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I've known a Gabe.

Actually, I've been thinking about this a lot recently, not just because of the obviously insane cult that's arisen in the USA, although that certainly adds some compelling real world emphasis to it, but because I think everyone is plausibly susceptible to the influence of online bullshit networks.

I decided to buy my 7 year old son a PC for Christmas - this is partly to let him play games, partly to incentivize him to read and to become competent at using computers, but also to start a process I think is absolutely necessary in the world we've created - to prepare him to navigate the jungle of the internet; like modern day survival skills.

Perhaps there's no actual way to inoculate someone against being radicalized or led into extreme beliefs or just bullshit ones... but I think some knowledge and familiarity may forearm him. I'm still trying to work out how best to go about this but it's obviously tied into critical thinking, detecting bias and being able to fact-check and identify legitimate claims compared to irrational ones.

So my aim is to start in a general education format of finding out how we know things, and how we can know whether knowledge is legitimate or not. I think History is generally a good medium for this, but he's also got a natural passion for science which will help - reviewing historical scientific progress lets us discuss how people could be convinced of wrong ideas, and how those bad ideas were eventually overcome. I don't know if other people here with kids are concerned and if they are, I'd be interested to know how they go about preparing their children to navigate the internet safely.

I feel like we’re amusing ourselves to death on this, but this is too good not to post.




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I posted that 10 pages ago. But yeah, there have been a couple of darkly humorous things out of this. The woman who got shot tweeted, "Nothing can stop us." And the one who got trampled to death had a, "Don't tread on me" flag.

So it looks like Trump's got another great claim to superlative fame: most number of impeachments ever... people have never seen numbers like this, believe me.

Poor Elizabeth. She's the comic relief. Even if Neo-Nazis take over the USA, I'll still have Elizabeth's clip to keep me through.

One thing about impeachment if it's successful that I think about, is that it lets the GOP off the hook for 2024. It's almost toothless as it is, and now they could 1. Claim they weren't a part of the Trump train, and 2. it frees up other candidates to run for president in 2024 without having to follow the lead of someone with declining popularity who already lost a presidential election. In that sense, I can see them voting to impeach and considering it a favor. I don't think for a second that many Democratic congress people wouldn't be willing to hand them a get out of jail free card. I heard Joe Biden say he was proud of Moscow Mitch for not objecting to the electoral college victory. That's nauseating. Biden is probably going to be a shitty president if your desire is to have non-Republican leaders. My desire is to have non-Republicans leaders.

Animavore wrote:I posted that 10 pages ago. But yeah, there have been a couple of darkly humorous things out of this. The woman who got shot tweeted, "Nothing can stop us." And the one who got trampled to death had a, "Don't tread on me" flag.

10 pages is a lifetime here


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The_Piper wrote:Poor Elizabeth. She's the comic relief. Even if Neo-Nazis take over the USA, I'll still have Elizabeth's clip to keep me through.

One thing about impeachment if it's successful that I think about, is that it lets the GOP off the hook for 2024. It's almost toothless as it is, and now they could 1. Claim they weren't a part of the Trump train, and 2. it frees up other candidates to run for president in 2024 without having to follow the lead of someone with declining popularity who already lost a presidential election. In that sense, I can see them voting to impeach and considering it a favor. I don't think for a second that many Democratic congress people wouldn't be willing to hand them a get out of jail free card. I heard Joe Biden say he was proud of Moscow Mitch for not objecting to the electoral college victory. That's nauseating. Biden is probably going to be a shitty president if your desire is to have non-Republican leaders. My desire is to have non-Republicans leaders.

I think sometimes they have to rise above partisanship and agree that some things just cannot happen in the USA if they want to remain a single nation. The value of an impeachment conviction, inasmuch as there can be, would be that Trump could then be barred from holding office plus he'd lose all benefits of being a former President. While the rest of his spawn remain, at the very least a conviction would indicate that some of the Republicans realize the monster they helped create.

I suspect there's a certain amount of basic games theory at play here.

Remember that politics is not a zero-sum game. Unless you intend to destroy and utterly crush your opponent completely (and a Democrat single party state would be almost as a Republican single party state) it's good practice to leave them an honorable way out (no matter how shitty) otherwise you'll be fighting a cornered rat who is quite capable of pulling something entirely unexpected out their arse.

Impeachment does give the Republicans a way out - by irredeemably burning one of their own. Any who don't join in publicly and loudly repudiating Trump then becomes complicit and tainted with him forever more. I'm not seeing much of a downside here for the Dems.

Meanwhile, as if we need any more evidence that a prerequisite for being a Trump voter is an absence of functioning neurons, check THIS fine specimen out:



Yes, that's right, this member of the would be redneck Brownshirts killed himself by tazering his own balls.

Darwin Awards, I bring you this ...

The_Piper wrote:Poor Elizabeth. She's the comic relief. Even if Neo-Nazis take over the USA, I'll still have Elizabeth's clip to keep me through.

One thing about impeachment if it's successful that I think about, is that it lets the GOP off the hook for 2024. It's almost toothless as it is,

As Bernie said, it's about precedent. It's also the only thing that they can do. If that's a problem then it's something we aught to think about going forward, as well as the potential consequences of that NOT being the only thing they could do.

and now they could 1. Claim they weren't a part of the Trump train, and 2. it frees up other candidates to run for president in 2024 without having to follow the lead of someone with declining popularity who already lost a presidential election. In that sense, I can see them voting to impeach and considering it a favor. I don't think for a second that many Democratic congress people wouldn't be willing to hand them a get out of jail free card. I heard Joe Biden say he was proud of Moscow Mitch for not objecting to the electoral college victory. That's nauseating. Biden is probably going to be a shitty president if your desire is to have non-Republican leaders. My desire is to have non-Republicans leaders.

I think it actually is likely that there are Republicans who've been lighting matches are actually shocked when their fingers are burned from holding it too long. Either seeing or assuming that sort of ignorance exists amongst legislators, either through blindness or stupidity or both, isn't something that I think we can just ignore. You can't treat them the same as the opportunists who know the consequences and simply don't care like Cruz, Hawley and Gaetz. Something needs to happen with those folks so that the others will, at the very least, give the future of their actions more thought than they currently do. I really want to treat them all as the assholes they are who delivered us into this mess, but I don't think we can claim to be reasonable if we do. I don't really see any way around this. All we can do is remember and remind people, keeping and disseminating the evidence that shows they're lying about not being a part of this. If being reminded of this isn't a view changer for people, then there are bigger problems at work.

Calilasseia wrote:Meanwhile, as if we need any more evidence that a prerequisite for being a Trump voter is an absence of functioning neurons, check THIS fine specimen out:



Yes, that's right, this member of the would be redneck Brownshirts killed himself by tazering his own balls.

Darwin Awards, I bring you this ...

Sing it with me now, "I'm y'allquaeda, hear me roar!"

Tortured_Genius wrote:I suspect there's a certain amount of basic games theory at play here.

Remember that politics is not a zero-sum game. Unless you intend to destroy and utterly crush your opponent completely (and a Democrat single party state would be almost as a Republican single party state) it's good practice to leave them an honorable way out (no matter how shitty) otherwise you'll be fighting a cornered rat who is quite capable of pulling something entirely unexpected out their arse.

Impeachment does give the Republicans a way out - by irredeemably burning one of their own. Any who don't join in publicly and loudly repudiating Trump then becomes complicit and tainted with him forever more. I'm not seeing much of a downside here for the Dems.

Well sort of, but it also gives them just enough rope to hang themselves. They now have to decide if they're going to come out against a president that incited a coup, and that will determine how well they do in the next elections in 2 years. Their own base might want them to back Trump, but the Democrats would probably welcome this, because the middle ground could be theirs it that's what they decide. If they vote to impeach, they could get broader support next time, but they might lose their base. I suspect absolutely every Republican will be make this decision based on pure self-interest rather than the ethics of the situation.

Ignoring the twitter meme about balls, has it been confirmed that the man who died from a heart attack tasered himself?

I'm With Stupid wrote:

Tortured_Genius wrote:I suspect there's a certain amount of basic games theory at play here.

Remember that politics is not a zero-sum game. Unless you intend to destroy and utterly crush your opponent completely (and a Democrat single party state would be almost as a Republican single party state) it's good practice to leave them an honorable way out (no matter how shitty) otherwise you'll be fighting a cornered rat who is quite capable of pulling something entirely unexpected out their arse.

Impeachment does give the Republicans a way out - by irredeemably burning one of their own. Any who don't join in publicly and loudly repudiating Trump then becomes complicit and tainted with him forever more. I'm not seeing much of a downside here for the Dems.

Well sort of, but it also gives them just enough rope to hang themselves. They now have to decide if they're going to come out against a president that incited a coup, and that will determine how well they do in the next elections in 2 years. Their own base might want them to back Trump, but the Democrats would probably welcome this, because the middle ground could be theirs it that's what they decide. If they vote to impeach, they could get broader support next time, but they might lose their base. I suspect absolutely every Republican will be make this decision based on pure self-interest rather than the ethics of the situation.

Exactly - there's no obvious way the Republicans could gain out of this either way.

The_Piper wrote:Poor Elizabeth. She's the comic relief.

Someone pointed out to me that Liz keeps rubbing an onion in her face.

Oh my lulz Is there anything else that could possibly be to deal with being maced?

Onion goes well with pepper.

Calilasseia wrote:Meanwhile, as if we need any more evidence that a prerequisite for being a Trump voter is an absence of functioning neurons, check THIS fine specimen out:



Yes, that's right, this member of the would be redneck Brownshirts killed himself by tazering his own balls.

Darwin Awards, I bring you this ...

Even if he hadn't killed himself, he probably would have qualified for a DA.