Are people already regretting their choice?

[Swammerdami]

. . . The ONLY solution I can offer is the drastic one of abolishing all social media, indirectly responsible for much of today's political problems. Polarization has been weaponized in the U.S. (and U.K.?); some other democracies may not have plunged into the abyss yet.

I find myself questioning whether social media might be the Fermi suicide technology.

Maybe! Facebook etc. are more weaponized in the U.S. than in other countries. This is due in part to U.S. being such a juicy target. Putin has HUGE incentive to target the U.S., but small countries do not have a big problem . . . YET. (We have several Aussies, Canadians, and Scandinavians here. What can they tell us about social media woes in their countries?)

Many Americans seem to be filled with irrational inchoate anger, but this is in part due to a vicious circle: Social media stirs up anger and lies; the lies and anger are then amplified on social media.

The internet had so much potential, but as things turned out, it has made us the least informed society in history. AI in social media is only making it worse. Then the cries of "free speech" and the distrust of "fact checking" pretty much means AI can post utter bullshit in Facebook and people will believe it. There are thousands of bullshit AI posts about what a great compassionate genius Elon Musk is and boy do people lap that up.

My fav thing -almost my only thing - on FB is troll spotting. Find a post fawning on Elon the genius or thanking Agent Orange, look at the poster’s profile and the profiles of all the “people” agreeing with them. I put a short note on them asking people to check the “poster” profile.

It’s amazing and depressing, yet somehow heartening to see that at least 80% of them are hollow, obviously fake profiles. Typically there are a bunch of photos of themselves, no friends, no history, no posts… lately sometimes the profiles are populated with an assortment of flag waving stuff, but still not much more. But Russia is DEFINITELY the best customer that Zooks has ever had. .

Zucky has always been a greed-drenched asshole but he once had enough milligrams of integrity not to fire the FB fact-checkers. ALL he cares about now is taking over the #2 slot from Bezos and then aiming to become the planet's second semitrillionaire.

Seeing the world's FOUR richest men (#4 Arnault was there also, along with much of his family; also #9 Brin) all sucking up to Trump on his inauguration platform should have been a tip-off to anyone with half a functioning brain.

Trumpsuckers don’t question ANY of it. But there are not as many of them as they think. Most of their patriotic friends are Russian trolls.

As to thread question -- "When will the MAGAts come to their senses?" -- we have a few Trumpists (or fellow travelers) here. But only one of them embraces his Trumpism openly. What will it take for Mr. RV to come to his senses? If this were a gambling site, I'd suggest an auction on the "over-under" for RV finally admitting that Trump is pure scum.

But there's a good chance that stagflation, a stock market crash, pandemic, war in Europe and/or the obvious criminality already in progress will have no effect on his religious beliefs. He'll follow his Messiah and blame any bad news on the Democrats.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I would have thought that people would have shut up and stopped making fun of things that were “gay” after August 6. 1945.

That's when we found out how dangerous the gays are!

 

[Toni]

More damning of an entire city for the actions of a minority of its population. With such a racist, useless, piece-of-shit "left".. Jesus, who even needs a right wing when the left wing does so much flapping for them for free?

A majority of Michigan voters did not vote for Harris.

I do not accept as a principle that civil rights should be dependent on voting for any particular candidate.

Again, what use is a "left" that does half the legwork in crafting a fascist society?

The Dems do seem to suffer hard from the whole ‘perfection is the enemy of the good’ thing.

Majorly so.

I do not believe that the events in Gaza were just coincidentally timed. Indeed, that was some very admirable divide and conquer shit that happened, and how cold blooded to just casually toss away so any innocent civilian lives, particularly children —all so that some billionaires could have more.

Here I disagree--you're assuming a single player. I do agree the events in Gaza were timed to help The Felon, but I do not believe it was the billionaires who did so. Rather, it was people like Putin who wanted the US to destroy itself.

I am NOT assuming a single player!

Ever notice just how close Musk and Putin seem to be? Billionaires are certainly part of the motivation but look at who profits if the US falls; Not just Putin.

 

[Politesse]

Collaborators are a far more serious enemy of the good than "perfection", whoever that is. There is no one so "perfect" that I would be willing to forego criticism when it surfaces that they are betraying us to the interests of a hostile foreign state. A real patriot would shoot any politician who claimed to be "perfect", just in case. Personality cults have no place in a functioning democracy.

 

[bilby]

I do agree the events in Gaza were timed to help The Felon, but I do not believe it was the billionaires who did so. Rather, it was people like Putin who wanted the US to destroy itself.

It was obvious to me at the time, and I have not seen anything to make me alter my opinion, that the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, was deliberately engendered by Russia, with the primary purpose of distracting the USA from events in Ukraine.

It worked perfectly.

 

[unapologetic]

The ONLY solution I can offer is the drastic one of abolishing all social media, indirectly responsible for much of today's political problems. Polarization has been weaponized in the U.S. (and U.K.?);

The solution I would offer is abolish FauxNews. It has much wider reach. DIRECTLY responsible for much of today's political problems. Weaponized media. Says Democrats evil, not just wrong, but deliberately intend to destroy the US. (which we can now plainly see is Rump/Muskrat's intentions.)

Am I an especially good judge of character? I listen to the smarmy diction of Trump and automatically detest him regardless of his politics. Are many Americans such very bad judges of character?

I am not considered very astute at judging people. But even I could see, back during 'The Apprentice' that Rump was an asshole who only cared about power and loyalty. If I could see it, something must be vary wrong with 49% of the US public.
I blame FauxNews and Religion (of course). Religion has taught people, from birth, to turn their brain off and just accept authority, and those who speak with authority.

 

[Shadowy Man]

I am not considered very astute at judging people. But even I could see, back during 'The Apprentice' that Rump was an asshole who only cared about power and loyalty. If I could see it, something must be vary wrong with 49% of the US public.

I think his base DO see it and it is what they like about him.

 

[Elixir]

Are many Americans such very bad judges of character?

Something in the water?
They do seem downright autistic as a collective, as I mentioned above. Is it just a feature of collectives?

Have people been asking this question since tribe sizes first exceeded a couple hundred proto-people?

I don’t know. Maybe a question for @Copernicus ?

 

[Elixir]

I would have thought that people would have shut up and stopped making fun of things that were “gay” after August 6. 1945.

I am pretty sure that nobody started making fun of things that were "gay" until a couple of decades after 1945.

In 1945 "gay" meant "cheerful" or "fun", or was a girl's name (as famously used by the folks who brought you the events of August 6, 1945).

And for some people, "gay", is synonymous with Fine Cotton [/obscure Australian racing reference]

In early grade school, at Christmas time we had to sing a song about “now we don our gay apparel”. This, at an age when I wondered who Don was.
Thank you to our right wing morons for saving me from falling victim to the leftist commie Christmas song infiltration effort!!

 

[crazyfingers]

The solution I would offer is abolish FauxNews. It has much wider reach. DIRECTLY responsible for much of today's political problems

I was just thinking last night that 200 years from now historians will peg the beginning of the destruction of the US on Rupert Murdock.

 

[thebeave]

I would have thought that people would have shut up and stopped making fun of things that were “gay” after August 6. 1945.

I am pretty sure that nobody started making fun of things that were "gay" until a couple of decades after 1945.

In 1945 "gay" meant "cheerful" or "fun", or was a girl's name (as famously used by the folks who brought you the events of August 6, 1945).

And for some people, "gay", is synonymous with Fine Cotton [/obscure Australian racing reference]

In early grade school, at Christmas time we had to sing a song about “now we don our gay apparel”. This, at an age when I wondered who Don was.
Thank you to our right wing morons for saving me from falling victim to the leftist commie Christmas song infiltration effort!!

Never wondered about Don in the Christmas song. I did wonder who Richard Stands was in our pledge of allegiance. Was he one of the founding fathers or something?

 

[bilby]

Never wondered about Don in the Christmas song. I did wonder who Richard Stands was in our pledge of allegiance. Was he one of the founding fathers or something?

I believe he was the man who invented that lovable mascot of the Roman Catholic Church, Gladly, the cross-eyed bear.

 

[unapologetic]

Are many Americans such very bad judges of character?

Yes. We've been taught by the church to admire abusive father figures. Like Abraham.

 

[Toni]

I do agree the events in Gaza were timed to help The Felon, but I do not believe it was the billionaires who did so. Rather, it was people like Putin who wanted the US to destroy itself.

It was obvious to me at the time, and I have not seen anything to make me alter my opinion, that the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, was deliberately engendered by Russia, with the primary purpose of distracting the USA from events in Ukraine.

It worked perfectly.

Dividing the US was a great bonus and I do not believe that was unintentional.

 

[Toni]

The ONLY solution I can offer is the drastic one of abolishing all social media, indirectly responsible for much of today's political problems. Polarization has been weaponized in the U.S. (and U.K.?);

The solution I would offer is abolish FauxNews. It has much wider reach. DIRECTLY responsible for much of today's political problems. Weaponized media. Says Democrats evil, not just wrong, but deliberately intend to destroy the US. (which we can now plainly see is Rump/Muskrat's intentions.)

Am I an especially good judge of character? I listen to the smarmy diction of Trump and automatically detest him regardless of his politics. Are many Americans such very bad judges of character?

I am not considered very astute at judging people. But even I could see, back during 'The Apprentice' that Rump was an asshole who only cared about power and loyalty. If I could see it, something must be vary wrong with 49% of the US public.
I blame FauxNews and Religion (of course). Religion has taught people, from birth, to turn their brain off and just accept authority, and those who speak with authority.

I don’t blame religion for that. I blame cowardice and a lack of imagination.

 

[Toni]

Collaborators are a far more serious enemy of the good than "perfection", whoever that is. There is no one so "perfect" that I would be willing to forego criticism when it surfaces that they are betraying us to the interests of a hostile foreign state. A real patriot would shoot any politician who claimed to be "perfect", just in case. Personality cults have no place in a functioning democracy.

Demanding perfection, imo, is a form of collaboration as are false equivalencies.

 

[Politesse]

Who is demanding perfection? I support what I support, I oppose what I oppose. You all keep bringing up this perfection thing, I said nothing of the sort. There are no perfect politicians or parties, that's exactly why I refuse to be muzzled. Just what exactly do you want from me? Just silence, or do you want me to actively pretend to support things that I do not?

If you're going to sling insults at me, at least do me the small favor of clarity. What action or word of mine do you oppose, and what are you demanding I do or say instead? In order to "leave my ivory tower" and "accept good instead of perfection"?

 

[crazyfingers]

I'm generally more liberal than the Democratic party but I've always voted for the Democrat over the Republican because that will get closer to my beliefs than the Republic 9999 out of 10000 times. Voting for a 3rd party is a waste. If ever the US is even close to a liberal country then I'd consider voting for a liberal 3rd party.

I never expect perfection.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

More damning of an entire city for the actions of a minority of its population. With such a racist, useless, piece-of-shit "left".. Jesus, who even needs a right wing when the left wing does so much flapping for them for free?

A majority of Michigan voters did not vote for Harris.

I do not accept as a principle that civil rights should be dependent on voting for any particular candidate.

Again, what use is a "left" that does half the legwork in crafting a fascist society?

The Dems do seem to suffer hard from the whole ‘perfection is the enemy of the good’ thing.

Majorly so.

I do not believe that the events in Gaza were just coincidentally timed. Indeed, that was some very admirable divide and conquer shit that happened, and how cold blooded to just casually toss away so any innocent civilian lives, particularly children —all so that some billionaires could have more.

Here I disagree--you're assuming a single player. I do agree the events in Gaza were timed to help The Felon, but I do not believe it was the billionaires who did so. Rather, it was people like Putin who wanted the US to destroy itself.

I am NOT assuming a single player!

Ever notice just how close Musk and Putin seem to be? Billionaires are certainly part of the motivation but look at who profits if the US falls; Not just Putin.

I see a group with a commonality of interest, but I don't see evidence that they are actually operating together.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I do agree the events in Gaza were timed to help The Felon, but I do not believe it was the billionaires who did so. Rather, it was people like Putin who wanted the US to destroy itself.

It was obvious to me at the time, and I have not seen anything to make me alter my opinion, that the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, was deliberately engendered by Russia, with the primary purpose of distracting the USA from events in Ukraine.

It worked perfectly.

I disagree on "distract". It's not like we are going to forget. Rather, a matter of causing us to have more problems to deal with. And undermining the Democrats in the election.