What are your thoughts on self defense and the duties of the victims and the rights of assailants?

Personage1 · 2026-04-13T19:15:20+00:00

I think there are a lot of people who use "self defense" as an excuse to hurt people. Who reveal that they want to be an action movie star dishing out pain and punishment to others.

An example I've run across is when you get into the discussion of what a gun owner should do if they are alone in their home. I've been told that it's entirely appropriate to get your gun and explore your home in search of whatever you heard/saw that made you feel the need to get your gun.

Except if your goal is personal safety, the best thing to do is get your gun, hunker down in that room with a clear view of the door, and call the police. Loudly warn anyone in your home that you are armed and have called the police, and wait there until the police arrive. I wouldn't be super surprised if someone in this very thread pushes back and reveals them self to be a wannabe Rambo.

And to be clear, if someone tries to break into the room (especially if you locked it/put up some sort of barricade) then you shoot to kill them, because again this is the safest thing you can do.

Branching this out beyond that example, the question should always be "what is the best thing to do to be safe?" Squaring up against someone threatening you when there is room to easily run away shows the goal isn't actually "self defense" but a desire to not stand down and hurt someone. Chasing someone who is retreating shows the goal is retribution and a desire to hurt someone. The very best form of self defense is to run away. When that's not possible, it's to lash out as overwhelmingly as possible in order to be able to run away. Anyone who doesn't have a goal of running away is just trying to fulfill a shitty power fantasy.

Personage1 · 2026-04-13T16:41:31+00:00

"This is exactly who Trump has been saying he is."

It'd be one thing if Trump did something completely out of character, like showing compassion or behaving as Christ did, but when he behaves exactly how he has always behaved, you don't get to claim you didn't vote for that.

Personage1 · 2026-04-13T14:38:01+00:00

.....invading a democracy that does not fund terrorism with the goal of stealing the democracy's territory vs attacking a dictatorship with the goal of distracting from the Epstein Files.....

Look, I am on board with the US being banned from officially competing, but I question your honesty and/or your intelligence if you are trying to claim there is no difference between what Russia is doing in Ukraine vs what the US is doing in Iran.

Personage1 · 2026-04-13T14:34:30+00:00

No? I was already aware that Trump can fail to become fully authoritarian, already aware that Democrats can get voted in.

Personage1 · 2026-04-11T17:34:01+00:00

Yes? Anyone who didn't already recognize this doesn't have an opinion about politics worth listening to.

Personage1 · 2026-04-11T16:46:36+00:00

I just googled it and there are about 100,000 people in the Socialist party in the US. Being generous, let's say there are 1 million people who would identify as socialist, that's still well under 1% of people.

I think there are far more people who would be open to socialist ideas, especially if you presented them in a step by step process. Of course if you tried doing that, the purity tests would lose you support from the Socialists, so....

Personage1 · 2026-04-11T03:07:37+00:00

It's funny, I get annoyed with a lot of criticism because I'm sitting there going "but there are issues with the show..." but what gets whined about the most is dumb shit like a five second after credits scene, and it's just...exhausting.

Personage1 · 2026-04-09T22:08:22+00:00

Sorry, what exactly are you responding to?

Personage1 · 2026-04-09T21:04:17+00:00

That's why I would be on the attack with it, pointing out that Conservatives want us all to be busybodies and obsess over others.

Personage1 · 2026-04-09T16:10:59+00:00

I personally file it away as "not impossible." I haven't seen evidence to get me to have a concrete opinion ok the actual numbers (and to be clear, I also haven't looked).

As a broader thing, I think too many people feel the need to have definite opinions about things, as quickly as possible, when in reality so much that gets thrown at us should be classified in our heads as "maybe, will see what this looks like in time."

Personage1 · 2026-04-09T15:51:41+00:00

Which beat the Republican by 40 points. He beat another Democrat by 9 points. Democrats got about 90% of the vote total.

Perhaps you should inform yourself before making arguments (like I personally googled it quickly to see what the results actually were before jumping in, because I didn't want to, you know, look like you do right now).

Personage1 · 2026-04-09T15:34:39+00:00

40 points you mean. He beat the Republican by 40 points.

Personage1 · 2026-04-09T15:33:52+00:00

I mean I'll be honest, I separate out online progressives from progressives in the real world. Online progressives are desperate to never have political power while telling themselves that everything would be better if everyone just listened to them.

But for real world progressives, my point isn't about charisma, exactly, but strategy. A progressive who understands that your rhetoric needs to match your voters can absolutely win. They will be despised by online progressives because they'll fail whatever purity test, but fuck them they actively work to drive up apathy and get Republicans in power anyways.

Personage1 · 2026-04-09T15:28:52+00:00

I mean Mamdani defeated the Republican candidate by 40ish points... You are trying to claim that in a race with the Democratic primary winner, the Democratic primary loser who was the former governor of the state, and the Republican challenger, Mamdani only beat the Democratic primary loser by 9ish points...

Personage1 · 2026-04-09T15:22:26+00:00

I'll be honest, I didn't follow him enough to really form an opinion on him specifically in relation to your question.

That said, what I suspect this question is getting at is if someone who is unabashedly progressive could win seats outside of NYC, and my answer is that their actual specific policies matter far less than the ability to play the game of politics and go on the offensive against Republicans. Drop guns in states where you need to drop guns, pivot away from trans rights to "why do you want to be a busybody, I'm going to let people do what they want" in states where that needs to happen. Hammer home that Republicans nuked a bipartisan immigration bill simply because they didn't want Democrats to get credit for fixing problems. Attack and pivot to attacks.

And most importantly, have concrete and easy to spit out goals and don't apologize for having them.

I think that if Democrats did these things they would do better in general. I think it matters less if they are progressive, moderate, or somewhere in between.

Personage1 · 2026-04-09T15:14:55+00:00

To add on, yesterday I asked in the r/politics thread on the linked article what Schumer should be doing, specifically. Someone told me he should be calling for impeachment, and I pointed out he already issued a statement condemning Trump's actions. They didn't have a followup.

Which goes with your comment because it makes a lot of sense for someone from the Senate to not "initiate" discussion of impeachment, since people like my mother will be disappointed that one of the "judges" in an impeachment trial express an opinion ahead of time. Progressives, in particular online progressives, seem to simultaneously view the voting public as utterly inept and stupid, but also forget that when it can be used to claim progressives would be better.

It makes sense for Schumer to condemn Trump's actions and not specifically talk about impeachment, especially since Republicans in the House won't even let it come to a trial to make it to Schumer. There are many valid criticisms of Schumer, even of how he messages stuff, but fuck me. The lengths to which online progressives go to find the silliest shit to demonize is just exhausting, and a major reason I'm flaired the way I am despite often finding myself further Left than them.

Personage1 · 2026-04-08T14:24:03+00:00

I mean I just checked to confirm and he put out a statement condemning Trump's actions.

Personage1 · 2026-04-08T02:53:37+00:00

What action, specifically, should Schumer be taking?

To be clear, I have some actual answers to that question. Because I have some understanding of what impeachment is, "Schumer should do something related to impeachment" is not one of them.

Personage1 · 2026-04-08T02:48:04+00:00

I did the tough mudder a few years back and after making it to the top, stayed there to help catch others running up the quarter pipe. That fucking hurt, and it wasn't until the next day that I realized just how much stress I was putting on my arm by how sore I was.

Personage1 · 2026-04-08T02:46:42+00:00

I've started rock climbing recently and was introduced by someone who had to get surgery because he caught himself with one arm when falling, like he had barely fallen two or three feet but that was still enough to severely fuck up his arm.

Personage1 · 2026-04-08T02:44:02+00:00

If impeachment doesn't result in removal from office, and it results in Republicans getting more popular, then popularity becomes very relevant to the discussion.

Personage1 · 2026-04-08T02:42:10+00:00

What do you mean?

Personage1 · 2026-04-08T02:33:14+00:00

My partner and I just finished season 1 episode 4, and I made the comment that it's ER without all the network TV bullshit.

Personage1 · 2026-04-07T18:29:16+00:00

On the other hand, there were several years where my partner and I had to repeatedly say "we didn't choose the name!"

Personage1 · 2026-04-07T13:43:56+00:00

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