strategery.
I never, anywhere, said anything even implying Americans were going to take more vacations. What I said, very specifically, was that many people who might have been planning to vacation in, say, Europe are going to choose to vacation domestically instead.
-
-
100 comments