Donald Trump for President?

Well, I don't think that you and Donald Trump are the same person. Are you Donald Trump?

Nah. But based on the logic here, if I were meaner towards Trump supporters, they'd apparently go from disagreeing with me to wanting to vote for me.

Does everything here have to be a discussion?

I cannot stop you from behaving how you behave.

I'm not asking for a safe space -- although, I'm sure you wouldn't want to turn Movie Forums into a very DANGEROUS space. At least I hope not.

But certainly you can create your own safe space by simply avoiding conflict and confrontation. Just stay out of the thread, avoid certain people if you can, whatever. Is that so terrible?

Well, I personally do not do that.

Well, I'm just criticizing your criticisms. Can't I do that? I seem to be.

Well, I don't even know if anyone's getting torn down. Anybody torn? I merely spoke of what it looked like to me. You could use some opinions.

Well, I'd have to see how you perform as a Presidential candidate. I don't like Trump just because he's mean. He makes me laugh. He makes me laugh a lot. With him, not at him. He's right about Saturday Night Live -- terrible show.

Can I give my answer? On an internet forum with threads devoted to discussion of topics...yes.

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Letterboxd

But EVERYTHING?

Yoda, this is off topic (and this is not in reference to any post or anybody) but is there a thread with site guidelines? Basically, I'd like to know what it takes to get thrown off this site. Not that that's my goal or anything just wondering if it's in writing anywhere?

You'll know it when it happens.

Yes Captain Steel, Trump would have been banned from here by now. As soon as he started openly mocking another poster he'd be scolded by a mod, then blame the internet (media) for transmitting the exchange (calling it rigged). As he kept saying lies about other posters and unable to back them up with facts, his banning would be certain. Sadly there are no mods in real life.

Oh, please. Trump would be a mod.

Don't think I haven't noticed how TONGO and TRUMP both start with T and have 5 letters.....

I guess TONGO can't read me. He's retreated to his own safe space by putting me on his Ignore list again.

On a discussion forum...yeah, pretty much. If someone didn't want to have a discussion, why come to a public forum and say something for everyone to see? If they wanna cheerlead without pesky follow-up questions, they can start a blog and turn off the comments.

Aye, but notice that you're trying to by arguing with me. The very act of arguing assumes the thing you're arguing against: that people should have to explain what they say or think. If you think people don't have to do that, that includes me, so there's no reason to argue with me. If people should have to do that, then there's nothing wrong with me asking Trump supporters to explain themselves, and there's still no reason to argue with me.

That's one of the reasons I don't really think of this as an "opinion"--because arguing for the alternative is self-contradictory.

Nope. And I don't think anyone who's done this has gotten much grief about it, unless you count people just posting news stories about whatever's been happening.

I think part of the issue is that Trump's made so much bad news for himself (either through his terrible personal history, or just through contradicting himself so often) that just posting about the news in general probably feels like an attack. But that's what happens if you hitch your wagon to a loose cannon, ya' know?

True. And I think you'd agree I haven't really tried to pick much of a fight with you.

The only people I'm going to bother arguing with are people who I think are failing to live up to shared standards. If someone supports Trump for reasons unrelated to my criticism of him, there's not much to say. But if someone believes in the same kinds of things I do, but is rationalizing or ignoring them to support Trump even though he doesn't align with them, that's when I feel the need to say something.

Quick follow-up on that last part:

If someone supports Trump because they think things are broken and we need some kind of chaos candidate just to shake things up, okay. I get that. I don't agree with it, but I get it. Ditto if they support him for some other reason that doesn't have to do with policy or ideology. There's not much point in arguing about this guy if the real disagreement is about foundational beliefs, and this election is just downstream of that larger disagreement.

But if someone is ostensibly a conservative, and a Christian, but has talked themselves into thinking Trump cares about furthering or protecting either worldview...that's when I have to say something. Because I'm seeing smart people, and people I considered allies in these causes, contorting their beliefs to fit the candidate. I will absolutely not stop pointing this out, because in some ways it's a far more upsetting thing than just having different beliefs in the first place.

I think that sounds similar to what Obama said recently, obviously he was more anti-Republican, but I think it follows a similar line of thinking in that if people genuinely support him or see him as a good candidate, then he doesn't blame them but more feels sorry for them for thinking that. But if they know that he is a bad candidate, know that a lot of what he says and does is wrong, and potentially dangerous, but choose to ignore that and accept it because "it's politics"... because he's representing the Republicans, because he is anti-Democrat/Obama/Clinton... then he does not sympathise with them or applaud them when they choose to drop out at the 11th hour when the battle looks lost and/or because further things come out to damage him, these people have been aware of who they have chosen to support all along.

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Aye. And it's arguably worse, because I think he was talking about actual politicians, for whom political survival is a significant consideration that complicates their support or opposition to Trump. But as voters, we don't have that same problem, so there's even less reason for us to compromise on it.

Also, follow-up on that shocking Utah poll...we've got another one:


This could actually happen.

It ain't complicated: the more people see of this guy, the less they like him. A handful of diehards are hanging on, but there's basically no evidence he's grown beyond his primary base, which is what pretty much all of us were warning 10 months ago.

Six months ago:

Three months ago:

Two days ago, and yesterday:

Oh yeah, he was trying to paint Yoda as a bully. Its depressing actually because Yoda's gone out of his way patiently and explained his views openly. He's modded me directly because I crossed the line once, so he's not what Sexy is saying.