I generally agree that he's not a business man in the strictest sense. But he is undeniably "successful". He's lived the lavish lifestyle of his dreams, he's never suffered any meaningful consequences, and he's been elected president twice. Even if he is eaten alive by ants tomorrow, he's already lived for 78 years, enjoying fame and attention, playboy interviews, committing crime with impunity, and seizing the nation itself to serve his pretty needs for vengeance. Hell, he has literally dodged a bullet. True justice is out of reach I'm afraid. It's more like his measure of success is corrupted. Success to him is not synonymous with productivity. He is at his core, a rapist, getting what he wants is only technically the point. More important is taking it. Getting away with it. Stealing it. Breaking something. Exerting his will. That's what he's about. His business is spiritual, not material. It's coercion, and force. And in this field, he is quite "successful" indeed.
Keeping a business running takes sustained effort. This sack of shit is more in the strip out all the copper and turn a quick buck leaving wreckage in your wake type of business man.
Christofascists don't take anything literally, they do frequently take things narrowly though. And where this narrow focus is trained shifts around dependent of their desired outcome.
More and more I feel like he's just trying to get us embroiled in something that provides cover for him to ratchet into the next slot of dictator. If he can get a real crisis on his hands he's plausibly cleared for all sorts of seemingly desperate measures. Such as third terms, and criminalization of "sentiments" ("doesn't like me" turns into "supports the enemy", opposition turns into enemy, temporary emergency actions turn into permanent dictatorship).
It should have never been close enough the first time for gamesmanship. And regardless, it's academic. The first time he was an unknown quantity. This second time is completely unforgivable. We have sleep walked into the second term with absolutely no excuses.
If America were drowning, and a woman offered to throw them a life preserver, America would rather wait for a man to help instead and die. Perfect candidates? Maybe not. But both Clinton and Harris were abundantly qualified, and we chose, CHOSE, a dictator, an unapologetic misogynist, a criminal, a failed business man, a known Epstein associate, the playboy of the 80s, a bona fide piece of shit, instead, the same one, TWICE, even after his absolutely chatoic first term. I don't want to die due to the ignorance of others, but it's tough to argue we don't deserve it.
Right-o, then: Protesty protest. Whoops, I got bagged by facial recognition and sent to El Salvador by gustapo. At least the media completely ignored the protest and no one even knows it happened.
A guy just got kicked out of Madison Square Garden. He was banned for life for a shirt he sold online that called for the removal of the MSG Ceo. He didn't buy the tickets he was using, and hasn't been to an MSG property in 20 years. They picked him out of the crowd using facial recognition, which was linked to his social media, which was matched to a list of banned people. This is just the actions of a private entity, how deep do you think the governments abilities reach?
Protesting these days is a lot bigger ask than it was even 20 years ago. Proper resistance even harder still. I agree we need action, drastic action, and soon. But I don't fault ordinary people for being afraid to lose everything for what they believe.
Land of the free, home of the brave, indeed. This attack on free speech will continue to get worse. The farther we let it go, the longer it will take to claw back any sort of legitimate freedom. Criticism should not be illegal, and designing and selling shirts like this is supposed to be an example of American freedom. We're about to have a new red scare (or are perhaps witnessing the first signs of the one we already have), this time with decades of social media content to scrape, facial recognition, and god knows what proprietary marketing "fingerprinting" data associated with our names/identity. The man who owns Tesla has made it clear he desires tyranny, and every one of those cars is festooned with cameras, roving, or sitting idle. Let alone operations like Waymo, driving around to wherever dispatched. Internet connected cameras on every street, our phones tracking our movements in real time, the internet of things, the privatization of legally protected security forces with no badging or oversight, arresting protestors, journalists, students, LEGAL CITIZENS. Make no mistake, they've raised the stakes already and this is not a game we can afford to lose.
During the last go around with that hideous pustule with the awful hair, major league soccer and it's fans got into a rather messy and protracted row over banning "antifa" iconography, signs, chants, etc. It seems to be back on the back burner now though because I'm seeing antifa flag again in the supporter sections.
The insidious thing about the small dick energy is that it isn't about the efficacy of the unit. They don't care that they "can't" provide pleasure (which, let's just not dig into that for arguments sake, but I would contend the existence of lesbian sex sort of contradicts the whole correlation of dick mass to pleasure output, let alone the whole can of worms that is all the other miriad of genital and gender configurations). They view sex as transactional, performative, superficial, and perhaps even competative. It's all about them. Even if they had a supreme dick, they couldn't weild it. They're stunted, and frightened. They don't understand even basic communication, which I would argue that sex is at it's core, just a type of communication. That kid in class that mocks the topic because they don't understand it and that frightens them? So they try to tear it down and belittle the topic? Those are the kids that grow up to drive these trucks, and evidently run nations.
The honest problem is that the hyper-wealthy just don't go outside or do anything meaningful. They are in climate controlled buildings and vehicles 24/7. They don't cook. They don't feel price fluctuations in goods. Their home(s) are numerous and in the best areas, but even that is moot, as they are rarely at home. They travel and work constantly, and are never subjected to anything but the finest accomodations. Their world is very controlled, and orderly, and pleasant. They literally live in a different reality. They don't get it. And yet, they control the environment us regular people live in/are subjected to. Our struggles are trivia to them. Mere inconveniences. We're just obstacles in their way. Our displeasure is just a "notification" to clear. Whatever they can do to shut us up, or get us off their case, they do that. Right and wrong be damned. The future be damned. By the time it effects them directly and they are forced to deal with consequences, our corpses will be components of massive burning heaps.
Perhaps how constituents got absolutely hammered by extreme weather, tornados, etc, over the weekend as he simultaneously dismantles weather science funding and aid, while also denying that climate change is an issue. Or possibly deporting legal immigrants, against specific instructions not to, in some real transparent dictator type behavior.
Probably irrelevant, but if you were to make an omelette, it would be nearly impossible not to break a few eggs. I struggle to see how this would be pertinent though.
Living somewhere else is quite tempting in a grass is greener way, but it feels like moving out of my house because of pests. What I'd really rather do is eradicate the pests and get my home back. Even if I move, how long until I have to suffer new pests? Meanwhile the more sane of the two completely out of touch parties that comprise my government are like my housemate, and they keep leaving food wrappers and shit all over the place and they refuse to call an exterminator because it would be "cruel". But these no-kill traps ain't doing shit. Figuratively speaking, of course.
I suppose what I'm trying to say is the less we rely on reddit, the faster those niche communities grow in the fediverse. The cost for splitting your energies is that it slows the growth of one and prolongs the antiquation of the other.
A small protest in a red place is likely more meaningful than a large one in a blue. Thanks for getting out there.