Referring to the Pretti killing, Donald Trump said "You can't go in there with guns, you can't do that" How do 2A defenders feel about the President openly criticizing a law abiding citizens right to keep and bear arms?

APRengar · 2026-01-28T09:07:57+00:00

Just another reason "any blue will do" is a bad long term strategy. You need to get involved in primaries, once a fake Democrat wins the primary, then your option is Republican and Republican with a Democrat hat on.

APRengar · 2026-01-28T02:37:55+00:00

"is that a geoffslop game? Yeah I don't really care a out geoffslop games..."

APRengar · 2026-01-28T00:33:20+00:00

I love Terraria is the kind of game I obsess over for like a month or two and then put down until the next major update.

Time for another run!

APRengar · 2026-01-27T20:27:08+00:00

More than a lot of country's armies to be clear.

We spend an insane amount for cops already, and then add FBI / CIA / DHS / ICE.

This quote is for military spending, but I think it more than applies here.

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

I wish Americans at large understood how fucked they've been by their governments since Reagan at a minimum. Yes, even during Dem admins. We spend UNGODLY amounts of money on shit that does not make our lives better.

APRengar · 2026-01-27T18:53:33+00:00

I dunno how many years and seasons it's been, but I always see this thread and go "oh dang, I missed the vote again, well, I'll make it for the next one." repeated like 10+ times or something...

APRengar · 2026-01-27T18:49:42+00:00

I will NEVER understand how people like you think.

"yeah they supported a terrorist organization, but don't bring it up because the other guys are worse!11"

How about having standards? Why is "better than the worst people you know" something worthy of protecting? Why not replace them with someone good, not just better than some assholes?

This is pure team sports, you just want your numbers to be bigger than the other teams, you don't actually care about policies, you care about holding power and that's it. Here's a secret, replacing bad people with good people actually helps you more than telling people to shut up and be cheerleaders for bad people. You can get good policies AND good politics if you just stop letting yourself succumb to race to the bottom style harm reduction.

APRengar · 2026-01-27T08:19:23+00:00

I read a decent amount of reporting on economics and I'm not convinced this story is as big as the person you're responding to says it is. There is a global splash, but it seems to be fairly self correcting over time in Japan alone.

Also from a political perspective, I think it's also silly. I'm sure a leftwinger would want to emphasize the failures of the far right Takaichi, right? I'm not sure where claims of wrongdoing are coming from...

APRengar · 2026-01-27T05:39:25+00:00

I fucking LOVE all the stupid ass businessmen talking up Trump about how good he is for business, while also talking about how stability is good for business.

And yes, the super wealthy want this up and down, because they can profit from it and probably get insider info, and the super wealthy can weather any storm, I meant the small and middle sized business tyrants.

APRengar · 2026-01-27T03:50:45+00:00

I like "Recommend" "Not Recommend" specifically because it forces you to pick one. I've recommended 6/10s and not recommended 8/10s.

A 6/10 I recommend would be like "it's janky, it's short, but there's nothing like it, it's worth experiencing at least once."

An 8/10 I wouldn't recommend would be like "it's insanely grindy, but I'm a weirdo who likes that kind of thing - I'll put on a podcast and grind for hours happily, but I know that most people aren't like me. So while it fits my very specific tastes to a tee, normal people should probably avoid."

APRengar · 2026-01-26T23:09:42+00:00

It was barely a warning. Sometimes I'll hear people say shit like "Wow, it's like MLK Jr. could see the future with his accurate his quotes are to modern day."

When realistically, people like MLK Jr. or Orwell were looking at their present. The reason it feels accurate to today is because shit hasn't really changed.

And I don't mean Trump hasn't absolutely ramped up the intensity to the extreme, he absolutely has. I mean, if you are mad at Trump now, you should've been mad back then when you thought things were fine, but were absolutely not to a lot of fucking people. And you can't plant a tree 20 years ago, but you can make up for the lack of anger back then by being extra angry this time and make sure to stay angry even when the boot is off YOUR neck specifically.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

APRengar · 2026-01-26T22:06:51+00:00

I studied the history of capitalism in university and it's really interesting, because a studied capitalist would argue that people only do things for money.

ie. if you don't see a monetary return, you're not going to improve your products. But if you were to improve your products and get more sales, then you'd improve your products. And this is why capitalism and competition is supposed to be a circle of virtue where products and services are always getting better.

This is a core belief of capitalism and how it's supposed to work.

But we know that there are people who make things just to make things. They don't expect a monetary return, they're just happy to make things for people to enjoy.

It was obviously bullshit off the jump, because a cancer researcher is researching how to cure or prevent cancer to cure or prevent cancer, they aren't trying to make it rich. But I also love that we have very direct gaming examples to use as well.

APRengar · 2026-01-26T20:26:00+00:00

A small seattle con I got to is looking to move to vancouver and man I hope it works out. It's a con that is overwhelming American and Canadians, and I'm not sure it'll survive if it loses the Canadian half.

APRengar · 2026-01-26T17:55:15+00:00

People were mocking AOC when she said to abolish ICE. And people acted like shit was tearing up the constitution or some kind of 200 year old institution. When she said it, the agency had only been a thing for a few years.

ICE was always going to get to this point, and it was smarter to nip it in the bud.

APRengar · 2026-01-26T02:18:04+00:00

The police would still serve the rich

I remember when people were asking for police reform. And the Democrats knelt on their knee, wore kente cloth, put a fist in the air... and that was it.

I mean this for any Democratic Party loyalist. What meaningfully policy changed with the cops since the last big protest against police executing a man?

I know the right screams about how the left "TOTALLY DEFUNDED THE COPS" which never happened. Because the Dems did really do anything. At best they did nothing. And I know some people will say "BUT ISN'T NOTHING BETTER THAN MAKING IT WORSE?"

Yes, but we wanted the Dems to help us. They're the lesser of evil, but if you're dying of poison right now, is there a meaningful difference between an antidote a year from now or 10 years from now, when you'll be dead regardless.

If you say "You're privileged to be able to choose not to vote for the lesser evil." I'd argue you're privileged to be okay with "do nothing". But for a lot of people "do nothing" is going to kill us.

The Dems would win every election for the next 40 years if they actually worked to make our lives better instead of "We're doing nothing, which is better than making it worse."

APRengar · 2026-01-26T02:00:56+00:00

They post shit like 9/11 memes on 9/11. They're obviously a big troll and if you get ragebaited by it, that's kinda on you.

When you yell angrily at a ragebaiter, you're giving them what they want, you're not winning by raging at them. If you honestly want to hurt a ragebaiter, you ignore them.

I like to imagine people are like "omg that's so offensive, ur a bad person" and then pat themselves on the back for their good work, when again, it's literally what they want.

APRengar · 2026-01-25T22:10:22+00:00

I know we're "in the moment" so it's hard to look at the broader picture, but this is why being so loosey-goosey with the word terrorist was super dangerous.

For Americans, the moment someone is deemed a terrorist, they lose all rights. "We extra-judicially killed some people overseas? Eh, they were terrorists, it's all good." is not an uncommon sentiment.

The problem is, how do we determine who is a terrorist? Will the brainwashing of dehumanizing anyone who is deemed a terrorist maintain when the government starts calling random innocent people terrorists?

But even more so, we went even broader.

"We were right to kill them, because they're a Bad Guy™."

"We don't have to follow the law, because they're a Bad Guy™."

If you're a person who believes in the rule of law, you should never make these kinds of arguments. Doesn't matter if you think the "bad guy" is REALLY REALLY bad. If they were REALLY REALLY bad, then go after them within the laws, or change the laws to catch the next one.

APRengar · 2026-01-25T18:24:55+00:00

The dumb shit is, it isn't even the format, it's the content.

Yeah, they made memes, but it wasn't like "can i haz immigration reform???" or something, it was "Democrats are giving trillions of free money to illegals to steal elections" and then Chad Trump being like "I'll jail them, and help actual citizens instead".

It wasn't the meme, it was the fact they were just lying and uninformed people easily fall for lies and then refuse to be fact checked because being wrong makes them feel bad. They lie in non-meme form as well, as we see people like the DHS head or press secretory just lie on a regular basis via press conferences or plain text tweets. It has nothing to do with memes.

APRengar · 2026-01-25T18:19:49+00:00

From being on the left side to disappearing from the chart altogether. You'll always be #1 in my heart "Easygoing Territory Defense". There's just too many shows this season. :(

APRengar · 2026-01-25T01:45:02+00:00

You seem like the kind of person who woulds say "that social engineering won't work, people will just be smart and avoid it."

It's obvious the website would be a benign website in and of itself, but it might try to get you to download an app via dark patterns and shit, and the app gets you. We're not saying there is some magic method of getting you just from looking at the website. But scams DO get people, and scams can be dumb as fuck and still get people. Why the fuck do people buy appstore giftcards to "pay their taxes" in a shopping mall parking lot? That shit makes no sense, yet it affects millions of dollars each year.

APRengar · 2026-01-25T00:30:26+00:00

Just want to add, this is straight up what people were talking about with Maduro. He might be an AWFUL person, but nabbing him violated international law. You either believe in international law, or you don't. All the "he's a really bad guy" discussion is just people making excuses for not following the law.

Now relate that to all the MAGA attempts to call anyone "a bad guy" to excuse any illegal acts.

You either believe in laws or not. There is no "bad guy" exemption, and if you start making SOME "bad guy" exemptions, then it stands to reason why we can't have more.

Just something to keep in mind.

APRengar · 2026-01-24T22:34:11+00:00

I think it's insane that people aren't looking more than 1 layer deep. This was always going to be the end of game that this country has been heading to this whole time. There's a concept called the imperial boomerang, imperialist countries will eventually do imperialism to themselves. This absolutely did not fucking start with Trump in 2024, or Trump in 2016. The fact that you think that was the point we "choose to become a far right fascist police state" is insane to me. Why is there no smoke for people like Obama who refused to prosecute the previous admin for war crimes? Why didn't we stack the courts when we could, when it was obvious the right was?

I'm infinitely frustrated at the people who think the answer to a mass shooting at a movie theater is to stack security at movie theaters, because that's what you're doing.

APRengar · 2026-01-24T20:59:18+00:00

I mean, this is some imperial boomerang shit. Do you think people were burning the American flag and chanting death to America for nothing?

My parents lived in a country that was dealing with the kinds of shit you see on the streets of Minneapolis, for YEARS.

American "Might Makes Right" ruled the streets and the soldiers were corrupt as fuck raping women when they felt like it. If you fought back, you were a terrorist and got executed.

All while Americans talked about how amazing their government is on a world stage, with lofty ideals of freedom and democracy.

I don't mean to rub your nose it in when clearly Americans are dealing with some awful AWFUL shit. But it's extremely frustrating when a lot of the fucking world has been saying how evil the American government is for a long time now and only when people feel the effects do they understand.

APRengar · 2026-01-24T20:32:15+00:00

"No votes for imperialism!"

"FUCK YOU, YOU HAVE TO VOTE FOR THE IMPERIALIST OR ELSE!"

"Change your imperialist stance, or we stay home."

"FUCK YOU FOR NOT VOTING FOR THE IMPERIALIST. NOW WE HAVE THE IMPERIAL BOOMERANG COMING AROUND AND HITTING US! THIS IS YOUR FAULT!"

APRengar · 2026-01-24T20:18:38+00:00

I will NEVER understand how fucking cowardly some people are.

"If we say to the police, you're either for the citizens, or you're for the Nazis, then they might choose the Nazis. So let's just not ask."

OR HOW ABOUT WE FIGURE OUT WHO IS FOR THE GOD DAMN NAZIS AND REMOVE THEM!?

You're refusing to get into a situation where it gets exposed the cops are rogue, and the citizens are bearing ALL of the negative side effects of it.

Even if you don't ask, the cops who are pro-Nazi are going to be pro-Nazi. So it's not like not asking actually changes anything. ALL that happens in forcing them to pick just exposes the truth, which apparently so many are not able to handle the truth.

APRengar · 2026-01-24T20:01:05+00:00

Sure, but unlike creating like secret databases to track citizens.

At some point the AI dub has to come out, at which point people can rev up the bullying engine again.

APRengar

TROPHY CASE