*not the author
This tool live tracks the progress of the various campaigns promises that were part of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 manifesto, which supported Trump during his last campaign.
Tap for spoiler
https://www.project2025.observer/
~Personal note: one of the authors is the mod of r/keeptrack, and I hope she strongly considers coming over here~
That whole “hard times make strong men” litany is pro-war gaslighting, not how humanity works.
The real (main) reason is the corporate takeover of every part of American society, including the parts that were supposed to defend against and denounce it.
In effect, you have to be a corporation or have a net worth of at least a hundred million dollars in order to have any real autonomy in the US and corporatist fascism is the inevitable result of that.
The “weak men” part is the part where people become so complacent, docile, and addicted to convenience that they allow the corporate takeover to happen.
Weak men creating hard times is happening right now, in real time, right on schedule.
That’s still not accurate. Propaganda is much more effective than most people are aware of/willing to admit.
You don’t have to be weak or stupid to fall victim to effective messaging and when all of the most trusted sources of information repeat the same pro-corporate and anti-worker propaganda for several lifetimes, everyone who’s not actively searching for independent sources (which is probably 25% of Lemmy but 75% of the general public) will inevitably be fooled into believing the lie since that’s the only information they have available
Calling people weak for that is textbook victim blaming and pretending that all we need to solve the problems is to be “stronger” is the kind of oversimplification used in the lies that got us here.
You don’t need good times to create weak people. You just need people to be stupid and easy to manipulate, which they are all the time by nature. That’s all. WWII followed WWI, there were no good times before the nazi Germany. It didn’t help.
Don’t discount the Great Depression making “soft” people. Eating boot leather is the mark of a lavish and hedonistic lifestyle. /s
Malnutrition might soften the brain.