Lately we’ve had some commenters jumping ship and/or complaining that the Glibs is becoming a Team Red Trumpista echo chamber. I’m going to attempt to explain why I think this is not true; judge for yourself how successful you think I have been in the comment section. Or skip reading it entirely and go to the comment section to worship/condemn Trump. The tone of this piece will be exceedingly serious* and you’ll be able to tell because I’ll only have one cheesecake pic at the end.
The political internet has come up with the concepts of right-libertarianism and left-libertarianism. The reason for this, as far as I can tell, is to lend an air of legitimacy to people who are not libertarians because as a philosophy, libertarianism sounds great on paper to lots of people who want nothing to do with it in practice. IE: if you’re a Communist, it sounds a lot nicer to call yourself a “left-libertarian” because it emphasizes how you really, really, really like freedom (except for all these freedoms over behind the curtain, don’t look behind the curtain, shut up thought-criminal off to the gulag with you).
My personal political philosophy is well documented (see first vignette). Beyond that, I believe the entire concept of “right” vs. “left” is a bullshit artificial concept designed to discourage independent thought. I recognize that it gets used as a kind of shorthand in modern debate but, to be honest, it’s never made sense to me anyway. It seems as though a random constellation of beliefs was assigned to each side and we call it good; both sides have authoritarianism baked in, it’s just about different stuff. If political philosophy must be projected into a binary concept (problematic in its own way, but let’s put a pin in that), I think it can mostly be boiled down to liberty vs. control. Either you value individual autonomy or you don’t. If we must, I suppose we can change it from a Boolean to a spectrum though I struggle to make sense of that as well. BUT, for the sake of simplicity, let’s go with that. I think that, philosophically, most/all of the Glibertariat falls squarely on the liberty side of the coin.
For Glibs, however, philosophy is the easy part. Respect for liberty is what brought us here in the first place. What’s more complicated, and where the diversity of opinion lies, is in the application of said philosophy. This is where I think we can say with some certainty that Glibs is definitely not an echo chamber. The most obvious application of political philosophy is in voting patterns. For most people, that’s as far as it ever goes, though for some it goes further; eg: volunteering for a campaign, writing petitions, donating money, etc. If we again must project this into a spectrum, the poles of that spectrum could be modeled as principle vs. practicality.
The unfortunate reality of our situation is that we have two political parties that don’t respect individual liberty. One has embraced international socialism and one is in the process of embracing nationalism with a law-and-order bent. Both sides rejected any semblance of fiscal responsibility long ago. The upshot is we have the proverbial Giant Douche vs. Turd Sandwich choice across the board every election. These are your only realistic options for who will be in charge. Beyond that, there are third parties that may or may not align more closely with individual liberty, but (let’s be honest here) they cannot and will not ever win an office of consequence. If they ever do win, it’s usually for some irrelevant position as a short-lived curiosity. Finally, there are those who look at this fiasco and say, fuck it, I ain’t voting at all if I can’t vote for someone that I agree with on principle who might actually win.
Some fear international socialism so much that they will vote for anyone that opposes it and has a realistic chance of winning. Call this maximum practicality. Some will say, I hate both major candidates so I’m going to go third party and “throw my vote away”. Of course, it’s not really throwing your vote away; it’s valuable as a protest vote and as a way to stay true to your conscience. Call this partial principle. Then, because no matter what, whoever you vote for (even Vermin Supreme) will necessarily not align perfectly with individual liberty there are the abstainers. Call this maximum principle.
Here’s the rub: we have people representing all of these camps here at Glibs and each and every one can articulate rationally why they arrived at their conclusion. Here’s another rub: I don’t begrudge anyone their position. I completely understand why someone would look at the absolutely disastrous history of socialism and conclude that it must be stopped at any cost, even if that means embracing Team Red out of convenience. I completely understand why someone can’t hold their nose hard enough to block out Team Red’s stink and votes for a better alternative. I completely understand why someone would look at the whole thing and be too disgusted to participate. And while it may be true that, of late, Glibs has a plurality of those who chose option 1, it’s far from an echo chamber. So to those who have chosen options 2 and 3, please don’t abandon Glibs in disgust, we need and want true diversity: diversity of thought and opinion. Or tell me to fuck off and leave of your own volition. It’s your life.
*not really

See, I told you. Only one.
The rest of you are really just making a list of people who aren’t First.
This is not the links, therefore, you’ve been disqualified. I’m first!
By Tonio’s stupid on topic rule, he is disqualified and you win.
Great post Q! Would the cheesecake too. Yes I’m right leaning and see Trump not as a hero, more as a giant fuck you to the progressive/leftist/commie/whatever you want to call them elites. I don’t even blame the voters who vote prog simply because they have been brainwashed, coerced, incentivized to be that way. The left has/had won, they control the Government, the media, education and countless others. That’s why they hate Trump so much…he shouldn’t have won but did anyway and has been successful despite their best efforts. I’ve always thought having the system we do has been workable, the left and right constantly battling and mouthing yet did little actual changes because the system prevented one side or the other from taking over. The left however has been winning bit by bit and the right was failing to keep up. I see this cycle coming to a violent and turbulent end soon and hope enough individualistic liberty loving mofos like all you Glibs are around to make the next reiteration of America(and the world too for that matter) better. Had a lot more to say but this is all I can spout out currently.
Why did it post it here? Freakin’ squirrels.
Why would I ever listen to a born seconder and noted homosexual?
If this is your only shtick, we can just call you Fist instead of first.
You can call him Broketard or Broccolitard, he loves that!
Where is FoE?
I don’t think he ever made the leap over here.
He has about 3.
Being first is racist
I’m Trans-first. STOP OPPRESSING ME!
“Lately we’ve had some commenters jumping ship and/or complaining that the Glibs is becoming a Team Red Trumpista echo chamber.”
What?…. MAGA! SPACE! MAKE SPACE AMERICAN AGAIN! SHUT THE FUCK UP, LIBTARDS!
^^^THIS^^^
Or something….
The site that runs Hat and Hair – a Trumptardium? Who the ever loving fuck thinks that?
I just dead-threaded the morning links, but here was a response for Pie:
—
“I am not an athlete [takes puff on cigarette], I am a baseball player.” — John Kruk, sometime in the 90s.
He was smoking on the sideline during spring training, and some woman got onto him about athletes shouldnt smoke and etc.
He also showed up at spring training wearing a “If you don’t let me play, I will take my ball and go home” t-shirt after his testicular cancer surgery.
See these people wound not last a day in 2020
That Kruk quote was from the 1990s, not the 1890s.
May as well have been the 1890s – with the idiot mobs of today.
He’s a Siren now.
I do think there are too many of you in Camp #1. I just don’t understand how you can consider voting for the man who destroyed the USFL?
And no one has even engaged me on that vital issue (and I am serious about it, because the reasoning behind it underlies everything that is wrong with Trump – when I first mentioned it 4 years ago on TOS, I was kidding, but now I realize I was dead serious).
I have no idea what you’re talking about.
https://www.amazon.com/Football-Buck-Crazy-Crazier-Demise/dp/0358118115
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1501756/
In 1984 Trump bought a USFL team and tried to sue the NFL for some kind of monopoly thing. The court ruled in his favor, but he was such a dick he was only awarded $1 in dmages.
Technically $3
I believe it was the Steelers owner who pulled out his personal checkbook in court and wrote the $3 check. It was never cashed.
Speaking of checks that were never cashed. One of the local bars has been family owned for over 100 years. They have pictures (and stories) of the great baseball players (Cobb, Ruth, Colavito, Gehrig, etc.) coming in to drink over the years. One of the tales was that Babe Ruth rarely paid for his drinks, but when he did, it was by check. Signed as “The Babe”, expecting few people to cash the checks. The current owner confirms that he still has the check that was given to his grandfather was still in their safe.
‘That check is signed The Babe, that’s not my name, I dispute these charges!’
But what’s sportsball got to do with anything?
I don’t know, it’s a funny story.
I think there’s a “it’s the principle of the thing” in there somewhere.
There is. Its hard to explain it all in a short post.
It provides a (mostly) safe, and (sometimes) entertaining way to engage in tribalism with (in the US) fairly little physical violence between the tribes. We can all agree that Yankees fans are terrible people, but we’re not going to attack them in the streets for their pinstripes.
Tell that to the Baseball Furies!
And the Sportsmaster!
Also, Casey Jones.
very well put
Camp #1?
Is that Camp Concentration?
That’s been a running joke for me at Burning Man, which has theme camps, of many forms (and questionable taste), but so far as I know has not had a Camp Concentration. I’d love to do it, and now more than ever.
Your theme song.
I do despise international socialism. I also strongly suspect that the American experiment is winding down like all old empires. Maybe a Trump reelection buys a few more years of stability before shit really gets bad. Biden winning but Congress still split probably means things don’t change much immediately, but as people notes this morning, the Deep State is completely off the leash.
How’s that for some high expectations?
Kind of in this camp. I find Trump to be an annoying douche, sometimes entertaining in his asshatery, but way more often just an old democrat type that now has been abandoned by the reborn internationalist globalist collectivist cabal of cuntes. So far the guy annoys me one out of four tries, when he does shit. But the people he is fighting right now – especially the entrenched deep state previous administrations worked hard to create and the Obama admin weaponized for Hillary’s coming – are going to kill America (you never talk about transforming anything you don’t hate) and turn it into another fucking shithole. I am in the camp that you don’t roll over for them (unless you want to be their bitch while they rearrange the deck furniture on the Titanic-like new country they will transform us into and constantly make you play Ned Beaty’s Deliverance role) and that they must be stopped, or slowed down if you believe it is already too late, unless we are all happy to live as I already mentioned as their bitches. I am not a fan of the systems they like, like the Chinese one with social scores and all that encompasses for the serfs of the CCP.
or slowed down if you believe it is already too late
I agree with you except this one part. to me it’s like saying “let’s slow down a forest fire”. not gonna happen, and it’s more likely to get you killed than make a difference.
How do you defeat a forest fire that has jumped the fire breaks? You don’t. you protect what is important to you as best you can, and hope it burns out before it destroys everything and everybody you know and love.
Hopefully this was just my pessimism talking.
I don’t vote as I find the entire idea of voting absurd. I’ve been more troubled by the people around here lately who have made claims along the lines of that people who don’t vote have no right to complain or that people who live in deep blue areas get what they deserve just by virtue of living there.
That said, there’s going to be an election with one of two winners in November. When you look at the issues or policies that are realistically up for debate in this country, there’s barely a single one where team blue comes out ahead of team red in terms of advancing liberty. Team red doesn’t even have the same war boner that it did all of a decade ago in large part thanks to the cult of personality built around Trump. Even when it comes to the issue of policing, it’s impossible for me to get behind the inane nonsense being pushed by Democrats and the left. What they’re pushing is guaranteed to lead to the exact opposite of what most libertarians want to see long term because it’s going to create a massive backlash eventually.
One side of the spectrum has control of nearly all major American institutions and is basically enacting its own version of the Cultural Revolution. They desperately *need* to be rebuked for any sort of sanity to be restored to American politics. Trump basically has no impact on your everyday life. The other side is going to be up your ass regarding everything. And it’s not just the politicians and bureaucrats. It’s their corporate lackeys and media propagandists.
Team red seems fairly neutral / indifferent on the issue of liberty.
Team blue is adamantly against it.
People who vote have no right to complain about the system they voted for.
Actually, it’s people who don’t vote have no right to complain about the system they end up with.
The right to complain is a right, and is therefore absolute.
Your complaining offends me and I have a right to not be offended.
OFF WITH HIS HEAD!!
Maybe it’s just my extreme revulsion for the fascist left, but I find it difficult to take most complaints about Trump or Trumpistas very seriously. That’s not to say I approve of him or them, just that the stakes are so low (what, a moratorium on immigration from problem countries vs wholesale open borders and no citizenship requirements for most civic functions? Dropping bombs on an empty airfield in Syria vs what Obama did to Libya?) that it’s humorous/irritating the pretense of imminent calamity with which Trump is treated by his enemies. In fact it’s exasperating: they should be jumping for joy with how hemmed in his own bureaucracy has kept him, not to mention the judiciary. If they wanted to test the limits of the last gasping remnants of liberalism against the onslaught of aggressive lefty fascism, Trump has proved there’s little resistance to be had.
Given that both parties pretty much agree that you have no rights anyway…
I too am in Camp 3. I voted for Reagan in 1980, realized that dreams aren’t true and quit. While I try to use my explanations on the few people I know locally, most ignore me and just want to do their “Civic Duty” from the brainwashing in high school. While they (we) didn’t learn any readin’ or writin’ some did learn that votin’ gets a person stuff that someone else pays for.
I enjoy the Glib discussions, makes me think, a little, some times. I need the laughs because the 2 parties are laughable but down right scary. Only when the money runs out will there be some real change and not for the better, I’m afraid.
I used to believe avoiding the system completely – it is rigged and useless – was a fine way to go about things, but then realized I was just grandstanding. Vote, don’t vote. Your choice. Just don’t start acting all butt-hurt when people tell you that since you didn’t participate you can’t complain. To me at least, when you act that way it implies your real gripe with them is that they don’t see how cool you are for making the choice you did. I would respect your stance far more if you tried to act less indignant about it. After all, your message is that you don’t care enough to bother (whether you believe it matters or not), right?
No. My position is that I can’t legitimately grant some politician powers that I myself don’t have. If I don’t have the right to do something as an individual, than neither does the government. Voting would be giving my consent to a system that I don’t support. I acknowledge the reality that I’m going to be governed good and hard no matter what I do, but it doesn’t mean I have to add legitimacy to it no matter how insignificant that protest is.
“<No. My position is that I can’t legitimately grant some politician powers that I myself don’t have. If I don’t have the right to do something as an individual, than neither does the government.”
Some old honkey slave-owners wrote a 100 year old document or something that enumerated the powers government could have, specifically so that it created a body that would be granted/made responsible for common laws we as a society would jointly agree upon (and not be able to implement individually), and set us on a course of prosperity and created an era never before seen in man’s history. The fact that somewhere along the way people corrupted this system and forgot it was not only supposed to have limits, but not be a means for some parasitic types to make a living robbing Peter to buy votes fro Paul – because too many people just stopped being vigilant enough or got on the “free shit for me” bandwagon -doesn’t mean we are left with just anarchy as the alternative.
I had no idea Paul had a ‘fro. I thought he was the walrus?
Paul didn’t but the actor playing him in the new Lin Manuel Miranda musical “Imagine This Yo’ “ does.
Voting would be giving my consent to a system that I don’t support.
Exactly. I refuse to indicate my acceptance of the results by participating in the process.
That’s what third-party voting is for. And since NY is going TEAM BLUE by 30 points anyway, I can vote as close to on principle as possible, depending on how much you think the Libertarian candidate fits my principles (OK, you can stop laughing).
^This. I sent my ballot selfie indicating that I was NOT voting for Trump to some friends last election. Every one of them, proggie and socon alike had a shitfit.
There’s a small part of me that really wishes this was an organized campaign, instead of just selfish, short-sighted ignorant reactive idiots grabbing power for themselves.
Lately we’ve had some commenters jumping ship and/or complaining that the Glibs is becoming a Team Red Trumpista echo chamber. – becoming? always been
SHUT THE FUCK UP LIBTARD!!
We need more of this to be a DU counter part…
More eating your own for perceived slights as well…
More eating your own
*triggered *
My mother was eaten by cannibals, you bastard!
*begins reading wikiHow article on how to cancel Alex*
MAGA, bitches.
*wanders off to Gunbroker*
Given the recent insanity, I was surprised to see this gem at below list price. If I had the cash and lived in a free state, I would be tempted.
I can hold it for you in my safe.
Hey thanks! I’ll order it along with a nice scope and a couple thousands rounds of ammo!
On my watchlist: https://www.gunbroker.com/item/871918354
Super tempting.
Pro-tip: Never guy anything where the seller uses the word ‘rare’ in their sales pitch. Especially if they use an exclamation point.
I already have a P226 in .40 S&W.
It’s very nice.
I own zero Sigs with a K-kote finish.
(Excuse to buy another Sig)
That’s just the starting bid. I don’t see a buy it now price. In 11 days, when the auction closes, it will be above list.
Nice. Seekins makes good stuff.
Ron Jeremy playing the piano? That video hasn’t been cancelled?
I’m in Nashville this week for a short vacation and can confirm that Kid Rock’s Big Ass Honky Tonk is still shut down. And lot’s of mask wearing.
one cheesecake pic at the end. – and substandard as well
As if you wouldn’t
Is the cheesecake reference about the built-in flotation devices, or some metaphor for going down on yeast infected areas?
I would but I do not have the sens of pain I feel when I see a really hot chick and realize I newer will
if you’re a Communist, it sounds a lot nicer to call yourself a “left-libertarian”
the difference between a libertarian ommie and a totalitarian commie is 3 weeks in power
When you are defined entirely by Trump
https://twitter.com/ryanlongcomedy/status/1280132154421370881?s=19
I’ve always thought most of the positive Trump comments on this site were more of a comment on how he trolls the left not necessarily on how he governs. I can’t stand Trump, I think he has done more harm than good. The left is about to get a senile demented old man elected in response. Mitt Romney could even dominate Biden.
In the end given we all know it’s going to be one of the two horrible people. I’ll take the one that’s going to take away fewer liberties.
“Mitt Romney could even dominate Biden.”
What do the odds makers say?
I feel partly to blame. I made the Hat and the Hair (Hillary and Extended Universe segments notwithstanding) more family friendly because it’s funnier than making a cartoon about a rapist sex pervert like SF’s initial stories and he seemed to follow my lead into more buffoonery. So, I guess stock up on brain bleach, because to prove I’m not a Trumptard I’m going full on SF for the cartoon, I guess. Peer Pressure FTW! I’ll Swallow Your Soul!
Next you’ll tell me that The Road Runner and Ol’ Wiley aren’t true.
I like the H @ H just the way you do them, I enjoy your work CP. Keep it up!
Portraying Trump as an utter buffoon makes you a MAGAt because… it’s not hateful enough? Is that really where things are now?
I don’t even know anymore. Maybe I just didn’t tear down enough statues today. I’m old and confused. Is 37 too young to start collecting SS? I can do nothing real good.
37? AHHAHAHHAHAH… we’ll never see SS.
I gotta tell ya’ CP…the one with Biden doing a reach-around on Ocasio-Cortez had me rolling.
, I think it can mostly be boiled down to liberty vs. control.
“Political tags — such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth — are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.”
to quote the classics
YES
It is a rare man that values his neighbor’s freedom as much as he values his own….
“…And the second is like unto the first, love thy neighbor as thyself.”
Well said, Swiss.
Seconded.
Both team red and team blue want to control the serfs. They just have different objectives and means to get there. Unfortunately, I believe (human ?) nature makes this sort of shit inevitable. The experiment with the monkeys in a cage with a banana that hangs from the roof, electrified floor/sides that shock those in contact, and a ladder that is insulated and used to reach the banana, that results in the pack beating the shit out of any one of them that goes for the banana and causes them to get jolted, even after they replace out all monkeys and stop the electrocution, tells me group behavior will always result in those that want forced compliance, and often for stupid or even ludicrous reasons that might no longer be applicable.
Actually it divides into the 65 percent that want to control others, the 34 percent that want to be told what to do and the 1 percent that want to be left alone.
Nearly everyone wants to be left alone. Very few want others to be left alone.
I would have agreed with this 6 months ago. After Corona panic, I’m not so sure.
Q gave me rubs without my consent.
Twice.
Maybe he’s trying to send a message about your cooking.
But did you say ‘no?’
Respect for liberty is what brought us here in the first place – I though you were in it for the chicks. disappointed.
Look, it’s pretty simple to see the Democrats hate middle America. Their socialist, crime-ridden shitholes is what they want for all of us.
Fuck the Democrats good and hard. In the ass. Steve Smith style.
Trump is our weapon against those people. And the RINOs too. *Stares at Mittens*
I think that sums it up pretty well.
I completely understand why someone would look at the absolutely disastrous history of socialism and conclude that it must be stopped at any cost, even if that means embracing Team Red out of convenience. I completely understand why someone can’t hold their nose hard enough to block out Team Red’s stink and votes for a better alternative.
Every election in which I’ve been old enough to vote I’ve either voted Libertarian or not at all. Up until now, I couldn’t bring myself to hold my nose and vote Republican.
This time it’s different. I think Trump needs to win or the country is fucked. I don’t like Donald Trump, but, “We need this man. He fights.”
Maybe some Libertarian or other Republican will learn from the Trump playbook.
Agree – although if he wins we’re fucked in 4 years.
“although if he wins we’re fucked in 4 years.”
Maybe not. Why do I say this? Because if Trump wins, the dems response will be to move further left and their next candidate will be a hardline leftist who makes Bernie look like a champion of liberty. There will also be constant rioting and even independent middle of road voters are going to eventually turn against democrats because it’s obvious they are the ones cheering this on and even enabling it at times.
I envy your optimism.
Yeah, we’re pretty much in the same boat on this issue. Frantically pailing out the water but knowing that you’re going to sink eventually…at least it passes the time.
Cheer up, you get to see all those cancel culture idiots in the camps also, for thinking their free speech was not only protected, but favored.
Schadenfreude rings a little hollow when you’re assigned the next round of bullets. 😉
My optimism is not that high, actually. We’re probably in for a civil war, with lots of death and destruction. And the wall, that was to keep us in.
I’m hoping for a peaceful secession, but I don’t see how the peaceful part will be possible.
My feeling is it’s better to inspire the commie lunatics to a full frenzy by denying them, so society can see exactly what it is they want to do to us.
Putting them in charge isn’t an option for me.
Same opinion here. They get all 3 branches again and that will be the last elections we will ever see. The globalists will appoint a Xi like Chairman for them, and that will be it. Republic was good while we could keep it. I’ll probably be off to the camps just for typing that.
The Republicans in ’24 (probably win or lose, but certainly if Trump is re-elected) will be in worse shape than in ’16.
How can anyone think otherwise?
Trump has been a disappointment. The number of things he’s actually shaken up vs. the number of things he could have shaken up is pretty small. Yes, the bureaucracy has stymied him at every turn and they and the political class have an utterly irrational hatred of him. He’s “poisonous” for reasons having little to do with actual policy and much to do with his temperament and appearance. He has revealed much more about his enemies than he has about himself, and none of it is good.
And yet, for what? To what end? As Q notes, it is possible he has slowed the advance of international socialism. But we all know that that “accomplishment” is temporary. There is no broad anti-communist consensus like there was in the Cold War, and the cultural rot is already widespread. People need to realize it and fight back but Trump is, if anything, sucking all the energy out of the room and preventing it from happening. It’s not wholly or even mostly his fault but he is too scatterbrained and self-absorbed to care. Civil liberties are in retreat across the board, in a way not seen in a long time and not fathomable 10 years ago.
And to capture this moment, the Democrats have nominated… Joe fucking mindless Biden. He was already an empty-headed idiot, now he is losing what little mind he had. He is a puppet waiting for a puppet master and that is scary. So he is worse than Trump, on that I agree, but that does not make Trump the right choice.
While Jorgensen has been better than Johnson so far, she has not shown enough culturally immunity to the leftward tilt infesting everything.
And so, I think, the only rational choice is to write in John McAfee.
I’m writing in SugarFree. He will outdo McAfee in the entertainment department.
Tonight, on Bureaucracy Stories: we follow the poor FEC man who’s been tasked with tracking down who this “SugarFree” is and whether or not he’s eligible to be President of the United States.
OT: Mask craziness in Massachusetts
A 59-year-old man is accused of pointing a gun at a man in a Walgreens parking lot because he did not wear a mask inside the store amid the coronavirus mask order, Bridgewater Police said on Wednesday.
Todd Goulston, of East Bridgewater, was arrested and charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace.
Bridgewater Police on July 3 at around 5:20 p.m. responded to Walgreens Pharmacy, located at 4 Central Square, for a report of two men arguing inside the store. The argument was about one of the men not wearing a mask.
The squabble continued into the parking lot where Goulston is accused of pulling out a gun from his car and pointing it at the man who had not been wearing a mask, police said. Goulston then got into his car and left.
Related. Male Karen in NY loses it when manager at Dairy Queen refuses to remake his order with a mask on.
Dairy Queen took an odd route. They actually didn’t fire the manager, but demoted her. But caved on making all their employees wear masks.
Food service is one place where facemasks should have been standard all along.
The wife loves the Burger King and other commercials boasting about taking basic hygiene steps. “…so your employees weren’t washing their hands before?…”
“…so your employees weren’t washing their hands before?…”
It’s BK, dude. Of course not.
Special sauce….
? I hold my pickle, then touch the lettuce…?
That’s why the wife doesn’t eat fast food.
See Beavis and Butthead’s “Tainted Meat” episode.
Just saw a caught a news blurb that a local Wisconsin county passed a mask ordinance. 917 people were recorded to have died of the flu/pneumonia in 2017 in Wisconsin. Another 2,834 due to ‘Chronic Lower Respiratory Disease’. 818 have been thus far attributed to Covid-19.
Thats just whataboutism. You must hate science
*hoists the Partial Principle flag, brandishes cutlass*
STFU AND VOTE DRUNK!!!
Wait, I think I screwed that up…no, this works too.
Getting blitzed on Election Day was how our Founding Father did things.
This is where I think we can say with some certainty that Glibs is definitely not an echo chamber. – some think scotch is better than bourbon and some are wrong
Here’s another rub: I don’t begrudge anyone their position – I do. Especially UCS and wine.
I completely understand why someone would look at the absolutely disastrous history of socialism and conclude that it must be stopped at any cost – oh yall don’t know the half of it
Also, do fuck off Q
You can drink your subpar alcohol and pretend it’s good all you want. Just don’t expect me to endorse your choices.
some think scotch is better than bourbon and some are wrong
Huh. I like both.
Yeah I ride the fence between those…they equally get my love
Don’t forget about the Irish and Rye as well.
But fuck the Canadians.
I’ll drink all three of those.
Easy, Pie….
You didn’t live under Nazi occpation, but I think you could easily say you wouldn’t want it.
You and yours had to suffer the Warsaw Pact, and we have learned from all of you how bad it was. No need to go into the “you haven’t lived my struggles” – that is a prog, shut down the debate thing. (On the right it usually came from vets knocking antiwar folks).
that was mostly humor
I laffed out loud
It didn’t come across as funny…but I will take your word for it.
Some of us here lived under socialism even longer than Pie. It’s not a big deal when some people in the West might get a few details wrong about the life in a socialist country. In some ways the life there was not as bad as they imagine, in other ways it was much worse. There were also significant differences among socialist countries in Europe. My partner and I have had plenty of conversations about them.
I know. Sometimes this place is a realy tragedy. Some asshole was talking about drinking wine with his steak this morning. WTF!?!?
Who TF drinks wine in the morning?
I do… just not with my steak.
I can see beer, cider, any number of cocktails with breakfast. I guess champagne is a wine and would go with eggs Benedict.
Winos?
This one time, I saw a wino eating some grapes. I told him “hey, you have to wait!”
/Hedburg
Heh.
Like a wino on the street.
Authority vs Liberty
https://twitter.com/TimeTrench/status/1280949354048651264?s=19
I don’t want to be in an echo chamber. I also separate snark, which is rampant here (which is a good thing IMO), from the true beliefs of most people here.
There has been some cases where my dislike of a group makes me instinctively want to “support” or “excuse” the behavior of another group. Antifa vs police for example. The same goes with the tactics of Cancel Culture being applied to unliked group member or former champion of CC. This can feel satisfying, but the CC environment we live in is still a problem we need to resist.
I don’t think using the tools of CC or Wokeness against those promoting them will change minds and makes all of us worse as a culture in the end. I don’t feel we do that, but it can sometimes be celebrated here. This I see as a potential trap that we have to be careful of.
I have been tempted to vote for the orange man, for the reasons mentioned many times here (SCOTUS picks, Less likely restrict 2A, reducing regulation, attacking the deep state, etc). I will still likely vote for a 3rd party or protest vote. That could change at any time.
This is my 2p use it as you will.
Antifa vs police for example.
We can situationally hate both. At least root for both to lose?
That’s is my point. Situationally I hate the behavior of both We need to address the things that are wrong and right about each group.
In the case of ANTIFA, there is little to like about them, but they have a right to their opinion. Just as I don’t hate all cops. I have several in my family.
If antifa only had opinions, nobody would care about them. Unfortunately they also have bricks, bike locks and lighters.
No doubt, their actions are what makes me despise them. They are also given cover by less radical progressives. It is similar to the “acceptance” and support given terrorists in the middle east by less radical governments and populations.
My point is I don’t want to cheer when one of them is beaten up by police when they arrest them or violate their rights.
I cheer like the Yankees just won the World Series every time I see an antifa shitbird getting xer ass beaten regardless of who is doing it – cops, righties, other antifa scumbags, doesn’t matter. Don’t feel the least bit bad about it, either.
See, as I said earlier. Yankees fans are terrible people. 🙂
Although I’ll admit to some schadenfreude watching someone start a fight and getting beat down quick.
We are, yes.
I feel bad that I don’t feel bad, if that makes any sense. I just really, really hate commies.
Thanks for the proof we don’t have an echo chamber.
I aim to please!
No doubt, their actions are what makes me despise them.
I despise them for their beliefs as well.
Antifa are evil people with evil goals and evil tactics and cannot be allowed to win or even continue.
Police are sometimes, arguably often, guilty of exceeding their authority and violating the trust given them. They need reform.
I don’t see an equivalence here at all.
*Smashes Jarflax in the face with a bike lock*
Take that, Fascist!
See my point above. I don’t see them as equivalent, but I don’t want to celebrate when one’s rights are violated by the other because I dislike one so much more.
‘Police are sometimes, arguably often, guilty of exceeding their authority and violating the trust given them.’
It’s the covering for and/or ignoring of the organized criminal activity by their fellow Blue Meanies that really sticks in my craw. If I didn’t despise the concept of RICO laws I’d say 90% of active law enforcement should be brought up on charges.
If you create a job where you can beat, rob, rape, and murder people and get away with it, you will attract people who want to beat, rob, rape and murder people and get away with it.
Bad people are vastly overrepresented in police ranks compared to the population they are drawn from. Though the fraction is undoubtedly higher in antifa.
“Cancel Culture” or whatever you want to call it, is essentially this: BOOK BURNING. The same shit Jerry Falwell was doing 40 years ago. And wherever books are being burned, it’s only a preamble to burning people.
It doesn’t matter if the “left” or the “right” is the side doing it – it’s “two wrong make a right” bullshit that I will never, ever endorse and never ever stop insulting.
I agree, I don’t want to resort to using these kinds of tools to make social change.
Or as I say on the movie fora, it’s a rerun of the Blacklist, only with the communists doing the blacklisting.
I made a poor attempt recently to explain what I think the difference between civilization and savagery is.
Shit, I can’t even write this comment without having to stop, get up and do something for a dog. BRB.
Back…
I want to write a series of articles on it but I have trouble concentrating. TV is ten feet from the computer and wife keeps it on constantly. Dogs are always nagging me for something. I need 3 weeks in a cabin in the woods with dead silence. I will get it soon when wife goes with buddies to the beach…well for only one week, but still, I will be able to focus and write.
I couldn’t give a rat’s ass who holds what office. I dont have loyalty to any person. I dont hero worship. I care about ideas and how they bear out in reality. I want lower taxes. I want to be left alone. I want to make my own decisions and bear the fruits and consequences of them whatever they are. I know full well that for me to enjoy that everyone else must also and that is fine with me.
Civil vs barbarous is important because the defining difference, in my view, is that barbarism is based on taking from others while civil society is based on mutual cooperation. Want to know who the savages are? Look to see who wants to take from you by force. I can assure you, those people are not going to leave you the fuck alone. You may be more conformable with the labels collectivist vs individualist. Collectivism is just a premise for getting up your ass about every aspect of your life and in the end that is just a pretense for taking from you. Taking your wealth, stomping your rights.
Whoever advances civility/individualism the most, I will vote for them. I dont let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Trump? I never paid much attention to the guy. I am not a fan but I dont hate him either. He is not my friend, I am not having him over for dinner. I dont know the guy and will probably never meet him in person. Right now he is getting in the craw of the warmongers and that suits me fine. I will put a finger in their eye at any opportunity.
I use the word warmonger because war is about looting. Historically one would loot other countries but technology has made that unprofitable. The establishment here is all in on looting and the only profitable looting is to loot their own country. That is what all of these pointless wars are about…looting the American people in the form of diddling around in some fucking sandbox half-way round the world with military contracts and taxes. That is why the wars are never won and never end. The establishment has declared war on America. Trump became persona non grata when he said he was going to end those wars.
For now I will vote Trump.
I’m pretty much in the same boat.
I will add that I would be inclined to vote Libertarian as a protest vote, but the Deep State’s illegal attempts to get Trump at any cost have changed my mind. The tactics they used must be soundly rebuked.
They’ve made it clear that they have no respect for any principle except power acquisition. If they win, they’re going to turn the country into an authoritarian shithole like China or Russia or worse.
Will 8 years of Trump prevent that? Not necessarily, but he causes his opponents to drop the mask completely, and that’s a valuable thing that stands a slight chance of turning this ship around. Public trust in the mainstream media has been plummeting, and I think that’s one positive sign.
For now I will vote Trump. – RACIST. Do you even know any black people?
One or two…or a hundred.
Have I got a deal for you, Suthen. Price is right, boat accidents available as required or not. Any Glib that needs a little R & R, there a quiet spot in the woods available.
I heard there’s a hotel somewhere in Colorado where you can find peace and quiet to finish writing. I have the same dilemma. My wife and 7 y/o keep me heavily distracted, not to mention my full time job.
I vote for max freedom every time. The (L) party is no longer the front runner for more freedom after ’16. It really looks like the Orangeman is the best choice for that. Sad but true.
BTW, I voted for gayjay last time. I thought both of the real candidates were apt to constrain and confiscate. 4 years later it’s clear that Trump should have been my choice. I don’t need a pres that only gives soothing platitudes, I need less taxes and less regulations. Trump has delivered more of both than any other president in my lifetime, Saint Reagan included. I’ve never once felt that a democrat could offer anything but less freedom and more taxes.
I’d wager that Jo Jorgenson is the best LP candidate… ever? Disband the ATF? Yes, please.
Well done, Q. I like your division of philosophical camps 1, 2, and 3, practical, medial, and maximal.
1. I am sad to see people leave, whatever their reason.
2. I see “civic duty” as an idea, a concept. So yes, I’m going to do my “civic duty”, the same way I don’t try to get out of jury duty. I will admit I’m susceptible to nationalistic patriotic sentimental treacle and I’m okay with that. To me, America is a concept and I have no problem paying homage to a concept I hold dear.
3. Saying things like “people deserve whatever they voted for” is different from saying “you [person] deserve whatever you voted for” insofar as it sparks discussion and dissent. It’s useful.
4. I don’t see many actual personal attacks.
5. I think everybody’s stressed and distressed, with a short fuse that’s lit, and ready to blow over anything, big or small. That may be projection on my part.
6. We are an echo chamber insofar as everybody here has a commonality: love of liberty. But aren’t all groups and gatherings self-selected for a commonality? A bowling league needs people who like bowling, and bowling alleys are very echoey.
I miss bowling every Sunday.
I like bowling, although I haven’t done it in years (rotator cuff).
I took a belly dance class. I want to do that again.
I want to learn how to golf.
I need to get back into tango. And not just because of the great things it did for my sex life. But primarily that.
4. I don’t see many actual personal attacks. – Mormon pirates who fight demons are gay
*lets skull-and-crossbones freak flag fly*
Bring up the SLT and we might have some….
Thats is because all of you all cant handle how right I am.
Part of the reason (a very small part) I havent written part 2 of my SLT series yet is that I really want it to live up the standard of the first. Getting it called “the most hated article in glibs history” or whatever was said about it is a high standard to live up to.
Yeah, the only echos in that article were the retorts and volleys of insults…oy.
“Mormon pirates who fight demons are gay”
But they are the coolest gays ever.
Nope. I’ve on board with 5. Constantly needing to watch my tone in work e-mails, chats, and notes as well as making sure I don’t say something that could be considered badthink (mask mandates bad, lockdowns bad) doesn’t help.
I joined a Spite Bowling League.
I bowl with dudes (including my dad) that are all 10-35 years older than me. The ball busting is epic and it is fun as hell.
Yeah, the amount of that which goes on in shooting groups is impressive — even more so considering how everyone there is armed.
That is what my own group of friends do. They are also shooters.
Facebook, which bans people to the right of Hoxha (bored with Mao and Stalin, sue me) for the crime of fake news is for the 3rd day in a row showing me an ad for an $80 bottle which makes something called hydrogen rich water.
“hydrogen rich water”
My factchecking service calls this true.
Well, it is 2 to 1 so….
Maybe a little D2O?
It’s just an extra neutron. Won’t hurt you a bit.
“Everybody could stand a hundred chest X-rays a year. They ought to have them, too.”
Apologies for answering questions with a youtube video. I hate it when I’m looking for how to do something and only videos show up.
This USB bottle generates surface sanitiser from water and salt.
This channel usually rips cheap Chinese electronics to bits trying to figure out efficacy and safety. Usually it comes up a treat, but there are some honest and useful products too.
All politics are local, and there’s nothing more local than how politics affect _me_. I have taken a personal philosophy to do everything within my power to insulate my day to day life from the never-ending partisan war that I feel too many people (who should know better) have become caught up in. Not only do I like neither Trump nor Obama, I have, until recently, not really cared whether either was president. Obama did some horrific things that I philosophically object to, but almost none of them had much of an effect on my life. The one that did (sending my health insurance premiums through the roof) pissed me off. Interestingly, the Trump administration did manage to get me an outlet on that front: temporary health insurance plans that I could renew and extend indefinitely, and at costs similar to and in some cases lower than policies before the ACA.
But it really was small potatoes, It’s money, which is important, but it amount to roughly 10 grand over 5 years. Enough to piss me off, not enough to send me off the deep end. Kinda like the masks.
Long about summer 2012, a rational evaluation of where I was in life suggested I was heading for an early grave. Weighing 375 pounds a month away from 41st birthday, I went into the local gym, and handed them a bunch of money for a years worth of personal training. Surprisingly, I found I really enjoyed the gym, enjoyed everything about it. I even began to enjoy the exercise. The work in the gym the first month or so motivated me to address my diet as well. By the same time the next year, my weight was 255. I also had established many healthy habits, had ingrained gym going as a critical part of my daily ritual, and, as importantly, had made a whole host of new friends from other regular gymgoers, most of whom wanted to talk to me and congratulate me on what they could clearly see I was achieving.
In the next six to seven years, I kicked things into overdrive eventually becoming engrossed in the finer details of strength training. My bloodwork and my health markers upset my doctor, because he said “my bloodwork is really not great when compared to yours.” In 2012, among my friends and family at the time, I was likely the unhealthiest person I knew. Of those same people, I am quite likely the healthiest. I’m now about a month away from my 49th birthday and am 185 pounds (roughly). Maybe 17% body fat, hard to say.
So you might wonder how I feel about all of this being taken away from me for most of the last four to five months, and then having the world call my going to the gym as “inessential” being told you can “get a workout anywhere” and being mocked for being some sort of “meathead.” Right now in the State of Arizona pretty much every single regularly operating business is free to be open, except gyms.
And if all politics are local, you better damned well be sure I’m paying attention who has done this _directly to me_. Ducey, spineless shitweasel that he is, signed off on this, but he did it because he’s been bullied into it by a cacophony of blue state politicians and media members who remain pissed that he didn’t do it sooner. Philosophy? Libertarian pricniples? Personal judgment? Someone is actively trying to take away something that might be the most critical thing in my life right now, and it isn’t Donald Trump. So who would you vote for if you were me?
Obama directly affected my family’s finances quite negatively.
*looks at health insurance premium balefully*