Politics

[sandydandy]

I've never heard of this hand gesture thing. I'd like to think people still use it for kudos.

[Tom Servo]

It's one of those things that came from the chan boards. It started as a "hahah, let's do this normal hand gesture and then laugh when normies accuse us of using it for something nefarious", then over time became "let's actually signal this nefarious thing with this normie hand gesture." You see it a lot from folks in white nationalist organizations like Rise Above Movement and Patriot Front.

[Crazed_Insanity]

If I need to gesture OK to my wife on the side of the road letting her know that we are good to go, I’m just gonna do it.

If people think that I’m a hateful Nazi or morally deficient, so be it. Can’t please everybody.

As far as I know, I still live in a free country.

People in uniforms do tend to be conservatives. Liberals are probably too free to want to join the ranks… but anyways, I still do not believe most of our cops and soldiers are Nazis. Sure, there are definitely bad apples in it, but as long as the higher ups don’t openly promote white power, I think we should be safe.

[Phil_SS]

So every SCUBA diver is a neo-nazi…..???!!!!

[Crazed_Insanity]

If you are a liberal SCUBA diver, things will probably never be OK for you in the future! :p

Actually to be fair, conservatives are making similar assumptions that liberals are all evil baby killing communists!

As if normal human beings no longer exist. We’re all either evil conservatives or evil liberals. We also need to periodically remind ourselves that there are also good liberals and good conservatives.

[dodint]

So every SCUBA diver is a neo-nazi…..???!!!!

This is kind of hysterical when you have folks on ignore and this is the only post that gets through. :lol:

[Crazed_Insanity]

Dude, I think you have way too many people on ignore!

Oh well, better with self censorship than having Random censoring us I suppose!

At least this you get less offended and can occasionally get a laugh out of it! :p

[Rare White Ape]

Here’s a tweet from Robert Kennedy Jr, known anti-vaxxer, conspiracist, anti-Semite and candidate for Republican Party nomination for president for the 2024 election, in which he seemingly hides the nazi dog whistle “1488” in the text.

https://twitter.com/robertkennedyjr/status/1684909385376575488?s=46&t=kyEhGTbuSR8sLMhVuzNU6w

[MR2 Fan]

Actually he's a candidate for the Democrats (but he's actually just trying to pull votes)

[Tom Servo]

Oh yeah, that one seems pretty blatant. I'm willing to chalk it up to a staffer writing the tweet, but that's a hell of a dog whistle. Given his recent statements about covid and how it's designed to not kill Jews, I'm not 100% shocked about it.

He's definitely running as a dem, but is mostly supported by people like Steve Bannon, so take that how you will.

I will never, ever understand how Cheryl Hines is still married to that fool.

[neanderthal]

https://twitter.com/eclecticbrotha/status/1685852655761981440?t=zvOedjb-cvsDPA4vpAFTjA&s=19

[Crazed_Insanity]

You guys have very keen eyes. Maybe it's a covert way of indicating he's a Democratic Nazi, maybe it's just a coincident. No way to know for sure.

However, given that you got his party affiliation wrong, could you be wrong with your conclusion as well?

Seriously, how is this any different than the Q conspiracy believers? Reading in between the lines... and then be 100% sure underneath the Pizza parlor are bunch of kids being sexually abused?

Throwing up OK gesture is 'proof' of nazis? And complaining about not getting secret service after 88 days... are sure enough signs that these people are hateful racists?

Look, if these assholes couldn't be brave enough to come out of their 'closets' and admit to the world who they really are, I don't see any reason why I should fear them. They're too scare to come out! Just let them live in their 'closets' and never be able to come outta there.

At least gays nowadays don't have to live in fear and in closets anymore. They can be proud of who they are. Let them nazi's stay in their hiding places. I seriously doubt Nazism will ever gain popular support.

I think I'm beginning to understand why you guys think people like Peterson is a hateful bigoted Nazi.

To you guys, I'm probably a hateful bigoted Nazi too.

To me, this is really kinda like Qanon, but going in the leftward direction.

I can understand your concerns, but I think you guys are going a bit overboard with it. When McCarthy was looking for communists, almost everyone looks like a communist! When you are looking for Nazis…

[Rare White Ape]

Actually he's a candidate for the Democrats (but he's actually just trying to pull votes)

I missed that detail lawl! Holy shit.

[FaultyMario]

I will never, ever understand how Cheryl Hines is still married to that fool.

Maybe he's great in bed?

It's silly, I know, but maybe one should speculate about a public person's private life.

[Yw-slayer]

So every SCUBA diver is a neo-nazi…..???!!!!

APPARENTLY SO??!!?!?!

[sandydandy]

You guys have very keen eyes. Maybe it's a covert way of indicating he's a Democratic Nazi, maybe it's just a coincident. No way to know for sure.

However, given that you got his party affiliation wrong, could you be wrong with your conclusion as well?

Seriously, how is this any different than the Q conspiracy believers? Reading in between the lines... and then be 100% sure underneath the Pizza parlor are bunch of kids being sexually abused?

Throwing up OK gesture is 'proof' of nazis? And complaining about not getting secret service after 88 days... are sure enough signs that these people are hateful racists?

Look, if these assholes couldn't be brave enough to come out of their 'closets' and admit to the world who they really are, I don't see any reason why I should fear them. They're too scare to come out! Just let them live in their 'closets' and never be able to come outta there.

At least gays nowadays don't have to live in fear and in closets anymore. They can be proud of who they are. Let them nazi's stay in their hiding places. I seriously doubt Nazism will ever gain popular support.

I think I'm beginning to understand why you guys think people like Peterson is a hateful bigoted Nazi.

To you guys, I'm probably a hateful bigoted Nazi too.

To me, this is really kinda like Qanon, but going in the leftward direction.

I can understand your concerns, but I think you guys are going a bit overboard with it. When McCarthy was looking for communists, almost everyone looks like a communist! When you are looking for Nazis… This has to be the worst post of the year from you. Seriously wow. :down:

[Rare White Ape]

Here are some examples of LGBTQI+ people who should be proud of who they are.

Or were…

https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/07/26/onyx-john-trans-suicide-australia/

https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/trans-boy-14-takes-own-life-after-struggle-to-access-health-care-c-11240830.amp

Remember that bullying and societal oppression (no matter how minor) starts somewhere, and it’s usually from bigots.

Gee, I wonder which side of politics it is that contains all the bigotry and social conservatism… hmmm….

[Crazed_Insanity]

LGBT folks don’t have to hide anymore. Popular acceptance has been achieved. Of course there are definitely oppression and discrimination still going on, but I’m not so sure we can blame all suicides on conservatives. People commit suicides for variety of reasons. If we can send all conservatives into a camp and wipe them out, I’m pretty sure people outside of that camp can continue to find reasons to kill themselves. There are also plenty of white folks commit suicides or OD and died that way. We can also blame their privileged conservative lives?

Anyway, if you have to hide something, chances are, something is wrong. Clearly members of the KKK are too chicken shit to show their faces. I’m pretty sure majority of the conservative Americans won’t support/vote for the KKK and Nazis. That’s all I’m saying. (Unless our economy goes off the deep end like Germany was back in ww2)

If you guys wish to continue your political profiling, if you do the ok sign, antivaxx, or whatever else like RFK Jr, then you must be a conservative bigot Nazi?

How is that different from cops doing racial profiling?

Again, I’m asking to not jump to conclusions.

However, we do live in free societies, you can jump however you want.


This has to be the worst post of the year from you. Seriously wow. :down:

You’ll have to help me figure out where I’m being morally deficient there.

[sandydandy]

You’ll have to help me figure out where I’m being morally deficient there. Equating gays with Nazis. Equating normal people with QAnuts. There’s more that I don’t need to get into.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Equating gays with Nazis. Equating normal people with QAnuts. There’s more that I don’t need to get into.

Those 2 are the most polarizing issues of our time and I do believe each side is irrationally afraid of the 2 poles taking over the world.

Yeah, perhaps North Pole would find compared to South Pole as offensive, and vice versa… but I hope you can understand that I wasn’t trying to equate the two because they’re clearly not quite equal.

I’d have no problems electing a gay politician but of course there’s no way I’d elect a Nazi into public office. I think public sentiment is also the same. As long as we have a free and normal country, without excessive brainwashing or compulsion, there’s no way Americans would elect a future Hitler into office. Conservatives might have fallen for some closet Nazi, but I can’t believe they’d continue to support somebody who openly declared that he’s a white power nazi.

[Tom Servo]

Lol at Billi. If it helps at all, the post by RFK Jr. is bullshit. There's no such common "14-day" turnaround, and even if he did ask 88 days ago (why not just say "about three months"?), secret service details for non-incumbents would not be available until July of 2024, 120 days out from the general election.

It's a bullshit tweet from a whinging nutcase that appears to have a Nazi dogwhistle in it, and one that he has not deleted despite being demonstrably false nonsense that also has lots of people pointing out what appears to be a Nazi dogwhistle from someone who has a history of antisemitic comments.

He might not be a Nazi, but he doesn't appear to have a problem trying to appeal to 'em.

[MR2 Fan]

LGBT folks don’t have to hide anymore. Popular acceptance has been achieved.

Yes, let's ask O'Shae Sibley...oh wait, we can't because he was stabbed to death

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/31/nyregion/stabbing-gas-station-brooklyn.html?unlocked_article_code=FOMyyJ9OQ2d1gz 2wYp3ye_4_SvBjVCSu987NBba5rvxDvt5Yxi6Cow2pX-TxcFGcD1Mm2ByBdhBHfFqd5z2p5vjMhJ8jMop-KsjHE95FEP1HSzz46zRacz0E_TYlqvLLLTZLMc0ycIPGRSaWiz SsaMn8jkcsHclYbRZ57_7CJDwzhNokuCAjaglBro_lr3Bf-Y73maAMmSKFWI0GAwuFBZbOnDmu1P328LpNPf4CmLp5uNCn4VQ 6MHut6dIuJBEtpLEPEEQ-FZQt0_q-jR-libD13kt3dn97Qt9Hd7tiSgv72DCjtgeBcrqcAzCQFzKZ-ZjKR6vaEBB67w0Tbe0tLGvM3_Rz2Qa2&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

[Crazed_Insanity]

Yes, let's ask O'Shae Sibley...oh wait, we can't because he was stabbed to death

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/31/nyregion/stabbing-gas-station-brooklyn.html?unlocked_article_code=FOMyyJ9OQ2d1gz 2wYp3ye_4_SvBjVCSu987NBba5rvxDvt5Yxi6Cow2pX-TxcFGcD1Mm2ByBdhBHfFqd5z2p5vjMhJ8jMop-KsjHE95FEP1HSzz46zRacz0E_TYlqvLLLTZLMc0ycIPGRSaWiz SsaMn8jkcsHclYbRZ57_7CJDwzhNokuCAjaglBro_lr3Bf-Y73maAMmSKFWI0GAwuFBZbOnDmu1P328LpNPf4CmLp5uNCn4VQ 6MHut6dIuJBEtpLEPEEQ-FZQt0_q-jR-libD13kt3dn97Qt9Hd7tiSgv72DCjtgeBcrqcAzCQFzKZ-ZjKR6vaEBB67w0Tbe0tLGvM3_Rz2Qa2&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Popular music could also be hated by some people. As long as some people hate such music, popular music can never be called popular music?

Nazis and hateful bigots will likely always exist. However, they can’t ever become popularly acceptable unless in extraordinary circumstances. Even back in ww2 times, I kinda doubt majority of Germans truly supported Hitler.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Lol at Billi. If it helps at all, the post by RFK Jr. is bullshit. There's no such common "14-day" turnaround, and even if he did ask 88 days ago (why not just say "about three months"?), secret service details for non-incumbents would not be available until July of 2024, 120 days out from the general election.

It's a bullshit tweet from a whinging nutcase that appears to have a Nazi dogwhistle in it, and one that he has not deleted despite being demonstrably false nonsense that also has lots of people pointing out what appears to be a Nazi dogwhistle from someone who has a history of antisemitic comments.

He might not be a Nazi, but he doesn't appear to have a problem trying to appeal to 'em.

I’m not even a RFK Jr. Supporter so I’m not gonna bother defending him.

Maybe you guys are right.

However, in general, I think it’s probably better to have FBI trying to detect these dog whistles.

What’s the point of having to general population becoming dogs trying to hear these whistles?

Once we heard it, what would you do about it other than get mad?

I’d rather they continue to hide beneath the radar as dogs. I’d also like to keep my OK sign if you don’t mind.

There are plenty of other issues near and around the equator that need to be addressed. Our focus really shouldn’t only be focused on the north and south poles.

[sandydandy]

The reason why people have a problem with dog whistles is because they lead to action. Ie. violence.

[Crazed_Insanity]

If there is action, naturally there’ll also be reaction.

Even the FBI can’t just detect these whistles and have that as enough justification to arrest and send them to a concentration camp, right? Can we really preemptively kill Hitler before he acted?

To be honest I’ve only recently learned on this forum that folks like Henry Ford may have inspired Hitler thru writings… so what should we have done? Ban his writings? Ban his factories? Maybe. Maybe Hitler then won’t be inspired and just lived a normal life? Nobody can know for sure.

Point is, we cannot arrest and jail somebody before an actionable crime is committed. This is why I said FBI should be listening to these whistles.

Yeah, it’d be bad if Nazis have already infiltrated our government so they are turning a mute ear… if that’s really the case, they should be barking by now rather than using whistles.

[Tom Servo]

Did someone forget what making dogwhistles and throwing red meat to groups like the Proud Boys and Patriot Front, along with a long line of conspiracy theorists did? It at least lead to a violent insurrection on the US Capitol that led to multiple deaths, and the conspiracy theorizing led to a higher rate of Covid deaths among Republicans.

So yeah...there are some problems with courting the more unhinged of us. They also tend not to be super satisfied with just the whistling, you'll need to cater to more and more of their worst impulses to keep their support. That's how you get children in cages at the border.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Did someone forget those dogs’ failed actions?

One of their own, Mike Pence, didn’t go thru with it, and the crowd just went home eventually.

If majority of those conservatives there were all ‘dogs’, surely we’d have dictator Trump in office right now.

[sandydandy]

I'm done arguing politics and matters of morality and decency with Billi. It's exhausting. The lengths he goes to defend the indefensible is simply astonishing.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I honest don’t think I have been defending Nazism here. I’m just arguing against liberal extremism.

How can Billi be okay with the okay hand gesture ?!?! How can he be so deliberately dense?

Well, maybe he’s not a liberal extremist. Likewise I don’t agree with Q and Nazism. I could argue with them all day too! ;)

People really need to migrate near the equator more.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Did someone forget those dogs’ failed actions?

One of their own, Mike Pence, didn’t go thru with it, and the crowd just went home eventually.

If majority of those conservatives there were all ‘dogs’, surely we’d have dictator Trump in office right now.

I want to illustrate this last point and then I think I'm probably done with this discussion too.

ADL has been identifying these dog whistles for a while, right? You guys have been watching or listening to them closely, right?

Did that stop those insurrectionists from gathering in DC? Knowing those 'whistles', how did that help anybody? Other than causing yourself more anger and stress?

It is a bit scary to see how the capitol police chief appeared to deliberately weakened readiness of his own forces knowing very well what's coming to them on that fateful day. Glad we got rid of him.

Undoubtedly there could be some neo-nazi's hidden in our government somewhere. If there were enough of them, I'm sure they could've coordinated with each other and gain power like Hitler did.

Anyway, reality is that their attempts were not really thwarted by liberals. People from within that conservative group either decided to stop it or they're too stupid to actually pull the stunt off. That probably meant there weren't enough 'dogs' in that group or these 'dogs' are just too dumb and incompetent. Either way, I don't see them as a huge threat. Most of them are probably just conservatives upset that a dem won the WH.

FBI definitely needs to continue to listen to those whistles and be more prepared, but regular citizens really should stop trying to be so vigilant and try to report Billi as a Nazi. Using your polarized political lenses I can appear to be an evil Nazi or an evil gay communist depending on which pole you're standing on.

[Rare White Ape]

I'm done arguing politics and matters of morality and decency with Billi. It's exhausting. The lengths he goes to defend the indefensible is simply astonishing.

There’s being the devil’s advocate, and then there’s morally bankrupt side-stepping until they themselves become the thing. He is all about the love and forgiveness promoted in his Sunday morality club but has no ability to recognise that maybe some people do not deserve forgiveness of any kind, and thus his talent for critical thought is forever skewed.

They say the nazis you need to fear most are not the ones in government. It’s the ones next door.

Use the ignore feature. You know I do!

[Tom Servo]

Trump's been slowly sharing more and more Q stuff over time over on Truth Social. Started by just re-tweeting (I will not call it re-truthing) Q influencer accounts that made fawning photoshops of him. Then it started including actual Q references, or Q slogans. A few months ago, actual screenshots of Q posts on 8kun. Now he just shared a video that's straight up Q stuff and ends with claims that George W. Bush was behind 9/11.

So, things are going great over there. At least on the plus side - it sounds like both of Trump's PACs are almost broke. Save America PAC is apparently down to $3 million after only raising $15 million so far this year but spending $30 million, mostly on legal fees. This is down from raising $100 million in 2022 and ending the year at $18 million in the bank. Make America Great Again PAC is similarly low on funds and has massively outspent what it's raised, including some questionable expenditures at places like Mar-a-Lago.

[sandydandy]

Use the ignore feature. You know I do! Naah, I don’t ignore anyone. Just never been a fan of the function.

Believe it or not I do actually like Billi. I’m probably his only Facebook friend from the community. He’s really good to talk to about car issues and other stuff.

Anything except politics.

And religious stuff…but I don’t touch that topic in general with anybody anyhow.

[Tom Servo]

Trump's latest indictment, pretty decent reading: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.258149/gov.uscourts.dcd.258149.1.0_1.pdf

I like this part about them pushing the idea of "suitcases of ballots being stuffed in" during the count at the State Farm Arena in Georgia:



With respect to the persistent false claim regarding State Farm Arena, on December 8, the Senior Campaign Adviser [to Trump] wrote in an email, "When our research and campaign legal team can't back up any of the claims made by our Elite Strike Force Legal Team [Co-Conspirators 1 and 2, 1 is definitely Giuliani], you can see why we're 0-32 on our cases. I'll obviously hustle to help on all fronts, but it's tough to own any of this when it's all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership."

[Dicknose]

I’m probably his only Facebook friend from the community.
Not his only one!
And Ive met him in LA many years ago.

Like you said I find him a great guy if you keep away from some topics

[neanderthal]

He's a fuckwit racist enabler/ excuser.

I hate to be the guy but your opinion of him is not quite accurate maladjusted inexact wrong!!

I can't fuck wit him.

[FaultyMario]

The NRA (https://corporateaccountability.org/blog/the-other-nra/) is targeting children.


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2eiSNPaAAAxPUw.jpg

And the blonde girl knows it.

[neanderthal]

I believe that was taken at the signing of a law that did away with requiring parental consent for children to ... <checks notes> go to work!!! :eek:

[FaultyMario]

A law that was lobbied by those poor restaurateurs who have been hit with far too many fines for... (checks notes) committing child-labor abuses.

[Rare White Ape]

Reposted uncritically from elsewhere:

“‘Twitter Blue, which Elon Musk is currently rebranding to X Blue, now includes the option to hide the notorious blue checkmark. Twitter Blue subscribers recently started noticing the “hide your blue checkmark” option on the web and in mobile apps, offering the ability to hide that they’re paying for Twitter and avoid memes about how “this mf paid for twitter.”

“The checkmark will be hidden on your profile and posts,” notes a Twitter support article. “The checkmark may still appear in some places and some features could still reveal you have an active subscription. Some features may not be available while your checkmark is hidden.’”

Remember: Musk is a genius.

[Rare White Ape]

More genius posting, as I am such a fan of his...

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/07/twitter-elon-musk-white-genocide-nationalist-supremacist-tweets/


Elon Musk made his most brazen overture to white nationalists yet on Monday, tweeting about the “white genocide” conspiracy theory in South Africa.

In response to a video of South Africa’s ​​Economic Freedom Fighters party posted by right-wing influencer and serial plagiarist Benny Johnson, Musk tweeted, “They are openly pushing for genocide of white people in South Africa.” The video shows members of the party singing a “struggle song” that features the lyrics “shoot to kill, kill the Boer, kill the farmer.” A court ruled last August that the song was not hate speech, and that the lyrics were not meant to be taken literally.

Almost immediately, white nationalists praised Musk for taking up their cause:

“Elon Musk bringing attention to White Genocide,” white nationalist influencer Nick Fuentes wrote on Telegram, accompanied by an emoji of an excited Pepe.

Patrick Casey, founder of the neo-Nazi group “Identity Evropa,” tweeted, “In 2016 South African white genocide was a fringe issue—now, the richest man in the world, who also owns Twitter, is drawing attention to it. Things are moving in the right direction!”'

[Rare White Ape]

Just remember though: we can't jump to conclusions about outwardly nice people being nazis.

Sorry for the triple post.

Didn't mean it, honest.

Anyway...

[Crazed_Insanity]

Yeah, don't forget to include outwardly nice chinese people like Billi who can also be a nazi too?

It looks to me like 'somebody' is coordinating efforts to manipulate Elon to get him talking about this. I think you're wishing that somebody succeed and convert Elon to be a Nazi so that you'll be happy about being right? You can ignore Billi, but can you really ignore Elon though?

I'd be afraid if Elon really becomes a white supremacist. I hope that won't happen, but considering his wealth, it'd be difficult to know what might happen, especially if he's also surrounded by the wrong group of folks.

Anyway, enough of white power. I really believe the problem with our conspiracy theories is that governments and mainstream orgs tried too hard to shut them down without giving enough reasons. Lab leak theory is shut down because it's racist. Sound of Freedom the movie is shutdown because of antisemitism.

Why is everything revolving around race? Corona virus and child sex trafficking are racial issues?

Politics can be super fucking stupid and causing people to jump to conclusions. This can happen for both sides. Believe it or not. One would think liberals should be smarter than this.

I personally can choose to be on the fence about these things. I'm not politically invested whether if it's natural origin or lab leak. I just want the real truth. I don't even need to watch Sound of Freedom to know child trafficking is real. To be safe, I won't give them my money. Still, if I were Hollywood, I'd not take extraordinary steps to try to 'cancel' the movie. That just further makes you looking suspicious in the eyes of those conspiracy theorists.

If I'm going to take a leap of faith without evidence, I'll leap to Jesus. If you're going be believe something, you should believe in something good. Otherwise, hold off on your conclusions until you have your solid evidence. As we sit on the fence, we can expect the worst(to protect ourselves just in case), but also be able to hope for the best.

I'd not live my life ignoring my neighbors believing that they're nazis. If I do suspect that they're nazis, I might just argue with them about politics and ask them to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior until they ignore me or move out of my neighborhood. :p

[Crazed_Insanity]

Now, back to election politics:

Most people here, including myself, probably don't care much for Mike Pence. Whether Trump could be the next Hitler or not, at least Mike stopped him and is continuing his effort.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/pence-trumps-indictment-anyone-puts-002049678.html

"Pence on Trump's indictment: 'Anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be president"

I personally would not vote for Mike because he's way too conservative, but I do respect his integrity.

I think Mike and Bernie are perhaps the polar opposite twins. :D

It's really amazing after 1 pussygrabbing incident, 2 impeachments and 3 indictments... Trump is still even with Biden with poll #s.

Luckily majority of Americans still don't like Trump. But then again same can be said for Biden as well.

And 2 sides are fighting hard for their respective candidates. Actually, we're just fighting hard against the candidates that we don't want. Since we can't really have what we want anyways.

I think this may be the root of our problem? when we can't have what we want, naturally we get depressed and sometimes go nuts. Going nuts outwardly is to cause harm on others. For introverts, they just may cause harm to themselves and commit suicide. When economy went south for Germany, they went nuts going right and take it out on Jews by killing them. China simply went the other direction and kill off all rich people because they've decided to blame them. Reality is that they were simply being used by the respective dictators. Blame games are always easy to play, but they never end well. Instead of hating and killing people, we should be hating and killing problems.

Fortunately, we don't have a dictator yet. Once a dictator emerges in America, I'd definitely exercise my right to bear arms..., but it may be too late by then. But it's okay, I can probably borrow guns from people like roofer.

[neanderthal]

This tweet had aged gracefully.

4133

[Crazed_Insanity]

TSCBR! (Too Small Could Barely Read!)

Does Kamala really want to see him at his trial? Why waste time? Unless there's really nothing better to do...

[neanderthal]

She posted that years ago when she shut down her campaign and he tried to mock her. She, being a Black woman (Black/ Indian), responded in way that very few people who aren't Black women seem to be able to; she joked about him being a criminal, mocked him for being a criminal, and was dead serious about him a criminal all in 10 words.

For those who can't see it (sorry from my phone) Trump tweeted "Too bad, we will miss you Kamala" to which she responded "don't worry Mr President i will you at your trial."

[Tom Servo]

Just in case y'all feel like reading about Giuliani talkin' about tits and calling his lady his "daughter" and vomiting uncontrollably, I give you this:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/come-here-big-tits-rudy-giulianis-sex-abuse-accuser-noelle-dunphy-has-the-tapes (https://www.thedailybeast.com/come-here-big-tits-rudy-giulianis-sex-abuse-accuser-noelle-dunphy-has-the-tapes#:~:text=claim%20my%20tits.-,I%20want%20to%20claim%20my%20tits.,can%20get%20ne ar%20these%2C%20OK%3F)

Argh, hopefully you don't get hit with the login-wall that I got.

[Tom Servo]

Another fun bit from the same document dump.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2jRcU0XEAElMOd?format=jpg&name=900x900

[Tom Servo]

Though, in fairness, nothing Giuliani says in these transcripts tops Donald Sterling's deposition. Absolutely NSFW.


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2jUw56aAAA4ehF?format=jpg&name=small

[FaultyMario]

This dude?

https://media.bleacherreport.com/w_800,h_533,c_fill/br-img-images/002/866/854/477f67b3260c1a8dde3d6c9d22e8a22e_crop_north.jpg

[Tom Servo]

Yep, that dude.

In other news, Michael Flynn is going to learn very quickly about phrasing.

https://cdn.bsky.social/imgproxy/MaJqhBxbjx1barWDucEVE8ogi4nLxifcQJvRPqYbvqk/rs:fit:2000:2000:1:0/plain/bafkreicxhhgfkps2so6s7to2u5zlujrtnxsfkzsvfwuw3pw3u e5n2dxdwi@jpeg

[2ndMoparMan]

He doesn't give a fuck. In other news, happy indictment day! Again!

[Tom Servo]

Lol at Billi. If it helps at all, the post by RFK Jr. is bullshit. There's no such common "14-day" turnaround, and even if he did ask 88 days ago (why not just say "about three months"?), secret service details for non-incumbents would not be available until July of 2024, 120 days out from the general election.

It's a bullshit tweet from a whinging nutcase that appears to have a Nazi dogwhistle in it, and one that he has not deleted despite being demonstrably false nonsense that also has lots of people pointing out what appears to be a Nazi dogwhistle from someone who has a history of antisemitic comments.

He might not be a Nazi, but he doesn't appear to have a problem trying to appeal to 'em.

Just saw someone mentioning also that it wasn't actually 88 days. It was 57. The letter he posted shows that the request came in on May 26th and was denied on July 21st.

Weird that 14 and 88 would show up when *neither* of them are the actual numbers, yeah?

[Crazed_Insanity]

Why couldn't somebody directly confront RFK Jr. about this? Ask him straight up, hey, what's up with these numbers and see what he says?

Instead of ignoring that son of bitch and then continue to complaining about what he said?

This is the problem with our society today. We disengage with people on the other side and then we plot up conspiracy theories about folks on the other side.

Yeah the usual we don't negotiate with terrorists talk... we don't talk to hateful nazis... simlarly they don't want to talk to evil child molesting communists...

Anyway, I just wish someone would just confront RFK Jr. about his math. How did he come up with it. Also, is he familiar with dog whistles. If he's claiming ignorance about that # but couldn't explain how he came up with the wrong numbers, then clearly he's a Nazi. It is also possible he simply did the math incorrectly or perhaps he did do it correctly just that 'someone' did the math wrong, then we can clear his name. That's what we should be doing instead of just bad mouthing him in his back.

Communication communication communication is the key!!!

Political polarization cuts communications off.

I'm too good to talk to these people. I'm sure they're hateful bigots. Just continue to ignore those assholes and problems will go away?

This numbers thing is clearly more serious than the okay gesture if it was done intentionally.

After some googling, I think there are sufficient reporting about RFK Jr.'s possible dog whistle tweet. If I were RFK Jr. and I'm not an Nazi, I'd definitely try to clear my name and explain how I came up with the #'s. If he continues to stay silent about this issue, then I think it'd be clear that you guys are correct. We'll see.

If he is a Nazi and seeking Nazi votes, directly confronting him should easily end his campaign. Speculating about his tweets is really pointless IMHO. Supporters will continue to support, haters will continue to hate. Nothing will change.

However this thing ends, my position hasn't been changed. I have no plans to vote for him either way. My logic is this: if your own family won't stand behind you, why should I? :p

[Tom Servo]

Okay, I foolishly clicked view post.

There are a bunch of people responding to his tweet asking him. There are news articles where they say they have reached out to him for comment. He has not responded to any of them.

Why would you get it in your head that nobody's tried to ask him about it and that people are, very publicly and on open forums across the internet, "talking behind his back."

Where do you come up with this bullshit? It's incredible.

[Tom Servo]

In other news, a funder of the "Sound of Freedom" movie got arrested for kidnapping a child. Normal weird projection, but this one's extra weird for me because I used to work with/take smoking breaks with this dude 20 odd years ago.

He was always a little odd/eccentric, but definitely would not have expected this.

https://www.newsweek.com/sound-freedom-funder-fabian-marta-arrest-child-kidnapping-1817498

[Crazed_Insanity]

Okay, I foolishly clicked view post.

There are a bunch of people responding to his tweet asking him. There are news articles where they say they have reached out to him for comment. He has not responded to any of them.

Why would you get it in your head that nobody's tried to ask him about it and that people are, very publicly and on open forums across the internet, "talking behind his back."

Where do you come up with this bullshit? It's incredible.

Because of the articles I googled earlier had no responses from RFK Jr.

The guy claimed that mainstream is shutting him out, right? Well, give him some spot light. And ask straight to his face and see his reaction.

Of all the articles, I only saw this one with a response:

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/07/28/politics/fact-check-rfk-biden-secret-service-protection-denial/index.html

“In response to CNN’s request for comment for this fact check, Kennedy campaign manager Dennis Kucinich called our assessment of the tweet “pretty ignorant” and argued that we have been unable to understand the trauma inflicted on the nation by the Kennedy assassinations of the 1960s. He also noted that Obama did have Secret Service protection at this point in the campaign.”

Their response absolutely did not address the accusation of the dog whistle itself.

Mainstream media is still allowing him to get away with possibly using that whistle.

Give him the spot light and ask the right questions, and his facial expression and the truth should quickly reveal itself. Instead dems likes to cover or shut things up. Whether it be RFK and Bernie sanders or lab leak or whatever and consequently allow unnecessary conspiracies to grow.

[Crazed_Insanity]

In other news, a funder of the "Sound of Freedom" movie got arrested for kidnapping a child. Normal weird projection, but this one's extra weird for me because I used to work with/take smoking breaks with this dude 20 odd years ago.

He was always a little odd/eccentric, but definitely would not have expected this.

https://www.newsweek.com/sound-freedom-funder-fabian-marta-arrest-child-kidnapping-1817498

He is one of thousands of funders. Probably the same type as those preachers who preached hard against homosexuality and then got arrested with male prostitutes.

[Tom Servo]

I'll probably regret this, but I just want to make sure I'm reading this correctly.

You're saying that RFK Jr. not responding, except in one case where his campaign manager did, is the fault of the people asking him to respond?

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm not sure how else to read all of that.

[Rare White Ape]

This is completely unrelated:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr-praised-fringe-host-who-claims-hitler-was-set-up

[Tom Servo]

Well, that's just confusing. If the Rothschilds control the world banks and Hitler was a Rothschild, then why would he have been set up by the banks that he ostensibly ran?

[George]

This dude?

https://media.bleacherreport.com/w_800,h_533,c_fill/br-img-images/002/866/854/477f67b3260c1a8dde3d6c9d22e8a22e_crop_north.jpg

Mickey Rourke is looking better than usual in that picture.

[Crazed_Insanity]

https://youtu.be/-LHJo7hpRCY

This is the only live interview I found and this show used clips from Jimmy Dore , a political comedian’s show.

again, right questions were not asked. Instead, RFK shifts blame to one of his mega donors. Which of course is pretty lame, but at least I can see RFK’s face.

Anyway, even if RFK is not quilty, for sure his donor is… or which ever assistant that wrote the tweet is. If he wrote the tweet himself and not very good at math, he needs to at least fire some Nazis within his camp if he’s serious about his presidential bid. It’s kinda obvious he couldn’t justify his numbers.

Anyway, I do also blame the mainstream media for reporting on things without any actual confirmations. It’s obvious that it’s not because RFK jr. is in complete hiding. Mainstream journalists just don’t want to bother interviewing him.

[Tom Servo]

Again - are you suggesting that just not responding is a get out of jail free card? That the media should not report at all if you don't respond to questions?

Just, take a step back. I know you desperately want to win every argument and will just dodge and move goalposts and that the absolute worst thing that could ever happen to you is having to admit that you were wrong, but take a step back.

Does it make any sense that the rest of the world has to suspend all reporting and speculation on what you mean when you make a public statement and then refuse to respond in any way after making said statement when people repeatedly ask for clarification? Would that not make it possible for anybody to just run into, say, a social media platform, say "All people named Billi should be shot in the face." and then just be quiet afterwards and we'd all just have to be like "my goodness, what did he mean by that? I guess we'll never know and, as such, are forbidden from ever speaking of it again."

I am honestly going back to the idea that you're just doing a bit. If I had never met you in real life I'd assume you're just some rando doing a bit and being deliberately obtuse to rile everyone up.

RFK Jr. is in almost complete hiding when it comes to "journalists" who won't promise him that they'll fawn over him instead of ask him actual questions. I think I already suggested that you seek out Brandy Zadrozny's interview with him as one of the few recent ones where the interviewer isn't specifically there just to let him amplify his normal messages. I will be pleasantly surprised if this time you don't just come back saying it looks too long and you didn't bother reading it. Even given that, Rogan of all people *actually* asked a basic journalistic follow-up question when RFK Jr. claimed that WiFi breaks down the "blood-brain barrier", asking just "and how does that work" and RFK responded saying that that went beyond his actual knowledge. The dude went on the show of maybe one of the most credulous "say whatever you want and I won't challenge it" hosts and when just asked the single most basic followup question to back up one of his more outlandish claims was just like "I dunno."

For what it's worth, if you haven't read it, here's Brandy's interview with him: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/rfk-jr-anti-vaccine-push-white-house-rcna89470

In the meantime, I want you to very seriously ask yourself, "do I think that RFK Jr. is completely unaware that a lot of people think that he made a 1488 dog whistle in a tweet, and it's because nobody has actually sat him down face to face and asked him in a situation where I, Billi, can see his face when he's asked?"

[Crazed_Insanity]

4136

Yes, let’s take a step back. I was all the way back to Tipsoo Lake near Mt. Rainier earlier today…

Look, I have no desire to win every argument. Based on the interview I found on YouTube, that was enough for me to conclude that you guys are probably right.

This really isn’t about who’s right or wrong, but I’d like the leftist media to take a better approach.

Do you agree left media wish to suppress RFK Jr., right? If you really want him gone, face to face interview asking where he got the #s from can easily end his campaign rather than allowing them to accuse the accusers back!

To change the ‘goal post’ a bit, I don’t want to prove lab leak theory to be right, but I want to allow all these options to remain on the table until we know more for sure. I just think media, not just left, often draws conclusions too soon without doing sufficient investigation.

[Tom Servo]

What would be the better approach? Do you want them to break into his house and demand he answer questions? He's been given every opportunity to respond publicly, I'm not sure what else you expect from the "leftist media", whatever the fuck that's supposed to mean.

I do not agree that they wish to suppress him. I literally just linked you to an interview from NBC news with him. The "left media" as you call it is probably the main media, e.g., things like the Washington Post, NBC News, et al. They all have covered him far more than he probably deserves, they certainly haven't tried to pretend he's not running.

And that's exactly what I mean by moving the goalposts. Plenty of news orgs, including the NY Times, have entertained the lab leak theory. You just won't be satisfied until...well, you just won't be satisfied, because just like in this case, you'll find some thing that you think didn't fulfill your up-until-now-unstated requirements and move the goalposts yet again. In this specific example - what are your new unstated requirements that the "leftist media" isn't fulfilling? I know that you want to see his face when he's asked something, but how do you propose that the media force this situation? They, as normal journalistic standards dictate, have reached out to him asking for comment prior to publishing stories and he's chosen, of his own volition, to not respond. What do you propose they do different?

Come to think of it, he could just tweet on the same platform as the tweet in question clarifying it. Nothing is stopping him from handling this. He's been asked for comment, he's had interviews all over the place, and he can still post to the same social media that started the whole thing in the first place. His choice not to explain it away is his choice and his choice alone.

[Tom Servo]

Also, that lake looks absolutely gorgeous. I'm jealous.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Only hour and half away from rainier NP so had an impromptu dinner picnic there! :)

Anyways, I think we’re still talking over each other. Most likely my writing skill’s at fault…

1st off, let’s put RFK Jr. behind us. I wasn’t gonna vote for him and after I saw his interview about that, there’s high enough probability that he is a Nazi or surrounded by Nazis. You guys are most likely right with that! I needed that interview to help me jump to that conclusion.

Was I unfairly blaming MSM? Maybe. Maybe they didn’t censor Bernie Sanders too? However, I can’t help but feeling that there’s a coordinated effort against all things that don’t fit official will of the establishment! Maybe I’m paranoid! Maybe our media is really unbiased.

Yeah, I’m glad we can now entertain lab leak theory. Not long ago, wasn’t that a super racist thing to do? Media or not, I just think we jump to conclusions too soon. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not asking anyone to jump to the lab leak theory, but just need to consider all options until more info can come to light.

[Rare White Ape]

Yesterday:
NASCAR driver Noah Gragson got an indefinite suspension from his team for liking a racist post on Instagram that referenced the murder of George Floyd

Meanwhile:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1070781352657567754/1137735361905315951/Screenshot_20230806-091338-417.png

[Yw-slayer]

Lolpololollpll well done Tesluns

[Tom Servo]

Well, if I were in that position, I would feel very reassured that a guy known for not paying his bills and making empty promises is making promises to pay my bills.

[Yw-slayer]

I want to clarify that I was being sarcastic. In case anyone might think otherwise.

[Tom Servo]

Oh yeah, we got that.

Also notable, more than one person got fired from Twitter after Elon took over for badmouthing Mr. sensitive-pants on his new platform. I wonder if he'll fund their lawsuits.

Admittedly, I think "unfairly" is an incredibly useful couching term in that it's wildly subjective so now he can just pick and choose what he thinks is fair.

[Rare White Ape]

Specifically in the Gragson case, he violated a rule about driver conduct. Following the rules is part of his contract. I’d imagine lawyers would be rubbing their hands at the prospect of a blank cheque from Mucks for them to argue this point about unfairness in front of a judge.

Secondly, I checked out that tweet and saw some replies. There were a LOT of nobodies saying they got fired for this and that, please pay my legal fees. Musky boy isn’t interested in them, and I know this because he hasn’t replied to them. He only wants famous people to come pan in hand, so that he can play messiah as a stunt for a bit.

It’s reasonably common for well known sports people and media types to run their mouth on controversial right-wing talking points on social media, then have a backlash that causes them to be dumped by their keepers. Musk wants to support this. Because he’s a nazi.

[neanderthal]

Saw a tweet that said "what Trump is doing is the equivalent of going outside to pick the switch" and I chortled merrily to myself.

I want him to challenge/ ignore the judge and be sent straight to the pen for contempt of court. To literally be put in his place! He, and a lot of others, have skirted the law too long and too often. Time for some pain!

[Tom Servo]

Yeah, like I said, "unfairly" is doing some heavy fucking lifting in that sentence. It basically gives him carte blanche to pick and choose what situations are "unfair". And you can bet your bottom dollar that anything that involves a rich person abusing a poor person is not going to look unfair to him.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I’m willing to bet soon, some disgruntled Tesla or SpaceX employee will take him up on his offer! Not to mention Twitter employees. ;)

[MR2 Fan]

Is it just me or does it seem like there's now two rules in U.S.politics:

1. Let a few billionaires/corporations run everything
2. If you don't do that or try to break those up, then it's communism (aka evil, bad, the devil's work, millions of people will die, etc. etc.)

Note I didn't say GOP politics because even though that is mostly their platform, the democrats don't have any intention to change that either, even if they might sometimes campaign on it.

Of course it doesn't help that our news media platforms and social media platforms are owned by those few billionaires/corporations also.

[Tom Servo]

Yep. Part of the reason I've wanted Feinstein gone for a while now is she basically exists to prop up big media corps like Disney.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Feinstein situation is ridiculous.

Anyway, I still don’t think we necessarily need age limit. If no term limits, then at least health limits? Some sort of mental clarity test at least?

Still, even with Feinstein gone, dem establishment’s embrace of big corporations’ not all of a sudden gonna end.

Company like FTX was probably embraced more by the politicians than Tesla until shit hits the fan.

As long as corporations are people too and can donate big money to politicians, chances are politicians will hear corporations 1st and then maybe the American people occasionally on election day.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Going back to the campaign trail...

Personally, I find it very annoying to see nothing but Trump indictments and Biden Hunter investigations...

Do we really need lesser of the 2 evils?

MSM really should learn from Neanderthal so that they can keep on pumping all the good things Biden has done. Stop focusing on all the negative crap and trying to prove to the public that... 'see? he's more evil than me!'

It'd be scary if after after 1 pussygrabbing, 2 impeachments and 3 indictments and Trump still is able to win the WH in 2024.

Surely, dems can find a candidate capable of defeating somebody like Trump? Biden has done it once. If only there's no Hunter, things would be a lot easier... However, if there weren't a pandemic, Trump likely would've won reelection.

[sandydandy]

(I went to edit this post and it deleted the whole thing, so I have to write it up again)

Some political news here, sort of. Meta has blocked Canadians from accessing/sharing news on Facebook and Instagram. This is in response to a controversial online news bill that was just recently passed by the Canadian government called bill C18, which mandates tech giants to pay for linking Canadian news on their platforms. Something like a per-click fee. Meta said screw that and decided to just lock Canadians out from accessing news on its platforms. Not just Canadian news is blocked to us - ALL news. CNN, Fox, BBC, everything!

Apparently something similar happened in Australia a couple of years ago, but they were able to work out a deal. This current regulation is “unworkable” according to Meta. I read that Google will follow suit.

I know the Canadian government thinks it’s doing the right thing to see our journalists compensated, but it seems to have backfired, as they are not in a position of leverage to bully these enormous tech giants.

This doesn’t really affect me that much, because I never really read news on Facebook to begin with. I have my news websites bookmarked and read directly on the websites for local, national and international news.

The only news page I would visit on Facebook was CP24, (Toronto’s Breaking News), and only to read comments and occasionally engage. But lately that comment section had become a complete shithole, flooded with far-right cockroaches spewing their hatred of Justin Trudeau and minorities as well. Clearly those comment sections were not moderated in the least bit. I guess this works out better for me, as I won’t be able to waste time and expend valuable energy reading that crap anymore. At least not until a deal is reached with Canadian government and the tech giants.

Looks like sports pages are not affected for now. It’s just news. :|

[Tom Servo]

Huh, that sounds like it could shake out in a way that the tech giants don't actually benefit from. Tons of engagement comes from people angrily raging about the news, so Meta et al might not be in quite the position of power that they think they are.

In the meantime, I'm guessing the amount they'd have to pay is a drop in the bucket and amounts to what would essentially be a rounding error in their budgets? Sorta like what we're having here in the US with the studios vs. the writer's guild/SAG strike?

[Rare White Ape]

Yeah that happened here. It was just a way for the media giants to use government backing to shake down Facebook and Google for a bit of extra cash.

Funnily enough, the public funded broadcaster ABC gets zero from FB and Google for sharing links to news sites, and independent news outlets (who spend more time actually questioning government than they do being glorified PR firms for political parties) get nothing as well.

[Yw-slayer]

Re: Feinstein Disney and big companies.

Doesn’t that apply to most of your senators, congresspeople, and politicians loolololl

[JSGeneral]

Re: Feinstein Disney and big companies.

Doesn’t that apply to most of your senators, congresspeople, and politicians loolololl

Yet it doesn't apply to our glorious, very good governors in penis shaped states.

(To be safe, I'm going to explicitly state that the above statement of mine was full on sarcasm.)

[MR2 Fan]

It's getting annoying when congress is starting to look like the movie "Weekend at Bernie's"

[Crazed_Insanity]

How ironic. I really thought we needed more congress folks like Bernie Sanders. :p

[sandydandy]

Huh, that sounds like it could shake out in a way that the tech giants don't actually benefit from. Tons of engagement comes from people angrily raging about the news, so Meta et al might not be in quite the position of power that they think they are.

In the meantime, I'm guessing the amount they'd have to pay is a drop in the bucket and amounts to what would essentially be a rounding error in their budgets? Sorta like what we're having here in the US with the studios vs. the writer's guild/SAG strike? Meta can scoff at Canada because we're a small fry in the grand scheme of things, but I think if more jurisdictions get on board with these kinds of regulations, they can put real pressure on the tech giants to begin compensating. I read that California is proposing something similar, but have put it on the back burner for now. Meta can't block everyone out. Eventually they have to acquiesce.

[FaultyMario]

Meta can scoff at Canada because we're a small fry...

You're still one third of the largest economic bloc on earth. And whatever legislation you pass, mostly on economic matters, does have an impact on what the other two partners could/would attempt to do.

[Yw-slayer]

Also part of a bloc that has full-on soft power via the English language media.

[Yw-slayer]

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Cybertruck-exoskeleton-concept-is-no-longer-viable-for-Tesla.739926.0.html Suck it, Elun and Tesluns

[Crazed_Insanity]

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Cybertruck-exoskeleton-concept-is-no-longer-viable-for-Tesla.739926.0.html Suck it, Elun and Tesluns

Why is this political?

[MR2 Fan]

Why is this political?

We've done almost 2,400 pages of politics posts, why not?

[Yw-slayer]

Because Elun is a dickhead and lies, like most politicians. Suck it Tesluns

[Rare White Ape]

I ain’t jumping to conclusions, but please find me some evidence that shows Ron DeSantis has distanced himself from these voters, or said he hopes they don’t vote for him.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1070343311736459334/1139018831487057920/FB_IMG_1691633564655.jpg

[Crazed_Insanity]

Is butt fucker also some sort of Nazi dog whistle? Sure looks that way. :lol:

Seriously, at least DeSantis fired an aid who made/tweet a video of him with Nazi symbol? My earlier point was that photo you’re showing doesn’t include all republicans.

Now I do agree GOP politicians do need to be more clear about telling Nazi butt holes to fuck off!

[MR2 Fan]

why would they want to lose half of their base?

[Crazed_Insanity]

As if they would vote Democrats?

Same with dems. They don’t need to become communists. Absolutely no need to appeal to those extremes. We’re polarizing enough as it is.

[neanderthal]

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-evangelicals-2663078391/


Lol

[Crazed_Insanity]

Christianity has been in crisis long before Trump. Forgotten about W? We gotta preemptively strike our bogus enemy’s cheek! That had bipartisan support in Congress! Even those who believe Jesus and the Bible are antisemitic went along with W!

Surprisingly the atheist Bernie Sanders didn’t. That why I like him.

Anyway, this actually is kinda sad.

Downward fall of the US seems to be accelerating over the years.

Now, I’m not praying for more Trump loving Christian’s, but hope to have more Americans with more integrity like Jesus and Sanders.

[MR2 Fan]

Billi, look up some Republican Jesus memes

[Crazed_Insanity]

Jesus is not a Republican. Jesus is not a Democrat. Jesus is not even an American. BTW, he is also not an antisemite, he did not crucify any Jews and he is a Jew!

At least according to the christian bible, Jews had 2 parties as well. Pharisees(conservatives) and Sadducees(liberal). Jesus was part of neither group and both parties hated him.

It's fine to have parties or subgroups... same with various different church denominations. People are slightly different and prefer different things. So these subgroups can serve different folks well.

However, problem comes when these subgroups begin to hate and persecute other subgroups.

Of course we can't force people to love one another. However, at least we can provide our citizens with various freedoms to protect them from crucifixion. Obviously we're not there yet, but situation is improving slowly... maybe 2 steps forward and 1 step back... but overall, I'd say we now have more freedom than before.

Jesus is in the business of setting people free.

As more and more americans on both side start to put Jesus on ignore, chances are we'll be taking more steps backwards.

[MR2 Fan]

yeah but republicans don't care about the actual Jesus mentioned in the bible, that's why recommended it. Republican Jesus is basically the opposite of real Jesus (as depicted in the bible)

[Rare White Ape]

why would they want to lose half of their base?

See, that’s the crux of the issue. If you have an ideology that attracts the support of nazis, perhaps your ideology needs to change.

And if you’re not loudly condemning the fact that nazis exist within your circle, then you are just as bad as them.

The notion of people being persecuted on one side or the other is highly simplistic. Only one of these sides (the conservative side) is seeking to persecute anyone. The other side (the liberal side) only does it in response in order to defend those who are actually being persecuted.

[MR2 Fan]

https://forwardky.com/content/images/size/w1304/2022/07/RepublicanJesusFeatured.jpg
https://img-9gag-fun.9cache.com/photo/apN2A78_460s.jpg
https://i.imgflip.com/5vddug.jpg

[Crazed_Insanity]

See, that’s the crux of the issue. If you have an ideology that attracts the support of nazis, perhaps your ideology needs to change.

And if you’re not loudly condemning the fact that nazis exist within your circle, then you are just as bad as them.

The notion of people being persecuted on one side or the other is highly simplistic. Only one of these sides (the conservative side) is seeking to persecute anyone. The other side (the liberal side) only does it in response in order to defend those who are actually being persecuted.

The left side has cancel culture remember?

Nazi germany demonstrated the dangers of extreme rightism. Soviet Union/China demonstrated the dangers of extreme leftism.

China’s cultural revolution is the biggest baddest cancelling movement ever. They felt fully justified to cancel all rich intellectual elitists because all the poor folks felt they were abused and taken advantage of.

Problem with the left is that they feel it’s within their right to hate those who are hateful back.

Anyway, clearly looking back in history, things did not end well with either extremists.

[21Kid]

yeah but republicans don't care about the actual Jesus mentioned in the bible, that's why recommended it. Republican Jesus is basically the opposite of real Jesus (as depicted in the bible)+guns

[Crazed_Insanity]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/tou-thao-more-culpable-other-202519138.html

The asian cop who claimed he was only acting as a human traffic cone got more severe sentencing than the other officers for aiding the killing of George Floyd.

That asian human traffic cone was more senior than the other 2 cops, so I suppose he was in a better position to stop Derek Chauvin? Also judge was disappointed to see the asian dude was not very repentant and screamed out preachy bible verses... so more sentencing for him?

Anyway, not an law expert here, but I suppose one could come up with reasons to argue either way for more or less severe punishment?

However, I still find it rather amazing that it's always the little guys to take the fall and upper management just can pay out of their trouble using taxpayer's money.

Has structural racism been fixed after we jailed these officers?

Same with wall st and banks. Lowly employees committing fraud could easily be jailed, but those near the top can often walk away by having the company pay millions in fines and then do it again and again! Wells Fargo bank for freaking example.

Let's compare the extreme cases. Derek Chauvin the asshole who killed George has a 21yr sentence.

However, compared to fraudster Elizabeth Holmes, she only has a 9yr sentence.

FTX's SBF could potentially face 155yrs in jail, but we'll see how that goes.

I really think moneyism trumps racism. If you got money, you'll get better lawyers and better treatments. If you're po', then officers could just kill you and often times be able to get away with it. Of course if you're also black, that'll probably get the worst possible treatment.

I don't know man. I still don't see we're making any progress in this area. Jailing George Floyd killers is fine I guess. However, are the police departments heads really changing their ways?

Seems to me that not only black people are still scared of police, but police are also feeling more pressure and less appreciated and switching careers. With an increasingly angrier public and less and less police presence, this trend can't possibly end well.

Fascist dictator's solution will just be to eradicate all the poor black or whatever group of folks he deems blameworthy.

Communist dictator's solution will be to defund and cancel police or whoever that has money and power and then promise to give all the money to the poor...

As long as we can avoid ending up with a dictator, maybe there's still hope that we can find a better solution than those 2.

[2ndMoparMan]

Five. Can we get five indictments? Also amusing that Rudy is a defendant getting charged under RICO statues.

[MR2 Fan]

I kept thinking if you get 4 you should get the 5th one free of charge, it's only fair

[sandydandy]

Indictments are great and everything, but until we start seeing some convictions I'm not going to start dancing.

[Tom Servo]

He pretty much has the mobster thing down pat, where he can hint very strongly at the thing he wants, strong enough that his supporters (and the rest of us) know exactly what he's saying, but then can plausibly deny it later. "When I said 'you have to fight like hell or else you won't have a country', I meant 'fight at the ballot box.'"

I'm with sandy - this is all very entertaining, but I'm still not convinced anything will come of it. Not that I don't think there isn't substance there, we all know he's guilty as fuck and so are the rest of the co-conspirators. But will they be able to convince a jury? I dunno.

One thing that helps with the GA indictment is that GA is a traditionally Republican/Authoritarian kind of state with lots of "tough on crime" laws, including a far more permissive set of ways to charge someone under RICO. It's a lot easier to get a conviction there than it is a lot of other places.

[neanderthal]

Love hearing the "the democrats are weaponising the justice system" comments from the GQP, meanwhile all the witnesses that have testified are RepubliKKKans.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I want to 'both side' this weaponizing the justice system too.

One day it's gonna get Hunter because of this... and the other day is get Trump because of that!

Then it's impeach Trump because of Hunter... and then now there's talk of impeach Biden because of Hunter.

Anywho, I think the ultimate weaponizing act was probably conservative billionaires bought the conservative supreme court justices to overturn the Roe vs Wade.

Maybe it's not really that both sided. Dems had been much less effective at weaponizing these things.

For Bill Clinton, it was Monica.
For Biden, it's Hunter.

If it weren't for Monica and Hunter, they could be way more effective presidents. Now, I'm not placing all blames on Monica or Hunter... they exist only because the respective presidents allowed these problems to exist...

I guess Obama was true a better president that way. The only problem he had was with his birth certificate! :lol:

[MR2 Fan]

The difference between Republicans and Democrats (in general) come down to if something happens to Trump etc. to Trump diehard cultists, I mean supporters, it's all political, so the republicans want to do the same thing to the Democrats...whoever they can attack. It isn't about whether Trump actually committed crimes because they don't care or they're completely brainwashed and blinded to it. Complete cult of personality which is why Trump admires other cult of personality types like Kim Jong Un.

They can't attack Joe Biden himself on policy so they attack him on age (funny) or if he has any mental capacity issues....beyond that all they can do is go after his surviving son Hunter who is not in Joe Biden's administration at all but has some personal issues and illegal things he's done.

Meanwhile if allegations or true crimes were committed by Joe Biden, I believe MOST democratic voters would want to see a proper investigation, because there's no cult around Biden, and honestly he was just an average candidate (though honestly the things his administration have done have been very good IMO).

Edit: To add that Biden is just one of many dems who share similar values and policy positions and it doesn't rely on Joe Biden only to be able to do these things. For Trump supporters they think only he can do the things he says, even if he didn't actually accomplish most of what he claimed he would. Even DeSantis which is Trump 2.0 and even more right-wing people don't like, because it's about the cult. IF Trump doesn't like Desantis his followers don't like him. If Biden doesn't like a candidate (not even that he would say so) many democrats would not just go along with it.

Anyway this upcoming GOP debate is going to be a shit show I bet

[MR2 Fan]

From TwitX:

"Bandy X Lee, MD
4 indictments, 91 charges, 2 impeachments, 1 act of sedition, and threatening civil war. 26 women alleging sexual assault. 1.13 million Americans dead from Covid. And he is the front runner of the Republican Party. This is why I call it a collective psychosis."

[Crazed_Insanity]

I think the key difference is that GOP is better at stirring up voter's emotions and Trump is the master at stirring at people's emotions, not just by using fear, but also by telling people what they want to hear.

After witnessing how political our justices can be nowadays, I'm not that confident those indictments will result in actual convictions. We can allege, charge, indict, impeach all we want, if we can't get a conviction, they will all be a giant waste of time and resources.

It'd be a lot easier if dems can just give us better politicians. Somebody with the charisma of Obama but with the integrity of Bernie. Then Trump will obviously be no match against that. For now, regardless of how good of a job Biden is doing, his son Hunter is a liability.

Isn't it annoying to know Hunter Biden's making money in Ukraine even before the war began? If we could know the whole truth and nothing but the truth regarding what's really going on in Ukraine, I'm pretty sure nobody would be happy about that. If US didn't mess around in Ukraine so much, maybe there wouldn't be a war?

I have to say one think I love about Trump is that he started no wars... and had he been reelected, NATO could be disbanded and maybe there wouldn't be a war there. Things will probably be better abroad, but things will probably be a mess at home though...

[21Kid]

The difference between Republicans and Democrats (in general) come down to if something happens to Trump etc. to Trump diehard cultists, I mean supporters, it's all political, so the republicans want to do the same thing to the Democrats...whoever they can attack. It isn't about whether Trump actually committed crimes because they don't care or they're completely brainwashed and blinded to it. Complete cult of personality which is why Trump admires other cult of personality types like Kim Jong Un.

They can't attack Joe Biden himself on policy so they attack him on age (funny) or if he has any mental capacity issues....beyond that all they can do is go after his surviving son Hunter who is not in Joe Biden's administration at all but has some personal issues and illegal things he's done.
It's even more crazy because Trump gave his family roles in the administration, which they directly benefitted from. And he waived security clearance for them. I'm dumbfounded that there hasn't been an investigation into Jared 'Middle-East Saviour' Kushner & Ivanka yet.

I thought it was stupid for Biden to let the investigation into Hunter continue. There's no way in Hell Trump or any Republican would have done the same. Even now, when the Trump-appointed attorney is given SPECIAL COUNSEL privilege... Republicans are still crying foul. They will never be satisfied, or play fair. Fuck their feelings. He should have just squashed it. Fox "news" would have made a big stink about it for a week, then we would have moved on. They're making a stink about it anyway. And it's been in the news for years now.

[sandydandy]

The difference between Republicans and Democrats (in general) come down to if something happens to Trump etc. to Trump diehard cultists, I mean supporters, it's all political, so the republicans want to do the same thing to the Democrats...whoever they can attack. It isn't about whether Trump actually committed crimes because they don't care or they're completely brainwashed and blinded to it. Complete cult of personality which is why Trump admires other cult of personality types like Kim Jong Un.

They can't attack Joe Biden himself on policy so they attack him on age (funny) or if he has any mental capacity issues....beyond that all they can do is go after his surviving son Hunter who is not in Joe Biden's administration at all but has some personal issues and illegal things he's done.

Meanwhile if allegations or true crimes were committed by Joe Biden, I believe MOST democratic voters would want to see a proper investigation, because there's no cult around Biden, and honestly he was just an average candidate (though honestly the things his administration have done have been very good IMO).

Edit: To add that Biden is just one of many dems who share similar values and policy positions and it doesn't rely on Joe Biden only to be able to do these things. For Trump supporters they think only he can do the things he says, even if he didn't actually accomplish most of what he claimed he would. Even DeSantis which is Trump 2.0 and even more right-wing people don't like, because it's about the cult. IF Trump doesn't like Desantis his followers don't like him. If Biden doesn't like a candidate (not even that he would say so) many democrats would not just go along with it.

Anyway this upcoming GOP debate is going to be a shit show I bet This is very true.

Something I've noticed with the American media as well. CNN fake news blah-blah-blah, even if that were true, they're at least balanced. Along with most leftist news sources compared to vile excrement coming out of the right. If a Democrat does something wrong the left media will go after that individual the same way they would if it was a Republican. You don't see that the other way around. With the right-wing media they only attack Democrats, and Republicans are instantly forgiven and defended to the nth degree.

[Crazed_Insanity]

CNN is definitely better than Fox, but I would not call it unbiased.

Personally I've found Reuters, AP, BBC/NPR are the most reliably unbiased. Most other news orgs can appear normal most of the times, but when it comes to politically charged issues, I'd tend to go to their counter parts to get the 'whole' story.

I think moral of the story is that we ought not to believe journalists. Sure, give them the benefit of the doubt, but no need to 'believe' profit driven news. They tend to want to be the 1st to report something and don't care about whether if it's true as much.

Just take the natural origin or lab leak theory, I still can't confidently conclude which is really true. I might never know. Yet, plenty of folks have already made up their minds.

[Rare White Ape]

Pretty similar here in Straya: if there’s a member of the Labor Party found to be doing something naughty the party follows a pretty hard-line policy and gets rid of that politician. Labor is also the party which this year finally introduced the National Anti Corruption Commission.

Meanwhile the Liberal Party has a history of shady behaviour and even rallies around members who are accused of corrupt conduct, calls any investigations political witch-hunts, and fails to do anything to remove dodgy people from its ranks.

Fox… I mean *cough* Sky News calls the Liberal Party the party of responsible fiscal policy. lol

[Yw-slayer]

Cnn is balanced? *Laughs in Malaysian* Hahahahahaha

[Tom Servo]

If we need an exhibit B, the fact that McCarthy continues to defend George Santos would fit the bill.

[Tom Servo]

I think there's also this weird inability to imagine the shoe on the other foot. Like, if they're right that Pence had the ability to overturn the election, would they have felt the same about Gore in 2000?

[sandydandy]

Cnn is balanced? *Laughs in Malaysian* Hahahahahaha Fair point. :lol:

But compared to Fox News they definitely are.

[MR2 Fan]

I think there's also this weird inability to imagine the shoe on the other foot. Like, if they're right that Pence had the ability to overturn the election, would they have felt the same about Gore in 2000?

Apparently some GOP...I mean right leaning news outlets were bringing up Gore but not mentioning that he didn't challenge the results more than just trying to confirm them. He gave in for the sake of keeping stability I would guess...something else it seems the GOP might never be capable of doing again. What happens when Biden (hopefully) wins again in 2024...whoever loses, will they do the same B.S.?

[Crazed_Insanity]

Situation was a bit different, right? Mike Pence wasn't the one running for president.

If W came 4 years earlier and defeated Bill Clinton, I'm sure Gore would've done the same as Pence even without the insurrection.

I have to applaud Pence for his courage to do the right thing.

One thing that's clear to me is that people who do what is right usually won't be rewarded by either parties.

Dems for sure will always 'appears' to say/do the right thing, they would go as far as going along with canceling a good senator of theirs without due process. However, behind the scenes and under the table, I am still skeptical of both parties.

Will dems really go after companies like Enron or FTX as long as there's no negative news and as long as they give them money? Of course not. Only after shit hits the fan, dems will step out and criticize, as if they actually care about the people who got screwed over.

To me, Democratic party is very much like Wells Fargo bank. They'd always publicly fight for climate change, fight for gay rights, but behave fraudulently behind the scene, mistreating their employees and cheat their customers.

I think my faith in the dem party was lost completely thanks to Obama. He entered the WH as a Bernie Sanders, but left the WH as a Hillary Clinton. Not to mention his has foreign policies similar to that of W! Edward Snowden didn't trust W, but thought Obama would be better? But nope. Obama was gonna get him too.

Anyway, I just think both parties are lame. I can't believe people on both sides are fighting over each other for these 2 lame parties. Regardless of which is less evil, evil is evil. Granted, nobody's perfect, but I just wish people don't have to get so angry about various shades of evil. The selective anger is really strange to me.

I don't wish to punish or crash these parties, I just wish they can throw better parties.

As long as you can improve the lives of the average folks, I'd vote for you.

Biden is definitely the least evil so far, but I wish we can get somebody a bit younger and better? These old guys need to retire and move on... Trump needs to retire on one of his golf courses or prison. He should not be at the WH anymore...

[MR2 Fan]

Random thought I had regarding the boomer generation. Is it possible they go for the "strong man" ideal because they were the generation that lost the war in Vietnam and those tough guy movies later on fed into that as well? The generation prior "we" meaning the Allies won WWII, but we haven't really had a big victory like that.

I'm sure that isn't a huge factor, but just observation. My dad is a Vietnam veteran though he was only a radio operator, he's quite liberal though.

[FaultyMario]

It's not only boomers who are voting for the New Right wackos. In the US and elsewhere.

[Rare White Ape]

The root cause is oligarchy and power. If the wealthy can convince the poor to poke themselves in the eye to maintain the status quo, then that is what they will do.

It has been this way for thousands of years. The messaging might change, but the intent is the same.

We could have had utopia, but instead we have… this.

[Tom Servo]

It's not only boomers who are voting for the New Right wackos. In the US and elsewhere.

You're not wrong there. A lot of the "fashy" right are 20-somethings.

[Tom Servo]

What I found to be a good explainer about why those "what, it's illegal to call Pence a wimp?" arguments are bad faith nonsense.

https://popehat.substack.com/p/overt-acts-and-predicate-acts-explained

[Crazed_Insanity]

Trump is not a 'strong man'. Hitler also didn't win elections because he's 'strong' I don't think.

Whether if you're fascist like them or communist like Mao, the key for their popularity was that they gave the disgruntle population false hope and also somebody to blame.

People became 'wackos' because their lives sucked. If you're living a loving, meaningful, productive life, chances are, you won't be a suicide bomber. I think whether you go right or left, it's mostly genetic reasons. It's the environmental factors that'd cause you to go whacko.

If Germans were living decent lives, Hitler would not have the chance.
If Chinese weren't so war torn and poor, Mao would not have his chance.
Brexit and MAGA happened because sufficient portion of the population felt left behind.

It's those who are left behind that found Trump's MAGA so appealing.

[Rare White Ape]

What I found to be a good explainer about why those "what, it's illegal to call Pence a wimp?" arguments are bad faith nonsense.

https://popehat.substack.com/p/overt-acts-and-predicate-acts-explained

So, what this link is saying is, if X (formerly Twitter) wants to go all no-holds-barred on free speech, what it is also doing is providing an open and public platform for would-be conspirators to post evidence of potential overt acts for all the world to see?

Interdasting,,,

I note the criticism of the indictment cited in there too, which is something also worthy of deeper investigation, mostly because ACAB etcetera. This is what balanced reporting is, friends. It includes exploring the nuance.

But we will give it a balanced view. Not the Fox News view, more like the CNN view, which is acceptable to watch in my household. Anyway, Hitler wasn’t evil, he was just a very naughty boy.

[Tom Servo]

Popehat rules when it comes to the nuance of legal matters. I don't know if everyone agrees, but I find that most of the time if major news orgs are either claiming that it's curtains for someone or that they've gotten off, he's usually got a pretty balanced take on it, and I've been reading his stuff for a good 25 years.

Like, for instance, his criticism of the indictment. Seems pretty even handed, in that he thinks it was structured in a way that will potentially lead the public to silo'ing on it, but not so much that it's not legally sound. Seems legit. Could have been written better, isn't the end of the world.

He's also got a podcast called "Serious Trouble." Like I said, I've been reading/listening to his stuff for a couple of decades now, and I find that he generally cuts through the media rhetoric and when he talks about what he expects will happen, that's generally what happens. When people on either side get outraged, he's usually there explaining why it was pretty normal court procedure.

Also, for those that are into it, he had one called "Make No Law" about the first amendment and cases that were outliers that tested it. It's fascinating stuff if you're into that. I found the one on crushing fetish videos to be particularly hard to listen to, but also fascinating.

[MR2 Fan]

Trump is not a 'strong man'.

Of course he is....in his head and those of his rabid supporters he is. More like Mussolini in his rhetoric and antics though

[Crazed_Insanity]

He's definitely strong enough to fend off 2 impeachments, but he ain't strong enough to win reelection nor the insurrection! :p

I think America is just too diverse for somebody like Hitler or Mao to take over like that. I really hope that I'm right on this.

[MR2 Fan]

Seriously? If it wasn't for a few capitol police, we might be under Trump as a dictator right now, or we could have had a very messy violent conflict for power if things went just a little bit worse on Jan 6th

[Crazed_Insanity]

You really thought it was the capitol police that stopped their take over?

If they did such a great job, why was the Capitol police chief fired/resigned? I really thought they screwed it up. If it were a BLM protest, I'm sure there'd be a much bigger stronger police presence. They purposely left just a few black police officers there... Maybe there were some white MAGA police who'd high five the protesters.

Personally, I credit Mike Pence for throwing the monkey wrench in Trump's scheme. Without Pence onboard, there'd be no legit way for them to take over. Trump's only options were to either give birth to a new country or to back down and tell the folks to go home.

[Rare White Ape]

Not a nazi:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1070167658386956310/1142229168961097728/IMG_3452.jpg

[Rare White Ape]

Definitely not a thing a nazi would do, but definitely a thing that a right wing authoritarian masquerading as a free speech advocate would do:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1070167658386956310/1142125623305851042/20230818_105845.jpg

[2ndMoparMan]

TOS for Apple and Google say apps like this MUST have a block feature, so no.

[Tom Servo]

https://i.imgur.com/2O2uJlo.jpg

[MR2 Fan]

:snap:

[Tom Servo]

Now that Musk wants to get rid of the block function, I found this depiction of his ideal Twitter user experience.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F306vklXYAAqkBZ?format=jpg&name=900x900

(I shamelessly stoke this joke from Aaron Rupar on Twitter)

[Rare White Ape]

Free speech, except for…



BREAKING: elon musk is now censoring photo of him standing next to noted convicted sex trafficker ghislaine maxwell when posted on twitter

https://twitter.com/JUNlPER/status/1692672714991878557?t=B_8d7RNfFZcV0dJxMoehEg&s=19

[Crazed_Insanity]

He was claiming he doesn’t know her and that was a photobomb… or photoshop or whatever.

However, by censoring that photo, he’s now making himself look more suspicious.

[21Kid]

Seriously? If it wasn't for a few capitol police, we might be under Trump as a dictator right now, or we could have had a very messy violent conflict for power if things went just a little bit worse on Jan 6thYou must have read something idiotic that CI posted. Don't take him too serious.

There's a reason most of us have him blocked. And based on your response, I'm glad.

[MR2 Fan]

I know, apparently I enjoy punishment

[Tom Servo]

I think it's our incredibly twisted version of touching grass. Every once in a while, you just have to engage with Billi to recalibrate yourself. "No matter what horrifying state my brain finds itself in, I still have a baseline I haven't hit."

[Crazed_Insanity]

You probably meant to say redline?

Anyway, ultimately I believe Mike pence was the main reason why trump couldn’t push his plan fwd.

My hope is that there are more Pences than Trumps.

Of course it’d be much easier to just assume they’re all Nazis?

Our current trajectory is indicating another civil war. However, hopefully we can rise to the occasion and avoid and grow out of this impending disaster.

https://youtu.be/Yilgr2SJ3xQ
https://youtu.be/Yilgr2SJ3xQ

[Crazed_Insanity]

Elno Must be on the news and now the war front...

I think history is repeating itself. I think similar kind of stories just keep unfolding. From the Thai boys rescue... all the way to Ukraine.

Elno acts impulsively out of good will to help, but since nothing was solicited, his initiative will often be taken for granted and often times ridiculed in the end.

Nobody asked for a submarine. He was told to fuck off and he called that dude a pedo... the whole incident really did not have to end that way, but that's what happened.

Nobody asked him for EVs, but he thought it's a good idea and went with it, but Biden recognized GM as the leader of the EV revolution.

Nobody asked him for reusable rockets, but so far he has done a stellar job and I think this is the only exception so far because nobody else is able to come close to do what SpaceX can do. One has to really be an extremist to laugh at what SpaceX has accomplished. Best they could do is perhaps blame Those rockets for creating a lot of pollution?

Of course the worst case is the supposedly helping Twitter to have freeer speech? This fiasco can only be fixed if he could really end up creating that ultimate do everything X app.

Anyway, offering Starlink to help Ukranians to defend themselves is now probably going to back fire too. Clearly at the get go, Elon didn't want Ukrainians to use starlink for offensive purposes, but if Elon doesn't go along with what the Ukrainians and the US govt, then he'll end up being percieved as pro-russian/putin...

What a mess...

I still think Elon has a good heart, but often times people end up perceiving him as egomaniac... because he does appear on the news cycle way too frequently and making way too much money. I really do wish him well. I just hope SpaceX and Tesla will remain intact. Hopefully these companies have established themselves sufficiently to go on without him?

[FaultyMario]

I still think Elon has a good heart, but often times people end up perceiving him as egomaniac...

That has been the norm with the very stable geniuses of history.

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/BC0E/production/_104324184_207359e2-26ac-4e1b-b47b-400e4b1623ed.jpg

[Crazed_Insanity]

At least Elno won't ever be able to run for the WH.

He should remain focusing at product development. I don't mind him tweeting or Xing stuffs, as long as he continues to create and introduce new innovative products.

If he were to run for public office, even I won't vote for him.

For folks like Hitler and Mao, they aren't really known for producing anything tangible. Even Trump at least produced casinos and golf courses... :p Anyway, Elno should continue to do what he's good at doing. His loud mouth is just something we have to bear at times I guess.

[Rare White Ape]

Musk does not have a good heart and I have provided many examples in recent months as evidence of this.

[2ndMoparMan]

https://twitter.com/gtconway3d/status/1694111860893626381

fucking lol

[Crazed_Insanity]

Musk does not have a good heart and I have provided many examples in recent months as evidence of this.

I just don't think we can judge people by their sexual/political/religious orientations.

He was quick to send in Starlink to Ukrainians to help... because nobody else was able to help in that regard, not even the US government, nobody told him to fuck off and he didn't have to end up calling president of Ukraine a pedo as a result. So that went well... until the war drags on... and opinions differ...

The dude is not the kind who let journalists take a picture of him kissing babies for PR purposes. He just does things, perhaps too impulsively? But that's how we ended up with Tesla cars and SpaceX. Nobody in their right minds would put their own money in those 2 projects because there had already been lots of failures.

I have to agree he is probably losing it and drifting further and further to the right, but I suppose this is also action and reaction. From CA's over regulation to Biden ignoring him, he pretty much had to move to somewhere more red to survive. Unbelievably even to China! Most conservatives would NEVER move to China. Even most US apolitical businesses are thinking twice about China... and yet the dude expands to China. (I think the move clearly showed that he doesn't care about politics.)

The guy is simply doing whatever he can to make his companies survive and grow. I don't think he has secret ambition to rule the world or to make money at all cost or anything like that. Of course once he gets his all in one X bank all set and ready to go, things might get dicey. I'm hoping for a decentralized bank that can be used across the world... if it's another 'central bank', then forget about that!

[sandydandy]

Wagner chief presumed dead in plane crash. (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66599733)

Big surprise there.

I suppose it's better than saying he committed suicide by shooting himself in the head...three times. :rolleyes:

[FaultyMario]

Mister Brian to the lobby. They have a package for you.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4PnLRMWkAAeCkl.jpg

[Tom Servo]

It gives me no joy to see that image.

Okay, I couldn't keep a straight face saying that. I hope Rudy rots in jail, that weird old perv.

[FaultyMario]

A judge has awarded a warrant for one of Bolsonaro's children.

https://images01.brasildefato.com.br/80535d58fb2f9a88c63e55f61e634469.jpeg

I think the charges are embezzlement and money laundering. He was doing the same shit as Jared Kushner, AFAIK.

[Tom Servo]

I hope everyone's enjoying the short burst of conservatives suddenly very concerned with the state of our jails and our carceral system.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Interesting GOP debate...

When asked if the party's eventual nominee were a convict, would you still support him?

Pretty much all raised their hand!?!?!?!? Even Mike Pence?!?!?!? I guess Mike used up his spine on that fateful January day...

Also, what kind of amazingly stupid question was that?

How sad.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/few-seconds-hand-raising-said-114147937.html

[JoshInKC]

Why would you consider that a stupid question?
It's currently a pretty big possibility that the republican presidential nominee will have been convicted of one or more crimes - Asking if they would support such a nominee seems like it might be an important thing to know.

[Cam]

Yard sign spotted in rural North Carolina last week: "The FBI is corrupt."

Republicans: "Police are good." (When authorities are oppressing brown people.)
Also Republicans: "Police are bad." (When authorities are investigating Republicans.)

[MR2 Fan]

Well as we just learned with the Secret Service....SOME FBI probably are corrupt, and SOME probably aren't.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Why would you consider that a stupid question?
It's currently a pretty big possibility that the republican presidential nominee will have been convicted of one or more crimes - Asking if they would support such a nominee seems like it might be an important thing to know.

Well, I thought it's stupid because Trump isn't convicted yet. I guess they are admitting defeat and know full well he will be? Also, I suppose they are committed to nominate a guy who's not even on the debate stage? Then why bother with the debate? Why not just commit and fully support Trump so that they can make America great again?

Anyway, if Trump runs again, I guess the guy who raised his hand the fastest will end up on the ticket as VP?

I was hoping for a non-white and a less divisive figure to be the nominee, I think this is the only way to make the GOP look less nazi-ish. However, it doesn't look like I'll get my wish.

If it's gonna be another match up between Biden and Trump, I'm a bit worry for Biden. Biden had the advantage for bringing normalcy back during the crazy pandemic times. Now things are back to pretty much 'normal'. I think Biden has lost that advantage. Now, will those convictions really hurt trump or actually boost him? Hope it won't be the later... :(

[FaultyMario]

Well as we just learned with the Secret Service....SOME FBI probably are corrupt, and SOME probably aren't.

All human endeavor corrupts.

All government agencies need independent, effective oversight.

I think I posted in this same thread the video of that congressperson from California commenting on the UFO Hearings: TLDR - "We need more transparency".

[Tom Servo]

Apparently at least with the insurrection crowd, Fulton County is letting them self-attest to their heights and weights. Trump claims he's 6'3" and 215 lbs.

[sandydandy]

Huge motorcade for Trump. Arrested, booked, photographed, etc. Means nothing until we see him convicted and imprisoned. Until then the dancing shoes stay in the closet.

[sandydandy]

Apparently at least with the insurrection crowd, Fulton County is letting them self-attest to their heights and weights. Trump claims he's 6'3" and 215 lbs. He has to be at least 250/270. Not 215. That’s a joke.

[Tom Servo]

I mean, I had a hell of a time getting below 220 when I was doing 100 mile rides on my bike. There's no fucking way he's 215.

[Random]

He was 6'2" and 240lb when he got arraigned in NY.

[sandydandy]

That sounds about right.

[MR2 Fan]

All human endeavor corrupts.

All government agencies need independent, effective oversight.

I think I posted in this same thread the video of that congressperson from California commenting on the UFO Hearings: TLDR - "We need more transparency".



Yeah, overall humans seem to struggle with the concept of individuals within an organization vs. the organization as a whole, or the same with countries.

"North Korea is evil". No, the government of North Korea is evil, and even people in government probably don't like things that happen, but may not have a way out.

People work for, or order goods from companies that do bad things. Heck I still order things from Amazon, in some ways you can't avoid it easily despite my disagreeing with how some of the people in charge do business.

It reminds me of something similar like the "Buy American" folks complaining about the Toyota Tundra even though it's built in the U.S. "Well, the profits still go to Japan". Wait so all of those workers in the factory work FOR FREE?? :twitch:

[Crazed_Insanity]

Corruption is like cancer. Whether it’s cellular level for an individual or perhaps group of people in an organization, when these corrupt cells/individuals lost sight of what’s really important making their goal to simply fattening self even if it destroys everything… that’s corruption in a nutshell.

Is Elon growing a cancerous tumor that will end up killing us or growing EVs and reusable rockets to make society better? Time will tell.

Governments/empires rose and fell all the time. To longer we can fight off corruptions within, the longer the lifespan will be.

Forget about other nations for now, US government is now kinda corrupt. When Supreme Court justices bipartisanly agree that they don’t need oversight as billionaires corrupt them, if we allow this to continue without receiving some chemo therapy, chances are our nation will be fucked.

To be clear, I don’t believe either party will be able to save us. To me, both are pretty corrupt. Yeah, dems are probably a bit better but I’m pretty sure the end is near as long as we continue our polarizing ways.

We need rank choice voting and we need term limits and we need to stop businesses from funding our campaigns.

Pretty tall order…, I suspect we’ll just continue to focus on jailing Trump and jailing hunter Biden…

[Rare White Ape]

It reminds me of something similar like the "Buy American" folks complaining about the Toyota Tundra even though it's built in the U.S. "Well, the profits still go to Japan". Wait so all of those workers in the factory work FOR FREE?? :twitch:

Thought processes like this are a good way to divert attention away from the fact that many large businesses pay zero tax to the countries they operate in. I wouldn't be surprised if ALL AMERICAN companies dodge taxes in their home country like the plague.

[Tom Servo]

This is applicable to quite a bit of that.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EOfoJH4WoAAeM-K.jpg

[Rare White Ape]

Yep! Perfectly put.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I know that white old man represents capitalistic Nazi, but to be fair, we could switch him out to some non-white commie. We could also switch out the text to be, let’s share with the poor!

That sounds wonderful, but when the image remains the same or perhaps even worse? After you shared you cookie, now everyone is left with emptied plates except the fierce commie leader, just like North Korea!

Moral of the story is that we need to be our own man. Whether if we want to keep our cookie or share it, make up our own minds and don’t listen to the dude with lots of cookies. We can perhaps learn how they got so many cookies from them, but don’t let them play us either way.

[MR2 Fan]

It's Rupert Murdoch specifically

[FaultyMario]

yes, the one person who has most significantly advanced anti-scientific thinking in the last two generations.

I think he has been pointed at as a leading actor in climate change denialism since the mid nineties.

fuck him.

and cursed be his ilk.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Whether Murdoch, Trump or Hitler, they are just exceptionally good at saying things people want to hear in order to accumulate their wealth and power.

What’s the best way to combat that? Fuck them? Kill them?

Why not try to address the fundamental fear of the people? How can we help the average Americans to feel safe about their cookies? Or best we can do is call them dumbass conspiracy racists?

Take climate change for example, I don’t think conservatives simply refuse to believe it given so many extreme weathers around the world… they simply have their fears…

Cap and trade causing higher fuel prices and banning ICE car can only exacerbate fears.

To be fair, they’re doing the same wrong things. Taking away people’s right to vote or right to choose will only make things worse. They’d also laugh at lefties willingly choose to wear masks/vaccines…

Anyway, people have different fears. They need to be addressed.

[FaultyMario]

Ok, first I'll buy a transnational media conglomerate and I will address my fears.

Talk to ya!

[Crazed_Insanity]

We can only take care our own fears. Current polarizing political climate will only further amplify people’s fears. Will we allow others to make our fears greater and greater again?

As for friends and family around us, we could try our best to calm their fears as well… rather than assume they’re stupid and cut ties with them.

It’s not just our climate that’s changing. I think social politically, we’re changing to be more and more extreme as well. Just need to do more to calm our own fears and maybe also those around you too. Counting on big corporations and governments to do that is perhaps asking too much.

[FaultyMario]

We can only take care our own fears.

Stop drinking the libertarian koolaid.

Our communal ties go beyond our own needs and cognitions. First example that comes to mind, bc I've seen you quote-reply to it, is Tom Servo's fast charging EV station for his condo.

[Crazed_Insanity]

If we don't take care of our own fears, we will naturally end up with the same herd mentality as the rest of the community.

Am I afraid of mexicans coming to steal my cookies? If so, why? What can I do to not be so afraid?
Am I willing to share my cookies with the poor? If no, why? What can I do to...

There will constantly be tension between community and self. We can decide to think for ourselves or join the herd. We have that choice.

If I want to charge my EV, I'll find a way to charge it. If I want to drive my ICE car, I will do that too. As long as we know what we're doing and not just doing it because some rich dude or some big herd said so.

[MR2 Fan]

3 days since a politics post? new record? lol

Mitch McConnell had another episode of freezing today during a speech, looked completely out of it even when an assistant stepped in and asked him a question

https://twitter.com/HannahPThomas/status/1696936240040321474

[Tom Servo]

We should make him and Feinstein fight instead of Musk and Zuckerberg.

[Fiat500]

From the comments:
"Glich McConnell"

I'm going to hell, but 😄

[Rare White Ape]

We should make him and Feinstein fight instead of Musk and Zuckerberg.

I’m having enough fun watching him fight the blood clot that is slowly being pushed up through his cerebral arteries.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Clearly he is not well!! However, such conditions could be temporary… both my dad and father in law had suffered sudden memory loss for a day… to the point of not even knowing who they are. However, subsequently recovered fully. Doctors were saying sometimes severe stress could cause that.

[Tom Servo]

Vivek Ramaswamy is desperately trying to be Trump 2.0, but when Eminem demanded he stop using his music, he stopped. Trump would have just kept using it and been a dick about it the whole time.

It takes a certain type of mental disorder to be as much of a dick as Trump is, and that's what his fans love about him. DeSantis desperately wants to have it but is too much of a fuckin' weirdo. Vivek wants to have it but buckles immediately when hit with a cease and desist. In the meantime, Trump's rolling with Village People music and somehow nobody's batting an eye that his platform is that the Village People should be executed for grooming children.

I still think Trump's lost enough support amongst the "independents" to have a shot at Biden, but he's got strong support amongst the Republicans, so he'll probably win the primary. So we'll be in for another round of "they stole the election!!" nonsense.

[Dicknose]

Thing is having huge support by die hard fans doesn't mean you win an election.
You need to get a bunch of middle/swing voters to care enough to vote for you.
But with the US primary system it can lead to selecting a candidate who is most popular within the party but not necessarily their best chance of winning an election.

[Tom Servo]

Yeah, and that's what I think will happen. I think Trump has strong support within the people who still consider themselves Republican, but the Overton Window on what "Republican" actually means has shifted significantly since he gained power in the party. My uncle is a dyed in the wool Republican and voted for Trump in 2016, but he said he did that thinking that Trump would grow into the job and become less of a dipshit. He realized pretty quickly that that wasn't going to happen and is now nearly as anti-Trump as I am, and I don't think he's alone in that.

[MR2 Fan]

Thing is having huge support by die hard fans doesn't mean you win an election.
You need to get a bunch of middle/swing voters to care enough to vote for you.
But with the US primary system it can lead to selecting a candidate who is most popular within the party but not necessarily their best chance of winning an election.

I thought having lots of pickup trucks with massive flags meant you win an election!?

[Dicknose]

My uncle is a dyed in the wool Republican and voted for Trump in 2016, but he said he did that thinking that Trump would grow into the job and become less of a dipshit. He realized pretty quickly that that wasn't going to happen and is now nearly as anti-Trump as I am, and I don't think he's alone in that.
I also thought the same... this is a crazy act that will get him elected then we get to see the sensible side.
Alas it was no act, he really is that batshit crazy.

[Tom Servo]

A lot of people did. I can only chalk it up to having seen news about him for decades, having heard him on Howard Stern, and having seen some of his TV shows that I knew he was a colossal narcissistic idiot that I was not under that same delusion, but almost every major news org out here ran repeated stories, even a year or two into his presidency, about how he was finally becoming a president. Hell, one of the head writers of The Good Place had a running gag on Twitter where she posted, every single day, "Today was the day Trump finally became President." The NY Times pushed that narrative for years.

I can understand that if you weren't in a position to understand that he'd been a grifter for years, but at least the NY Times should have known he was always going to continue being a grifter, he wasn't suddenly going to become a good person after 70+ years of shafting people and dodging responsibility.

[FaultyMario]

Isn't a booking photograph taken after you've surrendered to law enforcement?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F45ByjVXcAAHVSB.jpg

[Tom Servo]

Yes. It is absolutely a picture of him surrendering. The people excited about this are too dumb to put that together.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Never surrender is the same difference as did not have sexual relations with that intern!

Majority of Americans do not approve of either presidents. My major concern is that trump seemed to gain energy/momentum from negative personal attacks… pussy grabbing, impeachments, indictments… it’s like the more you attack him, the stronger he gets!

Better strategy should be attacking his incompetence. I really think it was Covid’s failed policies that caused him to lose reelection.

[Rare White Ape]

In his mind he hasn't surrendered.

And that will carry on until he is in a home and refusing to go toilet just because the nurse is making sure he went toilet before she left his room for 6 hours.

[FaultyMario]

Never surrender is the same difference as did not have sexual relations with that intern!


Yeah, I remember when Slick Willy pressured the Florida electoral commissions to anoint Al Gore as the Dear Leader of the Union of Crony Capitalist Republics.

Man! it feels like it was in another universe and not 23 years ago.

[Tom Servo]

It is impressive at how not-at-all-closely those two things are related. I mean, they're both untrue, but that's about the extent of it.

[Crazed_Insanity]

That's what I meant, both statements being untrue and they say it as if they're saying it's the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It's obvious Trump didn't have sex with interns, just porn stars!

Anyway, looks like efforts to remove Trump off of ballot using 14th amendment might be happening.

While it's good to disqualify this insurrectionist, I also do fear if successful, this might add more fuel to the insurrection fire... or the civil war fire.

Typically, civil wars are started by those groups who used to have majority power...

[FaultyMario]

Civil war?

That's a fantasy by conspiranidiots.

Do you see factions within the regular army that are aligned with certain groups of the Powers That Be and willing to start acts of aggression against other military factions?

The Powers That Be are pretty calm, their control over governmental action seems pretty firm, IMO. Are you seeing headlines in the newspapers of record asking for the removal of the President? denouncing this or that reform because it puts "brother versus brother"?, of course not.

Read up on some history, try to understand how a coup or a revolution gains momentum. You're not seeing any of that in the U.S. ATM. You're seeing poor people struggle, and that my friend, is par for the course. When you see the rich struggling, that's when you can talk about "civil war".

[21Kid]

Read up on some history, try to understand how a coup or a revolution gains momentum.

You're asking a lot there, Mario.

[Crazed_Insanity]

When you see Capitol police chief easing up on security knowing that ‘insurrectionists’ are coming, it should be clear that there are Trump sympathizers at top level of government.

Seriously, there’s no need to assume all top level of government particularly the military leaders are all liberals. If there are more Mike Pences around, then we should be safe. However, not sure we can count on that.

You guys are afraid of Nazis but not afraid of Nazis attempt to grab power? Nazis are a small minority IMHO, but trump supporters are obviously big enough to win GOP primaries. If somehow they buy into the narrative that liberal leaders are corrupt and blocking their 'savior', then I think we might be in some serious trouble.

These impeachments/indictments should be more bipartisan. When it only looks like it's one sided, the other side will inevitably get upset.

When those candidates in the debate were forced to raised their hand to support a possibly convicted candidate, that's pretty fucked up.

I was kinda disappointed to see that even Mike Pence reluctantly raised his hand.

Anyway, of course I could be wrong. Obviously you guys read a lot more than I do! :p However, my fear didn't come out of nowhere. My fear came from CIA analysts. I linked a TED talk about civil war earlier, did you think she was full of shit? Here it is again if you didn't see it:

https://youtu.be/Yilgr2SJ3xQ?si=X6xkaKBzE6q6UDJq

[Tom Servo]

I'm sure it's all fine. I've been assured that Musk has a good heart, so it seems impossible that his liking the #BanTheADL posts and advertisements with the 14 words is actually bad, yeah?

https://mashable.com/article/x-twitter-elon-musk-white-supremacist-ad-ban-adl-hashtag

[Crazed_Insanity]

I know you guys would disagree, but I think ADL probably thought Jesus and the Bible to be antisemitic as well?

I don’t think we should ban ADL nor would I like that post as Musk did, just saying I won’t just blindly support ADL just because they’re against Nazis. Also just to be clear, I’m not for Nazis either. I don’t believe we need to be that extreme either way.

Somebody with a good heart IMHO is someone willing to help fellow humanity out. Amongst billionaires, Musk has been pretty helpful. Of course the #1 helpful billionaire has to be Jeff Bezo’s ex wife. She just couldn’t donate his money away fast enough! ;)

Anyway, if Musk would ban ADL and not the Nazis, then I’d take back my assurance to you that he has a good heart.

[Rare White Ape]

I'm sure it's all fine. I've been assured that Musk has a good heart, so it seems impossible that his liking the #BanTheADL posts and advertisements with the 14 words is actually bad, yeah?

https://mashable.com/article/x-twitter-elon-musk-white-supremacist-ad-ban-adl-hashtag

My surprise-o-meter made a blip!

Another startling revelation:

https://mashable.com/article/elon-musk-x-twitter-follower-data

[Crazed_Insanity]

Next up! Elno Must have fake hair? Probably also very insecure and with a short penis?

Honestly, I don't understand why I should care about his bloated followers or receding hairline.

Are Teslas making fake EVs? SpaceX making fake rockets? Making lots of people rich on the stock market with fake stuffs like Enron and FTX?

I really couldn't care less if Elon was followed by a gazillion followers. Elizabeth Holmes and SBF were both very highly regarded CEOs and nobody said anything bad about them before shit hits the fan.

We just need to make sure these people are not operating fake companies and swindling people's money. Regulators/politicians also should not be accepting money or any goodies from them. If they wish to pretend that they're more popular than they really are... so what? Lame, yet, but who cares.

[Tom Servo]

A retired teacher who posted mean tweets about the Saudi royal family has been sentenced to death. You'd almost wonder how they figured out who the anonymous poster was if the Saudi royal family weren't the single biggest investor in free-speech-absolutist Musk's platform. I can't imagine how they figured out who it was....

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/31/middleeast/saudi-arabia-retired-teacher-death-sentence-intl/index.html

[Rare White Ape]

It's almost as if the tweets were taken as a personal attack.

I know someone who seems to feel personally attacked when I criticise Musk, as if they have to wade in and defend him.

Except, in this person's case, they are not the target of the attacks. But it's fun to rile them up lol

[Tom Servo]

I wish it was only one person I knew who felt personally attacked when I criticize Musk. I have found that far more people than I thought in my orbit are "Apu leaping in front of the bullet" Musk fanboys.

The only saving grace is my dad used to be a Musk fanboy, but he has come around and realized what a tremendous dipshit he truly is.

[FaultyMario]

Your dad seems pretty tech-savvy.

Although he's probably a board game nerd as well.

[Tom Servo]

Naah, he's all about bridge. I have no idea how to play bridge, but he goes and plays it with a bunch of folks at the big park in San Diego every Saturday.

[Rare White Ape]

I wish it was only one person I knew who felt personally attacked when I criticize Musk. I have found that far more people than I thought in my orbit are "Apu leaping in front of the bullet" Musk fanboys.

I see it as a target rich environment. Why be frustrated when it's so easy?

https://twitter.com/WhiteRoseSocAU/status/1678177888170921984?s=20

[Rare White Ape]

Here's a good read about the state of things as well:

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/cpac-2023-a-breeding-ground-for-dangerous-ideologies,17840

[Crazed_Insanity]

Each side claiming the other side is spreading dangerous ideologies.

Of course we usually only see the danger of the other side. We also tend to over generalize… as if all conservatives are evil Nazis and, likewise, they believe all liberals are evil commies!

To your eyes, I’m a Nazi sympathizer and to their eyes I’m a chinese communist sympathizer… it’s like I’m both siding this like I typically do! :p

I just think people are trapped in this false dichotomy…

[Tom Servo]

At the risk of sounding very ignorant, I did not know and am so sorry that you also have a CPAC in Australia.

[Dicknose]

I dont think its a huge problem. Our extreme right is small and not very extreme (or right)
Id much rather this be out in the open and the people feel they can have a say in politics, even if its just so they can't pretend to be some silent majority.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Yes, I tend to agree out in the open is always better than forcing them to hide in the closet.

Anyway, I think I just realized another reason why Elon has shifted so drastically to the right lately…

He has a very progressive trans kid who hates him!

https://www.today.com/parents/dads/elon-musk-daughter-school-biography-rcna103042?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=news_tab

Elon blames the progressive school, but he probably has to share some blame. Kinda doubt he gave her as much attention as Tesla or SpaceX…

[Rare White Ape]

At the risk of sounding very ignorant, I did not know and am so sorry that you also have a CPAC in Australia.

That's OK. CPAC is teetering on the brink of irrelevancy anyway.

But I mean, it's still worth paying attention to it. As noted in the article, it has been cozying up with organisations like GiveSendGo ('a Christian crowdfunding website' per Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GiveSendGo)) that has been supporting some honestly abhorrent causes like legal funds for January 6 participants, a bunch of Australian neo-nazis (a culture that bred idiots like the Christchurch massacre guy) and 'freedom lovers' who want nothing to do with measures designed to protect us from COVID.

It's a proper breeding ground for some really dangerous shit and this has been proven time and time again. No room for giving the benefit of the doubt here. A favourite quote of mine: if your ideology attracts neo-nazis, perhaps it's time you reassess your ideology.

Meanwhile I haven't seen anything quite so dangerous coming out of the so-called 'far left'. The left wants to... *checks notes* ...protect trans kids and promote racial equity? Damn son get the fire hose!

[JoshInKC]

Meanwhile I haven't seen anything quite so dangerous coming out of the so-called 'far left'. The left wants to... *checks notes* ...protect trans kids and promote racial equity? Damn son get the fire hose!
This is it right here.

[Crazed_Insanity]

No that’s not right, that’s left there! :p

Seriously, if there ain’t nothing wrong with the left, blue states with majority dems should do well socially and with minimal gap between rich and poor.

If CA or WA politicians get to run the federal government without them asshole republicans, the entire country should be a utopia like CA and WA?

I have to agree it’s not that dangerous to live in CA and WA. It’s generally pretty safe, just don’t go downtown. When dems have full control of money printer, surely we’ll be able to solve the homelessness problem and make them equally rich as rest of us?

Nazi Germany showed us the danger of extreme right. Do you guys really can’t find historic examples of extreme left?

Yeah, no way will we become like Soviet Union or China… but similarly most of them probably don’t believe they will become Nazis as well.

[neanderthal]

I feel stupider every time I click "view post."

[Tom Servo]

I wonder if this is another one of those times where it's wrong to call people Nazis. https://twitter.com/BGOnTheScene/status/1698085020173283400

[Crazed_Insanity]

At least KKK wore white hoods. Why are these dudes so in love with blackness?

Lastly, they didn’t know pandemic is over?

[Rare White Ape]

Sorry to break it to you Billi: but despite having been historically communist countries, the Russian and Chinese governments aren't very 'left wing', nor are the Democrats and the US government. I could give many examples showing why but you will twist it around as usual.

For a better example of effective left wing government I'll point you to Norway and New Zealand.

[Tom Servo]

I cannot bring myself to click view post, but I'm gathering he's explaining away the nazis?

[Leon]

For a better example of effective left wing government I'll point you to Norway and New Zealand.

Until this coming election anyway, where all signs are more centre-right govt will be in for the next 2 cycles (6 years). NZ tends to flip flop every two elections.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Sorry to break it to you Billi: but despite having been historically communist countries, the Russian and Chinese governments aren't very 'left wing', nor are the Democrats and the US government. I could give many examples showing why but you will twist it around as usual.

For a better example of effective left wing government I'll point you to Norway and New Zealand.

Naturally I can be a big fan of democratic socialism as well. That’s why I’m a supporter of Bernie Sanders.

However, reality is that US dems are not like Norway nor NZ. If your version of the left is not the US version, then we’re not talking anbout the same thing then. Our cancel culture is now mini versions of the cultural revolution similar in Mao’s China.

Similarly, we now have mini-nazi’s in the US as well. Hopefully we won’t go any further extreme either way.

I don’t know what’s it like in Norway/NZ, but I am saying both left and right in the US are being a bit extreme. However, hopefully most Americans won’t get that extreme… or else the end game must be a civil war.

[Rare White Ape]

I cannot bring myself to click view post, but I'm gathering he's explaining away the nazis?

Nah he was mostly trying to put forward a suggestion of a violent far-left government like some kind of *gotcha!* but it was nonsense. The socialists of the USSR and the communists of China MUST be leftists if they have those words in their names, right?

Erm… no.

I honestly can’t think of a single instance of left wing violence that isn’t a response to violence enacted by an opposition. I mean, I can think of plenty of violence that the left has participated in with the BLM protests around the world a prime example, but that was because of ongoing police brutality against black people. In short: they didn’t start the fight.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Police brutality justified destroying and looting of stores? Or maybe we could justify looting due to the growing gap between rich and poor?

Hey! We’ve had enough, so fuck it! It’s always ‘their’ fault. I would not be doing this if it weren’t for ‘them’. ‘They’ are more evil than me!!!

Most violent ideologies/movements/acts were reactionary. From outwardly violent mass shootings to internally violent suicides to combination of both suicide bombings or flying planes into buildings… heck, even Hitler’a popularity were reactionary! Things were bad, the rest of world wants to make Germany pay, but Hitler promised to make Germany great again…

It’s perfectly fine to fight for justice; however, if your fight ended up hurting innocent folks, I don’t see how you can justify that. I can understand you’re hurt and you don’t give a damn anymore, but I’d not pretend that you’re right.

I would agree that USSR and China might have not applied leftist ideology properly. Similarly though, Nazis probably also failed to applied rightist ideology properly. Extremism tend to warp and twist things like Billi does, but at least Billi doesn’t violently hurt people.

[Tom Servo]

Ahh, gotcha, the Antifa bogeyman. Yeah, the only recent example I can think of of left-wing domestic terrorism is that guy who shot up a congressional baseball game in DC, hitting Rep. Scalise, among others. It's been quite well documented that this is a vastly bigger problem with the far-right going back to when Janet Reno tried to announce the forming of a right-wing domestic terrorism investigation task force in the late 90s and the Republicans all lost their shit and they were forced to scrap it. Now check out where we are, it's almost like they were on to something.

I am grateful that as far as I can tell, there's been no attempt to identify/sympathize with the Jacksonville shooter like there was with the Buffalo one.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Yes, to be fair, right wing extremists do have more guns and they do tend to direct their violence more outwardly. No argument there. Even as nations, Nazis did invade other nations. Whereas USSR and China simply killed lots of folks within their own countries.

Anyway, my point is just that both ideologies can be used properly and effectively and benefit people’s lives. However, when warped extremely, both ideologies can become dangerous and hurtful. I just have issues with folks claiming that it’s always the other side’s fault and I see nothing wrong with my own side.

[FaultyMario]

Being anti-abortion, anti-lgbtq+, denying climate change, de-funding social services like childcare or rapid transit and putting up traps to harm irregular migrants is not an ideology. That's just being human shit.

[Rare White Ape]

But it’s also their ideology.

[Tom Servo]

There's definitely nothing inherently good about ideology. Nothing really inherently bad either, but it's very possible to have your ideology be based on being an absolute dickhead.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I honestly do not understand why people have different political and sexual orientations. All I know is that people can be so different and even if we can’t love them, there’s no need to think of them as shit.

Clearly we’re all somewhat prolife. That’s why we wear masks and take vaccines. We’re also somewhat prochoice! That’s why we choose to not wear masks and avoid vaccines!

I don’t really understand why conservatives are so set on preventing unwanted migrants from coming in, yet, insisting unwanted babies to come. I also don’t understand why prochoice folks also insist on having government mandates. Governments have no right to ban certain things but should be given the right to ban other things? Where should the line be drawn?

I honestly don’t know, and it’s up to all of us to talk it over and try to figure where that line should be. People are people, not shit.

[FaultyMario]

There's definitely nothing inherently good about ideology. Nothing really inherently bad either, but it's very possible to have your ideology be based on being an absolute dickhead.

Late 20th century philosophers would dispute that claim (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/concept-evil/#MotBasAcc).

[Rare White Ape]

Billi, are you slowly coming upon the realisation that humankind is not a monolithic Borg-like entity?

Are your continued attempts at 'nice-washing' everything (a term I just made up to describe what you do) starting to cause frustration in your mind?

Sorry to break it to you (that's twice in two days) but some people are just...

shit.

The sooner you start to realise this, the better off you will be. And the better equipped you will be to form good opinions and make good choices, particularly about the people who seek to make laws that control us.

Boy, have we got a journey to bring you on!

But only if you are ready.

For now, you will remain on ignore until you are ready.

Cheerio!

[Crazed_Insanity]

I’m a bit at lost as to why you think I’m an admirer of the Borg or that I prefer a collective existence over diversity.

Anyway, there are definitely shitheads! I’m not that ignorant to believe everyone is good or should be the same.

Just saying we shouldn’t paint a broad stroke such that all conservatives are shit. I’m sure there are hateful Nazis in US, probably even some in Norway and NZ! However, I have some faith, or I really really hope most US conservatives are not Nazi sympathizers.

Lastly, even evil people can still be capable of good though. We should try to bring the good out of each other if possible. Violence typically does not bring the best out of humanity.

[Tom Servo]

I am a fan of 'nice-washing'

[Rare White Ape]

Can confirm: remains on ignore.

[JSGeneral]

I am a fan of 'nice-washing'

But is that synonymous with 'evil-washing'? Some are immediately reacting to that label as such...