There is room for a lot of good faith debate here, but FWIW I reckon It is a mistake for the left to prematurely roll over and telegraph an inevitable Biden vote (whether on this or any other issue) just because Trump would be worse. The time for that utilitarian calculus is much closer to November. Right now, if you want policy change — you have to raise hell.

As much as you love to hate ‘em, this is what the Tea Party and their ideological successors got right about wielding power within their own party. When the time comes, by all means circle the wagons and vote pragmatically, but during primary season you have to come across as a credible threat to the party power structure.

I’ll personally be willing to (attempt!) to shame my progressive friends into voting blue, say, around October. In the meantime, I am proud of folks for speaking their mind and standing up for human rights.

Yep. I also think the ham-fisted way they are rolling this out is a projection of how they think the ‘libruls’ are brainwashing the kids.

Rather than educated people coming to educated conclusions on their own across vast segments of society, it is almost as if they think there is this secret committee of hooded Illuminati that generates Disney princess woke coloring books to turn little Billy-Bob away from Jesus, and the rest of the country just marches unthinkingly in lockstep with those orders. So of course, that is the playbook they want to follow.

I somehow feel this will backfire spectacularly. Younger kids can be dumb like the rest of us, but there is one thing they are exceptionally smart about: spotting and mocking lame-ass adults.

There is already little tolerance among (a lot of) younger folk for climate denialism and general right wing jackassery. Adding a cut-rate Donald Duck screeching about The Protocols of the Elders of Zion or how windmills are dangerous is just gonna’ cement the lameness for them. Now, if we could just do something about the grown-up idiots on Facebook, we’d be cooking.

Awesome game so far and remarkably well-polished due to the early access. My only real gripe is that the camera control is a little fiddly. It may be that I’m just not used to it, but a click and drag to rotate the camera would be chef’s kiss

Developing user cliques around fish names.

In a strange parallel to the current Russian political situation, can one at least hope that Meta drives a stake through the heart of the bird site before this effort implodes?

Probably not, I guess. If the Lizard King actually gets to the point that he poses a real threat, it is probably because he has eaten us first.

We note further that people who have isolated themselves from others or who live in solitude manifest this defect less frequently than individuals or groups of people inclined or condemned to sociability.

Heed my blue check mark.

Looking at comments on the bird site, I am pleasantly surprised at the number of submersible experts who are also Kremlinologists.

Death threats and actual harassment are serious business and are a matter for law enforcement, but a great strategy for dealing with the casual climate denier, anti-vaxxer, or Q idiot, is to just laugh at them. Not with, at. They cling to these ridiculous theories because at some level they want to feel in control and relevant in a scary world that they either won’t or can’t understand.

Treating them like kooks and refusing to get aggravated hits them the hardest because it tickles that suspicion that they really don’t get it. On the other hand, getting frustrated and trying to debate them about whether Hillary eats children just fuels the internal narrative that they are heroic truth warriors holding out in a hostile world.

Either way, kooks are gonna kook. You are not going to change their mind anyway, so why let it destroy your mental health.

I’ll take four part-time admins trying their best over a corporate tool any day. Slick platforms have a way of turning into shitty platforms over time when money is involved and the whole business model is about luring in the masses to drive engagement metrics.

Your principles are sound. The rest will come.