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@magicicada@social.sdf.org
2025-03-29 15:37:40

A lost cupcake couple
Taken 28 March 2025
#Urban #Street #Ground #Cupcake

Two cupcakes sit on an asphalt street in front of the curb. The left cupcake is intact but upside-down. It has a red wrapper and white icing with red flecks. The cake itself is hard to see but it looks light colored. The right cupcake has been squished. Its white wrapper is sprawled out and underneath, brown cake is spread out on the road. The photo is taken at ground level and the vertical side of the curb takes up most of the view. Above the curb can be seen two multistory buildings, one of r…
@castarco@hachyderm.io
2025-03-31 07:21:14

uspolitics, trump
I keep seeing smart people writing stuff like
> [the US] kept peace through strength balanced with restraint, and wielded influence through culture, values, and diplomacy
I understand that #Trump is terrible and some people feel tempted to idealize what they had before him, but we should be more discerning, or otherwise it becomes impossible to understand how this happened in the first place.
Let's start with some questions:
- peace where? and for who? was it true peace, or "Pax Romana"?
- are we going to take seriously that statement on "restraint"? after all the lies, internal witch hunting, sanctions, coups, wars, invasions, genocides, and last but not least, 2 unnecessary nuclear strikes on Japan?
Now, on "culture, values, and diplomacy". Sure. Why not. Not everything was going to be bad, right?
But the thing is, abusive husbands aren't bad all the time either. From time to time they know how to be sweet and seem to care: one present here, flowers the next day, a little bit of gaslighting, and fake apologies after that "accidental" slap.
Given enough time (if the wife is still alive), at some point the victim decides to leave, and then all hell breaks loose. Trump is the manifestation of that moment. He does not represent a change in #USA's nature, but a hidden side that was "always" there, just waiting to play its role.
Others believe this is because #US citizens have been intentionally dumbed down by a combination of propaganda and a disfunctional education system, and I'm sure it's partly true... But let's see what many of their most brilliant and educated citizens are choosing to do with their lives today: sfstandard.com/2025/03/12/stan
So, all I'm asking is: please drop the act. It was always a clusterfuck.