Small but very important distinction:

They criticize Americans. They think (or act that way for the cameras) that America is perfect and everything is preordained. That is a point of faith, not-coincidentally - criticizing America elicits the same defensiveness as criticizing their religion. Any issues are with flawed Americans misinterpreting the grand plan of the Founders (as if they didn’t also disagree with each other) or God, but nobody gets away with trashing “America,” except Trump whose believers instantly recompile it to mean “America-as-long-as-it’s-run-by-democrats-and-women-and-non-whites-and-woke-ideology.”

This is why conservatives routinely separate people into “real Americans” versus everyone else.

A spirit of “cynicism, rejection, hostility and animus” toward America – by Americans – has taken hold, Thomas said in remarks carried live on CSPAN.

Progressivism means Americans criticize America because they are interested in making it better. Conservativism refuses to criticize America because it has no interest in making it better.

And that’s why conservativism is ultimately so pathetic. To fix flaws you have to admit to them, and put in work to change your own habits and the world around you, both of which are hard. To refuse to acknowledge flaws is easy, and you don’t have to fix anything about yourself or the world. It’s a fundamentally infantile, weak way of existing.

When I see people with Thomas’ opinions, I think, “Well, there’s a child whose mind just got older, but never grew up.” It’s incredible to realize, as an adult, just how many of the “adults” around us fit that model, and how much power they often end up having.

Gotta clear his troops’ schedules for the next insurrection I guess.

Not quite. This is a panel decision from two Trump appointees and the respondents have said they will ask the full DC Circuit Court to hear the case. It may be that the initial decision was a lucky draw for Trump and the full circuit will reverse.

Yeah, pretty big “2016 called and wants their Trump meme back” energy from this one.

Just to talk through conservatives’ blatant hypocrisy:

Conservativism is correlated generally with a lack of empathy (general scientific essay collecting evidence here). For people who fundamentally lack empathy, one explanation is that they literally cannot tell the difference between “free speech” and “my free speech.” To them, they cannot understand why any valid moral goal would be different from theirs. That implies that any exercise of free speech by them and those like them is valid, and free speech by others with different goals would be invalid.

So likely they see Charlie Kirk’s “censorship” as a free speech issue, and not LGBTQ censorship, because they actually lack the cognitive tools to understand the contradiction.

I’m not sure what the solution is here, short of sending Henry Cavill to the predominantly-male conservatives who think this way, and giving them a long, romantic kiss to make them realize they are also a little LGBTQ, to expand their sympathy base to make up for their lack of empathy. But I doubt Henry Cavill would volunteer for this particular task.

I get the metaphor but it’s not a great one for AI in mathematics especially. A statistical word generator is not going to perform reliable math and woe to anyone who acts otherwise.

I would call it an autistic sycophantic savant with brain damage. It’s able to perform apparent miraculous feats of memory and creativity but then be unable to tell reality from fiction, to tell if even the simplest response is valid, and likely will lie about it to make itself seem more competent to please you.

If you have a use for an assistant like that, then great. But a calculator - simple and cheap and reliable - it definitely is not.

Trump’s future public statement on the matter:

I have no idea where the $17 billion went. Who can keep track of $14 billion anyway, during this war (that is actually an excursion) (but is over) (but also will be soon). Such a nasty question, ask sleepy Joe Biden where the $8 billion went. If our SO-CALLED allies ponied up the $7 million Gaza would be rebuilt already. They came up to me, but strong men and with tears in their eyes, saying “Please, Trump, can we have the $2 million to feed my kids?” I shook my head, and said, “It’s coming in two weeks after the Board pays me back the $10 billion it owes me.” He said “thank you, thank you sir” and so the Board members better PAY UP or we’ll have to send a message (with BOMBS) and it’s “light’s out” for Gaza!

American taxpayers will help fund the project, according to a publicly available spending plan for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) released by the White House.

As per the spending plan, the NEH will dedicate $2m (£1.5m) in special funds and $13m in matching funds to the project.

The American taxpayer will “help” fund the project? Where are the other funds coming from? Seems like the NEH, a federal agency funded by… the taxpayer?

Or is this going to be Ballroom 2.0, another billionaire bribe monument to oligarchy?

Not sure why you’re getting downvotes. This is a very relatable experience.

I feel like the EFF’s messaging is just not going to get through to anyone still on Twitter.

The problem is that the fundamental catch-22 of social networks is that the content and the users reinforce each other. Self-hating/regretting Twitter/X users exist, but they are there because there are network effects, including organizations who still also use it, they are not willing to give up. Similar organizations are there because the users are still there. And yes, I do think they still see the people they want because of follows/subscriptions, even if alt-right fascism is also being thrown into their feed by the algorithm.

It sucks so many people haven’t left yet, but that’s why every choice to leave is worth celebrating, because it breaks down the long-term network effects every time, even at the cost of short-term value to the users or orgs.

Well, that’s mostly right, but MAGA douche Clay Fuller just won in the Greene replacement special election by an 11 point margin, in a district that Trump last won by 35 points.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/07/politics/georgia-special-election-results-shawn-harris-clay-fuller-marjorie-taylor-greene

So a swing of 24 points away from the GOP, but some districts are beyond reason and influence.

Indeed. And, if only they originally subpoenaed her as an individual and not as the AG, they could just bring her in anyway because Congress has and exercised that power because of the information she had, not because of her job title.

Wait! Can this be right?! She was subpoenaed as an individual! Oh, that’s a relief, now Congress can just move ahead with her testimony without even waiting for Blanche or having to re-subpoena her (phwew, so much time would have been wasted)! I bet everyone involved is relieved.

Certainly seems to be a grift:

https://kotaku.com/resident-evil-jovovich-mempalace-ai-github-2000685786

I… Like, I really was trying to be sarcastic. I tried. Like, with the italicized words for over-the-top emphasis? Like, isn’t waiting until “0%” just too absurd to be taken seriously? Or putting in quotes “you useless hump, just lift up even one finger”…? Help me, what am I doing wrong?

Schumer’s just playing the smart game, waiting until Trump’s approval is 0% before raising any alarms.

Sure, politically unsavvy people will say, “Oh, a psychopath is at this very moment doing war crimes won’t our elected leaders represent us and stop him,” or “Please, please, you useless hump, just lift up even one finger to stop the most dangerous demented narcissist in the greatest position to do harm in the history of the world.”

But c’mon. Don’t be an idiot. You people are worried about “reality,” but this is more important than reality. This is politics. The most important thing is never ever risk any political capital on anything ever.

I’ve made this metaphor as well, and you said it perfectly.

But I was wrong. It’s not a metaphor. Trump is an abuser. He is abusing us. Mass media has given a sociopathic malignant narcissist abuser access to all of us, and deprived us of any legal route to escape him.

God, it’s actually Tuesday.

I guess we should be grateful that the cosmic beings who got the assignment, “create the worst possible world,” are terrible writers?

I mean, I’m here for the anger at Americans who support Trump, but did the article need a “/s”? It’s pretty obvious this article is a sarcastic take completely aligned with what you’re saying already, but you seem to be taking it at face value?

Imagine showing this to anyone at all in the US in 1980 or 1990, or 2000, or 2010, and tell them this is an official statement from America’s president. And then tell them in 2026 it barely even makes headlines.