[alterom]

>And disheartening that people continue to gravitate to a political party that proudly announces desires to abuse this data.

The same party that promotes distrust in the government (that is justified by the abuse the same party does when in power).

Amazing, innit.

[throw0101a]

> The same party that promotes distrust in the government (that is justified by the abuse the same party does when in power).

Perhaps because they know how corrupt they, themselves, are, they assume everyone else is the same way:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accusation_in_a_mirror

Perhaps the possibility that others are more altruistic does not enter the realm of possibility in their minds.

[clipsy]

The premise of the Republican party for half a century now has been: "The government can't do anything right, and if you elect us we'll prove it!"

[roenxi]

And it's something of a coin flip whether people prefer that philosophy to the other mob. Trump has made it to a seconds term and is talking about a third because of the stunning policy failures of the US government over the last 50 years.

[idiotsecant]

Trump came to power because too many people have forgotten what kind of man it takes to tear it all down. No more, no less. It's like a clock.

One generation bleeds and dies on a battlefield somewhere so that eventually a few generations later their ancestors can make the same conditions arise again.

[lesuorac]

Were you alive in 2024?

Trump won by <1% against an incumbent in a time that incumbents lost by >10%.

It's absolutely not that people like Trump, it's just that democrats are inept. Literally all democrats had to do was run somebody that didn't have a record of losing primaries.

[lenerdenator]

... or spend four years dancing around the idea of imprisoning a man who did quite a few things that should have earned him a prison sentence.

New York state's judiciary is spineless.

[anjel]

They're not legislatively inept, it's simply that viscerally, the electorate knows both mobs are guilty of the same representational transgressions. The GOP was always the party of big biz, while the dems were fronting as the hoi poloi's party, and everyone kinda figured that out as Trump played that irony and the anger behind it, masterfully.

How do you get out from behind that, is what renders them inept.

[idiotsecant]

The mob has been convinced of these things. If nothing else, Trump is a master of convincing gullible, desperate people that when he lights the town on fire, only the people they don't like will get burned.

The Democrats did fail, but it's not a both sides situation. They failed to vigorously engage in a simple and honest way with the fact that their opponent is a conman and a crook.

[moron4hire]

I think the big difference between the Republicans and Democrats is that the R-electorate votes for R-candidates because they want what the R-candidates are promising, while the D-electorare votes for D-candidates because they don't want what the R-candidates candidates are promising.

It's one of the reasons why "both sides" arguments are so frustrating. You can find R-voters who will defend Trump all day, in equal numbers to D-voters who will criticize Biden/Harris. You can see it in the number of R-voters you encounter online who think it's a "pwn" to bring up Clinton going to Epstein's Island, while D-voters respond, "yeah, and? Lock him up, too." We don't want these people who lie to us and glad hand for corporations, but it's marginally better than the alternative.

[anjel]

He's arguably in worse shape than FDR in his last term. I've come around to seeing such talk as yet another clever and effective bum rush to stave off hisgetting written off as the lame duck he actually is.

Think what you want about him, he is if nothing else, a manipulative genius, so it tracks.

[specialist]

The worse things get, the better they do. It's an insidious, vicious cycle.

[idiotsecant]

No, this isn't a natural law of the universe. Sometimes thing get worse and then stay bad for a long, long time. We happen to exist in a relatively stable, prosperous period. We have used that prosperity to build a system that is more complex and brittle than any time in the history of the species. It won't be pretty when we reach the inevitable crisis.

The people in charge have never seen suffering and don't understand the essential role they have in preventing it. Instead they're disassembling the plane for parts while we hurtle toward the ground.

[sofixa]

Iran, Haiti, Russia, Syria, Lebanon, Argentina have been at the "worse and worse" stages for decades and there is no "better" in sight.

[drysine]

>Russia ... have been at the "worse and worse" stages for decades and there is no "better" in sight

What do you mean? In the last 25 years life expectancy in Russia has risen by almost 10 years

[0] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.LE00.MA.IN?locat...

[sofixa]

The numbers since 2022 are to be taken with a bucket of salt.

And it's undeniable that the whole country is falling backwards - the economy is in tatters with high inflation, high interest rates , severe economic and kinetic damage to the main revenue generating activities (export of oil, gas, raw materials, military equipment), a poorly hidden ballooning debt crisis. And worst of all, a leader who cannot admit defeat so can't get the country out of the quagmire. So things will get a whole lot worse before there's any chance of them getting better.

[sofixa]

Since your other comment got rightfully flagged, I'll respond to you here.

The numbers from 2024 are reflective of the complete disappearance of russia from global markets. For instance, there have been no military procurement deals after 2023, only deliveries of previously ordered stuff.

The poorly hidden debt crisis is within the regions paying the death and recruitment bonuses, and the military contractors forced to sell at a loss and being propped up by state backed loans (one went bankrupt recently). Neither of those show up on official state debt numbers, but are unquestionably a problem for the state budget to fix. The one where 50% is being wasted to achieve nothing in Ukraine. At the best of times there are a few kilometres here and there, but even that is over now.

Ukrainians still unequivocally support keeping the war until russia agrees to leave them the fuck alone, and they get security guarantees (if you think you have polls saying otherwise, look again in the questions and answers, a tiny majority are ready to surrender Eastern Ukraine to end the war now, but practically nobody is willing to do so without guarantees). Those are achievable objectives. On the other side the leadership cannot admit defeat or they'll get toppled, and has no hope of achieving anything they could spin as a victory. So they keep wasting human lives to prolong the inevitable defeat.

[AlexeyBelov]

Why is this account still not banned

[maximinus_thrax]

Because it's futile. This person was banned before, this is their new account.

[Semaphor]

> Iran, Haiti, Russia, Syria, Lebanon, Argentina have been at the "worse and worse" stages for decades and there is no "better" in sight.

Unless I’m completely misunderstanding things, it’s "better for the party". Our new Nazi party in Germany (AfD) even said something like that openly.

[mcmoor]

This is why I don't trust libertarians in office. They're incentivised to do a bad job.

[HenryBemis]

Your comment brought the song lyrics from Murder - Sepultura:

  ...
  Same hand that builds, destroys
  Same hand that relieves, betrays
  Same hand that seeds, burns
  Same peace that exists, here lies
  ...
  Same religion that saves, damns you!

I got no comment on the essence of your comment, but (in your implied meaning), the very last of the song was matching what you wrote.