I’ve learned no lesson. I secured a permanent residency abroad the first time this chucklefuck was in office, and I’ve already bought my plane ticket out. I feel so, so awful for people who voted reasonably and are stuck there, and I encourage everyone who can to get out now, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to let the self-righteous attitudes of people with no sense try to punish me for exercising logic.

Nobody’s “souls” matter anymore. The world is completely fucked and our physical bodies are going to be going through the ringer very soon. I hope you’re on the right side of the people who can now do whatever they want with absolutely no guardrails. Otherwise you’re about to REALLY experience solidarity.

If it’s any consolation you and everyone else are likely to get a firsthand lesson in it in the near future.

Now EVERYONE is fucked. Congrats!

But first he will accidentally the whole thing.

Actually, in his case, I’d wager they range from NOTHING to jail time.

Accidentally said the true part out loud.

Exactly. We certainly didn’t after the LAST one.

You did not explicitly declare your goals, but we wouldn’t be having this discussion if one of them wasn’t ending the genocide in Gaza.

I’d further speculate you want to put an end to the 2 party oligarchy and allow people to have choices that more closely align with their values without forced compromise on important issues.

You may have more, but I’d venture these are two primary ones. And I don’t think either of these are achievable through not voting for Harris this election. Because nearly every option for political activity is going to evaporate in an administration that has absolutely NO respect whatsoever for the rule of law or political activity - doesn’t even see the need to pretend. Look no further than what happened to Hong Kong to see what happens when the imperfect democracy is replaced with autocratic control.

I agree with you that we are being forced to choose between 2 genocides. Knowledge of that situation doesn’t change that fact. Awareness of being between a rock and a hard place doesn’t get you out of the trap. But you’ve heard this again and again, and I’ve heard THIS again and again. Correctly identifying a problem is not the same thing as having a solution. I applaud your dedication to the ideal of seeking a third path. You are trying to show me the problem, but I’m well aware of it. I don’t even disagree with you that it IS a problem. I, in fact, agree with every single reason you’ve given for the decision you’ve made. I simply believe that the action you’re taking is totally futile and counterproductive, and won’t achieve any of your stated goals. You don’t agree - that’s fine. Do what you like. I’m waiting for a proposal with even a passing chance of success. I’m not even waiting, as Dr. King says, for a more convenient season. I’m waiting for a plan that will WORK. Dr. King was advocating for direct action which would have the possibility of success. He wasn’t advocating martyring oneself in a completely futile gesture.

I am aware of Dr. King’s quote, and I am aware that the Democrats are not some kind of paragon of progressive ideals, and I fully agree with you that they are far, FAR from ideal, and in fact are fundamentally flawed. But they ARE, as flawed as they are, the only bulwark against something far worse. If we don’t agree on that, we do not agree on necessary priors, and we have nothing more to convince each other of.

Look, I’ve already voted, and I don’t hold any position of power to make any more decisions, and there’s nothing productive to continuing this. My temper is my Achilles heel, and nobody has anything to gain. I’ve heard the arguments from the “Democrats are genociders”, and I will never be convinced that the best way to protect a group of people is let their fate be decided by someone who has explicitly made clear his desire to wipe them out, and I will never not think that people in that camp are insane. They are more than welcome to go take their magical thinking to someone who will listen.

You know what, no. To hell with that. I’m not going to sit here and let you accuse me of using groups as some kind of pawn when I’m out there busting my ass multiple times a week in earthquake and flood clean-up efforts and, the rest of the time working with special needs children. I don’t need to PROVE to you that I care about people, and I don’t care for your implication that I’m some political shill.

The main thing I’ve learned in my years of doing this is that the daily work of individuals helping EACH OTHER is the only thing that really makes a difference for people in this world, and I will PROUDLY STAND by the fact that picking the governments that, if not facilitating that, at least don’t stand in its way, is the only humanitarian decision you can make. Handing power to people who don’t see people as PEOPLE in the hopes of SOMEDAY getting some nebulous, undefined government led by someone you can’t even NAME yet that MIGHT come about in 4 years isn’t doing that. Take your self-righteous accusations and shove them, my friend.

Acknowledging that in a world of 10 billion people, groups do not always have the same overlapping interests or that the best course of action for the most people does not always correspond with the best course of action for one group in particular does NOT equate to pitting groups against each other. That is a childish oversimplification that borders on anime protagonist morality, and unfortunately, the real world doesn’t have writers who ensure that there are perfect solutions to be found if everyone involved is just stubborn enough.

If you don’t support her, even if you think it’s somehow good for Palestinians for her to lose, which it isn’t, you are comfortably throwing minorities, LGBTQ, and progressives in every country around the world into the meat grinder to prove your point. Sacrificing and doing ANYTHING to help one particular group, the consequences for everyone else be damned, isn’t really all that different from the Zionists they purport to be against.

Nor should they. Nobody should shut up about the genocide of Gaza. They SHOULD shut up about the stupid idea that not voting for Harris is any kind of way to help that situation.

Not that I’m not glad, but this kind of endorsement needs time to permeate, and could’ve shut up a large chunk of disingenuous contrarians a MONTH ago.

Everything.

Yes, which is intentionally being stonewalled by manufacturers who enjoy being able to force their old models into obsolescence at their whim. There are only a handful of market players with essentially a stranglehold on the market, and they could EASILY coordinate on a set of standards that SoC developers need to conform to to be considered for product launches if we didn’t live in a corporate driven techno-dystopia.

This again???

DECOUPLE THE OPERATING SYSTEM FROM THE HARDWARE THE WAY PCS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN SO THEY CAN BE UPGRADED IN PERPETUITY UNTIL THE HARDWARE ISN’T POWERFUL ENOUGH ANYMORE.

Literally took the exact words out of my mouth.