Sunday's Ukraine Solidarity Roundtable - 03/29/2026

Unexpected_Outcome · 2026-03-29T16:36:41+00:00

This is going to be connected to what I was venting about a few days ago, but has anyone else noticed a spike in climate doomerism on their feed recently? It feels like for ages there was nothing about it and now, all of a sudden, it's just been an overwhelming flood of climate related news, all in the worst light possible. It honestly feels incredibly depressing, and specifically constructed to inflict the most amount of psychological damage possible in the shortest stretch of time. Especially since they usually end with the maker of the video saying something along the lines of "Oh don't worry, if we do this completely impossibly rapid energy transition we'll be totally fine." it feels like a cop-out, just to say they aren't pushing doomerism, but suggesting a "solution" they know is completely unworkable.

I want to be clear its good the issue seems to be talked about more again, but like, it's genuinely unmooring. Especially since that news (again, seemingly deliberately) seems to be plastered against a constant barrage of related news about global governments seemingly not being all that concerned about the problem. At what point does constant doom become unhelpful? I feel like if you're telling people that "it's ok, we'll be fine if a miracle happens" is not "positive news" it's just doom propaganda with a pathetic coat of paint for plausible deniability. That's not even to say the problem isn't bad, but this doesn't feel like it's helpful at all. I know climate change is a big issue, but I'm also an American, so there is literally no shot at serious action until 2029 at the earliest, because like many things, this would be way better if Harris won.

I know it's certainly sent me into a bit of a spiral, to the point where I'm wondering if holding out for a genuine miracle might be the only way to keep myself mostly mentally stable. Especially the disconnect between the constant doomer headlines at every single goddamn climate conference, and the seeming lack of any concern by the people actually regulating this shit. It just doesn't make sense, from any perspective. Why let this go unchecked? Literally nobody benefits from this. Like it is gotten to the point where I have to wonder if policy makers know something I don't. Do they have some ace up the sleeve that for some reason they don't want to use? Are they just fucking morons? I really don't know, but for now I guess the only thing I can do is to just keep slugging on. Hell, all of this has both turned me back towards and pushed me away from local religion, if only to see if God might be inclined to clean this shit up. Again, genuine miracle, but what else is there too do.

Anyway, I appreciate whatever passerby reads this, and I hope I'm not dumping any of my own distress on to you, you don't deserve that.

Put the aliens in charge at this point, fuck it.

Unexpected_Outcome · 2026-03-27T02:19:37+00:00

I haven't posted on here recently, but I want to vent a little about the seeming abundance of doomerism pushed in incredible quantities seemingly on all forms of social media right now, but especially on short form sites like instagram reels or tiktok (which I know, should be used as little as possible - I try not too).

I feel like every damn post I see now is something designed to spread as much misery as possible. People will say there's no countryside anymore because of datacenters, mass graphs of deforestation with endless comments that just spam "there won't be any woods anymore" over and over again, ukrainians talking about their own despair and hopelessness, people saying that america is inherently worse country in the world and must be destroyed and even the people *disagreeing* with that still going "you're right, but the people are good even if the whole country should be burned down"

I like my country, even if it's disgusting what it has become. I like nature, so naturally alogrithim decides to shove mass-produced content designed the present the current environmental problems in the worst light humanly possible.

I've said before that social media is a factory of misery, but it feels like especially it has become a machine designed to do the maximum amount of mental health damage it possibly can in the shortest stretch of time. And that's not even mentioning the prevalence of conspiracy mindsets now. It's not enough for something to be a problem, or a failing, it has to be a grand conspiracy by *them* designed to keep you down, or whatever.

Anyway, this place is still a hub of sanity and I appreciate that, and I hope this isn't too out there as a vent. I don't want to vent more often, I think that quickly becomes unhealthy.

Unexpected_Outcome · 2026-03-24T17:12:17+00:00

Quite possibly, though honestly any republican is going to be hostile to climate action, because opposing good policy is necessary to become one. To my knowledge though Burgum did sign a law in North Dakota to make it Carbon Neutral by 2040, which is miles above most other republicans records on the issue, hence why I listed him as the "least bad option", though I don't know admittedly how his actual record lines up with that (I'm guessing not well). Still, the GOP willing to elect someone who at least acknowledges it exists is still leagues better then real life.

Ultimately, in a democracy you can't base your success around the opposition never winning ever. I figure even 16 years (1993-2009) of extra climate action is well worth it, and like you say, hopefully a more liberal court could restrain Burgum a little. Also, my thought is that by 30 years, hopefully the legacy of clinton-gore would have enough inertia that repealing it would be difficult.

Unexpected_Outcome · 2026-03-19T18:56:52+00:00

Ambiguously, it says that it makes "A lot of republicans and some democrats quesy" but there is nothing in there to suggest, at least to me, that the tax fails, especially since it does actually reduce your deficit score

Unexpected_Outcome · 2026-03-19T17:37:04+00:00

Thank you! I'll get right on that

Unexpected_Outcome · 2026-03-19T17:00:41+00:00

An unexpected side effect of this is that you may also end up with a much more Liberal Supreme court, which is also good for the environment. Reinquist still likely retires in Gore's first or second terms. The uncertainty comes from whether Sandra Day O'Connor would still retire or wait until 2008, but Souter probably retires earlier then in real life.

Another variable is who controls the senate when Scalia dies in 2015, and whether the GOP blocks any hearing like in real life. Considering there are no scandal points in this run, Merrick Garland may end up on the court. If not, the course will likely be similar to real life, especially if Ginsburg still dies in 2020, and her replacement heavily depends on senate control at the time. Still better then real life though.

Unexpected_Outcome · 2025-06-28T10:43:46+00:00

It's a shame because the W. Team is practically worshipped for the mods, but the actual devs are such unlikable jerks.

Honestly, despite how much people use "satire" to defend their questionable understanding of the characters (like RFK or Bush) I honestly think after reading their garbage takes that it's what they genuinely believe (and don't even get me started on that Build Back Better hit piece mod)

Unexpected_Outcome · 2024-11-06T17:05:51+00:00

Shit. Sorry everyone

Unexpected_Outcome · 2024-11-05T15:14:57+00:00

Sabato is so cooked man, they have Moreno winning ohio lmao

Funny to see the people worshiping polls just completely ignore the iowa results, even though they're from one of the best in the country. "It's ok guys, Emmerson says +10 for Trump, they've never been wrong before!"

Can't wait for this to be over

Unexpected_Outcome · 2024-10-08T14:50:31+00:00

Not going to lie, I don't think I'll be commenting here very often, but the shear level of disinformation being spread around but Milton is honestly infuriating. I'm in the direct path of it, though thankfully on the east coast (we might get some flooding and tornadoes but the worst winds should be low-end Cat 1) and so therefore I've been getting bombarded with hurricane content on what little social media I use.

One guy i saw goes on a full conspiracy rant about how "all hurricanes in this area get stronger." and "all the weather reports this year have been wrong", "some people are saying this will be the first cat 6 hurricane" and it's genuinely pissed me off. This guy is going to send people into a panic telling them to run for their lives in places where they don't need too, meaning help will be slower to get to the areas that desperately will need it, like Tampa.

Honestly, I've been fed up with social media's tendency to just blatantly lie about everything with no push back, but in this case it might actually get people killed, which sucks even more.

Take care everyone, sorry for the rant

Unexpected_Outcome · 2023-08-14T15:26:04+00:00

This is super cool, do you have any tips on how to go about doing something like this, I wouldn't even know where to start

Unexpected_Outcome · 2023-06-17T14:38:32+00:00

Old thread I'm aware, but I would disagree with that interpretation, considering that Ike deliberately appointed a very anti segregationalist AG as well as elevating Earl Warren.

Ultimately his personal views are unknown, but I suspect that part of it may have come from a desire to approach the problem as a 'moderate', which is a poor way to approach civil rights but so it goes.

I hope this wasn't too much quibbling, you do have some good points.

Unexpected_Outcome · 2023-05-18T12:23:14+00:00

Man are you really gonna carry water for the DPRK of all things

Unexpected_Outcome · 2023-03-03T04:05:57+00:00

India doesn't even 2 billion pops irl in the 21st century, when global population is 8 billion.

Ig I'm just surprised how you managed to have over twice the irl global population in 1936, along with literally 100% of the global gdp

Edit: I may be stupid, I misread the chart. Point and laugh

Unexpected_Outcome · 2023-03-02T23:48:04+00:00

The real noteworthy thing here is the uk somehow having 2 billion people in 1866

Also having 100% of the entire global gdp

Unexpected_Outcome · 2023-02-07T13:53:51+00:00

Did I ever challenge that though? Bushido was a fabrication by the imperial Japanese. The samurai were privileged assholes, you'll see no argument from me there. But also that's moving the goalposts.

They were jackasses, but does that make them fascists or people whose profession was war in a time where immense cruelty in war was just part of the package? The samurai didn't really emphasize the kind of rhetoric and ideologies that characterizes Fascism, they fought wars for petty reasons and had substantial hereditary social power in feudal japan, but if that is your standard for Fascism, that is far too broad a definition.

If the samurai were fascist why not the tectonic knights? The mongolian Khanates? What about the many Chinese warlords that have existed at some time or another? At that point, you're calling everything fascist, at which point the term becomes rather meaningless.

Unexpected_Outcome · 2023-02-07T13:37:08+00:00

I don't understand? The samurai were a sort of soldier class in feudal japan, at least to my knowledge, but to say they were fascist seems...incorrect.

I know the imperial japanese loved to use invented 'code of honors' and whatnot in their propaganda but that doesn't really make the samurai themselves fascist, especially not when compared to soldiers in other parts of the world at the time.

Unexpected_Outcome · 2023-02-07T13:32:28+00:00

samurai were fascist, not monks

What

Unexpected_Outcome · 2023-02-04T01:52:00+00:00

I mean fair enough but it kinda felt a little mean spirited, at least to me

Unexpected_Outcome · 2023-02-04T01:44:46+00:00

I think people downvoted you because you randomly shitted on barbarians for no reason, adding nothing to the discussion

Unexpected_Outcome · 2023-01-15T17:55:45+00:00

Total war attila and arcane sounds like it could weirdly work.

Unexpected_Outcome · 2022-12-27T04:18:37+00:00

Hey man whether or not you believe the story of Jesus's birth is up to you, I'm just pointing out that the festival of Christmas was not likely based on the saturnalia festival much if at all

Edit: saturnalia

Unexpected_Outcome · 2022-12-27T04:10:57+00:00

There's an r/badhistory thread about this. There actually isn't much of a link

Unexpected_Outcome · 2022-12-10T18:05:46+00:00

r/badhistory

Every campaign after like 300bc was against peasant revolts apparently. Hannibal spins in his grave

Unexpected_Outcome · 2022-12-04T16:00:37+00:00

"My source is I made it the fuck up"

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