Worse than Buchanan, worse than Jackson, worse than Nixon, worse than Reagan

  • sovietknuckles [they/them]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    122
    ·
    10 months ago

    4th most upvoted comment in a thread of 843 comments:

    Jan 6th made him the worst, say what you want about Buchanan or Jackson but at least they did their atrocities within the system they were elected to uphold.

    “Say what you want about genocides, at least they weren’t Jan 6”

  • Zodiark [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    86
    ·
    10 months ago

    Bush doing a judicial coup and succeeding is far more disruptive of social norms than Jan 6th was. Bush’s invasion of Iraq was more destructive than any of Trump’s decisions.

    • GalaxyBrain [they/them]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      43
      ·
      edit-2
      10 months ago

      The only hatred deeper than what I have for George W Bush is one that would lead me to throwing my life away to end his. I hate him even more for unlocking this degree of hate. There isn’t a word in any human language for my contempt for that loathsome wretch and it’s probably good that we as a species cannot conceptualize this level of hate in words. I have Ahab hatred for him and even though ill for sure outlive that despicable cur, with my last breath I will curse his name as he lays dead and that is an absolute promise.

      And I. Canadian, imagine how someone from Iraq might feel.

      • Zodiark [he/him]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        27
        ·
        10 months ago

        Something I’ve learned from talking with people from oppressed groups, is that vengeance and hatred in their hearts is often overcome with a desire to salvage the remainder of their life and overcome their past.

        Vengeance, malice, and retribution are poisons and echoes of victimizer that deforms and mutilates the oppressed and we must all live with purpose and humanity.

    • MF_COOM [he/him]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      32
      ·
      10 months ago

      You want to get a lib to say the most deranged shit possible ask them who they thought was a worse president, Bush or Trump

    • sexywheat [none/use name]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      31
      ·
      10 months ago

      Yeah, do you want to measure how bad a president was in terms of his “decorum” or “violation of norms”, or how “respectable” they were? Or number of human deaths caused by their policies?

    • SacredExcrement [any, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      edit-2
      10 months ago

      And Bush starting two wars that tore the entire region to pieces, along with the added side effect of accelerating the existing nationalistic fervor this shithole has

      And Bush bringing the “they’re jumping the border and taking our jobs” talking point forward

      And Bush signing the Patriot act

      And so many other little things and big ones

      Fuck Trump to hell and back, but he isn’t even the worst president of my life lmao

    • axont [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      10 months ago

      Liberals have completely forgiven Bush for the 2000 election and in fact seem to like the guy now. That’s such a whiplash to me and it’s proof that in 20 years liberals will have positive opinions about Trump

  • yuli [she/her]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    43
    ·
    10 months ago

    Disagree. Millions dead is nothing compared to attempting to destabilize the world’s most powerful democracy. That could lead to untold global suffering. Millions would have died of covid even if he had responded well (and had not axed the pandemic response thing back in like 2018). Trump’s response was bad, and he definitely had an impact, but not as much as you might think.

    xi-plz

    • BovineUniversity@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      44
      ·
      10 months ago

      Trump’s response was bad, and he definitely had an impact, but not as much as you might think.

      Unironically true, millions of Americans would’ve died of covid under any realistic American president. There’s literally no circumstance in which an American leader puts forward actually good covid policy, and in which the American people actually follow said policy.

  • JohnBrownsBussy2 [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    40
    ·
    10 months ago

    Broke: Trump is the worst president because norms.

    Woke: Buchanan or Andrew Johnson were the worst since they betrayed their country to uphold slaver power.

    Bespoke: Jimmy Carter is the worst since the neoliberal turn and the Volcker Shock destroyed the economies of the 3rd world and set back the global movement towards liberation and socialism back by a 100 years.

    • Des [she/her, they/them]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      10 months ago

      set back the global movement towards liberation and socialism back by a 100 years.

      roughly 2070s? god i hope not. i don’t think we’re going to make it that long into climate hell under the current system

    • nightshade [they/them]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      10 months ago

      I think you could make an argument for Jefferson, given how the Louisiana Purchase set the stage for a lot of the subsequent expansion and genocide. It’s probably inevitable that America would expand to some degree, but it could have been slower if they didn’t make the purchase, possibly resulting in a smaller and less powerful America.

      Of course, there’s also the part where he owned slaves and upheld slavery.

      • 420blazeit69 [he/him]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        edit-2
        10 months ago

        For the normbrained libs, Jefferson also greatly expanded the power of the executive through the Louisiana Purchase and an undeclared war in the Mediterranean. Just from a “disregarding what the constitution says” perspective he was bad.

    • axont [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      edit-2
      10 months ago

      Washington was just the guy who showed up to look nice and show off war medals. He was America’s hunky himbo. He also only took the job of presidency because he was broke.

      Hamilton, Jay, and Madison were far more responsible than him. But I guess only Madison was president.

    • Wheaties [she/her]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      34
      ·
      10 months ago

      I’m open to arguments for the worsitude of other presidents,

      but fuck Johnson got to define the reconstruction era practically by himself – a country not even a full damn century old yet, blown apart by civil war, and he decides to save the southern plantation aristocracy WHAT THE FUCK what the fuck would world history look like without either Booth or him in the VP slot, it’s fucking unimaginable --; I damn well want to see those timelines, I desperately desire to know the weight and magnitude of that little shitstain’s life on the fabric of causality. I don’t believe in hell, but he makes me wish i could.

  • FugaziArchivist [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    31
    ·
    10 months ago

    right before the 2020 election, Chomsky predictably got liberal press attention by saying trump is worse than hitler… for climate change denial. Uhhhh ok

    • 420blazeit69 [he/him]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      19
      ·
      10 months ago

      The big villain there is honestly H.W. Bush, who initially had a decent take on climate change (“this is a real problem that is not necessarily political that we should address”) but quickly reversed course, calcifying U.S. inaction on the matter.