I would agree with you maybe 10 years ago but I think that the empire being in such decline and leading us to the worst candidates back to back to back it’s really hard for me to believe that third parties are to blame for the spoiler effect. Taking third parties off the ballot most likely wouldn’t have the effect that people put on them because everyone has an opinion on the two candidates more than ever.

Without looking at any statistics or polling, I think the spoiler effect is not as prominent and is over stated for one reason.

If I’m going out of my way to not vote for the Democrats or Republicans and voting third party that would mean that I dislike my options so much that I’m giving a fuck you to the two party system.

What people can gather from this is if you said there was only two options I would just sit out and therefore it wasn’t going to affect either candidate regardless.

I’m open to be convinced otherwise but I think candidates blaming spoilers should look at the electoral college and themselves when every 4 years they are ready to blame single digit candidates for their losses.

It was good fan service and kept my attention, 8 out of 10 because they did their homework and wrote in characters well enough while giving wolverine a reason to come back.

Debates dont matter and neither do you. Go get lost in the woods like when you did your walk of a shame after your 2nd failed attempt at becoming president.

It’s interesting because it was after my time but hindsight kind of showed he was right in principal but wasn’t a great statesman and couldn’t do the political calculations behind the scenes to rally his own party much less unit both sides.

I vaguely know about Ollie North and how the hostage situation before his second election run sabotaged his campaign but that seems to be more a nail in the coffin rather than the only reason for his failure.

Spices and the bic/rockets. Spices for trading and light to light alone is going to help barter and survive but the rockets for defence

It’s honestly what makes conservatives hate people on the left. The smugness that leads people to run back to their tribe and never having the ability to reaccess a believe because the second you do you have people like the poster above ready to do a victory lap and not accept someone that was able to get out of a circular thinking loop.

It’s on both sides. I’ve had to look at specific believes that in practice didn’t pan out the way I thought and if mentioned it to my friends group they would call me a far right shill or whatever bullshit term is being used right now.

There is little room for nuance and having a conversation that’s not surface level black and white opens you up for slander at times.

Not an expert on this at all but I feel like it’s less of “the human race is going to die out” vs the owner class needs cheap labor and bodies for war to continue infinite growth.

My running theory is in the United States, Republican’s obsession with abortion is tied to the fact they need poor and broken families to pump out kids for future cheap labor and the prison industrial complex to make a nation function moving forward. That and the gray sunami of a upside down pyramid with not enough young to take care of the older generations (I think Japan and China are experiencing this currently).

I would have to say Elden Ring. Just walking out to see limgrave and all of it’s glory and the pure joy of a non linear souls like with exploration I’ve never experienced before made this a top 5 best game ever.

I played it on PlayStation 4 and quite honestly it felt great with the trackpad and the placement of the sticks where I could really feel responsive with my movement in PVP.

Playing new game is fun but man I would pay to have a brain injury to forget everything about Elden Ring just to experience it for the first time.

S10e has been better than it should be. I don’t want to find a replacement.

He is senile. That doesn’t mean I don’t like his administrations policies and that doesn’t take away that he has done more for a progressive agenda than what was expected.

He’s on the same path as Regan was with his age, the difference is social media wasn’t a thing so they could hide Regan easier.

That’s a deeper question and not what I was talking about but as a fake populist? Yeah, in the eyes of his base. He’s really good at messaging and straight up lying about being pro worker and for the people.

I feel the current administration has done tangible things policy wise to help people but the Democrats don’t know how to take a victory lap when they accomplish these achievements.

I think the general population, indicated by recent polls, think Biden is too old and not up to do a second term. They want anybody else to run against Trump.

the issue is you are thinking I’m cheerleading Trump and that’s not my intention. Im pointing out that there is voting block that is ready to sit out over the lack of enthusiasm for Biden and hatred for the political institutions that haven’t helped the average voter over the years.

It’s how Trump got elected in the first place.

I hope others feel the same as you but I’ve lost faith in the electorial college and the two parties a long time ago.

Oh for sure. Trump is high as balls on uppers and a cocktail of meds to have him bounce off the wall at rallys, I just wish Trump would let Biden take a hit off of whatever he’s using.

I think it’s about optics and looking at Biden on stage wandering around and falling down stairs/over his own words vs Trump who’s shitting on all of his opponents and captivating his base it’s resonating with a base that’s fed up.

I think Biden policy wise is a lot better than any president we have had in recent memory (chips act, leaving Afghanistan, covid relief, cares act, TRYING to get student debt relief) but the general population in today’s age needs to have a politician message to them what their party is actually doing for them and Biden and his admin of fail on that level so often.

I’m not playing down the seriousness of Trump’s actions. I’m just making the case that even with Trump on trial right now he’s leading in polls because Biden is so out of touch with what the base needs right now. It’s so bad that other prominent Democrats are calling out their own party and asking Biden to step down because they see it’s a liability.

My point is independents see both parties and candidates and the party in power are making it so Biden, who is unpopular, is the default to the point they are taking away Iowa’s first super Tuesday as a primary state.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/01/us/politics/biden-dnc-primary-south-carolina-2024.html

The reason why is they don’t want any potential primary candidate to work up the ranks, which is undemocratic.

The problem here is you are voting because you are afraid of a Trump second term rather than voting for a candidate that is qualified for the position.

If you are more of an independent and look at a crazy person on one side and a senile sun downing person on the other the choice is more of a 50 50.

The Democrats are playing with fire and doing undemocratic plays to keep viable candidates out of the race and hide a compromised Biden instead of having an open primary and that might cost all of regardless of who actually wins.