ameancow

I am sometimes saddened that "Authoritarian Good" doesn't seem to exist.

I mean, it's not hard to figure out values. Sure, some morons might think the good things you want are bad, but they're MORONS we can ignore them.

"Oh no! Save the billionaires! What if we become wealthy one day?" No, you won't. If you love them so much throw yourself in the pit with them.

Fuck this judge and this president in every possible way with a dog-piss-rusted fire hydrant.

I've already been ruined by medical debt, I've started over twice in life, I am now well past middle age and BARELY getting back on my feet and getting my credit repaired. I have family members looking over their shoulders for ICE agents and I may lose what shitty medical coverage we already have because dumbfucks who get their news from AM radio and Facebook don't get that Medicare and Medicaid have different names in different states and that they're going to lose coverage just because they're scared someone with brown skin might get benefits.

I kind of want to see the country burn, ngl.

What happens when a whole population realizes they are rapidly losing anything they might have had to lose?

If enough of us do it, it will be harder for them to scapegoat one person.

I would probably get banned from this site and get my own FBI file if I suggested what we should do to credit agencies.

Democrats didn't release the files for the same reason Trump didn't. It doesn't even have to be that prominent democrats were on that island (although it's safe to say they were) it just takes a few CEO's and other financiers of our current government to say "Nah, kill that" and it will NEVER see the light of day.

We are constantly losing sight of what all of this is really about and who's really in power here. They want us screaming about Dems versus Republicans in this WWE theater spectacle so we don't start a class-war. And it's worked perfectly.

My father was a product of this era. He had some kind of neurodivergence as a child, failed every course at school, had an impossible time reading, got beat by both his parents constantly. Contracted polio from public pools and spent years doing physical therapy to recover. Went on to get a sports scholarship but couldn't keep grades up, got sent to military school, got kicked out, was given a job in the family oil business doing gravy work analyzing survey maps, left after a week. Ran away to Europe to dodge the draft, came home and did massive amounts of drugs and then met my mom and told her "it's okay, I had polio as a kid, you can't get pregnant."

And that's where I came from.

No happy ending. He kept my mom and sibling abused, drugged and drunk until they died of liver failure, another sibling on the way, another sibling brought a weapon to school and lives in a halfway house. My father drank himself to death after losing all family property to scams, both his and those of others. My cousins stole the family inheritance and cut off contact with me.

So yeah, that's what I think of when someone talks about the 50's as "the good old days."

One time, when I was still learning to flex my social muscles and had volunteered to MC a work function, I was incredibly anxious beforehand and downed a large dose of CBD oil. Not realizing that the formula I was using had significant levels of THC also, it's just that I had used it in small doses so I never realized it before.

While I got through it, it went as you would expect. I was slow in places, I had a hard time focusing and improvising any chatter. It was awkward and I felt mortified after.

BUT, I did not give up. I hosted every work social event, organized charity drives and other special programs, and within a year I was managing a team, chairing two committees and made Employee of the Year. By that time I had been through so much rough shit and embarrassment at work that I was invulnerable to social anxiety. People said I was so smooth and often asked me how I didn't get nervous public speaking.

The secret to almost anything is to not be afraid to fall flat on your face.

It used to. I mean, at least the way corporate America used to try to use inclusivity in order to reach a broader market. It was just natural to reach out to as many people as possible.

That's not how it works anymore since attention spans died broadly and "engagement" is the new currency. Everyone has realized that the new, hot form of marketing is to recast a famous movie in a way that makes everyone mad or shoehorn some social issue into an unrelated story, and then amplify the worst voices on either side of any controversy and then you will get free exposure online as millions of people argue bitterly if recasting General Custer as a black lesbian trans catgirl was okay to do or not. (I mean, I'd watch the fuck out of it.)

We can legitimately level a lot of hate at Hollywood and a large swath of "content creators" online for escalating the very idea of "woke" into positions so delusional or terrible that I'm still not convinced it's not just psyop all the way down. They made the idea of progressivism and social good seem cringe, socially out-of-touch, ham-fisted and unrealistic.

I'd love to see less "recast famous story in new races for controversy and profit" and more original stories that show actual struggles that various groups face because of their ethnicity or other identities. (I'd love to see a superhero movie that goes after corrupt healthcare company CEO's but someone already tried to make that story on their own.)

They shot themselves in the dick for the express purpose of creating drama and engagement while trying to appeal to their mental image of "liberal america" in pursuit of profit, not ideals.

Honestly, the new Superman movie is a bit of a breath of fresh air, it delivers a powerful social message without falling into the tired tropes and doesn't sugar-coat it, you know EXACTLY who they're targeting and who they represent. But they're also not trying to pander to both-sides. They kept Superman consistent to his values and showed that bad things are in fact, bad. And bad guys exist and are bad. (And they're usually the wealthy elite.)

In addition to what the others said here, it's worth knowing that despite all the manufactured contention around this race, Mamdani is heavily favored to win no matter who else enters the final race. The news and youtubers love to find the edge-case weirdos and hype up the drama around it being "BATTLE OF THE CENTURY" because our country's brains have collectively oozed out our ears.

Yes, Dems have to get flushed, but other than that, this is fantastic news, this is another hubristic blunder by narcissistic political demagogues.

This will guarantee some level of split vote from the people that were going to vote for Adams again or some Republican challenger, whoever that was going to be. And there will be a lot of brainwashed median voters who have no clue what's going on just hear the facebook warnings that Mamdani is going to enact Turbo Gay Muslim Socialism that will force everyone to stand in breadlines to get their gay muslim rations.

I've been reading Bonhoeffer recently. His work is very much relevant right now, and quite depressing.