I really think these MAGAt types are feeding off Boomer-era Cold War trauma, milking geriatric delusions for all they’re worth. Think about it, how many Americans under 50 are daily concerned about communism? For most of our lives it has been a complete joke, there has been literally no reason to think communism was going to supplant capitalism in America, in any way. It’s always like “oh communism, yeah sure I’d love to live in Cuba, China, or North Korea heh”.

I think a more valuable and relevant lesson would be the history and dangers of authoritarianism, anti-democratic politics and gestures, but maybe that hits a little too close to home for the MAGAts?

IMO, as depressing as the thought is, we are rapidly transitioning/declining to a post-Constitution America. It makes sense, because conservatives have never really embraced the notion of a secular document as the law of the land, which can be used to shield individuals and minorities from their abusive moralistic patriarchal regimes. Now they have a chance, many chances in fact, to “right the wrongs” they suffered as a matter of enlightened compromise made in good faith. And we are seeing it everywhere.

Two I can think of, luckily neither was that bad.

Firstly I got impatient and bought a new DSLR camera kit off eBay, thinking I would save money and get a good deal. It came with two decent lenses, supposedly, and a bunch of other accessories. Very highly rated seller.

After I made the purchase, I get a message to expect a phone call from such-and-such number. Strange, I thought. They call and immediately I can tell it’s a bait-and-switch. They tell me what they’re going to send, but it’s not what was in the listing. Only one lens, instead of two, and some other shenanigans like substituting inferior brands and cheap shit. I called them out and said either you deliver what was promised in the listing, or I’m opening a dispute, and it won’t be a good look that you tried to change the deal over the phone.

Anyway I got what was listed, but overall it was a disappointment. Grey market items from overseas, not official US licensed gear, so I had no warranty. But I ended up paying as much or more than if I had walked into a local shop. It wasn’t counterfeit, but just left a bad taste in my mouth. The seller disappeared from eBay not long after that…

Second time: I received one of those emails with a password in the subject. It looked familiar, and was in fact an (old) password I had used. Someone took a hacked DB and just fired off countless emails with the passwords to the matching email addresses. But the tone of the email was what spooked me. It said, I have had full access to all your emails, I have figured out how to reset accounts and hacked into your webcam and have some very interesting photos. Either you pay this amount to this bitcoin address or I send the photos to all your contacts and your life will be ruined.

In the moment, I panicked like oh shit this is legit. Even though I couldn’t imagine what photos they referred to, it was still scary being blackmailed. I thought about it, discussed with some people, and they helped calm me down. After a few days, I realized it must be a scam. It was so generic. Surely if it was real, they would mentioned specifics… my name, or what I looked like, or some other unmistakable details.

Over the years, I received a number of other variations with the same jist, and different passwords (my email address was in several major leaks in mid-2000s). I’m glad I didn’t fall for that shit, regardless of how serious it seemed in the moment.

Well the Christofascist Speaker admitted that perpetuating chaos and linking it to Biden is their best shot in November. So everything is going according to plan. Democrats can say they tried, Republicans can blame the fallout on Biden, and the rest of us non-politicians lose as usual. We have reached an “interesting time” where being elected is more important than governing.

Why stop there? Shut it all down. Pull the plug.

Too many smash burgers not enough veggies?

Also remember the nearest comparison to building a website, was a book, magazine, or newspaper. So just plop those text and images down as if it was a book, only ever intended to be viewed at one fixed resolution (say, 800x600). No smartphones yet. No apps to inspire us. No web 2.0. No emphasis on minimalism or dynamic content.

Unexpected and unpleasant things should happen with different browsers, window sizes, etc.

That site would have been considered remarkably beautiful and aesthetically pleasing. As such it’s not quite realistic.

Much too legible. I recommend less contrast for the text.

I don’t see you playing with alignment? I would like more centered text personally. And long lines of text without breaks.

Why not throw in some “lorem ipsum” placeholders.

Are you using a WYSIWYG editor?

Where are your dancing hampsters?

Also is this before or after it became trendy to copy/paste all sorts of scripts into the html? Remember scrolling text on the status bar, how about those ascii things that follow your mouse around?

I’d keep an eye on your page’s size, remember we would be loading this on 56k dialup modems… if we were lucky!

I’m taking note of all the prominent individuals and organizations which chose to remain on the fascist platform and thus implicitly support it.

Rural America is mostly a wasteland. It’s either where people of means deliberately choose to live away from society, or it’s people who are too ignorant, poor and/or drug-addled to have much choice. Neither group is going to be left-leaning… and that’s why when you look at electoral maps, you see all that red.

Pick a highway, any will do, travel along it and tell me what you see. I already know. One little failed town after another. They might have a dive bar or ancient gas station, but most commercial buildings will be long abandoned. If you need anything, you’ll have to find a decent city with a generic walmart, dollar general, mcdonalds, etc. Long gone are the mom-and-pop grocers, general stores, etc.

The irony is these are solid red Republican districts. Cities have major problems too, but they are full of action; plans, projects, hopes of a better future. There is no future for the average rural American.

They are frustrated and angry, as well they should be. Too bad they can’t see the forest through the trees.

Well let’s see…

There was John Doe #1. Jane Doe #1. John Doe #2 and #3… Jane Doe #6384 …

Well this is where it’s headed. First it will be teachers, parents, doctors, therapists.

Then they’ll want to register trans adults as sex offenders. Then all LGBTQ people.

Like so much of the government in the US, the infrastructure is there, ready to be abused. Change one line and it applies to all of us.

Anyone not realize just how awful it would be to get labeled a sex offender? It makes it almost impossible to find a place to live, or a job. People will seek you out and harass you in public. This is an extremely serious classification that shouldn’t have anything to do with “culture wars”. It should be reserved only for the worst classes of convicted criminals – if it’s not actually cruel and unusual and unnecessarily punative.

All conservatives are bastards

Thank you, from my friend to your friend.

And then there’s clowns like StabilityAI where if you so much as imply the presence of a woman, the resulting image is a censored blur or rejected out of hand, regardless of context. Worst money I ever spent was getting a pro subscription. I was trying to use it for clothing and tattoo inspirations.

and before some wise ace notifies me “I can run Stable diffusion on my own hardware…” yeah if you want to front me the $2000 for a new rig! My 12 year-old PCs aint gonna cut it…

Who is “we”? Was that clown actually there? Or does he prefer to sit back and agitate the mentally ill.

That was quite the pivot

It’s OK to be “disconnected.”

Especially if “connected” implies dependency on one corporation which has shown general disregard for its customers’ privacy and mental health.

I don’t use Whatsapp, FB, Instagram, snapchat, google, and somehow manage to make my way through the world.

Believe it or not plenty of people still interact in meatspace, limited as it is.

More ideas from the Taliban playbook.

Remember kids, a boy is a boy and a girl is a girl, and three witnesses saw Katie get raped so we’re going to stone her to death!

No that can’t be.

Conservatives are always telling us how Nazis were actually left-wing… it’s in the name, socialists?!

How quickly they forget, once the racist and antisemitic nonsense circulates.

And if anyone is wondering:

• Human rights for Palestinians = not antisemitic
• Nazis at CPAC = 100% antisemitic