Yeah, the Walz choice just looks smarter and smarter the more I look at it.

He will run on "family values", but the definition of family values in this case includes things like *protecting trans kids* & feeding school children.

This I am 100% on board for. Make the GOP say out loud that their "family values" are not related to the safety and happiness of kids. Make them say kids should go hungry. Frame protections for trans kids as just that: protections for children, & don't apologize.

My partner once had to chew out an employee for following a customer with blue hair around the store gawking at them and making comments about it within the customer's earshot.

So yeah. Republicans are weird. Staring at someone with jaw agape because they color their hair is not a thing normal people do.

"Blue hair is weird."

No, obsessing over the appearance of other people and staring at them like they are circus exhibits is weird.

"MAGA is weird" is powerful messaging because these people who are apparently obsessed with "normalcy" do truly bizarre and ridiculous things to the people they perceive as "weird".

To them, the "weird" are inhuman. Objects of curiosity *at best*, frequently subjected to violence and harassment purely for their difference, no matter how superficial.

Calling out their hate emboldens them, but they literally don't know what to do when they are simply othered.

But seriously, what the fuck kind of strange person can't cope with seeing someone who styles their hair differently? What a weird way to be.

Why do some people feel affection towards politicians?

So I tried watching House of the Dragon, but it was really dark, so I couldn't get into it.

I don't mean the subject matter. It was visually dark and muddy and just looked bad. Why is it so dark?

A show that expensive should be visually impressive or AT LEAST interesting, but no. It (or at least its first 3 episodes) is downright *unpleasant* to watch.

It's not just that it's "dark". There's very little contrast. It's dull. Dark scenes can still have striking, dynamic lighting and be visually interesting. This was...not that.

I'm very annoyed by this. Not that I would have gotten into HotD anyway, but surely that's not the best they could do. There ARE people who know how to do that right. Why didn't they find one?

Pet Peeve # 47: people labeling a video as "POV: [situation]" when it is clearly being shown from the perspective of an external observer. If it's POV, make it POV.

...Or is it just POV if the person whose POV it is supposed to be is the main focus of the video?

The title will be "POV: someone trying to put a lid on a container and failing miserably", and then just a video of a person fumbling around, filmed from a short distance away where their entire face and body are in the shot.

Whose POV is that?

@selzero
My siblings and I pretending to do a radio show, complete with ad jingles we made up. 😄

So...yup. Looks like my company uses #Crowdstrike.

Am I gonna get to take the day off?

Bean says good morning.

#CatsOfMastodon #CatPix

I'm steadfastly ignoring Prime Day, and it is shockingly hard.

I don't need anything new at the moment. At all. We're saving up for some important home maintenance, and I have all the things I need for daily life, including entertainment and enrichment (I'm about to start visiting the library again too!).

So participating would be just sheer consumerism, I suppose. But damn do hot deals sound good to my advertising-addled brain. "Savings"...on cool things that would be cool to have.

I hope RNC attendees feel very unwelcome and not at all at home in Milwaukee.

@futurebird
I think sometimes it's a "starter home" because they assume that everyone wants to be a landlord.

Now that my partner owns a house, people often give him advice on how he can use the equity in this house to finance a second mortgage and rent this one out.

And like... brilliant plan for making money if a) you can actually do it and b) you are willing to become a leach and live off the labor of other people while you and others like you prevent them from owning their OWN home.

Tbh, ridiculous that conservative men think they need a dating app to find conservative women. Just start visiting small very conservative churches, and you will find young women in their 20s who are *desperate* to get married.

Oh, what's that? You don't want to go to church or get married? But that's what all the nice conservative girls have been told to do.

The reason right-wing dudes can't get dates is "traditional family values".

They don't want conservative women because then they would have to uphold the male end of the patriarchy bargain and get married and work to support an *entire family*, live a "decent" life, and be (almost) sexually exclusive to one person for years and years, and so on.

That is the bargain. When you tell women to always be submissive & sweet, you have to offer them *something* in exchange.

Most strongly conservative women don't want to date. They want to get married. That is their entire objective when they are young. They have been told their entire life that marriage and children are their purpose.

My sister graduated highschool and just moped around my parents' home until someone showed up to marry her. I had friends who were 22 and considered themselves "old maids".