I mentioned that I voted, and they naturally asked me who I voted for. I said, "De la Cruz. Third party."

"Sorry, I didn't quite catch that?", one of them said, and the whole group looked at me a bit puzzled — so I reiterated, "De la Cruz, a third-party candidate."

"...Wait, there's a *THIRD* party?"

  • UlyssesT
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    2 months ago

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    • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat
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      2 months ago

      didn’t even abolish most of Trump’s prior policies and even expanded many of them

      Do you really believe this is true? I can probably hit a list of 20 that he reversed or removed, if you want to switch away from pure bait and into something factual.

      Tell me, what Trump policies did he expand? What are some of the many?

      • UlyssesT
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        • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat
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          2 months ago

          Biden didn’t close Trump’s camps (and Obama started most of them!), he just renamed them.

          This one's a whole can of worms that would require some level of good faith and listening for me to explain fully. Short answer, Biden tried to change the US's immigration policy several times and it didn't work. It's fundamentally a terrible system, and he did some amount to change that and didn't hit the gas on its most terrible features like Trump did, but it's still terrible today, and we can say that it's okay to hold him responsible for that since at the end of the day, the buck stops with him. I have more I could say on it that you would interpret as liberal bullshit, but you're not a million miles off base.

          Biden let just about all of Trump’s executive orders stand and didn’t reverse them.

          Biden reversed 31% of them.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_executive_orders_by_Donald_Trump

          I don't know what your metric for, "just about all" is. I think you'll have to get more specific than just the raw number. I have no real idea which ones are most significant or whether specific ones in those significant areas were left or undone.

          To me, Biden did great on the climate, horrendous on enabling genocide in Gaza, and great on undoing the great fuckening of the working class that's been a project since 1980. With both of those "greats" calibrated within the limits of what he could do within our pretty dystopian governmental system. Those are the biggest things I care about. If you want to talk specific actions, bring up the actions instead of just generalities about how many orders.

          Biden handed out more oil drilling permits than Trump did!

          There's a popular way of talking about Biden's impact on the climate that's crafted by the right wing to depress support for the Democrats among the left, so that they can get people in who really want to destroy the climate, by making it sound like there's no difference between the parties.

          The IRA is the biggest climate action an American president has ever done, ten times over. It's predicted by experts to roughly double the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions every year:

          https://www.princeton.edu/news/2023/07/12/new-study-evaluates-climate-impact-ira

          That's not enough. It's laughable. But how he got a bunch of American politicians including Joe Manchin to agree to that much, I have no idea.

          It needs to be doubled again, this year or ideally 15 years ago, to make a difference. If someone comes out saying that we need to redouble the thing 5 times over to make a significant difference, and laugh in the face of this 4% shit, that sounds great to me. I would support that. If someone cherry-picks particular ways of looking at it, counting permits being one of those ways, that don't really reflect what it did for emissions, and then argues that it's not worth voting because Trump would be basically the same, I'm going to be suspicious of their motives.

          I don't know why I spent this much time laying out facts about how I look at it. I may not continue. But you said factual things, so I'm willing to have at least a short factual conversation about what happened.

          Do you have any fucking ground to stand upon at all or are you just going to post more passive-aggressive shit?

          Lol. I am king passive-aggressive. I don't need anyone's help at being liberal or smug. But someone from Hexbear complaining that they're talking to someone who's not being nice to them in their tone and presentation is fucking hilarious.

          I'll talk facts for at least a short time, if you want to, but let's not get ourselves confused about who took a shit in this particular paddling-pool and made it all unpleasant to have a conversation in.

          • UlyssesT
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            2 months ago

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            • frauddogg [null/void, undecided]
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              2 months ago

              Trying to own it doesn't make it less obnoxious, you liberal clown.

              Cracker thought the 8 Mile Maneuver works anywhere but the fuckin movies

              • UlyssesT
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                2 months ago

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                • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat
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                  2 months ago

                  Just a clarification, I'm not at all wishing death and suffering on anyone here. I am predicting it for a lot of them that are in the US, if Trump wins, but it's not at all what I want. Not wanting people to suffer is precisely why I'm talking with you all. It's not because it's fun. This creatively backwards reception so everyone can get busy dunking is precisely the kind of big-brain thinking that leaves you all unwelcome in most places even on Lemmy.

                  It seems there is to be no meeting of the minds. I think I'm okay with that.

                  • UlyssesT
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                    2 months ago

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                  • LesbianLiberty [she/her]
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                    2 months ago

                    This creatively backwards reception so everyone can get busy dunking is precisely the kind of big-brain thinking that leaves you all unwelcome in most places even on Lemmy.

                    Crybully type shit. You're being dunked on for being horrendously right wing with the unearned smugness of thinking you yourself are "left wing". "Negotiating" with power the way you ask of us here is simply the privilege of not being the next target, or imagining you aren't.

                  • Cowbee [he/him, they/them]
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                    2 months ago

                    Just a clarification, I'm not at all wishing death and suffering on anyone here. I am predicting it for a lot of them that are in the US, if Trump wins, but it's not at all what I want. Not wanting people to suffer is precisely why I'm talking with you all.

                    And we are telling you the death and suffering comes from the Democrats as well. The Dems are just as anti-Communist as the Republicans, that's the main thing they agree on thurston

                  • Diva (she/her)@lemmy.ml
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                    2 months ago

                    It seems there is to be no meeting of the minds. I think I’m okay with that.

                    The only thing I'm predicting that I'm meeting your mind with is an icepick

                  • REgon [they/them]
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                    edit-2
                    2 months ago

                    i am wishing death and suffering upon you. I hope your life gets materially worse. I hope you get leprosy. I hope you get stabbed. I hope you get long covid. I hope you hang for your collaborationist ways and I hope the hangman fucks up so it's painful

                  • frauddogg [null/void, undecided]
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                    2 months ago

                    It seems there is to be no meeting of the minds. I think I'm okay with that.

                    I'd like to meet your fucking pancreas with a corkscrew you smug fuck

          • Diva (she/her)@lemmy.ml
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            2 months ago

            let’s not get ourselves confused about who took a shit in this particular paddling-pool and made it all unpleasant to have a conversation in.

            you did that by being a part of it you fucking donkey

          • REgon [they/them]
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            2 months ago

            let’s not get ourselves confused about who took a shit in this particular paddling-pool and made it all unpleasant to have a conversation in.

            Yeah there's broad agreement that was you. So if everybody but you says you're a smug asshole, consider the possibility that you're not infallible and you are in fact a smug asshole who doesn't know what they are talking about

          • frauddogg [null/void, undecided]
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            2 months ago

            here's a popular way of talking about Biden's impact on the climate that's crafted by the right wing to depress support

            Die in a fucking fire. Die screaming. There is no fucking way your liberal settler ass really fixed your face to read all the 100% VALID ANSWERS TO YOUR FUCKING QUESTION and the first fucking place you go is "buh buh this was a right-winger-crafted argument" ON A FORUM FULL OF COMMUNISTS, ANARCHISTS, AND MAOISTS.

            Please die. Die and stop inconveniencing the electrons your smug horsefuckery propagates through

          • ProfessorOwl_PhD [any]
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            2 months ago

            You don't get to complain about "good faith" when you burst in to complain about the ppbs we haven't even posted yet, you get to climb to the top of a very tall building and yeet yourself into the void.

          • UlyssesT
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            2 months ago

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      • REgon [they/them]
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        2 months ago

        Tell me, what Trump policies did he expand? What are some of the many?

        Well you would know this if you'd engaged with the arguments put forth by some of the many many many people who responded to you before @UlyssesT@hexbear.net did (myself included). The fact you still act oblivious to these things makes it ever more clear that you're just a regular schmuck who mistakes their farts for the smell of roses. You're not here to convince anyone of anything, nor are you here in good faith or in the interest of discussion. You're here because you're a shitty person who lacks basic humility and decency and you want to be told that it's actually completely fine to vote for genocide.

        Have the common decency to stop pretending. Just admit you hate brown people, don't give a fuck about queer people and feel revulsion for poor people. At least republicans have the decency not to pretend these things and you're as far right as they are. You're just cutesy about it
        norm-respectable <- You
        holden-bloodfeast <- What hides under the skin you use to camouflage yourself as a divine being with a soul