US Politics, July 2024 - "Will you just drop out, man?"

The disappointing part is that the general public shrug is likely to discourage copycats. I mean, if you won't even be famous/a subject of public discussion, why bother?

no ex-president has ever been in our faces like this in any of our lifetimes. people just want him to go away

I think AMerica has become so normalized to gun violence no one bats an eye

― | (Latham Green)

it's a survival skill. if i didn't deliberately deaden myself to mass shootings i'd have a hard time functioning. just because i don't talk about it doesn't mean i think it's _normal_ or _ok_.

The disappointing part is that the general public shrug is likely to discourage copycats. I mean, if you won't even be famous/a subject of public discussion, why bother?

― Instead of create and send out, it pull back and consume (unperson)

i don't see how this is _disappointing_. i admit that i'm not totally all-in on electoral politics, but i don't particularly think we should have an assassination-based political system.

I don't even get the sense that outside of a few hardcore maga types that anyone is really feeling particularly angry about what happened

Those people aren't even angry. They're celebrating his survival by sharing pics and memes about it on social media, bragging about about how they've wrapped up the election.

Prove them wrong.

Fwiw I don't think "nothing matters, it's over," I am just slightly more sanguine about our current situation because I believe a lot of what I write— we already live in a fascist state, and while it can get much worse, there's also a lot of room to get better, and so that's where I'm at.

― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Monday, July 15, 2024 11:13 AM bookmarkflaglink

definitely, and tbh you've never come across as "nothing matters, it's over", I've appreciated your takes. sometimes we react like some of these threats are new whereas they've always been here and needed acting on, we just waited until they could no longer be ignored.

I was just in Ireland for about 2 weeks, and I'll tell you that while I don't doubt there are plenty of homegrown problems over there at I wouldn't notice. The sense that there was not an ever present under current of aggression permeating throughout the entire society was vv refreshing. I am certain someone from Ireland might come and correct me on that, but keep in mind I'm coming from America, where every time I take a drive to the grocery store I feel like I'm going to see a violent act on the road or in the parking lot. And that's because I have on both counts, multiple times.

it's a survival skill. if i didn't deliberately deaden myself to mass shootings i'd have a hard time functioning. just because i don't talk about it doesn't mean i think it's _normal_ or _ok_.

― Kate (rushomancy), Monday, July 15, 2024 12:22 PM bookmarkflaglink

this is me now too. I stopped generally talking about most political/news items outside of this thread. everybody else is too galaxy-brained or addicted to performative despair (note: I am very much not talking about anybody in this thread, remember I have a lot of theatre people in my circle so performative kinda comes w/ the territory)

Watchmen always looked boring to me. I could never figure out what it was about. I knew people loved it. I picked it up a few times. But, yeah, not for me. I never read anything else by him i don't think. He's after my comix time. wait, no, that is so not true. I totally used to buy and read 2000 AD when I was a kid. And Captain Britain too. so i probably read stuff that he wrote. though i don't know when he did Captain Britain. oh and i did enjoy those 80s Swamp Things but that's cuz i enjoyed the work of Stephen Bissette.

*curtain drop*

Well I don't think Moore writes about "everything" - I see how ppl would make that claim because he does set out this epic scope for certain projects like League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen or Jerusalem - and that his appeal is indeed in very specific things...postwar working class culture and the erosion of same, the history of comics (loved the parts about non superhero comic Kirby in Jerusalem), british pagan and occult shit. And I suppose caring about these matters is somewhat obscurantist and niche, sure - all writers are niche, I've never held Moore to have a universal voice nor assumed that he believes he does.

Anyway current God of Comics according to fanboys is ex-CIA agent Tom King

I'm pretty sure this was already discussed upthread, but I was struck by it again this morning - it feels so weird for the attempt to be such a non-event, in a way. Sure the media won't let this go and it will certainly have a long tail effect on the election, but it feels like people are barely talking about it at all. I just can't imagine an attempt on say, Obama, just fading into the background so quickly. It's almost like this is the exact kind of chaos that people expect from Trump's orbit that it's not surprising or barely even worth a lot of thought.

― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, July 15, 2024 12:08 PM bookmarkflaglink

it is weird! My company sent a company wide email about it which I refuse to read, but literally nobody virtual water-coolering about it is bizarre.

feel like the window of what is earthshattering has been moved in the last 8 years.

"I stopped generally talking about most political/news items outside of this thread."

a lot of people i know irl don't even know what i'm talking about when i talk about the news. they have a vague idea of what's going on. they know who they are going to vote for. but they don't follow things day to day. nobody ever brings up trump when they come in my store. which is nice actually.

This is the case generally even my neighborhood where the Trump flags crisply wave. We're the junkies who obsess over this shit.

ya but doesn't that like... scare the everloving piss outta ya'll????

Overall let’s follow my mom’s best general advice, which is “don’t borrow trouble!” There is nothing helpful in talking our way into loss/disenfranchisement - think if this as the chance to repudiate 45 once and for all. Biden isn’t going to move unless his sister tells him it’s over, but people left of centre can pull together.

Also now would be a good time for Biden to send a bill to congress banning AKs

From what I've seen online and what I've heard from Republicans, it has really fired up the GOP — not just the MAGA base, but also people who were already going to vote for Trump but weren't happy about it, it gives them the fig leaf they need to stop apologizing for the guy. Which is all valuable politically, it's good to have a fired-up party, it sets the stage for a big wahoo convention. How or to what degree any of that carries over outside the party I think is really hard to say. I think there's probably some lizard-brain appeal to the idea that "He got shot and got back up again and the other guy can barely walk or talk," which is mostly just reinforcing perceptions people already had. It doesn't wipe out all the many real reasons most people don't like Trump.

I do think that the shooter being a "normal" mass shooter — bullied young white man of indeterminate ideology — has somewhat muted the response to it. GOP would have loved it to be a trans-masc Mexican-Palestinian vegan.

hello MAGA my old friend
i've come to shoot at you again

They’re misreporting the donations because the $15 to ActBlue was made by a 60sthg with the same name as the shooter, not the shooter - and it is driving me nuts to see this falsehood travel so far, so fast.

I've seen that ActBlue donation reported both ways but not a definitive account. Have any major media said for sure?

yeah I agree there's not really a lot of chatter about this outside of the news and online spaces, idk if that's a product of how insane politics have gotten in general or just the anti-mattering reality TV shield that surrounds Trump at all times, I mean he's already committed Watergate-level offenses nearly every week and everything about him is fake, I think in most people's minds he doesn't even register as a real human being. he's more like a cartoon villain who does the most laughably evil and corrupt shit and even gets arrested for it but still comes back for the next episode every single time. that's why him getting a serious case of COVID felt so surreal - like, other people were supposed to suffer because of his incompetence, not him. when lifesaving drugs were invented just in time to save his life that's when it felt like the universe had returned to its natural balance.

hell there are differing accounts on whether Trump was SHOT at all! the few reports came in of it being glass from the teleprompter and yet the media STILL is saying shot in ear.

This is the case generally even my neighborhood where the Trump flags crisply wave. We're the junkies who obsess over this shit.

― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

i guess that's an interesting point... pre-transition i very much was one of those people for whom politics was theater, something to talk about at the water cooler. since transitioning it just seems so much more _real_. it's not a _literal_ matter of life and death for me, who the next president is. at least i don't _think_ so. politics is just a lot less... abstract for me. less about _ideas_ and more about _people_. and i think that's why, for a while, i was so put off by political discourse, _because_ of how abstract it is, necessarily. it's distancing. of course trump getting shot is gonna be abstract for me. i gotta take people i know dying and make that not personal somehow. if politics is a game, well, that's the kind of game it is these days. it's not a game for me. i don't play. i'm serious about it, and that includes being serious about being personally nonviolent. what other people do, well, i got limited ability to affect that. it doesn't matter in a broader sense whether i _approve_ of someone shooting donald trump or not. i don't, and that matters to me personally. but to other people? why should it?

so the documents case was thrown out by a judge that was appointed by Trump himself - imagine the outrage if this happened in any other country

In any other country where it happened, being outraged would probably get you thrown in jail. So, enjoy your impotent outrage! Like the great Lee Greenwood said, at least we know we're free.

much handwringing being made from people saying oh the 11th will uphold Cannon cos Clarence Thomas is assigned to that circuit, like, that isn't how it works, he doesn't just act as Emperor of the circuit, how do you think the last two Cannon batshit decisions were overruled?

the real decision is whether to do that or whether to refile in DC, to get a shot of having another judge assigned, per Mark Joseph Stern

i'm proud to be Amecran
Where at sleet i know im fwee
n i wont protect the menu fries
that gave lil wyte to me

how do we think Trump actually dying would affect him in the polls

the irritating part about this is if/when Trump wins and he starts really inciting shit and breaking laws we will be reminded over and over that we were just one inch and/or half a second away from avoiding all of this

It’s the resurrection that will seal the deal.

i just don't think he's... i mean i kinda see alan moore as the comic book equivalent of david foster wallace. to be completely honest.

― Kate (rushomancy), Monday, July 15, 2024 12:08 PM (fifty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

DFW and Moore share almost nothing in common other than the fact that lame-o online hipsters find people who like them smelly.

there's always the October surprise (heart attack)

pre-shooting, so go ahead and add another 2-3 points to Trump's lead

#New General Election Poll - Battlegrounds

Arizona
🔴 Trump 44% (+7)
🔵 Biden 37%

Georgia
🔴 Trump 44% (+4)
🔵 Biden 40%

Michigan
🔴 Trump 42% (+2)
🔵 Biden 40%

North Carolina
🔴 Trump 44% (+4)
🔵 Biden 40%

Nevada
🔴 Trump 46% (+4)
🔵 Biden 42%

Pennsylvania
🔴 Trump…

— Political Polls (@PpollingNumbers) July 15, 2024

unpopular/uncool opinion but personally i doubt this specific event will affect things in November in any concrete way. it’ll just be another crazy thing that happened. four months is an eternity in politics. Reagan got the crap shot out of him in 81, almost died, and after a couple months his popularity was right back to where it was before, and even got lower before the midterms. And the country was obv a lot less polarized than it is now. People/Trump will ofc talk about it constantly but i’m pretty skeptical of the idea that this will sweep him into office on a wave of sympathy. I mean, a guy literally crashed a plane into the white house in 94 and no one even remembers that it ever happened.

xpost I wonder how much of a Vance-bump Trump will get

Honestly Trump is so roundly and genuinely despised, a very beatable guy despite what some might feel, that we should all be appalled the Dems couldn't come up with a dynamic and energizing option in the last four years. I really didn't think Biden would run again.

there's always the October surprise (heart attack)

― rick beato meato manifesto (Neanderthal), Monday, July 15, 2024 12:08 PM (twenty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah, II don't know if I would necessarily survive the stress of an assassination attempt. You'd for sure think it'd have an adverse impact on someone whose heart is comprised entirely of jerky and pumps rich & sumptuous gravy.

This looks like another Stephen Paddock situation where the motive is entirely unknown.

Maybe he was aiming for the teleprompter all along

how do we think Trump actually dying would affect him in the polls

― rick beato meato manifesto (Neanderthal)

i think he'd get a good 3-4 point bump from that

DFW and Moore share almost nothing in common other than the fact that lame-o online hipsters find people who like them smelly.

― A So-Called Pulitzer price winner (President Keyes)

i mean i'll cop to being a lame-o online hipster

right now i'm probably more smelly than most of their fans, though

it's the depression, showering is hard

i admit that i'm more emotionally invested in the question of whether or not dfw and alan moore have similar traits as writers than i'm invested in donald trump getting shot

This looks like another Stephen Paddock situation where the motive is entirely unknown.

― Allen (etaeoe), Monday, July 15, 2024 12:33 PM (eleven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

IIRC, assassins (would-be or otherwise) with muddied motives are more the rule than the exception. My mind was blown, for instance, when I found out that George Wallace was shot by a guy who was just looking to become famous. You kinda just assume with a raging asshole like that that there had to be ideological motives but nope.

Hinckley was in love with Jodie Foster, the first person I think of when I see Ronald Reagan.

dfw more clearly wanted to be thomas pynchon imho

xpost

ok hold on, is this the same YouGov poll from above? if so keeping Biden in is political malpractice and everyone who donated to Biden ought to be working on a class action lawsuit right now

#NEW @YouGovAmerica/@thetimes Senate Polls:

MICHIGAN
Elissa Slotkin (D) 49% (+9)
Mike Rogers (R) 40%
.
PENNSYLVANIA
Bob Casey (D-Inc) 51% (+12)
David McCormick (R) 39%
.
ARIZONA
Ruben Gallego (D) 49% (+7)
Kari Lake (R) 42%
.
NEVADA
Jacky Rosen (D-inc) 47% (+6)
Sam Brown (R) 41%…

— Political Polls (@Politics_Polls) July 15, 2024

took a half day from work, it's all getting to me too much right now. but also fuck work.

dfw more clearly wanted to be thomas pynchon imho

xpost

― reggie (qualmsley), Monday, July 15, 2024 10:51 AM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah say what you want about him but I doubt DFW was looking much to comic books for inspiration

You kinda just assume with a raging asshole like that that there had to be ideological motives but nope.

Yeah i was thinking abt that yesterday. Are Booth and Czolgosz the only US presidential shooters who had purely political motives?

Hinckley acted on purely cinephile grounds

feels a smidge like 2020 before biden swept super tuesday

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/04/politics/super-tuesday-takeaways/index.html

whoever the eventual democratic candidate is -- biden, harris, clooney -- seeing the name "trump" on a ballot i'd very eagerly wager will gross out more voters than not, no less after yet another climate crisis (hurricane season!) summer has only weighed heavier on reasonable adult minds