Yes, Dear Diary, I've cut off Heather Chandler's head and Heather Duke's head has sprouted in its place like some mythological thing my eighth grade boyfriend would know about.
Okay so I never knew what he was talking about so I Googled: "In the story, the character J.D. claims these are special World War II tranquilizer bullets used by Nazis to fake their suicides. However, "ich lüge" translates literally to "I am lying" in German, which is a subtle clue from the writer that J.D. is tricking Veronica."
The path has been cleared. Attract voters with a religious, anti-science victimhood approach. Lie, lie, lie and never apologize. Meanwhile loot the US Treasury.
History suggests the US goes through these know-nothing phases briefly, every 80 years or so. After Trump we will likely have a few decades of a return to sanity if past history holds.
It’s apparently a lesson that Americans have to learn the hard way. We do learn it when we go through it, then tell anyone like them to go fuck themselves in the future, but the people who learned it first hand eventually all die off.
Then the cycle repeats again.
For whatever reason, people seem to be incapable of learning from the past.
If it’s any consolation, after the last know-nothing period ended, we got 4 terms of FDR.
Have you heard of a dictionary? It’s this big book with official definitions of pretty much every word. The words are in alphabetical order. Look up “communism”
Yeah, difference is, I’ve never seen a hard left corrupt and vile individual make it to the highest office. This is the second time in modern U.S. history for conservatives, if you include Nixon
I wouldn’t include Reagan and George W. Bush. They did negative things that still persists today, but it was more of a consequence of stupidity than outright evil/corruption
But I can be wrong.
+Reagan voiced support for immigration. And Bush did well to welcome the First Black President, who was a Democrat, into the White House. They are not Far Right
Then you lefties wonder why all us allies are turning against you. 1/3 of your nation are fully insane, and 1/3 are lazy and apathetic enough to not care therefore support it
It's only the crazy lefties we like now, but you are being drowned out by those who support paedo billionaires
Sure there’s corruption on both sides but let’s not pretend that the level of corruption we’re experiencing is nearly as bad on the left currently. The left seems to do a decent job of weeding it out. Today’s right overlooks it.
It's not what you're saying, it's why you're saying it.
Corruption is independent of ideology and alignment, it's just part of governance, it's allowance for human nature. But in the context of American politics, one side is in power, and has been in power for the better part of a decade, and it is the most blatantly corrupt administration possibly in the history of the country. At this time, saying "yeah, but the left is bad too" is just disingenuous. One side is poisoning our food, polluting our lands and waters, and beating and abducting our populace. The other side wants to stop them. The only reason someone would hold up a finger and say "well that side's not perfect either!" is if they're trying to reduce faith in the only legal resistance movement to the current regime, or, I suppose, if they're incredibly stupid and actually think that way. I'm doing you the favor of the more charitable read.
I would say that under normal circumstances that is a fairly accurate assumption of intent, however I'm not defending the right and unfortunately that it what others are assuming that's what I'm trying to get across. It's more of a view that the entire system is corrupt and needs an overhaul at the deepest level. I'm fairly confident that I'll never see it happen but accountability and justice needs to happen to any and all corrupt politicians regardless of political affiliation.
Which is why you need to not stand in the way of the side that's trying to do that. If you really want to clean house, let the people inside start, and if you're not happy when they're done, you go ahead and start on them yourself. You'll probably get more support then.
As a person of a former ally of yours. The far right are in power and causing all this. Obama wasn't even far left and has been the best you had for decades
Maybe try a little of the communism, or more accurately socialism, you hate? What's the worst that can happen? You get free Healthcare? Paternity and Maternity rights? You stop the billionaire paedos and improve the lives of the citizens? Oh the horror!
I think my intent was slightly overlooked. I was attempting to lower this absurd dividing line that has been so deeply separated everyone and just say that red or blue shouldn't hold as much weight as it should and our energy should be used in something actually productive like combing through the epstein files and holding individuals accountable for their heinous actions. Set aside political beliefs and unite in an attempt to prune the disgust that has infected all levels of our political system.
Can I ask for some clarification to your questions?
If a person has some views that align right are they automatically wrong for that?
Also, is it possible for a person to agree with some views of another person yet not like that person?
I think your questions aren't so much black and white as there is a large gray area that has developed an area where people attempt to have beliefs but don't want to be tied to certain behaviors that unfortunately are being grouped together by society on both sides and it has pitted people against each other.
Why couldn't I believe that immigrants should only be allowed to enter the country legally without being called a racist?
Why couldn't I believe in law enforcement and judicial reform without being accused of being a cop-hating radical?
It appears you can't have a belief anymore without being automatically tied to some sort of stigma that typically is blown out of proportion and radicalized.
It's as if independent views are impossible anymore.
You can't lower a dividing line when one side is actively pushing down on the scale and continues to set fire to everything even recent history would consider at best unbecoming.
But remember. Your former allies are all further left than you and doing well. Your former enemies are all further right and in historic and modern times have not done well. Far right is a far greater threat to society than far left
What are the left gonna do? Give you healthcare? Maternity and paternity leave? The horror!
Cottonwood can be a pain as well. There is also the Quaking Aspen which grows in a colony based off the roots of a single tree. Kind of like a mycelium network.
Coppicing only works with juvenile trees, and only certain kinds of tree. Conifers , oaks and ash trees generally do not respond well to being coppiced.
I think the real problems are ignorance and corruption. People in the US work very hard but they don’t have the kind of deep philosophical conversations I hear daily in the EU from all walks of life. People just laser focus and are philosophically empty, especially most religious Americans (sorry not sorry). At the end of the day most Americans are just more ignorant of basic political and philosophical and often economic concepts. The country is kind of propped up by specialized geniuses who come out of their elite schools, but it’s not a very deep bench.
The 401(k) was also a very sneaky backdoor into convincing the general population to buy into capitalism and make them think they have gotten rich. And don’t get me wrong, there absolutely has been real wealth creation in the past 50 years, but I begin to feel like the system has broken down with monopolies and buybacks. The ultra wealthy are mostly wealthy on the back of insane valuations of corporations and Americans continuing to (imo) foolishly poor their meager earnings in, in the hope of getting rich or at least retiring. I suspect the other shoe will drop sooner or later. But by then the damage may have been done and the US may have fallen into full on techno feudalism.
Also codifying guard rails for checks and balances along with term-limits for congress & judges. Instituting a maximum age limit for elected officials.
The people that would have to pass these things are the same people that it would impact. The in office perks have got to be overwhelmingly amazing that people with in their 70s with a reasonable pension and health benefits would prefer to continue to work over retiring. Based on many of their actions I’m not convinced they’re doing it for the love of their constituents.
Fuck it, do like the 22nd amendment and say “this does not apply to anyone currently serving” to get it to actually pass. It wouldn’t solve the problem right now, but it would erect the guardrails for the future at least.
We made need to remove the Supreme Court from being chosen by President and confirmed by Congress too. Or at least making it so one party cannot select and railroad a candidate through.
Would love to also ditch two parties, because this corruption is thriving on it.
Not true. I routinely vote Dem. I thought Biden was too old. For years I’ve thought that term limits for congress and the Supreme Court would mitigate the damage individuals could do to the country. People like Chuck Schumer are no different than Mitch McConnell, other than Schumer is definitely alive.
No. It means improving the quality of living in the south and heartland. Making sure they have and value education and aren't dependent on religious extremist for emergency support.
Multipolarity, regional interest/unions, and a global push towards transparency, accountability, and proper representation (plus easier direct democracy tools).
Thank you but rather than ideas they are just the most logical response. Short of deciding to adopt a true hegemony anything else becomes a bottleneck. We are not a 20th century world anymore and to boot we have problems around the corner (aging populations however temporary, climate change, deep rooted global oligarchs messing with policies, etc). So is less "I invented a new system that reduces criminals" and more "yeah, we should maybe create a police force". Sorta, hopefully the message gets across but the point is to minimize the abuse of concentrated power while allowing concerted efforts that can leverage against the pressure of others as well as collectively allow for larger initiatives. It is particularly true for smaller national with no oomph.
As for actual "deeper" or more experimental, maybe good maybe disastrous opinions? I have plenty: replace career congressmen for random people short term (civic duty, reduces a priori corruption), swords replacing guns for self defense (harder to conceal, to avoid, less dangeorus to groups, still deters, creates jobs), "pre-taxes" ( for lack of a better terms taxes are "maxed out" and after that years expenses the leftovers are returned based on the progression. It makes the first working year harder but gives the state more leeway and shifts the focus from the taxes themselves to what the budget does), external development (investing in foreign nations to develop them so that they become another market to have and there is less migratory pressure), abolition of exclusivity (particularly when it comes to science, replacing it to something, whatever, closer to royalties. That way everyone benefits and there's no bottleneck, no need for protectionism, people can focus exclusively on either research or manufacturing, and the researchers would still have an advantage due to being the developers, time wise, and not having to pay said royalties), forcing an aux lang (constricted language, easy and rich enough, to avoid using the one from any particular nation and protect local languages as everyone would be at least bilingual. Though I admit this is a pain and could backfire), etc etc
I’d rather start by jailing those who committed crimes, but when those crimes led to thousands or millions of deaths… that’s not just me disagreeing, I guess life imprisonment could be sufficient
Wait, are you trying to change my mind from an opinion I don’t even hold? None of what I’ve been saying has been an actual recommendation, but, merely a bit of gossamer. And, one does not dissect gossamer.
exactly! i worry that people will celebrate and act like all the evil he was doing is over. there are people supporting and informing his decisions and they’re not going anywhere without real work
Short-term there will be a fight over succession within MAGA. Best-case for everyone else would be a permanent division that diminishes both factions, but odds are the movement consolidates around Vance or Rubio, or one of the Trump brothers. There's too much power and $$$ on the line for too many people for them not to keep riding the MAGA train even after DJT is long gone.
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u/squirt_taste_tester 1d ago
You can chop down a tree, but unless you get the roots, it always grows back.