Anybody who tells asahi that a specific prediction he makes is bullshit will owe asahi an apology if the prediction comes true, because they’ll have been wrong about that.
Anybody who tells asahi that a substantial proportion of his posts tend to be irritatingly non-specific, melodramatic, pompous, occasionally frothingly vitriolic and/or alarmingly pro-authoritarianism, and sweepingly overgeneralized in order to facilitate after-the-fact cherrypicking of intermittent accuracy, will not owe asahi an apology, whether or not any specific prediction of his comes true. Because that criticism will still be valid.
If democracy cannot succeed, then I support enlightened authoritarianism, yes. I would rather enlightened authoritarianism prevail over apocalyptic right wing authoritarianism.
Damn, that crystallized why Asahi grates on me so much. The “sky is falling” schtick got old, but he could never refer to an event or a news story without saying “Look at this! Everyone here has said for years that I was being a Chicken Little, but now they’ve got to admit I was right!”
SIgh, soooo mature…
Really, can you get any more self-centered than to read about a tragedy and your first thought is how it scores points for you with strangers on a message board?
Yeah well my introduction to the Pit was a thread that called me a Chicken Little, so I guess I just decided to own the label. The things I warned people about have come to pass. Am I able to predict specific outcomes on specific days? Of course not, but never claimed to have a crystal ball.
But more to the point, I’ll pose a question: which is more important, predicting the weather on specific days, or predicting the climate over time?
I don’t see myself so much as making contrarian prediction as I am sounding the alarm that we are about to see and experience some events that we are not prepared to deal with.
If you’re 80, I get it: you don’t give a fuck because you probably won’t be around when everything comes crashing down. But if you’re middle age or a millennial, I’ve got some bad news: in the next 10-20 years, life is going to be much different than what you’re used to, and not in a good way.
Republicans are openly working to destroy the voting system, and to ensure that their chosen candidate will win even if they get fewer votes.
They’re not doing this in secret. They are quite clearly and obviously doing this. Why would anyone think that the Republicans will not do what they have expressly said they will do next election?
I predict that there WILL be a state that the Democratic nominee for president wins clearly, but the state legislature will invalidate votes and declare the Republican loser gets all of that states Electoral Votes. This is their game plan.
The problem is, it might be too late to do anything about it. If people haven’t had enough of their bullshit after fighting to make sure that children aren’t masked, after discouraging people from being vaccinated, after inviting a foreign power to meddle in our elections, or after actually trying to overturn our last presidential election, I guess we can be forgiven for assuming that people won’t really be motivated to act after an election is actually overturned. I keep reading things like “Oh, if the Republicans did that, people would rise up and…” - and what? What have they done to stop them?
Yes, I get it. We’ve won some elections - that’s a good thing. But we have to understand the kind of fight that we’re in, which is a lot more complicated and fraught with danger than people realize. There is a competition between liberal and illiberal democracy now. Yes, liberal democracy is gaining strength. But so is illiberal democracy. And the way our constitution is set up, illiberal democracy could defeat liberal democracy, even if we out-vote the illiberal forces.
I didn’t defend him because I don’t know the extent to which he “beat” his children, or even if even did such a thing. I just push back on the idea that a spanking or two equals “ZOMG! Child abuse!”
But yeah, anything that you can cross reference that discredits me, I guess.
I vote not a troll. @asahi just doesn’t know how to judge their audience. Good verbal communication skills often don’t equal good online communication skills.
I can use my mouth better than a two dollar whore irl, my online skills aren’t nearly so good. @asahi’s avatar is a reptile. Reptiles aren’t nearly as good at speaking as they are at non-verbal communication, but are probably disadvantaged when it comes to using a keyboard.
You said nothing of the kind. You said that you’re not a pussy because you don’t think beating a kid with a stick once a week for their entire childhood could possibly permanently damage them, and referred to basic psychology “liberal wussy psychobabble.”
You said nothing about not knowing if pkbites actually beat his children, or about “a spanking or two.”
I think it’s a deeper failure than that. He doesn’t even care to even try to treat this place like a community of individuals with unique identities. How much board knowledge has he evinced? Or is he just treating this board like a generic soapbox without even trying to be socially knowledgeable?
Come to think of it, that’s the second biggest reason I ignore political nutjobs, running a clear but distant second to ignoring right-wing buffoons. I can think of a few others over the years, especially ones that post things like “Americans all do this and that! Americans are all so ignorant!” in threads where Americans are intelligently discussing the topic at hand. If they’re not invested enough in this message board to distinguish me from the rest of the board, or this board from the rest of the world for that matter, I also don’t need to invest the time to peruse their posts.
“Enlightened” just means whatever you believe in. The “other side” can always make this claim too. I vote for no authoritarianism at all.
For awhile I used one of asahi’s proclamations as my sig. Something about “you will all kneel before me”. I should look for that. Definitely over the top.
I don’t think he’s a troll either, but he’s wildly dramatic. Sometimes that’s entertaining, but it certainly doesn’t make me take any of his analysis seriously. The opposite in fact.
You would rather have your “enlightened” authoritarianism over democracy with blue dog democrats leading the show. I won’t be surprised to see you proposing re-education camps for Joe Manchin.
