a lil bee 🐝

Big win for non-Hindu, non-nationalist people in India. This is going to do a lot to blunt the worst of Modi’s intent. Also, the polls proved to be super off-base. I wonder where that discrepancy came from? Could just be heightened enthusiasm on voting day or something, but it’s always interesting when polls miss the mark heavily.

I think it’s both for me, which I think is what you might be saying as well. I would absolutely push the button to create the copy, or whatever, because I think I would derive satisfaction from creating a life (identical to mine, no less) that was free of the circumstance I was in, which must have been dire. However, I definitely don’t consider that instance “me” even if I do consider the copy a legitimate, separate version of “me”, so I don’t feel that I have perpetuated my own instance, leaving me in whatever fight-or-flight terror I was in to cause the scenario in the first place.

I disagree. If Biden was anywhere near that level, we’d be seeing him use much more power to at the very least earn some political capital he needs going into a contentious election. Most of the time this gets brought out, it’s for transferring arms to Israel. Regardless of your opinions on the transfer itself, which I also disagree with, it’s at least arguable those transfers are legal. Someone else in this thread linked more info. If it’s not that, I’m going to need to see some examples of overreach that come anywhere close to the Trump admin.

I’ll probably get eaten alive by this comment section, but I’ll try anyway. I think there is more nuance here.

Trump has no respect for the rule of law, checks and balances, or the intended role of the executive branch. Trump at president will do anything possible to achieve his goals, no matter what he tramples along the way.

Biden isn’t that type of president. He does respect checks and balances and the idea of a powerful, but constrained presidency. He’s not going to go slam through a blatantly unconstitutional EO every time he doesn’t get his “wall”.

Much like before Trump, if you want change, you have to vote for more than the presidency, unless you’re willing to trample everything about the three branches of government. And maybe you’re also looking for an unleashed sort of populist presidency, but that’s not going to fly with the majority of democratic voters who still want to return to some degree of governmental normalcy.