1. The third of the people who didn’t vote had Trump previous to realize what he’d do and still said “Meh, either’s fine with me.” They’re complicit.

And 2. I get so fucking sick and tired of the “Dems are corporate shills” when the left can’t be faffed to show up at voting. I don’t mean the 4 year presidential votes. I mean the yearly all the way to the local shit. You want to know how we got Trump? Because the ultra-right made it a point to get in bed with the republicans and beat down doors to tell people to vote to secure the supreme court, to secure state positions, to secure fucking school board positions.

I have never met someone who had interest in Republicans who didn’t think they paid attention to the news. It may be Fox and Infowars but they paid some attention. If I had a nickle for every individual who was interested in left wing ideals but told me “I don’t know. I don’t like politics” I’d have enough to afford a plane ticket out of this fucking country.

Honestly, I’d say the national park system. But that’s a “for however long we still have it.”

Thank you. Audible was my lifesaver when I was working on the road but I’m definitely on the prepare part.

The reason you’re getting downvoted is it’s a problem even here in the country. It’s the “Why aren’t you doing anything about it?” to all of us.

In the case of me, I live 1000 miles away from the seat of power, our representatives actively are dismantling things we voted for, not national I’m talking, state level, because we’re outright surrounded by the people who are actively cheering for this. (and the example of the voting against, state voted to get rid of the most strict abortion law in the country, legalizing it… and now the representatives on state level are trying to get a pregnancy registry “to try to stop preventable abortions.” while the state rep at national level is trying to get a national abortion ban going. This is one of many many many things in the state by itself. Hell, I just learned the state just gained police control to the other city after they managed to vote that out.)

I didn’t downvote, but I want you to read “What are you going to do about it?” out loud. Hell, you yourself said it’s the apathy. But the fuck am I going to do? Show up and wave a sign at the people who already have shown they couldn’t give a flying shit about our opinions? Or be there when the fight starts and be a martyr. The second option the best case scenario is getting to be like Tank Man, but honestly demographics I’d be one of the many forgotten in the Tiananmen Square Massacre. And that’s what it’s going to look like, because this administration you better believe is looking for an opportunity to go full martial law, and if we don’t do it, their brownshirts will for them.

So the best I can fucking do is stock up, prepare, keep my head down, keep in contact with the people who are in the same boat as I am being in effectively enemy territory and use the privilege I have of looking like a standard white conservative to see how many I can keep safe when being that demographic is important.

US citizen here… can I bump up that number for them please? I’ll work and pay taxes without complaining about them.

Oh we’re past the point of no return. The question we’re at now is how much damage can we mitigate from here forward.

The US has killed any of it’s power it’s had in the world beyond military and economic. The power it had through friendships and trade deals, they’re fucking gone. Trade deals have been shown to be temporary and based on whims so why would anyone do it. And friendships? HAHAHAHAH.

So now it’s economic… and oh look, we’re about to start tearing that apart and probably look at a depression that will be compared to the OG Great Depression, while the trade deals are going across the world and China is definitely willing to step up to the plate to be the “adult in the room” in trade deals.

So last it’s military power. And with getting rid of officers to only have loyal ones… that means strategy and tactics will be going out the window for “We have a big hammer.”

That’s the US’s interaction with the world, which most of our lives we’ve been in the dominant position. So that’ll get rough. Now on to the things internally that DOGE has gone through and cleared out, it’ll take years to unfuck the stuff already done.

The worst case scenario, I would argue, is that this ends in the destruction of the world via nuclear war within less than an hour. This is what I am scared of the most.

I just want to know ahead of time frankly because I know where the nuke is likely to hit in our city and I’m out of the insta-vaporize zone so I want to get closer.

I’ll preface with I’ll agree that for the most part, it’s men being whiny about “woke” and other nonsense. They’re assholes. I really don’t have anything to add to that front.

So I’ll add a perspective of the small other crowd in situations friends of mine and I have found ourselves in, that having criticisms of women led stories gets us lumped in with the above group when the same criticism of a male led roles/stories are fine and dandy. And we’re not exactly a group that hates women led stories despite our love of scifi action. Sarah Conner, Ripley, Jesse Faden if anyone has played the game Control.

Some of it I get as a female led cast movie/show will get hate before the first previews even launch so legitimate discussions can happen. However, I can go on absolute rants about how terrible movies can be: Tom Cruise remaking The Mummy was, attempting to do Hellboy without Ron Perlman and Guillermo Del Toro, whatever the Conan the Barbarian attempt Jason Mamoa had, and no one bats an eye. (Lets be honest, those were all terrible movies) However I’ve been called a misogynist when I talk about in the list with those above ones how absolutely terrible the all women cast remake of Ghostbusters was. Again, I knew there was a lot of undue hate, but if I ever discuss it, I’ve had to outright asterisk it every time that none of my complaints were to the actresses themselves but the movie from worldbuilding to some of the concept of it being made itself (As in: It’s Ghostbusters, an IP that’s been around for decades, did we need to dedicate screentime to remaking it from scratch? A complaint I’ll have at every reboot of a popular IP.)

And there’s legitimacy to the why. As you point out, there’s very few women led movies/stories which (I assume) means that with some representation there’s the want to nicer to it, especially as there are people who are outright assholes about it. Vs Another White Guy Does Things is easy to deride a movie because… speaking as a white guy, I’m going to be there mocking that movie too. But that’s why I put the “(I assume)” earlier, because it’s not like I’m lacking in some form of representation, so it’s easy to mock it.

I will wrap up this though with again, it’s a small extra outside perspective for a different viewpoint. If people just complain “There are too many women in x”, no, they’ve stopped having legitimate complaints and are just being jackasses.

Theoretically maybe the “savior” won’t shoot, maybe.

Look, it’s not a good deal, but hey, I’m trying this optimism thing out. Don’t think it’s working.

That said, anyone who makes a deal with Trump hasn’t paid attention to any of the deals he made in his last administration that he’ll drop them when they’re inconvenient.

Robert F Kennedy Jr. - Brain aneurysm live on TV

This is absolutely a terrible one.

He should go by polio.

Okay, I had trouble getting off of sodas, and everyone suggested fizzy water instead, and they all tasted nasty, like maybe the water sat in the room with the fruit maybe.

But this is the only time I’ll ever say good about Walmart, their walmart branded carbonated waters are 99 cents a liter and taste amazing. The Fuji Apple one is the one I usually get and it tastes like a fizzy apple soda but doesn’t have sugar.

Since I avoid walmart like the plague, I’ve learned to just drink water now. Tap water is my go to. But these things are like my guilty pleasure, which is a far cry better than the sugar drinks imo.

That’s fair. I’m less interested in the swasticar and more I find it’s the only thing out right now that I can’t find an appreciable workaround.

It’s why I like hybrids. I have a tendency to sometimes end up at least an hour away from an electric plug for a few days or so.

Nah, I don’t need diesel. Lets be honest at hybrid it’ll do the job just fine as is.

Basically I want the kind of pickup truck that I can toss a few 2x4s in the back and go, doesn’t have to be big, doesn’t need a lot of hauling power. Which is the opposite of the way trucks are going nowadays, which are big as fuck and made to tow the fucking world with the shortest damn truck bed that I’ve watched people struggle to get a tv into because the bed is too short.

Live in one of the cities that played. Thought they won with the fireworks, but was kinda pathetic this year. Was told apparently they were getting thrashed and it was only halftime so people must have been setting off shit they got instead of staying up.

Good. I was worried they’d make another go at raising taxes for their stadium and would have a good chance if they won.

Is a truck tech? Fuck it I’m calling a pickup truck tech.

I just want a pickup the size of a 90s ford ranger that’s a hybrid. Since I’m making it a unicorn, lets go 4wd

Don’t worry, the aliens will come, and they’ll be oligarchs in their society too.

I’ll admit, my disbelief in afterlife really doesn’t make me fear death because while it’s boring, it’s only boring for everyone else. For the person dead it’s nothing. Boring is a sensation, and death has none of that either. It’s neither good nor bad, just nothing.

I for one welcome our Canadian overlords.

I mean… that’s probably (about as close as he has one) the plan…