Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 17th November 2024 - eviltoast

Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

Last week’s thread

(Semi-obligatory thanks to @dgerard for starting this)

  • Sailor Sega Saturn@awful.systems
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    4 days ago

    A bit of an aside, but how did everyone decide to use the exact phrase “decisive victory” when congratulating president elect Trump? It keeps jumping out to me and I find it kind of weird. It has almost a militaristic tone.

    • V0ldek@awful.systems
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      2 days ago

      Also it isn’t? 50.2% to 48.1% of votes is not decisive in any sensible meaning of the word?

      If you account for the turnout (around 60%) it means 30% voted for Trump and 28.9% for Harris, so “none of those” won decisively with 40%!

      • bitofhope@awful.systems
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        2 days ago

        Losing every swing state and failing to even win the consolation trophy of the popular vote after even Hillary fucking Clinton managed that much is something I’d call getting your ass handed to you. The US election system is terrible, but it’s the game they were playing and Trump won hands down.

        Also, not that it’s the point but I have to note that technically most election victories are decisive, in the sense that they resolve the winner with little to no ambiguity (which is usually the case, even when the margin is narrow). In that sense, the only way Trump’s victory is not decisive is if you contest the legitimacy of the whole election.

        • V0ldek@awful.systems
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          2 days ago

          Also, not that it’s the point but I have to note that technically most election victories are decisive, in the sense that they resolve the winner with little to no ambiguity (which is usually the case, even when the margin is narrow). In that sense, the only way Trump’s victory is not decisive is if you contest the legitimacy of the whole election.

          This is such pedantry that you might as well say “the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines decisive as…”

          • bitofhope@awful.systems
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            2 days ago

            Yea I know, had to get that digression out of my system, especially since you said “in any sensible meaning of the word” and all. Sorry, I didn’t mean to nuh-uh you on semantics, just point out something that tickled my pedantry sense.

            Edit: I also brought it up because IMO “decisive” is a bit of an odd choice to describe election victory, unless referring to some grander context where the election marks a major historical turning point in national or international politics in favor of the winning side.

          • sc_griffith@awful.systems
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            2 days ago

            considering trump has spent the last four years pretending he won the previous election I actually do wonder if part of the subtext is “we acknowledge you won for real realsies and we cannot talk shit about you as a fake president”

    • Soyweiser@awful.systems
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      3 days ago

      Could be they are sharing a bit of a media bubble. In 2016 there was a bit of a (pre election) “he will win in a landslide” thing due to Scottbert.

    • swlabr@awful.systems
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      4 days ago

      IMO, coordinated media strategy. you can send all the people you want to congratulate you a prebaked message or tweet or whatever, saves them the trouble of writing something themselves. That or copy paste

      • zogwarg@awful.systems
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        4 days ago

        I think that particular talking point also serves an exculpatory purpose: “If it was only a razor-thin victory I might understand being angry with me, but see it’s a decisive victory. He has the mandate of heaven of the people (this is a Trumpian victory! not a Democrat failure!) ! It would be wrong not to congratulate him!”

        • swlabr@awful.systems
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          4 days ago

          after this decisive victory, I guess I have no choice but to take this mask off, what a shame…

          that+ losing the popular vote in 2016 must have really hurt that ego of his.