The first rule of usenet.

Yes. The thing to remember is in many cases you aren’t explaining for the person you are debating with or answering a question for. You are doing it for others who may read the conversation.

I’ve had things brought to light in online discussion change my mind or educate me many times. When I see someone claim these conversations are useless or a waste of time, I just think they are really setting weird criteria for what constitutes a waste of time.

Sure, sometimes I ain’t got no time for that, but other times I do, and I figure the same is true for many others as well.

That was a joy to read.

I’m sorry to tell you I am one of those people, as is my family. Every so often I have a moment of clarity about it, but it doesn’t last long.

I can’t tell you how much humor I found in this response to that comment. 😁

Let me just say I love an effing Payday. And recently I discovered this, which is kinda like a Payday if the center part was hollwed out into a tube and filled with peanut butter. So damn delicious.

Unbridled corporate greed and the always relevant racism…

I’d say if you are appropriating a name from a fictional character for your child (which seems an odd choice, but which I think people should be able to do) it probably doesn’t matter much whether you take further creative liberties with it in that way.

In that hypothetical I think my comment would stand either way.

Why do all their jackets look three sizes too big?

I mean, something has to counterbalance their headwear.

I’ve read this article when it was posted before and my impression is it does EXACTLY the thing to non-rural voters as it warns the reader about doing to rural voters. I can quote the bits if you are going to force me to read it again, but I don’t see how anyone can fail to see that.

It also doesn’t change the fact that the party who might actually make their lives better is NOT the one they are voting for.

Also - racism (and bigotry generally)

But we gave Palestine a table to sit at in the UN! /s

I wonder if the cops threatened this guy with their weapons while he burned to death like they did that other poor soul.

My favorite was when she clearly (very clearly IMO) seemed about to say “…but this motherfucker…” and restrained herself.

Surprised the US didn’t block it somehow.

That bump in 2020 is kind of interesting. The reason seems obvious, but correlation does not equal causation and all that. It does make me wonder if a big chunk of people claiming to be unaffilated are doing so because they think it’s the correct answer to give, not because it’s actually true. (My theory being that the pandemic made them decide they better stop denying Jesus for awhile or whatever)

Is anyone even surprised anymore?

I agree with you, but that’s where I perceive their viewpoint to come from. I actually think I did see at least one person say something like “it’s bad for gaza now, but will be better for gaza later” or something like that. Happy to be corrected by any folks of similar mindset who want to chime in though.

I think the viewpoint of those folks currently is essentially that Dems will see a direct line between their support of Israel (for example) in the current Gaza genocide event and the fact that they did not heed in any way the voices of progressives, leftists, and others, and realize when Trump wins (again parroting what I believe to be their viewpoint) they should be more inclusive of those groups the next time around.

I personally don’t think that’s a strategy that will have long term or short term benefits, because I don’t think politicians in general seem capable of strategizing to that level of nuance regarding public opinion, but I can see where they are coming from.

This is also why some very stupid self described leftists seem to have zero worry about the rise of fascism (even as they insist that they’re the only ones who truly take it seriously as a threat), they think “just do a socialism bro” will instantly fix everything as if economic hardship would never happen to a socialist society even within a vacuum.

I have to admit - I’m having a hard time picturing how this would be expressed. Any particular examples you can point to?

Could it be that racism creates conditions which lead to a higher frequency of situations which will reinforce racist stereotypes? Too much thinking involved, it makes more sense that the blacks are inherently different.

I have struggled to communicate what you said in your first sentence in less than paragraphs several times and failed. Thank you for giving me an example of how to say it succinctly. Let’s hope I can remember/replicate that the next time I try to get the concept across to someone.