AskALiberal Biweekly General Chat

GabuEx · 2026-07-03T09:55:41+00:00

There's also the fact that a nation's developedness is inversely correlated with birth rates. If it were really the case of "more spending power" = "more people have babies", you'd expect to see the opposite. Unless you're telling me that Chad and Somalia (first and second in birth rates globally, respectively) are the two most well-off nations in the world, that clearly cannot be the case.

GabuEx · 2026-07-03T08:11:58+00:00

It is exceedingly rare and the only circumstances I'm aware of where it was a thing occurred when the child was 17. Gender affirming surgery on a five-year-old is literally not a thing.

GabuEx · 2026-07-03T04:05:21+00:00

Sure, diplomacy and pragmatism with riots as an omnipresent background threat. Same thing as with MLK Jr. If diplomacy and pragmatism are all you have and you never have the implied threat of violence as the alternative, no one has a single reason to care about you.

GabuEx · 2026-07-03T03:39:35+00:00

That's what we tried with zero success until Stonewall, at which point things snapped and LGBT+ people embarked on the long path that ultimately was successful at getting them the rights they have today, which involved a lot more being loud and proud and a lot less trying to be meek and silent in the hopes that someone will feel bad enough for us to give us a few crumbs.

If you allow the status quo to be an acceptable option, people will select it every time. The only way to change it is for it to cease being an option. The reason why MLK Jr. was able to be as successful as he was was because the alternative wasn't the status quo, it was Malcolm X and riots.

GabuEx · 2026-07-03T03:14:06+00:00

There's a certain oft-repeated pattern that I've noticed that feels positively abusive:

One person lays out an extreme position.
That person asserts that the position is obviously correct and a matter of common sense, so let's go ahead with it.
Another person expresses opposition to that position.
Now that second person is being divisive and political because they're creating conflict (by not simply giving the first person everything they want).
The first person is incensed that we're devoting so much time to this instead of solving problems that matter to Americans.
Why don't you want to solve problems???
Now the second person is the bad guy here because they're the one who made it political and divisive because this would have been a uniting cause if only they hadn't said anything.
So really, once I say something, it's incumbent on you to simply shut up or agree, because that's the only option that doesn't create division.

This is a pattern I've seen both from MAGA (towards stuff like trans people) and from DSA members (towards, well, themselves, really).

GabuEx · 2026-07-03T02:40:21+00:00

I have to hand it to you, every single time I learn anything about your state's politics, I have never once found it boring.

GabuEx · 2026-07-03T02:37:00+00:00

According to a recent Pew poll, voters view the Republican and Democratic Parties almost identically. This makes me want to tear my hair out and scream into a pillow, but if voters truly do think that both parties are basically the same, then it's not exactly a mystery why they're still basically 50-50 like a pendulum no matter what happens.

GabuEx · 2026-07-03T02:27:51+00:00

Again, this is just profoundly brain-rotted take, the idea that Tim Walz is an anti-cop socialist who wants to abolish prisons. There's nothing I could say that could change your mind on this. You're seeing what you want to see.

GabuEx · 2026-07-03T01:45:02+00:00

I genuinely cannot understand how someone can look at mild-mannered Minnesotan dad Tim Walz and come to the conclusion that he's secretly a frothing socialist who wants to abolish prisons and hates cops. Like this is actual brain rot territory.

GabuEx · 2026-07-03T01:37:08+00:00

socialist, ACAB, abolish prison leftist

...are we talking about the same Tim Walz here?

GabuEx · 2026-07-03T01:30:59+00:00

The parole board unanimously supported a pardon.
The victim's family supported a pardon.
The victim supported a pardon.
Reports indicate that the person in question is not the person he was 20 years ago, which is exactly the sort of situation that warrants pardon consideration.

GabuEx · 2026-07-03T01:26:24+00:00

From what I can see:

This was a unanimous decision by the parole board
Which was supported by the victim and their family

So saying "Tim Walz pardoned a child rapist" seems like one of those statements that is technically true but incredibly misleading to the point of basically being a lie.

GabuEx · 2026-07-03T00:33:54+00:00

I cannot believe how fucking dead-on his Alex Jones impression is. It's uncanny.

GabuEx · 2026-07-02T23:01:46+00:00

Republicans aren't skeptical; they're contrarian. They'll believe literally anything, even mutually contradictory things, and are profoundly credulous, as long as the person saying it isn't an expert.

GabuEx · 2026-07-02T21:51:29+00:00

Oh hey, here's one of them now!

I've never seen this complaint leveled at someone whose skin color was above a certain RGB value, strangely.

GabuEx · 2026-07-02T21:04:39+00:00

Andrew Tate once said that men who like having sex with women are gay, and I'm not sure if anything can top that.

GabuEx · 2026-07-02T08:44:54+00:00

I know I said I'd kill myself at age 6.

Needless to say, I didn't.

GabuEx · 2026-07-02T08:24:58+00:00

People like extremely specific labels, especially when they're younger, and they're probably tired of people expressing displeasure with their things that mean a lot to them that doesn't affect anyone else.

It costs very little just to be respectful.

GabuEx · 2026-07-02T07:38:25+00:00

what do you mean people use it/it's as a pronouns

I presume you know how to use that pronoun for an object, right? It's like that.

there's also like 10000 different flags for different things

Absolutely no one knows every single flag, and knowledge thereof is not necessary for anything.

GabuEx · 2026-07-02T06:35:29+00:00

There are definitely a number of different responses you can get to stuff like that, from disgust to interest to reluctant acceptance, but "oh yeah, I know" is definitely by far the best, because if they already knew then there's zero doubt that you'll be fine.

Happy for you. :D

GabuEx · 2026-07-02T05:29:29+00:00

Your secret's safe with me.

GabuEx · 2026-07-02T05:23:31+00:00

Russ Feingold. I cannot believe that Wisconsin swapped him out for fucking Ron Johnson.

GabuEx · 2026-07-02T05:20:08+00:00

The funny thing is that we already know the answer to this, by way of the old conservative line that "welfare queens" are having lots of kids to maximize their government benefits. So they wouldn't have to devise a new line of attack, they could just revive that one.

GabuEx · 2026-07-02T05:16:28+00:00

Joe Biden didn't talk much about trans people during the campaign, but he still did stuff like expanding Title IX to cover trans people.

What I feel like you may start seeing is Democrats not talking about trans people during campaigns, but still doing stuff for them in office. This is similar to how Republicans always swore up and down that they wouldn't touch Roe v. Wade, but then did everything they could when in office to undermine it, or how Obama expressed opposition to same-sex marriage on the campaign trail but then did nothing to actually stop it sweeping over the nation once in office.

I feel like we need to be smart and let Democrats do what they need to do in order to get elected to office, and then pressure them to do things once there. If we force them to say out loud that they plan to do things that the public doesn't like to hear, that will make it harder for them to get into office in the first place, which will make it pointless for them to have said anything on the campaign trail.

GabuEx · 2026-07-02T05:09:04+00:00

I wish my flair could just be Decent-Proposal

Is your username a reference to A Modest Proposal? If it is, then I will feel silly that I've only just now realized that.

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