2024 US Election

  On 1/18/2025 at 3:40 PM, chronical said:

I was on the phone with an old friend yesterday, a very christian guy who studied agriculture to help people in third world countries. He's always been very extreme with god but not with other views, so I was really surprised to suddenly hear him talk about the left being so annoying because they tell you to call a trans woman a woman, and that upsets him a lot. Apparently JD Vance, Trump etc., have good ideas according to him, what the fuck do I even say in this situation. I doubt talking to him about listening to actual journalists would help. I would love to ask him when all these trans women have told him to call them a woman. And how in my eyes Trump and his goons are the literal antichrist. Goddamnit man, I do not surround myself with people who can't even accept a trans woman.

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i think you say "what would jesus do?" then drop the mic. 

it's so obvious the GOP is using trans people as a wedge issue and to do culture war bullshit. the left makes it easy though and likely use trans people just as much in some virtue signaling morality test type things. trans population is a very small percentage of population but there is outright hysteria over anything that acknowledges their existence in any way.  

there's a bike route i take often enough and in one part there's spray painted on this overpass on the sidewalk "trans rights are human rights" and it's been there for years. it gets crossed out by someone eventually and words change to something else then it gets put back. it's like some smoke messages between battling tribes. portland has a strong and supportive trans community... especially in the music scene. but they're an easy target in america because there's not so many but enough to be on people's radars.. which is why effort should be made to enshrine some fucking rights for people just trying to fucking exist. 

i have my own lengthy thoughts about religion and all that and won't make a wall of text on it because i've probably done that on this forum or social media or something enough times but generally sick of all the religious bullshit in america and everywhere else

  On 1/18/2025 at 3:40 PM, chronical said:

I was on the phone with an old friend yesterday, a very christian guy who studied agriculture to help people in third world countries. He's always been very extreme with god but not with other views, so I was really surprised to suddenly hear him talk about the left being so annoying because they tell you to call a trans woman a woman, and that upsets him a lot. Apparently JD Vance, Trump etc., have good ideas according to him, what the fuck do I even say in this situation. I doubt talking to him about listening to actual journalists would help. I would love to ask him when all these trans women have told him to call them a woman. And how in my eyes Trump and his goons are the literal antichrist. Goddamnit man, I do not surround myself with people who can't even accept a trans woman.

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How many trans people do these people even meet.. that it affects their political opinion this much. Have any of you witnessed situations like being "forced" to call a trans woman a woman outside of these great intellectual internet debates.

  On 1/18/2025 at 6:23 PM, Wunderbar said:

How many trans people do these people even meet.. that it affects their political opinion this much. Have any of you witnessed situations like being "forced" to call a trans woman a woman outside of these great intellectual internet debates.

how often in life is anyone forced to call anyone else any gender? i mean.. when i go somewhere i'm not thinking about everyone's gender.. i'm just trying to do the thing i'm doing in the usual way i interact with people in "polite society". i don't tell the cashier at the grocery store their gender when we're chatting. that seems like something a sociopath would do. 

  On 1/18/2025 at 6:22 PM, ignatius said:

i think you say "what would jesus do?" then drop the mic. 

it's so obvious the GOP is using trans people as a wedge issue and to do culture war bullshit. the left makes it easy though and likely use trans people just as much in some virtue signaling morality test type things. trans population is a very small percentage of population but there is outright hysteria over anything that acknowledges their existence in any way.  

there's a bike route i take often enough and in one part there's spray painted on this overpass on the sidewalk "trans rights are human rights" and it's been there for years. it gets crossed out by someone eventually and words change to something else then it gets put back. it's like some smoke messages between battling tribes. portland has a strong and supportive trans community... especially in the music scene. but they're an easy target in america because there's not so many but enough to be on people's radars.. which is why effort should be made to enshrine some fucking rights for people just trying to fucking exist. 

i have my own lengthy thoughts about religion and all that and won't make a wall of text on it because i've probably done that on this forum or social media or something enough times but generally sick of all the religious bullshit in america and everywhere else

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Yeah I thought something similar, wanted to write something like "Jesus taught you to love thy neighbor, why should it stop with someone being trans? It's almost like you hate what you don't understand instead of learning to accept and understand it. Isn't there something about this in the bible? Open your heart to them instead of looking for reasons to diminish their existance. They would probably do the same for you because they know what it feels like to be misunderstood. Talk to them sometime. They do not influence your life in any way other than making your christian-influenced cauldron bubble up with hatred when you read the news that is clearly made to trigger this in you. In my opinion it is what Jesus would teach if he was still around, instead your belief is being used to make you angry at an invisible something so you stop thinking for yourself you big dummy."

If he argues with them not being able to have kids and that being proof of god's plan, what about women with ovarian cancer? What's god's plan there? I didn't try to communicate this to him yet and I'm really not looking forward to the day I eventually do because it's so exhausting having to argue with anecdotes and mouthpiece opinions.. How about looking into journalists first and foremost, looking at what these people actually do, how it influences the lower class and minorities. It is very unchristian in my opinion.. To actually talk this through would have to be a herculean deprogramming effort from my end I imagine, starting with where he gets his information, why he listens to them, breaking it all down and mapping out actual information warfare..  to a christian who gets extremely annoyed when someone criticises anything the bible says, which right wing rhetoric clearly use to reiterate their braindead takes.. I'm babbling but jesus christ, what a shitshow. He even likes Joe Rogan, of course he does.

  On 1/18/2025 at 6:23 PM, Wunderbar said:

How many trans people do these people even meet.. that it affects their political opinion this much. Have any of you witnessed situations like being "forced" to call a trans woman a woman outside of these great intellectual internet debates.

I doubt he has any trans people in his christian bubble oviously, but yeah. None of this happens. It's just the newest scapegoat to hate on, we went from black people to jews to gays to eastern block folks to virus chinese to trans people, drag queens and illegal aliens. How this isn't obvious at this point is fucking scary to me. 

  On 1/18/2025 at 6:34 PM, ignatius said:

how often in life is anyone forced to call anyone else any gender? i mean.. when i go somewhere i'm not thinking about everyone's gender.. i'm just trying to do the thing i'm doing in the usual way i interact with people in "polite society". i don't tell the cashier at the grocery store their gender when we're chatting. that seems like something a sociopath would do. 

Sometimes I imagine people having a sort of "modus operandi", a framework, a way they look out into the world. It must be incredibly exhausting to judge everyone around you like this, you see a trans woman somewhere and you are so incredibly appaled by her existance. You see men holding hands, oh mon dieu, what a disaster of a world we live in! You see a rainbow flag and you form a fist with your hand as you are reminded of the horrible state the world is in. Meanwhile I'm having a wonderful time with all sorts of people by not going this route. Maybe they haven't done it in so long, they forgot how much nicer it is. Feels like folks are stuck in loops a lot, not being able to ask themselves "Is this an okay thing to do or can I do better?" but because it is not the path of least resistance, they snap back to already reinforced behavior patterns... But hey maybe I'm the propaganda nut and Trump is actually saving the world.. Let's see homies..

  On 1/18/2025 at 3:40 PM, chronical said:

I was on the phone with an old friend yesterday, a very christian guy who studied agriculture to help people in third world countries. He's always been very extreme with god but not with other views, so I was really surprised to suddenly hear him talk about the left being so annoying because they tell you to call a trans woman a woman, and that upsets him a lot. Apparently JD Vance, Trump etc., have good ideas according to him, what the fuck do I even say in this situation. I doubt talking to him about listening to actual journalists would help. I would love to ask him when all these trans women have told him to call them a woman. And how in my eyes Trump and his goons are the literal antichrist. Goddamnit man, I do not surround myself with people who can't even accept a trans woman.

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ask him if his goal of assisting third would countries jives with the views of Trump et al on minorities and the disadvantaged.

  On 1/18/2025 at 7:15 PM, usagi said:

ask him if his goal of assisting third would countries jives with the views of Trump et al on minorities and the disadvantaged.

I'm 99% sure he'd go "Trump is actually helping people more than the left is reporting", leading to me having to quote sources, which will be leftist (even if they're not) and thus wrong. I hope he will at least listen when the data shows how he's fucking over people as a whole, but I'm not counting on it because it is HIS SECOND PRESIDENCY and if the first didn't scare you you're probably in some deep shit by now..

  On 1/18/2025 at 7:10 PM, chronical said:

It must be incredibly exhausting to judge everyone around you like this

i think america became a place where a lot of people forget about the concept of minding their own business. why does everyone have to be invested in everyone else's existence all the time beyond the normal thing of being a decent human being in daily life? "Gossip thrives on empty lives" was a common refrain in the 90s that a friend of mine used to say. and it's worse now since the internet and social media and divisive 24 hour cable news networks etc. people get hung up on a 30 second long interaction they had when they bought popcorn at the movie theater because the teenager working there had black eye make up and blue hair.  these judgmental people.. their brains are warped by a thousand viral narratives. 

  On 1/18/2025 at 7:23 PM, chronical said:

I'm 99% sure he'd go "Trump is actually helping people more than the left is reporting", leading to me having to quote sources, which will be leftist (even if they're not) and thus wrong. I hope he will at least listen when the data shows how he's fucking over people as a whole, but I'm not counting on it because it is HIS SECOND PRESIDENCY and if the first didn't scare you you're probably in some deep shit by now..

one of my nephews.. step nephew, is a conservative and always has been. it's amazing the shit he says sometimes.. the narratives being fed to these people are insane.. "you can't tell me that someone cares more about the troops than Trump"  for some many reasons my jaw hit the floor. like that's why you vote for him? is that on the list of things? and obviously it's all bullshit we know what he thinks of the troops and how poorly veterans are treated when it comes to benefits etc by GOP... it's crazy.. "Trump makes us look strong" and they're hooked on this idea of the strong man and some how that's trump. 

it's unreasonable and people are just brain rotted over all the politics on each side and there's reasons for different aspects of it all depending on which demographic we're talking about.. but it's all just bananas and there's no making sense of it sometimes because people are deep throating the onion... 

  On 1/18/2025 at 7:10 PM, chronical said:

It's almost like you hate what you don't understand

it's not almost like that, it's literally exactly that.

  On 1/18/2025 at 7:10 PM, chronical said:

Yeah I thought something similar, wanted to write something like "Jesus taught you to love thy neighbor, why should it stop with someone being trans? It's almost like you hate what you don't understand instead of learning to accept and understand it. Isn't there something about this in the bible? Open your heart to them instead of looking for reasons to diminish their existance. They would probably do the same for you because they know what it feels like to be misunderstood. Talk to them sometime. They do not influence your life in any way other than making your christian-influenced cauldron bubble up with hatred when you read the news that is clearly made to trigger this in you. In my opinion it is what Jesus would teach if he was still around, instead your belief is being used to make you angry at an invisible something so you stop thinking for yourself you big dummy."

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my boss, who I am lucky to count among my friends, is a church elder for his little congregation and just generally a wonderful human being. he calls out the (minority) MAGA crowd in his church like this regularly. regarding trans rights, abortion rights, gun control, etc. he's so patient that he actually manages to convince some of them. last week he talked a young earther out of his beliefs and into the embrace of, uh, geology. 

anyway this tactic does work - sometimes - and he has definitely used the WWJD card on a few of the haters. it does occasionally stop them in their tracks. 

  On 1/19/2025 at 12:48 AM, luke viia said:

my boss, who I am lucky to count among my friends, is a church elder for his little congregation and just generally a wonderful human being. he calls out the (minority) MAGA crowd in his church like this regularly. regarding trans rights, abortion rights, gun control, etc. he's so patient that he actually manages to convince some of them. last week he talked a young earther out of his beliefs and into the embrace of, uh, geology. 

anyway this tactic does work - sometimes - and he has definitely used the WWJD card on a few of the haters. it does occasionally stop them in their tracks. 

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And if we can just convince them all that Jesus was a bleeding-heart liberal philanthropist...

  On 1/19/2025 at 1:48 AM, ambermonk said:

And if we can just convince them all that Jesus was a bleeding-heart liberal philanthropist...

there's enough in jesus' alleged actions and words that are contradictory. i mean.. hell didn't exist right? until he sent everyone there for not believing in him? i think right?  in order to get into heaven it's thru jesus or not at all! never mind about everyone long dead.. what happens w/them? why the war on the dead jesus? why?  

i kid of course but not really.. but i'm kidding. 

edit: meanwhile: these people fucking suck. 

what kind of lame stunt is this.

They take away the pacifier for a moment, so that the Donald can waltz in on Monday and put it back into the mouth.

thank you Donald Trump for saving TickTock

saw this on mastodon.. i know people who've built entire businesses on instagram. it's crazy.. but it also sucks.. 

i doubt this will make any difference even if like 50% of people do it.. which i highly doubt... 

  On 1/19/2025 at 7:14 AM, ignatius said:

saw this on mastodon.. i know people who've built entire businesses on instagram. it's crazy.. but it also sucks.. 

i doubt this will make any difference even if like 50% of people do it.. which i highly doubt... 

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^doing that Meta thing. some cool people on Insta but a week without ADS ADS ADS ADS ADS will be v nice.

this was obviously written by a lawyer. i wonder who's paying up? Bezos? Musk? Zuck? some unexpected player?

millions of american youngsters seeing this message now that service has been restored:

This what they saw all day today when they tried to get in:

this is relevant to trump admin coming in.. talking about the insurance market in CA related to climate change and how there's just so much bullshit and scams and basically insurance companies wiggling out of regulations and responsibilities. 

part 2 of the talk is about trump admin and what things are on teh table as far as what will be possible, what they will.may try and how that could go. there's a lot of detail and specific things and ways that they can basically break the law by not executing laws passed by congress in relation to funding things and can throw their hands up and say "fine then sue us we'll see you in court" and get it all tied up for 2 or 3 or 4 years. also, the possibility of them saying "this is the regulation but hey.. we're not going to enforce it so do whatever you want and please donate to my fund" 

edit: also.. so many leopards eating faces over the next 4 years

lol

So fucking weird, TikTok banned and the same time Trump was up for his first task like "I bring TikTok back y'all! 

Like just some ridiculous showoff or something 

  On 1/20/2025 at 5:42 PM, cern said:

So fucking weird, TikTok banned and the same time Trump was up for his first task like "I bring TikTok back y'all! 

Like just some ridiculous showoff or something 

it was republicans who started the effort to ban it.... so, it's just a big joke. 

edit: didn't even put his hand on the bible when taking the oath. 

Melania looks like the hat man. The character people see when in sleep paralysis. 

 

  On 1/20/2025 at 6:07 PM, ignatius said:

it was republicans who started the effort to ban it.... so, it's just a big joke. 

edit: didn't even put his hand on the bible when taking the oath. 

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Wow that must be the most unprofessional move so far.. Oh wait? What? Now Musk doing nazi salute on stage? 

US makes me pukeable right now 
 

oof..

i accidentally saw 1 minute of Trump signing executive orders in what looked like a small stadium or some shit? it had very evil vibes. i didn't like it at all. i don't like him of course but really...this shit is, um, scary.

you can look it up on YT if you want i really don't want to.

delusional

This is who we should really be commemorating today. To hell with all the other bullshit