Clinton "Scandals" vs. Trump "Scandals"

[Perknose]

Without letting Hillary off the hook one bit, John Oliver takes an in-depth look at this false equivalency. That pasty, ferret-faced Brit is doing some of the most focused and brilliantly accessible investigatory journalism on TV.

Anyone who (still) thinks "both candidates are equally bad, I'ma vote for Jill Stein" or some such owes it to themselves and to the Republic to put aside 21 minutes from their busy and important lives and JUST LISTEN, with an open mind.

Hillary Clinton is a flawed human being with a penchant for secrecy, unconscionably slow to own up to her mistakes, but Donald Trump is an deeply ignorant and avaricious narcissist with no moral compass, a clear and present danger to our country should we collectively let our anger with the "establishment" lead us from the frying pan into that hideously orange dumpster fire by not doing everything each and every one of us can to prevent him from becoming our President.

 

[nakedfrog]

Look, buddy, I hear what you're saying, but I live outside the one congressional district in this state that has a chance of going blue (and it did, in '08, but not '12), so I'm probably just going to do a write-in. I already have my ballot.

 

[EOM]

Lol they're both terrible. Maybe not equally, but both terrible. But therein lay the false dichotomy we're being offered. I'm going third party again this year because i have self respect and i want to vote FOR someone this election, not simply against someone.

 

[glenn1]

Without letting Hillary off the hook one bit, John Oliver takes an in-depth look at this false equivalency. That pasty, ferret-faced Brit is doing some of the most focused and brilliantly accessible investigatory journalism on TV.

Anyone who (still) thinks "both candidates are equally bad, I'ma vote for Jill Stein" or some such owes it to themselves and to the Republic to put aside 21 minutes from their busy and important lives and JUST LISTEN, with an open mind.

Hillary Clinton is a flawed human being with a penchant for secrecy, unconscionably slow to own up to her mistakes, but Donald Trump is an deeply ignorant and avaricious narcissist with no moral compass, a clear and present danger to our country should we collectively let our anger with the "establishment" lead us from the frying pan into that hideously orange dumpster fire by not doing everything each and every one of us can to prevent him from becoming our President.

Someone who has decided to vote for Stein or whoever doesn't "owe themselves" sh!t to compare Trump and Clinton, that they're voting someone other than Trump/Clinton is ALREADY evidence they have an open mind. That's simply someone who is a partisan for one of them attempting to perpetuate the "worse of two evils" narrative. How about treating your fellow voters with the respect they deserve to make up their own damn minds. Stein and Johnson ARE better candidates than Clinton or Trump and deserve votes.

 

[squarecut1]

Hillary Clinton is a flawed human being with a penchant for secrecy, unconscionably slow to own up to her mistakes, but Donald Trump is an deeply ignorant and avaricious narcissist

Flawed? Every human being is flawed. That is like saying the grass is green. Sky is blue.

Hillary is far far worse than that. Narcissism - anybody who knows about clinical psychology and has some basic knowledge of Hillary can easily see very disturbing traits in her. I say that as someone who has not voted Republican in a long time.

 

[abj13]

Narcissism - anybody who knows about clinical psychology and has some basic knowledge of Hillary can easily see very disturbing traits in her.

Ok. How does Mrs Clinton meet the criteria for narcissistic personality disorder?

 

[pauldun170]

Flawed? Every human being is flawed. That is like saying the grass is green. Sky is blue.

Hillary is far far worse than that. Narcissism - anybody who knows about clinical psychology and has some basic knowledge of Hillary can easily see very disturbing traits in her. I say that as someone who has not voted Republican in a long time.

Narcissism is pretty much a given when dealing with politicians. Some are just better at hiding it.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/11/14/the-most-narcissistic-u-s-presidents/

 

[Svnla]

http://nypost.com/2016/09/27/hilllarys-time-at-state-really-was/

Ya'll be the judge.

 

[squarecut1]

Narcissism is pretty much a given when dealing with politicians. Some are just better at hiding it.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/11/14/the-most-narcissistic-u-s-presidents/

Not just politicians, but a lot of famous people - sports, business and so on. The 'successful' ones, so to speak. So yes you are right. But there is a continuum - its not on off switch. I'd say Hillary is quite far up this scale.

 

[glenn1]

Not just politicians, but a lot of famous people - sports, business and so on. The 'successful' ones, so to speak. So yes you are right. But there is a continuum - its not on off switch. I'd say Hillary is quite far up this scale.

And Trump probably higher still. Normally narcissism alone would be reason to think twice about selecting someone for an important position but in the case of these two candidates their relative narcissism probably doesn't even make the top 5 list of red flags about them.

 

[Cozarkian]

They are equivalent in that they both fail to meet the standards we should have for a President.

If a passing score is a B, it really doesn't matter if Trump gets an F and Hillary gets a C, it matters that they both failed to get a B.

 

[werepossum]

Someone who has decided to vote for Stein or whoever doesn't "owe themselves" sh!t to compare Trump and Clinton, that they're voting someone other than Trump/Clinton is ALREADY evidence they have an open mind. That's simply someone who is a partisan for one of them attempting to perpetuate the "worse of two evils" narrative. How about treating your fellow voters with the respect they deserve to make up their own damn minds. Stein and Johnson ARE better candidates than Clinton or Trump and deserve votes.

Damned well said.

 

[emperus]

Someone who has decided to vote for Stein or whoever doesn't "owe themselves" sh!t to compare Trump and Clinton, that they're voting someone other than Trump/Clinton is ALREADY evidence they have an open mind. That's simply someone who is a partisan for one of them attempting to perpetuate the "worse of two evils" narrative. How about treating your fellow voters with the respect they deserve to make up their own damn minds. Stein and Johnson ARE better candidates than Clinton or Trump and deserve votes.

There were a lot of people saying the same thing about Nader. And look what Bush gave us. Unless you believe Gore would have invaded Iraq and trashed he Economy.

I can see voting 3rd party in the Romney/Obama election or if you live in a non swing state this election but when choosing to vote third party (or basically not vote) when someone clearly unhinged is running? You deserve all the moral culpability for all the ill he does.

 

[emperus]

They are equivalent in that they both fail to meet the standards we should have for a President.

If a passing score is a B, it really doesn't matter if Trump gets an F and Hillary gets a C, it matters that they both failed to get a B.

That is in essence false equivalency.

 

[Jhhnn]

Gotta love all the cozying up to the "She's just as Bad!" trope so popular among delusionists. It's absurdist bullshit.

The Trump candidacy is a national disgrace as are his followers. The Republican party is also a disgrace for having encouraged & nurtured all the ugliness, the bitterness, the bigotry & the astoundingly shitty attitudes & gross misperceptions of their base for decades. Now it boiled over on them under the encouragement of Trump. He tells them what they really want to hear & turns the dial up to 11.

WTF did they think would happen? Did they not examine the possible unintended consequences of fanning hate & discontent? Or did they not care?

WTF did they think would happen in the wake of the top down class warfare victories they scored over and over?

 

[emperus]

Flawed? Every human being is flawed. That is like saying the grass is green. Sky is blue.

Hillary is far far worse than that. Narcissism - anybody who knows about clinical psychology and has some basic knowledge of Hillary can easily see very disturbing traits in her. I say that as someone who has not voted Republican in a long time.

So Hillary is Narcissistic but a guy who puts his name In HUUGE letters on everything he builds is what? Did you even watch the debate?

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

John Oliver knocks it out of the park yet again. Brilliant summation of the differences between the 'scandals' of the current candidates.

 

[flexy]

Lol they're both terrible. Maybe not equally, but both terrible. But therein lay the false dichotomy we're being offered. I'm going third party again this year because i have self respect and i want to vote FOR someone this election, not simply against someone.

Unfortunately, and I say that without sarcasm, your system is not set-up YET to allow for a real vote "for" someone. There are to many things in the way, starting from your electoral college nonsense, super PACs who back candidates with money, fuck-ups in the DNC, super-delegates etc.
The result is that an outsider vote, at this point, will be entirely pointless and will, very real, have the opposite effect you want.
Very real, someone could be wanting to vote for Jill Stein because they're "green", but end up with Trump as a result with results such as abandoning the EPA. Then your principles, as honourable they may be, won't help you in any way, actually you'd helped to create the worst possible outcome.
Think about establishing 3rd parties and overhauling the system AFTER this election, you cannot afford this right now! I am serious about this. I am not "super-hot" about Clinton either, but at some point you need to deal with reality.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Yet former president William Jefferson Blythe Clinton managed to get impeached for lying during the discovery phase of a lawsuit.

 

[flexy]

Thinking about impeachment already? Do you guys EVER do something else, such as, uhm....say...thinking about producing good candidates or improving and modernizing your party?

 

[Azuma Hazuki]

Donald Trump is not only evil, he's incompetent. Hillary is evil but at least she's not so far out of her depth it's an open question as to whether barotrauma or drowning will kill her first.

Besides which, Drumpf here is the collective karma of the last half-century of the Southern Strategy made manifest. He is precisely what happens when a party decides it will make its core constituency "people who spell "African-American" with two Gs in it." And I may be making an invalid assumption when I say "spell."

 

[Perknose]

John Oliver knocks it out of the park yet again. Brilliant summation of the differences between the 'scandals' of the current canandidates.

Thanks! At least someone in this thread has shown clear evidence that they actually listened to the segment . . . which I do believe everyone should. Now, what you do with the rigorous investigatory proof that this "both are equally bad" meme is horrendous BS is, I guess, up to you.

But, for me, it's analogous to my house being on fire. Do I do nothing against the orange arsonist who would otherwise burn the whole damn neighborhood down? Do I forego calling the fire company because I have some misgivings about how the Fire Chief handled the charity spaghetti dinner?

No. I do not. I see what needs to be done, and Hillary Clinton is the sole high pressure pumper of sanity. I'm not wasting my vote on any toy water pistol candidate of "ideological purity."

If your actions in any way contribute to Trump being elected President, you are a God Damned Fucking fool, no matter how "elevated" you hold your motives to be.

 

[squarecut1]

Donald Trump is not only evil, he's incompetent. Hillary is evil but at least she's not so far out of her depth

What competence has she shown? Supporting a disastrous war in Iraq, the price of which is still being paid by millions of innocent souls. Not the Clinton clan of course, raking it in with their "speeches", the 650 K starting job for Chelsea, Bill continuing his philandering, and so on.

Or Libya an example of her competence?

Or being an utterly unprincipled pawn for the powers that be?

 

[jackstar7]

What competence has she shown? Supporting a disastrous war in Iraq, the price of which is still being paid by millions of innocent souls. Not the Clinton clan of course, raking it in with their "speeches", the 650 K starting job for Chelsea, Bill continuing his philandering, and so on.

Or Libya an example of her competence?

Or being an utterly unprincipled pawn for the powers that be?

So who are you for?

 

[fskimospy]

Someone who has decided to vote for Stein or whoever doesn't "owe themselves" sh!t to compare Trump and Clinton, that they're voting someone other than Trump/Clinton is ALREADY evidence they have an open mind. That's simply someone who is a partisan for one of them attempting to perpetuate the "worse of two evils" narrative. How about treating your fellow voters with the respect they deserve to make up their own damn minds. Stein and Johnson ARE better candidates than Clinton or Trump and deserve votes.

Stein consistently dabbles in anti-vaxxer nonsense and Johnson is a gold standard crazy. They are not good candidates.