scoobdog

Well, I apologize, then.

I guess we know where children rate next rabid squirrels.

I’m with you. I know Strnangelove is brilliant satire, but it’s still too heavy handed for me.

They weren’t adults when they were molested, and you can’t discount the psychological damage pedophilia inflicts. You can’t say they’re as evil as some dude that murders a stranger in a robbery.

I’m glad you listened to him.

What did he say to stop you?

What’s the unthinkable?

https://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/42111466 it was all Aaron Boones fault because he let his players suck. Personally, I think it’s because the players secretly hate their own fans.

Doesn’t apply to musical instruments: you have to at least know how to play, even if it’s really badly. Also, most people won’t know what a gold top is worth unless they watch Antiques Roadshow.

There’s no point to a gold top if you don’t play guitar.

I bought a full bag of fun sized, knowing full well no kids are coming.

Happy Birthday!

All you needed to see was the bottom of the fifth inning.

Unfortunately, most of what I write is entirely my opinion; If something does spark my imagination I'll usually link it in there as a reference (sort of like a research paper). Extreme ideologies tend to be deeply planted. My personal experience with casual racism is that a lot of the latent attitudes that I grew up with are independent from fundamental ideology. As any heteronormative white person should know, these are latent beliefs, stereotypes that we usually don't annunciate and play very little into our decision making process, we only become aware of through the lens of self reflection on privilege. It's bigotry regardless of how we come about them, but it's also easy to be aware of once we're looking at ourselves in the proper way. More importantly, the fact that these exist suggest that we can make good decisions while still holding that latent bigotry and, conversely, that bad decisions stand on their own whether or not they're driven by extremism and the psychosis that entails. In that sense, Trump being openly bigoted isn't really about making anyone feel safe. He's really just identifying himself as an agent of chaos; someone that will disrupt social evolution and give these guys the space to be their regressive selves. It would be a mistake to suggest that these guys might feel safe in that kind of setting, but it would not be understated that he will embolden them. Where these guys feel safe is entirely dependent on the locale, so Trump winning isn't going to suddenly make a bigoted school board in California more powerful but it will make it easier for sheriff in rural Alabama to be racist regardless of the consequences. ... I know most of this isn't much comfort because it involves dealing with people allowing their selfish tendencies to drive decisions that affect you. Understanding why people act irrationally and how extremism affects us can, nonetheless, help us cope. Extremists have always existed and their ranks are almost universally filled with people that have deluded themselves as a means of coping. Misogynists can't be convinced that women aren't the enemy because no manner of support is going to compensate for the fact that they're emotionally and intellectually underdeveloped. However, there is no indication that we're dealing with more extremists than usual this cycle - the simple truth is that we're dealing with growing pains and as difficult as it seems, we're not on the wrong path. Between you and me, this election is leaving a pit in my stomach as well. This is absolutely not what I wanted to deal with after having Trump finally thrown out of office in '20. But I also have faith that the loudest voices don't represent the majority even in a negative outcome, and thatfundamental psychological underpinnings point to growth rather than a collapse.

This is more about social dynamics, and how there are necessarily some groups that become disenfranchised when the power structure evolves. People vote for Trump because they don't fit and they are incapable of adapting; the man himself is entirely irrelevant. One thing that persistently has bothered me is the perception that our economy is failing, despite most economists agreeing that it's been not only remarkably stable but unusually resilient following COVID and the eventually reawakening of inflation. Overlay that onto the shift rightward of young males, and I think there's a good chance there's a correlation. For most of us, financials are real time. I look at expenditures and revenue streams as a regular part of my job. Most people my age and older or slightly younger have a direct connection to the various costs that define our existence, regardless of revenue, because there is no safety net if we fail. Much younger people exist initially in a state of suspended economic security - they don't have full access to living wage jobs and they don't have a personal support network that can sustain them financially. They need social norms as a structure to support themselves while they develop these skills. For better or worse, a despot like Trump gets his powers by maintaining a rigid conservative social structure, so he's a natural choice for young men who don't have to deal with the ramifications of conservative values and aren't self sufficient like older males. Similarly, the subtext of the typical gripes about the economy center on a pessimistic future. It's somewhat incongruous to say that the complaint about future in eggs, milk, meat and produce are rooted in the past, but that's because they involve a past that is a dead end. The sour economic outlook firmly roots itself to changes in lifestyle, so the notion that Mr. X is paying more for a gallon of milk, a staple of just about every diet, is actually a covert complaint about sacrifices in other parts of one's daily life are necessitated by these cost increases.

This is not to say that men don't have a lot of work to do, of course. However, we also don't exist in a society devoid of power dynamics. A lot of these young males are probably in a position where they don't have solid job prospects, little hope of buying a home or even having a stable long term rental, and they don't have the same kind of support network that women have necessarily developed to survive. It's something that crosses racial identity - men have traditionally been expected to use the privilege that comes with being male (like better access to manufacturing and construction jobs as an example) to stay afloat. ,None of this is an excuse, just a reminder that balancing power dynamics comes with added requirements to prevent one group from becoming detached. If more women are rightfully given the opportunity to compete for decent paying blue-collar jobs, that means there will be some qualified men who will have to find another way to contribute, which opens up a whole host of problems. If a man decides to stay at home so his female domestic partner can be the bread winner, does that not mean he has all the same custody rights that a woman would have of their children? It's a difficult situation and one that society is working its way through slowly but surely, and, painful as it is, disaffected men is a necessary late stage result of masculinity being reshaped.

It is a problem, but it's not a Democrat problem. The most reasonable explanation for young men going toward Trump is it's an unfortunate byproduct of the end stages of toxic masculinity. It's not that there are that many misogynistic men: what's most likely happening is that young men feel disaffected by not having constructive avenues for emotional expression and they channel that frustration through destructive outlets. Like you, I say that from the perspective of a straight male who can clearly see the blatant misogyny, racism and bigotry that peppers Trump's speeches and campaign material - there is no valid reason whatsoever to vote for Trump. It's just that society as a whole has a long way to go to incorporate males in a constructive way. Heck, we're only just now addressing the idea of male rape victims (with the Melendez Brothers' resentencing process) and that's part-and-parcel for any discussion about men being able to exist outside of a position of power.

They don't send you a sticker with your ballot? We get a sticker with our mail-in ballots.

RIP She was able to survive a long time with MS, which is Hurculean in effort.

Happy Birthday!

I don't know how you can hate the Dodgers... Freeman sending the fans in RF a game ball even after they chanting "Fun you, Freddie" is pure class.

Anyway, I’d watch that shit.

Did you say your mind went to dork places?

I think so too, for the most part, but I also recall Lee Baca going to Fed Pen, despite the fact he was diagnosed with Alzheimers. The push will be more to seize all oh his assets and make him watch his life's work collapse. That being said, he's still pursuing this election because he really believes he's going to be buried under a prison if he doesn't win. In some respects, his perchance for being openly racist and derogatory on stage would be counterproductive to this, but it is both in form to his rotten character and speaks to his belief that the same deranged people that followed him on Jan 6 will defend him just as vigorously. He clearly exhibits the properties of a man leading an insurgency rather than a man fighting for a legitimate presidency.