I was sliding down the alt-right rabbit hole, mostly out of loneliness. Algorithms and echo chambers love loneliness.

I think there’s a really important threshold, and I’m ashamed to say I reached it, where you know it’s propaganda. Where you stop falling down the rabbit hole and start walking down it of your own accord.

The first propaganda, you believe. Some people commit crimes, or hate you, or are dangerous. Capitalism is freedom. The stuff an uncurious and uncareful person can believe all of and still be internally consistent, if wrong.

Then there’s the propaganda that requires you to acknowledge the lies you believed earlier were lies. No, it isn’t Hispanic people that commit crimes - it’s Jewish people! Capitalism isn’t freedom - libertarianism, or state capitalism, or whatever buzzword for company towns is in vogue.

And you know the stuff you believed before isn’t true. But you still say it in polite company, you mask and start to pretend you aren’t someone who believes what you do. You know it’s unacceptable.

That’s what got me out. Realizing that I was in a dark cycle of self-isolation and internet addiction, and trying to be deliberately social and empathetic and present. Therapy helps, but you’ve gotta want it.

I was on the fence about this exact thing. My logic is that corruption requires wealthy/powerful people to be corrupt in favor of. If there were no billionaire class, no bourgeoisie, there would be no people who benefit from the oppression of the proletariat, so corruption as we conceive of it in modern America couldn’t exist.

Of course, people will act unpredictably and some people with power will abuse it, but the whole system of billions being spent on campaign contributions and lobbyist dinners couldn’t continue if there weren’t entities with billions to spend.

This is just acknowledging that the government wouldn’t be corrupt without the billionaires. By the logic of your post, the left is correct and the right is not.

Salt Fat Acid Heat. No, it isn’t explicitly vegan, but it was instrumental in me being a good enough cook to improv vegan stuff and have it taste awesome.

Lenin said that if he were in Britain, he’d vote Labour. Not because he agrees with them, but to show the British people that yes, moving leftwards does make improvements and no, Labour is not doing enough. To show them that a further-left Socialist party is needed.

Accelerationism is a … choice. It’s easier, in my view, to push further left under ineffective neoliberalism than it is under right-wing authoritarianism. What you may view as a chance to get your ideal from the ashes, the fascists view as their chance to put you down for good.

I’m fortunate to live in a state with ranked-choice, where I can literally make a gradient of my preferences for nearly every contested election I vote in.

What I see most frequently is uncontested elections. Vote for the one registered candidate, or write someone in. Most of those have an R next to their name, and dollars to doughnuts a red armband in their closet.

“Liberate” is an interesting choice of term, given the communities in question aren’t in Russia’s sovereignty.

To be clear, I don’t personally have proof of whether the citizenry is broadly thrilled about or terrified of the soldiers in their streets.

I just believe it’s journalistic best practice for any case where an army taking part in a war of territorial expansion claims territory to use a neutral term like “control” rather than a biased one like “liberate” or “oppress”.

Is this the ceasefire that both countries said was happening at different times?

Sorta like saying truce right before getting punched, eh?

I’m gonna grain-of-salt just about anything reported by Cucker Tarlson