I feel you, my point is that the time for fighting for a better democrat candidate is during the primaries (or now)

And yet even (now) when leftists state even the mildest of criticisms against liberals, we get accused of not being able to differentiate between liberals and fascists. “Both Sides The Same”- right?

And plenty of people do try to get better candidates elected during the primaries. You know who makes that damn near impossible? The fucking DNC. They are the ones who decides who gets the nomination, not the people. In 2016 we finally had proof of that when they colluded with the Clinton campaign against Bernie Sanders, and if you think that was anything new or has changed in any way- you aren’t paying as close of attention as you imagine you are. In the ensuing lawsuit the DNC successfully argued in court that the DNC is “well within their rights to select their own candidate”. This is despite the fact that their own charter promises ‘impartiality and even handedness’. They argued that was a mere “political promise” (aka an outright lie) and that it was “political rhetoric” that is not enforceable in federal courts.

So I’ll ask you, if it’s the DNC who decides who the nomination goes to and not the people, does that sound ‘Democratic’ to you? To me that sounds exactly like the Oligarchs are already in control and have been for a long time. How else are we supposed to fight for a better candidate other than try to educate others?

The vast majority of voters aren’t even aware that even went down, because ‘surprised Pikachu face’ it was barely covered in the ‘mainstream media’. The ONLY hope we have is waking people up to the realities of the situation, and liberals constantly blaming leftists for their failings isn’t helping that cause at all.

Plenty of “leftists” online actively shit talked Harris weeks before the election.

Ok? Let’s say for the sake of argument that all these people you claim to have seen with tons of support here and on reddit were actually leftists. Do you think they were doing that in order to get Trump elected? ‘Weeks before the election’ pretty much everyone had already made their mind up who they were voting for. The so-called ‘moderates’ who voted for Trump were not swayed by them.

The sad truth is that the U.S. elections are a clown show and it’s more of a popularity contest than about policy. Most Republicans have no idea what Trumps plan/platform actually is other than “get rid of as many brown people as we can”, and not an insignificant amount of Democratic supporters liked Harris simply for being a woman of color with a D next to her name. And that is exactly why Harris was less popular than Trump to these supposed ‘moderates’, because she was a woman and a person of color. I don’t know if you have noticed or not, but we kind of have a huge problem with racism and misogyny in the U.S. The few supposed leftists you saw online ‘shit talking’ her couldn’t make her an old white man, no matter how much they sucked on her asshole.

At any rate as I have already pointed out, it’s highly likely that Harris did win, but Elon helped his ‘good buddy’ Trump rig the elections- so it likely wouldn’t have mattered if every single non MAGAt in the country voted for the pro-slavery cop anyway.

because they fucking can’t, the are in the minority fucking everywhere.

It’s true that they are in the minority, it’s not true that they are powerless to do anything about it. There are plenty of things they could do to make life Hell for the Trump administration, but many of them are rolling over like good little puppets. Could it be because the D’s and the R’s are both basically on the same side and only exist to give us the illusion of choice? Nah, couldn’t be that.

The plurality of American voters (almost a majority) are morons with the memory of a goldfish

You’ll get almost no argument from me here except for the fact that it’s not because they are morons, it’s because they are ignorant by design. I would (not) like to see the effect 100 years of anti-left propaganda, “red scares”, sabotaging education, crony capitalism, ‘corporate personhood’, rigged elections, corrupt politicians, media being 100% controlled by billionaires, and foreign interference coupled with an archaic voting system would do to your country but if you think your people would make better decisions in such a scenario- we will have to agree to disagree on that.

Both the DNC and the GOP intentionally keep us at each other throats so that we are so busy fighting each other that we wont notice that the real enemy is them and the billionaires they serve, and they have the not-so insignificant power of the largest propaganda machine in the entire world helping them with that project. Yes, one side is “better”, but only just enough better to get around 50% of the vote each election. So weird that works out that way- right?

and now they are looking to shift the blame for what they themselves have caused.

And you are on here helping them to do just that. Do you imagine it’s a coincidence that the Liberals are working overtime to blame Leftists for the mess they helped cause? Leftists are the reason that Trump won- right? Leftists are too stupid to tell the difference between the two parties- right? It has nothing at all to do with their candidate being a literal trash human being- right?

why isn’t the question: “why are the Republicans doing it?” in the first place…

That’s a fair question, but one with a much simpler answer. If you were a Billionaire/ Group of Billionaires who made their fortune by exploiting people and you had the ability to literally buy the Government in order to insure that will never change- you would be a fool not to. Their job was made easy by having only two political parties to buy. They then set about turning half the country against the other half- again to distract from what they are doing. Then along comes a wild card in the form of Trump. A megalomaniac who used the racism and hatred of “Liberal” ideals and worship of the ruling class that the Republicans had carefully fostered to win massive support among the racist and hateful half of the country. Remember that the establishment Republicans did not want anything to do with Trump when he first started in politics, so much so that the only person he could get to be his VP this time around was formerly a ‘never Trumper’ (you know he hates that). Once the Republicans saw there was no stopping the hate train, they had little choice but to hop aboard or be crushed by it. et voilà! Fascism comes to “The Land of the Free”.

Maybe they didn’t vote for trump, but definitely actively discouraged people from voting blue.

Again, I’m not sure where you are from but I’m sure its hard to understand what it’s like to be an American right now. People criticize the Democrats because most of us who aren’t Republicans (which lumps all Liberals in with Leftists) want better than the scraps we have been thrown.

Every since I was a kid and able to pay attention to politics, the Democrats have been asking us to vote for someone who is problematic, but better than the alternative. “Vote the lesser of two evils” they say, or you will be handing the country over to a monster. And every election the Dems head more and more to the right. But in the Land of the Free we have no fucking other alternatives. We either accept the shit that is forced upon us, or allow a monster to rule. So no, putting Democrats on blast for ‘not being perfect’ is not the same thing as discouraging people to vote.

How many times did you ask yourself if the comment you are reading might have come from and been upvoted by a bot or foreign agent? Because Americans do have to be vigilant for that. Also, it’s highly likely that republicans reading such a comment would upvote it as well.

every new gop fuck up asking why democrats didn’t do anything to stop it.

You don’t think that its the Democrats job to try and stop the GOP? You don’t think that’s what the people who voted for them want them to do? If you look at those comments chances are they are complaining about the Democrats who are actually not doing anything to try and stop it. We aren’t asking that about the ones who are trying but failing.

I cannot support biden (later Harris) because they are not perfect on issue X

I wish it were as simple as ‘not being perfect’. I would kill to have a party I could vote for that was 99% of the way there. Fuck I’d be happy with 70% honestly. I don’t blame you for not keeping a super close eye on American politics, but Biden is one of the people directly responsible for our disgusting, ill conceived, immoral, ineffective, and harmful ‘War on Drugs’. He’s part of the reason violence is as high as it is. He’s one of the people directly responsible for the insane incarceration rates. He helped make it legal for the cops to LITERALLY steal from Americans. “Not perfect”? Fuck off with that shit.

Harris isn’t any better, as California’s AG she fought the Supreme Court for YEARS to keep human beings locked up in prisons so overcrowded that even the SCOTUS ruled that it was ‘Cruel and Unusual Punishment’ (that’s actually illegal here believe it or not) Why? So she could use those prisoners as literal slave labor (We didn’t get rid of Slavery entirely in the U.S., it’s still ok if the Government does it). She also fought to make ‘Civil Asset Forfeiture’ even easier for the cops (the whole “it’s legal for the cops to steal from you” thing). She’s a ‘Tough on Crime’ right winger and always has been, despite what Fox news has to say about her. She and Biden were perfect- for each other.

As you rightly point out what passes for ‘the left’ in America is considered centrist in Europe, and you want us to what? Thank our lucky stars that the Democrats aren’t literal fascists? Are we supposed to just accept worse and worse out of the DNC until one day we are voting for literal fascists because the alternative is a super-ultra-mega fascist?

Well, do you think it’s at all likely or remotely reasonable that someone who was in favor of universal healthcare and free education would prefer a fascist dictator over a center-right Dem? It may not be possible to know for sure, but there certainly are signs.

Were these people in r/politics or on Facebook by any chance? It’s not surprising that the most popular places online to discuss politics would be a prime target for bots and Russians posing as American leftists.

After Biden finally dropped out, I was advocating we try and get anyone other than Harris- someone who might actually win, on the ballot, but that is not the same as saying I would vote for Trump or not Vote.

I can 100% relate to people who didn’t want to vote for Harris, I didn’t want to vote for her, but our election system gives us very little choice in the matter.

How do you know they were leftists? I don’t know where you are from, but it’s been known that bots and foreign powers have been attempting to influence U.S. elections since at least Trumps first term, and let’s be honest it’s extremely likely that it has been going on for far longer than that.

Biden IS pro genocide, So is Harris, So is Trump. I don’t think it’s bad to point that out. Using it as a reason to vote for a Fascist instead is loony tunes, and as someone who frequents Leftist spaces I can tell you not a single person on reddit or Lemmy proposed any such nonsense who was taken seriously and wasn’t’ immediately down-voted into oblivion.

I’m frustrated with the reflexive “both sides are equally bad”

No one is saying both sides are equally bad. And we keep saying this over and over, and it gets ignored. Just so were on the same page NO ONE is saying both sides equally bad.

…response that shuts down any meaningful analysis of what’s actually happening in our politics.

Ironically it’s usually the opposite. Someone will make the lightest possible criticism of Liberals and the knee-jerk reaction to that is “So you think both sides are equally bad?!” That’s what usually shuts the conversation down.

sometimes cave to corporate pressure

Try replacing sometimes with “usually”. They may be different corps, but almost all of them are in the pocket of one corp or another.

they’ve made compromises that disappointed their base

That’s putting it mildly.

I see meaningful differences that have real consequences for people’s lives.

Of course, and again literally no one is saying they are equally bad. You can vote for the less bad option while still hoping for meaningful change.

On issues I care about (healthcare access, climate action, voting rights, ext.) one party consistently proposes solutions and votes for them when they have the numbers.

It’s usually weak, ineffective half-measures more designed to look progressive than actually being progressive, but sure if you compare them to literal Nazi’s they are saints.

When Democrats fail to deliver, it’s often because they lack sufficient majorities or face procedural roadblocks. When they do have power, they’ve passed significant legislation on infrastructure, climate investment, and healthcare expansion.

So, just as an example when Obama was president and Dems had the majority in both houses of congress, and Republicans were shitting all over themselves proving that they would not compromise a single inch- instead of passing any type of “Medicare for all” or “Right to Healthcare” they passed the highly compromised “Affordable Care Act”. Why? Contrast that fact with this statement from Obama prior to the election.

“I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care program," Obama said. "I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent of its gross national product on health care, cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. And that’s what Jim is talking about when he says everybody in, nobody out. A single-payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. That’s what I’d like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we’ve got to take back the White House, we’ve got to take back the Senate, and we’ve got to take back the House.”

Odd that when the Dems had “taken back” the White House and both houses of Congress the best they could do was a watered down and problematic solution that still left a lot of people without health care. It’s not like compromising on that gained them a single Republican vote.

“Coincidentally” the Healthcare Industry ‘donated’ over $20 million to the Obama campaign, way more than even the almost $8 million they ‘donated’ to John McCain. Very odd indeed.

But that cynicism serves the interests of those who benefit from the status quo.

I honestly can’t think of a single institution anywhere in the world more devoted to maintaining the status quo than the DNC. Not one. They aren’t ‘progressive’ in any way. Obama didn’t even come out in support of Gay Marriage until he had been president for over 3 years, and after right wing Democrat Joe Biden already had. This wasn’t due to some sense of fairness or equality, it was political pressure.

If you can’t tell the difference between someone trying to reform a broken system and someone actively working to keep it broken, you’re not offering insight. You’re providing cover for obstruction

By refusing to even hear about potential failings of ‘liberal democrats’ without engaging in ‘whataboutism’, it only strengthens the DNC’s position as the ‘good guys, fighting for reform’ when the reality is they are the ‘less bad guys, fighting to maintain the status quo’.

Fascists are bad. We all know they are bad. We all know they are worse than a bunch of corporate stooges who want everyone to be slaves to Capitalism, but at least you can feel good they are doing the bare minimum to address the multitudes of problems in the country.

There is a third option, and there is absolutely noting wrong with pointing out the flaws on both sides of the Two Party system and hoping for a future of ‘actually good’ instead of ‘less bad’. Even if it is just a dream, I’d rather waste my life trying to make those dreams real than throwing my arms up and saying “This is the best we can ever hope for”.

I feel like this shouldn’t have to be explained, but “Both sides bad” does not equal “Both sides equally bad” or “Both sides the same”

There’s not a leftist on Lemmy who wouldn’t rather be patronized while being stomped on than being cussed at while being murdered.

And yes, I voted. No, it didn’t help. It was moderates who didn’t vote, not leftists. Leftists believe in harm reduction while advocating for harm elimination- the two goals aren’t contradictory. Trump stole the election so it’s all pretty much moot anyway.

By focusing on the fact that Democrats version of bad is better than the Republican version of bad, it only helps to ensure that the Democrats are the best we can hope to achieve. There is nothing wrong in wanting actual good and instead of ‘least bad’.

the president gets to deploy the military where ever he wishes (outside the US, posse comitatus etc). That includes invading a sovereign nation or raining missiles down on one.

That is how it’s been interpreted, it’s not actually what the founders had in mind when they wrote the constitution. They wanted congress to be a check on the presidents ‘commander in chief’ role by reserving the right to declare war for congress. If the president can still effectively declare war without a declaration of war, it’s the same as not having that check in the first place. It’s basically a loophole that presidents have been using to do illegal things

After it was either 60 or 90 days, I forget, congress gets to “review” the decision, the problem is they have no power other than financial if they wish to stop the war.

It’s 60 (with an additional 30 days to withdraw the forces) as outlined in the War Powers Resolution of 1973. This was an attempt by congress to close that loophole.

It’s true that they can cut off funding (as per Section 5c of the WPR), but congress pretty much already had that power as per the constitution and that’s not actually their only recourse. It’s still technically illegal for the president to do that (which means squat thanks to the SCOTUS) but he can be challenged through the courts for it. He could also be censured and as you mention impeached for it. None of those things are likely to happen now, but my point is Bernie is basically technically correct if not practically correct.

I have three friends who do the same thing but it’s funny and humorous!

I get what you are saying but at the same time I can relate to your friends as well. It’s definitely not a hill I would die on and I wouldn’t judge a parent who made a different choice than me, I don’t think there is a objectively correct answer here. I also don’t think it’s a huge deal either way.

I think OP’s story would have hit a little different if the Dad had been the one to tell the son about portals to the Ether in the first place.

I’m sure everyone reacts to the information differently and it probably depends on how young you are when you find out, what kind of relationship you have with your parents, and how sensitive you are about honesty.

It wasn’t a big deal for you when you learned the truth and I’m glad. I’d be willing to bet your friends had different experiences though. I think they are both valid.

It wasn’t a huge deal for me, but I remember how I felt when I found out and it isn’t a happy memory. I didn’t exactly never trust my mom again, but I did learn that no one in life- no matter how much you trust them- will ever be 100% with you all the time. That’s part of growing up and every one has to learn it sooner or later, but it just seemed like it was unnecessary. I was also 5 years old when I figured it out, I’m not sure if this is particularly early or not but I remember it was kind of a bummer.

I’m sure from my moms pov she had fond memories of believing in Santa and wanted the same thing for her kids. I don’t’ ever remember thinking it was like a malicious thing, but I also couldn’t help but notice how it was used to keep my younger brother and sister in line. “If you don’t behave Santa won’t come this year” type thing, so at least part of it was feeling manipulated.

TLDR: don’t judge your friends too harshly. They probably have reasons to feel like they do.

New Guinea is in the center.

Any time! I love nerding out about stuff like this :) I was a huge fan of Horror films and books when I was younger, so this was like a nice nostalgic trip for me. If you end up watching it and have any thoughts I’d love to hear them.

What an amazing fucking hypocrite you are. It’s not surprising, it’s what liberals are good at.

You are so quick to blame the Left for your Performative Pig not winning the election, but take no responsibility whatsoever for putting that piece of shit on the ballot in the first place. Before that it was a senile old man you were convinced was going to save us. You guys are the ones blaming everyone but yourselves.

You’d rather burn the country down and have people fight the fight you want

It’s you that keep on spouting the lie that Leftists are just sitting around waiting on a bunch of fucking Libs to fight for us. Literally no one has said that but you. That makes perfect sense, seeing as how the Libs haven’t done jack shit other than put ‘Vote Blue No Matter Who’ bumper stickers on their cars and going into a booth once every 4 years so they can get the coveted “I voted” badge of honor.

It makes even more sense considering the libs done everything in their power to ensure that it’s only the cops and military that actually have effective weapons to fight with. All you can do is capitulate, lick boots, and act as if inanimate objects are the problem and not the capitalist pigs you keep voting for, so of course we are just sitting around expecting you cowards to actually fight when the time comes. /s because I’m sure you need it spelled out for you.

If and when peacefully protesting inevitably fails and it comes time to defend ourselves, you can bet your ass it will be Leftists doing the fighting while the Blue losers are writing strongly worded letters to their senators and cowering in their basements.

you wouldn’t even walk to the voters booth and vote against literal nazis.

And again with the blaming everyone but yourself bullshit. FYI I and most other Leftists by an large did show up to vote for the lesser evil because unlike libs, we are willing to do harm reduction in the sort term, while still possessing the ability to look down the road and see whats coming. You guys want to take the one or two people online who didn’t vote and use them to blame the entire left for your failure to get a candidate that could actually win against literal Nazis on the ballot.

So pat yourself on the back for ‘doing your part’ by voting for a pro slavery cop instead of Hitler 2, it sure really saved all us Lefties who were waiting for our blue saviors to help us. Oh wait, it didn’t do shit.

Are you seriously unable to differentiate between someone saying that we shouldn’t be so quick to take violence off the table, and “I have a plan and the means to immediately begin using violence this second?”

Violence and Non Violence are tools, you don’t throw out your screwdriver when you get a hammer and you don’t try hammering in a screw without trying the screwdriver first.

You can prefer to resolve things peacefully while recognizing that it likely won’t work at the same time.

If someone says 'I think all people should have healthcare" do you respond with 'Go become a Doctor then!"

The far left are pussies for not taking action, and the Liberals are far worse because they are half the reason we are in this mess. Y’all want to prop up Capitalism and Corporations, this is what you get. It doesn’t matter if you asked the ruling class to play nice with the power you handed them or not, it’s not our fault you are so naive.

So, our conversation got me intrigued enough to actually rewatch it. Yes, Dwight is in it, I had no idea. Crazy to see him looking so young. Also staring the great Walton Goggins as a deputy sheriff and Chris Hardwick who I had totally forgotten about.

I don’t think I’ve actually seen the 3rd movie myself. I wasn’t too impressed with ‘The Devils Rejects’ tbh.

As far as the supernatural elements go, I could see it interpreted either way honestly. When they lower Jerry and Denise into Dr. Satan’s lair, there are some what look like they could be zombies breaking them out of the coffin, before disappearing under the water, but they could also be some of the mental patients Dr.Satan was experimenting on. It seems like if they were zombies they wouldn’t have halted the attack, but it really makes little sense either way.

The way I interpreted it was that Dr. Satan didn’t just ‘experiment’ on the mental patients and victims that the Firefly family had been providing him, but on himself and Earl (his ‘assistant’) as well. I did a little research and some people describe them as ‘Cyborg Demons’ and some just use their names.

I’m pretty sure Dr. Satan was an actual human at one point at least, if his backstory can be belived. When Earl pulls off his ‘gas mask’ he definitely doesn’t look very human, but he is supposedly Mother Firefly’s husband and Tiny’s father. So he was probably human at one point himself. Maybe they got their demonic appearances by being possessed, by ‘cosmetic’ surgery or some combination of the two.

One story has it that Rob Zombie pitched the idea for the movie to Universal without having a script, the name came from a Haunted House attraction that he had done for Universal Studios, and he just sort of made some shit up. After they Ok’d the project he went home and banged out a script. By writing this post I probably put more thought into the story than the did lol.

Another thing I learned was that after the shooting, Universal dropped the project because they were sure it would get an NC-17 rating, and it took him another a few years to find a distributor. By the time he had, a lot of the original footage had been lost so he had to do some creative editing to get a somewhat coherent film and to get an R rating. I’m not sure if the original plot made more sense or not, but I kinda doubt it :)

One other interesting bit I found was an interview with Zombie by bloody-disgusting.com

Which raises the question, of course, of whether Dr. Satan’s appearance in House of 1,000 Corpses was ever real at all. We asked Rob Zombie where he stood on an ending that seemed straightforward, but which now, after a retcon, looks like it may all have been a dream.

“I left it so that it could be whatever,” Zombie said. “Is it real? Is it probably just the girl, that Denise, after a long night of being tortured and watching all of her friends killed, maybe she just went cuckoo and was imagining all these crazy things? You know, I thought for that film it’s best just leave it as however people want to interpret it.”

I’m not sure if that was his original intention, or if that is how he views it in light of the sequels,

I kind of don’t want to watch it again in case it doesn’t hold up.

I think it holds up pretty well for what it is. I view it as an homage to the all great ‘B’ grade horror movies of the 70’s and 80’s (which often made little sense themselves) and shot like a feature length music video. It’s just silly/gruesome fun.

I stand corrected. I’ll have to give it a rewatch at some point. I remember thinking it was a decent flick

Thanks, I hope the same for you :)

Hello my baby, Hello my Honey, Hello my Ragtime gal

Either your reading comprehension is severely lacking, or you are just looking for a fight. Whatever your deal is I hope you get better.

It definitely gets weird towards the end and I think it’s meant to be sorta ambiguous/ open to interpretation.

From what I can recall (it’s been a while) and from watching the sequels, I think Otis and Co were just psycho rednecks, but I could be wrong about that.

Otis Driftwood from House of 1000 Corpses. He has no supernatural powers.

I have lived around crazy rednecks all my life (Indiana and Florida). Pretty sure I could outwit 1 crazy redneck, and with 3 Billion I could afford to finally escape this hellhole.