• carpoftruth [any, any]
    hexbear
    45
    7 months ago

    what a fucking piece of shit. I hate that cowardly grifting fuck so fucking much. just the most empty 'thoughtful' cotton candy schlock, no answers except to run out the clock while israel does genocide and he gets to make another nature documentary about how important it is that someone do something about global warming. minecraft minecraft minecraft

  • buh [any]
    hexbear
    28
    7 months ago

    Yeah, the gopro clips from the last few weeks are why Gazans hate Israel 😒

  • Barabas [he/him]
    hexbear
    23
    7 months ago

    Barack Obama offered a complex analysis of the conflict between Israel and Gaza

    What passes as complex in the minds of the NYT is basically just saying "both sides, but really we gotta keep killing them kids".

    • InevitableSwing [none/use name]
      hexagon
      hexbear
      7
      edit-2
      7 months ago

      The vibe is that it's a ~3,000 word or longer article. ~5,000 words? Anyway - something hefty. In reality it's ~500 words. And the important stuff is in the second half which I quoted. But I assume for SEO reasons that "Great Man Obama Goes on Aides' Podcast" was a SEO loser so they went with something that had seeming gravitas.

  • InevitableSwing [none/use name]
    hexagon
    hexbear
    20
    7 months ago

    To the other room: "Michelle! Come quickly."

    To himself quietly: "Let me fart here. Let me fart here. Let me fart here. Let me fart here. Let me fart here. I gotta time it just right. Oh, not too soon!"

    Michelle comes into the room. "Baracky - what's goin' on?"

    BBBBBZZZZZZZZFT!

    "Smell that beautiful, bountiful bouquet!"

    She glares at him and leaves the room in a huff.

    "I love me. I really and truly love me. I do."

  • LGOrcStreetSamurai [he/him]
    hexbear
    16
    7 months ago

    One thing I find unquestionably evil about Obama is that his understanding and application of language toward his audience. He's never talking to the American people; he's always talking to the people who interpret reality for the American people. He is such a keen and slick operator toward the media class. He understands how American media works better than I think any politician in America. I think he has demonstrated his understanding of media, media consumption, and the media class in a way I don't think the media class has every really grappled with. It's stuff like this where he can say nothing and then be praised for it. That is also bolstered by the racist "articulate and educated Black man®™©" trope, and he manages to make that work to his advantage.

    I'd respect him if he were using this power for good, but he isn't and never has.

    • InevitableSwing [none/use name]
      hexagon
      hexbear
      11
      7 months ago

      I'd respect him if he were using this power for good, but he isn't and never has.

      When he won in 2008 I was a big lib and even though I wasn't 100% on the Obama train because he did a bit of a slick pol patina - I was very hopeful. Hope is just a four letter word but I only learned that in retrospect. One day I was talking to my landlady about him and what I felt about him and she mentioned a bumper sticker with the key phrase "You'll be disappointed." That wasn't what I expected at all. And because I was still a big lib - I wondered if she was fucking with me a little. I don't remember what she said exactly but it was basically that he was slick and an egomaniac. I knew she was sincere and not fucking with me at all.

      As weeks turned to months turned to years - I didn't grow disappointed but very disappointed in him. I should have left liberalism around early 2011 when I had read enough about him to know that when he said "Change has come to America," - he was basking in his own success and he was never going to do anything good because he simply didn't care. And he was and is the most lib/neolib American pol ever.

      • LGOrcStreetSamurai [he/him]
        hexbear
        6
        edit-2
        7 months ago

        When he won in 2008 I was a big lib and even though I wasn't 100% on the Obama train because he did a bit of a slick pol patina - I was very hopeful. Hope is just a four letter word but I only learned that in retrospect.

        As weeks turned to months turned to years - I didn't grow disappointed but very disappointed in him. I should have left liberalism around early 2011 when I had read enough about him to know that when he said "Change has come to America,"

        I think a lot of people (me included) have that origin story. It's really a shame to be honest.

        I know Obama was BIG reason I started looking into leftism, in particular the black radical tradition. As grow into adulthood I would honestly say that my left turn came from that broken sense of "Hope and Change™". When reading, listening, and learning about leftist thought I discovered that "Hope and Change" are in fact real (no ™ needed lea-happy ) ) but can't be found in liberalism and liberals like Obama. Also the real "Hope and Change" are hard, like SUPER hard, but they are at least truly and genuinely real.

        It's so frustrating that this dude is so slick, cool, and genuinely charismatic but all in service to the status quo. A status quo that of course upholds the very systems and institutions that make neoliberalism so ugly when you chip away the stale paint.

        • InevitableSwing [none/use name]
          hexagon
          hexbear
          4
          edit-2
          7 months ago

          I'll say one thing about Obama - even before I became a leftist - I had already gotten sick of the lib word fetish. "Obama's speech today was a master class in..." I'm only interested in "master class" stuff that gets shit done.

          It's been funny to see libs in r/politics admit that Biden is better than Obama because he did more. Every single time Obama says something like "There is a vital necessity to combat climate change," I want to scream. Why didn't you do something about it in the 8 fucking years you were in office? You awful, awful turd.

          I know Obama was BIG reason I started looking into leftism...

          I'm a very slow learner. It took Trump's 2016 election win to wake me up. A few months after his inauguration - I realized liberalism was a 100% loser for the public. Libs have entirely forgotten that a lot of them thought the presidency would "change" and "mold" Trump into a different person and he would become "presidential". Fucking ridiculous. It seemed like The Onion to me. Meanwhile I often commented in r/politics that there's a literal Nazi in the White House. He's right up Trump's alley. He's an incompetent, lying Nazi. And here's some articles about him...

          Libs forgot Gorka's name long ago. I knew they would and I was right. They couldn't tie him to Russia so they don't give a shit. Charlottesville might float around in their brain once in a while because it can be mentioned in the media as the official reason Biden ran in 2020.

          I did a little googling shellacking obama 2010. The first result made me laugh

          The president said he took responsibility for Democratic losses in the midterm election. And he pledged to work with Republican leaders on Capitol Hill on issues ranging from tax cuts to energy policy, even as GOP leaders reiterated that they wanted to stop his agenda.

          It's American politics in a nutshell. "Sorry, folks - we got shellacked. But don't worry. We gonna work with the republicans who despise me and want to destroy me. I'm sure in the end they'll do what's right for the American people." Divided government in the US is worse than useless. No matter how many speeches you give and no matter how soaring your rhetoric is. Grab power. For fuck's sake.

          If I remember it correctly - in his first two years Obama did basically nothing with his bully pulpit to help the dems try to take the house and the senate in 2010. Maybe from 2012 to 2014 he made a half-assed effort. I just don't remember.

  • ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]
    hexbear
    14
    7 months ago

    The world would be a much better place if instead of going into politics Barack Obama made it his life mission to be the next David Attenborough

    • InevitableSwing [none/use name]
      hexagon
      hexbear
      9
      7 months ago

      "The double-breasted flycatcher is a great name for a bird - isn't it? I want to share with you a marvelous experience I had in particularly lush valley next to an Andean peak where they congregate..."

  • Ildsaye [they/them]
    hexbear
    11
    edit-2
    7 months ago

    obama-socialism Uhh, folks, do I look like a guy with a plan? I'm like a Hellfire missile chasing a set of principles. I wouldn't know what to do with them if I caught them! You know, I just say things

  • Egon [they/them]
    hexbear
    10
    7 months ago

    Remember how he posted that video of him ganggliding with Richard Branson right after leaving office, while everyone else was despairing?

    • NPa [he/him]
      hexbear
      8
      7 months ago

      Imagine Obama reposting that on october 8th

      • NPa [he/him]
        hexbear
        9
        7 months ago

        obama-drone "going to some dumb techno festival with my buddy Branson"

  • @420stalin69
    hexbear
    8
    edit-2
    7 months ago

    CHANGE means shit these kids are gonna die and that’s sad as hell too bad we can do literally nothing about it and you’re wrong to try