U.S. Politics

[joshsquash729]

So he basically dropped it on his own lap and made his chair stickier?

Melania kept trying for the bib, but when he saw Putin wasn't wearing one, he opted out.

I think the IV bruises are from Diet Coke injections. Turns out his ass can't handle the enemas anymore.

I suppose that would explain why he always stands like a kid who's halfway through crapping his pants.

 

[Chooch555]

So the populace does have power over corporations at least.

 

[jonaskane]

I hope they choose the right cleaner for the Oval Office. Trying to get ketchup off all those gold painted tchotchkes on the walls is going to be tricky.

Also:

 

[Misfit]

Kimmel deserved to be reinstated, but that statement ABC/Disney put out was garbage. No acknowledgement of any wrongdoing on their part and now they'll probably be rewarded with a ratings to boost to Kimmel as people tune in to see what he says following the whole ordeal.

 

[Goldbug]

US bars Iran's diplomats from shopping at Costco without permission

The only country whose diplomats were specifically targeted is Iran.

abc7chicago.com

The Trump administration has already denied visas for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and his large delegation to attend the U.N. General Assembly. In addition to Iran, the administration also was considering restrictions to be imposed on delegations from Sudan, Zimbabwe and Brazil.

well that's stupid
I hope they just move any meetings to Geneva, Switzerland then
at least Brazil convicted their mini-Trump

 

[altcunningham]

This reads like an Onion article.

Everything does. But that opening.

 

[docsilence]

Talking with someone who was like "aren't you afraid you're isolating yourself by cutting people off for political beliefs," and honestly... it's been like fifteen years. I cut some Boomers off when they crossed a line being racist about Arab-Americans. I cut some Gen-X friends off when they thought kids in cages was acceptable. I cut people off when they didn't believe COVID was real. It's been little slice by little slice. I still hear those opinions, I still follow other political viewpoints. But the one thing you can control is who has access to your time and your care. It takes a LOT for me to give up on someone.

But we're at the end of a very long rope and we may not come back from it. If someone supports things that harm other people, I don't care how they feel about me. I care about how they feel about the world they want to grow old in. And I wish them well and happiness, but the well of the heart is finite.

 

[Ru1977]

 

[altcunningham]

Talking with someone who was like "aren't you afraid you're isolating yourself by cutting people off for political beliefs," and honestly... it's been like fifteen years. I cut some Boomers off when they crossed a line being racist about Arab-Americans. I cut some Gen-X friends off when they thought kids in cages was acceptable. I cut people off when they didn't believe COVID was real. It's been little slice by little slice. I still hear those opinions, I still follow other political viewpoints. But the one thing you can control is who has access to your time and your care. It takes a LOT for me to give up on someone.

But we're at the end of a very long rope and we may not come back from it. If someone supports things that harm other people, I don't care how they feel about me. I care about how they feel about the world they want to grow old in. And I wish them well and happiness, but the well of the heart is finite.

Worst part of dating post-divorce is my age and what that means.

I'm just 43, and it seems like whenever I meet someone my age or older, there's a good chance they're going to skew conservative in all the bad ways to me, or, and I think this is worse, be mostly cool but then suddenly have an opinion on woke or LGBT or BLM but still claim they are left or progressive. Like it's disheartening how many people seem to be punk rock anti-authority anti-establishment, pro LGBT and then suddenly drop a racist bomb on you or drop a classist privilege comment. Or there's just like a general complaint about wokeness, but I don't think they actually know what that even means.

And then there's the hate for the younger kids as we have discussed.

And it's just weird I believe I am technically a millennial, but Gen xers always like to group me in with them when they're pushing some sort of Othering/gen gap feud.

And even if I stick with people my age or younger who are millennials, they have their own disconnect and vitriol about a bunch of political things.

I know everyone has a unique journey and doesn't subscribe 100% to the exact same beliefs as someone else, but it gets increasingly harder to navigate as I become more and more secure and up front with my own boundaries and what I'm looking for and supporting in life.

 

[Misfit]

It comes down to there are things you can compromise on and things you can't. I have friends who would vote to ban gasoline powered cars tomorrow if it was put on a ballot, I would not. I can easily remain friends with them. On the other hand, I can't be friends with someone who was cheering on the ICE agents in my state who literally held a five-year-old girl hostage in an attempt to draw her father out so they could arrest him for having the audacity to be seeking asylum in this country. I don't need those people in my life. The only compromise I make these days is towards family, mainly so that I don't put other family members in a tough position (like my parents or sister).

 

[Damien]

Talking with someone who was like "aren't you afraid you're isolating yourself by cutting people off for political beliefs,"

This requires context for me. I mean, are they asking if you're afraid of isolating yourself from other opinions and then not knowing what's going on (i.e. creating a bubble of ignorance), or are they asking if you're afraid of being lonely/having fewer friends and acquaintances because you don't associate personally with certain types of people?

Because, yes, it's absolutely important not to politically isolate yourself to the point where you have no grasp of reality (we can see how dangerous that is with almost the entire political right). But if it's the latter, I can't imagine what I would be -losing- by not associating with pedophiles and their apologists, rapists and their apologists, racists, and open Christo-fascists.

FISCAL conservatives can be interesting to talk to, even if I often disagree with their ideas. But fiscal conservatives are Democrats now anyway, as all the reasonable politicians (and I'm even using that term loosely) and their voters basically left the Right sometime between Donnie 1.0 and Donnie 2.0.

but I don't think they actually know what that even means.

Could say that about basically everyone that uses 'Woke.'

 

[docsilence]

This requires context for me. I mean, are they asking if you're afraid of isolating yourself from other opinions and then not knowing what's going on (i.e. creating a bubble of ignorance), or are they asking if you're afraid of being lonely/having fewer friends and acquaintances because you don't associate personally with certain types of people?

Because, yes, it's absolutely important not to politically isolate yourself to the point where you have no grasp of reality (we can see how dangerous that is with almost the entire political right). But if it's the latter, I can't imagine what I would be -losing- by not associating with pedophiles and their apologists, rapists and their apologists, racists, and open Christo-fascists.

FISCAL conservatives can be interesting to talk to, even if I often disagree with their ideas. But fiscal conservatives are Democrats now anyway, as all the reasonable politicians (and I'm even using that term loosely) and their voters basically left the Right sometime between Donnie 1.0 and Donnie 2.0.



Could say that about basically everyone that uses 'Woke.'

They were talking about "would I miss those individuals." I argued back that I don't need to spend TIME with people who disagreed so vastly from me, I could see and hear their opinions everywhere to stay informed. But if someone doesn't believe in basic human decency I don't need to have pizza with them. I can get all I need from the 75 news sources I'm constantly stressed out by.

Every true fiscal conservative I personally know is basically a Democrat now. My dad was an independent who never voted Democrat until Trump and now he's the guy pissing off all his friends by not towing the party line anymore. They think he's a flaming liberal and all he wants is common decency, treating everyone well, and a functional government. I kinda hope HE will cut some people off but all his asshole Trump "friends" are just the husbands of my mom's actual friends, so if he cuts them off, my mom is lonely. So every dinner party is my dad getting shit on by a bunch of racists in one room while my mom enjoys the company of their a-political wives in the other.

(My partner's dad was a dyed in the wool Republican party man, ex-Navy, so Republican his wife had to lie to him when she changed her voting status. Even he's gone blue now. Watching him process how Trump was using the Navy as a political tool was remarkable, we watched the hamster drop dead on the wheel in his head.)

The people I personally cut off because they were believers? I don't miss 'em. Especially because as everything gets worse, and I know they are still believers, I'm that much more relieved i don't have to think about watching them hope for the fucking apocalypse.

 

[jonaskane]

Hopefully a bit of levity.

 

[joshsquash729]

Well put, Doc! I'd have to agree with every single point you made. I care less and less about what people think of me, especially because I know their opinion is often one-sided and ignorant in and of itself. I've cut more people off in the last year or so than I ever have, and I don't really regret it. If anything, my day feels a little lighter for not seeing their dumbass hateful posts that just get somehow more and more batshit crazy.

For me, I think it comes down to who can be swayed. Not that I ever expect to get someone to stop believing what they believe- I'm a terrible debater unless it's online where I have time to think out my reply- but if I think there's even a shred of goodness in someone, or they perhaps believe the wrong thing but for the right reason, I'll probably give them a chance. That line is getting more and more blurred, but I do generally think I have a pretty good gauge on people's true selves.

 

[akajomiha]

I hope they choose the right cleaner for the Oval Office. Trying to get ketchup off all those gold painted tchotchkes on the walls is going to be tricky.

Also:

I've been thinking about this a lot, both in a specific sense and within the broader context of this administration going full-on Nazi/fascist. The part that is most unsettling to me is that I don't think we've reached the full "mask off" moment yet.

That we've let it get to this point...to say I'm disappointed in our country would be an understatement. I've been disappointed in it since I first learned the true history of our nation. Ashamed even. But the last 9 years leading up to the crescendo that seems to be coming...it fills me with impotent anger to the point that everything else seems meaningless. I can only hope that things don't become as dire as I fear they will.

Thanks for giving us an outlet for sharing thoughts like this, TSI. I don't really have any friends that are as progressive thinking as I am and my wife doesn't like to talk about it (can't blame her), so I'm left bottling everything in for the most part. Glad to be able to commiserate with you all.