Pieter wrote:
I'm an Afrikaner living on a farm in South Africa. I recently came across some of the claims circulating—especially from the Trump camp—about how dire things supposedly are for white Afrikaner farmers here. Just to set the record straight: I don't identify with that narrative. Personally, I live very happily on the farm. I don’t farm — I'm here for the lifestyle, not agriculture — and to me, it honestly feels like paradise. I don’t feel threatened at all. Of course, not all white farmers in South Africa have the same experience. Some do face real challenges, and discrimination does exist. But the situation is complex, and like in every society, there are both positives and negatives. No country is perfect. I just wanted to say: yes, I’m a white Afrikaner living on a farm in South Africa—but I’m not one of those Trump talks about. For me, this is the best place on earth.
Trump's behaviour was totally on-brand with his "negotiation" tactics: Bully mercilessly, then back off and pretend you are doing your victim/mark a favor?
I do believe someone (tucker carlson, elno, stephen miller, steve bannon, ???) "got to him" to believe the specifics of this, but also that he was entirely primed and ready for it. Remember his complaint in his first term about "all the S-hole countries" and "why don't we accept more immigrants from good countries like Norway"? Hard to believe Musk doesn't know better... that the "evidence" Trump confronted Ramaphosa with was not just wrongheaded but also wrong? But it all must support one of his agendas, maybe just keeping Trump worked up about things?
In the backdrop of the Gaza/Palestinian atrocities, this whole thing was an empty farce. But half the US probably hung on his every word.
I appreciate your offering your own personal parallax on this... I am glad your national representatives managed to avoid a total disaster... one can hope the spotlight moves on to some other unfortunately target for MAGA's "grievance politics"?
OpenPGP_0xD5BAF94F88AFFA63.asc
Description: OpenPGP public key
OpenPGP_signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature
.- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. / ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-.. FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom https://bit.ly/virtualfriam to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ archives: 5/2017 thru present https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/
