Ex-Trump Aide Says Trump’s Use of ‘Riggers’ Isn’t a Racial ‘Dogwhistle – It’s a Bullhorn’

Flying Squid@lemmy.world to politics @lemmy.world – 437 points –
Ex-Trump Aide Says Trump’s Use of ‘Riggers’ Isn’t a Racial ‘Dogwhistle – It’s a Bullhorn’
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I mean... It's one letter off.

"People that annoy you"

Can we refer to Trump as "that rigger guy" from now on?

i’d honestly like to remember it but i also don’t want to say it. not only is it racist, it’s fucking stupid.

like the people that say libtards or magats, we get it. you don’t wike the bad peeepow. you godda caw dem bawd names so you can feew gewd.

this is just a more fucking racist version of the stupidest childish playground tacitics of name calling that both sides of the isles’ idiots can’t help but say.

that being said, gravy seals and meal team 6 are great and hilarious. it’s just stupid shit like democRAT. oh ho ho! it’s got rat in it? MY FUCKING FIVE YEAR-OLD NIECE COMES UP WITH MORE CREATIVE INSULTS.

Rats are lovely and kinder to their own than we are.

I just don't know why he doesn't just come out and say it. Who does he think he's fooling?

Brought to you by the "let's go Brandon" people.

It's about pissing us off and making us waste time explaining how they're being shitty

He wouldn't lose a single supporter. Probably gain a ton.

Several others are one off. (Not too defend them, but to make a stupid point about words.)

Bob Igger (his last name. Do not just Google his last name at work.) Digger Figger (actual word) Gigger (again an actual word)

Anyway, this is boring.

Edit: it has come to my attention that done people are actually doing the "rhymes with" thing with cruel intent. (Not here, but elsewhere.) Just thought I would, sadly, point that out. Leaving this because it doesn't matter anyway.

You mean Bob Iger? The CEO of Disney and curator of Ron DeSantis's nightmares?

I don't live where they are, so I don't often have occasion to, but I get nervous talking about chiggers.

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Eh ... I'm not convinced.

We have an inexhaustible supply of real and unambiguous crimes and other offenses that we can pin on him.

I think it unnecessarily muddies the water to even bother with something this ambiguous.

The guy is on trial for RICO charges, and in all likelihood will see seeing a 5-year prison sentence for ORGANIZED CRIME in trying to overthrow a lawful election.

Let's just keep talking about that. And these fact that we have it on tape that he was asking the Georgia Secretary of State to "find" exactly the number of votes Trump needed to overturn the election he lost.

Yeah I agree. trump is racist AF, we don't need to strain and stretch to make him racist even in the event that he isn't being 100% racist.

I don't have any faith that he'll see a jail cell. I wish I could be like you.

The RICO charge carries a mandatory 5 years that can't be pardoned and can't be paroled. And RICO is stunningly easy to get a conviction on. It was built to catch mob bosses who directed activity but didn't get their hands dirty.

Until the RICO charge, I didn't think he'd see prison either... but now... looks pretty good.

Unrealistic optimism aside, the chances of any of these cases getting to trial before the 2024 election are slim. Trump is a master of delay tactics, and even the prosecution seems willing to defer to him in ways that they wouldn't do for any other defendant. Add 19 co-defendants to the mix and the chances of trial before the election drop like a rock.

And prosecutors need to stop dog-piling the charges on. Not that he doesn't deserve it. But every new set of charges lends credibility to the argument he makes saying "I have so many legal cases on my plate that I cannot adequately contribute to my own defense, therefore we need to delay this trial." .

And he's 77 years old, living on a steady diet of big macs, and essentially already living on borrowed time. There's the very real possibility he could simply drop dead of natural causes long before he's ever in real danger of seeing the inside of a prison cell.

There's the very real possibility he could simply drop dead of natural causes long before he's ever in real danger of seeing the inside of a prison cell.

We can only hope. . . .

He certainly can contribute to his own defense. He is choosing to run for president (to try and avoid accountability for his crimes). If he seriously wanted to beat the charges, he could suspend his campaign.

He is a defendant, and a rich one at that. There are countless defendants in cases every day that have to choose between hiring sufficient counsel that can offer a good defense and paying rent or buying groceries for their children.

Trump is affluent enough (and has enough people willing to donate to pay his legal bills) to be able to focus on these charges and nothing else, but he tries to get sympathy for his own choices.

I have none to offer him.

Why would he suspend his campaign? It's his campaign that's paying his legal bills. If he suspended campaigning he'd have to pay for all that shit out of the $2 Billion Jared got from the Saudis.

He certainly can contribute to his own defense. He is choosing to run for president (to try and avoid accountability for his crimes). If he seriously wanted to beat the charges, he could suspend his campaign.

He is being charged in four different jurisdictions and counting up and down the east coast, not counting his civil lawsuits. Yes, he absolutely should suspend his campaign. But he's not going to because even he knows it's the only way he's avoiding being found guilty. But even if he weren't a presidential candidate, asking one person to be able to competently contribute to their own defense in multiple jurisdictions in such a short time becomes more unreasonable with each case. You're absolutely correct if we're talking about one case or even two. But once you're talking about so many charges in so many jurisdictions in just one year, and the argument that he can't competently contribute to his own defense becomes more and more valid. And the last thing you want is an appeals court throwing a conviction out later based on that.

Of course, the simple way he could have avoided the issue is to not commit crimes in the first place, but here we are. And even Trump deserves to be able to competently contribute to his own defense.

He is a defendant, and a rich one at that. There are countless defendants in cases every day that have to choose between hiring sufficient counsel that can offer a good defense and paying rent or buying groceries for their children.

Oh he absolutely has the resources to hire competent counsel (assuming he can find any willing to take him on). But those legal teams would have to worry about 1 case each. He still has to participate in four. You would be describing a situation of ineffective counsel. I'm talking about the sheer number of cases in such a short time impacting his ability to contribute to his own defense.

Trump is affluent enough (and has enough people willing to donate to pay his legal bills) to be able to focus on these charges and nothing else, but he tries to get sympathy for his own choices.

I have none to offer him.

I don't think anybody does. But I want him to be able to contribute to his own defense competently when he's found guilty so the case doesn't get thrown out on appeal.

Hah I thought it was for those that rigged (allegedly (falsely)) the election. A group of riggers. Who rig.

How naive of me. This is worse

I caught on to the use of "riggers" when I noticed it was only black election workers that they were going after.

I thought he was angry at the lighting electricians and the people putting sails up on his boats

I'm having hard time believing it's something other than just people who rig. Seems like the more likely explanation than him wanting to drop the most thinly veiled n-bomb possible and managing to make it clever too.

I’m not sure Trump is bright enough to use a dog whistle. He’s more of a shoot them in the middle of 5th avenue guy.

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I hate when people talk like this

The fact that he’s introducing race into this prosecution surprises me, it’s disgusting, it’s textbook Donald Trump, but it comes as no surprise.

So surprise or no?

"I was surprised, but I shouldn't have been."

Yea, the phrase "in retrospect" or something like it should sit in the middle there in the original, for clarity. It's technically not incorrect to imply it but damn does it look like bad writing.

Just shitty journalism. They're not wrong, but they're bad at their job

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He is racist, but not clever in any way, I think he meant a made up word in his bullshit accusation, I don't think he was trying to be racist here.

Someone else said it and he repeated it, or someone else wrote the tweet. It was absolutely intended to be racist.

Yall know rigger is a real word right? Like, I work with a group of people explicitly called riggers. They rig stuff up. Use cranes, chain falls, shit like that?

Trump is using a dogwhistle though.

Yeah it’s also a common term in the bdsm community for people who like tying people up. But he definitely isn’t referring to them.

Some people don’t get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to dog whistles.

Fair point, but I guess I meant, it's a word that doesn't have a definition attached to it that has anything to do with how he used it.

It is probably something he heard somewhere and he liked how close it sounds.

They accuse one side of “They want to take your pickup truck. They want to rebuild your home. They want to take away your hamburgers.” - while on the other side, they themselves want to take nothing serious, just your freedom and democracy,

He’s obviously racist AF, but I doubt this is a dog whistle. Guy is too fucking stupid and impulsive to attribute some kind of intent to his word vomit.

He's stupid in a lot of ways, but he's popular as a speaker for a reason, and he has done a lot of dog whistling in his life. This is just the most blatant. I do think it is intentional.

He's popular as a speaker because he "tells it like it is", which roughly translates to "he says the quiet racist parts out loud". I agree that this probably isn't a dog whistle. Or, it probably wasn't. It definitely is now, and I fully anticipate seeing someone wearing a shirt that colorfully uses the word "rigger".

This is where I’m at. He makes up stupid fucking words all the time. But those that follow him will absolutely run with it to “own the libs.” I’m not even sure they would’ve picked up on it if it were a dog whistle. Maybe in the context of the rest of the trial it reads that way, but I haven’t been following the shit coming out of his mouth. But strictly because there’s been a big deal made of it, it’s now ripe for those dimwits utilizing it “as a joke,” and then it’ll just turn into another in a long list of things that IS a dog whistle with some modicum of deniability

"Telling it like it is" is basically= your racist uncles tirades and memes on Facebook.

I knew that asshole was gonna win when he started speaking like a Sentient Facebook Feed.

he’s popular as a speaker for a reason

I think he has a natural talent to listen to what gets a rise out of people, what gets a reaction, and then copy that in his own way. What he says, once transcribed to written form, is often not very intelligent. It's his mannerism and even his unique makeup and hair - that people listen to far more than his actual meaning. I find people who think Trump is a great person often have serious difficulty interpreting and understanding hard sciences like chemistry and physics... and are influenced by advertising techniques in particular ways.

You overestimate them. Simple-minded folks have serious difficulty reasonning about any concept that require you to either :

  1. Think of an abstract concept.

  2. Hold and evaluate a thought they don't agree with

  3. Any sort of application of logic and critical thinking requiring you to evaluate more than 1 or 2 elements in serie.

Their mind reset after making 1 "logical" deduction. Leaving them unable to evaluate both premises and arguments, or abstract concepts, or hold contradicting thoughts for evaluation, or any sort of concrete mental modeling of anything but the simplest cause to effect situations.

In that sense, the dumbest amongst us are not just incapable to do sciences, they can barely comprehend the very simple things surrounding them. They survive by gut-feeling, learned patterns, groupthink, and are driven by emotions (since it is all they have).

I just can’t believe this selfish lying fuckwit would think that everyone would be on his side.

I think he lacks the mental faculties to do something like this. He’s a simpleton.

Pretty sure a 3rd grader could figure out that "riggers" sounds a whole lot like a really naughty word for black people, which is about where he's at mentally.

It's exactly what a 3rd grader would do...

Say a word that sounds real close to a word they can't say. Then when called out say that it's not the same word and no one can be mad they said it.

So yeah, probably intentional

Yes, but you’re attributing forethought to trump’s choice of words. That is not his forte.

Regardless of whether he intended the visual/spelling similarity, I guarantee that his image of election riggers is exactly as racially coded as his image of "urban" Americans.

You aren't far off in your assessment of Trump's mental maturity. He by his own admission has the temperament of a first grader

He’s definitely deficient as a human but never mistake the fool act for actually being a fool. More than anyone else in contemporary American society, Trump truly understands how to play to the lowest common denominator of his base

Stop giving him the benefit of the doubt.

Christ. You people don’t get it. I am saying he’s too fucking stupid to do this. Not that he wouldn’t do it it if he were capable.

He is fully capable of using dogwhistles that let people like you dismiss them as unintentional.

No, YOU don't get it. Stupid and evil aren't mutually exclusive and whether you realize you're doing it or not you're providing cover for fascists.

Doesn't take too high of an IQ to come up with this dog whistle.

Why do you think you know him better than one of his former assistants?

For one thing, I would never agree to be his assistant, therefore ranking me orders of magnitude higher in observational capability than his former assistant.

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I live in a very protected part of the world. I once thought the N word was "No", and that was why people hated it so much.

Ya know, the first time I read that I thought an aide must have swapped his N and R keys. But I was just making a little joke about it.

All I can think about is Epic Rap Battles of History: https://youtu.be/Kbryz0mxuMY?t=171

What's happened to them? They were so popular, and still would be if they kept releasing videos. Now it's one or maybe two a year.

Presumably they have other projects on the go. Anyone know what, exactly, their day jobs are?

NicePeter had a drug and alcohol addiction and only recently considered himself sober. He and the others intend to return to ERB, but yeah, that was kinda an issue that he needed to work through first.

They went independent again a couple years ago, which is great for creative freedom but necessarily means they have fewer resources. I'm glad they're taking their time though, if it helps them maintain a high level of quality. I did some googling and it does look like they're actively working on at least one upcoming video, potentially up to five at once given past teasers. They've also got a side channel with interim content and a Patreon with a private Discord if you want to keep closer tabs.

I dont see it at all?

I mean, there's enough bad things you can say about Trump. There's no need making shit up like this?

Let's say someone with a base that includes explicit white nationalists starts using "naggers" as a pejorative for their opponents. Would you also consider that innocent?

If he was talking non stop about people nagging him for years, and in the same sentence he was still refering to people who nag him all the time, and then finished with "im so tired of all the naggers", then yes. There's no reason to believe otherwise.

Also, isnt it bad enough already that he tries to overthrow the election?? Shouldnt that be the cause to alarm, not that if you change the letters, "election rigger" becomes "election n***r"??

I don't think it's Trump, but Trump lovers have a penchant for stupid wordplay like this. "Let's go brandon," for example. They'd totally use it because the other one got them put in "Facebook jail"

What do you mean you don't see it?

Go watch the Key and Peele's "black ice" video.

Yeah, to be honest, I don’t think he’s clever enough to make a “riggers” pun.

I mean, there’s enough bad things you can say about Trump.

Cool. Say some of them.

That he tried to overthrow the election? That he refused to leave the office even though he lost, and then tried to coerce judges and others in his party to overrule the democracy?

Because that's what I'm seeing here. And thats more than serious enough. No need to twist his words around and change out the letters.

Just to add some thoughts: Why would he want to piss off and lose any chance of ever getting a vote from any non-white non-mega-racist ever again? Can somebody eli5 why he would shoot his foot off like that? Edit: btw I dont like Trump, I never did, and I think what he's doing is incredibly dangerous to the democracy. Im also not american, so maybe ive missed something.

I mean, he’s said horrible things about women, and evangelical women still vote for him in droves. His supporters are so dumb and brainwashed, he can directly insult them and piss on their face, and they will ask for more.

He ran on a rather explicitly white nationalist campaign in the 2016 election. He’s never not been openly racist. Republican voters are demonstrably OK with that.

Even if a lot of his voters are OK with it, wouldn't he still lose out on a lot of potential voters by throwing the N-word around and pissing of every non-white (and almost all white) voting american? It's inflammatory without any upside? It just makes no sense to me.

wouldn’t he still lose out on a lot of potential voters

Again, no, he wouldn't. Just because he hasn't openly used the N-word doesn't mean he's been evenly slightly coy about his racism. 100% of Trump voters already knew he was a white nationalist before they voted for him the first time. They either specifically like that about him, or just don't care because it's something they're willing to accept as long as they get the regressive misogyny or whatever else they want from him. He represents an alliance of the worst people. Some are in it for the racism, others for controlling women, others just want naked authoritarianism. They understand it's a package deal and they are all on board with it.