Prelude to the Apocalypse

[BryanM]

Ha. Mélenchon misses the second round by 1%, again.

Coin flip on if this is the time Marie wins or not. My gut says nah, but my brain says maybe.

[Steamflogger Boss]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svHCXvQeZfY

America, fuck yeah.

[Mischief Maker]

For all the non-Americans wondering what the fuck is wrong with my country:

https://youtu.be/Oq4UHWSTdO8

[Ed Oscuro]

The Russian invasion of Ukraine, and its origins: This professor did a ton of research, got some stuff declassified, and has written a book. You can learn a lot from her interview, check it out!

https://www.c-span.org/video/?519437-1/qa-mary-sarotte

[BryanM]

The 24/7 war cams really remind me how much "war porn" is effective in getting views for the news. Combined with "election game" and "disaster porn", it's really all they have. Feasting on human misery. (And that, too, contributes to the kind of electorate we have.) No wonder they're so pro-war, the economic pressure is there even without the top-down direct funding for it.

In a similar vein to how Pentecostalism is on the rise, by taking over services that were normally the domain of governments to provide. Churches have an active incentive to make society worse.

For leftist youtube personalities on the rise, münecat has been doing very well this past year. Her climate change video had a great little bit on how inept climate protestors are at selling their message to normies. The firetruck full of blood, where they started shooting it out of the hose but lost control and the hose was just flopping around like crazy, just blasting blood all over the place... wonderful. A+ job, guys.

For all the non-Americans wondering what the fuck is wrong with my country:

https://youtu.be/Oq4UHWSTdO8

The joke that The Onion is just regular news has morphed into "Adult Swim infomercials are real news now." Just proving that old adage of "today's satire is tomorrow's reality" true.

... and I thought the five blade razor MadTV commerical was a lucky fluke. Ha~

I agree we live in a post-parody reality, and the kind of horror Aamon works with is where we're truly at. Trying to watch an episode of SNL right now might kill me; they're still trying to throw up yucks like it's still the 1990's, right? Like "ha-ha" kind of comedy is still alive? So out of touch with current culture, but it is TV after all..

[orange808]

That depends. Nothing on the news really matters that much, does it? People aren't ever ever ever going to pay for news. Ever. Do they care? Sorta.

Apple News+ is in the process of failure; in fact, it already has failed and the company is carrying it for other reasons outside of profit. Looks like MediaNews Group is in the process of trying to paywall content and finding identical results to everyone that tried before them.

CNN+ is down. (*deadpan voice* Wow. So shocking.) Lots of thick meatheads think it's because of the culture warz. It isn't. If we try Breibart+ or Fox News+ as exclusively subscription streaming services, they will get the same apathetic welcome. News as a subscription is a nonstarter. Stupid idea.

It's fascinating. Truthfully, most of the masses have their minds made up. If they can't find someone on television to agree with them for free, they'll find someone on Facebook. They don't want any annoying new information--accurate or no.

[BryanM]

On Muskwatch today, he's bought twitter. I assume it's a pump and dump, but, well. People are also posting videos of flooding subways in response to some bullshit nonsense he peddled. Maybe we won't all die in elon cubes, maybe we'll all die in his drowning chambers instead?

On Grimeswatch, she's on a "break" with our boy. The last kid they had together was through a surrogate, they're really like the kind of lizard people who'd grow their babies in a laboratory if they could. (I'm sure the next one will be sold as some kind of NFT.) She calls herself "a bit of a socialist, but not economically", and would really like you to buy some Dogecoin.

Once again here's that link to when Sanders had Musk on his podcast.

also i can't log into twitter because I'm permabanned. Apparently saying "we should resurrect Santa Anna from the grave and turn him loose on Texas" is a 'domestic terror threat'

Also I discovered yesterday that the most unrealistic stuff in the Turner Diaries isn't the massive numbers of rage-fueled murder of defenseless people the protagonist carries out, but the idea that the United States would ever adopt the metric system.

[ED-057]

The Democrat lie machine takes the inevitable next step: establishes Ministry of Truth.

Who's in charge? A neocon warmonger, of course.

I assume all the fake news addicts have already departed to the eastern hemisphere to fight Putin, which means most of the remaining posters here are those rooting for accelerationism. I'd say your horse is clearly in the lead. But do the food riots come before or after the death squads? Will the nukes take flight? Will our shmup collections survive the EMP if burned to optical media? How should we preserve record of our high scores to survive the post-collapse dark age?

[Mischief Maker]

The Democrat lie machine takes the inevitable next step: establishes Ministry of Truth.

Holy cow, can you people please come up with an analogy OTHER than 1984? "Brave New World" is sitting right there!

I assume all the fake news addicts have already departed to the eastern hemisphere to fight Putin, which means most of the remaining posters here are those rooting for accelerationism. I'd say your horse is clearly in the lead. But do the food riots come before or after the death squads? Will the nukes take flight? Will our shmup collections survive the EMP if burned to optical media? How should we preserve record of our high scores to survive the post-collapse dark age?

As a fan of DRM-free gaming, I don't want Putin deciding it's open season to reclaim the entire Warsaw pact and vacuum-bombing the GOG.com offices in Poland.

[vol.2]

My favorite fake news thing is how FOX news took the whole "snickers is getting rid of the dick vein" joke seriously and ran with it. Absolutely priceless.

[ED-057]

Holy cow, can you people please come up with an analogy OTHER than 1984? "Brave New World" is sitting right there!

Aha! So you have been backing accelerationism all along.

What do you mean by "analogy"? Didn't they adopt 1984 as their instruction manual?

[Mischief Maker]

Time to purchase coat hanger futures.

[Ed Oscuro]

My favorite fake news thing is how FOX news took the whole "snickers is getting rid of the dick vein" joke seriously and ran with it. Absolutely priceless.

I missed that - thanks for the heads up.

They took the pickles right outta my snickles!

The Democrat lie machine takes the inevitable next step: establishes Ministry of Truth.

Newsflash for The Equalizer: Trump's administration set up that department, which you can read about here, and the GOP cheered because it fed into right-wing narratives about 'fairness in media.' This isn't some kind of ancient obscure history; we're only talking about the last few years, my dude!

Time to purchase coat hanger futures.

Almost buried under today's avalanche of bullshit is the fact that Trump asked if he could have George Floyd protesters shot outside the White House. I also heard for the first time some relatively old news that Trump threatened to intervene personally in firing every person he didn't like from the Federal government if re-elected. Sparing some thoughts for our ol' pal quash, who rumor has it is actually a deep state agent according to the leaks I just gave Donnie

[BryanM]

Huxley's focus on super-normal stimulation as an effective distracting agent always lingers in my thoughts. It's relevant to just about everything, including the hyper-reality of our politics. Things need to escalate to keep the neurons firing. Gotta feel like we're in a holy war bigger than ourselves, when nothing we do matters.

Thunderf zero zero t released a Musk take that today. The chart with Tesla having a market cap equal to the next TEN car manufacturers combined is a good example of how we're living in a collective fantasy without a caring a flick about material reserves.

Tesla makes less than 1% of the cars in case you didn't know btw.

Honestly having an internet knife fight on whether Trump should be allowed on twitter or not is kind of quaint compared to the anxiety that comes from pondering on what life is going to be like when the oil runs out. These are the good times, peoples. Enjoy your baked potatoes and ice cream while you can.

[Steamflogger Boss]

My favorite fake news thing is how FOX news took the whole "snickers is getting rid of the dick vein" joke seriously and ran with it. Absolutely priceless.

That had me rolling.

Can't imagine they stop at just Roe V Wade if they truly do overturn it. This was all very predictable though, this is why they fought on Kavanaugh.

[ED-057]

Newsflash for The Equalizer: Trump's administration set up that department, which you can read about here, and the GOP cheered because it fed into right-wing narratives about 'fairness in media.' This isn't some kind of ancient obscure history; we're only talking about the last few years, my dude!

OK, then why is Mayorkas trying to steal credit for it? Was it a noble and successful endeavor when Repubs supposedly did it? Will it be a noble and successful endeavor when Dems do it?

I love how Dem apologists are still using this tactic "it's OK because Repubs are bad too." When I tell you that the uniparty is a corrupt pile of garbage that is lying nonstop and screwing you over, you insist that there is no uniparty and that all the badness is with the Repubs while your team is innocent. When I point out that your team, specifically, is a corrupt pile of garbage that is lying nonstop and screwing you over then suddenly the Repubs are once again a 'reasonable' standard to measure up to and as long you're only as morally bankrupt as they are then you've got nothing to worry about.

This abortion psyop coming down the pipe is designed to exploit this very phenomenon. Dem NPCs will be all meth'ed up and screaming "look what happens when you don't support the Dem war criminal party unquestionably!" That's what they'll say. After they just got done eviscerating the idea of bodily autonomy or medical privacy with their mindless Big Pharma shilling. (Except it's not correct to say they just got done. They aren't done yet.)

[BulletMagnet]

After they just got done eviscerating the idea of bodily autonomy or medical privacy with their mindless Big Pharma shilling.

It truly is amazing how many people refuse to so much as consider the notion that an abortion is, however you may view it morally, a private medical decision, while getting vaccinated is a public health initiative with much wider and more immediate implications and effects, and moreover one which never raised so much as a peep amidst the newly-minted "My Body My Choice" converts until very recently. For no particular reason whatsoever, of course.

[Steamflogger Boss]

https://twitter.com/zachsilberberg/stat ... 7171900416

Feels relevant as always.

[BryanM]

It is pretty impressive. The past 50 years, how many of those did democrats have a majority? And how many of those were a super majority? And how many times did they even try to make a law protecting abortion?

Must be really frustrating being on team republican if you have a functional "effort/reward" center. If your "enemies" are a literal doormat, how can you possibly feel pride and accomplishment in defeating them all the time? To enjoy that, you'd have to be the kind of piece of shit that'd feel good beating up children..

It is kind of funny gay marriage is going to last all of like a few years. This shit gonna be more volatile than prohibition...

[ED-057]

Oh look, the guy who posted many a bitter lament about how people aren't eager enough to bend over for the police state (even though it's easily observable that most people are doing exactly that and have been for a long time) now has to face something on the police state agenda that he doesn't agree with. Sure, let's expand the police state into people's bodies, but not like this! How will he handle this shocking, totally unforseen situation?

It truly is amazing how many people refuse to so much as consider the notion that an abortion is, however you may view it morally, a private medical decision, while getting vaccinated is a public health initiative

Answer: By pretending that the practice of abortion never has any effects whatsoever for anyone but the uterus owner.

Pathetic.

I don't like having to make these disclaimers, but since I can already sense the strawmen rising from the fields like an army of undead, I'm going to make it doubly clear that I don't support abortion bans because I don't support expanding the police state into people's bodies.

Meanwhile, I can't believe how many of you are still here, and not helping Ukraine in their glorious-struggle-that-totally-isn't-another-neocon-engineered-proxy-war.

[BulletMagnet]

I'll inquire yet again: vaccination mandates have been the norm for decades, and pretty much nobody - and I'm going to wager this include you - ever considered them a "police state incursion". Why only this one? Why just now?

Answer: By pretending that the practice of abortion never has any effects whatsoever for anyone but the uterus owner.

Thinly-sliced "stances" like this are the reason so many people are very legitimately worried that, if the draft opinion holds, contraception will be next ("don't pretend it only affects the uterus holder either!" - presumably if you do, you're "over-educated"), along with a very lengthy wish list of others from the tireless sheet-sniffers you say you want kept out of everyone else's business.

Meanwhile, I can't believe how many of you are still here, and not helping Ukraine in their glorious-struggle-that-totally-isn't-another-neocon-engineered-proxy-war.

Whatever one's misgivings about our involvement in the conflict, and there are plenty to be had, I really don't see how one could envision how putting our blinders on and letting one country invade another on utterly ludicrous grounds while sitting on our hands would enable a preferable outcome for anyone besides the aggressor.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

uterus owner

Let's not pretend this isn't about a misogynistic theocratic movement trying to exercise reproductive control over women as has historically happened for most of the existence of the various abrahamic religions which love to portray women as being second class and subservient to men. Pretending it's not inherently rooted in misogyny by referring to women as "uterus owners" or "menstruators" is demeaning and offensive (an opinion you're apparently not allowed to have nowadays, especially if you're a woman who's an internationally successful children's author).

[Steamflogger Boss]

uterus owner

Let's not pretend this isn't about a misogynistic theocratic movement trying to exercise reproductive control over women as has historically happened for most of the existence of the various abrahamic religions which love to portray women as being second class and subservient to men. Pretending it's not inherently rooted in misogyny by referring to women as "uterus owners" or "menstruators" is demeaning and offensive (an opinion you're apparently not allowed to have nowadays, especially if you're a woman who's an internationally successful children's author).

Using the phrase uterus owner is some real mask off shit.

[Mischief Maker]

uterus owner.

If Republicans care so much about unborn babies, why do they block funding for prenatal care?

[BryanM]

State funded prenatal care would cost money. As do abortions - that hypothetical baby is worth tens of thousands of dollars to capitalists. Hypothetically.

So easy to be an advocate of the unborn that you can drop as soon as they're an icky inconvenient actual person.

The ideal world is rationally one where abortions would never be necessary at all, but hey what a coincidence, they're against birth control too. Isn't that neat.

"No abortions under any circumstance, not even incest or rape, nor if the woman's life is in danger" is gonna get us numerous wonderful fucked up stories where some prepubescent kid is forced to give birth.

Seems rather fitting for Burgerland during the apocalypse. There will be more, and it will be worse.

Tulsi

Yeah, she's pretty shit. Always assumed she was about the same as Ro Khanna morally. Diogenes and cynicism proven correct once again; hippy freaks with altruistic terminal values like Sanders are a very marginal slice of the population.

[Durandal]

uterus owner

Let's not pretend this isn't about a misogynistic theocratic movement trying to exercise reproductive control over women as has historically happened for most of the existence of the various abrahamic religions which love to portray women as being second class and subservient to men. Pretending it's not inherently rooted in misogyny by referring to women as "uterus owners" or "menstruators" is demeaning and offensive (an opinion you're apparently not allowed to have nowadays, especially if you're a woman who's an internationally successful children's author).

Using the phrase uterus owner is some real mask off shit.

Of course, ED-057 was simply being one step ahead of everyone else in this thread by using a more inclusive term for those affected by the abortion bill, namely both women and trans men alike (although the jury is still up on whether the term should be 'uterus havers', 'birthing people', 'bleeders', or something else that's not quite as insane). It's important to be inclusive if you intend to maximize misery.

[Ed Oscuro]

Answer: By pretending that the practice of abortion never has any effects whatsoever for anyone but the uterus owner.

If I couldn't agree with my spouse on something as basic as whether to raise a child together, I would actually not want the government to force us to raise that child together. Biology has endowed 'penis-having' people with the ability to leave a toxic relationship and try again with somebody who they love and trust. I thought you were Shmups' #1 Government Skeptical Guy, but here you're basically asking the government to lock couples in whether they like it or not.

Meanwhile, the imminent repeals of Roe and Casey are already fucking up families. Here's one case: The woman was raped and an imminent abortion ban meant they couldn't risk waiting on the DNA because they didn't want to pass an arbitrary deadline. It was agonizing for them because they've tried for a long time to conceive a child together, but they didn't want to take the risk of it being the rapist's child.

It is pretty impressive. The past 50 years, how many of those did democrats have a majority?

Well, I certainly was worried about such a thing for a very long time, which is why I voted for Hillary, knowing as I did that she would not be left of Trump. More seriously, this has sped up considerably in recent decades. Roe did seem like settled law and the country was busy trying to put out one GOP-lit fire after another for years. Bret Kavanaugh gave a textbook defense of Roe as precedent to Senator Susan Collins that he should have respected; it's not an entirely Democratic phenomenon that people were taken in by the lies of the dark money right-wing Catholic groups trying to stack the Supreme Court. I know Alito seems like he's been around goddamned forever, but he's only been on the Court since 2006! Plenty of blame to go around, for sure, but I beg everyone please not to squander it on "Dems don't do anything." We have enough trouble with fake Democrats and Dixiecrats in the caucus.

If you don't like the Dems, vote them out and get better ones. Hell, you can even vote in progressives like Nina Tur...wait, what's this? I'm just being told that Nina Turner is NOT advancing to the general election, having been squashed by Shontel Brown even more decisively than last time. So. Dems it is, and hopefully with even more votes than before.

But yes, I'm 100% for getting more shit wrote down. Also preventing judges like Roberts from just deciding that written laws no longer apply (as he did with the 1965 Voting Rights Act).

The 24/7 war cams really remind me how much "war porn" is effective in getting views for the news.

Well, you were saying? I am sure it would be very convenient for the hammer and sickle brigade if people stopped talking about Russian war crimes in Ukraine, but I don't think that would actually do anything good.

[BryanM]

the country was busy trying to put out one GOP-lit fire after another for year

I.... don't think you've thought about how congress works. Or at least, have been lied to and internalized those lies because they make you feel good about (or at least cope with) the world you have to live in. This isn't like some kind of RPG where you have a limited amount of MP or something. They have one of their aides scratch some words onto a piece of paper and then spend an hour pushing the "yes" button.

If that hour is too onerous a burden for them, instead of taking 193 vacation days a year, they could choose to take 192 vacation days instead for one year. A massive sacrifice.

The Clinton and Obama eras had massive super majorities to codify abortion into law. They chose not to. You're just making excuses for people you like. They're not better than they actually are.

Fundamentally it's obvious you don't believe capital is leading us irrevocably headfirst into collapse, which means at a bare minimum you don't believe in climate change. If you're happy to support people who will not keep ground on literally anything and are actively pro-apocalypse, well. I thought that was hilarious for all of five seconds before that made me feel very sad.

We're seriously going to end up doing this. There is no alternative. Well, viable alternative. We could restructure society to use somewhat less resources, but that's coo-coo crazy impossible.

At least I hope the fash aren't as aggressive with their death camps as they usually are, once the liberals give them power.

Hell, you can even vote in progressives like Nina Tur...wait, what's this? I'm just being told that Nina Turner is NOT advancing to the general election, having been squashed by Shontel Brown even more decisively than last time.

Yeah, just think about what kind of twisted freak you'd have to be to know and care about some random election taking place locally in some random year on some random arbitrary Tuesday.

Elections implemented as they are, are a pretty effective tool to groom the desired electorate and protect the dictatorship of capital. o7

[Ed Oscuro]

the country was busy trying to put out one GOP-lit fire after another for year

I.... don't think you've thought about how congress works.

Yeah, let's play the 'quotes out of context' game to score fake internet points. Surely another conspiratorial "Democrats bad!" post is really what's going to shake things up around here. Well done, man.

Congress is so risk-adverse that it took 100 years to finally pass an anti-lynching bill, can't agree on a way to update the ERA (which fits your 50-year timeline much better than the abortion timeline, by the way), and can't even take the lead in crafting budgets despite being given the lead to do so in the Constitution.

This is a systemic problem of Federalism. Not a Democrats Bad! problem. Not, for that matter, even a Republicans or third-parties problem. Not a Capitalism Bad! problem either. The only way we get anything done is if there is bloody murder going on sufficient to distract our elected prima donnas from fundraising.

[BulletMagnet]

The only way we get anything done is if there is bloody murder going on sufficient to distract our elected prima donnas from fundraising.

...or if we wake up and finally switch to publicly-funded elections.