OzBargain Advice for Riding Out The (Hypothetical) Trump Global Recession?

RolandWaites on 03/02/2025 - 13:14

Hi Ozbargainers

With the looming threat of indiscriminate tariffs against countries, ally and foe, there seems to be growing concern about the potential for a significant economic downturn directly related to decisions being made in the White House right now.

As we head toward what may be the second economic slump in only the past four years, and potentially the second global financial crisis within 20 years years, I had hoped Ozbargainers with experience could share how best to survive - and perhaps profit - through a hypothetical 2025 economic downturn.

I have already stocked up on beans and powdered milk, and sold the dog to ensure our provisions last at least an extra month. I have added several editions of Marx and Bukarin to my Kindle in case of a potential anarchist society taking over the other side, plus I have downloaded the Fallout TV series as a guide for any apocalyptic deterioration.

Any suggestions for what I might be missing would be greatly appreciated.

Financial

Comments

  • Gdsamp on 03/02/2025 - 13:16
    +56

    Nothing ever happens

    • You Were Warned on 03/02/2025 - 14:59
      +5

      Plenty happens, though you have to be more observant than the typical OzB'er

      IYKYK

      OP's being a prankster like usual but the reality is, WA is by far the state most economically exposed in 2025

      • SYLTB on 03/02/2025 - 16:14

        Nope, Krok has just ordered tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China. The former two smaller ones immediately ordered equal counter tariffs, and the latter big one would order soon at the bigger scale as happened 4-5 years ago.

        • Herbs on 03/02/2025 - 18:18
          +1

          Yep, WA is gonna benefit bigly.

        • dealhunter52 on 03/02/2025 - 22:34
          +9

          I was looking at most recent figures of US trade deficit (source: Bloomberg).

          China = USD -260 B
          Mexico = USD -205 B
          EU = USD -202 B
          Canada = USD -129 B
          Vietnam = USD -101 B

          It's pretty clear why Orange man is targeting Canada. It doesn't have much to do with trade deficit but it's a scheme to put pressure and takeover Canada. He made it pretty clear he wants Greenland and Canada to become parts of US.

          Less than 1% of Fentanyl and less than 1% illegal migrants come through Canada border. So that argument is that is total BS and shouldn't even be mentioned.

          • vid_ghost on 03/02/2025 - 22:37
            +14

            @dealhunter52: Trump is total BS. BS is also what got him into power

            • dealhunter52 on 03/02/2025 - 22:45
              +7

              @vid_ghost: We already knew that in 2017 but at the time he had guardrails and some in Republicans leadership were still responsible. He's way more dangerous, unhinged and belligerent now with support of ultra rich tech Oligarchs and brainwashed MAGAts.

              • 91rs on 04/02/2025 - 09:18
                +11

                @dealhunter52: TDS at its finest.

              • lew380 on 04/02/2025 - 10:09
                +12

                @dealhunter52: Love watching the corporate media absorbers just slowly combust, then they generally forget the next day when they are outraged by something else. Keep it up, it's entertaining!

                • dealhunter52 on 05/02/2025 - 11:19
                  +2

                  @lew380: Which corporate media are you talking about? Murdoch owned media (Fox News, Sky News etc) or Elon Musk owned X?

            • tenpercent on 04/02/2025 - 16:47
              +2

              @vid_ghost: If by BS got him into power you mean $1.47 Billion from the usual suspects, plus some amateur stage theatre and blood packs?

              Although DJ Trump was outspent by K Harris' $2.0 Billion.

              So much for free and fair elections. Third party candidates or independents don't have a snow flake's hope in hell.

          • try2bhelpful on 04/02/2025 - 12:00

            @dealhunter52: Why do you think they started the concept of alternate facts and fake news?

          • futureminime on 05/02/2025 - 14:12

            @dealhunter52: 3 reasons if I was working for Trump while I would have included Canada despite being a small portion of the claimed reason (drugs + illegal immigration). I'm sure there are other reasons you'd do it as well.

            1. Its just about political pressure / trade war for other objectives. It could just be because they are high on the list.
            2. You think that there might be tariff dodging by China/Mexico through Canada (e.g. China —> Canada —> USA) and think the extra 10% on China will increase that.
            3. You're already violating your free trade agreements with the USMCA free trade agreements and want to balance the political damage you're doing with Mexico. E.G. We're treating everyone fairly, when you take action you'll get it removed.

            We'll need a while to see how long they stay in place and what triggers their removal before understanding the motives of implementation.

          • DrScavenger on 06/02/2025 - 07:24

            @dealhunter52: He hasn't said anything about annexing Australia. Maybe he will forget our existence

        • niggardly on 04/02/2025 - 08:32
          +5

          Mexican tariff already stoped before it happened. Its same as the tik tok ban. OP is right, nothing ever happens.

          Canada tariff about to be stopped too.

          Only thing thats changed is now america is great again.

      • Benicio on 04/02/2025 - 09:13
        +23

        Sniffing your own fork again?
        Blaming video games is such a boomer argument. Just play something like The Last Of Us (as an example) and you will see the level of emotion and 'empathy' that can be experienced through video games.

              • lew380 on 04/02/2025 - 12:22
                +11

                @ForkSnorter: Again, simply stating that you and your friends are the intelligents ones while implying that everyone else who doesn't think like you is an idiot, is not a well thought out opinion and will not garner respect among much of the population.

                Go ahead op, delete this comment too haha

                • try2bhelpful on 04/02/2025 - 12:28
                  -1

                  @lew380: Actually Forksnirter isn’t saying he and his friends are the intelligent ones, they are saying intelligent people give them respect for this idea. You are the one implying these intelligent people are his friends. He also isn’t implying people who don’t think like that are idiots. That is the assumption you are making from the comment, I probably won’t disabuse you from that.

                • ForkSnorter on 04/02/2025 - 12:29

                  @lew380: I know my friends are intelligent. None of them like Trump or Musk, and they are frequently shocked and disappointed at the behavior and actions of Trump and Musk. Rarely, if ever do they have anything good to say about them. I have yet to meet or even chat to a Trump supporter that is reasonable and not some extremely biased, shrill conservative.

                  • krunchymoses on 05/02/2025 - 09:12
                    -1

                    @ForkSnorter: This thread has attracted the basement dweller OzBargain Trump Dickriders who quite ironically spend their time on a bargain website but also defend the use of the tarriffs that will make their goods more expensive.

                    Not a good sample of reality in here. But fascinating to see that people can justify what is happening in the US in their brains.

                    Unless they are Palantir shareholders or crypto bros it's not even self interest, it's just cringe.

              • Muppet Detector on 04/02/2025 - 22:23
                -1

                @ForkSnorter: I call bullshit

          • idonotknowwhy on 06/02/2025 - 10:48
            +1

            @ForkSnorter:

            If you wrote the entire plot of The Last Of Us as a novel, including all the dialogue as is, and took out all the action where you are shooting zombies in the head, it would take up about 10 pages, and would be extremely boring and simplistic

            How about Metal Gear Solid 4?

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr-pL2Yz6Nw

            (9 hours of cut-scenes)

      • ramb9 on 04/02/2025 - 09:25
        +1

        Nice to have a theory but it’s probably much simpler than that, the other option is too incompetent

        • ForkSnorter on 04/02/2025 - 10:33
          +2

          Yes, my other theory is that while Trump is clearly incompetent at many things, he's actually very competent at appealing to unintelligent, uninformed people. That's all you need to win an election nowadays.

          • beach bum on 04/02/2025 - 18:29
            -3

            @ForkSnorter: If you go back to the 90’s when he was having problems evicting black tenants from buildings in NY he wanted to develop , he learnt from some slick lawyer’s how to gaslight journalists and muddy the waters in that space with endless lying as well as demonising black youth like the Central Park Five while cosying up to the democrats of the time , Clinton’s I believe .
            Good skill to have I suppose when tearing down opponents and ends up being the only voice getting through the muck.
            No doubt he’ll go back to his White House routine sleeping to noon and gorging on cheeseburgers and coke and nothing will get done.
            The Chinese have almost completed a whole seperate world economy that cuts out the West , so they will just wait it out
            Slowly grinding down the old System while building their new one

            For Fact Checking me try Inside China Business on YouTube now and for the trump stuff the NYTimes from the 90’s

            And the truth is probably somewhere in the Middle Way
            Between Xi’s version of reality and DJ trump’s

          • krunchymoses on 05/02/2025 - 09:12

            @ForkSnorter: He speaks fluent (profanity) which is a language many young men speak natively these days…

          • jerrus on 05/02/2025 - 11:32
            -1

            @ForkSnorter: The uninformed seems to be more on the left than the right, the right and centre, at least in this study (and several others) can better explain why the left believes what they believe, those on the left are less able to articulate why the right believes what they believe. In my experience this is true, I'm pro-life, because I believe human life begins at conception, (not looking to debate the issue) when this is brought up the most common rhetoric I hear is "why do you want to control women?" I get that that is how they see the issue but they are putting their understanding behind my motives (and the motives of the vast majority of those that are pro-life) Again not looking to debate abortion, but you suggesting that the main reason people voted for Trump is they are unintelligent, uninformed people seems to highlight the issue. particularly given the alternative was on offer.

            • ForkSnorter on 05/02/2025 - 13:15
              +1

              @jerrus: That is a single study conducted 13 years ago with a fairly small pool of subjects, most of whom were young (median age 28), most of whom were female (62% female, 38% male), all of whom were US citizens, and who participated in the study by visiting a website.

              In regard to its findings:
              No, it did not find that the left are more "uninformed". It found that the self-labeled liberals who participated in the study were less accurate at estimating the beliefs of the conservatives in the study. However, it also found that both liberals and conservatives were not very good at estimating each others' beliefs. I don't really know what conclusions can be drawn from this study due to its limitations and the fact that other studies did not have a similar finding with regard to liberals being less accurate at predicting conservatives' beliefs.

              I know it's tempting to try to look for validation from a single study, but if you want to go down that route, I can find you all kinds of studies that find, for example, that conservatives are more likely to believe conspiracy theories, or that more fake news is initiated by rightwing media outlets, or that there is a correlation between lack of religious belief and higher scores on IQ tests (this correlation is quite significant), and various other findings that you might not like.

              In regard to my assumptions about who voted for Trump:
              According to the data, there was a significant shift (significant increase) in the number of young men who voted for Trump this time, which could very well have swayed the election result in Trump's favor. I'm not making assumptions when I assert that I have also observed a very noticeable rise in conservative views among young people on social media platforms like YouTube, Twitter (X), etc. Especially, I notice a lot of young conservatives ridiculing liberals based on straw man arguments (straw man fallacies) in their posts and comments. I just want to understand where this has trend/shift has come from. I feel it has been brewing for years, and it is worth exploring the factors that may be behind it.

              In regard to the abortion issue. I'm not going to debate it with you, but the problem with claiming you don't want to control women is that if you are pro-life and you decide to vote for a government/leader that is pro-life, if that government wins office it is going to try to implement policies that control women's decisions about their own bodies. If you are pro-life, fair enough, don't have an abortion, but I would urge you not to make it a political issue, or an issue that affects the way you vote.

              • jerrus on 05/02/2025 - 14:11

                @ForkSnorter: A single study is better than none.

                I'm not sure where you’re getting the ideas on what I may not like I think you’re making a bunch of assumptions there, I have not indicated my stance on Trump, religion, or any of the things you suggest I may not like.

                Your views on who voted for Trump (at least what I was responding to) is summed up in your original comment.

                Yes, my other theory is that while Trump is clearly incompetent at many things, he's actually very competent at appealing to unintelligent, uninformed people. That's all you need to win an election nowadays.

                I agree a major impact was young men, some embraced conservatism but also I think they felt driven to it as they (men) were often labelled as a source of a lot of society’s ills by some on the left.

                Re abortion, glad you’re not going to debate it as I made it clear I wasn't bringing it up for debate, you've kind of proved my point pro-lifers are not trying to control women’s bodies, they view the embryo as a unique separate human with a right to live, to say it's part of a women’s body, is not really scientific, but more relevantly fails to understand where the disagreement lies. If people think there is legalised killing of human life it is certainly a political issue for discussion and has an effect on others. Again the point is not to debate abortion but to show how many don't understand where the other side is coming from.

                • ForkSnorter on 05/02/2025 - 14:29

                  @jerrus: I've never debated abortion, don't really know much about how to define where life begins, so don't worry I'm not going there.

                  You're right I may have made some assumptions about you being conservative based on the particular study you chose to highlight, and how you framed it with the word "uninformed". This was probably a little hasty.

                  In regard to my previous comment about unintelligent/uninformed people voting for Trump, this hasn't come out of nowhere. It may not be backed by data, but it's based on my observations of, and interactions with Trump supporters (mostly online). It's also based on political analyses I've read or watched, and the fact that the media that tends to back Trump, like Sky News, is crackpot rightwing propaganda, while news outlets that seem to care more about facts and truth (like the Guardian and BBC) are either neutral or anti-Trump.

                  • jerrus on 05/02/2025 - 16:40

                    @ForkSnorter: Thanks for the chat, genuinly feel like this was productive.

              • megaclix on 06/02/2025 - 14:43
                +1

                @ForkSnorter:

                found that both liberals and conservatives were not very good at estimating each others' beliefs

                This would make sense to me. I would expect the ideals of the left to converge around equality, human rights, social justice etc. Whereas for a right wing supporter they could choose 1 or 2 ideals that are relevant to them. (e.g. could care less about capitalism as long as I can have my guns).

                I just want to understand where this has trend/shift has come from. I feel it has been brewing for years, and it is worth exploring the factors that may be behind it.

                I think this could be due to years of LGBTQI+ and left wing woke idealisms being rammed down there throats in high school, and in society. If they try to speak out or have a different opinion, they have been stomped on. Once wrong comment on social media, bang, your cancelled and/or publicly shamed. Only one way out of that - to internalise your own beliefs and fake a 'sincere apology' to appease the lefties.

                I would expect that as time has gone on, they have discovered there is a 'right' side of politics that has been drowned out for so long.

          • Cheap Rich Guy on 05/02/2025 - 22:49

            @ForkSnorter: Imagine how dumb you would’ve been to support Kamala Harris!

      • HelpMeiCantSee on 04/02/2025 - 10:29
        +1

        May I suggest you actually read some of the books Elon suggests before you go on. They are very diverse and cover complex topics, including literature.

        • ForkSnorter on 04/02/2025 - 10:41
          -1

          I had a look at a few alleged lists of books he's read/recommended. There is a fair bit of fantasy and science fiction in there. Not much literature, especially recent literature. Quite a few bestselling biographies and a few rightwing favorites like Ayn Rand. Some basic, well-known popular science books. This isn't really the list of a consistent or deep reader.

          On top of that, since he has lied about playing/being good at video games in order to appeal to gamers, I wouldn't be surprised if he has lied about reading/liking these books.

          Considering the amount of time he spends on Twitter and issuing rightwing propaganda on top of running several companies, I highly doubt he has time to read books. Maybe he gets someone to read them for him, just like he pays someone to play video games for him.

          • krunchymoses on 05/02/2025 - 09:14
            +2

            @ForkSnorter: Chuds are just reflexively downvoting your posts. There is nothing wrong with this - downvoting this is tacitly approving of his latest bizarre stunt - lying about being good at a video game.

            As long as he's against the 'woke mind virus' - he can't do wrong by these folks.

      • tasty-falafel on 04/02/2025 - 11:27
        +7

        It's not video games. It's the internet, and more specifically social media. These days it's completely astroturfed by bots including those from political entities within the country, as well as bad actors overseas such as the Russian bot farms. With the recent advancements in LLM's it's incredibly easy to generate deceptive and misleading information, including realistic comments and AI videos which can be disseminated extremely easily and spread like wildfire before anyone can rebuke them. There's a reason that all the big social media giants in the US have bent the knee to Trump, and taken off the guardrails preventing misinformation in the name of "free speech" - so the right can continue to pump out misinformation and propaganda at lightning speeds to further influence the minds of vulnerable citizens.

      • Jaspa7 on 04/02/2025 - 16:43
        +1

        ..so much easier to label what you don't like than to try to understand it.
        By no means am I an american apologist - they got who they voted for (twice!) and now have to deal with it.
        but try to understand the underlaying issues/tensions that caused it - it's far more complex than "hErP dErp, dUmB fiCtioN & viDeO gAmEs"

        • ForkSnorter on 04/02/2025 - 21:05

          You misread my comment. I didn’t claim video games got Trump elected. I claimed that video games might be partly responsible for a rise in the number of young men with low empathy and low socio-cognitive complexity.

          I don’t think this is simplistic at all.

      • The Wololo Wombat on 04/02/2025 - 17:06

        Fiction is fake. Learn your lessons by reading history instead, real people are always way more nuanced and complex than even the best writing.

        • ForkSnorter on 04/02/2025 - 18:34

          On the other hand, the farther back you go in history, the less we really know about any individual historical person, because there are not enough reliable records. So there is no way to really know the nuance and complexity of their personalities and lives.

          Case in point: it is even disputed whether Shakespeare really wrote the plays attributed to him. We don't even know with 100% certainty whether he wrote the plays that made him so famous (well after his death). If we don't even know this, how much do we really know about the nuances of his personality?

          Another case in point: We don't really know for sure whether Jesus actually existed, because there are no surviving records from his lifetime that mention him.

          Another: If you go back even further to the time of Homer, you are really dealing mostly with legends, and it has even been suggested that Homer was not a single person, and was more likely a group of authors, since the Iliad and Odyssey were passed down orally for centuries before they were written down.

          The lack of historical records leaves large gaps that writers of fiction may be able to fill in with a bit of detective work combined with imagination and knowledge of human psychology. One example is Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall, which won a whole bunch of literary awards including the Booker Prize. It documents the life of Thomas Cromwell (1485-1540). Although Cromwell was definitely a powerful, interesting, clever man who had a large impact on English politics, we don't know much with certainty about his personality or his intentions and motivations. Previous historical and fiction works had portrayed him as a rather nasty, unprincipled man, but Mantel conducted an exhaustive investigation of him and everyone he came into contact with, and used this to re-imagine him in an entirely new light, helping us to see that there may have been all kinds of unexplored explanations for how people behaved in the past. On top of that, her prose is so interesting and self-assured, you can read just to enjoy her use of language.

          • The Wololo Wombat on 04/02/2025 - 18:46
            -1

            @ForkSnorter: It's a good point. It is however, very reasonable to conclude that Jesus existed, even if there are no surviving records during his short life.

            • ForkSnorter on 05/02/2025 - 07:07
              +1

              @The Wololo Wombat:

              It is however, very reasonable to conclude that Jesus existed

              And that's the thing about history. "It's reasonable to conclude". Unless you're talking about the 20th century, the overwhelming majority of history is not much more than an educated guess. The further back you go, the more guesswork is involved. There are a lot of assumptions behind those guesses.

              Even with the 18th and 19th century, a lot of our knowledge about individuals is based on really subjective records like personal letters between friends and family letters. When you go back far enough, there are little-to-no surviving letters and books, so most of our knowledge is based on third-hand records written centuries later, or copies of copies of extracts from books where the original no longer exists, etc. On top of that, ancient chroniclers were not what you would call "scientific", so they can hardly be considered reliable sources of facts.

    • Dr Phil on 04/02/2025 - 09:25
      +1

      Agree

      Just keep on keeping on.

      No need to make or change plans.

      But AS ALWAYS..ensure you have suffuicient savings at hand for unforeseeen circumsyances

  • ramb9 on 03/02/2025 - 13:19
    +21

    You need to build a bunker

    • 87percent on 03/02/2025 - 15:23
      +5

      And invest in tin foil

  • c64 on 03/02/2025 - 13:20
    +4

    yeah, woke up happy only to find out trump is hard at work (profanity) up the global economy

  • kolorijo on 03/02/2025 - 13:23
    +6

    Here we go again… popcorn

  • fantombloo on 03/02/2025 - 13:26
    +1

    Bukarin

    Bakunin > Bukharin

  • prodrome on 03/02/2025 - 13:33
    +9

    Don't buy a Tesla. That brand is deader than dead.

    • dealhunter52 on 03/02/2025 - 13:42
      +5

      You mean Swastikars of the Nazi billionaire?

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1zH2bV_tpk

      • beach bum on 04/02/2025 - 18:47
        +1

        But the VW bug lasted 88years so far if they are still building them in Mexico City for taxis.

        But don’t let distract you from your point .

        But also their longevity was down to the simplistic design and ease of rear motor swap out .
        Those things were so easy to replace even I could do one in the dark after a practice run , and they needed to be as they were practically a grenade in hot Aussie weather.

        Anyway back to your electric kubelwagen story

        • dealhunter52 on 04/02/2025 - 19:04
          +5

          VW CEO is not doing Nazi salutes in 2025, they stopped that in 1945. Otherwise, VW would had been long dead as car company.

          • Do Nazi salutes
          • Blame it on autism
          • Go on to address far right German party
          • beach bum on 04/02/2025 - 19:23

            @dealhunter52: Ah Yes mein Farter
            We do agree , there are no cars built in zee Deutchland anymore and also you are making perfect sense with the pointz .. ya ..ya ..I mean nein .. nein.

            So vas ich address to z party ?

        • whyisave on 04/02/2025 - 22:29
          +3

          VW … 88 years

          ISWYDT

          • beach bum on 04/02/2025 - 22:46

            @whyisave: I see what you did there

            Total guesstimate from mid-thirties when they first made them , but sounded good enough like I might actually know what I’m talking about,
            But I’d be interested in what the conspiracy theory explanation would be?
            Is 88 the calibre of a gun maybe?
            What about Z Party , is it code for the Russsians ?
            and if they made thousands of T-34-85’s, where did they all go?
            Are they or are they not parked in east Germany, Hungry and Romania ready go behind NATO lines?
            And has Putin cloned himself ? And how many Putin’s are there?
            And if one Putin can change a light bulb by himself? do all the other’s even exist?,
            like Schrodinger’s Putin?
            What is even reality if it’s all only perceived from your perspective probably meow !

            • whyisave on 04/02/2025 - 23:18

              @beach bum:

              But I’d be interested in what the conspiracy theory explanation would be?

              Apparently, that car manufacturer and that number, is linked to the 'National Socialists' of that era.

              • beach bum on 04/02/2025 - 23:38
                +1

                @whyisave: Maybe the number resembles the double S that was so popular with their youth league in the 30’s.
                Or maybe it resembles runes and that history they were trying to tap into.
                Or perhaps it’s of Roman origin,
                that culture was very popular with Nat Social
                Hail Cesar was what they were imitating.
                Tsar in Russia was just another version of Cesar
                Even in America its Hail to the Chief in Washington
                It’s all a direision a division and a diversion from the truth

                • whyisave on 05/02/2025 - 00:57
                  +1

                  @beach bum: I don't neg comments, and I didn't neg anything you've said.

                  • beach bum on 05/02/2025 - 06:35
                    +1

                    @whyisave: And I don’t believe anybody’s read them let alone negged them so it’s ok ,
                    It’s just free association/history.

                    Break it down and you remove the mystery/fear from any subject , a little bit anyway.

                    I also like the fact that we have limited negs and unlimited positives to hand out.
                    You see the haters run out of negs in the long arguments after they pile on early trying to wipeout peoples comments.
                    But then the tables are turned and they give up being troll for a day and people come back and make their point .
                    It’s great to see the Karmic Resistance at play.

    • netjock on 03/02/2025 - 13:53
      +5

      Definitely!

      As one commentator put it. If you target Tesla the pain will be felt very quickly. The owner of Tesla don't seem to criticise CCP much because obviously they have his factories and profits at risk.

    • R4 on 03/02/2025 - 18:11
      +14

      Tesla bad but CCP-made cars good.

      Okay, got it.

      • dealhunter52 on 03/02/2025 - 20:33
        +10

        Can't both be bad?

        • R4 on 05/02/2025 - 10:59
          +1

          Not according to many on OzB.

      • HelpMeiCantSee on 04/02/2025 - 10:33
        -5

        Current leftist thinking: communism good, western democracy bad.

        • try2bhelpful on 04/02/2025 - 10:51
          +16

          No, the current thinking is Nazism and fascism is bad.

          Democracy is good and it would be nice if America believed in it as well. The GOP is destroying democracy as we speak and throwing out this huge smokescreen of insanity to distract people from it. They suppress voters, they are removing human rights, they suppress “free speech” if they don’t like, they deny the results of a fair election, they urge armed mobs to attack government buildings, they attack the LBGTQ+ community, they don’t understand the separation of church and state, etc.

          Actually China is a capitalist state. They have barely a veneer of communism left. Funnily enough we don’t tend to see them ranting much against the evils of democracy and capitalism anymore. They spend most of the time just ignoring it. Huge country hard to manage.

          I don’t want to live in China and I don’t want to live in America. I wouldn’t trust either side with my information anymore than I have to. Let’s just say both sides are bad and we need to be cautious how we go.

            • Gervais fanboy on 04/02/2025 - 14:51
              +7

              @trapper: Btw I am with you on almost everything there but..,
              I don’t use Twitter but I have friends that do who have confirmed that Elon has in fact publicly censored accounts coz he didn’t like what they were saying even though they didn’t breach any Twitter guidelines, its not as bad as the what we saw before but hypocritical nonetheless.

              Now that’s in some ways even worse because he made such a big deal about free speech and then faltered so dramatically,

              • trapper on 04/02/2025 - 15:27
                -7

                @Gervais fanboy: If Elon has actually censored accounts for personal reasons, then I will agree that this is undesirable.

                But this doesn't parallel the state imposed censorship machine Biden was operating.

                Elon is the owner of the platform; if you pay $44 billion, you get to run the place.

                • Gervais fanboy on 04/02/2025 - 15:35

                  @trapper: Yes, nothing comparable to what we saw before.
                  I just made the point about him acting out like a child and censoring some accounts which he shouldn’t have, he’s a hypocrite for that.

                  Also, there was this gaming scandal where he egregiously lied about something very insignificant (big deal in the gaming community btw) and then he bloody doubled down on his lies. There’s some obvious concerns around his integrity now.

                  Having said that, most of what the crazies here would say about him and the MSM keeps pushing out - that’s all been BS so far.

                  Regardless, I am very sceptical of him.

                • registradus on 05/02/2025 - 11:22
                  +4

                  @trapper: Elon has absolutely censored accounts for personal reasons

              • Clickbait on 05/02/2025 - 12:54

                @Gervais fanboy: I don’t use Twitter but I have friends that do who have confirmed that Elon has in fact publicly uncensored accounts coz even though he didn’t like what they were saying even though they didn’t breach any Twitter guidelines, its not as bad as the what we saw before but hypocritical nonetheless.

                Now that’s in some ways even worse because he made such a big deal about free speech and then faltered so dramatically,

                a coujpole of words canmake a big difference.

                And that's a lot of detail you got from your friends!

                • Gervais fanboy on 06/02/2025 - 00:49

                  @Clickbait: He did in fact censored accounts who were critical of his stance on H1B1 visas,
                  Censoring someone for having alienate views and denominating them is exactly what he had initially rallied against,

            • try2bhelpful on 04/02/2025 - 14:54
              +6

              @trapper: Have a look at the GOP defunding LBGTQ+ programs and suppressing library funds for places that won’t remove books. Musk is censoring X users and has removed the fact checkers. Trump tried to say a fair election was “stolen”. Free speech is not lying and then suppressing the truth. You are the one who is delusional.

              • trapper on 04/02/2025 - 15:09

                @try2bhelpful: The 'fact' checkers were part of the problem, censoring the truth at Bidens command.

                Community note system is far better, fully transparent and even open source.

                Facebook also following suit on this now too, getting rid of 'fact' checkers.

                Change is happening and it's a great relief.

                • try2bhelpful on 04/02/2025 - 15:17
                  +9

                  @trapper: Honestly mate if that is the rabbit hole you have gone down then there is no reasoning with you. I will leave others to determine the veracity of what both of us are saying.

              • Gervais fanboy on 04/02/2025 - 15:21

                @try2bhelpful:

                GOP defunding LBGTQ+ programs

                Great
                Governments have no role in selectively promoting one sexual lifestyle over others.

                suppressing library funds for places that won’t remove books

                Are you talking about them removing sexually graphic books from tax funded school libraries?

                Musk is censoring X users

                True, it did happen.
                Not anymore. Regardless, it did happen,

                Trump tried to say a fair election was “stolen”

                He’s still saying it btw.
                He’s got no proof other than the blatant Hunter Biden laptop story suppression by a corrupt coordinated effort from Democrats + all intelligence agencies,
                Even MSM polls admit that if that story wasn’t suppressed, Trump would have won.

                Also the 10-15 million extra mail-in votes from 2020 that somehow just disappeared in 2024.

                removed the fact checkers.

                They were acting as Democrat operatives.
                Also the terms clearly stated that fact checkers are meant to be apolitical which they all claimed to be but investigations found that majority of them were either registered Democrats or Democrat donors.
                So they were fraudulent to begin with,

                • try2bhelpful on 04/02/2025 - 15:42
                  +3

                  @Gervais fanboy: I think we have done this dance enough so people can go do their own Googling from sites with good veracity as to who is correct here. I will leave them to do so. Me, I stay away from the conspiracy theory rabbit holes. Thanks for your last few posts. I think this gives people a pretty good idea where both of us are at.

                  • Gervais fanboy on 04/02/2025 - 15:45
                    +2

                    @try2bhelpful:

                    I think we have done this dance enough

                    Which point exactly are you referring to? I believe I can provide you a source for everything I said above but I don’t think that you’ll be able to do the same,

                    Also, stop being performative for the masses, just be honest and direct with what you believe. I didn’t know that this was meant to be a popularity contest.

                    • try2bhelpful on 04/02/2025 - 19:38
                      +1

                      @Gervais fanboy: I am not being performative, I am letting the masses look at our posts and making up their own minds. You have made some extraordinary claims I bet you can’t back up. You are the one who keeps posting when you said you weren’t going to. Honestly mate you do seem a tad obsessed with trying to defend America and throwing out wild conspiracy theories..

                      As I keep saying I don’t think people should trust either of them. I’ve said people should look for sites with veracity. I’m not sure how to express this any other way more plainly. The question is why are you trying to stop people doing so?

                      • Gervais fanboy on 05/02/2025 - 02:17
                        +2

                        @try2bhelpful:

                        claims I bet you can’t back up

                        Like what?

                        who keeps posting when you said you weren’t going to.

                        You thick?
                        That was a different thread, different subject about AI

                        you do seem a tad obsessed with trying to defend America

                        Defend?
                        You are blatantly lying though.
                        I am not allowed to call you out?

                        trying to stop people doing so?

                        Dafuq what

                        You are lying, I called you out. Simple,

                  • Clickbait on 05/02/2025 - 13:12
                    +1

                    @try2bhelpful: Why not ask chatgpt how many Covid conspiracy theories have been proven correct.
                    Some readers may never heard about any of this
                    Look up Jay Bhattacharya who authored the Great Barrington Decaration, and denounced as a Conspiracy theorist.
                    MSM persecuted him relentlessly for 4 years.
                    However, outside the MSM he retained his positions as Stanford's Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging. Additionally, he maintains positions as a senior fellow by courtesy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and as a research associate at both Acumen LLC and the National Bureau of Economic Research.

                    Last Year he won the The Barry Prize for Distinguished Intellectual Achievement is the Academy’s premier recognition of excellence in scholarship from American Academy of Sciences and Letters https://academysciencesletters.org/members/
                    Membership is <>50 top American universities

                    Now he is a Trump Pick. MSM followers will pick this line to respond to, because that is how they a propagandised/programmed

                • registradus on 05/02/2025 - 11:23
                  +3

                  @Gervais fanboy: they're not "promoting one sexual lifestyle" they're supporting minorities

                  • Gervais fanboy on 05/02/2025 - 11:58
                    -2

                    @registradus: And the specific minority in question here is by definition a sexual orientation/lifestyle.
                    Is it not?
                    You can repackage it however you want.

                    Regardless, it’s not government’s business to fund this. But yeah, enforce liberty and protect everyone from harm and discrimination. Anything beyond that is unacceptable.

            • naturaldecay on 04/02/2025 - 15:16
              +1

              @trapper: I think the idea that whomever is in power supresses speech they don't like is fairly uncontroversial. Don't forget though that Trump signed an executive order aimed at limiting the legal protections (Section 230) that shield social media companies from liability for what their users say. This is a direct attack on freedom of speech, if that is what concerns you. Musk is a petulant man child who took a small financial hit to buy twitter, in my mind, for the sole purpose of spreading misinformation and pro trump narratives. That seems counter free speech to me.

              Let us accept what you are saying, though- it may be true that the trump administration values free speech more than the democrats. First, i wouldn't argue and i don't think anyone would argue that unlimited free speech is good. If you scream from the rooftops about fires or bombs or poisoned water or whatever, depending on who you were this could cause a lot of suffering. There are limits to speech.

              Secondly, the more concerning thing is that an unelected megalomaniac is currently firing US public servants because they aren't giving him classified documents fast enough (elon's DOGE). This should be a point of unity for everyone, left or right. Why are we surrendering sovreignty to a private citizen who is really rich, petty and has only his own interests at heart? Ok, so he is liberalising the self-censorship culture and maybe removing some restrictions. Is that a worthwhile exchange for the precedent we're setting?

              • Gervais fanboy on 04/02/2025 - 15:27
                +5

                @naturaldecay:

                Don't forget though that Trump signed an executive order aimed at limiting the legal protections (Section 230) that shield social media companies from liability for what their users say

                Mate

                Social media companies has special protections provided by the Congress coz they were claiming to be a platform and not a publisher.
                They clearly abused that privilege by acting as a publisher and censoring selective political speech.

                Trump basically threatened them to stop with the partisanship, as Facebook was admittingly acting both as a platform and a publisher. Zuckerberg talked about this in detail on the JRE.

                So no, Trump didn’t suppress free speech but threatened to revoke special privileges given to social media as they were the ones in breach.

              • trapper on 04/02/2025 - 15:40

                @naturaldecay:

                There are limits to speech.

                These limits should only be defined by law, not through illegal government pressure and manipulation.

                I think Elon’s approach is the correct one: just follow the law. If you want to change the rules, then you need to change the law.

            • Protractor on 04/02/2025 - 17:37
              -4

              @trapper: Your the delusional one. Hate speech is not free speech.It's free hate. Musk is a neo Nazi, Nazi saluting, anti SAfrican govt, pro rich white SAfrican money & power insecure bald man with a racist a 100% agenda.Much like the dog whistler wannabe in Straya.
              The Grand Wizard in the White House doesn't even hide his M.O. And it's going to end very badly.Either he lets Musk filter out and sack all the democrats in the govt public service and lose all the support that ripples out from that, and all the economic support, or randomly gut the govt employee base, which includes MAGAphiles.
              Brain farts always looks good on paper to Trump, and the gimps around him, his OS fanbois and his sponsors.
              I love that Trump & Musk are in power. It's the war we have to have. And it will be home based, and foreign actors.All at the same time. You think everyone in the military loves what he's doing? How many loose canons do you reckon he;s already created. I just love this mess. Bring it.

              • trapper on 04/02/2025 - 18:45
                +5

                @Protractor: Most of what you said is hateful, should you be censored?

                • Protractor on 04/02/2025 - 18:58
                  -1

                  @trapper: How? It's happening right now as described.

                  The MSmedia is run by and for the RWNJ tribe, who only read their bile, and swear by anything goes, speech wise .I'm literally right between your goal posts.

              • dealhunter52 on 04/02/2025 - 19:49

                @Protractor: I hate Trump as much as any person with few functioning brain cells will do, but don't keep comparing Australian politics with US politics.

                Trump and Dutton are not the same and we don't want to be one party country. Leaders should be judged on their work, not based on rumours or hearsay.

                • Protractor on 04/02/2025 - 21:39
                  -1

                  @dealhunter52: Non rumours. >Dutton, when foreign minister went to Trump in the USA. Since then he has become a clone, but only after catching covid while over there, and bringing it back to our country and then into the parliament.
                  (how soon we forget)
                  We are a state of America in all but name.The same moronic political tactic as Trump is now here. As are plans to make us a military base and nuclear car park and dumping ground. NFL adorns our screens. 80% of commercial TV is American effluent.
                  They own are mineral arse.They are the greatest user of energy here (alumina)
                  Dutton is using the same scare mongering,exaggerating and lies as Trump. The sheep here are stupid and vote for bullies, as per the uSA. What is NOT the same apart from the gun death toll on the daily business as usual roll out of carnage updates on American news?.
                  We are Americas bitch, and Dutton is all but Trumps.

                  • dealhunter52 on 04/02/2025 - 21:48
                    +1

                    @Protractor:

                    Non rumours. >Dutton, when foreign minister went to Trump in the USA. Since then he has become a clone, but only after catching covid while over there, and bringing it back to our country and then into the parliament.

                    Do you realise how stupid that argument is? It's like saying if you met Michael Jackson, you will learn to moon walk. Leaders of 2 allied countries have to meet at some point. Meeting someone doesn't make your their clone.

                    They own are mineral arse.

                    If you had your facts right, you would realise most of our minerals are owned and exported to China. But you're too biased to realise this.

                    Dutton is using the same scare mongering,exaggerating and lies as Trump.

                    Can you provide some proof of scare mongering? I believe in facts not rumours or hearsay.

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