Election Thread 2024

[Hydra009]

[Blackleaf]

Holy fuck. Trump must be REALLY depressed if he won't visit an NRA rally. Those people would sing his praises no matter what stupid things he says. Or maybe he's afraid another nutcase will try shooting at him.

Could you imagine? A Conservative Presidential candidate being assassinated at an NRA rally? I could think of no better endorsement for gun control.

I'm sure they would have checked guns at the door too. I thought more guns = more safe! What if someone tries to shoot at Trump and there aren't any good guys with a gun to shoot back? No self-awareness whatsoever.

[Dark Lightning]

Gagging to death on a Big Mac is my preferred solution.

[Hydra009]

[ferdmonger]

My preferred solution is the American public coming to its fucking senses and realize that Donald Trump is a virus on the American nation. 

[Dark Lightning]

My preferred solution is the American public coming to its fucking senses and realize that Donald Trump is a virus on the American nation. 

The Republican party has invested many years in the making of an ignorant populace that can be led by the nose. Those people are so deep in their ignorance that I fear for the future of the US. They are a cult, and the chump is the preacher under the big tent.

[ferdmonger]

Perhaps at some point in my life I will understand a vote Donald Trump, but I ain't holding my breath. Historians are going to have a hoot figuring this out. 

[Luther Martini]

The Republican party has invested many years in the making of an ignorant populace that can be led by the nose. Those people are so deep in their ignorance that I fear for the future of the US. They are a cult, and the chump is the preacher under the big tent.

Yes, and this kind of ignorance poses a threat to our most basic freedoms.  However, for many years we have seen it coming, and many have warned us, but their warnings have gone unheeded by a large percentage of the population who prefer the temporary and false sense of comfort that they find in remaining ignorant.   

Carl Sagan foretold of this acceptance and celebration of ignorance in his mid 1990's book, "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark"

"I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...

The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance"
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

and ...

"One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we've been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back."
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark 

Sickening indeed is the success that the purveyors of superstition have had in peddling their nonsense while shunning the truth as though ignorance is some kind of a virtue.

[Hydra009]

Judge stops NC voter roll purge

Sometimes, conscience wins.  We'll see if we can say the same on election day.

[Unbeliever]

For the last few days I've been listening to an audiobook version of The Demon-haunted World. It's engrossing. I've read it at least twice before and listened to it just last year, but it never gets old.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

What's really needed is dumdum bullets.

You'd fire stupid at Trump supporters? "Fire? I was made of this!"

[Luther Martini]

For the last few days I've been listening to an audiobook version of The Demon-haunted World. It's engrossing. I've read it at least twice before and listened to it just last year, but it never gets old.

I read it many years ago, but it is definitely worth a re-read.  Maybe I'll do that this winter, when it gets too cold to enjoy the outdoors.

[Hydra009]

Good news for the GOP:

Non-religious millennials are now welcome in the GOP because it turns out that you don't have to read a single page of the bible to preach that the country should be following its "religious values" (which you get to define, which is super convenient).  The exact message isn't important, so don't worry about making any textual or interpretive mistakes.  So long as it causes societal harm, whatever you want is a-okay.

[SGOS]

Non-religious millennials are now welcome in the GOP because it turns out that you don't have to read a single page of the bible to preach that the country should be following its "religious values" (which you get to define, which is super convenient).  The exact message isn't important, so don't worry about making any textual or interpretive mistakes.  So long as it causes societal harm, whatever you want is a-okay.

Coming from a source that tries to look like CNN, I'm a bit suspicious that this may be overblown propaganda from the right. The anchor and her talking head seem a little too delighted with the news to be considered unbiased.

[ferdmonger]

For the last few days I've been listening to an audiobook version of The Demon-haunted World. It's engrossing. I've read it at least twice before and listened to it just last year, but it never gets old.

I haven't read this yet and will do so.  Already ordered. (I've got 'Cosmos' and 'Pale Blue Dot' somewhere in my books.)