Lurker > legendary_zell

Their tees aren't great, but their sweaters, polos, and jeans fit great and have gotten me compliments damn near every time I've worn them. I never shopped there growing up, but they've become one of my go-to places.

This is the only type of thing they can agree on. Expanding the surveillance, police, and military states. Never anything to actually help people.

This is bad, not just because these guys lied and that could affect public trust in the agency and feds in general. But because the higher ups at federal agencies are TERRIFIED of this kind of thing. So terrified that they'll refuse to make necessary arguments in order to avoid the possibility of this happening and refuse to go out on a limb under any circumstances. And lawyers/government people are already typically a cautious bunch by nature. And possibly worst of all, this can be cited by crypto people when they want to be annoying or fight any and all regulation.

People need housing, not just shelter. They need privacy, autonomy, space, and services. And it needs to be provided as a public good. That's the only and ultimate answer.

Enjoy my celebrity status as a medical miracle, publish my memoirs, blow their minds of transphobes, open a burger joint.

I'm listening to it for work right now. I wish some real radicals and advocates for the working class and unhoused got to make these arguments, the SG is leaving so many points on the table by trying to seem "reasonable" and agree with restrictions.

To people saying there's no case here: you're very very likely wrong. The EEOC could lose due to a lack of evidence or a bad judge, but blanket criminal records bans are known to have an unjustified and illegal disparate impact based on race. It has to be a crime that's relatively recent, and relevant to the specific job. The policy can't be overbroad. This isn't just in employment, it's also in housing and other relevant civil rights laws.

I'm saying this as someone who has brought cases like this under both housing and employment laws.

That example is legitimately chilling.

Comrade Green doing critical work!

But this is really just to set her up for the base to turn on her if that becomes necessary to preserve Republican power.

Some of the most outright fascist people online watch only the cutest anime tho.

Same here. It didn't manifest through coming out, but I saw a lot of view points here and it helped me see which ones meshed with my values and which ones didn't. It gave me glimpses of a lot of ways of thinking I probably wouldn't have encountered much in real life.

I've been coming here for a long time. As annoying as people can be here, it's much less cringey and abusive than what I've seen on Twitter, Reddit, etc, it's easier to have actual conversations, and the culture was just better. I learned a lot here.

But it seems like this is basically the end and it's about time to move on from GameFaqs as a whole. The only reason I come here for gaming related stuff is for PS1-3 era RPG walkthroughs when I don't want to just copy a visual guide.

Corporate control of community spaces is antithetical to free and meaningful conversations. The profit motive incentives businesses to disregard the actual needs and desires of users in favor of sanitized, soulless, ad friendly "content." It's disgusting and it's destroyed a unique and useful space.

sfcalimari posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/3e663274.png

What you still don't seem to understand 8 years later is that the Democrats never had these voters. These were voters who were sick of politics as usual, who hated both typical Democrats and Republicans and who only got involved in politics in that election because they thought something different might be on the table. They were not traditional "leftist" voters, the far far far more relevant factor for them was newness and a "fuck the system" vibe. These were not voters that were ever going to vote for Hillary, the most likely outcome was not voting at all, followed by voting for Trump.

There's no evidence that there's any similar movement now because this isn't that type of election. Trump is not considered a wild card anymore, he's a known, terrible quantity. And Biden isn't nearly as hated as Hillary, even if he's not as popular as he was in 2020.

I've never seen anyone say this. On this board or elsewhere. I've seen people say they won't vote or they'll vote third party. You can argue those have the same effect if you want, but I've never someone who criticizes Biden from the left and declares an intent to vote FOR Trump.

streamofthesky posted...

Really scary how the left has been brainwashed into seeing Israel/Palestine as a conflict between "white colonizers" and "brown people".
The US Census considers all of the Middle East to be "white", and Israelis have just as long a residence and claim to the region as Palestinians do.
Many don't agree with the official Census categorization, and that's fine. I'm just pointing out that....if one of the two groups is "brown", then both are.
The rhetoric is blatantly racist and hate speech, but is allowed and endorsed by Western institutions.

https://www.thecrimson.com/column/dining-on-sacred-cow/article/2012/11/16/Lispon-Israel-race/

https://www.npr.org/2022/02/17/1079181478/us-census-middle-eastern-white-north-african-mena

Fucking disgusting post.
Also, Palestinians are Iranians now?

Great post, though Jordan belongs in the former group.

Man, I just don't understand why Biden won't capitulate to their demands and beg for their votes! /s

What the fuck?!

While it's true there's a lot of brown Israelis and the conflict isn't as simple as white vs brown, Israel, as founded, and as it's operated up until today is explicitly a settler colonial project and it's early proponents and founders openly recognized that reality. So it's not entirely a racial situation, it is one of colonization and apartheid. The left is accurately assessing that situation and the right, Zionists, and people obsessed with "US interests" are heavily invested in obscuring that reality.

Shadow_Don posted...

Yea thats not why I pointed out that they fund hamas.

I pointed it out because your implication that Iran was fairly retaliating from an unprovoked attack.

I didn't imply that at all, you're inserting that reading yourself. States tend to retaliate against attacks, whether those attacks are justified or not, in order to save face, preserve sovereignty, deter further attacks etc. I said the retaliation is to be expected, not that it's moral or justified. As I pointed out, I called the Iranian state evil beforehand. And I said that people are happy because Israel is being treated as other countries would when they're glaringly typically treated as above meaningful reproach otherwise. None of that means or implies that Iran is some innocent victim that was attacked out of the blue.

You and stream are seeing red on this issue.

Shadow_Don posted...

Strangely leaving out the undisputed fact that Iran is the primary backers of hamas

Bro, I explicitly called Iran an evil country. They're not the good guys, what do you want?

This is reaching "do you condemn Hamas???" levels of absurdity.

Nah, they probably think a country is committing genocide with impunity and another evil country that got attacked by the genociders is retaliating, and that's why they're cheering. Because Israel is being treated normally for once. When you attack another country, you typically get attacked back.

They could hate Jews, but I don't think that's the most obvious or likely explanation here.

ssb_yunglink2 posted...

And youve yet to show examples of more than 1 or 2 posters ON THIS BOARD that dont allow criticism of Biden.

Pelosi isnt a poster on this board, if you werent aware

This will be my last response to you since you're so fixated on the idea of moving goalposts. Your posts are a great example of that. Your stance was that no one in this topic or board were making those arguments and that people don't generally take issue with the bare concept of criticizing Biden. I demonstrated people in this topic and on this board doing exactly that and the former Speaker doing so. You then demanded more people. That's moving goalposts.

Cemith posted...

Only thing I've seen yung post is the same thing I did. If Yung is indeed saying people aren't allowed to criticize Biden, please quote them saying it.

That's not what I was claiming or taking issue with. What I was referring to was the claim that no one has made the type of argument Pelosi made. That's what yung claimed.

Specifically in this post:

"You keep talking about the posters who dont allow criticism of Biden but WHERE ARE THEY? They certainly arent in this topic, and I dont see them anywhere else on this board. You always just bring them up every time you post though."

I then cited people here and elsewhere doing that exact thing.

This is a very dumb argument though. I've made my point. Criticism, vigorous criticism, protest voting in primaries, and threatening to withhold votes are all valid actions and people who disagree are wrong. That's it.

ssb_yunglink2 posted...

This is categorically false. Y'all are ignoring posts that are inconvenient to your argument and your conclusion that people who aren't making public loyalty oaths to Biden regardless of what he does or does not do are immature, bigoted, saboteur trolls.

Post #89 in the other topic. This is your exact post that i have not touched or edited.

Public loyalty oaths arent a cult? Again, come on now dude.

Biden cult is a specific phrase that I did not use, and you put it in quotes. That was misleading enough to make someone call me a Republican. That was wrong of you to do.

"Biden cult" is also the type of language associated with right wingers. Which is why I didn't use it and instead focused on the demonstrably true idea that many expect you to affirmatively state your support for Biden if you make any criticism of him or assume that you're not voting for him and trying to convince others not to as well unless you state that support.

I'm not going back and forth with you again.

Gritty posted...

party of projection calling others a cult is just adorable

I never used that phrase or called anyone a cult. Him using quotes like that is messed up. I'm not a Republican, I'm a lifelong Democrat civil rights lawyer that currently works for Biden.

Shadow_Don posted...

But I thought you said your issue was that people were getting mad for merely criticizing biden?

I don't understand what you're saying here. That's part of my point, I've seen people say they are voting for Biden or at least saying they're not advocating abstention/are only advocating protest votes be accused of suppressing turnout.

I'm not saying that his topic should advocate abstention, maybe I wrote that poorly?

Cemith posted...

Good thing no one is actually saying that. Everyone sees the criticism of Biden and his handling of Gaza. Reporters ask him about this daily. Because Pelosi is a moron it doesn't mean we can apply her stance to every Dem everywhere.

ssb_yunglink2, the main guy I've been going back and forth with did actually say that though. I'm not attempting to apply her stance to every Dem, only the people who echo her rhetoric and similar claims. I brought that up to counter the idea that "no one" is saying what she in fact said.

No, that's not your claim. Your claim was that criticism of Biden would net me criticism of people that think it's wrong to criticize Biden.

You do not then get to say "Oh but because you did it it won't count!"

That is a moved goalpost.

It's just reality. If you present the topic as a real topic with real criticism and go back and forth with people, you will be criticized for simply criticizing Biden. I haven't changed that stance. We've seen it countless times on this board and elsewhere. It's happened to me and other good faith posters.

Cemith posted...

Because Pelosi sucks and is wrong. This isn't a brave take.

That's my whole point! She's a powerful person and she's not the only one. So when people say they're not seeing other people saying this, it's not credible.

Criticizing Biden's handling of Gaza is a popular critique. It's one of the most popular things to do with your average leftist. You also said earlier that people are loudly criticized by a minority when they admonish Biden. My topic is the litmus test.

Because that's a stupid stance. This isn't a criticism of Biden. It is an admonishment of the GOP.

Oh of course. Would it kill you to stand by your claim? You think a vocal minority will persecute me for criticizing Biden. You do not then get to poison the well by saying "they'll be on their best behavior!"

I stand by my claims that I actually made. If a person completely unrelated to either of us said even what you said, they'd be attacked. Much less if they made an actual leftist critique. What you posted is not a leftist critique, it's pretty much the median opinion of the liberal/Democratic voter, if the polls can be trusted.

ssb_yunglink2 posted...

The goal posts have been moved

If you read my posts, I directly identified what causes people to go feral. As I said in post 110:

"At least if you tie that post to any suggestion of actually doing anything that could potentially have an impact on Biden's calculus in the real world or that could reduce enthusiasm for Biden in any manner."

No goalposts have been moved.

Cemith posted...

I just made a topic criticizing Biden's handling of Gaza.

Now let's see that vocal minority in action.

Why cutoff the rest of my post? The former speaker of the house doesn't post on this board, but made the exact type of argument I'm talking about. Why not address that?

Go ahead and make your topic an actual leftist/popular critique and defend that position. Say Biden is doing something incredibly unpopular, facilitating a genocide, etc. You're not saying why it's a weak response or what you'll do in response, without saying you won't vote for Biden. As I said, that's what provokes the feral response. Saying his stance is weak without saying its unacceptable, immoral, and must be changed doesn't prove your point.

And of course people will be on their best behavior if they're reading this topic or posting in your topic in response to this topic.

ssb_yunglink2 posted...

So youre fully admitting that youre spending this much time arguing that a small minority of people will go feral if you criticize biden.

Okay dude.

I didn't say it was a small minority. I said a vocal minority. They're also a powerful minority. Earlier this year, the most powerful Democrat of our lifetime other than Biden or Obama accused anti-Israel protesters calling for a ceasefire of being Russian plants spreading Russian propaganda. This stance I'm talking about is much more common among the more establishment-pilled politicians, officials, and journalists.

ssb_yunglink2 posted...

I think Bidens stance on Israel is bad, and he shouldnt give weapons to a genocidal government.

Will i now be silenced and destroyed by the biden public loyalty cult for making this post? @legendary_zell

Make your own topic with this premise and see what happens. We know what happens. A 500 post topic accusing you of destroying democracy and helping Trump genocide LGBT people. At least if you tie that post to any suggestion of actually doing anything that could potentially have an impact on Biden's calculus in the real world or that could reduce enthusiasm for Biden in any manner.

ssb_yunglink2 posted...

Fucking read this post and tell me how this is not a persecution complex jfc.

There are probably 1 or 2 people on this entire board that think criticism shouldnt be allowed. You are wrongly attributing the opinions of 2 random posters to the entire board and Biden voters as a whole.

It's not persecution for me, because luckily almost all of the online attacks at least are impotent. But if you attach your name to these criticisms in real life, you can experience pretty significant negative consequences, ranging from ostracization to job loss, depending on what your job is, especially in my line of work.

You refuse to understand that it's not just about one or two posters. It's a vocal minority of online and offline hyper-Dems who think politics exclusively means voting, don't participate in, understand, or even actively disparage other types of politics, have given up on influencing politicians or (or don't actually want Biden to change his stance) and so go feral when someone says something that could potentially impact turnout.

Shadow_Don posted...

Sir, please show me your signed in blood loyalty to biden oath card

Yes people are definitely saying stuff like that lmfao

You can laugh all you want, but there are many who react to any mention of Biden that's not unqualified praise with anger. Go ahead and try it. Make a topic on this board or post on any social media a valid criticism of Biden, even say that you're going to vote for Biden in bold, underlined, rainbow colors. People will react as if you're personally taking democracy out back, you'll be called a Russian operative, etc.

There are many people who have decided that since democracy is at stake, they must police all criticism of Biden and treat it with extreme suspicion and hostility. You can disagree or ignore it, but it's happening.

ssb_yunglink2 posted...

The basic reality that youre fabricating and exaggerating?

Am I fabricating it from whole cloth or exaggerating what is there? Am I making up posts or am I ascribing too much weight to real posts? Make up your mind.

ssb_yunglink2 posted...

Yes, you do clearly have a persecution complex about criticizing Biden. The vast vast majority of people here do not give a shit about criticizing Biden in good faith.

You choosing to focus on one or 2 posters in a topic instead of everyone else telling you its okay to criticize biden is just ridiculous for how much you bring it up.

You are not worth responding to on this topic if you won't acknowledge the basic reality of what arguments are being made by me or by others.

hockeybabe89 posted...

Yes, and literally zero people on CE are mad that anyone criticizes Biden. There is only constant arguments because we have trolls and low-intelligence voters arguing that not voting will help people.

This is categorically false. Y'all are ignoring posts that are inconvenient to your argument and your conclusion that people who aren't making public loyalty oaths to Biden regardless of what he does or does not do are immature, bigoted, saboteur trolls.

ssb_yunglink2 posted...

Lmao you always try to mix in something to these posts. You just cant argue straight up without trying to call attention to something else. Im not being aggressive in any way, im just saying your argument is unreasonable because its literally being proven wrong by the topic youre posting in.

You keep talking about the posters who dont allow criticism of Biden but WHERE ARE THEY? They certainly arent in this topic, and I dont see them anywhere else on this board. You always just bring them up every time you post though.

You just want to feel persecuted against for the brave stance of *checks notes* criticizing Joe fucking Biden lmao. Thats not some kind of achievement, everyone does it.

Post 12 is one of them. Another one said they suspect criticism of Biden is conservative propaganda. Multiple people have voted in the polls to say that criticism should not be permitted. Multiple posters in every single topic on this subject make the claims I referenced in the previous post. And they are a prominent voice in every public forum where the election is discussed. If you're not seeing them, it's because you're choosing not to or they don't anger you enough for you to notice them

Is it your position that a large contingent are not saying that criticism of Biden depresses turnout, is dangerous, helps Republicans etc on this board and elsewhere? You've never seen that?

You're saying you're not being aggressive and then literally a few sentences later, accuse me of having a false victim/persecution complex that I've never once signaled or demonstrated.

ssb_yunglink2 posted...

So youre hinging this argument on something that ONE PERSON in this entire topic said. Come on now you know thats just unreasonable.

And dont pretend that everyone here who criticizes Biden is doing it with good faith. Posters like MrMojo and Butterymales literally do not care about the arguments theyre making.

No, I'm not talking about just one post or just one topic. I'm talking about the subject of the topic. What people say about criticizing Biden. And I'm referring to what people say on that subject, including what some of the people in this topic and others have said, beyond that one post.

I've never claimed everyone who criticizes Biden is doing so in good faith. Additionally, you can not care about an argument you're making and the words can still be correct or at least persuasive. Even a blatant troll saying something true does not transform that true statement into an untrue one.

You coming at me with such aggression for no reason is proving my point. I've stated countless times I'm voting for Biden and I'm simply advocating for strong criticism, yet you take far more issue with me than you do with people advocating for antidemocratic positions, are attempting to associate me with people you don't think are arguing in good faith, etc.

ssb_yunglink2 posted...

Look at the poll. Look at the majority of posts in this topic. Youre not being persecuted for criticizing fucking Joe biden.

I've read the poll, I've read the posts. Have you read the topic title and the poll options? I'm discussing what the topic is actually about and disputing that premise.

Some of the more savvy will say they're fine with criticism when specifically called on the antidemocratic nature of being opposed to it, but many on this board and at least one in this topic have made the argument criticism, just criticism can only serve Republicans, is likely a Republican plot to depress turnout, is disingenuous, is dangerous, should be confined to a primary, etc. They'll say they're fine with mere criticism, but will viciously attack anyone who does what they say they're fine with.

ssb_yunglink2 posted...

You always attempt to mix in not being allowed to criticize Biden into these posts. The vast majority of this topic is people saying that criticism of Biden is valid, so I dont know why you do this. I will criticize Biden for his stance on Israel, yet still vote for him.

Once again, its the not voting for him that gets people angry. Ive explained this exact thing to you multiple times before and you keep doing it. Criticize Biden, literally nobody is stopping you. But if you dont vote for him youre accepting an outcome that you acknowledge as objectively worse

People are saying both and people that say "I'm only talking about absention" also clearly have a problem with bare criticism. I've explained this as well and it's been readily apparent in every topic and public discussion on this subject.

My stance on nonvoting has also been clear in every topic as well.

DrizztLink posted...

What would it matter if vote withholding causes him to adjust his stance just in time to give the election to the guy who wants to turn Gaza into a parking lot?

Presumably he'd change his stance before the election if he really thought it would cost him. I've never advocated for people actually withholding votes at all, much less enough for him to lose over.

This topic is not about that, it's about complaints in general. This topic and many people in it want total silence, total resignation, they're not just criticizing abstention. The premise is that criticizing him in itself is wrong and dangerous and thus people should stop doing it.

ssb_yunglink2 posted...

This election is literally a binary choice of:

My life and this country stay the same if not slightly improve, and Biden will hopefully adjust his stance on Israel.

or

My life, my loved ones lives, this country, and most certainly foreign countries will get drastically worse, and Trump will absolutely increase aggression towards palestine.

So yes, its a mature decision to vote for the less bad candidate.

How is he going to adjust his stance if you stay silent about it AND hand him victory despite what he's doing with no muss or fuss? What's the theory of change there?

I don't dispute that Trump would make it worse, but it seems like the reality is that what people are actually pushing is a slow death for Palestine while we all silently watch. Many people are not going to sign onto that.

Gwynevere posted...

What fight are you putting up? Whenever Republicans take the national stage and really get free reign to do whatever they want, are you going to risk your physical well being to get HRT to trans adults and kids when it gets outlawed? Are you going to step between the cops and a woman being arrested for getting an abortion? How about smuggling birth control when that gets axed?

How far are you willing to go?

I'd prefer to stop that from happening by stopping Biden from walking off a cliff and getting him to do the right thing. I'm doing what I can to expand and protect people's rights within the system and I've done a lot. But if Biden doesn't shape up and things go off the rails, yes, I'll do what I have to do within or outside the system.

Refusing to ask your candidates to do better and allowing them to do horrible things is not the path to salvation. That itself creates the hopelessness, desperation, and "same thing both sides" energy that allows fascism to thrive and win. The only path away from that is to drive politics in an actually positive direction. Not just " better than the other guy, while still awful." And you can't do that when the only qualification you have is for a candidate to be better than a Republican. That allows both Republicans and Democrats to be as awful as they want with no consequence.

I fundamentally reject this idea that we can't criticize the President and have to vote for him regardless of what he does because the other guy is worse. At that point, in what sense do we have a democracy? You've given up on the idea of improvement, of influencing your leaders, of choosing your leaders, you're committed to not even suggesting they do better so as not to scare off others who recognize they're doing something horrible, so what's left at that point? You'll just vote for whatever slop is presented to you and call that maturity, even as they commit evil in your name and your life deteriorates without you putting up a fight?

That's an incredibly unpopular position, none of you seem to get that. That's not what most people who participate in politics think it is. If most people thought that's what it was, they would completely check out and we'd have fascism at the next opportunity. You're not being a freedom fighter by spreading that view and condescending to others for not adopting it.

This is a great example of the security state being incredibly difficult to dismantle and incredibly resilient against meaningful change.

In the post Nixon era, the FISA system was supposed to be an improvement over the previous wild west system that was blatantly illegal and anti democratic. Instead, it's an entirely rubber stamped procedure where people's rights can be violated behind closed doors as long as law enforcement, military, or spy officials can type the words "national security" without typos. And it gives that process of violating people's rights a veneer of legitimacy and legality.

Two days of the hyper establishment types pretending to soul search.

Some violence from the true believers.

Mass creation of new conspiracy theories to explain the loss.

Acceleration of brainworms

Finally leading to an even more unhinged candidate next time, possibly Trump again.

That was pretty bad because it messed with one of the central throughlines of the show, that a true, existential danger that didn't care about politics or beef or heroism was coming from the North and would devastate everything, even if it could be defeated.

But my pick is how everyone lost their ability to make plots and schemes or say or do anything smart. Especially the schemer characters, Tyrion, Varys, Littlefinger, etc.

By the global order, he means neoliberal capitalism and economic domination
By freedom, he means neoliberal capitalism
At least when it comes to China and either Korea, almost all of the negative vibes historically have come from Japan.

Staying out of all Walmarts for a Kentucky Republican? A fate worse than death!

FF7 altered the course of my life for sure. I'm still not sure whether it had a good or bad effect. It's why I ever visited this website.

A losing battle if I've ever seen one.

I agree that Trump does this on a daily basis. I'm not sure FISA is the best way to make that argument.

You've seemed to be deteriorating for awhile now. Go seek immediate mental health help from a medical professional.