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General politics thread (was: General U.S. politics thread)

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Comments

  • glennmagusharveyglennmagusharvey
    Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    sometimes real life produces unrealistic stories
  • StormtroperStormtroper
    edited 2025-10-13 18:11:34
    Ehh, I don't speak much about it nowadays but I wouldn't say I'm tired, it's just that it's pointless to do so, y'know? And so I don't follow national politics anymore unless there's something going on.
    Honestly, chances were pretty good it was a realpolitik bid due to Trump being anti-Maduro but, as expected of people online, they entirely miss this bit. :disappointed:
    She'd curry favour with whoever is the US prez at the time, but FWIW she really is a (center-?)right wing vocal anti-socialist who I'd imagine would not be to the taste of the archetypical online left-wing user (liberal or otherwise), at least in normal circumstances.
    More specifically about her, there was that part about citizens' election monitoring these folks are missing.
    Yup. In addition to last year's elections, those "two decades" above started as organizational work for electoral monitoring and has continued since, I'd figure that weighted heavily in the decision to grant her the prize.
  • glennmagusharveyglennmagusharvey
    edited 2025-10-14 18:15:33
    Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    politics has always involved making the less-bad choice your bedfellow. and then changing bedfellows when the next better choice arrives, or the next worse choice if shit gets real bad

    some folks don't understand this and think ideology über alles

    these are my two cents of cynical shitposting. *drops mic* QED thank you for coming to my ted talk
  • glennmagusharveyglennmagusharvey
    Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    https://www.theverge.com/policy/806425/ice-social-media-surveillance-free-speech-assault
  • lrdgcklrdgck
    "you duck spawn, refined creature, you try to be cynical, yokel, but all that comes out of it is that you're a dunce!!!!! you duck plug!"
    Without trying to say anything more than what I'm saying, customs enforcement is probably the last agency or government department I'd expect taking up the role of political police.
  • StormtroperStormtroper
    People are too ignorant about socialism, they've never heard about democratic socialism. Let me educate you all: [description of social democracy]
    Every. Single. Time.
  • lrdgcklrdgck
    edited 2025-11-18 20:28:01
    "you duck spawn, refined creature, you try to be cynical, yokel, but all that comes out of it is that you're a dunce!!!!! you duck plug!"
    Sounds like there's a story behind this post. But yeah.

    edit: something tells me this is an odd way of trying to be cool, like edgy, except with political doctrines instead of teenage posturing. Like, declaring yourself a socialist makes you hip. "Anarchist" kind of played that part for a good while, but looks like by now you'd be expected to actually read the theory rather than assumed to be a cool rebel on the spot, so it lost the... edge.
  • StormtroperStormtroper
    Sounds like there's a story behind this post. But yeah.
    In this specific instance the new New York city mayor is a (non-social-democrat) Democratic socialist (or something) and so I've seen an uptick in it happening, but it's something I've seen since forever, it just seemed like a good time to bring it up.
    edit: something tells me this is an odd way of trying to be cool, like edgy, except with political doctrines instead of teenage posturing. Like, declaring yourself a socialist makes you hip. "Anarchist" kind of played that part for a good while, but looks like by now you'd be expected to actually read the theory rather than assumed to be a cool rebel on the spot, so it lost the... edge.
    I'd say political doctrine extravagance and teenage posturing go hand in hand. Reminds me of the TVT era and young'uns describing their political positions (or sexuality) with a long string of adjectives, sometimes contradictory.
  • lrdgcklrdgck
    "you duck spawn, refined creature, you try to be cynical, yokel, but all that comes out of it is that you're a dunce!!!!! you duck plug!"
    Next time let's ask the hypothetical them what are their thoughts on means of production and see if their answer even stands next to anything socialist, gonna be fun. (I could say, on collectivization of means of production, but they might figure out it's a trick question.)
    Reminds me of the TVT era and young'uns describing their political positions (or sexuality) with a long string of adjectives, sometimes contradictory.
    Yeah, I still have flashbacks.

    Kind of scary that the kind of folks who would have haunted On-Topic Conversations ten years ago now runs the Silicon Valley.
  • glennmagusharveyglennmagusharvey
    Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    The Olivia Nuzzi book has been the chatter on my politics chat lately.

    The world going to hell is somehow, disconcertingly, entertaining. Well, the same way people say trainwrecks are entertaining I guess.

    Sidenote: I noticed I can't watch a car crash compilation video for the spectacle anymore. I start analyzing how/whether I could do something to prevent the accident if I were in the situation.
  • glennmagusharveyglennmagusharvey
    Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    https://mstdn.social/@noelreports/115745811955611584
  • lrdgcklrdgck
    "you duck spawn, refined creature, you try to be cynical, yokel, but all that comes out of it is that you're a dunce!!!!! you duck plug!"
    I feel like I got the gist, but didn't understand "VSU-niks" refers to the military of Ukraine. Hard not to get the gist when the swear word is shared.
  • StormtroperStormtroper

  • StormtroperStormtroper
    Stormtroper wrote: »
    I'm getting lots of stuff on my feed about the US navy thing so I'm guessing it is one of those times you guys are wondering what I have to say about some Venezuela thing, so here it is:
    tenor.gif
    Somehow, something did happen the one time I make a point out of it.
  • lrdgcklrdgck
    "you duck spawn, refined creature, you try to be cynical, yokel, but all that comes out of it is that you're a dunce!!!!! you duck plug!"
    Plebs didn't shut up about Epstein, so he had to come up with something, looks like.
  • glennmagusharveyglennmagusharvey
    Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    "Everyone involved here is an asshole."
  • lrdgcklrdgck
    "you duck spawn, refined creature, you try to be cynical, yokel, but all that comes out of it is that you're a dunce!!!!! you duck plug!"
    Do you guys remember that Eastsplaining guy from a while ago? He's a leftie, if an idiosyncratic one, so I was surprised to see him quite jubilant over the invasion. His opinion can be summed up as "nobody misses Maduro and Moscow is fckin pissed". To be honest, the first seems mostly an afterthought to him. "Every Third World dictator who opted for an alliance with Russia [...] should be very concerned now", to quote - in other words, the US made it obvious how little all the military support Russia and/or China could have given mattered.
  • StormtroperStormtroper
    edited 2026-01-08 01:28:34
    I wouldn't have expected the Russian government to have stuck their neck out for Venezuela's though, they've toyed with the idea but to my knowledge that hasn't translated to things beyond selling weaponry, it's not like with Bashar Al'Assad (who they couldn't protect anyways). Moreso for China and economic deals. The real world "power" is Cuba of all things, though judging from the invasion's results that was only for intelligence, repression and personal security, not defense from external threats.

    Edit: tbf there's also the doctors and sports trainers thing.
  • glennmagusharveyglennmagusharvey
    Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    lrdgck wrote: »
    Do you guys remember that Eastsplaining guy from a while ago? He's a leftie, if an idiosyncratic one, so I was surprised to see him quite jubilant over the invasion. His opinion can be summed up as "nobody misses Maduro and Moscow is fckin pissed". To be honest, the first seems mostly an afterthought to him. "Every Third World dictator who opted for an alliance with Russia [...] should be very concerned now", to quote - in other words, the US made it obvious how little all the military support Russia and/or China could have given mattered.

    I like to say:
    Ideology does not dictate behavior. Behavior dictates ideology.
  • StormtroperStormtroper
  • lrdgcklrdgck
    "you duck spawn, refined creature, you try to be cynical, yokel, but all that comes out of it is that you're a dunce!!!!! you duck plug!"
    At first I thought it'd be mostly politics, but it's mostly US constitutional law and legal theory. Interesting. Also neatly explains something that had surprised me before.
    lrdgck wrote: »
    Without trying to say anything more than what I'm saying, customs enforcement is probably the last agency or government department I'd expect taking up the role of political police.
  • StormtroperStormtroper
    There's been lots of happenings this year, haven't there?
  • lrdgcklrdgck
    "you duck spawn, refined creature, you try to be cynical, yokel, but all that comes out of it is that you're a dunce!!!!! you duck plug!"
    I've recently heard of a Czech joke: optimists learn English, pessimists learn Russian, realists learn shooting. And we haven't even had the UFO files yet.
  • glennmagusharveyglennmagusharvey
    Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    Stormtroper wrote: »
    There's been lots of happenings this year, haven't there?

    eltnpoci8r09.jpg
  • lrdgcklrdgck
    "you duck spawn, refined creature, you try to be cynical, yokel, but all that comes out of it is that you're a dunce!!!!! you duck plug!"
    Meanwhile at my end:

    * the govt: hey, we've got EU loans to buy weapons!
    * the prezzie: I don't like EU, let's buy weapons off our gold reserves!
    * together: WHY NOT BOTH!!!1

    (So far no consensus has yet been reached, apart from "let's buy weapons". My guess is EU loans though, perhaps with some symbolic placating the prezzie. Eh.)
  • StormtroperStormtroper
    edited 2026-03-08 17:41:53
    I'm guessing it's because of Russia? I'd be worried too (but then again I'm always worried).

    Speaking of which...
    Stormtroper wrote: »
    I wouldn't have expected the Russian government to have stuck their neck out for Venezuela's though, they've toyed with the idea but to my knowledge that hasn't translated to things beyond selling weaponry, it's not like with Bashar Al'Assad (who they couldn't protect anyways).

    I looked that up and apparently it had stopped being true over the last two years or so.
  • lrdgcklrdgck
    "you duck spawn, refined creature, you try to be cynical, yokel, but all that comes out of it is that you're a dunce!!!!! you duck plug!"
    After Maduro and Khamenei, if I was a pro-Russian dictator I'd be very concerned. Are there any others particularly worthy of mention? Looks like Cuba's on the shortlist these days.
    I'm guessing it's because of Russia? I'd be worried too (but then again I'm always worried).
    'sfine man, you honestly have stuff to worry about.

    But you remind me I was to write that the leader of a minor leftist party decided to throw in his own two cents by proposing buying weapons from EU loans and using the gold reserves to build a nuclear power plant. At the same time the prime minister said something along the lines of we'd better have our own nukes. poland can into nukes
  • glennmagusharveyglennmagusharvey
    Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    My guess is that Marco Rubio, that hawk that he is, most likely has a personal hard-on for doing something about Cuba, due to being Cuban-American himself.

    I have zero clue how this will actually manifest, i.e. what the Trump administration will try to pull.
  • lrdgcklrdgck
    "you duck spawn, refined creature, you try to be cynical, yokel, but all that comes out of it is that you're a dunce!!!!! you duck plug!"
    So, we've got a first-in-50-years manned (and first-ever womanned) lunar flight. I'm like, it's not like I don't care, but rather I can't be bothered to but I'd definitely care if I did. Although seems there's actually at least some folks genuinely interested, which brings me a measure of joy.
  • lrdgcklrdgck
    "you duck spawn, refined creature, you try to be cynical, yokel, but all that comes out of it is that you're a dunce!!!!! you duck plug!"
    So I'm following the updates on Wikipedia entry for those Peruvian elections I mentioned in Florida Man thread because I mistook it for this one, and honestly, it would fit right in there. At this point - so far some 92% votes are counted - they've got like four chief contenders: Ms. Fascist (Daddy Dictator's Little Daughter), Mr. Fascist (no relation - Another Kind Of), Mr. Nice Guy, and Mr. Sensible Leftist. Right now Mr. Sensible Leftist is a hair-breadth in front of Mr. Fascist and it looks like he might get to the secondary stage along with Ms. Fascist, but just like a day ago Mr. Fascist was just right in front of Mr. Nice Guy and Mr. Sensible Leftist was the fourth or fifth.
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