kescusay

kescusay , 1 year ago to politics in Mitch McConnell faces resign calls over freeze: "Cognitive malfunction"

The vast majority of that time he didn’t have any stutter or gaffes. I don’t even think it was happening when he was VP.

It was. And the vast majority of the time, it doesn’t happen now. It’s just that when it does, right-wing media seizes on it.

You can find plenty of footage from when he was VP, and when he was in the Senate, where he clearly struggles to say the right words, and sometimes a malapropism slips out. In the past, he’s referred to himself as a “gaffe machine” (that is a direct quote) because of it. So it’s less accurate to say that he overcame his stutter, and more accurate to say that he found workarounds that usually - but not always - work.

It’s only become a big deal now because of his age. Republicans latch onto any slip of the tongue or difficulty speaking as supposed evidence of his decline, but it’s completely disingenuous.

But as we age we lose that “filter” where we think before we speak. Which often causes the re-emergence of childhood speech impediments along with a lot more serious stuff.

Sure, but listen to any of his recent speeches. You’ll find that for the overwhelming majority of the time, he’s perfectly clear-spoken. There will occasionally be hiccups, but find any long speech of his in the last 40 years, and you’ll see the same things.

My point here is that while I’m sure he’s not quite as sharp as he used to be, there’s a material difference between a verbal stumble and what happened to Mitch McConnell. I’m not sure what exactly that was, but McConnell has no medical history of fugue states. That’s new. Biden’s intermittent verbal stumbles aren’t.

Like I said, it’s not a reason to impeach him, but it’s definitely a reason to ask why we’re expecting him to be president for four more years.

I’d much rather have a different candidate, but not because of Biden’s age. I think he’s too willing to go along with Republicans for the sake of “bipartisanship.” Obama had the same problem.

That said, he might actually be the best possible candidate, given the circumstances. He utterly spanked Trump last time around, and keeping the orange shit-gibbon out of office is of paramount importance.

kescusay , 1 year ago to politics in Mitch McConnell faces resign calls over freeze: "Cognitive malfunction"

It’s not really about age. There are plenty of older people who are still functioning fine. Hell, Biden is almost as old as Mitch, but he’s physically fit and doesn’t go into fugue states. (And the claims that his stutter and verbal gaffs are evidence of decline are utter bullshit. He’s been that way his entire life.)

Where we’re fucking up is that we don’t have any systems in place to require our elected officials or candidates to be mentally sound. We should require people running for or in elected office to pass cognitive tests the same way we require people on the roads to pass driving tests. Yes, more of the elderly will fail those tests because age is a factor, but the focus should be on “can this person do the job,” not “is this person too old.”

Mitch might be someone who’d be removed from office with a test like that, but it would also potentially catch young guys with catastrophic mental health issues, like Herschel Walker, who got frighteningly close to public office while showing blatant signs of illness.

kescusay , 1 year ago to world in Update: The hottest 21 days ever recorded were the last 3 weeks

I… don’t think we disagree? China has a corrupt communist government. I was specifically referring to socialist governments, and the ones that are frequently (mis)labelled as socialist are doing a lot better on oil consumption than either China or the United States.

kescusay , 1 year ago to technology in Mastodon Usage Soaring as Twitter Rebranding Leads to User Exodus: CEO Eugen Rochko

Sounds like it’s time to re-watch Glass Onion. Elon Musk is Miles Bron.

kescusay , 1 year ago to world in Update: The hottest 21 days ever recorded were the last 3 weeks

There are no actual socialist countries, but if you’re referring to, for example, the Scandinavian countries, they use far less oil per capita than the United States.

kescusay , 1 year ago to lemmyshitpost in I hope Warner Bros. marketing is paying attention...

Grown? Yes. Men? Ehhh…

kescusay , 1 year ago to showerthoughts in I've noticed that lemmy as a whole is much more leftist than reddit (outside of political servers of course)

Without comprehensive sex ed? Yeah. I think they are. A lot of them believe myths about getting pregnant, and no one - either at school or in their religiously restrictive homes - will tell them the truth. So they find out the hard way.

kescusay , 1 year ago to technology in Twitter’s rebrand to X may actually be happening soon

Hired by who? Dude tried to back out of the deal, and it’s cost him billions.

kescusay , 1 year ago to showerthoughts in I've noticed that lemmy as a whole is much more leftist than reddit (outside of political servers of course)

You just described steps that would actually reduce abortion by quite a lot, without making it illegal at all. The sex ed and contraception stuff is basically exactly how it’s done in other western countries that don’t have nearly the issue with teen pregnancies we do. What you’re proposing is practical and effective.

And in the eyes of the MAGA crowd, you’re not just a leftist, you’re a baby-murdering, Satan-worshipping communist America-hater.

kescusay , 1 year ago to news in Nebraska teen sent to 90 days in jail over abortion

Yes. I read the article. I know that already. The fact that she felt she had to do this is an indictment of Nebraska.

kescusay , 1 year ago to news in Nebraska teen sent to 90 days in jail over abortion

Yep. Know why she did it? Desperation + living in a state that already made it hard to get abortions, but also doesn’t provide good prenatal care. Nebraska has one of the higher infant mortality rates in the country (though it still pales in comparison to Mississippi).

kescusay , 1 year ago to news in Nebraska teen sent to 90 days in jail over abortion

Revolting that this is now a “crime.”

kescusay , 1 year ago to news in Tony Bennett, US singer with seven-decade career, dies aged 96

What an absolute legend, and an incredible life. RIP, Mr. Bennett.

kescusay , 1 year ago to videos in Why the Left's Vision of Equity Is Flawed | Douglas Murray

If you don’t know who he is, you don’t know whether or not he’s credible on any of the issues he discusses.

For the record, Murray is well-known for being a right-wing bigot when it comes to Muslims - he wants to restrict immigration based on their religion or perceived religion, and publicly worries about the supposed decline of “white Britons” in London. And any legitimate criticism he might have of the tenets of Islam and how it’s practiced in countries with Sharia law are drowned out by his apparent inability to differentiate between islamists and people who happen to be Muslim.

He believes in “white genocide” and other common tropes of white nationalism, and generally embraces all of the associated conspiracy theories.

Weirdest of all, he’s a gay man who believes LGBTQ+ identities are inherently destabilizing to society somehow, and is expressly bigoted towards trans people.

All of this is to say, he’s legitimately kind of a crazy person, and you should take everything he says with a huge grain of salt, if you even want to bother with him at all.

I certainly wouldn’t.

kescusay , 1 year ago to videos in Why the Left's Vision of Equity Is Flawed | Douglas Murray

I mean, it’s Douglas Murray. What did you expect?