aurum

Then your definition of miracle is pointless and not worth discussing.

World changing events like the holocaust? I guess you would consider that a miracle too by your definition. You are supporting the right’s narrative that trump is some kind of god-appointed savior. Which is absurd.

I’m talking about excessive corporate power. Predatory capitalism is exactly what JD Vance will help bring about. Even if he theoretically sees himself as supporting the little guy, in practice he will end up supporting oligarchy. Those are very pedantic points that do not have to necessarily exist for fascism. And if you don’t like the word fascism because it doesn’t fit a narrow technical definition, then call it something else. Call it authoritarianism. It’s an attempt to end democracy.

It is a spiritual forum, not a spiritual-idiocy forum. If God moves the figures on the board, then God also made me shit today. Is that a miracle? Where are you drawing a line for what counts as a miracle?

So what? Fascists are always nationalists. More corporatism is exactly what we don’t need. No. People are screaming fascism because criminal con-man Trump has already conspired to overthrown a democratic election. This alone should disqualify him from ever running again. Not to mention all the news that has come out about Project 2025 and SCOTUS. Reagan was like a saint compared to Trump. At least Reagan respected democracy.

Maybe that's part of it. But also consider that the problem for Trump wasn't that Pence was a snooze fest. It was that Pence certified the election. JD Vance solves that problem. He will likely do whatever Trump wants.

Sounds a bit speculative to me at this point still. I responded to the debate debacle by saying people should let it go. The time frame didn’t seem realistic to me and there didn’t really seem to be anyone else who was a stronger candidate. Also, from an optics POV it looks kind of weak if Biden just drops out immediately after the debate. Trump would trash him for that. Ultimately though, if the Dems feel they would have a better shot with someone else than I support it. I do appreciate the 4 year run Biden had but the future matters the most. The most important thing is that the candidate is able to unite the left. No more complaining about how this person isn’t good enough. No more RFK or protest vote nonsense. No more false equivalencies with Trump. No more “can’t it be anyone else?”. Unite and fight. That’s what is needed right now.

That is a conspiracy. Please be mindful of the standards for this forum.

Latest album was really mediocre in comparison to his older work. He is too stuck on what worked in the past. Still doing Ken Kaniff and Paul Rosenberg skits. Still ending songs with "I'm just kidding X, you know I love you". It all feels stale to me. I was really hoping "Death of Slim Shady" meant he was going in a new direction. He could have explored new territory. Instead it was the opposite. Evolve or hang it up I think are his options at this point.

The devilry of Trump has been pointed out ad nauseam since 2016. And to act like it hasn't is deeply disingenuous. The problem is lack of listening, lack of understanding and lack of taking these critiques seriously.

And it may be much more than just an endorsement: https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2024-07-15/musk-plans-to-commit-around-45-million-a-month-to-new-pro-trump-super-pac-wsj-reports

Actual investigators don't just jump to conclusions. They have to find sufficient, credible evidence before making a claim. Sit tight and wait. We will know more soon.

Campaign promises are irrelevant when you have someone who wants to overthrow democracy. That should be the end of discussion right there. It’s also a laughable hypothetical considering we know what the conservative agenda is. Legalize all psychedelics? Project 2025 doesn’t even want legal porn.

The best thing he said was that there are inherent tradeoffs between individualism and collectivism. That is a valid insight you can keep with you. But there’s so much nonsense and rationalizations in here it’s not even worth sifting through. It’s a good idea to discern between a genuine balanced perspective and “both-sideism”. Owen is doing a lot of the latter here.

That's incorrect. Many of the politicians themselves are strongly religious. It's not just an act they play for the masses, although some may do that.

You’re all good.

Not the time to be joking about something like that.

Politicians survive assassination attempts. It’s not like assassination is an easy thing to pull off, even if you are a determined shooter. Just look at examples throughout history. Also, see that many people who survived such attempts were not historically always the “good guys”.

Holy cringe. Owen’s political takes are so consistently bad.

@kyle barnett We've had many threads of this topic in the past, I'd recommend searching the forum for those. To summarize my position, I would love if we could create a product that effectively replaces animal meat. Obviously lab meat companies like Beyond Burger have attempted to do just that. But I'm not convinced that these lab meats are better from a health perspective yet. So at this point, I still eat animal foods. That may all change in the upcoming decades. We are still in the infancy of such a project.

Such as? Every major world power has engaged in imperialism, colonialism, exploitation etc. The US is unprecedented in terms of the global power it has achieved, with a significant amount of that due to its unique geographical advantages and embracing of liberalism. So of course its potential for abuse is much higher. We will not be able to find historical examples of world powers acting exactly the same. The world has evolved. My point is that there is a kind "Evil-American exceptionalism" argument that is being made in this thread. And it's an untenable position. If you want to call American foreign policy evil, fine. But don't create this story that America is somehow special in its evilness. If anything, America as a whole is relatively uncorrupt compared to most countries. And that's partially why it has been so successful and has the power it does.

It's unique only in form, not in kind. It's not an east vs west debate per se, it's about who has power and who doesn't. Who is able to bully who? If we swapped the power the west has with the east, the east would behave just like the west. There is nothing inherently morally superior about the east that would prevent this. In addition, countries with less power are often found to be more internally corrupt. Don't mistake lack of bullying for lack of corruption.

Is it causing you any symptoms you are aware of?

Solidarité. Perhaps a foreshadowing of things to come in November for the US. For the idealists out there, it's worth noting that it required cooperation between centrists and leftists for this to happen.

@Rafael Thundercat Too conspiratorial and pointing the finger at elites.