centrally-unplanned · 2 days ago
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A bonus pre-election thought as I post my way through this week: there is one strain of Trump supporter I will call the "policy gamble Republican". They think Trump is a moron and a shitheel, and generally do not think Kamala Harris is worse in any way on things like character - they know all those arguments are bullshit. Instead, they are just coolly looking at the expected policy outcomes for each and think it comes out Trump.
They focus on markets and tend to be libertarian types - oh sure Trump says that he will do the tariff thing, but he won't, Republicans will back him off that ledge. And meanwhile Harris will continue to double down on the nanny state, and do "price controls", woke DEI stuff, etc. "Given the exponential returns of long-run GDP growth a 1.3% reduction in GDP today is worth approximately 200,000 babies in 2100" type stuff; the kind of people who argue Bush was Good, Actually, because PEPFAR saved more lives than the Iraq War killed.
And I do get this argument, I am mocking them affectionately here - there is valuable policy analysis to be done like this, it isn't a crazy instinct. Obviously to me, my first objection is just "the 5% or higher chance of authoritarian backsliding is not worth any of that", and I think that does carry the day. But there is a second point, which is that they treat the election itself as bloodless vis a vis the wider political currents. That if the Republicans win or the Democrats win that means one of them is in charge, but it won't change the underlying parties and they repeat next year.
I think they don't realize they are making this assumption since when you spell it out like that it comes off as quite naive. When Trump won in 2016 it broke both political parties in the US - the Republican party spiraled into nativist, anti-trade platforms, while the Democrats fought a huge culture war over things like whether America was Irredeemably Racist or if economic populism would carry the day. And as much as people tend to forget it today, losing in 2020 - and Trump's behavior afterward - got quite close to breaking his hold on the party. Honestly he got absurdly lucky, with Biden being such a deeply unpopular president and his challengers coalescing around Ron DeSantis who turned out to be incredibly mid.
It isn't predictable or formulaic ofc, but all of this is to say that Trump winning is very likely to consolidate and expand his hold on the Republican Party, which if you are a libertarian-esque market type is an awful outcome for you. Trump actively endorses anti-market populists for down-ballot elections! The "Free Trade Center" isn't gonna hold forever in the face of someone who keeps winning. And meanwhile his defeat will likely have a positive impact on making the Republican party saner. He is certainly an electoral liability for the cause if you want it to be empowered!
So yeah, independent of any policy bills or actions, elections themselves are important events that shape political culture. I would value that over a good number of specific reforms of this or that market regulation in any EV calculation.
Not the Jones Act though. Fuck the Jones Act.
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thefirstlioveyou · 20 hours ago
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smalltown boy being mike's first track is actually so important and reveals what will be covered in s5 (i have a post abt that coming sooonnnish)
also his brief character description literally matches up with the song's meaning. all mike wants to do is escape the home/town that won't acknowledge him and remains invisible in, worsening his insecurities, ultimately making him conform in several ways because he doesn't know what else. but obviously... he fails miserably at that. you see how shit falls apart when he isn't truthful to himself.
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the usage of "retreats".... 🥲🥲🥲
in the actual smalltown boy music video, the boy escapes away from his homophobic town to a big city where he can finally receive the love and support he's always needed.
for mike, he escapes away from his own home/town that fuels his insecurities to his own imaginative worlds where he writes himself to be someone who IS seen and listened to, like a brave paladin.
and unpopular opinion maybe? but i don't think mike will actually run away from his family next season like the music video. i do still want him to leave hawkins in the end, but not out of fear. i think the run away thing is a more metaphorical thing, or in reference to Mike actually having to run away from something in s5, since running away from something is a constant theme in his playlist.
by the end, his parents will accept him as a whole, unlike the music video. breaking free from conformity is something the wheelers are going to have to do as a family next season.
but before we get any vocal acceptance from his parents and that heart to heart (because you gotta pay off that "i'm here for you" scene. everything's coming to a full circle this season), mike will have to accept himself first and be true to his heart. he can no longer lie to himself about who he is and what makes him him, and that spans beyond just being gay (although i believe that finally choosing to be with will will be his last and final fuck you to conformity after struggling so hard with societal pressures in general)
oh michael my son u are so important and loved
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queenhxla · 10 months ago
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I really hate when writers take sweet, timid, shy characters ( usually men ) and make them into these mega dominant degrading characters as soon as things get sexual. it's ok for dominant people to be gentle actually !
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canisalbus · 1 year ago
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@ the person who said Machete wouldn't have a cutie mark, I definitely see where you're coming from, but I disagree! Machete, against all the odds of his birth and existence, survived and excelled. His determination to continue would have earned him his mark.
In g4, at least, they're more than just a representation of a task you're good at. It's a reminder of who you are as a person, of a truth you hold.
I think Machete might have a fang or claw, a representation of the phrases 'with gritted teeth' or 'clawing your way up' or maybe a hoof reaching toward the sun
I also think a mark like that would seem strange and off-putting, and may have been a source of strife for him while in school. In MLP, it's not terribly uncommon for ponies with no cutie mark or a cutie mark they're ashamed of to cover it up with clothing, in the way canon Machete wears his outfit.
Idk just my two cents
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frankiebirds · 3 months ago
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s05e09 - 100
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s02e15 - revelations
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pianokantzart · 7 months ago
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💖
💖: What is your biggest unpopular opinion about the series?
I see Paper Luigi as a completely different character from regular Luigi.
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There is a lot of crossover in traits, and they are both highly lovable characters, but I see "Paper Luigi" as more of an AU version of Luigi who doesn't have his famed trait of shyness and actively craves adventure, which... kinda makes him a really sad character given the fact that he's the one stuck at home more than the other Luigis. Don't even get me started on his status as an Apocalypse Maiden.
We need a "Paper Luigi's Mansion" game so he can finally have his time in the spotlight.
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makorragal-312 · 7 months ago
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Okay.
So this might be an unpopular opinion (or maybe not), but as a bi woman, I would be fucking PISSED if Buck and Eddie ended up kissing or hooking up during the bachelor party.
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gxlden-angels · 10 months ago
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Bro I hate fundamentalists and culturally-fundie parents they'll say shit like "spare the rod spoil the child am I right haha yea my parents used to have to beat my ass with a switch almost everyday but I sure did learn my lesson" but like??? no you didn't??? you were hit multiple times for something you very obviously did not, in fact, learn
Like studies about how harmful even lightly spanking children is aside, you're literally contradicting yourself?? Some even admitted they got worse as they got older cause they wanted to see how far they could push their parents before they got punished
And studies not aside, you're gonna get child raising advice from the same book that tells you to stone your wife if her hymen doesn't break on your wedding night instead of the decades of research we have now?? Just say you're a bad parent and move on my guy. Skill issue
#bro I had a coworker go 'unpopular opinion I think some kids really do need beatings' and I'm like????#unprompted???? what's going on there????#well anyways I ended up going 'yea so I plan on specializing in play therapy with autistic children so I've been learning about talking#to children and the ways their parents and environment affects them'#and they're like hmmm but beating this kid with a stick after they broke something or I upset them to the point of yelling is good actually#had a boss say it taught him and his kids respect cause they were hard-headed#and I'm like?? that's fear not respect! they fear punishment! they do not act out of respect for you!#he's a conservative christian black man tho so he's like 'But Authority!' like bro I don't even respect you what are you on about#'You don't respect police and their authority?' Nope! I fear them! I do not respect cops and every cop/cop-adjacent person I personally know#has reinforced that for me#'We'll agree to disagree' Cool! Doesn't mean you're not wrong! I could believe trees aren't real but that is in fact incorrect#then he pulled out the bible verse and I was like ah okay I forgot you like 'here's how to treat slaves' book you're so right bestie#I'm totally wrong now and so sorry for doubting you and your 2000+ year old book I don't believe in <3#They'd go 'well I turned out fine!' then say something that directly contradicts that#anyways I need christians to get their grubby little hands off the current state of Child Protection and Rights in the U.S.#So we can actually start working on helping kids without the force of christian hands suffocating them#cause homeschooling and child raising by evangelicals are so fucked up bro I'm tired of this shit#I'd only stay in my current state to help children get out of that cycle since I'm in the bible belt#ex christian#religious trauma#child abuse tw
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donnydamakkk · 2 years ago
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unpopular opinion: there is no point in the show in which jeid would have made sense. jj never seemed interested in him, and his feelings always felt misconstrued and misplaced. they never had that kinda chemistry.
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iniziare · 1 month ago
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This may be a massively unpopular opinion, but you know what one of the things is that I love about writing a male character, as a female writer myself? Writing a romantic dynamic with a woman. It's so interesting to me to be able to write the perspective that is absolutely foreign to me, but opposite the one that is normally mine in life, instead of engaging in a dynamic that is foreign to me from both ends. So when a male muse gives me the opportunity to engage in this, I mentally thrive.
God, it's the concept of the unknown that I'm usually only a witness to, mixed in with that which is the most familiar to me. It's so interesting to me as a writer, to write a man's courting of a woman that is so specific because of its power dynamic. Men and women are inherently different in so many elements in life, that there are things that are fundamental to think of when one approaches the other. There's that sense of caution, of respect because there's such a paramount difference in that power dynamic between them. It's balancing the respect and the manners, with the interest. It's slipping in an element of confidence that is just right, and having the muse analyze, and seek and understand that which he doesn't inherently understand, if that's the kind of male muse that you write (like I get to do with Aventurine). It's the analytical pair of eyes that survey that which I normally know by heart and mind, and yet I need to forget, and yet also can never forget— all the while doing justice to the man in question, and his specific character traits. That's my greatest pleasure when it comes to writing, to me; it's writing someone that is so different from me and always will be, and yet write said enigma opposite something that I do understand so intricately well and in detail. /chef's kiss. I just love being a writer.
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renmackree · 2 months ago
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🔥Shipping
Ask me my unpopular opinion -> OPEN
Ship and let ship. if YOU don't like something, block the tags. if I don't like something, I'll do the same. I won't ever tell someone they are wrong for liking a ship or that they are bad for liking specific things and I would expect the same respect give to me.
You can tell me you don't like something, but the minute you attack me personally for a fictional ship or tell me I'm a [insert negative descriptor] for liking what I like, then I have full rights to do the same for you.
We are all just trying to love our source material and make our own little happy space in this world. But if you hit and are surprised people bite, then I cannot help you.
Ship and Let Ship, Your Ship is Not My Ship (And that's OK!), You loving a ship does not diminish or tarnish my love for a different one.
That's what I got.
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joycrispy · 2 months ago
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I really really really like the poster for this game.
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sskk-manifesto · 11 months ago
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:D
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pseudophan · 3 months ago
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How did you check the blog if you're blocked, aren't the posts supposed to not show up? Seriously curious
the tumblr block feature just makes it so the person blocking someone don't see the person they're blocking's posts and the person who's blocked can't interact with the person blocking them. it also only affects the specific blog you block so like i can still reblog that person's post on any of my other sideblogs just not this one specifically
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the-obnoxious-sibling · 1 year ago
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fools: the tuvix situation is like the star trek version of the trolley problem! you're either letting two dear friends die to allow this new, third person to live, or you murder the new person to get your friends back me: just create a transporter duplicate of the combined guy and split up one of them fools: ... me: sometimes people are so excited to philosophize they forget that star trek problems get to be solved by star trek science
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astralartefact · 5 months ago
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Following the PaperTrail to Tural A Paper Menphina Side Quest
In which Paper Menphina helps Not!Marie NieR Reincarnation retrieve her novelty wine glass of doom and destruction while 2 Pictomancers are just happy to be included for once. i don't know how this always happens but i guess i gave paper menphina a canon story now? hey, and maybe i will reveal it one day!!! probably not
i'm probably doing wuk lamat, erenville and [whoever else i liked] after the expansion just in case somebody gets to change out of his work clothes...
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