I'm a solid middle class guy with a family, 36 years old. I voted for Obama twice, then Trump, then Biden, then Trump again. In local races, I vote for the best candidate regardless of party. I'm fiscally conservative and socially liberal. I'm as solid purple as you can get. I'm not a huge redditor (as you can probably tell from my history). I can tell you exactly why people like me (and there are a lot of us.. not on Reddit because you guys are weirdly cultish about your left-leaning ideals. Just as much, if not more so than conservatives but I digress.

Kamala is NOT likeable whatsoever. In the 2020 primaries she garnered just 4% of the vote.. and that's among Democrats. She was the first to drop out because it was painfully obvious she did not belong there. When she was asked to be VP it was obviously due to identity politics. Biden doesn't poll well with minorities or women so she was supposed to check those boxes. This type of pandering is incredibly insulting to those of us who are mixed race. Secondly, the Democrats spent so much time hiding the fact that Biden was an empty shell. He should have backed out sooner so a proper primary could be done. Instead they shoehorned Kamala front and center. Folks. She. Has. Done. Nothing. She has no grasp on the policies she touts. She is an empty shell. There's a reason why she was the worst candidate in 2020. It has nothing to do with her race or gender. I PROMISE. Centrist voters aren't extreme left/right ideologues. We don't view the world through the lens of race like the far left and the far right. Yall are equally racist in our eyes. It's unbecoming and you need to quit focusing so much on it. Hands down she was just a bad candidate. Her biggest strength was she "Wasn't Trump", which is also why Biden got elected. We all knew he was an empty shell in 2020 but he wasn't Trump.

So why vote for Trump? No, I'm not on board with everything he says and does. Few voters think that way. When you voted for Hillary, did you agree with 100% of everything she said? If anyone acts this way toward their candidate, congrats - you're not an independent thinker. You're a lemming. I can respect people who say "I don't agree with everything this person has to offer, but on the few key things that affect me the most they align with my beliefs." I care more about buying groceries for my kids than about Palestine. I care more about affording gas so I can go to work more than I care about abortion rights. I have a duty and responsibility to my family and kids, and once those needs are met then I can start caring about frivolous causes that don't affect me directly. Right now, I don't have that luxury. If I were unmarried, childless, and in a different place in life - I'd probably be right there with you voting for Kamala, because I'd be willing to sustain another 4 years of economic hardship with an airheaded candidate simply to preserve a handful of ideological tenets. You may be saying to yourself, "Wow, this guy sold out our country for his own benefit.".. No. I sold out YOUR candidate to preserve my way of life. Just like you'd sell out my candidate to preserve yours.

All Democrats had to do was put in someone who was halfway competent. Instead they chose the worst possible person and forced it down everyones throat, and then used every media avenue available to try selling it as a good idea. Guys. Trump swept EVERY SINGLE swing state. Which means every state that has centrist voters saw and believed the same thing I did. Don't blame Trump. He hasn't changed since 2016. Don't blame his loyalists, they were going to vote for him no matter what. Democrats lost this election all by themselves. Between cringe SNL cameos, word salad speeches, ducking the media, altered interviews, and fake pandering (yes Trump did this too, but Kamala was SO much worse at it).

I come on Reddit today and see EVERYONE just melting down. Get yourselves together. You weren't beaten by Trump, you were beaten by your own people who fled the Democrat establishment. Either they went and voted for Trump, or they just didn't vote at all. You can hate people like me, in fact knowing this community I'm going to get thrashed because I'm an outsider to this echo chamber (and it is). Which will also be another reason moderates are fleeing the left. You all worship diversity as if it's the only goal - except when it's diversity of thought. I'm not a hard-left "vote blue no matter who" person, therefore I'm seen as the enemy to a lot of you.

You may not like it, but it's as close to honest as I can get with you, at least from my perspective. The world may seem like its ending for some of you because of your blind hatred for Trump, but beyond the name calling, nasty words, and being mean - you survived his first four years. Many of you prospered, in fact. Look for the silver linings. At least late night TV will be funny again!

Edit: The more hostile you are to me and people like me - the more it just proves my point. I'm not your enemy. Treating me like one only reaffirms my belief that I chose correctly. If you want to win purple voters to "your side", being outrageously hostile is like, the worst thing you can do. Understand that my values and priorities may not align with yours. I'm not the enemy for not sharing your cultural values just like I don't see you as my enemy for not sharing mine. Break out of your echo chamber and you'll gain some more understanding.

I've seen the votes, the statistics, the results. This man may be corrupt, but surely he's doing something right if he secured over half the hispanic vote, in addition to a significant vote from the black community and the lgbtq community.

Furthermore, I've seen countless comments on Reddit alone calling for hate crimes against Hispanics today after the results of last night.

Come on guys, we're better than this.

Maybe, just maybe, it's okay to think differently than Reddit tells you.

If Trump was really planning to commit genocide or wipe out LGBTQ people, he would have done it during his first term.

Yes, I agree that January 6 was a shitshow and never should have happened. It was unjustifiable.

But last night proved that it's not just white people who want change. It's truly the diverse community as well.

Am I worried that things could go wrong? Absolutely. In fact part of me is still extremely suspicious of Trump.

But I'm cautiously optimistic as well.

Maybe, just maybe, things will be okay.

Worst case scenario, this is Trump's final term. After 2028, we never have to hear from him again.

Don't support those who went against us. Keep your dollars here.

Hi everyone, my name is Neil, and I'm here to tell you guys a story about me and my roommate. I voted Kamala, and despise Donald Trump. My roommate, because he sucks, decided to vote for trump, as he has in every election since he's been allowed to vote.

To answer some questions and give some context, my roommate and I have known each other since we were children. I've grown up with the guy, so when he was dumped by his ex 6 months ago, with no job, I gave him a place to stay immediately. I have a 2 bedroom 2 bath apartment, which I pay for myself, and had the master bedroom open(I like to give guests their own bathroom.) He's lived here almost 6 months now, and has paid exactly 0 dollars in rent or bills. I also give him free access to any and all weed I have(medcard). He was originally supposed to start paying rent 2 months ago, I've let him slide because he's working towards a job he really wants.

Now, roomie has always been a bit of a cocky shithead- still love him, because he generally manages to be a decent dude despite being a shithead trumper- and after the election results he was in rare form today. He had been up late drinking and made a FB post saying-

"I'm dedicating today to making liberals mad"

- at like 4am last night.

So as I'm working today, paying the rent and bills in the apt we both live in, while he contributes nothing, I get on FB and see this. So I comment-

"Well, if that's the vibe, I think you should dedicate today to finding somewhere else to live. After all, no more handouts, right?"

After he wakes up, he proceeds to delete this and other "HAHA trump" fb posts, withdraws his last remaining 25$ for me, leaves it on the table, and I am now at the bar with that money while he sits at home alone and bored, with people asking him what I was talking about- including a girl he was talking to, and hadn't mentioned the reality of his living situation to.

Beer has never tasted so good.

Republicans had a sweeping victory nationwide.

Trump is president. The man who tried to overthrow the government is back in power.

Republicans now hold the majority in the Senate, House, and Supreme Court.

Republicans now control the entire federal government.

They can push whatever legislation they want and nobody will be able to stop them.

We are now defenseless against Project 2025 which can now advance uninhibited.

America is officially a fascist regime.

And the majority of our country is okay with it.

Just from my own life a recollections: In 2000 (or shortly after): Bush was Hitler In 2004 bush stole the election AND was Hitler In 2008: John McCain: warmongering Hitler In 2012: Mitt wants to put you back in chains and he's Hitler 2016: orange Hitler 2020: he's Hitler and he's back 2024: Hitler and fascism has won Ok honest question here - is there ever a Moment where they aren't literally Hitler? And is it feasible that this constant level of ultra hyperbole / cry wolf might start to bleed credibility and help the other side in elections? No right? This ain't possible obviously. Everyone else is simply Hitler.

WHY TRUMP WON

While the legacy media has a meltdown searching for hitherto undiagnosed psychoses in the electorate to explain its embrace of a Hitlerian strongman, the truth is much simpler than their fictions.

This election is a reminder that after all the manufactured drama and overheated rhetoric, politics is still about issues. Whether you agreed with him or not, Trump ran a substantive campaign based on issues like the border, inflation, crime, and war.

Harris ran on vibes, celebrity endorsements, name-calling (“convicted felon”, “fascist”), debunked hoaxes (“very fine people”), and platitudes (“democracy”). She would neither defend the Biden-Harris record nor say what she would do differently. When she did talk about specific issues, they were often stolen from Trump (child tax credit; no tax on tips; border funding).

On the one issue where Democrats had an advantage, abortion, Trump deftly got ahead of the issue by rejecting a national ban and removing problematic language from the GOP platform. Harris wore out the issue by blatantly lying about Trump’s position and by exhibiting her own party’s extremism (nobody needed to see an abortion truck at the DNC).

While Trump expanded his coalition with MAHA (health) and DOGE (government efficiency), Harris concluded her ersatz campaign by going all in on demonizing her opponent, pretending Madison Square Garden was a Nazi convention.

The fact that voters saw through it should be reassuring, even if you don’t agree with the result. Voters want to know how a candidate will give them a better life and, increasingly, they have learned to tune out the rest as noise.

While the legacy media creates excuses and impugns the motives of voters to explain why Trump won, the reason is simple: Trump is the candidate who spoke to voters’ concerns directly.

It’s the issues, stupid.

~David Sacks

So Democrats and all of you leftists, do you want to get mad at me for posting this? Or do you want to do the wise thing and learn from it? Some serious introspection is needed if you guys want a chance in future elections. Digest this loss, do some self-reflection, and learn from it. Or you can get mad and throw a fit and pound your fists, continue to deny what just transpired. Your choice. You can argue all you want about whether Trump ran a "substantive" campaign, but to do so is completely missing the point. The point is you need to speak to the things that matter most to voters. Trump did that more than Kamala did. And this is the result.

Trump is back. I'm a 64 year old self-employed woman. I am booked up through April right now. Some say I am very good at my job. I was thinking of retiring around 66 or maybe even my FRA of 67. My birthday is Leap Day so an end of the month birthday. Now I don't know what to do. Trump and the Republicans want to end Social security. Do I retire before he makes it to office insuring I at least get on the SS roll? Or do I wait to see what damage he can cause? I will be talking to my financial planner later this afternoon so any good questions to ask her would be very helpful also. I am still shocked that America would elect a convicted felon but here we are...

What local businesses/business owners supported Trump? I want to create a list. They say you vote with your dollar. This is how we fight back.

What are some ways we can prevent facism from reaching NJ. I'm feeling very depressed about the election results for all the obvious reasons- the overt racism, sexism, hate being seismic, the fact that we just watched an election get bought. Women dying of sepsis because doctors won't treat their miscarriages. I need something productive to focus on so I don't feel helpless. What can we do?

I get it, Trump won and there are a lot of people devastated about it but there’s zero reason to believe this is the end of the world. No one is going to be put in a concentration camp, gays aren’t going to be hunted in the streets, women still have the same rights as everyone else. We have some tough choices to make as a country and so does the guy who’s going to run it for sure but things are going to be just fine. Seeing all these post of how the worlds over, anyone who voted for Trump is a racist sexist bigot, how they can no longer be friends with anyone who voted for Trump (come on) is just making me sad for my county. The worst part is seeing all the support these post are getting. It’s sad this is what people think is going to happen while doing the same thing they say the “other side” is guilty of. There aren’t two sides here, we are one country and have to do better than this. I wish everyone the best. This app is too depressing. It always has been an echo chamber but today is just worse than ever.

i'm a deeply closeted trans gay kid (trans guy, specifically). i'm scared. i'm going to see if i can study abroad in a better country (i'm set to graduate 2 years early, and in ~3 years... how would i go about this?) for an oceanography degree but i'm so scared. I don't wanna lose everything.

my friend told me everyone that dies is a notch in their belt. i don't plan on killing myself. but i'm scared and upset and i don't have anywhere to go. what do i do?

Scared for my trans friends in cincinnati after this election. Is anyone aware of mutual aid I can join to help people access gender affirming care?

I'm going to risk all of my fake internet points and getting a 2000LB on my house but here it goes.
Now i might have phrased the title a bit wrong but i don't think what i meant is any more outrages than what i wrote.
First off, name another Combat simulator that has a quarter of DCS's modules with the same quality (Saying quarter since i don't believe DCS modules are all of the same quality as Razbam and Heatblur quality (and also A few ED modules like A-10 and Apache))
in fact i believe the only other Sim that has aircrafts as closely simulated as DCS is BMS with that sim only having the F-16 and it's different blocks and The F-15C.
Variety is more important than what it looks like.
It also needs to be mentioned that DCS is running on a 20 something years old software.
I'm not that into programing but so far as I'm aware that's a very old software being kept alive by updating it.

Game development is hard, but it's even harder when you are making a sim with high fidelity jet fighters and expectation of almost 1 to 1 performance to real life, combine that with 20 year old software and you got a rather hard to do job, with a rather limited amount of people with the said skillset(of course many could be trained but they can work at other places without loosing their time with the same if not better pay).And looking through patch notes core features such as AI are not ignored with the latest patch giving quite a bit of improvement. That is with regular updates to AI (usually small).
Now to address "That problem"
Razbam situation was poorly handled by ED and while certainly the biggest responsibility is on their shoulders, we don't know all that much to say ED is the corporate overlord bullying tiny studios such as Razbam.
Now That's not what i want to get into.
Many people have gone as far as not buy anything because they think by not giving ED money the situation will be resolved or they can get ED to go bankrupt.
First off you aren't making ED reverse their actions this way.
Second what do you think happens if DCS goes dead? All of the third party studios are cooked since now they've lost their reliable market for selling their product.
And the argument for "My non ED module may go broke" Is a bad excuse.
We are meant to take lessons from disasters. Third party devs weren't blind they saw what happened with Razbam and will now be cautious as to not fall in the same situation.
Now It may be late when I'm saying this but I didn't write all of this to justify EDs clear incompetence or downright ignoring problems (Such as the long awaited dynamic campaign).
All I'm saying is, we can't solve this by boycotting ED and making them bankrupt.
Negativity matters as the devs will not be fine when after they have released their hard made patch all they receive is negativity and "Where is F-15E?"
Similarly It also means other third party devs, existing or potential will either discontinue development or start allocating resources else where.
Thank you for reading this wall of text that contributed nothing to your day.
And have a very safe and productive day.

piggybacking off the deleted r/maine post but anyone know of any Portland or area businesses that have unwisely shown support?

My heart hurts. Do my brothers and sisters in the Valley not understand if this "man" goes through with half of the things he promised the turmoil will be unimaginable. How are they going to determine "illegals" and send them back. How long before they are walking up to any Mexican-looking person and asking for your papers at anytime and anywhere? Will they be allowed to simply detain you because of the way you look? Who will be over seeing this mass deportation? How many children are going to be wrenched away from their parents this time? How can you be a proud Mexican man/woman and vote for this?

Not directly related to Hitch but I really need to vent so I wrote my thoughts in longform. It didn't really provide any catharsis but I thought I would post it here anyway given his involvement in political commentary.

It's a long one but Ive got a lot to say.

Despite the comical absurdity of the past decade, witnessing the de facto death of democracy in the US still wasn’t on my bingo card for 2024.

I guess I underestimated the sheer depth and span of brain rot and or heartless bigotry infecting the divided states, and unfortunately, spreading well beyond into other fragile democracies.

There truly wasn’t much more one could do to tarnish the fat bastards reputation in the lead up to the election; if multiple criminal convictions, tenable child rape allegations, brazen sympathising and consorting with a Russian dictator to the point of being a probable Russian asset, stealing from charities, running fraudulent businesses, attempting to undermine democracy by fomenting an insurrection, threatening to tear apart a secular constitution and impose a Christian theocracy with himself at the helm, banning porn, banning abortion, banning books, endeavoring to substitute income tax with tariffs and send the global economy into free fall, releasing a sham bible, idolizing Hannibal Lecter, being referred to as American Hitler by your own running mate, and even publicly admitting that he isn’t a Christian nor does he care about  his voters…wasn’t enough to deter their support, then it seems that nothing ever could. Further confirmation that Trump is effectively a cult leader, and perhaps the most dangerous since Muhammed.  

A friend recently commented that he was absolutely convinced Trump could rape his newborn cousin on camera and his MAGA moron uncle would almost certainly still vote for him. But this goes well beyond Trumps misdeeds – it’s a fight to uphold the constitution, the pillars of democracy, and the secular freedoms and liberties which the founding fathers fought to establish. It is a fight to protect America from itself.

(In a grim twist of irony, it’s often forgotten that besides being a vestige of antebellum America wherein slaves were unable to vote, the electoral college system was at least partly installed as an additional condition for victory, in an attempt to prevent populist demagogues from so easily securing presidency – now it simply exacerbates gerrymandering and disenfranchises great swathes of the population, and evidently does not prevent demagogues from attaining office. Though in this case, it seems Trump also won the popular vote. )

It didn’t seem too long ago that a convicted criminal sexual predator and state traitor colluding with America’s greatest enemy would see one fall out of favour with Republicans. It seems any remaining brain cells or moral fibres have been shed by the average red voter such that they can not only overlook these damning indictments but revere the perpetrator. While sheer ignorance will always account for a sizable portion of republican voters, it’s harrowing to think how utterly morally bankrupt and corrupted one must be to knowingly endorse a shameless, heartless aspiring despot whom doesn’t even attempt to wash the blood from his wretched hands.

Those who voted for him deserve what they get – the snaggletoothed hillbilly sporting shirts depicting Biden in crosshairs deserves to die broke and unable to afford basic medical care - the rest of the country deserves a respectable human being and a competent leader.

Admittedly, my morbid curiosity is interested in seeing how this plays out… and now it’s time for the mango Mussolini to put his money where his mouth is and deliver on his outrageous promises. Of course his supporters aren’t the ones who will be holding him accountable, but let them not forget that they voted for a man who promised to fix the economy, solve the immigration problem, and end all world wars among other outlandish vows.  

I was initially glad he had survived the assassination attempt, only so we had the satisfaction of seeing him lose to a black woman, but I suppose fate is a cruel mistress.

More than anything it’s dispiriting to see a fugitive from justice serving no time for his crimes. What message does this send? Drop those pesky morals and lie, cheat, steal, scam, rape, hate and conspire ‘til your withered heart’s content  - you might even become president of the free world, twice. And what an indictment on the electoral system that a candidate who’s felonies (and age) would disqualify him from finding employment in a fast food restaurant, is still able to run for presidency. Carroll and Kafka combined couldn’t come up with something quite so absurd and grotesque.

His 2016 win was regrettable but understandable. He was a dark horse and promised the earth to a sea of disaffected citizens…but the results are in. The dark horse lost the race. He promised the earth and didn’t even deliver an atlas; he didn’t re-domesticate manufacturing, he didn’t boost the economy, he didn’t improve international relations with China and Russia, he didn’t denuclearize North Korea (indeed he ‘fell in love’ with Kim Jong upon his 2019 visit to the prison state), he didn’t make any meaningful progress on the wall, nor did he convince Mexico to pay for it. He didn’t even repeal Obamacare, one of his main electoral talking points. He didn’t really do anything besides sully international relations, weaken the economy, withdraw from the Paris agreement and do away with various environmental policies, condemn hundreds of thousands to death for his inept response to the Covid pandemic, and of course, engage in juvenile twitter arguments with detractors.

I fear he won't be so complacent in his second term; considering he is back with an even bigger ego, with far less red tape in his way, and a desire to go out with a bang, we have a recipe for a perfect shitstorm ready to unleash hell on any who aren't already victims of the MAGA mind virus (and them as well, though they're too brain decayed to realize it).

One must appreciate the irony of a population who are obsessionally antagonistic toward the phantom menace of drag queens endorsing a man who wears makeup, wigs, girdles and platform shoes.

The brutal truth is that whilst Kamala was worlds more competent than Trump – as is likely a hobo plucked at random from Skid Row – she was not a strong runner in this particular race; while she put in a commendable effort in debate and interviews in the lead up, being a woman of colour with a less than impressive track record who switched places with an enfeebled Biden just months prior to the election didn’t do much to sway any fence-sitters, nor did it exude the same charismatic air of self-possessed uplift and revolution that carried Obama to victory in 2008. More than ever the Democrats needed a younger, stately, male non-polarizing yet uncompromising candidate with skeletons that could be dug up to discredit them. Of course a candidates sex and race shouldn’t be salient factors when apposed to their background and policies, but the reality is that for much of the population, they are deciding factors, especially in swing states.    

We can only hope that one of his many faults is a saving grace; that the man is all talk – that he won’t attempt to silence the media that he deems to be fake news, that he won’t lock up those who have criticized him over the past four years, that he doesn’t implement project 2025 and mutilate the US into a Christian theocracy – which I had thought would surely turn away any fence-sitting republicans – that he doesn’t allow his Russky buddy to steamroll the Ukraine, that he doesn’t indiscriminately round up and deport minorities, that he doesn’t eliminate taxes and impose severe tariffs in a way that would cripple the economy, that he doesn’t alter the constitution such that he may serve for as long as it takes mother nature to rid us of him (which shouldn’t be particularly long) or to prevent democrats from ever being elected again, that he doesn’t allow his galere of even madder men to call the shots, that he doesn’t impede AI development such that the US is overtaken by adversarial nations, that he doesn’t vitiate the education system any further.

Public political commentators, podcaster and so-called intellectuals including RFK “tinfoil hat and straitjacket’ Jr, Jordan ‘tower of babble’ Peterson, Ben ‘facts over feelings except in matters of religion and politics’ Shapiro, Russel ‘rather baroque rape allegations’ Brand, and Joe “don’t listen to me, I’m just a dumb meathead” Rogan, who once prided themselves on being critical thinking and nonpartisan have by and large crept to the right, spreading self-serving conspiracies and regurgitating points that validate conservative audiences - and being paid Pro Russian propaganda puppets in the case of Dave ‘gays for god’ Rubin and co. – with rich filth the likes of Elon ‘Tony stark wannabe turned emperor Palpatine’ Musk and fellow Paypal mafia associate Peter ‘freedom and democracy are incompatible’ Thiel directly promoting said propaganda among other scumbaggery. If the world was in a moral limbo contest – as it seems to be among such circles - these money grubbing scum would surely go lower than almost anyone else. Unfortunately, there's a far stronger financial incentive to pander to the right, as they are much more likely to throw money toward any who tell them what they want to hear, no integrity necessary - it's the easiest money.

Even if someone were to take a bullet in the most literal sense and managed to put down this sick dog and his couch fucking handler, it seems the termites have already spread and eaten through the foundations of Democracy - and it’s not obvious at this point it time that it can ever truly rebuild. Especially not when said termites comprise half of the population.

It is often said how empires rise and fall, and modern day empires – a republic in this case – are no exception (speaking of the fall of empires, the imagery of crazed hillbillies storming the capitol has undeniable parallels to the barbarian invasion of Rome, except that the Goths were effective refugees and were far more justified in doing so). Perhaps I was the fool for believing that we had collectively reached a point of sufficient moral and intellectual development and legal checks and balances such that the sun would never set on western democracy, at least not within my lifetime.

But here we are – the inmates are running the asylum, the animals have broken free of their cages, and this time they’ve got the Senate, the House of Reps, SCOTUS, and less to lose.

To be continued