I’d buy a T-shirt, just saying…if I don’t stumble into a good one in the next week or two I guess I’ll put it together myself.

That’s a consistent and reasonable take. Mob violence can be unpredictable and harmful to its own causes. I’m certainly willing to call it murder myself, while also being glad for it. And I condemn going after the person who called in the tip, for many reasons, but succinctly - that person cannot possibly bear enough responsibility for the state of things, even acknowledging the actions they sure didn’t have to take, to be an appropriate target of anything like what happened to Brian Thompson.

Well, I can understand your point of view without sharing it. As for the hostility, beyond most folks just following whatever up/downvoting they see taking place already, there’s a critical element here that shouldn’t be missed - the positive response has been largely bipartisan, which is rare and valuable. And not only is it bipartisan, it points out an important truth which any resident of this country would do well to keep in mind -

At this stage of the game, we might be a hair’s breadth from realizing that it hasn’t been Democrats vs. Republicans for a long time, it’s just all of us regular folks vs the abusive rich (+their enablers).

I’m reaching here, but if other people feel that way, I can imagine wanting to discourage anything that takes away from a sudden (much needed) feeling of unity.

Just to give one more take (without contributing any hostility, I hope!) - one way to look at it might be that you see this new development (Thompson’s murder and the nation’s “hell yeah!”) as the scary, dangerous step too far, whereas maybe many of us see the scary dangerous step(s) too far as having already happened (maybe long) in the past.

We’re in a really scary situation as a country, and that was almost exactly as true the day before Thompson’s murder as it is today. The significant events leading to our scary situation are a list of egregious misdeeds and manipulations by people in power, stretching back years - even if I take your premise that it’s wrong, this is just yet one more event (if a notable acceleration). I sincerely believe that a few more gray hoodies might actually send things back in the right direction and bring the owner class back to the negotiating table. As it stands (and ~equally true two weeks ago), the social contract in this country is in tatters. The rich get everything, everyone else - nothing, not even the healthcare we already frickin bought.

Laws are not virtuous by default, is it a moral judgment against killing itself here, or is the problem that it was not a legal act? Of course don’t let me reduce your position to one of my own two phrasings lol, but I am curious about the specific objection you have.

Damn. Another Adjustment made, may he never stop Adjusting.

Mine’s even slightly weirder - I’m trash at navigation in a car, on streets. Even if it’s somewhere I’ve been a bunch, once GPS became commonplace that part of my brain seems to have basically switched off or decayed somehow.

But outside, backpacking or even less demanding stuff, I have a great sense of direction. Plenty of successful solo trips, etc., very rarely feel turned around or confused. There’s probably a contribution caused by the differing level of effort, but it’s hard to put into words how my subconscious automatically provides a ton of help in the latter situation and zero in the former.

Very true, but kind of glosses over the gigantic accumulated suffering felt by those experiencing a civilizational / societal collapse.

Clever reversal bud, sure got me.

You’re defending a stranger who went hostile and attacked the poster of a meme in a place for memes. Spend your time however you like, I just can’t imagine how you or the original commenter I replied to are able to take the littlest stuff - posted to a JOKE community - and extrapolate out (AKA invent) a bunch of serious takes, and then disagree with those fictional takes. The OP posted almost nothing, to a meme community. What y’all are doing is Don Quixote stuff (or more accurately, straw man bullshit), but like I said, spend your time however you see fit.

Yeesh friend, kinda jumped down OP’s throat here, no? Seems pretty uncharitable to go from their posted meme to “this cartoonish fantasy world of yours”, and then take that even further.

I mean, OP never really described any kind of “world” at all, just expressed disappointment. So I mean.

…it’s kinda your cartoonish fantasy world, by definition, isn’t it? Whatever thing you’re imagining here? Weirdly hostile take.

Huh. Feels…due for* Adjustment.

My friend, you actually got me hahaha. I started out feeling like “ah fuck, here I am complaining about how things have gone for us, who am I to complain compared to this guy?” Well done lol

A few more of these and we’ll all really see how much we actually agree with one another, and how much the split and hate is manufactured.

I think they were also trying to keep folks who already had decent insurance plans, and there were definitely a bunch. Thinking of people in good careers who were also on the tail end of when employers treated employees better - there were a lot of people doing comparatively well who had (at least somewhat justifiable, we’re talking healthcare) concerns about the idea of single-provider.

(referring to the “if you like your plan, you can keep it” angle during ACA days)

That guy expects me to come pre-bundled with so much stuff ready for him to reference at will and at breakneck pace lol. I really enjoy him both as a truly odd duck and a weird and sometimes profoundly insightful thinker, but sheesh. I miss 60% or more sometimes, and he’s also quite prolific.

And so on, and so on (repetitive hand flourishes)

What a legend.

Ha, you’re right, and our countries are of course more closely linked than maybe I realize. Hope it didn’t sound like I was diminishing your struggles. Cheers and best wishes!

Well, I don’t really mean this as a positive per se, but it’s entirely possible the incoming administration tosses a few crumbs to keep things just simmering (while of course further dismantling everything of any real value). That’s been the playbook for the power brokers for some time. I didn’t mean there was some possibility there’d be any actual good. The incoming folks are essentially the most predatory version of that class of people, I’m under no illusions.

Edit to add: I tentatively reject the idea that your country is not far behind, respectfully. That’s my point. I am fairly sure the differences are bigger than you realize.

It’s been real popular to knock Americans around these parts for a while, I’ve noticed, and we certainly earn our share of it. But I get the sense Europeans don’t quite understand how bad things have gotten here and how truly cornered and out of options many of us feel. Folks are being squeezed past their breaking point.

Impossible to guess exactly when that’ll be true for enough people to cause something dramatic, but any populace has its limit and we seem to be approaching it. I really hope we start heading the other direction soon, but this incoming administration does not make that look likely.

Thompson managed kind of a spinning…well fall, as he fell, does The Adjustor get to incorporate that now?!