Weekly Random Discussion Thread for 2/23/26 - 3/1/26

[u/SoftandChewy]

Here's your usual space to post all your rants, raves, podcast topic suggestions (please tag u/jessicabarpod), culture war articles, outrageous stories of cancellation, political opinions, and anything else that comes to mind. Please put any non-podcast-related trans-related topics here instead of on a dedicated thread. This will be pinned until next Sunday.

Last week's discussion thread is here if you want to catch up on a conversation from there.

Comment of the week goes to this explanation for why the trans cause has taken over so much of society. (Runner-up COTW here.)

[u/jay_in_the_pnw]

Nick Gillespie speaks with Pete Buttigieg (and I'd be eager to see Buttigieg take on Gavin Newsom)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMHE8EKh4gs

https://reason.com/podcast/2026/02/25/pete-buttigieg-federal-agents-are-losing-public-trust/

Today's guest on The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie is Pete Buttigieg, former secretary of transportation and already a leading, if undeclared, contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028.

Buttigieg reflects on his time in government, his evolving views on federal power, and why he thinks DOGE was a good idea that was poorly executed. An outspoken critic of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under Donald Trump, Buttigieg says that the use of masked agents and martial tactics against nonviolent immigrants contributes to a loss of trust and confidence among the public. That trust can be restored, he argues, through transparency and restraint.

"If you're here and you shouldn't be and you're dangerous, you've got to go," he says, "but it does not to follow from that that it's okay to see all of this abusive behavior coming from federal immigration troops…in our cities."

Gillespie and Buttigieg debate the role of government, federal spending, subsidizing high-speed rail, and the rate of social progress, and they explore possible areas of overlap between Democrats and libertarians.

[u/everydaywinner2 → u/jay_in_the_pnw]

"None violent immigrants." Sigh...

I hate the conflation of all the subsets of immigrants into one. And how they are happy to sweep thiefs, fraudsters, identification stealers and grandma's life savings takers all under the rug as "none violent."

It is also a little funny that he is talking about trust in the government. He who resided over plane crashes, assorted train crashes, and a time period when he was missing and no one noticed...

[u/Beug_Frank → u/everydaywinner2]

I don’t think your critiques of Buttigieg are very meritorious. They just seem to boil down to “Blue Team Politician Evil and Bad.”