And Dollar General is part of the problem, constantly selling garbage-tier products that reek of planned obsolescence. Their entire business model relies on predatory practices that screw over the poorer US consumers they speak of.

Some good news: Dollar General’s stock price has been tanking hard since around the end of 2022.

Edit: Also thanks OP for providing a paywall-free link, very much appreciated. I clicked the original link and thought "damnit, if only OP posted a link witho–oooooh, OP did!".

The studio that developed this game is disgustingly sexist. Can’t say I’d ever spend $$$ supporting devs that are so weirdly proud about being sexist wannabe macho assholes.

I don’t believe I said otherwise. America absolutely has a history of foreign meddling and assassinations. I just wish the discussion went beyond this and people said why they do or don’t like him.

I feel like I don’t know enough about Maduro to judge him one way or the other, and I think it’s too simple-minded to just settle on "America doesn’t like him so he must be a man of the people" because that’s an easy way to accidentally overlook all kinds of heinous shit.

Also Maduro got ripped off. $13M for a used Dassault 900EX that’s hot? Wack.

"Fuck right off we’re rejoining"

I don’t think that’s a decision entirely made by the UK and I don’t imagine the EU trusts the UK enough to bring them back. Conservative consequence can’t just be erased cleanly, it’s more so like using one of those shitty pink erasures.

Actions have consequences and I know the UK historically isn’t used to being held accountable for screwing people over, this time they messed with white Europeans so they’re going to face real consequences for a fairly long time.

This is why ACAB doesn’t go far enough. Prosecutors and judges are just as guilty if not more.

That being said, unless you’re immunocompromised there’s not much to worry about with covid variants right now

There’s still many short and long term effects from COVID that people who aren’t immunocompromised should be concerned about. Also, lack of ingress protection is a moot point if both parties are wearing masks though, right? Which is precisely why mask mandates make sense.

Nah, bad faith arguments like playing dumb and putting blinders on to make a contrived, nonsensical point-- sort of like what you’re doing right now, minus the belligerence.

Didn’t Trump just try to actively meddle and stop a ceasefire agreement last night between Netanyahu and the Dems? And we’re still pretend they’re the same?

Do folks like you ever wonder why most Muslims would never vote Trump?

Nice, you’re already trying to push 100,000 dead Palestinians as a “victory” instead of doing anything at all to stop it.

Do you know how quotation marks work? You quote something that someone else said, and you don’t quote something that a person didn’t say. It’s a very simple concept and yet you seem to heavily rely on putting words in peoples mouths and claiming stupid shit like “you’re letting genocide happen by voting but also it’s gonna happen whether you vote or not but also I have moral high ground for reasons”. Men like you are so exhausting and heavily rely on strawman arguments because you’re bad at listening.

I ask again - why does it even matter if I haven’t been to prison if the jailing will happen regardless? We can’t avoid the jailing.

What on earth are you talking about? The jailing from what? You’re going on and on about some vague nonsense without providing any specifics, when I’ve given you countless specific examples of why people are reluctant to organize political action. Beyond that, why are you acting like jailing is something everyone will inevitably face? I swear guys like you watch too many movies and would be get punched in the face the moment you step onto a range with that BS.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/27/trump-donors-israel-gaza-palestinian-protests

Donald Trump has told a group of wealthy donors that he will crush pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses if he is returned to the White House.

The former president and presumptive Republican nominee called the demonstrations against Israel’s war in Gaza part of a “radical revolution” and promised the predominantly Jewish donors that he would set the movement back 25 or 30 years if they helped him beat Joe Biden in November’s presidential election.

“If you get me re-elected, we’re going to set that movement back 25 or 30 years,” Trump replied, according to the Washington Post, which first reported the event.

Under a Trump administration, he’s openly said he would be prepared to use police and even the military to crush pro-Palestinian protests in America-- protests that, under the current administration, largely haven’t been shut down by police and military sent in as a result of the Biden administration. Biden/Harris are from from perfect but why are we going to pretend that there would be no difference between their administration largely doing nothing to shut down pro-Palestinian protesters vs Trump openly saying he’s crush the protests?

Can I ask you why you believe the overwhelming majority of Muslims in America have voted for Biden over Trump, and will vote Harris over Trump? Because damn near every Muslim American I know who is pro-Palestinian is voting for Harris come November despite knowing she’s far from perfect.

So you’ve never been to prison, but you so confidently claim you’re prepared to go to prison. Folks like you are all talk until you deal with some real shit and realize real life isn’t as romanticized as what we read in books or see on TV. The fact that you couldn’t even bring yourself to admit that no, you haven never been in prison despite claiming you’re prepared to go to prison and claiming others should be prepared to take similar risks. Reminds me of men telling women childbirth can’t be that painful.

Try listening to what I am actually saying then, instead of imagining it and going with your feelings. I haven’t once said “not voting will stop genocide.”

I didn’t accuse you of saying "not voting will stop genocide". I said it’s absurd for folks like you to seriously put genocide on the average voter and claim they will "continue to let genocide happen" (your words, directly quoted).

I said “voting will not stop genocide.”

Okay, so not voting will not stop genocide either-- so why do believe those who vote Dems are "letting genocide happen" if you’re simultaneously acknowledging that not voting won’t stop genocide either? It’s almost as if these people understand that genocide will happen regardless, but they also understand the death toll under a Trump administration would be higher than under a Harris administration.

Neither option is acceptable and the genocidal US Empire needs to be torn down.

Yeah that’s great and all, but we’re faced with essentially one of two options. Not voting or throwing your vote away simply aids a Republican win and it’s exactly why folks like Jill Stein are adored by Trump and Putin.

Thirdly, the current death toll is already estimated to surpass 150,000 either way.

So you believe that if under a Trump administration there were say, 50% more deaths in Palestine, those lives are irrelevant or meaningless? Like come on, you completely dodged my question and it was a pretty simple question-- are you okay with a higher death toll under a Trump administrator, or do you seriously believe the death toll would remain the same or lower?

Frankly I’m sick and tired of folks like you jumping in discussions like this and then giving half-assed answers. It’s a waste of everyone’s time. This is purity politics from people who don’t really care if another 400,000 Palestinians die under a Trump administration, just as long as they can smugly say "not my fault, I didn’t vote for Trump". And if Harris wins and another 100,000 Palestinians die instead of 400,000, they’ll say "not my fault, I didn’t vote for Harris" and act like that’s the highest moral high ground imaginable.

Can you be more specific?

Are you familiar with the history of the Black Panthers and their demise? Because if not, I’m really not interested in giving you a history lesson. Their movement failed because it primarily revolved around two people/personalities that, once deceased, failed to be replaced by anyone viewed by supporters as adequate. So when you give the Black Panthers as an example of building up dual power to upset the system, I have a hard time taking that seriously when that’s not at all what happened.

You should read organizational and revolutionary theory. Capitalism and Imperialism are unsustainable, revolution will come whether leftists prepare for it or not.

I’ve read plenty of theory and I’m tired of leftists who have their head stuck in theory instead of reality. Are you prepared to go to prison for your political action? If your answer is yes, I gotta ask-- have you ever actually been in prison? Because I think a lot of chest-beating leftists, especially the way they conduct themselves to people that disagree with them, would be in very a very harsh reality check if they went to prison. And I’m not talking about a holding cell.

I gotta ask, do you ever ask yourself why Republicans rabidly do everything they can to stop felons from voting, but are unusually A-OK with folks voting for third parties like RFK, Jill Stein (who is clearly a Russian stooge), etc? Have you considered that Republicans generally view third parties as favorable, albeit unknowingly allies who historically siphon more Dem votes than Republican votes?

Because in my experience talking to folks like yourself, there’s seemingly little to no consideration at all that you’re being used by Republicans to help aid their victory even though this is an established tactic they’ve used for decades.

2M people live in Gaza. The death toll according to the Gaza Health Ministry is nearly 41,000.

The point I’m trying to make is that given what Trump has said about Gaza and Palestine in general, what reason do we have to believe that 41,000 won’t turn into 410,000 under a Trump presidency?

Organizing and directly contesting. Build up dual power and risk upsetting the current system. The Black Panthers did it, John Brown did it, MLK Jr. did it.

Can you be more specific? The examples you have 1) operated on a far more localized scale and dealt with domestic politics compared to international conflict between Israel/Palestine and all the countries involved behind the scenes and 2) The Black Panthers accomplished a great deal, but their overall goals did not come to fruition in the end. Racism is still rampant in America, police brutality against black people is still largely ignored excluding the occasional major outrage (i.e. George Floyd), and the American system is about as capitalist as it gets so the BPs socialist agenda didn’t take root at all.

Once Newton and Hampton were gone, so were the Black Panthers. Most leftist organizing I see is unfortunately centralized around a handful of leaders whose followers believe are irreplaceable, which IMO is not a desirable trait for anything involving continuity. Everyone dies, some earlier than others, and having no effective contingency plan is a blunder so many political movements have.

Beyond that, government surveillance is beyond what we’ve ever seen before. Organizing political action, especially radical political action, gets shut down faster than ever and we don’t often talk about it in leftist spaces because usually all that happens is someone gets their door kicked in, arrested, charged, convicted, and basically told "we’ve put you through one horrible traumatic experience, think carefully if you want to go through this again". We can beat out chests and say "I’m not afraid of shit" but I think the vast majority of leftists a) haven’t been in prison and b) haven’t a clue about what it’s like in there. Prison’s no joke and frankly I completely understand why regular ass people, especially those with dependants like kids, are extremely reluctant to organize in any way that could impact their employment/ability to support their loved ones. We live in an age where cracking a joke about Trump can result in a bunch of freak Republicans doing everything they can to get you fired.

I feel like folks like you practically get off to making bad faith arguments about how regular ass voters are "letting genocide happen" and imply that by not voting, you’re doing something effective to stop it.

I have to ask, hypothetically if the Palestinian death toll increased to 60,000 under a Harris presidency, and it increased to 150,000 under a Trump presidency, would you have any preference for one administration over the other if you could go back in time, or do you believe the 90,000+ death difference is meaningless? I’d genuinely like to know your answer to this question because to me it’s like telling someone there’s no difference between having one leg chopped off and both legs chopped off, and then hearing from some smug person in the back saying "how about we don’t chop any legs off?" like it’s the idea of the century that nobody has ever thought of before.

6 downvotes, 0 replies. If you disagree with this person, why not explain why?