U.S. Politics

[Chooch555]

By cutting people off are y'all talking mostly about blocking people on social media? I'm not any personally and I guess I've already been pretty self-selective of my IRL friends so I've not had call to cut people out. The only struggles are family and the occasional co-worker who I don't have much control over.

 

[CTV]

I don't know any Republicans, so I haven't had to cut anyone off because of this stuff but I did have to get rid of a few "Both sides are bad/I'm not voting" friends around November.

 

[AceofKnaves]

I make it VERY public that I don’t fuck with MAGA and MAGA-apologists, both on social media and in “real life”. I basically wear a sign saying “fuck off MAGA” everywhere I go. I’ve got all these kids coming up in my theatre community who are at risk from MAGA for various isms, and their parents all know that I’ll throw myself in front of anyone who wants to mess with those kids. I outright hiss at MAGAs when I see them. I’m absolutely flexing privilege because I work for myself in my day job and I’m a respected, highly-demanded veteran in the theatre world, and also I’m a big, fit guy that everyone knows does martial arts, but what is privilege for if not for using it to protect queer/spectrum kids and to reject Nazis?

 

[TheSameIdiot]

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.

Might be a better fit for the relationship thread, but I'm curious about how you're meeting people.

From what I understand, the apps let you filter out enough that you may as well build your dream partner in a lab. Then again, I wouldn't be surprised if politics wasn't an available filter.

I have friends who would vote to ban gasoline powered cars

As an aside, I'm driving my last internal combustion engine car now. My wife and I bought a Camry hybrid when we moved to Seattle. I've been ruminating about swapping it for a Nissan Leaf or Chevy Bolt because the driving range isn't as much of an issue as we thought when we bought the car. Ideally, I'd like to wait until Toyota or Honda offers an electric sedan, but neither seem to be in any hurry to do so.

I recognize this isn't for everyone due to charging infrastructure, but a hybrid can be.

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)

You mean like our entire elite class cooked their brains on Nazi-run Twitter?

I spend way too much time on Bluesky, but I'm aware that it's a political bubble. I don't wander the streets thinking, "Everyone believes landlords should be illegal, just like me." Being able to separate the internet from reality is integral to modern life, yet almost no one can do it.

(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.)

I've heard so many stories like this that I think Trump's base is 50% people who never participated in politics before now. My FIL is the same. Long-time Republican who voted blue the second Trump stepped into the picture. Now he refers to Democrats as "we."

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.

It's oxymoronic, but this is the hope. Every liberal I speak to is furious.

 

[TheGillMan]

Well... And I'm not totally up on the conspiracies but inside job is definitely one. And the pictures they're saying is the guy but doesn't look like him etc, the weird on the nose text confession etc. I dunno. I don't have a fully formed opinion, but if they DID have him killed as a martyr, it makes sense for it to be someone they didn't feel was crucial to their plans then they just gotta push hard for "no but he was wuuuuuuuuuuuunderful, and you need to persecute anyone who says otherwise. And next week start throwing literal stones them," etc.

Again, I don't believe it, dunno.

I used to love conspiracy theories, as I found a lot of them imaginative and interesting....and in some cases possibly true. I learned to loathe them in the Qanon era, and still mostly do. The only good thing is that a few of the MAGA/Q folks are starting to form conspiracy theories around Trump/Epstein. ANYONE with half a brain knows that Mango Mussolini and Epstein were buddies, but the former's refusal to release files that he campaigned on has at least pissed off a few. I heard from a coworker the other day that there are some of the right wingers who believe that Kirk was killed because he was going to go public with what he supposedly uncovered about Trump and the Trafficker. Now, I don't personally believe that AT ALL, because I think CK was way too busy multitasking playing with Cheetoh's balls while fellating him, but I'm sure as hell not going to discourage the few who are turning against their orange messiah.

Sigh. I don't even know what I believe anymore, and I hate that I really am starting to sound like a conspiracy theorist. Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't.

Yeah, I get it. And to be honest, I sometimes find myself thinking in conspiratorial terms myself...especially when someone gets "shot" but their ear magically heals. I really try hard not to think that way, but at the same time....every accusation these creeps make tends to actually be a confession.

If I was still a believer, I'd also assume we get to have the number of the beast on our foreheads any day now.

I think about this A LOT. I grew up in a Fundamentalist Christian household, and my parents were (and still are) obsessed with the "End Times". What blows my mind is how much the Trumpster Fire fits the criteria outlined for the Antichrist, yet people like my parents don't see it AT ALL!

 

[Ru1977]

people seem to be punk rock anti-authority anti-establishment, pro LGBT and then suddenly drop a racist bomb on you

I did find a gif with the full quote and I know it's a movie of its time and having all those slurs is actually the point the scene is making but I still didn't feel like posting that.

 

[Ru1977]

I used to love conspiracy theories, as I found a lot of them imaginative and interesting....and in some cases possibly true.

I am completely the same. I love learning about them but usually treat them as fun fiction. Once in a while, yeah, there's one I think "huh...maaaaaybe, yeah".

some of the right wingers who believe that Kirk was killed because he was going to go public with what he supposedly uncovered about Trump and the Trafficker. Now, I don't personally believe that AT ALL, because I think CK was way too busy multitasking playing with Cheetoh's balls while fellating him, but I'm sure as hell not going to discourage the few who are turning against their orange messiah.

Yes, 100% same.

Yeah, I get it. And to be honest, I sometimes find myself thinking in conspiratorial terms myself...especially when someone gets "shot" but their ear magically heals. I really try hard not to think that way, but at the same time....every accusation these creeps make tends to actually be a confession.

Truth!

I think about this A LOT. I grew up in a Fundamentalist Christian household, and my parents were (and still are) obsessed with the "End Times". What blows my mind is how much the Trumpster Fire fits the criteria outlined for the Antichrist, yet people like my parents don't see it AT ALL!

EXACTLY! I've been passively mumbling this for years now! I used to even equate maga hats to the 666 on the foreheads thing.

 

[docsilence]

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.

Goddamn, this right here. Very grateful for this forum, TSI, especially because I'm particularly paranoid in the nerdy community about who's going to out themselves as pro-evil. It's a relief to drop by here a few times a day and be like "RATIONAL PEOPLE WHO CARE ABOUT THE WORLD."

By cutting people off are y'all talking mostly about blocking people on social media? I'm not any personally and I guess I've already been pretty self-selective of my IRL friends so I've not had call to cut people out. The only struggles are family and the occasional co-worker who I don't have much control over.

Socials if I only know them tangentially, but I've cut off family friends I couldn't stomach anymore, and actual friends who surfaced some of the most vile beliefs I couldn't believe they held. One friend lost her mind when I told her after the kids in cages thing I just didn't want to associate with her anymore. "BUT THEY ARE ILLEGAL!" Nah, humans aren't illegal, but she was a POS.

I basically wear a sign saying “fuck off MAGA” everywhere I go.

My partner got absolutely railed at for wearing a Doctors Without Borders "compassion" shirt at the grocery store a few weeks back. Super traumatic to her because unlike me, she's just not interested in confrontation. She's like: how is compassion controversial? (I wore a similar shirt from DWoB over the weekend and kept getting smiles and head nods, but maybe it was "we can bully the white lady, but the guy who looks like a boxer self-identifying as pro-compassion gets nods of approval.)

Might be a better fit for the relationship thread, but I'm curious about how you're meeting people.

All of my friends right now keep having this conversation about how if our current relationships ever end, we're DONE. Just done with other humans. My friend, a romance author, calls her marriage "the last chopper out of 'nam" because she's in her mid-thirties and her friends are just horror story after dating horror story. She never wants to try to meet a new person again and I'm right there with her. My partner ever leaves me, I'm packing my action figures and dragging them up into the woods to disappear like Bruce Banner.

I spend way too much time on Bluesky, but I'm aware that it's a political bubble. I don't wander the streets thinking, "Everyone believes landlords should be illegal, just like me." Being able to separate the internet from reality is integral to modern life, yet almost no one can do it.

Bluesky is the only social media for my author stuff that doesn't make me openly angry. (I keep a Threads account but that site is like a fucking parasitic entity.) But quoting this cos I had to explain to a lawyer from Iceland that no, Americans don't think renting should be illegal, it's just that almost all of us have RENTED from someone who's fuckin' evil. (Speaking of which, the neighbor I stopped talking to this week over the FCC stuff retired at 50 to become a full time landlord and I have so much trouble not just, slagging him off about it every time I see him.

 

[TheGillMan]

All of my friends right now keep having this conversation about how if our current relationships ever end, we're DONE. Just done with other humans. My friend, a romance author, calls her marriage "the last chopper out of 'nam" because she's in her mid-thirties and her friends are just horror story after dating horror story. She never wants to try to meet a new person again and I'm right there with her. My partner ever leaves me, I'm packing my action figures and dragging them up into the woods to disappear like Bruce Banner.

I get it. I'm 54, and if things don't work out with my partner, I'm just done. I prefer the company of my dog to most people anyway!

 

[CTV]

All of my friends right now keep having this conversation about how if our current relationships ever end, we're DONE. Just done with other humans. My friend, a romance author, calls her marriage "the last chopper out of 'nam" because she's in her mid-thirties and her friends are just horror story after dating horror story. She never wants to try to meet a new person again and I'm right there with her. My partner ever leaves me, I'm packing my action figures and dragging them up into the woods to disappear like Bruce Banner.

This is the way! Dating sucks, and it's 100x worse when you're gay, even in a city like NYC. Yes, we can have casual sex with very little effort. No, it's not a fulfilling way to live.

 

[joshsquash729]

By cutting people off are y'all talking mostly about blocking people on social media? I'm not any personally and I guess I've already been pretty self-selective of my IRL friends so I've not had call to cut people out. The only struggles are family and the occasional co-worker who I don't have much control over.

I don't know any Republicans, so I haven't had to cut anyone off because of this stuff but I did have to get rid of a few "Both sides are bad/I'm not voting" friends around November.

For the record, it has been mostly on social media, but there have been a few real life friends as well. Thing is, I thought I knew where a lot of my friends and family stood- aside from a few surprises here and there, they've mostly all been really clear, but this past week or so has really brought some oddjobs out of the woodwork. I'm not talking about the people who are understandably a little conflicted about the humanity of it all, I'm talking people who full on believe the horrific lies being spewed about trans folks, Tylenol, etc. And trying to trace it back to any one single event has been mostly impossible- they all seem to have just switched one day, or I guess never been fully transparent in the first place, and I don't know which is worse.

 

[docsilence]

Y'know the funny thing about who gets cut off? I come from a family of absolute, and I say this with love, ignorant Boston townies. Like that scene from the Town, "who's car we taking?" I HAVE HAD THAT CONVERSATION. But somehow my thug cousins refer to Trump as "that fuckin asshole" and all but have rainbow flags on their cars and believe in, y'know, science and vaccines and stuff. The people I know personally I've had to cut off are low-key rich Boomers or guys my age who work in fucking finance or tech. The plumbers and HVAC guys I'm related to? Right side of history.

 

[Chooch555]

Acheta..., Assetaa..., Er...., Tylenol.

 

[Goldbug]

'Your countries are going to hell': Trump bashes United Nations, world leaders in speech

President Donald Trump is speaking at the United Nations General Assembly, as world leaders convene in New York for the body's 80th session.

abcnews.go.com

well yes that what happens when you destroy the world economy & cut off humanitarian aid moron
and the hottest country because you don't understand the basics of science

'I'm giving my opinion': Trump deviates from scientific evidence, own FDA, in autism remarks

As Trump cautioned pregnant women about the possible links between Tylenol and autism in children, his remarks went beyond available scientific evidence and even the FDA.

abcnews.go.com

 

[docsilence]

Writer Jim Wright is always using the phrase "all the self-awareness of a dog licking its own asshole in the street" and I feel like that phrase should follow Trump for the rest of known history. Talking like that in front of the general assembly like he's god's golden child when everyone in the room knows he's a damned fool.