First Bluesky pile on: *Multiple racist insults against myself/family. *Baffling claims about Vietnamese history/economy *Zero evidence presented to refute my claim that the history of Communism in practice is one of brutality, death, and repression. Yeah, we're very enlightened over here.

What a wonderful human being.

Only a moron of spectacular ignorance would make such a statement.

It boggles my mind that the hammer and sickle is considered a socially acceptable symbol, but then braindead people probably find history difficult to digest.

I like Bluesky, but it IS very totalitarian in what is and isn't permitted as an opinion. If the app ever starts rewarding like-seeking behavior it'll get way worse. We all know it's surface-level BS because we are all in group chats where tongues are free. "I'd never say that on the TL!'

Deciding that YOU, your group, or your party are to be the arbiter of free speech is a dangerous game to play, and the worst elements of both sides of the spectrum are playing it. And yes I'm both-siding an issue again because I can see both sides throwing their toys out of the stroller.

Probably. Already seeing it with student deportations. However, the left really needs to look in the mirror at its own totalitarian impulses because they are becoming more and more pronounced and destructive.

I don't know where I stand anymore. I'm left on almost every debate but "the left" online is every bit as destructive and obnoxious and incoherent as the extreme right now and I kinda hate them all

Some people have never spent time in the company of truly frightening and dangerous people. It's the only explanation for posts of this kind. Living in a fantasy Ideology-land without access to experience or history books.

In fairness, I'd say Coldplay rob more folk of the horn than they inspire

Bill's reign was great if you didn't care about single mothers or gay rights or the bombing campaigns to distract from his philandering. Yup, just swell.

There's no team context imaginable in which I'd rather have Dame than CP3, and I love Dame. As far as career accomplishments, it's Chris in a landslide, too.

For the price I get making your fans happy and providing a solid leader for your young guys. Dame will be a few months shy of 37 the next time we see him in the playoffs (if the Blazers even make it). Tough to see any upside there, purely in terms of team success.

I want to see all the great players of any generation get a ring, or at least a serious shot at one, so selfishly I was rooting for Dame to a surer bet on that front. Can't fault him for prioritizing his family (lmao at loyalty claims though)

Explaining to 19-year-old "leftists" today that one of the main things that used to separate us from right-wingers was our belief in the sanctity of free speech and freedom of expression in art.

I don't know how to tell people this, but if you're calling for the censoring or deplatforming of a comedian because of the content of their material, then you're the fascist.

Why exactly is Shane Gillis public enemy number 1 on here the last few days?

I hope I'm wrong, but I feel like this could eclipse Inception on the "unbearably pretentious surely people lie about liking this" scale

And for the times he is really needed (such as when Kawhi inevitably misses time), Harden-Beal-Batum-Collins-Zu lineups make a hell of a lot more sense that Book or KDless Suns' lineups

I have no reason to believe that Beal-Harden-Kawhi will be that much better as a trio than Beal-Booker-KD, but the ancillary pieces are infinitely better with more avenues to appropriately stagger them

Since Westbrook's draft year ('09), 25 players have attempted 4300+ threes (Russ is at 4,473). Of those players, only three are at 40+ % (Steph, Klay, JJ). The 24th-ranked player is Trevor Ariza at 35.2%. Russ is at 30.5%. 5% worse than anyone with similar volume is crazy.

The Wizards with Poole ON last year: 54.5 TS%, 51.2 EFG%, 104.8 offensive rating With Poole OFF: 54.4 TS%, 51.1 EFG%, 105.0 offensive rating For an offense first player who shot well to make literally zero difference with the level of backups Washington had is honestly impressive lol

Mindless internet platitudes/terms that'll cause me to eject from a conversation if used in real life: Toxic masculinity Libtard Privilege (by someone who has zero knowledge of who I am) Simp Eat the rich Woke (in any context) Snowflake No quicker way to tell me you won't argue in good faith.

Joel Embiid has only dunked 24 times in his last 58 games, which seems impossibly low even if he has been limited.

I wonder how many allstar votes he'll get in year one. Yao got 1.3 million off a 13/8 rookie campaign, maybe 500k?

I didn't think I could despise loyalist paramilitaries anymore, but learning the degree to which they worked with and supported apartheid South Africa has achieved it.

It's hard to undersell how basketball-crazy most Chinese sports consumers are. It's insane how many courts and jerseys you'll see almost everywhere, and the people are passionate about it.

Nikola Vucevic might have the best paper-only HOF case for a guy who should definitely not be a HOFer. *Gonna be top-35 all-time rebounds (pushing 11k) *One of only 13 guys EVER to have 17k points, 10k boards, and 3k assists (by the end of next year) *3rd all-time in threes by a center (KAT/Brook)

If Kamala was president and was doing the same thing, which she would have, right-wing pods would be calling for her head. The fact that the exact same scenario would run out the same way should really hammer home how stupid dogmatic support of parties and positions is.

Players drafted '11-'21 ranked by career BPM. 1. Jokic: +10.3 2. Luka: +7.6 3. Embiid: +6.9 4. Giannis: +6.7 5. Kawhi: +6.5 6. AD: +5.9 7. SGA: +5.5 8. Jimmy: +5.0 9. Zion: +4.9 10. Haliburton: +4.8 Interesting the company Hali keeps given the "is he a superstar" debate.

There's not a single belief or political opinion that could get me to stop talking to my parents. I'd argue with them till I was blue, but cut them off? No way. I'm far too grateful for that.

I might be in the minority here, but I never found either guy that interesting off the court. Maybe a peak behind the carefully manicured images would be interesting, but I doubt it would anything more than myth-making

Dray looks like a middle-aged accountant who has just landed into Ho Chi Minh airport

Cole Anthony could be an incredibly important offensive player for the Bucks, wild to say of a 9ppg bench player for the league's worst offense last year

And we all know the last coach you'd ever want to emulate is 2017 Jason Kidd

Surprising how much of a lock people think Paolo is to be perennial all-NBA. I think he's a lock to be on the FRINGE of that conversation every year ala Randle, and that's probably the most dangerous player type to be paying that kind of money too. To be clear, I think he's very good and > Randle

The dopamine hit from likes and feedback is addictive and dangerous even if all you do is make jokes lol

I got curious and googled this. Ireland could fit into California about 5 times and has about 34 million more people lol.

I'd love to read a study on the effect of daily posting updates on your mental health on social, because I'm convinced it makes it worse. Probably more damaging that daily wallowing in real life because there's no feedback from people who actually know you.

Joel is guaranteed 514 million career dollars and to date has played 452 career games.

Michael B. Jordan isn't actually that great of an actor so I'm gonna say no

The reality of the league for a long time. Secondary franchises have to overpay second tier stars or lose them

Someone posted this on Facebook saying it's the start of the revenge of the nerds. Man, I'd take the min to be a professional athlete over 100 mill from a tech company. Not even close which life I'd rather have lol

Matt Ishbia

I'm taking 50-60 games of Beal over JG, and it's not close.

Outside of Jokic, Giannis, and SGA, Luka when right, no player's on-court value is actually worth 35% of your cap. Booker is worth it to the Suns because of his standing among the fans, helping to drive the most successful period in 10-15 years and the fact that they have nothing else to celebrate.

15 years, man I feel old. Gordy Hayward has had a 14 year career and retired since LeBron was making this decision in his mid-20s lmao

Someone blocked me because I disagree with their take on Fight Club lmao