tastyface

Cook stood up to the FBI. He could have stood up to Trump -- he just didn't want to.

Disagree. Cook shows up to dinner parties with Trump all the time. I think he genuinely feels solidarity with the Epstein class.

I suspect the right-wing people your age are merely laundering their appetite for violence through the actions of their elected state. What do they think of the ICE shootings in Minneapolis? Double-tap strikes against Caribbean fishing vessels? Our queue of regime-change operations and Hegseth's "no quarter" rhetoric?

Remember this? "We are in the process of the second American revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be." Violence against perceived enemies is a core part of the Republican party platform.

If there is, in fact, a rising tolerance for violence among some on the left, I can't help but see it as reactive, not proactive. Don't make a punch if you can't take a punch.

I mean, I've never financed or platformed violent far-right politicians, nor caused thousands to die by callously "taking a chainsaw" to government institutions. But yeah, other than that, I guess we're pretty similar.

Oh yeah, I also don't run a breeding cult. Or beg notorious sex criminals to party on their private island.

The world largely moves forward through cooperarion, then regularly regresses through violence.

I have no desire whatsoever to undermine and bludgeon my neighbors in order to come out on top. Anyone who feels this way should probably be institutionalized for the safety of society at large.

Given that a number of professors on authoritarian politics staunchly disagree with that assessment, I will trust them and their years of research experience over the unwarranted confidence of some HN anon.

This directly contradicts most religions, which the people with the biggest weapons somehow claim to follow.

I think a true Orthodox/Catholic political orientation would be socially very conservative (without being hateful) and fiscally very liberal (giving/sharing as much as possible). This sort of party doesn't really exist, but it's almost entirely antithetical to MAGA, which caters to the rich and focuses on power, vengeance, and grievance politics.

Look at the kind of obstructionist histrionics that repubs were doing during Obama and Biden and amplify 10x given the severity of the situation.

Well, I do remember it being more about the underdogs and a cheeky "fuck the system" attitude without much malice. Maybe I just wasn't tuned into this stuff back then. Now, though, both users and tech leaders can unironically parrot Stormfront rhetoric from 10 years ago (using vaguely cordial language) and no one even bats an eye. The kind of stuff that would have made you unemployable just a few years ago.

When I think of HN in the before times, I think of people like Aaron Swartz. Would he have enjoyed his technical discussions peppered with comments on how the West is being "invaded" and "outbred" by third-world hordes? Based on what I know about him -- and please correct me if I'm wrong -- I'm guessing he would have noped out of that kind of community in a flash. Yet nowadays I see this kind of talk here all the time, percolating all the way up to industry leaders like Musk and DHH.

I tried to respond to your comment with some personal observations on racist currents in this community, but my comment immediately got flagged. So yeah! This site ain't what it used to be. Best for the good folks to seek community elsewhere, I reckon. I miss the old days as well, but I don't think they're coming back.

Nuking won't accomplish anything anyway. There's no obvious target that would "defeat" Iran given the seemingly decentralized command structure, and using nuclear weapons anywhere near the Strait would render it unusable.

Given their glee at droning unarmed fishermen in the Caribbean, I would argue they are much farther along this axis than you realize.

As it so happens, my parents also left behind a failed state to come here, seemingly around the same time as yours. So don't go preaching *your* bullshit to me: I've seen the same America you have, except believe it or not, I've found great personal joy and meaning in the aspects of our messy, polycultural society that you gape at in horror. If you want perfect order at the expense of everything else, maybe you should start learning Mandarin. (You can probably get your birth certificate delivered straight from an app! What a life!) Meanwhile, I'll do everything in my political power to make your nightmare of a woke dystopia¹ take root at home. And I will look forward to visiting Queens next time I'm in NYC.

¹ (Immigrant-friendly and deeply multicultural democratic socialism without psychos at the helm.)

P.S. "ret-conning America" -- America was never supposed to be frozen in ice. I take what some dusty philosophers said 200 years ago under advisement. Other than that, they can fuck off.

As someone whose culture and religion deviate from those of Republicans, I'm much more terrified of any movement along the axis towards "turning American into Utah¹" than "turning America into Queens" -- on behalf of both myself and my brown neighbors. Also, I'd happily argue that anyone who loathes Queens should be ashamed of calling themselves an American. For as long as I've been around, Queens has been far more representative of the US and its promise than white middle America.

¹ (Strange example to pick given that Mormonism is pretty far removed from Evangelical Christianity, but whatever.)

It's strange you seem to carry water for a political movement that very expressly wants to remove you, your family, and probably your kids in favor of the "heritage" white population. You will never be American enough for them. The DHS official account and, most recently, Greg Bovino have cited 100 million as the number of people they want to deport -- far in excess of the undocumented/illegal population. Also, *this* is the kind of shit that I'd expect from third world failed states, not whatever tepid/centrist policies the Democrats are trying to push: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-receives-yet-anoth...

I genuinely hope that you and your kids have a great future in this country. Politically, that's what I'm fighting for. The Republican white nationalist fever dream is not the America I grew up in and once admired.

How does that contradict in any way what I said? Democrats have offered to fund the TSA. Republicans have refused. Ergo, Republicans are blocking TSA funding in order to get what they want. There is no ambiguity here: Republicans could get the TSA funded today, but they view their pet projects as more important than having functional airports.

Why are you on this site if you're never willing to ever say "oh OK my bad"? I don't know what you posted about in the past to get to 125k points, but these days you mostly seem to use the site as a pseudo-intellectual soapbox for conservative politics and anti-immigration sentiment. Is this really healthy? You're accomplishing nothing except getting mass flagged and raising everyone's blood pressure (including, presumably, your own).

The samson option, by definition, also leads to israel’s destruction.

I wonder if his clients are aware of his posting history.

By your own logic, it sounds like you should not be voting. Do you live by your own principles? Or did you decide that you're not actually "foreign-culture socialized," unlike those *other* first generation immigrants?

For a lawyer, you sure play fast and loose with the word "factual."

Here's a fact: Democrats agreed to fund the TSA. Republicans were amenable. Trump said no.

“It would have worked ,” Mr. Kennedy said. “We could have had T.S.A. paid by the end of the week, but the president said ‘no deal.’”

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/23/us/politics/trump-shutdow...

There is no ambiguity here: Republicans are blocking TSA funding unless a bunch of unrelated stuff is also funded.

Weirdly, he is (IIRC) a first generation Bangladeshi immigrant with mixed race kids. Not sure how it all makes sense in his head. I imagine that someday his kids will read his archived comment history and feel embarrassed.

Why would the war keep Trump in office? It is widely unpopular.

Ultimately, this is a self-destructive approach. If Israel loses support of the West, what will they have left? Nuclear saber-rattling?

Thiel is a heretic.

The ruling class of Iran is still in place but more radicalized, global supply of oil is distupted, and nearly 200 schoolgirls are dead. This is a good thing how?

The last study that came out on this showed that engineers were significantly overestimating their own productivity gains.

If a stat like that is not accurately measured, it's useless.

Did you somehow miss the marketing spiel (propaganda) for DOGE??

I haven't seen almost anyone suggest that everything will go back to normal post-2028? Every Democrat I know is expecting a painful and protracted fight for the soul of the country.

Funny given that green energy is *literally* an unlimited natural gift from God.