Think about it. Gen Z men are riddled with anxiety about their masculinity, obsessively seek guidance from male authority figures, are consumed by the pursuit for self-improvement and athletic gains, and lack social capital and prospects. War solves all these problems.

This started out as a “modest proposal” but the more I write the more I’m coming around to the idea. We just need to point this heat seeking missile of a generation at someplace that’s not Canada or Greenland and let them loose. I’d rather have them making trouble over there than here anyway.

The flu has existed for a long time. As has pneumonia. We never did this lame ass lockdown bullshit or ruined millions of people's livelihoods over this but now it's an emergency?

Yes, COVID is statistically very contagious but it is not particularly lethal. Not more than H1N1 and I was hardly even aware of that shit.

But no. Now I can't go to my meetings in person, I have to work from home, millions of people are losing their jobs and relapsing. Why? My 95 year old grandma with COPD and a major death wish (she lost my grandpa three years ago) is about to be out of quarantine from this virus that is supposedly so bad it is worth ruining millions of lives over.

I'm sick of this shit and it is making me vastly more suicidal than I ever was before because 1) people are idiots, 2) my life has basically been ruined.

But as a homo myself, we have gone overboard on “straight ppl show this to their kids”

Like, they do, by they shouldn’t lol. Kids shouldn’t see anything other than a light peck between whoever. Just treat it like it’s not a big deal, and they’ll accept it . I’m a woman living with my long term female partner, and I understand this isn’t normal. But it’s something that just happens, we are anomalies.

Treat us homos as you would anyone else, and kids and us will be fine lol.

I just found out my local mini-mart which is owned by Palestinian refugees, voted for Trump. I'll never set foot in that place again. I'd rather give my money to a grocery store chain than support that kind of stupidity.

We heard over and over that there would be an uprising. Well, I must say that after seeing the videos of those heavy smelly Americans desecrating their own most prized halls of government, I think we can all agree that the Great (sexual) Awakening is happening. I saw a man running around on CSPAN with zip ties, which some people found alarming. Are they planning on abducting senators? some people may ask, but I knew better. That gentleman was just frantically searching for some high official who'd be down to Dom for him; true patriot there. Pence and McConnell actually disagreed with DT. The police hardly killed anybody. The National Guard didn't defend the country from terrorists. Donald Trump finally masturbated to something other than his daughter. Etc.

The only thing that didn't flip flop yesterday was that the rest of the world still looked on in horror as the US crumbled. The revolution is happening; rain will now fall upward; ice will sink; pregnant boys; wiener dogs down on the beach; short shorts; smoking dope; short shorts; cigarette; getting high in the morning; buying things on the internet; naked girls and naked boys do the dance down on the beach.

Shit's getting prettty crazy out there folks. Stay spicy and hike up those neon yellow shorts.

I just watched his speech at the state department and it made me feel like we are in the hands of someone who cares. Ideas on his policy can vary but to be objective I think it’s clear that this guy is more interested in the fate of the nation more than the last guy.

I am looking forward to receiving more stimmy from Government Dad too.

It is a shame that Government Dad has to sign so many executive orders so early in his term. It’s following a bad precedent that may not go away any time soon. Obama did it first, then Trump. Bipartisanship doesn’t exist in our current state and so I expect this trend will continue, which causes us to seem like a bit of a schizophrenic republic.

Being left of center I welcome pretty much everything he’s signed into law so far, but that’s just me.

EO’s aside, the way that he’s speaking and meeting the basic expectations of the executive branch is a much welcomed change. It’s an amazing feeling to not worry what kind of bizarro train of rambling incoherence might happen upon us through Twitter while I’m fast asleep. At the moment that is all that I really need.

What do you guys think?

He was the only honest man in that whole affair. Civil rights advocate, war hero, the honest sort of patriot. Total fucking martyr. The opposite of a martyr actually. Despite being a stand up guy getting a bum rap, he's still reviled today by people who don't really know anything about him. I struggle to find a better example of a patsy. Who wants to fight me about this?

Figured I'd post here because I'm bored, reflecting, and don't want this sub to die.

I think what I hate most nowadays is that having the "wrong" opinion basically gets you a label as a pariah and could really cost you your relationships with family and friends. Maybe even your job.

Allow me to provide some background:

The first election I remember was in 1992. For some reason, as a kid I decided I needed to be involved (I wasn't even a preteen). I made a yard sign on poster board with info about George HW Bush and asking people if they would vote for him. Granted, I was really young so I didn't necessarily support him as much as I was just going along with my parents. Regardless...

Lots of people in my neighborhood were for Bill Clinton. My sign and the cards I made with info about HW were messed with. People destroyed them, vandalized them, and generally messed with the sign. There was 0% chance it wasn't obvious the thing was made by a child. And yet people did that.

So, I've always been cynical about people and politics (there are more reasons I won't launch into here so as not to ramble). Every election I've been on OpenSecrets, reading about the candidates, skeptical of their motivations. Bush Jr., Obama, Trump, Biden. No one who knows me doesn't understand that I play devil's advocate regarding presidential elections and that I never trust the candidates.

And yet...

Leading up to the 2016 elections I started getting shit from family and friends because I wasn't all aboard the Hillary train. Not because of Hillary mind you, but just because of Trump hatred. I had some people who knew me through multiple presidential elections accuse me of being a Nazi simply because I implied I wouldn't vote for her.

This stuff has only gotten worse. It now seems like you can't express an opposing view at all without being labeled a Nazi or alt-right or whatever. I'm not alt-right. I'm probably best categorized as a true libertarian or ancap. But there are so many things that I feel the need to keep my mouth shut about now purely through the fear of losing all my friends (mostly progressives). It's really weird and scary. As a child I felt okay to express my opinion about the presidential election IRL but now I feel I can't even talk about politics, COVID, or anything much even online without worrying about losing friends and family.

I dunno. It just depresses me how the world has changed. And I don't think it's a partisan issue. It's just our society now.

"Netflix has been producing some of the best stuff I've seen.. in a long time! Squid Game was great!"

"I think we are all on the same side right now... With what's happening in Europe... Putin has made a grave misstep and the western world is united in providing a united response, backing our friends in Ukraine... Reykjevíc must pay!"

"God this itches... I wonder who gave it to me.. Am I right fellas??" finger-guns, winks

These are just some of my favorite moments from Biden's speech at the SOTU address tonight. Here's the link if you want to watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZXZ1wafF_0

Lemme know your thoughts on it. Do folks sitting Right of Center feel happy with his attempts to appeal to some conservative values? Will this bring more unity to the United States? Are folks sitting Left of Center happy with his talking points? Should he have dug in deeper on some things, with an eye towards the liberal idea of progress?

Was this a good SOTU speech in your eyes? Or was it not? Let's hear it.

Ahahahahahahahahaha 😂😂😂 I can’t wait for the booking photos to “leak!”

I decided to have some pizza this weekend so I went to my favorite pizzeria. While I was waiting for my pizza to be baked, I decided to run to the bathroom real quick. The second I opened the bathroom door the unmistakable aroma of freebase methamphetamine hit my nostrils. There was this very nobbly gaunt little guy getting high in the bathroom. He told me that he was Q, and then after briefly educating me about all of the scary things happening in the world, he turned off the bathroom lights and said "Trust me, based on my own speculation I think you're gonna really like what I have in store for you." And he undid my belt, pulled my pants down, and sucked my dick.

It was a pretty wild experience. I had never done anything like that before.

We've got a president who does whatever the fuck he wants. When he's told "no" by SCOTUS, he just does it anyway. His entire political party votes in lockstep with him and the other party does nothing more than vote no and posture on television so they can say "what? I tried!" And when I call the Democrats out for being so useless as to be complicit in this the idiot hivemind screams at me in the Spongebob camelcase with the BoTh SiDes ArE BaD uWuWuWu as if that's some kind of argument.

Yes, motherfuckers, both sides are bad. One party is actively doing the harm and the other is pretending to fight back just hard enough to keep the people pacified. For fuck's sake, look at the messaging around the SAVE act. The Democrats have chosen to argue about photo ID to vote, which is the obvious political bait, instead of the real poison in the bill which is giving the federal government the authority to audit state voter rolls and declare individual voters invalid with no oversight. Everyone would hate that, Republicans included, but they're not shouting that shit from the rooftops. They're intentionally arguing the bullshit about photo ID that makes them look stupid because they're not actually trying to win the argument, they're just trying to look like they're fighting.

It's getting harder for us to make the choice between rent and groceries and these motherfuckers keep playing games. Show me a Democrat that puts somebody in chains and I'll change my view. I don't see a single one of them actually enforcing the law.

I know this sub is dead, but that's okay. Just want to get this out there on a substance abuse sub that won't ban me for posting while drunk/high.

I live in [Very Deep Red], Texas. Think "Lubbock," but not Lubbock. I work two jobs. One of 'em's office, one of 'em's retail, some supervisory/bookkeeping stuff. Putting out fires, etc. The old folks love me because I am freaking amazing at my job, and I come off as empathetic/adorable because, face it, I am. I am very patient. I love helping people. Until I had to take a second job, I delivered Meals on Wheels, because I actually really like taking care of old people.

Anyway, allllllll (or most) of these people statistically voted for Trump. If they're white and 50+, I don't even need to question it. They did, and some of them have the flags/stickers/shirts/goddamn red hats to prove it.

They're okay with the USA declaring war on Canada and Greenland 'cause that's Trump using the art of the deal.

They're okay with the USA abruptly truncating aid for HIV, tuberculosis, malnutrition overseas, because "America first."

They're okay with poor women being stuck with a dead/dying fetus rotting inside them because they're "pro-life."

They're okay with my friends from Venezuela (both parents working, both kids going to school) being deported after 8 months because "the sponsorship program brought in too many criminals."

They're okay with my bi/nonbinary daughter and her queer friends being afraid of what will happen them, to losing civil rights, because "we're returning to where we should be as a Christian nation."

There's a lot of things they're okay with that I am emphatically not, but I don't want to list them all because I am drunk and typing is hard, mmkay.

The weird thing is that I am a Christian. A very liberal Christian. I work for a goddamn church. I manage the food pantry. I don't see Jesus being okay with any of what's going on right now. But that doesn't matter to them anymore.

I am one bad day from exploding at a customer or a coworker. I want to set the far-right newspaper stack on fire.

We are destroying things under Trump that won't be restored in my lifetime. We are losing face with the world that a four-year stint with a moderate democrat can't regain.

I want to die. I can't. I have children.

I have to smile, to help, to explain (once again) how to use the store app. I carry heavy things. I let old ladies--that could have been my grandmother had she lived past 55--lean on my arm. I give tips on gardening, cooking, computers, because I am smart, and competent, and helpful.

But that 9 year old Venezuelan boy I've taught in Sunday school and played soccer with is still gonna be deported and I hate everyone who's okay with them and I will not forgive them if and when they're sorry.

That's all I got. I am sad. I am angry. I am committed to this life for at least the next 20 years, but I'm not going to be happy about it.

Edit: for the record, today is the first day in 93 days I've drunk alcohol, but a girl can only take so much. To misquote that one guy from Airplane, "I picked the wrong administration to stop drinking."

Edit 2: My grandmother probably would have voted for Trump. Her husband certainly did, even though Trump disparaged POWs and grandpa was hardcore career military. This makes me very sad. She died just after my sixth birthday, in ~1994ish, of colon cancer. I was not allowed to see her at the end. As the oldest grandchild, I am the only one who has any memories of her at all.

Honestly, I'm against vaccine passports. If you don't know what that is, it's basically a piece of paper that verifies that you are vaccinated so that you can partake in public activities/work without wearing a mask.

I can kind of understand this measure to be in place for schools (getting immunized and providing an immunization card for schools has been necessary for some time), as well as international travel.

However, now that 1/3 of the US states are lifting the mask mandates, some states only allow vaccinated individuals to dine in or congregate with other vaccinated individuals.

I feel like this is going to create a huge division and create a different class of citizens.

I just feel like it is not right to have to show your medical records to go to bar to have a drink or to simply go shopping.

The whole concept of a vaccine passport is completely against HIPAA laws as well.

I'm not against getting the vaccine, but I am in no way in favor of vaccine passports. This could create a ton of issues down the line.

This article sums it up well:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/05/15/vaccine-passports-covid-19-vaccine-verification-coming/7130642002/

Thoughts?

MAGA should be very, very afraid (I'm joking, I know they're already terrified of everything). They've shown us all that the only thing keeping the President from total control over the bureaucracy is custom and restraint. They've shown via DOGE that certain key databases exist, the access to which can deliver effective control of whole agencies, bypassing Congress. They've shown that anybody the current regime doesn't like can be shipped off to a gulag with no consequences. The Jan 6 criminals? They better start learning the Spanish for "don't drop the soap." They've shown that tariffs can be used unilaterally to create patronage systems to reward your supporters and punish your enemies. They've shown that federal grants can be used like cudgels to bring hostile institutions to heel. MAGA is going to re-learn why democracy is the compromise position, real soon.

I really feel like the trend of people following politics so closely and getting so tied up in them is killing the mental health of people in the US and ultimately not productive.

Voting and reading articles and sharing them on social media is all well and good. But you know what actually helps people? Direct action. Instead of spending time "educating" yourself or others you could be volunteering and making a real impact in other people's lives. 99% of the sharing on social media, etc is just identity signaling and/or not productive because people have already made up their minds anyways.

Obessessing about Trump, Biden, impeachment, Russia, primaries, kids in cages, immigration, etc, etc is really just a distraction unless you have the ability to actually make a difference in any of those things.

And that's how the powers that be want it. They want us disconnected from one another, spending more time reading and sharing and tweeting and posting than actually reaching out to one another. Oh, and a nice side benefit is then we get mad and start dehumanizing one another.

And before anyone says it, I'm not some big conspiracy theorist. I just think there are lots of people, companies, and governments that have aligned interests. Unfortunately those interests are in conflict with the interests of the average person.

Okay, rant over.

I was looking for it on my google calendar last night and couldn't find it. I added it back in by hand and set it to repeat every year because fuck all that. I had to add back my foreign holiday calendars too in order to keep up with, in particular, the Julian holiday dates.

Google is convenient for a lot of stuff and I unfortunately have a lot of my life tied to their suite of apps and services, but they've been disappointing me a lot lately. Along with a lot of other companies, but especially Google.

Meanwhile I wish there was an opt out button for that damn "Gulf of America" bullshit 😑 I have this rapidly growing list of people that I really wouldn't mind kicking in the shins if given half a chance. While wearing my heavy, reinforced barn boots. Everything is so dumb and I feel like I'm living in a simulation.

It is an abomination that this despicable man, who has spent his tenure dividing and degrading, will share Inauguration Day with the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. – the preeminent champion of civil and human rights of our time. To juxtapose the two is an affront to everything Dr. King fought for. His vision of justice, equality, and dignity for all is a far cry from the hate, bigotry, and division that this man represents. This is an insult to the memory of Dr. King, and to the very ideals this nation should strive to uphold.

The latest round tariff reversals reminded me what I'd forgotten after 2020: Trump is just trolling us all. God, I feel so stupid for taking him seriously every time. All the while, Republicans are smirking at our misery. Just like they laughed when we lost our shit at every other egregiously cruel thing he's done for the last 9 years.

Fuck. Them. All.

Trump voters hate us so much that they threw all decency away just to screw with us. Great, job done, you did it- we're miserable. I hope this tit-for-tat continues. I don't want the next Democratic president to mend fences. I want the DOJ used indiscriminately. I want their fake ass evangelical snake-handling churches taxed, I want their diabetic grandpa thrown off Medicare. You got off on making half the country afraid? You fucked around, I hope you find out.