scarabic
@scarabic@lemmy.world
- Comment on In the US, is this actually the moment past the point of no return? 6 hours ago:
Well la de da. Swish!
- Comment on In the US, is this actually the moment past the point of no return? 6 hours ago:
I share your frustration. There are many narratives on Lemmy that you’re supposed to just know and parrot. Asking questions, even just for more information, is blasphemy. It’s plain pathetic.
- Comment on In the US, is this actually the moment past the point of no return? 6 hours ago:
I believe all of that is happening with or without the results of this election. Some problems are bigger than red vs blue. We are failing en toto on this one. True, the in-flight movie on the Trump plane to hell is suckier than the one on the Harris plane to hell, but they land in the same place.
- Comment on Why does it seem most people, mainly conservatives, against Trans people? Unless I am wrong I never heard of one shooting up a school church or whatever. The ones I have met have been pretty cool. 7 hours ago:
Even as someone who fully accepts trans people and has trans friends and family, it’s still an adjustment to some really old, deeply-seated habits and mental structures. I’m over 50 so I was set in my ways when I learned about “they” pronouns and it still takes work for me to get it right. If I didn’t care about the people involved, it would be very easy to see it as a burden or annoyance.
- Comment on Why does it seem most people, mainly conservatives, against Trans people? Unless I am wrong I never heard of one shooting up a school church or whatever. The ones I have met have been pretty cool. 7 hours ago:
Hell we used to genocide and enslave the people we looked down on. Talking ill of them on Fox News is a step up, my friend.
- Comment on In the US, is this actually the moment past the point of no return? 19 hours ago:
I share your broader view and cautious optimism. In fact I think that some of what we are seeing are death spasms of that white hegemony that used to lynch blacks at will. They lost their “hard” power long ago with the end of Jim Crow. And they have been losing their “soft” power ever since. Demographic trends point to white people in America eventually becoming a minority. Religion is also dying out. So much of what we see is a panic of a dying group that was once dominant. There is no way that’s ever going to be pretty, anywhere, at any time. But look at the trend behind it and it’s an encouraging one, even if the death spasms are incredibly difficult. TBH if the Democrats could just provide some real leadership into this future, America could flip into a totally different country, much like the liberal democracies of Europe (but way stronger) inside of 20 years. This is the reality that the old guard are scared shitless of, and why they are pulling out all the stops to go the other way.
- Comment on Why people consistently vote against their own interests to benefit the rich? 1 day ago:
Because everyone thinks of themselves as a potential rich person. Or in other words: people think that being rich is the ideal state, so let’s align everything around that.
If we truly put a yoke on the rich and contained them, we would also be reining in the smallfolks dreams.
By contrast, rich people don’t sit around dreaming about being smallfolk and planning aspirationally for the day that will happen.
- Comment on Are illegal streaming sites really getting shut down a lot lately or has it always been like this? 2 days ago:
Like weeds, they can’t stop em from coming back, but they can keep them small.
- Comment on If Orange Dickhead dies before taking his oath again will sucession still be applicable? Like Vance the new pres and Johnson the new VP? 3 days ago:
Two assignation plots though, and that was before his presidency was assured. I’m not hoping, I’m not calling for it. But the impulse definitely seems to be out there to pop a cap in this man.
- Comment on If Orange Dickhead dies before taking his oath again will sucession still be applicable? Like Vance the new pres and Johnson the new VP? 3 days ago:
It would be really interesting watching Vance try to carry on Trumpism without Trump. He’s already strained to convert himself into an angry, insane Trumpian after starting out in quite a different place. Could he continue dancing if the music stopped?
- Comment on Has Fast Food Gotten Worse, or Am I Just Getting Old? 6 days ago:
We sense less and less as we get older. I’ve learned this from observing my kids and seeing them react to things like needles and spicy food with such greater sensitivity than me. I can remember being like them, too. But I just plow through experiences now with less sensation of them. Part of it is that my senses are slightly more dull, but also important: my cognitive filters are much more established and sensations that are outside of them get little notice. Meanwhile my kids are like raw nerves at the mercy of every experience that comes their way. Bubble gum probably doesn’t blow your hair back anymore either but I bet it was awesome when you were a kid.
- Comment on Blocking trash newspapers in Apple News+ just disabled the link but doesn't free up screen space. 1 week ago:
Yes this truly is the weakest bullshit I’ve ever seen. Obviously, it’s just in-client blocking with zero support from the back end. Pathetic.
- Comment on Why is Gen Z so Poor? 1 week ago:
The absolute start is the worst.
- Comment on Why do I fart all the time when I'm trying to sleep?! 1 week ago:
It’s not just random that you roll over and then fart. You have uncomfortable gas buildup and when your body feels uncomfortable you shift positions. In this case your body is succeeding in finding the right position to relieve the pressure, via farting.
Gas is a nuisance but sleep disruption is a serious health risk. It will reduce your quality of life and cognitive performance in every measurable way and shorten your life.
So it’s time to address the root cause: the gas. It is not inevitable to have extreme gas. But you are going to have to do some work and accept some changes if you want to fix it. The easiest thing you can do is modify when you eat. Stop eating after 5pm each night and see what happens. Delay your dinner until 8pm and see what happens.
If you cannot find better timing then you must look at what you are eating. Eliminate beans/lentils and see what happens. Eliminate brassica vegetables (broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower) and see what happens. Then cabbage. If none of that helps then look at eliminating carbs after 12 noon. See what happens.
May your farts and sleep improve.
- Comment on What are the next steps for Americans to help prevent the worsening of genocide in Palestine? 1 week ago:
It’s probably worth asking “what are the next steps for citizens of Portugal to stop the destruction of Palestine?”
Or Honduras or Australia or South Korea or Madagascar.
Because it’s now the same answer. You can do whatever you as a private citizen can do. Our friend’s dad travelled to Palestine and rode in on a boat loaded with construction supplies, sort of “throwing his body” in the path. Of course this was before this full scale war. I wouldn’t recommend this action now. Send money to aid groups. Whatever you could do from the suburbs of Cartegena, that’s what you can do as an American.
You can’t do anything about the policy from the top now. That’s a sealed envelope.
- Comment on US Elections question: Bernie Sanders said that the Democrats abandoned the working class, and the working class abandoned them. How is this true? 1 week ago:
They are part of the problem, but not the answer. An answer would be how we can ensure that everyone supporting their enterprises shares in their wild wealth and success. There could be many answers to that. And Democrats need to pick one and drive it.
It should be said that Musk is manufacturing cars in the US, which is more than a lot of manufactured goods companies can say.
- Comment on US Elections question: Bernie Sanders said that the Democrats abandoned the working class, and the working class abandoned them. How is this true? 1 week ago:
The democrats plans for the working class are tweaks. a little tax credit here, a little minimum wage bump there.
But the working class in America have been experiencing long term systemic structural changes that permanently disadvantage them, globalization being one of them.
Between shipping manufacturing jobs elsewhere, and allowing in immigrants who do menial work, people at the low end of the economy are pretty pinched for work. People will say “Americans don’t want to pick fruit” and there’s some truth to that. But there definitely are Americans who want to mow lawns for a living and they’re constantly undercut on price by guys from Mexico who sleep 10 to a room so they can send a few dollars back to family in the old country.
Trump voters see his policy on tariffs and they don’t think “hm economists say this could lead to a drop in GDP.” They see a structural policy shift aimed at bringing manufacturing back to the US. However ill-conceived it might be doesn’t matter. It’s big, it’s bold. It is a fundamental reordering. Economists flap their hands and Trump voters say “good - run scared, you Wall Street pimps.”
If I sound like I’m defending Trump voters, I’m not. But I absolutely believe that the Democrats have to offer more than tweaks and handouts to address the working class.
America spends huge amounts of money to project power abroad. We’re the richest nation by far. Why isn’t that benefitting the working class? These are real questions. Trump has all the wrong answers, but Democrats don’t have any answers. And frankly they are a bunch of moneyed elites, and I don’t throw that term around much. Look at the personal net worth and residential addresses of top Democrats and you’ll see rich people. They have a lot to lose in Bernie’s revolution and they don’t believe in it.
- Comment on Serious statement: I don't understand the argument that not voting for Harris was the morally correct thing to do, because of Gaza. Why does anyone believe this? 1 week ago:
Sometimes being a single issue voter happens because people just care that much about that one issue. But there’s a natural tendency for anyone’s decision to come down to one thing. Complex issues are complex, most people don’t know what’s right. But then they do have ONE thing that they consider black-and-white, so that influences their choice. It gives them something they feel they can say to others “I just can’t bring myself to vote for someone who XYZ…”
Because let’s face it: no one wants to hear your entire list of political calculations. People’s choices are absolutely influenced by thoughts of how they’ll justify themselves to the people they know. And having one big pithy thing to say is more convenient than a subtle position based on a score of factors.
Humans are social, emotional, idiosyncratic shortcut machines, not logic engines.
- Comment on "The American experiment endures," Biden said. "We're going to be OK." 1 week ago:
Guy surrendering power says it’s gonna be okay.
Guy taking power says we’re coming for you motherfuckers. Hm, who to believe?
- Comment on Trump's eligibility 2 weeks ago:
I don’t accept the argument that as long as 51% of people vote for something, it should be good to go. We have a constitution, you realize, and you need more than that to change it. Is the constitution suppressing democracy? You’re talking about a kindergartener’s view of “majority rule,” not American democracy. And thank goodness, because I heartily believe that 51% of people would vote for some ghoulish shit, like boiling immigrant children in oil. And there you’d be, shrugging and saying “ahem - 51%, people.”
Go off and think it through a little better. I’ll be here when you get back.
- Comment on Trump's eligibility 2 weeks ago:
In what way would barring felons lead to barring gays? People use the words “slippery slope” to make their point, even though it’s literally the name of a logical fallacy. You have to show HOW one will lead to the next, not just say “a little might lead more!” That, exactly, is the fallacy. Textbook.
- Comment on Is this what every election is like? 2 weeks ago:
I actually feel a lot like I did in 2004. I felt sure that Bush’s lousy wars would be his undoing. Then people signed up for more of him and I realized “Oh, he isn’t the problem. It’s the electorate.”
You can say with hindsight that we shouldn’t be surprised, blah blah, but the truth is that a couple of days ago, most of us were saying “there’s no way people would actually RE elect this criminal, crazed, orange clown!”
And here we are. He could take a bullet tomorrow and we’d still share a country with all these deplorable people. Hilary took shit for using that word but she’s a smart lady and didn’t stutter.
- Comment on How is it that "protecting basic democracy and the rule of law, and not crowning a criminal dictator" wasn't even on the chart?! 2 weeks ago:
Thinking back to the one debate he had with Harris, Trump blathered nonstop about immigration. He talks about it like a wave of moorish invaders sweeping across the land, pillaging. This is obviously a powerful Image if you can get people to believe it. And in some areas people have been feeling like American culture is giving way to Mexican culture as the population in their home towns shifts, so Trump’s rhetoric taps into something that was already there. And if we’re honest, border policy is a weird zone where many of the laws don’t make intuitive sense. America talks out of both sides of its mouth on the issue, historically. A lot of people are here illegally whom we depend on utterly to staff our economy. So their presence is in some way sanctioned, tolerated, but not fully legitimized in law. When someone comes along and articulates one clear direction on it, it sounds like someone is speaking clearly for the first time. Even if that direction is stupid, hateful, xenophobic, and economically unviable.
- Comment on do you think lemmy will ever be popular? 2 weeks ago:
I was on Reddit when it was small. So you never know.
- Comment on Why do Republicans bring up Kamala's "lies"/shortcomings as a way to claim Trump is better? 2 weeks ago:
Perhaps the lies of a serious politician are more significant than the ramblings of an insane clown.
- Comment on If Trump wins the election thru fraud how can the democrats refute it and prove they won? Or will it just be like another Jan 6 and four years of whining like Trump? 2 weeks ago:
I mean it’s literally right there in the Constitution without room for interpretation. If the Supes pretend to just throw that acids then we’ll have an actual civil war on our hands.
- Comment on What is your pet peeve in 2024? 2 weeks ago:
Here’s a pet peeve: people who “both sides” the entire American political spectrum because they are SO uninformed that everything looks the same to them.
Here’s another: people who “both sides” the entire American political spectrum because taking a position is more difficult than saying “bah I’m above the whole shit show.”
- Comment on Is there as much enthusiasm for Trump online today as eight years ago? 2 weeks ago:
I remember a guy much further down that “catalyst” line of thinking telling me that things have to get worse before they can get better: a phrase that’s easy to bust out as a grand conclusion to huge sweeping societal problems, but is based on absolutely nothing.
- Comment on Is there as much enthusiasm for Trump online today as eight years ago? 2 weeks ago:
With turnout being the decider in our elections, I think it’s of critical importance if a candidate scares the shit out of the other side. Hilary Clinton for whatever reason definitely pushed conservative buttons and got them to the polls. The Trump phenomenon was happening at the same time, but we can’t discount the anti-Hilary energy.
While the right certainly doesn’t like Kamala, their hatred is nothing close to what the left feels for Trump. Between that and Roe, if we can’t activate voters and take this election, then we really have lost the country, and Trump’s second term will only dig that hole deeper.
No pressure, America!
- Comment on Natural Gas Is Scamming America 2 weeks ago:
On top of his excellent coverage of fossil fuels, I just love the way this guy does videos.