It's also established that's he's an accelerationist. He's intentionally baiting the Empire to crackdown more brutally on dissent in an effort to forment rebellion among the common people of the galaxy. He fears that if he does not do this, there will be a day when the Empires grip is too tight to escape.

"It will burn... Very brightly"

In the end, he was right. The Death Star vindicates his methods. Without Luthen laying the groundwork for the Rebel Alliance, the Galaxy would have been a boiling frog and the Death Star would have led to its brutal oppression for generations.

I do not mean to in anyway downplay how bad this is, or the danger this legislation presents to the American people, but I can't help but wonder how much is this budget increase is going to just be pure pork?

There is no doubt this agency will be riddled with corruption, much like the rest of this administration. How much of this budget will go towards lining the pockets of Republicans and their donors? Contractors who overcharge and under deliver. Leadership skimming from the top. Take a look at the state of the Russian Military for an idea for where this might go.

What do I need to hide about myself?

The Billionaires are a bunch of Degenerate Morons who diddle children, much as the ruling class has always been. They're funneling the world's wealth upwards thinking capital will insulate them from the coming climate crisis they're exasperating. How I wish I could be there when they realize that it won't.

Community organizers and vocal opposition are at the top of the list Palentir is making right now. Scrub your social media and start taking your data privacy seriously if you aren't already. Degoogle and take your opinions off Meta and Reddit at the very least.

They're going to test the waters by going after some brown protestors first, but the end game is all political opponents and uncontrolled opposition.

I think (and hope) that one key difference here is that the US is much more divided politically and culturally then Nazi Germany was. At least right now, there is no way the US declares a war of aggression against a former Ally and doesn't fall into Civil War. It will take a hell of a lot of internal suppression for that to change, the act of which will likely ignite the Civil War itself.

My hope is that the next few years will be less "What if the Nazi's controlled the most powerful nation in history?" and more "What if Francisco Franco controlled the most powerful nation is history?"

Europe and China likely have time to prepare, and they really fucking need to. If they're smart they're already covertly looking into ways to arm and fund internal opposition in America.

DS9 has always had edge. It's among the great works of Anti-Fascist media. Given the course history has taken since it aired, the show has aged like fine wine.

This made me look up the actual Predator code of Honor and I quote

"Unarmed and/or "innocent" beings may be hunted if they:

Are the specific objective of a hunt."

Sorry Op, you're still screwed.

Jaws is objectively the best choice anyway. Just drive inland.

Yep. And the most prominent fascist power that wasn't overthrown externally (Francoist Spain) lasted 40 years until it's demogogue died. The reason it wasn't a bigger problem for the world at large was that it was a politically isolated minor power.

The world hasn't yet seen something like an (openly) fascist modern USA.

No doubt something will go wrong. At all levels this administration is monstrously incompetent. They probably had Chatgpt plan the parade route.

The Fascism-to-Incontinence pipeline is real.

In general the entire series is mean-spirited. You can see the roots of Rowling's hate in how she describes any of the series antagonists.

Sort of, but it's more a comforting theory rather then a true belief. I came up with it when I was younger, doing a lot of psychedelics, and meditating often on the nature of existence and reality.

My theory is that God is everything. The earth, the stars, our fellow beings. All of reality makes up a complex web that I loosely refer to as a "consciousness" for lack of a better word. The nature of this "consciousness" is incomprehensible to us. It does not activly intervene in our daily lives, and operates on a scale beyond our comprehension. Mostly, it simply is. It is the oblivion from which our consciousness was once plucked, and it is where we will one day return.

In essence, each of us is a tiny fragment of reality experiencing itself. The meaning of life is to experience it. All of it. Joy, pleasure, and suffering. It is all a part of the whole of existence. When we die and return to the infinite our individuality is lost, but maybe God learns something about itself.

Even where there is viable public transport, there's a stigma against using it. The city I live in has a decent and cheap Metro system. It's reasonably clean, mostly runs on time, and you only have to deal with the occasional crazy. I took it for a summer after a car got totaled and it was fine.

Yet I work with a bunch of impoverished young people who spend $30-$40 on Ubers every day getting to work. I've suggested taking the bus to many of them, there's even a stop right outside our workplace, and they are always dismissive and disgusted by the idea.

Man this takes me back.

Encarta and Paint were where I spent most of my computer time as a younger teenager. The trivia games on Encarta were dope, I also spent a lot of time walking around the 3d castles and ancient ruins. And a lot of time in the ummm.... Art section. Learned a lot about myself from Venus of Urbino.

Used to waste time by painting giant graphic and bloody battle scenes between stick figures in paint. Did it pixel by pixel! Good times!

Humanity stands on the brink of self-destruction because we have yet to overcome the primitive, selfish aspects of our nature. I have to believe that any civilization advanced enough for interstellar travel—without having destroyed itself along the way—must have achieved a certain level of cooperative enlightenment.

Pressing the mustard stain on Steve's shirt to hear him say "Chicken Jockey" would be peak.

Man, I fucking wish.

"We have middle aged overweight man action figure at home"

At home "Harrier Du Bois action figure"

It took me a minute to realize that little emoji wasn't just a stain on his shirt, because honestly it fits.