themeatbridge

I’m not confused about what racism is. You’re the one saying people who disagree with you are supporting racism.

Your definition of “racism” is limited to disagreeing with you.

If by Rudyard Kipling

Class wars aren’t political?

Current, but he’s a retired Marine chiropractor and guru.

I know, it just sounds like a movie starring Treat Williams and Steven Segal.

Are we really sticking withThe Adjuster?

As ugly as it is, at least it works. I kind of like offset spigots, but this was obviously just a mistake/laziness.

Is that too much to ask?

Somebody who needed $60k for medical expenses.

My mother is fairly religious, and she occasionally offers to take the kids to Sunday school. We decline, but sometimes we go attend her church for Christmas and Easter or if she’s singing a solo. Our kids are 9 and 11 and are both familiar with Christianity, and have a general understanding of most other religions. We haven’t told them what to believe, but we explained what we believe and that everyone gets to choose what they believe. They know grandma is a Christian, and they know I’m not.

I know my mom is disappointed that we aren’t doing more to indoctrinate our kids, but she has enough faith in Jesus to reach them, and I have enough faith in them to make good decisions either way.

I don’t think it’s OK, but I think it was entirely expected. I agree that his prosecution was political, and that most other defendants would have gotten much less focus. I also agree that he broke the law and should serve his time.

Ultimately, our entire system is corrupt and we should do something to fix it. Sadly, we’ll have to wait at least two years for the next election to hopefully at least take back the House and/or Senate. But even if Dems take both, nobody seems to be interested in actually addressing the injustice baked into our government.

I agree. If the aim was to avoid a primary, he should have stepped down two years ago and given Kamala a chance to establish a track record as the incumbent president. I don’t like either of them, but anything is better than a rapist, insurrectionist, kleptocratic felon.

I assumed that this meme was just a reference to his latest bullshit. I’m well aware of Biden’s record, and have been a consistent critic of his for my entire adult life. The earliest memory I have becoming aware of him was when he presided over the Anita Hill testimony.

Democrats keep losing because they have a fundamental misunderstanding of the game they are playing. Democracy is not a game of having the best ideas or plans or even character. You can win hearts and minds with passionate leadership and rational persuasion, but we’ll never win another election if that’s the only lever they want to press. It’s a progressive truism that people, given the same information and the same priorities, will reach the same conclusion. So therefore if a conservative has a difference of opinion, they must either not have the same information, or they must have different priorities. That’s why progressives are so frequently astounded at the hypocrisy and mental gymnastics required to support Trump while claiming any moral highground on any position.

How can they claim they want traditional family values when Trump is a thrice-divorced rapist with an obvious attraction to his own daughter? How can they oppose immigration when Trump has had two foreign national brides and Musk was an illegal immigrant? How can they oppose a woman’s right to choose when Trump has paid women to abort fetuses he sired? How can they claim to be patriotic while Trump gargles Putin’s sweaty raisin bag? How can they claim to want fiscal responsibility when Trump has driven his businesses into the ground, routinely declaring bankruptcy and using his political influence to line his own pockets? How can they claim to want lower costs of living when Trump plans to raise tariffs on imported goods, making literally everything more expensive?

The answer is that they don’t care. They don’t care about having all the information, or having true information. The conservative mind is not a rational actor. It’s not built on priorities or fundamental beliefs. There is only one core idea at the nexus of every conservative ideology:

Me good.

That’s it. That’s all there is. Dig down far enough, under all the bullshit and psychological spaghetti of beliefs, and you’ll find one nugget of truth. I am a good person, therefore whatever I want is good, and anyone that wants something else is bad. If it helps me to lie or cheat or murder, then I’ll do those things and they will be good because I did them to help me.

This has always been the comforting lie of conservative thought. Conservatives claim to want stoic preservation of national values, but the reality is that those values inexorably align with their own personal gain. It is not, as most conservatives prefer to believe, a resistance to change for change’s sake, but a narcissistic demand that all policies and decisions benefit themselves.

It’s more transparent now because Trump has worn thin the veneer of reasonable discretion, but the closer to the surface it gets, the more effective the messaging. It’s OK to be selfish, and ignorant, and cruel, and criminal, because deep down we deserve to do whatever we want. We deserve to get whatever we want. Anyone trying to keep it from us deserves to be destroyed. Anything we do to destroy those who would stop us is righteous. Cuz me good.

You’re never going to convince a conservative to vote for the lesser of two evils, because the greater of the two will simply lie to them. The greater evil will tell them they can have it all, that the dangers of climate change or viral pandemics aren’t real, that they don’t have to change their behavior or learn something new. They don’t have to get out of bed in the morning, they can stay warm under the covers and skip school or work or adulting, and everything will be just fine.

To win an election, you have to convince the conservatives that it is in their best interest to vote for the progressive candidate. That might sound like a tall order, but we already know how to do it. We already see the gameplan that works on all conservatives. We have seen how centrists and moderates and neoliberals win in conservative strongholds.

Progressives just need to start lying.

Depends on the critique. “Joe is a hypocrite for pardoning his son” is reasonable. “Joe proves that it’s normal for politicians to act unethically, therefore criticisms of all unethical behavior are invalidated by the rule of whataboutism” is a transparent defense of Republican corruption.

Agreed, those people are the best. But also, that’s a bit of a nightmare scenario, because now you have to decide if you’re going to risk saying something from five minutes ago, or decline the kindness and feel bad for rejecting the gesture.

TLDW: The moisture sensor might be on the right side of the microwave, and the bag was pointing left when the steam was released.

But that was definitely worth a watch.

Awkwardly attempt to join the conversation, only to be talked over mid-sentence by someone else, and so you wait for another lull. Attempt to start again, only to be interrupted again by someone else. Watch helplessly as the subject of the conversation drifts far from the point you were going to make. Minutes pass, and everyone is glad to be talking about something else. You let go of the moment, and resign yourself to remain quiet. Then someone says to you, “Oh, what were you going to say?”

I don’t think $200k is enough. That’s a lot of sleepless nights just from the itching. It would need to be enough money to afford to run my air-conditioning year round, on top of the mental anguish.

Do I have to keep it on during sex?