• 0 Posts
  • 15 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: June 10th, 2023

help-circle

  • the point isn’t really to convince anyone on the spot. that’s the insidiousness of this kind of propaganda.

    it’s always there. it will always be there. every time you face a problem in your life, there’s an article in your periphery that blames migrants, or minorities, or migrant minorities. and sure, you don’t believe them. you’re rational and aware that this is manipulation.

    but then nothing gets better. there are just even more problems, some completely different in kind. and a bunch of people seem to think it’s the migrants and minorities again. but you know that’s manipulation.

    then you lose your home because the economy is fucked, and you lose your job due to downsizing, and the job market is terrible, and you’re heading for poverty. now you’re afraid, and sad, and angry, and wondering where you went wrong. you’re looking for something to blame, someone to blame.

    and there’s an article making a very pontificated argument about why this economic and social crisis has been exacerbated by “mass immigration” since about when you first started reading those articles.

    a lot of people will start questioning themselves here, and in desperation, look for a way out they haven’t tried yet: imagining that the people pushing that message are correct, and campaigning for change. because nothing ever changes for the better.

    the rich toast another vintage wineglass.


  • i think the last decade of developments in US politics have provided everyone with an example of where that goes, though. not passing the “sword” policy because you fear your opponents using it doesn’t actually matter; your opponents, when they come into power, may just immediately enact it themselves. and if they can’t, there’s a good chance they’ll first enact a policy that broadswords aren’t swords, technically, probably, maybe, totally, according to this one precedent from the year 1835, and then enact a broadsword policy.

    bad-faith actors, authoritarians, fascists, etc., are more than happy to watch everyone else pull their punches based on some assumption they’ll do the same. they won’t.

    that being said, i can’t imagine the veto rule ever accomplishing anything good on anyone’s side, really. it favors obstructionism by its very nature, which is inherently anti-democratic.










  • “hey guys, I’m having a problem with my Linux install that doesn’t seem very common–”

    “YOU’RE STUPID AND I HATE YOU”

    this is EXACTLY why Linux gurus have a bad rep. remember the human, for goodness’ sake. don’t act like you’ve never run into a strange problem in your entire computing life that required digging deep into some 2003 forum post to solve.