theneverfox

The wild West sounds pretty great right now. Ultimate freedom - everyone was real polite because being rude was risking your life. If someone does something fucked up, you either get together to post a bounty or get a bunch of guys together to hunt them down

Until corporations and the Pinkertons got involved, then the feds, it honestly sounds like a huge step up from where we are

Well, "just asking questions" is different from asking questions - the one in quotes isn't actually a question, it's a dishonest way to slip in a point and (at a vibes level) "win" a debate with no desire to learn or seek truth

The term comes from Tucker Carlson I think, he'd make baseless accusations against people but phrase them as questions

And unfortunately, things are just that fucking crazy these days. Most political discourse (in general, it's somewhat better here) is done in bad faith at this point, I think your question would have been interpreted differently not that long ago

People are scared and angry. It helps to proactively signal you genuinely want to engage... At least somewhat

Yes, the royal families in countries like them and the UAE are absurdly rich and like showing off. They flex on the richest billionaires, because not only do they have a net value that is thought to be higher then Musk, it's not just on paper - they can spend insane amounts without worrying about hurting stock prices

They probably have food trucks like this for all kinds of restaurants, just sitting on standby. There's no way they're not legit - the whole point is to flaunt. This is probably normally used for like their kids pool parties or something

Or maybe they really did get this set up for Trump, in which case it's still definitely legit. It even has the new decor they've been bringing to their restaurants

Remember, with the super rich the inefficiency is the point. They'd probably flog everyone for shaming them or something if it came out this wasn't "real" McDonald's

"Just asking questions" is a dishonest tactic the right has been using for a long time now. You asked "how did they subvert the will of the people if they won the vote?"

That question contains multiple assertions. For one, it's repeating the mandate of the people narrative - the actions of an elected official are not the same as the will of the people. Democracy is a political system meant to serve the will of the people, it's not itself the will of the people.

It also assumes that no subversion took place... And you can't know what you don't know, but it's giving "change my mind"

That sets the starting line for arguing the will of the people wasn't subverted by disputing facts, moving goalposts, or some whataboutisms. It frames the conversation in a way that sneaks things in as default assumptions

If you don't want to be mistaken for doing this, you can word your questions more neutrally/open ended, or be more explicit in requesting information. Adding "am I missing something?" To something that isn't adding up makes it come across far more neutral and good faith. It's also just less confrontational, which is good if you don't have the full picture yet

The Canadian boycotts are not "voting with your wallet", they're collective action.

Canadians, together, decided to boycott American goods. Their leaders cancelled deals. Their local stores and suppliers decided they'd rather source from anywhere else. The Canadian government started working on trade deals with everyone else

The nation of Canada as a whole is boycotting American goods. They're not doing this individually, they have an organized response

You cannot join hands with fascists. Ever. For any reason. It's a completely braindead move, look at history

Joining hands with fascists is empowering them and volunteering yourself as the next enemy. They'll turn on you long before they finish with their current enemy

Voting with your wallet is a lie, like recycling plastic

You can't do collective action individually. You can make the house hurt a little bit, but you'll never force them to change through what you buy. The house always wins, unless you get together to change the rules

People say that because going to college is becoming exponentially expensive. It gets meaningfully worse year over year

Education is great, learning is more then half of the joy of life. The education system in our country is absolutely broken. Both these things are true

You can still come out on top in a broken system. I did. I have no regrets, no debt. But as a whole, it's just getting worse all the time

Does anyone else not feel the humiliation of a foreign country trying to gift us a new command center? Corruption aside, this is incredibly humiliating

What I mean to say is the recycling isn't possible. It just never worked, from the beginning the best they could do is add a little old plastic to the new plastic... You never end up with the same amount of plastic though, you always end up with way more plastic

Limiting plastic on the other hand? That's doable, we can't start soon enough

It wouldn't. It's like banning decomposition... Good fucking luck, you can play with it a little, but ultimately it's just not possible

That's the annoying part. It's not performative.

From my perspective, it's like most people just mindlessly stumble through the world how they've been taught. They turn on lights not because they need it, but because it's normal. They trust the label on the back of products over their own lived experience of using it.

I like the dark. I like the sun. I like being able to see. I see just fine in the dark. Excess artificial lights make it so I see less. This isn't a me problem, this is you projecting

I'm not being weird or edgy. I'm not inviting you to comment, I'm being comfortable. I'm so tired of pretending, it's fucking exhausting. I don't need to come into the light, I want to be acceped as I am, not what you think I should be. If you ask genuinely wanting to understand, I'd explain that I like it. I'm so tired of explaining myself to people asking "why are you sitting in the dark?"