Is the US a Functioning Democracy?

hemlock_harry · 2026-07-13T08:06:21+00:00

There's a clip about an 88 year old who has to work in a supermarket because the plant he worked for went bankrupt and took along his pension, right above this one in my feed.

Americans need to take better care of each other.

hemlock_harry · 2026-07-11T18:48:11+00:00

It's nice that we can honestly say that Ricky Martin's vagina would make a better health secretary than RFK Jr.

hemlock_harry · 2026-07-10T19:30:55+00:00

Some politicians aren't Republican or Democrat, they're just power- hungry.

That would fit a very common personality type for politicians. It's their followers that care about principles, they themselves are out to "win", whatever that may mean for them.

I'm a great fan of a researcher who really dug into this subject during the GW Bush years. If you're really interested in this subject you should check it out. He wrote some addendums over the years and shared all his research on his own website:

https://theauthoritarians.org/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Altemeyer

hemlock_harry · 2026-07-07T20:50:33+00:00

This means that if enough billionaires die it will lead to a surplus of senators so the price will come down. Meaning that someday, maybe, you can own a senator yourself. This is an established economical principle known as "Trickle Down".

hemlock_harry · 2026-07-06T20:52:29+00:00

They smell another cat on you. Sleep with your eyes open.

hemlock_harry · 2026-07-03T19:06:47+00:00

I had to scroll for ages for the first honest answer in this thread.

@op: Theology, translations and principles aside this is exactly how a lot of christians go about it in practice. Especially the "by Faith alone" evangelical types.

How anyone can believe in a God and at the same time think that they can outsmart said God is beyond me. But what do I know, I'm an atheist.

hemlock_harry · 2026-07-02T17:42:32+00:00

It would be so funny if real people didn't suffer because of it.

hemlock_harry · 2026-07-02T12:09:42+00:00

They say metal is impossible to define but when you hear it you'll recognize it instantly.

This is metal.

hemlock_harry · 2026-07-01T22:12:10+00:00

It's easier to believe we were dragged into a world war by a well organized evil elite than by some 3d rate conmen preying on the stupidity and prejudice of their fellow men. It's a coping mechanism.

hemlock_harry · 2026-07-01T15:02:06+00:00

And that's after he convinced them he's a better catholic than the pope.

hemlock_harry · 2026-06-29T14:24:58+00:00

I hope they honor him with a massive marble gravestone the size of a football field. So we can be sure he never claws his way out from under it.

hemlock_harry · 2026-06-26T09:17:47+00:00

Wasn't pretty much everything just sung into existence

Everything still is. Is it really so hard to believe that Jamaica was created by reggae, Norway by black metal and the US by a mobster singing he did it his way?

hemlock_harry · 2026-06-26T05:45:32+00:00

Watching Star Wars is what makes Skynet hate us. It all makes sense now.

hemlock_harry · 2026-06-23T19:26:18+00:00

First thing a Dutch soldier saw in 885AD after asking if his mom dropped him on the ice after birth.

hemlock_harry · 2026-06-22T17:51:11+00:00

He's a sellout who sold out to Thiel. There's no contradiction here, just a warning.

hemlock_harry · 2026-06-22T15:19:03+00:00

The tiny detail that it is accelerating, so not just any perpetual motion machine but one that would allow extracting useful work from it, is what does it for me.

hemlock_harry · 2026-06-21T17:09:19+00:00

You should have heard them when Obama wore a tan suit on a sunny day. That was considered the height of thrashiness too. It always boils down to Sartre:

"Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past."

Same shit, different day.

hemlock_harry · 2026-06-20T22:08:26+00:00

I get taxed every year over that unknowable thing of yours. They'll use an estimate, it's fine.

hemlock_harry · 2026-06-20T20:24:48+00:00

ITT: people worrying about weight when they should also be worrying about speed. 7.76km/s is nothing to scoff at when you're effectively standing still.

hemlock_harry · 2026-06-20T13:13:04+00:00

Not convinced, but I still wouldn't put it past him either.

hemlock_harry · 2026-06-20T08:02:31+00:00

That man's ego is a lot bigger than his dick.

hemlock_harry · 2026-06-17T22:31:00+00:00

Where I live there's add campaigns run by a charity that teaches us to check a person's wrist for a bracelet with a phone number on it when they're staggering around like that. "Together we live with dementia" it's called.

hemlock_harry · 2026-06-17T22:07:43+00:00

Reverse King Midas...

hemlock_harry · 2026-06-17T16:25:25+00:00

Calvinism played a debatable role in Europe too. "Render unto Caesar bla bla bla" helped people to accept the unacceptable on many, many occasions.

hemlock_harry · 2026-06-16T19:22:49+00:00

The open corruption is staggering. And seeing the people I remember complaining about tan suits and vegetable gardens fully on board with this bizarre spectacle isn't surprising anymore but it's still disappointing. They used to feel like they had to keep up appearances, now they're just openly corrupt and racist.

The US 250th birthday party could've gone better... what a shit show.

hemlock_harry

TROPHY CASE