Maybe don’t rely on rt for news… zelensky’s popularity shot up after Trump and Vance’s oval office disgrace. Trump then sent people to try to convince zelensky’s opposition to push for elections, and even the opposition told them to fuck off.

My favorite joke after communion was asking for a toothpick because “I’ve got some Jesus stuck in my teeth”.

I’m not saying that the stock market will end. I’m saying that we will never be in as good of a position ever again. The post ww2 world order is being rewriten right now. We were at the top because we were more or less trustworthy and had significant influence throughout the world. We didn’t have much competition. Now that no one trusts us and our influence is being dismantled our trading partners will seek out our competitors or start their own industry creating even more competition. I hope I’m wrong, but i just don’t see how we will ever be trusted again.

Why would you think stocks will go back up? The tariffs have proven that we are an unreliable trading partner, and countries are starting to look elsewhere. In addition, the outrage from abandoning our allies has caused a large part of the world to boycott our companies. I don’t see how things could possibly go back to what they were.

It’s all because of propaganda. They live in an entirely different world that is not reality. I’m surrounded by conservative voters where I live and most of them say “I haven’t heard about that” whenever I mention a new outrage that’s in the news that I see. I think it’s their way of saying “I don’t believe you”.

When I talked to a couple of them about the zelensky oval office fiasco one response was “well I heard that zelensky called Vance a bitch in the meeting”. I pointed out that he was lied to and that the whole thing was recorded and that never happened, but I would bet money that they still believe that lie over me. Another response was the Russian propaganda that zelensky is a dictator. There is no reasoning with them. They don’t care about what reality is. They only believe in what makes them feel good and feeds their pride and ego. I’ve tried having rational discussions, but it always ends with them saying “I can’t articulate why you’re wrong, but I disagree with you”. If you can’t articulate something maybe that means you don’t understand it enough and should reevaluate your conclusions, but they won’t because it would hurt their pride. God damnit I’m am so far beyond frustrated with them.

And if that happens there will be a civil war.

Same with the oval office. They were saying zelensky was disrespectful. When? I watched the whole thing and was insanely impressed by his restraint. Everyone who does even the smallest favor for Vance should harass him about being thankful. His behavior was absolutely disgusting.

If the axis won they would’ve ended up fighting amongst themselves. Their ideology requires scapegoats, and they will always find them. The ideology itself is counter to peace. We had 80 years of peace because we pushed it to the fringes, but now that it’s resurging I feel like I’m surrounded by people who grew up in a different world with a different history.

Then where have you been. It’s likely the biggest reason she lost. A whole bunch of people decided not to vote because they blamed Biden for Gaza. When told that Trump would be worse the response was always that it can’t get any worse. I submit that US occupation of Gaza is worse…

The Renaissance was a time of a vast labor shortage. This allowed workers to demand higher wages, and it also allowed leisure time to study new things and make new art.

I think we are talking about two different things. I’m talking about individual policies, and I think you are talking about elected representatives. I do agree that percentages of representatives should match the population, but votes on individual policies should always match what the majority of the population wants.

“Also majorities are slow to change, and it’s simply dishonest (and destabilizing) to have one’s vote weigh less depending on which group they are part of.”

It doesn’t. Just because you are a part of the minority doesn’t make your vote count less. It just means there are more people who disagree with you than agree.

I’d say countries that devolve into dictatorship aren’t due to too much democracy but due to weak constitutional protections.

Right now in the US we are in danger of devolving into a dictatorship because of the extra weight added to minority votes.

Edit: and by minority votes I’m talking about policies with less than 50% support.

That’s a bit more than just math. When considering a policy, I don’t tend to take into account where the different parties stand. It’s better to think for yourself and not resort to tribalism. With that in mind I do think the majority should win 100% of the time. It has been insanely annoying here in the US how some policies have had popular support for years if not decades yet go nowhere because of small interest groups who use cheap tricks like the fillibuster and the electoral college to ensure the will of the minority wins out. I do acknowledge the danger of the tyranny of the majority, but I think protections against it should be provided by the rights outlined in a strong constitution.

Still better than every other option.

Some issues really don’t straight up exist. Outrage TV will always come up with something to stir people up. Other issues are pretty complicated without any promising solutions, so it may just seem like they’re being ignored. Conservatives will focus on those and claim to have the answer, but then their answer is something like “to eradicate poverty we need to put poor people in jail”.

Then you learn that the “something” they want to do is the exact opposite direction of what solving the problem would look like. It takes 2 seconds of critical thought to realize I’d much rather stick with the “milquetoast centrists” than ever consider voting for regressive conservatives.

I’ve always heard “in oder to be successful you have to be able or willing to do things others can’t or wont”. Global competition and increased technology has pretty well evened out the ability side of that quote leaving behind the other factor of what people are willing to do. I think the biggest decider on what people are willing to do is based on personal morals and ethics, so a person more willing to ignore ethics has a better chance of becoming successful. This is supported by statistics that show corporate executives and politicians exibiting psychopathic traits at higher rates than the general population. The only way I can think of to correct this is to have regulations on ethics, which is why I whole-heartedly support the CFPB and despise Republicans who try to shut it down.

While you might be right, it is a civic duty to vote. Your mindset is too dangerous, which is why the right-wing trolls try pushing it. Voting even why you know it won’t make a difference is the most basic thing you can do to push back. Who knows what could happen if we get enough people out of that mindset. Simply voting, regardless of who for, is an event that every American should take pride in.

I would say Trump might deserve some of the blame for the pandemic because he cut the CDC’s pandemic response funding in the 1st or 2nd year of his term.

It should probably be expected that any country with the means will interfere in other countries elections. What bothered me most in 2016 was not so much what Russia did, but that we didn’t seem to have much of a response to it. And yes can we please support democracy and not authoritarians. I feel like the whole cold war was about capitalism vs communism when it should have been about democracy vs authoritarianism.