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Mole

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Everything posted by Mole

  1. I get it, I’m just pushing back at the concept that this stuff doesn’t actually matter. It sometimes feels like that. Some people may feel somewhat insulated from this, but it’s very real if you look around.
  2. Going further in dealing with changing values: As a Christian, the witness of the American church is dead. How can anyone credibly preach the sacrificial love of the Gospel when they won’t be mildly inconvenienced for their fellow man? Despite the views regularly shared here, the church as an institution is an important part of American success. Trump didn’t cause the church to fall, but he accelerated the decline when he has the power to lead it back. As a veteran, he’s rejected and mocked our highest values of selfless service. This isn’t simply the disgusting comments that we’ve already forgotten, but the entire transactional nature of his leadership. Large parts of our country have followed his lead on this. Our sense of service to the common, American, good is dead. This death largely falls at his feet. And I’m an educated white man, so I’ve caught the best of it without dealing with the racism. Tom Herman is an overpaid football coach.
  3. Trump’s inaction has directly led to the death of two of my mentors and suffering and death for several other people in my life. I know kids in physical therapy due to prolonged intubation. So much death and suffering. His tanking economy killed off numerous likely job prospects for me this spring. The job market vanished. Long efforts in improving my economic situation vanished, and I’m one of the lucky ones to have a good, stable job in a tough field. Many of my friends are out of work and struggling to stay afloat. So much economic suffering. My parents have largely been living isolated, even from their church community, because mask-wearing become a political issue. People are living and dying alone. Everything is division. The old man that walks everywhere in my little town went from a quirky old man to a racist MAGA hat-wearer. Or rather, he was revealed. On a bigger scale, personal relationships are being destroyed because EVERYTHING, reality itself, is now a political statement. A significant part of the blame for all of this is on the president. He knew and failed to act. We all knew and he actively worked against us. He continues to work against us (we the people, not democrats or republicans) and stoke division. Tom Herman makes me a little sad for a few hours on maybe 5 or 6 Saturdays each fall. Life is better when football is fun, but it’s just a game.
  4. Pole vaulting makes sense in the context of ancient simulations of combat, such as spear throwing, hammer throwing, running and jumping, and trumpet playing (an ancient Olympic event that was a contest of volume — one of the champions slept on bearskin and could scatter a crowd when he played two trumpets at once). Using a pole/spear to quickly climb walls or traverse obstacles seems like a pretty useful skill in the ancient world.
  5. Data as a plural is a bit of an “I know what I’m talking about” shibboleth. I’ve seen antivaxers make the case that vaccination makes you morally culpable for abortion due some connection with similar fetal tissues.
  6. I’ll give him credit. He understands a spectacle. If he would have just stuck to trash TV or maybe started a Sex Pistols tribute band or something.
  7. Centuries from now, when civilization has rebuilt from the dark age we’re enthusiastically diving into, the world will look back at Reverend Ricky as the zenith of western civilization. There’s a straight line from Shakespeare to Milton to Reverend Ricky.
  8. There’s a place for art that challenges us and makes us confront the other uncomfortable reality of the oversexualizing and exploitation of young girls. Communicating that message by sexually exploiting young girls is a bit of a disconnect. Of course, that’s separate from challenging the legality of the movie, which seems like a huge stretch.
  9. King George III IMO
  10. Pro-life president.
  11. So, individual one was patient zero.
  12. For me, one of the more important things that Biden did during the debate was to give the firm reassurance that if Trump loses the election, there’s nothing he can do about it. In all the chaos, I found it calming.
  13. They’d be losers is the Trumpian worldview.
  14. FIFY
  15. A lot of the Old Testament is God mercifully delaying but ultimately giving His people the terrible things that they want, including terrible leaders. God sent does not necessarily mean God-approved. I actually agree that Trump was appointed by God, I just think it means something a little bit different than Trump’s supporters.
  16. Barron hasn't seen his dad in three years plus. Blippy and whoever Melania is actually fucking are Barron's new dads. Trump has the pee tape and Blippi has the Harlem Shake video. Seems like a pretty even exchange.
  17. So they actually did just lose a listener?
  18. I guess he’s gotta catch up on approving those TPS reports.
  19. I didn’t realize that he was still alive. It’s better to burn out than it is to rust.
  20. The simulation is buffering. There’s too much going on.
  21. From several months back, “mild” symptoms seemed to be defined as anything not requiring hospitalization, which could still be very, very sick. It seemed like it was no symptoms-> mild -> admitted -> vent -> dead Trump’s a special case for many reasons, but even if he’s just having “mild” symptoms, he could be very sick.
  22. My parents are in their mid 70s. They’re kind, thoughtful, and well-educated. They went full Trump. I think the COVID issue has turned them a bit, but they’ve made a pretty dramatic transformation from the people they were 10 years ago (a common sentiment here). The last time we visited, Tucker was appointment TV for them. Any event for the day had to be evaluated through the Tucker worldview. It’s such a powerful and destructive tool.
  23. I appreciate the approach that Biden is taking in appealing to the best in us and reaffirming our shared humanity, something that’s yet another casualty of the Trump era. It’s healthy to take this high road. It’s a real sign of leadership that has been sorely lacking. On the other hand, we’re talking about a group of people who, though cynical inaction and politicizing reality, have a pretty massive body count of American lives. I have several important people in my life that might be still alive had we had any kind of national action. How much weight do these deaths fall on the shoulders those at the Rose Garden COVID party and ultimately Trump’s failure to lead? They bear some responsibility. That’s the gig they signed up for and clearly they’ve done much worse than most of the world. And of course the ethos of “fuck your feelings” and “I don’t care, do you?” doesn’t have much worthwhile to say about empathy. It’s best for us to follow Biden’s lead and reassert goodness and humanity (it’s the only way out of this dark pit), but I don’t know how to justify feeling superior to someone feeling indifference or even a sense of justice at the current turn of events. If this were a movie, we’d all be cheering at the cosmic justice. It isn’t a movie though, and real people have been hurt and killed. Truthfully, we’ve all probably been hurt by our failed COVID response in many ways. Feeling a sense of justice is a pretty normal and human reaction, even if it isn’t best or healthy for us.
  24. I gotta be honest here, I’m not sure which thread is which anymore. It’s all the same subject. We’ve reached some kind of CR singularity.
  25. So just another Friday?
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