Canada

Yeah, I remember watching speeches by Hitler back when I was in school. I didn't understand German so I didn't know what he was saying, but I could at least appreciate that the Nazis knew how to project power and competence.

I always understood the fascist aesthetic to be something very macho, very serious-seeming, etc. I always thought the idea was that you had an incredibly charismatic strong-man leader who had all the answers. And, given that, I could understand how people could be taken in.

But, the MAGA aesthetic is so ugly. Their rhetoric is so unserious. Their leader is so old, fat and caked in orange makeup, and he sounds like an absolute moron. The people attending the rallies do comical things like wearing diapers. And yet, half the US looks at that and thinks: yeah, I'll vote for them.

And then there's Elon Musk. Every time he opens his mouth it's less and less believable that anything he ever did was the result of skill or competence. Any time he talks about programming or system administration it's clear he has no fucking clue what he's talking about. When he talks about gaming he claims he's one of the top players in the world, and yet it's obvious he's barely played the games involved. But, apparently Americans are so brainwashed that being rich means you're "a genius".

I hated George W. Bush, but at least I could understand how some people found his schtick endearing. I could understand how he harnessed people's fear and hate and turned it into support for his "war on terrah". But, with Trump my opinion of Americans has gone down to the lowest level ever. This is what works for you? Really??