1 minute ago, Matt! said:

You grew up watching South Park though.

Yes I did, but saying in general that MAGA doesn't understand culture and the cultural war that has been going on for the last 15 years.

Politics is downstream from culture.

3 minutes ago, Stromboli1 said:

Warranted to be made fun of after the Botchamania over the Epstein files.

A lot of MAGA doesn't understand South Park and culture/nerd stuff in general.

Also, what do you mean they don’t understand? Most MAGA folks have "Christ first" in their Twitter bios. Last night’s desert segment was an obvious biblical reference, so how can they not understand it? Unless "Christ first" just means putting it in your bio without ever attending church or opening a Bible.

5 minutes ago, Stromboli1 said:

Yes I did, but saying in general that MAGA doesn't understand culture and the cultural war that has been going on for the last 15 years.

Politics is downstream from culture.

Sure, politics is downstream, but last time I checked South Park started way before (1997?) your "last 15 years" culture war kickoff.

Just now, Matt! said:

Also, what do you mean they don’t understand? Most MAGA folks have "Christ first" in their Twitter bios. Last night’s desert segment was an obvious biblical reference, so how can they not understand it? Unless "Christ first" just means putting it in your bio without ever attending church or opening a Bible.

They don't understand and are dismissive of nerd stuff; video games, anime, comic books, etc.

Their stance is basically do something to better yourself like learn a trade, read the bible, go for a walk, read, etc.

3 hours ago, Stromboli1 said:

Hulk wasn't doing well before he died like Ozzy.

Yeah the combination of cocaine and steroids seriously damage their hearts. They also take a lot of painkillers and so forth.

I saw an interview with Hogan just half a year ago or so and he seemed to be in good health for a wrestler (at least he claimed to be) outside of a lot of pain from his many back surgeries and injuries. Hogan said that his organs were in good shape, I guess he wasn't honest about that...

Ronnie Coleman is currently very ill, my guess is that he will die in the next couple of years at best.

1 hour ago, Matt! said:

Sure, politics is downstream, but last time I checked South Park started way before (1997?) your "last 15 years" culture war kickoff.

Missed this post.

The point was MAGA was so apathetic towards nerd culture and other cultural institutions over the years that were eventually overtaken by people wanting to use those cultural institutions and nerd culture as vessels for agendas and identity politics.

MAGA didn't see it until it was overt that sprinkled down into their spheres that they care about.

11 minutes ago, Cult Icon said:

Yeah the combination of cocaine and steroids seriously damage their hearts. They also take a lot of painkillers and so forth.

I saw an interview with Hogan just half a year ago or so and he seemed to be in good health for a wrestler (at least he claimed to be) outside of a lot of pain from his many back surgeries and injuries. Hogan said that his organs were in good shape, I guess he wasn't honest about that...

Ronnie Coleman is currently very ill, my guess is that he will die in the next couple of years at best.

Sadly I think Bruce Willis will go pretty soon as he can't talk, read, and is having trouble walking besides losing his memory.

Is this how it starts? Now she’s being called a "victim"? This scumbag got 20 years in federal prison for sex trafficking and crimes involving minors. Is this the first step towards softening her image so Donald can pardon her later?

@Stromboli1 You probably know Newsmax so please be kind and educate me on the matter.

5 hours ago, Stromboli1 said:

MAGA didn't see it until it was overt that sprinkled down into their spheres that they care about.

And what would that be?

This.

34 minutes ago, Matt! said:

Is this how it starts? Now she’s being called a "victim"? This scumbag got 20 years in federal prison for sex trafficking and crimes involving minors. Is this the first step towards softening her image so Donald can pardon her later?

@Stromboli1 You probably know Newsmax so please be kind and educate me on the matter.

Newsmax is the ying to MSNBC & CNN's yang if you know what I mean.

31 minutes ago, Matt! said:

And what would that be?

Education, sports, their jobs, local governments, military, police, firefighters, and many more.

33 minutes ago, Stromboli1 said:

Newsmax is the ying to MSNBC & CNN's yang if you know what I mean.

I know what you mean. Except MSNBC and CNN aren’t out here calling convicted child traffickers "victims". That’s not "yang", that’s propaganda.

35 minutes ago, Stromboli1 said:

Education, sports, their jobs, local governments, military, police, firefighters, and many more.

You say they value education, but red states consistently defund public schools and push anti-teacher agendas. You say they value jobs, yet fight unions, block wage increases and rank highest in poverty. You say they wave flags for military, firefighters and police but scream "deep state" and "feds are corrupt" when things don’t go their way. What part of that is "value" ?

1 hour ago, Matt! said:

You say they value education, but red states consistently defund public schools and push anti-teacher agendas. You say they value jobs, yet fight unions, block wage increases and rank highest in poverty. You say they wave flags for military, firefighters and police but scream "deep state" and "feds are corrupt" when things don’t go their way. What part of that is "value" ?

very few Americans are members of unions (unlike in Germany and other european countries etc) due to massive de-industrialization. The collapse of industry in the 1980s-onward decimated the blue collar unions.

libertarians/republicans attack public education/teachers unions because according to libertarian doctrine/dogma the private sector does everything better and the public sector is just a source of social parasitism. So all government jobs are considered more or less parasitic/lazy mouth-breathers. The sub-par performance of American public education for decades has reinforced this belief.

Their idea is to make K-12 education a for-profit enterprise like the insanely expensive US university system!

However republicans/libertarianism has exceptions (military, firefighters, police). Here in the US we also have enormous numbers of for-profit prisons!

When you see the dismantling of elements of the federal gov't & mass firings by the Trump administration he is merely following the Project 2025 blueprint created by the Republicans. I believe that the goal is to eliminate as many Republican unfriendly Deep State elements as possible and also open up business opportunities for the private sector.

10 hours ago, Matt! said:

You say they value education, but red states consistently defund public schools and push anti-teacher agendas. You say they value jobs, yet fight unions, block wage increases and rank highest in poverty. You say they wave flags for military, firefighters and police but scream "deep state" and "feds are corrupt" when things don’t go their way. What part of that is "value" ?

The school stuff happened during covid where parents started pushing back on public schools, although there were calls for school choice before covid. Then there was always the argument that the US was #1 in the world and Top 10 for education until the Department of Education was created.

Some states are right to work states where employees can't be required to join unions.

As for the military the physical standards were lowered, image problems, woke/dei issues within the military, take the jab or be discharged, and I'm forgetting other stuff.

The police in areas applied a two tier application of the law, closed down businesses that didn't break covid protocol while looking the other way for certain businesses.

Both sides view the government when their side is not in power as corrupt, ruining this country, etc. Then there's the conspiracy theorists who conspiracy no matter whomever is in charge.

11 hours ago, Matt! said:

I know what you mean. Except MSNBC and CNN aren’t out here calling convicted child traffickers "victims". That’s not "yang", that’s propaganda.

They're all propagandists on different sides of the political spectrum.

23 minutes ago, Stromboli1 said:

The school stuff happened during covid where parents started pushing back on public schools, although there were calls for school choice before covid. Then there was always the argument that the US was #1 in the world and Top 10 for education until the Department of Education was created.

Some states are right to work states where employees can't be required to join unions.

As for the military the physical standards were lowered, image problems, woke/dei issues within the military, take the jab or be discharged, and I'm forgetting other stuff.

The police in areas applied a two tier application of the law, closed down businesses that didn't break covid protocol while looking the other way for certain businesses.

Both sides view the government when their side is not in power as corrupt, ruining this country, etc. Then there's the conspiracy theorists who conspiracy no matter whomever is in charge.

The U.S Department of Education was established in 1979. Before that comparisons of international education systems were extremely limited and not standardized, so no legit global ranking put the U.S at #1 or Top 10 in any verified way.

Standards have been adjusted over time, mostly to accommodate modern roles like tech-based warfare (parade drone guy has probably never seen the weight room, but he can do more damage on the battlefield than group of marines.)

Conservative media and Pete uses “woke” as a catch-all for any effort to diversify or modernize. DEI programs are about making sure the best talent doesn’t get excluded because of race, gender or background not about lowering standards.

Forget the previous line for a second, let’s quickly compare the current and former SecDefs. Lloyd Austin served 41 years in the Army, retired as a 4-star General and led CENTCOM. Pete Hegseth left the National Guard as a Major after a few years and spent the last decade ranting on Fox & Friends. So tell me, who looks like the "DEI hire" here?