Sincere question: how do you feel about coming to Datalounge after disastrous elections like this one?

I've wondered for years now whether some right wing organization bought Datalounge in 2019, since that's the last copyright date the site mentions.

[quote] the DataLounge® is © 1995-2019 by Mediapolis, inc. All rights reserved

I'll only post in TV and movie threads over the next four years. I wish I could put all the politics threads on ignore, too depressing.

[quote] I wish I could put all the politics threads on ignore, too depressing.

I've wanted that since at least 2016.

What's annoying are these posters who are criticizing Dems to oblivion about how they fucked up and what they need to do differently. They were very quiet about the same issues before the election, and they wouldn't be stating these things if she had won.

The WORST DL'ers - sanctimonious and 'oh you can't win with those feelings and attitude'. Shut up. Nobody wants to hear it.

Berating all the Dems on DataLounge and the party in general so you can feel better is sick.

I've been coming here for well over a decade and think this is one of the best forums on the internet. I was surprised, however, to suffer two 24 to 36-hour bans in the last few weeks — for the first time. I'm both relieved and worried seeing other posters saying much the same, attributing it to a mass F&F effort by trolls to silence our pro-democracy voices. I would love to see Muriel's logs and the stats behind the traffic and interactions over the runup to the election; was DL attacked by Russians or any organized trolling effort? Is that why the site went mostly down 10 days ago when we could only create threads but not reply? How has traffic been since election night?

I chose the mixture response above. I appreciate the many kind words, as well as seeing the vituperative responses. I've put myself largely in a media blackout since election night, only reading a minimum of sources in which I have a high degree of confidence. Thanks to those here who can read and post articles we should note.

Be kind to ourselves, guys. We're going to need every shred of compassion we can find.

I live in a red state surrounded by maggots. This is the only place I can really talk to anyone about political stuff.

Most of my like minded friends live in another city and with our jobs, it can be hard to get together.

So this is my emotional support.

It would be okay except for the idiots posting idiot polls.

[quote] —The one think one would think we all had had enough of, for fuck's sake.

Speaking of idiots...

I don't come to the DL primarily for political commentary, thoughts, or rants. When I read a thoughtful and perceptive comment on politics, I enjoy it, but I'd rather see pics of the latest hawt piece of azz, read Broadway gossip, look in on tennis threads and of course I devour anything about the legendary Helen Lawson.

As always, I'm grateful for you witty kweens.

I've blocked about 95% of political threads after letting off some steam, and it's been great.

I'm damned tired of the aggressively anti-trans bullies, so I am blocking and bullying back. Nobody's pushing trans issues here aggressively, so it's not like they're responding to anything. The barbs are uncalled for and abusive.

Pretty good poll (for a change).

I might have added “I’m a MAGA and I love coming here to watch the libs squirm.”

There is a difference between being ant-trans and being opposed to the effort to remake society into a post-gender utopia. For some people, gender is an artificial construct and some kind of shifting spectrum. Great. Peace be with you. But for almost everyone else, gender is quite real and a foundation of their identity. The effort to impose a post-gender vision on everyone else is foolish and dangerous to us all.

I don’t sympathize at all with the effort to persuade everyone that the trans vision of gender is correct and we need to change how we think. That is simply arrogance.

[quote]There is a difference between being ant-trans and being opposed to the effort to remake society into a post-gender utopia

Nobody's pushing that here, yet people are obsessed with inserting how much they hate this into every fucking post possible.

[quote]Peace be with you

The peaceful thing to do is shut up and quit bullying trans people. I don't see ANY pushing of trans issues or even feminist issues here. It's abusive and uncalled for.

[quote]I don’t sympathize at all with the effort to persuade everyone that the trans vision of gender is correct and we need to change how we think. That is simply arrogance.

For the zillionth time: NOBODY HERE IS PUSHING THAT AGENDA. The only agenda I have here is to fucking stop the unprovoked bullying. Enough is enough. If you feel so goddamned strongly about it, take it somewhere you can make an impact. All you're doing is stirring an d bullying to a small internet audience because you are FULL OF HATRED and OBSESSED. Peace indeed.

You're a busted Bad Actor, r12. Here's the receipt. R12 is also one who wanted a MAGA laughing at people's tears as a poll option. Block and you'll see. 🚫

Yes. Not because I am one of them. Because they exist.

Stop being such an hysterical ninny.

People are certainly pushing that agenda.

Have no idea what you said because you're blocked, so I'll just post anther screenshot so people see that you're a chaos agent.

You are making a fool of yourself, r17.

Nice try, Stick to banged-out whore buttholes.

This goes beyond a bad election. This is the fucking END. I pray to God I'm over reacting. I would love to look back on this post in four years and laugh at how silly I was being. But I don't think so. We are Russia in 1999 right now.

I'm disengaging. Trump scum- HAVE AT IT! I'm going to focus on my life, and just hope that Trump doesn't ruin us

I'm in the "I don't enjoy coming here" category, but OTOH I'm also almost entirely avoiding even watching the news at this point.

That, plus I am completely fucking EXHAUSTED. The emotional toll of the past six months alone has been agonizing, and since it's entirely predictable that the mainstream media will spend most of the next 2.5 months outlining most conceivable hypotheticals for a second Trump term, I do NOT need to see that. (And not just in Valerie Cherish form.)

The literal only news of note not yet known at this point is the outcome of the House, but Trump can still do a bunch of his most odious shit without congressional approval. (OTOH Democrats keeping control of the House would at least prevent Trump's inevitable tax cuts for millionaires & billionaires.)

[quote]We are Russia in 1999 right now.

No, we're not: that happened in 2016. Do you seriously think Russians – a mere five years after the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union – would've EVER voted for Putin had they known what would eventually happen? They made the same mistake we did eight years ago: democratically electing someone inherently undemocratic. UNLIKE us, however, they have few means of escape: while obviously disinformation has grown to an absurd degree, even Trump at his absolute worst will always be constrained by the Constitution – and no, I do not think we're at (or even near) the point of a second civil war.

What we are is a horrifically divided country – entirely by design, as intended by the GOP. Democrats have won the popular vote in every election since 2008, and that'll likely be true this time as well. Finally, the one area where Trump truly can't do much – unless they already agree with him – is with regards to state law, and thankfully the Supreme Court's general stance there (nearly always avoiding interfering unless truly essential) remains unchanged.

[quote] Trump at his absolute worst will always be constrained by the Constitution

Right.

The thread immediately below this thread (as of my post) is that King Charles has reportedly instructed the Keeper of the Privy Purse, the official in control of royal finances, to end Andrew’s £.

That says it all… carry on.

R23, did you miss the reveal that the Constitution DID work on Jan. 6? There is zero universe in which those fuckwads would've truly prevented Biden from becoming president. Even if they'd murdered Pence, the outcome would've been the same, except Trump would've been at least more likely to face repercussions from it. The vast majority of those who participated in it have been convicted & imprisoned for their actions, and while I know Trump has at least dangled the idea of pardoning all of those "heroes" for their crimes 🙄, that's no guarantee that he will (and he refrained from doing so the last time as well, when it was still fresh in mind).

Yes, I know full fucking well that it can be manipulated to some extent, but not to the extent of undermining it ENTIRELY. I also know Trump is certain to assume he has absolute immunity for anything he does in office, with a degree of context most have overlooked: it is in no way truly "absolute," plus it's limited to his "core" duties under the Constitution. SCOTUS left the definition of "core" unmentioned, almost certainly by design, and if Trump actually TRIES to become a bona fide fascist, I'm assuming it's more likely than not that he'll receive a major benchslapping by the Court. His only true resolute allies are Thomas & Alito, and considering he didn't even *choose* either of them, that's actually rather remarkable.

Speaking of which: most sane people in hindsight now get how huge of a mistake it was for RBG not to resign before the end of Obama's term. What Repugs are currently assuming is that Thomas & Alito will both resign while Trump's in office – problem being that their lust for power exceeds even Trump's, and federal judges/justices are the ONLY people impossible to "fire" except via impeachment, obviously aside from elected politicians.

Finally, in an outcome few could've predicted, Amy Coney Barrett has easily been the Trump-picked justice most restrained & considered in her judicial rulings ever since she was handed RBG's stolen seat. He'll never admit it, but Trump's ABSOLUTELY pissed that he picked a "cunt" – both his term & DL's – for a SCOTUS seat, since women are just too fucking reasonable! (She was also the only conservative to vote against Trump in the absolute / presumptive immunity case. While they correctly assumed she'd overturn Roe, on whole she was the most moderate Republican appointee of the past four years.)

R23 = FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) trolling. Madam is a chaos agent who was previously blocked. 🚫

To the extent the Constitution worked on Jan 6, it was because Mike Pence refused to go along with the plot, and they did not have enough votes to block the counting of the votes in their fallback plan, but most Republicans in Congress, including 7 Senators, went along with Trump’s plot.

The Constitution might block Trump, but not because he won’t try to break and bend it every chance he gets.

The courts are not to be counted on. They invented Presidential immunity out of whole cloth for him, contrary to the structure of the Constitution and to precedent.

[quote] This goes beyond a bad election. This is the fucking END. I pray to God I'm over reacting.

Gee, do ya think?

R26, I know what a FUD troll is, but thanks for pointing it out. I just blocked R23. And golly, doing so also deleted its apparent diatribe at R27! (No shock there, but still.)

Thanks for your patience with me, r29. Want to make sure the less internet-savvy among us know these best practices for bad actors.

R5 the one joy I take from all of this is that the self appointed progressive FF censors are feeling worse. I hope they fucking choke on their bile.

They share some of the credit for trumps win , them or people like them. .

People just end up hating them

I love it because of the over the top emotionalism that it brings out. I love to post my told you so comments. I love all the racism, especially against Latinos, that comes out. The violent rhetoric also give me a little thrill. Politicos on DL that called me Boris and everything under the sun have been wrong about nearly every political issue under the sun since I've been here. It cracks me. Which reminds me; has anyone seen the Trumps biggest nightmare poster? Elderlez? Maybe Elderlez is in Gaza.

[quote] [R26], I know what a FUD troll is, but thanks for pointing it out. I just blocked [R23]. And golly, doing so also deleted its apparent diatribe at [R27]! (No shock there, but still.)

Mindless robot.

[quote][R5] the one joy I take from all of this is that the self appointed progressive FF censors are feeling worse. I hope they fucking choke on their bile.

Speaking of bile...

Other and other.