We don’t do purity tests between the primary and the general election. The voting is over, this is the perfect time to make demands.

Would they though?

That would imply a rebound. “Peaked” means that they’ve already gone as high as they’re going to go, and it’s all downhill from here.

Screaming Headless Torsos

Well, sociopathic manipulators manipulate people into liking them, including lying and flattery.

Honest intelligent people value truth and accuracy over popularity, so they’re much more likely to tell people things they don’t want to hear.

And I hate the misandrists who describe themselves as “feminists”, equating it with the “red pill” guys who turned a metaphor for radical systemic awareness into misogyny.

I prefer the term “egalitarian”. Functionally the same, but firmly places the focus on equality regardless of gender, and creates distance from the toxic misandrists who have tried to co-opt the “feminist” label.

Most Americans are fine and decent people. It just brought the bloodthirsty bigots to center stage.

Yeah, which is what makes the presence of a widespread parasite so frustrating, suspicious even

I’m very much not looking forward to the inevitable “See liberals? We were right! Ivermectin is a miracle cure”.

“I can excuse fascism, but I draw the line at enabling fascism”

Mmm, I get what you’re saying but that’s not really how you use that meme. “Worst day of your life so far” means that a future worse day would make this no longer the worst one. Uncovering more mentions isn’t going to change the fact that it’s already higher than all those other things. That meme would just imply that the number of bird species or languages or something might eventually outnumber the mentions.

He wasn’t progressive, and that includes laws like stoning women for not crying out as they’re raped.

Uh, one of the most famous stories in the New Testament is Jesus intervening when a woman was about to be stoned for adultery.

Practically speaking you’re correct, but legally speaking they favored the plaintiffs in this case, which were a collection of blue states. Like literally the states:

STATE OF CALIFORNIA; COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS; STATE OF NEVADA; STATE OF WASHINGTON; STATE OF ARIZONA; STATE OF COLORADO; STATE OF CONNECTICUT; STATE OF DELAWARE; DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA; STATE OF ILLINOIS; STATE OF MAINE; STATE OF MARYLAND; STATE OF MICHIGAN; STATE OF MINNESOTA; STATE OF NEW JERSEY; STATE OF NEW MEXICO; STATE OF NEW YORK; STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA; STATE OF OREGON; STATE OF RHODE ISLAND; STATE OF VERMONT; COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA; STATE OF WISCONSIN; JOSH SHAPIRO, in the official capacity as Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

If I could trust the system to actually enforce the Constitution, I’d say bring it on. The 22nd amendment never prohibits running when you’re ineligible to be elected. I’d actually love to see him run, “win”, and then have to watch his opponent get sworn in because he’s not eligible.

IF I could actually trust that the Constitution would be enforced.

I think anyone who claims to fully understand it can be safely ignored. It’s not supposed to be understood, it’s supposed to be felt. Lynch intentionally tries to invoke a dreamlike feeling, where things simultaneously feel internally consistent and incomprehensibly bizarre. There are certainly things to understand, but there are also things which are meant more to inspire an idea of something that could be understood, without having a concrete explanation. That’s part of the magic.

I think the middle of season 2, when he stepped away to work on Blue Velvet, is frustratingly weak, but they got there in the end. I think The Return was good, but not quite as good.

Overall I love it and reference it frequently.

Obviously the intelligent person on a team of idiots then. There is value in being the least intelligent person in a room, since you have the opportunity to learn from people smarter than you. But not if you’re just forgetting things so that you can relearn them.

Maybe, but 1. Those 10,000 had the backing of the president (which means the military wasn’t called in to stop it) and they didn’t even get close to overthrowing the government, they just delayed the inevitable and 2. How do you propose millions of people organize to do something like that without law enforcement stepping in to shut it down?

This isn’t the 19th century, or even the 20th. Everything is under surveillance and military power is orders of magnitude more advanced than what’s available to civilians. A civilian force can maybe work defending their homes with guerilla warfare, but marching on the capitol?

Do I get dumber to become the idiot or is everyone else just smarter than me?

They’re not entirely off the mark though. Native-born Americans are pretty spoiled and complacent, on average. Immigrants, even kids, tend to have more of a sense of context and a sort of hustle mentality. My wife’s an immigrant and we’ve talked at length about it.

You’re right that he’s as American as any other citizen in ways that matter, but born-and-raised Americans are more likely to get swept up in our bread and circuses.