Ex-spouse: (on the phone with parents) My ex-wife has invited us over for beef wellington.

Ex-spouse’s parents: Hasn’t she tried to kill you like four times before? Why would you accept this invitation?

Ex-spouse: well her beef wellington is to die for!

Ex-spouse’s parents: Well that’s good enough for us, were in see you a 6

I understand not wanting to go 100% weird with most people, but damnit weird is interesting. So be a bit weird.

It’s true that politicians don’t usually lead, they look to the voting base to see what they can do. I think the issue right now is that there isn’t (yet) a unifying leader that can mobilize a big enough population of people to make it impossible for the media to ignore. while I think smaller protests have their place they are useless if they don’t move to something bigger. And something bigger - that being millions of people filling the streets of multiple cities - won’t happen without a big charismatic leader like Martin Luther King, jr.

Yet the middle of the road, center right democrats that hold power see this as a challenge to their control. They only have to look to how the GOP was hollowed out by a big charismatic leader in trump. The more “moderate” republicans lost control to the more extreme right - the moderate democrats don’t want that and will do what they can to hold down that yet unknown person from gaining a voice for the left.

I do think all the Democrats, should take more opportunities to visit their states to make people aware of what’s going on, what they’re doing in Congress to try to stop the worst stuff happening, and what ordinary people can do to push back as well. I think members should also boost each others message because probably pages like AOC’s have a lot more viewers from a district than their own district’s House Rep.

Good they are doing some legislative opposition, but you’re right they need to be doing more to push back outside of congress.

I’ve wondered if the they started buying ads on mobile games with a quick few lines to tell people what they have done or what the republicans are doing would work?

you by-pass large media, you get a younger audience and it gets a message out there quickly.

For some reason this gif gives me nostalgia of listening to artbell.com on Netscape - Good times.

I think we are talking about leadership at different points of time.

The leader that America needs right now is someone to articulate and draw people together behind the idea of “Throwing the bums out” and in that context there is a large coalition of people that agree with that sentiment.

What happens after the bums are gone is where the in-fighting and purity tests start to take hold. But having the opportunity to argue about whether Leader A’s policy of taxing the billionaires at 90% vs. Leader B’s policy of 70% tax rate on them would be a welcomed change.

I completely agree that we can’t blindly blame this on election fraud, that is a form of denial. Which I will admit is part of my Tinfoil hat rant above.

But if there are credible sources that are stating they have doubts about the legitimacy of the results there should be an investigation. Note, this isn’t really about this past election, I know of no evidence that shows fraud only slight rumblings from “unknown sources” which isn’t legitimate to me.

My concern is that the Stop the Steal movement, that was using weak or even made up evidence to support their cause has made future allegations less likely to be taken seriously.

trump isn’t a strong leader, he’s a very accomplished con artist.

He allows people to project their vision of who he is on him.

You say I’m christian? Sure I’ll pretend I am

You say I’m anti abortion? Sure I’ll pretend that I am

You say I’m for the little guy? Sure, I’ll pretend that I care about them

You say I’m anti-vax? Sure, I’ll tell you that I am

You say I’m the second coming of Christ? Okay, I’m good with you thinking that about me

You say I’m a strong patriot? Sure, I’ll hug the flag and say the words you need me to say

He is everything to everyone of his supporters because he never tells them that they are wrong about who he is.

A strong leader is someone that has strong convictions and articulates them in a way that resonates with the population. They are not people that waffle in their ideals, you either like their stance or you don’t. Smart ones will adjust their ideas over time but they do this from a strong ideological foundation. Some are genuinely good people like MLK, jr. others are more despotic. What America needs is one or two genuinely good strong leaders.

we voted for this

<Tinfoil hat>

Did we? There are some suspicions of voter fraud in some swing states and it sure as hell isn’t below musk to attempt something like that.

Yet, I think that the past MAGA crazies screaming about “election fraud” and “stop the steal” has poisoned the well for legitimate future calls for investigating potential fraud in elections. On top of that it also makes people that question the results sound like the crazies of the past.

It could explain why trump is allowing so much power to musk.

</Tinfoil hat>

Source: I have no source. It’s all feels over reals and a partial lack of acceptance that so many American people are that dumb.

True.

One conservative acquaintance voted for trump to bring Jesus to the country and to stop abortion.

Another voted for trump because they worship money and believe that another trump administration will help him get richer.

It is a mental disease

Yes. As a completely uneducated non-certified internet therapist I’d say that disease is fear. I really believe that those people that strive for more and more do so to try to fix a fear of not having enough. Or a fear of not being enough. Instead of actually trying to recognize the this fear and controlling it, they just do the one thing that can temporarily make them less fearful and that is make more, control more.

“Your life isn’t shitty, the System that we live our lives in is”

• Wayne Gretzki

  • Michael Scott

  -Anonymous

Yes, your description is part of the genesis of my question. Where did this all come from because without knowing the origin of why western culture stared disallowing some important and strong emotions to be displayed by men we can strive to change it.

The reason I used robotic instead of stoic in my initial post is that I see stoicism as less about refraining from emotions but learning how to control emotions. That is recognize that you are human and you will have a wide variety of emotions, and you should have all of those emotions. But with stoicism the goal is to recognize the emotion you are having and not allow it to control you.

You can be mad or even fucking piss off angry but you should still have that higher, separate thought that control the emotion and allow it to come out in ways that don’t create a negative impact on yourself and others.

My post was more about where in history did the western culture evolve to punish men from having any emotion beyond anger, ambivalence and to a limited degree humor.

Well if every vehicle becomes autonomous then isn’t that just a large scaled high speed train?

so we learned

It sounds like you were like most people in the western world - uneducated on nutrition, cooking and basic life skills. This isn’t a jab at you this is just the world that we live in. Most people don’t have a good understanding of these things so the go with what is easy, fast and feels inexpensive. This drives obesity.

It’s great that you took the initiative to learn home economics and it sounds like it has helped you and your family. Many others have not gotten to the “so we learned” stage yet for whatever reason.

Most open to making money at the expense of security.

"“What they were telling me was counterintuitive to everything I’d heard at Microsoft about ‘customer first,’” Harris said. “Now they’re telling me it’s not ‘customer first,’ it’s actually ‘business first.’”

DiCola, Harris’ then-supervisor, told ProPublica the race to dominate the market for new and high-growth areas like the cloud drove the decisions of Microsoft’s product teams. “That is always like, ‘Do whatever it frickin’ takes to win because you have to win.’ Because if you don’t win, it’s much harder to win it back in the future. Customers tend to buy that product forever.”

Propublica

From their about page:

ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism with moral force. We dig deep into important issues, shining a light on abuses of power and betrayals of public trust — and we stick with those issues as long as it takes to hold power to account.

With a team of more than 150 dedicated journalists, ProPublica covers a range of topics including government and politics, business, criminal justice, the environment, education, health care, immigration, and technology. We focus on stories with the potential to spur real-world impact. Among other positive changes, our reporting has contributed to the passage of new laws; reversals of harmful policies and practices; and accountability for leaders at local, state and national levels.

Investigative journalism requires a great deal of time and resources, and many newsrooms can no longer afford to take on this kind of deep-dive reporting. As a nonprofit, ProPublica’s work is powered primarily through donations. The vast bulk of the money we spend goes directly into world-class, award-winning journalism. We are committed to uncovering the truth, no matter how long it takes or how much it costs, and we practice transparent financial reporting so donors know how their dollars are spent.

ProPublica was founded in 2007–2008 with the belief that investigative journalism is critical to our democracy. Our staff remains dedicated to carrying forward the important work of exposing corruption, informing the public about complex issues, and using the power of investigative journalism to spur reform.

Humans are animals that navigate life through the lens of emotions with logic being something that we have to work towards - so you may be closer to the truth than you think.

Yep. Lost a good and very smart friend to the anti vax conspiracies and maybe others by now.

I’ve also had to really pay attention and tell myself that I live in a liberal bubble and need to balance that bias against what is truth.