I mean, if this was some dictator of a poor country slowly squeezing his citizens for money so they were hungry, some dying of starvation, and had shitty infrastructure so he can jaunt off to holidays in his private jet and live in a mansion with private guards, nobody would be saying this guy deserved to live. But a CEO squeezing sick people and their families for money, actively shortening lifespans and QoL… he’s fine, let him off the hook?
Deemed unprofitable…
Replying to a meme criticizing Biden’s pardon of his son that was being commented on by several liberals-are-funding-genocide types.
I would have pointed out trump’s basically saying he was going to take whatever leash remained on Israel off, and trumps pardon of family and criminals, but that never goes well. I get exhausted by the refusal to acknowledge the reality of the situation. So I deleted it.
They’ve been chiefly brainwashed to think taxes are evil.
Anything that involves caring for others outside of your immediate family requires taxes. That’s socialism. And that includes healthcare.
“Why should I pay to help some poor person’s kid with childhood leukemia when I can hardly afford to put gas in my jacked up F-250? Do you know how much chrome exhaust tips cost? They should just get a better job so they can take care of their kids. It’s their fault they’re poor. Maybe they should have made their kid wear a mask or something. “
Never seen that person before in my life.
Rejecting torture.
Most everything wrong with Star Wars happened because of the money grab. We could spend all day talking about the all-star cast ruined by awful writing/direction, wooden acting, and awful, ever-present, ridiculous sfx in 1-3. And of course, Jar-jar. They tried to make every film a “blockbuster” at the expense of the actual film in order to rake the cash in from fans.
The straight up cash grab, more awful writing, and bludgeoned fan service in the recent films. They had potential, but meandered as execs made sure to cram in merchandising opportunities and a veritable commercial or two.
The bright spot was Rogue One, which I thought was a fantastic and dark addition to the universe that explained some of the references made in the films. Andor, too, is pretty decent, leading up to Rogue One.
A gym membership. Implies overweight.
Makeover service. Implies not looking so good.
If you know a right-wing prepper, get them a subscription to Mother Earth News, a magazine that touts self-sufficiency and off-grid living with occasional ads that lean to conspiracy theories like “free energy”. It’s full of food saving and growing ideas. It’s also liberal AF.
Charitable donation in their name to an organization they likely oppose, but not “in your face”. Like if they’re republican, don’t donate to a blatantly liberal org, donate to one that teaches kids critical thinking skills and welcomes lgbtq or something like that. They get the tax writeoff, a real benefit, but would have to be visibly hateful of they rejected where the money went. Edit: how about a LGBTQ shooting camp. That’d take some mental gymnastics.
Gift tickets to a nice cultural event to someone that is anti-lgbtq. Local city playhouse has an Opera with lots of men in tights.
Any subscription or service that makes potential commentary on personal appearance or personal beliefs would be effective.
And they’ll get a stern talking to.
At some level extreme governments are the same, Left or Right. At that point the polarity of the government doesn’t really matter to anyone except the people looking to escape it. They’re authoritarian dictatorships, oligarchies, kleptocracies, whatever…they just pay lip service to whatever form of government they claim to run “for the people” and hoard wealth and power to the top. So it may be a “leftist” government on the surface, but it’s just an authoritarian one in all the points that matter.
Let’s look at it this way - they were already going to be dictatorships, the dictator picked what he told the people they’d get. Most of the big ones all say Power To The People as they’re pushing their way to the top, but as soon as they get there they make themselves permanent. Some of them took a pretty good stab at it like Mao or Stalin, but they killed their people in droves to make it happen. Once that happens you gotta stay in power or they’re going to kill you. And of course, with themselves at the top of the heap, they took everything for themselves and The Party, and The Party became the end all and be all instead of actually advancing the country.
Riding on the coattails of cyberpunk shows they shouldn’t have canceled - The Peripheral.
It was just getting into some really great storyline and characters…poof…canceled.
Yep. It’s messed up that the heads of corporations have driven the legal system to the point that they are in essence completely insulated from the consequences that their leadership inflicts on anyone not a well-paid manager at their company.
From the constant pressure on wages, benefits, and the grind for frontline workers to environmental damage to the enshittification of the product…and in this case the rejection of care could directly have life altering consequences.
Send a boilerplate condolence which arrives a day or two before the final bill. Nothing matters as long as the BoD and shareholders are happy.
Healthcare holds two of the top 10 slots in this list for the most profitable industries, arguably holding the third slot if they were combined, and probably holing the top slot if pharmaceutical research was included. We’re getting f’d for “care.”
We can certainly imagine.
Trump’ll pardon all the Jan 6’ers in jail when he gets into office. Actual insurrectionist criminals.
It undermines what we liberals value: playing by the rules without exploiting them for our own selfish benefit. Yeah, the rule is that you can do this as POTUS, but it looks bad, and can be selfish or self-serving the way trump does it. His way is straight up corrupt. We don’t want to be like that. It separates us from them. So even if this saves HB from further persecution by the Talibangelicals, it still feels like we collectively get mud on us when Biden pulls the same stunt trump does.
When you’ve essentially already got everything the only thing to do is try to get more.
All the trolls that were “liberals = genocide” or “eggs are $99” or “cant afford gas” while completely ignoring normal egg prices, seriously low gas prices, and trump’s plan to let the Israelis do whatever they want have switched to “Biden bad because pardon!” Again, completley ignoring trump’s pardons of criminals in his administration, family by marriage, and the fact we got a law absolving the president of any “crime” committed while president if the (captured) SCOTUS says it’s fine. But no…who cares about trump. Biden bad!!
Ah, so he couldn’t buy a “founder” title. So he made his own.
Even less readily visible accountability.