Bullshit. I actually did apparently have a bad reaction to the MMR vaccine when I was a kid, so I’m not sure if I still have immunity from measles. I would really prefer not risking it, you know? Anti-vaxxers are idiots.

Zelenskyy knows damn well he can’t trust Russia to uphold their side of the bargain. Taking this deal would only grant them a short reprieve while Russia recovers their strength and comes back to finish the job. Ukraine is in a terrible position(and honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Russia ended forcing them to reinstall Viktor Yanukovych), but, as long as Ukraine has the will to fight, they should do what they feel is best. If they choose to fight a losing war to make it as painful as possible for the Russians rather than sign a “peace” negotiated by two hostile powers in which Ukraine was not even consulted, that is their right.

Trump and Vance are a fucking disgrace. They were trying to discredit Zelenskyy in the eyes of Ukraine and the world. It’s important to remember that this is one of the least ambiguous conflicts in recent years. Russia literally declared a war of conquest using one of the flimsiest casus bellis ever. And here comes this asshole Trump, who is like “maybe we should try to do that might makes right stuff”. Now Canada, Mexico, and Greenland are getting threatened with invasion and forcible annexation. That’s why Ukraine must be supported if they choose to continue fighting; not only are they the unambiguous victim in the conflict, but the more painful things get for Russia, the less likely they will be able to wage further wars in the short term, and maybe it might make belligerent countries think twice about stealing land and subjugating people they have no right to.

You might want to give a member of a minority currently directly targeted by the regime a little grace, yeah?

Yes, what’s done is done, and there’s not much point in re-litigating the election at this point. Let’s not turn this into another neverending argument about Gaza, because I guarantee that’s just going to drive a further wedge between all of us.

yeah, this isn’t the worst idea. I’ve largely resigned myself to getting my news from mostly non-american sources during the Stupid Reich.

In a virtual speech at the World Economic Forum, Trump suggested Canada could become a U.S. state to avoid his proposed tariffs on imports.

The remark elicited gasps from the audience.

yeah, so, rich people, perhaps pushing the “they’re eating the dawgs” guy so that you can continue to make late stage capitalism even worse was a bit of a mistake. he’s sundowning hard and completely off the rails.

And they won’t stop until it turns into Conservapedia. Can’t have all those inconvenient facts contradicting the fascist regime or anything. You’ll have your firehose of misinformation and you’ll like it. Seriously, I could see January 6th becoming a federal holiday down the line. They’ll call it Patriot Day or something.

Fortunately, you apparently can download a compressed version of all of Wikipedia for ~25GB.

this isn’t just dropping fact-checking. per the article:

Beyond the end of the facet-checking program, Zuckerberg said the company will be eliminating some content policies around hot-button issues including immigration and gender, and refocus the company’s automated moderation systems on what he called “high severity violations” and rely on users to report other violations.

Facebook will also be moving its trust and safety and content moderation team from California to Texas.

This is full bore capitulation to fascism, as capital will always do. soon, zuckerberg’s social media sites will be indistinguishable from musk’s x. everybody needs to defederate from threads if they haven’t already.

We’re seeing capitulating and knee-bending all over lately, and this trend is just going to accelerate. Like, the system is NOT going to save us. It gave up before the fight even began.

We’re going to have to come to terms with the fact that if we’re going to get through this, we’ll need to save ourselves. The time for building communities and engaging in mutual aid is now. We need each other. Do NOT comply in advance.

Oh, wow. I certainly was not expecting an assassination of a CEO anytime soon, despite how chaotic things are going to get. If the executive class starts feeling like they’re on the chopping block, things could get very bad for the working class, especially with Trump on the horizon. Unlike us, they have class solidarity.

Yep, the moment you have to explain it, you’ve already lost; the normies will check out. That’s the thing, these sites depend on having a huge userbase and people just aren’t going to go to a site with “nobody on it”. I maintain an account on both Mastodon and Bluesky… they’re both pretty neat in their own way. But Mastodon isn’t ever going to be the virtual town square. I kinda like it quiet there, tbh.

yeah, I live in Washington state, so I’m covered there. though, I’m not exactly enthused about my life depending on politicians deciding not to capitulate. thankfully, we bucked the trend this election and actually went more left.

I got an ADHD diagnosis and started on adderall a few months ago. I fucking hate these people so much.

so i guess even if they manage to forcibly detransition me and not just kill me, I have this to look forward to? fuuuuuuck.

He was a few years ago, though I think the courts finally made him fuck off. his grift may have caught up with him.

lol, I still have no idea why he did that

ugh, Eyman is insufferable. dude tried to force $30 car tabs for like two decades.

I saw that. I’m very glad we got one of our own in Congress, but it’s likely too little, too late.

I don’t think I’ll be able to go anywhere, realistically, anyway. I’m going to hold down the fort in my blue state and hope they shield me from the worst.

thank you. I really appreciate that.

Even in that case, there really isn’t much reason to vote for a third party. Especially if they’re one that only pops up on presidential elections while making zero effort to build an overall movement. There are some that probably are genuine, but I suspect most people willing to stand in a third-party presidential candidacy are likely either grifting or intentionally trying to act as a spoiler. Honestly, unless one of the major parties collapses or we actually somehow move past the first-past-the-post voting systems, third parties in general are just a waste of time and effort that could be used on something more effective. I honestly think that if you’re in a state where your vote in the presidential election doesn’t matter, writing in the name of someone like Bernie Sanders or leaving it blank would be a better use of a vote than a third party.

yeah, I’m done here. Zero effort is being put in to justify most of your positions, which makes sense because you can’t. There’s some hilariously bad faith arguments here that’s I’m not even going to address because honestly, this post has been superseded by others and we’re only ones reading it at this point.

please stop wasting people’s time with obviously false arguments like “trump and harris are the same”. not only is it wrong, it’s painfully simplistic and reductive. no nuance, just black and white thinking so that you never have to think critically. like, you just drop that nonsense so that you don’t have to do the hard work of arguing why we should risk a trump presidency.

I know that I haven’t been very charitable to you, but you led off this discussion by basically calling me “privileged” and saying I’m pretty much a trumper, and then you drop dumb argument after dumb argument(and I have noticed that you threw my “parroting” and “idealism” criticisms back at me… you’re not very original, which tracks for someone who isn’t thinking for themselves). It’s pretty telling that your most effective arguments are those nitpicking something I’ve said.

your position is dangerous. that is why i have indulged you this long. trump CANNOT be allowed in, and we must do whatever we must to prevent that. trump will send my trans ass to a camp. harris WILL NOT. this is life and death and i need you to stop making stupid arguments that you obviously haven’t thought through