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Fascinated by "I don't care who you vote for as long as you vote" people. The whole point is to care who people vote for. You should absolutely care. Quit being a fucking idiot.

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

I guess that is what I was trying to get at which again I think is different than what you're describing but to the extent you view that as exactly/close enough to the same thing agree to disagree.

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

I think the notion that there is a positive current of American history responsible for the parts of our history and political culture that aren't as terrible and trying to fit the left or any political movement within that tradition isn't patriotic proclamations as you describe and is still useful.

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

I'm with you but trying to square where someone like Harvey Kaye or Zohran's July 3rd address falls under this take

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Would you agree that the average normie American wants to be sold a positive conception of the United States as opposed to litigating its historic sins? And that the best way to do that is to focus on the genuine radicals in US history? Or does that fall under this criticism as well?

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Hopefully Samuel Alito doesn't retire and just waits 3 years and dies instead.

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

When he says "reasonable Democrats" he means maoists

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Had a client call worried about losing his right to vote and proceeded to explain that he "voted for Trump because he was the right man for the job" and that he "voted for Obama for healthcare" and that is nonsensical to a lot of people but is also literally millions of people.

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Totally agree and I think patriotism is kind of inherently amorphous and stupid as a descriptor for any coherent kind of politics.

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

I also think many people who are attracted to the symbols of "patriotism" view anti-interventionism as the "patriotic" position and there is a real through line from Obama to Trump on that basis amongst voters who aren't super engaged in the discourse like these freaks.

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

It would take just over 11 days to count to 1 million. It would take just over 31 years to count to 1 billion. It would take over 31,000 years to count to 1 trillion. Billions and trillions are literally incomprehensible amounts of money.

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

It's also funny because there was a brief period there before October 7th where people declared him the best modern president, FDR like even (lol) and had he just shut off the genocide spigot and committed to one term that might have remained true.

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Have you read Killers of the Flower Moon? As you know I only watch 1 movie a year and have been wanting to watch it but also feel like I have to read the book first (a rule I got from Darcie). Is it worth just skipping the book for? Assuming I can break away from Terminal anyway.

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

This is all obviously subjective and I think the engagement and press attention suggests a lot of people disagree with you as to where he's interesting or noteworthy but I don't disagree that he's not really funny and he's definitely not a positive figure in politics.

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

I think to add to the novelty of it all is the fact that we all lived through the news cycles during the last two elections but never really heard from Hunter Biden so to hear from him for the first time basically on this stuff, in this way, makes it grab even more attention. Agreed it's played out.

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

I think the fact that he was a U.S. President's son who drove news cycles for these same reasons posting like this is fairly novel and noteworthy if not funny. Just kind of the disconnect between the posts and the supposed status of someone of his background.

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Solidarity with everyone in cages. Free them all.

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

This is my favorite part of taxing burritos and for sure what people miss out on. I meet workers. See where they work, what it's like during rush hour. Talk with the people in line at restaurants, fellow delivery drivers, people angry in traffic, people grateful I'm bringing them dinner. It's nice.

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

As a white collar worker I didn't practice playing flip cup every day with Miller Light in the summer of 2014 for him to bastardize my culture like this

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

I worked at Denny's in college and they had a 401K plan. By the time I quit it had like $700 in it that I never had access to and it's still floating around out there somewhere. This is what people are talking about when they say the majority of the working class owns stocks.

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

There are places in this country where a gallon of gas costs more than the federal minimum wage.

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

You'll never see the New York Times write an article like this talking about Palantir and Lockheed Martin.

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

This land isn't your land. This land isn't my land. This is the land of the Confederated Intersalish Tribes of the Inland Northwest.

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

I'll give you that it's not as bad as Twitter, also you're right, but I think a more subdued version of the argument applies. Also YouTube is different for similar reasons but let's not act like it hasn't been a well documented problem with their algorithm and that didn't just change on its own

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

Maybe my metrics are up and I get meaningful play there because I've become more right wing, you could probably make the same argument about my interpersonal political work and living in Spokane. I don't believe that and I don't believe fighting behind enemy lines isn't worth it.

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

A piece in the noise is the whole fight. I just really feel like you overstate how pointless it is to do so on Twitter but I appreciate that this is something we probably won't see eye to eye on at this point.

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

Podcast charts and YouTube are also dominated by reactionaries but people on the left still find it useful to use those platforms. Also I live in the most conservative part of the country trying to make it a better place and feel the same about social media in some ways. Finding a way to carve out

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

More genuine left commentary and community than posts like this appreciate and it's fine if you don't want to be a part of that for all the very legitimate reasons not to be but don't act like that somehow makes everyone who is aligned with reactionaries.

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

I think I'm more disputing the point that they dominate the algorithm or that Ryan Grim's (or Sabby or Cenk's) post in particular proves they do. There are left wing commentators getting millions of impressions pushing back on this stuff every week. I don't blame you for not being there but there is

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

I have posts with genuine left wing politics get 1 million views on that site every week, like I said Ryan Grim's post is the only one that proves your point here arguably without moving the goal posts or dishonestly framing who the left is, on your own terms, for purposes of your critique.

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

If you're calling Sabby Sabs and Cenk "the left" then I think you're just proving my aforementioned point because I know for sure I can find us talking about how they've lost the plot as early as like 2019.

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

Doesn't prove that you're somehow right on this one or not cherry picking from a site you aren't even on to experience the discourse on.

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

I'm busy right now and trying to find some screenshots to satisfy you. But all I'm seeing is ryan grim with a million impressions and everyone else with 100K or so regardless of the point being made. There are people getting meaningful engagement speaking against it. Ryan Grim being the flash point

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

It's not even that it's not everyone it's just not nearly as one sided as you describe. And you're not even there to see the posts so I don't know how the cherry picking argument is somehow rebutted by your assumption as to what gets views there.

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

Ryan Grim's post is the only one that fits this argument. Go off though, keep fighting the good fight in the Bluesky trenches.

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

Also many of those people are people that you and I spent a lot of time declaring very much not on the left for years when you still used that platform but now they're conveniently on the left for purposes of your argument. I'd say the cherry picking and changing who is on the left is what I mean.

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

My feed has more criticism of the kind of post you posted than people in support of MTG over the last 24 hours. Not that the kind of posts you are talking about don't exist but acting like it's everyone is just dishonest brother.

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Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @realjchubby.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

I spent 30 seconds finding people calling out exactly these kinds of posts. Which is exactly my point. You're cherry picking a particular kind of person, just like I just did, to try and argue against a platform that a lot of people with varied perspectives use for I'm not really sure what reason.

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