DreamerOfImprobableDreams

A lot of those 17 are dictatorships, where the elites are unsurprisingly big fans of Russia / Wagner helping them prop up their regimes. Actual normal people in those countries tend to be significantly more anti-Russia.

Fuck that shit, the fascist dickheads don't get to steal the flag from the rest of us.

They'll pry my American flag out of my cold dead progressive hands, lol.

Yes, which is the single biggest reason I'm proud to be American: because our people's willingness to stand up for one another and keep fighting for a better tomorrow, even against the most powerful opponents, even at risk to their own lives.

Abolishing slavery, ending Jim Crow, giving women the vote, becoming one of the first dozen countries on the planet to legalize gay marriage, helping win WW2, helping support Ukraine, donating more to foreign aid than any other country on the planet, the Marshall Plan, everything about NASA, best national parks on the planet, entertainment capital of the world, first country to land a man on the moon, the whole "nation of immigrants" things making us one of the most diverse countries on the planet.

And of course, none of that excuses the dark parts of our history, the slavery, genocide, imperialism in Latin America, among many, many others. But that brings me to the thing I love most about American: with the exception of the loud Republican minority, we're a country that actually reckons with the dark parts of our past and tries to make up for them instead of sweeping them under the rug. And then we get to work fixing them.

We've made so much progress even in my relatively brief lifetime-- in agonizing two-steps-forward, one-step-back fashion, for sure, but that doesn't make it not count. I'm so excited to see where we go in the future.

The good news is, those morons are largely confined to the Republican party, so it shouldn't affect the outcome of the Democratic primaries at all.

Which is why I'm increasingly convinced RFK Jr's real reason for doing this is to get his name out there so he can be Trump's VP pick, so the two can claim they're a "bipartisan" "moderate" "unity" ticket. throws up

Yes, because in 2015 gay marriage was legalized.

I guarantee these people were absolutely as shitty about LGBTQ+ issues before 2015, they just talked about them less frequenly around you since they didn't have to think about gay people too often. But I guarantee they were just as horrible towards gay people back then-- if not moreso, since they thought they could get away with the toxicity since no one cared-- as they are today.

Source: was woman with a ton of LGBTQ+ friends before 2014. Bigotry hasn't gotten any worse since then, just louder. (And the good news is the reason the bigots have gotten louder is because more normies are becoming tolerant or accepting of LGBTQ+ people, causing the remaining bigots to realize they're losing control of society and flip the hell out!)

Agreed completely. How is it possible people still don't realize that with fascists, the cruelty is the point? Torturing minorities isn't a distraction, it's the goal.

Fair enough. I just get pissed when people like OP suggest bigotry only exists because Economically Anxious^TM people are being manipulated by The Elites^TM. Anyone who's interacted with well-off people for longer than a few minutes knows being economically secure doesn't magically make you not a bigot anymore.

And I hate the implication bigotry is somehow "less important" an issue than economic inequality. Especially since the two are so intimately intertwined, especially in the US, it's impossible to make progress tackling one without tackling the other.

It's also been used as a symbol of the Russian invasion (since during the initial attack, the Russians used Z, V, and O as markings on their vehicles. Fortunately, O never seemed to catch on at all, probably cause it's too generic a shape.) You saw it sometimes in Russian propaganda alongside the Z, especially towards the beginning of the war. But it seems like it's been mostly phased out in favor of focusing on Z in the last few months.

And yes, can't believe I forgot about Q! Although that's probably a good thing, because it hopefully means QAnon's peaked and is starting to fade? Finger crossing intensifies

There's nothing moderate about Kennedy, he's a full-blown MAGA far-righter. Which is why he's being laughed out of the Democratic primary, thank God.

Or maybe fascists are just transphobic bigots who want to torture and kill trans people because, well, they're fascists, it's what they do?

You need to understand the far right doesn't give a damn about economic issues. Not one crap. (Because most far-right supporters are middle-class or higher, for the record!) They want power for one reason, and one reason only: to lord it over the minorities they consider their inferiors, if not outright killing them.

This isn't a "distraction", it's the fucking goal.

As if Putin didn't already give us enough reasons to hate him.

He really is determined to follow in all of Hitler's footsteps, huh. Well, hopefully he'll follow Hitler right to the same ending.