Shit, that’s a good one.

I think that’s true for some MAGAs, but the QAnons have invested deeply in the child-trafficking conspiracy. I think if he created a narrative of, “Yes, I’m on the client list, but it was a double agent for the deep state,” they would swallow it (most of them already believe some version of that), but telling them that their is no conspiracy and they need to move on will not go over well. (Of course, claiming to be an Epstien double-agent is gonna make him look crazy to anyone not Q-pilled, so he can’t do that).

Oh, that’s the tip if the iceberg. There’s one comic where he smashes up the city’s slums because he finds out the government will replace them with nicer, rent-subsidized apartments. There’s another where he traps a mine owner and all of his rich friends in a cave-in because of unsafe working conditions. Then there was the time he decided to take on traffic safety by smashing cars until the mayor promised to start enforcing traffic violations. Old-school Superman was one of those violent, radical-leftists the conservatives are so scared of.

Superman as an immigrant’s story is one of the oldest and most obvious analyses of the character. It’s barely even subtext; it’s just text. Imagine how he’ll react when he finds out Superman was originally a New Deal socialist who went around smashing up corrupt capitalists’ businesses for safety violations.

I mean, he’s not pulling that out of his ass entirely. The prosecutor who gave Epstien a slap on the wrist in 2007 claimed he only let him off easy because he was told Epstien, “belonged to intelligence.” That may be entirely bullshit, or it may he that the intelligence got wind of his sex-trafficking and offered to keep him out of prison if he set up a few honeypots. I would guess that it’s at least partially true, since the authorities seem to he withholding a lot of information from the public, but in any case, there’s no way he was a CIA agent or, “Patriot.”

Trump really painted himself into a corner by promising the QAnons all of the dirt on Epstien, and I’m very curious to see if a narrative like this can dig him out. They’ll usually twist reality into knots to keep their narrative alive, but, “Epstien was a white hat,” might he a bridge too far, even for them.

Also worth pointing out that, while America may be 249 years old, no one would consider it an empire for the majority of that time. Its debatable, but I would argue we didn’t really reach an empirical level of power until the late 40s, when we started taking over what was left of the British Empire’s influence over the middle-eas5.

This could be great for progressives. A lot of voters don’t pay attention during primaries and only vote for Democrats because they’re ostensibly left-wing. I can’t see someone like Elissa Slotkin having any viability when she’s not camping on the de facto progressive space.

Then again, have you seen reality?

He meant expensive.

Well, I wasn’t even thinking about that, but now I’ve got a whole new thing to be self-conscious about.

People are right in saying it’s context and consent, and it’s not completely gendered. Men’s swimsuits are basically just boxer shorts. Normally I’m not self-conscious about that, but a few months ago I signed up for a toddler swimming class with my son where I wound up being the only Dad, and suddenly I felt a bit exposed. I think the normalcy of walking around in nothing but a small pair of shorts kinda evaporated once I was the only man in the room.

We’ve just held one of the largest protests in American history, dozens of citizens have put themselves in danger to try to stop masked ICE thugs from abducting their neighbors, the city of LA is still under occupation by the marines, and four politicians have been arrested for opposing the regime, but yeah, we weren’t able to change tariff policy, so we’re barely doing shit. I mean, the tariff policy did change multiple times because of public outcry, but still, great point dude. Here I thought you were just too stubborn to admit you didn’t know shit about Maine or its governor when you made the meme, but now I see how deep and insightful you really are.

Right, I’m not objecting to the drop in tourism. That’s completely justified and understandable. I wouldn’t come here either. But the meme is singling out a blue state whose governor is actively fighting back. If they were mocking a right-wing freak like Ron DeSantis whining because Florida tourism was tanking, I’d be on board. Hell, if it was mocking the United States as a whole I’d say we collectively had it coming. But to mock one of Trump’s enemies who’s getting fucked by Trump’s decisions is dumb.

I mean, Trump illegally froze Maine’s funding because it’s a blue state and Mills wouldn’t sell out trans kids, but if you want to be super reductive, sure, fuck 'em I guess. Fuck all those protesters getting their shit kicked in by the LAPD for opposing ICE too, I suppose. That’s what you get for living in the wrong country!

To be fair, Janet Mills is a Democrat and Maine is a mostly left-leaning state. If this headline were about their Republican Senator Susan Collins, fair enough, but Maine is currently being sued because Mills stood up to Trump.

I mean, I feel like that one has some cascading effects that really fucked things up for pretty much everyone on the planet, so if you ever find yourself hurled back in time, you might consider it.

Alright, I’ve been curious how hard you’d try to get the last word, but now I’m bored. Go ahead and take it. It’ll feel like you won something.

…Obviously not the argument, you clearly lost that, but it’ll feel like something.

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