brainbottle.bsky.social
computer programmer, song satirist
171 posts
46 followers
61 following
Active Commenter
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I've been listening to people get upset about "CRT" for years, and even now I still get moments of thinking "you're this mad about cathode ray tubes? I can't remember the last time I used one!"
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Republicans have been treating the "culture war" as a war AGAINST culture, and at a practical level they're winning all the battles.
But if SEMANTICS are important, and a culture war is supposed to be about winning OVER the opinions of a culture, then republicans haven't been winning CORRECTLY!
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It's even not just that immigrants have not the English too well, but their welling of English is not even having, AT ALL!
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All of this renewed discussion of Biden's age is merely a distraction from a much more pressing issue the Democrats have avoided too long: the inappropriate casualness of tan suits!
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I find those mods silly, but at least they're easy to ignore.
The actual worst is when the default clothing in a game looks like burlap sacks, so you want SOMETHING nicer to look at, but 99 out of 100 of the clothing mods are "we made these burlap sacks prettier by cutting holes for the titties"
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The only thing I get a tiny bit snobby about is when someone complains that they can't sacrifice all their companions to become a lich overlord AND get the shiny hero reward from the candy princess in the same playthrough. Yes, "you paid for the content", but maybe try playing it twice?
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Whenever someone gives me strategic political advice, I always try to imagine republicans following the rule. This usually reveals how stupid it is.
Try to imagine republicans shutting up about anything that offends them. Just IMAGINE it!
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I voted for Harris for domestic reasons, but as far as genocide in Gaza is concerned, I literally don't see a huge difference. Netanyahu continues to murder children exactly as fast as he wants to, whether Trump is cheerleading or Biden was finger-wagging. The only difference is some optics.
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Trump does have an ulterior goal: get rid of income tax. Tariffs are a means to that end, because that's how the government used to raise all their revenue before 1913.
Now let's see, how high do we have to set the tariffs to pay for a trillion dollar defense budget....
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The democrats are in no position to demolish the republican party as the FIRST thing they do, and they aren't going to win elections on a platform of "I guess I can't do anything until someone else demolishes the republicans"
That sort of ineffectual attitude is how we got INTO this mess!
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Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made A Great Point
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Okay, so.... we should just GIVE UP trying to fight racism? Is that your point?
Please elaborate what OTHER point you have, if any.
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The Court held that Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act "imposes current burdens that are no longer responsive to the current conditions in the voting districts in question."
We don't need to OVERTURN the ruling, we need to provide evidence that the "current conditions" once again need fixing.
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Even giving the comment a more serious analysis than it deserves, associating Hitler's leadership style with well-ordered obedience is complete nonsense. Hitler was a terrible leader, and his top henchmen were a bunch of squabbling back-stabbers that constantly undermined each other.
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"Listen up Liberal, the republicans damaged the voting rights of black people, and THAT'S why Kamila Harris had to campaign with Liz Cheney."
I'd be perfectly happy to see someone campaign on the platform of DOING something about voter disenfranchisement. But "doing something" isn't their style.
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Racism exists, of course, but that didn't stop Obama from being the most successful, popular two-term president in my lifetime. He could have had a third term, if it wasn't illegal.
Centrists said he couldn't possibly be elected. It was not the first or last time they were wrong about everything.
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I never said that trump voters are sweet and innocent, I ONLY said that Democrats need to stop sucking for five seconds to beat them.
They've lost two elections to a clown in a dumpster fire. If you think that's a record that's above criticism, I don't know what to tell you.
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This is literally just another variant of "there are only two options, and we're the option that sucks LESS."
I actually *voted* for every shitty centrist the Democrats ever anointed, but if they want to start winning elections instead of losing them they have GOT to come up with new material.
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Republicans screaming that Democrats are "too progressive" isn't news. They were ALWAYS going to say that, no matter how many railroad strikes Biden crushed or how many bombs he sent to Israel.
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Harris ran as Joe Biden's anointed successor, and did absolutely nothing to suggest she'd diverge from his legacy or shake up the status quo in any way.
Even if you WANTED four more years of milquetoast centrism (and unconditional support for Israel), it just doesn't scream "initiative".
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Being "feckless" means you lack boldness and initiative.
Trump has "initiative" for miles. His plans are moronic, but they were so BOLD that he dominated the conversation.
every minute Harris spent reacting to Trump, "correctly" or not, was time that Trump was dominating the conversation.
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I reserve my rage for decrepit, fossilized Democrats who stubbornly cling to important elected offices year after year, but can't be bothered to do their job.
It would be cool if Obama did something, but at least he RETIRED before he started doing nothing. Chuck Schumer should follow that example.
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I always think of Blazing Saddles, because exactly the same people who whine that "you can't make movies like that anymore" would hate it so much if it actually was made today.
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Youve ASSERTED that from the beginning. I don't see how you've suddenly "proven" it now.
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What I'm hearing you do is EXECUTE your plan of telling me I'm terrible. I could not possibly have missed that part of your plan, because I've been the subject of it for a while now.
I can't say I'm impressed with the "positive agenda" aspects of you yelling at me that I'm terrible, over and over.
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We live in a violent universe, and I have a pointy beard, so I think I can survive being poked with comfy pillows or whatever.
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Literally zero people would care if I said a face in a mirror "showed signs of anxiety".
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Aside from forgetting how much Ross Perot helped, centrists today also forget Clinton wore sunglasses and played the sax.
Voters always have and always will have a soft spot in their heart for a fresh new face that acts younger and cooler than "the establishment", whatever that means at the time.
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www.nbc.com/saturday-nig...
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A mirror does nothing but reflect light, and yet even people who know this can speak of a reflection doing things like "smiling", because maintaining absolutely perfect semantic discipline about the fact that a reflection is not a real person isn't worth the effort.
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What's your plan to stop centrists from winning nominations, and then losing general elections? Convince me to stop complaining? That's it?
My plan worked from 2008 to 2016. Your plan will NEVER work. You have failed to convince me, and I'm not even a "true militant leftist". I still vote blue!
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I'm not sure how well it can be generalized into a rule, but Schumer's latest shenanigans was definitely NOT my first clue that New York City specifically is a festering tumor of feckless centrism killing the Democratic Party.
Probably not a coincidence that it's literally where Wall Street is.
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For every primary the Democrats bothered to actually hold, I found a candidate I was perfectly happy to support. The problem isn't that I never support anything, the problem is billionaires like Bloomberg have infinite money for centrists, as long as any populist is still running.
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Actions speak louder than words. Our conversation didn't start until well after the general election was lost, but that did not stop you from trying to convince me I'm a bad person for complaining.
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what you mean by "context matters" is that there is literally never ANY context in which you think complaining is appropriate.
Even now, not in the strategically sensitive months leading up to a general election but in the 20/20 hindsight time AFTER it is fully lost, here you are tone-policing me.
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Schumer has been making bad decisions that provoke protests for years, but this is the first time he made one singular decision so mind-bendingly terrible that he's had Nancy Pelosi criticize him AND Donald Trump thank him on the same day.
So maybe he is literally, actually getting death threats?
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Hillary was the anointed centrist. Obama showed up and said some vague stuff about "hope and change", What did it mean? Not much, really... but Hillary hated it, and for millions of voters, that was FUCKING AWESOME!
Good politicians work their voters. We got here because centrists CALL THEM STUPID.
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complaining about centrists until they don't get nominated is a viable strategy. We did it in 2008, and it WORKED.
What concrete historical example can you point to where a strategy of telling disgruntled voters to shut their cake-holes won a general election with an Obama-sized landslide?
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"Some criticism during the primary will affect the general and that can't be ignored"
Okay, so when I say during the next primary that centrists are losers, the very fact that I'm saying it MAKES it true?
I'd be perfectly happy if, in the next primary, you warned EVERYONE not to ignore that.
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as much as centrists have TRIED to convince right wing voters to support the Democratic party, I think it's premature to count them in the party-supporting category against their will.
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Probably not where you were going with this, but:
the most hilarious example right now is Elon musk. His "net worth" is mainly Tesla stock, and if the stock price drops any lower he's going to have to sell his shares to pay back over-extended loans where he used the stock as collateral.
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Everything I hear about Gavin Newsom makes me wonder why he even USED to be popular.
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but where's the subtitle, about how this is a problem for Joe Biden?
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So your arguments can convince people to not do the things that annoy you, but I can't POSSIBLY convince anyone not to not vote for centrists in the primary?
My arguments only have tragic, inadvertent consequences, but you aren't (for example) inadvertently provoking me into ARGUING MORE?
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Wow, you sure COMPLAIN a lot for someone who thinks complaining is bad and accomplishes nothing.
Maybe I'd find your argument more compelling, if you explain how you justify your own behavior. Does complaining about a problem count as fixing it, when YOU do it? That seems remarkably convenient.
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I have a friend who dedicated her life to leftist organization. She recently said my criticism of the dems is too soft. I can't please anyone.
If you think she only failed because she's stupid, I invite you to do a better job. BE the change you want to see in the world. Good luck!
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Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.