U.S. Politics

I believe folks have tried the cafe/comic shop idea. Seems like they were more into selling trades, which makes sense. I shop at Mile High Comics and I'm pretty sure I'm one of only a handful of people that still buys new floppies.
Yeah, we talked about that too, how he and I are really only into the runs we loved when younger and not so into current stuff
 
I don't drink. I fear what would happen if I started given my clear addiction issues with food and toys. That said, the downfall of the United States might get me to start.

Or maybe I should open a liquor store. Those seem recession proof.
It's not that fun. I do it casually for pleasure, because some of it is delicious, but eh. Pick up a fun vice like Cake.
 
Heh. I quit drinking before MAGA got started, always look back and am a bit bemused I never went back through all . . . this.
And as someone who studies cult-think clinically, I wish I had better answers, but the unfortunate truth is that folks ON ALL “SIDES” are getting culted up and it is truly terrifying.
Yeah it's the all sides part that gets me. I don't like doing the whole. Both sides are bad but I've honestly.... It's just infuriating when it's the people that you're trying to support or that you'd think would at least be on your side given the larger issues and then they just start othering people.

I want to scream.
 
Saw a thing that we are actually 6 months into the recession for America, but it's not actually reflected in the stock markets where people would react to this because the AI bubble is distorting everything for the moment from the ground level.

It's not really my scene so I can't say one way or the other, just thought I'd share.
There's no question that it's either here or coming. The GDP, jobs numbers, consumer confidence, and inflation (soon to be stagflation) are all extremely concerning.

Part of me fears that the stock market is so divorced from reality that we won't see a crash reflected until we hit mini-depression/2008 levels.

Another part of me fears that it could come crashing down at any minute. The vibes-based stock market is trouble for us all. In what universe is Tesla worth more than six times as much as Toyota? In 2024, Tesla sold fewer than 2 million cars. Toyota sold more than 11 million. It feels very 1929. What could go wrong when every person's retirement account is tied to the market?
Also what the actual fuck is this AI video the president shared out this morning... (Don't Fear) the Reaper?

Worth mentioning that this groyper freak shit appeals to like 5% of the population. No one is gleefully celebrating the shutdown except these ghouls. I guarantee your average American isn't thinking about how many more government services we can gut while the lights are off.

Imagine if we had a functioning media in this country to actually explain what these people stand for.
 
Yeah it's the all sides part that gets me. I don't like doing the whole. Both sides are bad but I've honestly.... It's just infuriating when it's the people that you're trying to support or that you'd think would at least be on your side given the larger issues and then they just start othering people.

I want to scream.
To be clear: there is no “other side” to MAGA, no equal-but-opposite insane death cult following a decaying, mad “leftist”. MAGA loves to play that game, that “oh yeah well there are crazy extremists on YOUR SIDE too!” Hell, obsequious ghoul Mike Johnson tried that on a hot mic the other day. The false equivalence is garbage and also deliberate and cynical.

THAT SAID:

The cult-think is certainly not exclusive to some imagined “The Far Right”. I see “reasonable Democrats” who are just salivating to follow Gavin Newsom or whatever the loudest and meanest voice on “their side” they can find. Everyone seems to be looking for a “team” to join so they can “own” the “other guys”. It’s tribalist bullshit, it’s counterproductive, and ultimately it will replace a would-be king with a shitty Robespierre.
 
Agree with all that.

Just to clarify where I'm coming from, in my activist days past and present there's a lot of tribal infighting.

Your skin isn't dark enough. You aren't poor enough. You haven't struggled enough. Your ideology is the same wavelength and goals, but the authors your read are not as good as the authors I read, so you're actually dumb and know nothing. L is greater than T and G, but can we agree B should be left out, it's fake. Maybe your politics all align but you do enjoy guns, you're out.

Things like that.
 
Things like that.
And I've commented on this before, but a big issue to me between the two parties is how one side is, at best, totally willing to overlook a lot of horrendous shit as long as their key issues are promised to be fulfilled, while the other side is anxious for someone that checks every single box the way they want it or they'll cast them aside.
 
And I've commented on this before, but a big issue to me between the two parties is how one side is, at best, totally willing to overlook a lot of horrendous shit as long as their key issues are promised to be fulfilled, while the other side is anxious for someone that checks every single box the way they want it or they'll cast them aside.
Exactly. It doesn't feel like was always like this. But maybe I was just a kid.
That's kinda funny.... My mom protested a lot in the late sixties and seventies, but it was mostly with college students who were surprised someone so poor cared about that stuff.
Yeah. I have friends active in their own spaces and the common denominator is others just gatekeeping anything, probably because of the above.

Or, as my friend always says, they're opps and everything is compromised.
 
It's simple for conservatives - they want nothing to change, unless it's to go backwards. Destruction is easy.

For liberals, yeah we want change and progress, but not all of us want the *same* change and progress. You can see it almost everywhere in every conversation with the 'left'. We almost immediately fall to fighting amongst ourselves because somebody isn't pure enough in their desires to do thing A or thing B, or they ARE good enough on those things but they ALSO want to do C and we can't have that and...
 
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