@thor
> i don’t know about that. America started getting visibly wonky at least as early as 9/11.

indeed, but from what i recall obama was made fun of etc. but the idea that he was illegitimately president was not widely accepted. after trump won the democrats had a real meltdown with all the talk about vote fraud and russian psyops. that was pandoras box, and might be their undoing.

> what i’m seeing is a two-sided propaganda war, and it’s unclear to me who started it.

from my pov, many things i read from the republican side is more like the classic "freedom ends where my freedom begins" stance, where democrats want to force approval of certain ideas by regulation.

> it might be an exaggeration to say that Trump flat out endorsed autocratic regimes, but his chummy way of namedropping them was most certainly unusual. he has a very unorthodox style. as for peace in general, US presidents have a mixed record. one thing his presidency caused was concern within NATO that the US is no longer a reliable partner. he also withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement, which was signed by every single country in the world, and the WHO. these actions looked pretty bizarre, from the POV of the rest of the world.

imho NATO is evil. agreements with russia over not expanding further east are broken. if this would be the other way around, NATO would already have started a war. i think it trump reducing NATO involvement actually was a good idea, at least for reducing the chances of WW3.

paris agreement isn't worth the paper it's printed on. china alone does more to reduce their impact on the co2 emissions (e.g. by big wind energy rollout) than any country in the west, all while being the factory of the world. WHO by large isn't as trustworthy as it has been, because it accepts contributions (and thus control) by oligarchs.

> i think “bizarre” is a pretty good description of Trump’s presidency. “does he know what he is saying? does he know what he is doing?”

bizarre is a good description. it was more fun than now though, at least from the outside :)