volkris @volkris@qoto.org

@SirBemrose it's important to recognize that the 14th amendment doesn't say anyone. It instead limits its exclusion in ways that could be pretty substantial in this case.

@ech @cpoliticditto@mas.to the excerpt is talking about opposition to censorship, not about payment.

@bigheadtales no grand conspiracy involved with an echo chamber.

Just a whole lot of confirmation bias and lack of information.

That you're uninformed says nothing about me. It's just that I think you should broaden your mind, broaden your experiences, see more of the world.

But hey, you do you. None of my business.

@JoshuaHolland I think you really put your finger on how easy it is to debunk that sort of claim.

If it was a genocide there wouldn't be 99 out of 100 of the supposed class of victims still alive.

It is BECAUSE only one out of 100 have been killed that we can debunk that whole claim, and we should, because it stands in the way of approaching the conflict in a way that would help to protect the other 99.

@Angle The problem is, it takes labor to make those things. You're overlooking that part of it.

Are you willing to work for free to provide value to someone else? Well maybe you are, but a whole lot of people aren't so interested in being compelled to give up their labor like that.

So long as you overlook the worker in your equation you're not going to be proposing something realistic.

Or, I'd say, moral.

@Mikal folks get the government they vote for

@Neidfyre I know that is the narrative that so many pushed, but it's not realistic.

The rules of the Senate didn't give McConnell that authority. Rather, a whole bunch of other senators were able to scapegoat McConnell instead of facing the public and making that vote.

But then, we elected them, and we reelected a whole bunch of them, so I guess we're okay with that.

Or really, we have bought into the misinformation that inaccurately describe what our representatives are doing, and so we keep giving them that power.

Anyway, think what you want. We all do.

@ewdocparris

@Amoshias no lie, as you can see above I did not make this up. That was someone else

@cpoliticditto@mas.to

@mpopp75 I see what you're saying, but with polling showing that it's such a close election so far, one state really could ruin his chances to be elected.

I'm actually in the camp saying that both Biden and Trump are so horribly in popular, with the public really wanting a different choice, that the first party to choose a different candidate is the one that's going to win.

And so based on that I end up wondering if Trump being off the ballot in a single state might be enough to prompt Republicans to go ahead and choose somebody different.

The way I frame it is, the first party who actually wants to win the election can win by choosing someone different.

So far Republicans have shown themselves to be more interested in fighting than winning. But Trump being off ballots might be enough to prompt them to reconsider.

We will see! Unprecedented times we are in.

@Amoshias Hey you asked the question. I just answered it with somebody else's content!

@cpoliticditto@mas.to

@Amoshias not at all. I wasn't the one posting the excerpt, so if someone made it up, it was the poster, not me. @cpoliticditto@mas.to

@vwestlife because sometimes we shouldn't let the US government dictate reality to us?

@mpopp75 how would it benefit Trump?

@Amoshias see above @cpoliticditto@mas.to

@calebhailey Yeah it highlights the hobby horse that I often express, that ActivityPub isn't so much decentralized as centralized around instances.

Or, more practically, I'm often struck by discussions ignoring user empowerment to focus on things like instance administration and developers imposing their personal preferences on users.

It's something I feel like highlighting a lot.

This platform is not focused on users, and I think that's an issue.

@me

@dyckron Well I think that it's really about what I'm hearing from so many Catholics, since he is supposed to be leading them.

When the pope is losing their faith (pun intended?) I think it shows that the exact people he is supposed to be leading aren't feeling led.

I personally don't have a dog in this fight since I don't consider myself an active Catholic, but I am surrounded by Catholics who are expressing such disappointment in the Pope.

@PandaChronicle " removing an insurrectionist from the ballot" is the taking away the ability to vote.

You might say we should do that. Fine! But it's important to realize that we are interfering with the ability to vote even if it's for the best that we do that.

It's about owning it.

If anything by owning what we are doing we are emphasizing just how important it is that we do it.

@LaNaehForaday

@LaNaehForaday agreed, Trump is not fit to be president, he is not above the law, but that is why it is so important to be clear and correct about what the law IS.

When I say you don't know what you're talking about I'm pointing out that you are misrepresenting what the law is.

@slcw polling says otherwise.

Really the thing that is promoting Trump as a viable candidate now is the same thing that promoted him back in 2016: people buying into this false story that he is such a strong man play into his hands as that's pretty much the only thing he can sell himself on.

Polling shows that his supporters don't even agree with each other on policy positions, and that's fine with him, because he vomits out rhetoric without substance. It's the only way he can unite voters with such absolutely opposite positions, he lets all of them think that he is a strong man who will implement whatever position the individual wants to project on him.

So we all push Trump into this position where he might win the election by buying into his whole schtick.

We need to call him out for being a empty suited loser. That's the way to actually prevent him from winning.

Otherwise, you're just playing his game and shoring up his election.

@slcw I mean that is a kooky conspiracy theory that really shouldn't get promoted.

No, it is fearmongering, and it's amazing how many people buy into the narrative without really questioning it. And that needs to be called out because it's antisocial, anti-democratic.

No anyone who actually sits down and listens outside of the echo chamber knows that that's just nonsense.