Oof. Thanks. I hate it.

For those that may need it:

1. Right click and select “inspect”
2. A new panel will open, and the text <img ... will be highlighted. Right click that.
3. Select “Delete Node.”
4. Impress your friends with your new hacker skills.

The current Republican platform is largely based on stupid easily disproven lies.

It’s worth mentioning that this strategy is straight out of the trolling playbook. The overall idea is to get everyone to waste their time arguing nonsense, making it impossible to discuss anything of merit. While the following article applies to internet forums, it’s not hard to see how any social media, TV, or radio, can spill over into our day-to-day discourse and have the same effect: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7573649/

In this case, the topic at hand meets multiple criteria for deliberate trolling. IMO, there’s little room for doubt that we’re being led by the nose and baited to waste valuable pre-election time:

• Digression - Luring others into off-topic discussions by spamming, partaking in cascades or introducing tangential topics (e.g., as in [16]).
• (Hypo)criticism - Excessive criticism of others, e.g. on their punctuation while possibly committing the same errors oneself.
• Antipathy - Creation of a sensitive or antagonistic context through purposeful provocation, in order to manipulate others to produce emotional responses.
• Endangering - Giving out poor advice under an innocent guise, and others are compelled to respond in order to protect others.
• Shocking - Posting about taboos or sensitive subjects, such as religion, death or human rights.
• Aggression - Deliberate and open aggressing of others into retaliating (e.g., by name-calling or foul language).

Well, we are talking about a pop star with absolutely staggering amount of influence and reach, specifically with a young demographic. If she were able to motivate her fan-base to vote, that would be a huge deal.

Edit: Holy shit.

deleted by creator

Please keep doing this.

What’s delightful is that their whole… (waves hands frantically) thing¹, takes all the most crucial tools off the table. Imagine this safety sign posted at the RNC:

Absolutely NO:

• compromising
• back-tracking
• changing your mind
• making mistakes
• wrong opinions

All one can do from there is lie while doing one of those things anyway. At a certain point people are going to take notice, which just makes it worse.

¹ - Machismo? Rampant authoritarianism? Sociopathic narcissism? I can’t keep up.

promising to a return to normalcy and baseline competency.

Here’s the thing. Biden hails from an era of politics where one would absolutely get lit up by the media for breaking decorum.

It’s been a slow decline for some time, but the Republicans along with their propaganda outlet Fox News have slowly changed the country’s thermostat on this over the last few decades. Much like wearing a winter parka in the summer heat, maintaining complete and total political decorum in this climate is no longer a boon, it’s a handicap. We all saw Biden take one heck of a beating while taking the high road and never really taking the (rage) bait to hit back in quite the same way. But while that approach is performing on virtue, the optics are one of a punching bag in the eyes of many crucial voters.

So tactics have been changed, and boy have they ever.

What I appreciate about this approach is that it’s actually very light-handed, considering all that could be done. It also looks downright polite compared to how much right-wing media has run with hyperbole and even outright fabrication. Yet running on the rather casual sounding observation of “old and weird” is generating actual results. It’s also refreshing to loudly point out what we were all baffled about from the get-go: “Don’t they know? I mean, they’re seeing the same stuff we are, right?”

I welcome this new shift to “bless your heart” politics.

I think this hits the nail right on the head.

For a while now I’ve been pondering this very thing. I can’t prove it conclusively, but I honestly think this goes all the way back.

$0.02: The USA was started as a bunch of colonies, and we’re co-cohabiting with lunatics that think this still is one. Over time, territory expanded westward up to and through the Civil War. This was done by the kind of people that came to a foreign land, saw it was full of people already, and decided to completely upend that whole situation for their own benefit. You know, the whole “screw them, got mine” world outlook. This is also an ethos that is completely compatible (if not required) with owning people (slavery), secession to maintain that ability, spilling blood over it, and continuing to punch down on “people not like us” for a 150 years since losing that fight. In a sense, we’re up against colonists, the values they espoused, their great-great-great-offspring, and people in their community that keep those values alive.

Thank you for sharing. I like seeing people get engaged with stuff that matters, but not at a cost like this.

people who genuinely want trump to be king.

It is my unscientific and wholly unsubstantiated hunch that some people are okay with that because they have no idea how limited the office of the President is supposed to be, and how that keeps the train on the tracks. They might have thought they were electing a virtual king this entire time.

I know the women in my social circle are pissed

I’m curious. About what specifically? That “MAGA Manifesto” is huge.

Naw, she’ll just rattle it off like a summary of charges: “115 counts of lying directly to the public, 14 counts of ignoring the CDC during a pandemic, …” Short, pithy, with all the bite of a courtroom prosecution.

misogyny/racism and the lame claim she isn’t a mother.

So… their problem now is that the new DNC front-runner also doesn’t fit with their worldview? You’re right, they really don’t have anything. What were they going to do if Biden died? The lack of foresight here isn’t surprising, but it certainly is impressive in its consistency.

Fortune? No, we’re up against some real monkey’s paw shit at this point. Someone blurted out all five wishes at once without thinking, and here we are.

There are some absolutely cunning and insane stories in here. Fascinating.

In a last-ditch attempt, Fabian von Schlabrendorff gave a time bomb camouflaged as a package of two liqueur bottles to an officer in Hitler’s entourage, as a supposed gift to a friend in Germany. The bomb was supposed to explode on the return flight over Poland. The package was placed in the hold of the aircraft, where it iced up, causing the detonator to fail. Realizing the failure, Schlabrendorff immediately flew to Germany and recovered the package before it was discovered.

I can’t fathom it myself.

Even if you bought yourself all the cosmetic surgery, life extending treatments, life extending drugs, toys, mansions, planes, airports, boats, gourmet food, personal entertainment, and (why not) all the sex you could possibly handle every day forever, it still wouldn’t come close to the billions some of these creatures have.

It might also be possible that they’re in competition with one another, all while (re)building an aristocracy within the western world. 21st century wealth does not extend from land ownership like it did back in the 18th, and it can be argued that it now extends from control of labor itself; this mirrors the shift from industrial to information economy. I think that’s already happening with the consolidation of monster corporations we have these days.

Another possibility I’ve tossed around is a tad more dark. If these animals are in the accelerationist camp, they’re hedging their bets and are prepared to “lose” billions in worth in order to stay on top when things fall apart. And if I’m right, we should see the ultra-wealthy attempt to build their own survival compounds and purchase self-sufficient infrastructure to achieve this; that includes “buying” governments.

I used to have a friend like this.

Back in 2008, it was clear that she was watching Fox News for her primary source of “information” about the world and politics. Even then, it was a constant headache to push back against the one-sided, stilted, non-scientific, ideological slop that channel churns out. Since this was an election year, Facebook just made it even worse. She constantly re-posted all manner of emotionally provocative nonsense without thinking.

After the election, it only got worse. I watched this person go from semi-reasonable and rational, to a slowly devolving, emotionally driven, irrational, and fearful person over the following three years. It was as if reason itself was slowly draining out of her life. To make matters worse: at the start of this, all of her friends were socially liberal and left-leaning to deep left politically. I, along with a lot of others, slowly pulled out of her social sphere. I think she only has political sparring partners left on Facebook.

What makes me sad is that, outside of anything involving politics, this person was generous, kind, a great host, outgoing, and fun-loving. I want my friend back, but I also can’t afford the time to babysit another person’s broken brain forever.

Thanks for the insightful reply. I appreciate it.

I still know people who are die hard George W Bush supporters and think he was the best president we’ve ever had.

Honest question: do those folks say that because of how that campaign and presidency made them feel at the time, or is it honestly based in policy, politics, or something else tangible? Thank you.