Bone apple tea

Vote vote vote!

Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

Except that options 1 and 3 are the same. They come as a pair. So if you think you can stomach option 1, then by all means go for option 3.

Let a dictator seize power, tear down our democracy, and install himself and his successors for life. That’ll teach them Democrats a lesson.

No one’s saying reform doesn’t need to happen. But it isn’t gonna happen before November. And it certainly isn’t going to EVER happen after November if the side that would refuse to give up power once they have it gets elected.

So I should just not vote is what you’re saying.

I still fail to see any suggestion from you that is a better alternative.

Doesn’t matter what your grievance with the party is. There are exactly two options in Nov. One of them WILL be voted into power. There is no 3rd option. No outcome where one of them does not win.

Whether you believe it or not, our actions as voters will help one or the other of them succeed. If it makes you feel good about yourself to abstain, that’s your choice. But it’s delusional to think that that somehow absolves you of any responsibility for whatever outcome happens. Like it or not, you’re going to help someone in this election…there is no way out of that.

Of the two, which would you rather have?

Not voting for your preferred candidate (even if it’s the lesser of two evils) is the same as voting for the other one. So I’m not sure how that eases your conscience.

Every voting age citizen is helping one of them win…either through voting directly or through inaction. If we allow a dictator to rise to power in America and commit God knows what atrocities, yes you can say “I didn’t vote for him.” But at that point, it doesn’t matter. It’s too late. You won’t be able to say “I helped prevent this. And even though I disagree strongly with certain policies, at least we still have a democracy.”

Explain to me how allowing the Republican candidate to win in November is going to help prevent genocide.

Once you’re done with that… explain to me why you believe the Republican candidate would not support even greater atrocities.

Well said.

In a vacuum, what you’re saying makes sense. But the Democratic party doesn’t exist in a vacuum. You don’t have to approve of all of their actions or policies to recognize that the ONLY OTHER OPTION in this moment is a much greater evil.

I prefer analog websites myself.

Yes! AP and Reuters are great! Those two basically comprise my entire news feed, supplemented by a handful of other sources that fall on either side of center (bias-wise).

“neutral outlets like CNN”…listen, I’m all for shining as much light as possible on the disgrace to journalism that is Fox “News”, but CNN is about as neutral as sulfuric acid.

More scam apps on Canonical’s Snap Store who?

As a Christian myself, I agree. It’s been sickening to me to see the behavior exhibited by people who call themselves Christians, especially in recent years. I don’t blame anyone for having unfavorable opinions about Christians. It’s no wonder, when so many “Christians” who say they follow Jesus look nothing like him. Instead of love, compassion, and integrity they display hate, cruelty, and hypocrisy. It’s like half the church just lost its mind. Christians had such an opportunity during COVID to put on display what being Christ-like is all about, and while some Christians did, as a whole we completely fumbled that opportunity.

All I can say is that I’m sorry for what everyone is seeing from those people. On behalf of all Christians, I’m so sorry. Just know that we’re not all like that. Not that any of us is perfect, but some of us recognize the complete and utter lunacy of it. And please know that what they’re doing IS NOT what following Jesus is all about. The people with whom Jesus was harshest were the religious people who thought they were being righteous…I think the same would be true now.

Again, I’m so sorry for all of it!

Exactly. What’s the issue here? This is literally the right way to do this.

It’s quite an impressive photoshop.

Lacking the authority over state level legal proceedings hasn’t stopped Jordan from trying to exert pressure over Alvin Bragg and Fani Willis. It’s not about what he can do within the bounds of the law. He’s already tried it without the speakership. The speakership just gives him more weight to throw around and makes it just a little harder to impose accountability on him.

He doesn’t care about that. He wants the speakership so he can exert additional pressure toward making certain problems go away for Trump and himself.

My parents are the same way…all in for Trump. But I know my parents and know they have good hearts. They've just been saturated in the right-wing media ecosystem that's been peddling pro-Trump propaganda for years…to the point where they live in a completely different reality. And they've invested so much into it emotionally, they just can't see it any other way.

Without the far right media and the complicit right-wing politicians enabling him, Trump is nothing. They're the ones I blame for the damage done to the country, to my relationship with my parents, to my parents' worldview and their mental health.

I'm not saying the average Trump follower is blameless, but most of them were completely unprepared and ill-equiped to handle the level of propaganda thrown at them from every angle (right-wing news, social media, & way too many enablers in the GOP).

I've had to try to talk my parents down from so many conspiracy theories. All of a sudden, the ones who taught me as a child to not believe everything I saw on the internet were latching on to anything that supported what they'd been told to believe. But I have to remember that they didn't grow up with the internet, with having to evaluate credibility of sources, and filter out misinformation the same way I did. They lacked the experience and the tools to do that properly.

All that to say, it's a weird mix of things going on. It's complex. And again, while I don't consider the average Trump supporter to be blameless (certainly not the ones acting in violence or criminally), we need to remember that they are still human. So many of them are good people who've just been fooled into believing things that are not true. We should be angrier at the ones who fooled them than at the ones who were fooled.