I’m imagining an NFL Redzone-like stream on PBS.

to bring in as many conservative muslims and Indians as possible

The fuck are you on about?

You touched on it; Citizens United. Change that and we’re back to a coherent timeline.

I also think the consolidation of media outlets into massive billionaire-controlled mouthpieces of industry alongside with Cambridge Analytica opening the flood gates on social medianl propagandization were crucial, but Citizens United will always be the death of the USA for me; it just took a few years for the corpse to start really stinking up the place.

You fucking rule. Remember that. Even if somehow, some way this doesn’t go hot you are still a compassionate, empathetic, loving human being and I’m glad your personal community has someone as caring and alert as you.

Agreed. The media hasn’t been entirely compromised yet and reports on some of the more blatant corruption. There’s still absolutely corruption happening in the background (check out the OMB) but the true worry will kick in when the reports stop.

That said large portions of the population have been silo’d into echo chambers. That includes us (the royal us), frankly. The reports we see come from sources conservatives have written off years ago. Same for reports we see coming from sources that we have written off; Fox News et. al.

I believe our grievances with conservative sources are more founded in reality than the grievances conservatives have with “liberal media.” I also believe corporate- and billionaire-controlled social media eclipses traditional reporting in scope and engagement. They are the true arbiters of what is truth or mis-truth and that scares me more than Fox News.

I moved away from that exact situation so I feel for you. That sort of isolation from your immediate community feels so fucking terrible.

If you own the property you could act as a safe haven for less isolated, nearby friends/allies/good community. It may feel far-fetched now (or not, sounds like you’re in the shit) but better to plan and prepare now. A spare room in your home, a weather-proofed garage or shed, even some tents and sleeping bags could make a difference for a vulnerable human.

His second term is roughly 19% complete.

Project 2025 is approximately 48% complete.

ICE is still set to “Government black-bagging.” I’m not looking forward to the “Government death squad” setting, personally.

Make friends with your neighbors and watch each others backs.

Keyboard and mouse input for the phone is a gamechanger for me. Having a manipulatable window that I can drag and drop files to is super nice as well.

Also since Slay the Spire doesn’t have cross-saving and all my progress is on my phone I can play it without staring at my phone.

I agree with you in spirit but would also like to shill for scrcpy in general if you aren’t already using it. Mirroring phone screen to my laptop is fucking amazing.

Excellent rebuttal. I hope your life improves.

If you’d like to ensure you’re up against an additional ~112,000,000 adversaries, by all means. That’s how many apathetic or disenfranchised voters sat out the election. I don’t like those odds, and I refuse to deny anyone the chance to redeem themselves. Describing them as stupid when you are aware of and admit to the fact the intentional actions of a hostile government has created the environment that made them ‘stupid’ will only create more enemies.

Unless you’re willing to kill a hundred of million in pursuit of your own goals we will need to help those who have been disadvantaged and show them a path out of apathy. That’s not just teaching literacy and critical thinking, mind you. It’s providing opportunity to pursue and achieve goals they had buried away in themselves when they realized how badly the deck was stacked against them.

Universal health care and universal basic income are small steps in the right direction, but with the looming spectre of climate change (that we are actively, intentionally, and gleefully accelerating) then we need change at a systemic level. That system has under-educated and under-provided for those ~112,000,000 people. If you teach them how and why and who snatched their opportunities away it’s going to be much easier to affect the change you want to see. If you’re willing to lump that many people together and call them ‘the problem’ I’d argue that you are the problem.

Don’t hate.

those who haven’t fallen into hate

You appear to need help with reading comprehension as well, or at least a math lesson. Please, take a seat.

Officially, Trump received ~77,000,000 votes and Harris received ~75,000,000 for a total of ~152,000,000 out of ~174,000,000 registered voters. If you must insist the 77,000,000 who voted for Trump are all Nazis, that still leaves ~22,000,000 apathetic registered non-voters.

Those numbers do not take into account the ~90,000,000 disenfranchised or apathetic otherwise eligible voting-age population. That’s ~112,000,000 eligible voters who did not explicitly lick the boot. If you’d like to count all 112,000,000 eligible non-voters as Nazis that means the USA contains ~189,000,000 Nazis, or about 2.5 times those who either support the neoliberal status quo or acknowledged the effectiveness of harm reduction over purity tests.

A more reasonable take on the eligible non-voter number is to assume apathy or ignorance over bigotry. Bigotry is indeed a hard beast to fell. Apathy or ignorance, however, can be overcome by promoting literacy and by extension critical thinking as valuable and necessary skills.

These people are not stupid. They have been failed by an educational funding paradigm designed to educate the wealthy while the impoverished are left behind. Do you really believe they are all Nazis?

Also; referring to anyone as ‘citizen’ is an explicit alienation of a group of humans. Alienation and dehumanization are major tools of fascism. Do better.

I agree with all the points you’ve made, but I vehemently disagree with your rhetoric in calling people stupid.

A large portion of the people you are denigrating have been raised in areas with poorly funded and under-valued education. Some are willfully ignorant, yes, but most of those people have never been given the opportunity to learn or to appreciate the value of education.

Calling people stupid is an insult that will alienate and propagate the “us vs them” mentality we need to overcome. They are humans that have had many disservices done to them by the government and thus distrust it. We have to figure out how to work with those who have been failed, those who haven’t fallen into hate but are ignorant or apathetic. Teaching literacy would go a long way.

A. Invoking the evil of Satan against a literal Satanist is bringing piss to a shit fight.

B. Dehumanization is a tool of fascism; you are the problem.

It is ridiculous to give a free pass to voters who voted for mask-off, celebrated hate and bigotry. Blaming the DNC while Trump 2028 flags are flying 6 months into his 2nd and legally final term is deflection at best and bad-faith shit posting at worst.

My dude I will piss through the brick wall that is Trump and his cult if I must.

Its not just his actions hurting people. The hate he has espoused and encouraged amongst the public has promoted nationalistic and dehumanizing beliefs to a boiling point, not to mention the influence and power he has provided the Heritage Foundation and their implementation of Project 2025.

My red-headed mother passed down the gene mutation (melanocortin- 1 receptor) that causes resistance to lidocaine and other local anesthesia. Made for some rough dentist/ortho visits as a child. The pain afterwards is pretty negligible but when the lidocaine wears off mid-extraction it’s fucking rough.

Been there done that. Was pulling rotted roots from a broken tooth the other week…had my surgery set but my x-rays were 6 months old, shit had deteriorated and surgeon agreed with me that a new exam was warranted. That meant the surgery was delayed and I get to deal with the pain for longer and likely get more pulled.

I legitimately want them to pull everything. I’d rather deal with full dentures until I can afford implants. My teeth have always been sensitive and I will absolutely fuck my tongue up probing at partial denture wires.

Just today I had two new chunks fall out. The first time I bit down on a chunk of tooth scarred me, but the day I realized I was used to it broke me a bit.

I’m literally looking forward to having 8 teeth pulled this month because A. at least the pain will go away B. They’re putting me under general because the several extractions I’ve had before this traumatized the shit out of me.

I could also share the story of paying $800 for a root canal and temp crown then losing my job before getting the perm crown. The remainder of that tooth was extracted a year later for $350.

Paying $1150 to lose a tooth radicalized the fuck out of me.

Counterpoint - Castle Doctrine. Hard to defend yourself with Implied License when you’re full of buckshot.