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Cake day: July 3rd, 2023

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  • I don’t think that’s the case at all. Not everything has been successful, and in many cases efforts got watered down so they could pass congress. However, Obama and Biden have pushed for some pretty serious left wing talking points. Some examples off the top of my head:

    -Medical reform

    -Student loan forgiveness

    -Renewable energy initiatives

    -Marijuana rescheduling

    -Repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in the military

    -Immigration clemency with DACA

    Compare that with Bill Clinton, whose strategy explicitly was to place himself midway between liberals and conservatives


  • I’d generally agree, but the problem is that this particular instance is much higher stakes than most elections.

    Generally speaking, the worst case scenario would be someone like John McCain taking the reins instead of Obama. I didn’t agree with McCain about a lot of things but he was a generally honorable guy who wanted to do the best for American democracy.

    Now we have a group who is polling to win and outright saying “America needs a dictatorship”. If they get their way, it could be the last election we ever have.


  • The claims aren’t colored by propaganda and misinformation

    They sure are. A great example would be the videos making the rounds recently about the Israeli drones supposedly making “crying baby noises” to lure people out. This is a classic propaganda technique, the videos are literally just a black screen with some background sound, the Israeli government could kill those people far more easily without such tactics, and anyone who has spent time around drones regularly knows it’s extremely implausible at best.

    It’s a blatantly obvious piece of propaganda that was widely accepted because people can’t pause for five seconds to apply a bit of critical thinking to their conclusions.

    Just because they’re capable of doing genocide “better” doesn’t mean they aren’t doing it.

    It means exactly this. “Genocide” implies a certain intent and this is a very strong argument of the absence of the requisite intent.

    Also, quit implying that my comments are right wing or Russian just because they have opinions that don’t align with yours. That’s such a tired trope. I could imply the same of you, but I’m choosing to engage in good faith.

    Well maybe you shouldn’t be pushing an agenda that benefits the Russians and far-right at the expense of the Palestinian people?

    Honestly, you’re either a badly intentioned troll, lacking in some basic critical thinking skill, or simply willing to see far more Palestinians die for your ideals while you sit back in safety and watch it happen.


  • The claims of genocide are colored by propaganda and misinformation. Academic researchers are split on the issue, at best. The fact of the matter is that Israel could swiftly end all life in Gaza through overwhelming military force if that was their goal, and this has not happened.

    I’d agree that Israel’s actions in Gaza are unethical but there is a stark difference between acting without regard for civilian casualties and outright ethnic cleansing. The evidence doesn’t seem to support the latter.

    A good president would divest and sanction Israel

    A good president would prioritize what’s best for America, which means preserving the favorable relationship America has with Israel. Meanwhile, a good president would provide humanitarian aid for Palestine and help negotiate for peace.

    That’s exactly what Biden is doing and refusing to vote for him harms almost every party involved, including Palestine. Really, the only groups who would benefit are the far right and Russia… makes you wonder where comments like this come from, doesn’t it?




  • Biden isn’t “committing genocide” and saying he is amounts to simple propaganda.

    The conservatives want to take aid away from Ukraine to deliver it to Israel. If Trump wins, far more weapons will be going to Israel than they are now. Repeating propaganda like this is not helpful for the Palestinian people.

    Lastly, Israel is an important ally from a strategic perspective. Not only are they our closest ally in the Middle East, but they have a number of important resources like intel semiconductor facilities. Cutting ties with Israel would be bad for America, and the role of the US government is to put America first. It’s more complex than simply supporting one side or the other and Biden is attempting to balance aid for Palestine with preserving our relationship with Israel. That’s exactly what a good president should be doing.







  • Seriously. Southern CA alone is 4-5x the population of all of Norway, and that region often has 3-4 taco shops per block when it’s allowed by zoning.

    Edit: the USA has 75,000 Mexican restaurants. That means that there are only 73 people in Norway for every Mexican restaurant in the United States.

    The average restaurant in the USA serves 100 people per day. That means that, on average, US Mexican restaurants serve more people daily than the entire population of Norway.


  • The fact of the matter is that people will happily pay for content if it is made available in a convenient and affordable way. Hell, many people will voluntarily pay artists for content that is available completely for free. That’s how patreon works, and there are self published authors approaching $1M/year in income due to readers choosing to support the author for their hard work.

    People have no issue paying content creators.

    Piracy rose to prominence in the 2000s because a few executives were funneling massive amounts of money into their pockets by the sale of CDs and cable services that were simultaneously expensive and inconvenient. The studios attacked pirates directly to little effect because you simply can’t stop the free dissemination of information among the public.

    Piracy almost completely died when streaming made the alternatives affordable, user friendly and convenient. In a world where the proliferation of streaming services is making content just as expensive and inconvenient as in the old days of cable, it’s only natural that piracy will once again rise to prominence.

    If they want to get paid, they simply need to stop fucking with the customer and offer a service people want to pay for.





  • nBodyProblem@lemmy.worldtoRPGMemes @ttrpg.networkIt's the dream, really
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    3 months ago

    It’s worth noting that the lack of second language proficiency isn’t a result of laziness or ignorance

    In Europe, most people are a short train ride from another country. There is also a lot of cultural exchange between countries within Europe.

    Most Americans are multiple days of driving from the nearest non English speaking country, and that’s just to arrive in an area of Mexico where the people they will interact with overwhelmingly speak English.

    In that context, there is little utility for most people in learning a second language. It’s also very difficult to achieve true proficiency when you are so rarely exposed to native speakers of a language.