THANK YOU! I keep fucking saying it’s the damn lead. (And other shit, like microplastics in the water, etc) it makes people unable to think rationally.
Yeah, I agree. PFAS, lead, carbon monoxide, microplastics, all the pollutants. It would be naive to think these things don't impact the mental capacity of the globe as a whole.
It has a vector of a bulbous demographic growth that is the baby Boomer generation. Luckily they are deflating slowly, but every young person must do their utmost to vote.
I "know" this is a metaphor, and I'm being a wet blanket about it, but I'm saying it anyway. There is no super hero to save anyone from anything, much less a society circulating the drain. The only way to make things better is by getting organized with your friends, family, and neighbours.
Be prepared (collectively) when things go to shit, and actively try to make them better. You can do very little alone, but together the choice is no longer between Hitler and Hitler, it's change or stagnation. And neither genocide Joe or Cheetos man will lead to any positive progress.
Too bad my family and friends predominantly run the gamut from ‘lit the match walk away’ Trumpers to current supporters. Same with most my friends. Sucks to wake up at 35 and realize you have only a few non-fascist acquaintances and family. And many of them either directly work for the government or are government contractors.
I call them out when they start talking shit. Like, learn about the circumstances and facts of the Boston Tea Party and Boston Massacre. When they talk about any issue, relate it back to how they would have 100% supported the Redcoats in Boston circa 1770s, and how they are actually un-American, not lovers of freedom.
Ripe topics for economics, taxation, use of force, state power, private property rights, representation, protest and dissent, etc. Often I get them to dig in on their issue first. They all learned in elementary school that the British were the bad guys in that war and it's hilarious to watch their tiny lizard brains explode when they confront the hypocrisy they've abided since they formed their initial world views. Haha, dummies.
Supervillain is giving him too much credit. I'll grant you that he's a cartoon character, but cartoon supervillains have more complexity than him.
Kanye and Musk embody a nearly identical archetype and we'd have the exact same problem if they ran for president and succeeded. The cult of personality that follows shitty celebrities is a self-perpetuating one. It's rooted in nasty people admiring how important people can be nasty like them but without tangible social consequences. They form a mob around their cult heroes for that exact reason, strength in numbers. A safe space for the trash of humanity.
People in politics and business find Trump useful because he'll open doors for them in exchange for attention. They get cozy with leading him around by the nose with that attention until they forget that he will backstab them when they stop giving him that attention or there is more value in betraying them. Musk does the exact same shit, so again, I don't think that Trump himself is worthy of being viewed in the light you're giving him. Similarly shitty celebrities are drop in replacements for him, and worse, they might be more intelligent in their cruelty.
Uhhhhh... No. He's a anti-hero on his best day and a straight up terrorist realistically. Literally. He is a Terror-ist. And a hyper violent one at that. You may agree with his reasoning and even his methods, but both the character, and even the writer, don't consider frank castle to even be a "good guy".
At this point any Republican that has a shot would be a disaster. Just look at Project 2025. It doesn't need to be Trump to completely regress to a dictatorship.
Many of whom seem straight up worse. Trump is awful, but at least he's mostly incompetent at even achieving his own goals. The idea of having someone like Trump but competent is utterly horrifying. DeSantis, in particular.