I don’t understand why someone should NOT put “too much stock” into what a politician says. If anything, as much stock as possible should be put in. Especially in context of executing 5 innocent people.

I said I wouldn't put too much stock in it.

Everyone else does, which is why politicians get a lot of votes by offering up what are obviously patent falsehoods about, say, black guys.

The problem is, you're down playing this as regular and accepted behavior. We should never accept politicians calling for the execution of people especially innocent people, regardless of how often politicians like.

One of the causalities of the Trump era is how fatigued everyone is to the constant lies and ugliness that we've become densentized to it and are expected to dismiss it.

I don't know man?

If it weren't regular and accepted, it wouldn't get any votes.

I think that's pretty clear evidence that it is regular and accepted.

But I guess we can agree to disagree. No worries man.

It's a sensitive subject but I appreciate you pointing to the reality of what attracts voters. It seems raitonal to consider that many qualities repelling to one set of voters is an attractant to another. Or at least what else could explain the success of such a polarizing figure as DT?

He was not politician back then.

Edit: I don't mean it as defense people. Just that, he did not said it to gain votes back then. He said it because that is what he believed and who he is, nothing to do with politicians as a group.

Being genuine racist is not better then playing up racism for votes. Maybe even worst in impact (as pretender will be less zealous in pushing for such policies). Don't understand why people think otherwise.

He wasn't running for office then, though he has toyed with it since the 80s, hinting he was going to run then ultimately not.

All the same, politician or not, he hasn't changed since then. While a candidate for president, he retweeted a "crime statistic" that said 81% of white murder victims were killed by black people. The actual number is 15%; whites are killed by whites 82% of the time. When it was pointed out how terrible wrong it was, he didn't apologize -- in fact, he just said, I didn't say it, I just retweeted it, as if he bears no responsibility for the things he amplifies with his megaphone.

The fact that he read the tweet and his BS detector didn't go off tells you that that fake news is consistent with his internal view of the world.

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/nov...

>Since then, he has repeatedly reiterated the guilty verdict of the men, even though their convictions were vacated. “They admitted they were guilty,” the then-candidate said in a CNN interview the month before the 2016 election. “The police doing the original investigation say they were guilty. The fact that that case was settled with so much evidence against them is outrageous. And the woman, so badly injured, will never be the same.”

http://time.com/5597843/central-park-five-trump-history/

He said this as recently as October 2016. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Park_jogger_case#Acc...

I am not defending it. Just that, he did not said it to gain votes back then. He said it because that is what he believed and who he is, nothing to do with politicians as a group.

Being genuine racist is not better then playing up racism for votes. Maybe even worst in impact (as pretender will be less zealous in pushing for such policies). Don't understand why people think otherwise.

It’s a little scary that the same guy who makes these statements also can make decisions that may lead to war. Lets hope his other decisions are a little more fact based but I have my doubts.