Donald Trump the Megathread part II - Mod Warning updated in OP 12/2/26

The sooner the pope gets tough on criminals instead of just giving them 3 Hail Marys as penance the better 😠

Since Iran do actually control the strait, I see no great issue with the EU negotiating a reasonable toll for it's use. Sure, the Iranian regime are evil but so is the American regime and the EU continue to do business with the USA.

sinking a single super tanker would be an ecological disaster on top of the damage already caused by blowing up refineries and other oil infrastructure

He's perpetually enraged anyway and the EU as a blcok need to learn to be far less polite. That very politeness is the reason that Trump/Xi/Putin believe they can carve the world up into three spheres of influence.

Wouldn't it be hilarious if the Papal Nuncio in Washington posted comparitive crime statistics for the US and the Vatican? 🤣

While I absolutely agree in theory, its hard to see how social media in its current form could be controlled. Insist that facts must be correct? Correct by whose interpretation? We already have alternative facts. How can you have discussion if people cannot (innocently or otherwise) make statements and other people correct them? Do you insist on 'official' facts - ie from the US President or other members of his administration - being correct? The President can dictate that if he states a fact, it is automatically true. Content such as conspiracy theories are correct or incorrect, who gets to decide which is fact and which is opinion? And how do you educate people to make the decision as to whether an opinion is a fact? A rogue administration says vaccinations are dangerous, how does AI decide whether this is true?

YouTube try and control videos by sanctioning certain words, people just get round them by using other words or blanking out words, 'unalive' for murdered or dead for example. Its even been made into a verb, 'he was unalived'. Or asterisks for swear words, people substitute the/a swear word for a row of asterisks, probably without even noticing.

Swear words and trigger phrases are not the main danger, it is ideas that are the problem. Is social media to be controlled by the AI that analyses ideas based either on volume and content of discussion on the internet, or on basic 'truths' that it is fed by authority?

We have a kind of Thought Police situation going on, except that immediate control is being wielded by a mass of unthinking cultish humanity feeding the AI algorithms rather than directly by a government. But if we believe in majority rule, how can we argue that that majority cannot be a mob of trained seals, if that is what there is the most of?

It does seem that the majority of US citizens want a right wing administration, not necessarily MAGA, but an administration that allows the personal 'freedoms' that they think they have, and only personal rather than social responsibilities. Fair enough, let them get on with it. But other countries need this to be kept within the borders of the USA and not allowed to bleed into the rest of the world. We could make a start by organising algorythms to first feed local and (say) EU news and content, rather than silly situations where you look for some information or service in Waterford or Dublin and get half a dozen offerings of Waterford or Dublin in the USA.

Orban's defeat does suggest that an educated population, paying attention, can overcome these biases, but as Trump has said, he loves the poorly educated, and is making sure that in his population, this status is maintained.