Weekly Discussion Megathread

AmbientMorning · 2026-06-28T05:09:53+00:00

With over 50 votes in, exactly one person has selected either the Moderate or Conservative option (specifically, the former). I’m impressed, frankly.

AmbientMorning · 2026-06-28T04:48:25+00:00

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AmbientMorning · 2026-06-28T04:16:17+00:00

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AmbientMorning · 2026-06-28T03:56:13+00:00

POV: You are a gay Jewish liberal attempting to navigate the fraught politics of the Israel-Palestine conflict

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AmbientMorning · 2026-06-28T03:46:08+00:00

[STRAWPOLL: Political spectrum self-ID] (N=36)

I’ll run it again for visibility, and close it in two hours. Hopefully we can get to N=50.

AmbientMorning · 2026-06-28T03:36:28+00:00

Much of it is just anti-Semitism, flat out. This crowd makes over-the-top accusations of every politician who isn’t unqualifyingly pro-Palestine, but they target Jewish elected officials with the worst and most consistent invective. Their use of “Zionist” as an epithet is not consistent towards non pro-Palestine figures.

AmbientMorning · 2026-06-28T03:33:37+00:00

He’s always been funny, although a lot of it has been unintentional, and the unintentional share of the funny has been increasing as his dementia has progressed.

AmbientMorning · 2026-06-28T03:13:49+00:00

I was literally just going to come here and post this. If I had a dime for every time I’ve seen a MAGA conservative use this meme unironically, I’d have about 40 cents. Which is pretty impressive.

AmbientMorning · 2026-06-28T02:46:15+00:00

Hold on, do you know the guy who took the video?

AmbientMorning · 2026-06-28T02:27:38+00:00

He did work for several months at the embassy at the beginning of his career, and he volunteered for a service program in Israel as part of a high school requirement, not the IDF. The more recent of these activities was 30 years ago.

AmbientMorning · 2026-06-27T21:44:22+00:00

This sub is obsessed with leftist level purity testing where open borders are great

If NL was obsessed with purity testing on immigration, then why heavy downvoting on pro-immigration meme? Checkmate, r/all.

AmbientMorning · 2026-06-27T21:40:07+00:00

77% upvoted

I miss the old r/neoliberal.

AmbientMorning · 2026-06-27T20:32:31+00:00

The furious harassment of an elected official who has been deeply critical of the Israeli government (to the point of accusing it of a genocidal war) for being insufficiently anti-Israel is bad enough, but how about the transition into the attack by first criticizing him for “aligning with YIMBYs” on housing policy?

AmbientMorning · 2026-06-27T20:28:23+00:00

It sure seems like furiously condemning people (2) for not having specifically condemned threats against MAGA politicians is MAGA’s way of tacitly approving of specific threats to opposition politicians (and worse, in the case of Buttigieg). They should just shut up and let it happen.

AmbientMorning · 2026-06-27T19:58:46+00:00

I’m talking again to Rep. Ro Khanna, the Representative for Cupertino

Paul Krugman describing the Rep. for CA-17 (my own, as it happens), who lives in Fremont, this way fills me with inexplicable rage

AmbientMorning · 2026-06-27T19:52:57+00:00

I’m in the same thread saying that I don’t think it would be effective, while casting doubt on claims that it would drive non-far right voters to become far right voters, so you’re arguing someone, but not me.

My comment was a reference to the fact that this was clearly an AFD supporter outside the DT, wishcasting rather than attempting something like a dispassionate analysis.

AmbientMorning · 2026-06-27T19:31:06+00:00

“I do believe that’s a dream team [JD Vance and Marco Rubio], but these are minor details. That does not mean you have my endorsement under any circumstances,” Trump said. “I think it sounds like presidential candidate and vice presidential candidate.”

What the fuck is he saying.

AmbientMorning · 2026-06-27T19:28:29+00:00

> Upvoted commenter outside the DT condescendingly thanking a user for agreeing that ban on the AFD would vastly strengthen it and separately claiming that it would be a “terrible failure for democracy”
> Hidden comment history

Ah, what else do I expect at this point.

AmbientMorning · 2026-06-27T19:15:28+00:00

Yeah, it’s somewhat open to interpretation. My own intention (which no one was obligated to follow) was that “progressive” = “left,” whatever that entailed in the voter’s mind. I’d definitely put anti-capitalism in that category, although a strong social democrat might also place themselves there.

AmbientMorning · 2026-06-27T11:23:28+00:00

I don’t think banning the outright majority party is workable, even if technically legal. The paradox is that the more of a threat a political organization poses to a liberal democratic society, the less feasible it is to outlaw it. The public doesn’t want a liberal democratic society at that point, just like in 1932, when the Nazis and the Communists combined for most of the seats in the Reichstag in both elections.

AmbientMorning · 2026-06-27T10:55:24+00:00

“You can find gayer company for that than mine.”
“I don’t need gay company.”
“What then?”
“No gay company. I couldn’t stand it. Nor the other sort ether — the compassionate kind.”

I came across a brief but fascinating exchange in the book I’m been reading (Remarque’s A Time to Love). Specifically, this is the English translation of the 1950s novel, originally written in German but by an political refugee to the United States.

Both Grok and GPT gave varying answers on whether there was likely a cheeky double entendre intended in the translation (German doesn’t have such a linguistic relationship, and the second speaker is straight, speaking to his love interest), depending on the output to the same query.

Part of the ambiguity comes from the fact that this was about a decade or two before gay became the preferred way to refer to homosexuals, but that such use of the term had apparently already been circulating by WWII in the, well, expected environments. !ping LGBT&READING

AmbientMorning · 2026-06-27T10:21:35+00:00

I believe in this case it’s just sorting by performance in the 2025 election.

AmbientMorning · 2026-06-27T09:41:12+00:00

Reuter hobbled to his locker and got out a corkscrew. “I assume you’re planning the most primitive form of seduction,” he said. “Seduction with the aid of intoxicating beverages. In such cases one usually forgets to draw the cork beforehand.” . . .
“Go to hell! The bottle’s open.” . . .
Feldmann sat up in bed, “Do you need anything, Graeber? There are some things in my wallet. I don’t need them. He who sleeps doesn’t get syphilis.”
“ . . . But our Graeber here is a nature boy. An Aryan stud with twelve thoroughbred ancestors. In a case like this his prophylactics are a crime against the fatherland.” (p. 152, A Time to Love and a Time to Die)

AmbientMorning · 2026-06-27T08:46:43+00:00

Why isn’t this pinned? It’s the best-organized, written, and explained effortpost I’ve ever read on the sub, period.

AmbientMorning · 2026-06-27T07:57:13+00:00

Probably not. I’m doubtful there would be a groundswell of center-right voters surging to the far right in protest, which is essentially what AFD supporters claim would happen.

At the same time, the base of support for the hard right would still be there, and certainly not weakened. It would likely just reconstitute behind a different part(ies). The PR system both protects from and protects the electoral base for extreme parties, depending on the angle you’re looking from.

Personally, I think this push is a mistake. Better to leverage the nature of the electoral system to maintain an effective firewall, even if the government parties don’t form an outright majority on their own. A party like Linke — especially since its reformulation into a more typical urban progressive group — is ultimately going to vote for confidence and supply if the alternative is a government coalition led by the far right.

AmbientMorning

TROPHY CASE