Bird shit is also white. What’s his point?

Liberals would liken him to an “evil Chinese dictator” stereotype like they try to pretend him and Putin are “evil Stalin” stereotypes. Probably see memes of Trump as Mao, and a revival of anti-CPC discourse, but applied to Trump as “ruining America” or “selling us how to foreign powers” or “wanting to be authoritarian”.

In all the ways that matter, nothing significant. He’s a duplicitous bastard who can’t be trusted, so he may talk nice about Xi for a week before going “he’s not giving us Taiwan even though I asked nicely, what a tyrant” and going right back to anti-China warhawking. China certainly isn’t going to do anything for him just because he showed up to a parade. No other country is going to change their views because of it. US rivals know the US is two-faced and vile, and Trump is the personification of it. US allies hate him for saying the quiet part out loud but jump when the US says “frog” anyway.

What is the name of the song?

I only have anecdotal evidence to support my views, but in short I don’t believe most drugs are problematic in of themselves, especially if used moderately or for their intended purposes. Psilocybin, from my understanding, has a lot of medical potential, and I know several people who have used careful dosages for therapeutic and recreational purposes - and even the recreational case was more spiritual than just “let’s get high”. I know plenty of people who smoke weed responsibly, drink responsibly, use tobacco products responsibly. I, myself, drink very seldom, but over-consume soda, so I think there’s something to say about different addictive substances having more weight with different people.

Now, all that said, I also personally know people who are too into drug culture, who try everything and anything and think there’s no problem. I’ve argued with a stranger who said meth was the same thing as Adderall and should be legalized, that people only have problems with meth because they don’t know how to use it responsibly. I’ve seen people act like Marijuana and Psilocybin are God’s gift on Earth, the tools for enlightenment. I know people who got hooked on Marijuana, overindulging on it, and showing the same “I don’t have a problem” attitudes and withdrawal symptoms of coffee addicts, or began showing other, more troubling symptoms.

So, to me, I think a large part of the problem is our culture, in several ways. Misinformation, criminalization, demonization, which leads to a reaction of more misinformation and glorification. Most of those people I know who had problems with drugs were suffering intense levels of social and financial stress, looking for a way out. The people I know who responsibly use drugs are in pretty stable situations, with family who can help them if things go poorly. From my perspective, capitalism makes drugs - like so many other things - more hazardous and problematic than they need to be.

But this is all anecdotal, as I said.

PSL says “anticommunism is the unofficial religion of America” and it’s true. Both major parties claim the other is communist, because to many Americans, communism is just the equivalent of Satanic.

What annoys me is how blatantly constructed the narrative is to try and convince Americans that Trump is a foreign and unique threat, and only by continuing arming Israel and Ukraine can you truly show your opposition to Trump and other “tyrants”.

I looked into 50501 to try and get a feel for their platform, since these protests were suspiciously well-advertised and didn’t seem to say much beyond “Trump bad”. All I can find are the usual Democrat talking points: vague promises of civil rights and justice, punctuated by an explicit promise to arm Ukraine and Israel and support them no matter what. Well, Ukraine is explicitly mentioned, Israel is implied.

I’ve also noticed the narrative keeps trying to focus on the imagery of a military parade as “authoritarian”, when it’s not inherently so. Media, influencers, and protesters keep comparing Trump to Mao and Stalin, and the whole of the Democrats’ messaging has been giving very big “what are we, a bunch of Asians?” energy.

Protestors, thankfully, aren’t really out there for 50501’s platform; they’re there in solidarity for immigrants and Palestine as well as being anti-Trump.

But yeah, they have been more insufferable than ever lately. Tbh, I’ve talked to Trump supporters whose heads aren’t as far up their asses.

But saying “No Clowns” will alienate our allies like Ukraine 😔

Okay, I’m glad I’m not the only person put off by this. 50501 and the “No Kings” movement has been rubbing me the wrong way, and being unable to quite describe why had me second guessing myself.

Western history for sure, but I imagine Russia, China, and most of the world will recognize the truth. It just sucks for us stuck living in the empire.

Iirc, didn’t Hitler also say something to the effect that if Germans lost to the USSR, they deserved to be killed wholesale? Fash really do expect total annihilation for one side or the other, and seem to take peace as an opportunity only to try again later. It’s disgusting.

The objective, I believe, is just to make it as grizzly, bloody, and awful as possible, because they have the full backing of Western media. The history books (in the West, anyway) will blame all of it on Russian aggression, and this narrative will be driven into everyone who will listen, in every region they can get their slimy tentacles into.

It’s been their game plan all along, as we all know. From the very beginning they intentionally put artillery next to active schools, hid their soldiers in school buses and ambulances, and did everything in their power to maximize their own civilian death tolls, knowing Western media and audiences would blame Russia for every death that could have been easily avoided. These people are fighting for control of the region to remake it as they see fit, and for all their talk of nationalism and the Ukrainian people, they will gladly sacrifice the entire population if it lets them rule what’s left to be “pure”.

I remember about 5 years ago I saw a book titled Stalin’s War in Barnes & Noble here in the U.S. Until that point, I’d only ever heard the “Stalin and the USSR were actually responsible for WWII, Hitler was a natural reaction to Bolshevism” from neo-Nazis. Then, there it was, as pop history available in a very public format, presented as historical fact, with no competing narratives. Every other “history” text they had there about socialist countries was the usual “communism is when bad”, but this was the first time I’d seen it taken further than horseshoe theory or lesser of two evils.

All this to say we’re not arriving at a new step. It’s just they’re finally rewriting reality more Westerners might be familiar with. Right-wing fringe has steadily been integrated into the mainstream for awhile now. Maybe even longer than I’ve noticed.

That makes sense.

True. I don’t have any confidence in Trump’s administration as peacemaker, though.

God, reading that was painful. They really do try to spin the narrative in the most obnoxious ways. I’m not holding my breath a peace deal will be made based on how Ukraine and its backers are talking. Feels like more posturing by the West to try and paint Russia as unreasonable for not surrendering unconditionally while winning.

This is kinda funny to me for a reason. Confederate apologists support Trump, and one of their biggest “gotcha!” plays for villifying Abraham Lincoln was his suspension of Habeas Corpus. They love going “Lincoln was a tyrant for suspending our rights when half the country literally seceded and attacked forts.” But if Trump does it to imprison progressives peacefully protesting the genocide in Gaza, or marching for their civil rights, those same “rebels” will lick the boot.

Thanks!

I was talking about the remake, lol.

What’s the YT series roasting TLoK? I’m interested.

Another example of something that upsets me, unrelated to this, is glorification of capitalists. Prime example is Duck Tales. I genuinely like the show, except when they bring up how he got rich from “hard work” and never explain what exactly it is that he does to be rich.

Another example, Legend of Korra, where Asami is literally perfect. No bad qualities at all, and she’s the young venture capitalist. Even the two capitalist villains get redeemed and use their industries to create wonders for society by the end.

And what really upsets me, and makes it slightly irrelevant to your post, is that the stories are so enjoyable that even though that shit made my eyes roll and my blood boil, I sat through both series. It somehow hurts worse when the storytelling is actually good.

Back to your topic, I guess when people offer dogshit analysis of media that promotes prejudices, capitalist rhetoric, or fascism, that’s when it makes me so mad I can’t listen anymore. For all the faults of liberal media, I can usually ignore their shitty politics if it’s entertaining. Only example I can think of where I couldn’t was that godawful remake of V back in 2009.

Star Wars is an especially contentious subject that every “enlightened centrist” and lib manages to project onto history in some offensive way. Really, it’s more like a mirror for backwards education of history, so they can just go “when Star Wars does X, it reminds me of how I was taught such-and-such people did stuff.” Perfect example being the Ottomans “stealing” children (neglecting the fact many parents offered their children to the devshirme because it could increase their status).

Another example, one that upset me, was some YT video about the Clone Wars episode where the Pantorans claim an ice moon and the Chairman is trying to kill the indigenous alien species, and ultimately Senator Chuchi makes peace with them by respecting their sovereignty. Somehow, someone argued that the aliens were little better than animals, brutal savages, and Chuchi betrayed her people’s interests by letting them keep their planet (which didn’t even have significant resources). His defense of that was that it wasn’t racism, because these are aliens. I’ve seen other scifi videos where they justify using flamethrowers on bug people (Geonosians); and a “pro-human” speech for the movie Avatar where the villain conflates humanity with building wonders, not primitive connections to nature.

I guess what annoys me to where I can’t listen is where people find a way to be racist by using proxies so when you point out “that’s racist”, they just roll their eyes like you’re too sensitive and tell you it can’t be, because it’s an alien.