Yeah totally. Everything feels hopeless

I think before investing on getting a message out, they should have one to begin with. I actively sought out what their platform is and as far as I can tell they don't have one

I genuinely don't know what the Dems want to do.

Kamala's climate change policy was some of the most baffling word salad I've ever had to read. It seemed like every week they shifted positions or compromised on something I figured was a core Dem value.

Doesn't matter either way cuz they lost in a landslide lol

Galaxy Quest was so wonderful

I think LotR was the first to have elves and hobbits and dwarves and orcs in the way that's instantly recognizable.

I agree that its a cozy story, and 1000% caste system, though imo LotR is a lot more thoughtful and I'd argue that the whole 'magic is fading and evil will eventually win but we'll fight while we can' tone makes it not all twee feel-good fluff.

Just Dungeon & Dragons and associates, plus of course the movies.

As well as vague awareness of like, video game plots & tropes.

What struck me the most was how LotR was very anti-war in a lot of ways which absolutely does not carry over.

I can completely agree it was like Star Wars, especially in that: Star Wars (4 at least) was good! It had an incredible aesthetic that I fell in love with instantly, the story is simple and nice, every line is iconic. But more Star Wars just isn't that interesting and it did seem like everyone was trying to make their own worse version for a while at least.

Yeah totally - see what you mean about the Tom Bombadil & that. I like the prose now, but especially the first chapter is very long and academic and not exactly a page turner.

Re: GEB also haven't finished it despite starting but I totally agree with you there, nothing felt like 'mind blowing'. For LotR though, I went in expecting to not be that impressed since I had all the cultural osmosis already and had seen the movies etc and, for me at least, it had a different tone and character and earnestness that I think the modern versions lost at some point. (I do still love the movies though).

Recently read some Sherlock Holmes and did get that feeling though- everything was such a predictable trope, but I suppose at the time it was a lot more new

I also just finally read LotR after bouncing off it a few times. I had the opposite takeaway though, at least having played a lot of D&D but not having read a lot of fantasy novels, that - wow it was so much better and more thoughtful than the modern take.

Yeah my enthusiasm for Bernie is more the symbolism of someone with at least passably good values in office. No pretense that he could get anything done. Which is another baffling thing about the Dems- if you're going to do literally nothing, why compromise all your values? Why have a stupid hedged weaksauce plan that you don't do instead of an exciting cool plan that you don't do.

Honestly the IRA passing at all was a shock to me, weaksauce as it was.

My only hope from the Trump admin is that the Dems exploit all the broken norms to 'fucking do something' but god knows they haven't ever in my lifetime, idk about yours but sounds like not then either.

At this point I kinda want to see America fall before I do, just for the schadenfreude

OK last comment, but I really think this article captures a lot of my frustrations with the party (maybe the median voter too idk)

But if they ran on packing the courts, being a 'dictator on day 1', green new deal, tough on monopolists , doing whatever needs to be done - basically everything Trump's promising to do but instead of for massively unpopular niche issues for stuff people actually like.

I genuinely don't care with what means they want to do it.

People say- Trump will destroy democracy! And all I can hear is that maybe he's going to actually do something. (The tragedy is that all of the somethings he's going to do are Bad) but imagine! If our side had 1/16th the gumption. It would be heaven on earth

I barely even trusted Kamala to have the political will to get Roe v Wayde passed tbh. The dems have been punting on that one for decades

If you don’t believe in the state, or if you don’t associate enlightenment notions with the American project, then rolling back democratic protections for working people simply doesn’t matter. If America itself is immoral, then who cares what the governing apparatus looks like?

^ honesly feel like this a lot of the time, mostly because of stuff like

You can multiply this dynamic across the Biden administration in every important area. Enforcers moved against big meatpackers, the USDA signed contracts with big meatpackers. The Antitrust Division brought antitrust cases against big tech to open AI to new entrants, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer killed big tech antitrust legislation and brought in big tech lobbyists to craft AI policy.

They're pathetic, and nobody seems to want to be able to to anything valuable. The only reason I bother to vote is to keep people out of camps and the dems are running on anti-immigration and keeping trans kids out of sports

If there was a democrat candidate that seemed like they had any hope whatsoever of 'fucking doing something' they'd win every state.

Its so painful rooting for 'nothing will fundamentally change' Joe Biden, or worse his corporate hack VP

3 for 4 calling out winners here :)

& I stand by, the moon one is prettier than the metal fuel gauge one

I still think a democrat without strong ties to the Biden admin and running on a somewhat econimically leftish platform like Obama did would have worked out.

Kamala was republican-lite. There's no reason to vote for her instead of the real one. Anyone who was upset at the state of thing and wanted change was offended by her ties to the Biden admin and her "plan" being essentially nothing, her base was offended by her hard shift right, no republican would touch her with a 50 foot pole. I genuinely don't know who they were possibly trying to appeal to.

From the few Trump voters I've talked to (some of which are pro LGBT "allies") - what they think is best for themselves was absolutely the reason.

I think that's definitely a problem- another example: they won't even consider packing the courts. Its so frustrating rooting for a party who's platform is built on not being willing to get things done.

For this election though, I think the bigger problem was that they ran two pathetic candidates with a pathetic message and a pathetic campaign

Totally agreed, I have friends who are directly affected afected and I'm very worried about them. Biggest hit to me personally as a cis white dude in america in a blue state will probably just be the rolling back of consumer protection and labor laws and a ton of bad juju. And of course in a few decades, all the species that go extinct from a complete lack of climate policy (not that Kamala was a whole lot better there tbh).

Imo a likely prediction of what's actually going to happen is that they achieve project 2025 completely and look the other way when red states put the thumb on the scales of future elections. Which for me is WAY BAD ENOUGH TO FREAK OUT RIGHT NOW!!! but not bad in the same way some people are making it out to be (ie. tanks in the streets military occupation - we are not WWII paris)

Fwiw, I liked Biden a lot more

You've probably looked it over more than me @ Europe, but my Ukraine friend says the easiest way is to take a stint in Serbia or Kazakhstan and then transfer from there to Western Europe a few years later

The world won't for me, but my trans friends in Florida are making emergency plans on what state / country to move to, my friend working in Ukraine is having to find a new job somewhere else for when US Aid ends and the country is annexed. And I genuinely believe our elections will be fair in the same way reconstruction south elections were fair.

This election has been a huge and direct personal tragedy for at least a half dozen people I know, definitely more than 2016.

Is there any bandcamp or other offline version? Going on a solo roadtrip in the next few days and that's always my favorite way to listen to albums. Nothing but time, nobody to bother by playing it loud,

legit the biggest thing I'll miss not having a car

I'm intellectually more upset abt stuff like this: https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/13/tech/elon-musk-donald-trump-x/index.html where elon is using X (the everything app) to get Trump elected.

But emotionally I'm mostly mad that blue checks show up first in replies. Don't even bother going to the comments anymore. The site is still usable if you're following specific people and IMO that's all social media ought to be

Yea, is the idea terraforming mars, or making bases on mars as livable for humans as like, the Antarctic research labs. The latter sounds plausable but I cannot ever imagine Mars being a nicer place to live than Earth no matter how badly we screw it up.

Wasn't trying to say it was extravagant! & Hell yeah, that makes sense. Even without the fancy cooking methods it makes sense as a space saving thing. My parents new place came with something like that, I don't think its a mielei but it has microwave and toaster in one, though of course they also kept their old toaster oven too so it's not really saving that much for them :p

Is the no double oven for style reasons? My parents old place had one of those and mom loved it- small one heats up faster, and having both made holiday cooking a lot easier.

& yup! Its the flash express. Love it for everything, except there's no built in setting for bagels so I have to run it on the 'toast' option twice to get it a good level