Your argument is the same one cops use to justify “bad apples”: it’s not all of us, it’s only some of us.

Before any religion starts preaching to their neighbors or “sharing the faith,” y’all need to get your own folks in order. You may not demonize LGBTQ+ people, or want to ban abortion, or force others to live under the same tenets as you, but those who wear your cross and share your God do.

So all I can and should do is help to show it’s real by the way I live my life, demonstrating love for all mankind, and hope they get the idea. If that much is problematic, I think we’ve got issues.

I would argue we definitely have issues. You will not change my mind, but religion has done significantly more harm across history, particularly Christianity, than any amount of Christian do-gooding will ever be able to undo. Millions across history have suffered, been enslaved, had their rights taken away, been tortured, and killed at the hands of “Christians,” and that includes the modern day. Christian groups are the ones helping to spread HIV/AIDS across Africa because god forbid anyone use a condom, Christians are the ones pushing for abortion bans, and Christians are the ones trying to pull the US into an authoritarian theocracy.

So if you don’t want to be associated with the ills of Christianity, you may want to reconsider, in my opinion, what benefit God provides to mankind. Because from where I’m sitting, it’s literally zero. The world would be a much better place without religion, and you shouldn’t need the promise of an eternal paradise and eternal salvation to, as you put it, “demonstrating love for all mankind.” If you can’t live that way without “God” telling you, then you’re exactly the problem with Christianity.

I mean… I give a fuck, the intention behind the action is just as important as the action itself.

You argue we should be grateful because a company is participating in rainbow capitalism, and that makes people feel accepted and happy. Fair enough. But if Home Depot spends the other 11 months of the year donating to organizations and political groups that are actively trying to take away the rights of LGBT+ folks…

How is that a win for anyone? Like, are we supposed to jump up and down with joy because a company decided our money was worth accepting for a brief period of time? We’re allowed to exist for one month because it results in a profit increase for a company that actively hates who we are the rest of the year?

In what world does that make sense? “We hate you and want you back in the closet, but we threw a rainbow on this shovel, BUY IT OR YOU HATE LGBT PEOPLE. Cool, now go back in the closet, we’ve got what we wanted out of you.”

It’s patronizing at best, and insulting at worst. You liken it to a vaccine, which is a bad example since, famously, vaccines like Polio were released without a patent to help ensure their widespread use across the globe.

To me, it’s more like “Why are you complaining that this restaurant spits in your sandwich every day? They didn’t spit in it today because it’s Pride, so why aren’t you happy about it?” Because I know in 30 days they’re going to spit in my sandwich again, and they’re only not doing it now because of optics and wanting more money.

My mom has no sense of smell, I believe it was from a polyp surgery where the surgeon nicked something during the operation. We couldn’t have any gas powered appliances growing up because she wouldn’t be able to smell a leak if there was one.

Plenty of reasons beyond COVID for why someone may not be able to smell.

From high middle-high school timeframe, probably The Yellow Wallpaper, I just think about that one at least a few times a year. And I only read it the one time in school.

The less well known one I remember from elementary school was My Brother Sam is Dead. It’s about a family during the American revolution, where the father just wants to stay out of all of it and live their lives, but the eldest son wants to join the revolution. The whole story is just the hardships the family has to go through after the son runs off with the only gun to fight and ends up dying, and how that affects the family and the youngest brother, who the story is told from the perspective of.

None of my friends remember My Brother Sam is Dead, but if I’m remembering right, the ending is kinda dark for a bunch of 3-5th graders.

Ehhh, people don’t take kindly to assertions regarding animals/pets. It’s not the same, but look how quickly everyone, including Republicans, turned on Kristi Noem after she doubled down on shooting her own dog.

Yeah, he’ll rile up some of his base in Ohio and they’ll start taking precautions to protect their animals, but the majority of pet owners aren’t going to buy this, and they’ll hopefully condemn him for not only the outright lies, but the xenophobia/racism embroiled with it.

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I use my own bag a lot of the time because my usual grocery store (ShopRite) doesn’t put out baskets anymore. I don’t want a cart or need a cart, I want a basket, but they’re never out anymore. Like, they’re just gone…

So either put the baskets back out, or accept we’re going to use our reusable bags as baskets. Granted, I flip mine upside down in front of the self checkout camera to show I’m not stealing, but ffs… Just put the baskets back. 😭

Ok, so then what was the plan? If the killing was a mercy, and was expedited by Germany losing the war, what was the plan for the 17 million collective people? Because I provided such a dismally low number of under one million in response to your comment saying the only reason the Nazis started killing more quickly was because they were losing. And those one million (more, since I’m sure my source didn’t count all deaths, only those who were Jewish) mattered to people, so they mean no less than the other 16 million killed later during the war.

I’m waiting, I’ve provided sources regardless of whether you respect them, you’ve provided nothing to back up any of your claims, so why don’t you refute my apparently unfounded claims of you being a holocaust denier?

Is that civil enough for a discussion with a holocaust denier, moderators? I’m glad we have to respect the opinions of holocaust deniers, god bless tolerating the intolerant. 🙄

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According to museumoftolerance.com and their Holocaust Timeline, Hitler said during a Reichstag speech in January 1939:

if war erupts it will mean the Vernichtung (extermination) of European Jews

So before the war even started, when these people were already surviving in the world, eating, etc, the Nazis and Hitler already knew feeding them would be a logistical problem best solved by death?

The Chelmno (Kulmhof) extermination camp began operations on December 8, 1941, literally one day after Pearl Harbor, far before Germany was “losing” the war. And camps don’t just pop up overnight, especially ones that earn the denomination of being an extermination camp, so was this just more logistical foresight on behalf of those oh so kind Nazi officials?

From the same source regarding the Kulmhof Extermination Camp opening:

340,000 Jews, 20,000 Poles and Czechs murdered by April 1943

Or the March 17, 1942 Entry:

Extermination begins in Belzec; by end of 1942 600,000 Jews murdered

Wow, the German 6th Armored didn’t surrender at Stalingrad until January 1943, and the Allies didn’t invade until June 1944, so that’s an awful lot of “mercy killing” happening before the Nazis knew they were going to lose the war.

And FYI, just because the Nazis didn’t begin their extermination campaign until after the war began, doesn’t mean their actions don’t signal what their intentions were from the start: Dachau opened in March 1933, Jewish Germans were barred from military service in 1935, Jewish doctors barred from practicing medicine in 1936, immigrant Jews having their German citizenship status revoked, the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, Kristallnacht in 1938… Like, you see all this, right?

Where do I need to start explaining stuff here?

I took it, had an army recruiter show up a year later and asked to speak with me. My mom said I had already enlisted, the guy goes, “Oh, we already got em?”

“No, the Navy did, he left for bootcamp last fall.”

Also had my recruiter step between the Navy MEPS guy and I to tell him to fuck off and find me a job I wanted. He would not let the nuke thing go, and my recruiters already knew I had no interest and backed my other job choices. 😂

When I was a carrier, I had a business road on my route, all the mailboxes were at the curb for every business. On two or three separate occasions, I’d get to the last box and it looked rougher than it did the previous day. Business owner came out and told me the box had been broken into again, along with several others on the road, and wanted to know what we could/would do about it.

I called my postmaster and explained and asked if USPIS would be getting involved (as the business owner also asked). I was told no, they don’t get involved in those sorts of things, the owner would just have to file a report with the police, and we’d stop delivering on Saturdays since none of the businesses would be open.

I never got a further explanation than that, so I couldn’t say why USPIS doesn’t get involved, but they don’t seem to anymore. 🤷‍♀️

Right? He kinda looks like Gru, with hair 😆

Or has a pet. I could see a cat doing that over time, and my recliner in my living room has a similar tear because it’s basically my dog’s chair/bed, and he does that digging-to-make-the-ground-comfortable thing before he lays down.

My dad worked for a private company that was a government contractor for almost 30 years before they were bought out by some international corporation.

I asked my dad if they used to have years where they didn’t turn a profit. “Oh absolutely, but we made up for it the next year, or they had money set aside, or…”

None of that happens anymore. Those chickens, I guarantee, caught those diseases because of the practices put in place by the 4 or 5 companies that basically produce all of the poultry for this country. They made poor business decisions, they chose to pinch pennies and not put money aside for unexpected emergencies, they continued to pay out dividends and issue stock buy backs instead of creating an emergency fund like they tell us poors we need to do.

So no, I don’t care to imagine any of their costs, because if they were a legitimate business, they would have contingency plans in place beyond “jack the prices up as high as they’ll go and keep em there until it starts to hurt our wallets enough.” They would take the hit for fucking once instead of passing the cost along to those who can least bare it so they can maintain their lifestyle built on greed and stolen wages.

“High thoughts,” almost like shower thoughts, but driven by weed and, in my experience, learning an interesting fact or tidbit.

So they’re not a scientist and don’t have formal training in sounds or plants or animals, they learned a fact and got high and connected some dots, haha

Ok, then start issuing them social security numbers as soon as they’ve confirmed your pregnant so parents can start applying for and receiving benefits before the child is even born.

Not attacking you, but I hate this fucking argument about fetuses being people: if they’re people at the moment of conception, then they need to be treated as such. Conservatives can’t have it both ways, despite the fact I know in their minds they can.

On an unrelated note: I think it’s time we got rid of “under God” and “In God We Trust” from the pledge of allegiance and all of our currency. We’re not a Christian nation, I don’t believe in a God, and shouldn’t have to handle currency that goes against my lack of religious beliefs.

But half our country wants a Christian-Theocratic-Sharia-Law institution as our government, and I’d prefer they just fuck right off.

I used to eat at McDonald’s a LOT, and the main reason was you could get a large quarter pounder meal for under $10. Now it’s $12+, depending on where you go. I used to get a solid quarter pounder, now it’s a 50/50 chance the thing is so soaked in grease that it soaks through the cardboard and the bag, and the fries are 50/50 already luke warm.

But the innovation thing got me thinking: right before the pandemic, McDonald’s in the US was doing “Meals from around the world,” and it was basically McDonald’s items you could only get outside the US (I think they had a French one, definitely a Canadian one, I think Brazil, etc). They changed every couple months, and it was cool! You go to try something that you may not otherwise get to.

They also used to have a lot of them open 24/7 (as did a lot of businesses), and then the pandemic shut everything down and they stopped doing it. When I worked nights and would get out of a catering event at 2 am, I’d be able to swing by McDonald’s on the way home and I knew I was getting a decent meal. Now?

I’m lucky if when I order a large meal with a large drink, I actually get a large drink. Idk if this is happening all over, but I’d say 6/10 times now, I order a large meal and the cashier automatically puts in a medium drink. When I ask about it, they say they’ll let the people know up front, and then they don’t. And then I feel like a jackass for having to tell the people at the window my drink was supposed to be a large (I know they’re the same price, but if I ordered a large meal, why would I order a medium drink?), and they usually give me a look or an eye roll.

Whereas before the pandemic, I was once asked to pull up to the second window to wait for my food. I wanted 5 minutes, tops, and the manager brought me my food and gave me 2 free meal tickets for the inconvenience. I went last week and waited 10 minutes and the kid didn’t even confirm my order before basically dropping it through my car window and walking off.

I don’t blame the employees, even in my state McDonald’s wages are laughable, so who gives a fuck? But wtf happened to the corporation, where’s the care? It’s disappointing to see, not that I have sympathy for a billion dollar corporation.

The hallways one pisses me off to no extent. From the pig who killed him having “Get Fucked” or whatever it was engraved on his rifle, down to the very fact they responded with nothing but conflicting and confusing commands. He was told to crawl towards them but also keep his hands above his head, which is impossible to do, crawling requires hands and knees on the ground, shuffling only requires knees. Then, the clearly intoxicated and unarmed man crying and shuffling towards them has his pants keep falling down, and like any of us would do, instinctively kept pulling them back up. Instead of the pigs telling him to ignore his pants, y’know, to help alleviate some of the stress the poor guy is experiencing, they scream once at him to keep his hands up and then they open fire on him when he instinctively does it again. There’s one of him, and at least half a dozen fully armed and armored pigs, and pulling pants up was soooooooooooooo threatening to these pieces of shit who like to play dress up as soldiers, they riddled him with bullets and he got to bleed out on a carpet in a hotel hallway.

The report was a man brandishing a rifle in a hotel window, and at no point did they guy give any evidence he was packing a rifle or trying to be uncooperative with the pigs. And they killed him, because he didn’t want his pants to fall. Don’t worry though, the pig that killed him was medically retired due to PTSD from the event. I bet the victim sure wishes he could’ve medically retired from PTSD, but that privilege is only for pigs apparently.

The American people just spent 15 years watching Obamacare get gutted from what it originally was, minimum wage not increase at the federal level, the SCOTUS got 3 conservative judges appointed to it despite two being appointed against precedent, marijuana is still illegal at the federal level, Chevron Deference was just gutted, Roe v Wade was overturned and half this country lost bodily autonomy, the last two decades have seen the least productive congresses in our nation’s history yet the filibuster remains because “decorum/the Republicans might take advantage of it,” cops still have qualified immunity, millions of people don’t have health insurance or are food insecure or are homeless, school funding has been gutten, college tuition continues to skyrocket, trillions of dollars have been funneled from the poorest to the richest in this country for no other reason than greed while social welfare programs are being cut, the list goes on for a long time.

And all of this was done by “Republican obstruction,” which is fine, it’s a legitimate reason for things to happen or not happen. But after 15+ years, minimum, and this new generation of voters watching the Democrat Party hum and haw and wag their fingers at each other and Republicans while the American people get fucked more and more year after year…

It’s not a legitimate excuse anymore, and this whole Democrat shtick of “you have to vote for us because we’re not the Republicans” isn’t working anymore, people are fucking tired of it. I’m fucking tired of it, honestly. Republicans got TWO SCOTUS nominations because, at a minimum, one man in one position in the Senate refused to follow decorum. And the Democrats just twiddled their thumbs and said “humpty dee, nothing we can do, sorry, it’s the rules” 🤷‍♀️.

To get back to the minimum wage: Trump got funding for his stupid wall by taking money slotted for shit like schools for the DoD and such through a state of emergency, but Biden/the Democrats can’t do anything about the minimum wage? Or abortion? Or marijuana? Trump got his wall funding basically overnight, it seemed, but it took 3 years for the director of the DEA to reclassify marijuana because reasons?

Regardless of the reasoning behind it, whether its legitimate or not, people are sick of it. They’re sick of being told to pinch their nose and vote for the candidate they don’t even like because the “boogeyman” over there is gonna be much worse. But… How? They actually get shit done, and in ways that are apparently “illegal or against the rules” yet they have to remain as law/precedent because they still happened.

Bullshit. I’m as left/liberal/whatever you’re supposed to call it now as it gets. I’m a veteran who thinks the DoD budget needs to be gutted and that the US military is the largest and most successful socialism program in our country, I’m a trans woman, I’ve worked public service and private sector jobs, I’m registered and vote blue, and I’ll be honest, until Biden stepped down, I was seriously considering sitting out of this vote just because it was like, what’s the point?

The Democrats don’t care about what their constituents actually want (hence why they fucked Bernie over so badly, he wasn’t “establishment” enough for them despite his popularity) in a candidate, and they don’t pass legislation that actually benefits most of us. The biggest thing I’ve heard people rally behind is student loan forgiveness, which yes, the Democrats have achieved progress and victory on and been hampered by the Republicans, I’ll acknowledge that.

But notice that’s the only debt they’re willing to forgive because it impacts enough of their constituents to warrant it? I’ve yet to hear a single Democrat (but have heard one Republican) say credit card debt from during the Pandemic should be forgiven since so many were forced to use credit cards to pay rent, groceries, utilities, etc while they either couldn’t work or couldn’t. And when I bring it up to friends with student loans, fellow Democrats, I’m basically told, “Well, you need to wait your turn, they’ll get to that after the student loans.” Why the fuck can’t they do both?!? Why do the Democrats keep hindering progress so they can have a platform to run for reelection on, and God forbid they just accomplish a goal the American people actually want and then gasp actually have to come up with something else.

All this, everything above, the American people have to watch and listen to bullshit excuse after bullshit excuse day after fucking day while Congress ensures they still get their raises, they still have their health insurance, and they still only “work” like 32 weeks/year with all of their recesses and breaks and everything else, while the average American worker isn’t even guaranteed a livable wage, or even fucking vacation/sick time, or health insurance.

So no, I’m tired of the “BuT fOx NeWs” bullshit that the Democrats keep spitting. Regardless of their circumstances, Republicans continuously hit their goals and ensure their policies are enacted, regardless of the decorum or precedent surrounding any of it. And all of that boils down to what Jeff Daniels said as Will McAvoy on The Newsroom:

“If liberals are so fuckin’ smart, how come they lose so goddamn always?”

End rant/

Edit to OP’s Update:

Yeah, democracy is 100% on the line, so why are anonymous senior Democrats coming forward and saying “We’ve resigned ourselves to a second Trump presidency?” Because it doesn’t effect them, so why should they care??

And I’m sorry, but if the people we’re electing resign themselves to failure, why the fuck should we even try? Like, seriously, if our elected representatives have resigned themselves to fascism and are perfectly ok with it, then wtf am I supposed to do? Give them more money so maybe they’ll pretend to give a shit?

I understand what you’re saying, but the Democrats don’t get anything done. So after 30 years of getting fucking nothing from the party that keeps telling you the other guy is a fascist and you need to vote for them so they’ll do XYZ, and then they pretend to half ass just X and don’t even try to solve Y or Z, what’s the fucking point? At the least the fascists don’t bullshit, and at least the fascists get things done.

Democrat politicians act like they’re their constituents parents who know what’s actually best for them, and they’re fucking not. We brought them into their position, they need to fucking get things done for us and stop with the constant bullshit infighting and bullshit excuses. If Trump can get 3 Supreme Court Justices and fucking Presidential immunity, why the FUCK can’t Biden and the Democrats secure abortion/LGBTQ+/labor/etc rights into law? Why can’t they fucking do anything other than enrich themselves with insider trading?

Notice despite things getting harder for the majority of Americans, every politicians portfolio across the aisle still went up? Yet they’re telling us they understand things are hard, they’re trying their best. At least the fucking Republicans just tell you they’re gonna fuck you in the ass and how. The Democrats promise you dinner and then expect their cum down your throat to be sufficient, while expecting you to thank them for tapping your head before they cum.

I seriously hope this reinvigorated voting base convinces the DNC that the way things are going aren’t working, and that the DNC were a lot closer to becoming non-existent with this election than they felt comfortable. Because that’s how all of us minorities feel, but we don’t have golden fucking parachutes to catch us when shit continues to hit the fan because the Democrats care more about gobbling the balls of lobbyists than they do the people who fucking put them there in the first place.