WatDabney

Oligarchs gonna oligarch.

Imagine being such a psychopathic piece of shit that you would unironically complain that telling people the truth about what you’re doing to them is a hostile act.

It’s easy - you just have to be a psychopath.

Like Trump, Musk, Vance, Homan, Noem, Rubio, etc., etc.

I got all the way doen to “One trump son, who asked not to be named, said, “This is bullshit. Eric and I work really hard and we never get chosen to be pope” before I realized it was the Onion.

Everything up until then was believable. Well - even that was believable, but he wouldn’t have said it on the record.

even if it’s not quite as open as the alternative social network Mastodon, another decentralized X rival.

Mastodon can’t be “another” decentralized X rival, since it’s the only one of the two that actually is decentralized. BlueSky just pretends to be.

Or more accurately, he embezxled $10 million and funneled it through a slush fund.

I still… maybe it’s my years working construction, but when I look at RFK Jr. - his mannerisms and gestures and speech patterns and connection (or lack thereof) to reality - I see a tweaker, clear as a bell.

It can be - certainly.

One of the basic dynamics of partisan politics, and one of the main reasons that parties decline, is that people wear a party label as a substitute for more meaningful action.

In this case, people who want to project an image of progressivism without actually doing anything practical to advance the cause adopt (or adopted - more so in the past) the “Democrat” label as a way to signal their progressivism. The fact that they wear the label is then folded into their self -image - they can be proud that they’re progressive, because after all, they’re Democrats, which proves it.

One problem though is that that only works as long as the Democrats are seen to be progressive. If they’re no longer seen that way, then by extension the party faithful are themselves no longer progressive either.

So effectively, a criticism of the party is a criticism of the individual, so they have a vested interest in defending the party from criticism.

Example:

“Republicans are corrupt weasels.”

“Democrats are the same.”

I see only three options there. Either:

1. You understand and admit that they mean “the same” in the sense of “also corrupt weasels.”
2. You’re a liar
3. You’re a moron.

I’m so fucking tired of this argument.

It’s the same fucking bullshit loop every goddamned time. Somebody will say that the two parties are “the same” clearly meaning "the same in [this] particular sense, and then the pedantic assholes will all come swooping in and start nattering on about how that’s completely wrong because they’re not absolutely 100% identical.

Here’s a fucking news flash for all you binaristic pinheads - there are more than two possibilities. We aren’t just limited to “they’re 100% the same” and “they’re not the same at all.” It’s not only possible but certain fact that they ARE the same in many, many ways, and the fact that they’re not the same in ALL ways doesn’t change that.

Anyone who can’t envision more than two diametrically opposed possibilities is a fucking moron, and I’m sick and tired of this argument being driven by fucking morons.

That’s what I’ve used for years now, and I have no problems with them.

I actually have three of them, of varying ages, all of which still work fine. The older ones have simple switch shoulder buttons and the newer ones have analog triggers, and that’s pretty much the only notable change they’ve made over the years.

The only “problem” I’ve run into with them is that the buttons and/or the pad will accumulate dust over time and stop working dependably, so I have to take them apart and clean the contacts every year or two. Which is very easy to do.

It’s tempting - it would be greatvto be able to say something like, “I just want to thank you for being such an insufferable asshole that you were the catalyst that started the process that ended with my mom becoming a Democrat.”

But I assume it would be lost on him. Like both Trump and Musk, I assume he’s determinedly oblivious to the fact that he’s an asshole

My mom is a lifetime Republicsn who up until last year was on a pure reactionary right feed on Facebook. She’s basically turned 180° in just the last few months, and while it started with her immediate gut-level dislike for Vance, it was driven home by her imnediate, gut-level dislike for Musk. It’s now expanded out to criticizing (and laughing at) Trump and the rest of the would-be oligarchs, and she’s moved from Facebook to Reddit and is already trying to decide which Democrats she’s going to vote for.

And while it actually started with Vance, it was almost entirely Musk (or as she referred to him for quite a while - “What’s his name - the asshole co-president”) who accomplished the most to drive her away from the party she’d supported her entire life.

And I assume she’s far from alone.

Tankies and MAGAs share being angry cowards and simps for authoritarians - they just differ a bit here and there on exactly who it is that they want to see oppressed.

A government that can ban social media sites is going to base their choices of which ones to ban on their preferences - not yours.

Humanity is at a crossroads.

Either we’re going to solve the problem of psychopaths with power and wealth warping societies to accommodate their psychopathy, or, at the very least, modern civilization is going to collapse.

I see no third alternative. The Musks and Trumps and Putins and Netanyahus (and so on and on) of the world will, if allowed, destroy us all, because they’re quite literally too mentally ill to restrain themselves.