scoobdog

Monetization itself is the problem. It doesn't really cost you anything to talk to someone face to face, and there is built in social norms that allow for that other person to police your speech without a third party monitoring it. Adding that third person, a necessary step, creates overhead in what should be a completely free process. That's not to say that Elon is competent because he isn't, but the only real system that works is one that prioritizes cultured promotion.

Twitter is always going to be unprofitable for the simple fact that it can't be a platform that can protect free / open speech, diligently ban hate speech / misinformation, and still monetize its services. Once you introduce monetized services, you give priority to "voices" that can pay which, in turn, means you're giving priority to those that are on the platform to market products.

Says the guy who's spent... how many years living in Japan?

Not voting isn't itself a problem; doing nothing is. Part of the problem with phrasing your disdain in "slacktivist" terms is that if gives the impression that you're doing nothing else. People not participating in advocacy is shameful, especially in a society where the very right to be an activist is protected for now. The people you're enabling to win by not voting would certainly love to curtail your right to advocate for yourself. That being said, it's not easy being an advocate even if we have the right to do it unmolested. You can't just advocate for your own personal needs, you have to advocate for everyone who is in your position. You also have to understand how your needs impact others and what you need to do to get others to invest in you. It sounds daunting, but it's really about listening and keeping an open mind about how others paths can still get you to your goals.

Yep, you sure can say trite things. I'm not going to criticize you for not wanting to vote or for feeling like your vote doesn't matter, but I will for acting like this lazy stance is somehow a validation of it. Voting isn't an end all, nor is it a compensation for personal inaction. We're supposed to be voting for the people who will do what we would do in their situation, not people who will magically fix all the problems that our fellow citizens create for us. For better or worse, Republicans seem to get that and do, in fact, vote for the people that would do what they would do right down to the part about trampling the rights of people that don't look or think like them and publicly cheering the demise of politicians they blame for their problems. It's easy for them to do that, too - these voters are happy with the racism and bigotry as long as they keep getting what they have. Democrats, or liberals in general, don't have a collective idea of what they want to do, and quite often, what an ultra liberal wants to do is directly in opposition to what a moderate wants. That's endemic with a society where there is a large gap between the rich and the poor, and it comes from a deeper and simpler social malaise than political divisions. Maybe if you were honest with yourself, you would have admitted that the reason you don't want to vote is because you don't see either candidate helping you. There's nothing wrong with saying that, but it also comes with added responsibility of knowing what activism you need engage in to get what you want.

Dude, that wasn't real.

For Halloween:

Actually, the officials were just resetting the ball after a previous pass play. I didn’t see the Wildcats sub in or out.

Nazi apologists at least have Nazis who will listen to him.

You took the under on the “when will Elon’s daddy issues catch up” side bet. Understandable, given how long it took Tom Brady.

This is not true.

I know what you mean. It still doesn't amount to much unless you tamper with the votes themselves, for which you could argue there was a total failure only because the fixer wasn't able to control the mechanism for fixing the election. This is that it isn't a total failure like you said in the OP because he hasn't lost his political base, and how much control either had over the election itself is irrelevant to that point.

Election control has nothing to do with it, unless you're actually running a sham election of course. Trump's wasn't going to "fail" at the election itself because he made an active decision to litigate it after the fact instead of aggressively campaigning (thus explaining his questionable campaign decisions). It speaks not to just his quest for unrevocable power but also his desire to become the Republican establishment itself. Similarly, Bolsanaro is showing some clear signs that he's fueling his base rather than trying to garner support from both sides, and the fact he isn't saying anything after the election is not a good sign.

Trump also lost by significantly more and still found a way to not lose his support base.

The officiating at the USC @ Arizona game was just awful. If you didn't see the last play of the first half, the clock is running while the refs were just standing there with the same confused look as the rest of us. Caleb somehow ran a play that ended with a pass completed just short of the goal line, all while the clock was at 0:00. The officials waved it like it was an actual play. Then they spent another ten minutes conversing like they were figuring out what was going on before saying it was the end of the half. Rile came over and started tearing into the referee like no one's business before he peeled off and walked past us (I was on the field) to the referees locker room.

Was going to say the same thing. It wasn't a total failure by any stretch given how much havoc Bolsanero and his supporters can wreck with the DT handbook as a guide for destabilizing the country. Also, although it isn't likely, Bolsanero's strong connection to Brazil's military establishment is concerning given the situation.

They're already "walking across Europe," just not to conquer it.

Probably

So, resettlement sounds better than evacuation?

I know. ... On the plus side, Christopher Lloyd looks good.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but it's still shocking that he got away with his unabashed misogyny for as long as he did. He seems to follow the same path as most bigots... his earlier forays into hate center on women, and then gradually expand into more universal themes. I'm not sure where those conversations are going, but it would seem that's the place to start since it really feels like gender discrimination is a foundation.

I'm not sad because that looks scary.... I'm sad because that's an old Toys 'R Us.

No, I get it. I was only framing it the same terms as Buddy’s conspiracy theory. it’s an example of how the white establishment tends to pit races against each other through how it treats them.

So, essentially, they come across as using other communities to do business but shutting them out socially.