this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2025
2014 points (99.1% liked)

World News

41546 readers
3288 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Summary

Trump just presided over one of the greatest diplomatic disasters in modern history, with flared tempers, raised voices, and shredded protocol.

Never before has a U.S. president bullied and berated an adversary, never mind an ally, in such a public way.

During a tense Oval Office meeting, Trump and JD Vance attacked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, demanding he accept a peace deal with Russia or lose U.S. support.

The conversation devolved into shouting, with Trump accusing Zelenskyy of being ungrateful and “gambling with World War III.”

The meeting ended in chaos, with no agreement reached.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 20 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I've heard shows like Madam Secretary and The West Wing be considered, akin to Star Trek, "competence porn."

The idea, the fantasy, that the people making the critical decisions that affect so many people are consulting experts, weighing heavy costs, consulting the law, and are kept up at night because they care so deeply for making the best call they can so they don't let down all those who depend on them. These characters have been role models for leadership for generations at this point.

And here we are, in a complete fever dream of a failed state: With a convicted felon and failed reality show TV personality, his foreign billionaire handler, and a weak spineless, loud little dweeb we all forgot was even vice... burning the last vestiges of peace and goodwill all around themselves, handing us and our allies over in a competition with other fascists to be the world's worst enemies, screaming at world leaders, destroying the environment out of spite, and heck, shilling beans from the oval office. Because why not.

Who's close enough to this to do something about it? Where are the competent ones who will regain control of the bridge from these terrorists? Yeah, where's our "G20 president"?

Well, I just remembered, we need to support people like Governor Janet Mills of Maine , and empower anyone any everyone who will stand up against this bullying.

[–] CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Fucking Idiocracy is competence porn at this point, Camacho was an idiot but damn was he actually really competent if you think about the events of the movie.

[–] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Absolutely. Something about that movie's premise was that the ignorance and takeover of corporate influence was the villain, but the leaders were just ignorant and rowdy, not actively acting out of hatred and malice towards... Everyone.

You're right, been awhile since I've seen it but Camacho was being a tank-driving grenade-launching nut just to look cool. He didn't aspire to invade neighbors or anything that we're shown.

Once they could be taught, they could be reasoned with, even with their inflated egos, and they moved shockingly quickly to correct things because they wanted to be good, well-liked leaders, they just didn't know how. (Oh, and limited film runtime lol)

You know, it's known for it's cynical humor but at its heart, I'd almost say it has a "noble dark" (as opposed to "grimdark") tone: The world sucks, but the characters are shown to have a desire to do good at their core, once they see past the bullshit! :)

[–] CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I'd go a bit further and say Camacho was actually pretty proactive, he did after all institute that nation wide intelligence test to find someone to tell him how to fix everything, and was humble enough to listen to that person once he found him.

[–] Triasha@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

It's one of those look for the helpers kinda times. And then go to work with them.

[–] FinishingDutch@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I really like The West Wing. I’m currently going through it again.

It was always a hopeful show, but these days even the ‘bad guys’ in it start to look pretty appealing compared to what’s actually in the White House. At least the ones on the West Wing had fairly mundane motives and could be worked with to some extent.

If they made a current show inspired the actual White House, it would look more like Idiocracy than competency porn…

[–] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I should watch West Wing some time, I have limited experience with it but am familiar with the premise. :)

You're right...I think a show inspired by the actual Whitehouse would be more like a "Real Housewives" situation. Gossip, screaming, backbiting, probably throwing stuff. . .and then they'd show outside the oval office itself lmao.

"Housewives" is also one I've got the general idea of but haven't watched, except this one I'm not going to bother with. 😂

I remember the Netflix show Space Force poking fun at the new branch. It was silly, and goofy. (I mean, the legend, Steve Carell, c'mon haha.)

But it was light-hearted incompetence. Like people really wanting to make a difference but they were sabotaged and underfunded.

It's awful watching one of the most powerful offices in the entire world being run by spiteful ego-fueled monsters that just want to watch the world burn.

[–] FinishingDutch@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Definitely give The West Wing a chance. It’s warm and fuzzy, which we can all use a bit more these days.

I really liked Space Force! That was a fun show; I was sad it got cancelled.