Larry of the Lake

I haven't heard a non-cringey Trump nickname in 6 years. Can we drop the God-Emperor, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named nonsense?

I'm going stroll down to my local malt shoppe, have some coffee and pie, maybe fuck all the way off and make it a pie a la mode, as they say in ol' Paree.

Well, sure, but that's not populism. Populism would be playing off an idea of "the people" vs "the elite". Trump might be a populist but that's not why we elect smooth talking people who make us feel good instead of voting based on competence.

It's not populism, it's democracy.

If you want to change that you're going to have to change people. We react more strongly to someone colorful, entertaining, emotional or sensational rather than to boring facts, information, or logic. People don't want to vote for some stick-in-the-mud bureaucrat or policy wonk.

Did you try shooting the hurricane? Requires zero training. Eta: all deadheads can dance, whether they believe it or not

"They hate us for our freedoms.". You never hear "they hate us for our liberties." Is this a mere convention of speech? Like no human has ever vacationed in southern France?

Sorry Scot, DMC is correct I was being irreverent. Couldn't help but see Scot leaving the house today, grabbing a jumbo bag of Acme Troll Food, and saying "this thing's gonna be empty by noon."

Absolutely disgusting.

Mods could we please get separate threads for Freedom and Liberty? Kind of gross to just lump them together, Scot.

IMO there's a difference between putting some onus on the American public and saying that everyone American is culpable, and it's weird to me that people are taking JA's statements so personally. I'm all against the collective punishment for the actions of a few, but the reason I pressed Ty on this "double standard" is that I've heard so many arguments that involve the US being a real democracy ("try saying that in China", etc). If you really think we have more input into our government than other countries, then we do bear more responsibility for its actions (with obvious qualifiers like the 2000 election). This reminds me of the "Defense of Intent" thread where people get so caught up in worrying that they are being personally blamed for something... No one is pointing fingers at individuals in a message board. But yeah, if you believe (I don't) that we have more control over our foreign policy through voting than country x, yeah, obviously it's fair to put the electorate on the hook to some extent. It's not "absurdly pompous" or "naive bigotry" to put some responsibility for the actions of an ostensibly democratic nation on its electorate. Even for Bush and co's actions, they did that with the approval of the opposition party. Personally, I don't think there's any way to change US foreign policy or the MIC by voting. I don't think we are allowed to have those kind of candidates. I think we could grow a little thicker skin when it comes to taking criticism of the US personally.

Yes. But seems politically suicidal for Biden to fuck with energy markets right before an election.

Watched Memoria by Apitchatpong Weerasethakul. Not much of a narrative, but a pretty immersive and ambiguous experience. The sound was great, and the minimal dialogue and story suggested a lot of different possibilities. Tilda Swinton was great.

Yes, I was there I remember. Did you ever wonder why 77 Senators voted to go to war? None of this is pertinent though to this double standard I've been waiting to hear about, which apparently is just that you think that the American public is unfairly judged to be supporting pointless wars?

$250k paid out to a firm owned by the guy who runs it's brother. Lol this dude Rivero is blocking anyone who comments in this or shares it.

Weird. Kind of like Christianity had no political influence before 8000 bc. The idea that the US can't recognize past shitty behavior because it's a political liability isn't very convincing to me. I just don't think US domestic political climate is such that only some Joe Biden style jingoist can win.

Or in 2003 when they invaded Iraq

Trump ran on Iraq being a mistake. The Republican party has been fascist for a lot longer than that. This is a sorry excuse for whatever kind of war apologism is going on here

I think you're overselling this. Obama got elected with one of his selling points being that he wasn't involved in the Iraq War. The media and the MIC are bigger obstacles to changing US foreign policy than the America First freaks.

Lol who's doing that? Eta: Oh wait are you arguing that Russians are getting some kind of a break here? If the US was rounding up protesters and disappearing them or conscripting them maybe you'd have a point, but I'm not seeing anywhere near the levels of ignorant pro-war jingoism coming out of Russia that we saw in the US in the early 2000's. Eta2: plus, the US had a 'free' press at the time.

How is that a double standard?

Who are you saying is being held to a double standard here?

Yeah the conscription documents Russians are receiving are just a collage of spockydog and jamesarryn posts.

The thing is that when one country has a track record of aggressively pursuing its own ends through violence, which is always justified and rationalized as it's happening, and often for years after in history books, people are probably eventually going to be somewhat skeptical of claims that "it's for a good cause this time, really". Especially when said country has never really recognized any of its past fuckups. The US is experiencing a variation of the Boy Who Cried Wolf effect.

None of whom are posting here. And that doesn't make the Iraq example whataboutism.