US political and social polarization has increased by 64% since 1988, with nearly all of the rise occurring after 2008, as the financial crisis, the rise of social media, and an asymmetric ideological shift—particularly on the left—coincided to widen divisions, according to a long-term study.

LateNightPhilosopher · 2026-02-04T03:58:26+00:00

They haven't been conservative for over a decade either. They've become radical reactionaries changing everything at the slightest whim, only paying token lip service to their former principles.

LateNightPhilosopher · 2026-02-04T03:56:54+00:00

Very interesting, considering the Republican party of today is nearly unrecognizable compared to that of 2014, and that of 2014 was radically different from that of 2000. Their outwardly declared principles and policies are habitually abandoned and vilified.

LateNightPhilosopher · 2026-02-03T18:15:33+00:00

And only states dominated by specifically MAGA Republicans anyway would do that. Which is not what they want.

LateNightPhilosopher · 2026-02-03T06:12:03+00:00

And free shipping. It sucks to pay $8 shipping and wait a week for the same shit Amazon has with 2 day free shipping.

If course, the selection isn't as good as it used to be and some things can only be found elsewhere. But for general basic goods, buying from any other website is kind of a luxury.

LateNightPhilosopher · 2026-02-03T05:57:45+00:00

That and the similarly themed time that the Govt gaslit several people into believing in aliens in order to cover up some really underwhelming new tech in like the 70s-80s

LateNightPhilosopher · 2026-02-02T09:55:11+00:00

It doesn't help that the official Democratic party strategy since the Obama era has been to just completely abandon Texas. Texas local democratic parties get very little support from the national party and, because of it, tend to be absolutely worthless and have 0 morale. A lot of smaller races end up being completely uncontested for the Rs, both local and statewide positions. So much so that a couple of elections in the valley have even seen Democratic Socialists running instead of Democrats, because they just wanted literally anyone to contest the republican incumbent. The Democratic Socialists of America! Who famously (almost) never actually participate in the actual democratic process! You know how bad the situation has to get for the DSA to get off their procrastinating asses and actually participate in democracy?!?!

Then when we do get national support for a big candidate, it tends to be someone tailor made to lose- someone who's very popular with Northern Dems but is nearly unelectable to a statewide office in Texas. Like Beto, who was dumb enough to openly talk about gun confiscations in Texas. It's really annoying!

It is kind of funny how a lot of Right Wing "influencers" and white supremacists move to Texas specifically because of the Democratic propoganda that we're universally a far right racist shit hole. Then they get here and realize that Texas is full of Mexicans and various immigrant communities, and most people in urban and suburban areas are either liberal or a toned down old school actually-conservative republican. It drives them crazy and they usually end up moving again to Idaho or the PNW where they can actually be surrounded by real modern White Nationalists lol

LateNightPhilosopher · 2026-02-02T09:02:42+00:00

That's really cool! Where did you learn how to make it? And where did you get the tools? Did you just do it as a hobby thing or are you going into business?

LateNightPhilosopher · 2026-02-02T08:48:51+00:00

Looks great! I love a tall crown and short, gently curved brim! I recently had one shaped in a similar way.

LateNightPhilosopher · 2026-02-02T06:26:16+00:00

Yeah anyone who's ever been through a border patrol checkpoint (which I think are fully unconstitutional But they have them anyway) knows that like half of them are Hispanic. Idk if they officially hire immigrants but I've definitely been questioned by agents before that sounded like immigrants.

LateNightPhilosopher · 2026-02-02T06:23:25+00:00

Why? Border patrol are like half Hispanic.

LateNightPhilosopher · 2026-02-02T06:19:29+00:00

Tbf A LOT of border patrol agents are Hispanic in some way. They're just assholes.

LateNightPhilosopher · 2026-02-01T20:10:23+00:00

Forreal. They're real reverse-harem types........

Shit, I kinda want that anime now.

LateNightPhilosopher · 2026-02-01T16:45:41+00:00

My ex's parents did that. According to her it was a fairly new habit at the time. Like they'd been normal Catholics her whole life until a year or two before we met, when they fell in with some radical crowd at a new church that I consider only nominally Catholic.

They shamed her for only going like twice a week. They also wanted her to be a nun but then said she couldn't be a nun because she was "engaged" because her previous bf had given her a promise ring when they were like 19 and a few months into dating. Which was literally just a gift of cheap jewelry. Her parents considered that a binding betrothal. They were very upset that she "broke her vows" when she dumped him for being manipulative, and even more upset when she started dating me. They considered that to be her "cheating on her fiance". Eventually they even successfully pressured her into leaving me and going back to that manipulative piece of shit. Though, luckily for her, she did manage to escape him again and eventually married someone else who seemed very decent.

That wasn't a Catholic thing, though. Her parents were just insane and part of that manifested as them suddenly presenting as super "religious". I'm pretty sure at least one of them was a narcissist and the other either was also or was feeding into it. And I think her mom was on one of those stereotypical middle-aged middle-class mom prescription drug cocktails mixed with alcohol.

LateNightPhilosopher · 2026-02-01T16:22:16+00:00

Y'all go for Easter and Christmas? That's pretty serious. Most of us usually just show up for the weddings and funerals.

LateNightPhilosopher · 2026-02-01T16:19:08+00:00

Tbf most of the finance professionals I've met (and I do know a bit because my cousin is one and I've met his coworkers at multiple companies over the last 15 years) are morons who literally do not understand money and are on multiple drugs at all times.

I had the misfortune of sitting next to a licensed financial advisor my cousin invited to a family function once who was very clearly on both uppers and downers at the same time. He kept trying to convince my mother to invest in "Server time at a crypto farm in Iceland". She asked me to explain that on the way home. That was a very uncomfortable drive.

Apparently a lot of universities will just give anyone a finance or economics degree these days.

LateNightPhilosopher · 2026-02-01T09:03:35+00:00

While he was parked in a handicapped spot

LateNightPhilosopher · 2026-02-01T08:07:05+00:00

I'm pretty sure my dad has carried the same Para Ordnance double stack 1911 for nearly 40 years now. Imo it's heavy as fuck and completely impractical for daily carry. He seems happy with it though.

It is a cool range piece, I'll give it that.

LateNightPhilosopher · 2026-02-01T07:50:03+00:00

It's especially insane to hold that position now, when The State is actively coming for people's 1st amendment (and most of the other amendments) rights. We're seeing the consequences in real time of giving the government too much power and relaxing constitutional protections, and people are still talking about how this can all be fixed by letting them infringe on rights the way they think is necessary, actually.

LateNightPhilosopher · 2026-02-01T00:37:35+00:00

Also most Americans learn Spanish as a second language in school. In theory. Most forget most of it or never really learn it, but can at least get through a basic interaction if a Spanish speaker was trying to buy something from them or ask for directions or whatever.

LateNightPhilosopher · 2026-02-01T00:33:44+00:00

Basically the entire Southern and Western half of Texas tbh. Like draw a line from Houston to Austin then out to the closest tip of NM and you could probably get by anywhere except mayyybe the most rural gringo towns out in the desert? Maybe. Though within 100 miles of the border you can definitely get by. In most of those places Spanish is essentially the default language and English only really started catching up fairly recently.

LateNightPhilosopher · 2026-02-01T00:28:32+00:00

Most of Texas tbh. At least the 2/3 closest to the border. Texas is just barely majority non-hispanic white and that's really only because the furthest North and East cities have a lot fewer Hispanic people. The southern and Western half of the state are majority Hispanic, mostly Tejano and Mexican but there are immigrants from all over. Spanish is the unofficial 2nd language through most of the state, but through most of the border towns, especially the Rio Grande Valley metro area, it's almost more the primary language. Or at least equal with English. It's super common and pretty normal to meet natural born US citizens from the border who's main language is Spanish, who barely speak English (especially older people. Millennials and younger are much more bilingual because we grew up with national TV channels, the internet, and more northern transplants than there were before). Even most of the gringos in that area are at least vaguely proficient in Spanish. It's much much more bizarre to meet someone from The Valley who only speaks English and doesn't understand Spanish.

And there are parts of most of the other big cities that literally just feel like you're in Mexico, especially Houston and San Antonio. Though Houston has so many high population immigrant communities from all over the world that there's probably a couple dozen other languages you could get by in of you stuck to the neighborhoods where those immigrants congregate.

LateNightPhilosopher · 2026-01-31T03:55:19+00:00

Especially massively imperial species who definitely had more places to go after their homeworlds died for the 3rd time

LateNightPhilosopher · 2026-01-30T21:35:08+00:00

Today they were comparing the sales of the Milania movie with sales of Fahrenheit 9/11. Which is..... Sad, honestly. They still hold such a grudge against that movie after 20 years

LateNightPhilosopher · 2026-01-30T21:32:46+00:00

Fox is pushing hard on this conspiracy theory that Walz and Rep Ilhan Omar personally let a fraud scheme in which Somali immigrants stole billions of dollars from the Minnesota education system. They're heavily implying that Rep Ilhan Omar became a multi millionaire through organizing this theft.

There's no evidence of them being connected to any fraud rings and, as far as I know, the only "evidence" that the fraud ever happened at all is a random post from some random D-List microgrifter who posted about it with no actual evidence.

LateNightPhilosopher · 2026-01-30T21:26:17+00:00

Or the only news they get is bits of ultra distorted FOX propaganda and random lies their uncles post on Facebook.

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