It’s not gay, it’s neons!

I love the mental gymnastics and gas lighting they do. They will tell you that there is still election in China. But they won’t tell you that you can vote for someone vetted by the party!

Who would even want to become part of Russia except for the idiots? Offering Russian citizenship isn’t even much an incentive nowadays, nor will it be in the future. The days of Russia as major global player is finished.

Speak softly but carry a big stick.

And yet American automobile companies are dinosaurs who want to kill EVs.

Well said. My weekend turns out to be decompression time.

Voters are just dumb in general. They love to revel only in the good parts of the past when they can’t cope with the present. Which is understandably so, because wallowing nostalgia is said to be a natural antidepressant for humans. In any case, Americans thought the economy was better under Trump 1.0 when Biden was in office, who had to contend with Covid and fixing the damage created by the Republicans. And now, voters are full of regret and think Biden’s administration is better? They get what they voted for! No take backsies!

There is a whole load of Wikipedia entry for you to actually read what lobbying means.

I see your point. But if it’s advocating for a good cause to influence politics, what should it be called to avoid the negative connotations associated with lobbying? I might sound like I am splitting hairs, but if lobbying is to be banned because of bad faith actors, then it leads to the slippery slope of also banning advocacy for a good cause. This is ultimately an ontological debate and maybe even coin a new word to describe “good lobbying” to separate it from bad lobbying".

I’m going to play devil’s advocate and be pedantic. Lobbying doesn’t purely mean bribery. By its strict definition, lobbying means influencing. Was the civil rights movement corrupt for lobbying to allow equal rights for black Americans? They did donate and promise to elect the Democratic Party in exchange for passing the Civil Rights Act. Unions has and always lobbied as well. Environmental groups lobbied to pass stricter environmental regulations.

Lobbying has understandably gained a bad connotation, but not all lobbying have evil intentions and consequences. It ultimately depends on the context. If lobbying disproportionately empowers only a select few at the expense of others’ rights, like billionaires lobbying to dilute worker’s rights and environmental protection because it affects all of us, then it is unquestionably bad.

I guess.

What I find frustrating about American centrists is that they don’t even realise they are centre right-- thanks to the weird corporate media indoctrination keeping the Overton window on the capitalist framework. They can be socially progressive but economically right. They look down on the working class by refusing to acknowledge the effects of offshoring and deindustrialisation on the latter. If you ask American centrists if they favour building affordable housing, you get cricket noises.

American centrists are maybe socially progressive, but they think social justice is separate from economic justice.

What I realise is that schools essentially teach you to become corporate worker drones. The home work and struggling to keep up the performance are actually analogs to working life as an adult. Schools also teach you early in life what burn out is by pushing you.

In some ways, I’m glad I went to a school that fosters critical thinking and promoting our individuality. My school is kind of looked down upon for not having many pupils going to college. But in hindsight, it is a liberal arts-lite college by encouraging us to be more well-rounded invididuals.

Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And weak men create hard times.

I think Americans have to be poor again to learn to to have a shared struggle and rebuild communities in order to fight again. 80 years of being a superpower made a disproportionate portion of Americans extremely complacent. The two party system did not prevent outsiders being elected and end the gilded age before. The Americans who ended the gilded age and elected the Roosevelts would be rolling in their graves seeing their descendants extremely cucked.

The best example is The Thing. The original film in the 1950s was awkward af. But the 1980s remake by John Carpenter was chef’s kiss. Then they made a remake of a remake and it was meh.

Excuse you, I’m waiting in videogame lobby as we speak while browsing through Lemmy to pass few seconds as I wait for other players to join. Ohhh, there’s the beep. I must play now.

Wall E foresaw the future. Who would have thought that a robot has more culture and humanity than humans themselves? It’s with the benefit of hindsight why I think Pixar is genius in making the film!

As a side note, I’m not inherently opposed to AI. My work is heavily laden with silly administrative work which involves time-consuming data entry and modification. Using AI helped me to minimise such needless and painstaking monotonous task. What I fear about AI is when people use it to do the thinking for them.

The leader Nigel Farage has mentioned he wants ICE-style immigration agency.

I’m glad I unsubscribed to Netflix.