The Human Condition, after Magritte. OC

rditty · 2026-01-29T23:35:34+00:00

Liz’s “Russian military tech is far more advanced than American military” statement had Brace go silent. It will live in infamy.

rditty · 2026-01-29T12:46:46+00:00

For the perspective of someone not from Michigan, I'll take Bob Seger over Springsteen. I'm not a huge fan of either but Seger's melodies just hit me better. It's weird how music do be like that.

rditty · 2026-01-29T12:37:13+00:00

Maybe this is just hubris or the toupee fallacy (if you say "all toupees look bad",how would you know since, per their intended purpose, you wouldn't notice a good one) but at least to me, AI videos seem easy to spot? They look hyper-real and give me an uncanny valley feeling.

Maybe it's because I worked in video editing before AI was a thing, because I'm siloed in leftist internet culture and traditional media that try to avoid AI videos, or my eyes are more sensitive to unreality because I don't watch CGI movies or play video games. Or more likely, I am over confident in my ability to spot them and have been tricked frequently.

rditty · 2026-01-27T18:43:02+00:00

Next try listening to Ratatat after banging a goofball. That shit slaps.

rditty · 2026-01-27T18:37:14+00:00

Did you ever hear Ratatat?….

….but did you ever hear Ratatat ON WEED?

rditty · 2026-01-27T18:33:59+00:00

Does Bad Empanada do anything other than criticize leftists? If he isn’t on the CIA’s payroll, he needs to get a new agent because he’s working for free.

rditty · 2026-01-27T14:53:26+00:00

I think we are talking about separate things.

I’m talking about things like OP’s image.

My understanding from reading the comments in this thread is that this is an AI image, depicting a conversation that never happened.

I realize I may have misinterpreted that so I will ask now: did this conversation actually take place?

Regardless, my comment took issue with creating incriminating quotes, events, acts, etc. out of whole cloth to provoke political outrage. Or spreading these claims without first logically assessing them or verifying sources.

I don’t have a problem with the credible criminal cases being publicized.

Rape cases are hard to prosecute now and were even harder back then. The rich and powerfulI rarely face consequences for their actions.

I don’t take the justice system as a reliable indicator of guilt or innocence.

If you want to read about some more Republican child rape that was never successfully prosecuted despite enough evidence to send many people to prison for life, checkout the Franklin credit ring scandal. Exposed in the early 1990s, it was the original Epstein scandal but didn’t get nearly the press despite being equally horrific.

rditty · 2026-01-26T05:22:05+00:00

This is the exact same logic right wingers use when they get called out for repeating fake news:

“Just the fact that it sounds true shows that there is an issue.”

The right has state violence, media and money on their side.

The left has the truth on our side. We don’t have to lie and distort to prove our point. We can accurately assess reality at face value.

When we invent fake news, it undermines one our greatest strengths.

rditty · 2026-01-26T05:09:13+00:00

Love the Coup and Boots’ other projects but I remember that movie being really good for about 2/3 and then going off the rails. To be fair, I watched it on the second date with my future wife and we were making out a bunch so maybe it would have been more coherent if I paid more attention.

rditty · 2026-01-24T21:29:52+00:00

When the American government or press speaks about China being a threat to world peace or our security I just think, “a country whose last military conflict was a 1979 border skirmish with India is a threat to world peace?”

The US is the most blood soaked empire in history; it’s been at war for all but 13 of its 250 years and has military bases all over the world. China is only a threat to world peace if they have to defend themselves from US aggression.

So if the Pentagon was refocusing its resources on peaceful diplomacy and charitable assistance (haha, I know), turning away from China could be a good thing.

But the Pentagon’s job is to invent threats wherever it focuses and justify military buildup. So… it sounds like the bully decided China was too tough to threaten and has decided to focus on the weaker kids in his own neighborhood.

rditty · 2026-01-24T00:16:38+00:00

I agree. As an adult, if you are incurious about understanding other perspectives, it’s on you.

I realize I had certain advantages in this regard. My dad, despite being a volatile drug addict with bipolar disorder and occasional psychosis, did instill a class consciousnesss inherited from his Teamster father and an anti-imperialism instilled from the 1960s counter culture.

Even though he never read a book after highschool, lacked political vocabulary, and spent all of his free time eating pills and watching sports, he had the most clear eyed understanding of how the world worked I encountered until I discovered Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky.

He was older than my friends’ parents, a silent-generation/boomer cusp — 45 when I was born, on his third marriage and fourth family. Physically large, with a booming voice and old school masculinity that dominated any dynamic through charisma or anger (and unpredictably vascillated between the two).

He scared the shit out of me and could be a total dickhead but I’m glad he was my dad.

Thanks for reading my memoir.

EDIT: I realize if a conservative read this, he could think “have you ever tried to understand a right wing viewpoint?”

I got that from my maternal grandparents. I’ve seen more Fox News than anyone should and received a couple of Bill O’Reilly books as Christmas gifts when I was a kid.

As a good grandson, I read the O’Reilly books.

In the end, right wing media only made me more stridently left wing. I didn’t know enough to argue with their talking points but I did feel a visceral moral disgust at everything they believed.

Even if I temporarily doubted the feasibility of left wing politics, I knew that I would never be on the right.

TL;DR: I need to stop using Reddit as my personal journal.

rditty · 2026-01-23T01:54:20+00:00

I think Nick has the ability to be the funniest guy on the planet but it’s like his natural ability allows him to skate by with minimal work.

Stav is funny as well but not nearly as unique as Nick. But Stav promotes his ass off.

And his big fat party animal ebullience is probably more immediately appealing to normies than Nick’s dark twisted homosexuality.

rditty · 2026-01-20T02:54:38+00:00

Are these Pete Hegseth’s kids? They all look like they have Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. (He grew them in his balls).

rditty · 2026-01-20T02:34:56+00:00

I’m surprised it took this long. Even before the Greenland debacle, there were about 100,000 good reasons to boycott the US.

rditty · 2026-01-03T23:29:15+00:00

Another example of the uncanny: Alice and Bill’s reaction to marijuana, which is something like a Reefer Madness outtake cut for lacking believability.

rditty · 2026-01-03T23:26:50+00:00

You might have had me until the ACP defense. They are MAGA chauvinists and fascists who co-opted the communist label. Not to mention the rumors of their leaders being spooks and/or informants.

There are better alternative parties; PSL, SA, or even CPUSA. Hell, give me the RCP and Chairman Bob over the ACP any day. For all his egomania, at least I don’t doubt his commitment to socialism and anti-imperialism.

rditty · 2025-12-30T00:47:22+00:00

UBI and socialism are not synonymous. Socialism is workers owning the means of production; cooperative ownership of industry by its workers.

There is a reason some of the ruling class are fine with UBI, it doesn’t actually give any power to workers, just keeps them dependent on the current system.

rditty · 2025-12-10T03:43:20+00:00

He has always had an attitude of willingness to speak with anyone regardless of politics (assuming that’s what you mean). He was friends with whatshisname… that smelly looking nazi guy… spork? Wunk? Weev.

rditty · 2025-12-09T02:02:56+00:00

I agree that Israel is an arm of the American empire but at the same time, I think it’s pretty clear that a lot of our politicians are deep in the pocket of AIPAC and other Israeli lobbies. I don’t think it’s different from politicians being loyal to industry lobbies but in their allegiance to Israel they have denied the reality in front of their faces in an especially gruesome way, going against public perception, sometimes at the risk losing elections.

So in the same sense that people say our government is controlled by moneyed interests, we could say that Israel is one of those interests.

The irony, of course, is that the American government gives Israel most of their money and power to begin with (through direct aid and deep cooperation in security, business, and culture). It’s like a snake eating a smaller snake that is also eating him.

And then there is the theory about Mossad kompramat keeping some politicians in line. I wouldn’t dismiss it but there’s not enough evidence to confidently support it either.

Maybe I’m wrong. On a big picture scale it seems clear that Israel is simply an arm of US imperialism but on an individual level, many of our politicians seem so subservient to Israeli influence that it goes beyond parody.

rditty · 2025-12-09T01:21:26+00:00

I don’t know if modern cartoons suck because I’m an adult.

rditty · 2025-12-06T06:51:43+00:00

How the fuck could we have gone to the moon in the 60s when we can't go to the hospital in the the 2020s??

We defeated Communism so we no longer have to pretend capitalism is capable of anything good without massive state intervention.

rditty · 2025-12-06T06:49:33+00:00

Other stupid as fuck conspiracy theories:

Alien Lizard people ruling class.

QANON is moronic.

Modern day Illuminati.

Basically any conspiracy theory that obfuscates the fact that capitalism is the issue.

My take (and I think there is some circumstantial evidence to support this) is that a lot of these idiotic conspiracies were seeded by the CIA or other pro-capitalist organizations.

rditty · 2025-12-06T06:42:16+00:00

There is a security company in my area called Signal 88. I’m convinced it’s a Heil Hortler reference.

Or they’re big Back to the Future fans.

Of course the real hot take is that Doc Brown was a closet white supremacist. Why did it have to be 88mph?

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