Ishmael [he/him]

We all change as we age, or at least we should to some degree. I’ve been very lucky to discover that some of my dearest long-term friends have also moved toward full-blown communist ideologies, but also have some friends who grew up rich who’ve moved more right as they’ve aged and money has isolated them from the working class. If you don’t feel like you can be who you are around them, they aren’t your friend. If you two simply disagree on things, then at least you could try having more spirited conversations to get them to see your point of view…

It’s either “thank you for your attention to this matter” or “PEACE!”. No in-between

Yeah I think it’s weird to just ask for “books” in general lol Like imagine any kid just asking for “video games” like they don’t care whether it’s Tetris or CoD

Asking for “books” in general for Christmas as an 11 year old? Yeah, this dude has been a turbo-nerd his whole life. And I say that as a former Asian kid who got books for Christmas as an 11-year-old.

There’s something incredibly funny about the way these LLMs are programmed to tell you that you’re wrong in the most polite way possible.

You warned me and it still hurt.

And then by the time Trump came round in 2016 and said “we never should have been in Iraq” all those same idiots agreed.

Well there is something to be said about how much simpler right-wing politics is, and how the audience susceptible to the messaging is less critical. The problem for big money corporate Dems is that the majority of Americans who don’t vote Republican are either too far left to agree with Democratic positions or too skeptical of politics in general to fall for focus-grouped big-donor-funded BS shoved in their faces. That’s why Bernie gained so much more momentum than any other Dem in 2016 and 2020. He had principles and a history of sticking to them. Hell, Obama was the last Democratic presidential candidate who vocally opposed the Iraq War.

The “hall monitor” image, as they put it, is inherent to liberalism. Because you always have to make excuses for terrible shit everyone can tell is terrible but then also pretend you care about a bunch of smaller social issues on the side that doesn’t affect most people. “More black women cops!” just feels artificial, and always will no matter how much money you throw at it.

It’s sort of funny how they just can’t understand that you can’t have “independent organically-developed Democrat-aligned media” that is also simultaneously 100% palatable to big money donors.

Well that was a rollercoaster of a wikipedia article

I imagine both you, SevenSkalls, and myself all were infected with these liberal brainworms at some point, otherwise this sort of perfect analysis of the liberal mindset would be even more impressive than it already is. Spot on.

Insert Homelander clip

Time for Illinois to make theirs malort

I love a good michelada, but I never had one when I lived in Ohio…

Yeah when they lost Matt, they lost someone who could express an emotion more raw and visceral than just detached sort of coked-out cynical laughter.

Hell yeah the return of RAP BAND

I often wonder how the residents of these Chinese cities feel. When I visit my hometown, there are many things that are different, but most of it is generally the same. Shenzhen was basically farmland and a fishing village 45 years ago and now it’s a city larger than NYC. Hard to imagine experiencing that day-to-day.

I remember asking a guy in the subway in NYC a question about which line took me to some place and he just said, “What do I look like? A map?” and walked off. It was like a cartoon. I been in Chicago now for 12 years and have never experienced anything like that

When I was a teenager, I literally had girls literally tell me they liked me but that I was too short, or they’d date me if I was taller. It bothered me a lot but I didn’t get weird and bitter about it or anything. The average height of a woman in the US is 5’4" so I was still able to find plenty of partners shorter than me or the same height or even a little taller, and the older I get the less it matters. I just always think of Prince who was 5’2" and just about the sexiest human alive. The hardest part is not internalizing American society’s standards.