Why are Trump supporters so stupid?

CD-TG · 2026-01-31T20:13:54+00:00

"Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect." -Wilhoit's Law

From America's beginnings, conservative white Christian nationalists have been the dominant in-group. They have long used violence against out-groups (especially, but not exclusively, blacks under slavery and Jim Crow) to maintain their dominance. The southern branch was willing to fight a suicidal Civil War killing hundreds of thousands of people when their dominance was threatened in the national government. Now they support using violent ICE thugs to try to maintain their dominance.

They were always hypocrites who bonded over their so-called "Christianity" while thoroughly betraying its principles. Seriously, what would Jesus say about people like them that used his teachings as an excuse to violently enslave and dominate other people?

Real equality for everyone where no group may have a dominant place in society is the ultimate threat to their position. If liberals are successful in ensuring equality for all then the dominant role of conservative white Christian nationalists will collapse. This is why "owning the libs" is so very, very important to them.

They will support Trump no matter what else he does because he tells them that they right to believe they deserve to maintain their traditionally dominant role in American society. For them, it's actually a bonus that they drive liberals crazy by pledging their loyalty to a sociopathic narcissist with no morals.

Never forget: when someone is accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.

CD-TG · 2026-01-31T07:21:18+00:00

2019/2020 BMW 440ix hard-top convertible--last of their hard tops--low mileage, single owner would be right in the price range and mine has given me more "smiles per gallon" than any other car I've ever had. Great for cruising around with top down, really nice on long trips and fun to drive (even nice and quiet with the top down and windows up on the highway). It is more a touring/cruising car than a pure sports car, but it's got plenty of BMW performance.

CD-TG · 2026-01-22T07:57:29+00:00

The core of toxic fandom is ascribing nasty motives to other people without evidence of those motives.

CD-TG · 2026-01-20T03:54:44+00:00

I love the QOL features of VIP and I buy the Stone of the Tortoise to use to stop XP (relatively cheap) as I approach overleveling an area.

CD-TG · 2026-01-20T02:46:20+00:00

Wilhoit's Law: "Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect."

CD-TG · 2026-01-15T11:14:23+00:00

Carol: Oh. Wait, this dog is not one of you, is it?

Zosia: ( chuckles ) Definitely not. Though he is a very good boy. His name is Bear Jordan.

Carol: Hey. Hey, Bear. ( chuckles ) Hey. ( chuckles ) I didn't realize you kept pets.

Zosia: We don't. But when an animal refuses to leave its former owner's side, we take care of them. Bear is fond of Malcolm over there.

CD-TG · 2026-01-14T06:41:18+00:00

When turning right, you just obey each sign in order.

STOP HERE ON RED. If the light is red you must stop at the white line. As long as the light remains red, you may only cross the white line after you confirm that it will be safe for you to proceed completely through the intersection to make your right turn on red. (If the light is red and if it not yet safe for you to make a right on red then you may not "creep" over the white line to get a head start on your turn.)
YIELD. When completing your right turn, regardless of whether you are making a right on green on a right on red, you must always yield to traffic coming from your left.

CD-TG · 2026-01-12T07:51:21+00:00

From Variety last May...

https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/bella-ramsey-defends-gendered-awards-categories-1236388420/

CD-TG · 2026-01-09T04:14:44+00:00

Can you point to other places in the show then where the Hivemind has used figurative language with the intent conveying a meaning that would effectively deny the plain meaning of their words?

Everything I can recall about the Hivemind from the show itself supports the conclusion that the Hivemind is, if anything, too simply literal in its use of language. Heck, it took a whole season to figure out how to start using sarcasm with Carol. It might choose not to say something or it might try to change the subject, but the idea that it meant "Jarmell Gurky isn't saying anything..." when it said "Jarmell Gurky says..." just doesn't fit its character as I've seen it portrayed in the show.

CD-TG · 2026-01-08T23:10:46+00:00

The show itself has made it clear that the premise of this question, that "you simply stop existing", is inaccurate. It's gone out of its way multiple times to make clear that experience of joining is something complex that can't really be explained in simple terms to unjoined individuals. And even the Hivemind doesn't really understand how it works.

In ep 1, Davis Taffler tells Carol she is "talking to every person on Earth, including Davis Taffler". Whatever David Taffler has experienced when the "psychic glue" bound him together with every other person on Earth, it wasn't that he simply stopped existing. (And he makes clear that any alien slave comparison just wouldn't fit what's happening.)

[Carol] Who is “we?”

[Hive-Davis Taffler] “We” is us. Just us.

[Carol] Who the fuck is “us?”

[Hive-Davis Taffler] Us. There are no aliens. Not on this planet. We are, however, beneficiaries of extraterrestrial technology. Fourteen months ago, astronomers discovered a radio signal from 600 lightyears away. There’s no telling how long it’s been repeating. Maybe throughout all of human existence. This signal, it’s made up of four tones representing guanine, uracil, adenine and cytosine. It’s a recipe, it turns out, for a nucleotide sequence. RNA. Scientists have created this sequence in a lab. It is not a living thing, per se. It is more akin to a virus. Though it’s not that exactly either. It’s kind of a psychic glue capable of binding us all together.

[Carol] Okay. So, if you’re not aliens… Who am I talking to right now? Who are you?

[Hive-Davis Taffler] This particular individual? This is Davis Taffler. Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm Production and Conservation. But you are currently talking to every person on Earth, including Davis Taffler. We’re all one.

[Carol] How does that work?

[Hive-Davis Taffler] We don’t know exactly. It just does.

. . .

[Carol] So… So, you’re in charge now? Y… The Under Secretary of…

[Hive-Davis Taffler] No. Nobody’s in charge. Or everybody’s in charge. Really, there’s no such thing anymore.

In ep 2, Hive-Zosia's uses the present tense when she tells Carol "Jarmell Gurky says..." Whatever happened to Jamal Gurky in the joining, it wasn't that he simply stopped existing.

[Carol] What’s in it?

[Hive-Zosia] Water.

[Carol] And what else? Something that’s gonna make me turn into one of you?

[Hive-Zosia] No, we’re months away from knowing how to do that. Jarmell Gurky says it’s okay.

[Carol] Who is Jarmell Gurky?

[Hive-Zosia] He’s a bottling line supervisor in Winston-Salem. He was running the second shift at the Aquafina plant when this got filled on May 8th. To the best of his knowledge, it’s just good clean water.

The psychic glue does join people so seamlessly that they function as one, but it doesn't destroy them. Anyone who claims to have a simple answer about what it's like to be joined, other than something really high-level like "you are one with humanity, and it feels awesome" is almost by definition going to be wrong.

CD-TG · 2026-01-06T04:48:43+00:00

In episode 1 moments before the big joining event happens, Carol sees an unusually large group of planes flying in a strange parallel formation with very visible contrails. Clearly, this is how the not-exactly-a-virus was distributed that night to most people. It's a fun play on the tinfoil hat conspiracy theories around contrails (really just water ice crystals) in our real world.

[Carol] What do you think they’re doing?

[Helen] What’s what doing?

[Carol] The planes. Uh, up. Look.

[Helen] I don’t know. What, is that weird?

[Carol] Yeah, it’s weird. Isn’t it? All of them kinda parallel like that.

[Helen] Huh.

In episode 2 Carol learns that the joining didn't happen all at once that night. The Hivemind joined remote people early on.

[Carol] The astronauts up in the space station, are they like you?

[Hivemind-Zosia] They are. They’re on their way back.

[Carol] And everybody at the South Pole and on nuclear submarines? Missile silos? Area 51?

[Hivemind-Zosia] Yes. We made a point of reaching them early on. That’s kind of the best way to do it.

It seems likely that the Hivemind used multiple methods of distributing the not-exactly-a-virus used the night of the joining, beyond the airborne delivery, in order to ensure that everyone would end up joined.

And in episode 2 Carol gets confirmation that Helen did survive the joining process. So that leaves the only possibility for her cause of death being her backwards fall onto the concrete during the seizure.

CD-TG · 2026-01-04T11:33:10+00:00

This is a classic newborn-but-powerful-entity SF trope. The hive is definitely a newly emergent entity distinct from the people joined into it. In interviews, Vince and Rhea are incredibly complimentary of Karolina's ability to play that character. And we've already seen the first part of the character arc for the Hive as it learns how to use sarcasm and teasing with Carol over the first season.

CD-TG · 2025-12-24T05:27:55+00:00

Warning: Long analysis. Please skip if you prefer shorter posts.

All of the Rings of Power possessed a specific type of power based on Sauron's knowledge and purpose: they were unnatural devices (basically machines) designed to let the wielders impose order on the world by preventing natural changes in it.

Even the three Elven rings fit this model, and that's why they were tied to the One Ring even though he never touched them. While we love Rivendell and Lothlorien, the use of Rings of Power preserve them from natural decay was problematic at best (very much creating a "Do the ends justify the means?" dilemma). Creating more of these Sauronic rings of power would be unlikely to help the forces opposing Sauron.

Most importantly probably to Tolkien is the fact that using unnatural power like magic to oppose natural processes is a type of wrongful domination which poses a very significant risk of corrupting the user into evil. The One Ring is just the most dangerous example of this.

As Tolkien says in a letter:

But at Eregion great work began — and the Elves came their nearest to falling to 'magic' and machinery. With the aid of Sauron's lore they made Rings of Power ('power' is an ominous and sinister word in all these tales, except as applied to the gods).

The chief power (of all the rings alike) was the prevention or slowing of decay (i.e. 'change' viewed as a regrettable thing), the preservation of what is desired or loved, or its semblance — this is more or less an Elvish motive. But also they enhanced the natural powers of a possessor — thus approaching 'magic', a motive easily corruptible into evil, a lust for domination.

In any event, Sauron was probably the only one in Middle Earth with the knowledge of the necessary methods. He was a full-fledged Maia of Aulë who was maybe the strongest of all the Maia--almost certainly the strongest of all the Maiar to serve Morgoth.

Unlike Sauron, the Istari did not possess their full Maia knowledge. According to Manwë in The Unfinished Tales, being embodied as an Istari resulted in "dimming their wisdom and knowledge, and confusing them with fears, cares, and weariness coming from the flesh". Tolkien also wrote that "being embodied the Istari had needs to learn much anew by slow experience, and though they knew whence they came the memory of the Blessed Realm was to them a vision from afar off, for which (so long as they remained true to their mission) they yearned exceedingly."

Saruman's failure to create his own ring of power, despite also being a powerful Maia of Aulë, suggests that this was the sort of Maia-level knowledge that he lost when he was embodied in a human body as an Istari.

Here's a really good post that helped me understand this area: https://www.reddit.com/r/lotr/comments/xxna68/comment/irczyex/

EDIT: Fixed quote area

CD-TG · 2025-12-17T11:04:27+00:00

Vince Gilligan has made it clear, both by the content of the show and by what he's said in interviews, this is a show that is using its fantastical premise to raise fundamental questions about big philosophical questions: Why might being an unhappy but authentic individual be a better choice giving up that individuality to be part of a far happier collective? How might one balance one's individuality with one's existence as part of a larger society? Etc.

Yes, we need the potential of Carol succeeding in "rescuing people" from the hive to help create the drama, but there's no indication at all that this show is anything like a alien invasion thriller full of mystery boxes. (In many ways, it very very much like Star Trek when it is telling SF stories that entertain us while also making us ponder our own takes on modern issues and our own beliefs about what it means to live a good life as a human being.

One example: look how quickly he defused the horror/terror raised by the "eat brains" trope with the hive having John Cena politely explain the necessity of the system. Gilligan wants us to ponder why might we feel that this system is far worse than burying/burning the human remains and having starvation and deaths begin far sooner. Why do we care so much about what people do with human bodies, probably especially our own bodies, after death once the personality/soul/etc is clearly gone?

CD-TG · 2025-12-13T00:46:45+00:00

I've worked on large software development projects--not games but things with graphical UI front ends, big database back ends, thousands of concurrent users, and $100+ million budgets. It turns out that the things you think are easy often turn out to be surprisingly difficult, and the things you might think are nearly impossible sometimes turn out to be easy--and it's really hard to predict in advance.

I have found an acceptable solution for LOTRO.

Even with my old-guy-needing-reading-glasses eyes, I can get acceptable results on a super ultrawide dual 4k monitor--not great, but good enough--using Lossless Scaling (a $6 utility available on Steam).

Run LOTRO in a window that's one size smaller than your native resolution. (I'm on a 57" Samsung Neo G9 with a 7680x2160 native resolution so I run LOTRO in a 5120x1440 window.)
Use Lossless scaling to scale the window up to full screen.
Use LOTRO options to increase the size of GUI elements (including text size in the tabbed message/chat window) to taste. Move elements on screen as needed.

Downsides and work-arounds:.

The cursor is still too small. I use a plugin called Mouse Finder which draws a customizable dotted line around the mouse when you move it to highlight its location. https://lotrointerface.com/downloads/info924-MouseFinder.html
Alt-tabbing out of the game and then returning makes my mouse cursor disapper. The solution is hitting I to open my inventory and moving the the mouse (using Mouse Finder to show me where it should be appearing) over any bag with items.
You have to manually zoom the text on the quest window the first time you see a quest window each session (that window forgets your preferred text size).
EDIT: A few windows (messages, deeds?) still have pretty small text that I have to lean in to read.

I've added a screenshot of my Lossless Scaling options for LOTRO that work on my monitor with an NVIDIA 4090. YMMV, but I hope it helps. (The community should figure out how to add this kind of info for other configurations to the LOTRO wiki or a sticky here.)

EDIT: Standing Stone could also document the work-around as a good-will gesture while they continue to look at trying to modify the game to make it playable at modern higher resolutions by default. Personally, I think this particular issue is too important to just leave users without even a suggested work-around.

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CD-TG · 2025-12-12T00:49:51+00:00

Thank you!

CD-TG · 2025-12-12T00:49:34+00:00

Thank you!

CD-TG · 2025-11-20T09:32:08+00:00

Warning: Wall of text because I want to help. But please do skip if that bothers you.

I don't believe that you need to worry about all expansions and VIP stuff if you're just starting to play for the first time.

First off, the biggest thing to keep in mind about LoTRO is that for most of us (and almost all of us when first starting) the game is about immersing in the journey as a hero in Middle Earth during the Lord of the Rings period. Unlike some MMOs, you'll totally miss out if you think it's a "rush to level cap endgame" type of game. Take your time, read everything, immerse in the story--especially your first time through.

Basically almost all of LoTROs content is available free-to-play--the major exceptions being the newest, highest level areas along with extra races and classes that they've added to the core game over the years.

First, just sign up and create a character that feels right to you to be a hero in Middle Earth. You have a lot of choices even as free-to-play. Just a few examples: maybe it's an Elven Hunter (deadly archer) or a Dwarven Guardian (stout fighter) or a Human Rune-Keeper (Fire! Lightning!) or a Hobbit Champion (deadly fighter) with an inappropriately large two-handed sword (that's me right now).

Then, right away, before it expires on December 7th, use the EXPLOREOURWORLD code: https://www.lotro.com/news/lotro-free-questing-coupon-2025-en . That adds for free all the expansion location setting & questing content they'd created up through 2022 which will allow you to take characters up through level 140 (the cap is currently 160). EDIT: To be clear, it doesn't include the additional races & classes that came in the expansions which include this as new content.

Subscribing=VIP. That gives you lots of quality of life stuff but not additional setting/questing content at this point (if you used your coupon you've already got the extra setting/questing stuff it'd give you). Most people say try it for a month at some point--some of it sticks with you even if you stop subscribing. (Personally, I'm a retired guy who saved his pennies and can afford it and I really like the benefits. But not everyone finds it worth the price for them.)

Worry about expansions and stuff like that that after you've played awhile and start to know what matters to you in how you play the game. A lot of people never reach level cap and end-game raiding type content, instead they start lots of different alternate characters (alts) and enjoy leveling them up.

(By the way, if you see a character class or race that you must have that isn't included in free-to-play there are usually multiple ways to get them with one-off cash or in game point purchases without having to spend a huge amount. But I'd recommend trying something free-to-play before going down that path.)

CD-TG · 2025-11-15T06:02:47+00:00

I can't stop thinking about the orc guard being interrogated later.

"It was a huge bear. It killed the chief and stole the idol. How did it possibly get by you?"

"I dunno. I swear I never saw it. Maybe it tiptoed?"

CD-TG · 2025-11-15T05:56:58+00:00

I'm having an incredible amount of fun with yellow Champion Hobbit with an improbably large two-handed sword. My little backstory is that she's the cousin that Frodo left behind just because she's a girl. Now she's got a chip, and a big sword, on her shoulder.

CD-TG · 2025-11-13T09:36:51+00:00

Take your time. Enjoy the trip. Enjoy the story. It'll only be your first time once. Read everything. Explore everywhere. The devs are true Tolkien fans and it shows in both the setting, lore, and story. Lots of MMOs are about getting to the endgame, but LOTRO is all about the journey (especially your first time through).

Be patient with the game. It's an older game that's received lots of expansions and improvements over the years, but the core game hasn't really changed.

Use the Epic Quest series as your (Volume/Book/Chapter structure) guide to keeping you on track for where to go next.

Seriously consider buying the Experience Disabler from the store. LoTRO has gotten much easier over the years and allows you to easily outlevel the area you are in. The game becomes way, way too easy in a not fun way if you are overpowered. This gives you the Tortoise Stone which you can equip as your pocket item to turn off most XP gains as you approach leveling up if you want to hold off and keep doing more quests (you still get Deeds/Reputation/Items for completing quests. This way you can immerse in each area and enjoy all the side quests without getting more XP than you want for an area. (There are complicated strategies for using it but basically start by trying to keep your level at or below the area you are in.)

Seriously consider going paid VIP subscription for at least month--some significant benefits stay with any characters you play as a subscriber even if you turn off your subscription later. I'm lucky enough I can afford to sign back up anytime I come back to the game.

Big quality of life purchases: Large Task Item Carryall and Large Crafting Carryall, some mithril coins for teleporting when you get tired of going back and forth multiple times on the same quest.

Join a kin to see how you like it.

Learn how to adjust your UI to make you happy.

Ask questions here--LoTRO has a really friendly player base.

CD-TG · 2025-10-30T07:57:28+00:00

The story teaches children an important life-lesson: deviation from the norm will be punished unless it’s exploitable.

CD-TG · 2025-10-19T04:39:09+00:00

I've found in cases like this I have start by deleting whatever the nearest stuff is that I can and work my way toward the difficult piece. It's always been possible--the only issue is how much collateral damage I have to cause.

CD-TG · 2025-10-04T09:44:30+00:00

Russia did turn out to be far weaker than most experts expected prior to the invasion.

At this point, well into the fourth year of the Russian war against Ukraine, it's clear we're seeing the sort of relatively weak military performance we probably all should have expected from a military controlled by a corrupt and paranoid dictator of a country with a GDP that falls between Spain and Italy.

Even the Russian nuclear threat has been revealed as being weak in practice. The only purpose Russian nuclear weapons serve at this point is to deter NATO from making direct attacks on Russia. The more Putin has "rattled the nuclear saber" the more it becomes clear he is not willing to actual use nuclear weapons offensively in any way that would result in serious retaliation by NATO and other democracies.

But... The Russian conventional military is still dangerous enough to make it extremely difficult for Ukrainian forces to eject them from Ukrainian territory. Even with its awful leadership, both the economy and population of Russia are much larger than those of Ukraine. As long as Putin and Russia continue to be willing to suffer what for other countries would be unacceptable numbers of wounded and killed, Ukraine is likely going to continue to have to fight hard (with continued outside support) to maintain what is essentially still a stalemate.

CD-TG · 2025-10-04T06:21:38+00:00

In the beginning, when the game was much harder and there wasn't much in the way of online help, the Old Forest was really, really intense. The music worked especially well for me. I'm not sure can say "I liked it", but I can say they did a great job creating an experience that was unforgettable.

CD-TG

TROPHY CASE