Hah. I should have refreshed. I just wrote a small novel theorizing you might have been making that exact point. Cheeky ;) I found it amusing - even if the point of it got buried (but made for another great example...)

Food for thought: as polarizing as this statement is - it's not all that different from the cheap (generalizing) shot at OP for not having a broad enough statement.

I'm uncertain if that's what @[email protected] was going for ... but regardless: either by the statement itself or by the apparent downvote pummeling he got - demonstrates perfectly that nobody likes the feeling of getting singled out simply because of their grouping.

It's almost always a dick move. Unless the group in question is a hate group or nazis... because fuck them. Topically - this behavior was (and is) championed by aforementioned groups.

Put simply: we can do better. Better than reddit at least, right?

It's pedantic. At best because someone wants to virtue signal by tilting at windmills. At worst It's a bad faith argument being made to isolate someone. In both cases it's shite behavior:

An example would be assailing someone for not liking cookies when they simply said they enjoy cake. This tactic was originally used by trolls and hate groups to splinter larger social groups support structure and/or put people on the backfoot... It's become so commonplace people will do it just because the opportunity presents itself. Because someone else will if they don't, anyway. Might as well get the glory of taking someone down a peg.

It's pathetic. Op made an affirmative statement about something they believed in and was promptly shit on by some cunt who brought nothing meaningful to the table themselves. What's worse is the troll initially was getting nothing but positive reinforcement so they could go and do it again. Are we still enjoying all the polarizing "LOL [insert group] BAD!" It really brings the community together.

You don't need to engage every person doing that shit... but for fucks sake stop upvoting it and reinforcing the behavior.

Keep calm and ... what a magnificent shirt. I was always a fan of the taller of the Mario bros. The man not only is an entertainer - but clearly has inspired taste.

EA games with command and conquer and now this. The world surely is coming to an end.

Odd. In my experience I have seen many people refer to their home country in that way. Do you refer to your country differently? Perhaps instead of country if OP said here that would have left the pedants less triggered. I digress. Just because you view something as commonplace - does not automatically make it the rule... much less actually reality.

Agreed. Especially in times like these - having a free and open source of information is incredibly important.

While, surely, OP was speaking English - given the world state why did you immediately jump to the conclusion that the country being referred to was the US? Yes - the statement wasn't broad enough to perhaps include you but it wasn't narrow or hateful in its intent. People (broad statement, including you) need to maybe find some chill and perhaps look for common ground rather than constantly being pedantic cunts. There were a variety of ways to approach that statement without being a twat... so kudos for just going for it - most people would have more tact.

Found the corporate shill guys. 🙄

You probably don't self-report to them about your actions though ;)

This. Works flawlessly for obscuring filesharing from your provider and supports multiple connections. I've got the router splitting traffic across 4 different nodes and it's a good balance of speed and security.

Personally, any provider that is selling a VPN and is feigning this holier than thou attitude shouldn't be trusted with anything. If they are looking that hard at your traffic - I doubt they'd bat an eye at giving your data to anyone asking. Fuck that.

Yeah - I hear that. I wouldn't say "don't speak up" so much as don't just speak up. Speak up but also work the system as it is, Losing the vote to somebody like Trump is counter-productive, maintaining the status quo would have been better even if it's still imperfect.

That's a fair statement. I just wanted to draw attention to the fact that the current administration hadn't won as a result of the failure of the voters on the other side so much as the aligning of a series of events. Too many people are simply making statements like well you didn't vote hard enough... which simply ignores reality.

I'm thinking more of Trump's first campaign which set this all in action. That's when he was truly still an outsider.

I believe we are aligned I this thought. It's their club and outsiders are a threat.

Other than that I think we mostly agree.

Cheers. This has been a fun exchange minus the earlier confusion. Appreciate you sticking it out to clarify 👊

I agree that we should have a more multi-party system. Period. Good idea - lets do it. But we don't have one.

Solid. I assumed we were on the same page - but was struggling to figure out where things were misaligning.

So how do you effect change? Pitch a fit and claim the system is unfair and scream into the void? Or find a way within the existing system to change it? The latter is what I mean by "playing the game".

I feel, personally, that it needs to be a bit of both. If people don't speak up it's difficult for others to find they may not be so alone in their views. Discontent needs to be visible and heard to start a movement. Sadly (as shown in the video referenced - and in recent elections) simply "playing the game" has resulted in this death spiral we appear to be in. What is to be done? Disproportionately congress is still occupied by boomers who refuse to pass the torch and tragically are out of touch with reality. Gen X and Millennials make up very few seats thanks to the death grip held on many of these seats. They're old so you need to speak up ;) Jokes aside - to gain any traction on subjects such as these we need to be vocal.

Hard-line racists conservatives have been similarly disillusioned as liberals about the two party system, both feeling unrepresented. The conservatives worked within the system to elect Trump who is effectively a 3rd party candidate within a 2 party system by co-opting one of the parties.

I disagree somewhat here. I believe both parties put a fairly significant effort into their particular candidate.

I firmly believe that Biden had 0 interest in running again but was talked into it. As I suggested earlier the majority of votes were lost to the candidate change at the 11th hour. Additionally the vote of the disillusioned groups you are (in part) referring to was due to swing to the Republican side this election, and did. Lastly, what I view as the final nail in the coffin was the efforts of "outside" influences resulting in the fragmentation and alienation of a number of social groups typically more aligned in their stance. Combine these factors and you get the overwhelming outcome we saw.

I will give you the "third party" dash of spice present on the grifter which clearly did draw some additional votes - but I'd attribute most of the vote disparity to the above.

"Playing the game" is a figure of speech.

I'm keenly aware. But, as you are likely aware, your utilization of said figure of speech implied a stratagem being was being employed and/or that it was a functional one. It did of course have the possibility of meaning "continue down the broken path" amongst others. My initial comment clearly implies this was my interpretation of it. Based on your reply - I had little reason to assume that your figure of speech, which carries a broad variety of meaning in this context, differed from said interpretation. In fact: you supported my interpretation with your follow-up comment which is exactly what led to my response.

Yes, that is my point.

Forgive me, I'm confused as to what your point was then. Your figures of speech seem to have muddled the water enough to make this conversation cyclical... so perhaps some clarification would help. Care to provide some insight on the two times you used it?

Republicans hated Trump during (and only during) his initial run for the presidency. He was a grifter saying whatever he could to get a vote and his platform seemed threatening to them initially. Once they realized how easy he was to control they had no issue with him. He's a useful idiot who thinks he's winning a game of checkers when everyone else is playing chess.

Speaking of games - as far as I can tell MAGA isn't playing any game at all: they are simply a hate group with a figurehead.

...but I'll bite - what game do you think they are playing?

Some people just prefer alternative math.

Edit: It occurs to me the image lacked artist credit... https://m.webtoons.com/en/canvas/my-hero-academia-mini-mha-comics/list?title_no=592342

Absolutely nothing... hence the It needs to change bit.

Realistically it's the same question I could pose you saying just play the game... What exactly does picking the "lesser of two evils" net us? A race to the bottom. It's not ideal nor does it work. The most recent election is a perfect example of this.

To be completely fair the American government currently does this with inflation, among other things. Actually inflationary item? Whoops we removed it from the calculation. All good here, boss. Sweeping something you don't want to account for "under the rug" is practically normalized in this government. It isn't right- obviously... but this isn't really shocking either.

The elephant? Where? In this room?! We don't talk about that.

I wouldn't exactly define this current situation as working, would you?

Goodness me. It's so dangerous it eats away at untreated metal. How could they foist this dangerous mixture onto us. It's worse than micro plastics. I heard estimates that claim it's now found in every living American.... and may even be now found in almost all of our food. Absolutely disgusting.