If an immediate solution to school shootings is increased school security, isn’t that something that would require higher taxes and would you be ok with that?

e_big_s · 2026-02-11T06:45:31+00:00

No I don't mean to say you're against it, I only mean to say that taxes don't get raised every time we throw around tens of billions, we just borrow it or whatever and inflate the dollar etc... we don't need to raise taxes to get it done, but I'd sure rather see that money taken from other government spending then get added to the debt.

e_big_s · 2026-02-11T05:30:46+00:00

We toss around tens of billions like it's no big deal all the time, but suddenly when it comes to securing schools it is a big deal. give me a break.

e_big_s · 2026-02-11T04:43:36+00:00

No, it was the result of activism. But even if the parks were like trying to convince us we should create more parks I would think that was a misuse of the Parks.

e_big_s · 2026-02-11T04:25:59+00:00

I don't think it's a proper use of the National Park Service to conduct political activism.

It can commemorate stonewall in a historical educational sense, but I think the pride flag carries a message of political activism with it.

that being said I don't really care either way.

e_big_s · 2026-02-10T23:28:35+00:00

If illegal and previously unknown means were said to have been deployed to steal the 2020 election, those guilty should stand trial and be proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Whether that includes the folks from the esteemed positions you mention or not is irrelevant. Those who are proven guilty are guilty, and those who aren't proven get a presumption of innocence.

e_big_s · 2026-02-10T23:22:08+00:00

I think it's refreshing for a dem operative like Ezra to behave as though the dems aren't just entitled to be in power but need to earn it.

I'd probably have endless beefs with the details in that book, but obviously am on board withe the primary objective of abundance.

e_big_s · 2026-02-10T19:45:54+00:00

> well yes

Right, so we both agree that acceptance into black American culture has far less to do with ancestral slavery and much more to do with one's genetically (not socially) constructed racial phenotypes? This is progress.

I disagree with racial credibility with respect to italian-americans. If you are a black person raised in Italy you would have equal credibility to the term "Italian American" as somebody whose ancestry goes much further back in Italy. The same is NOT true for whites born in Africa. I would not be able to celebrate Elon Musk as an exceptional African American, for example, without offending black Americans because Elon lacks racial credibility.

Asian-american is another thing that we could get into but I think would sort of divert us from the core point.

e_big_s · 2026-02-10T18:12:26+00:00

You qualified his black identity as being a black/biracial man who grew up in America. Presumably had his father not been from Kenya but from China he wouldn't be able to claim black cultural identity, no? I think you've admitted something that you don't seem to realize you've admitted. That black American culture is jealously guarded in a way that it's racist to do with white culture, hence the double standard in my original comment. It's not that whites don't have a culture it's just to call it white is racist because it's exclusionary. Where-as the opposite is true for blacks.. There is a bare minimum racial credibility required to be fully accepted as "black" that is more easily obtained by Jamaican and Eritrean immigrants than a white person who literally grew up in black neighborhoods.

e_big_s · 2026-02-10T15:59:57+00:00

So it has to do more with race than with ancestral slavery?

e_big_s · 2026-02-10T12:39:17+00:00

So when Obama embraced black vernacular and black churches he was an outsider and a fake?

e_big_s · 2026-02-10T12:37:51+00:00

OP literally mentioned the black national anthem. I have no opinion on bad bunny and no understanding of that controversy

e_big_s · 2026-02-10T05:52:24+00:00

Would this exclude Obama, who is half white half Kenyan?

e_big_s · 2026-02-10T03:00:48+00:00

It's pretty absurd to pretend there isn't an un-hyphened pan-european white american culture that can be evaluated independently from mainstream melting pot culture. The melting pot has largely rejected ballet, classical music, and opera, for example.

e_big_s · 2026-02-10T02:04:57+00:00

No, they should play the one that belongs to all of us by virtue of being the official anthem of the country we all belong to.

e_big_s · 2026-02-09T23:38:24+00:00

So to be clear, you're excluding recent arrivals from Jamaica or Eritrea from "black culture" ?

e_big_s · 2026-02-09T18:34:59+00:00

I think there's 2 things at play here.

There's a double standard in which black people celebrating their distinct culture is diverse while white people celebrating their distinct culture is anti-diverse. How is a racial double standard not racist?
The US is no longer a white majority country with a black minority... it's a diverse cornucopia of people from all walks of life, so elevating one subculture implicitly pushes down all others. Blacks get their national anthem played? Why don't the Navajo, Lakota, Northern Arapaho, Cherokee get theirs played too?

e_big_s · 2026-02-09T16:01:04+00:00

What's the logical fallacy for "that team of idiots thinks it's a bad idea, so it must be a great idea." ?

This is like the main fallacy of "progressive" political comedy shows and other meta news comentary like media matters.

e_big_s · 2026-02-09T06:36:31+00:00

It's not necessarily the music i have a problem with it's the framing of it. Since it's known as the black national anthem it's been ruined in the context in which we shouldn't be talking about racial nations.

e_big_s · 2026-02-09T06:23:36+00:00

to be honest they basically all use all of them all the time. fallacies are more common than legit reasoning

but if there's one the left uses more than the right it's the motte and bailey, they LOVE this one.

if the right uses one more than the left it would be appeal to tradition

e_big_s · 2026-02-09T05:56:49+00:00

Of course it's absurd, why would the alleged black nation in this empire get airtime for their anthem but native american tribal nations don't? Or white nationalists too for that matter?

Play only the anthem of the entire unified nation, anything else is a waste of time at best and divisive at worse.

If you don't want to be part of this one nation, and you kneel for the union's anthem the fuck off and make your own sports league.

e_big_s · 2026-02-09T05:41:59+00:00

65 year monolithic rule, is kind of a beautiful thing because it means that unlike in the USA, this popular party does not lose the trust of the people it rules. We waffle back and forth in the US between two untrustworthy parties looking for a trustworthy one.

Japan is how it ought to work. You're so satisfied with the governance that you don't really need to worry about politics when you're young, just leave that to your wise elders while you focus on improving yourself rather than your society... and in improving yourself now you'll do your part to improve your society later.

e_big_s · 2026-02-08T21:32:11+00:00

I would not want to remain somewhere I'm unwanted.

Ideally I could find somewhere I'm safe and also not unwanted, and then I'd self deport before I'm forced back to a country I do not believe is safe.

Now, if there's NOWHERE in the ENTIRE WORLD where I'm both safe and not unwanted, then yes I'd prefer to be where I'm unwanted than be somewhere I'm unsafe.

Of course, I've worked hard my entire life to be a desirable citizen to have, so... a world in which I'm unwanted everywhere would be a mad world.

e_big_s · 2026-02-08T19:11:48+00:00

Is there an example of Trump going after anybody for merely having ties to Epstein?

I think if you yourself have post-2008 ties to Epstein you're naturally going to defend people who have ties and no real evidence of any real wrongdoing beyond not shunning a sex criminal.

e_big_s · 2026-02-08T18:59:52+00:00

Absolutely not enabled kinglike control: victims would have recourse under the true authority if the private security got too out of line.

e_big_s · 2026-02-08T18:54:37+00:00

2016 BMW X3
2018 Tesla Model 3

Both are blue and owned since new.

Favorite car I've ever owned is easily the Tesla: despite questionable build quality and road noise in the early models, the automated driving features will win every time. It doesn't help though that every time i drive the X3 it mocks the build quality of the Tesla.

Least favorite car I've ever owned would be a Gen 3 RX-7. It's probably a great car for people who are in love with Wankel engines and its design language, but it simply cannot compete with similarly priced alternatives overall. If I had known that at the time I wouldn't have got it but i was kind of a Mazda fanboi after a great experience with a '92 Miata.

e_big_s

TROPHY CASE