The All Things Political Topic - What's Going On...?

[Hurlshort]

Tuesday I gave a whole lesson on the 1st amendment and free speech. I addressed the Charlie Kirk shooting, but my focus was mostly on the freedom of religion, speech, media, and protest that the 1st amendment covers. 

Now the FCC has pushed a network to remove Jimmy Kimmel from his late-night show. He wasn't removed because of costs or ratings, he was removed immediately after the FCC made threatening statements.

I'm not sure how to proceed with my lesson. 

edit: Also what the hell is happening that the head of the FCC is going on podcasts? Like when did that become a thing?

Edited Thursday at 01:08 PM by Hurlshort

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I think the thing that strikes me the most about the beatiification of Kirk (apologies to @Malcador for stealing it, but it fits too well) is how little of it outside of the anti-reality bubble of fascists and adjacents (who think Kirk being a propagandist is based and good) actually features Kirk's own words. Kirk is probably one of the most recorded men in history but there many are columns from "respectable" liberals and centrists that somehow manage to not include a single word of his when eulogizing him. It's insane to me how suddenly we have to pretend a guy who had been showing us just who he is for a decade is someone completely different.

Obviously I don't think he should have been killed (hello Kash).

1 hour ago, Lexx said:

It's facebook, so bear with me, but I thought the video was interesting and some around here should probably watch it: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1127212979501787

It's a decent explanation of how most reactionary media works, but the people who need it most extend the benefit of the doubt to people in the orbit Kirk was a part of out of ideological motivations rather than logical.

1 hour ago, Hurlshort said:

Also what the hell is happening that the head of the FCC is going on podcasts? Like when did that become a thing?

The right generally and Trumpworld specifically have made particular podcasts their go-to media engagements. It'd be a surprise if he wasn't.

[Malcador]

CBC is subjecting me to this moron too 

 

 

[rjshae]

3 hours ago, Hurlshort said:

Tuesday I gave a whole lesson on the 1st amendment and free speech. I addressed the Charlie Kirk shooting, but my focus was mostly on the freedom of religion, speech, media, and protest that the 1st amendment covers. 

Now the FCC has pushed a network to remove Jimmy Kimmel from his late-night show. He wasn't removed because of costs or ratings, he was removed immediately after the FCC made threatening statements.

I'm not sure how to proceed with my lesson. 

edit: Also what the hell is happening that the head of the FCC is going on podcasts? Like when did that become a thing?

For me, I think the lesson is that the First Amendment doesn't protect us from media conglomerates controlling the message. The irony is that Kimmel's show wasn't suspended for something he said about Kirk, but apparently about the killer being another gun nut like the Trumpies.

[BruceVC]

4 hours ago, Malcador said:

So you're impressed by shiny things, too.

 

Thats a simplification of what impresses me

But a lavish  event like  this at a 1000 year old castle does impress me

Its not about Trump, its the effort and outcome of the banquet that I admire 

The decorum and dress code as well

This is what was on the menu, interestingly the menu was in French
 

• Hampshire Watercress Panna Cotta with Parmesan shortbread and quail egg salad
• Organic Norfolk chicken ballotine wrapped in courgettes with a thyme and savoury infused jus
• Vanilla ice cream bombe with Kentish raspberry sorbet interior with lightly poached Victoria plums

And then expensive wine was served for those quests that drink
 

• Wiston Estate, Cuvée, 2016
• Domaine Bonneau de Martray, Corton-Charlemagne, Grand Cru, 2018
• Ridge Vineyards, Monte Bello, 2000
• Pol Roger, Extra Cuvée de Réserve, 1998

 

[Pidesco]

9 hours ago, BruceVC said:

What is your definition of fascism and can you give some examples of how the US is currently a fascist state? Or are you saying its becoming a fascist state but examples would still be interesting

And do you think this is permanent  if the US is a fascist state, so for example if the Dems win the next election will the US continue to be fascist?

Or do you mean its only a fascist state if Trump is president?

Sorry for the questions but I want to get clarity on what you believe 

 

 

Descent into fascism is a process not an end state. 

 

Examples:

• using government regulatory authorities to silence speech the powerful don't like.
• Plain clothes security forces rounding up people without due process. 
• The Supreme Court using the shadow docket to push through blatantly unconstitutional decisions in favor of the current administration 
• The rule of law being repeatedly ignored with no consequences 

 

I'd say that for the midterms to change anything the dems would have to have crushing victories in both the House and the Senate. I'm not sure, but I think in the Senate that's utterly impossible, even with the assumption of entirely free and fair elections. Also that assumption is becoming less and less guaranteed. Additionally, even if the dems win overwhelmingly, if they keep behaving in the same way they did during the Biden mandate, they will, at best, be an hiatus. 

 

I don't think Trump is necessary anymore, at this point the GOP seems entirely captured by its far right faction. Still, what happens to the GOP with a dead Trump is a bit of an open question. I sometimes have conversations with a colleague of mine who thinks Vance would be worse than Trump. I think he'd be a lame duck. 

 

[HoonDing]

1 hour ago, Pidesco said:

Descent into fascism

[Pidesco]

4 minutes ago, HoonDing said:

[Malcador]

2 hours ago, BruceVC said:

Thats a simplification of what impresses me

But a lavish  event like  this at a 1000 year old castle does impress me

Its not about Trump, its the effort and outcome of the banquet that I admire 

The decorum and dress code as well

This is what was on the menu, interestingly the menu was in French
 

• Hampshire Watercress Panna Cotta with Parmesan shortbread and quail egg salad
• Organic Norfolk chicken ballotine wrapped in courgettes with a thyme and savoury infused jus
• Vanilla ice cream bombe with Kentish raspberry sorbet interior with lightly poached Victoria plums

And then expensive wine was served for those quests that drink
 

• Wiston Estate, Cuvée, 2016
• Domaine Bonneau de Martray, Corton-Charlemagne, Grand Cru, 2018
• Ridge Vineyards, Monte Bello, 2000
• Pol Roger, Extra Cuvée de Réserve, 1998

 

Very accurate for a simplification, then.

[uuuhhii]

usa label antifa as terror organization

so blatant it might as well be parody

[rjshae]

4 hours ago, uuuhhii said:

usa label antifa as terror organization

so blatant it might as well be parody

Apparently DJT has done this before, but nothing came of it. As usual he's wasting government money and resources chasing his own alternate reality viewpoint.

[BruceVC]

10 hours ago, Malcador said:

Very accurate for a simplification, then.

If you classify a formal dinner with an established level of decorum that includes a  dress code as " shiny things " then you right 

Typically " shiny things " would be someone driving a Ferrari or a personal choice to wear lots of diamonds at some celebrity event and fans say " wow....look at those diamonds "

A 1000 year old historical castle and a military procession is not typically considered that but  whatever makes you happy 

 

Edited Friday at 05:46 AM by BruceVC

[Bartimaeus]

On 9/18/2025 at 12:42 PM, Pidesco said:

I think in the Senate that's utterly impossible

It's basically impossible. Susan Collins will be vulnerable in Maine and Thom Thillis is retiring in North Carolina: those two are the best pick-up opportunities for Democrats. After that, it gets a lot more dicey, with seats in Ohio, Texas, Alaska, Iowa, Nebraska, and Florida being the most likely to flip. I say "most likely to flip" but of course, none of them are actually likely to flip. In contrast, Democrats will be defending competitive seats in both Georgia and Michigan, and somewhat competitive seats in Minnesota and New Hampshire. There's a long time between now and the election, though: if the economy explodes even more between now and then, Democrats may have a hurricane storming behind them...or perhaps we might not have elections at all.

I don't think anyone can really predict what will happen to the Republican Party once Trump goes...especially not knowing exactly where the party will be before he goes. Like other cults of personality, he's the linchpin that holds it all together, and history has numerous examples of both implosions and of someone successfully being able to fill the void...and while I don't see any obvious candidates for who could do it, the opportunity will certainly present itself.

Edited yesterday at 01:04 AM by Bartimaeus

[Gromnir]

On 9/18/2025 at 10:42 AM, Pidesco said:

Descent into fascism is a process not an end state. 

 

Examples:

• using government regulatory authorities to silence speech the powerful don't like.
• Plain clothes security forces rounding up people without due process. 
• The Supreme Court using the shadow docket to push through blatantly unconstitutional decisions in favor of the current administration 
• The rule of law being repeatedly ignored with no consequences 

 

 

 

you are describing authoritarianism more than fascism, but such confusion ain't your fault as the definition o' fascism is a gestalt o' somewhat related qualities and factors which exist to greater or lesser degrees in various real world examples of fascism. given the admitted fuzzy descriptor o' fascism, you end up with kinda a dual problem as 1) almost nobody genuine knows what fascism means, and 2) it is not difficult to legitimize pounding any square peg you don't like into the fascist round hole.

if you don't like cops, the catholic church or no-smoking areas, then is all too common you will see those entities, organizations and regulations as fascist. authoritarian + more-than-just-bad = fascist? am not suggesting @Pidescois doing such, but am sure you have noticed such behavior.

that said, the current US embrace of authoritarianism is bordering on axiomatic. for crying out loud, even the trump campaign distanced itself from project 2025 during the run up to the election in part because even the folks at fox recognized the proposed blueprint was overtly embracing authoritarian methodology to achieve extreme goals... were a franco christmas list for chrissakes. the pushback against project 2025 complaints from the right was not that project 2025 were a legit approach to government reform but rather that libs were using the mad scribblings o' a fringe group to unjust paint trump as a wannabee dictator. we are eight months into this Presidency and something like 47% o' project 2025 goals has been implemented. 

fascism? if you were attempting to plot where the US is on a fascist graph or spectrum, am willing to concede that due to the challenging nature o' the fascist definition, there is uncertainty in definitive identifying nascent fascist regimes sans equivocation. nevertheless, 2025 US has gotta be worse than 1930s and charles lindbergh, yes? 

...

am disappointed by the tech companies, media organizations and even universities as they capitulate at the first sign o' trump displeasure. few law firms have fought back against trump, although every one who has done so won in court. those firms with any kinda mergers and acquisitions portfolio has too often displayed humiliating, if predictable, cowardice. am not at all shocked by the craven servility o' Congressional republicans.  also, we fully anticipated that +1/3 o' the country would cheer on trump as he indulged his most salient personality attributes: greed, vanity, pettiness, ignorance, cruelty. most o' this freaking mess is what we has warned 'bout all too often, although am gonna admit we were genuine dumbfounded by the blatant grift of the proposed tik tok deal... and cecot caught us complete off guard.  

is september 2025 and we keep waiting for some kinda pushback from ordinary americans. trump loyalists will stick with the President no matter what, but the majority o' americans ain't hardcore maga. there is some encouraging signs that the mass deportations and ending protected status for venezuelan asylum seekers is having an impact on those admitted diverse latino voters who flipped from democrat to republican in the recent election, but the problem is that while they no longer trust trump, am doubtful they are more enamored with "godless" democrats in 2025 than they was in 2024. still, if all those latinos just don't vote, it would help democrats in the midterms.

will it take some unspecific level o' inflation/stagflation to finally motivate americans to protest en masse, 'cause masked ice agents mistaken brutalizing american citizens hasn't.  sending the national guard to american cities? meh. trump and elon's colossal failed promise of $2 trillion in dodge savings? tax cuts for billionaires leading to rural hospital shutdowns? trump's sh!t coin shennanigans? the epstein files? what?

joe manchin is doing a book tour. kamala harris also released a book. what we learned via reporting o' the books (is no way in hell we read either offering) is that the only thing democrats and republicans can agree on in 2025 is that democrats suck. anywho, we bring up manchin specific 'cause we saw him recent on a podcast (to sell his book) and among other topics, he explained why west virginians keep voting republican in spite o' the fact republicans has now controlled the state for years and the economic situation in west virginia has gotten noticeable worse-- what would it take for a demcorat to win in west virgina? manchin conceded that the democrat brand is too toxic in west virginia for any democrat to win, regardless o' economic policies or promises. is tribal/social/community which has west virginians reject democrats, and it ain't so much democrat economic policies which is the problem. the people of west virginia won't vote democrat 'cause they see democrats as habitual "mainstreaming"  behaviors west virginains don't approve. democrat values is repugnant, so west virginians will vote against democrats regardless o' economic interests.

let that sink in when trying to predict future election outcomes.

HA! Good Fun!

 

[Gorgon]

On 9/18/2025 at 6:33 PM, rjshae said:

For me, I think the lesson is that the First Amendment doesn't protect us from media conglomerates controlling the message. The irony is that Kimmel's show wasn't suspended for something he said about Kirk, but apparently about the killer being another gun nut like the Trumpies.

I suppose the next logical step is to explain the power structure underneath.

this is where you slip the kids some Noam Chompsky on the dl.

 

edit: I meant to quote Hurlshot as well, but it doesn’t wanna do it on my ipad

 

[Pidesco]

5 hours ago, Gromnir said:

you are describing authoritarianism more than fascism, but such confusion ain't your fault as the definition o' fascism is a gestalt o' somewhat related qualities and factors which exist to greater or lesser degrees in various real world examples of fascism. given the admitted fuzzy descriptor o' fascism, you end up with kinda a dual problem as 1) almost nobody genuine knows what fascism means, and 2) it is not difficult to legitimize pounding any square peg you don't like into the fascist round hole.

if you don't like cops, the catholic church or no-smoking areas, then is all too common you will see those entities, organizations and regulations as fascist. authoritarian + more-than-just-bad = fascist? am not suggesting @Pidescois doing such, but am sure you have noticed such behavior.

that said, the current US embrace of authoritarianism is bordering on axiomatic. for crying out loud, even the trump campaign distanced itself from project 2025 during the run up to the election in part because even the folks at fox recognized the proposed blueprint was overtly embracing authoritarian methodology to achieve extreme goals... were a franco christmas list for chrissakes. the pushback against project 2025 complaints from the right was not that project 2025 were a legit approach to government reform but rather that libs were using the mad scribblings o' a fringe group to unjust paint trump as a wannabee dictator. we are eight months into this Presidency and something like 47% o' project 2025 goals has been implemented. 

fascism? if you were attempting to plot where the US is on a fascist graph or spectrum, am willing to concede that due to the challenging nature o' the fascist definition, there is uncertainty in definitive identifying nascent fascist regimes sans equivocation. nevertheless, 2025 US has gotta be worse than 1930s and charles lindbergh, yes? 

...

am disappointed by the tech companies, media organizations and even universities as they capitulate at the first sign o' trump displeasure. few law firms have fought back against trump, although every one who has done so won in court. those firms with any kinda mergers and acquisitions portfolio has too often displayed humiliating, if predictable, cowardice. am not at all shocked by the craven servility o' Congressional republicans.  also, we fully anticipated that +1/3 o' the country would cheer on trump as he indulged his most salient personality attributes: greed, vanity, pettiness, ignorance, cruelty. most o' this freaking mess is what we has warned 'bout all too often, although am gonna admit we were genuine dumbfounded by the blatant grift of the proposed tik tok deal... and cecot caught us complete off guard.  

is september 2025 and we keep waiting for some kinda pushback from ordinary americans. trump loyalists will stick with the President no matter what, but the majority o' americans ain't hardcore maga. there is some encouraging signs that the mass deportations and ending protected status for venezuelan asylum seekers is having an impact on those admitted diverse latino voters who flipped from democrat to republican in the recent election, but the problem is that while they no longer trust trump, am doubtful they are more enamored with "godless" democrats in 2025 than they was in 2024. still, if all those latinos just don't vote, it would help democrats in the midterms.

will it take some unspecific level o' inflation/stagflation to finally motivate americans to protest en masse, 'cause masked ice agents mistaken brutalizing american citizens hasn't.  sending the national guard to american cities? meh. trump and elon's colossal failed promise of $2 trillion in dodge savings? tax cuts for billionaires leading to rural hospital shutdowns? trump's sh!t coin shennanigans? the epstein files? what?

joe manchin is doing a book tour. kamala harris also released a book. what we learned via reporting o' the books (is no way in hell we read either offering) is that the only thing democrats and republicans can agree on in 2025 is that democrats suck. anywho, we bring up manchin specific 'cause we saw him recent on a podcast (to sell his book) and among other topics, he explained why west virginians keep voting republican in spite o' the fact republicans has now controlled the state for years and the economic situation in west virginia has gotten noticeable worse-- what would it take for a demcorat to win in west virgina? manchin conceded that the democrat brand is too toxic in west virginia for any democrat to win, regardless o' economic policies or promises. is tribal/social/community which has west virginians reject democrats, and it ain't so much democrat economic policies which is the problem. the people of west virginia won't vote democrat 'cause they see democrats as habitual "mainstreaming"  behaviors west virginains don't approve. democrat values is repugnant, so west virginians will vote against democrats regardless o' economic interests.

let that sink in when trying to predict future election outcomes.

HA! Good Fun!

 

While my examples were more generic authoritarian than fascist, a significant portion of Eco's list already applies to a tee to current situation in the US. That said, at this point, differentiating between authoritarianism and fascism is at best an interesting rhetorical exercise, at worse a distraction. Also whether the situation now is better or worse than in the Lindberg days, is really not that important. More important is where American political institutions and discourse stand now compared to ten, twenty or forty years ago. I'd argue things are moving in the wrong direction and accelerated dramatically with Trump's accession this year. 

 

Regarding your disappointments, I wasn't really surprised myself with either media or tech companies capitulating to Trump. Tech companies especially weren't so much capitulating but rather going mask off in the name of profits. Not all of them are run by complete nutso Peter Thiel, but the Zuckerbergs and Bezos and Musks of the world are not that far removed from Thiel.

 

 

[Malcador]

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/19/pentagon-limits-access-journalists-00574227

Muh free speech as usual

[Gromnir]

am agreeing the US is embracing fascism with disappointing vigor and speed, but am simply noting that all too often people use "fascist" and "authoritarian" interchangeable... save that fascist feels worse, so is more pejorative? most o' us rolled our eyes when vol identified every group or action he disagreed with as nazi. all too often, people do something similar with the fascit label. 

dunno. regardless, am agreeing that the US is pretty deep into fascism at the moment.

the following is kinda silly, but also illustrative

valhalla? the commander in chief dodged the draft for chrissakes, but somehow we got this weird quasi-comic warrior culture being perpetuated by pete hegseth and... kash patel, the trump administration's living embodiment o' peter pettigrew. serious? add contempt/fear o' science, demonization o' trans people and minority groups, a s'posed "invasion" at the southern border, exploitation of outrage and grievance, as well as the deep state nonsense. etc. 

but again, is not difficult to make a fascist argument for almost any government organization or action... if you don't like 'em. am simply pointing out that identifying generic authoritarian behaviors and practices by a government doesn't genuine push the needle toward a result of fascism in any meaningful way. 

as for tech company's following the lure o' profit, we agree... mostly. during the biden years the tech companies were doing extreme well. profits were historic good. the US economy were the "envy of the world" and all that. sure, ordinary americans had struggles with inflation and cost of living concerns, but the tech bros were unaffected by such minutiae. one reason why bernie sanders and elizabeth warren were always outraged during the biden term is 'cause never had so few made so much money in such a short a period o' time, and those tech bro billionaires were paying proportional less in taxes than rich people had been required to pay for +80 years. converse, trump is an ignorant buffoon who doesn't care what happens to the economy as long as he personal gets rich. the tech guys knew before the election that tariffs were problematic and trump's current assault on the fed is not helping with investor confidence. mass deportations is necessarily gonna result in further inflation as well as a shrinking of the consumer and tax-paying base as well as creating severe impacts on specific industries such as agriculture and construction. the tech guys know that if the economy tanks, they will also suffer, but they nevertheless supported (and continue to support) erratic and ignorant as 'posed to the status quo, a status quo which were making them all fabulously rich. so, if profits were your most pressing concern, which bet made more sense, harris or trump?

am gonna suggest that even more than profit, the tech guys is blinded by their need for control. there is a belief amongst the tech bros that if they have control, they will keep making money no matter what, so control and profit is necessarily intertwined, but if if they gotta make a choice 'tween the two, control wins. biden frequently cut the tech oligarchs outta the decision making 'round government regulation of ai and lina khan was kinda their nightmares given flesh. converse, the tech guys can get trump to respond to their phone calls and a shiny bauble and a performative genuflection is, they believe, gonna get them the results they desire. kleptorcacy and oligarchy ain't the same thing, but the tech oligarchs is betting that they are able to convince trump to enrich them too even if the recent conflict 'tween elon musk and donald trump should prove that they don't have legit control. 

regardless, if profits were genuine your most pressing concern, why would you f with the status quo o' the previous administration?

HA! Good Fun!

ps our biggest concern regarding the endemic misunderstanding o' fascism is that the only reason most maga folks, not to mention a considerable % o' the remaining general population, reflexive balk at being called fascist is 'cause they don't know what is fascism. w/o mention o' fascism, describe the kinda vague ideology being promoted by tucker carlson, bennie johnson and yeah, charlie kirk using the framework o' umberto eco's fourteen features. describe in glowing terms how tucker, unlike the mainstream media, recognizes the threat of trans people and immigrants, or how bennie johnson embraces a return o' masculinity. without mention o' fascism, use the fourteen features to describe the increasingly typical right-wing pundit and then see how many americans see such as problematic v. positive. when the el paso walmart shooting happened, we read the shooter's manifesto. in 2009, the manifesto woulda' sounded like the ranting o' a lunatic. in 2019, the manifesto's main points were familiar to anybody who followed tucker carlson. @Pidescois no doubt certain that fascism is unhealthy for a society, and history supports that conclusion, but am increasing of the opinion that fascism is only seen as pejorative by most maga types because they don't know what fascism is. 

pps am also gonna observe how most o' the media companies, law firms and universities who has capitulated were similar going mask off in the name of profits. as noted, the law firms who rolled over for tump were the firms who has big merger and acquisition portfolios. the current kerfuffle regarding jimmy kimmel happened 'cause the head o' the fcc intimated that he would kill a prospective merger deal 'tween sinclair and nexstar. earlier when cbs and abc caved to trump whims, it were also likely due to the fact they got big deals in the works which require fed approval to happen. universities caved as soon as trump went after their grants. etc.

this trump administration has had difficulty avoiding tripping over their own feet even as the rough beast, its hour come at last, slouches toward bethlehem. even so, you gotta hand it to the project 2025 folks as they appeared to bet that all the big talk from lawyers, universities and others regarding rights and justice was just so much air and that if tested, people with the power to make a difference would choose their third vacation house as 'posed to remaining true to their espoused convictions. trump, is a psycopath, but am s'posing that is the source o' much o' his success. trump can smell weakness? 

 

Edited 19 hours ago by Gromnir

[Elerond]

I would guess that tech bros like that Trump and republicans don't look regulations for AI, except for their Chinese competitors. During Biden era OpenAI, Meta etc. tried to be proactive with regulation for AI research, but after Trump take office all talk about regulating AI has halted, giving tech companies free ability to break copyright and use people private information to teach their models, tech companies even push spy modules on computers to log how people are using their computers, use their data in cloud services and social media and feed that to learning data for their models. They are able to do lot of things that should be blocked by data protection, copyright and trademark laws and they clearly hope use this situation to make situation such that there is no point create regulations in future either, because all the information is already permanently pushed in the models and trying to remove that data would lead lot of things breaking because AI is pushed everywhere. 

[Gromnir]

@Elerondyeah, we specific identified the tech bros feeling left out o' the decision making regarding government regulation o' ai as a motivation for choosing trump over harris, but the problem is they get everything else trump along with deregulation. trump is mercurial and is simultaneous trying to take control of the US economy. in 2024, the potential downside o' a trump Presidency for tech bros as he talked up tariffs, mass deportations and suggested he would overhaul the fed, shoulda' been enough to discourage people who were collective making more money under biden than any group o' people had ever made during a similar span o' time in the history o' the US.

take him seriously but not literally. 

people have been saying that bit o' pith since 2015 and time and again trump shows us how it is a mistake to not take him literal even if he frequent tacos. 

so is 2025 and the tariffs were never gonna happen for reals is now happening and so too is mass deportations. contrary to trump claims, nobody in their right mind is making major US manufacturing investments 'cause o' endemic uncertainty caused by trump and we finally got a rate cut that trump wanted, but we got it 'cause signs is showing a serious weakening o' the economy. any foreign government which is willing to make a billion dollar investment in trump's sh!t coin gets favorable deals, which leads more uncertainty, and certainty was kinda the reason the dollar has been an effective reserve currency which is partial why we got market multipliers in the US which has been considerable better than europe or asian.

yeah, the tech guys is building ai data centers at a break neck pace, data centers which create almost no new jobs for american workers, and certainty not for those rust belt folks who voted for trump, but simultaneous trump has cut federal investment in all kinda energy projects 'cause he hates windmills and solar, and is not as if by doing so trump made the fossil fuel guys happy 'cause trump is simultaneous working overtime to keep fuel prices low while also making energy production more expensive via his tariff shenanigans and mass deportations.  the tech bros need vast new energy production and trump actions is making energy production more difficult and less lucrative, so...

etc.

yeah, the tech bros got deregulation o' ai and they exorcised lina khan, but on balance, are they more uncertain today compared to september o' 2024? am understanding why bankers and investors is ok with uncertainty 'cause they is making buckets o' money whether there is a massive shift up or down in the markets. am disappointed by the myopia o' the investor class, but we get it. converse, if during the biden years you were a tech bro who made more money than were previously imagined, why would the reality o' 2025 look like a win?

HA! Good Fun!

Edited 18 hours ago by Gromnir

[majestic]

3 hours ago, Elerond said:

I would guess that tech bros like that Trump and republicans don't look regulations for AI

Curtis Yarvin has been blogging about his dreams for almost twenty years, blogs called Unqualified Reservations and Gray Mirror, you can look them up if you want, and he calls it Dark Enlightenment (a name that teenagers could easily pick for their goth or black metal band). Companies existing as their own little kingdoms with their own laws, and them as kings. Cities run as companies, competing for citizens. The final Cyberpunk form of Guard Dog's beloved libertarianism.

He blogged about how to turn the US into an autocracy and has inspired the neo-reactioary movement. He's a nutjob who has gone from defining castes of people in the US, arguing that South American immigrants are part of a caste where men are criminals and women on welfare, to giving them names from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (elves are the liberal ruling elite, hobbits are the middle class and dwarves the workers) and wants to replace the elves with dark elves (i.e. him and his ilk). Friends with J. D. Vance (who has publicly quoted the "works" of Yarvin and referenced Yarvin's idea of the Cathedral in speeches), even though he's been trying to distance himself from him, and backed by Peter Thiel. The same Peter Thiel who runs companies like Mithril and Palantir, because referencing Tolkien's body of work is fun.

A nutjob who was invited to the inaugural gala of Mango Mussolini because by now he's an influencial figure among the alt-right / neo-reactionaries. You know, someone who wants to turn the United States into a monarchy, with ties to the vice president, in an administration where the president has posted and talked about himself as being the king on more than one occasion. Who said that voting for him would be the last time people need to vote.

With people like Bruce still believing he's joking. The tech bros are, as Gromnir put it, vying for control. Absolute control. I mean, what can you do when you're so rich that you and your familiy will never want for anything for any forseeable future? Well, why not become king?

Edited 16 hours ago by majestic

[Malcador]

Stupid cyberpunk authors didn't think people would use their books as manuals, I guess.

 

[uuuhhii]

4 hours ago, Malcador said:

Stupid cyberpunk authors didn't think people would use their books as manuals, I guess.

 

 

no neon light no flying car and no good music

those author was wishing too much

on the bright side acid rain are not much of a problem right now

one tiny temporary victory as consolation prize

[Malcador]

https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/20/politics/trump-justice-department-pam-bondi

"“Pam: I have reviewed over 30 statements and posts saying that, essentially, ‘same old story as last time, all talk, no action. Nothing is being done. What about Comey, Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff, Leticia??? They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done,’” Trump wrote, referring to former FBI Director James Comey, Sen. Adam Schiff of California, and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Trump added, “We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility.”"

In some other reality, people might do something about this

[Pidesco]

5 hours ago, Malcador said:

Stupid cyberpunk authors didn't think people would use their books as manuals, I guess.

 

 

Also don't forget Peter Thiel who names every company he has after evil things in Middle earth.