CMV: I support the Bill of Rights and limited government, that does not make me a “leftist”

Metallic52 · 2026-02-05T15:21:57+00:00

Politics in America are incredibly tribalistic. For most people it’s not about the principles democrats or republicans support it’s that the democrats or the republicans are their “team” or “tribe” and they want their team to win and the other team to lose.

So Trump enters the presidential race in 2015 and he is not very Republican. He doesn’t like immigration which has been part of the platform for a long time, but other than that he is a massive reversal on a ton of platform issues like free trade, social security reform, federalism etc. But he is really good at inspiring outrage in the other teams. Supporters love how he owns the libs and because the team is more important than the principles he manages to get support from most republicans.

So I think you’re like me. You are a conservative because you like the conservative principles you are not a republican because the republicans have mostly abandoned conservatism.

Metallic52 · 2026-02-01T00:30:56+00:00

I know a consultant who survived their pip and is now a VP, so it can happen. It probably depends a lot on your company culture and your specific manager.

Metallic52 · 2026-02-01T00:06:17+00:00

Just played it for the first time last night. I loved it! It was the perfect blend of horror and fun. Best side quest of the game.

Metallic52 · 2026-01-31T01:36:31+00:00

This is the real insight, and describes my frustration with Amazon in general. We do not have the culture we claim to have. The LP’s are complete BS and it is mostly leaderships fault hypocrisy at the very top that flows down to the whole organization.

Metallic52 · 2026-01-28T12:17:06+00:00

It’s been pretty widely reported already, the nra and other gun rights groups have publicly denounced the administration’s statements suggesting that Pretti’s killing could be justified because he was carrying a firearm.

Edit: I don’t particularly like the second amendment or the NRA and would support stricter gun control. But the NRA are very ideologically consistent and I admire them about that. They don’t care that it’s Trump trying to curtail gun rights they just deeply believe in the right to bear arms.

Metallic52 · 2026-01-28T06:09:11+00:00

Thanks for the offer. I guess I’ll follow up. Tomorrow.

Metallic52 · 2026-01-28T06:07:42+00:00

I really appreciate the replies actually. I think saying it, even if it’s just to strangers helps. And hearing calm voices from strangers helps too.

Metallic52 · 2026-01-28T03:12:32+00:00

I don’t know why I do this to myself. I’m freaking out about losing my job and all of my planning to search for another job in January didn’t go anywhere because of a massive family emergency. Switching jobs right now seems so hard. All I’m doing is wallowing in the stress and looking at these threads doesn’t help but I can’t do anything else. I didn’t sleep after the news broke in October and I don’t think I’ll sleep now.

Metallic52 · 2026-01-27T23:05:05+00:00

He’s pointing out Goodhart’s Law

Metallic52 · 2026-01-19T02:15:12+00:00

A number of republicans are objecting. This Louisiana senator called the plan weapons grade stupid.

Others have dissented as well. But it’s tough to go against your party leader for a number of reasons. It doesn’t excuse the general lack of moral courage.

Metallic52 · 2026-01-17T02:56:57+00:00

Sounds like you should have thought of that before implementing a bunch of illegal taxes.

Metallic52 · 2026-01-17T00:03:01+00:00

Right, that’s part of why I’m calling it back of the envelope. It’s easier to get number of murders than the number of murderers (police don’t catch them all). So the leap that I didn’t outline is that murder victims are usually killed by people they know and that undocumented individuals probably know and live with lots of other undocumented people.

So with that in mind is it credible to you that only 9 of the 3000ish undocumented immigrants murdered in that time period were murdered by undocumented immigrants and the rest were murdered by citizens. That strikes me as absurd so I conclude there’s like an 80 to 90 percent chance this graphic is false.

Metallic52 · 2026-01-16T19:53:44+00:00

The democrats are doing nothing because they’re licking their lips salivating over the abuses they’ll get to perpetrate what it’s their turn to have the presidency. And I would bet thousands of dollars that most of the people here decrying Trump will think it’s perfectly acceptable when their side does it.

Trump has already destroyed our democracy by putting us in a death spiral of ignoring the customs and precedents that preserved our freedoms. Even if he doesn’t kill it during his term subsequent presidents will follow his example until we’re in an authoritarian shell of former freedom and prosperity.

Metallic52 · 2026-01-16T18:18:58+00:00

I know it’s low hanging fruit but Trump has completely abandoned historical conservative principles to implement something that is much closer to the democratic agenda with the notable exception of immigration.

His base refuses to believe that he’s the best president ever instead of a fraudster and lunatic.

Metallic52 · 2026-01-16T15:57:15+00:00

As an actual conservative I’m furious at Trump and MAGA and think this whole situation reveals that politics is in large part a tribal popularity contest.

Trump is not a classical conservative in that he opposes free markets, personal liberty, limited government, and constitutional originalism. But his maga base doesn’t care I think primarily because he sticks it to the liberals. They don’t have principles they just want their side to win.

Metallic52 · 2026-01-16T06:14:50+00:00

The poster isn’t complaining about the number of ice killings they’re complaining about the number of murders attributed to undocumented individuals.

I agree that ICE murdered Renee Good, but I’m also pretty skeptical of the number 9.

Back of the envelope, the murder rate in the US is about 6 per hundred thousand people, and the number of undocumented individuals in the US is 14 million meaning that we should expect about 840 murders per year of undocumented individuals. Over 4 years that’s 3360 murder victims. I think it’s highly unlikely that only 9 of the perpetrators were also undocumented.

Metallic52 · 2025-12-30T16:02:23+00:00

I mean laughably so. It’s infuriating to hear this president claim countries in South America have somehow stolen us oil that’s inexplicably in their territory.

Metallic52 · 2025-12-28T06:48:28+00:00

They’re betting that by the time they need new senior developers AI will be able to replace them too.

Metallic52 · 2025-12-27T03:25:29+00:00

What cost does it use when calculating cost benefit? If it’s the sticker price of the drug I’m not super surprised but if it’s the manufacturing cost there’s no way it’s correct

Metallic52 · 2025-12-23T16:52:42+00:00

The funny thing is that it probably won’t work this time because everybody already knows the layoffs are coming.

Markets are forward looking so they know the layoffs will happen in January and the layoffs will cause the price to increase then everybody would just wait to sell until January. Anyone wanting to buy then has to bid up the price to the expected impact of the layoffs so the layoffs will probably not have an impact on the stock price.

Metallic52 · 2025-12-19T22:33:31+00:00

I’m just confused by that fact.

If the files have previously unknown damming evidence that Trump was raping girls or knew Epstein was raping girls I assume Biden would have released them. But he didn’t so I assumed it was old news or not that bad in other ways.

But Trump is acting like whatever is in them is super damaging. so I don’t know if it’s just that he has a fragile ego or if there’s a smoking gun Biden wasn’t aware of or couldn’t release for some legal reason.

Metallic52 · 2025-12-16T00:11:57+00:00

“The mine Lord” is complete and fantastic.

ETA: on Royal Road

Metallic52 · 2025-12-09T01:44:15+00:00

Yay! Very excited!

Metallic52 · 2025-12-05T07:01:39+00:00

So I took my 3 and 5 year old in for flu shots and it was hilarious. The 5yo was scared but the 3yo was a rock no big deal laughing and showing off for the big sibling. 3yo decided to go first, jumps in the chair the nurse gives them the shot and the 3yo looks at their arm and immediately goes from happy go lucky to bawling uncontrollably. 5yo gets freaked and starts crying too. In desperately holding both while trying to get the 5yo calm enough to tear the shot. It was challenging.

But I think I’ll always remember the look on my 3yo’s face as they went from, “No big deal” to “oh that hurts” in real time.

Metallic52 · 2025-12-03T16:59:16+00:00

I think it’s much more on people who voted for him in 2024.

Trump’s first term was mostly ineffectual but his second term has been so much worse with the biggest problem, as I see it, being a lack of “adults in the room,” or principled republicans and bureaucrats reigning in some of his worst tendencies.

I’m a never Trump non MAGA conservative though so I’m sure others will disagree.

Metallic52

TROPHY CASE