This is where the “both sides are the same” narrative does hold true. The base is different, but at the top are the wealthy who care only about their power and wealth. Human concerns do not touch them except at the extremes, so they will never really care about the lower class.

I feel like every member of HHS and other agencies should agree to just scream “GET FUCKED, BRAIN WORM” any time he says anything until they are fired or he quits.

I would argue that if you recognize you lack the knowledge to form an opinion, you’re doing better than 90% of people online.

This is insane. When exactly is a permissible age for kids to be walking about on their own?

In Georgia, probably 30.

All good, I didn’t take it that way. We should be expecting more than the bare minimum, but even the bare minimum would mean people I care about having safer lives.

100% agree. My comment was more about how much easier it would be for someone who isn’t moved by compassion to just not be a gaping asshole by going “not my issue.”

My personal feelings are that there are people I care about who have aspects to them I don’t understand and that doesn’t keep me from caring about them or believing they have the same rights as anyone else to live their lives in a way that expresses their complete selves. Attempts to harm them because of who they are are wrong and I will always fight against those who want to keep people from being their true selves.

The most pragmatic view is “how does this affect me? It doesn’t? Who cares.”

Do you mean “the left” as in “US democrats” or “the left” as in actual leftists? Because actual leftists have been attacked by every government in power of the US and western industrialized nations since before WWII. That “left” has a damn good reason for lacking a cohesive message.

The big money donors don’t even want to hear pretend populist messages with a left bent.

Glad my brain is cracked the same way as at least a couple other people. I saw the Venus of Willendorf as well.

People who were already poor would remain so. Most people who aren’t wealthy can’t afford to own acres of land that doesn’t produce crops. If leaves suddenly became money, that would not change the fundamental needs people have of food and shelter. So you’d have the wealthy with vast swathes of forest that would slowly die as they carted out a lot of compost for use in markets, and people who live in apartments or other rental situations would never see a leaf on the ground again. You might see suburban homeowners get really good about caring for their trees and planting more, so that’s one possible benefit but overall this would be a nightmare.

There are old methods of getting lumber from trees by cutting them short and letting the limbs grow back. The Japanese “daisugi” and European “copsing” are two different styles of the same idea. The fact that we don’t see those done much in the modern era makes me think that the industrial-capitalist mind would not comprehend the idea of waiting for leaves to fall.

What does happen if the president-elect dies before the inauguration?

A reasonable court would have said “that’s a totally legitimate concern” and maybe suggested options for reviewing election integrity concerns without exposing PII to third parties.

This court would probably have waved off public statements by neo-nazis that they would hunt these people for sport as “insufficient cause for concern.”

At least they’re actually arresting them ¯_(ツ)_/¯

“Your honor, we clearly did not commit election interference, we committed fraud. Also, we’re not even doing it here anymore, so…we rest our case.”

Hopefully the absence of an algorithm pushing engagement at all costs will dispel some of it.

Also, the tenor of commentary is different than it was this time in 2020. A lot more “someone should do something” and a lot less “I’m going to do something.”

Yeah, and Capitol police will probably be much more willing to default to lethal force considering they lost a few people the last go-round.

If you want a group to preemptively round up and detain, let’s talk about youth pastors and church youth group leaders. At least there’s evidence of a trend there.