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Imagine going through life, never being able to sit back in your deckchair on a sunny day and go "ahhhh, isn't everything just wonderful"

Running down this slope is how you wind up at death camps.

Precisely ! Asking all the right questions, (and one or two wrong 'uns) but giving some totally unserious 'answers'. And if your initial go-to guy for some political reinforcement is 'Magic Grandpa', then you either have zero confidence in the

Same could be said for Farage. Fight fire with fire. Labour is the turkey that voted for Xmas. Bought and paid for….

I think that's a little pessimistic. They could probably be appeased by the public execution of 50,000 brown people and the deportation of a couple of million more.

They can’t be appeased but they can be distracted. What they really want is attention

What they actually need is just a good therapist. 🤷🏻‍♂️

They want to hurt minorities until their lives improve, which will never happen. They need to be told they're wrong about the cause of their problems, not have their delusions catered to.

They can be appeased if the government actually makes their lives better. A government that tries a "lite" version of an attack on people who look different certainly won't appease them.

Thesis idea: Manufacturing sporting glory for growth

And that's why Populists like Trump, or Farage, do so well, because as the people who 'Express the thoughts of people who do not think', they attract the Voters who no-one else bothers with, because they normally cannot be reached.

Excellent article I read the other day said something like “voters prefer stories to arguments”.

That’s so spot on, mate. Yet we’re doomed to focus group vomited ‘brand building.’ The curse of the politicians believing communications is superior to competency or reason. ‘I’m shit at my job but can talk a good game’ is going to be the death of all of us.

...(worth remembering here that protectionism was a staple of lefty and pro-union Dems in the pre-MAGA era) it's basically been a story of Missing the Point. The two Dems who most Got It – Clinton and Obama – are the two most popular Presidents since the end of the Cold War...

Yes, I think that's fair. And don't get me wrong: how my vote makes me feel because of who I'm voting for and the party they're in is a factor that influences my vote too. It's just that it's secondary and a sort of positive side-effect that I look forward to. Consequences and policies matter.

And there's nothing wrong with Democratic Party policy. A fair few on the left hand side are also baying for a hero brand.

b) surprisingly so. Also, my personal experience aligns with the statistics that education level is a significant driver of this (certainly not intelligence). Peer group as well.

I was screaming at the pundits sympathizing with the status of all the dumbfucks I grew up with. The wealthiest 'working class' (that doesn't want to work) in human history.

"South Park" tackled this in one of the recent episodes.

But their antagonism to people who look different can be escalated by people in power with an agenda of their own

When everyone looks like you who will you hate then??? Eventually you have to turn on each other

That kind of thinking is definitely antithetical to joy and happiness. I have an abundance of both in my life and never spend any time worrying someone who doesn't look like me is going to come and steal it.

There's a huge diffidence between those whose perception of their lives going badly comes from propaganda and unrealistic expectations versus those who had their life chances stunted by things like Austerity policies and the loss of EU regional support funds. The latter can be helped.

This is what Starmer doesn’t seem to understand

These are not intelligent people. But they can be made to blame those who are really responsible for their problems instead of at those who aren’t. We just need to stop treating them with respect and manipulate them in the same way they’re currently manipulated by the right wing.

‘You look just like me!’ [settles back with beatific smile] I doubt they would be happy with their own reflection. ‘Stop following me around!!’

The answer is to stop trying to please them, and instead tell them to fuck off and let the grown ups run the country. I’d vote for that every time.

Exactly. Unable to take responsibility for their own lives and persist in looking outside themselves for someone or something to blame. Everything that is wrong in their lives is someone else's fault.