As others put, no, but it does remind me that Aristotle felt society should only be run by the most intelligent among us, hence the term Aristocracy.

Of course, in practice people make up bullshit rules to determine who is most intelligent and that messes up the whole concept (e.g. Jim Crow tests and such). But it’s a nice fantasy if ever we could pull it off.

Lover’s quarrel that leads to a murder-suicide?

Well that was a depressing read while holding my 9 month old.

He’s spending more time with Trump at his home than Trump’s wife. Is there… something you’re not telling us, Elon? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Oh oh, I know a great revenge. Make it so nobody can individually donate millions through PACs. In fact, just do away with PACs and Citizens United. That’ll really stick it to those Democrats and that Soros fella you’re so worked up over!

I mean, it’s the whole point of the “states rights” things. Republicans use that hypocritically, but there’s truth to it. But you’re right in that it’s been eroded for a long time; that and the executive branch has gained more and more power too. Constitutionalists should be up in arms but again, hypocrites every last one of them.

He wasn’t able to do it in 2016 for the same reason this time around— probably, anyway. My guess is it’s mostly not a priority compared to enriching billionaires, but also some Republicans probably aren’t that interested in overthrowing State governments (especially Californian house members lol). You also have the issue of compliance, as the military and FBI aren’t exactly Hitler’s generals. Yet, anyway.

You know, at least there’s some solace in knowing Trump 100% didn’t and can’t read Project 2025. He’s still going to bull-in-the-china-shop his way though this but I don’t think he’s going to follow the script exactly.

At some point it becomes easier to just travel to places to buy your gpus and such. When I was in Singapore, their prices on electronics were both good and compatible with my own stuff. I visit there to see an old MMO friend and it’s just… Closer to the source, I guess.

This more or less captures the spirit of the last 100 days, yup. Maybe I should watch some Bojack, it’s certainly more lighthearted than this political season has been. Ugh

Any idea which states might fit the bill?

I heard about that, I just don’t know who else can join the coalition. It might be easier to do it as an amendment if there a massive shift in power over the next decade (and I shudder to think what that’d be that was so upsetting or so lethal that the entire landscape changes to Dems having a super majority).

You know the innocent but in context messed up movie I watched right before this election because of a song? The Sound of Music. Know the young girls “love interest?” Goes full Nazi by the halfway point.

That’s your Gen Z men looking to fit in a new Nazi order.

Same. I’m not sure if I’m more… “Ok” with this? We should still abolish the electoral college, but we were shafted by the American people this time (and the propaganda machine making things worse). It’s the first time since I turned 18 that the GOP actually won the popular vote… Sigh

I’d say we tend to still have a few good qualities from our culture (or at least a product of a subculture), but there absolutely no doubt about the bad ones. I especially hate how they are regarding education, since that’s one of the most important things we have.

It’s a shame we’re slowly losing those good qualities, though. Individualism, for instance, is at it’s extreme in the US and is one of the ways it’s attracted so many artists and creatives. Too bad corporate interests are eroding that steadily for decades, and fascism is likely to stifle the first amendment once and for all.

Why not both?

Indeed. Slightly better timeline had him die of heart disease in 2022. Won’t to us as much good now, though. (Although you gotta wonder if JD sans-Trump would take us out of NATO)

Oh I’m 100% with you and there is never a way to confirm how things would have gone. We were doomed since 2020, I knew Biden would have a hard time with a second term. I just hoped Trump would have died by now.

Honestly, I’m not sure it matters. It was never possible to change those minds just as it’s impossible to convince people that Republicans are always disasters for the economy. The best bet is that people simply stop caring about 2020 since they got their Trump and he’ll eventually die and less influential GOP will probably pick different talking points by 2028.

We really need to address foreign interference though, that’s the main problem as they stoke those fires. Only chance of that is a significantly different political landscape in 2028, assuming the ebb and flow gives the lead back to Dems as it usually does.

It’s been on my mind too, especially 2016 and 2020. My first vote was for Obama in the primary in 2007 and it got me interested in politics. What we have now just… sucks. I wanted Warren in 2020, but states that don’t even vote blue decided Biden was the pick.

Had there been a primary in 2024, though, it’d have likely gone to Harris anyway and we’d probably have had the same results. I don’t think we’ll have a good primary until the electorial college is abolished and the red states who vote on primaries actually have say that matters, or we change how primaries work so that it’s reflective of states that actually vote blue (and while we’re at it, have it on the same fucking day so it’s not first come first serve).