This conversation pops up every so often when someone does a Google Image Search of a cross tattoo and finds that Bad Guys had that tattoo as well, and assume that by the rule of contagion anyone with that tattoo is also a Bad Guy. (as opposed to the reality, which is that it looks cool and scary, and when you're a 23-year-old soldier getting tattoos you just want things that look cool and scary and unless it's Literally A Swastika you don't really think about the political implications.)
Like, the guy pouring wine at the bar last night had an SPQR tattoo on his wrist and I'm pretty sure he was not advocating for the return of Imperial Rome.
"One thing I would like Dems to admit during the brief crack in the Overton window to air things out, is that the CFPB did in fact try to ban gas stoves using bad data from a bullshit activist Colorado NGO, then called conservatives conspiracy theorists for noticing"
It would be very amusing if this goes down like Benioff and Weiss quiet-quitting the last season of Game Of Thrones so they could get a jump on their Disney Star Wars series, and then having that Star Wars series get cancelled because Game Of Thrones bombed.
In a world where a guy under investigation for plausible ethical violations was just nominated for Attorney General, we can't say anything is satire anymore.
One thing I've seen is "watch a streamer watch a movie" and I honestly could not figure out what was going on there until I realized that this is what kids do now instead of going over to their friends' house to hang out. And I think that Rogan's podcast is something like that, except it's your two burnout buddies sitting on the couch bullshitting while you do something productive.
1) I actually did see a lot more "TRUMP-VANCE" signs pop up, so I guess the local RNC office just wasn't as quick to deploy them as the DNC operation. I did still see "Republican candidates but no TRUMP-VANCE sign" but it ended up about eighty-twenty "with" instead of the earlier ninety-ten "without".
2) I also saw, as you mention, that a lot of signs were just "TRUMP", no mention of Vance at all. And, like I've also said before, this was about vibes; people voted for both Trump and AOC, they voted for both Trump and for abortion-rights protections.
People are trying to find a lesson in this election and I think the only lesson we can take is that Americans love a heel as the headliner.
" I thought the abortion issue was going to hurt the Republicans much more than it looks to have. "
It didn't hurt Republicans because most of them think all those stories are vastly exaggerated (or made up entirely) and the rest think that it's not society's problem to address the complications that resulted from a risky medical intervention; complications that, while tragic, were also entirely voluntary.
Which, like I said, Mean America (or at least callous America). Also Know-Nothing, because a lot of people honestly can't imagine that it goes any way but Have Sex = Get Baby.
This is, of course, discounting the people who think that any life is God's Precious Miracle and that the worst sin imaginable is ending one.
"we're gonna stop giving you free money" has historically not been an S-tier electoral performer
"You telling the deplorables that they’re racist scum for not voting Team Blue has been shown to not work."
what's bit the Democrats on the ass here is that it's not just white men who want Mean America now and they really don't have a playbook for that after sixteen years of Racism As Original Sin
Kontextmaschine wrote about how Obama's election was when he had expected Americans would decide that Blacks were White (like with Kennedy's election, where the Catholic Ethnics - Poles, Irish, Italians - became White) and a lot of people, including him, had been surprised when that didn't really happen.
But maybe that's this election, the one where Blacks become White and we can finally admit that "uneducated poor people who run on emotion will vote by vibes and do dumb things if you don't manage them properly" isn't something that becomes Racist And Inherently Wrong if you say it about black people.
Or, maybe less flip: They screwed up by looking at the demographic shift from 2016 Trump to 2020 Trump (as in, "all demographics except White College-Educated Males went more for Trump in 2020") and saying "oh, that's just a fluke" and not "uh-oh".
It does refute a lot of theories about how 2016 ("Clinton was a Uniquely Bad Candidate" and "there must have Obviously Been Russian Interference", in particular)
Bullshit. If it had been Vance on the ticket instead of Trump then they might have tried to run on "economics" but that wouldn't've been enough to put him over (because they'd have actually asked "so what are you gonna do about it" and he wouldn't have had an answer.)
They want Mean America, and Trump promises them that. If you think something else significant is going on, then that's a lie you're telling yourself because you don't want to imagine that the people standing next to you are Mean.
Brother, if you want us to just handwave away "he got away with it", then fine, but that's not an argument that goes away when your guy isn't in office.
They screwed up back in 2008 by promising Hillary Clinton that if she didn't make a stink about Barack Obama winning the primary then they'd support her in 2016. That's why we didn't get Sanders back then, and because of the dolchstosselegende we didn't get to have him in 2020 either, even though he was the right guy for both moments.
Nah; none of that has anything to do with it. People vote for vibes these days, and they want the vibe Trump's got. Anyone who's betting on him having a particular policy beyond What Pisses Off The Guys I Hate Right Now is kidding themselves, but there's plenty of people who love that as a policy plan, so they voted for him.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Open Mic for the week of 11/11/2024”
As someone pointed out, "this time around it's the Kennedys who are killing us!"
On “The Four Stages of Post-election Cruelty”
I don't recall seeing that one, but our local media market played the "pay for transgender reassignment surgery" one a lot.
"
We've spent so many years telling people that their vote sends a message; I guess we shouldn't be surprised when they take us seriously.
"
that, and also "the problem with Democrats is that they're just too darn nice, they don't attack so viciously as Republicans do".
On “Open Mic for the week of 11/11/2024”
Well THIS is an intriguing find from the archives
"
This conversation pops up every so often when someone does a Google Image Search of a cross tattoo and finds that Bad Guys had that tattoo as well, and assume that by the rule of contagion anyone with that tattoo is also a Bad Guy. (as opposed to the reality, which is that it looks cool and scary, and when you're a 23-year-old soldier getting tattoos you just want things that look cool and scary and unless it's Literally A Swastika you don't really think about the political implications.)
Like, the guy pouring wine at the bar last night had an SPQR tattoo on his wrist and I'm pretty sure he was not advocating for the return of Imperial Rome.
"
"One thing I would like Dems to admit during the brief crack in the Overton window to air things out, is that the CFPB did in fact try to ban gas stoves using bad data from a bullshit activist Colorado NGO, then called conservatives conspiracy theorists for noticing"
hehe I remember when this happened and we talked about it here and certain people were Very Upset at the idea anyone might not agree that banning gas stoves was a great idea
"
It would be very amusing if this goes down like Benioff and Weiss quiet-quitting the last season of Game Of Thrones so they could get a jump on their Disney Star Wars series, and then having that Star Wars series get cancelled because Game Of Thrones bombed.
"
"Achievements don’t need to be great so long as you’re sufficiently charismatic and can speak sufficiently well"
oh god it's gonna be Newsome
"
Sixteen percent of black voters supported Donald Trump. Twice as many as 2020, which was itself higher than 2016.
And people still think that they can cry about racism and it'll mean something.
"
In a world where a guy under investigation for plausible ethical violations was just nominated for Attorney General, we can't say anything is satire anymore.
"
One thing I've seen is "watch a streamer watch a movie" and I honestly could not figure out what was going on there until I realized that this is what kids do now instead of going over to their friends' house to hang out. And I think that Rogan's podcast is something like that, except it's your two burnout buddies sitting on the couch bullshitting while you do something productive.
On “History Was Made in 2024 Election, Now What?”
Regarding my long-ago post about road signs...
1) I actually did see a lot more "TRUMP-VANCE" signs pop up, so I guess the local RNC office just wasn't as quick to deploy them as the DNC operation. I did still see "Republican candidates but no TRUMP-VANCE sign" but it ended up about eighty-twenty "with" instead of the earlier ninety-ten "without".
2) I also saw, as you mention, that a lot of signs were just "TRUMP", no mention of Vance at all. And, like I've also said before, this was about vibes; people voted for both Trump and AOC, they voted for both Trump and for abortion-rights protections.
People are trying to find a lesson in this election and I think the only lesson we can take is that Americans love a heel as the headliner.
On “Open Mic for the week of 11/11/2024”
"Maybe they knew who Rogan was but didn’t know who Cheney was[.]"
I think that's a distinct possibility.
On “History Was Made in 2024 Election, Now What?”
"20% inflation on commodities that the lowest income buy of feed their families [sic]."
saying that people voted for Trump because Borger Too Spensive is not really doing a lot to counter my argument that this was about Mean America.
"
" I thought the abortion issue was going to hurt the Republicans much more than it looks to have. "
It didn't hurt Republicans because most of them think all those stories are vastly exaggerated (or made up entirely) and the rest think that it's not society's problem to address the complications that resulted from a risky medical intervention; complications that, while tragic, were also entirely voluntary.
Which, like I said, Mean America (or at least callous America). Also Know-Nothing, because a lot of people honestly can't imagine that it goes any way but Have Sex = Get Baby.
This is, of course, discounting the people who think that any life is God's Precious Miracle and that the worst sin imaginable is ending one.
"
"we're gonna stop giving you free money" has historically not been an S-tier electoral performer
"You telling the deplorables that they’re racist scum for not voting Team Blue has been shown to not work."
what's bit the Democrats on the ass here is that it's not just white men who want Mean America now and they really don't have a playbook for that after sixteen years of Racism As Original Sin
"
Kontextmaschine wrote about how Obama's election was when he had expected Americans would decide that Blacks were White (like with Kennedy's election, where the Catholic Ethnics - Poles, Irish, Italians - became White) and a lot of people, including him, had been surprised when that didn't really happen.
But maybe that's this election, the one where Blacks become White and we can finally admit that "uneducated poor people who run on emotion will vote by vibes and do dumb things if you don't manage them properly" isn't something that becomes Racist And Inherently Wrong if you say it about black people.
"
https://x.com/JStein_WaPo/status/1854168624119877887
Staggering class realignment/shift in working class
Harris lost DESPITE major shift of affluent voters her way
2020: Trump wins voters over $100K, 54-42*
2024: *Harris* wins voters over $100K, 54-45
2020: Biden wins voters $50K-$100K, 57-42
2024: *Trump* w/ voters $50K-$100K, 49-47
2020: Biden wins voters under $50K, 55-45
2024: Trump massive improvement w/ voters under $50K, 49-48
(*) the original tweet had an error in this figure which was corrected by a later tweet; the corrected figure is presented here.)
"
Or, maybe less flip: They screwed up by looking at the demographic shift from 2016 Trump to 2020 Trump (as in, "all demographics except White College-Educated Males went more for Trump in 2020") and saying "oh, that's just a fluke" and not "uh-oh".
On “The Joy Of Opening Time Capsules: The Night Before the 2024 Presidential Election”
It does refute a lot of theories about how 2016 ("Clinton was a Uniquely Bad Candidate" and "there must have Obviously Been Russian Interference", in particular)
On “History Was Made in 2024 Election, Now What?”
Bullshit. If it had been Vance on the ticket instead of Trump then they might have tried to run on "economics" but that wouldn't've been enough to put him over (because they'd have actually asked "so what are you gonna do about it" and he wouldn't have had an answer.)
They want Mean America, and Trump promises them that. If you think something else significant is going on, then that's a lie you're telling yourself because you don't want to imagine that the people standing next to you are Mean.
"
Brother, if you want us to just handwave away "he got away with it", then fine, but that's not an argument that goes away when your guy isn't in office.
"
They screwed up back in 2008 by promising Hillary Clinton that if she didn't make a stink about Barack Obama winning the primary then they'd support her in 2016. That's why we didn't get Sanders back then, and because of the dolchstosselegende we didn't get to have him in 2020 either, even though he was the right guy for both moments.
"
Nah; none of that has anything to do with it. People vote for vibes these days, and they want the vibe Trump's got. Anyone who's betting on him having a particular policy beyond What Pisses Off The Guys I Hate Right Now is kidding themselves, but there's plenty of people who love that as a policy plan, so they voted for him.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.