Sympthsical
Sympthsical's JournalCEO shooter Luigi Mangione laid out his motive on Good Reads
I don't think there's going to be a lot of "Why did he do it?" about this one. He left a review of the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski's book.
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/55354261-luigi-mangione
It's easy to quickly and thoughtless write this off as the manifesto of a lunatic, in order to avoid facing some of the uncomfortable problems it identifies. But it's simply impossible to ignore how prescient many of his predictions about modern society turned out.
He was a violent individual - rightfully imprisoned - who maimed innocent people. While these actions tend to be characterized as those of a crazy luddite, however, they are more accurately seen as those of an extreme political revolutionary.
A take I found online that I think is interesting:
"Had the balls to recognize that peaceful protest has gotten us absolutely nowhere and at the end of the day, he's probably right. Oil barons haven't listened to any environmentalists, but they feared him.
When all other forms of communication fail, violence is necessary to survive. You may not like his methods, but to see things from his perspective, it's not terrorism, it's war and revolution. Fossil fuel companies actively suppress anything that stands in their way and within a generation or two, it will begin costing human lives by greater and greater magnitudes until the earth is just a flaming ball orbiting third from the sun. Peaceful protest is outright ignored, economic protest isn't possible in the current system, so how long until we recognize that violence against those who lead us to such destruction is justified as self-defense.
These companies don't care about you, or your kids, or your grandkids. They have zero qualms about burning down the planet for a buck, so why should we have any qualms about burning them down to survive?
We're animals just like everything else on this planet, except we've forgotten the law of the jungle and bend over for our overlords when any other animal would recognize the threat and fight to the death for their survival. "Violence never solved anything" is a statement uttered by cowards and predators."
Curious about DU's economic strata
Because there's a lot of dialogue about whether or not Americans are actually struggling. I'm curious to know what direction perspectives are angling from.
No numbers or anything like that. Just a sense of how people are generally doing. There are always polls about DU demographics, but I can't recall one about its economic composition.
Snopes Debunks Spoonamore
The people spreading baseless claims owe it to themselves and those being subjected to this misinformation campaign to read Snopes' breakdown in full.
https://www.snopes.com/news/2024/11/21/stephen-spoonamore-letter-harris/
Snopes is thorough and encompassing. Spoonamore has no credibility, and his assertions are based on claims he refuses to verify.
We have work to do. Enough distractions. This stuff only helps the Right.
There was apparently a scholarship program
Where all the Internet Submersible Experts from last year were offered a one-year certification program in Instant Election Software Programming and Decryption Technology Expertise.
Honestly, I'm a little pissed no one e-mailed me about it.
Can we at least not cheer for concentration camps to "teach minorities a lesson"
In regards to those who didn't vote the way we liked?
Like, do people really not hear and see themselves right now? Not only have I seen that statement, there are people reccing the stuff.
I cannot believe the shit I am reading.
It feels like there's a divide here between "liberal out of principle" and "liberal out of tribalism" that's making itself known in rather ugly fashion.
In case people missed it - California shifted to the right as well
Of course, we're unlikely to elect Republicans statewide any time soon and whew for that. But if anyone thinks voters turning off from the Democratic Party was some singular swing state phenomenon, and the diminished margins in other blue states like Illinois aren't convincing enough, take a look at what our political totem managed this week.
San Francisco dumped London Breed as mayor in favor of a moderate Democrat who made crime, drugs, and homelessness central to his platform. He also targeted and listened to the AAPI community which has been furious with our party for being ignored, particularly when they were under attack during the pandemic.
Alameda County - this is Berkeley and Oakland, people - tossed their DA by 30 points for being soft on crime (Pamela Price was a shitshow from the word go). When Berkeley calls you out for being out of touch . . .
George Gascon, another DA with a progressive approach to crime, lost his re-election bid by 22 points. (Anyone seeing a theme with these California DA's getting canned?)
Prop 36, which was vigorously opposed by Gov. Newsom and would increase penalties for shoplifting and certain drug offenses, is passing with the flyingest of colors at 70%.
As of this writing (California takes forever to count votes), Trump is up 5% in the popular vote over his 2020 totals.
I understand self-reflection can be a difficult thing when it requires admitting error. People's egos get involved, and it's not like we aren't all familiar with the "It's not me, it's you!" toxicity in relationships we cannot bug out of fast enough.
But if California - which is Harris' home state - going, "You know, this isn't great . . ." isn't even resulting in an eyebrow raise and prompting some soul searching and course changing, just what will? We just got shouted at by voters across the country, including in enclaves overwhelmingly populated by liberals, and the response simply cannot be "We're clearly not plugging our ears hard enough."
Which I have seen way too much of this week. Do people actually want to win elections, or is being bitter on social media just too much fun? Because I'd like a Blue Wave to materialize at some point. The sooner the better. But we don't get there with denial about what happened during this election.
Doubling down on failure isn't my recipe for success. Maybe I'm missing something, tho.
Final predictions?
Been reading through polls. One of the things in the dead heat atmosphere I'd been waiting on is a last minute shift towards Harris due to events or Trump fatigue among an exhausted electorate. I think the MSG rally hit that magic spot at just the right time to tilt swing states into a final Harris favor. I will not be surprised if Wisconsin and Michigan are won by 3-4%, and I think Pennsylvania has the potential for 2 or even 3% for Harris. So, this is my map. I genuinely do not know what will happen in Georgia. Trump's always been slightly ahead there, but we'll see what we see there given events this week.
So, 292-308 for a Harris win. About 4-5% nationally with similar Biden margins in the popular vote but with cleaner swing state wins.
My wild card: Arizona.
If someone could just bait the Trump campaign into slamming K-Pop
It would pretty much be over at this point.
(Partner's had Rose's "Apt." on repeat all week. Please send help)
Republican friend texted Re: The Debate
I can't watch live, but he's been texting me amusing bits. But just got:
"She's eating his lunch. No crumbs. If he still owned casinos, all the buffets would be in danger."
So I'm guessing it's going very well for us.
These attacks on the NABJ are starting to feel subtly racist
That kind patronizing racism that percolates on the Left. As if people expected these Black women to do the dirty work that white liberals or "respectable" journalists wouldn't do. And once they didn't, well, why didn't these Black women meet the expectations we set for them? Which is to be attack dogs. Notice some of the criticism of these journalists. It was very "white" of them to do what they did (or didn't do, based on the expectation).
It's leaving a very sour taste in my mouth, where that patronizing/condescending racism the Left has a blind spot about is being illustrated in real time.
That was not a good day for Trump. No headline I've read was a good one - not even on the Right.
The journalists asked the questions, and he exposed himself as even more unhinged than usual - which is a high bar for him to clear. The only questions I've seen about VP Harris' racial background is clarification for people who didn't know. Now they know. And that's awesome. Biracial representation.
All these articles feel like a lot of people asking, "Why didn't these Black women perform for us?"
Miss me with that shit.
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