Kruse is an unabashed (if not shameless) dem cheerleader but he's not a total idiot. I can't decide if he's outright lying (to rally the dem troops) or if he actually believes there's no upside for Trump. At first I was going to write that he's surely lying but then I realized people can poison their own brains by pumping out propaganda nonsense every day. And the easiest person to deceive is yourself.

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I think Trump's fist pumping will turn out to be the most powerful political images* in all of American history and there won't be a close second.

Edit: By "political images" I mean how that's defined in the media or in history books or in textbooks and not how we define it.

[–] Wertheimer@hexbear.net 22 points 4 months ago (3 children)

The New Yorker agrees with you:

But what makes the image is Trump. In its surface details, it carries echoes of the marines at Iwo Jima. In the former President’s bloody defiance, it even evokes Rocky Balboa. On that stage, Trump seemed well aware of the image he was creating. It is an image that captures him as he would like to be seen, so perfectly, in fact, that it may outlast all the rest.

[–] ShimmeringKoi@hexbear.net 22 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Trump looked like the American heroes of myth, such as (staged war photo) and (entirely fictional character)

That Iranian guy was so right

[–] Clippy@hexbear.net 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

sorry out of the loop which iranian guy?

[–] Runcible@hexbear.net 17 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I am assuming this is the commentary about how when the US assassinated the Iranian general who was a cultural hero that they were unable to respond because all of the US's cultural heroes are made up (I believe Micky Mouse & Captain America were the examples given)

[–] Wertheimer@hexbear.net 11 points 4 months ago

Spiderman and Spongebob

[–] micnd90@hexbear.net 12 points 4 months ago

It is an image that captures him as he would like to be seen, so perfectly, in fact, that it may outlast all the rest.

Nothing will outlast

feast

[–] alexandra_kollontai@hexbear.net 2 points 4 months ago

He's a good performer. Knows how to appeal to the crowd. Must be all the TV experience.

[–] thoro@lemmy.ml 17 points 4 months ago

I realized people can poison their own brains by pumping out propaganda nonsense every day. And the easiest person to deceive is yourself.

The initial reactions in the comments on the .world news comms really show this. People didn't want to believe there was even an actual shooter.

[–] FunkyStuff@hexbear.net 14 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I'm not sure it really rivals the 9/11 images or Saigon Execution, those images and the cultural context surrounding them led to material changes while here it's just gonna be Trump winning even harder.

[–] InevitableSwing@hexbear.net 14 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Saigon Execution

The average American would have no idea what those words mean in 2024. Or 2014. Or 2004. Or 1994. As for 1984 - my wild guess is that 2 out of 100 Americans might know.

9/11 images

Well, of course the Dubya-Cheney administration milked the shit out of that event and it made a 2004 win easy for them.

[–] FunkyStuff@hexbear.net 10 points 4 months ago

Saigon Execution is an irrelevant photo now but at the time it was iconic for the antiwar movement which is why I think it's a very powerful picture, there was a world where the war lasted a bit longer but mounting pressure from the domestic anti-war movement played a role in stopping the war. Only a secondary role to the absolutely heroic struggle of the Viet Minh, of course.