Our Collapsing Civilization

User avatar
mharr
Posts: 1583
Joined: Tue Sep 27, 2016 11:54 am
Location: UK

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby mharr » Wed Jun 27, 2018 3:26 pm

Friday wrote:The Water Crisis is literally the worst problem we have ever faced since that guy solved mass world starvation by inventing a new kind of wheat and saved billions of lives.

This is what upsets me most about friends and family members who support all the isolationism and closing borders because [insert reasons] - they're lining up to be good German citizens of the twenty-first century holocaust and I can't get them to so much as admit there's any danger.

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Mongrel » Wed Jun 27, 2018 3:29 pm

Everyone's turning inwards. It bodes very badly.
Image

User avatar
pacobird
Posts: 796
Joined: Wed Jan 22, 2014 5:25 pm

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby pacobird » Wed Jun 27, 2018 3:30 pm

My solution was to move back to Michigan. Your move, everyone!
Image

McDohl
Posts: 204
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 12:45 am

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby McDohl » Wed Jun 27, 2018 3:53 pm

pacobird wrote:Reminder: Anthony Kennedy sucks, has always sucked, was always going to retire during a GOP presidency, and we're better off without him.

But now instead of a wishy washy swing vote, we'll have five consistent regressive conservative votes! MUCH BETTER.

User avatar
Friday
Posts: 6264
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 7:40 pm
Location: Karma: -65373

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Friday » Wed Jun 27, 2018 4:27 pm

This is what upsets me most about friends and family members who support all the isolationism and closing borders because [insert reasons] - they're lining up to be good German citizens of the twenty-first century holocaust and I can't get them to so much as admit there's any danger.


It's just human. They want to protect what they perceive as theirs. In order to justify turning away human beings in need, they have to dehumanize them; call them "fleas", "criminals", or "rapists". Whatever gets you in a mental space that allows dumping pregnant women into a desert to bury their newborns in the sand.
ImageImageImage

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Mongrel » Wed Jun 27, 2018 4:30 pm

That reminds me of a recent "Cognitive Dissonance Classic":

Image
Image

User avatar
Thad
Posts: 13165
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 10:05 am
Location: 1611 Uranus Avenue
Contact:

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Thad » Thu Jun 28, 2018 11:31 am

Friday wrote:whenever Scott Adams or some other fuckhead talks about how "poor people should just move out of the bad areas into better areas, duhhhhhh",

The funny thing is, there's a '90s Dilbert strip that explicitly mocks this line of reasoning. The premise is something like a list of reasons life is easier for idiots, one of which is something to the effect of "All the world's problems are easily solved." Image: Bob the Dinosaur; thought balloon: "If people are starving in Africa, they should move to France."

User avatar
Friday
Posts: 6264
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 7:40 pm
Location: Karma: -65373

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Friday » Thu Jun 28, 2018 11:36 am

Thad, if you're having problems drinking your coffee, just rotate the cup 180 degrees.
ImageImageImage

User avatar
Thad
Posts: 13165
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 10:05 am
Location: 1611 Uranus Avenue
Contact:

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Thad » Thu Jun 28, 2018 11:38 am

pacobird wrote:Reminder: Anthony Kennedy sucks, has always sucked, was always going to retire during a GOP presidency, and we're better off without him.

Yeah, true. I'm very worried that we're going to get somebody even worse, but that would have been just as true if he'd retired under Bush. Disgusting as Gorsuch is, he's not that far from Alito.

User avatar
Blossom
Posts: 2297
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 8:58 pm

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Blossom » Fri Jun 29, 2018 3:34 pm

Thad wrote:
pacobird wrote:Reminder: Anthony Kennedy sucks, has always sucked, was always going to retire during a GOP presidency, and we're better off without him.

Yeah, true. I'm very worried that we're going to get somebody even worse, but that would have been just as true if he'd retired under Bush. Disgusting as Gorsuch is, he's not that far from Alito.


Worse?

On Monday, Kennedy joined the conservative majority in granting free reign to wildly racist gerrymandering. He also joined the majority in making anti-trust legislation impossible to enforce in any market that exists as a platform, unless you show that all sides are being harmed by anti-competitive actions, which means just impossible to enforce. On Tuesday, Kennedy joined the conservative majority in overturning Korematsu and claiming that Japanese internment camps were in fact constitutional and okay. On Wednesday, Kennedy joined the conservative majority in overturning 40 years of precedent to obliterate public-sector unions. Last Friday, he authored the dissent in a 5-4 decision that would have let the government pull historical location data from cellphones without a warrant if Roberts hadn't inexplicably joined the four liberal judges to write that cellphones were more like a GPS than a phone in this one regard and needed a different precedent applied. And that's just in the past seven days.

We're going to go from a litany of 5-4 garbage decisions to a litany of 5-4 garbage decisions. Kennedy is trash, and has never been anything but.

All we're getting now is the opportunity to see who will use this moment to show their entire ass.
Image

User avatar
beatbandito
Posts: 4300
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 8:04 am

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby beatbandito » Fri Jun 29, 2018 3:39 pm

Also important to remember that Trump isn't a conservative president. He ran as a republican, but if he either understands the situation at all, or doesn't understand the situation at all but at least doesn't just let someone else make the choice, we're probably going to be looking at a justice that votes down basically any and all regulation from either direction.
Image

User avatar
Grath
Posts: 2387
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 7:34 pm

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Grath » Fri Jun 29, 2018 4:30 pm

beatbandito wrote:Also important to remember that Trump isn't a conservative president. He ran as a republican, but if he either understands the situation at all, or doesn't understand the situation at all but at least doesn't just let someone else make the choice, we're probably going to be looking at a justice that votes down basically any and all regulation from either direction.

No, no, for example regulating who can enter the country is fine; it's voting down any regulation that impacts God-Emperor Trump (long may he reign.)

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Mongrel » Sun Jul 01, 2018 5:05 pm



Cool, cool.
Image

User avatar
Yoji
Posts: 1440
Joined: Mon Apr 04, 2016 4:12 pm
Location: Screamtown

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Yoji » Sun Jul 01, 2018 6:30 pm

Hey, somebody's gotta be the bad guy in the History Channel documentaries fifty years from now, because fuck does this look familiar.
Image: Mention something from KPCC or Rachel Maddow
Image: Go on about Homeworld for X posts

User avatar
Thad
Posts: 13165
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 10:05 am
Location: 1611 Uranus Avenue
Contact:

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Thad » Sun Jul 01, 2018 6:59 pm

TA wrote:
Thad wrote:
pacobird wrote:Reminder: Anthony Kennedy sucks, has always sucked, was always going to retire during a GOP presidency, and we're better off without him.

Yeah, true. I'm very worried that we're going to get somebody even worse, but that would have been just as true if he'd retired under Bush. Disgusting as Gorsuch is, he's not that far from Alito.


Worse?

On Monday, Kennedy joined the conservative majority in granting free reign to wildly racist gerrymandering. He also joined the majority in making anti-trust legislation impossible to enforce in any market that exists as a platform, unless you show that all sides are being harmed by anti-competitive actions, which means just impossible to enforce. On Tuesday, Kennedy joined the conservative majority in overturning Korematsu and claiming that Japanese internment camps were in fact constitutional and okay. On Wednesday, Kennedy joined the conservative majority in overturning 40 years of precedent to obliterate public-sector unions. Last Friday, he authored the dissent in a 5-4 decision that would have let the government pull historical location data from cellphones without a warrant if Roberts hadn't inexplicably joined the four liberal judges to write that cellphones were more like a GPS than a phone in this one regard and needed a different precedent applied. And that's just in the past seven days.

We're going to go from a litany of 5-4 garbage decisions to a litany of 5-4 garbage decisions. Kennedy is trash, and has never been anything but.


Well, we're going to go from a litany of 5-4 garbage decisions with an occasional bone thrown toward gay rights and reproductive rights to a litany of 5-4 garbage decisions without an occasional bone thrown toward gay rights or reproductive rights. If you don't think there's any way for things to get worse, well, I never figured you for an optimist.

Yes, I think there are worse justices than Kennedy. In fact, I think there are at least three serving on the court right now. And that's if I give Roberts a lot of benefit of the doubt and a lot of credit for not killing the ACA when he had the chance.

This is not intended as a defense of Kennedy. (Or Roberts, for that matter.) Here, let me try an analogy.

The past week, I've been taking care of my sister-in-law's pets.

Her cats are assholes. Every time I show up to clean up after them, one of them has just taken a big shit in the litterbox and not buried it. There's even one of them who likes to wait until I go to scoop the litterbox, then jumps in, takes a shit, and then spends several minutes cleaning his claws without burying his shit first.

But yesterday, one of them had also had diarrhea. There were several large, dried puddles on the floor.

If you look at a fresh, unburied pile of cat shit in a litterbox and say "Well, cat shit doesn't get any worse than this," you're wrong.

And if you look at a fresh, unburied pile of cat shit in a litterbox, and compare it to the dried puddles of diarrhea, and say, "Man, those dried puddles of diarrhea in the middle of the floor are even worse than the fresh unburied cat shit in the litterbox," you are not praising the fresh unburied cat shit in the litterbox.

I'm aware that Kennedy is a piece of shit, thanks. But I stand by my contention that some pieces of shit are worse than others.

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Mongrel » Sun Jul 01, 2018 7:48 pm

Yoji wrote:Hey, somebody's gotta be the bad guy in the History Channel documentaries fifty years from now, because fuck does this look familiar.

Well, not if the bad guy in History™ Channel documentaries fifty years from now are the wimmin and the darkies and the queers and the pinko rat commies.
Image

User avatar
mharr
Posts: 1583
Joined: Tue Sep 27, 2016 11:54 am
Location: UK

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby mharr » Sun Jul 01, 2018 9:19 pm

If sanity prevails and Trump does end this run as the first elected president actually thrown into a cell, will Obama be allowed to retroactively appoint a justice? It would make the 'far too close to retirement' argument seem a little shaky in hindsight.

User avatar
Yoji
Posts: 1440
Joined: Mon Apr 04, 2016 4:12 pm
Location: Screamtown

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Yoji » Mon Jul 02, 2018 1:45 am

Mongrel wrote:
Yoji wrote:Hey, somebody's gotta be the bad guy in the History Channel documentaries fifty years from now, because fuck does this look familiar.

Well, not if the bad guy in History™ Channel documentaries fifty years from now are the wimmin and the darkies and the queers and the pinko rat commies.

I guess I'm hoping that most everyone else in the world won't lose their goddamned unclefucking minds like the US collectively is.

I mean, I was thinking about the 2008 election, just before Obama won. I saw a clip on The Daily Show or someplace of shamans in Peru or someplace, holding up his picture and shaking rattles in a blessing. Compare that with Trump, who's getting mocked by every hack comedian on the entire planet.
Image: Mention something from KPCC or Rachel Maddow
Image: Go on about Homeworld for X posts

User avatar
malikial
Posts: 181
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 3:11 am
Location: Tomah, WI

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby malikial » Mon Jul 02, 2018 6:51 am

Yeah, but the history channel is owned by a US corporation. Why would they make themselves the bad guy?

User avatar
Grath
Posts: 2387
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 7:34 pm

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Grath » Mon Jul 02, 2018 2:29 pm

malikial wrote:Yeah, but the history channel is owned by a US corporation. Why would they make themselves the bad guy?

They also don't actually cover history.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 28 guests