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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 2nd, 2023

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  • I don’t know what this article is about, and I’d rather not engage with this segment of society to find out, but from a quick Google images search it seems like she recently (?) caught flack for a Valentino dress, which was very sheer and through which her nipples could be seen. But anyone who’s been paying any attention to fashion at all would know that sheer is very much “in”. The latest Yves Saint Laurent line is a prime example of this. As for the quality of her body, which seems to be an unusually frequent topic, why’s it anyone’s business? Can a woman exist anywhere on this planet and not be objectified and scrutinized like livestock?





  • If those people cultivate a posture of victimhood as a tool for propoganda, then yes, pointing and laughing at them justifies their outrage and is a help to them.

    I will quote from a comment I made a while back on a different thread:

    [The problem with the conservative base is] self esteem. If you feel powerless, or worthless, or rudderless, any group that makes you feel powerful, valuable, and effective is going to be very appealing. Conservatives (read: fascists) prey on this. They make it seem like joining them is brave, and important. And since their followers lack identity and purpose, their self worth becomes entangled with [in group], be it closeted fascism such as the American GOP, or flaming fascism such as Q/proud boys/whatever. And since their identity and value depends on the perpetuation and proliferation of their in-group, they willingly accept lies and falsehood. And attacks on their in-group become attacks on them. Pretty easy to gaslight someone who’s encouraging it.

    Then when they wear their symbols of hate, or make shocking claims, or in anyway troll and grief society, up to and including dismantling democracy, they get a reaction. They’ve exerted their will on the world around them, and as such they feel powerful. The insidious bit is, even if the good guys win, with all their high falutin factual arguments and social programs, it just makes these sad people angier and feel worthless again. So they go right back to their pimps for some more sweet lies and marching orders.

    The conservatives have weaponized fact checking. Every time we slam dunk on them, they just get angrier and burrow deeper into denial.

    It may feel good to laugh at them, lord knows they deserve it, but it is not effective in combating them. First and foremost it is most successful as entertainment, and entertainment is only as successful as it is profitable. And this ecosystem is dependent on Trump being relevant. He is a cash cow, a hideous, demonic cow, but the left and right alike are at his greasy teats just the same.

    I’ll even go one further and say that the catharsis we feel from watching a comedian humilate Trump releases pressure in the audience that might otherwise build into an actual revolution. If we can’t tune in to our favorite funny man and get some appeasement about the sickening cognitive dissonance we suffer through day after day, we may be forced to direct that energy outward and actually get into the streets. In short, humor may be pacifying an otherwise powerful people.



  • I don’t take exception to talking about him. I take exception with people being entertained by him. Even as schadenfreude.

    The media legitimizes him by summerizing his statements. By hypothesizing what he meant instead of what he actually said. They give him the benefit of the doubt, time and time again. Age is no longer an issue, grabbing unconcenting women by their genetials is no longer an issue, felonies are no longer an issue, debt and taxes are no longer an issue, anything that has become boring is no longer an issue. It’s all about new new new.

    They push this bilge about fairness to justify giving him a platform, but really they just need a heel for their wrestling spectacle.

    He didn’t falsely claim, he lied. He didn’t accidentally reference facist rhetoric, he used it. He doesn’t deny climate change, he profits from it. Etc.



  • This right here is the problem, why he gets favorable treatment by the media, why he’s the Republican figurehead. He’s “fun to watch”.

    Here’s what will happen: Harris will release her clean bill of health, he’ll deny their veracity, he may then make an unsubstantiated boast about his own health, he may then also call into question the qualifications of Harris’ doctor, he may then close with some sort of jingoistic non sequitur, or some nugget of misogyny. He will do these things in an almost robotically simplified way, that is at once instantly digestible and yet difficult to directly quote without editing. If anything he says proves the least bit problematic, Steven Cheung will claim that this editing proves malicious intent by the media, and that Trump was unfairly taken out of context. Meanwhile his thralls will either ignore the whole interval, or accept Cheung’s version of events and redouble their support of a man who is not only unqualified, but it’s actively a national liability. This will register surprise, shock, anger, any number of strong emotions, and viewership/readership will keep coming back, generating impressions and ad revenue, desperate for the new episode, to see what happens next, as if it were a show on HBO and not real life.







  • I’m going to disagree with most of these comments. They don’t protect the prong so much as they protect the cord or other objects in the cords vicinity (painted surfaces, fragile surfaces, etc). The little plastic cap that covers tire stems on cars and bikes , while keeping it clean when installed, are primary to prevent chaffing issue on the inner tube whike shipped and stored; same thing with this prong shroud. They have holes in them as to not retain moisture I imagine.

    Long story short, the prongs are metal and have corners. They are the strongest, “sharpest” thing in the box. The plastic isn’t protecting the prongs from us, it’s protecting us from the prongs.