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@GeneHunt

Yeah I didn't put much thought into that comment and wrote it quickly.
I don't think many of those people are genuine in their beliefs, the right is just desperate to have someone rich on their side so they will accept anyone like them.

You know what? Fair enough, there's enough cases of people bending their principles for the idea that they'd get someone with money and influence in their corner that we'd be pointing fingers all day if we went for that kind of purity test. The "left" and "center" have this issue as well.

Why do you think Elon Musk has decided to virtue signal to the right now? Other billinaires either pay lip service to the modern left or they keep a low profile.
To be clear I don't like Musk at all, I just think it's interesting how the public reception on him changed so quickly.

He had prior incidents with that cave rescue, but I think it's because he got Twitter, and got the Twitter rot. He fell into the trap of everyone who went on that social media site, they got to know him better and the mystery disappeared, for worse. For me, his tantrum with Ukraine was when I was done with him.

I suggested the cause might be ideological, Chewybunny said it might be economic and self-serving, but I'm afraid that he decided to act like he did because of a childish tantrum. The "Left" didn't like what they saw, so he's acting against them, which makes him even less popular (and without being a psychologist, I think it's fair to say that he wants to be popular).

Do the 'Right' even like him like this?

What do you consider billionaires true values? Greed and ruthlessness? It's clear none of those people got rich through hard and honest work.
I just thought it's funny how Thiel has suddenly turned into this big bad boogeyman like Soros for the right.

Pretty much and a general lack of values, which is normally contrary to what is supposed to be more blue-collar values. Or white-collar or anyone who isn't a billionaire.

Funny you mention Soros though, because Orban who liked to us him as a scapegoat has become the exact kind of fat, corrupt Trojan horse against Europe that he railed against. Talk about projection, and he's not even good for Hungary. Although it is Soros's fault because he financed the education of that guy.

Well you have people like Bill Gates and his foundation with their insane out of touch ideas for example. I do not support violence either but it seems more people will be losing faith in the system and going for this kind of action.

You won't see me defending Bill Gates, I think his geo-engineering projects are insane. Problem is however, that chaos is also the exact kind of situation which has these people grab more power. Regular people are the ones who die during most violent incidents, remember that if anyone backed by big financiers tries to larp as a violent rebel.

Also, have you heard about the elite theory? I think that some form of elite class in society is always inevitable.

Sure, end of the line someone is going to have to be a leader, whether it's a person, a rotating council, a cabinet, or a parliament. There's still a difference in how that can be implemented.

It's not as bad as the other side of the Atlantic, but this hurricane season has been hectic around here and it's not even over yet.

>For me, his tantrum with Ukraine was when I was done with him.

Any context on this?

Trump campaign connected with Elon Musk’s X before it blocked links to hacked materials

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign connected with Elon Musk’s X last month to discuss hacked Trump campaign materials circulating on the social media platform before X blocked links to the files and banned the independent journalist who published the materials, a person familiar with the matter told CNN.

[…]

A person familiar with the matter told CNN on Friday that the Trump campaign had a conversation with X officials about the hacked materials before Klippenstein was banned and links to his newsletter were blocked. The person said the campaign did not push X officials to remove links to the materials and that X had made the decision. A spokesperson for X did not respond to a CNN request for comment.

[…]

The move by X to block links to the newsletter comes after Musk selectively released Twitter company documents, which he dubbed the “Twitter Files,” claiming that the US government illegally coerced the social media company into censoring links to a 2020 New York Post article about Hunter Biden. Company executives later said they regretted the decision and Twitter’s own lawyers later wrote that the government did not engage in coercion or censorship.

Musk has styled his 2022 acquisition of Twitter, which he later renamed X, as an attempt to foster a so-called free, digital public square and railed against “censorship.” But the ban on Klippenstein and suppression of all links to his newsletter in connection with the Trump campaign raises questions about the Musk-owned platform’s favoring of Trump.

His public spate with a few of Ukraine governmental officials. You know of this, no?

In other news, the issue with Bibles being mandated to be taught in Public Schools in the US hasn't been slowed down. It's been spreading in Oklahoma.

Just an update, since it seems to get slightly worse every update.

For additional context on where priorities lie, at the same time Oklahoma is pushing to mandate teaching the Bible in the classroom, it is dragging its feet on schools having asthma inhalers.

Was this when he refused to extend Starlink to regions he never agreed to extend it to in the first place?

Anyone who thinks Kamala Harris is some hyena who has bad intentions is wrong because Kamala Harris is a boring person.

Trump held a rally in Coachella, CA last night. And the rally goers were stranded for hours after he left.

Here’s a 3-minute video clip showing all of the stranded Trump supporters waiting for a bus to arrive.

Here's a deleted tweet from one of the rally goers.

And here was his response after he deleted his old tweet.

Around 20-30 buses transported the rally goers from a parking lot to where the rally took place. Once the rally was over, the buses were supposed to transport them back to the parking lot. However, because the Trump campaign did not pay them for their services, only one bus remained to transport the rally goers. The people who were stranded either had to wait for hours for some sort of miracle to happen, or walk back to the parking lot. The latter option would be infeasible to many people since they would have to walk for two miles to reach the parking lot.

Subtle foreshadowing for if Trump gets elected.


Also, based on the articles @Jill provided, it does appear that it isn't the State legislature doing those things, but the State's Department of Education (eg the superintendent Ryan Walters and whoever he hires). That doesn't make it any worse, but it just seems the wording y'all used implied the entire state of Oklahoma.

Netanyahu's government is not seeking to revive hostage talks and the political leadership is pushing for the gradual annexation of large parts of the Gaza Strip, senior defense officials tell Haaretz

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-10-13/ty-article/.premium/israeli-defense-officials-govt-pushing-aside-hostage-deal-eyeing-gaza-annexation/00000192-8585-d988-a3ba-dde59a470000

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is examining a plan to seal off humanitarian aid to northern Gaza in an attempt to starve out Hamas militants, a plan that could trap hundreds of thousands of Palestinians without food or water.

https://apnews.com/article/hamas-israel-generals-plan-eiland-gaza-219d7eb9a3050e281ccc032d5a56263c?taid=670be26362dfc70001ce64ac

They have officially dropped all pretense about this being about hostages after being given total impunity and now state their colonial genocidal intent proudly

No, that's why I'm asking. Was it in September 2022 when Musk allegedly didn't allow Starlink use for an attack on Crimea targeting Black Sea warships? Or because, supposedly, Ukrainian troops complained that they couldn't use it inside Kursk territory? Because the latter sounds like fake news to me. The Ukrainian commanders can't be that stupid.

>"Anyone who thinks Kamala Harris is some hyena who has bad intentions is wrong because Kamala Harris is a boring person."

When politicians screw you over it's usually because they're amoral or incompetent (usually both), not necessarily because they have bad intentions. And even if they have good intentions, we all know what road is paved with them.

@TheHolyEmpress

Neither, it was from his 'peace plan' spate before that . It was before all that, although tongues were wagging over how Starlink was retribution for that, which is why I suspect the current Elon Musk is mostly spiteful.

I'd also like to emphasize the behaviour aspect of this, before we go into another Ukraine-Russian war argument. His habitual playground taunting and arguments (whether it's detractors, officials from democratic countries or just regular people) is something that shouldn't be normalized. That was my point.

It's somehow even worse than how we all behave on this very site. Some might be fans of it, but I'm not.

fake news

It's a petty annoyance, but just say propaganda, misinformation or hogwash, or any other synonym.

The electoral college is pretty bad, to be honest.

Before 2016, even republicans were largely in favor of abolishing it, and there have been attempts to abolish it for almost 100 years at this point. A lot of arguments in favor of it are rather forced.

When it comes to representing different cultures in the US, the electoral college has done immense harm. More than interstate differences, the largest cultural divides in the US are between different ethnic groups. A hard pill to swallow is that white people from California and Ohio are more similar culturally than they are to African Americans.

The electoral college's current state has rendered the black vote in the south for presidents pretty meaningless in many states, and then its insistence on diluting major state votes means that urban black people are also underrepresented.

In addition, native groups with their own distinct cultures have been subsumed into larger states that have once again cannibalized their vote and rendered it often ineffectual. Native Americans could be a genuine swing demographic in presidential elections without the electoral college, but now they simply have little effect.

And broadly speaking, when you dilute the urban vote in favor of rural states, you will be favoring white populations over many immigrant populations. That's just how it works out demographically.

As an interesting note, in its current state it doesn't even really benefit rural states that much directly due to winner-take-all shenanigans.

But it turns out if you remove winner-take-all, the system becomes even more slanted to republicans, and it's been calculated that Romney would have won 2012 if the whole country was like Nebraska and Maine. Ending winner-take-all is a bitter pill for electoral college supporters because it ends up exposing that the system is normally even more unfair than it already is.

Also, the electoral college is kind of a death knell for third parties, Even with the nebraska-maine system, the requirement that third parties win a territory rather than a percent of the population within many territories means that even valiant efforts end with not a single electoral vote to capture the news with. Plurality voting is bad for it, but in France they manage to have third parties compete via a runoff system despite being a Plurality vote, but the US's presidential system is pretty well locked to a two-party system with this bizarre method.

Looks like maggots are threatening FEMA contractors now, this is what the freedom to lie gets you

Man arrested with loaded guns near Trump's Coachella rally, sheriff says

A man was arrested outside of former President Donald Trump's campaign rally in Coachella, California, Saturday, after deputies assigned to a routine security checkpoint found him traveling with a loaded shotgun, handgun, ammunition and several fake passports, Riverside County sheriff’s officials said.

The Secret Service said in a statement Sunday that the incident did not impact protective operations and that Trump was not in any danger.

Upon his arrest by local police, the man made no threats aimed at Trump and federal investigators have found no threatening material targeting Trump, sources told ABC News.

There are indications on social media that he supports Trump and was at the RNC, according to sources.

[…]

A subsequent search revealed the weapons and passports, in addition to driver's licenses in various pseudonyms, Bianco said. There were also indications that the man affiliates with the antigovernment Sovereign Citizen movement, according to the sheriff, who called it a "fringe group."

tl;dr: an armed and suspicious person was apprehended near a Trump rally, but is unlikely to be an assassin targeting Donald Trump.

I'd also like to emphasize the behaviour aspect of this, before we go into another Ukraine-Russian war argument. His habitual playground taunting and arguments (whether it's detractors, officials from democratic countries or just regular people) is something that shouldn't be normalized.

The most ironic thing of the article you mentioned is that the "playground taunting and arguments" don't come from Musk, but from Ukrainian officials. Like the ambassador who "responded to Musk's original tweet with an obscenity". Even if Musk had actually said something stupid, that's not a proper response from a public official (a diplomat, of all things).

It's a petty annoyance, but just say propaganda, misinformation or hogwash, or any other synonym.

Hogwash then. I'm absolutely sick of people using "propaganda" and "misinformation" as a synonym for "anything I disagree with".

this is what the freedom to lie gets you

No, that's what years of political polarization and waning trust on institutions gets you. A healthy society does not fall for blatant lies.

@TheHolyEmpress

I'm going to ask: Am I going to have to prove to you with links that Elon Musk acts badly? For what was my personal impression of him? On a very forum where I can go back and see someone lauding or criticizing them for it?

What do you or do you not know, what's asking to get my opinion and what's just some kind of tactic?

Even if Musk had actually said something stupid,

'Even if'. You do a lot of playing down here, and we already had an argument to know each other's views. I don't particularly want another redux on discussing the Russian-Ukrainian War here.

Because the latter sounds like fake news to me. The Ukrainian commanders can't be that stupid.

Hogwash then. I'm absolutely sick of people using "propaganda" and "misinformation" as a synonym for "anything I disagree with".

Well, I'm 'absolutely sick' of people using 'fakenews' as a synonym for "anything I disagree with", as you used it. If anything, than 'propaganda' and 'misinformation' were not the right words to use, as you intended them.

No, that's what years of political polarization and waning trust on institutions gets you. A healthy society does not fall for blatant lies.

Chicken or egg scenario, one leads to the other in a vicious cycle as societal trust gets worn down with each iteration. Also if one is aware of it, than why do the equivalent of calling someone a witch during a witch hunt?

Looks like maggots are threatening FEMA contractors now, this is what the freedom to lie gets you

Here's the full quote before you cut it (and why would you, it's already a short comment), I think painting a target on FEMA contractors is not something laudable. It's another lie that reduces trust in institutions and risks getting people killed.

It's not a "both sides thing here", I disagree with where you tend to put the onus of actions.

>A healthy society does not fall for blatant lies.
that’s a very naive view of humanity

Am I going to have to prove to you with links that Elon Musk acts badly?

No, because I didn't dispute your claim or contradicted your stance. I merely commented on the irony.

What do you or do you not know, what's asking to get my opinion and what's just some kind of tactic?

I asked for context first, then commented on it. Simple as that.

'Even if'. You do a lot of playing down here, and we already had an argument to know each other's views. I don't particularly want another redux on discussing the Russian-Ukrainian War here.

Then you know exactly what's my position is on this. There's been some interesting developments on that topic as of late, like Western analysts' reports on Ukrainian media that have started discussing some points that sound just a little bit… familiar to me. But if you're not feeling like re-opening that particular discussion, it's understandable.

Well, I'm 'absolutely sick' of people using 'fakenews' as a synonym for "anything I disagree with", as you used it.

It's less "I disagree with" and "doesn't hold to scrutiny when analyzed logically". Unsubstantiated rumors, hearsay and speculation might be better words for it. I don't necessarily think they were meant to deceive. It was a chaotic time and plenty of wild theories floated around on all sides.

Chicken or egg scenario, one leads to the other in a vicious cycle as societal trust gets worn down with each iteration. Also if one is aware of it, than why do the equivalent of calling someone a witch during a witch hunt?

Distrust of the US government has been a thing since before social media ever existed. Check the graphs from this Pew Research Center study I'm gonna go out on a limb and argue economic factors like recession, rising costs of living and inflation (e.g. the 2007 economic crisis and COVID) have eroded trust in the government much more than any conspiracy theory on Twitter.

Here's the full quote before you cut it (and why would you, it's already a short comment),

Because that's the part I'm directly addressing, more specifically how it's framed. Anyone easily go back up and read the full context.

I think painting a target on FEMA contractors is not something laudable. It's another lie that reduces trust in institutions and risks getting people killed.

It's not a "both sides thing here", I disagree with where you tend to put the onus of actions.

And I'm not disagreeing with you or saying anything about "both sides". It's the framing. Not having the "freedom to lie" implies someone has to become the arbiter of what "truth" is. That alone is a terrifying thought and I think a frightening amount of people either ignore or don't fully understand the implications.

Calling for violence such as this one are worthy of all the condemnation, but they're merely a symptom of the disease. The roots are much deeper and way more complicated than this.

that’s a very naive view of humanity

Maybe. But then again, many nations have the "freedom to lie" and access to social media, yet this phenomenon isn't that widespread among them. I wonder why.

Trump decided to just stand around playing music instead of answering questions

https://share.newsbreak.com/9bct7a93?s=i16

True or not

The greatest weakness of the right is the absolute blindness it has to it's own natural advantages.

At the end of the day, the narrative has been set. The stories have been written. We are creatures of hundreds of thousands of years of looking at the stars and imagining them to be our ancestors as our shamans confirm it to be so. Does anyone care if Unga-Bunga slaughtered innocent women and children when they took that village? No! Of course not. What matters is that Unga-Bunga expanded the tribe to new territory, the Eden of others is the Eden of ours now. Does anyone on the right that Trump is a literal antithesis of Christian virtue? That he actively engaged in insurrectionist activity? No! The reality is that Trump delivered a Supreme Court majority, a new foreign policy paradigm that even the Democrats have to abide by. Trump has done more for the tribe than any other chief. Does it matter that the chief has broken laws we hold sacred?

Our art. Our culture. Even the normies that appreciate art and culture tend to venerate the past, the regressive, the reactionary, because it is what makes them connect to times when they were younger – in days of bliss. At best the left can throw out moments of avantgarde trangressiveness, that fades as quickly as it forms. The explicit desire of so much of our society to regress to a more primitive state – to celebrate individualism, to romanticize personal versus the societal.

Art, at it's best, has often been reactionary. Even the 20th century avant-garde borrowed heavily from the ancients. And whenever it is presented in progressive fashion it comes out as fake, forced, artificial, and hollow.

There lays the true political alignment. Right and Left are meaningless. What matters above all else is simple: The individual versus the collective.

There's two types of individual vs collective:
One where the individual thinks the only way to defy the decentralized collective is to control the collective and force every individual they deem lower into their collective.
The other is the individual that is actually self actualized and opposes the collective controlled by an individual ideology or an individual, all for the sake of self-defense instead of domination.

Depends on your definition of reactionary, but the narrative everyone accepts nowadays is an individual hero preventing a villainous individual from controlling the decentralized and free collective or the individual hero refusing to become part of the collective dominated by the individual villain.

Donald Trump wanting to ban video games is enough to tell me that he needs to quit

They're gonna ban porn too

Given how big the video game industry is, all I can say that he will get a whole lot of pushback.

Has the supreme court in his pocket
if he wins he's gonna do it

Even if it comes from his speech-writer, he's right in one point: It is too easy for young people to surround themselves with radical, violent ideologies and cultures.

Which is why he should stop lying and tell his supporters to shut up because as it stands, many Trump-supporters and the people they surround themselves with seem to be the largest source of violent rhetoric (eg those FEMA threats Kenetic Kups mentioned earlier).
Video games are not the primary cause of violent youth, its the culture that surrounds them.

Sources: I read some stuff somewhere over the course of my life

Sometimes I forget Trump mentally lives in a time before Jack Thompson got himself disbarred.

I don't care about porn honestly. I do think firewall they plan to add is stupid.

I find it interesting how the term meritocracy was originally meant to be sarcastic, with it being coined by British sociologist Alan Fox for a journal called Socialist Commentary--and was popularized by another British sociologist Michael Young (who was in the House of Lords and a member of the Labour Party) in satirical book The Rise of Meritocracy. I suppose it's similar to how the phrase "pull oneself up by the bootstraps" was sarcastic too.

Remember that plot point in South Park, back during the 2016 election, in which Trump/Garrison did everything he could come up with in order to fumble his campaign and avoid getting elected? Because it feels like that, times 10. And the funniest part? Trump is still genuinely trying to win. Although one could argue he already knows he's cooked, and preparing for coup.2, but it's hard imagining him capable of realizing he's losing.

It's from 2018. My bad, but Trump should not ban video games because that will mess up the economy.

Ladies and gentlemen.

Sinwar is now…

Sinwas.

(•_•)
( •_•)>⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)

Trump is now cancelling more interviews to mask the dementia

it's likely he's been having some marginal days but also the current talking points just collapsed. To be clear it was always stupid to call Harris mentally incompetent, afraid of the press, and with no policies when Trump… but the differences of the two interviews really makes that untenable.

So he has to get his mind right to checks notes roleplay working at Mcdonalds like a toddler as an attempt to get a dig at Harris by denigrating food service works. jfc how is this campaign close

https://x.com/News4SA/status/1846932214501589309
As hells nah. UK might interfere in US elections

election day is 18 days away.

time is flying faster than i realize

Trump is once again crying about how he wants Biden back

Trump is desperate to have something to deflect to right now. He's backed out of another interview. cut another one short for exhaustion. Harris wiped out the campaigns talking points.

So yes he does genuinely long for Biden. He's having the totally not foreign actors claim that Biden doesn't support Harris

I was about to bring that up
he can't even make it through an interview at home
pathetic old parasite

It worries me if he expects he'll lose the election but will try to do another 2020 plan with lawsuits, fake electors, and heaven forbid, a Jan 6th disruption again.

trump doesn't like how rough kamala is when topping him

Masterful gambit, sir

if you don't want to read, Musk's PAC didn't check to see if people are actually knocking on doors and have been massively fucking up

Trump had a real chance to show his fans he's still in.

Trump: "So Arnold Palmer had a huge dick"