If I had to pick one person (other than Putin) who is the most responsible for all of this, I’d say Robert Mueller.

He had the best chance to put him down, and he bitched out.

Honestly, I don’t think Lemmy, or any other anonymous social media can really counter this. Outside of heavy moderation in the opposite direction, anyway, which doesn’t feel great.

It’s just too easy for hostile governments to spin up as many dozens of accounts as they need to argue against you, argue on your side (but badly), and simply just drown you out. It doesn’t take much of that for real people to retreat. Why would you post an opinion that you know is going to immediately get shit on by a dozen “people”?

It was legitimately funny, when it was still a joke. The memes were good. There was no way that idiot was going to be a serious contender. It was all in good fun.

At least until someone would say, “you know this is just a joke, right?” Any kind of self-awareness was banned within seconds. Now I don’t know if you’re familiar with volunteer moderators, but it’s pretty rare that they catch that kind of volume 24 hours a day within seconds.

I fully believe there were state-level troll farms operated by a hostile foreign government moderating that subreddit.

… and now they’re applying that to the entire site.

That sounds like the_donald applied to the whole site.

If there’s a patriot running that prison, you can just release these political dissidents. You know they haven’t committed a crime. You know they’re being held illegally.

People have decided the issue is about which team you pick. Apparently it’s a sport where “your team” is good and the other guys are bad.

Who needs nuance when you can just rail against your perceived enemies (anyone who disagrees with you even slightly).

Give Israel to Iran?

I do think the US in particular should have pulled the leash on Netanyahu. Sure felt like they had a different understanding of who has the power in that relationship. (Thanks, AIPAC.)

However, regardless of the US stance, I think s genocide happens there no matter what. Even so, slowly and constantly over 30 years is better than devastation over 30 months.

It’s not a black and white situation.

… You want shipping through the Suez.

Couldn’t find a SCIF in Moscow.

While in Moscow.

Moscow is not a SCIF.

This is the start of bullshit arguments intended to drown out any real conversation. It just gets worse from here.

Yes. It didn’t help that we spent 50 years saying not to discuss politics or religion.

But the current situation was largely a coordinated propaganda effort, likely combined with blackmail on politicians. Possibly caused by the hacked emails. Both the DNC and RNC were hacked. Only the DNC side was released.

Europe needs to step the fuck up right now. Don’t they know that appeasement doesn’t work? Are they going to continue standing on the sidelines for years while Ukraine fights on their own?

They can also stop this war. Europe can take action. Lead the world while the US has its head up its own ass.

You should be able to (at some point) accumulate enough wealth that you can live at least half your life in luxury without ever working another day.

That should be a difficult , but possibly attainable goal.

You should not be able to accumulate enough wealth to make hundreds of people commit their life’s work solely to your whims. You should not be able to accumulate enough wealth to just buy politics.

That’s what’s fundamentally broken in our system. It’s fixable, if the right people want to.

It’s literally a quote from his debate vs Hillary.

Plus it’s a great opportunity for dozens of trolls to push a republican narrative on social media. Maybe a message to anyone left-leaning to stop voting.

Even in the Cabinet it’s probably just Tulsi Gabbard that is guilty of treason. The rest are just idiots.

Now the Senate, however… There must be a reason impeachment hasn’t happened.

We still need people to perform basic functions, and capitalism is a way to do that. “Renting humans” as it were. I think we can certainly raise the minimum a fair bit. Higher minimum wage works being everyone up. I think we could and should get the working week down from 40 hours to 35. That takes covering a full seven day week from 4.2 shifts to 4.8 (or five with a bit of overlap).

Agree on the estate tax. It used to be a thing. Republicans had ground it down over the years, and just recently finished it off.

Universal healthcare does a ton for freedom and entrepreneurship.

When you spread the money thin, it does run out quickly. But I think we can still afford those things if we just actually tax billionaires and corporations. And stop taxing payroll more than capital investment. Usury is a sin. Anything that makes money from having money needs a big leash.

And of course money nearly all the way out of politics.

I’m not looking for a radical change from what we had before.

Democratic socialism with a heavy fucking leash on Capitalism is likely the best system.

Braces for tomatoes