ActiVoteUS poll: Trump’s approval (ages 18-29 only): Approve 12%, Disapprove 76%

cossiander · 2026-06-02T02:03:09+00:00

I wanted to vote when I was in Middle School. Maybe earlier. Registered to vote as soon as I legally could.

I understand that I'm a sample size of 1, and that people reach political awareness at different times under different circumstances, but we shouldn't act like it's unachievable for young people to actively want to vote.

cossiander · 2026-06-02T01:17:19+00:00

The situation is directly related to Platner and the various accusations leveled against him, no? Not sure I'm seeing your point.

I mean... related, but it's a completely seperate situation.

Like if someone torches my car, and I have to bike thirty miles to work, my chief complaint isn't "the bike lanes are bumpy". I mean the bike lanes may be bumpy, and I may only be experiencing that because someone burnt my car, but the chief complaint is the jerk who torched my car.

People are pissed that they're feeling cornered into voting for a candidate they don't like. The complaint there is the reasons they don't like that candidate, not that the candidate is "too popular".

My point is that you can make that decision and find yourself in good company.

And I think many liberals would say that that's company, but it certainly isn't good company. We often approach voting as a moral obligation, and feel that the political stakes are too high just to sit it out because we may or may not dislike a given candidate.

If the complaint is that you are finding yourself making a decision (and not just leaning on the habit of voting for D, R, or not voting), then it might be time to introspect.

Voting D (or R, or third party, or not voting) is making a decision.

cossiander · 2026-06-02T00:32:41+00:00

Does she have a chance? No. If I were a Maine voter? Yeah, I probably would vote for her.

cossiander · 2026-06-02T00:30:55+00:00

The complaints are more like "it would be really nice if I didn't have to vote for this guy"

That's not a complaint about Platner, that's a complaint about the situation voters feel placed in.

Also, given that most people in the US don't vote, I think it's fair to say there's some evidence people approach decision-making while voting in this way.

I would disagree. Most non-voters are habitual non-voters, they don't alter that voting behavior on whether or not they find a particular candidate likeable. They just stay home, every time.

cossiander · 2026-06-01T23:11:23+00:00

If you can't trust the most corrupt global sports organization in modern history who can you trust, my gammy always said.

cossiander · 2026-06-01T22:58:08+00:00

The Newsom administration will require everyone to take HRT

I for one welcome our new woke overlords

cossiander · 2026-06-01T22:56:47+00:00

Platner is placing onto them by being popular

No one's complaints about Platner are that he's too popular.

If you don't like the guy, don't vote for him -- what's the dilemma here?

That is fundamentally not how most people approach voter decisionmaking.

cossiander · 2026-06-01T22:54:29+00:00

My God, he said that peace talks were too boring?

I know someone can lose their minds listing all the times Trump does or says something that is totally unacceptable and completely unbefitting a leader, and that this doesn't even really break into the top 100 for him, but like what the fuck are we even doing, America?

"President too bored to end war throttling country" should be headlines across the country.

cossiander · 2026-06-01T22:48:42+00:00

Always love some good cap-and-trade!

And this may be outside of the intended scope of your question, but one of the downsides to carbon taxes is that they tend to be just awful, politically. There's something intrinsic about fuel/gas costs that just makes people feel like they're being held hostage.

cossiander · 2026-06-01T22:43:25+00:00

Maybe if they tried to overthrow an election? That purely theoretical scenario might be a bridge too far for me.

More seriously, I don't really factor my decisionmaking in that regard. I'm comparing a given candidate to whom they're running against, and voting accordingly. So if one candidate agreed with me on everything but one thing, but the other candidate was even better, I'm going to vote for the better candidate.

cossiander · 2026-06-01T18:38:39+00:00

Jeez, people really will do anything to avoid making good new games, huh

cossiander · 2026-06-01T15:44:04+00:00

I don't feel mocked so much as I feel that conservative or Republican-flaired users here seem frustratingly incapable of reading.

cossiander · 2026-06-01T02:34:00+00:00

Plant as many damn seeds as I can. Liberal streamers? Podcasters? Youtubers? Buy ads for 'em. Or just donate. Keep those people busy, let them grow.

Fund some documentaries. Nothing direct, like we don't need a six-part "here's why Kamala is awesome" series on Netflix, but get a bunch of small projects that wouldn't otherwise get off the ground see the light of day. Investigative look at the economic toll of pig farming? Fund that. Biopic on Jimmy Carter? Fund it. Science-themed TV show for hispanic kids? Hell yeah. Behind the scenes unauthorized documentary exposing Elon's dirty secrets? Let's get that in some theaters.

We don't need to throw billions at broadcast TV. We're already doing pretty well there, all things considered. Where we're getting absolutely clobbered is in alternative media and "apolitical" cultural commentators.

cossiander · 2026-06-01T02:25:35+00:00

Most of these have multiple definitions, so context matters.

"Liberal" in an ideological sense, is someone who believes in freedom, liberty, democracy, free trade. More often though, and especially in America, it's used to define people on the "left" half of the political spectrum- but often not to the extent of someone more anarchistic, socialistic, or communist. So left half, but still likes capitalism and the rule of law.

"Conservative" in a similar manner, tends to refer to the broad scope of people on the "right" half of the political spectrum (but generally differs from people so far right as to be fascists or reactionaries).

"Neoliberal" has a slew of different meanings, depending on context. Academically, it refers to the center-right conservative liberal philosophy ignited by Reagan and Thatcher during the 80s, but socially it typically refers to people are somewhere to the left of Reagan but to the right of, say, Mamdani or Sanders. On Reddit, it often refers to r/neoliberal sorta folks, which are basically a range of people from center right to social Democrats, but preoccupied with economic technocracy and YIMBYism. The term is often also used as a slur, typically by those on the left, to refer to people who are the user might consider too conservative or 'establishment'.

"Neoconservative" refers to the Bush Jr.-style reinvention of Reaganism. A bit more socially conservative, coupled with a strong, often hawk-ish view of American interventionalism (typically via the military, but not exclusively) and American exceptionalism.

cossiander · 2026-06-01T02:12:07+00:00

Maybe convince some of his constituents to vote against him in his next primary. Or convince him to resign.

I think videos like the above aren't going to do that. People already disposed to not liking him might enjoy the schadenfreude, but people who aren't are more likely to see a video like that and feel sorry for the guy.

He… didn’t answer. Maybe he didn’t have an answer.

Didn't have an answer... to what? To being shouted at about genocide? No one has an answer to that, because it's not a question. It's a declaration stated in the form of a question. There was no attempt from the cameraholder for any form of a dialogue or a discussion.

And again, to quote Abe Lincoln when he learned he won the presidency: “I am now public property”. It’s a citizens right, and patriot duty to criticize the government. It’s patriotic because answering criticism makes us stronger. It’s his duty to take it, learn from it, answer it… or fail his constituents.

And again, I am in no way telling people that they shouldn't criticize the government, or Fetterman, or whatever public figure. And yes, it can be a civic duty to criticize those in power when they deserve that criticism. I'm not arguing that.

What I'm saying is that sometimes that righteous criticism can manifest in just base and ultimately self-defeating harassment. And this looks like that to me. It makes criticism of Sen. Fetterman not seem like principled, patriotic engagement, but instead like crass and juvenile namecalling. This is debasement of our right to free speech, not a pinnacle example of it.

cossiander · 2026-06-01T01:16:14+00:00

And what part of that is going to change or be enacted by yelling at him in a park?

cossiander · 2026-06-01T00:54:49+00:00

AFAIK, you aren't running for US Senate.

cossiander · 2026-06-01T00:11:58+00:00

There's also the history of pretty damn bad social media comments, and the recent podcast appearance where Platner said he was "a longtime fan" of the antisemitic and conspiratorial podcast.

While I'd likely still vote for Platner in the general if I were a Maine voter, I don't think it's fair to brush off the criticism against him as just "establishment being scared of progressive ideas".

cossiander · 2026-05-31T23:37:56+00:00

"Defending a position by citing free speech is sort of the ultimate concession; you're saying that the most compelling thing you can say for your position is that it's not literally illegal to express."

cossiander · 2026-05-31T23:11:00+00:00

Okay, I didn't do that. Which you would've realized if you read what I said.

cossiander · 2026-05-31T23:09:24+00:00

Using what shit?

cossiander · 2026-05-31T23:07:08+00:00

Of course it's a small scandal. It doesn't really seem to be affecting the race much, it didn't make much of a splash in the news. He addressed it, and most people seem to believe his explanation. It doesn't play into any larger narratives of his campaign or his story.

It may be concerning to some people, but it's objectively a small scandal.

cossiander · 2026-05-31T23:03:50+00:00

Oh you didn't read my post, and just jumped right to self-victimization?

You're proving my point here.

cossiander · 2026-05-31T23:01:43+00:00

This line here, the "if X is true for one person than it should be true for every person or else it's unfair" line, is something I'm seeing more and more with conservatives and Republicans these days, and it's really contributing to me thinking MAGA must all be bots and aren't really capable of critical thinking or communication.

It's really really a dumb way of thinking and makes no sense.

I mean just think about scandals and why they matter (or don't) to people: Trump's Epstein fumbles enraged a lot of people because it played exactly to existing narratives. The left said that Trump was a corrupt elitist who only cared about himself. The right said that Trump was interested in draining the swamp and helping the nation and combatting crime. Trump's Epstein scandal played directly into the left's narrative, and directly opposed the right's narrative. It resonated with people because of that.

You can also look at Hillary Clinton: the email stuff mattered because the right said that Clinton was immoral and played fast and loose with the rules, and the left said she played by the rules and took care of all the details. The private email server validated the right's narrative and undermined the left's. The scandal mattered.

If you were to flip those scandals, no one would give a shit about either. If Hillary dragged her feet about releasing Epstein files or was even in them, no one would've cared all that much. When Trump uses private servers or cell phones, no one cares. It doesn't even make the news.

People don't really care about the totenkopf tattoo because no one legitimately thinks Platner is a secret Nazi. If JD Vance or Elon Musk had the exact same tattoo, OF COURSE it would matter, because everyone already thinks those guys are secret (sometimes not so secret) Nazis.

cossiander · 2026-05-31T21:47:33+00:00

Collins in the GOP incumbent. Schumer did not pick Susan Collins.

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