Which planet is this on? I’m not familiar with any “civilized” countries on this one.

Interesting that the nations that touted popular representation as an aspect of enlightenment also deprived other nations of it for so long.

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It seems like ordinary citizens can nominate local delegates that are then screened by a commission run by the party. The elected (party approved) delegates then vote on policy. This system can certainly give an illusion of democracy but ultimately the party is curating all political discourse by only allowing for party approved delegates to become electable in addition to exerting absolute control over local media.

In more ideal circumstances, delegates would not be screened for party loyalty, such that if other (less ruling party favorable) perspectives became popular, a new coalition could eventually accumulate the political power to form an opposition party to the ruling one.

In other words, I think we should be skeptical towards the notion that a one party state can be ‘democratic’.

Cuba is more democratic than the US? By what metric? It has been a one party state since 1959.

Edit: Just read a little history and shame on the US for trying to turn entire nations and their peoples into their vassals. Colonialism never ended, it just got rebranded and communism/socialism has been the only way for people to take power back, particularly when the (predominantly Western) gaze of extractionary greed, dehumanization and exploitation is upon them.

I think the broader point is that if he were to kick the bucket it would be a major oppurunity to divide his movement. Celebrating his death would just galvanize and unify them more. With a little discipline the seeds of doubt could be sown among them so that the nation can be realigned back on the right path.

Even if MAGA were divided into just two factions they would lose substantial power. If he were to pass away, the people and media would need to unify and slam on the Epstein files hard, since that seems to be the most divisive issue in the group and he would not be alive to block it. If posthumously the truth comes out about his misdeeds, MAGA would be divided and lost.

This is an opportunity that cannot be looked over. If and when his advanced age gets to him, the temperature needs to be increased and pressure needs to be put on his syncophants (some of whom wanted these files released previously) to make those files public.

Some are diminishing your point but I think ultimately this is a cult of personality without an heir apparent. When he came down that golden escalator 10 years ago, racists saw themselves in him and said that’s my guy. No one else in the party has the right mix of grade 4 level rhetoric and what I would call “bemusing hatred” to capture their imaginations so effectively.

Vance, Miller et al. have the hatred but they’re too educated / academic. Others may be able to lower the reading level of their rhetoric but no one really has that bemusement factor. Those that support him want to have a chuckle while reveling in hatred. It gives them that extra little dopamine hit.

Tranaitions of power are always points of vulnerability. It would be an historic mistake to let that moment pass under the assumption that MAGA is too organized or united to be affected by the passing of the man that started the movement.

Reading OPs post and the responses… What even is sex? Are we just rubbing genitals and hoping both parties get off without paying attention to each other?

Even casual sex requires synchrony, alignment, flow, attentiveness etc. That’s part of what makes it enjoyable. Climaxing is the outcome of the connection made, however temporary, by that synchrony and alignment.

Treating sex like a race to the climax will only make you worse at it over time. Depriving it of initimacy and spirituality will make it so that you need to chase more and more physical stimulation to make it pleasurable.

The process is as important as the outcome (moreso even). Focus on that process if you want to make the experience better for you and your partner.

Muscular Christianity (its real, look it up) is the basis of all modern toxic masculinity.

This is a tough one without further context. Were you making diligent efforts to reciprocate pleasure and they gave even though you felt you were making inroads? Did you make it clear that you wanted to get them off without the vibrator and they were open to that but it wasn’t working?

I think the way you felt is fair. I think attentive partners want to reciprocate pleasure and ideally do it with just their presence if the situation allows. I wonder how they would have responded if you said you wanted to try without it or if they felt there would be deeper meaning (rather than pure hedonism) to not using the vibrator.

Yes we can have a granular system but then do we acknowledge:

1. Saudi Arabia has made more progress in the right direction (though dictator driven) while the US has elected a rapist, pedophile trafficker of girls who is keen on undoing progress on woman’s rights. One who was elected by millions of voters which suggests that many agree with his worldview.

2. That neither country respects women, even if one has developed more protections overall.

3. Whether your god is Capitalism or a religious deity, women are seen as having less value (monerarily or spiritually).

Please don’t oversimplify my efforts to bring nuance to this discussion. Making a simple ‘Saudi Arabia is worse than the US’ statement without appropriate context opens the door to two inhumane outcomes that I cannot tolerate.

1. The dehumanization of people in Saudi Arabia for having perceivably less progressive values. We can disagree with people and their value system without forgetting their humanity. Unfortunately such arguments were used during the colonial era by Western powers to justify inumerable immoral acts.

2. The dismissal of challenges faced by women in the US because women in other nations ‘have it worse’.

So while I firmly believe both countries are in the category of ‘Needs Improvement’ I am wary of reductive arguments being used to materially worsen conditions for women both here and there.

Americas protection of free speech is tenuous now that’s for sure. But surely there’s a difference between being cancelled and being murdered and chopped into pieces. Right?

At a Yellow Springs (Ohio) village‑council meeting in December 2021 he warned the council that he would pull his multi‑million‑dollar investment—plans for a restaurant and a comedy club—if they approved a zoning change that would allow new duplexes, townhouses and a parcel set aside for affordable housing. He said

“I’ve invested millions of dollars in this town. If you push this thing through, what I’m investing in is no longer applicable… I am not bluffing. I will take it all off the table.

“I cannot believe you would make me audition for you. You look like clowns… I will take it all off the table.”

His main complaint was that the affordable‑housing would sit right next to the site he intended to develop for his restaurant and comedy club which would affect their commercial viability.

The village council ultimately scrapped the affordable housing plan.

https://slate.com/business/2022/02/dave-chappelle-affordable-housing-ohio-yellow-springs.html

Counterpoint: If America gave a fuck about women it

1. Wouldn’t have bought oil from a repressive regime that suppressed woman’s rights for decades and continues to do so.

2. Elected a pedophile rapist who engaged in the trafficking of girls.

3. Mourned and idolized a man who spread a religiously driven message that women should submit to men.

Unless you’re saying supporting either nation implies a lack of support for women. Which would be an undoubtedly reasonable position.

Depends on his intonation. It can come across as complimentary depending on which word he emphasized.

Say what you will about repression of free speech in Saudi Arabia (and there is a lot that can be said), at least with a contract you know where the line is. The royal family knows they’re not proponents of free speech.

America is in that awkward teenage phase of not knowing who they are right now, leaving a lot of ambiguity around free speech.

I appreciate Saudi Arabia’s clarity. Even if they are objectively wrong. America just seems self-righteously confused, if such a state even exists.

The dominant worldview, as reinforced by American culture, is that everything (even our values) can be measured in dollars. All we can do is withhold our financial support from these performers.

I don’t think we should be suprised that America produces people without moral conviction. This is the nation that made Saudi Arabia wealthy by helping it develop its oil reserves followed by oil purchases from the kingdom for decades.

Trump wants to devalue the dollar to make the US more export competitive. He looks at China’s mercantilism with envy.

Declining birth rates are a challenge under socialists systems also if you have a population skew towards the elderly. If 60% of the population is retired and now heavily utilizing a universal healthcare system, how is that being paid for? Ideally some of their tax income would have been saved for their healthcare needs later in life but that rarely happens.

We are all hamsters, running perpetually in cycles of production and consumption, inching ever closer towards demise.

Science is powerful but, as you’ve stated, balance is most critical. It was one of the most impactful biologists of the modern era that wrote “the civilised races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace throughout the world the savage races” based on his theory of natural selection.

As you can imagine, statements like these were used to justify the Atlantic slave trade, the genocide of indigineous people ie. “manifest destiny” and other colonial era horrors.

One should not treat science or the words of scientists as absolute truth. Unfortunately it is not free from human greed or corruption.