My example was from around college with a Disney adult (I know) who was adamant that Pocahontas shouldn't be counted in the Disney princess line up.
That fixation set an alarm bell in my liberal brain, but I didn't want to think it was racism at the time. But the fixation on using technicalities (not technically a princess in the western monarchy sense) like in this case was just reaching to exclude a category of people in a way that was socially acceptable.
I can see that unbending view of rules and technicalities to be a red flag. The lack of willingness to take a personal stake in a topic and couching your real thoughts in arbitrary rules has been a clear sign for me to watch out. I see it with boardgames too. The excessive rule-following clues me in to a lot of reactionary behavior.
What about the rest of you? What things turned out to be red flags like that?
Edit - Fast forward to present day and this person is no longer a friend and is big into Q, Trump, and covid denialism.
In the glorious pre-covid days I remember overhearing a bunch of normie dudes talking over some shitty local newspapers. For some reason the state of California came up in their conversation, and one of them said: "Oh yeah, they'll tax anything there!" I mean, it's actually true, but fuck those guys.
People talk about California like it’s an entirely different world with commies walking around forcing you to be queer. Like no you fucking chumps, they do capitalism way better than your sorry ass.
Yeah, in California there are a large number of people who are literally trying to like enslave the entire planet. Gotta respect their ambition even if they're a bunch of shitheads. Where I live the people with big ideas are either selling essential oils out of their living rooms or obsessing over buying houses to rent out. If you put two m*iners together you are guaranteed to hear one of these subjects come up within one or two minutes. If I had a nickle for every time I've heard people say the word "drywall"...
lolol for real. Been living in CA for 11 years but lived in MN for 18 years prior and love hearing even some of my leftist friends shit on CA as some uniquely neoliberal hellhole in our godforsaken neoliberal hellscape of a country. As if Minneapolis isn't essentially a more racist San Francisco without the diversity, weather, architecture, proximity to world class nature, and ocean views.
I’ve heard people call Boston “San Francisco, but colder and more racist.”
It's also literally not true - and yet another post-Gov. Reagan reactionary right-wing driven propaganda success story to make CA seem like this communist state. In comparison to Texas, a common circle jerked state being low-tax, you're taxed less in California if you're poor and middle class, but taxed more when you're rich. .
bruh
holy shit we just have high taxes in the US then, I make below the poverty line and I get like 400+ taken out of my check
Technically we have lower taxes than most of the developed world - but its just even more painful because it's only by like 5% and we get fuckin 0% of the social benefits. Like if you lived in France you'd prolly make even less $$, still get that $400 taken from your check, but you'd have healthcare/housing/university/etc.
I find it weird that the US doesn't have a tax-free level of income. In Australia , it's below AUD18000 a year, you only really have sales taxes.
I think it's similar here tbh, but I don't feel like googling it
I vaguely remember looking it up and there was a Federal minimum 5% tax rate, with each state doing something with taxes also
:the-more-you-know:
Even Bloomberg acknowledges that California's tax rate isn't that high unless you making at least $140k annually https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-05-19/wait-california-has-lower-middle-class-taxes-than-texas
But muh taxes.
But muh Texas!