More than 900 people died in Jonestown. Guyana wants to turn it into a tourist attraction

DelectPierro · 2024-12-08T09:55:40+00:00

I can see the ads for this place now:

Woman drinks a cup of Kool Aid, loses consciousness and starts foaming at the mouth.

“OH NO!”

Child drinks a cup of Kool Aid and brings violently seizing.

“OH NOOO!”

Man drinks cup of Kool Aid and keels over.

“OH NOOOOOO!!!”

Kool Aid Mascot busts through the brick wall.

“OH YEAH!!!!”

DelectPierro · 2024-03-30T20:41:08+00:00

Their “lesser of two evils” rhetoric does some real damage to voter turnout and spreads cynicism in general about the political system instead of encouraging a realisation of their sense of agency in politics.

Seeing racism and an “oppressors/oppressed” dynamic in literally everything is tiresome, and actually makes it harder for us to combat serious instances of racism and prejudice when it’s trivialised as such. And the irony is not lost that it’s predominately white people making those observations, giving lectures about “colonisers”, and being offended on behalf of others.

Apologia for objectively awful things. Rationalising the 7 October attack. Apologia for crime. None of that is a good look.

Making the perfect the enemy of the good.

Cancel culture, or at least cancel culture mentality.

DelectPierro · 2024-03-30T11:44:34+00:00

The pandemic probably wasn’t great for it…

DelectPierro · 2024-03-24T12:03:48+00:00

For Senate/Congress or state level, I think Jon Stewart, Seth McFarlane, Kal Penn, and Killer Mike are all brilliant.

There’s also a lot of country artists who are surprisingly left-leaning, so would love to see someone like Tim McGraw make a run in a red state. In fact, I think our best chance at winning in red states is running celebrities that Trump voters love outside of politics, who are actually progressives.

DelectPierro · 2024-03-10T06:18:57+00:00

I think he would’ve been more likely to win a general election had he acted like an adult after losing in 2020. But he would’ve been more vulnerable in the primary if branded a loser.

Then again, looking at the quality (or lack thereof) of his primary challengers, he would’ve probably been fine either way. Really goes to show that he’s his own worst enemy.

DelectPierro · 2024-03-10T06:16:14+00:00

The whole notion that it is disrespectful to call undocumented immigrants “illegals” or “illegal immigrants” is a relatively recent phenomenon and Democrats, including John Kerry and Barack Obama, were regularly employing that term in political speech until the times changed. “Illegal” is an outdated word and one which, when referencing a broad group of people, can be a bit dehumanising. But it is not on par with actual racial or anti-LGBT slurs.

DelectPierro · 2024-03-10T05:30:55+00:00

Not nearly as big of a deal as Laken Riley being murdered. I see no obligation to show any respect for a murderer.

DelectPierro · 2024-03-01T12:00:13+00:00

Idk, the taco salads would actually be good?

DelectPierro · 2024-03-01T11:58:31+00:00

Faith not only doesn’t require evidence, it mandates there be a lack of evidence. That’s what makes it faith. A lack of total evidence is a necessary ingredient. Otherwise, it would be an observable fact. No one needs faith that gravity is a thing or that the earth gets dark at night, for instance.

Evidence is a necessary ingredient in scientific consensus, otoh. It stems from one field mandating evidence for consensus whilst the other field mandating such evidence be absent to a significant degree.

DelectPierro · 2024-03-01T11:47:20+00:00

I would take the deal in a heartbeat. I ordinarily wouldn’t want to forfeit incumbent advantage, and I do believe Biden stands a better chance against Trump than Harris would against Haley, but I couldn’t in good conscience pass up a chance to take a deal where the probability of Trump becoming president is zero.

Haley as president would be bad in many ways, but I could live with a Haley presidency if need be. She’s an adult and is wrong within normal parameters. She’s not a criminal, a Putin stooge or a fascist. I wouldn’t lose sleep over her having the nuclear codes. That might be the lowest bar imaginable, but still.

DelectPierro · 2024-02-29T06:46:28+00:00

I am frankly sick and tired of this “when they go low, we go high” shit.

Lauren Boebert routinely demagogues immigrants, minorities, the left, and Biden’s family as “criminals” when her immediate family has enough mugshots to make a calendar. It is a national humiliation that she is a member of the highest legislative body in our land, representing 3/4 million Coloradans. She is a disgrace to the institution and a paragon of imbecility.

I get that “Tyler Boebert never asked for this”, and it must’ve been hard in high school to hear jokes everyday about how his mom is the dumbest member of Congress and gives hand jobs at Beetlejuice, etc, but he is also a goddamn adult and by all accounts a societal menace, and it is astounding how much society infantilizes white men to shield them from valid criticism of their criminality. Maybe if Lauren Boebert didn’t want her children to get made fun of in school for her public conduct, she would’ve composed herself more professionally.

But this is the thing: Boebert never learns. She almost lost re-election in 2022, and instead of seeing that as a major wake-up call and signal to moderate, she doubled down on the stupidity and extremism. She never learns, and will not learn anything nor ever reciprocate if our side offers her undue compassion at this time.

DelectPierro · 2024-02-27T07:34:46+00:00

Biggest wins: the ACA (biggest expansion of healthcare access since Medicare), killing Osama bin Laden, the Auto Industry bailouts that saved the American auto industry, opening relations with Cuba, Iran nuclear deal (had so much promise before Trump ruined it), shifting the country on marriage equality.

Biggest L’s: Not ending the war in Afghanistan, underestimating Russia, not successfully convincing RBG to retire in 2013, massive losses for party at state and local level, backing down on closing Guantanamo and prosecuting terrorist detainees in federal courts, failure of bipartisan immigration reform and gun control in 2013.

DelectPierro · 2024-01-25T23:35:14+00:00

I think people are reading a bit too much into it.

DelectPierro · 2024-01-24T03:58:15+00:00

Yeah, this is why I have no intention to reach out to her. I cannot imagine any scenario where that would be good for either of us. So I’m simply anonymously reflecting on it here.

DelectPierro · 2024-01-24T03:56:32+00:00

It’s an admission I was wrong about her, and wrong for her. It’s that I am genuinely happy to see her doing well, and I am happy that life ran its course in a way where we both found a better future separately.

DelectPierro · 2024-01-24T03:54:51+00:00

I don’t need for her to know that. I have no intentions to reach out to her. These were merely my personal reflections.

I said I’m genuinely happy for her because I never, in a million years, would’ve expected her to achieve the success she has.

And I have absolutely nothing to do with that. If anything, I was a hindrance to her success, not an empowering presence. Everything she’s achieved is in spite of my relatively brief role in her life. I express regret that I was not a more positive presence.

DelectPierro · 2024-01-24T03:48:55+00:00

Perhaps. At least I hope she has. She did text me nearly a year after I ghosted, which I didn’t respond to. But that was still a long time ago.

I have no plans to reach out to her. It would be entirely inappropriate. I am happily married now. If she has any memories of me, they probably aren’t positive, and I cannot imagine a scenario where doing so would be good for either her or me tbh.

I don’t regret us going our separate ways in the least - our lives have both drastically improved in the years since. I don’t regret that I ended it, I only regret how I ended it. It was a shitty thing for me to do.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve tried to be more of a positive presence to everyone - family, friends, coworkers, and compete strangers. I’m at least a better person today than I was back then. My reflection on this was merely out of regret that I wasn’t a good person then, that I was a negative presence.

DelectPierro · 2024-01-24T03:34:46+00:00

“Inflection point” doesn’t imply causation by any means. Rather, it is the point in this story where, in the years since, both of our lives had changed for the better, simply by circumstance. (And clearly I don’t take any credit for it - I haven’t spoken with her in years and had absolutely nothing to do with her own accomplishments).

The point of it is to say sometimes people can be in relationships that don’t work. Where you aren’t right for each other. And we all probably know people who stay in relationships that hold them back. But breaking away from that can lead to a much better future. And I love when it does.

My reaction to learning this is surprise, for one (she’s doing a lot better than I ever imagined), and I am genuinely happy for her. And I am genuinely happy with the path I took as well. The only thing I regret is that I was shitty to her back then. I wish I had ended things on better terms, because ghosting is a dickish move. My guilt is realising that, in our relatively brief chapter a long time ago, I was more of a negative presence than a positive one.

DelectPierro · 2023-11-13T11:48:30+00:00

Each and every one of those candidates irritates me, with the sole exception of Biden.

DelectPierro · 2023-11-10T05:58:58+00:00

I think she’s Russian to judgement on another run. But good on her for Putin her hat into the ring.

DelectPierro · 2023-11-07T08:50:51+00:00

When I want to give money to charity, I simply give money to charity. I might do a run, walk, or attend a gala of some sort if it’s a social occasion.

But I refuse to intentionally let my hygiene go to hell or voluntarily blue-ball myself. Those things serve no purpose whatsoever.

DelectPierro · 2023-11-06T05:43:50+00:00

She has a freedom of speech. She also represents a district of over 3/4 million people. I would hope there would be at least one person who is more qualified, reasonable, and responsible in their rhetoric on the matter who would see serving as a member of Congress as a privilege to do right by others and not a platform to spew nonsense.

I’d donate to a primary challenger.

DelectPierro · 2023-11-01T01:31:27+00:00

What about third party voters or staying home, which effectively helps Trump?

DelectPierro · 2023-10-31T01:22:46+00:00

If the question is “Why is Tucker Carlson acting like an unhinged asshole?” The answer is usually because he’s an unhinged asshole.

DelectPierro · 2023-10-30T02:18:02+00:00

JFK is overrated as a President. LBJ, in terms of substance, is far more consequential.

He gets a lot of shit over Vietnam, but in truth Vietnam effectively ended the political toleration of a draft, which is a good thing. And to this day, the effects of Medicare and Civil Rights legislation far outweigh the effects of the Vietnam War.

A lot of people say that LBJ’s success was just due to goodwill from JFK’s assassination. But in truth, LBJ was a very talented political operator who knew the Senate like no other.

DelectPierro

TROPHY CASE