The comfortable will never rebel. No one is going to give you those things and we can’t build them without dismantling the current system. You’re going to have to get supremely uncomfortable in order to give others the possibility of having those things at some indeterminate time in the future or face a dystopian future so bleak that it will make The Hunger Games seem like a fun vacation. Either way, comfort is rapidly fading from the picture.

18 months ago Hegseth wouldn’t have been allowed inside the DoD.

Most have four buttons on the left and four on the right. The second or third button on the right side has been the mute button on every system I’ve tried.

Nobody likes the system but it’s all politicized in one way another depending on your preferred media bubble’s spin method, just like anything else.

Only if your conception of masculinity is stupid. There are plenty of manly role models out there, we’ve just largely decided not to pay them much attention.

You’re absolutely right. People insist on making this ridiculous point every time a topic like this comes up. It’s like, holy shit, just let the destruction of all life on Earth be the point of the conversation instead of some stupid tangent about a lifeless rock in space.

You’re making an awful lot of assumptions about me and how I live my life. That’s fine, but I’m not all that interested in being a sounding board for your frustrations with my country.

I have the means and the desire to do what you’re suggesting but when it comes down to it my desire to protect my family outweighs my desire to protect my country. At least for now that seems the wiser choice for me personally, and I suspect that is true for a lot of others as well.

The problem is that there’s no clear line to delineate what that decision should hinge on. If you asked me 10 years ago where the line is I probably would have said somewhere well behind us now. Still, I know what will happen to me and my family if I’m the one to act first and that familial preservation instinct is difficult to overcome. Choosing to be first through the breach, so to speak, is a heavy burden to bear.

I think that dilemma is what prevents most who are predisposed to act from choosing to act, more so than a lack of knowledge about the situation.

While there are certainly flaws in the American system of government, this is not the result of one man simply being above the law. There are plenty of existing ways to stop this from happening but half of the government is actively supporting his efforts. There is no system of government that can survive when the people who are charged with enforcing the rules collectively decide not to enforce them. At that point the specifics don’t matter.

Either way, hard pass

I’ve been trying to think of a phrase to use on a sign for the 50501 protest on 4/19 and I think this might be the one

Sounds a lot like the MAGA people I know. Thanks for sharing your experience.

I am sure there are true believers out there but I mean among the general population of other countries, especially reporters. I put about as much stock in interviews with average Russians as I do the North Korean equivalent. There’s enough social pressure to conform that even those who disagree with the narrative are unlikely to say so on camera.

From the CBS article on this:

“If Putin decides not to support the push for a temporary ceasefire, it will dramatically alter the optics of the war and position Russia as the main obstacle to peace,” Peter Dickinson from the Atlantic Council’s UkraineAlert service, said in analysis Tuesday.

Who out there thinks anyone but Russia is the ‘main obstacle to peace’? I don’t even think that Russian bots believe they’re not the aggressor. What the fuck happened to rationality or even common sense?

If a small, one time pop-up designed to solve your problem makes you give up on solving your problem then you were never going to solve that problem.

Well if it’s any consolation the outspoken critics are usually the first to go when dissidents start being rounded up so you may not have to deal with it as long as others

Congrats, you just made the argument for abandoning these platforms and the excuse for not doing so in the same post.

Those who won’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it

But you guys, Joe Biden made things better for you all, didn’t you hear? Nevermind that his strongest statements on this issue came in the last week of his term when he obviously had no intention of addressing it. Don’t worry about the fact that his hubris robbed us of the opportunity to have an open primary. Forget that his justice department decided to run out the clock on Trump’s legal cases instead of holding him accountable in any way. Just ignore the fact that he spared his friends and family from having to face the consequences of a Trump presidency by pardoning all of them. He was working so hard for us the whole time.

You understand you’re equating two vastly different things, right? One idea is rooted in scientific research and the other is rooted in racism and bigotry. If those two things seem equal to you then you’re not paying as much attention as you think you are.