Jesus christ, that’s so many words for boring, circular logic.

Your argument is self-defeating. “We shouldn’t do anything, because people are animals that can’t understand and react to objective reality rationally” is borderline fatalism, and at the very least suggests that everything you are saying is a waste of breath. If you’re right, no one here will accept objective reality, will do whatever they want and you are therefore wasting your time and energy. If you’re wrong, well you’re digging in on an invalid argument, and also wasting your time and energy.

So, my rebuttal is this: fuck off. Rude, but no less so than a childish laughing fit. Your entire deconstruction of my argument is riddled with fallacies and built from the bias that you are correct to begin with. Taking the time to address it beyond this is to give it more credit than it is worth, and I have better things to do with my night than engage with terminally-online pseudo-intellectualism. Either people are better than you give them credit for, or they’re not, and I’d still rather waste my time trying to do the right thing than engage with pointless cynicism and smuggly jerk myself off about how superior I am for being smart while the world falls apart around me.

You are talking about taking a giant shit on everybody who’s been saying that 2020 was a free and fair election when you immediately fling the same accusations the very first time an election doesn’t go your way.

This is not what is happening, though. I address this in another post, but this is a false equivilency. Screaming fraud because of heresay from a demonstable liar, and then refusing to accept the results even after the audit without just cause is not the same as seeing these questionable and verifiable facts and performing an audit in response, particularly if the result is met with acceptance. To suggest that this response is occurring “the very first time an election doesn’t go your way” is dishonest, as there were no widespread claims of voter fraud nor calls for recounts and audits in the 2016 election. By and large, people accepted the results.

Your 2028 hypothesis is predicated on the idea that Democrat voters will deny objective reality the way Trump voters have been. I suspect that would not be the case.

But we’re not talking about verifying the results and then refusing to accept them anyway. That, would be chasing conspiracy theories. We’re not talking about denial and a refusal to believe in objective reality. We’re talking about easily (though slowly and expensively) verifiable facts. The false equivilency you’re drawing between the two is delusional.

And that’s really the issue here: false equivilency. The last election was challenged, and recounted, based on hot gas and whataboutisms. And we found that it was fair, so we should accept it. This time there is really strange data and openly accepted knowledge that the voting machines were compromised. We have more genuine reason to worry, so perhaps we should check instead of having completely irrational, and I’m starting to think maybe bad faith, arguments about it.

The argument of “oh, but if they DID cheat, it’ll damage trust in the whole thing” just doesn’t hold water. So what? If the system is broken we shouldn’t trust it until visible measures have been made to fix it. And that’s a good thing, civil war or no. We do not bend over to bullies when they threaten violence, because it just empowers them to take more and more. And look where it has gotten us.

So, stick your head in the sand? “People are going to lie, cheat and threaten violence, and questioning when it is happening is just going to stop us from ever trusting anyone in the future. We should just let them do whatever they want.” Insane take tbh. I get how you reach the outcomes you’re suggesting are possible, but I don’t think it’s as bleak as you’ve portrayed it, and simply rolling over as literal fascists rig the electoral process of the most powerful country in the world is straight up not a good idea.

Turns out the right was unified in their belief that they should be the ones with the power, but very divided on what they are going to do with it.

It’s going to be an exhausting four years.

Why is it not bigger news that MTG is openly stating that the only reason any of these people are in power is because they have paid off all their victims and buried all the bodies. This is a verbal admission that she knows the entire GOP is filled with sex offenders, and the only reason they aren’t in jail is that they all cover for each other.

Fucking do it. Release it all. Don’t just threaten me with a good time. The people deserve to know exactly how morally bankrupt their representatives are. Not that you even need to see the evidence to know, with these blatant admissions, that they are morally bankrupt.

Right. Cherry-picking kool-aid enthusiasts spreading their knee-jerk reaction on social media isn’t journalism. These people are likely not valid representatives of public MAGA opinion, to say the least.

The anti-mainstream media comment in particular turns this whole post so many levels of irony that it’s actually challenging to unpack it in a succinct way.

I hate that sentence, but you’re right, and I ultimately think it would be better for Canada than any of the other two options.

Man, I hate to say it out loud, but the current state of Canadian politics isn’t looking great. RIP CBC, at the very least.

Maybe if we’re really lucky Trump will do some absolutely insane shit and his connection to Pollievre will work against the CPC. Mind you, I can’t say I am looking forward to another Liberal government either, but such is the way of the two party system.

And importantly, isn’t that the point of proposing a global wealth tax? Unless they plan on taking their wealth to Mars, they’ll be stuck paying in, were everyone to play along.

Yes, I know, wishful thinking, but that is the proposal.

Describe Trumps presidency in one sentence.

Sounds like shooting itself in the foot.

I wouldn’t know. I’m not an American, and not a card-carrying liberal voter on my country.

What I do know is that this constant othering is how these problems were created in the first place. Spending time and energy building straw men on the Internet is creating enemies, not allies. If you are genuinely dedicated to spreading information and awareness, as your earlier post suggests, making assumptions and jumping down people’s throats is hurting your cause, not helping it.

We are currently in the process of creating a larger divide in left-minded individuals, and I am unbelievably sick of it. As the right rapidly unifys, we seem to be learning nothing.

Everyone always talks like defeating Trump in the election is the end-all be-all of the disussion. Voting Democrat and preventing Trump from taking the white house should have been an obvious step. It is not the best outcome for the election, nor is it the end of the ongoing decay of late-stage capitalism into wealth-based fascism, but all this whataboutism and strawmanning Democrat voters as believing Kamala was going to single-handedly save democracy is disingenous. It was never “Plan A”. It was one minor, marginally better compromise in the collective of shit we should be doing.

Of course he was. He hated the job, so why else would he want it back?

I love the way that the cut-off for “incompetent elderly” magically seems to go up every time these schmucks hit a new decade.

It’s genuinely time for these people to sit the fuck down and accept that they’re outdated and shouldn’t be leading anyone anymore. Just check into a home and relax for the rest of your life. I’m sure he can have his ego convinced that he’s “earned it”.

Right.

This is basically the same as saying that wearing a seatbelt is a terrible idea, because in rare cases it causes terrible damage to the wearer.

Let’s just ignore the hundreds of thousands of people it helps and cherry pick cases that look bad. It’s not like we’re a people who rely on rational thought to progress.

Reddit is mainstream. Being mainstream makes it a huge target for political propaganda efforts. It’s filled with bad actors and astroturfers spreading misinformation as wide as they can.

Until they take massive measures to curb such behaviour, Reddit will continue to be a pit-hole. At this point, I hesitate to even say that hole is filled with “people”.

Don’t go making it sounds like an organization I’d actually support.

Capitalism for me, but not for thee.

Maybe we let professionals decide what tool is best for their field

Hey, really appreciated. Having random potentially uneducated, inexperienced people chime in on what they think I’m doing wrong in my classroom based on the tiniest snippet of information really shouldn’t matter, but it’s disheartening nontheless.

While I take their point, I also wouldn’t walk into a garage and tell someone what they’re doing wrong with a vehicle, or tell a doctor I ran into on the streets that they’re misdiagnosing people based on a comment I overheard. Yet, because I work with children, I get this all the time. So, again, appreciated.