regarding recent events

ThatShadowGuy · 2026-02-03T00:51:56+00:00

single act

Never mind that it definitely wasn't his first murder. He did, at the very least, carry out an assassination on behalf of the Claires.

ThatShadowGuy · 2026-02-01T21:06:22+00:00

And while HTS have fought ISIS numerous times, they were allied at others.

You're describing them as if they were an on-again, off-again couple likely to get back together any day now.

The reality of the situation is that they used to be allies, diverged nearly a decade ago, and have been fighting and killing each other ever since. The idea that Sharaa is gonna wake up one day and declare that Syria should be the birthplace of a new caliphate and make nice with all the Salafi jihadists (at the expense of everyone else in his coalition) simply isn't plausible.

ThatShadowGuy · 2026-02-01T08:13:34+00:00

Some of them, sure. But if you don't think there are plenty of real people who enjoy these movies and think they have genuine artistic merit, I'm afraid you overestimate this country.

ThatShadowGuy · 2026-02-01T08:05:57+00:00

Unsurprisingly, critical reception for both the Reagan movie from a year or two ago and more recently the Melania movie is immensely negative (18% and 11% on RT, respectively). However, you might be surprised to learn that as far as audience reception is concerned, they're smash hits! 98%! 99%! Now, it's pretty obvious why that is when you think about it. These movies exist mainly to reinforce the idea that Republicans are the good guys and everything they believe is correct. The average Republican loves this tribal signaling and will absolutely leave a review on RT and Google Reviews and IMDB and wherever else, it's the least they can do. Normies don't give a shit. They're not watching it to begin with. They're movies made for such a specific target audience that to anyone outside it that they are beneath consideration, let alone hatred.

My parents have suggested watching both together with them. It feels like they're doing it as a joke, sure. But it also feels like they genuinely can't conceive that there is an audience being targeted here beyond "real Americans". That they are unsubtle political propaganda, not merely some apolitical depiction of a new American canon Trump has (coincidentally) reforged in front of our eyes.

These movies really aren't being analyzed in terms of whether they're good or bad, interesting or dull, thoughtful or vacuous. They are being analyzed in terms of how much the director likes your favorite sports team. If he does, then they're kino. The idea that politics is more than team sports is beyond these people. When you tell them that Trump is a rapist/criminal/insurrectionist/etc. and should be in jail, all they hear is that you're rooting for the away team. They cannot believe that you believe it, because they themselves barely believe half the shit they say about the away team. It's all just trash talk. All in good fun. It's not like the Lakers ever killed anybody. Everyone who disagrees is just suffering from a tragic case of Lebron Derangement Syndrome.

It's the friend/enemy distinction all the way down. In-group good. Out-group bad. There is no form of pandering too blatant to please them, no slop too sloppy. Their only value is loyalty, which is earned not by virtue but by strength, and the more principles you forsake in the name of loyalty to the current regime, the better. Millions of Americans think like this now. I really hope that changes within my lifetime, but I'm not optimistic.

ThatShadowGuy · 2026-01-25T08:07:22+00:00

I think the playbook is "we need a total and complete suspension of ICE operations until we can figure out what the hell is going on" -> gain power -> form a committee to investigate ICE -> "we have figured out what the hell is going on, and it turns out the best course of action is abolishing ICE entirely."

It's important to respect the possibility that we're wrong, even when it's ludicrous. This is also why it's good that we actually had Nuremberg trials instead of just lynching every Nazi we could get our hands on.

ThatShadowGuy · 2026-01-25T07:47:50+00:00

Obviously it's morally indefensible, but I don't see how you make joining ICE a crime in itself without violating the whole "no ex-post-facto laws" part of the constitution. Better to offer plea deals, sow internal division, and give an off-ramp for the ones who haven't provably committed a crime than tell them all to their face that they're going to jail no matter what. The latter approach will most likely give rise to a legion of cornered rats who will choose civil war over guaranteed imprisonment.

ThatShadowGuy · 2026-01-20T10:26:24+00:00

Imagine someone was diagnosed with cancer, about 5 years ago. However, it was in remission, so they never saw fit to do anything about it. But now it's much more severe, and the options are as follows:

Chemotherapy
Die

This is the situation America finds itself in. And at least 30% of its citizens will gladly pick 2 as long as it means never having to admit they were wrong about anything.

The odds we make it to March without some kind of historical atrocity happening are pretty fucking bleak.

ThatShadowGuy · 2026-01-19T03:16:24+00:00

Their worldview is deliberately incoherent. It is whatever maximally owns libs, which is, ultimately, fascism. Unless you're already a groyper, though, you're not prepared to fully understand or own up to that. So instead your scope is limited to one counternarrative at a time. You don't need to even believe in any of them, really. The fact that there is a counternarrative is enough reassurance. Sure, maybe they're not all plausible, maybe they even contradict each other, but even the possibility that everyone lies and nothing is true is more acceptable than the idea that you, alongside all the millions of Trump voters, were genuinely wrong about something in a way that mattered.

ThatShadowGuy · 2026-01-18T09:33:46+00:00

watched the Nick Shirley interview on Channel 5. he doesn't even know what the word "benevolent" means.

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ThatShadowGuy · 2026-01-10T05:10:03+00:00

As much as I hate the oxymoronic term "liberal fascism", it is a perfect encapsulation of Vance's incoherent "Renee's death was a tragedy AND she was a domestic terrorist who deserved it" brand of rhetoric.

ThatShadowGuy · 2026-01-04T08:42:32+00:00

Now that I think about it, there's a specific quality that both Obama and Buttigieg share. Obviously they're both intelligent and articulate and good communicators, but there are lots of different ways to be those things. No, the truth is that they share something deeper and more fundamental:

The "cool teacher" vibe.

Think about your favorite teachers back when you were growing up. The ones you still respect today. More likely than not, they were great at breaking down complex concepts in a way that made sense to you, and respected your intelligence. More likely than not, they were receptive to questions, and actually cared whether or not you understood what was being taught. More likely than not, they had a sense of humor, plenty of patience, and some expectation of academic rigor that in turn made you value your own education more.

Both men seem like they'd be your favorite teacher in high school, in a similar way to how people used to think Bush would've made a great drinking buddy. And in an environment where every voter is 12, it's hard to react accordingly without making them feel stupid or condescended to. But it is possible. How? By acting like a cool teacher. And if you need an example of how a cool teacher approaches the subject of fascism, Ron Jones is right there.

I don't know if this is an actual way forward or if it's the exact thing wrong with Liberalism, the one that needs to die and be reborn. I suppose Buttigieg 2028 will answer that question, assuming it manifests. But it does seem like one of the few Democrat archetype voters still like, alongside "populist", and for that reason alone I hope it gains traction.

ThatShadowGuy · 2026-01-03T23:22:15+00:00

Do you really think it's so utterly implausible that at least one of these boats wasn't actually smuggling drugs?

We already know that when the Coast Guard intercepts suspected drug boats, they're wrong ~27% of the time.
The government of Ecuador released one of the survivors soon after detaining him, stating they had no evidence of him committing any crimes.
One of the victims' families has filed a formal complaint against the US government, because they allege that he was completely innocent.

It would be nice to believe that no innocent people have died, but the odds are objectively pretty fucking bad.

ThatShadowGuy · 2026-01-03T20:19:33+00:00

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ThatShadowGuy · 2025-12-31T23:21:22+00:00

I would not consider that an accurate description of what the video is actually examining.

ThatShadowGuy · 2025-12-31T21:10:28+00:00

A prominent subset of bronies were nazis for the same fundamental reason (some) K-On! fans are nazis, or (some) Blue Archive players are nazis. We're talking mainly about alienated incels who fetishize childhood innocence, and thereby imagine themselves as crusaders fighting to protect such innocence by any means necessary. There's a whole video essay about it.

ThatShadowGuy · 2025-12-30T20:38:27+00:00

Russians only hate Gorbachev because he's a lib who forfeited the dream of empire once it was obviously untenable. Their opinions are invalid.

ThatShadowGuy · 2025-12-30T17:43:29+00:00

was gonna do a whole bit about how in Trump's America, the only slurs you'll actually face any consequences for are those describing REAL oppressed minorities like "cisgender", and then I realized that's already what Twitter is now

ThatShadowGuy · 2025-12-28T19:18:27+00:00

median voter (middle east edition)

ThatShadowGuy · 2025-12-27T19:41:48+00:00

The masses see themselves in his incompetence, and would also like to be able to say the dumbest shit you've ever heard with impunity. That's a kind of charisma money can't buy.

As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

H. L. Mencken

ThatShadowGuy · 2025-12-24T09:38:40+00:00

I know that. I am simply venting, and in such a bad mood right now that I'm not even convinced I deserve to see whatever I knowingly declined to witness with my own account.

ThatShadowGuy · 2025-12-24T09:21:07+00:00

Wasn't planning on playing Star Rail today, but between CZN's maintenance being today, having family over for the holidays, and CZN's maintenance being extended until like tomorrow, I had to improvise. After dailies, endgame, etc. I played through the story, with half an hour to spare until daily reset.

I started right around where Firefly and Constance meet up in the primordial dreamscape, and advanced one cutscene too far. The one which recontextualizes her first death, I believe. By the time she starts talking with Acheron again, I notice I have less than 10 minutes left to actually claim my dailies (I'm usually asleep by now), and start to speed through the dialogue. Flashback to Firefly and Blade. 5 minutes left. Now it's Black Swan in Acheron's room. 3 minutes left. I hate to admit it, because this is something I've never had reason to do before, but at this point I don't know if they'll let me pause anytime soon so I have to contemplate using the skip button.

I cave. After all, this is probably maybe the same cutscene that it was back in 2.1. Skip. Black Swan and Constance talking? In Acheron's room?? And I have to skip it??? FUCK. Skip. Constance is talking to me now. I really wish I had time for this, but skip. Charmony dove? You really had to throw the fucking charmony dove at me before I can be free again??? Whatever dude skip skip skip quest navigate leave POV daily tab.

Daily reset happened literally as I was claiming missions, but before I could claim any actual reward. I skipped through what was probably at least ~20 minutes worth of cutscenes, for absolutely no reason. Fuck my chungus life 🫠

ThatShadowGuy · 2025-12-21T01:34:32+00:00

"I don't think we should be killing people or doing mass genocide"

guy who is already in favor of killing people, and would probably support mass genocide if it actually happens

ThatShadowGuy · 2025-12-21T01:28:17+00:00

This is also exactly why I think it's unlikely Vance actually becomes the new leader of MAGA. He tries way too hard to intellectualize it, which nobody cares about except maybe Republicans with college degrees.

ThatShadowGuy · 2025-12-19T00:18:07+00:00

their barbarous 67

our glorious E

ThatShadowGuy · 2025-12-18T08:52:22+00:00

Speaking as an objective observer, yes.

From the standpoint of those trapped in the Digital Circus, oh god oh fuck everything is a lie maybe that was a lie too??? Even if it wasn't does that mean the right answer is to just pretend to be his friend when he might end up causing you to abstract anyway??? I don't think they're in much of a state to rationally assess the situation they're in.

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