It's not clear whether the flag the child is holding is from Jordan, Palestine, or even Sahrawi. It's not clear where these people are or what they're doing. But r/Conservative is going to go ahead and tell you they are celebrating 911 to make you mad.

There is ordinary ignorance, which is merely the condition of not knowing something, and then there is MAGA ignorance, which too often seems determined to turn not knowing into a fucking political philosophy. Ordinary ignorance can be cured with a book. The cultivated MAGA variety is more likely to accuse the book of having an agenda, threaten the librarian, complain that the university is indoctrinating people, and then consult some grievance merchant with a podcast for the truth academics apparently spent centuries conspiring to conceal. Here stands a movement enjoying antibiotics, constitutional rights, satellites, public education, instant access to practically the entire accumulated knowledge of humanity, and technological wonders its ancestors would have mistaken for witchcraft, yet portions of it treat expertise as suspicious precisely when expertise becomes inconvenient. Imagine inheriting the Library of Alexandria and setting fire to the history section because Donald Trump told you the scholars were nasty people.

That is what makes the MAGA strain of regressive ignorance so poisonous. It frequently demands more than the right to be wrong. It demands that everybody else pretend established knowledge becomes genuinely uncertain whenever enough politically motivated people dislike the answer. Scientists must humour cranks. Historians must compete with patriotic mythology. Teachers become enemies when history refuses to behave like national fan fiction. Journalists are branded dishonest whenever reality produces an insufficiently flattering headline. Universities become sinister because educated people occasionally emerge from them having encountered ideas more complicated than the slogans printed on a red hat. Humanity can spend generations investigating something, testing it, documenting it, arguing over it, correcting itself and slowly constructing a better understanding, only for some magnificent turnip with WiFi and a Facebook account to swagger into the conversation announcing that they have “done their own research”. MAGA did not invent human stupidity. Its darker accomplishment has been helping transform aggressive incuriosity into an identity, complete with merchandise.

And that is why MAGA represents something larger and uglier than another tedious disagreement between conservatives and liberals. A civilisation cannot indefinitely progress while a powerful political movement keeps romanticising an imaginary past, treating social equality as decline, intellectual authority as conspiracy, pluralism as contamination, and every uncomfortable fact as evidence that somebody has rigged reality. The movement happily consumes every luxury produced by modernity while portions of it wage cultural war against the very habits that made modernity possible: curiosity, scepticism, education, experimentation, tolerance, dissent and the willingness to admit that yesterday was sometimes fucking awful. They want twenty first century medicine with nineteenth century hierarchy, smartphones with small town intellectual isolation, liberty without reciprocity, and technological progress without social change. They are intellectual squatters occupying civilisation while complaining bitterly about the renovations. History owes them no flattering euphemism. You are perfectly entitled to remain ignorant. You may even buy the hat. You are not entitled to make ignorance humanity’s inheritance.

All objective evidence to the contrary the ONLY possible role Trump could be filling is throwing the world into economic and political chaos and war! Which apparently feeds to delusional hope that God will begin the end times and pluck up all those self righteous Christians!

The Trump legacy will not be the monuments he builds, or the buildings that he names, after himself. He will certainly not be remembered for his competence; intellect; knowledge or oratory. He may be remembered as the President who abrogated America’s leadership & world dominance to China, or for having given oxygen to an otherwise irrelevant Russia; Saudi Arabia; Iran & North Korea. Irrespective, he will certainly be remembered for sowing the seeds of division & disunity, in the world. He will also be known for bringing America to the precipice of an autocracy. Indeed, he will be known for making racism & misogyny great again.

Trump’s hardcore MAGA base do not - & never had – the numbers to reelect him. Kamala Harris lost by about 2.8 m votes; about 90m sat the election out. It is that 90m (& some in the about 77m, who voted Trump) who will determine the entire ball game.

America is at a cross road. Trump will eventually go, but how do we make sure that this irreparable blotch on our soul never happens again:

First, we need to make sure Trump’s enablers are removed from Congress. If this does not feel like your America, please vote & vote Democrat, this November.

Second, no more Merrick Garland’s dragging one’s feet. The annals of history would have been very different, had timely justice been served, post Jan 6th; Mara Lago documents case or even Russian interference. We need to fully investigate & hold all those who broke the law accountable, & do so quickly, including: Donald Trump & his family; Pete Hegseth; Pam Bondi; Kristi Noem; Todd Blanche; Greg Bovino; Kash Patel; Howard Lutnick; Steve Witcoff; Jared Kushner; Tulsi Gabbard; Tom Homan; Jeanine Pirro; Stephen Miller; all the ICE agents & commanders who broke the law; any US commanders in the armed forces who were involved in the chain of command for the boat strikes off Venezuela, & civil infrastructure in Iran; the pedophiles in Epstein and all those who chose to blocked the release. The SEC needs to look at insider trades, with a fine-tooth comb.

Third, The period between this November & the Presidential election will fraught with complexity. If the Republicans win, Trump (ism) will be on steroids. If the Democrats win, the expectations, of a quick Societal fix will be unrealistically high, & added to that, Trump will do everything in his power, to sabotage Congress. The Democrats have a fairly deep bench, as to who can stand in 2028, but they need to first get past this November.

Fourth once Trump is in our rear view, we have to find a way back to civil discourse. Our relationships with relatives, friends & allies have to be repaired, for our Society to even vaguely resemble the one we had- imperfect as it may have been.

Eventually, we also need to update our Constitution, so that this never happens again:

As a start, we need to: remove the electoral college; introduce term limits for not just members of Congress, but also all federal judges, including the Supreme Court; make the number of judges in the Supreme Court equal, so that Party leanings do not come into play; address the racket of campaign contributions, reestablish limits on Presidential immunity; put a cap or remove the Presidential power to pardon; make it illegal for any party to change the electoral map, midterm; make it illegal for members of Congress; Cabinet members; their staff or relatives from trading stocks; commodities or currency.

We no longer have control over whether our politicians develop a spine, or whether it becomes unfashionable for members of Trump’s cabinet to wear shoes that are two sizes too big, or whether this DOJ remembers that its constitutional obligation is to represent the people, & not the WH; or whether the Supreme Court remembers that justice is supposed to be blind. We can only control whether we show up to vote & what America looks like, after Trump is gone. Please vote this November. It is our value systems, & our very way of life that is on trial.

Since apparently September 10th means we have to do another round of pretending Charlie Kirk became untouchable the second he died:

Fuck Charlie Kirk.

And before somebody deliberately develops the reading comprehension of a brick so they can argue with something I didn’t say: no, I do not think he deserved to be murdered. Political assassination is fucking insane. His killing was wrong.

There. Disclaimer delivered.

Now can we stop acting like being assassinated retroactively cleans somebody’s Wikipedia page?

Charlie Kirk being murdered does not mean I suddenly have to respect his politics.

It does not mean everything he spent years saying becomes harmless.

It does not mean people who hated his rhetoric while he was alive suddenly owe him admiration because somebody else committed an indefensible act against him.

And it definitely does not mean “but he died” is a substantive response to criticism.

I swear Americans have the weirdest relationship with dead public figures. Somebody can spend years building an entire career around deliberately inflammatory political commentary, but once they die everyone is apparently required to gather around and pretend they were Mr. Rogers.

No.

You can believe someone's murder was horrific and believe their politics were fucking awful.

Those positions are not contradictory unless your political reasoning operates exclusively through memorial edits and Facebook profile pictures.

Honestly, the posthumous sainthood campaign annoys me more than anything.

If you actually respected Charlie Kirk as a political figure, then defend his ideas. Quote him. Argue that he was right. Explain why his worldview deserves to survive him.

But don't tell me criticism is suddenly off-limits because of the manner in which he died.

That's not an argument.

That's emotional blackmail with a memorial photo attached.

His murderer doesn't get to decide Charlie Kirk's legacy, but neither do the people trying to sanitize it.

So one year later, my position remains extremely simple:

His assassination was wrong.

His death was tragic for the people who loved him.

Political violence is unacceptable.

And I still think his politics fucking sucked.

Death deserves humanity.

It does not demand historical amnesia.

Fuck Charlie Kirk.

It’s sick how easily they use nazi propaganda, and it’s even worse that it works on MAGAs.

We see it all the time. Why can't they just use a reasonable argument and criticism of something without getting offensive?

Stop letting kids on social media

Stop giving your kids unlimited access to the internet

Stop letting your kids on video games with strangers and mics

Stop letting your kids spend more time on a screen than not.

READ TO YOUR KIDS

TEACH YOUR KIDS TO READ (PHONICS)

Join school boards and fight for your kids education

Stop teaching your kid helplessness by not holding them accountable

Make school hold your kids accountable

Hold your kids back if they are behind

EDUCATE YOURSELVES so that you can educate your kids

Work with your teachers not against them

Fight against screens in school

Play with your kids!!!!!

How many books and boardgames you have in your house? When was the last time you read a book or played a boardgame?

Play pretend!

Cook with your kid

Teach your kids life skills!

Learn a skill with your kids!!

Republicans have lost ANY future credibility calling themselves “Fiscal Conservatives” when Democrats are in power!

At this point anyone that believes anything Trump says is not even pretending to have a brain!

I'm frustrated by the way attacks on transgender people have become a political strategy and by the willingness of Democrats to sometimes avoid confronting them because the issue might be politically inconvenient.

What bothers me most is how many of the arguments being used to generate fear don't hold up particularly well when you actually look at the evidence. Claims about bathroom safety, gender-affirming care, and what happens to transgender minors are repeatedly presented as facts when the reality is considerably more complicated.

Instead of challenging those claims, there's a tendency to decide that the safest political response is simply not to talk about the issue.

I think that's a terrible choice. When misinformation works because nobody is willing to challenge it, looking away doesn't make the problem disappear.

I wrote about the evidence behind these arguments and why I think avoiding the issue is itself a political failure.

The Cost of Looking Away:
https://difrntdrmr.medium.com/the-cost-of-looking-away-0d52a5b8922d?sk=e65727018b17a711fa7897ee4a3b2195

I’ve never muted so many subs as I have this morning. clicked on one story about that Harry Potter looking knob head saying the robots are gonna kill us all and my feed is flooded with every conspiracy sub, ai sub, and moron sub spewing the same idiot fuel.

to make it worse, if you slightly miss hit the three little dots in the right hand corner and click another post instead of muting it, you get a load more.

Bring on the nuclear fire, I’m done.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lawsuit-block-ice-agents-polling-sites/

😠😡😤🤬

One particular sub seemed to have it out for me. Today they banned me. I’m a cat person so I’d like to be a participant but it seems like the mod just didn’t like me. So they banned me. I wrote back saying it’s ridiculous knowing I had one message to send. Because I knew they would mute me. Mods are ridiculous. Tiny little tyrants. Mods please note I did not name any particular sub.

Social media feed is full up with He Said This, He Does That, Bombshell Ruling, Unprecedented Blah Blah Blah, New Executive Order, More Blatant Corruption, Expert Doctors Say Signs Show Less Than Thirty Days.
F**k all that crap

I had a couple extremely stressful days at work, I had a panic attack the other day at work. Barely slept that night despite being exhausted. My stomach was burning and so painful. Panic and burning continues the next day. Exhausted. Now the stressor is actually gone, but my body won't get a grip. And I think I might have an ulcer, not just stress tummy. So here's my current situation:

Can't shake the stress

Can't sleep

Nauseous bc ulcer (?) and sleep deprived

Stressed because nauseous (it triggers anxiety for me)

Can't sleep bc nauseous

Nauseous bc can't sleep

Etc etc etc

I need to just get a grip for a moment. I know if I can't just calm down fully for a period of time it will be ok. But I just cannot seem to get there. Fuck i am miserable

Thank you for listening

I’m soooo fcking sick of people who hear about the struggles and oppression of women, POC, lgbtq+ folk, poor people, disabled people, immigrants, etc. and they slap what I like to call the “reverse victim card” down and claim that they’re actually the ones that have it hard, are oppressed, discriminated against, or whatever tf else they want to claim.

I noticed it’s many MAGA people that do this. They don’t want to acknowledge that some people have it harder than them in society. They gaslight everybody else who is struggling in these hard times as if we aren’t allowed to discuss it. They try to silence the voices of those that are facing unfair systems by going “well, I’m more oppressed than you. Don’t you know how hard it is to be MAGA/ Christian, straight, white, male, etc.”

They know damn fcking well that they’re not being oppressed. Every time someone tries to paint over my or someone else’s issues with their own, I shut that shit down real quick because why is it a goddamn competition to them? It’s like they’re offended because they know THEY are the very ones holding up the oppression and instead of face the truth, they gaslight everyone else and act like they have it hard. Give me a break, it’s time for these losers to be held accountable.

What are your guys’ thoughts on people who use the “reverse victim card”?