I am against legal disenfranchisement in all forms, but I think it would be worth doing a voting is cringe, but from the right campaign. What's good for the Goose is good for the gander, and the left has been subject to this kind of disinformation for decades.

The government telling women they can't even take anything for a headache while pregnant or they're giving their offspring autism does not strike me as something that will improve fertility rates. Always worth remembering these people are as stupid as they are evil.

Let's skip Woke 2 and jump straight to Woke XP to catch that 2000s nostalgia. Skate to where the puck is going y'all.

I think given that not a DM last night we can safely conclude Trump was explicitly violating social media TOSes in a way that more than justified a ban, no coercion needed, and removing the bans was the result of an orchestrated gaslighting campaign to memory hole Jan 6th.

The era of extremely online government is far stupider than even Mike Judge could have imagined.

I do believe they got way over their skis and the average American is going to be confused and upset over why Trump is tearing up one of our most treasured freedoms over some Podcaster they just learned about. We're going to win this skirmish.

We're going to get the American antipope over the question of whether Charlie Kirk should be canonized because we are terminally unserious and bored, aren't we?

Democrats should under no circumstances adopt forced birth policy positions, but we have room for personally conflicted politicians because we already do that. Klein is railing against a mirage created by his social bubble.

The things to keep in mind are Trump's lawyers *suck* and they don't have enough people to do a mass intimidation campaign. I'd be more concerned if it looks like control will come down to 5-10 toss-up seats.

A reminder that it's the *incoming* Congress that sets its own rules and swears members in after electing the Speaker. The President literally has no role in seating members so there isn't any mechanism for thwarting a new majority absent a coup.

I don't think the lesson of the past decade is "lol, nothing matters" nihilism. It's that a crucial subset of voters assume all politicians are lying and substitute their own views based on how they're feeling and gut impressions.

It just seems like peeling off college educated southerners and mountain west voters would be an easier lift than trying to reverse decades of education polarization that have shifted the plains red. AZ, GA, and NC are all within reach.

I'm reminded that from 1865-1929 it seemed like polarization was nearly insurmountable and Democrats were always going to struggle to win the presidency. Dams break and party systems shift. I'm not confident we're near such a moment with the current info environment, but they're sure trying.

The H1B thing is impeachable too and is clearly setting up so he can extort favors, like warrantless surveillance, from tech companies. I think Democrats should be signaling they will end this shit.

Getting negatively polarized into thinking we should borrow an arrow from the YIMBY playbook and make broadcasting licenses available by right as long as the broadcaster meets certain technical requirements regarding interference and market size.

It's probably not true that Tyler Robinson is a groyper, but it is overwhelmingly true MAGA influencers were trying to pin this on an organized left boogeyman before any facts were released so it's perfectly fair to say they're culpable in politicizing a horrific crime.

Really need people to get it through their heads that there are no permanent majorities in America before the left decides an imperial presidency is awesome.

I'm calling it. Trump's honeymoon with his traditional base (media elites) is over. He fucked up by threatening their payday which is why they wanted him to win to begin with. He may gain back some ground when the news cycle moves on, but the relationship is not going to be the same.

Might I suggest joining a local UU (or other liberal, non-Jesusy) church as an alternative way to get involved, go to protests as a group, and puts you in winemom central? They could really use the younger blood from what I've seen.

Is it good when your strong disapprove to strong approve ratio is 2-1? I don't think we're going to have an enthusiasm problem next year, for whatever that's worth.

Can I just pause and say how weird it is for elected officials to be dropping F bombs on main? I mean, I suppose it is a step toward sounding like normal people but it's rather jarring to see how quickly high culture decorousness is disappearing.

Anyway, we don't actually have to take conservative accusations of liberal hypocrisy seriously because they've been telling us for a while they plan to capture the commanding heights of intellectual and cultural production for a while. They aren't being coy.

Honestly ICQ had it right when they made a high pitched "uh-oh" the alert sound. The Internet should not be more serious than that.

I think I'm pretty convinced now the Right knows Vance doesn't have the juice and they're going berserk because they lost their best hope at ruling for 60 years. Trump does not look like he's going to make it past 90.

Democrats are doing what a lot of people *on here* asked them to do by holding shadow hearings. Help amplify!

For the umpteenth time, they don't call it the bully pulpit for nothing. Opposition parties are always at a messaging disadvantage because they can't command instant wall to wall media coverage where as the POTUS can yell at you and every paper and TV station will repeat the attack.

Put another way, woke and PC before it were always about contesting norms of politeness and particularly acceptability in elite spaces and the reactionary 1%ers of course didn't like it because it impinged on their exclusive little club.

I think it's worth noting even in peak woke, calls for *government* censorship were pretty fringe. Even in the panic over disinformation, the main demand was for platforms and institutions to use their private gatekeeping and amplification powers more responsibility.

With all this talent at loose ends, PornHub could do the funniest thing now and make things awkward for history teachers in 30 years.

I don't think it would have moved many persuadable voters but it still would have been great if the prestige press had attacked P2025 with half the zeal they hammered their deep dive investigations of Biden's mental acuity.

I think a bright line cap on the % of DMAs a single broadcaster can serve, with no discretionary power for the FCC to waive the cap and approve a merger would go a long way toward defanging this particular threat.

I'll say again the demographic cliff is a problem for enforcing a totalitarian regime too. I don't think any of their efforts are going to move the needle on having enough young men willing to do violence. There's a reason Jan 6th was a beer belly putsch.

Otoh an all American breakfast of steak, eggs and coffee is becoming an unbelievable luxury and that will move the needle. Treatler Nation is undefeated.

I kind of think we're once again falling into the trap of overestimating just how much the TikTok Youths and Facebook Grandpa's are paying attention to all of this, so I expect polling movements to be muted. The Epstein birthday book didn't move the needle and it was all over the news and socials.

I haven't seen this brought up yet, but Section 230 reform should be a total dead letter under these circumstances. The GOP won't negotiate in good faith and they will abuse any opening to extort social media and other interactive apps.

I do not enjoy this future where your choice of RDBMS backend and virtual host provider is now a political statement instead of a purely technical and economic decision.

Deep down Trump is still a little baby holding a grudge over Obama roasting him at the White House Correspondent's Dinner.

The "Why don't progressives post outside churches to debate take" seems to be eliding an important point in the difference between a public institution dedicated to the exchange of ideas and a private house of worship.

They're going hard on lese majeste now. How long before they start openly lobbying for droit du seignur?

Declaring an emergency should be a legislative power. The only reason to vest it in the singular executive in the past is we didn't have the communication technology for taking a vote when legislators were scattered.

I'm increasingly convinced the original mistake was responding to Trump with anything other than "lmao gtfo you senile weirdo" because now everyone is convinced he's an unstoppable monster instead of a loser who is stuck in 1987 and has no idea how anything works.

Time to remake the Crucible and cast a Pam Bondi lookalike as Abigail Williams since we're going McCarthy again. Who would fit the bill best?

Gonzo Bush Administration speedrun (any%, tool assisted)

I guess technically it isn't fascism yet because we don't have total mobilization of the society under one party rule. Partially consolidated competitive authoritarianism with critical institutions failing, but that's a bit of a mouthful.

Turns out those New Dealers knew wtf they were doing when they established the limits on things like ownership of broadcast stations.

I guess I'm going to step out of the consensus and say doing a "and next time our turn" against Fox News is a terrible idea. Otoh Brendan Carr should be summarily fired and sued into oblivion for tyranny under color of law and official corruption.

The would be a great time for George W Bush to put down his paintbrush and join his aides in calling out the betrayal of all this.

Seems like Amerimaidan within 6 months is still a live possibility, but when knows?

I'm back on my bullshit that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 is lowkey one of the worst bargains of the Clinton era. He got funding for public school broadband and in exchange we got a consolidated media ripe for fascism.

I'm not going to say the fash won't win. Instead I'll say the future is not written and we have our own power, all of us.