Erik Haugen @ech@qoto.org

@Nonbiner@mastodon.nl @Savvyhomestead I think it's in there with that big orange "lower respiratory diseases" stripe. (It would probably be a bit fatter in 2020 and 2021, if we could see this over time.)

@TimWardCam @Savvyhomestead guns will be counted under things like suicide. That's the problem with charts like this: it might not have to breakdown you want.

@Pineywoozle @JorgeStolfi @cosettepaneque @randahl

You might be right about Jorge, but to the broader point can you link to a speech where she shined in this way? Something inspiring and charismatic? Something that gets people riled up, like the way Trump was getting everyone fired up with his outlandish nonsense?

I mean just read the abstract here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/psq.12490 – this makes the point that as a leader of the then-current regime she was constrained, but still I think a better politician (Palin, Michelle or Barak Obama, Bill, etc) could have overcome that hurdle much better, all else being equal.

FWIW I think Trump lost in 2020 for a somewhat similar reason: during covid he lacked the sort of inspiring, uniting, calming leadership that is helpful during a crisis. (Contrast with Bush after 9/11, who absolutely nailed it.)

(I can't imagine a stupider level of discourse than cheap puns where you corrupt the name of something to tear it down, like writing "DemocRAT" or "REPUGlicans" or whatever. Gah. It's like the trash comment threads on yahoo news from 2003 or something.)

@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.