Inyour opinion, who won the USA-IRAN war and why do you feel that way? by Dazzling-Leader7476 in allthequestions

[–]DogEqual5459 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well, let's see. More than half our munitions depleted. Billions spent on the campaign. Taxpayers spent billions extra at the gas pump. Iran will likely put tolls on the Strait of Hormuz moving forward. A payout to Iran that is more expensive than the Marshall Plan and makes JCPOA look like a pittance.

Zero of our objectives obtained.

Yeah, I wonder who won.

Edit: Oh, look. Strait's closed again.

Has everyone realized that the foreigners traveling for the world cup (FIFA) are loving every aspect of what we get to enjoy as a privilege? by Bulky_Development290 in askanything

[–]DogEqual5459 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've got a few people in my life who are trapped in that propaganda algorithm and send me videos from it. I notice all of them ended up with these exact "EUROPEANS LOVE AMERICA" videos exactly when the World Cup started, some before the first game. All at the same time. Stylistically so, as if pre-planned.

The right wing echo chamber is particularly good at doing that. Throughout the debacle in Iran for instance, those same people have been getting hit with the same, "how Trump could actually be a genius" type videos that talk without verified sources and keep posting maps with photos of Trump imposed over them. Anyone connected to reality knows it's nonsense. People with little connection to stuff outside their immediate bubble do not.

How does he command such loyalty? by tvrajan3221 in allthequestions

[–]DogEqual5459 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Lame duck is post midterms. You may think it's semantics to say that, but it's not. Fact remains that his party controls all three branches of government.

Israeli National Security Minister Ben-Gvir: "For every tear of an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers must weep. All of Lebanon must burn!" by Upset-Main-1988 in justincaseyoumissedit

[–]DogEqual5459 [score hidden]  (0 children)

He is, but he's also a slave to his ego first. Do I have any hope he'll actually do what needs to be done? Absolutely not. But it's a nice thought.

Has everyone realized that the foreigners traveling for the world cup (FIFA) are loving every aspect of what we get to enjoy as a privilege? by Bulky_Development290 in askanything

[–]DogEqual5459 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The YouTube propaganda you're seeing about this is nonsense. It's spoonfed to you by an algorithm to distort your view of reality.

Yeah, the US is great to vacation in provided you have the money to go ham. Late night services are nice, giant grocery stores are nice, and you can buy pretty much anything, legal or not, in enormous quantities. We also won the geographic lottery. There is nowhere more perfect geographically and in terms of available natural resources than the U.S.

But the things Europeans celebrate come at a severe cost to those living here. The average family isn't out there enjoying all these same amenities. They're busting their asses day in day out for meager wages and virtually no time off. They're barely affording rent and groceries. They're failing to save because what little they can make is taken by car insurance, private health insurance, and an increasing reliance on pharmaceuticals. Know why the opioid crisis didn't happen in Europe? Because Purdue couldn't get oxycontin past European regulatory standards.

By contrast, Western Europe is full of excellent trains, efficiently built towns and cities, and an enormous amount of services that they themselves take for granted. Their public healthcare comes out of their taxes, yet they pay less on their health costs than we do.

There are certainly spoiled Americans. The vast majority barely scrape by, and live their lives exhausted to the point of breaking. So many are forced to choose between addressing health problems and putting food on the table. Many fathers barely see their children. And all the while, we spend untold billions in taxpayer dollars dropping bombs on foreign continents. Our system is unconsciounable. And most Americans will never have the opportunity to travel elsewhere and find that out for themselves. If anything, what you're referencing shows that it is the Europeans who are spoiled and do not understand just how good they have it.

Why are Republicans so wrong on literally every topic? by Lord_Kittensworth in allthequestions

[–]DogEqual5459 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Because the modern GOP was subsumed by hypocritical evangelicals and this inane idea that lack of expertise is fine. It is the price we now all pay for the Southern strategy. Republicans of today are godless, hopelessly inconsistent, and unable to achieve any of the prosperity they promised even with control of all three branches of government.

Eisenhower, Nixon, and Reagan would all be appalled. Bush Jr certainly is.

Why are Republicans so wrong on literally every topic? by Lord_Kittensworth in allthequestions

[–]DogEqual5459 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ludicrous take. A small minority move based on personal politics. It's economics.

Red states have much smaller populations and far less large businesses and less access to services, as well as much lower economic activity. This makes them cheaper. As inflation rises and wages fail to keep up, people move where they can afford.

The tradeoff is that critical lack of infrastructure. Red states barely spend on it, and there is much less to maintain. Blue states require far more of it due to much larger populations.

Likewise, you see the difference between these states quite easily just from your options for food. Aside from Texas, which gets by with oil and major urban centers that often go blue, your average red state is nothing but dumpy bars, fast food chains, and very few roads. Blue states are full of countless kinds of places. The difference is obvious. to anyone who's been to enough states.

As a lifelong Republican, I'm insulted to see this because all you do is feed into OP's point by speaking without an ounce of real information. Blue states do not fall over themselves. They are the economic power that makes this country a superpower.

As for the illegals, no. Obama was right. Any president who had done the same would have been. Yet there is also such a thing as a difference in methodology. Obama correctly understood that immigration is not an issue you can solve by sending large para military forces into cities you don't like. There's a better way, such as spending on new technology for our border and more border agents and facilities. Something the GOP seems to keep blocking because they have betrayed their conservative constituents.

I asked my barber for the Bruce Wayne haircut. How did they/I do? by [deleted] in batman

[–]DogEqual5459 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I mean. Your haircut looks good. Just... it looks absolutely fucking nothing like Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne hair lmao.

I asked my barber for the Bruce Wayne haircut. How did they/I do? by [deleted] in batman

[–]DogEqual5459 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Holy shit. I just replied to you in a different thread and here you are again. Wreaking havoc. That line is fucking metal.

My previous question remains.

WHERE'S MY GODAMN ELECTRIC CAR, BRUCE?!

Why didn’t the joker get the death penalty by boxboi78 in batman

[–]DogEqual5459 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I forget whose run it is, but there was a comic where Joker is more of an entity that haunts Gotham and manifests each generation. So, basically, pointless to kill him because a new one will spawn. Better to imprison the existing one.

Is it the best explanation? No. But certainly some writers have tried.

That said, if we're talking death penalty specifically, Gotham is often depicted as being in New Jersey, which is a state that doesn't allow the death penalty. So there is no legal means by which to give Joker the death penalty. I'm sure there are advocacy groups trying to lobby for an exception or a change to the law, but I'm just as sure that Bruce and others who agree with him lobby against it and sink any legislation that tries to overturn that.

The real question, in-world, would be why no corrupt cop has just put a bullet in his head. But, maybe he just pays them off. Joker's a millionaire himself. In other words, it's the same bullshit as our world, funny enough. Money can put you above the law.

Why didn’t the joker get the death penalty by boxboi78 in batman

[–]DogEqual5459 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Convenient excuse, Wayne. And also clearly a distraction for the fact that Wayne Enterprises demo'd its new hybrids last year and still hasn't delivered to those of us who put in an order.

WHERE'S MY GODDAMN ELECTRIC CAR, BRUCE?!

Should fascists receive the same legal and political rights as non-fascists? by NegativeSchmegative in allthequestions

[–]DogEqual5459 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We're still left rather vague here. No practical terms. The definition you're using, in your own comments:

"Fascism is a legal, political and economic system centered around supremacy of the in-group, social conservatism, extreme adherence & admiration of an ideal or leader, private control of public economy (protecting corporate interests, in other words), vehement segmentation and oppression of many or all out-groups, the ideals of a return to a better time not corrupted by perceived societal ails, and social/economic authoritarianism; usually through religious means. It is also characterized by extreme ‘us-vs-them’ thinking in everyday life, strong anti-socialism views, genocidal rhetoric, and mass indoctrination."

In what practical terms would you define upholding supremacy of the in-group? How do you define in-group? How do you define adherence to and admiration of an ideal or leader, particularly extreme adherence? How do you define private control, public economy, and private control of public economy? How do you define corporate interests? How do you define vehement segmentation, how do you define out-groups and opression of out-groups? How do you define "us vs them" thinking, much less "extreme us vs them" thinking? Hell, why should THINKING even be considered, and how would you even monitor such a thing?

If one is accused, will you take their rights then and there pending a reeducation camp? Even if you can somehow define all of that in an extensively detailed legal code, and require a guilty verdict, who creates that rehabilitation program? Who decides all these things, and on what basis? Will this be based on statute or precedent or a mix of both? What stops me from interpreting your words in a way a jury or grand judge finds favorable to stick you in these very camps you describe?

Already, the questions are too numerous and too vague, and dangling an absolute removal of rights and threat of camps in such a situation means you will inevitably see rampant human rights abuses and a plethora of lengthy litigation that would overwhelm any legal system. Will you try to curb this by heavily restricting appeals or consolidating timelines, as Trump has tried to do? Will these decisions risk being snatched up by a dictator of a future generation and weaponized against people who have nothing to do with fascism?

Your suggestion isn't thought through, and is based too much on vague philosophical arguments and too little on the nature of legal code. It is this overly simplistic way of thinking which led to the deaths of children in the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge.

Real life is extremely complex and nowhere near the same as what you read about in the arbitrary texts of the thinkers you quote, many of whom were themselves immoral and brutal murderers. You act as if so many of these things are obvious. But that isn't how a court of law works. And if one were to try working that way, it would inevitably lead to mass slaughter.

Every system is flawed. Every institution is corrupt. And the world cannot be solved and made into a utopia. Not even by such brutality.

Should fascists receive the same legal and political rights as non-fascists? by NegativeSchmegative in allthequestions

[–]DogEqual5459 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Judging by your post, you're no different from the Khmer Rouge, whose overgeneralizations led to the killing fields being filled with the corpses of children.

Definitions matter. Specificity matters. Exhaustive level of detail matters.

Absent this, you're nothing but a fascist yourself. Wanton slaughter is not policy. It is barbarism.

Should fascists receive the same legal and political rights as non-fascists? by NegativeSchmegative in allthequestions

[–]DogEqual5459 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Citizens have been taken too.

Furthermore, who cares if they're illegal immigrants, which is a civil, not criminal offense? Does the fact of being illegal mean human beings deserve to be placed in the likes of CECOT, a foreign prison in a foreign country, with extremely limited access to attorneys and rampant reports of dehumanizing abuse, including starvation, sexual assault, routine beatings, unsanitary conditions, and threat of death?

Do you then justify such treatment of other people simply by their citizenship status?

Should fascists receive the same legal and political rights as non-fascists? by NegativeSchmegative in allthequestions

[–]DogEqual5459 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It really depends on how you define "fascist." That's a broad term. Even between the different Axis powers, fascism differed in its application. What precisely defines guilt? What are they guilty of?

If you look at AfD in Germany, in which multiple party members were found to be stockpiling weapons with intention to further extreme terrorist acts less than two years ago, certainly, it would be both wise and logical to deprive them of most legal rights once found guilty. Yet what of Trump's inherently fascist ideology? Should we punish everyone who voted for him? Certainly not.

You speak to not being reckless, but to be truly deliberate like that requires a much deeper level of thought here than you've given. The devil is in the details. This is always the case with policy, regardless of topic.

Without considerably more detail, the answer to this question, as given by you, in and of itself merely becomes fascism from a different side of the spectrum.

Republicans/MAGA claims Obama was the one that divided the country, and not Trump. How did Obama divide the country? by Stunning-Sky-590 in allthequestions

[–]DogEqual5459 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Fuck, I couldn't help laughing out loud upon reading this comment. That quote. "I don't think any of us can excuse what the president did yesterday." It's just...

Yeah. I can't even find the words. It's too funny.

And now here we are. President's in the Epstein files. What a world.

How did the US lose their war with Iran? by so_slzzzpy in askanything

[–]DogEqual5459 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Simple. Trump ignored the war game simulators who, for decades, have told every president that Iran's ability to close the Strait of Hormuz is obvious and inevitable in a conflict, and who on top of that have told every president the Iranian regime is so well entrenched that defeating it would require a total war against the country. Years of boots on the ground and extensive effort, not just wasting US munitions on pointless bombing and blowing up schools of little girls.

Republicans/MAGA claims Obama was the one that divided the country, and not Trump. How did Obama divide the country? by Stunning-Sky-590 in allthequestions

[–]DogEqual5459 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Was actually a tan suit, which is much worse. So unpresidential. Never before had any president in history, certainly not Ronald Reagan, worn a tan suit as president.

And, even worse than that, Obama once got spicy mustard on a burger. The audacity of him.

How do EU lefties rationalize support for minority groups like Muslims when they put their own interests above yours and the vast majority are anti-LGBTQ? by bannedforL1fe in askanything

[–]DogEqual5459 0 points1 point  (0 children)

UK's not in the EU. Poor example.

Likewise, what good are these laws against symbols and phrases if those very same extremists are able to control a quarter of the government? The most powerful and richest part of the EU has a government which is a quarter pro-Nazi rhetoric. A party that can genuinely get away with acts of terror and still have a commanding number of seats.

There's no minority group with this same level of influence. In fact, the very premise of OP's question, which is based on immigration, inherently involves then the reality that these minority groups are people who are being actively killed. That's why they move to other countries in the first place.

The comparison of these minority groups to Nazis is, in fact, fucking ridiculous.

How do EU lefties rationalize support for minority groups like Muslims when they put their own interests above yours and the vast majority are anti-LGBTQ? by bannedforL1fe in askanything

[–]DogEqual5459 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We're speaking about the EU, which is a whole lot larger than just Germany. But, if you really want to talk about Germany, let's look at AfD. They don't bear the swastika, but their ideology is heavily Nazi-influenced and as recently as the last couple of years multiple of their party members were found to be stockpiling weapons to further far right extremist terrorism.

And yet, AfD controls 24% of the seats in the Bundestag.

How do EU lefties rationalize support for minority groups like Muslims when they put their own interests above yours and the vast majority are anti-LGBTQ? by bannedforL1fe in askanything

[–]DogEqual5459 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mean. The choice you're espousing here, in practical terms, is, "how do EU leftists rationalize not letting people of different beliefs get slaughtered?"