billiam0202

@billiam0202@lemmy.world

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

billiam0202 ,

"We're in a dictatorship under Joe Biden!"

-Man who isn't in prison for opposing Joe Biden.

billiam0202 , (edited )

Does it matter why they changed their minds though?

Anyone who votes against Trump and the GOP is making the correct decision and I'm glad they do, regardless of what it took to make them see that. It's not easy to admit they were wrong and we need to make sure we're encouraging and accepting of those that do.

WANNABE DICTATOR Trump Demands that All Business Execs Be FIRED If They're Not 100% Behind Trump ( www.dailykos.com )

On Tuesday morning Trump provided another example of his tyrannical tendencies. In a comment posted to his floundering social media scam, Truth Social, Trump issued a decree to the world that he imagines is attentive to his crackpot ravings. He demanded that......

billiam0202 ,

Yeah, but there aren't that many billionaire capitalists who have the wrong amount of melanin. Systemic and systematic prevention of the accumulation of generational wealth among POC in the US for decades has seen to that.

billiam0202 , (edited )

I can tell you why three of them are problematic:

  1. No bacon because pork isn't kosher.
  2. Polyester and cotton are mixed fabrics.
  3. You can't cook an animal in the milk of it's mother, so no cheeseburgers.

edit: as pointed out below, cooking on the Sabbath is the fourth.

billiam0202 ,

Oh, duh. I knew that, lol.

billiam0202 ,

Not so much the cultists as it is foreign agents and America's wealthy buying influence.

Crypto, book deals, art, NFTs, stock buying, are all ways one could funnel money to a political party or candidate that don't technically count as campaign contributions.

billiam0202 ,

And also that Gillibrand was forcing him onto that sword to up her own "Me Too" cred.

billiam0202 ,

Honestly, that's better than knowing they have a phone and not getting called.

billiam0202 , (edited )

Alex Jones' parents are members of the John Birch Society, and his dad not only helped Jones get InfoWars off the ground, he is also part owner of the trust that is the owner of Free Speech Systems (the parent company of InfoWars).

That shit apple didn't just not fall far from the shit tree, it fell straight fucking down.

billiam0202 ,

It's projection. It's always projection.

billiam0202 ,

I think I would take awkward "how the hell did I end up here?" over "Hey, remember when we used to own them?":

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/8abc1153-d99c-417d-a78f-a0f644d877a0.gif

or the "double invisible handy":

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/e514e32d-9c57-464e-b00b-f5053c614c79.gif

billiam0202 ,

"Hey, what can be more underwater than Trump's properties?"

"Okay, hear me out..."

billiam0202 ,

What if they're folding to pressure from their donors, who also are donors to the GOP?

billiam0202 ,

Because it's stupid easy to debunk with one question:

If you want to feed the sparrows, why don't you give them oats directly instead of making them pick through horseshit?

billiam0202 ,

Oh simple then. We're not talking about Donald Trump, we're talking about Fred Trump Senior. He's not living, ergo there's no problem, right?

billiam0202 ,

On the one hand, I want you to say it must still be 2017 because there's no way time is moving that fast.

On the other hand, 2017 was the first year of Presidential Dipshit McCheatsatgolf's misadministration and there's no way I want that to still be a thing.

billiam0202 ,

Gotta think long term.

The problem with this approach is it literally is the weaponization of justice that the right loves to screech about. Timing Trump's trials or sentences to hurt him the most politically is twisting justice to our own ends, even if done in a theoretically altruistic manner. True it might lead to the best outcome for the country, but is that the risk we want to take- that if Trump does win, he won't see any punishment for his crimes at all?

On the other hand, I recognize this is the exact moral quandary that the right loves pushing non-conservatives into, and while we're arguing amongst ourselves about the best way to unfuck this pretzel they're busy burning it all to the ground. So I wouldn't say you're wrong necessarily, just that it's an uncomfortable path to tread.

billiam0202 ,

Once upon a time this was called "virtue signalling" but I think "vice-signalling" is better. A historian named David Perry defined it as such:

a public display of immorality, intended to create a community based on cruelty and disregard for others, which is proud of it at the same time.

In other words, being an asshole just to prove you belong with the other assholes in the rectum. And then you realize that everything the right does (and has been doing for decades) to "Own TEh LiBz!" can be ascribed to this:

  • Drinking raw milk
  • Anti-masking
  • Anti-vaxxing
  • Destroying their Dixie Chicks CDs
  • Not watching Disney
  • Destroying their Yetis
  • Tanning your Tucker Carlson
  • Claiming the Battle Flag of Virginia as their heritage
  • Etc.

That's why right-wing boycotts are usually ineffective- on the surface they might be mad about something, but since they're only performative said boycotts don't last long.

On a deeper level, however, this is more disturbing as it's another step on the road to fascism. Fascist groups are all about their purity and so members are driven to prove their inclusion in the in-group lest they be purged next. This creates a downward spiral of more and more extreme acts to maintain that facade of inclusion, which gets worse and worse for the people who have to exist with those assholes.

billiam0202 ,

Really? You don't remember her as the one who was almost late to a Republican prayer breakfast because she was doing married-people things with her unmarried boyfriend?

Or the one who had her driveway spray painted with "Antifa" messages that looked remarkably like her handwriting?

billiam0202 ,

I'm sure Garland is classier than me. I would just send back a piece of paper with the date Gym Jordan was issued the subpoena he ignored written on it, and nothing else.

billiam0202 ,

That's how we know you're not a millennial. A real millennial knows that's only one week's worth of 'cado toast.

billiam0202 ,

Too bad you don't have a bigger extrusion nozzle!

billiam0202 ,

That's what people with small extrusion nozzles say!

billiam0202 ,

They're trying to get here, but they're getting stopped by Ukraine.

billiam0202 ,

Conservatives love making children political though.

  • Having sex but don't want children? You're a godless slut.

  • Pregnant and don't want children? You're not capable of making decisions about your body.

  • Had an abortion? You're an evil baby killing slut.

  • Have children you don't want? You're a slut who shouldn't have sex if you couldn't feed your kids.

  • Child of a Democratic president going through awkward teenage years? You're a horse face, Chelsea Clinton.

  • Try to reach American soil to claim asylum? We're gonna keep your kids in cages, argue in front of a judge that we're not obligated to give them any hygienic items like soap or toothpaste, and deport you. Hope your home country isn't as dangerous as you thought it was!

  • You're a loving couple in a committed relationship who want to adopt one of the many "unwanted" children in our foster system? Get fucked queers; our god says only the straights get to enjoy being parents.

  • Your child needs medical care? Why should my tax dollars pay for that?

  • Your local public school sucks? Well maybe you should have been able to afford private tuition to a school that definitely doesn't exist because public schools were forced to integrate. Oh, and we're gonna siphon more money out of your kids' school to pay for ours- that tuition ain't cheap, you know.

And, for international flavor:

  • You don't want your kids to be genocided by Israel? Then maybe they shouldn't have been one of the more than 50% of Gaza's population who either weren't born or weren't old enough to vote 16 years ago when Hamas held their last election.
billiam0202 ,

On the other hand, buying Sam's means supporting Walmart and the Walton family, so it's up to you how much that affects your calculus.

billiam0202 ,

Someone else around here got banned for being that disingenuous; maybe the mods keep dishing out that treatment?

billiam0202 ,

So you also recognize there are many bad-faith posters who are trying to induce apathy and division in order to facilitate another Trump presidency?

Cool, I'm glad we can agree on one thing!

billiam0202 ,

Gotta tape those remarks so he won't compare his convictions to Christ, or talk about all the abortions he's paid for.

billiam0202 ,

providing the user with media similar to the media they spend the most time viewing or commenting on.

And also that increased engagement is directly correlated with anger. Social media companies have a financial incentive to drive partisanship- when a user gets angry, they are more likely to post stuff, which in turn causes the algorithm to show them more stuff that makes them angry, which makes them more likely to post stuff, etc. And all the while the company is collecting all that ad revenue. Behind the Bastards did an episode on Facebook and they said that at one point in time, Facebook's recommendation algorithm was weighting posts that users marked as "angry" five times heavier than posts marked as "happy".

So if you've ever wondered why an anonymous YouTube account gets recommended right-wing shit-heads like Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro, Tim Pool, or Charlie Kirk so quickly, it's because of that. Not only do they intentionally try to inflame the right with made-up stories about the left ("They're coming to make your guns get gay married to illegal immigrants!") the left gets angry at just how blatantly, stupidly wrong those stories are. Thus, engagement.

billiam0202 ,

The definition of "being right, but for the wrong reasons."

billiam0202 ,

What's a little extortion among friends, huh?

billiam0202 ,

Regret requires empathy. You think Noem has any?

billiam0202 ,

Trump could also be asked if he is associating with anyone with a criminal record because he cannot associate with them if he is placed on probation,

"Does it count if I pardoned them?"

billiam0202 ,

Now that kinda depends on the Russians-supporters in the House, doesn't it?

billiam0202 ,

Yep. Which obviously means either God isn't omnipotent, or God doesn't want to help Trump, or God is just a construct made by simpletons to explain complex concepts of the universe.

billiam0202 ,

As I understand it, civil judgements are not dischargeable in bankruptcy. Even if Alex sells everything he owns, that won't be enough to pay off his share of the judgement and so any income he makes post-Infowars will be subject to garnishment.

So yeah. He'll continue making the right-wing circles, and he'll be hawking his dad's boner pills, but at least the Sandy Hook families will start getting what he owes them.

billiam0202 ,

If you listen to his show, dude really likes movies, especially sci-fi . In another life, he could have been someone with a sci-fi movie themed podcast that I would have listened to religiously. But instead he chose to profit off spreading lies about elections, the climate, COVID, school shootings, etc. Unfortunately, he was born into the John Birch Society and so the poor kid had no chance of growing up decent.

I look at Alex Jones the same way I look at Trump. Both are terrible people who had shit parents and obviously that doesn't excuse their behavior now, it's just... sad.

billiam0202 ,

The brand means nothing. It literally just means Alex Jones to everyone. If Alex Jones isnt on info wars then infowars dies

Yep. Pop-quiz for anyone (not you, Knowledge Fight wonks!):

Can you name literally any other host who has a show on InfoWars, without looking up their names?

billiam0202 ,

Yes, but the families can keep going after him for failing to pay.

Which is probably his goal, since his entire legal strategy so far has been to delay: hope the families and/or their lawyers stop going after him due to the massive amount of time and money it would cost to keep taking him to court.

billiam0202 ,

Republicans really do have just one playbook.

billiam0202 ,

And also keep your terrorist-edging right-wing fascist podcast grift going for months.

billiam0202 ,

Yeah, at least people like cheap booze...

billiam0202 ,

Steve Bannon looks like the result of an experiment for a person to simultaneously beer-bong and butt-chug gin for forty years.

billiam0202 ,

And yet, she got more votes than Trump. She did appeal to more people, it's that the system is broken that getting more votes doesn't make you the winner.

It's almost like Trump appealed to the fucking shitheads whose votes count for more than the rest of us.

billiam0202 ,

They are both running against "the couch", in that whoever can convince enough of their voters that the election is worth showing up for, will win.

Yep, which is why we see a massive number of people around here who are actively trying to depress Democratic turnout by complaining about Biden and the Dems. A whole bunch of alleged leftists really don't seem like they mind another Trump presidency since they aren't, after all, trying to convince voters to vote against that.

Bidens camp is in a fever dream with this strategy.

Oh. Huh. Imagine that.

Also, if you were a Republican, why wouldn't you vote for Trump? He delivered, in one way or another, on all the major policy goals of the base.

You fucking what? He got three SCOTUS justices and tax breaks for billionaires and...?

He tanked the economy and killed over a million with his handling of COVID, the wall didn't get built, Mexico didn't pay for any of the repairs that did, Hillary has -34 felonies to her name, his trade war with China didn't bring back manufacturing, Russia was emboldened by his term, American global superiority was damaged by his garbage foreign policy, fossil fuel usage is continuing to decline in favor of renewables...

So other than showing bigoted racists that it's okay to be a loudmouth bigoted racist in public (which I will admit is a Republican goal) what "major policy goals" did he actually achieve?

For the Republican agenda, he's been the most effective president since Reagan

Yeah, I would argue that he's the least effective GOP president since Regan.

billiam0202 ,

And yet, removing the ambiguity seems superfluous. It's not like it'd change anything, right?

billiam0202 ,

Maybe if Big Gay bribed donated as much money to politicians as AIPAC, they'd be taken a lot more seriously!

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • random
  • test
  • worldmews
  • mews
  • All magazines
    •