Doubledee [comrade/them]

For sure, there’s an unhealthy internet thing of just hating stuff, I hope it’s obvious I’m not doing that. I actually think the books for younger kids are overall better and a lot of the worst stuff could have been avoided if she just stuck to writing fun mysteries for children. She was pretty good at snarky irreverent kid stuff.

The biggest fans in my life hate the epilogue too, so you’re in good company there.

It’s literally in the book. Harry becomes a wizard CIA agent. They still have slaves at the end. The book ends with Harry wondering if his chattel slave will bring him food. They don’t help the muggles, they don’t rectify the injustice of their tiered society.

I think the anti fascist angle is a nice thing to get from it but it’s not really supported by the text. Riddle is ontologically evil for no reason, he’s bad Dumbledore. Dumbledore controls the entire society and can act with impunity. I don’t even think all this stuff is intentional. It’s just not that deep.

No her issue is with those people because they aren’t competent. None of the issues that make the ministry an evil neo liberal monstrosity are fixed by the heroes who enter the government and maintain it. The books suck as political texts.

Hey I know you’re getting a bunch of responses so I don’t want to be unhelpful and pile on, but I am curious if you actually dispute either of the claims this meme makes (Churchill blaming the famine on India, Mao personally taking steps to cut his consumption during a famine and being critical of his own policy). Because if you don’t think it’s wrong I’m not sure why you are posting this response. The Chinese don’t care if you vote for Churchill or Mao, neither are even candidates for election in the United States. This could not be less about what you’ve posted.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

The function of a ratchet is to make an object go in one direction more easily. Democrats fulfill a function in propeling the country rightward. This was arguably not true 80 years ago but post-Reagan they are part of a process of rightward movement. Voting for and legitimizing them is moving the country right and making things worse.

Right, isolating the US is good for everyone else, the more tied to us they are the more leverage we have over them and the worse we can hurt them if they don’t do the evil things we expect of them. Weakening the US is critical to the freedom and dignity of humanity.

Well now I’m confused. I guess you meant it was an impressive clown show?

Yeah like, this is the best they’ve got? Pathetic.

Paid to lose. These people hate you, I hope that’s very clear to everyone.

Lol, imagine going to this length to figure out a way to vote how you want without changing the preordained outcome by just making your decision. No, in real democracies you have to engage in the political equivalent of a suicide pact in order to not feel guilty about voting for what you like.

I don’t think China wants to be the enemy of the US. They are the largest trading partner of the US. They seem genuinely interested in cooperating and bettering their own society. USians seem to be the ones bent on enmity. The US apparently thinks building infrastructure and developing the economies of other nations is ‘malign influence.’ The US killed citizens of allied nations through propaganda to ensure they wouldn’t become friendlier with China, who was offering them vaccines while the US and Europe were hoarding their own.

The US sees ‘being a large country and having influence’ as threatening, there’s no way to peacefully coexist with a country that sees everyone else as a threat by default.

Well we could devote those resources to solving the problems they are criticizing maybe. It would improve the lives of USians and undercut the arguments being brought up.

Spending billions to tell other countries that more infrastructure is actually bad is probably counterproductive and wasteful. Like how we spent money to kill Filipino people by telling them to avoid the Chinese produced covid jab.

M’Liege, I have retrieved yon bill for ye.

“(3) ACTIVATIONS OF AUTHORITY.—

“(A) DISCRETIONARY ACTIVATION.—The Secretary may activate the border emergency authority if, during a period of 7 consecutive calendar days, there is an average of 4,000 or more aliens who are encountered each day.

“(B) MANDATORY ACTIVATION.—The Secretary shall activate the border emergency authority if—

“(i) during a period of 7 consecutive calendar days, there is an average of 5,000 or more aliens who are encountered each day; or

“(ii) on any 1 calendar day, a combined total of 8,500 or more aliens are encountered.

Now you may say, “Aha, we have you hyperbolic hexbears now, it clearly says that the president doesn’t just get to shut it down until they figure out ‘what the hell is going on’!”

Which is correct. What it does is tie their hands such that they must shut the border down when an arbitrary number is reached, so they don’t have to actually do anything and can plead their powerlessness when it happens. After all it’s not up to them, it’s just a mandate of a conservative law… that they want to pass.

What’s more it makes me suspicious of you.

Genuinely curious, do you think it matters to anyone in an online forum if you are vaguely suspicious of them? I’m not sure why you would even say that. What are you trying to accomplish?

Uhm actually, if you think about it it’s still harm reduction:

Think about how many Republicans Trump would appoint? Checkmate

"Would you please disarm yourselves while we aggressively posture and arm your neighbors? It would be very uncooperative of you to refuse. "

Nobody seems to recall how we got here, how this move was being pulled by the same people 4 years ago, except then it was begging for you to sympathize with the poor migrants being caged on the border. AOC even cried and got some beautiful PR photos made.

Now it’s all secure the border and pass the Republican plan to lock it down and hand every subsequent president the button to immediately shut the border down at their discretion.

And however Israel escalates, however many Lebanese or Syrians or Palestinians or Iranians we kill defending them, no matter how high the bodies stack they will be back in 4 years telling you that if they don’t win the human toll will be unspeakable.

Uhm, isn’t there someone you forgot to ask?

They can win if you vote for them. I don’t know how everybody is going to vote.

If we assume polling is an accurate indicator then depending on the state you live in voting at all is pointless because only one party will win.

Were you stepping aside and letting the fascists strip minority rights in 2020? Because they appear to be doing that currently, and presumably you voted for Joe who is president while that is happening.