It's a situation that I have been expecting for a while, but I wasn't fully ready to accept it. Specifically it's one of my LGBTQ friends who honestly believes in the democrats will protect them and their partner. I have tried to make the point that both parties are eroding any sort of civility towards all marginalized groups, but fear seems to drive them more than logical observations. They make the excuse that change doesn't happen over night and that the left continues to grow and will have meaningful affects down the road. I fundamentally just don't agree with that idea and vocalize it regularly. More and more it is ending up in a circular argument where I am painted as unrealistic and my rhetoric (leftist rhetoric) is doing more harm than good because it promotes distrust in the only system we have to work with. I try to tell them it's kind of the whole point. We gotta start somewhere if we want to see a better, more representative system, but they are so hung up on the immediate future while simultaneously saying that my idealistic feelings are shortsighted and I cant expect change in the immediate future... The double-talk is wild, I know.

I am trying my hardest to stop from engaging at this point because on the most basic level we agree on a lot of stuff, but they are just way to wrapped up in the fear mongering of the democratic party. They know that the two party system is broken, they know that something drastic needs to change, but they also think that they are powerless to do anything except choose the lesser evil. It pains me because I am watching them do the same shit past generations have done, where they give up on their ideals for the sake of preserving the current status quo that they benefit from. I am legitimately watching them imply "fuck you, got mine" under the guise of civic duty and I hate it. I want nothing more than to be able to finally say "I told you so" without being a smug asshole about it and ruining our friendship.

Thanks for reading my rant. It's probably a bit disjointed, but the frustration is boiling over and I needed to vent to the only group of people that seems to understand the hopelessness of being a disenfranchised leftist.

It was absolutely bonkers watching the raddle king make false equivalencies between the terms “blacklist” and “brown-nose”.

Love seeing a tagline that spawned from a thread I was part of lol.

Someone in one of my circles just quoted the fake trump quote about republican voters being rubes... Even had the misplaced confidence to claim he said it on Howard Stern....

I just said "i though that was made up..." which led the person to actually google it and find the ~10 year old snopes article about it being fake...

My jokerfication intensifies!

I have a group of friends who have gone back to normal for the most part. Restaurants, concerts, clubs, bars, etc... One of them tested positive today and that sparked the standard slew of get well messages from the rest of them. All well and good, I'm not gonna sit here and act like we should point and laugh at the sick. However the conversation that followed didn't sit well with me.

I asked the group if they normally quarantine from the rest of their household when only one gets sick, or if they just wing it. Someone said they stop kissing and sharing food, but stay unmasked and still sleep in the same bed. They were adamant about not sleeping on their couch. (must be a huge inconvenience to sacrifice a little comfort for their health). Anyway, same person proceeds to say that it wouldn't matter that much due to incubation time. I responded anecdotally that in the past quarantining from my household while sick has worked for for us and kept the healthy people healthy. No response after that.

The conversation continues with someone else who was saying they did the same thing I did, quarantined in their office and slept on the sleeper sofa to keep their partner healthy, AND IT WORKED?!?! This person then proceeds to question how they got it in the first place because they are fully remote for work... They would understand if their partner got it because of their on-site job, but couldn't reason with how they themselves the remote worker would get it. Mind you, all these people indulge in dining indoors at restaurants and bars, going to concerts without masks, running errands without masks... So, I said just that. "Probably restaurants? Honestly anywhere public.". The conversation ended right there, no one responded to me after that.

The bright side of the whole convo was that someone did eventually chime in and say that "It's best to assume COVID when you are feeling sick, because even a cold isn't worth spreading." Only to be countered by the sick person saying, "if I would have tested positive sooner I would have been wearing a mask or cancelling appointments" Felt sick and didn't care until the 2 lines showed up on the test.

So yeah, at the end of the day vibes and treats rule the world. No one wants to be told that their incessant need for good vibes and tasty treats is what may have gotten them sick with a highly communicable disease.

It's really exhausting...

Didn’t realize how integral Hexbear was in my daily scrolling until today. Missed you all.

The pivot to video. I yearn for written tech guides or automotive process with well written instructions and detailed pictures. The fact that so much of the info once found in text is now pivoting to some chucklefuck holding his iPhone in one hand while trying to show you how to do a two handed job is extremely aggravating. Don’t even get me started on the need to sift through a 25 minute long tech video because you need to find that one step that you missed.

Video is so fucking low effort and annoying.

Dudes definitely a grindset mindset crypto type, but I can’t help but respect this grift a little bit.

Bergwall’s alleged refunding operation was fairly sophisticated. When his indictment was unsealed on November 9, it revealed he’d allegedly facilitated nearly 10,000 fraudulent returns between December 2021 and April 2022, which “resulted in more than $3.5 million in lost product and sales revenue to victim-retailers.�? (More recent court filings list the total value at $5 million.) The indictment also alleged that Bergwall got high on his own supply, so to speak: He refunded a number of products for himself, including a “$41,000 Rolex President Day-Date watch, a $600 TeamGee H20 Electric Skateboard, a $350 Samsung 43-inch Smart UHD TV, and an $80 pair of Reebok shoes.�? His alleged operation, called UPSNow, was run, like most refunding operations, on Telegram, where he went by the pseudonym MXB and worked alongside a number of unindicted co-conspirators. He specialized in FTID with a powerful edge: The government claims that Bergwall hacked into five employees’ back-end accounts at “a multinational shipping, receiving, and supply chain management company�? confirmed by sources to be UPS.

Was talking to a friend of mine about the use of nukes and I was told about how it was the quicker way to save more lives. I’ve always heard this argument but still always believed that it was an extreme response that could have been avoided.

Am I naive in my thoughts here? What is everyone else’s interpretation of the events leading up to and the decision made to drop both bombs?

Was talking to a friend of mine about the use of nukes and I was told about how it was the quicker way to save more lives. I’ve always heard this argument but still always believed that it was an extreme response that could have been avoided.

Am I naive in my thoughts here? What is everyone else’s interpretation of the events leading up to and the decision made to drop both bombs?

Really miss the days of men in power having big balls.