volkris @volkris@qoto.org

@PixelChonk Well, I think there is a contrast with a third option, which is being opposed to the Israeli actions without necessarily being in favor of the intolerant positions of many on the Palestinian side.

Often enough in this world we can say that at least both sides can be wrong for different reasons, but more realistically, that on the whole list just more complicated.

But at the least, a person might simply oppose one side without signing on to the side of the other.

@Aethelstan but it's not up to him.

You might as well be asking whether Johnson is up for us having spaghetti for dinner tonight.

Under the US government system and the rules of the House, the Speaker doesn't get to decide that.

It doesn't matter whether he is up for that or not any more than it matters whether he is up for whatever I want to eat tonight or not. It's not his call.

And I think we really need to stop portraying these individuals as so powerful because it lets a bunch of other politicians off the hook for their own actions.

@NewsDesk

@BlueWave_Surfer@mastodon.social no because when I talk about holding Democrats responsible for what they have done, use somehow pivoted to talking about Republicans and what things have not been done.

You're still letting them off the hook.

@moira sorry for the double reply but I had one more example along the same line:

I remember how during Trump's early campaigns he managed to put together some words that would indicate a position that wasn't in keeping with Republican positions because he was too damn stupid to know what the Republican position was.

Later he would correct his position, and Republicans would pretend like it was what he said all along, but the unfortunate thing was that Trump's opponents would play along as well, bashing the guy for having the normal Republican position instead of pointing out that his position had waffled.

So it's the same sort of thing: The guy is really empowered by how we all handle him, how we all overlook just how empty and vapid he is instead of puncturing that balloon.

But then, a lot of politicians and organizations profit off of attacking him as a strong man instead of pointing out that he's really not one.

@moira I think the problem is the way so many people, both his supporters and especially his detractors paper over this.

Like, Trump mumbles out some word salad and as you said, his supporters mix that into some message that they want to hear and they cheer for it. But what do his critics do? They also mix it into some message that they can get their side to yell against. I really wish the critics would bash the guy for not being able to speak English.

I think it would do a whole lot more to deflate Trump by calling him out for not being able to put together coherent thoughts than to pretend like he's putting together solid proposals that are just bad.

(And yes, through this I am saying not able to, but you can read that as not willing to)

Trump's supporters are always going to take him seriously, but the rest of us give him way too much credit when we don't lampoon him for being unable to speak.

I really think that in all this time we should have been calling him out, especially for the times. He's botched the conservative perspective, saying things that go against Republicans because he's just that damn stupid, but we gave him a pass when really we should have been highlighting things that would have eroded his support on the right.

@CuriousMagpie@mastodon.social Well, I do think we need to separate the ideas of reflecting the preferences of the population from weather. Those preferences are actually good or bad or rooted in fact.

Like it's entirely democratic to vote to spend money appeasing the flying spaghetti monster if a large portion of the population honestly believe in FSM. That doesn't mean that portion of the population is educated well, but it's still democracy at work to come to that conclusion.

But yes, I absolutely emphatically say that the information issue is a core problem that outweighs so many other things people worry about.

Like it doesn't matter how districts are gerrymandered if all of the people in the districts don't know what's happening anyway.

@Teri_Kanefield

@moira I would generally agree, except I take it a step further and think that it might be kind of a learned behavior, where he has been doing it so long with positive reinforcement that he might not be able to actually stop now.

It's a kind of thing that seems to have. Happened to so many public figures over the years, where they adopt kind of a caricature for the cameras and over time end up becoming the thing that they at first were just pretending to be.

It doesn't really matter either way, but personally I suspect Trump has become the moron he was initially pretending to be.

@BlueWave_Surfer@mastodon.social Yes.

Now do Democrats.

@MadisonMonkey because maybe we don't like that sort of authoritarianism?
@SARS2PA

@moira The funny thing is, whenever I see a post like this, I never know whether the quote is going to be coherent or not.

I never know whether to feel positive or negative that Trump has managed to actually convey a coherent thought.

One hand, hey! Congrats on stringing some words together. On the other hand, these are the words you chose?

@alexlac51 later

@BlueWave_Surfer@mastodon.social Yeah, holding politicians accountable for their actions is something I just think is really important, so I do try to repeat that refrain as often as I can!

So once again, you're talking a whole lot about someone who it sounds like has met the result of his actions, so that's done, so how about we talk about all the ones responsible for the new speaker, the Democrats who voted with the crazies to empower them and elect this new speaker?

How about the things those Democrats did? McCarthy has been held accountable, so now let's hold Democrats accountable?

@alexlac51 not great!

Social media has never been a fantastic source of grace and light.

@realTuckFrumper fortunately we don't rely on Speaker of the House to dictate science policy.

He might also have awful taste in food, and similarly we don't count on him for a restaurant recommendations.

We really need to stop inflating the roles that these politicians play.

@alexlac51 so the second question, how do you see that working out?

@alexlac51 I mean, what would you have had him do, and exactly how do you see that working out?

@BlueWave_Surfer@mastodon.social and so instead Democrats voted so that we got this guy as a replacement.

Again, let's hold Democrats accountable for what Democrats did.

We can't let them get a pass by focusing purely on what Republicans do. Republicans are going to be awful, fine. But we need to hold Democrats responsible for what Democrats do, especially when they amplify that awfulness.

You don't like how Republicans are protecting Trump or whatever? Fine! Let's hold Democrats responsible for actively promoting that with their votes.

@BlueWave_Surfer@mastodon.social I appreciate your consistency in trying to focus on things other than Democrats' actions, but I really do think they need to be held accountable for what they did.

Heck, It sounds like you are quite opposed to Republican perspectives, so you should be especially interested with holding Democrats responsible for empowering them.

If Democrats had not actively chosen to vote the way they did, this speaker would not have been elected.

If you don't like this speaker, great, let's make sure to hold Democrats responsible for actively voting such that he got elected.

@timberwraith I mean, history debunks those claims.

Political instability in the region long proceeded the oil boom.