Erik Haugen @ech@qoto.org

@JorgeStolfi @Pineywoozle @cosettepaneque @randahl ok, if you don't like the DNA thing, then you *really* aren't going to like Trump, so that doesn't really explain why she lost. Like, his whole brand is about throwing out norms that get in the way of results.

And the "it" here is charm/political skill/charisma, not accomplishments.

@pyperkub sure, human nature to blame the other team. (Just look around mastodon.social etc and see all the blaming of "fascists" or whatever going on here.) And I think you're right, it's maybe a bit going out of your way to be unflattering, but blaming others is sort of what populism is all about, whether it's sanders/warren or trump/tucker.

Yeah, stoking fear is a great way for governments to consolidate power. Both parties play into that, for sure.

"build a wall rather than pass immigration legislation" – I'm not quite sure what you mean here. Both parties built the wall, both parties whine about our collective inability to pass "meaningful comprehensive immigration reform", whatever that means. You see a direct line from those things to authoritarianism?

@pyperkub Sure, I think roughly half of Republicans are that sort of flavor of populist isolationism: protectionist tariffs, skeptical of international institutions like ICC/etc, against international-police-style wars, fear of immigration, pissed about the state of working class jobs. It surged around 2016 due to Syria, and Trump & Brexit rode that wave. Sanders too, maybe?

It isn't useful to call that "fascist" of course, but politics seems to be about nonsense breathless rhetoric, so I'll ignore that for now.

Was it an attempted autogolpe? The sheer number of lawsuits Trump's team filed was indeed over the top, but it is the "front door", so to speak: if that was autogolpe, then you could also argue that Gore in 2000 was attempting an autogolpe, just he gave up way before Trump did. Same with many other losing candidates. That's silly, so this charge of an autogolpe seems similarly absurd.

Put it this way: if autogolpe was the plan, he would have been a lot more careful about the judges he installed: many of *his* judges shut his lawsuits down!

@sparkledragon5@chaosfem.tw If you think your opponents' attempt at carrying out their goals is spectacularly incompetent, sometimes its useful to revise your estimate of their goals.

@hughster @design_law Beat me to it. There absolutely is an algorithm, which is literally the only reason I saw Sarah's post at all.

@Bargdaffy@defcon.social @cosettepaneque @randahl Yeah, the "most experienced" or "most qualified" canard is kinda strange.

If your goal is to rehabilitate Clinton's image, you need to pick something that isn't so obviously bogus.

There is no way to make the case she had the most impressive resume of any candidate ever. You don't need to be a history buff to know that's obvious hyperbole. Her resume was... fine.

And anyway does it even matter? For those of you who don't like Trump, is his lack of political experience really your problem with him? Buchanan vs. Lincoln. etc. Biden has plenty of experience, but it's experience pushing harmful legislation in the Senate. Why would you want "experience" if it means that?

@JorgeStolfi @cosettepaneque @randahl yeah, definitely not because of appeal, she was a singularly uncharismatic candidate. I mean that is a stupid reason not to vote for her, just sayin'.

@freepeoplesfreepress @freemo @alfredo_liberal@universeodon.com heh I just realized my handle sounds like echo, and echo chambers are the thing I whine about all the time here. 😂

@freepeoplesfreepress @freemo @alfredo_liberal@universeodon.com well some people don't want that, but let's ignore that fringe for now.

Are you telling me this because it has something to do with echo chambers? I feel like something might be getting lost in the threading here.

@freemo @freepeoplesfreepress @alfredo_liberal@universeodon.com thanks😂

@freepeoplesfreepress @freemo @alfredo_liberal@universeodon.com Sure you can be a good person and still want to live in an echo chamber.

Everyone has different reasons for using their accounts.

@llewelly @Sheril

Very not evenly distributed across those groups, though. It's mostly E. carinatus and a couple other viper species for snakes, and basically just A. gambiae for mosquitos. Mostly.

@BlueWaveSurfer@universeodon.com Most mass shootings use handguns, but even if most did use AR-15s my point is this: even with so-called "assault weapon" bans, you can still get AR-15s, they just can't have flash suppressors and pistol grips. Do you think that will make any difference? I don't. So why is this the thing we focus on so much? I can't figure it out.

@VidaliaOnion @popcornreel Yeah, to OPs point NYT kind of played right in to Holmes plan, as far as I can tell.

@VidaliaOnion @popcornreel Yeah she's been sentenced but is awaiting some kind of appeal on it. I'm assuming this is basically PR to influence that.

@popcornreel There's also this theme: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-theranos-elizabeth-holmes-has-cast-a-long-shadow-on-female-led-startups-145754793.html Can it be that society is simultaneously captivated by her White Women's Tears and also using her example to drag all women down?

@VidaliaOnion @popcornreel I think the thing she wants is to not go to prison for the next 10 years. Whether we forget her or not is a distant second.

She did do a great job of making this article promote the idea that she shouldn't go to jail, I think.

@BlueWaveSurfer@universeodon.com Problem is assault rifles are already banned. (Well, mostly. But banned enough that legal ones generally aren't a problem. And oddly only since 1986.)

Some people focus on banning "assault weapons" (not "assault rifles") which is also a pointless effort: you can get a non-"assault weapon" rifle that is pretty much just as deadly as an "assault weapon" rifle, just without flash suppressors or pistol grips or whatever other pointless feature the "assault weapon" ban targets. (See California's rules, or the expired federal assault-weapon ban (FAWB), etc.)

I'm honestly not trying to troll, it just seems off to me that this type of ban is dominating the policy discussion, when it is obviously so pointless.