I don’t think doing a competition between genocidal leaders is worth having.

Having said that. It’s NOT about who is more evil in their head. It is absolutely about the material impact and results of actions.

Some loser without and influence or power can have the worst ideas and plans for human extinction in there head. It really doesn’t matter to me if they have no actual ability or influence to carry them out. There have been a million “worse than Hitler” people throughout human history that you and I don’t know the name of then. At least by that logic.

You are right though in a sense. The potential impact of a genocidal leader with the power and influence of the American empire can result in much more substantial death and destruction than Hitler could ever dream of. This is what makes Trump (or any fascist that follows him) have the potential to be so much worse.

But, again, if I was going to engage in a “who is worse” competition (that I still think is meaningless) I would still have to judge it on the material outcomes and not who is a worse guy “in their head”. What’s in their head can only come to impact through their position and extent of power.

There are plenty of people that are genocidal pedophiles “in their head”. But they can’t actually act upon those ideas because they didn’t get put into positions of power and influence. The material outcomes are the only way to actually engage in a conversation like this.

Otherwise there is always some potentially worse person that existed or could exist. Limiting it only to the extent of the human imagination to cause pain to others. Which is not really a meaningful conversation to have.

TLDR: You’re pointing to Trump because of the material position he holds and the real power and influence his ideas can have. But then say that the ideas are all that matters to judge “who is worse”. If the “ideas” are all that matter there is no reason to point to Trump or Hitler over any other person in history or the future with genocidal ideas. It is specifically the material impact that makes their ideas matter. You can’t ignore the material outcomes. The entire reason we know their names is because of those outcomes.

I agree. It’s more for the entertainment factor. I enjoy watching her fumble around.

shhhh. Let them fight in the primary.

I’m not surprised.

Let’s start at the beginning. Do you know what an unfalsifiable statement is?

You just restated your position and then just rambled about things you think help support your already unfalsifiable statement.

I am criticizing your phrase “there are always tyrannical leaders on the horizon” as being vague, unfalsifiable, and useless in describing historical struggles. You said this to hand wave away something the other commenter said. And I’m calling you out for it.

You are using an unfalsifiable statement to describe history. Because if I say “well X leader was good” your statement is vague enough to say “well, after X leader there was Z leader and they were a tyrant by my definition”.

Do you understand what I am criticizing now? You aren’t actually saying anything meaningful or useful when you said “there is always a tyrannical leader on the horizon”

Of course it is? Saying otherwise is just ignorance of history.

Labeling all of history as always “having a tyrannical leader on the horizon” would literally make the word “tyrant” meaningless.

You’re projecting your doomerism for today and then painting all of history with a definition. Doing this just makes the word you’re using meaningless in describing history.

It’s like a cell phone company that sells three different versions of their “unlimited data” plan. They are making the word “unlimited” meaningless. But the emotional idea of “unlimited” is still heard by their customers in ads.

You’re doing that here with “Tyrannical leader”. Making a broad characterization that is unhelpful in doing anything but appeal to the emotion of doomerism.

You’re not characterizing history correctly. You’re not understanding history correctly. You’re appealing to the idea of class structures and oppression without using any of the tools or definitions developed to actually describe those relationships.

Yeah. The generation thing is just my theory for why it’s becoming more common. I think the AI brain rot and doomerism is happening heavily in all generations. No one is immune to the feelings of (and the material problems of) our society in decline.

It’s just so odd to me that someone can start with a “this just removes unneeded paperwork” to essentially “all leaders are evil and if this makes it so I have to do one less bull shit thing (paperwork) I’m all for it. Don’t make me think about anything beyond that!”

It’s such surface level thinking and entirely centered around individualism.

In the case of this user. I’d guess they are just a millennial that has had their brain rotted by doomerism and too much AI use.

I’m noticing a lot more lately that some people are just not capable of more than a surface level comprehension of policy.

I think it’s a form of brain rot from a combination over reliance on AI and the absolutely passive acceptance in the rise of fascism.

It’s basically been 10 years of people’s brains being trained to only think about what a policy says and never think about what a policy will do in the context of our political climate. And liberal and conservative positions are just as guilty of this phenomenon.

I don’t want to start “generation bashing” because it’s not unique to any generation. But I think I’m seeing more of it because the people that went from being 8 years old to 18 years old during the “Trump” period are now adults. And they just have had a heavier dose of the brain rot than those that grew up prior. It feels like a new generation of lead poisoning.

And it’s not something unique to Trump supporters or unique to the current generation of young adults. It’s definitely present in all generations. I just think it’s more impactful if you grew up during this period and why we are seeing so many people incapable of, well, thinking beyond the direct meaning of the words they read. They can’t seem to apply it to the context of the world they live in. And actually seem to be resistant to anyone that tries to get them to. Almost like that part of their brain is stunted. So you get a response that both confused but also hostile. Just repeating themselves and slowly escalating to personal attacks or (in the case of this thread) doomerism. “There is always a tyrannical leader on the rise. Why does this matter”

Which I think is clearly a result of growing up (or just living in) a society that is absolutely uncaring and hopeless. It’s impossible to think of something improving so they use negativity and doomerism as a shield.

Sorry for the long rant. But the conversation you were having just really made me realize how common it is now. I feel like I’m talking to robots. They just keep repeating themselves and anything you do to try to get them to think beyond the surface seems to get filtered out as “irrelevant”. It’s kind of worrying.

It’s why you got “why does any of that matter” as a response to your comment. It’s like they are not capable taking two things and finding the logical intersection. It’s fucking wild how common this is when I talk to people once I realized it.

Hello fellow MikeFromPA fan. At least that’s where I’ve heard this analogy a lot.

You’re making the assumption that he’s not doing EXACTLY what his role is meant to be right now. He’s doing it perfectly.

The disagreement here is on what his role says it is on paper and what his actual role is in this illusion of a Democracy people keep screaming about. These people aren’t lazy. They aren’t dumb. They are doing exactly what the people they represent want them to do.

We live in a representative Republic but the people being represented are a small small minority of the population. The people that politicians represent are the people that give them money. How long we gotta pretend?

How long we gotta ask questions like “why aren’t they doing X when all the lies I believe about our government tell me they should do X”.

Until they fear the population MORE than they fear the 1% nothing will change. And they sure as hell don’t fear losing voters in the Democratic party. They LOVE not having any power and just collecting donations to sit on their asses. The Democrats are really happy in their position right now. Why would they make an effort to go against their donors wishes when their donors just want them to sit on their ass and occasionally do some performative filibuster record or government shutdown record that inevitably has no impact on policy.

Apparently launched before the ceasefire was agreed to. But this whole agreement relies on the US removing all troops from the region. It’s part of the 10 point plan for Iran. This is not going to happen.

So, is there any confirmation from Iran? Because nothing has changed for them to want to open the strait to US and US Ally oil. This sounds like bull shit until we hear from Iran officially.

Same. This is to calm markets.

This is literally to calm the markets. Nothing more. The stock market is so dumb. Oil futures dropped when this changes nothing about the inevitable world shortage. The market is so irrational.

People keep saying this in this thread. But there are multiple versions of the F15 and many are single operator aircraft. I don’t know much about our current inventory or what ones are in operation. Is there evidence of what model of F15 was shot down? I know one was the dual operator F15E. But I haven’t seen any info on the other one that they were not covering as much. The one that crashed outside of Iran.

Do we know for a fact the exact aircraft that were shot down? I get what you are saying. I’d just love a source that has a count on them and all the info. Seems like a chaos of misinformation on all of this.

“Free Speech” is not a thing. It’s a cute little idea. But even in the most ideal “Liberal” (capital L) utopia speech will always have restrictions.

It’s like saying “Freedom of Movement” covers your ability to swing your arm around regardless of who’s “face” happens to be in the way.

The lie of “Freedom of Speech” is a privilege of a stable system of governance that is not threatened. Speech is allowed to spread freely and even question those systems as long as those systems are not threatened (Neoliberal capitalism in recent history). But in times of conflict and worsening conditions it will always be used to protect the systems that have power as they become more oppressive.

It is why we use to look down at places like Cuba and scream "they suppress the newspapers!

Yes, they do. Because their system that refuses to allow outside capital to influence their country IS under threat. It’s had a blockade of trade for decades. It’s an actual threat. And so, in the same way, “Free Speech” is suppressed.

Because the idea of free speech is just that, an idea. It’s not something that exists in reality.

Feels like these politicians are either (1) extremely bad at reading the room or (2) they are making sure they have a space in the next stage of fascist takeover and realize it’s pointless to try to appeal to the MASSIVE anti Israel polling in the Democratic party AND this country.

It felt like they were leaning into Liberal Zionism with a taste of “Benjamin Netanyahu is the problem” so they could call it a genocide.

But, now, the slimiest of these politicians like Gavin Newsom are going in complete reverse to his voters and polls. Feels like they don’t even have to consider the voters. They’re not speaking to us at all.

I try not to assume they are stupid. It’s too simple. They are doing this for a selfish reason to maintain some sense of position or at least not be rounded up with the rest of us.

Follow this same logic and apply it to the 2020 election and the Palestinian genocide and I’m on board with you.

At the end of the day. All Americans are responsible for the crimes of this country regardless of who you voted for. We all allow the war machine to keep bombing brown kids thousands of miles away and have the nerve to call ourselves a “Democracy” and start to care about the crimes of the president only when we can use it to distance ourselves from them. “I didn’t vote for them” becomes “Israel has a right to defend itself” or “Iran actually was gonna nuke us” when the guy you voted for is in office.

But, go ahead, explain to me how much worse Iran is than Gaza. How the war machine doesn’t keep on pumping no matter who you vote for. Is it because gas prices didn’t go up during THAT slaughter of children?

Edit: Lots of downvotes with no responses. Sorry reality made you feel bad.