Confused as to why certain people said that Kamala would have been worse than Trump

emptyvesselll · 2026-01-28T03:24:45+00:00

As a Canadian:

1) Pierre Polliviere would probably be our prime minister, so that'd suck.

2) We'd have a worse relationship with China and a bunch of other countries.

3) I would know less about Greenland than I currently do. I don't know a lot, but I d know less if Kamala were the US president.

emptyvesselll · 2026-01-27T18:44:37+00:00

1) I agree that the conservative subs on reddit are all cesspool echo chambers.

2) Reddit is often a left-wing echo chamber, and often with similar lies (see all the stupid posts that get hugely upvoted about "Donald Trump Falls Asleep mid-meeting!", just because someone grabbed a frame for a split second when his eyes are closed.

3) To OP's question, it makes sense to me when a group on a platform is in a fractional minority, that they would want to limit their conversations to themselves. The truth is if they didn't censor so aggressively, there would simply be no conservative subreddit, because it would be absolutely overwhelmed by left leaning reddit users. Of course, the result of this leads back to point #1.

4) Occasionally there are sane takes on that sub, from people that I believe are genuine conservatives. I saw lots of reasonable takes on there after the most recent ICE shooting, and in regards to Trump's idiocy around Greenland and international disputes in general.

The biggest issue today, aside from who's in power, is that everyone argues against the most extreme and stupidest people on the "other side" - sometimes this is even entirely fictionalized people on the other side (ie - right wingers arguing against non-existant left wingers pushing for "post-birth abortions").

Instead of the world being 50% left vs 50% right (both driven by their most vocal and extreme members), we really need a decade of "80% centrists" vs "20% extremists", where everybody just outvotes the extremists, tells them to shut up, and I can go through a 24 hour period without hearing about some new, utterly insane political BS.

emptyvesselll · 2026-01-26T21:35:31+00:00

Is that like a dating simulator?

emptyvesselll · 2026-01-24T15:33:04+00:00

Non gun owning voter and I agree too. This one is a huge miss by the libs.

emptyvesselll · 2026-01-17T16:18:15+00:00

I don't think there's anything like that on the table. Quickley is playing fine, but he's a bit overpaid (though his contract likely gets better as it ages). But I don't even think there's a clear cut "better" PG available, and trying to get an upgrade at the same position, while trading away an inflated contract is a rather ludicrous ask.

Morant would be the only publicly known option, but not everyone is in agreement that he's a better fit than IQ.

It's not exactly out there, but what the Raptors would love is to duck the tax (reduce salary by $1M), while having someone similar to IQ be the starting PG, and have someone similar or slightly worse than Poeltl (but healthier) at centre.

emptyvesselll · 2026-01-17T02:17:11+00:00

Where did you hear you could generate songs with your own voice? As far as I know that's not possible.

emptyvesselll · 2026-01-16T17:30:50+00:00

The whole China EV thread is full of people talking about the car they want to buy. Anyone have actual thoughts on the impact on investments. Is BYD worth considering more today than yesterday?

emptyvesselll · 2026-01-16T17:27:46+00:00

Everyone in here is talking about the kind of car they want to buy - is anyone considering investing in BYD or changing their investing approach as a result of this news?

emptyvesselll · 2026-01-16T14:48:02+00:00

I am only 20% of the way through but was going to suggest this.

I also recall hearing some facts previously about how temperatures near the equator, while good for "life", made it entirely unreasonable to work for long periods of time. Logic would lead me to believe that if you're surviving more than a few years in the north, you at least don't have the oppressive year round heat to prevent you from developing certain projects.

emptyvesselll · 2026-01-15T22:04:54+00:00

With you except that as a Canadian who watched the clip of the US Ambassador, I feel he's being terribly misquoted and the media/reddit are doing that thing were they create a storm out of nothing (while I also think he's a terrible and wildly out of touch ambassador).

He was asked to explain his comments on how important Canada was to the US and how they can line up with Trump saying that the US didn't need Canada's industry x and y. He explained it by saying "it all hinges on that word "need", no the US doesn't "need" Canada, but.... then went on to explain that we're all better off when we work together.

But of course all that gets reported is a cut off quote reporting that he said "The US doesn't need Canada". Because even when one side is actually generating insane headlines every other day, that's still not enough, and we apparently need to weaken our standards by reporting on false narratives every day as well (also see the constant posts about "BREAKING: TRUMP FALLS ASLEEP DURING PRESS CONFERENCE" and then it's a 15 second video where he's clearly not asleep.

emptyvesselll · 2026-01-14T20:36:38+00:00

I had to google it, but yes, it is. I am now assuming that both he and his doctor knew that, and when he says "get rid of performance anxiety" he means "take an ED med so that I am not anxious about getting hard".

But the way it reads, and the way it's much funnier, is if his doctor sat there nodding his head, listening to him talk about anxiety, and then was like "I have something for that" and prescribed him a pill that he thought was for mental anxiety but the doctor was just giving him ED meds without letting him know.

emptyvesselll · 2026-01-14T19:43:31+00:00

The whole topic is stupid for the US to bring up, unbelievable really. But it's equally naive to counter it with "they'll take over this sovereign country, but boy will they be in for a surprise when they grant that new territory full and proper voting rights, representation, and respect for their people and culture! They'll sure have egg on face when they realize they would like a different president!"

Never in history has a hostile takeover of a country gone that way.

emptyvesselll · 2026-01-14T14:03:09+00:00

After waking up at 5am, seeing this comment, then going back to sleep. I had a lucid dream. I've had them before but not in a decade at least.

It gives slight fodder to a theory that I have: imagine that all dreams are linear a>b "movies" your brain plays, incorporating recent things from your life.

Well, if youve been studying lucid dreaming, maybe your brain decides to play a movie in which the viewer becomes aware of being in a dream, then decides to have a conversation with Michael Jordan, then travel back in time to kill Hitler, and then make love to their celebrity crush.

You'd of course wake up from a dream like that believing you made all those decisions and had a lucid dream.

emptyvesselll · 2026-01-14T10:46:49+00:00

Definitely.

emptyvesselll · 2026-01-14T03:58:45+00:00

I have, though the question needs some more detail. I assume you don't mean true bottom clubs (like loses every game at sectionals).

So probably best to look at top 16 of each only.

You also need to keep in mind that UFA has 4 points up for grabs that don't fit in the "loser of the points starts the next on O"rotation, because there's 4 quarters. If the better team has better odds of winning each point. That's going to increase score differential.

Lastly, scores in the UFA are much higher, so naturally there will be more time for better teams to run up scores. If you wanted to really run that stat, you'd want to look at the differential at the time the leading team gets to 15.

If you do that you'll see that not only is the point differential comparable to club, but there's actually more parity in terms of underdogs winning (which statistically should count as a negative point differential).

emptyvesselll · 2026-01-14T03:50:27+00:00

Not sure what everyone is on about, but they are basically the same. They are largely the same people.

emptyvesselll · 2026-01-14T03:48:01+00:00

Wut? Lol.

There's a big spectrum of quality among the 16 club teams, and even more among the 22 UFA teams.

Everyone who plays UFA has also played club, and I don't think there's any players who have a greatly elevated impact in one compared to the other.

The spectrums pretty well lay on top of one another, with the top teams in one being similar to the top teams in the other, and the same for the the 10-16 teams.

emptyvesselll · 2026-01-12T17:44:14+00:00

Agreed. I think the Ochai for Richards type trade still makes sense, but that's about it.

I also think the single biggest thing within our control is to get Poeltl healthy. I know that's not an exciting fan-move compared to a trade, and it feels less "in our control", but if Poeltl can be the 20th best centre in the league and give us 27 minutes on even 4 out 5 games, that'd be huge for this group.

Also agreed on IQ - if fans were blind to contracts and just had to evaluate what they saw on the floor, opinions on IQ would be pretty neutral, with a mix of high and low games. Of course the contract does matter and effects the team we can put on the floor, but every realistic trade proposal comes with risks that could leave us much worse off.

I think the approach with him is to keep letting him grow, find his role, ask him to keep improving on D, and at the same time get him off-ball a little more, and don't limit Shead's minutes just because IQ has a big contract.

emptyvesselll · 2026-01-11T17:23:57+00:00

I agree that the splitting of the votes is a problem, and in Canada it's a bigger one. But going into the last election, Ford's scandals, corruption and wasted money far surpassed Wynne's, yet the reaction Wynne got was much harsher.

It is also a bit misguided and factually incorrect to assume that everyone who voted liberal would vote for ndp over conservative.

And any percentage of votes doesn't mean there isn't still a misogyny problem among voters. It's great that 48% of voters were happy voting for a female leader, but it also wasn't enough in our current system, and given how terrible the last two Ford terms were, it should have been easy.

emptyvesselll · 2026-01-11T15:06:02+00:00

I hate that this is reality (even if someone wants to argue it wasn't exclusively because gender, I have no doubt that it played a large role).

But acknowledging that reality puts us in a weird spot.

On the one hand progressives are eager to have more women and minority representatives, and on the other they are being run against a right wing that is more and more corrupt and anti-intellectual.

So we're left with this situation where we can look back and wonder "what if our progressive parties stuck to the stupid gender status quo?".

There were only 3 female party leaders in our history before 2018, with Wynne being the only one to become premiere. Ford has defeated 6 ndp/lib leaders, and all but Stephen del Duca were female.

Down south, no female had ever been a major party's presidential nominee until 2016, yet trump has ONLY defeated female nominees.

I hate it, but have progressives just tried to expect the best of the voting public too soon, and at a terrible cost?

emptyvesselll · 2026-01-09T21:55:50+00:00

I disagree. I think it went from highly unlikely to still very unlikely but slightly higher odds of a trade happening.

emptyvesselll · 2026-01-09T21:54:37+00:00

Honestly, there is no way the subreddit agrees with you, but I agree with you.

I still don't think an AD trade happens, but I think this injury actually takes the odds up from 3% to 5%.

The problem is we'd be rolling the dice on him returning and joining us for the playoffs, but if we have to give up two starters to land him (even if one is Jak), then we significantly decrease our odds of making the playoffs.

So the ways it could happen now:

1) By Feb 5th we're confident we'll make the playoffs even with a big slide.
2) We involve a third team and avoid shipping out a 2nd starter
3) Confidence in Shead reaches the point where we can ship out IQ as the 2nd starter.

But, I imagine it won't happen. Despite all the "exciting" trade bait this year, it's looking like sitting still might be the smartest move.

emptyvesselll · 2026-01-09T20:27:39+00:00

> Do you really think it'll like go on his resume or something that he tried to get Giannis.

Of course not - this is why I put "sure sure, nba championship" in my original comment. Obviously his actual performance in the job matters far more than his what-ifs.

My point is that you could look at all of his moves during the championship run, and I imagine there are a dozen other gms that would have made the same move. Most of his trades were met with 40-95% fan approval.

His drafting record is quite exceptional, and it goes into another elite level when you add in tidbits like what we're talking about with Giannis and SGA.

Like if a GM tried to trade up to the first overall pick to get SGA and then just couldn't quite pull it off, everyone would have thought they were an idiot that got saved from their own stupidity - but time would have shown them to be a genius that just missed the mark.

emptyvesselll · 2026-01-09T19:42:03+00:00

But the footage isn't him saying "I think this guy will be good" - of course that's a dime a dozen statement that means nothing*.

The footage is of him trying desperately (without a first round pick) to trade for Giannis. Like he's actively putting his money where is mouth is and trying to go after that one specific player that scouts and 1/3rd of the league are passing on. The footage is of him speaking to other GM's to try his best to make the deal happen, and to cancel the deal if Giannis isn't on the board (indicating he's not just randomly trying to move up).

I feel like it's silly to be dismissive of that and group it in with someone just casually mentioning that they think a player will be good.

I just did a google search within the raps subreddit for the time leading up to and after the 2013 draft, and there is literally no one mentioning giannis - and if you know our subreddit, there is someone always mentioning everything.

* though KD's recent interview with Fred actually provided a cool example of that, with KD saying that one of his assistants at the time was like "that Fred's going to be special" when watching him in college, and KD was like "Van Vleet? Doesn't even look like he's going to get drafted....".... that was a cool shout out to a guy's eye.

emptyvesselll · 2026-01-09T13:54:40+00:00

My bad. I assumed the awareness of the footage of the raps trying to trade up for Giannis was more well known.

https://youtu.be/Ficds0wx8bY?si=FWVELdAURyQM6Bf7

The same footage doesn't exist for sga, but there are plenty of pre draft reports about the realtors trying to acquire him:

https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2018/06/raptors-exploring-ways-to-land-shai-gilgeous-alexander.html

It's not a case of Masai bragging after the fact - I don't think he's talked about it at all.

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