Astonished to hear someone come out and say "she didn't pander to me enough."

"The DNC needs to learn that nothing but perfectly tailoring their campaign to my specific desires, including the looming threat of fascism destroying everything I profess to care about, will earn my vote."

Oh, they have, dear anon. They have. People who refuse to vote are not their base. Biden was the most progressive president of our lifetime, and it did nothing for him or Harris. I promise you, they've learned from that, but it's the real lesson and not the one you want it to be.

It’s fascinating how something else mirrors certain behaviors: Muslim Americans, according to nonnie, are simultaneously terribly repressed and endangered (which ironically has become much more true this administration)…but also, if tapped into, an utterly decisive political force.

There’s a vast, conspiratorial machine of interest (seems familiar) against which pro-Palestinians are vastly outmatched and vulnerable…and yet had Harris just pandered to them, victory would’ve been assured.

They’re weak or strong, depending entirely on the rhetorical need of the moment. Why does that seem so familiar?

The goal is to harm the poorest among us.

No government department was ever created because someone was doing the right thing.

Dept of Ed empowered girls, students of color, students with disabilities, and funded communities in need.

Fascist Republicans want servants.

DOE makes Republicans feel shame. Of course Republicans hate successful policies.

SUSAN CRAWFORD PROJECTED TO WIN WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT SEAT!

This is a big victory for Democrats and the rule of law, and a kick in the teeth to Musk and FOTUS. Musk poured money into this race, he bribed voters again, they were desperate to win it.

They failed.

Don't let the losses in the Florida special elections fool you- there IS a strong backlash against the Regime. We won in Wisconsin tonight, and we cut substantially into Republicans' majority in those special elections. Those were ruby-red districts, and if they'd been swing districts in November, we would have flipped them tonight.

YESSSSSSSS

WE THE PEOPLE HAVE THE POWER!!!! All that money that Elon Musk spent and we WON.

Also re Florida remember the elections in Florida were in deep red areas and the Democrat candidates still came close which is a huge blow to Republicans (that'd be like if a Republican almost won in a super blue district of NYC or Vermont or California).

Keep up the pressure. Keep fighting. Keep voting in every election, federal state and local. Keep showing up to town halls. Run for office yourself. Keep calling your reps every single day. And keep PROTESTING!

Cory Booker fasted and stood all day and all night and spoke till his voice nearly gave out for his constituents. And Republicans can't even show up to town halls. The contrast could not be starker. Let Senator Booker be an inspiration to us all. "The power of the people is greater than the people in power."

I'm still holding out for the Kamala Comeback 2028, but if Senator Booker feels like taking a shot im with him

When I talk to people about how, no, I don't think Trump is going to get a third term and be in office forever, they get so upset with me. I'm sorry that I believe in America over some deteriorating idiot. Yes, I think we'll outlast him. I believe he's caused harm, significant harm, and yes, I believe there's plenty of danger here, but I also believe we'll outlast him. I'm stronger than Donald Trump. Apparently other people aren't. That's on them, not me.

I absolutely believe that he WANTS a third term, or rather to never leave.

But honestly, I doubt whether or not he's even going to last that long. He's physically and mentally declining, his father died of eight years after his Alzheimer's diagnosis, and he's been a lifelong drug abuser that loves fast food and doesn't take care of himself.

The odds are not in his favor.

And the reality is that history has show us that tyrants do not last. Fascists are NOT GOOD LEADERS, their governments tend to collapse in on themselves. Most of them have historically met terrible fates, one way or another.

I think MAGA being a cult around him will ultimately be their downfall, because he won't name a successor and I don't think Vance or anyone else has the weird Conman Showmanship to keep the cult. The movement is NOT going to survive without him.

If this is not tax fraud, the laws need to be rewritten.

the secret lives of real birbs!

@elodieunderglass this is relevant to your interests.

so expressive! Thank you so much!

—

As If Everything Wasn’t Bad Enough

Every election until he dies is going to be January 6. You get that, right? He’s never going to leave. He will never follow the law. He will never uphold the Constitution.

He is a criminal. He is a rapist. He is corrupt to the core. He is a fascist. He is evil and stupid and is the same sundowning old man we saw during the campaign. He’s still the liar who went on and on about people eating pets. He’s still the leader of the coup. If America truly believed in the lies they teach us about our history and our government, he would be in prison right now, for the rest of his putrescent life.

None of this was a secret. The stupid fucking idiots and the deeply evil racists who voted for this piece of shit knew it, and they voted for him, anyway. A lot of them voted specifically because they knew that.

Fuck them.

I will never forget, and I will never forgive them for what they did to us.

They’re huge??????????

That’s……a fucking WOMBAT?!?!

i thought wombats were small. That looks photoshopped!

That’s Patrick! A wombat raised since he was a joey on a wildlife park in Victoria, Aussie, he’s known as both the oldest and biggest wombat we know of!

Most wombats average around 30 to 40 inches, so fat Pat is definitely an outlier. For comparison here’s a more ‘regular’ wombat. 

dynamaxed

FINALLY, a major Democratic leader speaks up and trashes Trump's reign of stupidity and cruelty!

And of course, it's a woman: Hillary Clinton, who must be appalled at how easily Trump has dismissed "Signalgate," which was far worse than anything Clinton did with her "emails."

This is a gift 🎁 link, so there is no paywall. Enjoy!

There were times in like 2021-2023 when it was like that. We could’ve been done with him forever if a little more people had given a fucking shit in November, and I’ll never forgive them for helping to bring him back. But we can’t change the past. One day he’ll be gone forever. The MAGA cult will implode without its leader. We have to be there to see it

I wish age gap discourse hadn't spiraled the way it has because I want there to be a safe space to say "Men in their 40s who date 25 year olds aren't predators, they're just fucking losers"

... honey you just described a predator LOL

No, I said what I said. But thank you for providing an example of how this topic has become insufferable on the internet.

i am honestly burningly curious about how a 40 year old man who fucks around with college grads is not a predator

"College grad" is not a developmental stage, nor is it what I would describe a 25 year old as. I was 4 years out of college at 25. My mother had two children at 25. You can be a fucking congressman at 25.

There's a difference between a man who is immature and buys into misogynistic views of beauty and aging and one who is a predator. Also, many actual predators? Not losers and able to move through society pretty freely being seen as cool and the ideal, so conflating the two isn't helpful.

This is going to be my final response to any attempt at discourse. You're welcome to continue amongst yourselves.

also sometimes a 40 year old and a 25 year old just weirdly find each and it's a perfectly normal relationship - like all human relationships are complex and situational, it's so rarely an either/or thing let alone just one thing only

if a 40 year old dude only dates 25 year olds, DiCaprio style or something adjacent to it, then yeah he's a loser

if a 40 year old dude meets a 25 year old through social event or friends or whatever and they happen to hit it off and make a go of it, and this isn't some sort of reoccurring pattern for the guy, that's just a relationship with an age difference

being predatory means something specific, and man I agree w/ OP and really wish people just stopped ascribing it to any and all relationship dynamics they personally might not like

predator and groomer - two words that need to go up on the "can't use till you learn their meaning" shelf

Something I find really stressful is this seemingly endless creep of infantilisation and removal of autonomy from young people. Like, not to be all “in my dayyyy” about it, but… at 16, my friends and I were expected to be broadly responsible for our presence in the world. Most of us had jobs, we navigated public transport, looked after younger siblings. We were expected to make informed decisions about our future careers and our sexual partners. We were allowed to leave education and work full time (this was not necessarily good thing - I think increasing the school leaving age to 18 was broadly for the best). Most of us were smoking, or drinking, or both - again, not good things, but just facts - and many of us were sexually active. Many of the AFAB people I knew were on the pill. Legally, we could live independently, or get married with adult consent.

Legally (I live in the UK) we were not minors, although we inhabited an odd legal limbo until we turned 18, and we were certainly not “children”. Intellectually, socially, though, we were considered (young) adults, or at the most “older teenagers.” We were expected to read mostly adult books (rather than middle grade or YA), watch the news/read papers, watch mostly adult television.

And I do think we a bit under-protected, under-supported, and in some cases - neglected and financially exploited - and I’m not necessarily advocating that. But it did make us feel, I think, in charge of our own lives, capable and competent to make decisions.

At 16-17 my parents knew they could leave me alone overnight/for a couple of nights, and I wouldn’t starve or burn the house down. I felt comfortable getting cross country trains on my own, or booking and staying at a hotel (yes, with my boyfriend.)

Then there was this… creeping of sentiments that we were all Too Young to trouble our heads about certain things. A lot of it was good - more stringent licensing laws, raising the school leaving age, raising the minimum smoking age(!) - but some of the broader cultural stuff was… a bit patronising? Eg, the introduction of “New Adult” as a category of books aimed at 18-25 year olds, the way cartoons and books written for the 9-12 age group were being marketed as for the 12-15 age group, referring to late teens as “children,” etc etc.

Then, in 2008, there was the big financial crash and suddenly my generation were (broadly) robbed of all the usual markers of adulthood and success, meaning that we got ‘stuck’ in the lifestyles and modes our late teens/early 20s. And suddenly, all the emphasis shifted from social and legal protections for late teens/ younger adults, to legal restrictions on their freedoms/rights, and strange philosophical protections on the emotional states.

So, OF COURSE a 23 year old can’t buy a beer without carrying an ID card, and a 17 year old can’t have a crush on a 16 year old, but also, because you’re *children* you don’t need to live like adults. So the UK government got to save money by saying “18 isn’t a proper adult,” then “20 isn’t a proper adult,” and “25 isn’t a proper adult” because it meant they could refuse to give single occupancy housing benefit rates to people of those ages (I think they’ve raised it over 30 now.) Or by refusing to clamp down on exploitative temporary/zero hours contracts - because they’re just “temp jobs for young people!”, or by raising the retirement age because “60 is far too young to retire. You’re not a real adult until 35.”

And it means the discursive environment is such that you can claim that a 21 year old trans person is too young to make their own medical decisions, or a 15 year old is too young to consent to the contraceptive pill.

Meanwhile, they are not offering additional *protections* to these newly infantilised adults. 18 year olds are still encouraged to saddle themselves with enormous educational debt, or allowed to have credit cards, or expected to pay rent, or no longer receive child benefits. You still have to *work*. In fact, in the States, they’re looking to removed child employment restrictions - but that’s fine, because 20 year olds are being protected from making their own medical decisions, and adults get to say which books their teen kids are reading in school, and kids aren’t allowed to change their name or what they wear without parental consent.

We can see what these people are doing to the rights of children - so why are we being so complacent in expanding the definition of ‘child’?

Regardless - 25 is VERY CLEARLY an adult. At 25 I was married, had two kids, an overdraft, rent to pay, and experience of living in the world for 6 years. I had more in common with someone of 40 than I did with someone of 15. Hell, at*20* I had more in common with someone of 40 than someone of 15. Any sexual or relationship decisions you make at 25 are your own to make.

Of course there are likely to be power imbalances in a 15 year age gap - which is why most 25 year olds don’t date 40somethings - but not actually necessarily. And yeah, a 40 year old who only dates 20somethings is a skeeze - just like a 30 year old who routinely ingratiates themselves with rich 80 year olds is a skeeze.

But if any young people are reading this (doubt it)… your rights are much, much more important than your protections.

Yes, young people should be protected, but if someone claims they’re protecting you while denying you access to personal autonomy, financial stability, intellectual curiosity, or sexual self-determination because you’re “too young” to need, or understand those things… be very suspicious of their motives.

And if you’re legally an adult, ask yourself why you don’t feel comfortable defining yourself in those terms.

This thread is from 2023, and now with the Cass report we have seen the real, tangible danger that comes from infantilizing adults in their 20s.

Just chiming in to remind people that your social group widens CONSIDERABLY once you become an adult. Between things like people going back to school to further their education and making friends at work, you're going to start associating with people in a wider range of ages and may find you share interests.

Like seriously, I am now 42 and I have friends that are in their mid-to-late 20s. We happen to have some of the same interests and are friends, so it isn't completely outside the realm of possibility for adults to start relationships without worrying about a strict "age gap" rule.

Obviously, there are questions regarding older men that exclusively look for very young women to date. Though often less "this man is a sexual predator" and more likely that he's shallow and/or women in his age range won't tolerate his BS the way younger women might.

But adulthood means you're no longer regulated into very strict age groups, only associating with your peers that are MAYBE 3-4 years younger or older. You're going to be associating with people that are another generation, sometimes even two generations apart from you!

At my job, the age range for the people I work directly with is 19 - 78! We're multiple generations, and all pretty close with so many ways we realize we have shared interests or just have fun together. That's often a normal part of being an adult out there in the world.