MovieChat Forums > Deep Impact (1998) Discussion > Can you imagine if this were to happen t...

Can you imagine if this were to happen today, with Obama as President?

posted 8 years ago by felstein
20 replies | jump to latest

I know exactly how it would play out.

Obama would give his speech about the comet... then Fox News, right-wing talk radio, Breitbart, Drudge, WND, Free Republic, and all the rest of the lunatic fringe would go into full bore paranoia mode:

"THERE IS NO COMET!! This is just an attempt by the Obama administration to take away our rights/guns/Bible/etc, and make us dependent on the federal government!"

They would be especially outraged by the President freezing all wages and prices:

"SOCIALIST TAKEOVER!! It is the responsibility of every true American to not abide by this president's totally unlawful and unconstitutional directive!"

And they would be even more outraged by the cooperation between the U.S. and Russia to develop the Messiah spacecraft:

"This spaceship, developed at the order of this communist president in conjunction with an enemy nation, is intended for one purpose only: To spy on, and ultimately control, the entire American populace."

Once/If it is confirmed to their satisfaction that a comet actually exists, the response from the wingnuts would be:

"There is absolutely no proof this comet will come anywhere near Earth. Like so-called 'climate change' and the Zika 'virus', this is another fear-mongering campaign by the Obama White House intended to further erode our God-given civil liberties."

Nonetheless, during this whole period the sales of gun and ammo would skyrocket to never-before-seen heights. The Republican Congress, spurred on by the extremists in their party and convincing themselves that there is no real threat, would block Obama at every turn. When the Biederman fragment strikes, whatever right-wingers are left standing will blame Obama's "incompetence" for not seeing this coming sooner. When Wolf is destroyed, this same group will bend over backwards and forwards to try and deny him any credit.

And the scary part is, this group constitutes 30% of the population of America today.

[–] MoviemanCin 8 years ago

You are so full of crap that your eyes are brown.

Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar and doesn't.

[–] felstein 8 years ago

Really? You're just gonna leave it at that and move on? Would you mind going into detail as to how you think I am wrong?

[–] vgarci2003 8 years ago

BIG thumbs up! That is just the way it would play out...

[–] felstein 8 years ago

I would love to believe that in the face of a truly cataclysmic threat such as this, even the farthest-right among us would set aside politics and prejudice, embrace cooperation, and work for the good of all humankind. But based on what I have seen the last eight years, I seriously question whether that would happen.

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] felstein 8 years ago

And I would assume you to be the kind of right-winger I spotlighted in my original post, based on your inability to make any kind of intelligent counter-argument and resorting instead to ad hominem attacks. Very typical of your group.

[–] vgarci2003 8 years ago

👍

[–] MooseAdventures 8 years ago

LOL face it, you hate Obama because he is black and you are a racist dumbass. He has litearlly done nothing wrong for this country and he will go down as one of our worst presidents because you racist bigots like you. i hope you enjoy the nuclear wasteland you'll be living in in a few years because you felt the need to vote for the white Overlord Trump.

[–] megaknocker 8 years ago

What's not so funny is that the Obama administration didn't need a comet to destroy a large percentage of America and "reshape" it. They have done it like a cancer, not an event. America is forever changed and for the worse.

THAT is the scary true facts that liberal douches like the OP are too dumb to see or comprehend.

[–] felstein 8 years ago

Your first paragraph is ludicrous.
Your second paragraph is offensive.
Ludicrous and offensive... yep, you are a textbook right-winger. Thank you for proving my point.

[–] lawitall 8 years ago

Thank you for these true words, megaknocker. The liberals will knock us both, but Obama has been an 8 year growing malignant tumor on the country. I hope it will be cut out in November and true to the film, the country will have to rebuild again. I think I would chance a comet over another Obama administration.

[–] felstein 8 years ago

What absurdity.

So tell me... how has your life been negatively affected by his being president? Any way? Any way at all?

Prediction: I'll bet you are going to spout the usual line that goes something like, "My health insurance premiums have doubled/tripled/quadrupled!!" Interesting how those words always come out of the mouths of people that already hate Obama (I'm not saying you all are lying... I just don't believe you). The health coverage offered through my employer has not changed in any way, shape or form, nor has the insurance coverage or premiums of anyone I know.

[–] felstein 8 years ago

The GOP congress would tie funding of the Messiah project to DEfunding Obamacare and Planned Parenthood.

[–] stefanheikel 8 years ago

^^^You are dead accurate my friend.

[–] Dejay 7 years ago

And the scary part is, this group constitutes 30% of the population of America today.

Haha from that part you can see you made your post before Trump got elected president. I'm sure you mean like 46%? :D

But really great post. I don't think so though. It's not like the political and business elite doesn't believe in science. They do. They just use whatever means to distract the public. Sure there are some crazies but they are few. The most are just psychopaths. All those social conservative issues are just "made up" by think tanks to have a buffer between real issues and the voters. It's just a waste of time talking about them.

If such a planet killer asteroid would really be happening I would see the CIA or NSA simply assassinating people who spread misinformation. Or maybe just arrested. In e.g. France and Germany it's illegal to deny the existence of the holocaust, because there is a possibility it could happen again if you allow such propaganda unchecked. And this would be an immediate threat to species survival, not just some hypothetical. You simply cannot afford to play around.

[–] felstein 7 years ago

I'm sure you mean like 46%

The group I'm referring to -- the raving, off-their-meds lunatics -- constitutes about 30%. The other 16% of Americans that are Trump supporters are those unfortunate souls who have, through no fault of their own, been handed a crappy bill of economic goods. They are the folks who may have been Obama supporters but who feel left behind by the prosperity that the rest of us have enjoyed over the past eight years. I sympathize with this group, I genuinely do. But if they honestly think that Trump will do anything to improve their lot, or that he even gives a damn about them at all, then they are in for the rudest awakening of their lives.

[–] Dejay 7 years ago

Well it was really mostly meant as a joke anyways, but if you like to hear my opinion and rambling thoughts on Trump ;)

Your post just immediately struck me how you probably will be able to separate the pre-trump era and post-trump era even in a simple forum post like this. Not because of catastrophic policies or events or wars, but a shift in mainstream culture. Even if trump hadn't been elected you would see this "damage" to our democracy and discourse. Historically you could even see trump just as a symptom of the alt-right / MRA / new wave anti-feminism.

I actually don't think most of his voters or even the non-voters who helped him get elected are in favour of his policies or trust any of what he is saying. They are simply trying to hit the reset button.

There just needs to be change. Any change is better than no change. And people aren't as stupid as you might think. Sometimes things have to get worse before they get better.

There are so many uncontrollable systematic influences that our culture is threatening to become a prison. Caught between a meme and a cushy place or something.

Somewhat related to this: It occurred to me a few years back that the cold war with the USSR and the threat of socialism actually had a positive effect on the west. Not because of proxy wars and things like that, but because the west had to give the people a better alternative to socialism. The free market had a competing ideology, and competition is good for business (yes puns intended hahaha). Besides the propaganda about the oh-so-repressive socialist regime (and of course they were repressive), the rich and powerful elite did have to offer the "stupid masses" a better alternative to socialism. The free market had to work for the middle class. The threat was there, it was real, exploited countries all over the world had socialist revolutions all the time and simply nationalized assets belonging to a few super rich people. With the collapse of the USSR that threat was mostly gone. It's not just technology and globalization that drastically reduced our standards of living compared to the 90s, it's also that they suddenly were free to do as they please without consequence.

Well now Trump is a consequence too. You can't corrupt truth in news media and dirty politics and lack of school education and economic problems and criminalization and abuse of made up social issues without there being a consequence. The rich can get richer, but if they and their children want to live in a lawful society they'll have to rethink their strategy now. The rich and powerful so transparently corrupted politics by now (not that they were ever "clean") that people simply said "ok then lets burn it down". You don't need a revolution for that. In the words of Varys: "Power resides where men believe it resides. No more and no less."

People could have voted for the lesser of two evils but they chose not to. There is something of a noble sacrifice in that.

To use another silly GoT reference, Trump could have the nickname "middle finger".

[–] julesfmb 7 years ago

Came to my mind when the president talked about Price control. Kinda depressing to think not even a super-disaster would be enough to unite the public anymore.

[–] felstein 7 years ago

That's exactly when it came to my mind as well!

[–] Jayroo 7 years ago

You are extremely retarded. How would it pan out now that Trump is President? All the Libtards would protest outside Trump tower calling him a racist and a bigot for trying to stop the comet coming to earth LMAO.