Just saying, sure, they lost, but before that, they carved an indelible scar. That we’re still dealing with.

They slaughtered millions. That’s how they did.

I’m pretty sure that was his gun. ICE has shown they move quickly to build a story to justify their actions. Snapping a pic and texting it, then having it filter rapidly up through layers of officialdom fits their MO.

Anything to build the lie. Propaganda over truth.

Btw, re: how that intersects with our political parties…

States define their own districts, usually every 10 yrs after the national census. But, depending on which party dominates the state gov’t, the districts can be biased to one party or the other.

So, the House doesn’t represent too accurately

It’s a bicameral legislature.

The House of Representatives is larger, drawn from smaller districts within each state, ostensibly based on population.

The Senate is fixed at 100 members, two from each state.

They function kind of like Houses of Commons and Lords. A “lower” and “upper” house.

The Dread Pirate Roberts… is here for your souls!

Whatever. I’ve wasted too much time already. You’re an unserious troll, no actual thoughts, just knee jerk insults.

Enjoy irrelevancy.

Also, it’s very amusing how you dropped from “you’re weak fo not having 50% in the streets” to “5M.”

I’ve been active since Clinton, and protested every prez since. But people doing the work are “weak” and “idiots” because we don’t mobilize 1/5th of the country with a snap of our fingers.

Cool.

And you seem a reactionary shill, so we’re even, I guess.

Oh, 70M people are out there? Wow, hadn’t seen that news.

I was thinking of keeping 80 year olds away from water cannons, but you do you, boo.

Either way, my point was that 50% in the streets is highly unlikely. But 20% is doable, with significant organizing.

Something I’m guessing you’re not terribly experienced in.

Also, in 2024, voter turnout was roughly 150M. So, *every single person who voted against Trump* would have to turn up to get ~20% of the population protesting.

That’s a tough ask, from an organizing perspective. Doable, but really tough.

Let’s be clear:

The adult population of the US, excluding elderly, is roughly 60%.

Then there’s those who can’t attend cuz of disabilities, work, caretaking, prison, etc. Maybe 40% are available.

Then roughly half voted for this shit. 20%.

Now plan and organize 70M in the streets, coherently.

For the good of society, individuals should be way more concerned with obligations than with rights, but societies should be way more concerned with rights than with obligations

Attacking a data center like it’s The Bastille, everyone fleeing with a bushels of RAM to desolder and resolder the chips. One peasant coded guy with a wheelbarrow of SFP+ modules. Manifesting this for 2026.

Yeah, that point I can’t explain either. Fair point.

My ND brain thrives on textual analysis and re-analysis, but picking up on why certain phrasing resonates? Not as simple.

If I could figure that out, maybe I could have been a successful writer, lol.

Or, actually, as it’s framed in the movie, maybe more like “I deserve healthy balanced meals, but things are so stressed and fucked right now, I NEED a pint of ice cream and whiskey.”

Well, I think without context, it’s closer to tautology, yes.

But, still the difference between “deserve” and “need.” I deserve ice cream, but need vegetables.

It’s not just Batman, within movie context.

Dent is the “need.” Handsome and incorruptible. A fairy tale, even if he ultimately failed.

Batman is the “deserve.” Violent, brutal, but uncorrupted.

Batman isn’t the Dent ideal, so he’s not what Gotham needs.

They deserve justice, but need the lie.

Gotham is twisted and corrupted, it deserves someone like Batman. But, in the midst of Joker caused chaos, they need an ideal, a pure image like Harvey Dent.

Part of this scene is also about concealing Two Face, concealing Dent’s fall from grace.

They need a fairy tale, even if they deserve truth.

The original line is “deserves, but not needs,” swapped around from this paraphrase.

But, in context, the point is Gotham deserves Batman (dark, shadowy, but honestly heroic), but pre-Two Face Harvey Dent is what Gotham needs (pure seeming white knight beacon of hope).

Two diff types of hero.

It’s also oscillating around his first term approval, implying that might be his diehard core base. In both terms, he dropped to around the same numbers.

Fair enough.

Just the "don't give away the secret" sincerity is so frustrating. People realizing basic concepts and thinking they've uncovered super secret ninja tactics. It's very tiring.

You’re not the first to say it. It’s actually been a common point before.

You can chill. It being mentioned here doesn’t destroy the tactic. You weren’t keeping an amazing secret.

We’re all in this together. You’re not the sole defender heroically standing on the walls. Be cool and work together.

Today's version of The Colbert Report would have to be a parody channel of all the "investigate the radical left" Andy Ngos of the world: breathlessly taking gopros into goth bars or farmers markets and acting shocked and horrified about the existence of longstanding subcultures. "Hello, FBI?!!"

I have a feeling that the compromise is more likely a “reconciliation committee” after this has been dragged out over and over, letting people die for political convenience, before it’s done.

“Secret Service shuts down nefarious antifa communications disruption operation!”

Point is, imagining language as some pure artifact, and words like “Latinx” as engineering, is ahistorical and flawed, based on some glorified conception of the past.

Reality is different.

And more interesting.

Or look up William Caxton’s anecdote about “egges” and “eyren,” and from that, why “eggs” is our word for that. Choices made, and those choices reflect the intent and interests of the chooser. Not “reflecting society.”

As Samuel Johnson said, he created “a dictionary by which the pronunciation of our language may be fixed, and its attainment facilitated; by which its purity may be preserved.” But he made choices about which pronunciation he made fixed, what was the purity to preserve.