Spyke
lemm.ee

Any man who must say, 'I am the king' is no true king

103

Loosely related topic but in the last few years I've noticed a uptick of people online prefacing a absolute horrible takes with "I'm xyz(entirely unverifiable)" or just some like "I'm very smart" then says something entirely idiotic.

13
Kusimulkkureply
lemm.ee

I don't think they need to go around claiming they're the king because their status isn't challenged.

3
Phoenixzreply
lemmy.ca

I'm going to regret asking but...

For example?

17

And don't forget the "ASMR" post from a day or two before that. Imagine if the whitehouse posted something like a thunderstorm and captioned it "ASMR: conservatives crying over bakeries making cakes for gay weddings." while Biden was in office.

2

1/3 of the population is freaking out and screaming, 1/3 is saying "hell yeah, brother", and a 1/3 is like "I thought egg prices were supposed to go down."

6
Schadrachreply
lemmy.sdf.org

No, it's not. Because it's not a tweet at all. Trump posted that on his own little unfederated modified Mastodon instance he calls Truth Social (seriously, it's built on Mastodon). Note the red check instead of blue and them being called "retruths" because he calls posts on his instance "truths."

It's an important distinction if ever you need to find the original source for any reason.

5

Thanks! I was already aware of that, but others might not be.

I used tweet in the generic sense because like hell I would ever say “Holy crap, that’s a real truth!”

3
lemmy.ca

"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest."

~ attributed to Denis Diderot

70
Sturgistreply
lemmy.ca

It's a lovely dream, but I'm pretty sure we'll just come up with a different title for the people who manipulate us.

18

Kings never really went away. Points to the entire British Commonwealth and the UK. Emperors neither. And let's not get started on priests...yeeeesh!

Are you talking about specifically the USA? Because you've kept your priests, and treat your Presidents like de-facto kings, their reigns may end but Presidents they remain.

6

This is another Trump special, really. There's no shortage of titles for the dictator, including just keeping "president", and he picked the one that's hardest to defend in terms of the American mythology.

4
aussie.zone

I was reading or watching some news story once and it was about these two blokes getting arrested for fucking farm animals. And it started a train of thought. How do two strangers meet who are into fucking farm animals? It isn't like it is socially acceptable. Its probably not on their dating profile. I get that if you are part of a comparatively common group experiencing social repression you learn ways to communicate. Even pedos. But animal fuckers? Are they that common?

Now call me autistic if you like but suddenly I realized some of the edgy race jokes I had laughed at when I was younger and dumber might have been actual racists looking to connect with other racists. The sexist and homophobic jokes might have been actual bigots. And the guys joking about fucking animals. Well most of those are just jokes because obviously nobody does that. But perhaps some of them are looking for a special friend because how else does that convo even get started without the plausible deniability of "a joke".

So now when I see a fascist dog fucker "joking" about their not meant to be serious fascist memes and symbols the illusion is broken for me. And when I see Presidents joking about being Kings or invading neighbors, it isn't my type of humor any more I guess.

68
flickerreply
lemmy.dbzer0.com

I'm an ADHD person and I had this exact same realization when I was younger.

I think maybe this isn't something neurotypicals ever figure out? Because they seem to be accepting of those "jokes" and it blows my mind.

13

They're well evolved to survive in social groups. Even if they suspect someone is recruiting for something terrible, the loss of social status and allies isn't worth confronting the recruiter. Even visibly suspecting it will harm social status. This is a feature, not a bug.

Historically, the kid who called out the emperor's new clothes was executed. Every time you started shit in your tribe, you risked being shunned, which meant death. If the whole tribe was crazy, you were better off being crazy too.

7

Who jokes about these things?

Exactly. Have you ever heard an elected president joke about being King or invading their peaceful neighbor? Ever? Anyone? Animal fuckers. Its the only thing that makes sense.

10
aussie.zone

At work we say "there's many ways to fuck a cat" implying you can do something different ways.

We also say "it's not my dog to fuck" when it's not your job

Or "I'm fucking the dog" or "they're fucking the dog" when someone is taking a stupid amount of time to do things.

2
lemmy.world

Pretty sure it was just really dumb, low IQ dudes, the no one else really liked, who got along and one decided to share or got caught fucking an animal, and since they newcomer was also a virgin, this didn't bother him as much as we would hope wh n he took his turn.

But dumb people get caught, so now we all know.

0

Yeah, but if those low IQ dudes wanted to overthrow democracy and they wanted to tell other low IQ dudes about it they could just shout it out real loud. The media will ignore it. Law enforcement will do nothing. The courts will do nothing. The public will do nothing.

How people have reacted doesnt make sense to me. Like the only reason people would "joke" about such shit is because they are really fucking serious about it. Its a declaration of intent being broadcast to like minded people.

When the president of the US "jokes" about being a king my reading is a constitutional crisis is more of a when than an if.

1

"long live the king", in the very country founded on saying fuck you to the last king. what a shameful display.

42
lemmy.ca

It is going very poorly here folks. There isn't any other way to say it, except to say it more accurately, which is that it is going about as badly as it has ever gone and seems on a trajectory for going as badly as it is possible to go.

41
CaptDustreply
sh.itjust.works

Charging cars a toll to incentivize alternative transport during peak hours.

93
lemmy.world

You think that turd has jurisdiction? They're also pretty tired of his shit in NY

6

I mean, don't they functionally own the mayor of NY? Like, wasn't there a whole interview where it was all but stated openly that if the NY mayor doesn't do what Trump wants he's going to be charged with crimes they have evidence of but are holding back on prosecution for?

1
ZJBlankreply
lemmy.world

As long as your transit options don’t suck dick. My last job was a 15 minute drive versus a 1.5 hour bus journey, and my current job starts at 4am with no bus service to the area between midnight and 6am.

2

Of course, NYC has the best mass transit system in the US so it works well there. I guess I misinterpreted your comment to mean congestion pricing will work everywhere, and took the oppourtunity to bitch about my city’s shite transit.

3
CaptDustreply
sh.itjust.works

New York can no longer enforce it under decree of trump. It mostly targeted Manhattan and his billionaire homies couldn't stand to pay $9.

68
Someonereply
lemmy.ca

If I was a rich guy I'd be all for it, less traffic for me to drive/be driven through.

48
seang96reply
spgrn.com

But $9! You could make that in less than a second if you were a rich guy!

21
lemmy.zip

Unexpected factorial

But if you could make $9 per second, you could make $9! per day

5
Cortreply
lemmy.world

More like Republicans in Jersey whined until they got their way.

35

lord diaper just wants to antagonize, anger, and hurt 'the libs' in any way he can.

18
lemmy.ca

Because god emperor king Christ almighty divine saviour of humanity and commander of the righteous and holy soldiers of maga forever and ever, amen, orange fascist.

18
lemmy.ml

The government is too big, why are we paying for healthcare, school, welfare and whatever else? It is unfair to those who don't use those services.

...oh, except roads and the military, everyone must pay for those.

It's amazing how many of these policies are posed as a simple fair rule (people should pay for what they want, not have the government decide where spending goes) but in actuality is just a convenient excuse for dismantling institutions that they personally don't like.

31
lemmy.ca

Constitution is terminated (just like he said he would)

Article I

Section 9 Powers Denied Congress
    Clause 8 Titles of Nobility and Foreign Emoluments

    No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.

https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI-S9-C8-4/ALDE_00013204/

5

Trump has been throughly wiping his ass with the constitution since the day he stepped into the whitehouse.

It's just meaningless paper until someone actually steps up and enforces it.

7
lemmy.world

Absolute monarchies tend to come to a very sticky end, as happened in England in the 17th century and France in the 18th.

20

Well, if they turn a portion of the population into true believers, deport/incarcerate/execute the CIS White remaining who oppose... Could get messy globally. The American Reich could easily be even more of a problem than Mr Niceguy Imperialist America. And that's saying something.

10

Unfortunately, there's never a shortage of people that will sign up to for power in exchange for a risk of dying horribly.

That's not even specific to monarchies, every autocracy runs on that principle.

4
LordCromreply
lemmy.world

Unfortunately, last time the people revolted, the gov only had muskets and heavy canons. This time around, the gov can assassinate you from high altitude with drones, missiles....and the gov forces have firepower that far exceeds what the population could fight against.

3
BillTonggreply
lemmy.world

Good point. The English civil war and the French revolution both went the way they did because the 'rebels' had armies which equalled or exceeded those of the government. Same with the other regicide that comes to mind, Nicholas II of Russia in 1918. So much depends on whether the military remains loyal.

3

Right.... How would you fight a military that has tanks, drones, fighter jets, Apache helicopters..... The people would have what? Handguns, non auto rifles? Maybe some have converted firearms to full auto.... It's still not enough to counter the modern army. Plus you need real intricate coordination, techs to fight the cyber war...... I can't even wrap my head around how normal people could organize enough to mount a real threat.

1
reddthat.com

At least it wasn't decided by a strange woman lying in a pond distributing swords. That would be no basis for a system of governance!

2

Frankly, I would trust a watery tart throwing a sword at someone much more than the American people.

2
lemmy.ca

I'm no monarchist but in Canada we have an actual king and the idea that HRH would busy himself with such petty quibbles as ...tolls is laughable.

9

Also, if the King tried to do anything, it would trigger a constitutional crisis in Canada and we'd collectively tell him to get fucked.

9
lemmy.ml

To be fair in this case I don't think we have much right to make fun of them until tolls get placed on the DVP.

3

More the king fascist dictator issuing decrees from on high. But yeah, under Doug Ford, Ontario transportation revolves around spending as many billions as possible to try to speed up his commute (while actually making it worse).

3

A country losing its way and straying far off from the ideals it originally strived for, becoming the very thing it fought against without realizing. That describes both the USA and Israel to a T.

3

Maybe that's the motivation for invading Canada. Trump the First, by the grace of God, of Canada King, Defender of the Faith.

3

The thought is that the democrats lost the last election because they focused on identity politics rather than more general concerns. Whether that is true or not, the chief point of this post is not congestion fees, it’s that the president called himself “King”.

7

He just has a wrong nerrative her wants to spew, it doesn't have to be linked.

6
Soulgreply
ani.social

Harris very explicitly avoided anything to do with identity politics in her campaign.

17
Schadrachreply
lemmy.sdf.org

...which was done to give her the best odds she could have in the speedrun campaign by a party that avoided having a real primary and instead pushed a candidate that did abysmally in the last primary.

Biden should have committed to being a single term president and we should have had a real primary in 2024. Or at least just the usual degree of Democrat primary ratfucking.

3
Soulgreply
ani.social

Look, I agree with all of that.

But you cannot argue that identity politics were a factor in 2024. It explicitly wasn't.

1

I can't. However, if we'd had a real primary it almost certainly wouldn't have been Harris that won it, she did so horribly the previous time around.

She was VP because candidates usually pick a VP that they perceive as being strong where they are weak, and a young biracial BIPOC woman is what Biden saw as shoring up his weak spot of being an ancient and utterly milquetoast white guy who only got the spot because he had already been VP, and was VP in turn because Obama specifically wanted a boring milquetoast white dude to help balance perceptions of him.

1

This reads like 'be more racist and sexist if you want to win.' That party won, I'm not looking forward to everyone finding out that the only identity that matters right now is who has the most money.

12

Attacking trans people and pushing conspiracy theories was a core part of MAGA, while the Dems were silent. Now look at the DEI crap.

Republicans are obsessed with identity politics while reasonable people see that there are legitimate, long-standing problems and solutions to systemic racism, sexism, and gender discrimination - which the dems completely ignored.

The dems and republicans both ignored the majorities and minorities to varying degrees.

10

Great example of how terrible FPTP is tbh. But then Americans pretty much only ever vote for those that support such a system.

4

Okay, so I can read this two ways. You could mean everything Trump does is morally the left's fault for provoking him (and his followers), or like people would never have voted Trump in the first place if Democrats had been more homophobic (or whatever).

Either way, I don't really see it. The first is "look what you made me do", the second sounds more like it would appeal to nobody as an election strategy.

2
lemmy.dbzer0.com

Buddy, blue collar rural Trump voters in impoverished area are already hurting way worse from this administration than educated middle class liberals. Inflation is heating back up, the people who were already struggling to buy groceries have it worse every day. It's like you're setting yourself on fire so you can burn someone else.

2

You mean Republicans were successful at identity politics (i.e. manipulating people through exaggerations, distortions, and outright lies about equality movements). Democrats yet again failed to effectively listen, validate, and address the public's most pressing concerns about how the status quo (with which centrist parties are generally associated globally) isn't working for them.

2

Nah they simply lost because nobody likes Harris

1
pawb.social

The wool is being pulled over your eyes. You are wrong. They are doing this to extract even more wealth from you and everyone else like us.

1