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Joined 9 months ago
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Cake day: March 10th, 2025

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  • That country doesn’t exist anymore, and it hasn’t in generations. Anyone who believes otherwise has been drinking a bit too much of the kool-aid. What we have left is a bunch of rednecks who trot out that line about tyranny to justify holding onto their guns, and otherwise a bunch of fat, happy people who have little to no real idea about what’s going on at home, much less around the world.

    Mind you, as you pointed out in my comment elsewhere, I agree that it’s hypocrisy and cowardice, but that doesn’t mean I’m okay with expecting people to sacrifice themselves (especially when you’re not willing to put yourself on the line too) for some heavily-propagandized patriotic ideal that is pure fabrication at this point. Especially when the reality is that tyranny has been winning here for a long time and most people seem fine with it as long as things aren’t too uncomfortable for them (which amounts to: they get to drive their big stupid SUVs and watch football and pretend that they’re temporarily-embarrassed millionaires.) The idea of ‘rugged individualism’ has been drilled into this country’s head for at least the last 40 years I’ve been paying attention to politics, not because it comes from the core of our national identity, but because it divides us and hampers efforts to engender class consciousness.

    What I’m trying to do here is thread the needle: yes there is hypocrisy and it should be called out, but, as the rest of the sentence you quoted says, it’s also a little bit hypocritical to expect others to do what you aren’t here doing too. I understand the frustration non-Americans feel at the direction this country is going and the implications it has for them, and trust me when I say that some of us feel the same way too. But I’m a disabled man in my 50s, I’m more useful on the information/ideas/inspiration side of things than on the front line.

    I’m not “keen”, I’m merely fucking exhausted.

    Me too, man, me fuckin’ too.




  • I wasn’t talking about asking others to risk their lives without risking your own though, I specifically said ‘especially keen’, as in eager to sacrifice others for their own enjoyment (or whatever.)

    As a way of calling out the hypocrisy of the people who claim to be all gung-ho to stamp out tyranny from behind the barrel of a gun I have no issue with it, but ‘why aren’t you sacrificing yourself to satisfy my vicarious moral outrage’ is a bit fucking rich coming from someone who isn’t also lining up to do the same thing. One might even call that a kind of hypocrisy too.


  • They’ve also pointed to passages of Mangione’s writings, which described Mangione’s deepening fixation on UnitedHealthcare and an increasing malice over the corporation’s purported greed.

    Purported greed? Does any grown-ass adult sincerely doubt that corporations are greedy? Are we so far gone that the media can’t even say that without hedging? What are they going to do, sue? Good luck proving that they’re not greedy since public companies have a legal obligation to make as much money as possible.


  • And you might likewise be shocked to learn that non-Americans don’t have a lock on the understanding of how maps work, or that the idea of hurling yourself pointlessly at a professional army/police force is just as unappealing here as it is in any of those countries. It’s easy to say ‘Someone should do something’ when you’re not the one who is going to be at risk in the doing, isn’t it? But I’m sure wherever you’re from is perfect, and even if it’s not there’s no reason to worry because others will no doubt be lining up to sacrifice themselves to satisfy your vicarious moral outrage so that you don’t have to get your own hands dirty.