benroyce

benroyce , 1 day ago

@randahl

i feel like, at this point, the ukrainians should be training us

so are the lithuanians going to train? or are they going to "train"?: for example, guard the border with belarus, or any other task that frees more ukrainians for the front lines. although of course, training is another example of something that frees seasoned ukrainian soldiers to fight instead

benroyce , 2 days ago

@dan613 @johnefrancis he could have shown some consideration and left the window open so we could get some

The BIRD attacks the dirty dishes

benroyce , 2 days ago

@johnefrancis @dan613

Ben Royce's pattern recognition score for May 9, 2024: 0/10

benroyce , 2 days ago

@johnefrancis @dan613

benroyce , 1 day ago

@Nonilex

it's a classic troll maneuver:

change the subject

it unfortunately works on walnut brains. hopefully the jury is not walnut brained

benroyce , 2 days ago

@mastodonmigration @GottaLaff well said

benroyce , 3 days ago

@emmreef @flexghost

For RFK Jr.'s supporters, having a brain worm is endearing and a positive.

benroyce , 3 days ago

@flexghost @emmreef

no, Joe Rogan fans do not have brain worms

they have similar clinical signs and symptoms as RFK Jr. fans but different underlying pathology: no brains

no brain, no worms

benroyce , 3 days ago

@Shivviness @MaJ1 @weirdfolks @PixysJourney

I could reply that the images you posted are #AI. I'm not going to, I know they're not. But we already live in a world where people deny reality they do not like in preference for lies. With AI the lies become more convincing, and "this is an AI fake" about reality becomes an easier dismissive kneejerk reaction

Elections are already decided by lies trumping (pun intended) reality. It is only going to become much worse with AI

benroyce , 2 days ago

@video_manager @GhostOnTheHalfShell @economics-that-works

nope, not true

#Republicans raise the #deficit, #Democrats lower it

benroyce , 2 days ago

@chiclet @video_manager @GhostOnTheHalfShell @economics-that-works sure, but you're looking at nuance. i'm aiming at the standard bias amongst MAGA walnut brains that the GOP helps the economy and democrats destroy it. nope

benroyce , 2 days ago

@chiclet @video_manager @GhostOnTheHalfShell @economics-that-works

We're entering an election season where a lot of morons are going "Biden bad for economy, Trump better"

So the nuanced discussion is important but I'm hunting morons

benroyce , 2 days ago

@chiclet @video_manager @GhostOnTheHalfShell @economics-that-works

and that's important. for people capable of nuance. for the dingbats you just bash them over the head with reality. the hardcore brainwashed won't care but someone will. and since the economy is such a big concern with voters, always, it's important to hit them with the big guns on the dumb lies they believe

all I'm saying is an appeal to nuance is noble but let's get Biden back in office then do nuance

benroyce , 2 days ago

@video_manager @chiclet @GhostOnTheHalfShell @economics-that-works

I don't think either of us are getting through to a brainwashed cult

Best either of us can achieve with any strategy is peel a few away here and there

benroyce , 2 days ago

@GhostOnTheHalfShell @video_manager @economics-that-works

no argument. i'm intent on meeting MAGA where they are:

"biden economy bad. trump ecnomy good... drool... snort"

benroyce , 2 days ago

@GhostOnTheHalfShell @chiclet @video_manager @economics-that-works

that's very well said but nobody has the time and energy to deprogram the trump cult. the best you can do is peel a few off at the edge

benroyce , 2 days ago

@GhostOnTheHalfShell @video_manager @economics-that-works

but also, when the MAGA morons go "trump and republicans good for economy/ deficit, biden and democrats bad" hit them with something simple clean and hard: {image}

most won't care, they're brainwashed dum dums. but you might hit a few

benroyce , 2 days ago

@video_manager @GhostOnTheHalfShell @economics-that-works

if you have the bandwidth for that: my respect. my belief is that the effort involved for the potential payoff is prohibitively bleak. the peripherary is all i can play, i believe

benroyce , 3 days ago

@flexghost

aren't MAGA walnut brains the feverishly religious type that are always screaming about the antichrist?

and they support this guy

yeah

benroyce , 3 days ago

@rgulick @flexghost

Yup. Just like they are always trying to push the ignorant lie transgender people are pedophiles, while in reality it's a constant drip of news of right wingers being pedophiles

Latest example:

"New Hampshire lawmaker calls teens ‘ripe’ and ‘fertile’ while speaking out against bill that would ban child marriage"

https://www.dailydot.com/debug/new-hampshire-child-marriage-bill/

He's a Republican of course. In a week or two there will be another story like it, as there was a week or two ago

Always projection

benroyce , 7 days ago

@GottaLaff

meanwhile, GOP:

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/13/house-passes-bill-block-gas-stove-ban-00100492

also: "lab-grown meat might be cool, better for the environment, no animal cruelty"

now guess what legislation 4 GOP controlled states passed or are considering?

benroyce OP , 7 days ago

@marshray

me or them?

i'm not

read what i'm saying

and we talk about ableism later in thread. read that

benroyce , 8 days ago

@MaybeMyMonkeys @randahl

sure but he keeps the war machine going by getting in deeper with china. china is not doing this out of the goodness of their heart, china will own russia by the time this is all done, and they know it

the great irony:

in its effort to turn ukraine into a vassal state, russia is turning itself into a vassal state

benroyce , 9 days ago

@GottaLaff

there has to be a path to impeach #clarencethomas

history has a little instruction, and it fizzled because it was based on accusations of partisanship over probity

we don't have to do that with thomas

all we need to do is follow the money

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Chase#Impeachment

benroyce , 9 days ago

@philip_cardella @GottaLaff #MAGA only matters because they vote. we should protest on the streets to make the dems deliver on why we voted for them, but job number one is for the left to f***ing vote

the biggest problem in the #USA is not enough on the left vote

if they voted, the #democrats would align with the reasons why the left voted, just like with #GOP and MAGA

but too many f***ing airheads on the left take not voting as a point of pride. it's self-destructive idiocy

benroyce , 9 days ago

@Nazani @philip_cardella @GottaLaff

it's worse than that. they think protesting alone is playing. protesting matters, but as a supplement to voting. protesting alone without voting is stupidity beyond belief

how much effort does protesting represent? how much effort does voting represent? which delivers the change you want most effectively?

can you imagine if enough on the left voted with the same fervency as MAGA votes? so many chronic problems in the USA would just evaporate overnight

benroyce , 9 days ago

@philip_cardella @Nazani @GottaLaff

voter suppression is real

this is not a reason to not vote and do the job of those trying to oppress you for them

voting still matters, however warped and more difficult it has been made

and to do away with voter suppression policies, again, requires voting

#vote

benroyce , 9 days ago

@Aethelstan @Nazani @philip_cardella @GottaLaff

exactly. it may sound weird but it's true: the left needs to follow MAGA's strategy. that is, as you say: primary the milquetoast corporate centrists. that's how AOC got elected

but if the left just whines and gives up and abandons voting itself and thinks protesting alone works, nothing they care about will ever matter

benroyce , 9 days ago

@philip_cardella @Aethelstan @Nazani @GottaLaff

lefties who protest and don't vote:

the wilderness. irrelevancy

lefties who primary corporatist dems and always vote:

the future of the usa

simple as that

benroyce , 10 days ago (edited 10 days ago)

@GottaLaff @atrupar if the "BoTh SiDeS tHe SaMe" troll is especially odious, it's an instablock. If they come across as obstinate and clueless, i'll play a little with them, then block

some people may consider my engagement silly

but i think it serves the purpose of an object lesson for everyone else reading along, that's my audience. not that i believe i can convince airhead western fools, or their creators, russian troll farm, of anything

benroyce , 10 days ago

@GottaLaff 😆 I didn't think you did. I didn't think you were referring to me. I was commenting generally about my own behavior in regards to the content of your comment. "you may consider my behavior silly" as the royal you, not you specifically. I'm calling myself silly. We cool 🙌

But clumsy wording on my part, unnecessary personalization. I'll edit my comment

benroyce OP , 10 days ago

@riley

ethnofascism

so many decades after wwii. and here we are fighting it, literally, militarily, again today 😩

benroyce OP , 10 days ago

@riley unfortunately it works

who is dying for russian ethnofascism in ukraine?

buryats. dagestanis. chechens. bashkirs. tatars. ossetians. etc

while the st. petersburg and moscow rich russians will never fight in ukraine

it's doubly insidious because you would expect the death toll to produce discontent in russia. but there will be no effective discontent, because you've killed all the youth of the ethnic minorities in your stupid war. and russian elites don't care

benroyce OP , 10 days ago

@riley it's fascism

every german knows the story of sophie scholl and the white rose movement. guillotined for distributing anti-war leaflets in nazi germany

that's what is happening in russia:

the artist alexandra skochilenko got seven years in russia for replacing price stickers with anti-war stickers

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/17/russian-artist-jailed-for-seven-years-over-anti-war-price-tag-protest

of course this isn't execution. but if domestic discontent in russia gets worse, death sentences are coming

benroyce , 9 days ago

@nlupo @TCatInReality @GottaLaff in a democracy, yes

benroyce , 9 days ago

@nlupo @TCatInReality @GottaLaff everything is evil stuff if you don't care about anything except perfection. in reality where anything matters it's all messy compromises. but if you don't know, don't care about mattering to anyone or anything real, you call it all evil and pat yourself on the back for being magically superior, far away in a land of smug make believe

benroyce , 9 days ago

@nlupo @TCatInReality @GottaLaff

100% agreed

So Biden is trying to get Netanyahu to knock it off. While Trump says "finish the problem"

But for a toxic perfectionist, merely being involved with Israel means "both sides the same" and everyone is evil

Reductive, ineffectual, self-congratulatory bullsh**

You want the genocide in Gaza to end right? How do you do that

Well, if you got involved to try to do that, some know-it-all perfectionist will call you also evil just for being involved

benroyce , 9 days ago

@nlupo @TCatInReality @GottaLaff

100% agreed. If I were president I'd cease all military cooperation with Israel. As if Israel can't fight anyways. As if Israel can't just then buddy up with Russia or China. So a little more complicated than you suggest, no?

So we're stuck with deciding which is better for Gaza: Trump or Biden. We judge from realistic choice, not toxic perfectionism that would say "both suck" then Trump wins then Trump gives Netanyahu the greenlight to genocide.

benroyce , 9 days ago

@Amoshias @nlupo @TCatInReality @GottaLaff

That's the essential rub: we all agree Israel needs to stop.

The question is how to achieve that.

For some it's apparently: make the demand, then... well, nothing else.

Others will work in the system to stop Israel. The only effective path.

But being involved in the system at all: now you're somehow just as evil as what Israel is doing, and 100% responsible for Israel. Da fuq?

It's rather absurd, but this is the divide we're in.

benroyce , 9 days ago

@vansice @misterprickles @Amoshias @nlupo @TCatInReality @GottaLaff you are correct. if i were president i would stop the armaments

but even if the armaments aren't stopped biden is still the better choice than trump on all the other factors

such that to leverage this one demand on armaments into a yes/ no on biden is perfectionism. perfectionism that, if it convinces enough not to vote, we get trump, then it's more genocide for gaza

that is the only value of perfectionism in a messy world

benroyce , 9 days ago

@vansice @misterprickles @Amoshias @nlupo @TCatInReality @GottaLaff i don't have a problem with people protesting. as long as they vote as well. the problem comes in when these arguments we're having are used by some as a justification not to vote. because voting is not a love letter, it's chess strategy aiming for better. but apparently enough immature people out there want to view a vote as some sort of romantic gesture of perfectionism. that's self-destructive idiocy