Ariana Grande

Yes.

Whether they want to admit it or not, that was the whole point - spite and making the people that make you feel insecure suffer out of spite.

It's a form of social regression that people in the Balkans like to sum up by saying "It's not important that I feel good. What's important is that the other person suffers."

Some people only feel 'successful' through their perceived 'position' in society.
They want to believe they are above others.
If you think like that, then pushing others down is a perfectly valid route to happiness - and far faster and easier than working on yourself would be.

Misery loves company, and making the population insecure such that they need to fragment into insular groups, creates an environment where conservatism and faith can spread, while the intellectual gains we've made throughout the information age are placed behind gates and degrade outside the walls. Trumpers were sold a path toward personal control, but it was clearly a bamboozle that affects us all, themselves being some of the hardest hit. We'll all suffer for the slide toward conservatism and ignorance, and the hierarchy will prosper for a little while longer.

We are in quite a pickle. Jumping on the pendulum, breaking out the pitchforks, and stringing up the other side would only further advance the very conditions that weaken the collective. We lose if we take the bait. We lose if we don't. Our best chance of success lies in resisting the push toward insularity and distributing quality information to all, against the torrent of propaganda from state-influenced media. Now, how the hell do we effectively distribute countervailing information to the population that needs it most (those drawn to faith-based argumentation)?

I know I'm preaching the obvious to the choir. Just a coffee ramble.

Too confrontarional, the people who should read it will stop after the first sentence.

The people this is written for will never see it.
That's why I think this type of social media posting here is a waste of time. It is just preaching to the choir.
I think people understand that social media platforms curate content for them specifically (" the algorithm" or "my algorithm") but absolutely fail to understand that this is true for other people.
This type of thing will not show up in the feed of desired audience.

Ariana didn’t write this. That Instagram person Matt did, and Ariana reposted it.

Matt Bernstein, he's also got a podcast called A Bit Fruity, which (imo) has some very good takes.
- Nah it was Matt Berenstain

Literally everybody is suffering and about to have a mental breakdown but some of them enjoy seeing other ppl suffer and that’s literally the only happiness in this land

Yeah. A comment that stuck with me is "the type that would happily eat shit just to make others smell their breath". These types will suffer just so they can hurt others. They're hateful as fuck

We've reached the point of idiocracy where everything needs to be read aloud.
- No, we haven't. Quit comparing everything to idiocracy; it was overly optimistic compared to reality.
  Our problem is not well-meaning stupid people. Our problem is malevolent smart people leading hateful stupid people.
- And then have Grok summarize and "flavour" it.
- They still wouldn't understand.
- With gameplay footage of some mobile game in the bottom half
~~read~~ empathize
That's truly what they're unable to do: consider others. They don't know how it feels to be not-them, and they don't care.

The "others" suffering was payment enough for many.

Yes. They are happier.

They aren’t interested in making life better for anyone. They want it shittier for everyone else rather than actually improve themselves so they don’t have exert any effort or make sacrifices. The suffering they do get from trump’s policies is unexpected or “worth it” to fuck over everyone else.

Exactly, it doesn't matter if Trump's administration makes life worse for MAGA supporters. He could make their lives a living hell for all they care, arguably they're already there. His supporters just want to see people they don't like get hurt. That's it, they want to witness cruelty. Any conservative who didn't jump off MAGA band wagon a long time ago has fully drank the cool-aid.
Think if they win, they manage to get into some sort space exploration, meet others. The first others they'd meet would laugh and subjucate Earth at best, destroy Earth at worst. That attitude isn't tolerant with a big technology difference. Mean maybe they win the lottery and become the Cardassians from Star Trek or something, but doubtful. In the end there's no upside to the hate, they'll just be as miserable as they were with fewer people to blame it on. Maybe we need to teach mindful meditation to everyone you do get some perspective from that.
No, they're not. Sure there's a core audience of people who just want others to suffer, but Trump's approval rating is dropping. There are plenty of people out there that feel cheated.
Not that that'll change anything.
- These are not people locked in a North Korean prison, or Russian Gulag. They are not invalids or mentally crippled. The very few that are stuck in old folks homes where they have no say over the tv do not equal half the voting public.
  These are adults with access to the same information you have. They own homes and businesses, they have college educations, and they choose the channels they watch/listen. It's been a decade since Trump was first elected, and in that time they have also elected and re-elected just an insane number of pedophiles and straight up grifters whose only sales pitch has been that they will make minorities and the people who like them, suffer. The all heard Trump praise Nazis, and declare that he wants to be king, and they didn't blink an eye. However, they were also the ones to loose their fucking minds because Obama wore a brown suit, so they obviously have not only the ability, but the desire to raise their voices against the government.
  Stop condescending to Republicans. I know it pains you to think that Nana has a hateful side and would prefer not to have to drink from the same water fountains as those "darkies", but as much as she loves you, she also hates someone else. She hates them enough to turn your future and all the generations that follow over to fascists who might just murder or enslave them. Even more importantly, she will do it again.
- I don’t think their approval of trump is the same as their happiness level. They could think trump is stupid on whatever hotbutton issue there is, like social security, but be glad the “illegals” are being rounded up, the military is being sent to liberal cities, and the tariffs are “hurting” other countries.

This is not how some Trump voters I know think at all; it's not how they think of Trump. Bring up any of these points and they'd think you're totally paranoid.

I witnessed a group of old guys watching the movie 'One Battle After Another' scratch their heads and have literally, honestly no idea what it was about.

It's because they're in the habit of watching Fox News or other 'old' media. Trump's just some Republican like they've always voted for with a bunch of hysterical finger pointers, and any Democrat is basically Jimmy Carter or Hillary Clinton.

That's only a portion of Trump voters though. There are a lot of younger voters with less ingrained brain washing that came recently from new media.
I honestly don't know what you do about the people you are speaking of. I have some in my extended family and there is no convincing them of things after 3 decades of programming. Even foundational knowledge isn't the same.
- Yeah at some point folks get too old to change. You can try to get them off Fox News at least, but it just depends. Sometimes you can't. Sometimes they really can't even learn a new kind of remote/cable or whatever.
  Younger folks are deep down the influencer rabbit hole, and I don't know what to do about that (other than pushing Fediverse) since Big Tech has such an iron grip on everything. I mean, the future is definitely cyberpunk.

That's a rational question. Unfortunately it won't get the desired result, because the target audience is not going to behave rationally:

The media that they consume is following the fascist playbook. They're telling the audience that if things are not better yet, then it's because there are others still left to blame, and the worse things get the harder those others are going to be blamed for it.
Even if someone moves past that propaganda, it's been ingrained into them that to accept being incorrect is to admit failure. They've been primed to dig in and double down, lest their peers see them as a failure, or even worse as others.

So many "My business is failing because of tariffs. Those dirty foreigners!" and then follow up with "Sure, I'd vote for him again! I support what he does."

I don't like Ariana's music, but I respect her as a person and she's very talented at what she does. Despite people constantly making fun of her.

I'll admit, I used to be in the anti-Ariana crowd after the whole donut thing surfaced. (Despite being a dumb teen when it happened who, despite not doing things similar, could understand the social pressure of doing it.) But every interview snippet I've seen with her has shown that she's got a good head on her shoulders and most importantly isn't afraid to tell people they're being a jackass on live television.
- I'll believe her and all these other wealthy philanthropists when they talk about tax reform. Everything else stems from that...
- I didn't like her because I thought she was fake because she seems to switch what race she wants to call herself every couple years. But then I realized a lot of people are fake, and it's hardly the worst character trait. The rest of her makes up for that as much as anyone.
- What was the donut thing?

Respect to her for being brave enough, as a public figure, and risking an endless torrent of backlash.

Grand Ariana Grande <3

They just want someone to suffer more than them

Omg, Matt Bernstein!

She licked that donut that one time and I haven't been able to let that go.

You lick one donut, you get ridiculed for life.
You rape a bunch of women and children while committing financial crimes, you become President of the United States
- Trump is still a million times worse, but she hasn't only liked donuts.
  She literally stole a married man from his pregnant wife. Like he's the cheater, but she's clearly okay with him not giving a fuck about a wife and kid.
  Once again, Trump and Ariana are nowhere near each other in evilness, but she's done more than lick some donuts.
- What?
I want a six pack of Ariana Grande licked donuts and after each one I’d be like thank u, next.
- I broke up with my girlfriend, she's bored, why she not coming over yet
- Username checks out.
omg, that's gross. where?
- What's funny is that if you just search "licks donut" all of the results are of Ariana Grande, poor woman 😂
- I think it was some donut place in California.

I keep asking the conservatives in my life this. Thanos snap, all migrants are gone, how has your life improved? The only straight answer I've gotten was a creative use of math to show how much the US would save on benefits. Their proof relied on an omission from their source about who is going to lose benefits. The cost of enforcement, detention and removal was outside the bounds of the original question.

Thats not even including the tax revenue that's lost since many pay income tax (with no representation or access to benefits) essentially propping the system up, in part, for everyone else. I assume they think they can make up the difference on tariffs (nevermind much of that cost is passed on to ordinary Americans)
When the Ottomans took over Constantinople and the Eastern Roman Empire fell, they began charging steep taxes on goods travelling from East to West. The Portugese, not content with paying the tax, launched maritime expeditions to reach India and managed to find a direct route from Europe to India going around Africa's Cape of Good Hope. This was the start of the Age of Discovery. Spain commissioned Columbus with the same goal and.. well we all know where he ended up.
The point being when you charge an egregious tax or tariff people find a way around you rather than going through you. America is likely assuming its in such advantaged position globally that it can get away with it, but history shows that no nation / kingdom can survive alone and when you try to fleece people, they will find a way to exclude you.
- The Portugese, not content with paying the tax, launched maritime expeditions to reach India and managed to find a direct route from Europe to India going around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.
  It's worth adding that the Portuguese then took advantage of their stoutly-built, cannon-armed ships to loot and annihilate the existing shipborne traffic in the Indian Ocean. "Age of the Protection Racket" would be a better term than "Age of Discovery".
- when you try to fleece people, they will find a way to exclude you.
  Ancap/libertarian types like to pitch that as a point for their world view. Still pretty much all the ones I know IRL and online all still voted for Trump. DOGE was a major gift for them too as it was a way to import ancap president Javier Melei's ideas from Argentina to the US. Bit ironic how they've switched to pretending they never liked it or that Trump is a lesser evil.
The only straight answer I've gotten was a creative use of math to show how much the US would save on benefits.
And let me guess: that doesn't consider the increase in expenses going towards funding ICE...
Thanos snap, all migrants are gone, how has your life improved?
Reminds me

You know what, unfortunately for some in the target demographic the answer is yes. Those who capitulated and got jobs as ice agents got a huge sign on bonus and livable salary. Bribed to terrorize

Of course the answer is yes. They want the suffering. Everything else was just an excuse. They voted for the suffering of others, got the suffering of others, and are happy. Even if the price of groceries, gas, and everything else is higher, they don't mind because they got what they really wanted.

So what are you waiting for?

You got what you asked for!

Well they are happier. The suffering makes them happier.

I'm going to pull this since it's not an archived link to Ariana Grande directly. Send me the link and I'll put it back up.

Edit: She shared a makeup artist's post, here is an article about it.

Was... Was that one question?

What an impactful post though. Or at least it is for the people that aren't its target audience. 😬

Bull. Prices are soaring directly because of tariffs. It would be better under anyone who knew about Smoot Hawley.
Instead of having job security and working with a few H1B visa holders, now my entire division is apparently being moved to Bangalore. I definitely feel like I'm winning now.