themeatbridge @ themeatbridge @lemmy.world

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4,756

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2 yr. ago

Is. Is going on.

Republicans telling on themselves again.

That's also a relative thing. His "stunts" are likely jumping around in a wire harness doing martial arts. He's not doing Tom Cruise shit, like free-climbing skyscrapers or hanging out of airplanes. Nobody expects Boris Grishenko to be Jackie Chan.

Acrobatic fighting and swordplay choreography is hard to do well, which is why actors will often use stunt doubles. It's not just "this is dangerous, bring in the person that nobody loves." It's more like "This guy playing the teleporting swordmonkey qualifies for Medicare, so let's get someone who can rise from an Adirondack chair without grunting to do the blue demon crawly-bamfy-fencing bits." If he's able to do it, it's going to look better in the movie.

It is a bit insane, because the world is a bit insane right now, and frankly I think it's your fault.

Well, not you specifically, and it's not entirely your fault. But part of the reason tyranny and fascism have gripped power across the globe is that political discussion is considered impolite. It's offensive to point out how absurd or dangerous a political policy is, so we just avoid the subject. Wouldn't want to offend a conservative bigot by pointing out other people exist.

And because polite people avoid the subject, only extremists engage in the debate. Nuance is lost, and the crazies take charge of the nuthouse whilst "normal" people, like yourself, fret about people talking about the problem.

It would be fucking fantastic to look at a picture of the sky and not think of how air pollution is being deregulated, how Qatar is buying influence with the President by gifting him an airplane, how space is being monetized by a South African Nazi, or how we're all likely to die of an airborne virus because the person in charge of coordinating our healthcare response has a brain that's mostly worm poo.

It would be wonderful to stop talking about politics, but not talking about it has led us, inexorably, to this point. We have a duty to discuss ideas when they affect all of us. We have a responsibility to point out stupidity and ignorance and make conservatives feel ashamed of it. It's not fun for us, either, but if we were to follow your lead, we will end up murdering children in death camps. Which is exactly where we are.

It really is tough to talk about anything else, and even when you do talk about it, it's more of an exasperated sigh than a conversation.

That's a smart strategy for long term success, but you're like an edible straw for the people drinking the milkshake. You're good as long as there's more milkshake.

Right, but you're just riding the ebbs and flows. The real money is flowing to the people with the inside track. You don't benefit from instability and chaos. They do, up or down.

True, but do any world leaders really expect privacy when they have calls with Trump? Like if you met Donald Trump for the first time, knowing absolutely nothing about the guy, how long do you think it would take for you to realize that you shouldn't share secrets with him?

We were pricing our trip, and actually considered flying from New York to Japan to visit Tokyo Disney (and also see some of Japan) and it would have cost less than staying at a premium resort in Orlando. It is absolutely ridiculous.

I wasn't going to get into it, but I think you'll find disability is far more widespread than you think it is, and the other limiting factor is poverty. Obese people skew poor for the first time in history, and it's because the working poor are limited in food choice, healthcare, and disposable time. People who say "start small and work your way up over months or years" never worked 80 hours a week for minimum wage and it shows.

I don't know why anyone thinks that Trump is more likely to spill state secrets to a listening device installed on Air Force 1. Qatar could just give him money and he will tell them whatever he wants to tell them, probably for a lot less than the cost of an aircraft. We should assume all state secrets are compromised.

Sort of. We have drugs that can help you lose weight, but they come with their own challenges and risks, and you still need to eat right and exercise. And even then, it's prescribed and covered for diagnosed diabetes. If you want it to lose weight, you probably have to pay for it.

Eating right is much more difficult than people pretend it is, and exercise is simply not possible for a lot of overweight people. You might as well say "don't be poor, and also don't be poor."

So when you say on top of that, "we've made it easier for you to lose weight with this new drug, as long as you aren't poor," that's not really helpful.

Depends on how white you are.

Cats show you their bellies to demonstrate they trust you. Not all cats like belly rubs. For the ones that don't, rubbing their bellies is the ultimate betrayal. It's like seeing your partner naked for the first time, and you immediately start pointing out their flaws, Janet.

That you. I don't feel strongly one way or the other.

I don't, either, but I don't believe that immigration should be restricted by the thoughts in your head. That part is more important than keeping out racists, because I'm never going to be the decider for which thoughts are OK and which thoughts are not OK.

I dunno, that's a lot of reading. I'd rather share what I think than learn what someone else thinks. Can't I just react to the first impression?

“What I think we’re looking at here is an absolute distillation of the ideology of this administration, which is a thoroughgoing hostility to anything that the government does that helps people,” Goffman said. “If you want to destroy the relationship between the public and government, you’re going to target the Energy Star program.”

...because the refugees might have pending criminal charges. I feel like that's a really important part missing from the headline. Nobody cares if a bunch of white farmers move from South Africa to the USA. They aren't actually being persecuted, but whatever. America should be open to immigrantion. South Africa merely wants assurances that accepted "refugees" aren't fleeing legitimate prosecution for crimes they have been charged with.

The larger issue is that we're refusing legitimate refugees from other countries, and the Trump/Musk administration has made demonizing immigrants into their primary cause celebre.

To summarize, we're sending innocent people to death camps because they're brown, and we're protecting criminals because they're white.