They Took A Freedom Away And Are Still Judging Those Who Object

 

Mercenary monster character illustrated by Herr D on heromachine.com. Sometimes the best response is difficult to make in the moment.-Shelob

ANOTHER short?! Yes. [plays clip of anti-abortionist demanding that a person say they are pro-abortion]

That's an easy one--the pro-choice one is only as pro-abortion as the anti-abortion one is anti-freedom. Let her declare she's anti-freedom. This is your reaction?

They ARE taking away a freedom. They're passing laws against something Americans were free to do. That IS being against a freedom. So if they want us to call ourselves something, they should agree to call themselves something--that's fair. This country was founded on religious freedom. The religious right is trying to undo some of that. You have daughters?

I do. Please extrapolate to the cases of rape, birth control, adoption, health risks, and deformities.

Wow. Ask the hard questions all at once, don't you? Okay. If my daughter was raped, I want her to do what she wants. I'd help her pay for whatever choice she makes regarding potential offspring. A condition is that she do the minimum to put away her rapist and break contact after. If she's just trying to get out of an accidental pregnancy, she can pay for it herself. If she wants to keep it, she's gonna help pay for that. If she wants to have it and send it out to someone else, I'll help. She's my daughter, and I love her, and she needs parenting even if we're talking about her being a possible parent too. So you are pro-HER-choice.

[snort] Yes. Do you agree that the religious right should call themselves pro-life?

Not really. If Saddam Hussein's mother had had an abortion, millions more people would be alive now. She did try. If Hitler's mom had, same thing. She didn't try, as far as I know. People have been killed in abortion clinic bombings and have died of preclampsia. If a mom with that condition aborts and gets healthier, she can have five kids instead of maybe none and dying. Pro-life is actually a little less accurate than pro-choice. Thank you.

The Tangled Web Of Shorts

"Maze 8" by Herr D on heromachine.com. "Oh, what a tangled web we weave." Shakespeare

 

Two more shorts you show me? They are both on the same subject.

Yeah, K. McCarthy and that guy he's probably quoting talking about how slavery was ended by Republicans, as was Jim Crow. Yes.

[long pause] Your response?

[snort] ? You are sleeping?

[pause] I should be. [rereads above in chatbox] Wasn't that when Republicans were liberal and Democrats were conservative? I mean, the party that should be called Democrats is the one that believes VOTES BY VOTERS SHOULD COUNT. Trump tried to overturn the election, and so did several other Republicans. Republicans are the ones that gerrymander and try to make it harder for some people to vote and try to keep poorer people away from power. 

Democrats want everyone to vote. Maybe they'd be better off if no one so easily fooled by KM, or worse, MTG, were allowed to vote. Maybe only people smart enough to stop defaming victims so they don't have courts find for the plaintiff? Alex Jones is too stupid then. How about people fooled by Trump?  What was that? A third of the population? Now, some of them are STILL snowed by him. How about Republicans in general? Would maybe we be better off if they didn't have ANY say? How about people who believe in ANY CONSPIRACY THEORY? Maybe they shouldn't have a voice either? Maybe they shouldn't have any RIGHTS?! How about that? Does this mean you are not a Democrat?

[laughter] I'm not. I'm not egalitarian enough to be a Democrat. I'm not stupid enough or power-hungry enough to be a Republican. I'm not extreme enough to have a popular voice in today's politics. I'm almost as alien as Hairy said he was. He insisted he was not.

Right. [exits]

Accuracy Is Grande

 

"No Hits Yet" by Herr D on Paint3D. When someone throws the wrong way, they should not often hit the target.--Shelob

Gotta say, I'm not as familiar with Todd Grande, but he is on the money with that one analysis. Joe Rogan seems to have average intelligence but DOES NOT do a good job with fact checking. He IS NOT  a good source of information. He DOES listen too much to questionable sources without enough doubt.  The clip features Alex Jones.

Famous for owing nearly a billion dollars over lying or defaming victims and survivors. Rogan was also famously defended by Russell Brand.

Brand is an entertaining wacko, I've got to give him that. If HE were doing the Rogan or Jones podcasts, he wouldn't have been sued yet. Too many people would still be laughing, whether they were fool enough to believe him or outraged over what he says. Even Bill Maher caught a false equivalency in what Brand was saying, and Maher is only one step above Rogan for accuracy. You have ordered them as most accurate to least: Brand, Maher, Rogan, Jones?

No. Brand and Rogan AND Jones are OCCASIONALLY as or more accurate than Maher. Brand is the only one I've seen less accurate than Jones, and only then rarely. Perhaps a Wenn diagram?

[sighs] Maybe later. Add Grande and Maddow tied at the top and Faux and Trump at the bottom. Where is Biden?

Above Maher but below Maddow and Grande.  He IS getting old. Thank you.

Herr D Declares LW Needs Schooling, Says It Might Be Done Kindly At Yuni D's Suggestion

 

 

"With A Tap, Kvar Fails Stealth Training" by Herr D on heromachine.com. Some people miss the trainer's finger in this picture. 'Kvar,' the trainee, did not detect the trainer holding the stick, as he was distracted by the snake. All trainees must learn their curricula, or what is the point of training? --Shelob

Liz Wheeler, in a short, declares that a teacher has a "rabid hatred" for parents, then displays a teacher pointing out that she is qualified for her job, that not all parents are qualified for her job, and reading the following:

"It is not to teach children only what their parents want them to be taught; it is to teach them what society needs them to be taught." 

I showed this short to my littlest. SHE said that the teacher wasn't displaying any hatred, then said that LW is "assumptive and aggressive about some wrong ideas." "Assumptive?"

Yeah, I don't know. I then said that I might be harsher. My littlest said she wouldn't be, because people are too harsh already too much of the time. That is possibly correct.

I have to say, I was proud. 'Let the little children show the way.' That doesn't mean let them control the parents. 

I have to be one of those parents that the teachers are proud of. Raising our children right does include giving them bad news, showing them things that we'd rather not let them see--ever. I'm gonna have to weep for lost innocence on my own time, but I LIKE the fact that my littlest might turn out as capable as myself and that teacher that was rabidly showing her citizenship and work ethic and correctly speaking about the fact that we need our children to grow up a helluva  lot smarter than ourselves.

Liz Wheeler? Please get schooled. You need to be. That teacher was correct. Thank you.

Weakly Wacky Whale-Killing Woke Week

 

"Giraffe" stock photo, uncredited. Hairy did not believe they existed at first because their existence did not seem rational. Or logical. Uncertain concept.-Shelob

 [chat excerpt] What do you mean?

I mean, rational and logical aren't EXACTLY the same thing. There's certainly a lot of overlap. Please explain?

Okay. Take Putin's war. I don't pretend to understand the nonsense there. No one believes he'll have the whole Soviet Union again in his lifetime. He must believe that he's got to save face by not giving up too easily. This is an example of not cutting off your nose to spite your face?

No. The thing is, he could just withdraw his troops and irrationally declare that he won. He controls the media. No one speaks against him without risking consequences. He's too terrified to be anything but a dictator. A simultaneous retreat and absurdly illogical declaration of triumph?

But it WOULD be a rational solution to the problem. Processing. Do you have other examples?

Marjorie Taylor Greene. Aka 'MTG,' thought of as 'WTF.' She thought that whales are beaching themselves more commonly these days because wind farms are killing them. More whales are beaching themselves these days. The time index for causation only loosely lines up.

Well, it's NOT causative. Whales beach themselves more now because we stopped whaling. There are more whales, so OF COURSE more of them are going to die. We did not stop whaling to make more wind farms?

No. Then there is no chain of causation.

They won't stop the new pronoun thing, though that's not really logical either. They've been rationalizing continuing it. See what I did there? Yes. Thank you.

Language, Please

 

"Bill" stock photo, uncredited. It says "United States Of America" but homegrown extremists are making the country less united, making the moderates feel flat and insignificant, and 'giving the bill' to them. This constitutes a political metaphor. Please do not print out as that may be considered counterfeiting.-Shelob

 

You are ready?

I am. Please.

Hairy and I, from the very beginning, have talked about stats, averages, and other mathematical concepts. Hairy, in predictable fashion, found various ways to point out that average people have average intelligence. 

That doesn't mean most people are stupid. 

What we WANT is to RAISE that average considerably. It's better for everyone if everyone is smarter, right? Yes.

So, let's talk for a moment about a GREAT thing that's average. Centrist, moderate politics. Between forty-three and ninety-five percent of voters, depending upon policy referenced.

Thank you. Think for just a moment about all the memes, shorts, digs, soundbites, and other propaganda you've encountered recently. Most of them fall into two groups these days: one group is the 'opposites' war, where two people on opposite sides try to 'destroy' or roast each other or make the other one sound stupid or wrong. I can't tell you how many of those I've seen. Usually I think both sound stupid and wrong about different parts of what they say.  Estimated viewings from indicated research period and internet history: 6240

[snort] Thank you. Another group is the 'check out THIS crazy' where a supposedly centered person is set upon by an extremist. Many of these are staged, some of them are reenactments, and most of the rest of them are badly captured and edited. In those posted, the 'crazy,' or extremist is othered, insulted, mocked, 'destroyed,' laughed at, triggered, etc.  The 'non-crazies' usually seem a little mean, and not always saner and smarter. Estimated viewings from indicated research period and internet history: 3745

[pause] Thank you. [pause] When was my research period ? Begun 11/2/22, 4:22 67 PM EST, on accidentally activating your Google icon on your phone. Ended 2/25/23 10:23 64PM EST, as beginning typing this episode. Intermittent net use, averaging 44: 16 03 daily excluding work-only use, with simultaneous use included.

[pause] what's simultaneous use? One window open for music while typing, another open for games, another open for recreational viewing.

ah [pause] You've excluded work-only and blogging? Yes.

[mic picks up sub-vocal] Didn't realize it was THAT much. [back to typing] Okay. What I wanted to point out is the language thing that extremists are trying now. On the left, extremists are trying to insist that everyone should alter the pronouns that we use every day and the ways we label people. On the right, the names of organizations are outright fraudulent.  Examples?

[typed during consulting notes twenty-seven times] Newsmax and Fox News aren't really news.We've pointed THAT out for years now. Faux News is now finally facing charges for some of it. I'm finding out that Ralston's and Torchinsky's groups are even worse than I thought they were. 'Americans For Prosperity' should be named 'Certain Prosperous Americans For Themselves.' 'American Legislative Exchange Council' should be named 'Exchange For People With Agendas Against Certain American Legislation." "Citizens For Responsible Solar" and about twelve 'unaffiliated' offshoots they advised and helped start up should be named "Citizens Responsible For Stopping Solar Energy Projects For Bad (Mostly Wrong) Reasons By Whatever Means Necessary." They lied, by the way, about not being funded by fossil fuels interests. Money gets 'cleaned' of such conflict of interest in a similar manner.  [uses camera to peek at notes] Please elaborate. The Singer connection is interesting.

You know about that? Your Google searches are part of your internet history.

[snort] Of course you do. Peabody Energy is a largely coal-oriented company. Largest investor is Elliot Management. Mostly owned by P. Singer. Singer's foundation donated startup money to SBR Enterprises which SHOULD be named 'So Brazenly Ridiculous Enterprises.' S. Ralston owns SBR Enterprises. Shell companies anyone? 

The difference between the left and right is simple. The libs yell and scream that they're being personally wronged if people don't do what they want them to. The cons start companies with deceptive names, funnel money legally through more deceptively-named companies and then hide it and lie about it to journalists, thinking no one can search public records and find out. Corporate doublespeak and shell games vs. screaming about victimhood and canceling.

The problem is that they BOTH ARE TRYING TO CONTROL US THROUGH LANGUAGE. It is legal and completely unethical. It's also how fascists get their start and totalitarians gain power. Both sides are horrible. Both sides need to be resisted. Both sides are hemming in the rational lovers of freedom. Both sides are rooted in and uprooting the sanity and unity of our nation. You want to know who's centered? Look at how they DON'T use language.

That's it, Shelob. Post it? Thank you.

Putin Was Derailed?

 

"Sole Train" by Herr D on heromachine.com. All parts of this picture were made of pics of footwear. This is known as 'kicking it.' -Shelob

You have felt ironic.

Yeah! Why?

So, Biden knew there was a massive train accident in Ohio. Yes.

And he got on a train. Yes.

And he went on a ten-hour trip into a war zone? Yes. 

And a ten-hour trip back. Yes.

Was he trying to fulfill the zero-year curse? Unknown. Note to reader: If you are unfamiliar with the zero-year presidential curse, please paste link below into browser to read Herr D's fiction involving it.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13849133/1/The-Bitson-Project-The-Companions-Vs-The-Curse-Of-Tecumseh 

Putin was informed of Biden's entry into the Ukraine. He somehow messaged all forces to do nothing to endanger Biden even though he claimed the Ukraine war was our fault. Nothing happened, despite Russian forces being obviously incompetent and out-of-touch with reality if they are listening to Putin. This does indeed comprise irony.