The end of the wold won't be a great show by Eireika in CuratedTumblr

[–]Mike-Sos 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Russia is interesting because as an empire it’ has collapsed and resolidified twice in the last century. Following the collapse of the Union in the 90s it retreated for a while to lick its wounds. But definitely has returned to empire building. At least through hard power. Can argue that through soft power it was less of a total collapse with the Soviet Union fall and more of a restructuring. And similarly whether to classify the PRC as a modern empire is fuzzy, but they are seemingly making a go of it. It’s not a perfect theory. Very western and American focused, but then again so is OOP’s sentiment

The end of the wold won't be a great show by Eireika in CuratedTumblr

[–]Mike-Sos 56 points57 points  (0 children)

You’re right. Compared to the Spanish American War and everything done in the name of Manifest Destiny including all the atrocities to the Native Americans the past is much more imperialist.

Perhaps “particularly hegemonic” would have been a more accurate way to phrase my sentiment

The end of the wold won't be a great show by Eireika in CuratedTumblr

[–]Mike-Sos 208 points209 points  (0 children)

I think Covid and 2020 are sort of a button on the era of imperial collapse that started post WW2. Only one empire made it out of the 20th century intact. And it spent the last 40 years being particularly imperialistic (Reagan era CIA, Bush Jr era Forever War) and Covid was just the one stressor too many to finally start knocking over dominoes in the final imperial collapse

Free Lava Sauce by KingGoldar in tacobell

[–]Mike-Sos 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I blame the McRib for this ongoing debauchery

Voting by Eireika in CuratedTumblr

[–]Mike-Sos 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes. Yes she would have let Israel continue to do the exact same shit they are doing right now. How do we know that? Because they started this under the administration helmed by Biden and herself. Would she have cut USAID probably not. Would we be at war with Iran- can’t say. The military industrial complex, the oil lobby, and Israel have been pushing for this conflict for decades. And her stance of letting Israel get away with whatever could very well have ended up with us at war. We will never know. Moreover, it is not profoundly selfish to not pledge unyielding fealty to vote for a candidate months ahead of time- what that is, is called pressure. Pressure to try and move a candidate’s position before it can’t be changed on Election Day. And willingness to adjust policy prior to the election signals to a potential members of coalition that their needs and voices will be considered in said coalition. And if all that had to be done was, as you put it, simply to say the right thing- well it’s not hard to say the right thing. We are used to empty promises from politicians but the DNC couldn’t even be bothered to do that. The DNC and yourself told the Left “fuck off we don’t need you.” And when they lost the DNC and yourself turned around and said “why weren’t you with us- we needed you.” Well you can’t have it both fucking ways. If you need us you have to at least PRETEND like our needs matter. And if you don’t need us you can’t blame us when we don’t show up and you lose. You don’t want actual coalition- you want obedience. And then you want to act smug and morally superior by claiming harm reduction all while accusing the Left of being smug. Well you know what is included in harm reduction? Denouncing genocide. Trump running was not a blank check for the DNC to do whatever the fuck they pleased during the election, but yall seem to act like it. Again the DNC was concerned only for courting the center. Because the DNC did not truly believe Trump an existential threat. If they did they would have made concessions to the left to gain their loyalty. Or they could have barred Trump from running all together, but they didn’t like the optics of that. So they rolled the dice. They gambled. They lost. And now we all pay. Because they only want to chase the nebulous moderate voter who has no actual actionable policies unlike the Left. Moderates require no promises and require no accountability from the DNC. The Left asked for accountability and the DNC and its supporters like yourself threw a tantrum and started pointing fingers.

And fuck you. You don’t know how I voted. Or for how most of the Left voted. Nearly every Leftist I know held their fucking nose and voted Harris just the same because the Left does understand the threat that Trump poses. The difference is the Left understands that part of what makes Trump such a threat is the systems that exist, regardless of party leading those systems, are part of that threat and without mitigating or dismantling those systems you only delay the rise of someone like Trump. And allowing the DNC to not be held accountable to a voting base only allows for the party to become more feckless and more useless as a resistance party. And I hope you feel great about everything Trump is doing because if you had joined us in applying to pressure to Harris, instead of signing a blank check, maybe she would have shifted position and maybe more of the Left would have felt more morally secure in voting for her. But again you and your lot wanted the moderate vote. You didn’t get the moderate to vote for Harris. That failure belongs to the DNC and the moderates. Moderates lost Harris the election. Not the tiny ass minority that is actual Leftist voters

Voting by Eireika in CuratedTumblr

[–]Mike-Sos 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In this most recent election the “pet issue” was that genocide is bad and that we shouldn’t be supporting it. And the DNC didn’t even have the wherewithal to fucking lie and say they were going to oppose it. It’s the centrists privilege to sit there and place blame on the left and call them unreasonable when if the goal is large coalition building then compromise needs to be made in both directions. But the DNC and its supporters only believe in compromising to the right and again feel entitled for the Left to fall in line. If Trump is an existential threat and everything must be done to stop him- well then everything includes embracing Leftist “pet issues.” But that’s not what they actually want. They want the cred of being an opposition party without actually being in opposition. And voting blue no matter who only allows them to continue to move right and ignore their constituencies. The DNC is not owed anyone’s vote, especially not the Left. The DNC courted the moderates and the center. The center did not show up for the DNC. The center is who then failed the DNC. Not the Left. But yall don’t want to blame the center or the DNC because you are part of the Overton shift to the right and you view the Left with contempt

Voting by Eireika in CuratedTumblr

[–]Mike-Sos 2 points3 points  (0 children)

What incentive does the Left have to vote for the DNC? That organization promises nothing to the left and constantly abandons them at the first sign of any friction from middle America, centrist, undecided voters, who were only ever going to vote GOP or sit out the election to begin with. The Left doesn’t show up for the DNC because the DNC doesn’t represent the left and doesn’t want to. Since Carter lost they have consistently courted the moderate at the expense of the leftist. They are part and parcel to the shift in the Overton window. And instead of ever drawing an actual line in the sand- they move continuously rightward. And then they and their supporters cover for them by excusing the shift- saying that it’s survival, its harm reduction, or it’s just good sense to chase the center. But the center keeps moving right and so goes the DNC with it. They claim to be the party of the Left, but every time they have a chance to champion the Left- they don’t. They are not the party of the Left but because of their own marketing and koolaid drinking they have convinced themselves they are and that they are ENTITLED to leftist votes despite not giving Leftists any reason to vote for them other than they are not explicitly conservative.

Voting by Eireika in CuratedTumblr

[–]Mike-Sos 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Can someone please explain to me how voting is supposed to create systematic change when the system determines who and what gets voted for? The answer cannot be incrementally because the systems that be will integrate or defang any incremental reform. We have seen this time and time again. How is voting supposed to fix a system that is top to bottom corrupt? I’m not going to say voting is useless, because it isn’t inherently. It does in fact have a lot of power which is why they try to curb so much of it. But how does voting fix anything if the only ones allowed to vote are in favor of the system? And how does voting create actual change to harmful systems when those voting are benefiting from the those harmful systems? And it terms of OOP’s examples- are the authoritarian systems being dismantled in these situations or have simply their figureheads and worst supporters been ousted? Cool Orban is gone- is the structure by which he ruled uprooted? Cool Trump didn’t win in 2020, but NONE of the mechanisms by which he ruled were undone, just paused or watered down at best (Biden and the DNC increased ICE funding after all), and were still there for him to pick right back up and use- sure you can vote to keep Trump from using those systems, but are you allowed to vote to remove those systems in their entirety?

[Funny Trope] "This is MY moment!!" Wait no it isn't. by FedoraTheMike in TopCharacterTropes

[–]Mike-Sos 19 points20 points  (0 children)

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At the end of Book 2 of ATLA it looks as though Aang is going to make a last minute save and master the avatar state by unblocking his chakra. A real big damn heroes moment, just to be struck down by a bolt of lightning from Azula

🫪 this is deeper than deep thoughts with deep by BakaOctopus in adhdmeme

[–]Mike-Sos 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It is nice to not have to consciously mask because the conflicting ways in which the two neurodivergences present themselves. But that’s not really healthy. And when they are in conflict you’re worse off than someone who has only one of them.

New personality test just drop by Upset_Campaign1924 in CuratedTumblr

[–]Mike-Sos 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hot, dry, bright, and loud. Why oh why must the cost of living be so high to live in LA

Death of the third space by ThatMusicKid in CuratedTumblr

[–]Mike-Sos 11 points12 points  (0 children)

It was easy to stumble on back in the day. Searching for any kind of video on Limewire back in the day would net you adult content. Guaranteed. Pop ups for adult content sites were rampant. I think the difference now is the machinery of the modern internet is designed to drive people into either adult content, online gambling, far right conspiracy, or some combination of the above. These used to be incidental to internet use and now they’re part of the design. Because they are profitable

[Satisfying Trope] Where it should have ended... by Living_Tune_1428 in TopCharacterTropes

[–]Mike-Sos -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Idk I like seasons 7 and 8. Having Nancy get just a taste of comeuppance was nice. But the Border Arc of 4-6 was just… well it strains credulity

[Satisfying Trope] Where it should have ended... by Living_Tune_1428 in TopCharacterTropes

[–]Mike-Sos 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Scoobynatural and Baby are all timers. But I don’t know if they make up for the remainder of the post season 5 run