In which we yet again post yet another ten thousand plus interesting or amusing -or neither- tweets

******** this, just got a printer and learning Thunder Road and Tenth Ave Freezeout on the piano. Gotta love music websites and pdfs.

 

No, but I don't think it matters. I suspected, and now with our experience with how people act around AI I am convinced, that many if not most people hate thinking for themselves and would gladly support someone that says "Put me in charge, I will fix everything, and you don't have to think about anything" no matter what they actually do. The "good idea" Hitler had was getting rid of voting so people didn't have that responsibility any more.

The problem is that most people who say "Put me in charge, I will fix everything, and you don't have to think about anything" are morons who actually believe it. And they create the equal and opposite reaction to their rule by alienating people that actually want to think for themselves. That's what makes Putin brilliant and unique, in an evil way of course. He has creates fake opposition parties to absorb all the various peoples that would normally be opponents (liberals, intellectuals, hard core communists, so on) and harmlessly radiate their power into nothing projects where it does him no harm.

 

Thing is, that was post Kaiserine Germany, with a nine hundred year tradition that "just obeying orders" was a legitimate and absolute defense a virtue. Weimar Germans really did resent voting on everything and were happy to be relieved of that duty/obligation.

This is a 220 year tradition in which everybody votes on everything. That requires, to overcome, a much more powerful innate drive to escape responsibility than I'd have thought possible...

 

Sorry, but there was no 900 hundred year tradition of obeying orders, that seems to be a tad simplistic a reason for Hitlers ascent.

I don't think many nowadays in western Europe or the US have any experience similar to how disruptive the years from 1919 to 1933 were in Germany. Lost a world war, had a revolution, a rebellion, had the major industrial center occupied by a foreign power, had hyperinflation wrecking whatever wealth remained, got the biggest economic crisis in history which was accompanied by heavy political violence from the extreme right and left, including regular street fights, all the while the parties in parliament seemed busy fighting out ideological wars instead of solving the crisis. When Hitler came to power the people where exhausted from 15 years of turmoil + 4 years of war. That isn't a reason/excuse to vote for someone like Hitler, but there were far more important reasons than pining for good old Wilhelm.

Post-soviet Russia might be a decent comparison.

I don't believe people in the US are fed up by voting. If they are fed up, they are because the political system seems unable to solve their biggest problems: cost of health care, cost of (higher) education, cost of housing. At the end of the day the basic, fundamental source of legitimacy for any government and political system is its ability to address and solve problems.

Personally, I believe the biggest problem is the current media consumption in the US. Having the population basically split into two media bubbles combined with the "flood news" strategies prohibits any meaningful political discourse over all political sides. Guess something has to break, before that will be resolved but who knows what will break and what will emerge.

 

A new political matrix just dropped, where do you fall?

the new global political compass, everyone https://t.co/6EeqGBUBwR pic.twitter.com/31QpjypeMp

— Sam D'Amico (@sdamico) May 17, 2025

 

Walmart has "valued customers?"

I thought they were sort of the merchant of last resort for those without much money...

(And this really underscores that he has no idea how the stock markets actually work.)

 

In urban areas, but for most of the country they are the only option. Outside maybe Dollar General.

 

Trump should hire Sanders to his cabinet.

Pro tariffs
Pro drug price controls
Endorses greedflation theory
Thinks consumers have too many choices
Rich
Says immigrants take American jobs
President of the United States
(Photo unrelated) pic.twitter.com/5zJRPFEIBw

— Chris Freiman (@cafreiman) May 17, 2025

 

I found these funny, 'Abundance Islam'

Real life free-market Jihad.

"We walk the path of the Prophet, pbuh, who said 'Only God sets the price'" pic.twitter.com/3PQyaLjr73

— Mihnea/𒈪𒄴𒉈𒀀 (@Miyhnea) May 17, 2025

"If we think of it, what was the Hijra to Medina if not a foreign capital investment"

— Mihnea/𒈪𒄴𒉈𒀀 (@Miyhnea) May 17, 2025

 

Tenth Avenue Freeze Out is an underrated gem.

Dancing in the Dark is fun to play on guitar. Same with Atlantic City, though I prefer the Band's version.

 

MAGA - 88%

 

I would not want to be this staffer.

"Just saw a staffer drop a whole birthday cake on the Capitol plaza."

Oh no https://t.co/TAXb2jx714 pic.twitter.com/vvKlKhRXsk

— Rory Cooper (@rorycooper) May 20, 2025

 

I would like to report a murder.

During a debate titled "One Christian vs. Twenty Atheists," Jordan Peterson was pressed to identify himself as a Christian but awkwardly refused. pic.twitter.com/H8QoIQvmb1

— YungPut1n (@YungPutin1) May 25, 2025

 

Peterson does not look or sound the least bit well.

 

Vlad throws people out windows for fun.

These words from Donnie are comedy to him.

 

Who remembers when Republicans were for smaller government?

But also, they're not gonna pay for the dome which covers them? Is Mexico still gonna pay for the wall? Does anyone remember the big beautiful wall?

 

The former Texas solicitor general got into trouble for talking too much about an asteroid anally raping one of his staff in front of his children.

I’ll bet you never expected to see that string of words. In fact, “asteroid anally raping” pretty much does that by itself.

https://bsky.app/profile/didlc:nabpxh57dor5jlxw6cyxfpog/post/3lqagggijus2u?ref_src=embed&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eschatonblog.com%2F

For once, read 5e comments, they’re hilarious.

 

Many hilarious. This one, unsurprising:

I had to look up Judd Stone. "Judd began his legal career clerking for United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and Fifth Circuit Chief Judge Edith H. Jones."

"Senators Cornyn and Cruz appointed Judd to their Federal Judicial Evaluation Committee...."​

​

 

Yet he'll probably keep custody of his kids.

 

“Shout out to all the haters who mocked me for having "MAGA asteroid anal rape" on my bingo card. Who's laughing now?”

https://bsky.app/profile/steviezbrooklyn.bsky.social/post/3lqaifapyfc2j

 

Like I said, there’s gold in them thar hills

 

For people who want to dig deeper or get their lifetime supply of asteroid rape porn, here's the lawsuit which this was extracted from.

https://storage.courtlistener.com/r...845463/gov.uscourts.txwd.1172845463.1.0_1.pdf

There's a bunch of standard / expected descriptions of workplace harassment (e.g. the principles had to wait two hours for a big lunch order to show up and they verbally abused the executive assistant, that kind of thing), and then a letter from a different person which includes the asteroid stuff.

And I just want to point out it's really thoughtful that the guy specified a cylindrical asteroid, as opposed to, like, a spiky asteroid or something that would be more painful to be anally penetrated by.