Over the weekend, 17,000 people canceled their #WorldCup tickets

[epilonious@toot.lgbt]

@benroyce @bazcook @ikuturso @lynfox A bunch of the people who knew how destructive and terrible Pissed Off Americans could be... who spent DECADES going "Let's see if we can just contain these couple of grumps and trust these folks who say they have it handled and know how to keep 'em calm" are now glowing Red, White, and Blue with the flames of apoplexy at the sheer incompetence and unbridled pettyness.

All the "When they go low we go high" folks are now basically going "High road's closed."

[bazcook@mas.to]

@benroyce @lynfox @ikuturso - absolutely, Americans must vote. Everyone eligible to do so. Without fear of repercussion. Providing the government lets it happen. Or accepts the result.
I don't see a another January 6th - this time led by Democrats - happening. Or without significant bloodshed if it does.

[admin@mastodon.ai8w.ddns.net]

@benroyce

I agree.. both parties need to give us candidates we can vote FOR, instead of candidates to vote AGAINST...

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@bazcook @lynfox @ikuturso

thank you

🙏

i just worry about talk that paints it as if trump is insurmountable. it deadens people's spirits

trump is defeatable

[kristen_d@mastodon.social]

@benroyce Good. Fuck the United States, land of the criminal pedophiles, home of the free billionaires to fuck everyone and everything because feelings. I hope it's such an embarrassing dud just like needledick Trump. #Loser #FIFA #WorldCup #Boycott #SuckUp #Assholes who capitulate.

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@admin

100% agreed

but even if we don't get that, you still vote for the candidate that isn't an outright fascist. it's just self-preservation

[radioclash@retro.pizza]

@pascaline @benroyce sadly that happens in all sports, holliganism and destruction, football isn't alone in that.

But yes although football is massive here in the UK, I've never got it. Watched the odd World Cup, but not really into sportsball. I was constantly criticised at school for not getting into team sports, and the fans of same can be very homophobic so avoided.

[tuban_muzuru@beige.party]

@benroyce

When I see this sort of thing:

"As an American: don't come here
Don't do business with the #USA"

I'm thinking about the people around me, here in Wisconsin, dependent on tourist business - it's pretty terrible up here just now.

Not a milligram of nuance to anything said around here.

[admin@mastodon.ai8w.ddns.net]

@benroyce

Pretty much why I've voted third party for the last six elections...

I keep hoping more people do so, so a third party can get into the debates and provide another point of view, and someone else to vote for.

Maybe the rise of a third party will make the other two pull their heads out of their butts and do the job right, because NEITHER party has done so in recent memory....

[epilonious@toot.lgbt]

@benroyce @bazcook @ikuturso @lynfox everyone jokes about Karens.

Now imagine Karen with G-Wagon/Cybertruck/Yank-Tank with her kids in it and no fucks to give because she just saw her friend and neighbor get popped by someone 'Not From Their Town'?

She'll knock down whatever gravy seal, park with a wheel on his chest, and live stream them going through compartmentalization syndrome while calmly telling him he deserves it because he messed up her brunch plans with the lady he just shot.

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@tuban_muzuru

that's correct

avoid the usa. completely. florida. nevada. wisconsin. everywhere

zero nuance intended. zero nuance required

the country is acting in ways that can not and should not pass without consequence

[tuban_muzuru@beige.party]

@benroyce

Consequences for whom? Sure does make ethics a lot simpler when you can just throw us all in your Hefty Bag.

[epilonious@toot.lgbt]

@benroyce @bazcook @ikuturso @lynfox everyone jokes about rednecks.

Now imagine rednecks in the woods they grew-up-in sniping at agents, pulling them deeper into the woods, and then wounding one of them so they can draw out the rest of the squad.

[epilonious@toot.lgbt]

@benroyce @bazcook @ikuturso @lynfox America gets rid of governments they don't like.

American Democracy, for all it's foibles, was the weird, compromise-laden system that tried to get those switches to happen without creating a mass of pissed-off-Americans. And the current government knows it.

[pascaline@mastodon.nl]

@radioclash

Ah yes, the outcast because one doesn't like team sports. I was like that as well. Oh wait, I was an outcast for all other reasons, too.

There was something similar to dodgeball in school, I so disliked it. I didn't understand why one would want to hurt someone by hitting them as hard as possible.
The other children didn't want to play badminton with me because I kept throwing them impossible to hit shuttles. I never understood. Hitting a shuttle was simple.

@benroyce

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@admin

the usa is an fptp voting system

there can only ever be 2 parties. it's not corruption (corruption exists, but it's not the reason). it's just math:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duverger%27s_law

to get viable 3rd parties we need a new voting system, like ranked choice. then you can vote your conscience free and clear and not worry about dreary strategy

ranked choice is creeping in in places

but if you vote 3rd party *before* we get that you divide the left vote and help MAGA win

you can't vote 3rd party

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@tuban_muzuru

the hefty bag called the reality of living in a country. and yes we are all in it. and there is no alternative. who leads us has consequences, as a whole group

i'm not proposing a path. i'm describing the path we are on

don't shoot the messenger

[radioclash@retro.pizza]

@pascaline @benroyce the weird thing?

At break, I was happy to play rounders - someone brought in a ball and bat...or football with a tennis ball with my mates - with one goal made of bags or coats!

But when it came to organised games, I was always picked last and the PE teachers would give me aggro.

So I wasn't against sports, or exercise but something horrible came in when it was made official. Competitiveness is ugly.

[tuban_muzuru@beige.party]

@benroyce

I sure wish I was as similarly convinced of the evil of the American public. Yeah, when our leaders run amok, the thing which will convince those rogue elephants of their evil ways is to damage ordinary people who didn't do anything to anyone, just trying to run a business.

That's "reality"

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@PaulaToThePeople @bazcook @ikuturso @lynfox

that's right

no uprising happens just because someone starts rioting. why are they rioting? what do they stand for? who knows

if people vote, and then the vote is denied, and the people rise up: absolutely everyone is crystal clear as to what is happening and why. so people join in, because they know the message being delivered

so we have to vote first. otherwise there is no coherency of meaning