It's really good to see you, yo. :) I'd love to be a fly on the wall and watch his body language when he said that. It was probably a statement made in subtle jest, and Douchehat (stealing that) is too socially inept to pick up on it. Doubt that this is related, but one of Bernie's head PR/comms directors (BJG) was recently fired from The Hill for what I agree was extremely insensitive behavior, but it was still at least somewhat controversial. All doubt was removed when she went on Candace fucking Owens' show to commiserate during a team meeting of "Hosts Too Rotten Even For Rotten Outlets". Disqualifying. Meanwhile, TYT is melting down. Feels like a huge portion of ex-Bernie bros have transited the political horshoe, and I'm left wondering if they ever really understood Bernie, or if they have become radically anti-American in the last few years. I also have no interest in interacting with them. They'll just accuse you of loving genocide if you say you'll vote for Biden, while Bibi stalls out the war to preserve himself from consequence and wait for Trump to possibly get back in office and give him carte blanche. It's like, yeah, maybe some of you, your heart's in the right place, but you're kinda... dumb. Maybe Vance is making a small nod to them..? Again, doubt it, it's probably a joke that flew over Ross's head. Couldn't pay me to read Hillbillly Elegy. Thanks for taking that bullet. btw the biggest hurdle to moving was recently solved when mrs. am_U went with me to Colorado for a week during the summer. Woo!The people on the left, I would say, whose politics I’m open to — it’s the Bernie Bros.
It doesn't take an FBI profiler to see that JD Vance is a bad liar. He makes Ted Cruz look charismatic. The NYT doesn't care, though. They will bothsides any issue, regardless of how one-sided it is. The principle reason I decided to show up and get yelled at for having any optimism is that fuckin' bullshit laserpin thing. I needed the gift link for that bullshit article because the NYT, true to form, wrote a sweeping, allegorical narrative about transformative tech with a couple casual asides about potential difficulties at some hypothetical point down the road. In real life, of course, it's the stupidest, most terrible product since lawn darts which was immediately obvious to anyone with any appreciation for human interaction, let alone human interaction with technology. There was a time when politics was liberals vs conservatives, Republicans vs Democrats, young vs old, capital vs labor. But because of Douchehat and his ilk, it's become oppositionals vs apologists. There's the people who fucking hate whatever is going on now and there's the people who know whatever everyone is howling for, it'll likely be worse than what we have. And it fucking sucks that anyone who thinks is automatically an apologist whether they like it or not. Bernie Sanders' politics are probably closer to my own than any other politician. On this test? I'm out in the Aleutians somewhere. I'm so left that I gotta swim to find the rest of my liberal friends. But because I also recognize that Bernie Sanders has never been a particularly effective legislator all the Bernie Bros consider me a zionist shitlib capitalist shill. It's so. Fucking. Exhausting. Meanwhile the NYT, the WaPo, the Journal, the Guardian, the Economist, the Financial Times, Mother Jones and Pro Publica are all about "there are two sides and both sides are very normal, full stop." They don't have any other framework. Whatever Democrats are doing is normal, whatever Republicans are doing is normal. Obviously the middle is somewhere between an executive order granting citizenship amnesty for spouses of citizens and a governor declaring all classrooms must display the Ten Commandments (Hollywood Version). DoucheHat? Fuck yeah everything is normal, let's stroke our chin at JD Vance even though he's the most unconvincingly cynical political creature ever crafted. A democratic comms director showing up on Candace Owens? Well of course they're just here to tear shit down, that's all they've ever been here to do. You're sitting here going "but what does JD Vance really believe" and holy fuck bro, he believes in personal advancement. That is the extent of his ethics. Every single politician on the right at this moment is there for personal advancement. They have made the calculus that they can get ahead by pandering to the right so they are pandering to the right. And since the right only cares about tearing shit down, they have correctly surmised that they can say any fuckin' thing they want because nobody on the right gives a shit. They're here to own the libs. Reagan/Thatcher era popular conservatism held that if Western culture were wound back to 1954 it would lead to a new era of peace and prosperity for aggrieved white people. But after 50 years of declining standards of living and cultural influence, not a single one of these fucktards has looked around and gone "huh, maybe it isn't working." Especially not when Bothsides Media gives Newt Gingrich a platform to go "it's because we're not owning the libs hard enough." Fast forward fifteen years and we're at "yeah, Donald Trump can't form a coherent sentence with eight aides and a teleprompter but People Are Talking about Joe Biden's mental acuity that one time." And then you dare to say something like "the CHIPS act was good, actually" and some mutherfucker decides to hold you personally responsible for a Supreme Court decision. You don't have to read Hillbilly Elegy. Ron Howard put fucking Glenn Close in it. Because whatever Nazi bullshit the right pulls, they're one of our Both Sides.
Any optimism is 100% welcomed, and if you have some to spare, I might apply directly to forehead. I'm sorry about that blowup, and my general pessimism. Still honing my ability to channel things into an absurdist stoicism instead of defeatist nihilism. A lifetime endeavor, for sure. Which article? (update: nvm) I've recently found that archive.is seems to work quite nicely if you're not looking to distribute a NYTimes-friendly link past their paywall. We are in total agreement about Vance. When I pontificate on what he "actually" believes, yes, the infinitely more likely scenario is that he "actually" believes nothing. Sad to say, but our not feeling remotely owned is an abject MAGA policy failure. Not that I'm a lib. I'm worse. I'm flirting with going full card-toting DSA even after Nolan re-tells the story of Oppenheimer. Definitely also agree with the "oppositionalists vs. apologists" lens. I'm very much inclined to support some pretty drastic institutional reform, but I'm not going to attempt compromise with a cult of serial liars. Over on the more "leftist" contrarian side of things, it's hard to accept being labeled a "genocide apologist" when my current position is "imprison Netanyahu et al. for genocide and give Gaza statehood to hold Hamas accountable", but I know how it is out there. It gets easier to ignore when you see the same people doing the labeling e.g. blaming the democrats for politicizing masks by... wearing masks and advocating mask use. I mean, I'm "am_Unition", and I filmed a video on 1/9/2021 pointing out that Joe Biden calling for unity would be used to discredit the idea of unity. I'm wayyyyyy fuckin' done with calls for unity. Nowadays, I will happily shout any neo-Nazi shitstain back down into the lower rungs of society where they belong. Buncha motherfuckers who just figured out in Season 4 that The Boys was making fun of them the entire time aren't hard to clown on. Yes, many of them are no longer capable of experiencing shame, but a relatively unbiased observer knows when someone's had circles run around them, and the dems would be wise to embrace satire and humor as a potent weapon against the right-wing. Instead, it's still "they go low, we go high (read: lose)". You can't turn the other cheek to a Nazi. They will strike as many cheeks as they are presented with. After thinking "how've I never heard about this?", I've read some reviews. Ah, I see now. How hilarious to have that come out in 2020, really. I still might watch it someday soon while keeping in mind the relationship between Hollywood and the left-behinds (oh this is ripe for puns with the cheek-turning of yesterparagraph) of rural America. For sure, I'm not going to give JD any book money, and I would personally consider checking out "Hillbilly Elegy" from a public library to be a criminal offense. And not just for this content, but increasingly, the torrent scene is beckoning me back towards it. A few years ago, I was pretty convinced the "mainstream liberal media" would rally to Biden's support, and instead we're out here with twelve hundred thousand twenty two thinkpieces doing almost anything except supporting Biden. Dem messaging is poor, yes, but it exists. It does not, however, sell clicks and subscriptions. And it damn sure doesn't extend the Trump tax cuts for the wealthy. What a big, oligarchical surprise. As NYTimes pitchbot is increasingly finding, it's very difficult to out-satirize our current reality. But I'll try.The principle reason I decided to show up and get yelled at for having any optimism is that fuckin' bullshit laserpin thing. I needed the gift link for that bullshit article because the NYT, true to form, wrote a sweeping, allegorical narrative about transformative tech with a couple casual asides about potential difficulties at some hypothetical point down the road.
Hillbilly Elegy. Ron Howard
Fast forward fifteen years and we're at "yeah, Donald Trump can't form a coherent sentence with eight aides and a teleprompter but People Are Talking about Joe Biden's mental acuity that one time."