YonderEpochs @ Benjaben @lemmy.world

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2 yr. ago

Members of his previous administration complained about his tendency to just kind of agree with the last person who spoke to him on a given topic / day. I assume it's mostly due to his love of (need for) flattery - he comes out of each meeting feeling great and wanting to endorse whatever that person was saying.

Yep, that's been our experience. We have a niece who got a concussion from a bully (aluminum water bottle) and really nothing changed (so her parents had to find a way to get her off the bus). Two school years back and in a different area, there were so few drivers that my kiddo would come home at completely unpredictable times, anywhere from "on-time", up to 2 hours late, with very little communication. And we could basically see the school from our house.

Needless to say we no longer see the school bus as viable. Our society can't even get our kids to and from school in a functional way anymore. Things are really bad.

Edit: missed a word, grammar

Returning to this a week later, and - gotta say - the Lemmiverse? (idk what we're calling it lol) has really won me over, for little convos like this. Been here about a year and change, and it mostly just keeps getting better. People can disagree with one another, realize they agree more than they thought (or that they don't), and we all get better for it. Seen it again and again, and I like it.

That's a consistent and reasonable take. Mob violence can be unpredictable and harmful to its own causes. I'm certainly willing to call it murder myself, while also being glad for it. And I condemn going after the person who called in the tip, for many reasons, but succinctly - that person cannot possibly bear enough responsibility for the state of things, even acknowledging the actions they sure didn't have to take, to be an appropriate target of anything like what happened to Brian Thompson.

Well, I can understand your point of view without sharing it. As for the hostility, beyond most folks just following whatever up/downvoting they see taking place already, there's a critical element here that shouldn't be missed - the positive response has been largely bipartisan, which is rare and valuable. And not only is it bipartisan, it points out an important truth which any resident of this country would do well to keep in mind -

At this stage of the game, we might be a hair's breadth from realizing that it hasn't been Democrats vs. Republicans for a long time, it's just all of us regular folks vs the abusive rich (+their enablers).

I'm reaching here, but if other people feel that way, I can imagine wanting to discourage anything that takes away from a sudden (much needed) feeling of unity.

Just to give one more take (without contributing any hostility, I hope!) - one way to look at it might be that you see this new development (Thompson's murder and the nation's "hell yeah!") as the scary, dangerous step too far, whereas maybe many of us see the scary dangerous step(s) too far as having already happened (maybe long) in the past.

We're in a really scary situation as a country, and that was almost exactly as true the day before Thompson's murder as it is today. The significant events leading to our scary situation are a list of egregious misdeeds and manipulations by people in power, stretching back years - even if I take your premise that it's wrong, this is just yet one more event (if a notable acceleration). I sincerely believe that a few more gray hoodies might actually send things back in the right direction and bring the owner class back to the negotiating table. As it stands (and ~equally true two weeks ago), the social contract in this country is in tatters. The rich get everything, everyone else - nothing, not even the healthcare we already frickin bought.

Laws are not virtuous by default, is it a moral judgment against killing itself here, or is the problem that it was not a legal act? Of course don't let me reduce your position to one of my own two phrasings lol, but I am curious about the specific objection you have.

Damn. Another Adjustment made, may he never stop Adjusting.

Mine's even slightly weirder - I'm trash at navigation in a car, on streets. Even if it's somewhere I've been a bunch, once GPS became commonplace that part of my brain seems to have basically switched off or decayed somehow.

But outside, backpacking or even less demanding stuff, I have a great sense of direction. Plenty of successful solo trips, etc., very rarely feel turned around or confused. There's probably a contribution caused by the differing level of effort, but it's hard to put into words how my subconscious automatically provides a ton of help in the latter situation and zero in the former.

Very true, but kind of glosses over the gigantic accumulated suffering felt by those experiencing a civilizational / societal collapse.

Clever reversal bud, sure got me.

You're defending a stranger who went hostile and attacked the poster of a meme in a place for memes. Spend your time however you like, I just can't imagine how you or the original commenter I replied to are able to take the littlest stuff - posted to a JOKE community - and extrapolate out (AKA invent) a bunch of serious takes, and then disagree with those fictional takes. The OP posted almost nothing, to a meme community. What y'all are doing is Don Quixote stuff (or more accurately, straw man bullshit), but like I said, spend your time however you see fit.

Yeesh friend, kinda jumped down OP's throat here, no? Seems pretty uncharitable to go from their posted meme to "this cartoonish fantasy world of yours", and then take that even further.

I mean, OP never really described any kind of "world" at all, just expressed disappointment. So I mean.

...it's kinda your cartoonish fantasy world, by definition, isn't it? Whatever thing you're imagining here? Weirdly hostile take.

Huh. Feels...due for* Adjustment.

My friend, you actually got me hahaha. I started out feeling like "ah fuck, here I am complaining about how things have gone for us, who am I to complain compared to this guy?" Well done lol

A few more of these and we'll all really see how much we actually agree with one another, and how much the split and hate is manufactured.

I think they were also trying to keep folks who already had decent insurance plans, and there were definitely a bunch. Thinking of people in good careers who were also on the tail end of when employers treated employees better - there were a lot of people doing comparatively well who had (at least somewhat justifiable, we're talking healthcare) concerns about the idea of single-provider.

(referring to the "if you like your plan, you can keep it" angle during ACA days)

That guy expects me to come pre-bundled with so much stuff ready for him to reference at will and at breakneck pace lol. I really enjoy him both as a truly odd duck and a weird and sometimes profoundly insightful thinker, but sheesh. I miss 60% or more sometimes, and he's also quite prolific.

And so on, and so on (repetitive hand flourishes)

What a legend.

Worth mentioning (even though yes the post asks specifically about deaths) - the harm caused is far greater than just the deaths that needn't have happened.

The amount of chaos and misery inflicted on the suffering as they and their families have to fight the insurance companies while trying to fight whatever illness...these companies make the worst moments of people's lives much, much worse. The deaths are just the tip of the iceberg, truly.

Ha, you're right, and our countries are of course more closely linked than maybe I realize. Hope it didn't sound like I was diminishing your struggles. Cheers and best wishes!