And MY fucking loved ones. And lots of other people’s fucking loved ones.
My anger grows each and every day. I don’t know how I’m going to make it through what’s coming either from a mental health perspective or from a keeping my family safe perspective.
YOU MANIACS! YOU BLEW IT UP! AH, DAMN YOU! GOD! DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!
Oh believe me, I agree. But they weren’t even motivated by their own best self-interests. It’s voting for the leopard face eating party on a scale I didn’t think was even possible.
At lunch yesterday, I overheard two women talking about how they should totally be hired for the new department of government efficiency, and how they have a lot of great ideas to offer from their years of experience in federal jobs.
“You should cut my job.”
Granted.
These are the people who vote on vibes and emotions, it’s important candidates and politics don’t discount them because they’re the main voter block.
They’ve been reacting to the perceived moralist shaming of WOKE since 2014, and the right have kept that perception around whilst mocking it, being unPC, and joking around to show they’re “cool guys”.
So when Kamala makes a face when Trump says something about eating cats, the left think he’s an idiot whilst emotional voters think he’s play a game, joking and she’s being rude/shaming.
Or when he dresses like a garbage man, and the left calls them stupid for enjoying it, that pushes emotional voters towards voting for him, and away from voting for her/them.
Dems lost sight of the emotional game/narrative being played. So he played the fun guy, they played the shaming upright moralists who can’t take jokes and want to be serious or angry all the time (often bejng baited into this role).
Made for an easy choice for emotional voters. It was not rational (hence the regret). But it’s what got the Republicans into office.
Ye gods, no wonder it’s so easy to grift people. They’ve got the savvy of a toddler.
So next time we gotta call everyone up, knock on every door and ask ‘‘hay what are you, your kids, your family’’ them tell them ‘‘heres exactly what’s going to happen to all of you when this goes down’’
I know it’s a cliche at this point, and I hate that it’s true, but there’s plenty of doubt about whether “next time” will be a thing.
Queer people voting for conservative politicians will never cease to amaze me. I discovered a queer acquaintance who I had friended on Instagram was following Trump, Pierre Polievre, and that insane Randy Hillier, which shocked me. Why would you do that? They hate queer people.
Bootlickers transcend identity politics. They’re just looking for a boot.
And they make no secret of it!
God, I love how seriously Americans take their civic duty, you can tell by the effort they put into researching the candidates they intend to put in the most powerful positions in the country.
I don’t get it either. I always try to read up on things. Sometimes there’s not enough info on candidates in a local race for me to know who to vote for and so I abstain. Other than that, I always vote for the candidate I think is going to do the least harm. They didn’t do their due diligence to even figure that out.
Plus don’t people get something from school? My schools, way back when, and my kids schools always had some class trying to bring current affairs into the lesson, and certainly during a presidential election.
My teen has a law and gov class where they had various debates about real people and real issues - it’s amazing that teacher can sit back and let the kids have their opinion but he does. Obviously not everyone has a law and gov class, or the Econ class where they’re going over proposed policies of each side but everyone has a history or social studies where they’re do that, don’t they?
How doesn’t at least some of that carry over into adult life?
Yeah, I had to take civics in high school.
I remember in 2004, as a kid, my mother (very conservative at the time) teaching me to go through OnTheIssues with the presidential race coming up and examining the policies of each candidate, and to consider whether I agreed with each individual stance in making an overall opinion, not just to presume which one was good and bad by political allegiance.
She taught me good citizenship. Many people aren’t so lucky - or didn’t take the lessons to heart.
Ah you young whippersnapper! When I turned 18 in 1995, the best way to find out about local candidates was a pamphlet you could get at the library for free (and probably elsewhere too) put out by the League of Women Voters. Sadly, there were always lots of pamphlets not taken.
People like us are the abysmally small minority.
The average adult American has the reading comprehension level of a 5th grader.
Less than 10% (possibly less than 5%) of adult Americans are capable of objectively reading multiple stories about the same topic in different newspapers and being able to figure out which bits of info are objective, which parts are editorialized, what information is left out… and why different sources include or disclude those elements.
Turns out if you destroy public education, you get idiots, and idiots are very easy to mislead, responding almost entirely to pathos, misjudge ethos, and actually become angry when presented with logos.
We are a largely, functionally illiterate society.
Brexit, Boris and all the shit that is happening in countries all over the world—suggest is not a uniquely American problem.
We’ve always had idiots. The problem is they appear to me voting more than they used to.
It’s the social media algorithms, man. Folks think that what they’re being fed is reality, so they never double check the information being given to them.
Full disclosure, I’m just as guilty. For months I had built up this whole narrative about private equity buying up all the houses and causing the current housing crisis. Apparently, private equity only accounts for like 10% of home ownership, and the reality is that we just don’t build enough housing. The issue is the same (and honestly I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that private equity is still at the heart of it somehow), but I allowed the algorithm to show me inaccurate info, and I bought it—hook, line, and sinker.
But when it comes to candidates, there are multiple neutral websites that will just give you their stated platform (if they have one) up and down the ballot.
You’re not wrong, but I’m saying it’s an additional step for folks to take. And why would they when everything they’re seeing is confirming their beliefs?
It’s definitely a problem of media illiteracy.
Haha good, fuck her.
It’s mostly a vibes based democracy
and the vibes around Trump were good? the dude is a shitstain on the very fabric of existence
They didn’t say good vibes…just, vibes.
LOL
We all fail somewhere …. I voted wrong on one ballot question, for the vibes, and wish I could take it back.
My state had a question whether the auditor should audit the state legislature, and after so much news about corruption, conflict of interest at the national level, I voted “Hell yes”. However when I read it afterwards, too late, it was a separation of powers question and I would have voted “no, the executive branch can’t police the legislate branch”
I’m not sure if people even research or just google “who should I vote for” when election day comes.
From personal experience, when you’re working 2 jobs and raising 3 kids and spend every waking moment worried you can’t pay your bills or that you suck as a parent because you’re not around enough, taking time to research candidates feels impossible. Which is right where some like to keep us.
I’m in a better place now and have the time to do the work to make better decisions, but it still feels like an uphill battle against the multitude of the uninformed.
My mind went to the same place
[following is hypothetical / made up]
Absolutely cannot imagine
I see what you’re saying but it’s also kind of an excuse. It’s not that hard to find out, for instance in this case, where candidates stand on LGBTQ issues or on education.
I think its more like the mindset of:
“ugh I’m so tired and have to work tomorrow, I don’t feel like I have the energy to look up the candidates, it’s just one vote, is it really gonna matter”
My US citizen mom doesn’t even vote until I tell her how to register and fill out the out the mail ballots. And didn’t even make up her mind until I told her to vote Harris.
Yeah, I spent about 8 hours going over every person this election, including local mayor, city council, and board of education members. And, yeah, 8 hours isn’t an amount of time everyone has all in one block, but most of the research was pretty easy to digest quickly, and I could’ve split it into a bunch of 5-minute pieces whenever I had a bit of time over the course of a couple months. I get that it’s not the most interesting or calming activity, but I think people could at least take a small amount of enjoyment knowing they’ve properly educated themselves on the goals and qualifications of all the people on their ballot.
The place I was in at the time, it was a struggle to convince myself that I should shower more than once a week and not cry over how I was going to find the money to buy my kids socks. When life is that stressful and depressing, it’s hard to see and to take on more issues than what you’re already trying to overcome on a day to day basis.
Again, I used to think that people in power couldn’t be that evil, but now moving past that place I can see how keeping people down, under pressure, and uneducated really does benefit certain groups.
Which makes it even more concerning that people who apparently didn’t even have time to fall in a conspiratorial rabbit hole don’t manage to distinguish between a not so great candidate and a raging lunatic.
The ironic thing about these screenshots is that it’s Xitter.
personally, this cycle the best thing i have under my belt is karma.
I hope republicans/conservatives have to learn their lesson the hard way around.
Somehow they will blame the Dems.
TRUE IT’S ALWAYS THE FUCKING DEMS
I hope so, but given that we already know drumph will do a terrible job from… IDK, four years ago?
… I think that it’s likely that this lesson will ever be learned.
In the most simplest, all I want is for people to look at the platforms and what each party wants to achieve before putting a mark beside their name at the voting booth. That’s it.
If you can, with good conscience, vote for someone, knowing what they want to do for the people, then you deserve whatever they do if they win. If you vote without knowing what their plan is, that doesn’t absolve you, in fact, you’re probably more guilty than if you knew what you were voting for.
I hope republicans/conservatives have to learn their lesson the hard way around.
You are banking on people who have likely never picked up and read a single book after high school, and who likely read at a fifth grade level or less, to learn?
Especially when they have proven themselves to be such gullible rubes and suckers, uncritically swallowing everything the alt-right says like a herd of sheeple?
Buddy… you sound as reality-avoidant as they are.
You are banking on people who have likely never picked up and read a single book after high school, and who likely read at a fifth grade level or less, to learn?
hunger is a very strong motivator, what can i say.
Buddy… you sound as reality-avoidant as they are.
listen bro, karma is the only thing i have going for me right now ok.
hunger is a very strong motivator, what can i say.
And these people will gladly “starve to death”, either to “own the libs” or because they have bought so deeply into the lies and propaganda that it has become a critical part of their being and the cognitive dissonance of trying to learn the truth would be more painful than said starvation.
Fact-free ideology is one hell of a powerful drug.
Narrator: unfortunately, they won’t as they are unable to correlate their struggles and hardships with their choices. This is another evidence of the planned degradation of education in the USA that creates a large number of uneducated voters who can be manipulated for votes
Read DOE as department of energy and was confused.
That leopard is so overfed it needed to grow additional toes just to cope!
Just imagine what they’ll be like in 4 years.
[Scene opens on a wide, desolate savanna at dusk. The camera slowly pans over a leopard lying under a tree, its large body barely able to move. The sun is setting, casting a cold, dim light over the scene. Soft wind rustles through the dry grass. The leopard’s eyes are dull, its breathing labored.]
Narrator (soft, somber voice): In the wild, leopards are meant to stalk, to hunt, to climb. But for some, this is no longer possible. These are the leopards of the forgotten savanna… the ones who can no longer live the life they were born to lead.
[Cut to a close-up of another leopard, this one lying next to a watering hole, panting heavily. The camera lingers on its enormous, bloated body, its paws barely able to reach the ground. The leopard’s eyes seem vacant, devoid of the wild spark they once had.]
Narrator: Overfed and unable to move, these leopards have been left to a slow, painful existence. They can no longer hunt their prey, no longer climb the trees to escape danger, no longer feel the thrill of the chase. They are trapped in their own bodies.
[Cue the soft, mournful opening chords of “Angel” by Sarah McLachlan. The camera slowly pans over a third leopard, sluggishly trying to rise, but its massive weight prevents it from standing. It lets out a heavy sigh, its once-strong legs buckling beneath it.]
Narrator: They are the forgotten victims of a world that has abandoned them. Too fat to run, too weak to fight… These leopards are slowly fading, one breath at a time. They need your help.
[Cut to a shot of a leopard staring out over the savanna. The camera lingers on its face, eyes half-closed, its expression one of quiet resignation.]
Narrator: For just $3 a day, you can provide the care and support these leopards so desperately need. A donation will help give them the chance to live a life of dignity. Help them find their way back to the wild they were meant to roam.
[The music swells as the camera fades to black, and the words “Your donation can make a difference” appear in white text on the screen.]
Narrator (whispering): Please, don’t let them suffer in silence. The time to act is now.
[The music fades out, and the SPCA logo appears in the corner, along with a toll-free number and website for donations.]
You are an unfit mother. Your children will be placed in the custody of Carl’s Jr.
stupid and ignorant people are going to be the death of our species. And if that happens, we fucking deserve it.
Have you tried drugs and not trying to think about it?
You could post this in the leopards ate my face community. Wonderful fit for that.
I was expressing election stress to someone over Discord and they told me they didn’t want to talk about the election (which is fine in itself) because “Joe and Trump are both bad.” 💀 I’m like… Do you not even know how the candidates are? I didn’t want to push the topic because they didn’t want to talk about it, but I’m sure the answer would’ve annoyed me.
No. They really don’t. I was getting some coffee at a drive-up place where they always leave the window open after they take your money, so you can hear them talking. This was maybe a month before the election. One of the workers thought Trump was still the president. They had to tell her who Joe Biden is.
How are people that disconnected, how do you not hear who the president is even just by accident?
I honestly do not know. I was floored.
That’s a pretty common authoritarian propaganda technique. Like, most Russians do think Putin is bad but they’ve also bought into the idea that all politicians are bad. They don’t realize that most people aren’t former KGB agents in bed with the Russian mafia.
Both candidates (in this case a candidate and a former candidate) being bad might be true but it doesn’t mean both are equally bad. And it’s always “both are bad” never “both are good”.
