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On March 13 2026 16:31 baal wrote:Show nested quote +On March 11 2026 22:16 LightSpectra wrote:On March 11 2026 15:31 baal wrote:On March 09 2026 23:51 LightSpectra wrote:On March 09 2026 10:37 baal wrote:On March 08 2026 22:35 LightSpectra wrote:
Afghanistan is a country of est. 40 million and the NATO mission committed no more than 18,000 troops at a time to holding it. The total U. S. armed forces plus reserves is over 2,000,000 people, so the security force in Afghanistan is about 0.009% of what you're calling "the full force of the US military". there werent 40 million taliban combatants and the RoE would be very differnt, the US military can't just carpet bomb Los Angeles to kill armed citizens, the more the military escalates aggression the more internal turnmoil within it ranks happen, soldiers aren't going to blow up their own families, thats how civil war factions are formed. What Afghanistan proved is that no matter how many planes and tanks you have to control a population you need boots on the ground and people to surrender, unless you are willing to obliterate them which isn't an option in a civil war. What Afghanistan proved is that 18,000 troops being supplied from the other hemisphere can't hold a mountainous country of 40 million. It in no way proves that no government on Earth is capable of winning a civil war against insurgents using guerilla tactics, especially the richest government with the most well-funded military in human history. A perfectly loyal army, willing to kill their own friends and neighbors, to level its own infrastructure, that is not a realistic scenario in a civil war, however against an unarmed populous you only need a few bullets to seed enough fear to drive ppl into submission. You are again ignoring that many governments have indeed won civil wars/defeated insurgents throughout history. You can't just throw out platitudes and then cherrypick evidence for it. If civilians in Venezuela and Cuba were armed they would have staged an armed resistance that would likely develop into toppling the regime, maybe some external actors fund one side or the other, but the thing is, if the population is armed its much more difficult for dictators to take root. Hilariously uninformed. There are numerous militias in Venezuela. It's lawful to own personal weapons in Cuba. Talking with some of you is just... bizarre, you call others uninformed and then throw the dumbest imaginable statement ever like Cuban civilians owning guns. It's literally one of the countries with least civilian gun ownership in the entire world for fucks sake.
First, don't rely on LLMs for reliable information, studies have shown they hallucinate up to 40% of the factual claims they make.
If you actually read about their laws, it's actually lawful for civilians to own firearms for numerous reasons. The fact that most people don't desire to arm themselves is a completely different matter than the government banning them to prevent revolution. Have you considered that maybe most Cubans don't want to overthrow their government?
In Venezuela a civilian carrying a gun has a 20 year sentence, the militias are pro-regime to suppress civilians you maniac.
Congratulations on inadvertently discovering one of the reasons why gun ownership ≠ overthrowing the government lol. A lot of dictatorships enjoy support from the kind of people that own guns besides the military itself.
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On March 13 2026 11:55 ETisME wrote:Show nested quote +On March 13 2026 10:08 doubleupgradeobbies! wrote:On March 13 2026 09:53 LightSpectra wrote:
Trump hasn't done a goddamn single thing in the United States' interests, just the interests of his megadonors.
Nobody is shocked when the USA does selfish things, the international shock is at the fact that Americans are letting open corruption and willful ignorance shoot ourselves in the face. As an international person. I must say, while your internal Fascism and corruption problem maybe... not so much shocking as uncomfortable to watch. (I may not be representative in that I don't find it shocking, not sure here) I assure you, and I'm confident I'm more representative here, our attention is far less on the US shooting itself in the face, and far more on when it threatens to, or actually does, sometimes literally, shoot other members of the international community in the face. On a scale measuring fascism, Australia and Europe are pretty up there. Way tougher internet speech control, rise of far right like One Nation. Germany is actively targeting AFD to get it off political stage, EU targeting chat encryption.
devoid of context, especially the AFD example is laughable.
the party closest to fascist policies in today's Germany is the AFD.
a haven for actual Neo-Nazis and what under not dissimilar circumstances (economic shocks leading to wide spread fears of people losing their social status and populist scape goat politics as an effective "answer") led to the creation of a totalitarian Germany.
it is the classic conundrum of "how much tolerance for the intolerant?" how is a democracy to deal with forces in their midst that are hell bent on undermining what makes it a democracy? especially funded by foreign governments.
a media environment dominated by social medias sucking up all the revenue of legacy media - flawed as they are - but ten times better than any currently dominant channel spewing brain rot unfiltered to people's devices.
unregulated channels that are a playground for foreign and domestic actors trying to reach people with the highest goal achievable - engagement and virality by idiocy and shock leading to the destruction of little we had of a public "town square".
when words have no meaning idiocracy is alive and well... looking at the world and EU countries/Australia are "up there regarding fascism"? get a grip.
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foreign election inference via social media is a billion dollar industry.
When Twitter turned on location info tons of accounts posing as 'proud nationalists' were shown to be from Nigeria to Bangladesh.
Internet free speech can be a blessing but there are times where you can certainly question if its worth it and if there shouldn't be some more restrictions or at least transparency in place.
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The essence of a dictatorship is annulling/suspending the constitution and independent judiciary in order to operate without the rule of law.
Before the AfD ever existed, the German constitution contained provisios for banning political parties that are a threat to the constitution by using a process that depends on the independent judiciary. The actual fascist thing would be to disregard this, rather than following its lawful outcome.
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On March 13 2026 15:29 doubleupgradeobbies! wrote:Show nested quote +On March 13 2026 13:23 ETisME wrote:
That's why I said on a scale of fascism, none are there.
The 4 elements of what fascism is:
1. Cult like worship
2. Hyper nationalism
3. Surveillance / control over in information
4. Glorified military strength
Many of these do overlap with Nationalism/ Authoritarianism.
I think it's obvious that the US isn't one, you can obviously see how quick of a fall off Trump has.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN?!?!? Points 2-4 are just part for the course for the US and has been for decades upon decades now, if not longer. For point 1, people are literally currently wearing hats with his campaign slogan around their everyday lives. Not like, around just election time, or at explicitly political gatherings, just in their normal lives.
Hats are not a cult of personality. Hats are clothing. Writing on them can express support. You can't pathologize only support and not opposition. You end up with a lopsided worldview where revolutionary opposition is the default moral good and supporting things is evil.
People who wear "He Will Not Divide Us" and "Love Trumps Hate" t-shirts are not members of a cult of antipersonality by that fact alone. Just because there's no election now. They are just showing and broadcasting opinions. Which is specifically protected by our Bill of Rights.
People wear crosses outside of Easter and Christmas, that isn't cultism. There are normal versions of things.
"People are LITERALLY CURRENTLY WEARING HATS." Oh the humanity.
On March 13 2026 17:47 Liquid`Drone wrote:Show nested quote +On March 13 2026 13:23 ETisME wrote:On March 13 2026 12:36 doubleupgradeobbies! wrote:On March 13 2026 11:55 ETisME wrote:On March 13 2026 10:08 doubleupgradeobbies! wrote:On March 13 2026 09:53 LightSpectra wrote:
Trump hasn't done a goddamn single thing in the United States' interests, just the interests of his megadonors.
Nobody is shocked when the USA does selfish things, the international shock is at the fact that Americans are letting open corruption and willful ignorance shoot ourselves in the face. As an international person. I must say, while your internal Fascism and corruption problem maybe... not so much shocking as uncomfortable to watch. (I may not be representative in that I don't find it shocking, not sure here) I assure you, and I'm confident I'm more representative here, our attention is far less on the US shooting itself in the face, and far more on when it threatens to, or actually does, sometimes literally, shoot other members of the international community in the face. On a scale measuring fascism, Australia and Europe are pretty up there. Way tougher internet speech control, rise of far right like One Nation. Germany is actively targeting AFD to get it off political stage, EU targeting chat encryption. Absolutely, we've had actual neo-Nazis out in the streets not that long ago. We absolutely have fascists here. While I might find their very presence in the country unpleasant, I can appreciate, that sort of militaristic nationalism is to some extent just a political leaning, and the world has people of that leaning everywhere. I wouldn't say we have a fascism problem in the same way though. Fortunately, I wouldn't characterise our actual government actions as broadly fascist (yet). There are certainly some steps towards authoritarianism. But it'd be pretty hard to characterise any of them as being motivated by any sort of militarism, nationalism or even any sort of popularism, and certainly nothing to do with race/genetics/ethnicity. Likewise, if in the US, there just happened to be some fascists idiologues, even coupled with some actual authoritarian actions in government, I wouldn't have characterised it as a "Fascism problem'. But when a government is a) ignoring the existing political checks and balances. b) being militaristic (ok this one is par for the course) c) spouting nationalist rhetoric about how other countries are taking advantage of you d) rounding up immigrants in a way that it's clear, at least for the people doing the actual rounding up, is ethnically motivated and e) talking about wanting to take territory from other countries because 'you need them'. I think at that stage it's not too far fetched to suggest you may be 'doing a fascism'. In a problematic way. That's why I said on a scale of fascism, none are there. The 4 elements of what fascism is: 1. Cult like worship 2. Hyper nationalism 3. Surveillance / control over in information 4. Glorified military strength Many of these do overlap with Nationalism/ Authoritarianism. I think it's obvious that the US isn't one, you can obviously see how quick of a fall off Trump has. He was also elected to solve domestic problems and end wars, not starting wars. The people in the US aren't wanting that neither. All of these require government to have strong control over information flow. And the public in these Europe and Australia are far open to allowing these options, while having pretty strong far right rise right now. In some way the line of thinking shouldn't be authoritarianism not quite as bad as fascism. I would say Mao's China is one of the worst regimes, literally destroyed thousands of years of traditions and social construct, and huge famines with loss of lives. It also participated in war and enabled other mass loss of lives under communisms. I think both of these are true: The US under Trump is less fascist than any country/regime of the past universally recognized as fascist, and - the US under Trump has moved in a fascist direction in all four of these elements. Trump has cultivated a personality cult unlike that of any other president (but it's still not imposed upon the nation as a whole and unlike fascist regimes, a regular citizen can freely express their hatred for Trump. However, not necessarily if they want to be employed by the state.) Hyper nationalism - obviously.
I think this framing may be poisoned.
If you take a very leftist state and culture, and they become slightly more patriotic, have you not directionally moved "towards fascism?" This seems to pathologize normal things like the military, supporting leaders you like, police, etc. Or conversely tacitly assumes the correctness of the idea of revolution for undoing/redoing those things.
But mainly caught this:
On March 13 2026 17:47 Liquid`Drone wrote:
Number 4 - they've literally had military parades for the first time in American history. If you look at the Umberto Eco list, you'll get a similar result - it's not at the level (or even close to it) of regimes that are universally recognized as fascist, but it's moving in that direction for a large majority of the 14 points.
The military parades fairly often. It's the practical application of what they learn and practice marching for. Besides discipline. It's not to prepare for Napoleonic warfare.
Authoritarian regimes militarize for various reasons. But democracies also have militaries. The people in the "demos" are also the ones who have to be the soldiers.
Instead of just saying plainly the statement that Trump had military parades "for the first time in American history" is trivially wrong or hyperbole, what are your standards for a "parade" that you're talking about? What made you think they'd never ever paraded before? I mean the US probably never paraded as much as the USSR, sure. Like there's just marching, there's marching with other people, and there's also having trucks and tanks and trailers of fake or real ICBMs and stuff. DPRK's parades are big, but perhaps not often. The thing is for braggadocio, and for outreach, the US is so ahead of others that there is a cultural difference you may miss. The US does air shows first. Better than the USSR's parades. US air shows mog basically anything. They're spectacular. But they don't go down Main Street or through Central Park like a parade.
All Trump's added is the Army and the Union's 250th anniversary parades. Which seem important things to commemorate.
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On March 13 2026 21:11 Harris1st wrote:Show nested quote +On March 13 2026 11:55 ETisME wrote:On March 13 2026 10:08 doubleupgradeobbies! wrote:On March 13 2026 09:53 LightSpectra wrote:
Trump hasn't done a goddamn single thing in the United States' interests, just the interests of his megadonors.
Nobody is shocked when the USA does selfish things, the international shock is at the fact that Americans are letting open corruption and willful ignorance shoot ourselves in the face. As an international person. I must say, while your internal Fascism and corruption problem maybe... not so much shocking as uncomfortable to watch. (I may not be representative in that I don't find it shocking, not sure here) I assure you, and I'm confident I'm more representative here, our attention is far less on the US shooting itself in the face, and far more on when it threatens to, or actually does, sometimes literally, shoot other members of the international community in the face. On a scale measuring fascism, Australia and Europe are pretty up there. Way tougher internet speech control, rise of far right like One Nation. Germany is actively targeting AFD to get it off political stage, EU targeting chat encryption. What the actual fuck are you talking about? Those are just blatant lies. You are just a liar
I think it’s just massive overconfidence. Every topic he thinks he’s an expert even if he has just a 10,000 foot view. Then whatever assumptions he makes he believes are true because he thinks of himself as so incredibly smart. And it is every single topic that he discusses in this matter. It is both fascinating and frustrating to watch, but rather hard to follow because he treats these assumptions as facts but often forgets to mention them as if they are common knowledge, not realizing he made them up in his head.
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On March 13 2026 16:31 baal wrote:Show nested quote +On March 11 2026 22:16 LightSpectra wrote:On March 11 2026 15:31 baal wrote:On March 09 2026 23:51 LightSpectra wrote:On March 09 2026 10:37 baal wrote:On March 08 2026 22:35 LightSpectra wrote:
Afghanistan is a country of est. 40 million and the NATO mission committed no more than 18,000 troops at a time to holding it. The total U. S. armed forces plus reserves is over 2,000,000 people, so the security force in Afghanistan is about 0.009% of what you're calling "the full force of the US military". there werent 40 million taliban combatants and the RoE would be very differnt, the US military can't just carpet bomb Los Angeles to kill armed citizens, the more the military escalates aggression the more internal turnmoil within it ranks happen, soldiers aren't going to blow up their own families, thats how civil war factions are formed. What Afghanistan proved is that no matter how many planes and tanks you have to control a population you need boots on the ground and people to surrender, unless you are willing to obliterate them which isn't an option in a civil war. What Afghanistan proved is that 18,000 troops being supplied from the other hemisphere can't hold a mountainous country of 40 million. It in no way proves that no government on Earth is capable of winning a civil war against insurgents using guerilla tactics, especially the richest government with the most well-funded military in human history. A perfectly loyal army, willing to kill their own friends and neighbors, to level its own infrastructure, that is not a realistic scenario in a civil war, however against an unarmed populous you only need a few bullets to seed enough fear to drive ppl into submission. You are again ignoring that many governments have indeed won civil wars/defeated insurgents throughout history. You can't just throw out platitudes and then cherrypick evidence for it. If civilians in Venezuela and Cuba were armed they would have staged an armed resistance that would likely develop into toppling the regime, maybe some external actors fund one side or the other, but the thing is, if the population is armed its much more difficult for dictators to take root. Hilariously uninformed. There are numerous militias in Venezuela. It's lawful to own personal weapons in Cuba. Talking with some of you is just... bizarre, you call others uninformed and then throw the dumbest imaginable statement ever like Cuban civilians owning guns. It's literally one of the countries with least civilian gun ownership in the entire world for fucks sake. In Venezuela a civilian carrying a gun has a 20 year sentence, the militias are pro-regime to suppress civilians you maniac.
Please don't use that "AI overview" shit. We should not normalize it. There is an actual internet out there, with actual sources. Use those. They are right below the AI spam in the search.
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On March 13 2026 22:04 oBlade wrote:Show nested quote +On March 13 2026 15:29 doubleupgradeobbies! wrote:On March 13 2026 13:23 ETisME wrote:
That's why I said on a scale of fascism, none are there.
The 4 elements of what fascism is:
1. Cult like worship
2. Hyper nationalism
3. Surveillance / control over in information
4. Glorified military strength
Many of these do overlap with Nationalism/ Authoritarianism.
I think it's obvious that the US isn't one, you can obviously see how quick of a fall off Trump has.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN?!?!? Points 2-4 are just part for the course for the US and has been for decades upon decades now, if not longer. For point 1, people are literally currently wearing hats with his campaign slogan around their everyday lives. Not like, around just election time, or at explicitly political gatherings, just in their normal lives. Hats are not a cult of personality. Hats are clothing. Writing on them can express support. You can't pathologize only support and not opposition. You end up with a lopsided worldview where revolutionary opposition is the default moral good and supporting things is evil.
They weren't arguing that MAGA is a cult only because they wear hats, so please don't strawman them.
Besides, there's so much more to consider, from purity testing / gatekeeping of Republicans based on how pro-Trump they are, listening to Trump over experts on pretty much anything, buying all his low-quality grifts, and making excuses for all his crimes. MAGA is absolutely a cult.
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you don't need to prepare Napoleonic warfare when Trump is already having "little excursions"... with big geopolitical implications casting shadows so wide even "totally energy independent" USA is now an enjoyer of higher gas prices. and higher inflation.
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On March 13 2026 22:07 Billyboy wrote:Show nested quote +On March 13 2026 21:11 Harris1st wrote:On March 13 2026 11:55 ETisME wrote:On March 13 2026 10:08 doubleupgradeobbies! wrote:On March 13 2026 09:53 LightSpectra wrote:
Trump hasn't done a goddamn single thing in the United States' interests, just the interests of his megadonors.
Nobody is shocked when the USA does selfish things, the international shock is at the fact that Americans are letting open corruption and willful ignorance shoot ourselves in the face. As an international person. I must say, while your internal Fascism and corruption problem maybe... not so much shocking as uncomfortable to watch. (I may not be representative in that I don't find it shocking, not sure here) I assure you, and I'm confident I'm more representative here, our attention is far less on the US shooting itself in the face, and far more on when it threatens to, or actually does, sometimes literally, shoot other members of the international community in the face. On a scale measuring fascism, Australia and Europe are pretty up there. Way tougher internet speech control, rise of far right like One Nation. Germany is actively targeting AFD to get it off political stage, EU targeting chat encryption. What the actual fuck are you talking about? Those are just blatant lies. You are just a liar I think it’s just massive overconfidence. Every topic he thinks he’s an expert even if he has just a 10,000 foot view. Then whatever assumptions he makes he believes are true because he thinks of himself as so incredibly smart. And it is every single topic that he discusses in this matter. It is both fascinating and frustrating to watch, but rather hard to follow because he treats these assumptions as facts but often forgets to mention them as if they are common knowledge, not realizing he made them up in his head.
I am rather impressed by your ability to understand and explain their "logic" or lack thereof. Kudos to you.
For me it's more like somebody took a shit in their brain and forgot to stir
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On March 13 2026 22:20 Harris1st wrote:Show nested quote +On March 13 2026 22:07 Billyboy wrote:On March 13 2026 21:11 Harris1st wrote:On March 13 2026 11:55 ETisME wrote:On March 13 2026 10:08 doubleupgradeobbies! wrote:On March 13 2026 09:53 LightSpectra wrote:
Trump hasn't done a goddamn single thing in the United States' interests, just the interests of his megadonors.
Nobody is shocked when the USA does selfish things, the international shock is at the fact that Americans are letting open corruption and willful ignorance shoot ourselves in the face. As an international person. I must say, while your internal Fascism and corruption problem maybe... not so much shocking as uncomfortable to watch. (I may not be representative in that I don't find it shocking, not sure here) I assure you, and I'm confident I'm more representative here, our attention is far less on the US shooting itself in the face, and far more on when it threatens to, or actually does, sometimes literally, shoot other members of the international community in the face. On a scale measuring fascism, Australia and Europe are pretty up there. Way tougher internet speech control, rise of far right like One Nation. Germany is actively targeting AFD to get it off political stage, EU targeting chat encryption. What the actual fuck are you talking about? Those are just blatant lies. You are just a liar I think it’s just massive overconfidence. Every topic he thinks he’s an expert even if he has just a 10,000 foot view. Then whatever assumptions he makes he believes are true because he thinks of himself as so incredibly smart. And it is every single topic that he discusses in this matter. It is both fascinating and frustrating to watch, but rather hard to follow because he treats these assumptions as facts but often forgets to mention them as if they are common knowledge, not realizing he made them up in his head. I am rather impressed by your ability to understand and explain their "logic" or lack thereof. Kudos to you. For me it's more like somebody took a shit in their brain and forgot to stir
LOL, thank you. I clearly have too much time on my hands.
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On March 13 2026 05:57 GreenHorizons wrote:Show nested quote +On March 13 2026 05:25 Jankisa wrote:On March 13 2026 04:50 GreenHorizons wrote:On March 13 2026 01:38 Jankisa wrote:On March 13 2026 01:14 GreenHorizons wrote:On March 13 2026 01:00 LightSpectra wrote:On March 13 2026 00:15 GreenHorizons wrote:
The reality is that white men (and to a lesser degree women) are the voters fucking it up for the rest of humanity >98% of voters of all races in the United States vote for Democrats or Republicans. How curious to say this when believing in uniparty imperialism, since Democrats would win everything if white men and most white women vanished overnight, who according to you are either just as bad or negligibly better. over 90,000,000 people didn't vote for either of them because the majority of the country finds both of them unfavorable but have been convinced they have no alternative. I think we all would actually agree that we'd be far better off if Democrats took their rightful place as the far-right edge of arguably sane party politics in the US. On March 13 2026 01:08 Jankisa wrote:On March 13 2026 00:43 GreenHorizons wrote:On March 13 2026 00:32 Jankisa wrote:On March 13 2026 00:15 GreenHorizons wrote:On March 12 2026 05:39 Jankisa wrote:[quote] + Show Spoiler +
OK, so, I was, just like you, disillusioned by Obama, I bought the "hope and change" shtick and honestly thought that he might be a revolutionary leader for USA.
Then years went by. I saw that USA is a country that can elect Trump. The more time passed by the more I begun realizing that USA is a very broken country and that Obama's terms were basically a miracle.
Look at how many times it was brought up that he actually tried to deal with Iran and Cuba in a pragmatic way. Gradually, hearts and minds, compromises.
Obama's foreign policy gets a lot of shit, as it should, but his biggest failure, the reaction to Russian seizing of Crimea was something that was shared with allies, since Europeans were not alarmed he went with their vibes, I think all of them were week cowards for that, but I can understand it.
On Syria, similarly, Obama tried to actually listen to the public and ask Congress, he fucked up with the red line but his intentions were good.
With healthcare, again, he fucked up and listened to moderates and corporatists telling him doing anything more then he did was impossible, even then, his policies including ACA did a lot of good for a lot of people.
Being a head of USA is a hard job, Obama was not perfect, I'm sure that some of the things I interpret as fuckups were deliberate calculations of a politician with interests other then my own, still, compared to every other president in the last 40 years he was fucking amazing.
I would kill for another Obama, asking for more is just not being practical when you see where the USA is today, I don't get how you don't understand that. No you wouldn't. Otherwise, I'm sure you can find people willing to sponsor your travel lol. It's not that I don't understand your thinking about practicality. This typical "white moderate" Niemöllerism masked as "practicality" neglects the fact that all of the best science says your idea of "practical" leads to us all to certain doom. On March 12 2026 06:35 Gorsameth wrote:
[quote]Because GH doesn't accept that the USA is deeply deeply conservative.
Not nearly as much as people think, and we're making progress, despite those like yourselves that have fought us every step of the way.
The latest Fox News survey, released Thursday, finds a record 38% think it would be a good thing for the United States to move away from capitalism and in the direction of socialism — up from 32% in 2022, the last time the question was asked. In 2010, a low of 18% backed socialism
. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fox-news-poll-socialism-gaining-ground-among-votersThe reality is that white men (and to a lesser degree women) are the voters fucking it up for the rest of humanity The task before us is to make socialism more real in our lives, not convince potential socialists to fall in line with the status quo which promises them certain doom. I honestly find it hilarious that you are referencing "science" in order to defend your completely pie in the sky approach to USA politics. What science is it? Das Kapital? Perhaps the works of Chomsky, who field tested his manufacturing consent techniques with his pal Epstein. As an European and as compared to Trump I long for Obama, fuck man, even Biden was amazing to compared to this, so I find it very rich that you think that "no I wouldn't". + Show Spoiler +I think your main problem is that you don't have the ability to understand that people with different opinions and views on the world that might be right exist, it makes you very obnoxious to deal with. You a climate denier too now? You literally wouldn't. "Manufacturing Consent" had some valuable insights, but I'm not really a fan of Chomsky. I come to socialism through the Black radical tradition (something seemingly no one here has any familiarity with beyond what I've explained). EDIT: I remember Mohdoo has read some Cedric Robinson and been better for it though. It's hard to understand you + Show Spoiler + when you are trying to be as pretentious as possible.
Since you seem to be extra delusional, here are some milestones on climate change fight:
Beneficial Climate Policies of the last 20 years:
Inflation Reduction Act - Biden
Ratification of the Kigali Amendment - Obama
Signing the Paris Agreement - Obama
Clean Power Plan - Obama
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act - Obama
Detrimental Climate Policies of the last 20 years:
Repeal of the EPA Endangerment Finding - Trump
2 x Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement - Trump
Rescission of Methane Pollution Standards - Trump
Rescission of NEPA Climate Review Regulations - Trump
Repeal of the Clean Power Plan - Trump
Great gotcha there, you are very smart! I think it is a skill issue. You'd probably have better luck copy pasting it into an AI and having it explain it to you. Great deflection buddy, really shows how smart you are! You throw out a stupid example, gets told that it's stupid, with receipts and then you throw a temper tantrum because only AI can make a list of policies, right? + Show Spoiler +People voted for Biden, more people then ever, actually.
Then, Biden and Harris got panned and attacked for their "progressiveness", they got attacked by both right and left (this is where you and the rest of your ilk comes in) on everything else, the voter turnout was depressed and Trump won with a much larger margin then before.
I personally don't think the biggest reasons have anything to do with their progressiveness or lack of it, as stated many times, but it sure as fuck isn't because 90 million socialists stayed home because Kamala wasn't pure enough.
The only person in this thread, including both "centrists", normal progressives, leftists and right wingers who thinks that USA has a deep pool of untapped socialists is you. There is no one else, there is no polling, there are no political results, there is nothing, yet you refuse to live in reality.
You are just as delusional and lying to yourself and others as oBlade, and you are also getting triggered when shown who full of shit you are, just like oBlade.
Horseshoe theory in practice.
Also, occasionally it hits me how fucking funny it is that you (used to before tucking your tail and running away) used to stan for Russia against Ukraine, the most openly fascist country in the modern world, while you are trying to sell yourself as a progressive here.
Tankies man, brain rot is real. I'm talking about reading comprehension and how (apparently) a lack of it is impeding your (and Light, Gors, etc) ability to follow/make a coherent argument in response to what I'm saying. Instead you make strawmen like "90 million socialists stayed home because Kamala wasn't pure enough" and "only AI can make a list of policies, right?" to triumphantly defeat and self-soothe. I was saying that you copy pasting my post (and now our responses) into an AI would likely help you understand why your responses are nonsensical/silly/oblivious because it is not emotionally wrapped up in this discussion and could more easily articulate the logic presented. Unfortunately, brainrot is OP and you didn't/don't understand that. It's basically a "weather vs climate" discussion with you guys talking about the weather while I'm talking about the climate. The potential overlap would be in non-reformist reforms I'm still hoping we could all at least agree on us all being better off if Democrats took their rightful place as the far-right edge of sanity in US 2-party politics? I find it hilarious that you think that I need AI to reply to your drivel, but you do you buddy. Anyhow, I think that there is something with your analogy, weather vs climate. So if you are the guy worried about the climate, and we are the people worried about the weather, you are the guy lecturing us how stupid we are for not looking at the climate all the while we are trying to board up the house and get the family to the tornado shelter. No one cares about the climate during a storm, when shit is bad, you deal with things one thing at the time, we can worry about the climate when it's nice and sunny, when we are literally drowning in fucking fascism it's prudent on trying to find pragmatic ways to get out of it. I don't think you should need it, but I can definitely see how it could help you integrate the BRT context into your analysis without me having to write a treatise or you having to read several books. Basically, part of what I'm pointing out is that there are already people drowning and dying no matter how well you board up the house (in part because it's full of " white club" members and built on their exploitation as a foundation) and you're effectively irrefutably Niemöllering those people. Another part is that the "storm" isn't attacking the system, it is/is a product of the system.
I'm sure the people drawining will be much better if we all stop trying to address the intimidate threat and focus on attacking the only people who are able to do something about the storm.
Again, none of the positive developments for people of color or LGBTQ folks came from some fictional socialists, all of them came because "white moderates” came on board, they didn't come on board because people insulted them or kept screaming at them how they are a part of the problem, they came on board when they saw they are on the wrong side of history.
What you are doing, actively, is saying that both parties in the US are villains, creating a false equivalence and alienating 80 % of the electorate, I have to read exactly 0 books to see that what you are doing is stupid and counter productive.
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Norway28761 Posts
Sorry Oblade about the military parades, that was indeed entirely wrong. I recalled something about Trump adding a new parade for his birthday or whatever and wrongly internalized it in my brain and then regurgiated it without thinking.
I still think the point that Trump's regime is glorifying military strength to a greater degree than other presidents is correct though, even if the second half of that sentence I wrote is entirely wrong.
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Norway28761 Posts
On March 13 2026 22:07 Simberto wrote:Show nested quote +On March 13 2026 16:31 baal wrote:On March 11 2026 22:16 LightSpectra wrote:On March 11 2026 15:31 baal wrote:On March 09 2026 23:51 LightSpectra wrote:On March 09 2026 10:37 baal wrote:On March 08 2026 22:35 LightSpectra wrote:
Afghanistan is a country of est. 40 million and the NATO mission committed no more than 18,000 troops at a time to holding it. The total U. S. armed forces plus reserves is over 2,000,000 people, so the security force in Afghanistan is about 0.009% of what you're calling "the full force of the US military". there werent 40 million taliban combatants and the RoE would be very differnt, the US military can't just carpet bomb Los Angeles to kill armed citizens, the more the military escalates aggression the more internal turnmoil within it ranks happen, soldiers aren't going to blow up their own families, thats how civil war factions are formed. What Afghanistan proved is that no matter how many planes and tanks you have to control a population you need boots on the ground and people to surrender, unless you are willing to obliterate them which isn't an option in a civil war. What Afghanistan proved is that 18,000 troops being supplied from the other hemisphere can't hold a mountainous country of 40 million. It in no way proves that no government on Earth is capable of winning a civil war against insurgents using guerilla tactics, especially the richest government with the most well-funded military in human history. A perfectly loyal army, willing to kill their own friends and neighbors, to level its own infrastructure, that is not a realistic scenario in a civil war, however against an unarmed populous you only need a few bullets to seed enough fear to drive ppl into submission. You are again ignoring that many governments have indeed won civil wars/defeated insurgents throughout history. You can't just throw out platitudes and then cherrypick evidence for it. If civilians in Venezuela and Cuba were armed they would have staged an armed resistance that would likely develop into toppling the regime, maybe some external actors fund one side or the other, but the thing is, if the population is armed its much more difficult for dictators to take root. Hilariously uninformed. There are numerous militias in Venezuela. It's lawful to own personal weapons in Cuba. Talking with some of you is just... bizarre, you call others uninformed and then throw the dumbest imaginable statement ever like Cuban civilians owning guns. It's literally one of the countries with least civilian gun ownership in the entire world for fucks sake. In Venezuela a civilian carrying a gun has a 20 year sentence, the militias are pro-regime to suppress civilians you maniac. Please don't use that "AI overview" shit. We should not normalize it. There is an actual internet out there, with actual sources. Use those. They are right below the AI spam in the search.
Yeah, it says 'thegunwriter' right under, and searching for 'thegunwriter' and 'cuba' I get sources like https://thegunwriter.substack.com/p/q-and-a-with-a-cuban-expert-on-the and why cuba has one of the lowest civilian gun rates, and it seems reasonably legit, and baal's statement seems largely correct.
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Substack isn't a reliable source unless the person who owns it is an established journalist or something similar. It's essentially just a personal blog. Just skimming through those, it's written by someone who thinks "gun ownership=freedom" with no other critical thoughts, and has numerous unsourced quotations and out of context facts.
Having said that, it is true that Cuba does have low personal gun ownership, but "people would have overthrown the government already if they owned more guns" is like eight logical steps away from that point.
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doubleupgradeobbies!
Australia1213 Posts
On March 13 2026 22:04 oBlade wrote:
Hats are not a cult of personality. Hats are clothing. Writing on them can express support.
Yes, hats are clothing, Writing on them can express support, nice cherry picking.
Do you often see other large groups of wearing any other political slogan around in their every day life outside of an explicitly political context?
Of course hats are just the visible outward symptom in the context of a cohort of people people who will swallow bullshit like '[tarriffs] have made us very rich as a country' or 'I will build a wall, and I will have Mexico pay for that wall'.
On March 13 2026 22:04 oBlade wrote:
You can't pathologize only support and not opposition. You end up with a lopsided worldview where revolutionary opposition is the default moral good and supporting things is evil.
In the context of a forum discussion, I absolutely can. Because, in the context of my point, the opposition being a cult would neither negate the support being a cult, nor does it in any way effect whether or not this is an indicator of fascism.
I notice this seems to be the one pet issue you seem to be insistent that people don't forget to 'both sides' on.
To take a random quote from your history (was the first quote i found outside of this thread where you were vaguely critical of something).
And amazingly the exact same undeserved deference Boeing seems to have gotten in this case, SpaceX seems to be getting in the case of the lunar lander contract.
if I were to level the criticism like:
'Why are you focusing on only the undeserving deference of Boeing and SpaceX? Just declare these as undeserving without also pointing out their competitors who are also undeserving (I don't know, Blue Origin or something). Why are you not mentioning when these companies HAVE succeeded on projects in the past.'
You would rightfully tell me, that because this is not how normal people conduct conversation or discussion. They tend to only mention things that are pertinent to the point at hand or the issue discussed.
If this were the only issue which I ever insisted people always considered the other side of, I would be suspected of being either a really big fan of one or both of those companies, or really fucking weird.
People who wear "He Will Not Divide Us" and "Love Trumps Hate" t-shirts are not members of a cult of antipersonality by that fact alone. Just because there's no election now. They are just showing and broadcasting opinions. Which is specifically protected by our Bill of Rights.
Ok, sure, if there were large numbers of people doing this outside of specifically political contexts, that might not technically be a cult because there isn't a central figure of support here... but I agree, the thought behind it is pretty culty. I don't really see how the Bill of Rights is relevant. Cult-like behaviour isn't necessarily (or even usually) illegal?
People wear crosses outside of Easter and Christmas, that isn't cultism. There are normal versions of things.
I mean, if you were a part of a really coercive sept or parish or actual offshoot cult, it could be, context matters.
Organised religion does ironically meet most of the conditions of a cult other than the 'relatively small' part of the collective.
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Northern Ireland26359 Posts
On March 13 2026 23:20 Liquid`Drone wrote:
Sorry Oblade about the military parades, that was indeed entirely wrong. I recalled something about Trump adding a new parade for his birthday or whatever and wrongly internalized it in my brain and then regurgiated it without thinking.
I still think the point that Trump's regime is glorifying military strength to a greater degree than other presidents is correct though, even if the second half of that sentence I wrote is entirely wrong.
It’s the internet in 2026, one does not admit if one got something wrong!
In seriousness the general presentation of this regime absolutely does trend that way. Some of the most trivial things are probably most symbolic of that, i.e. the Department of War rebrand, the Gulf of America nonsense.
Other more impactful things may tick certain boxes but can plausibly encompass other motivations, but those two are basically entirely about nationalist flexing, of the emphasising strength and power variety
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Northern Ireland26359 Posts
@ doubleupgradeobbies as the quotes have been messed up beyond my willingness to repair haha
Aside from being cringe and basically ruining the wearing of red baseball caps for everyone else (Fred Durst is especially annoyed) they’re symbols of a cult only because of other cultish behaviours.
Fans of sportsball of various kind wear replica kits or other merch on the regular, and frequently exhibit extreme tribalism without the cult accusation being levied.
If their team is playing shit, generally the fans of said team are the first to call it out, and the angriest about it.
Trump stans on the other hand will give him a pass for basically anything, and will do a complete 180 on a supposedly deeply felt condition if the Donald proclaims it.
OBlade isn’t an idiot, they can’t not observe this phenomenon outside of living in some bubble isolated from most mass media forms, which patently isn’t the case.
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Oh, definitely not a cult:
No sir, they would never do anything culty:
It is, after all, quite normal for people to stick shit on their heads and dress in garbage bags in order to support their candidate!
Oh, also the people who head the cult would never exploit their cultists by selling them all kinds of stupid shit, no sir!
The dear cult leader would never do a rug-pull on his followers:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2025/06/05/this-is-how-much-trump-has-made-from-crypto-so-far/
Or plaster his face on goverment buildings:
All perfectly normal behaviour, whenever I'm in Germany I see Mertz everywhere, you walk the streets of Paris you can't find an alley where Macron's piercing eyes are looking at you, this is all completely normal, non fascist shit:
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On March 13 2026 23:53 WombaT wrote:
OBlade isn’t an idiot, they can’t not observe this phenomenon outside of living in some bubble isolated from most mass media forms, which patently isn’t the case.
You can't prove that, on the contrary there is plenty of evidence that he is one.
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