“I can hear those champagne bottle corks popping in Moscow — like it’s Christmas every fucking day": US Politics, February 2024

And yet Lefsetz roams free

“Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby, and I’m the monster on the hill” (“Anti-Hero”): Who is the monster on the Hill? Congress, of course. But, then, who is the sexy baby? Simple: George Santos.

"I met Bobby on the boardwalk summer of '45
Picked me up late one night out the window
We were seventeen and crazy running wild, wild"

This is about RFK Jr. and Trump (45) visiting Epstein island

Also the modulation in the last chorus of "Love Story" was developed in a lab at Quantico to prompt a potent cocktail of dopamine and oxytocin in 97 percent of test subjects, bonding them to Swift and rendering them obedient to her suggestions.

wrt to the recovering economy and its (non) appearance in how people report sentiment, is one factor the fact that economic growth under Biden has disproportionately occurred in red states?

C'mon, man. No amount of prosperity, safety, freedom, or privilege will budge those voters. It's just tribes and grievance all the way down.

If only we could send a reporter to a diner. Surely that would provide us with some insights into how the Real Americans think.

Please save us, T. Swizzle, you're our only hope.

I have placed the plans of the Death Star in your Tesla. Many Bothans died to bring us this information.

Why can't they put one lonely reporter in the diner who will report what the common man says now and then.

C'mon, man. No amount of prosperity, safety, freedom, or privilege will budge those voters. It's just tribes and grievance all the way down.

That explains the red state voters who have had a faster recovering economy but are never going to credit a Democratic president. But what I was really referring to was more the fact that recovery in blue states has been less pronounced, so voters that might be more inclined to report more positive sentiment have less to feel good about than those in states where the recovery has been concentrated

even if the u.s. economy was the strongest ever in history people post-pandemic, post-trump, and post-climate change - on the left and right - will say that things aren't going well. its an existential thing. which is definitely gonna skew your polls. folks got the jitters out there. millenarianism. whatever you want to call it. mckibbenism.

people addicted to socials and podcasts are being served historically unprecedented, addictive megadoses of intentionally anger- and panic-inducing information.

they have no normal environment in which to modulate reasonable or even rational responses.

and now taylor swift's boyfriend has appropriated a fade.

utter chaos.

sorry that should go to the distopia thread i spose.

Anvil, that is an interesting point.

Bluer urban regions will always have more data points (both positive and negative) simply because there are more humans and therefore more experiences. And therefore more opinions. You will see greater variance simply because there is more information.

Further, bluer areas tend to have more going on - more businesses opening, more businesses closing, more people being hired, and more people being let go. Because: more people.

But what do I know? I'm just a stupid liberal living in a demiurban bubble. I know nothing about Real America. Where you work with your hands and drive a pickup truck and eat in a diner and you have 47 guns or whatever.

all at once!

well not the diner and the truck driving

I have installed a fully functional diner in my Ford truck. Next to the gun locker. Haven't you?

in the winter, in western mass, EVERY single person walking down the street looks like they are the cover photo for a pamphlet at the doctor's office that says "DEPRESSED?" on the front of it. so its hard to tell what the mood is out there. everyone is in cave bear mode. but people sure are buying a lot of records! #anecdotalbluestatemerchantupdate

Are there still diners in truly rural areas? Seems to me there is no "third space" that's not church in vast swaths of the heartland

Further, bluer areas tend to have more going on - more businesses opening, more businesses closing, more people being hired, and more people being let go. Because: more people.

Potentially, but if higher growth is concentrated in red states, that means thats where things are opening more or being built more, currently

This then leads to further questions, as to why that is? There's also an interesting parallel in Europe where post-covid growth is more pronounced in Eastern Europe than Western Europe

xp - In the small towns my family members live in, the non-church third spaces are the informal coffee gathering spot set up in the garage bay of the municipal building, the Dollar General parking lot and the Casey's gas station food counter.

Non-church third spaces in my town:

- casinos
- gas station convenience store
- bar that serves really good burgers
- other bar that serves really good burgers (and also has slot machines)
- gun store

oh duh, yeah, forgot the bar option

Seems to me there is no "third space" that's not church in vast swaths of the heartland

i sorta think that given the portion of the left that was generated out of church philosophy and teaching-- tho relatively historically rather than very recently-- the fact that much of the left seems to have moved far out of churches has been socio-politically poisonous. there's more 'tribal' or cultural separation. i'm sure this is well-trod ground, i just haven't looked for it.

what i'm saying is we need some radical priests and parsons.

Some of the fiercest libs/leftists I know are churchgoers, including Catholics.

folks got the jitters out there.

Definitely, and I think a lot of the disconnect that tables is talking about upthread is that the things that particularly give people the jitters aren't easily accounted for by our normal economic data dashboard. They are more structural things about security and stability, which have been relentlessly undermined by dehumanizing corporatism, lack of reliable access to healthcare, people feeling trapped in various ways where they are (Americans are moving across state lines less than they have in decades), cumulative household debt, etc. Lots of these things do get measured in various ways, but they're mostly not what talking heads mean when they say "the economy," which focuses mostly on GDP, DJIA and the unemployment rate — things that can be "good" in the aggregate without saying much about average individual experience.

I know, I know, but as a brainwashed leftist ... there is no God

Americans are moving across state lines less than they have in decades),

The old are moving to Florida to die or to kill me.

xp that post me

i tell a left evangelist friend of mine "the thing that's important about the church is exclusively social. partly because there is no god, of that i'm rather sure." to dorks who say "i hate organized religion, but i'm ~spiritual~" i will say "fuck that, you must be precisely the opposite, but find a church that's not loaded with assholes preaching exclusionary hatred"!

well, i spose they _can_ be spiritual, whatever the fuck they think that means.

"i hate organized religion, but i'm ~spiritual~" i will say "fuck that, you must be precisely the opposite, but find a church that's not loaded with assholes preaching exclusionary hatred"!

OTM. Also: these people don't wanna make time to go to church/observe sacraments.

I think there is a strong need/desire in most of us to believe or at least hope that there is something after death, hence the idea of "spirituality."

ha i do not want anything but release that is the desire, i want for nothing more, it would only disappoint.

/radicalovershare

Organized religion, on the other hand, as has already been pointed out, is more of a tribal/social affiliation.

I think that has been made astoundingly clear in the Age of Trump.

Dream catchers, kokopelli, hackysack

well, i spose they _can_ be spiritual, whatever the fuck they think that means.

hm. i now perceive the necessary hegelian synthesis. that it should be social AND spiritual. *hunter ascends amidst angelic chorus*

well, i spose they _can_ be spiritual, whatever the fuck they think that means

so like spirituality requires fellowship? Christian fellowship specifically, or do you have like an approved list

growing up in a heavily christian country definitely sucks. a christian continent even. connected to another christian continent. bleh. sick of their demons and fears. everyone should just go bowling.

the grange hall in town here is world-renowned (for real) for its contra dancing. seems like a much healthier use of a large building. it gets kinda smelly and sweaty in there. also: they used to have hardcore shows there in the early 80s. flipper played there! and siege! also a much better use of a large public building. similar smells and dancing as well.

probly should be here?

do you have like an approved list

nope. slightly more at link but only slightly. didn't know which thread was "best," just picked that one.

btw scott, i joined a grange three months ago to volunteer. ha, elev. 8350', i can ride my bike 3000' of vert to get to it, then serve the community. it's a bit elderly, but i feel happy and useful there!

scott aren't you from ct? i grew up in fairfield cty, ppl there just worshipped money i don't recommend that either.

I got busy yesterday and couldn't respond to people who responded to my q, but thank you

― rob, Thursday, February 8, 2024 5:58 AM bookmarkflaglink

You're welcome. Though I was wondering why you asked it.

my family is from guilford/sachems head but i grew up in brookfield which i wouldn't recommend much. right on route 7. when we moved there there were still cows crossing route 7. now its just one of those hellish endless things. but where my house was was nice. very new england. i lived next to the catholic grade school/church and across the street was the big congregational church. next to my house was the historical society. behind my house was the volunteer fire station. the siren went off a lot. and i worked across the street at the village store where you could read your newspaper next to the potbelly stove. very rustic! i never go back there. no reason to. very catholic town. lots of Italian and Irish catholic families with a million kids. lots of good pizza and scowling redheads in my town.

x-post

i was gonna read the CT parts of thurston moore's book because i know he had a similar existence down the road in bethel. getting wasted in the woods and getting into petty trouble. it could be very boring. you had to do something to make it less so. no netflix!

yup i get it, thx. i only remember that because like 20 yrs ago you mentioned wxci, is it? in the early-mid 80s that station was important fodder for me.

that station saved my life! i simply cannot ever give them enough credit. so much love. they turned me on to half the music i worship.

The conversation may have moved on from this but Unitarian Universalists are the libbiest churchiest churchlibs there are.

I hate to generalize but every single one of those mfs wears a chunky sweater and round glasses and donates to public radio and eats fake meat. They all have wooden canoes and play the oboe.

i said radical priests ymp