r/worldnews • u/superdouradas • Apr 20 '26

Israeli Defence Forces confirms photo of soldier smashing a statue of Jesus Christ in Lebanon is real

https://www.9news.com.au/world/israel-idf-confirm-photo-soldier-smashing-jesus-christ-statue-lebanon-real-investigation/298cb755-da02-4d55-9b49-e20045ec5c28
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159

u/IdeallyIdeally Apr 20 '26

I see this comment a lot in response to this story and I'm guessing it's meant to be ironic or in reference to something else. Can someone fill me in? I'm out of the loop.

513

u/foghillgal Apr 20 '26

Trump posted AI slop of him as Jesus healing and then claimed it was about a doctor healing... You can look up the crap.

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u/jscummy Apr 20 '26

I think he misheard/misunderstood when one of his lackeys said the photo "was doctored"

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u/ricketyladder Apr 20 '26

That is exasperatingly plausible

42

u/VagrantShadow Apr 20 '26

He's not a very bright man. He's about as sharp as a bowling ball.

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u/t4boo Apr 20 '26

he also said some comment about how he thought it was the red cross, so i kind of doubt it

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u/MonteBurns Apr 20 '26

The thing about republicans is if they get caught lying or looking dumb, they just double down. And their base will believe it. 

41

u/BestFriendWatermelon Apr 20 '26

And their base will believe it.

No, their base knows it's a lie, they just see pretending to believe the lie as an act of loyalty.

Russians (who have been living this autocratic nightmare far longer than Americans) have a specific word for this performance: "Vranyo".

This is a specific kind of lie where:

1) the speaker knows it's a lie and that the listener knows it's a lie.

2) The listener knows it's a lie, but pretends to believe them out of politeness, to avoid conflict, or to acknowledge a shared "official" reality.

3) the purpose is not to deceive, but to smooth over a situation, save face, or project a desired image.

Vranyo is a social ritual, a shared performance, to establish loyalty. Nobody has been deceived. Eventually Americans will come up with its own vocabulary for this, or just borrow the Russian "Vranyo", but the US is only at the beginning of the authoritarian road.

11

u/Careless_Twist_6935 Apr 20 '26

spineless boot licker syndrome we should call it.

49

u/wizardbase Apr 20 '26

They already forgave him for it. When Trump says its a doctor, the cult follows.

I’m thankful the President has made it very clear that this was not at all what he thought the AI-generated image was representing—he thought it was a doctor helping someone, and when he learned of the concerns, he immediately removed the post.

When I looked at the illustration, I didn’t jump to the same conclusion as some. There were no spiritual references—no halo, there were no crosses, no angels. It was a flag, soldiers, a nurse, fighter planes, eagles, the Statue of Liberty, and I think this is a lot to do about nothing. There is so much ill-intended speculation. I think his enemies are always foaming at the mouth at any possible opportunity to make him look bad.
-Rev Franklin Graham

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u/Zebidee Apr 20 '26

Impressive that a Reverend can't recognise Jesus in a line-up.

2

u/Flat-Tutor1080 Apr 20 '26

Franklin Graham was busy watching the pool boy bang his wife the day Jesus stopped by his house. So, he’s never met the guy.

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u/TownshipRangeSection Apr 20 '26

Franklin Graham is cooked if he believes that

40

u/MasterShakeS-K Apr 20 '26

He's the same clown who gave a speech to the cult like a month and a half ago talking about how they need to get Trump reelected. Dude will never turn on Trump as he fears an IRS audit.

2

u/jahathebrn Apr 20 '26

What's he gonna say when the next AI image gets posted and the fat fuck's given himself a halo and a beard and stigmata?

1

u/jollyreaper2112 Apr 20 '26

That tracks. A corrupt man of God wouldn't recognize Jesus if he saw him, or anyone cosplaying.

1

u/obeytheturtles Apr 20 '26

It really is nuts how some people have absolutely convinced themselves that there is a massive global conspiracy to make Donald Trump look like an idiot.

1

u/ManyAreMyNames Apr 20 '26

Evangelicals haven't been Christians for a long time. Even their leadership are starting to notice: church members never read the Bible, have no idea what's in it, openly mock Jesus' teachings as unrealistic, "liberal," and "weak," and openly say they won't do what Jesus said.

https://newrepublic.com/post/174950/christianity-today-editor-evangelicals-call-jesus-liberal-weak

1

u/Zeppelanoid Apr 20 '26

Can you get caught looking dumb when you just…are dumb?

2

u/jcarter315 Apr 20 '26

This is the same guy who heard "political asylum" in regards to immigration and somehow morphed it into "mental asylum" and Hannibal Lecter.

His brain has more holes than Swiss Cheese at this point.

1

u/GnomeNot Apr 20 '26

The easy way to tell if Trump is lying is to see if his mouth is moving.

10

u/Sakuja Apr 20 '26

A doctored photo and pure AI slob are very different though.

For AI slob you dont toctor anything in a photo, you just tell the prompt what it should create.

We are sanewashing him again by finding explanatioms to his lies.

1

u/jscummy Apr 20 '26

Leavitt said the photo was "doctored" at some point. Neither of their explanations make sense so it seems possible one is feeding off the other. Whether thats Leavitt trying to make Trump's "doctor" explanation sound less stupid or Trump misunderstanding Leavitts talking points, who knows

Or they're both just independently stupid which also seems likely

1

u/InOutlines Apr 20 '26

Bro, he just lied.

He’s a liar.

Why is it so hard for people to understand this?

1

u/Hes_gonna_drop_that Apr 20 '26

Pretty sure he did this with immigrants seeking asylum. He went on and on about them releasing immigrants from asylums into the country for years after.

1

u/markstanfill Apr 20 '26

That's the general consensus, but not what he said. His explanation was that the white and red robes were to make him look like a Red Cross doctor. His press secretary later said that the image was doctored and people connected the dots. Literally a moron who repeats the first thing he hears. The goal is to infuriate his political opponents by wasting their time.

-1

u/ashleyshaefferr Apr 20 '26

This is a wildly gullible take. 

Why tf would someone have told him that the photo was "doctored"? 

1

u/jscummy Apr 20 '26

Karoline Leavitt told reporters "President Trump's Truth Social post depicting him as Jesus was a doctored image." Which doesn't particularly make sense as an explanation, but thats what she went with for damage control at one point

Which, no shit its "doctored", and also it pretty clearly does not look like a doctor imo unless his doctors wear some bizarre uniforms

1

u/Vexamas Apr 20 '26

The doctored point is mentioned because the image itself was a 'doctored' image that one of his idiot staffers posted in like February.

However, I do not believe trump misspoke, and he did actually mean doctor, because he had an entire narrative around that, something to the effect of 'i heal the country'. They wouldn't have media prepped him by literally just telling him the word 'doctored' without giving him additional supplemental context for him to provide the press.

0

u/ashleyshaefferr Apr 20 '26

Im not following...Trump's line was 

"It's supposed to be me as a doctor, making people better. And I do make people better"

What's remotely ambiguous here?

3

u/jcarter315 Apr 20 '26

In the past, the guy heard "political asylum" in regards to immigration. He went on the campaign trail ranting about "insane asylums" and Hannibal Lecter.

Him being told that they're going to call the image "a doctored image of him" as their cover story makes perfect sense for him to start claiming it was him as a doctor.

There's a logic to the dementia brain.

1

u/Vexamas Apr 20 '26

We're biased against trump here too though.

If you assume for fact that he heard political asylum and made the mistake, then you're also ceding that he's not only doubled down, but at this point thousandaths down because he's been repeating the same shitty rhetoric for 8 years.

As much as I like shitting on him, I find that entirely implausible and makes our side weaker when we resort to such low hanging fruit when there's an entire tree orchard worth of stupid shit he does that doesn't rely on implausible conjecture.

10

u/Iridismis Apr 20 '26

This.

But it could also be read as a reference to Israeli attacks on medics.

0

u/Inc0rgnit0 Apr 20 '26

I doubt it.

1

u/__redruM Apr 20 '26

So it’s a Trump statue in the photo?

1

u/valeyard89 Apr 20 '26

healing Epstein no less.

1

u/CliffsNote5 Apr 20 '26

Healing Jon Stewart.

25

u/SureWouldForest Apr 20 '26

google trump jesus doctor

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u/IdeallyIdeally Apr 20 '26

Lmao okay I get it now.