This would be a valid argument for Trump 2016, when people had little to no clue what we were all in for.

People believe, first and foremost, the evidence of their own lived experiences. This isn’t rational but it is how we’re programmed to operate. And the lived experience of most voters is that, financially, they’re doing worse under Biden than they were under Trump. They don’t care that most of that was because of factors that weren’t really directly connected to White House policy decisions (in the same way that the President doesn’t control the price of gas); they just see that they are suffering, and feel that the people in charge must be responsible. It doesn’t matter how terrible you tell them Trump’s policies were compared to Bidens (and in case I somehow have to spell out my position here, yes, of course Trump’s policies were terrible compared to Biden’s) because they know how much money is in their bank account and that’s really all that matters. Telling these people how much better off the country is doesn’t mean shit if they’re struggling to pay rent and buy groceries.

But in 2024, Trump wasn’t saying “I’ll help you”. Trump was actively campaigning on grabbing you by the legs and pulling you deeper underwater.

Let’s not be asinine. Of course Trump was saying “I’ll help you.” Yes, you and I have the context to examine his proposed solutions and immediately conclude that they will make things worse, but that’s not a context that everyone shares. Like I already said, these people are drowning. Most people don’t have enough understanding of policy to really judge the details of Trump’s plans, and they don’t have the time or attention to gain that understanding of policy. They’re not interested in arguing over the details of how someone plans to save them, they just want to be saved. And they don’t even have to be 100% convinced that Trump will be the better choice. Not even 50%, or 30%. What they are 100% convinced of, because it is the unquestionable evidence sitting right in front of them, is that they’re poorer now than they were at the start of Biden’s term, and that Harris, when asked what she would have done different, said “Not a thing.” If there’s even a 10% chance, in their eyes, that Trump’s bullshit turns out to work, he’s the better option, because it’s obvious to them that there’s a 0% chance that things will get better with the Dems. You can tell them all you like that Trump’s policies are awful, but when the thing you propose instead is voting for the people who - as they see it - made things so much worse for them over the last four years, they’re going to look at you like you’re crazy.

It never mattered what Trump was promising. Not in specific sense. It only mattered that he promised things would get better. The how was irrelevant.

When you’re drowning, and someone says “I’ll help you!” you don’t ask them to lay out their exact plan. You just throw out your hand and hope they’ll take it.

These people made a very simple calculation; “I know I’ll continue to drown with the Dems. I know this because that’s exactly what they’ve promised; four more years of slowly drowning. With Trump, there’s a chance that maybe he’ll make things better. A chance is better than no chance.”

Based on that calculation, they did exactly what you’re asking them to do. They voted for the least bad option.

The economic factor is easily the biggest blindspot in the Dem’s campaign. We’re still seeing articles right now about how Biden “fixed” the economy only to hand it over to Trump to destroy again…

They’re absolutely stuck on this idea that Biden was great for the economy because metrics like GDP and the S&P 500 went up, all the whole ignoring the simple fact that those numbers only represent meaningful gains for the wealthy. With mounting inflation and stagnant wages, most people are poorer than ever.

They lost because they promised “four more years of this”, and “this” was “you getting poorer every day.” It’s really that simple.

McConnell helped to stack the supreme court with the same right wing hardliners who torpedoed any attempt to prosecute Trump. McConnell helped install judges like Eileen Cannon. McConnell refused to impeach Trump. There are so many ways in which what is happening now is directly his fault.

This is just straight up misinformation. Lina Khan’s FTC was extremely hostile to large mergers, frequently suing to stop them, and that’s a very good thing. They also were working on several large antitrust cases, including one that they won against Google. They are literally in the process of breaking up a monopoly as I write this.

All of that is going to get flushed down the fucking toilet now that the Republicans are back in. Good job America.

FUD means “Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.” I’m not following how you think that’s what’s happening here? I mean, I think you’re accusing the Kodokawa execs of bullshitting, but what they’re expressing is the opposite of FUD.

Lina Khan was one of the best things to happen to the world in decades, and probably 99% percent of you fuckers don’t even know who she is.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think pipx can allow you to just put a shebang at the top of a script that automatically installs all the required dependencies the first time you run it?

What I really like about this, unless I’m missing something, is that it basically lets you create Python scripts that run in exactly the same way as shell scripts. I work with a lot of people who have pretty good basic Linux knowledge, but are completely at a loss when it comes to python specific stuff. Being able to send them a script that they can just +x and run sounds like a huge hassle saver.

Tribes was an incredible series. I’ve played every game in the series, but I think it really peaked with Tribes 2. That game was basically perfect. The movement, the gunplay, the vehicles, the maps, all of it was spot on.

There was never a social contract. Sorry, but that’s absolute nonsense. The power of the wealthy has always been engacted through manipulation, intimidation and fraud. Claiming there was a social contract between the wealthy and the rest of us is like claiming that there was a social contract between slaves and slave owners.

There’s no contract, there’s no agreement, there’s no relationship; that’s a fantasy concocted by the wealthy to justify their wealth. There is only power and exploitation. And exploitation will always grow worse over time.

They abuse us, and we let them abuse us because we’re not desperate enough to stop them.

Not yet.

But it’s getting there.

Absolutely, hence why they do have to say that the motive is unclear. While we all have strong theories about why this happened, there are plenty of other possibilities that have to be considered. Could have been taken out by his family for insurance money, could have been a business rival, the guy might have gotten in shit with the mob. At this point they just don’t know.

With this supreme court it was never going to go any other way.

This is the price of Trump’s first term. God only knows how high the cost of his second will be.

“The motive remains unclear” is one of those things that, as a journalist, you know you have to write because it is absolutely the truth, but you hate yourself for every letter of every word because you know how fucking stupid it sounds given the circumstances.

Your thoughts and prayers have been deemed not medically necessary.

They say “ideology” because they know they can’t say “people”… Yet.

Promising to be four more years of Biden was an astonishingly idiotic move.

And it’s not that Biden was an objectively terrible president. His administration did a lot of genuinely good things. But as you say, the Democrats completely failed to understand the degree to which the average voter is struggling.

The answer, as I understand it, is basically “Who the fuck knows?”

Every serious legal analyst seems to agree that the SC’s immunity decision is, uh… I think the technical term is “Total fucking lunacy.” It makes no sense, destroys a lot of existing legal precedent, and generally overturns many of the foundational principles of the US constitution. It’s batshit crazy, and the actual terms of the immunity and how it’s defined are astonishingly vague.

What the president can or cannot do right now is more or less “???”

This just means you’re figuring out what you like, and refusing to force yourself to enjoy trash.

Remember, 90% of anything is shit, and of that 10%, not all of it is going to appeal to your tastes.

On top of that, AAA gaming is a fucking wasteland right now. Publishers have squeezed all the life out of the medium in search of ongoing profit bonanzas. I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a AAA game, unless we count Cyberpunk which had the benefit of being self published, so I don’t really think that counts.

Oh, my bad, Elden Ring would definitely count as AAA. That was awesome (still need to finish it, and the DLC). But let’s be real, Elden Ring is great because it’s so different from the vast majority of the open world games out there.

Anyway, I mostly spend my time on mid-shelf, indie and self-published stuff, and even then the number of games I like is pretty small. My main go tos are Darktide, Warframe, Insurgency, Chivalry 2, The Finals (I guess that’s kind of mainstream?), Stellaris, and Total War Warhammer. I’ve also recently enjoyed VA-11-Hall-A, Slay The Princess, Shadows of Doubt, and Space Marine 2. Those were all pretty great.

I like that a lot of games get more long term support now. That’s really cool. It’s fun to be able to keep coming back to a game I like and finding new stuff.

But yeah, you don’t owe it to anyone to enjoy everything, and you owe it to yourself to not waste your time on things you don’t enjoy.

God, Outer Wilds is one of the most incredible gaming experiences I have ever had.

Huge respect to these people for raising their voices. The fact that there are Jews who feel strongly enough to do stuff like this does a lot to counter the narrative that only antisemites oppose the genocide in Gaza.