Political memes thread

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Enjoy it. Might be the last one for a while.

I can get dark too, you know. Maybe I'm holding back. I suspect you don't want to hear my actual opinions on American democracy right now.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Or some of my ideas about the course of history, or the nature of existence.

 

[Stigmata]

I can get dark too, you know. Maybe I'm holding back. I suspect you don't want to hear my actual opinions on American democracy right now.

Let’s hear it.

 

[The Cat]

I can get dark too, you know. Maybe I'm holding back. I suspect you don't want to hear my actual opinions on American democracy right now.

Up to you if you want to think of it as dark. It just seems to me that this is gonna be the last "regular" thanksgiving for a lot of people. We should really try to enjoy it this year.

If you want to turn that into some kind of competition for who can get "dark, darker, darkest" I don't know what to tell you apart from, I'm not interested.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Let’s hear it.

Fine. America technically was a democracy but was never intended to represent the will of the people. This never changed much. You can be a Nazi and run and that's fine, but if you run with beliefs like mine, the powers that be will do everything they can to stop you.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Up to you if you want to think of it as dark. It just seems to me that this is gonna be the last "regular" thanksgiving for a lot of people. We should really try to enjoy it this year.

It will be the last regular anything. That's the way it is. Things change and don't go back. Stay in the fight and keep moving.

If you want to turn that into some kind of competition for who can get "dark, darker, darkest" I don't know what to tell you apart from, I'm not interested.

I thought that's what you were trying to do.

 

[The Cat]

I thought that's what you were trying to do.

I've observed you tend to do that a lot with me. I would like to respectfully ask you to stop doing so if you can. I have no interest in competing against anyone on the internet. Especially not for trying to make things darker, or potentially more hopeless. These are dark times for sure. But that doesnt make me want to gleefully give into it. I think of you as a fun person to talk about geeky things and music with. Our tastes and outlook are different, but not inherently at odds and I see no reason to be at odds with you. I hope we can part from this interaction with a spirit of continuing amiability. These are uncertain times, and neither one of us really need the cosmically insignificant and mildly irritating at worst pointlessness of a social rivalry on a typology website of all things. Disney might be out to hurt you on purpose. But I'm not. And I'm not a United States Congressman, so you can believe me when I tell you that.

*Slides you a pint of whatever you like to drink* So let's forgo that kind of dancing for a bit of comradery in purgatory between the damned, since we're all in this mess together?

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I've observed you tend to do that a lot with me. I would like to respectfully ask you to stop doing so if you can.

I try. I find it difficult. It's related to why I'm childless. Like father, like son.

I have no interest in competing against anyone on the internet. Especially not for trying to make things darker, or potentially more hopeless. These are dark times for sure. But that doesnt make me want to gleefully give into it. I think of you as a fun person to talk about geeky things and music with. Our tastes and outlook are different, but not inherently at odds and I see no reason to be at odds with you. I hope we can part from this interaction with a spirit of continuing amiability. These are uncertain times, and neither one of us really need the cosmically insignificant and mildly irritating at worst pointlessness of a social rivalry on a typology website of all things. Disney might be out to hurt you on purpose. But I'm not. And I'm not a United States Congressman, so you can believe me when I tell you that.

*Slides you a pint of whatever you like to drink* So let's forgo that kind of dancing for a bit of comradery in purgatory between the damned, since we're all in this mess together?

I would too. But it wouldn't be the first time I've alienated someone like this.

 

[The Cat]

I try. I find it difficult. It's related to why I'm childless. Like father, like son.

I would too. But it wouldn't be the first time I've alienated someone like this.

If living life were easy, everyone would be doing it. Just keep on trying to keep on man. We've all been there my dude. There are good days man and there are bad days. I aint gonna hold one of the bad ones against you.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

If living life were easy, everyone would be doing it. Just keep on trying to keep on man. We've all been there my dude. There are good days man and there are bad days. I aint gonna hold one of the bad ones against you.

For context, I have been working hard last night trying to get all my ducks in a row for my passport application. I've been running back and forth between apartment buildings trying to find a printer I can use, for example. (I should probably just by my own). I was not able to take any time to unwind at the end of the week.

This morning, I show up for the appointment for a passport application. For the second time, they tell me that nobody is there to take my password application. I was furious.

Thankfully, because I was considerate, they told me where I could go to get it processed. A woman waiting in line verified that they had the same problem with nobody being available (despite availability to schedule appointments on the website), but was able to finally get the passport situation taken care of at that particular location.

I was already in a bad mood before this happened.

 

[SensEye]

Sadly, Trump winning the last election, in resounding fashion, has cemented Trumpism as the new status quo on the Right, and much like the Reagan Revolution of the 80s birthed the third way New Democrats, it seems the Democrats are once again trying to follow them rightward.

That's true enough. I think the primary hope for the Dems in 2028 is that Trump will make such a mess of things that such chaos will ensue there may be major blowback against the Republicans. Given some of the clowns he has appointed to major positions it seems quite possible (i.e. RFK Jr for health, Gaetz as AG, etc.) I figure being clueless and incompetent eventually has to come out in the wash doesn't it? Stupidity is rarely the pass to success.

However, if somehow the Trump team doesn't mess up everything, I can see MAGAism becoming the new norm.

We don't agree on how to combat that, but that is probably we inhabit different zones on the political spectrum. You want to double down on going left, I think that will prove fatal and the Dems should move away from identity politics back towards the center (but still far left of MAGA policies). Meh, 2028 is a long ways off, and the next 4 years should prove eventful to say the least. Lots can change in that time so it's hard to speculate on what will be going on that far out.

The midterms will be interesting. Folks should have got a full dose of Trump 2.0 by then and we'll see how they react.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

I rolled my eyes too with the way he talked about Russia, but I'm forced to admit he was right.

Broken clocks are right twice a day and in that regard, I think we can occasionally learn from moderates and the center right

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

Russia hadnt morphed into something that US conservatives love more than their own country at that point.

I dont know if it hadnt if the US would have elected some other variation on the Manchurian Candidate they have now.

The conservative right likes to put on a front of supporting individual freedom, but they also love “strongmen” and clean grocery stores so they will always be more likely to cozy up to an authoritarian like Putin in the end.

Anyway, when they say they love individual freedom, what they really mean is they love freedom for a certain economic and racial class, not so much for others, because the perpetuation of their own status tends to come at the cost of the exploitation of other classes

 

[Lark]

The conservative right likes to put on a front of supporting individual freedom, but they also love “strongmen” and clean grocery stores so they will always be more likely to cozy up to an authoritarian like Putin in the end.

Anyway, when they say they love individual freedom, what they really mean is they love freedom for a certain economic and racial class, not so much for others, because the perpetuation of their own status tends to come at the cost of the exploitation of other classes

I dont think its all a ruse, the conservative "ideology" is the same as capitalism, its really appealing, I know why anyone would favour it, its the same reason casinos are popular while not everyone who visits one is a winner, the majority arent, its still fun to go and hope counts for a lot with a lot of people even when its remote from reality.

The problems with contemporary conservatism, I think, are the same problems there were with socialism, communism, dozens of similar ideas, in the past.

The theory and the reality are far removed form one another. Becoming increasing vague, ill defined, carrying a great emotional charge likely to result in escalating militancy. There's nothing like the course corrections that took place among liberals or left wingers.

 

[The Cat]

 

[Totenkindly]

My agency leader just resigned effective next Friday.

His short email included this:
"So have courage, do your duty, and do not be afraid. America needs you."

Which i actually was moved by, but the context has him basically then saying, "I'm outta here!" at the end, two months early. It's like a Simpson's moment.

He would have been fired in Jan of course.

 

[Virtual ghost]

I am constantly reading the title as "Political mess thread".

 

[Totenkindly]

I am constantly reading the title as "Political mess thread".

Well... you're not wrong.

 

[Virtual ghost]

Well... you're not wrong.

Of course I am not ... since I have evident Freudian slip on the issue.

 

[Lark]

I dont think memes have been great for a long time, all memes, not just political ones.