Fuck that defeatist bullshit!

Of the top 10 largest protests in US history, two have happened this year, and they were both largely in response to Trump.

Movements are being built, organization is happening, people are pissed. Excuse us for not jumping straight to violence without a plan like the J6ers.

God. The “Americans Bad” circlejerk on Lemmy is so lame.

I think you’re exactly right.

A few years ago, we saw a huge amount of mobilization for George Floyd. People fighting cops and winning.

After that, we saw a submarine full of billionaires implode & people cheered.

Recently, a health insurance CEO was shot to death in the street, and people rallied around the shooter as a hero.

Trump has been a uniquely effective vehicle for the ownership class to launch bullshit distractions at a population of Americans who are showing signs of class consciousness. Keep 40 or 50% of people mad at trans people and immigrants and DEI, and the rest busy trying to minimize the damage being done. Motherfucker said Haitian immigrants were eating cats and dogs in a presidential debate, and people somehow still take him seriously.

But he’s not long for this world. Dennis Prager has all the charisma of a bad case of trench foot. Rupert Murdoch is ancient, we’re already down a Koch brother, everything Elon Musk touches turns to shit, and I’m crossing my fingers that all the HGH gives Peter Thiel a heart attack.

The ownership class has got to make hay while the sun shines. Things are primed to turn around on them quickly.

For context: Carrier is one of two (2) PhD scholars with relevant credentials who believe in full-throated Jesus mythicism. The other is Robert Price, who Bart once debated here.

Jesus mythicism is kind of a fringe theory, even among atheist Bible scholars. Yes, consensus =/= evidence and authority does not a sound argument make.

That being said, a trend I see a lot (especially in the earlier days of r/atheism) is atheists who are new to historical studies latch onto Carrier without looking at the whole picture, and then write off the rest of critical Bible scholarship as a sham propped up by Christians.

I think anytime you’re getting into a new field in history / science / economics / etc., it’s best to learn the fundamentals & understand what the mainstream is and why before entertaining the more fringe ideas.

But thank God they have tanks and grenade launchers. We can all take solace in that.

So the citizens still have to physically vote even though there’s only 1 option?

Yep! Technically tho, they can cross out the name of the candidate to vote “no”.

See that little table to the right? They have to use the red pen sitting on top of it. But don’t worry, it’s “anonymous”!

Apparently in more recent elections, “no” votes just go in a separate bin?

It also appears to double as a census, since voting is mandatory. That same Wikipedia article says elections are watched by the inminban to keep an eye out for no-shows.

To be completely fair, there is apparently one position in local elections that can actually have two candidates. It’s mostly a figurehead that’s subordinate to the unelected mayor, but hey! Two names on the ballot!

Can’t find anything about how ballots are counted, though that doesn’t exactly surprise me.

To be clear, Kim Jong-un was not up for “election” in 2019. According to Wikipedia, it was actually the first time someone in his seat didn’t even bother with the sham.

Not like it’s a huge change, going from being the only name on the ballot to not even letting people vote.

Look at that dip right before 2020! Wonder why America dipped so much lower. Surely, face-masks as a way to prevent the spread of infectious disease wasn’t suddenly a controversial issue!

Holy shit, I am totally guilty of this.

For those who haven’t yet read the article, the idea is that people interpret “80% of people prefer Pepsi Max to Coke” as “Pepsi Max is 80% yummier than Coke”, when in reality most of that 80% only slightly prefers Pepsi.

Basically a strong difference in proportion of people who prefer one option to another does not necessarily imply a strong difference in the average opinion between the two.

Any angry mobs a guy could join? Anyone about to drag the far-right nut jobs that control our government out into the street and [REDACTED]? Can we do that before the genocide this time?

CNBC financial news channel anchor Joe Kernen compared New York to Batman’s crime-riddled Gotham. “ They’re taking Wall Streeters and making them walk out onto the ice in the East River, And, and then they fall through. I mean there is a class warfare that’s going on.”

“Raising taxes on people who have more wealth than they could spend in a hundred lifetimes is the same as murder.”

I cannot empathize with anyone who says that shit with a straight face. You’ve either abandoned any principles you may have had to spew propaganda, or are so completely delusional that you actually believe it.

He also decided to kill thousands of low-level criminals instead of like ten rich people.

Imagine one day a mega-billionaire has a fatal heart attack. Found in his possession is the name of another mega-billionaire, scrawled onto whatever was near them in their own blood.

The next day, that billionaire drops dead. Another heart attack, another name found near the body. Rinse and repeat.

Eventually, one gets smart. Publicly pledges to give away their entire fortune and take an oath of poverty the day their name is found. The reaper skips him, and the message is sent: if you’re ultra wealthy and want to live, stop being ultra wealthy.

Sure, it may not be foolproof: there’s probably a lot of super rich people whose identities are more or less private. Maybe one of them can pull a fast one & hide their wealth rather than give it away. But still, it’d probably be more effective than what Light did with less killing to boot.

Republicans will ram through whatever shit they can whether it’s legal or not, and Democrats will trip over their own dicks and let the parliamentarian block them even when they have a majority.

I increasingly feel like voting for people is a bad system. I don’t want to pick someone to make all the decisions for me: just let me vote directly on the issue dammit. Tired of representatives lying to get elected or doing heel turns or chickening out.

I was also diagnosed in my late 20’s. I have a sister who is significantly younger than me, and she was struggling in school. She’s smart, but she had a ton of missing assignments that she either did and forgot to hand in or just completely never got around to. Same as me when I was her age. She got diagnosed, put on Adderall, and her grades turned around. That set off alarm bells for me.

When I finally got tested, my results were all over the place. They told me I scored in the top 10% in some areas, and in the bottom 10% in others. That was enough for them to prescribe me medication, and it’s helped a lot.

My big thing was always executive function. I know I need to do a task, I know there will be consequences for not doing it, and I know if I don’t do the task I will feel miserable the entire time I am putting it off. But I still don’t do the task.

With medication, it feels like a lot more of a choice. I can still blow things off and feel guilty about it, but actually hunkering down and getting something done actually feels possible now.

If I make it to 50 I’m calling it a win.

He said one officer who dealt with a former door supervisor was not happy about going to the bar on his own.

“If an officer is not happy to visit then how do members of the public feel?” he told the hearing.

Regarding the incident with the DJ, he said “officers should not have to ask for a manager to deal with a situation”.

What fucking losers. These are the people who are (according to their own PR) supposed to risk their lives to protect the public. If the theme song to a children’s show and some light ribbing is all it takes to keep you away, fucking resign.

Jesus Christ, yes, I am a comfort hunter. You think I get up at the ass crack of dawn every day for fun? You think I want to push buttons on a computer all day because I’m just weirdly into it?

No! I do this shit because I have to!

Fucking hell. I’ve already accepted that I have to make your company money if I want to live in a house. For the love of all that is good in this world, PLEASE do not make me pretend to like it. I’m already weirded out that you’re so into it.

she says often that she hopes we get married and that she wants to marry me.

That seems like a green light to me.

Disorganized list b/c I can’t be assed to format:

1. The follicles on your face will grow at different rates. Even if you’re going for length, trimming your beard to let the slower hairs catch up can give you a fuller and thicker beard. I will sometimes take some electric clippers and just trim back the faster growing hairs to give my beard a more defined shape.

2. Trim the sides & mustache occasionally. Imagine a line starting a half inch or so away from your face, starting where your hair ends & sideburns begin and going straight down to the ground. Trim the sides of your beard following that line, and trim your mustache to stop the hairs from getting in your mouth. A santa-esque beard is longer than it is wide, so you’ll probably need to shape it that way.

3. Your facial hair will probably wick moisture away from your skin. You’re already out ahead of this with the beard oil, which is great. I personally prefer using a beard butter, but anything that keeps the skin underneath moisturized is important. One time I shaved & it almost looked like my cheeks had been sunburned.

4. This one is personal preference, but I keep my neck mostly shaved. I draw a line starting two fingers above my Adam’s apple, and bring it up to the corners of my jaw. Everything below gets either shaved or at least hit with the clippers on the lowest guard. I also take my wife’s eyebrow razor and clean up the top of my cheeks, to straighten out the top of my beard. Totally optional, but makes it look cleaner IMO.

TL;DR Growing a beard =/= not shaving. Trim it to give it shape, shave neck & the top of your cheeks to give it lines, continue to moisturize / oil it.

This one always makes me smile. “Shitty old bitch” is permanently embedded in my vocabulary.

Some kid in PA tried to do something last year.