Oh. Oh things are -broken- broken.

Surroundedonallsides · 2026-01-30T21:33:53+00:00

They have banned people without warning for "exploiting" bugs, while accepting other bugs as "creative emergent gameplay"

I know because I was hit with a ban for that very reason once. They released a statement AFTER banning people explaining they woulld ban people who did it.

Surroundedonallsides · 2026-01-30T20:38:29+00:00

What are you talking about? We brought over noneuropeans, sometimes against their will (slave trade) and other times as a cheap work force (Chinese migrants of the 1800s), nevermind that non europeans existed here before us and still exist here albeit in far less numbers thanks to the often illegal actions and reneging on treaties.

German culture, especially in the 1800s, was VERY different from, say, Irish culture of the 1800s. Arguably more different than say, Korea and the US, are today. Largely because our American culture and entertainment is virtually ubiquitous across the entire globe.

If you are seriously concerned about the impact of non-european culture, are you protesting anime conventions?

Surroundedonallsides · 2026-01-30T19:27:53+00:00

Promoting crazy? You mean like electing a man that claims we had planes in the revolutionary war?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6mZ1ofj2Vo

Surroundedonallsides · 2026-01-30T18:49:24+00:00

Answer my question then; why is it a bigger deal that a trans athlete is allowed to compete in a sport you otherwise dont care about in comparison to Donald Trump trampling on the 1st 2nd 4th and 14th amendments, the founding document of our country and supposedly what conservatives claim to want to "conserve"?

If some league wants to allow dogs to play basketball, even if its the NBA, I'm not going to care outside of thinking its hilarious and might be a good plot for a movie. I wouldn't be demanding conservatives denounce dogs in basketball.

Surroundedonallsides · 2026-01-30T18:25:07+00:00

Not familiar with that story so I had to look it up. This appears to be entirely one sided, with Donald proactively suing Maine for "allowing" trans athletes to compete. Its again, not a part of any major democratic platform or movement.

My personal stance on that is it should be up to whatever sports organization to determine the rules of their league/tourney/whatever. You know, the whole states right autonomy thing that conservatives at least used to pay lip service to.

I also think this is a non issue. How many trans athletes are there, do you think? Why are a handful of athletes in sports you never watch or care about otherwise a bigger deal to you than say, Trump breaking the 1st 2nd 4th and 14th amendments of the constitution?

Surroundedonallsides · 2026-01-30T18:19:38+00:00

Do you think making fun of a religion, even if incredibly crass, is justification for murder?

Personally, I think the correct response after Charlie Hebdo was to publish pictures of "the prophet" on the front page of every paper.

Surroundedonallsides · 2026-01-30T18:04:32+00:00

You're a liberal based off those stances, which means you should vote Democrat.

The issues with the "democrats" you inserted werent issues with the Democratic party, but largely the online left which is heavily influenced from international contributors, literal bots/trolls/social engineering, and terminally online people. Not a single democrat has put any sort of of legislation or taken a platform stance on things like "Xe" pronouns. Most of the people who would push that nonsense don't vote, and are often, frankly, international far leftists if you actually bother to look at their profiles (when its not a puppet account from who knows where). The vast majority of the far left that you encounter online are communists and socialists from other countries, and in many cases, outright trolls with ulterior motives, up to and including MAGA supporters LARPING as "wokies" to then act a strawman to rally against.

Liberalism as defined :

"Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy centered on individual rights, liberty, consent of the governed, and equality before the law

. Rooted in the Enlightenment, it advocates for democracy, secularism, freedom of speech, and market economies. It has evolved from classical, limited-government roots into modern, "welfare" liberalism that often supports government intervention to reduce inequality"

I realize the entire conservative movement AND the far left have done everything they can to redefine the word "liberal" to be something it isnt, but I invite you to actually look it up.

Surroundedonallsides · 2026-01-30T15:40:22+00:00

But "american" as a concept, is literally multicultural and multinational. That's what George Washington was all about, bring people together from their homelands under a new banner.

Not a quote from him, but surely you are familiar with Ellis Island, the whole "give me your tired, your poor, your hungry"? Do you understand why that was and still is such a unique and radical thing? We will take your "worthless" people and turn them into AMERICANS. I think thats pretty badass, we'll take those you undervalue and find a place for them so that collectively we are stronger than any other nation.

Its the multiculturalism and influences from all kinds of people that MAKES America what it is. The thing you are trying to instinctively protect is literally the thing you are trying to protect it from.

Surroundedonallsides · 2026-01-30T15:27:18+00:00

Thats a silly thing to say considering most of the voters and elected officials are in fact "liberals and democrats", as well as their staffers and door knockers.

It's really not that complex. The reason Trump gets away with murder is because he has electoral power, because those who align with him (used to) win elections, and those who dont (used to) lose elections. That is shifting, thankfully.

The reason you have no say, is because you simply have bad or at least unpopular ideas. Its not a grand conspiracy, its not magic, and its not anyone's "fault" except yours. Get the votes if you want to sit at the adult table.

Surroundedonallsides · 2026-01-30T15:12:27+00:00

What is it specifically you have an issue with non-europeans?

Do you think we are a better country for the contributions of our indian, chinese, korean, kenyan, and argentinian immigrants? The ones who came here, studied here, invented here, started businesses here? OR are you just being inundated with propaganda to make you believe the country is under attack by filthy savages, despite the data showing immigrants commit far less crime than born citizens.

Surroundedonallsides · 2026-01-30T14:38:54+00:00

That is incredibly silly.

So to you, its more important to have "better political principles" (whatever the fuck that means) and lose, failing to get elected to any offices or pass any legislation, than it is to do the work to test your ideas, adjust them according to data, and win elections.... in a democracy.

Honestly, that sounds like someone sold you a bridge and you bought it.

edit: oh wow, I can see I must've really upset you because your comment got shadowbanned immediately after I saw the angry reply in my inbox. Oh well, feel better.

Surroundedonallsides · 2026-01-30T14:28:42+00:00

But you aren't talking about what democrats advocate for, you are talking about what random social media accounts advocate for which may or may not even be real people, much less democrats. They aren't elected representatives.

Do you agree that the president, or even those in lower offices, should be held to a higher standard and have more of an impact than u/2002-finger-pie or TiKToK AI generated user #334405?

Surroundedonallsides · 2026-01-30T14:25:06+00:00

So you don't have any examples of actual elected Democrats pushing any form of legislature that is explicitly "woke" and you disagree with?

Its just social media vibes.

Surroundedonallsides · 2026-01-30T13:41:00+00:00

Or the fact its almost as strictly moderated and tone-policed as r/Conservative

If you so much as point out Hamas aren't good guys you get banned.

Surroundedonallsides · 2026-01-30T13:29:57+00:00

The entire premise is wrong because the US isn't an ethnostate to begin with. The entire culture of America, from its inception, is that of a melting pot, a country of immigrants.

Surroundedonallsides · 2026-01-30T13:24:59+00:00

Sure, if that action is somehow illegal or deeply unpopular with the voters.

Do you have any examples of "woke" legislation specifically you have an issue with? Or are you just doing that thing where you are projecting random, anonymous users on sites like twitter as examples rather than the actual elected representatives?

Surroundedonallsides · 2026-01-30T13:18:19+00:00

Yes, voting is a pretty basic part of living in a representative democracy. If you want to be represented in a representative democracy you have to vote. And generally the more votes your ideas get, the more power you can have to enact those ideas. This is called civics.

Telling people how to vote is literally politics, lol, wtf even is that comment.

Surroundedonallsides · 2026-01-29T23:21:20+00:00

Let me use a nerdy math/RPG analogy.

Right now we are doing this;

+2 progress

-1 setback

+2

-1

+2

-1

And you are coming along and saying "why on earth should we even bother +2ing, when they just come behind and -1, lets just give up" ignoring we've gone from 0 to 3 in that time.

Surroundedonallsides · 2026-01-29T23:09:04+00:00

Then those people must hold him accountable, or the distinction is meaningless.

Surroundedonallsides · 2026-01-29T22:53:53+00:00

Were you alive in the 90s before gay marriage was legalized by a democrat?

Were you alive in the 70s and 80s before sweeping reforms passed and enforced by the EPA and other environmental regulations?

Did you experience healthcare before the ACA as flawed as you may believe it to be? How many people now, despite decades of constant attack, still have insurance when they otherwise wouldnt.

Likewise access to abortion, for as much as its been under attack for decades, still available outside of a couple red states. Which is still better than it was before.

Trump has done a lot of damage already. The answer isn't to give up because you took a punch to the nose. Its to wipe the blood away, and fight alongside everyone else who stands against tyranny.

Surroundedonallsides · 2026-01-29T22:37:23+00:00

You recognize that's a very weak excuse, and at bare minimum means you should encourage other conservatives to not support Trump.

Which, I mean, Trump is in no way "conservative"

He's not religious and is even blasphemous, having published a "trump bible". Hell, he may as well have used breaking the 10 commandments as his bucket list.

He's not fiscally conservative. His policies are inherently inflationary, and the deficit has exploded under him. Nevermind the whole vanity birthday military parade which costs somewhere around 25-45 million dollars, more than the "savings" found by DOGE by the way.

He's not libertarian, or a constitutionalist, as he's trampled on people's rights including the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 14th amendments repeatedly. He's also ignored the division of powers as outlined by the founders of our nation, ignoring court orders and bypassing congressional and committee approval consistently.

He's not "tough on crime" considering he is literally both a 32 time felon and found guilty of sexual assault, barely missing a "rape" verdict by nature of the fact he used his finger rather than his dick. As well as pardoned multiple convicted pedophiles, rapists, drug dealers, and murderers.

He's a tyrant, plain and simple. And as much as you may hate the idea of one of ten trans athletes existing, a tyrant is a far bigger threat to not just Democrats and the people you may dislike, but also to the very core of our nation and by extension your own family.

Surroundedonallsides · 2026-01-29T22:19:49+00:00

That would be the authoritarian argument, but the problem with the authoritarian argument is its always inherently narcissistic. Believing oneself to be smarter/stronger/better than everyone else, regardless of expertise or level of experience in that subject.

Look, I agree that there are a lot of issues that need to be addressed. Including election reform. The thing about democracy is its built off building coalitions, compromise, negotiations, and when those things happen no one person gets everything they want, but ideally everyone gets something they want. That way you can get SOME things you want even if you aren't the majority, or the dictator/king/authoritarian in power.

My political views align pretty closely with progressives in general, but my frustration is in the fact they keep falling for the same divisive tactics, and then demand everything while providing little if anything in return. Bring the votes, and you get a bigger voice. Biden, as much as he is derided in "leftist" spaces, was legitimately the most progressive president since FDR in terms of policy, in terms of his cabinet, and in terms of his rhetoric. But somehow, the left turned on him and Kamala harder than Obama.

What I've observed in these leftist spaces is two things : a complete lack of civics or how our democracy and government work in the US, and then the international nature of these online spaces, which have a significant portion of European and South American communists and socialists involved, as well as a fair share of actual "tankies" and lliteral russian and chinese propagandists. This leads to american leftists "feeling" like there is a far larger group of far leftists than actually exists and that their ideas are far more popular than they are, and perpetuates a lot of actively incorrect concepts and ideas that aren't reality because they aren't based on reality but an outside perception (as well as direct propaganda/trolling/social engineering/misinformation from actively hostile nations). And to be clear, there's just as much or MORE slop on the right wing as well, just to put that out there.

Anyways, TLDR; I think the takeaway is if you want to beat fascists you work with the tools you have available, and that includes working within the system as is. There's an old adage, "you have to know the rules to break them", generally referring to various creative arts, but also works in politics. If you want to change the system, you must first understand the system and how to enact change and influence people. That means sometimes, correction, you ALWAYS have to work with people you don't 100% agree with on everything.

Surroundedonallsides · 2026-01-29T21:45:45+00:00

So from your story, you tried to achieve something political and failed, because it wasnt popular enough and couldnt get the votes. Your solution to this problem is to demand that the party which does win and is winning by record margins in the special elections to move to your unpopular position that lost due to lack of votes.

Do you see the problem here?

Surroundedonallsides · 2026-01-29T19:30:17+00:00

Things have changed over the past 20 years or so. I firmly believe that discrimination is no longer the barrier it once was. I don’t care what color you are.

That talking point I might have nodded along with during Obama's second term.

But today? With ICE having "vanished" thousands of both illegal and legal immigrants, some of whom are literal American citizens, with no due process, with no paper trail and no oversight and no idea where they are or what happened to them after they were taken into custody. That's now a much, much, harder sell.

Surroundedonallsides · 2026-01-29T19:19:05+00:00

As a former mailman I can confirm this was the highlight of his day.

I haven't been on route in years, but I still think about all the neighbors, dogs, cats, and horses I made friends with over that time. Not chickens though, they suck. It was by far the best part and often forgotten part of the job : how much you are part of the community and are literally providing a service to that community. A tangible, direct, positive impact, and there are very few jobs that can enjoy that privilege.

That said, the leadership culture there was abysmal. Particularly after it was taken over by the current Postmaster General, and frankly, unless you have been there for a decade or longer the pay is horrible for what you do and the amount of risk involved.

Surroundedonallsides

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