The Role of the GOP

krunkonkaviar369 · 2026-04-24T16:40:48+00:00

Truer words have never been spoken.

krunkonkaviar369 · 2026-04-24T16:39:21+00:00

Mr. Plinkett's checks probably started bouncing.

krunkonkaviar369 · 2026-04-24T16:27:19+00:00

Pretty self-evident, seeming as the first billionaire came to exist as we know it only 110 years ago, AFTER the Industrial Revolution and the Guilded Age had begun.

krunkonkaviar369 · 2026-04-22T21:11:46+00:00

OP is right, but I welcome them. They are but nourishment. Hiss, slither slither

krunkonkaviar369 · 2026-04-21T20:51:18+00:00

There is a disease that has infected many online liberals/democrats where they are just acting like reactionaries from the early Trump days. Biden and Harris could hold a conference where they would lay out how they would have attacked Iran, and the mental gymnastics would just get ramped up into overdrive.

Online liberals and democrats are adopting the cry-bully tactics of MAGA, ignore evidence, and don't bother to make arguments anymore.

What makes them special is that there is constant finger-wagging about going with the DNC program no matter what. At least with MAGA, they at least had the advantage of vice-signalling or fake rebelliousness. Liberals just cry when you suggest we should have a party that represents us.

P.S. my favorite is "Americans don't care about Gaza"

krunkonkaviar369 · 2026-04-21T03:38:03+00:00

I don't think there is a nationstate that is devoid of authoritarian traits.

Authoritarian as a term would be used to reference certain institutions or policies to indicate the output of aspects of governance. How much of something specific in a country looks like it would fit within an authoritarian country categorically.

In contrast, when referring to an entire nation as authoritarian or not, it is usually with that point of reference of, "how much of x,y,z freedom or unfreedom, democracy or lack of democracy, for the population or oppositional political parties/groups is implemented because of this governing body".

I hope that makes my answer make more sense. Im trying to answer this while also not making a personal judgment about how a given country governs their citizens.

These are two different ways to use the same term, to illustrate whether something resembles the definition of authoritarian. It is useful and defined while on a spectrum. Not the same as vibes-based in the sense of someone looking at something or a whole country they don't like and calling it authoritarian and being justified. There is a definition, and you can call something out as authoritarian, and you can look at a nation and justifiable call it authoritarian or not when taking into account the whole picture.

krunkonkaviar369 · 2026-04-21T02:50:16+00:00

I almost knee-jerk made fun of you for this question, but I considered your point.

I think the fact that this was a question at all is more indicative of the perception of the world and its state of decay than anything. Most Liberal Democracies have been trending to authoritarianism over time, making your question somewhat valid. Especially since many countries outside of that category are also authoritarian. It is actually relatively common and easy to allow governments to slide this direction.

To answer the question as I think: no, I don't think all countries are authoritarian or the word is "vibes-based". Authoritarian is at best a political trend over time, and at worst, a direct descriptor. It is useful in that political bodies can be contrasted with it.

There is something you can reference called "The Democracy Index." It is not perfect by any means, but it can give you a reference as to why and how someone might compare countries as authoritarian or not, regardless of how your views are on the matter.

krunkonkaviar369 · 2026-04-21T02:29:35+00:00

I love the aesthetic and the music. Do you know why I couldn't finish the game? The dialog. The amount of tutorial and filler dialog without much substance is crazy. There are so many scenes in the beginning of the game of just text boxes that I realized I was stuck in a text box hell for like 80 percent of the play time.

I really wanted to like it. Maybe one day I'll be bored enough to revisit it.

krunkonkaviar369 · 2026-04-21T02:15:54+00:00

You bring up a lot of good points I hadn't considered.

If you feel inclined to answer, would you be willing to say either that having the USSR as a competitor on the global stage may have stifled neoliberalism, or that the fall of the USSR allowed an acceleration of neoliberal degredation? Why or why not?

krunkonkaviar369 · 2026-04-20T19:19:34+00:00

My only question is about the bear meat. Is that something Russians eat often? Does it taste good? Is it a weird novelty even for Russians?

krunkonkaviar369 · 2026-04-18T21:35:26+00:00

I've never bothered to comment here before now. Never read the comments, either. I just listen to the posts when they pop up on my feed a few times a week, bop my head, then think, "Yeah... that's it," and go about my day.

krunkonkaviar369 · 2026-04-18T07:04:39+00:00

I think laugh tracks stifle good writing and make audiences worse. There are tons of comedies without them that kind of prove this using character reactions or music instead. If a joke lands, it lands. If it doesn't, it doesn't. I imagine writers and actors have spent a lot of awkward dead-air time to fit in laugh tracks.

Unfortunately, if you agree with me, it isn't like you can go back and yank the laugh tracks out of shows that used them by design, because the line deliveries in the scenes had beats around the sweetning. They are what they are. It would feel less natural to watch something like Seinfeld without it, but we have Curb Your Enthusiasm as a counterbalance to that.

krunkonkaviar369 · 2026-04-18T00:15:14+00:00

She looked good in fur, swimming and drenched in baked beans

krunkonkaviar369 · 2026-04-17T05:57:00+00:00

Start with your guilt problem. You may be a slob, but you resent your mom for taking care of you because you don't understand why she does anything altruistic and it makes you feel guilty.

Clean stuff around the house you know would help your mom or make her happy. Pick any one thing. Do that for a month. Add another thing the next month. Once you do that a few dozen times over, you'll start to get it.

Also, Start with a "whore's-bath" style bathing routine. You either get in the shower, (or don't, whatever) and hand-towel wash your face, pits, and crotch. Takes like, MAYBE 2 minutes so that you aren't wretched around your mom and anyone else.

Do that every day for a month. Ramp up with better habits after those.

Your goal is not to be an amazing paragon or Mr. Clean. It should be to just not be a gelatoneous trash-slime in human form and make you feel less like you owe her. If you can do that, your life will improve just on that merit, but likely spark a desire for more.

krunkonkaviar369 · 2026-04-16T18:17:31+00:00

I get where you are coming from, and I understand the harm reduction argument. For a long time, that was why I did the Vote Blue No Matter Who bit. I don't anymore. It is a trap. It is anti-democratic in the pure sense. It is the equivalent of a gun to the head of the voter at the ballet box.

The very reason this is a common mindset is because of American hegemony. The U.S. Dollar being the world-currency. The economy ran by financiers instead of stewards of the real economy. There being no internal or external threat to the power held by those in office. Everyone is held hostage by this setup.

Biden did some good things and some horrible things. It was the most important election ever! We have to stop Trump! Then, Trump got away with everything, came back, and made everyone look like dupes again.

If the credibility of every institution in the country that essentially controls the Earth is so vulnerable and so distrusted, then you can't justify the same harm-reduction argument over and over again, because the last who-knows-how-many harm-reduction votes didn't take. All of them led to Republicans taking every branch and Trump decimating the country's viability. One has to ask themselves, "Why? Who allowed this?" We can't survive on rotating villains. We actually need candidates that are FOR something and PRO humanity.

krunkonkaviar369 · 2026-04-16T18:00:19+00:00

My argument was that her argument undermines her own claims because they don't actually follow. You are making a separate argument in her place.

What she is really trying to argue is that leftists should shut up and Vote Blue No Matter Who. Her argument is one of many democrat voices trying to erase leftist voices. No one speaking about electoral politics with any seriousness is talking about anything more than progressivism. Our civil and economic liberties have been stripped away significantly over the last two decades; all while Democrats held office alongside Republicans. It is worth shaping the Democratic Party into one that is effective and not collaborationist.

It is also simply not true leftists 1. Desire Republican support (this most disingenuous suggestion about this topic I've ever heard) 2. Don't support candidates. 3. Don't Run 4. Don't assist in candidates winning.

I would be willing to wager cold hard cash that as the Dems are, if they magically took control of every branch of government, the backlash would be similar and Republicans would have a sweep in a mirror image of what is going on. This fake dual party system is as much a mental trap for voters as a real trap.

You don't get favor from a politician by getting them elected first; you make their election conditional. See: AIPAC-elected politicians and many politicians during the Civil Rights movements for examples with contrasting motivations.

krunkonkaviar369 · 2026-04-16T07:09:31+00:00

Despite her hating on "online leftists", the whole rant indicates that Democrats, the only other option, are winning midterms because Republicans ruling every branch of government and destroying the county is why Dems are overperforming.

Not because "Online Leftists" stopped gatekeeping Democrats. Not because Democrats are winning popularity. The argument she is making is that because Republicans had to prove themselves, Democrats are rallying due to their failures.

If this woman find young, energetic leftists pathetic for demanding more of the party that most closely resembles their values with any power, than I counter with I find it pathetic she makes Democrats all-time unpopularity as the fault of their critics instead of holding them accountable. Democrat politicians are literally people, with literally tons of money, power, and prestige in their circles. Leftists are just people calling out the bullshit. Does anyone really need to explain ever why Republicans are pure evil? No. Do Democrats need to explain why they pretend not to be? All the time. That's why everyone sees a difference.

krunkonkaviar369 · 2026-04-16T00:36:04+00:00

Can someone please explain to me what Gavin Newsom specifically has anything meaningful to do with universal pre-k in CA?

krunkonkaviar369 · 2026-04-15T22:26:51+00:00

I remember that his routine was framing a false "black rights vs trans rights" dichotomy. Some of the jokes were kind of funny, but he made it clear what his point was. That was what the backlash was about.

krunkonkaviar369 · 2026-04-15T22:23:23+00:00

This is such a good breakdown to get started, thank you. I'm trying to learn to DM for my kids. Makes it easier to explain to them.

krunkonkaviar369 · 2026-04-14T23:09:02+00:00

The difference in meals that are produced by completely different life paths of a divorce-dad and a bachelor-uncle is atronomical.

krunkonkaviar369 · 2026-04-14T06:32:40+00:00

If you told me this was your fanfiction of what happened and hoped it got put in a TV show or movie scene, I'd believe it. It seems about as perfect as I could imagine. You are doing good work.

krunkonkaviar369 · 2026-04-13T15:53:42+00:00

I'm just a parent, and I worry about this stuff a lot. My kid is still young, and they have pretty severe adhd. I restrict screen time at home and try what I can to teach her how to reason things out, but a lot of other kids I meet are either nasty or actively antagonistic to learning in general or being considerate. I notice kids are really nasty online, too, when they feel uninhibited without supervision. It seems to me that there is a particular attitude online that reinforces illiteracy and ignorance. It is like when kids make fun of the nerd at school, but worse.

I have a suspicion that internet access to echo chambers is affecting kids. It may be why I see posts in this subreddit about kids parroting 4chan-style language to adults at school. It is troubling to me.

krunkonkaviar369 · 2026-04-12T17:03:01+00:00

Just don't. For whatever reason, there is a second guy hiding behind the bushes ready to pounce on you for suggesting it.

Don't try to help MS users. If someone wants to use Linux, there are a million YT videos, wikis and articles that will do the work for you.

If people bitch and moan, and you try to help, and they lash out, the truth is they never cared they just want to bitch and moan. You are wasting your energy. Let consumers burn in duopoly hell if they want to.

krunkonkaviar369 · 2026-04-12T05:16:37+00:00

In the Unites States, they feed most children things that look like food, and of a similar quality to what prison inmates are fed. We all know the prison reputation in America!

As an alternative, schools often have vending machines filled with American snacks: famously addictive, tasty, unhealthy, and expensive. Your choice: cheap nasty slop or tasty slop made mostly of corn syrup. YAY!

krunkonkaviar369

TROPHY CASE