Would be cool to do a Top Peak Clown World tournament vote. A number of stories go head to head in a vote until there's 1 winner.
I nominate HuffPo about a Trump elevator video.
"A tape might exist of Trump doing something in an elevator. Though exactly where that somewhere is and what that something might be, no one in media can say. That's because no one in media has seen the tape or is confident it even exists"
Where did I say it's really about his own life?
You didn't understand my point about North Korea. If he continues in politics, they will try to financially ruin the Trump family line well after he's dead and gone.
For them, it's about setting an example. This is the first time in ANY presidency that the fight between the president and the deep state was made public from time to time. The media went from denying the existence of the Deep State to praising its challenging of a duly elected president.
While they may financially bleed his entire family for decades to come anyways, if he stays in politics it'll be a guarantee. "You're only in that position to challenge us for 4 or 8 years, we'll always outlast you and ruin you"
due to the constant societal bombardment I believed high taxes where necessary for the wellbeing of society. Eventually one belief had to give way.
Precisely. You're capable of seeing 2 contrasts and picking 1 over the other. Some people will make the opposite choice, and that's fine, that's just who they are. And then there are the sheep, those that don't want to question or challenge anything and will accept whatever they are told. The last set of people is precisely why the ancient Greek philosophers did not like democracy.
"The problem with democracy is that those who need leaders are not qualified to choose them" - Michael Malice
What should be more apparent to people who are more freedom-leaning after these lockdowns is:
1: Governments waste your money and are incompetent at all levels.
2: The government will always double down on its mistakes. This isn't just for elected officials but all of their advisors too. Very similar to how every government and their agencies will always proclaim their own importance.
"Those who can: do. Those who can't: teach. Those who can't do either: administrate. When all else fails: govern"
3: Based on the freedom-leaning vs security-leaning of specific governments and citizens, the media will have different narratives -- the outcomes of the government and citizenry decisions is irrelevant. For the media this is still largely based on traditional political leanings, though that has more to do with the currently far higher percentages of blue-pilled leftists than blue-pilled right-wingers.
3: Not all forms of taxes are equal. It makes no sense whatsoever to have a property tax (or sales tax -- but I don't think the lockdowns have made people realize this). While at least some can justify income tax (for the "greater good/community/society") the fact that you can lose your job, be unemployed for some time, and still have to pay property taxes is non-sensical and unfair.
I was doom and gloom but now it's not so bad. And it isn't about waiting for Trump to do something, but about how many people will NOT go back to eating up the lies and carefully designed narrative of the establishment.
Make no mistake: while some think they're in total control, many of them are in panic mode. While the GOP is too corrupt and/or weak to help, those who have watched regular people like Pewdiepie and Joe Rogan be defamed are now skeptical of the media and that's all it takes. it can just take 1 exposed lie to break trust. That is true of personal relationships, and that is certainly true with the media. And this is going to be increasingly the case with their totalitarian actions, in addition to the lockdowns where most people who aren't Karens are completely sick of.
While Huxley thought people would willingly submit to tyranny over time, as we were doing for some time, we've drastically forced them to turn to Orwell's view that the tyranny must be forced onto people. And fortunately the situation in the US is not like it was in North Korea, or China, or Germany, or Italy, or Venezuela... You have 50 different states, many of them capable of separating, and a very well armed populace.
People seem to think that the country must stick together. There is no reason states should just not try to peaceably separate.
There is no benefit of the union any longer with how tyrannical the leftists (and the neo-con portion of the right) have gotten.
If they wanted to live somewhere with no gun rights they could've moved to over 200 other countries. Similarly with speech laws. That isn't what they want, they want control.
Well spoken. It's not about the lie they tell us (and many convince themselves of) that they're crafting a "better world", it's about gaining control and enacting power.
This is why they immediately disregard mask and lockdown protestors as the degenerates of society, If there's any kind of dispute about paths, then you can't force people to do the worst situation.
Surely my original comment can be understood to mean if you value liberty you are my friend?
Certainly. I wasn't arguing against you. I was adding my perspective on what others have said about "95% shared values" and how your point is really all that matters. Freedom is everything, and I agree far more with a self-proclaimed "leftie" like Glenn Greenwald than a self-proclaimed "conservative" like Bill Kristol.
Are not the values of society made up by the values of the majority of that society's individuals?
No. And public education is a great example of a tool used by governments to not make it the case. Mao, Mussolini, Castro... they weren't fans of public education just because. They were fans of instituting and growing it because they are perfect places to indoctrinate and keep the government's values at the top, whatever that may be.
People who prefer security will always outnumber those who prefer liberty, it is something Thomas Hobbes nailed right on the head.
You are right though, some of it is societal and some of it is individual. Becoming red-pilled is about realizing you've been manipulated down a carefully designed narrative. That doesn't mean you're going to be pro-freedom, just that you're now likely thinking for yourself and questioning things, as opposed to just following the societal norm.
How many people here were once blue-pilled, believing in what they were told for so long? Their values during those times weren't driven by their individuality, but by whatever narrative the media, government, and companies wanted to spin.
Somewhat yes, unfortunately. But these people are hateful, depraved, and have plenty of guidelines from other countries on how to ruin someone absolutely and forever.
Could easily be a bargain offered by them. Shut up and disappear, and we will leave what's left of your reputation, family, and businesses alone. Stay in politics and you will be ruined, with no exceptions.
Why is that chick wearing a mask while she is standing alone and outside?
For show.
Luckily some people are seeing media manipulation with the masks, since it's pretty simple to spot.
Saw in another country a major news outlet interviewing people that were just out walking near a beach and they came across 1 guy without a mask and they asked him why and his answer was solid, "what do I need a mask for? I'm well over 2 meters away from everyone since no one is outside"
Still surprised they aired him saying that.
This was exactly it. The local news network contacted the ADL and they said it's a hateful image.
There's money laundering, idea laundering (commonplace in trash academic fields), and news laundering, which groups like the SPLC, ADL, and FBI take part in.
Perfect example was the Steele dossier that was laundered through news outlets to give it "credibility" so that the US government could get their FISA warrant approved to spy on Trump's campaign.
Btw for those thinking there's some turnaround for our current system.... how many people went to jail for that?????
When it's convenient for the establishment, it's a race. When they want to rip on Orthodox Jews in New York who defy lockdown orders, it's solely a religion.
Sanders himself is an atheist and does not practice Judaism in any way.
I like him but I don't expect him to do anything after this.
Let him enjoy the rest of his life and not have the deep state absolutely destroy his family for generations to come.
When the CIA started torture at Gitmo they had to look up KGB manuals because they didn't know what they were doing. In North Korea, if you are believed to be a traitor/threat to the regime, they throw you and 3 generations of your family into camps. The Deep State are not amateurs anymore. If Trump continues, they will do this to him but on a financial scale. No more loans, no more deals, no more local or state agreements for development... NOTHING.
Everyone who wants to be free and wants me to be free is a fren.
This is the fallacy of what some like Shapiro have said about "sharing 95% of values with other Americans, the other 5% are what we're fighting over".
You either lean in favor of liberty, or lean in favor of security. Left, right, Republican, Democrat... far more meaningless distinctions and the Wuhan Virus lockdowns have made that abundantly clear. If you share basic societal values, that's not you as an individual but you as a product of the society you grew up in and that matters little when society is changing so rapidly.
Just enough government for basic services, and just little enough to not involve themselves in our lives.
May I ask what services you think those are?
I used to include basic education in that but I was a fool, basic education is pretty garbage.
A nation kept together solely through geography and not ideology is the grand mistake. There is no reason they should have to put up with us, and us them. 2 very different worldviews, and we are beholden to each other with alternating power.
People used to "vote" with their feet, even before democracies were a thing. What irritates me is that most places on earth already practice what the leftists want to live under, but a tiny amount are like the US (conceptually). Don't like gun ownership? Congrats, here's over 200 other countries you can call home!!!
Let's wait and see who's right about which choice he'll make.
If he wanted to go scorched earth, he should've done that at some point in the last 4 years.
I get that the election was now, but he's been undermined by the Deep State for 4 years straight. This isn't some fight that begins now, it's been going on for years now and the idea that he ramps it up now, after he no longer has the power of the presidency, is just non-sensical.