It's tempting - it would be greatvto be able to say something like, "I just want to thank you for being such an insufferable asshole that you were the catalyst that started the process that ended with my mom becoming a Democrat."
But I assume it would be lost on him. Like both Trump and Musk, I assume he's determinedly oblivious to the fact that he's an asshole
My mom is a lifetime Republicsn who up until last year was on a pure reactionary right feed on Facebook. She's basically turned 180° in just the last few months, and while it started with her immediate gut-level dislike for Vance, it was driven home by her imnediate, gut-level dislike for Musk. It's now expanded out to criticizing (and laughing at) Trump and the rest of the would-be oligarchs, and she's moved from Facebook to Reddit and is already trying to decide which Democrats she's going to vote for.
And while it actually started with Vance, it was almost entirely Musk (or as she referred to him for quite a while - "What's his name - the asshole co-president") who accomplished the most to drive her away from the party she'd supported her entire life.
And I assume she's far from alone.
They're stuck in a feedback loop of indidcriminate rage – self-affirming, hateful propaganda – cognitive dissonance – sneaking self-doubt – indidcriminate rage...
I don't think it's the case that people are rewarded with power, then somehow turn into pstchopathic fuckwads, but that only psychopathic fuckwads are willing and able to do everything it takes to gain that sort of power in the first place.
Think of all the compromises someone has to make and lies they have to tell and asses they have to kiss and backs they have to stab to fight and crawl up the ladder to that sort of position.
No truly sane and stable and honest and empathetic person would or even could do all of that.
Cue the next learned essay about how what Democratic voters really want is centrists in 3, 2, 1...
Musk is that kid in middle school who went out of his way to act smug and edgy in a desperate attempt to impress the other kids but it was all so cringey and irritating that it just made everyone hate him, but he was so dysfunctional that all he could do was try even harder to be smug and edgy, which just made the other kids hate him even more, and 'round and 'round it went until finally somebody decked him and then his mom complained to the administration because the other kids were bullying her baby.
I don't know this to be the case, but I've long assumed that the average age on Hexbear is about 15, and have yet to find any reason to assume otherwise.
And take Nancy Pelosi with you.
I would count it as certain fact that every single society that's ever hit any sort of national identity crisis point has spawned commentary from people insisting that the "problem" is that young people are no longer being indoctrinated with some set of ideas with which they used to be indoctrinated (and with which the commenter personally agrees), and that that has made it so that they can be and are instead indoctrinated with some other set of ideas (which the commenter personally opposes) instead.
I would say that the rather obvious problem is indoctrination in and of itself, though unfortunately the solution to that problem is almost certainly more evolutionary than societal, and it's going to take at least one and likely a few more mass die-off events before humanity will have any hope of beating it.
For whatever any of that's worth, to those of us on the wrong side of that event.
It's a shame we don't have a government agency dedicated to eliminating wasteful spending, since they could've done their own job and avoided this situation by cutting off the subsidies that are the only thing that prop up south Texas rice cultivation - the biggest waste of water in the region.
Just another day in the life of the Toddler-in-chief.
That's what I've used for years now, and I have no problems with them.
I actually have three of them, of varying ages, all of which still work fine. The older ones have simple switch shoulder buttons and the newer ones have analog triggers, and that's pretty much the only notable change they've made over the years.
The only "problem" I've run into with them is that the buttons and/or the pad will accumulate dust over time and stop working dependably, so I have to take them apart and clean the contacts every year or two. Which is very easy to do.