Maybe if we dipped the red hats into some green dye?

Besides, why nobody uses green? It's a pretty color, associated with plant life...

Yeah, but if you try to dye something red with a green overlay, you end up with the color of diarrhea.

Well, yeah, pigment doesn't blend the same way as light does, that makes sense.

I love green, Especially the more lime-green. I use it a lot in my drawings.

I concur, green is a pretty color. My favorite shirts are green

I was watching his latest signing that ended the partial shutdown and fox news was asking about the matter on the ice agents and he shut them down by saying that Fox news is fake......

As ridiculous as that is... Most news outlets are "fake". I'm certain you are already familiar with how Fox News or CNN or many others have a political inclination or ideology or even they play favorites with a country or preferred political party in a multipartisan system, that alone allows them to write their own truth and feed the masses, creating the illusion that things are good when they aren't, or that things are much worse than they seem, or that a criminal is innocent, or that an innocent is guilty. That helps perpetuate the polarization, make people war among themselves, because a split nation among themselves is easier to control than an united nation who opened their eyes to the machinations of those above them.

Of course I know most of it is fake but once in a while a little bit of truth comes out..... I'm just saying he shut them down because the reporter asked a legit question and he said that they were fake news and refused to answer that question and then one of his cronies said there was no more illegal aliens crossing our borders which I thought was laughable.....

I've had to step away from at least half of my family for this exact reason. People I used to see as logical, compassionate, and open-minded have alarmingly fallen into this weird conspiracy hellhole, and they have indeed doubled down as the scandals roll on and on. My uncle, who was the person who taught me what the constitution was, long before I ever learned about it in school, and who shared my admiration for Carl Sagan, has now sunk to the low of shouting that anyone ICE deems an "illegal" is a "criminal who has no rights and no due process!" When I attempt to point out that the whole reason for due process is to determine if a crime has or has not been committed, and that this is explicitly stated in the constitution as applying to all persons in the US, not just all citizens, he literally shouted "NO! That's a STUPID ARGUMENT!"

I'm heartbroken to see how many people have gone down this road. And as you can guess, I had no luck trying to discuss it. I'm now virtually alone in my community. I've been working on making a plan to move, but when you have a workshop with about 10,000 pounds of tools, it's not something you can do easily.

This whole situation really blows.

This is why I try not to discuss politics with friends and family members because it splits everyone apart....

It has passed beyond being "politics." At this point, it is now a litmus test of morality and basic human decency.

Yeah :(

Seconding Ponyguy there, but also... Does it count as "discussing" if this stuff gets vomited at you full-volume, unprompted, and your choices are to just take the verbal puke-bath or calmly try to raise logical issues with it? Or what about when - again, unprompted - they tell you how people with your "lifestyle" (not being 100% straight, that is) belong on the fringes of society, and if we try to insist on being accepted as normal members of society, we should "expect consequences, just like how you should expect consequences if you try to check how much gas is in your tank by using a lit match". Yes, those were real quotes from the people in question.

The only reasonable course of action I saw was to get distance.

My comment here was a lamentation of the fact that they have rejected reality, and rejected human decency. Even if they weren't actively spewing this stuff all the time, could I say that we're not already split apart? When they think that I belong on the fringe of the world just because of who my partner is (someone they know and openly praise as being a wonderful person, by the way!), and they think that just being accused of being an illegal immigrant means that you deserve to be brutalized... I don't think there's any family left there anyway.

It is a lot of the problem of ideologies, they blind people to reason (and I mean both definitions of "reason", as noun and verb) most of the time and serves as the means to an end, as well as a motive to labels other that disagrees with them.

Not that everyone who labels follows an ideology, of course, but nearly everyone who follows an ideology is prone to label others, their own, or even themselves.

#cid:61468422
Yep, and that is a huge part of why many communities have a ban on politics: it divides people more than it unites them. Friends becomes foes, families splits apart, hatred spreads, one side blames the other.

And on the ICE thing... Both sides have valid arguments, but both sides are also wrong. Illegal immigrants are a problem, for the security of the neighborhood and the immigrant's very own. Down where I live, Brazil, there's a lot of immigrants, but either little or no background check, so there are spies from other countries infiltrated, goons from other latino drug cartels, "mule" (I hate using this term, for the record) from the Chinese Mafia, and more. So they have been supporting the crime...
However, let's talk about those who the Chinese Mafia sent down here to send them money back: they open small businesses, they help employment, they are nice, and they are now in a better situation than they were in their home country. I'd be upset if they were deported, specially if they were someone I used to know, I would think it would be unfair to send them back to hell... But at the same time I think they could have shown good faith, come clean and tried to legalize themselves.

Which takes me to... How I think the USA SHOULD handle illegal immigrants: give them the benefit of doubt a little, and a grace period for them to come clean and resolve their legal situation, and if they do not resolve then humanly deport them. Of course, background check and home country situation SHOULD be considered too. For example: given the current situation of Iran, if an illegal immigrant from there isn't causing trouble and their country is still effectively a warzone, give them asylum for the time being or look into other countries that also offer asylum.

I've only recently started chiming in on some of your journals, Karno, but I've been a fan and a follower since way back in the early Genus days. Even met you a few times at conventions (and made the happy mistake of giving you a vague description for a sketchbook doodle commission--I still treasure it to this day), but that's neither here nor there.

I've seen several of the people you're talking about. A few of whom I've made the mistake of interacting with before recognizing the fact that they've got their heads so far up trumpie's ass that they can see daylight, that they're largely considered persona non grata in your comment sections.

It seems like you've been made a victim of a very common hang-up in the American psyche, particularly in the political tribal mindset: "Criticism of one side is automatic endorsement of the other."

And with our dysfunctional mono-party system, we've ended up with where we are now: Do-nothing-Dems are standing back, begging us not to defend ourselves from the boot, while hoping we do so they can vote in lockstep with the GOP to enforce martial law and send in the military to squash us. With the diddler in chief's party salivating for the chance to kick off a civil war among the voter base so they have an excuse to disarm everyone to "magnanimously" make the fighting stop. While the boot keeps kicking us in the face demanding we lick it.

Never argue with an idiot. They just drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

Frankly, I've adopted the stance of "I don't care." Because, I seriously don't.

I won't be too quiet about my right of center leanings and my overall disinterest in progressivism. However, regardless of ideology it is far too easy for people to fall into hero worship, cults of personality, and a general lack of critical thinking as well as an inability to take criticism of policies and stances as anything as a personal affront.

While I'm one of those unicorns who still has a neutral opinion on Trump from a policy perspective, I can point out I think he surrounds himself with sycophants and yes-men, and those people are either going to manipulate him into backing what -they- want instead of the American people, or they won't be willing to tell the Emperor that in fact he isn't wearing any clothes. I'm perfectly happy with the government taking the stance that, yes, the US government should put the needs of its citizens above foreign governments as well as corporations and that, yes, people who have entered the US illegally should not be here. However, I could do without the bombastic social media posts and developing a cult of personality.

At the same time, I'm not interested in convincing others that my stances and opinions are just that: stances and opinions. Again, think critically and follow what makes sense to you. It's not my business, and frankly I don't care what others think. I've made up my mind based on my personal values and my analysis of whatever topic is at hand. I don't expect everyone to come to the same conclusions and I don't have the mental energy to argue against willful ignorance and intellectual dishonesty; both of which is rife on both 'sides,' as it were.

Eh in person the axe handle or the Mossberg comes out. I legit have chased a few folks off the property with full intent to feed them to the neighbors hogs. I have lost all paitence with the nuckfugget millbillies.

I am so tired of both the far ends of both the left and the right. each taking turns to fuck everyone over for their own specific gains, all the while stabbing the backs of those somewhere inbetween that once supported either end.
I am just tired of it all, and sort of which there were more than the two alternatives.

Down in Brazil that is the game they play: the leaders of all parties (as here is multipartisan), regardless of sides, have an assembly every now and then to plot things, including who they want to be the next president.

You know, there's a saying I really like that goes "Don't weep for the stupid, you'll be crying all day". I think the same can be applied to this precise situation.

I think the hugbox is the last step before full deshumanisation of the other side, then civil war. But heh, feels good !

I would say the other side completely dehumanizing immigrants, lgbt, abuse victims and anti-ICE protestors as part of their agenda would lead to the "other side" not feeling much empathy towards them.. Plus, it would be like trying to talk a fanatic out of a cult or religion, they will keep using their beliefs to justify atrocities being done towards actual people in the name of their beliefs no matter how bad those get.

Also, you should stop trying to bring out civil war as if it was something the left wishes for. We are not the ones trying to prevent elections from taking place.

Maybe a civil war would give USA the Phoenix Rebirth it needs... But at a terrible cost: Hundreds thousands innocent lives would be lost.

"The dictatorship, and the whole process of its coming into being, was above all diverting. It provided an excuse not to think for people who did not want to think anyway. I do not speak of your ‘little men,’ your baker and so on; I speak of my colleagues and myself, learned men, mind you. Most of us did not want to think about fundamental things and never had. There was no need to. Nazism gave us some dreadful, fundamental things to think about—we were decent people—and kept us so busy with continuous changes and ‘crises’ and so fascinated, yes, fascinated, by the machinations of the ‘national enemies,’ without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all around us. Unconsciously, I suppose, we were grateful. Who wants to think?"

"To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it—please try to believe me—unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us had ever had occasion to develop. Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, ‘regretted,’ that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these ‘little measures’ that no ‘patriotic German’ could resent must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head."

Yeah, I've lost all interest in trying to reason with or find common ground with them. It just leads to them acting like frothing lunatics and wondering why no one likes them. I've felt more politically homeless and alone than I have a decade ago because I don't jive well with far left people either and had personal falling outs with those friends, but it drives me insane to see people IRL who preached about how we need to question the media and government turn around and mindlessly repeat what said media says now.
They can get what they voted for, my life and financial stability is more important to me.

Could be worse, could be all red. See the commies, see the Movimento dos Sem Terra in Brazil, they all want to perpetuate the poverty of their people, empower the government by blissful ignorance that they will be given a new benefit, licking their boots as a new leash is put to steer their votes, their thoughts. They whine "sovereignty" while selling away countries that are trying to save themselves from dictatorship, they claim "coup" when the opposition manifests over an obvious fraud and corruption in the system.

If Republicans in North America are nazi, the Democrats in Latin America are what Time magazine once called Communazi, and in the end both sides proves to be the ultimate evil, seizing away the future, the freedom, the chance for development, all in the name of ideals led by Jesters wearing the crown, calling themselves "kings", "righteous ruler of the country".

And know what's worse? In Latin America, the democrats have the Three Powers dancing in their hands.

"A literal child trafficking / abuse network involving mostly capitalistic billionares is being protected by Republicans but you know what could be worse?! Imaginary red scare in the USA fear mongering!!"

I bet your parents are proud of your "morals". But in reality, fence-sitting libertarians at the end are just useful idiots.

You WISH it were imaginary. It is very real and it is what LatAm lives. Maybe if you lived down here your eyes would open.

Also, commies do that as well, child trafficking and abuse network. It is a small part of what keeps drug cartels running.

I bet your parents are proud of your "morals". But in reality, you are just another politician's sock puppet.

You fail to read, else you would have noticed I wasn't talking of the "imaginary" red scare in the USA. I was talking about the very real red scare in Brazil, and throughout Latin America.

Your "morals" blinds you, your "morals" that dictates only Republican and not-left-aligned people can commit evil enhances your moral myopia and illusion of being one of the so-called "good guys"

Because yours are not "morals": They are ideologies that you just consume without reflecting.

To elaborate, the federal police down here was notified by CIA about a "Russian Spy Factory" in Brazil... Turned out there were really some sort of training for deep undercover agents, and because of how the Brazilian passport is (or was? IDK the status in this current political climate) widely accepted across the globe, that meant they could just train spies down here, give them a Brazilian background (which wouldn't be hard because of the ethical diversity here being HUMONGOUS), and then sent them elsewhere to spy for Russia.

And no, I did not know of the Russian Spy Factory thing until it hit the news outlets, despite what some ( Ryvalt ) may think. I can't believe i have to clarify this, but until the facts reached local news outlets such as "CNN Brasil" and "O Globo", I was completely oblivious that such thing was going on down here in Brazil.

And I know how much of a mess my country is.

Also, know what? My parents are proud of my morals. Real morals, not the "morals" you assume I possess.
Why? Because I've always been worrying about others, caring about others even if it means caring less about myself, loving nature, questioning the "truth" of this world, willing to look for the truth myself, willing to learn, willing to make myself more useful... Among numerous things

Also, you know, Mahatma Gandhi was a "fence-sitting libertarian". What's your excuse now?

"for those lies justify the murder and mayhem they wish to see inflicted on pretty much everyone who's not a fellow cult member"

The truly sad thing is that these people are NOT part of the "in group" and never will be. Unless you were buddies with Epstein, you're an outsider, no matter how red your hat is, and you're just as vulnerable as everyone else. They just haven't gotten around to dealing with you yet.

It does give me a measure of solace that the people whom I recall being so vocal about how Nixon was being persecuted by a political witch hunt that had no basis in reality have largely shut their stupid faces. I don't know if that means they have changed their beliefs, but they aren't finding a lot of venues where they can share their views without being laughed out of the room. One can only hope that someday the Dumpster will be viewed with similar affection to Nixon (except, of course, that he is, in every possible metric, a thousand times worse than Nixon, both as a human being and a politician).

Nixon knew when to quit. That's the biggest thing.

For him, "when to quit" was when it became inescapably clear that the Republicans in the Senate were abandoning him, and there were enough votes to convict and remove him from office. Resigning was his last chance at salvaging the smallest scrap of dignity.

nowadays, the votes to remove Trump are definitely higher, those a good amount of his ilk have left him already. hope for more breakups but it has slowed down.

It takes a 2/3 vote in the Senate to convict and remove, which would mean finding at least nineteen Republicans with a spine and a sense of morality and loyalty to their country over their party. I don't see any evidence that so many can be found.

This sort of rhetoric reminds me of something I learned from my EX-brother. The con artist. This sort of rhetoric would make him smile, if he were the one running the scam.

Scams fall apart in the presence of the truth. In order to keep the scam going, you have to innoculate your victims against the truth, shield them from the truth. One of the more effective methods is to convince them that those offering the truth are not just lying, but EVIL. Monsters, villains who do evil things for cliched cartoon reasons.

"Don't listen to them," the refrain goes. "Don't listen to them, don't talk to them, and above else NEVER exchange information of any sort!" Because if you do, you run the risk of learning the truth... and in this case, the truth is that we're all being subjected to a "two-man con," where one side pretends to be your friend, while helping the other to fleece you.

With a particular twist: we're ALL being fleeced, and so which side you think is your "friend" depends on your beliefs... but make no mistake, they're all in it together. Trump's bad, but he's hardly uniquely bad. He's not even the worst of the lot.

They're just so... weird.

And not the good kind of weird.

Problem being that I'm not MAGA so now what.

Don't worry! Nobody believes you have a mind
....that's capable of change. You're safe from all those annoying facts, and the logic that binds them together to make reality.

You might want to visit reality every now and then, though. That's where all the food and water is.

I'm always fascinated by how people who are in full-blown denial of every verifiable aspect of reality manage to (apparently) function in the real world. Well, up to a point. I see the farmers and building contractors lamenting about how their labor force is vanishing because of the policies they voted for, putting them on a fast-track to financial ruin, while their children die of previously unheard of childhood diseases like measles. But fortunately they are in such full-throated denial of reality, it never occurs to them that anything they have done, or believe could have contributed to their situation.

I used to believe the saying "ignorance is bliss," but I kept seeing people crashing and burning when their inexplicable choices ran smack up against the real world. So I've revised my personal philosophy to "stupid people create their own misery." They're just too clueless to connect the dots between cause and effect.

This current segment of an era is full of nightmare fuel, trying to discuss current events and exposing people to the facts of what's happening around them leads to them abruptly shutting down and calling you a conspiracy theorist, delusional, and wildly schizophrenic.
That's just par for the course for being firmly grounded in reality.
One of the sad effects of being firmly grounded in your reality is the denial aspect.
Facts change things BTW.

I was called delusional and schizophrenic for daring to implicate Trump being mentioned 5,000 times in the files, multiple times by different folks, on multiple platforms. So yeah, I agree. Those people are all for getting everybody accountable and hanged from the hallows, but collapse at the mere mention of #2 in the files lmao

Fortunately still no evidence implicating him in any crimes.

By default, him protecting any pedophiles in the files means he's complicit to their crime. With enough pushback, at best, he's getting impeached for real. At worst... yeah.
I do take issue with those deflecting from him by bringing up people with arguably the same amount of evidence of guilt to them (I believe every single adult on the list is guilty until shown otherwise.)

all in all, we should be questioning everybody inside the files extensively, even the sacred cow of the right.

We do, and if Trump is proven to be a pedo then prosecute him too.
MAGA is NOT about Trump.

Extreme left people are so mean for wanting Trump cultist to see their decrepit fascist child abuser and trafficker protector for what he is. They should feel bad! Also who wants equality and free healthcare/education!? I am SO sick of BOTH sides! I should be able to remain apathetic and willfully ignorant!

Excuse me a bit, but the whole "Faux News propaganda" bit... Well, I'm 99% sure you already know this or agree with this, but some don't, and I might address this a bit:

News outlets are often bought or polarized or ideological or any combination of the previous three. Particularly the ones that are put on television. They often seek polls that sells the idea that their side is winning, they often have a party they side with (and in multipartisan systems, that is either a specific party or a whole political side, more often the former than the later), they often distort the truth to humanize a criminal or dehumanize protesters, they are even willing to side with dictators if that keeps them running (whether by money or preventing them from being hunted). They cannot be fully trusted.

Always doubt news outlets, specially the bigger ones, do research instead, dig as many sources as possible to come closer to the truth.

And of course, sometimes the truth is very obvious, like Trump being a dictator (Heck, he's willing to negotiate with PUTIN out of all people!), or Maduro being a dictator (even the news outlets that once defended him and chastised USA's actions in Venezuela started recognizing him as a dictator as soon as he stood against USA), or the monocratic decisions of Alexandre de Moraes (which, for real, was an ongoing thing since 2022 that the news outlets played dumb despite the fact the constitution disagrees with them), but those would need people to be very blind to the truth to ignore.

# That reminds me: one time a game reviewer made a positive review about a game, but then a week later they suddenly changed their review into a MASSIVE hate rant at the publisher. While in itself it was a justified action (the publisher was known to push for crunch culture), the way the reviewer phrased it was far harsher than the truth (which a developer later disclosed that it was a tight deadline but they knew they could manage).

Fox News is "controlled opposition", they were never right wing.

I never said they were

I’ve heard that from others. What your group considers right-wing probably can’t be aired outside of dedicated streaming services like Rumble. Should you be caught watching or contributing to it, there’s a real chance it could negatively impact your life.

It’s sits outside of the mainstream, and the only way it’s made this much progress is by tricking fence sitters into fearing immigrants.

Well the things they do that seep into mainstream don't help the immigrants either.
Lizbeth Medina
To start with.

What hurts is the only way to even BEGIN to have that conversation is you need to earn someone's respect. It's hard for two to find common ground when they disagree on so many things, when one of them has been given an entire false reality. How do you even begin?

I think you're right, sometimes it's not worth it to try; just tell the Trumpers what you think of them. Some of them may listen to reason if they're rejected by enough people.

Someone who is STILL supporting Blonald after everything that's come to light is someone who is very far gone.

What you need to understand is that, often enough, people who voted for Trump didn't do it because they thought he would make a good president, or anything that should have attracted their vote. They did it because they knew it would piss other people they didn't like off, completely ignoring any other effects that putting him in office would have.

I've read many a comment from people who voted for Trump, only some of which seemed to disapprove of the results, claiming they only did it because they knew it would get people angry, annoy a family member, or to 'own the libs'. In a few of these they openly said they knew Trump wasn't the best choice, but this was what drove them to do it anyway.

Suggestion. Electronic detox. Step outside and get more oxygen and sunlight.

I have a lot of morbid curiosity about far-right conservatives and Trump supporters. Especially if they’re furry, or gay, non-white, and/or disabled. People like that are interesting (and yeah probably dangerous). They speak well enough, but they don’t really think rationally, otherwise they wouldn’t support people that want to kill them.

I wasn’t trying to change his mind. I was trying to figure out why he thinks the way he does. I think what he’d have to say would get him banned, and that’s why he’s so mum about it. The last question was a bit telling: Don’t ask someone if they’re “a [blank] too,” where in the blank is a 4chan/pol word for something awful unless you somehow want people think you’re also that thing.