The Dictator observations thread.

[Dr. Medulla]

She died well before I was old enough to ask her about politics, but based on literally the entire rest of my family, I highly doubt it.

Ugh, sorry 'bout that. I don't think I truly appreciate the fact that my family is either social democrats or what we call Red Tories (conservatives with a social conscience). One of my brothers-in-law, ex-military, is the most conservative but in his retirement has been moving steadily leftward, both because of the state of the right these days but also seriously listening to his children's opinions on race and sexuality. He has a hard time fully understanding systemic oppression, but it's not for lack of trying. I quite admire him for his sincere effort to consider these things. So easy to just quit thinking and challenging yourself when you hit retirement.

My dad is an excellent example of this. He just sits around at home and complains about Mexicans and pronouns and China instead of going into the world and getting his opinions through actual experience.

It's like the counter-point to the common perception that history started the moment you were born—everything else is irrelevant ancient crap—is that when you hit middle-age or retirement that history ceases. The thing that makes me saddest about people is a lack of curiosity. The world is a place of contradiction and strangeness—how can you not be curious?

Because it's way easier to just take at face value the claims from your news source that people who aren't like you are making it hard for you to live. You've worked hard to get to retirement age, now it's time to do literally nothing.

Which seems like a tacit admission that your life has been a waste. I've worked hard so that I can hate everything around me!

[Kory]

Ugh, sorry 'bout that. I don't think I truly appreciate the fact that my family is either social democrats or what we call Red Tories (conservatives with a social conscience). One of my brothers-in-law, ex-military, is the most conservative but in his retirement has been moving steadily leftward, both because of the state of the right these days but also seriously listening to his children's opinions on race and sexuality. He has a hard time fully understanding systemic oppression, but it's not for lack of trying. I quite admire him for his sincere effort to consider these things. So easy to just quit thinking and challenging yourself when you hit retirement.

My dad is an excellent example of this. He just sits around at home and complains about Mexicans and pronouns and China instead of going into the world and getting his opinions through actual experience.

It's like the counter-point to the common perception that history started the moment you were born—everything else is irrelevant ancient crap—is that when you hit middle-age or retirement that history ceases. The thing that makes me saddest about people is a lack of curiosity. The world is a place of contradiction and strangeness—how can you not be curious?

Because it's way easier to just take at face value the claims from your news source that people who aren't like you are making it hard for you to live. You've worked hard to get to retirement age, now it's time to do literally nothing.

Which seems like a tacit admission that your life has been a waste. I've worked hard so that I can hate everything around me!

I suppose that's why they're so cranky all the damn time.

[Dr. Medulla]

My dad is an excellent example of this. He just sits around at home and complains about Mexicans and pronouns and China instead of going into the world and getting his opinions through actual experience.

It's like the counter-point to the common perception that history started the moment you were born—everything else is irrelevant ancient crap—is that when you hit middle-age or retirement that history ceases. The thing that makes me saddest about people is a lack of curiosity. The world is a place of contradiction and strangeness—how can you not be curious?

Because it's way easier to just take at face value the claims from your news source that people who aren't like you are making it hard for you to live. You've worked hard to get to retirement age, now it's time to do literally nothing.

Which seems like a tacit admission that your life has been a waste. I've worked hard so that I can hate everything around me!

I suppose that's why they're so cranky all the damn time.

If you want to be an armchair psychologist, yeah. I also lean to it being performative. That predictable anger is part of a shared identity—if you're not angry on command, you're out of the club. The older I get, the more I embrace what the Boss and I call the Belgian/Dutch shrug. My mother was Dutch and the mother of a good friend of ours was Belgian, and each had the habit of shrugging at stuff that they didn't embrace but were fine with what other people did. Some of my colleagues, for example, are annoyed by the pronoun thing, where people put in their email their preferred pronoun. Me, I can't be bothered to assert a gendered identity like that. Just nothing I give two shits about. I'll certainly respect other people's choices and use their preferred pronoun, but it's not something I need to announce. And nobody's forcing anybody to do so, but the irritation of supposedly leftist/liberal intellectuals is seriously eyerolling. We could all do with more shrugging.

[gkbill]

It's like the counter-point to the common perception that history started the moment you were born—everything else is irrelevant ancient crap—is that when you hit middle-age or retirement that history ceases. The thing that makes me saddest about people is a lack of curiosity. The world is a place of contradiction and strangeness—how can you not be curious?

Because it's way easier to just take at face value the claims from your news source that people who aren't like you are making it hard for you to live. You've worked hard to get to retirement age, now it's time to do literally nothing.

Which seems like a tacit admission that your life has been a waste. I've worked hard so that I can hate everything around me!

I suppose that's why they're so cranky all the damn time.

If you want to be an armchair psychologist, yeah. I also lean to it being performative. That predictable anger is part of a shared identity—if you're not angry on command, you're out of the club. The older I get, the more I embrace what the Boss and I call the Belgian/Dutch shrug. My mother was Dutch and the mother of a good friend of ours was Belgian, and each had the habit of shrugging at stuff that they didn't embrace but were fine with what other people did. Some of my colleagues, for example, are annoyed by the pronoun thing, where people put in their email their preferred pronoun. Me, I can't be bothered to assert a gendered identity like that. Just nothing I give two shits about. I'll certainly respect other people's choices and use their preferred pronoun, but it's not something I need to announce. And nobody's forcing anybody to do so, but the irritation of supposedly leftist/liberal intellectuals is seriously eyerolling. We could all do with more shrugging.

Hello,

Agreed on the shrugging.

[Low Down Low]

Have to say this Brazil election vote is almost unbearably, harrowingly close. I feared the worst when early results put the fascist ahead but Lula slowly eating into the lead and now, according to reports, edging very narrowly ahead. Lots of reports of voter suppression too, mainly Lula supporters being held up/prevented from reaching polling stations in certain areas. Really ugly and predictably nasty stuff.

[Dr. Medulla]

Have to say this Brazil election vote is almost unbearably, harrowingly close. I feared the worst when early results put the fascist ahead but Lula slowly eating into the lead and now, according to reports, edging very narrowly ahead. Lots of reports of voter suppression too, mainly Lula supporters being held up/prevented from reaching polling stations in certain areas. Really ugly and predictably nasty stuff.

The right all over have adopted as a principle that any election they lose is illegitimate. Which is to say, democracy is illegitimate. It's just a half step away from declaring elections unnecessary. The governing principle of liberal democracy is the idea of reciprocity, that losing an election doesn't mean that one's voice is completely silenced, that you're still in the game next time. They reject this entirely.

[Flex]

I think I saw Brazil's biggest newspaper has called it for Lula. Huge win for Brazil and the world.

[Low Down Low]

Have to say this Brazil election vote is almost unbearably, harrowingly close. I feared the worst when early results put the fascist ahead but Lula slowly eating into the lead and now, according to reports, edging very narrowly ahead. Lots of reports of voter suppression too, mainly Lula supporters being held up/prevented from reaching polling stations in certain areas. Really ugly and predictably nasty stuff.

The right all over have adopted as a principle that any election they lose is illegitimate. Which is to say, democracy is illegitimate. It's just a half step away from declaring elections unnecessary. The governing principle of liberal democracy is the idea of reciprocity, that losing an election doesn't mean that one's voice is completely silenced, that you're still in the game next time. They reject this entirely.

And they were the ones who literally stole an election by having Lula dispatched on trumped up charges of corruption. I enjoyed the fascist getting his comeuppance in Chile earlier this year, but this one, coming as it does with revenge served extra cold, feels even sweeter.

[Dr. Medulla]

Have to say this Brazil election vote is almost unbearably, harrowingly close. I feared the worst when early results put the fascist ahead but Lula slowly eating into the lead and now, according to reports, edging very narrowly ahead. Lots of reports of voter suppression too, mainly Lula supporters being held up/prevented from reaching polling stations in certain areas. Really ugly and predictably nasty stuff.

The right all over have adopted as a principle that any election they lose is illegitimate. Which is to say, democracy is illegitimate. It's just a half step away from declaring elections unnecessary. The governing principle of liberal democracy is the idea of reciprocity, that losing an election doesn't mean that one's voice is completely silenced, that you're still in the game next time. They reject this entirely.

And they were the ones who literally stole an election by having Lula dispatched on trumped up charges of corruption. I enjoyed the fascist getting his comeuppance in Chile earlier this year, but this one, coming as it does with revenge served extra cold, feels even sweeter.

The projection is always strong, from fake news/disinformation to stolen elections. Every accusation is an admission.

[Low Down Low]

Have to say this Brazil election vote is almost unbearably, harrowingly close. I feared the worst when early results put the fascist ahead but Lula slowly eating into the lead and now, according to reports, edging very narrowly ahead. Lots of reports of voter suppression too, mainly Lula supporters being held up/prevented from reaching polling stations in certain areas. Really ugly and predictably nasty stuff.

The right all over have adopted as a principle that any election they lose is illegitimate. Which is to say, democracy is illegitimate. It's just a half step away from declaring elections unnecessary. The governing principle of liberal democracy is the idea of reciprocity, that losing an election doesn't mean that one's voice is completely silenced, that you're still in the game next time. They reject this entirely.

And they were the ones who literally stole an election by having Lula dispatched on trumped up charges of corruption. I enjoyed the fascist getting his comeuppance in Chile earlier this year, but this one, coming as it does with revenge served extra cold, feels even sweeter.

The projection is always strong, from fake news/disinformation to stolen elections. Every accusation is an admission.

I've no doubt they'll be howling about this one for weeks/months/years to come, with trump dutifully sticking his fake news oar in, even as non-fake stories of Lula voter suppression begin to proliferate.

[Dr. Medulla]

Have to say this Brazil election vote is almost unbearably, harrowingly close. I feared the worst when early results put the fascist ahead but Lula slowly eating into the lead and now, according to reports, edging very narrowly ahead. Lots of reports of voter suppression too, mainly Lula supporters being held up/prevented from reaching polling stations in certain areas. Really ugly and predictably nasty stuff.

The right all over have adopted as a principle that any election they lose is illegitimate. Which is to say, democracy is illegitimate. It's just a half step away from declaring elections unnecessary. The governing principle of liberal democracy is the idea of reciprocity, that losing an election doesn't mean that one's voice is completely silenced, that you're still in the game next time. They reject this entirely.

And they were the ones who literally stole an election by having Lula dispatched on trumped up charges of corruption. I enjoyed the fascist getting his comeuppance in Chile earlier this year, but this one, coming as it does with revenge served extra cold, feels even sweeter.

The projection is always strong, from fake news/disinformation to stolen elections. Every accusation is an admission.

I've no doubt they'll be howling about this one for weeks/months/years to come, with trump dutifully sticking his fake news oar in, even as non-fake stories of Lula voter suppression begin to proliferate.

The question is whether Bolsonaro cedes power or ups the ante and refuses to go. That's the shit that we're not used to but fucking well have to.

[Low Down Low]

The right all over have adopted as a principle that any election they lose is illegitimate. Which is to say, democracy is illegitimate. It's just a half step away from declaring elections unnecessary. The governing principle of liberal democracy is the idea of reciprocity, that losing an election doesn't mean that one's voice is completely silenced, that you're still in the game next time. They reject this entirely.

And they were the ones who literally stole an election by having Lula dispatched on trumped up charges of corruption. I enjoyed the fascist getting his comeuppance in Chile earlier this year, but this one, coming as it does with revenge served extra cold, feels even sweeter.

The projection is always strong, from fake news/disinformation to stolen elections. Every accusation is an admission.

I've no doubt they'll be howling about this one for weeks/months/years to come, with trump dutifully sticking his fake news oar in, even as non-fake stories of Lula voter suppression begin to proliferate.

The question is whether Bolsonaro cedes power or ups the ante and refuses to go. That's the shit that we're not used to but fucking well have to.

Looking at the news, massive street parties underway in Rio and Sao Paulo, which is nominally a Bolsonaro city, so looks great but given how right wing the army and police are, you'd have to be concerned. For now, I'm just happy and relieved for the billions of Amazonian trees that will survive a while longer because of this vote!

[Silent Majority]

Let me say very, very carefully, while doing every superstitious action that means that I don't undo the sentiment: it's nice to see that good things can occasionally still happen.

[Dr. Medulla]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... -promotion

Good lord. There were a total of zero voices who thought to say, “Um, wait a second …”?

[Flex]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... -promotion

Good lord. There were a total of zero voices who thought to say, “Um, wait a second …”?

"The Colonel" in this case refers to Colonel Klink.