Hyperrealism

I've literally seen and heard German tankies praise Trump for trying to force the Ukrainians to capitulate to Russia in Ukraine. They like that he's undermining NATO and wants to appease Russia, think it'll bring us Peace in Our Time. Literally marching with a communist flag, and saying Trump has the right idea. Horse shoe theory applies.

Like many they've fallen down the rabbit hole. Became justifiably critical of traditional western media reporting on Iraq, Israel, Vietnam, Argentina, Guatamala, etc. ... Turned to supposedly more critical media, which unfortunately are often operated by Russia, Iran, China, etc. Became indoctrinated, before they realised said media are even more biased, just in another direction.

It can happen to anyone.

e: I see someone downvoted me withing 5 seconds of me writing this comment, probably without even finishing reading it, so apparently I hit a nerve.

Nope. Saw him speaking off the cuff before he was a presidential nominee.

Relatively high SAT score. Score higher on his transcript than John Kerry. IRC scored relatively high on his air force qualifying test too.

He purposely dumbed down his language and it helped him get elected.

As opposed to Donald Trump, where at least one professor has said he's a moron.

To be clear, I'm not saying Bush was a good president. Quite the opposite. If anything him being relatively intelligent makes him more culpable for what happened.

Were you alive and old enough to remember GWB’s term? Or are you going entirely on second hand information?

Yes. I was studying political science at the time.

No, I am not going by second hand information. I'm going by how he spoke before Karl Rove told him to dumb it down.

Donald Trump went to Wharton

At least one of Donald Trump's professors has said he's an idiot. Not true for Bush, who scored relatively well on his SATs. IRC John Kerry's transcript scored lower than W Bush's. IRC Bush's air force qualifying test was also relatively high.

To be clear, I'm not saying he's a good president. If anything I'm saying stupidity isn't an excuse for what happened during his tenure.

W. was the dumbest president the world had ever seen.

Went to Harvard and Yale. First president with an MBA. SAT score was good. His folksy act was just that. An act. He was told to dumb down his language by Karl Rove and others. There are videos of him speaking before he became a presidential nominee, and the difference is obvious.

Relatively intelligent man pretending to be stupid.

And to his credit, it worked. Got elected twice and to this day people are more likely to blame the Iraq war on evil mastermind Cheney. And unlike plenty of supposedly intelligent leaders, he's smart enough to keep a low profile now he's retired.