I’m not a “Israel deserved Oct 7th” person because I think that lends itself to the idea that the victims of the atrocities committed on Oct 7 deserved it. I don’t think they did. I do think Israel as a nation brought it upon themselves in the sense that they have been oppressing the Palestinians for however many years, and if they hadn’t been, the event wouldn’t have happened.

Norman Finkelstein put it in a pretty interesting way – atrocities were committed on Oct 7, but he would not condemn a violent outburst by people who were born in a concentration camp. He urged leniency and grace that would normally be afforded to people who were born into such conditions and who proceeded to commit unspeakable acts.

Part of the issue is that Donald Trump isn’t using these words in any factual sense, but in a purely rhetorical sense. He is utilizing them as boogeyman terms to scare people away from Harris. It doesn’t matter that’s it’s not factually correct because average people don’t know otherwise.

That brings me to the other part of the issue, which is fascism is notoriously difficult to pin down. Umberto Eco talks about this in his essay Ur-Fascism. He notes that fascism isn’t actually dependent on one or two attributes, such as complete totalitarianism, or support of capital, and doesn’t necessarily have a single religious philosophy. He notes historical examples of things like anticapitalist fascism, religious fascism, atheist fascism, etc.

Still he notes 14 qualities that are typically associated with fascism

• The Cult of Tradition
• Rejection of Modernism
• The Cult of Action for Action’s Sake
• Disagreement is Treason
• Fear of Difference
• Appeal to a Frustrated Middle Class
• Obsession with a Plot
• The Enemy is Both Strong and Weak
• Pacifism is Trafficking with the Enemy
• Contempt for the Weak
• Everybody is Educated to Become a Hero
• Machismo
• Selective Populism
• Newspeak

Much of these are relevant to Trump’s campaign, even more than I had anticipated. Definitely give it a listen or check out the Wikipedia page, it’s a worthwhile half hour just to hear the perspective of someone who actually lived through Italian fascism.

it’s mostly political

Oh I gotcha. Interesting. I don’t follow FSF or GNU or anything, do you know if they tend to be antagonistic toward nonfree devs who still try to be as free as possible? Honestly, I read the Stallman quote about FreeBSD in this thread, and a statement from GNU that acknowledges the impracticality of their philosophy, and I kinda agree with their ethical takes. Except, I also think people should be able to install nonfree software, because otherwise you have a pretty bad dilemma with the word “free.”

Ultimately, if they are actively antagonistic toward those who don’t share that philosophy, I think that’s not great. Sure, free software according to the GNU project may be the only ethical one, but we live in a culture that promotes the exact opposite idea, so why would I be surprised and upset when an otherwise ethically acting person doesn’t conform to my own ethical framework, and they go on and create nofree software. I’m still going to get a beer with that person because at the end of the day we probably have common values and how else am I going to sell them the idea free software

I’m afraid to ask this because I’m not a dev, but I have a fair amount of linux experience. Why is it that the ability to install Google Play Services on GrapheneOS makes it not FOSS/open source, while the ability to install Google Chrome (or any proprietary software, I guess) on Linux doesn’t make is non-FOSS/open source?

I’m not articulating that question very well, and I’m assuming I’m missing some key component, but they seem comparable to me, as a regular user. Is it something like the level of access that GPServices has to the kernel?

my original comment was just meant to be a playful comment about your meme use rather than any analysis about the speech.

Like: “I agree with you, but can we talk about this thing or that?”

But honestly forget about it, next time I wont bother

Not angry, just disturbed that there are even more lol

I’m literally agreeing with you. Not sure what you’re fixing about my phrasing – I didn’t watch the speech, so yes, I am ignorant, but am willing to guess that your comment was totally correct.

I’m also saying your meme-game disturbs my meme-less brain.

But I guess according to you, I have no idea what I’m talking about so in that case…you’re wrong? Idk what youre trying to say dude all I know is that just because O’Brien spoke at the RNC doesn’t somehow automatically make him a Trump supporter

Full disclosure I haven’t watched the speech, but I can believe it was in good faith, no doubt pro-labor/anti-capitalist. (btw, it’s crazy how bad the Democratic party has alienated the working class)

What I can’t believe is these disturbing-ass memes you’re posting lmao…I hate them very much and wish I could unsee. Good job!

Hell yeah. Exo one was kinda what I had in mind, something with stupidly simple mechanics. But I am definitely intrigued by POOLS. Looks spooky. Thanks!

This particular attack probably had nothing to do with any of this, but she could probably be described as offensive from the economic equality standpoint, because she is a billionaire, from the environmental justice standpoint, because she is a frequent private-jet user, and from the music scene standpoint, because she seemingly intentionally pushes out other female artists from billboard spots by re-releasing albums in specific locations/time periods during which her peers are releasing their albums.

These right wing-ass fuckers ruin everything you love, and now they’ve come for LOTR.

That’s insane.

Like, no 401k or Roth IRA? Dang. I’m fuckin hard.

If you aren’t comfortable doing that then you aren’t comfortable “working on” your car.

You’ve written a whole lotta junk to essentially end on, “if you can’t jack up your car and remove the wheel, you shouldn’t be changing your headlight in the first place.”

Which is quite a dumb take.

I mean, you’re totally right until the last paragraph. I don’t think Biden locking them up by executive order would shut them up. I think it’s more likely that would spark the civil war they’re so desperate to have. They’re like Kyle Rittenhouse, just waiting for an excuse to shoot a leftist.

Difference is, no republican cares if Trump is mentally fit to be president, nor will being mentally unfit cause him to lose the election.

Democrats and Biden on the other hand…

Would you cancel a trip with your family that was already booked, that your mom completely planned out each activity in depth, that you already paid for, that you’ve been looking forward to, collectively, for over a year, because you found out you’d be contributing to a systemic problem for a week day?

You just might be a better person than me, at the end of the day.

I wasn’t sure whether hotels had already been booked or whether they cheaped out, that’s why I worded it like that. Could be.

No no you’re good, I didn’t take it that way. I think saying “next time” instead of “you should have” is a good way to help people realize that what they are doing might be destructive, without condemning them to the eternal pits of hell, so I appreciate you saying it that way.

I didn’t plan the trip myself, and I think there was some reason or another they chose AirBNB instead of a hotel. But yeah, if I ever do a trip like this again (unlikely), fuck an AirBNB

I’m going to Barcelona this week on a family trip. We’re staying in an AirBnb for a day. I think they’ve got a legitimate cause to spray people like me, who pretty much across the board don’t realize how much their privilege hurts regular working people.