The Believers.

Hess: So what shall we toast to, boys? I can blather on about “To health” or “To success,” but I’d like to do somethin’ a little less rote. Where you from, Brown Eyes?

Migs Mayfield: How ’bout a toast to Operation Cinder?

Hess: Now there’s a man who knows his history.

Mayfield: No, I don’t just know it. I lived it. I was in Burnin Konn.

Hess: Burnin Konn?

Mayfield: Mmm.

Hess: That was a hard day. I had to make many unpleasant decisions.

Mayfield: Yes, you did. Entire city gone in moments, along with everybody in it. We lost our whole division that day. Man, that was like 5-10,000 people.

Hess: Yep. All heroes of the Empire.

Mayfield: Yeah. And all dead.

Hess: Well, it’s a small sacrifice for the greater good, son.

Mayfield: Depends on who you ask, don’t you think?

Hess: [irritated] What you gettin’ at, trooper?

Mayfield: All those people, the ones who died, was it good for them? Hmm? Their families? The guys I served with? Civilians, those poor mud scuffers, died defending their homes, fighting for freedom. Was it good for them?

Hess: But we’ve outlasted them, son. They’re eating themselves alive. The New Republic is in complete disarray, and we grow stronger. You see, with the rhydonium you’ve delivered, we can create havoc that’s gonna make Burnin Konn pale by comparison. And then they’re gonna turn to us once again. You see, boys, everybody thinks they want freedom, but what they really want is order. And when they realize that, they’re gonna welcome us back with open arms. Ah. To the Empire.

[Mayfield chuckles, then fires a blaster at Hess' chest, killing him instantly. He and Mando then shoot their way out of the mess hall] ~From The Mandalorian, Season 2, Ep. 7 "The Believer"

I saw this last night.

Some nut in Arizona went into a PetSmart and started harassing the customers and employees because the store has a pride flag, and because the Cashier was wearing a mask, and talked about [some imagined people] being "Democrats" like it was some kind of derogatory thing. He tried to get the customers in on it but the one dude's response was "Dude, I'm just trying to buy dog food."

And he went at this until the manager showed up and threw him out.

Because nothing, absolutely nothing, is more important to these goons than posing for the goddamn base, and beefing with imagined-liberalism in the imaginary world of the internet basically lets these droolers jack off in public without getting arrested.

I work in a Big Box store, we occasionally get idiots like this...usually older white guys who beef about us having to scan their ID's so they can buy alcohol, or who bristle at basic questions when they're having a problem with whatever card they're using...as if it should be some big secret that they're buying rubbers, or something.

My standard answer is "Company policy" I either can't do anything about X or I have to ask about Y. It's always the same kind of douche-bros who think flashing their pistol permit counts as ID. (Yes, State law says it does, but I can't scan that, sir. Now fork over your ID or the cash register will not allow the transaction to proceed.)

Basically, it boils down to some people dislike any hard and fast rules and think way too highly of themselves.

People want to burn down America because they think corporate policies or state liquor laws or whatever-the-fuck other stuff they imagine to be beneath them equals "Communism" or some stupid shit. Yet the same people, generally speaking, would apparently not object to being ruled over with an Iron Fist by Vladimir Putin...or something.

Because effectively all that's left of "Conservatism" is beefing with liberals and hypocritically thinking that basic rules and reality don't apply to them, while desiring to dictate every single thing that other people do.

As if that kind of bullshit doesn't end the same way, with bloody revolutions and National Razors and the Epuration Sauvage almost every single time you run the fucking experiment.

I think, deep down, a lot of these jackoffs know that as long as there's certain hard lines in the world, certain things that must be done a certain way, and reality is a thing, they'll lose.

Hence the popularity of conspiracy theories and hostility to education. If you don't know anything, you can believe whatever you want. It's the same bullshit that prompts the occasional Prosperity Gospel grifter or religious fanatic to claim they can raise the dead or some bullshit.

These fucking people want some kind of a magical world.

And they've internalized the postmodern idea that belief shapes the Universe. They want a Great Undoing Of Reality...because they think they'll get to be gods or some shit.

But the guy in this video that seems to think he's a frenetic action-movie star? He will have gotten zapped by a designated marksman from 500 meters away and won't live to see any of it. 

And more to the point, said designated marksman will have taken him out because it was that...or give away his position by laughing.

...Which is exactly why these idiots want to tear down the modern world and live like Medieval peasants or something.

This bullshit is ridiculous, and it's been smacking hard into the wall of reality for years now. The limitations of this type of shit should be obvious based on how things in Russia are going. Grifting, scamming, and mass use of postmodern thought processes are exactly what got the Russians into a lot of this mess. 

Trouble is, these morons keep backing the truck up and hitting the wall again because they think they'll bust through and have some kind of a Gnostic revelation or something.

In the end, these motherfuckers think they're going to lie to God. (And get away with it, as if God is dumb or at least in on the scam. I was taught it does not work that way.)

Who Is George Santos?

Thing is, America...and much of the modern world, for that matter, requires an educated populace that functions on the level of reality on some kind of an honest basis.

If you want a better country, you have to be a better citizen.

And this? This ain't it.

Слава Україна!

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those...moments will be lost in time, like tears...in rain. Time to die. ~Roy Batty, Blade Runner.

...

For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. ~Matthew 24:27