Exactly! You get it.

About 20 trips to the grocery store and the associated gas prices.

You’re describing the Republican politicians. The Republican voters are a different bag entirely.

Out of the ones I have discussed politics with, their underlying motivations for supporting Trump are emotionally driven but explained through rhetoric aligning with their emotional motivations. It tends to be grouped into one of a few different feelings:

• cost of living/financial security — immigrants’ fault, taxes, foreign nations taking advantage of US generosity
• fear of change/bigotry — immigrants, “DEI”, “wokeness”, border security
• American exceptionalism/egotism — immigrants, 1st ammendment
• distrust of federal government — “DEI”, government corruption, regulatory overreach, socialism = communism
• distrust of industry — vaccines harmful, science bad

Aside from the bigotry and exceptionalism, those emotions aren’t necessarily wrong. Cost of living increases, politicians owned by lobbyists, and profit-driven privatization of essential services are actual problems. The issue with conservatives is that they have scapegoats to blame those problems on instead of acknowledging the underlying causes. All it takes is some loudmouth, ignorant jackass offering an overly-simplified, emotionally-compelling solution to a complex problem, and others will latch on to it, oversimplify and exaggerate it even more, and disseminate it until the rest of them start believing it.

People can be hateful, narcissistic pieces of shit, and it goes without saying that this repugnant rhetoric is spread intentionally. But, it’s also a direct consequence of a public education system failing among a landscape of patriotic propaganda and media controlled by a powerful few who put profit and self-gain above the health of society.

When someone grows up being told America is a flawless nation, that self-reliance is the foundational trait of success, is never educated to think critically of the government and media, and is bombarded by a neverending stream of false information that validates their fears and lulls them into feeling smarter than everyone else, they end up being indoctrinated into the right-wing cult we have today.

They won’t blame foundational American principles (like the economic ideology) for American problems—they were made to believe America is perfect. It must be something external (like immigrants) making their life worse.

They won’t question those they believe have authority over them—the teacher is always right. If Trump says it’s the Democrats fault, it’s the Democrats fault.

They won’t make an effort to understand other views—self-reliance is antithetical to empathy, and they had it ingrained which one was more important. The only person they can trust is themselves and by extension those who agree.

They also won’t need to understand other views. With the breadth of echo chambers available at the tip of their fingers, it’s easy to seek and reinforce conservative views, social connection, and validation. Chuck McFuck has a sole trans daughter who begrudgingly interacts with him, in contrast to his 10,000 friendly and cooperative buddies on r/conservative.

Is it too much to hope that they fuck up, redacting the names by drawing a box over text in a PDF?

Well, that’s disappointing. When trying to convince some less-culty conservatives that some kinds of regulations can be a good thing, I used this very thing as an example, thinking nobody in the right fucking mind would support dumping biological and industrial waste into water supplies.

In hindsight, I really set the bar too low.

Between getting less sleep, or getting less sleep with a side of PTSD, you’re better off picking the former.

If they’re infesting the place and can’t be dealt with in a single attempt, you’re not just going to be dealing with the bloodsucking pests. It would be dealing with the constant anxiety and stress of whether and when they’re going to come back, and all the disruptions and extra work caused in the course of trying to kill them. And that’s in addition to whatever annoyance and discomfort they cause while feeding on you.

Leavitt said that was different because the billionaire Tesla CEO is not the leader of a “sovereign nation.”

Are you sure about that?

BMP? vi and control-v!
WAV? There’s probably a plugin for that!

He wouldn’t defund NASA; he makes money from their contracts.

He would kill NASA’s research, development, and engineering budget and turn the agency into a skeleton crew. Then he would use their lack of progress (that he caused) to justify raising budgets to contract work out to the private sector (and specifically SpaceX).

I’ll get it back another way.

Aye, matey.

Of the special variety?

It’s still the Chromium browser. Same problems, but now at the mercy of two corporations that are looking to turn a profit.

The Children:

Oligarchs have their money tied up in property, investments, and hidden from the taxman in foreign banks. Destroying the stock market would hurt them a bit, but destroying banks? The way they see it, only poor people have their money in a savings account.

Will they be firing all cops, mailmen and firefighters?

Just the mailmen and firefighters. Without police, who would be around to beat up the minorities and protesters enforce the law?

It’s Kaboom. It really only takes two words and a symbol to figure that out: “Kaboom”, an “@”, and the “Reddthat” instance.

Hopefully we get something out of this fucking bullshit

At the current trajectory, it be at best a renewed appreciation for how good things used to be.

If progressive groups asking them to do something was enough to annoy them, doing something of their own volition is beyond their capabilities.

Unless its asked for by a lobbyist, they’re unlikely to care. We have two conservative parties: one that serves interests, and a worse one that serves self-interests.

Yeah, I never said .world is any good either. Both of them have Ye Old’ Power Tripping Bastards worthy moderation.

My instance had a genuinely stupid policy where trolls were not to be banned but instead countered with facts. To prevent echo chambers, or some stupid shit like that. They also blocked the db0 piracy community from being viewed.

Sometimes, they’ll start a podcast or a YouTube channel. Those ones are the worst.