Technically, the US also has protections against wannabe dictators claiming they are above the law: a supreme court which, were it not undermined by that dictator's toadies, should shut that shit down in a second. Still, there's a difference between blindly following everything that court makes up out of thin air and supporting the actual rule of law. Same with democracy.

Being called socialist isn't even the issue. My point is that a news monolith has spent decades radicalising half the country and at this point there are enough cultists that will mercilessly tear down anybody Fox&Co paint a target on. Until there is a solid defense against such a hate machine, no party will flourish on its merits as long as Fox-drilled stooges will only be fed a caricature of any opposition Fox designates as the enemy. Even your perfect ideal candidate would lose the election. The boogeyman Fox would paint them to be would be so repulsive and half the country would never even hear their ideas anyway, except what skewed perspective Fox would blast the viewers with 24/7.

Counterpoint: anybody not cheering for Fox News' talking points sufficiently enthusiastically is declared "socialist" and all but suggested as target for public lynching (or in some cases actually the target of a lynch mob storming the capitol) and the masses have been drilled into going berserk at hearing the right keywords, regardless of what happens in reality.

Calling an attempt to break this information monopoly over half the nation an uphill battle is the epitome of understatement.

Countdown until it turns out that everybody associated with any competition to Musk's companies just so happens to be a criminal Trump siccs his DOJ after: 5... 4...

The Onion writers: "Let's go with this one, the real picks are too over the top."

Kirk being played by Chris Pineapple.

No opinion on the matter at hand, I'm just throwing out there that saving a woman's life when she's bleeding out due to lethal complications in her pregnancy is illegal until the last second in many states (let's see how Project 2025 will impact that in the future). Appointing the kind of special counsel that has been perfectly normal and legal since like forever? Illegal the moment he investigates Trump. Doing crimes? Illegal. Doing crimes as president? Immune, according to Trump's Supreme court sock puppets..

What's legal and illegal only depends on how many judges you've bought these days.

PS: Oh and all that brazen bribery shit that would get any other official not just fired, but straight up locked up? Perfectly legal but only if you're a Supreme Court judge. Guess who got to decide that? Go have a cookie if your guess was the very people accepting the bribes.

Also having been born into generational wealth and exploiting the finance system - that's the most famous rich-people-hobby.

Huh. Looks like I read that differently than others here: I thought for sure the family man (who cheated on all his consecutive wives), who loves his neigbour (unless they're non-white, non-rich or non-straight), who would never commit crimes (unless he felt like it and could get away with it by buying judges and winning elections), etc etc was the one crushing actual christian values.

I feel like this picture would benefit from putting all the steamrolled values there in quotation marks.

Honestly, the voters voted in a way that made sense, given the information they had, which was either nothing - complete and utter lethargy, or a hyper-partisan distortion of reality reinforced by a multi-billion dollar propaganda industry backed by, among many others, the literally richest man on the planet in addition to an entire network of propaganda stations blasting disinformation 24/7. The voters being wrong is intentional and has been in the making for decades.

That's cringe.

I wonder what that perfectly censored word is.