In the summer of 2015, NPR and The Atlantic partnered up to make a bit of radio drama about the *craaazy * notion of Donald Trump winning the presidency.
This one's got it all - from the anchor talking about Deez Nutz, all the way to a clip show of Democrats and Republicans reaching across the aisle to protect America from the scourge of Trump. As usual, NPR reporters disappear up their own assholes as they imagine hypothetical Americans finally realizing the importance of media literacy.
This must have seemed like such a whimsical exercise at the time. It's so awesome that these dorks lost after doing nothing but preemptive victory laps for months leading up to the election.
A few months later, On The Media did a piece where they huffed and puffed about how ridiculous it was to cover Sanders and Trump, because obviously the election was just a Clinton coronation.
Man I used to love those libs until the YouTube algorithm showed me a clip of the Chapo gang dunking on Ben Garrison cartoons
I had been sick of NPR for quite a while but 2015 or 2016 was when I finally gave up on NPR entirely because it went from occasionally causing me rage to consistently causing me rage
I was an NPRhead during the Bush and Obama years, and I remember hearing this little presentation at the time and even liking it. It looms large in my mind, to the point of thinking about it again today and wanting to post it on Hexbear just to get it off my chest. It reminds me of what it feels like to be taken in by propaganda, and also how propagandists drink their own kool-aide.
But he very much was. He absolutely did not think he was going to win on election day
"It’s amazing, isn’t it? How adaptable we are as human beings? It was only a year earlier that Trump was a punch line. Obviously, everyone knew, he could never actually get anywhere once the votes were cast"
The "Trump was a joke that went too far" crowd annoy me so much, he was never a joke. They are shitty and horrible people who unironically want openly shitty and horrible things.
A lot of his messages did get boosted because reporters went "he'll never win, this is funny." But yeah, the supporters were never joking.
