Trump Derangement Syndrome - Orange man bad. Read the OP! (ᴛʜɪs ᴛʜʀᴇᴀᴅ ɪs ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴋɪᴡɪ ғᴀʀᴍs ʀᴇᴠɪᴇᴡs ɴᴏᴡ) 🗿🗿🗿🗿

[Ghostse]

I suppose so. I don't really find myself aligning with any government. I obey the law in the interest of expediency, but you'll never see me serving in any military or local/federal government unless it were in my direct best interests to do so. The only reason I even bother with filing taxes is, as much as I disagree with the government taking my money, it's in my interests not to deal with the IRS' shit, so I make the sacrifice.

Please go be a citizen of the world in Somalia and let us know how that works out.

 

[RockPaper]

History/Biblical Sperg.
tl;dr Jews were very likely never Egyptian slaves except in their own heads.

My spergy 2 cents on that...

Spoiler

Another clue is that in Exodus the Pharaoh is never named. He's just "Pharaoh". This is supposedly the most important founding story to the Israelites, and you don't even know the guy's name? It's like a Grimm Brothers fairy-story where they just say "so-and-so went to see the King" and the King never has a name.

(I know historians who believe in a historical Exodus have traditionally deduced that it's Rameses II, mostly based on the account saying the Israelite slaves built two cities, "Pithom and Rameses". But I don't see why that can't just be a made-up detail either. It just smells like a legendary rather than a historical account.)

I would say a clue the Nation of Islam is full of shit is that Farrakhan is still alive and that can only be an argument for atheism.

California is (rightfully) burning to the ground, President Trump is to blame.

LOL. I love the Leftist presumption that if Republicans really wanted to "help people", they should do a 180 and vote for all the government entitlements and expansion of the government power that the Dems want. Because - of course - the only way to "help people" is high taxes and Fed programs and regs. A real insight into political myopia.

 

[Iwasamwillbe]

Exactly, so I refuse to pledge my allegiance to it. Seems like a pretty fair agreement to me. If meester government does not want to relinquish the stranglehold on power that it has, then I simply refuse to play the game. I cannot trust the government to act in my interest, so I will not act in the government's interest.

You're not pledging allegiance to the American government, but to the American ideal. Stop thinking in terms of what the government can do for you, and start thinking in terms of what you can do for your country. The government is not your father, and without internal or external prompting, it never needs to act in your interest.

If you think the government's stranglehold on power is too much for you to handle, then you can leave the country or join some revolutionary/rebel group or whatever. Either way, it's on you to change the government, not the government's job to suddenly change unprompted for you.

 

[Ghostse]

My spergy 2 cents on that...

Spoiler

Another clue is that in Exodus the Pharaoh is never named. He's just "Pharaoh". This is supposedly the most important founding story to the Israelites, and you don't even know the guy's name? It's like a Grimm Brothers fairy-story where they just say "so-and-so went to see the King" and the King never has a name.

(I know historians who believe in a historical Exodus have traditionally deduced that it's Rameses II, mostly based on the account saying the Israelite slaves built two cities, "Pithom and Rameses". But I don't see why that can't just be a made-up detail either. It just smells like a legendary rather than a historical account.)

Double Spegbation

Spoiler

It is also possible that Egypt, when they invaded the region, took prisoners of war and put them to work back in Egypt before releasing them. So some jews might have been legimately forced to labor indirectly or directly for Egypt, but not the entirety of the people.

I guess another way to put it is "The Egyptians were keeping quite inclusive records of the time period talked about. If the Egyptians did enslave the Jews, they weren't aware they'd done it."

 

[The Sauce Boss]

You're not pledging allegiance to the American government, but to the American ideal. Stop thinking in terms of what the government can do for you, and start thinking in terms of what you can do for your country. The government is not your father, and without internal or external prompting, it never needs to act in your interest.

If you think the government's stranglehold on power is too much for you to handle, then you can leave the country or join some revolutionary/rebel group or whatever. Either way, it's on you to change the government, not the government's job to suddenly change unprompted for you.

That's the thing. The government cannot, and will not change. The systems in power are too entrenched. I said earlier that my ideals sort of align with the American values system, and that's honestly the only reason I haven't seriously tried to leave. I will fully admit that it's sort of hypocritical, but the American system is the closest thing to the values I hold. I shouldn't be beholden to any politicians or corporate money-shifters.

Last I checked, the American government was of 'the people', by 'the people', for 'the people'. About the only thing I agree with progressives on is that isn't the case anymore. No matter who's sitting in the White House, corporations and the political ruling class get all the best toys and privileges. Really, everyone should be asking why the government isn't acting in our collective interest.

 

[Iwasamwillbe]

My spergy 2 cents on that...

Spoiler

Another clue is that in Exodus the Pharaoh is never named. He's just "Pharaoh". This is supposedly the most important founding story to the Israelites, and you don't even know the guy's name? It's like a Grimm Brothers fairy-story where they just say "so-and-so went to see the King" and the King never has a name.

(I know historians who believe in a historical Exodus have traditionally deduced that it's Rameses II, mostly based on the account saying the Israelite slaves built two cities, "Pithom and Rameses". But I don't see why that can't just be a made-up detail either. It just smells like a legendary rather than a historical account.)

Some historians argue that there were multiple Pharaohs of the Exodus, hence the lack of distinct personal names (which were seen as unnecessary to write down, considering the constantly shifting personages on the throne).

 

[Overly Serious]

The origin myth (according to the Nation of Islam) goes that where many centuries ago a race of intergalactic demigod black people then came to Earth and established the first functioning civilization. So one of these alien black people was a super scientist black man named 'Yakub' and he was the one that created that white people but Yakub found his creation way too dangerous as they could threaten the rule of the black man so Yakub locked away the white people in caves in Europe but the white people escaped from their cave prisons, they started an uprising and overthrew the black man, and then they took civilization away from the black man for themselves and then they started to rewrite history to make it appear that it was white people that made the notable historical achievements then.

If a group of people locked me and my family up in "prison caves" I'd rise up and overthrow them, too.

This whole 'Afrocentrism' thing is only bullshit. The ancient Greeks were not black, Ancient Egypt was not a black civilization, the Samurai of Japan were also not black, Mozart was not a black man, the Israelites were not black nor was Ancient Israel a black civilization either, a lot of the big thinkers from the 'Age of Enlightenment' were not black, William Shakespeare was not black, Beethoven was not a black man, and also name me at least one example of a black civilization in Africa that was on par with Ancient Egypt then. That's what I thought.

It's just fascinating to me how people can believe in such bullshit anyway.

I had a long argument with an afrocentrist back before I knew what afrocentrism was. They started talking about how the Ancient Egyptians were "Black" and I didn't realise there was a group of people actually teaching this, I thought it was just some random person making a mistake based on Egypt being in Africa. So I friendly as can be started putting them straight and a little way in it became apparent they were deeply invested in this being true so I became even gentler in correcting their mistake and that just seemed to make it worse. From memory, they were talking about "accounts by the ancient greeks described the egyptians as dark skinned". I knew immediately that they were referring to Herodotus so I pulled up the relevant passage where Herodotus does say that the Egyptians had skin darker than the Greeks (who were pale and blonde for the most part at that time, btw). He then goes on to say that they were not as dark as the people further South who had very dark skin and hair "like a sheep's wool". He also said the Egyptians had skin like the people of Colchis - who weren't even on the continent of Africa. After this, the guy started talking about DNA evidence from some rich merchant's two sons who were mummified showing they were half-brothers and one of them was Black. Yes... and? There were Black people in Egypt. Ethiopia was right next door! It doesn't make the ancient Egyptians Black anymore than kiwifarms being near to kiwico in a list of websites makes kiwifarms a fun site of learning for young children. (I mean, it could be now I write that out, but I'd be wary of suggesting it on Mumsnet).

Anyway, the conversation ended with him claiming that Black people created pyramids and "used them to travel from place to place". At that point, time prevented me learning how. Were they teleport devices? Did they themselves fly through the air? I will never now know.

 

[The Sauce Boss]

Double Spegbation

Spoiler

It is also possible that Egypt, when they invaded the region, took prisoners of war and put them to work back in Egypt before releasing them. So some jews might have been legimately forced to labor indirectly or directly for Egypt, but not the entirety of the people.

I guess another way to put it is "The Egyptians were keeping quite inclusive records of the time period talked about. If the Egyptians did enslave the Jews, they weren't aware they'd done it."

Out of curiosity, do you think the post-Exodus events (the wars with the Canaanites and Babylonians) happened at all, or that they were also exposed to this sort of semi-mythological refocus?

 

[RockPaper]

Some historians argue that there were multiple Pharaohs of the Exodus, hence the lack of distinct personal names (which were seen as unnecessary to write down, considering the constantly shifting personages on the throne).

Yes. The only problem with that is Rameses II had an extremely long reign (66 years) and lived to be 90 years old. So either it's made-up, or the multiple-Pharaohs hypothesis means it didn't happen when Rameses II was king, but some other time which can't be pinned down. There aren't very many other time periods that fit the bill for historical-Exodus aficianados. That's why Ramses is in all the movies. lol

 

[Iwasamwillbe]

That's the thing. The government cannot, and will not change. The systems in power are too entrenched. I said earlier that my ideals sort of align with the American values system, and that's honestly the only reason I haven't seriously tried to leave. I will fully admit that it's sort of hypocritical, but the American system is the closest thing to the values I hold. I shouldn't be beholden to any politicians or corporate money-shifters.

Last I checked, the American government was of 'the people', by 'the people', for 'the people'. About the only thing I agree with progressives on is that isn't the case anymore. No matter who's sitting in the White House, corporations and the political ruling class get all the best toys and privileges. Really, everyone should be asking why the government isn't acting in our collective interest.

The "entrenched systems" that are continuously being subverted, if not completely BTFO by the "Supreme Clown" Donald Trump?

I repeat, the government is not your father. You need to stop thinking in terms of what the government can do for you, but in terms of what you can do for the American people as a whole. The government will never be prompted to change is you just stick to this doomer whining about it. Corporations and the political class will always have more relative power than the average person, but the idea is to shorten the gap between them.

But I might just be talking to a brick wall, given that your ideals only "sort of" align with the "American values system", as you consider yourself to be some sort of "world citizen" (which, in my view, really just translates to "rootless cosmopolitan"). So I want you to explain your ideals, as well as what you think the "American values system" is.

 

[Linako 2.0]

If a group of people locked me and my family up in "prison caves" I'd rise up and overthrow them, too.



I had a long argument with an afrocentrist back before I knew what afrocentrism was. They started talking about how the Ancient Egyptians were "Black" and I didn't realise there was a group of people actually teaching this, I thought it was just some random person making a mistake based on Egypt being in Africa. So I friendly as can be started putting them straight and a little way in it became apparent they were deeply invested in this being true so I became even gentler in correcting their mistake and that just seemed to make it worse. From memory, they were talking about "accounts by the ancient greeks described the egyptians as dark skinned". I knew immediately that they were referring to Herodotus so I pulled up the relevant passage where Herodotus does say that the Egyptians had skin darker than the Greeks (who were pale and blonde for the most part at that time, btw). He then goes on to say that they were not as dark as the people further South who had very dark skin and hair "like a sheep's wool". He also said the Egyptians had skin like the people of Colchis - who weren't even on the continent of Africa. After this, the guy started talking about DNA evidence from some rich merchant's two sons who were mummified showing they were half-brothers and one of them was Black. Yes... and? There were Black people in Egypt. Ethiopia was right next door! It doesn't make the ancient Egyptians Black anymore than kiwifarms being near to kiwico in a list of websites makes kiwifarms a fun site of learning for young children. (I mean, it could be now I write that out, but I'd be wary of suggesting it on Mumsnet).

Anyway, the conversation ended with him claiming that Black people created pyramids and "used them to travel from place to place". At that point, time prevented me learning how. Were they teleport devices? Did they themselves fly through the air? I will never now know.

I had a similar situation, but this was about the discovery of the Americas.
this fellow educated Ebanoid was telling me how White people weren't the first to discover the Americas, but the great Ebanoid King Mansa Musa, who had secret maps that pointed to the new world but was burned by white people who rebelled and didn't want blacks to succede.
I point out how Leif Erikson discovered America first and he got mad because I kept crediting white people and that Masa Musa did it first, despite good ol' Erikson being born 300 years before Mansa Musa.
He also claimed that the original natives of MesoAmerica were black because of the Olmec heads having broad noses and big lips and art of Mayans and Aztecs having dreads, despite this claims; I took personal offense when he said I don't have N-word privileges despite myself being of MesoAmerican Ancestry (1/4th Tlaxcaltec and I think Totonaca).

 

[Iron Hamster]

Just declare California a fire-free zone.

That's firephobic.

 

[Ghostse]

Out of curiosity, do you think the post-Exodus events (the wars with the Canaanites and Babylonians) happened at all, or that they were also exposed to this sort of semi-mythological refocus?

I think I can answer that with an example:
Jericho was a real city. With some mmmthicc ass walls. There is no sign that the walls of Jericho ever fell, let alone during the the Jews were arriving. When walls fall, even if they are rebuilt, they leave behind evidence - shattered brick/stone, mis-matched wall sections as repairs are different, etc. (example, Troy's walls were destroyed no less than 7 times. They know because each time the walls fell, they left a separate layer of debris. They know some of the wall collapses were unexpected because you find human and animal remains under them. others there is nother material under collapsed walls, meaning people had time to clear themselves and their possesses out)
Jericho in fact shows no signs of war or trauma in the period that coincides with the Jews arrival in the area. no arrow heads, no broken weapons, no bodies, no charred wood.

So this leaves two possibilites:
- The Wall of Jericho collapsed precisely as described in the Bible. The wall collapsed so completely even the foundations were scattered, and the occupying Jews then immediately turned around rebuilt the wall using the exact same stones as before, and then did a CSI-level scrub for debris.
- The occupation of the city was acchieved through some other means and the fall of the wall was a metaphorical fall.

 

[The Sauce Boss]

The "entrenched systems" that are continuously being subverted, if not completely BTFO by the "Supreme Clown" Donald Trump?

I repeat, the government is not your father. You need to stop thinking in terms of what the government can do for you, but in terms of what you can do for the American people as a whole. The government will never be prompted to change is you just stick to this doomer whining about it. Corporations and the political class will always have more relative power than the average person, but the idea is to shorten the gap between them.

But I might just be talking to a brick wall, given that your ideals only "sort of" align with the "American values system", as you consider yourself to be some sort of "world citizen" (which, in my view, really just translates to "rootless cosmopolitan"). So I want you to explain your ideals, as well as what you think the "American values system" is.

American Values system:

A) Built on freedoms: freedom of speech (though it's often subverted), freedom of religion (so long as your religion doesn't piss off the glowniggers), freedom of assembly (until the glownigger decides that your assembly is unlawful), etc, etc
B) Judeo-Christian/Enlightement values hybrid: Murder bad (unless certain people are doing it), theft bad (unless certain people are doing it), everyone has the freedom to act as they see fit so long as it does not interrupt the efficient operation of the government (in theory, though this is also often subverted).
C) Democratic process: Everyone (theoretically) gets a say in the way the country is run, unless you were black before the 1960s, or you've ever gotten arrested for smoking a joint, or you live in a place where the local government decided to close polling places for whatever reason

My Values:

A) Freedoms: everyone should be allowed to do what they will, so long as it does not harm others, either through direct or indirect action, or harms the collective (i.e. political movements that advocate for anarchy or violence).
B) Judeo Christian values: With the admitted blind spot to some that I see nothing wrong with deviating from heterosexuality, I'm Catholic, and I mostly agree with the Catholic stance on most social issues, gay marriage being one of the bigger exceptions.
C) Anti-corporatist: I'm a big proponent of the little guy when it comes to business, and I don't like the fact that corporations get more of a say in the government pretty much anywhere in the world as opposed to ordinary citizens. While I'm not by any means anticapitalist, I think that there's a noticeable line between 'overregulating businesses' and making sure they play by the same rules as everyone else, within reason.

That's the basic rundown. My biggest disagreement with traditional American values is interventionism- America's always been the 'world's policeman' and I genuinely believe that we should leave well enough alone on the world stage. If it's not a direct threat to us, then I don't particularly think it's our business. Enough American men have died in pointless foreign wars.

 

[Uncle Joey]

View attachment 1540457

Cher is still alive?

 

[CrippleThreat]

California is (rightfully) burning to the ground, President Trump is to blame.

View attachment 1540870

It's probably happened before, but I'm noticing that negative views on Trump (left-wing media, Dems) revolve around him not being this omnipotent force that can be everywhere at once. They laughed and sighed when he called himself the Chosen One, now look how they want him.

Travel ban and 2 weeks to flatten? Open up because it's not that bad, but I can't believe you opened up. Now people are dying in states that you gave guidelines too, and you're not making trips all over to surprise grieving families like your predecessor.

John Lewis died? We're waiting for your words of remembrance. Why haven't you said something yet? You really are a lethargic racist, aren't you?

"Protests" are only getting this way because Trump won't save us unless we ask, and we'll still say that his Feds are doing it wrong just to own him, despite Trump probably having us on film pleading like children to save our cities (see Newsom thanking Trump for helping with the fires).

Your brother Robert died? Fuck you if you're grieving, and fuck you if you're trying to relax with some respite. You still have this to worry about, and you're not off the hook yet. Your brother's bad because he's a Trump, but I like him a little just because he died, and you were golfing when it happened so I can jab at you for that.

The post office? We kind of disliked it and/or didn't care about it in the slightest (Package machine for consooming), but since Trump basically said, "No," I love the Post Office. I'd give them my arm, leg, and first-born to keep them running. I'll even barricade and chain myself around them just to keep Trump away, as if he's gonna rapture mailboxes away in an instant.

If only I knew things would be this bad, I'd encourage more people to vote Hillary. At least, there wouldn't be daily hours of reports on how one man is destroying and saving the country at the same time.

 

[Overly Serious]

If only I knew things would be this bad, I'd encourage more people to vote Hillary. At least, there wouldn't be daily hours of reports on how one man is destroying and saving the country at the same time.

You'd have US soldiers dying daily in Syria though, and be mired in a proxy war in Ukraine. TPP treaty would be depressing US wages even lower and the Chinese would be buying up most of New York. Also, Bill Clinton would be First Husband of the United States of America and be drinking cocktails on an island with Jeffrey Epstein right now.

Trump's America is riven with strife, it's true - but at least that means the battle isn't lost.

 

[Fanatical Pragmatist]

Well under normal circumstances, the 'United States Department of Agriculture' is suppose to ensure that forestry mulching is performed to clear away the underbrush, unhealthy trees, and grasses to reduce the chances of major wildfires from happening then.

This is for under normal circumstances but in the communist utopia you must let the forest grow out of control and when the wildfire season is here then the tress shall burn your communities to the ground by that point.

This isn't really Donald Trump's fault, this is what happens when you ignore the proven methods of lowering the chances of wildfires from happening in the first place anyway.

California has fucked itself mightily. Because of their air quality mandates designed to make it easier to do business in China, state agencies can't cause the air quality to drop, which anything other than the tiniest controlled burns would do. And then tons of "But muh endanged left-leaning-dick Owl!" from tree huggers. You couldn't even start a volunteer group to go clear brush because that's where the endangered Homless Jibberer lives. They also have lots of dead wood in their forests from trees that didn't survive their decade long drought.

But most importantly, the forest is where all the rich fucks have built their mansions. "You can't destroy my pristine forest view! Forestry be damned, that's like a whole year or two of everything looking bleak! No!"

So they have dug themselves this deep, dark hole where now everything is so fucked that even the plants that are adapted to survive forest fires can't survive the prolonged hot fires because of all the brush piled up from decades of no fires.

Here's what's fucking dumb about that: The California Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis occidentalis) needs mixed forests created by natural wildfires.

Sans disturbance events such as storms, wildfires, floods, landslides, etc; a forest will slowly morph into a stratified mess of one or two species dominating the canopy, and a handful of species aggressively fighting for the understory, while ground cover (including grasses, flowers and fruiting shrubs) is snuffed out by the encroaching midstory/understory/lack of light penetrating the canopy. Natural disturbance events create a "mosaic landscape" of old-growth forests, new growth shrublands, meadows, sucessional/young-growth woodlands, etc. The CSO, while nesting and roosting in tall, old-growth trees, still hunts for prey in areas such as shrublands and meadows where there is less foliage obstructing their view from the sky and more edible ground cover to attract rodent, small mammals and songbirds.
Given the opportunity, the CSO will readily hunt in areas that just got burned.

California also got an anti-wildfire stick up its ass harder than the rest of the country (thanks Smokey), because California's draconian air quality laws preventing controlled burns. So it suddenly because illegal to try and mimic natural, low-intensity fires because you might kill someone living in Los Angeles with your deadly pine & sage smoke. Logs, leaves and branches built and built and built up over years that normally would have been reduced in 3-10 year burn cycles. So some forests were filled with kindling waiting to go up, with midstory trees creating "fire ladders" up the crown/canopy of taller trees that would naturally be safe from a low-intensity fire

Invasive Eucalyptus trees went relatively unmanaged because cutting trees = bad. So we have this invasive Australian tree that is sucking up over 9x as much water from creeks/rivers as native riparian trees, outcompeting those native trees for the water its overdrinking, oh and by the way they are full of highly flamable bark oil that fucking explodes (I'm serious) under extreme heat.

California is the absolute perfect storm of environmental mismanagement, yet they are lauded as one of the "good" states purely because of "green" policies.

The reason the poor California Spotted Owl gets so much hate is because industrial loggers got ass-blasted that they could no longer clear-cut 5x5 mile swaths of forest into soggy, barren mud hills; meanwhile, the leftist tree boot-huggers used the CSO as their mascot to enforce forestry policies which benefited their authoritarian power fantasies while actually continuing to fuck the poor owls.

Spoiler: Bonus California Spotted Owl Threat

There are now studies coming out that the sudden increase of pot farmers are poisoning the creeks and river corridors that the CSO uses with all their commercial chemicals and lackadasical stoner farming methods.

You got it wrong. Yakub created white people out of spite and hatred of the Ebanoid tribe (blacks) because they would bully him as a kid for his large head, so using magnets and law of attraction as inspiration, he created the philosophy of "Trickonology" as a way to subvert the Ebanoids and create a race that would wipe them out.
So Yakub created a dissident movement and created riots with his followers, the cops arrested him and since he had so many followers, prisons couldn't fit all of them, so the King of Egypt personally went to Yakub and agreed to give them 20 years worth of welfare and some ships so Yakub and his followers could exile themselves in exodus to other lands.
The Ship's destination was the Patmos Islands, and on their destination Yakub started his dastardly plan of Eugenics by making sure only light skinned babies were born and darker skinned babies were tossed off. those that survived the eugenics were eventually to become other races like the Asians, Naative Americans and Arabs.

Once they reached Patmos, Yakub's plan was complete, he did not live to see Patmos but his work was done and he told his Albinoid children their destiny or some shit.

Anyways Moses tried to stop them with Dynamite or something, I don't know have the PDF

Wai-wai-wait!

So you're telling me, that even in BLACK POWAH WE WUZ KANGZ fanfiction history; whites are genetically predisposed to dominate blacks?

 

[Ghostse]

Invasive Eucalyptus trees went relatively unmanaged because cutting trees = bad. So we have this invasive Australian tree that is sucking up over 9x as much water from creeks/rivers as native riparian trees, outcompeting those native trees for the water its overdrinking, oh and by the way they are full of highly flamable bark oil that fucking explodes (I'm serious) under extreme heat.

The fact the Eucalyptus turns into exploding high-temperature torch is part of its survival strategy. You can't be out-competed for sunlight if your oil-fire burns everything within 30 feet of you down to the roots.

 

[Fanatical Pragmatist]

The fact the Eucalyptus turns into exploding high-temperature torch is part of its survival strategy. You can't be out-competed for sunlight if your oil-fire burns everything within 30 feet of you down to the roots.

Its more competition for water than sunlight in their native Australia, but yeah. They are like the suicide bombers of the plant world if suicide bombers could regrow from their stump legs.

Trees in fiction: *Collective forest soul living in harmony*
Trees in reality: *Violently trying to murder each other for water, sunlight and decent dirt*