[Tainari88]

I found this interview with Steve Bannon very interesting. What is your opinion?

[Sivad]

if you want to understand what's going on with those bitter clingers in that basket of deplorables then you should be paying attention to Bannon.

here's the 2nd interview:

[Sivad]

Michael Lind, although not a populist, also gives a pretty insightful analysis:

[SpecialOlympian]

https://youtu.be/pm5xxlajTW0


I found this interview with Steve Bannon very interesting. What is your opinion?

Didn't bother to watch it but I would take anything Bannon says with a grain of salt. His first moves after getting to the White House were to pick a fight with the president's daughter and then get himself labeled as "Trump's Brain" by the media, stealing the spotlight and claiming credit from the world's most well known narcissist. That's why he was out so fast. He's nowhere near the political genius he puts himself out to be. His credentials before that were "ran a racist website" and "did a lot of speed."

[JohnRawls]

https://youtu.be/pm5xxlajTW0


I found this interview with Steve Bannon very interesting. What is your opinion?

Basic Banon interview. He rarely does them out of bounds of the same topics. His interviews where he goes in to the basis of his ideology or ideology itself instead of Trump or work are much more interesting. Also his experiences from travelling in Europe are quite interesting.

[Tainari88]

Didn't bother to watch it but I would take anything Bannon says with a grain of salt. His first moves after getting to the White House were to pick a fight with the president's daughter and then get himself labeled as "Trump's Brain" by the media, stealing the spotlight and claiming credit from the world's most well known narcissist. That's why he was out so fast. He's nowhere near the political genius he puts himself out to be. His credentials before that were "ran a racist website" and "did a lot of speed."

You think I like this Bannon pendejo? I don't. But what he says about the Right and what they are about and what they want to accomplish should be listened to.

You have to see Special Olympian that these mentalities are there and they got an agenda. How does one change that and makes things hard for them? You have to realize that the message has to appeal to a wide group of people.

And many of these Bannon types tell their working class audiences and other middle class audiences that the reason why the USA is in trouble is about someone taking something from them. What should the message be if that is what they are manipulating people with?

You are a rare man Special Olympian. What do you think the counter message might be?

[fokker]

Another interview with Steve Bannon about Europe. I think lot of what he says also applies to US.

[SpecialOlympian]

You think I like this Bannon pendejo? I don't. But what he says about the Right and what they are about and what they want to accomplish should be listened to.

You have to see Special Olympian that these mentalities are there and they got an agenda. How does one change that and makes things hard for them? You have to realize that the message has to appeal to a wide group of people.

And many of these Bannon types tell their working class audiences and other middle class audiences that the reason why the USA is in trouble is about someone taking something from them. What should the message be if that is what they are manipulating people with?

You are a rare man Special Olympian. What do you think the counter message might be?

I have read stuff about Steve Bannon but have never read anything where he actually did something for Trump's campaign.

Like apparently his biggest accomplishment before getting fired was creating that ad that aired a few days before the election that had some antisemitic overtones.

We are talking about a guy whose first move when he got to the White House was to pick a fight with the president's daughter, literally the only person aside from himself that Trump could conceivably care about. Bannon spent the rest of his time talking himself up to every reporter who visited and was repeatedly cited in Michael Wolff's Under Siege book because Bannon kept an open office for him. This is not a man who actually wanted to influence politics. His actions make more sense if you consider how well he promoted himself, to the point where he was fired for stealing the spotlight from Trump. In contrast, Stephen Miller is equally racist and foul and has kept his head down and his name out of the press so that he can actually do racism at the federal level.

Since then Bannon has done a bunch of dumb grifter bullshit like rent an old monastery in Italy to create a Breitbart Internet Influencer training camp. Which sounds like a grift to me. It wasn't successful, btw.

There are literally no actual thinkers in the reactionary world. All of them are grifters who want your money. Bannon had a chance to actually be involved with policy in the White House and he spent that time telling reporters he was Trump's brain just so he could get his name out there before he was fired. Anything he says is just to continue the grift train because, again, there are no actual right wing thinkers. They all want to sell you gold or food buckets or racist blogging bootcamps and other dumb bullshit.

Bannon had a chance to actually do shit and pissed it away, because he doesn't actually want to do shit. Like everyone else around Trump he saw a way to enhance his own grift. The only reason he does interviews is to keep his name out there so the next sucker will buy his bullshit.

[JohnRawls]

I have read stuff about Steve Bannon but have never read anything where he actually did something for Trump's campaign.

Like apparently his biggest accomplishment before getting fired was creating that ad that aired a few days before the election that had some antisemitic overtones.

We are talking about a guy whose first move when he got to the White House was to pick a fight with the president's daughter, literally the only person aside from himself that Trump could conceivably care about. Bannon spent the rest of his time talking himself up to every reporter who visited and was repeatedly cited in Michael Wolff's Under Siege book because Bannon kept an open office for him. This is not a man who actually wanted to influence politics. His actions make more sense if you consider how well he promoted himself, to the point where he was fired for stealing the spotlight from Trump. In contrast, Stephen Miller is equally racist and foul and has kept his head down and his name out of the press so that he can actually do racism at the federal level.

Since then Bannon has done a bunch of dumb grifter bullshit like rent an old monastery in Italy to create a Breitbart Internet Influencer training camp. Which sounds like a grift to me. It wasn't successful, btw.

There are literally no actual thinkers in the reactionary world. All of them are grifters who want your money. Bannon had a chance to actually be involved with policy in the White House and he spent that time telling reporters he was Trump's brain just so he could get his name out there before he was fired. Anything he says is just to continue the grift train because, again, there are no actual right wing thinkers. They all want to sell you gold or food buckets or racist blogging bootcamps and other dumb bullshit.

Bannon had a chance to actually do shit and pissed it away, because he doesn't actually want to do shit. Like everyone else around Trump he saw a way to enhance his own grift. The only reason he does interviews is to keep his name out there so the next sucker will buy his bullshit.

Not really true SO. I can't say that Bannons ego is not a problem in this sense but he is definitely not just a talker. The reason Breitbart became such a topic after the election is because he used it as a tool to support Trump in many circumstances even when it went against the norms of the republican party for example. He also made his input in to the victory that Trump has achieved. You can't solely identify one person who is responsible for Trumps victory but Bannons input was one of the largest if you don't consider Trump himself. He was very crucial at winning the republican primary because he was one of the people that has shown unwavering support to Trump compared to other candidates.

The video mentions this a bit but Bannon was basically a Tea Partier previously so it took quite some effort to do this for him. Ultimately this happened because Trump and Bannons ideologies are quite similar. Not excatly the same but similar.

As for @Tainari88 point of view, i think that she is 100% correct. You need to at least understand the argument that Bannon is making and the underlying reasons for his ideology. At least if you want to do anything about it as a follower of different views. Bannons idea, at his core, are very similar to leftist ideas and that is why it attracts the working masses and the middle class. The solutions that he provides are different. In a sense alt-right and the left have the same griefs/problems with the system although they might favour different solutions.

Centrists like me find it fascinating though for a whole different reason. There is a chance to unify both the left and the right with his ideas but it requires specific context of sorts. This is a quite interesting topic that Bannon touches on his travels in Europe. (Italian situation) Think of it this way, we have skinster on this forum but once Bernie lost, she was far more favorable to Trump than Clinton. I would argue that if she was forced to vote and could vote in that situation than she would have voted Trump instead of Clinton.

Also you can make some conclusions out of what Bannon says and concrete ways on how to hurt the alt-right in the US if you are in that sort of thing. Biden is what the alt-right would prefer to go against in the election. Bernie and Warren are not as good as Biden regarding this but also not a big problem because it is possible to stigmatize them. But obscure candidates, with not a lot of actual Senate/House experience are their nightmare, especially who are local leaders who have done a good job. Basically O'Rourke types and Butigeg. Young, white, not part of the swamp, usually supported locally, progressive to some degree but not over the top, religious, appealing to classical R voters, etc

[SpecialOlympian]

You're seriously overestimating the reach of Breitbart. Most people had never heard of it outside the context of "Trump advisor has racist website" (it literally had a Black Crimes section so you know Maz was a fan). If anything, R/The_Donald was 1,000x more influential than Breitbart.

[late]

You're seriously overestimating the reach of Breitbart.

Nope.

They managed to plant disinformation in the New York Times, repeatedly make social media go viral with falsehoods, play propaganda pattycake with Putin, and more.

[SpecialOlympian]

The disinformation is just the NYT Op-Ed page.

[late]

The disinformation is just the NYT Op-Ed page.

Actually, sometimes it is. But they manage to do a few excellent op-eds a week, which more than you can say about most media outlets.

But you are ignoring, and dodging, the obvious here.

Breitbart is a propaganda machine, it was created to drown the truth in a tidal wave of BS. Ask Bannon, he's said so himself...

[Cartertonian]

I found this interview with Steve Bannon very interesting. What is your opinion?

My opinion is that I don't have 2 hours and 26 minutes spare to watch anyone, let alone Steve Bannon.

What was the gist of it?

[SpecialOlympian]

Actually, sometimes it is. But they manage to do a few excellent op-eds a week, which more than you can say about most media outlets.

But you are ignoring, and dodging, the obvious here.

Breitbart is a propaganda machine, it was created to drown the truth in a tidal wave of BS. Ask Bannon, he's said so himself...

I don't know what part of my posts indicated that it was legitimate. Breitbart under Andrew Breitbart certainly had a feedback loop with Fox News. Under Bannon? It was more focused on promoting names like Milo Yiannapoulis, who the average person has never heard of.

[Beren]

The spin doctor that can't stop spinning - around himself.

[Tainari88]

My opinion is that I don't have 2 hours and 26 minutes spare to watch anyone, let alone Steve Bannon.

What was the gist of it?

The gist of it is that the establishment politicians are sold out to corporations who don't really serve the conventional working class and middle class white family. They are not patriotic and are trying to change the fabric of American society and have the lower classes pay for the out of control spending, bailouts of Wall Street crowd, and to serve the interests of a liberal elite that is rotten and a Republican party that tries to be politically correct and bring a type of compromise that they are feeling betrayed by Cartertonian.

They want to destroy the elites and the liberals whom they associate with hypocrisy because they are wealthy and powerful liberals, and the neo liberal trickle down econonics has not served them well.

My theory is that the white middle and lower classes in the USA don't seem to understand that the elite have been cutting benefits, wages and keeping things squeezed and stuck in flatness for a while.....all over the world. And the white Americans in the past were not really sacrificed before for the expansion of the wealth. Now they are. They feel the pinch and want things to go back to what they were before. Before multiculturalism, and feminism and all the isms they disagree with.

They want a USA that is not shy about being the center of the world. Or some such bullshit. But that is the right for you.

They don't want to lose their power by sharing it with some liberal lawyers like Obama or Warren, or Sanders socialist throwbacks from the sixties. They want an advanced and modern society but that insulates the pain of globalism and capitalism to other nations not theirs. That is the problem.

[SpecialOlympian]

My theory is that the white middle and lower classes in the USA don't seem to understand that the elite have been cutting benefits, wages and keeping things squeezed and stuck in flatness for a while.....all over the world. A

They absolutely do, they just believe it's not being targeted at them. That's why they've been saying shit like "welfare queens get chauffeured around around in Rolls Royces" since Reagan. This idea is not sold to them in a very complex manner, it's just dog whistling. They're absolutely fine with hurting others for no reason with zero gain.

Honesty the rest of what you described sounds like socialism, but for white people, with nationalist qualities. A sort of national socialism, if you will.

[Tainari88]

They absolutely do, they just believe it's not being targeted at them. That's why they've been saying shit like "welfare queens get chauffeured around around in Rolls Royces" since Reagan. This idea is not sold to them in a very complex manner, it's just dog whistling. They're absolutely fine with hurting others for no reason with zero gain.

Honesty the rest of what you described sounds like socialism, but for white people, with nationalist qualities. A sort of national socialism, if you will.

Special Olympian I have lived in the United States for many decades. Another part of my life in Latin America. I see a lot. And for me white people in general in the USA, if you scratch them hard? Are prone to go fascist. They will let that reptilian brain Rapaille talks about overshadow everything....and since they are not the most educated people in terms of talking about how global capitalism works and they don't study history or tolerate multiculturalism well because let us face it? Most white Americans in the USA don't know shit about their own white ethnic background, like if they have some German or Dutch or Irish, or Romanian, or Polish in their background do they speak Gaelic, German, Dutch, Romanian, Polish anymore? No, they don't. Totally assimilated to English speaking, commercial, credit card carrying consumerism and aspirations to a nice lifestyle. They are not analyzing the reasons why they are feeling the pinch.

They just think it is the liberals who love the dark hordes invading their job sites....or the Chinese taking their manufacturing jobs, or the Black Africans driving taxis for a living in NYC or Chicago....or the Vietnamese manicurist ladies taking little Cindy's job....that kind of shit thinking. Scapegoating and blaming and they don't want to blame white billionaire conmen for their troubles....it has to be the óthers...because their logic doesn't exist. They are in the fear mode. Fearing change and having black men in the white house talking smoothly about there is no red state America, or blue state America, only the United States of America.

Special Olympian when I was in Latin America, the latinoamericanos have never been people easily fooled by stories of rich elites being on their side. Never. Not once in all of our histories has it ever occurred to us that some rich elite Hidalgo de Tal....type is on the side of the fruit seller or the bracero or the lower classes, factory workers or peasants or some low-on-the-totem-pole person. The problem with the USA is that the white lower classes are either indifferent and never vote, or never get involved politically or they are ripe for a fascist dumb message about the darkies are taking your jobs. They need to unite as one with every single person in the USA that is disenchanted with these trickle down neoliberal shit theories of wealth distribution they got going on here....and if they kick those elites off the power seat and take over? They might have a chance to lead the world into a new era of realigning the USA's role in the world into one of peaceful co-existence, instead of 20 years of incessant wars where the warmongers are the only ones winning that scenario, where they can actually do something about climate change, and about flat wages and affordable housing, and affordable and free college and free and universal health care.

But if they do what I suspect is the inner character of these white people with weak histories and no knowledge of who they are as a class? That they allow their distrust of the other to be their guiding principles in life? That they fall into cruelty and outright discrimination and racist shit thoughts? They will elect a form of fascist leadership that will destroy any semblance of order, peace and world prosperity.

They will effectively destroy their own futures. But that is what you get for listening to bullshit and either not doing something about it or believing all that shit as the solution.

People learn through the fires of historic defeats and historic pain too. That is reality in the way history teaches us all important lessons in what works and what doesn't Special Olympian.

[late]

But if they do what I suspect is the inner character of these white people with weak histories and no knowledge of who they are as a class? That they allow their distrust of the other to be their guiding principles in life? That they fall into cruelty and outright discrimination and racist shit thoughts? They will elect a form of fascist leadership that will destroy any semblance of order, peace and world prosperity.

They will effectively destroy their own futures. But that is what you get for listening to bullshit and either not doing something about it or believing all that shit as the solution.

Good point.