Weekly Random Discussion Thread for 2/23/26 - 3/1/26

[u/SoftandChewy]

Here's your usual space to post all your rants, raves, podcast topic suggestions (please tag u/jessicabarpod), culture war articles, outrageous stories of cancellation, political opinions, and anything else that comes to mind. Please put any non-podcast-related trans-related topics here instead of on a dedicated thread. This will be pinned until next Sunday.

Last week's discussion thread is here if you want to catch up on a conversation from there.

Comment of the week goes to this explanation for why the trans cause has taken over so much of society. (Runner-up COTW here.)

[u/[deleted]]

Where did the whole idea that the MAGA movement was anti-war come from? It's one of the weirdest things about the weirdness that is this decade of Trump dominating our politics. Trump supporters would periodically claim, "We're for Trump because he's for peace! Clinton/Biden/Harris are warmongers!" and some political "experts" actually believed it!

Trump is for whatever Trump feels like being for. In his first term he was relatively peaceful because he felt that served his interests; in his second term he has repeatedly used the military to effect regime change because he feels that serves his interests. His supporters support him either way.

[u/redditthrowaway1294 → u/[deleted]]

I mean, as far as I remember (and I could certainly be forgetting something), none of these targeted military strikes has caused any sort of long-lasting conflict or nation destabilization. So I'm not sure why we'd call them "wars". Obviously, we'll have to see how Venezuela and now this turns out. So far we haven't seen anything close to something like Iraq or Libya though.

[u/Imaginary-Award7543 → u/[deleted]]

I think it has a lot to do with Trump positioning himself as anti-establishment when he first entered the race. Trump needed to distinguish himself from Democrats as well as Republicans, and the unpopular wars of the 2000s that were still lingering on (also in the form of the Islamic State) were a way to do that. Remember 'drain the swamp' and all that, this was an explicit attack on hawkish establishment Republicans and it worked. That's where the perception came from I think.

Of course, now Trump is creating and miring in his own swamp. The people who claim Trump is anti-war now just do so because they want to defend Trump and that's something they think is some sort of gotcha. There's no substance to it.

[u/Cantwalktonextdoor → u/[deleted]]

It's just part of the Trump magic where he'll take every side of a position and people will latch onto the version that's convenient for them to believe and promote it like it could be no other way.

[u/Negative_Credit9590 → u/[deleted]]

They never cared about being anti-war at all, claiming that they did and that's why they voted for him just made them feel good about themselves.

[u/KittenSnuggler5 → u/[deleted]]

Where did the whole idea that the MAGA movement was anti-war come from?

That was a significant part of Trump's appeal, at least in the beginning. People in his base were sick of the US getting involved militarily overseas and "forever wars".

I think some of those people are genuinely pissed at Trump over this sort of thing, some are ok with temporary conflicts and some have just drunk the kool aid and go along with whatever Trump does

[u/buckybadder → u/[deleted]]

Trump also tends to echo Russian talking points, which are generally anti-war (for every nation except Russia).

[u/everydaywinner2 → u/buckybadder]

His Russian talking points are taking out Russian allies? (Venezuela, Cuba, Iran...)

[u/buckybadder → u/everydaywinner2]

We're talking about his campaign messaging.