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I see a pattern, it's the people he watches for years on TV and likes who he puts into leading positions.
To be honest this seems in character for the USA, this is what the american people are often doing too, putting celebrities from movies and TV in charge of their country, case in point Reagan, Schwarzeneger and Trump.
I had a look at the list you linked and was surprised to see the list pointing out Germans and Polish people so I looked a bit dealer.
The German guy was in the left party which is so small that they always have trouble to get over the 5℅ necessary to be in the Bundestag, so he has never been in any leading position. And even the nomination to become president failed. And even if he became a president, in Germany that is not a leading position, a president just represents a country like a King.
In Poland, for Lech Kaczyński (who was the president of Poland) the wikipedia article down not even mention his work as an actor. On IMDB 4 entries are there. He was voice acting for a animated movie as a 13 years old and this is the biggest of the movies he was involved. The next next is a documentary, so he is not acting. The next one is a special episode of a game show to which politicians have been invited as participants. So no acting here either.
The next from Poland Jarosław Kaczyński, the twin brother also only had the voice acting as a 13 years old and documentaries where he didn't act listed on his IMDB page.
The third and last polish guy in the lis fits the description of a celebrity and politician in power, he was elected into parlament.
For Sweden nobody is listed. Same for South Korea. So from the countries I lived in my feeling that this doesn't happen is supported by the list you linked.
But other Asian countries, god damn! The lists for India, the Philippines and so on are soooo long! I didn't expect it. So it's really different in different countries.
But then the list misses people like Boris Johnson, who was on telly a bit and became mayor of London and eventually PM of the UK mostly because of that.
He was awful at both roles, but people voted for him anyway because they'd heard of him.
I think people in general are politically unaware. It's stuffy and boring, but affects everything. They should care, but it's very hard to make them.
"it's ok because other people do it" is not a good argument.
Also, the scale of any activity subject to that excuse is relevant. Many electorates occasionally act weird, some electorates are notorious for the same acts.
The tone of the post I was replying to was 'Look at these silly Americans, doing silly American things'; I was just pointing out that it's not exclusively an American thing. Not saying it's good.
Zelenskyy was the first one that came to my mind and I was actually just looking for how to properly spell his name (is it 1 y or 2? Various sources use one or the other and there's no consistency), and found that page linked from his Wikipedia page (which lists it as 2 ys, for the record), so I linked to it instead of just naming Zelenskyy as my example.
Yeah that is true, but I also did not claim that. Anyway I have a hard time finding any celebrity in office in the countries I lived in (Poland, Germany, Sweden, South Korea), doesn't mean it doesn't happen though, just that it looks to happen much less often.
Judge Judy is his next SC pick isn't she?
She would actually be a good one.
Judy is tough, but fair. I love her.
You can kick and scream but Trump really is the embodiment of America.
I can and I will continue to make a fuss about it, but goddamn it, you're not wrong. He really is.
He’s the embodiment of America but dammit some of us really thought our country might be willing to attempt being better.
Didn't Arnie do a decent job, though? I didn't live in California during his time in office, but it sounded mostly positive.
As I understand it, Arnie is actually fairly intelligent, and also surrounded himself with competent people who knew how to do the jobs he asked of them.
Arnie is actually fairly intelligent, and also surrounded himself with competent people
This is really the key factor. His acting chops probably just helped him convince people to vote for him; it wasn't all there was to him.
Yeah. He got a bunch of parks built, and a bunch of other things to improve basic qol.
I did not want to put in any judgment on how well celecreties do in office, it was just an observation that this doesn't really seem to happen in other countries to this extend. But there instead mostly professional politicians or scientists like Angela Merkel run the show.
We've always nominated celebrities into higher office. In the early years of the country, celebrities were just generals. Still well known, voted because they were likely well known, just not what we would consider "celebrities" today. The effectiveness of these candidates could easily be disputed. But people vote because the name is familiar and not because of their policies. I have a feeling with all the muckraking and "alternative facts" today, the louder name will continue to have more chances than they should otherwise.
To be honest I was very worried that he would assign competent and evil people to his cabinet positions. Somewhat relieved that he has only appointed clowns so far.
You forget clowns are much more dangerous when there are no adults in the room.
The US is officially a joke.
We've been a joke for a long time. We the people are finally learning the rest of the world isn't laughing with us...
I used to live in England back in 1999-2004 on and off during the summer with my mom. Even then we were a fucking joke. I learned very quickly to lose my Texas accent and just tell people I was Canadian. I literally almost got my ass kicked several times after 9/11 when my fellow Brits found out I was from America. I wasn't even old enough to vote at the time. I haven't been back since 2009 but I suspect nowadays they'd just feel sorry for me. I live in California now which is rife with it's own problems but at least my family and I feel somewhat safer here than in Oklahoma or Texas where we lived most our lives. I couldn't raise my daughter in Oklahoma and feel that in doing what's best for her. Plus California is fucking beautiful and there's so much to do and see! Cost of living is the only downside here for me.
Thank you Oprah, very cool!
Bet she didn't see this coming when she was promoting this hack.
Also this is Oprah’s fault. Trump only knows this guy from TV
Yeah, in all seriousness, fuck Oprah completely. Stalwart proponent of grifters, pedophiles, and rapists.
Nothing surprises me anymore. Reap what you sow americans.
Yeah as a non-American I honestly just don't have the energy to be worried/outraged about what's going on in the US anymore. I've essentially been fretting about America since George W. Bush took office, and it just keeps getting worse. Now they've handed the presidency, house, senate, supreme court and the popular vote to Trump I just... don't have it in me to engage in four more years of people endlessly tweeting about the horrible shit Trump is doing, while nobody does anything about it. Not to mention the decades afterwards it'll take to clean this all up, if that's even possible.
Sorry to all the Americans who didn't vote for this. Good luck.
It's both amazing ams shocking to watch from an outside perspective. On one hand, they ficked up and need to eat it. On the other hand, this shit will affect the world over time, so that means their fuckup is masterfully large.
Ugh. Somebody totally fucking called this the other day.
It was me. Sort of, I figured he’d be Surgeon General. I fucking hate this.
Well CUT IT OUT, then!
After marking this latest square on my bingo card, it formed a pentagram and a demon is trying to claw it's way out of the free space. Please help.
No, let him. He is trying to help us.
It almost seems like he is assembling a heist team. Oh wait...
Fuggin clown shoes.
Dr. Oz might be the most competent pick by the new Administration yet. This tells you a lot about the competence of all the other picks.
Oh look, the hilarious consequences of our own actions. Hey pensioners, I hope this was what you had in mind if you voted R!
In my opinion, as an outside observer, I'd say it is the duty of every patriotic American to mass produce signs that say "THIS COUNTRY IS RUN BY IDIOTS" and post them everywhere.
We all knew it’s run by idiots. That’s what “by the people” means.
Next up on FarceNews: Trump's newest picks to include Cap'n Crunch (Secretary of Defense), Scrooge McDuck (Treasury), and Smokey the Bear (Education).
The Onion/InfoWars?
I'm looking at my bingo list and I have Hulk Hogan and Anthony Hopkins looking to be picked up for a department.
In real news, there is a certain sub somewhere on the Internet that isn't too crazy about some of the picks. Kind of interesting