arctanthrope

yeah it seems like Neil only really caught on to the “suppressing creativity is bad” part of Rand’s work, and missed the parts where she implied “and by creativity I mean wealth btw”

what about “Anthem” by Rush

ok I see. my understanding of imperialism is that it encompasses both of those, meaning broadly, expansion of influence, especially (but not necessarily) by claiming areas of land, in order to gain control of resources currently held by others. but I agree, there are two types within that, and the distinction between them is whether the people currently occupying the land (or in particular their labor) are part of the resources that the empire is trying to claim

so, just walking through your own argument as I understand it: situations that are similar to the treatment of indigenous North Americans by the US can be considered imperialism, if it’s done by one nation to another nation. but the actual treatment of indigenous peoples by the US doesn’t meet that condition. the result of that syllogism must be: between the US and the indigenous peoples, one of them is not a nation. I assume you’re not saying that the US is not a nation. so the conclusion must be that the indigenous North American peoples were not a nation, or multiple nations; that there was no political or societal organization in the Americas before Europeans came. is that what you mean, or have I misunderstood?

and my question is why do you think that’s not a form of imperialism

the “neighboring nation” I was referring to were the indigenous people. North America was not a blank slate before Europeans arrived. “manifest destiny” was imperialism

so you’re saying going to war against a neighboring nation to expand your territory is not what an empire does?

secret service wasn’t responsible for protecting the president until 1901, in response to McKinley’s assassination. when Roosevelt was shot he was a non-incumbent candidate, so not under secret service protection; former presidents were not given secret service protection until 1965. Reagan survived because of secret service.

if being proved wrong meant anything to maga the movement would have died a decade ago

is he really saying “well Hitler drank water too”

or, apparently equivalently, Robert Borden, Elizabeth II, and a common loon (Gavia immer)

Yes, I am only fluent in The USA English

no, you’re not

I’m sick of hearing this. white supremacy and fascism is the real goal of the administration. the Epstein stuff is a speedbump they had to deal with along the way. if no Epstein information had ever come out they would still be doing white supremacy fascist shit

we had sex ed, drug prevention, and nutrition all together in a class simply called “health,” and while the material was apparently much better quality than what most others get, the woman they got to teach it was dumb as a bag of hammers. couldn’t pronounce “bulbourethral gland,” didn’t know the difference between “metastasis” and “metastasize,” claimed that the cause of diabetes is that “sugar molecules are sharp and cut up the insides of your arteries” (I don’t count that one against the material because it didn’t come out of a book, she was clearly just ad-libbing out of her own head)

do we really need ai to make up terrible new meme templates? I mean you can’t even justify it by saying that you needed this specific image and aren’t talented enough to make it any other way. because 1) low-quality meme templates made with little to no artistic ability are already a staple of the medium, and 2) this particular image doesn’t even work in the meme it was apparently purpose-made for

ok so god is holding the sign, and therefore his opinion is represented on it, which is, I suppose, a humorous enough observation (although it’s not like “invoking god during fornication is ironic” hasn’t been done thousands of times before). but what is the significance of anything else in the image? who is the woman? why is she running? why is she high-fiving god when his criticism seems to be directed at her? is this supposed to be an inspirational message to motivate her during her run? what does this image accomplish that impact font over a jpeg of god’s face from google images wouldn’t?

here’s a German joke I came up with (translated for convenience):

what’s the funniest fish? salmon.

remember when AOC was going to make hamburgers illegal?

when I see people bragging about their high IQ it reminds me of those people who buy sports cars and then take them around to shows on a trailer with 5 miles on the odometer to talk about how it has 750 horsepower and a top speed of 300mph

one of the most retroactively embarrassing moments in my life is in like 2015 or '16 I was doing some dumb team-building thing for some school-adjacent activity, and the task was to create a “new Mount Rushmore,” basically as a group nominate four people who are doing good and important work in the world. I suggested musk. at the time most people there hadn’t heard of him, so I gave a little spiel about how he was the “founder” (which I thought was true at the time) of PayPal, Tesla (which people were just becoming aware of), and SpaceX. every time I remember it I cringe and hope nobody else does. although most other people in the group suggested Beyonce as someone doing “important work for humanity” so idk if they have much of a leg to stand on to criticize my choice

“we” huh? as in he identifies himself as part of their group? while acknowledging that they’re Nazis? interesting.