Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

I was lucky enough to be able to catch one of the recent screenings of Robert Altman's Nashville at one of the Austin Alamos. I could barely recognize the America it depicts.

  • Hook 'Em 2
Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, The Original Greaser Bob said:

Water under the bridge.  Putting faith in the youth.  Need to attack political Christianity wherever it shows its face.

Better do it quickly.  I figure we have about 2 more years of being able to openly criticize this regime or Christianity before that leads to your corpse hanging from a wall.

Edited by TexArcher
  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
20 hours ago, Satchel said:

It’s kinds why the singing of God bless America has somewhat bothered me. In someways, it comes across as a bit arrogant - that were more deserving of God’s favor than we are his mercy. Whenever I hear the chorus of America the Beautiful, in my mind, I think these words: America, America. God have mercy on thee…

A little Katherine Hepburn tangent:

Hepburn got married early in her career (when she was 21) to Ludlow Odgen Smith.  Even though Hepburn didn't have any plans to take his name, she hated the idea of being called "Kate Smith" by anyone.  Kate Smith, "the Songbird of the South," was a rather stout, ultra-patriotic singer well known for singing "Good Bless America."  To overcome this objection, Ludlow Odgen Smith changed is name to S. Ogden Ludlow to avoid any confusion.  (Undefeated.) 

So, yeah, not liking the song is nothing new. 

  • Hook 'Em 2
Posted
22 hours ago, Satchel said:

It’s kinds why the singing of God bless America has somewhat bothered me. In someways, it comes across as a bit arrogant - that were more deserving of God’s favor than we are his mercy. Whenever I hear the chorus of America the Beautiful, in my mind, I think these words: America, America. God have mercy on thee…

I'm sure this is common knowledge, but Woody Guthrie wrote "This Land is Your Land" as a direct retort to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America." 

  • Hook 'Em 6
  • Like 1
Posted
12 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

And it's not our government.  We're getting the government that a sizable chunk of "we the people" want.  The problem with America is Americans.

I'm gonna push back on this.  

We are here today because of the decisions made for decades by the powerful and the wealthy. We are here today because we let American capitalism morph into something grotesque. We are here today because journalism died. I'm not informed enough to speak confidently about it, but I feel the Reagan administration is where things quickly started going down the drain. Our government is broken, and has been for a while. 

I agree that Americans who condone Trumpism/MAGA should take some personal responsibility when the shit clearly and loudly hits the fan. But these people are weak and scared. That's why they fall for this authoritarian nonsense. 

  • Hook 'Em 6
  • Like 1
Posted

 

2 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Quit excusing them and forgiving them.  They are huge pieces of shit.  They are mean, cruel, and shitty.  We don't excuse the Germans for their choices in the first half of the last century, made for many of the same reasons and in similar circumstances.  Fuck that shit.  No matter how weak and scared you are, when you choose the "let's go with antidemocratic cruelty and xenophobia as our cornerstone beliefs" route, you chose shittiness and you are shitty.  And you are making the world shitty for everyone else.

I can feel pity for someone who was abused as a child. I can want them to get help.  But once they choose to pass that abuse on to a new generation, then guess what they are?  Piece-of-shit child abusers.  Fuck them.

"Understanding" and latitude only emboldens and further empowers those shitheels.  Fuck them all.  Crush them.  Make them suffer, make their shattered selves crawl back under a rock, where they belong.

If you love your country, you believe in fighting its enemies, and since the Civil War, this country has never faced an enemy as dangerous as MAGAs.

I'm not forgiving them. But there's a fuck ton of blame to go around. I think the powerful and wealthy deserve most of it. 

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 1
Posted
3 minutes ago, BrickHorn said:

As the kids would say: we’re cooked. This board is an anomaly. Your social circle is the exception. Most of America is full of uneducated dipshits who couldn’t give two shits about democracy or rights or equality. All they want is to eat ultraprocessed empty calories and feed their dopamine habit by jamming what little money they have into a noisy, blinky theft machine. 

The Idiocracy is upon us.

1c980107-ba18-47ce-aa51-295b36691b58_tex

Many of us have realized over the years "hey, I'm smarter and make better judgments than average."  This board draws grads of a pretty university, so that's not an unfair conclusion to reach.

But dear God, when you realize how uneducated and stupid the vast majority of Americans actually are -- and you realize that 1) you're not THAT smart, yet 2) you're also in the top 5% of intelligent and educated people here.....yeah, we're fucked.  We're turbofucked.

Not just because we have a giant critical mass of lizard-brained idiocy, but because they are now fully empowered and unleashed.  "Weaponized stupidity."  The rest of us don't have a chance.  We're outnumbered by a staggering ratio.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
3 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

when you realize how uneducated and stupid the vast majority of Americans actually are -- and you realize that 1) you're not THAT smart, yet 2) you're also in the top 5% of intelligent and educated people here.....yeah, we're fucked.  We're turbofucked.

It's why Idiocracy was so terrifying despite how entertaining and funny it was. That movie's all I think about any time I'm in a large crowd of unwashed masses.

  • Hook 'Em 2
Posted

I feel the same way I did when the Rodney King video came out. I was angry that they were doing it but felt a sigh of relief that finally people got to see black folks weren't lying about the ass kickings they were getting when no one was looking. The ugliest part of America is right out in the open. All these years most of America has been in denial. Swearing everything was just fine. Sure, it was fine for a small segment of the populace. This was the only way forward. Sad it had to come to this but the 1st step of the 12 step program is said to be the hardest.

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 1
  • Rage+1 2
Posted
55 minutes ago, Hank Kingsley said:

 

I'm not forgiving them. But there's a fuck ton of blame to go around. I think the powerful and wealthy deserve most of it. 

Naw bra! Olds vote. Olds should have enough experience to quit falling for the okie-doke. I think I was about 7 when I first started screaming at Wile E. Coyote to quit falling for the Roadrunner's shit every Saturday. That's how I feel when I look at this country.

  • Hook 'Em 4
  • Like 1
Posted

My daughter’s Russian friends just got back from Alabama. They were deeply confused when their waitress in an Alabama diner was fawning over how awesome Putin is. Seriously. This is how stupid these people are. 

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Rage+1 6
  • Fuck Around and Find Out 2
Posted
On 5/26/2025 at 8:07 AM, immamac said:

The soul of America is foul and rotten. Healing your soul is much harder than anything else and I don't think it'll be possible without revolution or significant trauma. 

We are headed straight for revolution, I just hope it's a bloodless revolution. 

There's no such thing as a bloodless revolution. 

  • Hook 'Em 7
  • Like 1
Posted
9 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

We've never reckoned with our original sin (slavery).  Which is amazing, being that we fought our bloodiest war over the issue....but then we never finished the job.  We lurched back and forth between the shittiness of Reconstruction and then the shittiness of Jim Crow, without ever solving a goddamned thing.

We are a nation of immigrants.....that hates immigrants.

We are a nation with a much-larger-than-normal "minority" population....that hates minorities.

We are a decadent nation....that is violently puritanical about sex and drugs and such.

We are a nation that brags on law and order....with an off-the-charts rate of gun violence.

 

Our national ethos is denial.  To get better, we don't have to self-flagellate.  But goddammit, we need to admit to the full spectrum of our sins, and quit making excuses.

So what are we doing?  Literally BANNING any education that would "make white people feel bad."  Which is shitty, when you realize that white people are the most fragile snowflakes around, and merely hearing that this country was built on a foundation of enslavement of black people, which distorted wealth and power in ways apparent to the present day, makes them hurt in their fee-fees.

What's crazy about this country is the motherfuckers that came over here, came here because they weren't shit where they came from. They got here and a couple years in, here come the Irish and Sicilians. Now they hate those dirty Irish and Italians. A Few years later here come the Chinese, and the Blacks were set free. All the sudden the Irish and Italians get folded into the "white" box in order to gang up on those dirty yellows, reds, and browns. Now the Jews want in, but we would rather let the dude in Germany kill them all rather then let in those shifty Jews.

The truth is none of us were shit or we wouldn't have left where we came from. That's the funniest thing about it. Now we wanna puff out our chest as if any of us are from some Aristocrats. Fuck out of here.

  • Hook 'Em 4
Posted
44 minutes ago, Thatguy said:

I feel the same way I did when the Rodney King video came out. I was angry that they were doing it but felt a sigh of relief that finally people got to see black folks weren't lying about the ass kickings they were getting when no one was looking. The ugliest part of America is right out in the open. All these years most of America has been in denial. Swearing everything was just fine. Sure, it was fine for a small segment of the populace. This was the only way forward. Sad it had to come to this but the 1st step of the 12 step program is said to be the hardest.

I was willing and hoping to believe that was a small segment of the police.  Then I met them.   

  • Hook 'Em 5
  • Like 1
Posted
1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

1c980107-ba18-47ce-aa51-295b36691b58_tex

Many of us have realized over the years "hey, I'm smarter and make better judgments than average."  This board draws grads of a pretty university, so that's not an unfair conclusion to reach.

But dear God, when you realize how uneducated and stupid the vast majority of Americans actually are -- and you realize that 1) you're not THAT smart, yet 2) you're also in the top 5% of intelligent and educated people here.....yeah, we're fucked.  We're turbofucked.

Not just because we have a giant critical mass of lizard-brained idiocy, but because they are now fully empowered and unleashed.  "Weaponized stupidity."  The rest of us don't have a chance.  We're outnumbered by a staggering ratio.

It is not really just a measure of intelligence and education (those help) but how our brains work and how we identify our values.   Some of us have an internal moral/ethical foundation that is very strong, some of us need an outsider to tell us these.  Some have clearly defined values while others need someone to tell it to them.  Some people want to live in their fictionalized authoritarian utopia, because they are lazy and happy, and can easily ignore what isn't happening to them, or dismiss what happens to others as simple hysterics.   Christians and Republicans often lack these internal values/ethics.  I did ask my father "What could Trump do that would make you not vote for him? " and his answer was "nothing."   

That clearly pointed to a lack of values/ethics and how this has moved into what @TahoeHorn accused others of, identity politics/cult of personalities.  That is all this is to them.  A game, a reality TV show, and a fictionalized struggle against the forces of evil: Jesus, freedom, choice, education, science, and at the root of it,  responsibility.   

  • Hook 'Em 3
  • Haha 1
Posted
On 5/26/2025 at 12:07 PM, Hank Kingsley said:

I'm going to London in a couple of months with my son (his first overseas trip).  I used to spend a month there many summers as a kid at my grandparents' house. Any time I brought up I was American or from Texas, every local's eyes lit up. They'd ask if I had a horse or a ranch (thanks to Dallas and the Ewings) and people had reverence for our country and state. I was always proud to mention it.  

Now we'll understandably be met with this anytime I bring up where we're from: 

giphy.gif

Maybe my all-time favorite gif.

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 2
Posted
42 minutes ago, Nivek said:

That is all this is to them.  A game,

They all need an Augie to them them it’s not a goddamn game, it’s our fucking lives. 
 

 

  • Hook 'Em 3
  • Like 1
Posted
2 hours ago, BrickHorn said:

Too stupid, too ignorant, too distracted by shiny objects and bullshit.

A couple months ago, I visited some family in the rust belt. They live in a once-thriving town that has been on the decline since the 70s. It’s full of abandoned factories, boarded-up storefronts, and decaying once-stately homes. And slot machines. Everywhere.

And I mean everywhere. Every bar has slots. The corner convenience store with bars on the window has slots. The national gas station chain has slots. The neighborhood grocer has slots. The car wash has slots. The BBQ joint has slots. The fast food fried chicken place has slots. The lingerie and dildo store has slots. And if you don’t want your degenerate gambling to be distracted by a car wash, fried chicken, or panties, not to worry: there are plenty of gaming parlors that offer nothing but slots, slots, slots. 

As the kids would say: we’re cooked. This board is an anomaly. Your social circle is the exception. Most of America is full of uneducated dipshits who couldn’t give two shits about democracy or rights or equality. All they want is to eat ultraprocessed empty calories and feed their dopamine habit by jamming what little money they have into a noisy, blinky theft machine. 

The Idiocracy is upon us.

but, but, but the rich men north of richmond!

Posted
1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

We've never reckoned with our original sin (slavery).  Which is amazing, being that we fought our bloodiest war over the issue....but then we never finished the job.  We lurched back and forth between the shittiness of Reconstruction and then the shittiness of Jim Crow, without ever solving a goddamned thing.

We are a nation of immigrants.....that hates immigrants.

We are a nation with a much-larger-than-normal "minority" population....that hates minorities.

We are a decadent nation....that is violently puritanical about sex and drugs and such.

We are a nation that brags on law and order....with an off-the-charts rate of gun violence.

 

Our national ethos is denial.  To get better, we don't have to self-flagellate.  But goddammit, we need to admit to the full spectrum of our sins, and quit making excuses.

So what are we doing?  Literally BANNING any education that would "make white people feel bad."  Which is shitty, when you realize that white people are the most fragile snowflakes around, and merely hearing that this country was built on a foundation of enslavement of black people, which distorted wealth and power in ways apparent to the present day, makes them hurt in their fee-fees.

I can’t make this point enough because it’s still unfathomable to me. Since American religionists don’t like what they see in the mirror, they’ve decided to codify in their pseudo Christian canon, their cruelty and lack of empathy. Problem solved.

  • Hook 'Em 4
Posted
3 hours ago, Thatguy said:

I feel the same way I did when the Rodney King video came out. I was angry that they were doing it but felt a sigh of relief that finally people got to see black folks weren't lying about the ass kickings they were getting when no one was looking. The ugliest part of America is right out in the open. All these years most of America has been in denial. Swearing everything was just fine. Sure, it was fine for a small segment of the populace. This was the only way forward. Sad it had to come to this but the 1st step of the 12 step program is said to be the hardest.

 

We admitted we were powerless over alcohol ignorance — that our lives had become unmanageable.

  • Like 1
Posted
2 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

 

We admitted we were powerless over alcohol ignorance — that our lives had become unmanageable.

My mom was an alcoholic so much appreciated sir!

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
3 minutes ago, Thatguy said:

My mom was an alcoholic so much appreciated sir!

We're not wholly powerless over ignorance, it's just a lot easier for ignoramuses like Trump to manipulate the ignorant.

  • Hook 'Em 2
Posted

A bit of overlap from the other thread, just wait to see how he acts in the leadup to the World Cup '26 and Olympics '28. A lot of people holding some pride left will likely give up, especially when the republican party does nothing to stop him while still winning elections. This is who we are now to the rest of the world.

Posted
A bit of overlap from the other thread, just wait to see how he acts in the leadup to the World Cup '26 and Olympics '28. A lot of people holding some pride left will likely give up, especially when the republican party does nothing to stop him while still winning elections. This is who we are now to the rest of the world.

I have a hard time believing soccer will be part of any inflection point in our current path.
  • Like 1
Posted

This thread resonates with me.

I posted a while back that I was at an MLB game and realized during the national anthem that I didn’t want to sing it or even acknowledge it right now. The people currently in charge of this country are full of hate and I don’t feel right to honor that. I think July 4th will be weird this year and possibly for the next 4 years, maybe forever. I’m saddened by that but I won’t unconditionally profess my love to a country that is completely broken from the top down. Fuck that.

I used to be fairly patriotic about July 4th, the national anthem, the Olympics, recognizing our country’s many accomplishments on the world stage, watching something like Band of Brothers and knowing my grandfather’s generation kicked some ass, the list goes on. Now those things evoke feelings of frustration and disappointment.

Trump is an evil person, but MAGA is a disease that he unleashed on us and will be here long after he is gone. He has weaponized misinformation on a grand scale and created a perfect playbook for his eventual successors to continue down the same path. Corruption and lies are the keys to success because half of Americans think of politics as an “us vs. them” team sport or merely entertainment. Many people apparently get a sick pleasure from watching someone oppress people who are different (LGBTQ, female, brown, non-Christian, whatever), and they will gladly continue voting for politicians to continue to inflict that hate.

America has a cancer for which there currently is no known cure. I don’t have much hope for a peaceful correction, unless possibly economic hardship eventually causes the MAGA movement to fail and a generation of voters dies off and gets replaced by people with new values.

We also have to find a way to better educate (lol) our population and combat misinformation. All signs are currently pointing in the other direction.

  • Hook 'Em 7
  • Like 1
  • Rage+1 1
Posted

Thread reads like an American Anonymous support group. 

Zoom out for some perspective y'all. The American experience spans centuries at this point, but is really fucking young in the grand scheme of things. We are infants figuring out a political system that in the end just might not work out. 

 

 

 

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Fuck You 1
Posted (edited)
On 5/27/2025 at 5:26 AM, Blotto said:

The problem isnt with the fucking assholes in DC, the problem is with the assholes known collectively as americans. We are collectively too fucking stupid to work our way out of this mess.  The president of the United States takes a fucking oath to uphold the constitution, and a few months later openly muses that  he isnt sure he has to uphold the constitution. Most Americans probably aren't aware that he even said it because they are too busy scrolling tiktok, and not enough of those that are aware of what he said even give a shit that our constitutional rights are now subjugated to the whims of the president. Burn it down and see what replaces it, because America is dead. 

pretty much this ^ sadly. been this way of thinking for some time for me. At the same time, I also believe some Americans are some of the best people I have ever been around. But they are the minority. I fought and fought the urge to call anyone stupid, but alas, at teh end of the day a lack of empathy, a lack of care for others,  lack of any attention span - gotta to call it what it is. 

I remember a pattern of people complaining about a hostile takeover of Maga during Biden and the runup to the election. I distinctly remember many posts from @atomheartbevo (I love you man!) telling everyone not to panic, not to worry, these people are too stupid to collectively take action and "win" (paraphrasing). 

When people refuse to learn, refuse to listen to anyone, refuse to engage in any form of honest debate - then what?

When people willingly listen to only things they want - and know it - and repeat this...then what? And that certainly isn't just Maga, its most of us honestly, but those with a brain at least fight it

When you can't use logic and reason?

When people let the idea of process breakdown for the short term victory they want - then what?

They are indeed stupid, and that is entirely the problem. You will lose to them. They will out recruit you, they have no moral compass at all, they have deep seeded fear of anything different, and they don't care what anyone thinks of them. You got nothing to work with. Nothing. 

Edited by staboner
Posted
1 hour ago, Anastasis said:

Thread reads like an American Anonymous support group. 

Zoom out for some perspective y'all. The American experience spans centuries at this point, but is really fucking young in the grand scheme of things. We are infants figuring out a political system that in the end just might not work out. 

 

 

 

well, if you want to be honest, no political system has ever worked my man. Everything collapses eventually, as we know. 

And people do need a support group. We are losing the structures, safety, and legal recourse opps that we depend on as a free society. The simple fear of it is curbing people's behaviors now. Its happening and its real. I would have preferred an intelligent restructuring of the gubment myself but alas we know that never happens. Complete destruction is the only way. Sure the arcs changes names, change time/length, change tunes and so, but its all the same shit. All "American" values are now in the garbage and ain't coming back any time soon. And it pisses me the F off because to the point of this thread I would love to be proud once again. I really would.

Party on surlists. A ways to go till Friday I am afraid. 

  • Hook 'Em 4
  • Like 1
Posted
1 hour ago, Anastasis said:

Thread reads like an American Anonymous support group. 

Zoom out for some perspective y'all. The American experience spans centuries at this point, but is really fucking young in the grand scheme of things. We are infants figuring out a political system that in the end just might not work out. 

 

 

 

We have the hindsight of history, but without a course correction our destruction will happen well short of the 507 years it took The Roman Empire to fall.

Posted
4 hours ago, Anastasis said:

Agree. 

i think this podcast with Petey B is a good feel for lots of us. he is trying like hell to be positive, he doesn't want to be rude or condescending, sure ok, we all get that. Sadly, many of us have been hanging out with the feeling for some time, but I feel its gone. America doesn't appear to be a serious country where people care about government. Its either long winded and lacks marketing (Ds), its fear based and destructive (Rs) or its longer than a 6 sec tiktok (the 1/3rd that is dead weight). I don't want to sound like this, I want to sound like Pete. But I just can't anymore. Either purposeful destruction or purposeful ignorance, neither of which has jack shit to do with "American values" that my family both fought for and migrated to experience. 

 

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
15 hours ago, Hank Kingsley said:

I'm gonna push back on this.  

We are here today because of the decisions made for decades by the powerful and the wealthy. We are here today because we let American capitalism morph into something grotesque. We are here today because journalism died. I'm not informed enough to speak confidently about it, but I feel the Reagan administration is where things quickly started going down the drain. Our government is broken, and has been for a while. 

I agree that Americans who condone Trumpism/MAGA should take some personal responsibility when the shit clearly and loudly hits the fan. But these people are weak and scared. That's why they fall for this authoritarian nonsense. 

I've interjected this on here before, but the broken government is something you can look back into the WWII era of American politics. The Reagan era was just the point where stupidity had found a permanent home and the growth exploded from that point forward into this monster that it is today. WWII though had some ridiculous sequences on the home front thanks to people like William Randolph Hearst. The 1944 behind the scenes campaign to get MacArthur the Republican nod for president was among the most atrocious things he was a part of. That man was just pure awful, an open supporter of the Nazis in his newspapers in the 1930's and an avowed enemy of FDR after supporting him early on. Hearst and his newspaper handiwork put an imprint on the party and its voters long before the era that all of us were born in.

Posted
2 hours ago, UpperWestside said:

I've interjected this on here before, but the broken government is something you can look back into the WWII era of American politics. The Reagan era was just the point where stupidity had found a permanent home and the growth exploded from that point forward into this monster that it is today. WWII though had some ridiculous sequences on the home front thanks to people like William Randolph Hearst. The 1944 behind the scenes campaign to get MacArthur the Republican nod for president was among the most atrocious things he was a part of. That man was just pure awful, an open supporter of the Nazis in his newspapers in the 1930's and an avowed enemy of FDR after supporting him early on. Hearst and his newspaper handiwork put an imprint on the party and its voters long before the era that all of us were born in.

True as this is, that stretch from WW2 to 1980 man. We almost had it. Peaking in the 1960's. Housing construction was still pretty good. Almost everything we churned out in the automotive world was fuckin awesome. Equality was heading in the right direction. That's when the south rose up, and politicians rode that wave all the way to current times if you think about it.

Sometimes I think to myself, what if Reagan never came along. That dude, even though more polite and charismatic, did far more damage than Trump is doing.

  • Hook 'Em 4
  • Like 1
Posted

1973 was the last year wages and taxes were really balanced. It was peak times. Then in 1980 the wealth divided really pushed forward with the trickle down theft.

96256f03be15cd4c435cc1fe832fb4a5.png
Meanwhile, the minimum wage has barely increased in most places. It's been 16 years since Texas gave a small boost to $7.25 an hour despite the economy booming.

  • Hook 'Em 2
Posted
6 minutes ago, Fastbreak said:

Then in 1980 the wealth divided really pushed forward with the trickle down theft.

Trickle-down economics is the most obvious lie ever told.

”Hey working class people. I know you want a fair share of the American prosperity you’ve created. Now, we could just hand that to you directly. But wouldn’t it be better for you if, instead, we handed that money over to rich people and then counted on their undeniable devotion to fairness to somehow distribute this money equitably?”

  • Hook 'Em 4
  • Rage+1 3
Posted
3 hours ago, Hank Kingsley said:

It's amazing how many people still try to promote it with a straight face. 

 

Isn't it weird though? We've been running the trickle down experiment for over 40 years now. Why are people still voting for it?

  • Hook 'Em 2
Posted
15 minutes ago, Thatguy said:

Isn't it weird though? We've been running the trickle down experiment for over 40 years now. Why are people still voting for it?

newsflash: people are fucking idiots



×
×
  • Create New...