Underground tunnels are not part of the US’ jurisdiction and thus the US government has no obligation to save them.

As other people have already mentioned: No, you are not paranoid. The pattern that you recognise is fake outrage or ragebait.

If you have some time to spare and are curiously about how the right-wing outrage machine works, I can highly recommend the video essay “Stellar Blade: The Fake Outrage” by Shaun. His videos can be a little dry, but he goes to great lengths to pick apart a single example (the video game Stellar Blade) and how the right-wing first embraced the game (in the name of their fight against “wokeism, DEI,…”), only to then do a full about-face when the game did not turn out exactly as they had envisioned (and claim that the game was full of “wokeism, DEI,…”).

It’s a long video, but it does a very good job to expose the mix of unsubstantiated claims, copy-pasted accusations and ultimately fake outrage that underlies right-wing behavior these days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPsSguYNHpk

I am not a liberal, so I can totally be outraged about what the article is describing and point out the Guardian’s contribution to that particular problem.

Here is some news coverage of what’s going on in the Guardian. Mind, some of the articles are a little older, but the overall situation hasn’t improved. The only thing that has changed is the normalization of the transphobic content the Guardian has put out over the years.

The articles below contain links to various Guardian articles

• Hundreds Of Staff At The Guardian Have Signed A Letter To The Editor Criticising Its “Transphobic Content”, March 20
• Protesters demand the Guardian ‘stop platforming transphobia’ outside newspaper’s HQ, October 21
• Trans Journalists Pull Out of Guardian Newspaper’s Pride Coverage, June 22
• Columnist James Wong leaves The Observer and claims ‘institutionalised transphobia’, February 23

And let’s not forget that the Guardian has had no qualms to participate in transphobic witchhunting for years. No matter what hand-wringing they now do, they share a part of the responsibility for it coming this far and probably won’t stop pushing transphobia either…

I can’t take articles such as this one seriously if they don’t mention right-wing terrorists recruiting through the same channels and means. That has been a known problem for more than a decade.

Treating online radicalisation solely as a problem of people with a migrant/non-European/Muslim/… background is very telling and borders on lying by omission.

“Pure feminism is nolens volens radical. It necessarily excludes (…) moderation, restriction, half-measures. Being feminist in no way means wanting to obtain a right for a small number of women at the expense of other women à tout prix - being feminist only ever means fighting for the overall liberation of the entire female sex.”

A quote from her writings (machine-translated from German)

The Wikipedia article about Jonathan

Consider this headline from Bloomberg in this context:

About 90% of Migrants Deported to El Salvador Had No US Criminal Record

Yes, I think we are both in agreement that there is a distinction between intelligence and education. And - while these two points often get thrown together - it matters in political contexts, particularly because the Trumpists attempt to destroy the education system which they see as an obstacle to their rule. Critical thinking and language skills matter.

AFAIK that depends really: Sure, those who are not really part of the “cult” will likely drop out, but the “ever faithful” will double down, because they will consider such hardship to be a test of their faith.

That effect can be seen here:

The problem is that it’s not a question of intelligence.

Trumpists and their ilk are living in echo chambers of “alternative facts”, perpetuated by Fox News, Murdoch newspapers and an nearly endless amount of rightwing influencers (starting with Rogan at the top). They are not looking at what’s happening, because they are surrounded in a very comforting bubble of disinfo and propaganda that confirms everything they wanted to hear: The illegals get deported, the queers get finally put in their place, the liberals are frothing with anger, finally men are back in charge who tell women where they belong and America is going to be “great” again any moment now.

It’s fascism and fascism has always been a “cult”: The early pioneers of fascism (particularly D’Annunzio and later Mussolini) explicitly said their aim was to create a “secular religion” around the nation, the people and the leader. And you can only be a member of that religion if you accept its “truth” and reject everything that contradicts it.

Very smart people can adhere to a religion for a variety of reasons and the most obvious one is (and always has been) because it promises them power over others.

Hahaha, eff you, Raytheon & Co.! Europe will now get its own military-industrial complex! With blackjack and hookers!*

*Corrupt politicians can apply for participation now.

Ah, thank you. I corrected the link.

Yes, but…

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Hm, is his wife’s name Abigail? 🤔

I appreciate the sentiment, but my living situation is not all that much better. 😅

If only we could be in a small café above the Lac de Sainte-Croix right now, have a croissant and a coffee…

Oh, I hope you can do that. Also I am seriously jealous now.

I wholeheartedly agree. Provence is so pretty and the “Gorges du Verdon” are stunning.