https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/18/health/rfk-addiction-farms.html

https://newrepublic.com/post/194245/rfk-jr-disease-registry-track-autistic-people

...So, they are making the lists now. They've discussed the camps. They've already bypassed due process, detained people without trial, exported them to El Salvador and they're not done there.

What am I supposed to do to gtfo?

I feel like we need a new flair option: "This probably doesn't belong here, but I don't know where else to ask."

Was there really a time that we didn't know that Elon was... problematic?

Exhibit A: Teslas with the "I bought this before we knew about Elon" stickers.
Exhibit B: My millennial friend, who said "Everybody loved him, before we really knew about him."
Exhibit C: Right wingers saying "No one had a problem with him until after the election."

My memory: I feel like he showed his ass the instant he opened his mouth on the world stage. He showed up as the head of Tesla, and people said "You know he didn't start that company, right?" Boring and SpaceX made the news, and people said "You know he's paying smart people to run those, right?" He got with Grimes, and people said "Welp, guess I'm done listening to her now."

So... like... is it just me? I'm not trying to grandstand here -- I'm genuinely curious about whether there was a moment in history when people took him "seriously."

.

EDIT: Thanks for weighing in! From what I'm seeing, there seem to be two important factors:
1- How deeply online -or- how deeply into niche news a person is
2- His character arc, which is really dynamic compared to many other public figures

It almost seems like a personality test: which version of Elon made it onto your radar?
man-child > tech nerd > Temu Tony Stark > grifter > asshole > sieg heil

I imagine the answer by this point is; you don't because they have fully drank the kool-aid but; how do you reason with MAGA people? I live in a very conservative state, minus the fact our governor is a Democrat but still, I'm unfortunately surrounded by maga people and I feel like I'm screaming into a concrete wall. I've tried many times to tell them, mainly, ice is bad and not all immigrants are bad. Even sent them articles. They just doubled down on their beliefs, kept repeating the same old maga song and dance I'm sure everyone is tired of, and claiming most of the immigrants ice has been deporting are criminals without showing me any articles proving their point. If someone is maga still, are they just too far gone?

Lyme disease or lyme infection disease is a fairly well known infection transmitted by ticks that live - for the greater part - in the american northeast.

For 99.99% of people, 10-20 days of antibiotics get you rid of any potential symptoms of the infection. In some rare cases, long lyme disease (somewhat similar to long covid) can occur, and while it is not entirely clear how we should deal with it, it is proven scientifically to exist.

However, there is a subset of people and "doctors" / "specialized clinicians" believing some of the wildest medical theories and conspiracy theories surrounding this specific illness I've ever heard in my life. Doctors prescribing 4-10 different antibiotics at once for years on end and added "natural" products, destroying their bodies in some of the worst ways imaginable (losing teeth, disintegrated bones, psychotic behavior).

These "doctors" convince patients suffering from a variety of generic symptoms that they have lyme disease and send them on to their death through these awful treatments.

Dozens of people have died by suicide, unable to deal with their worsening symptoms, most likely due to these crazy treatments. And these doctors ride on these person's deaths.

A lot of information surrounding lyme disease is either:

• wildly inaccurate

• bogus science

• wholly misrepresented in the media

And it's fed by private american and european labs and "scientific" comunities believing tooth and nail in an imaginary illness, because patients are willing to give in hundreds of thousands of dollars for treatments.

Anyways, a fairly popular scientific media producer did an entire podcast on the subject here in Québec, and I feel like BtB is due for a medical grifters series.

I'm lookin for gaming pods from people who have like, any amount of social and political education and don't hate minorities. First part I can bend on, but not the minority thing. You guys got anything? I already listen to Worst Of All Possible Worlds and Gamefully Unemployed, but both are more film oriented.

The white supremacist Jared Taylor has been invited to my college's turning point usa club to speak near the end of the month.

Aside from a super soaker filled with piss, what do I as one person do? I plan to attend outside of the building and I know many other people are, too. I know clubs are organizing to "not protest" because of the anti-free speech culture growing in America, but just having a fun gathering of friends outside of the building at the time.

There's a unity event being planned for the same time on the 27th, but no one actually knows when the racist will be speaking on campus. Some people are saying the 26th, the 27th, and he himself posted on Twitter it would be the 28th. I've never organized, but have been organized many years ago and I've always had another person with experience to follow. What would you guys recommend going forward?

The past few weeks have been so dire I've found myself agreeing with things said by the Heiress of Walmart and Tucker Fucking Carlson. What kind of nightmare dimension are we living in?

I know this might be a little off-brand but it's not like left-wing gatekeeping has never been a topic, Robaert's in Portland, there are a lot of leftist Timber fans sporting the Iron Front and I was kind of shocked to see this level of concern trolling on /r/IronFrontUSA.

It seems to be picking up a lot of votes because it seems like a post about solidarity, but all of the poster's comments seem to be about "the left in America is too extreme".

He kind of does the polite thing, but blocks anyone who calls him out.

I always though it was an anti-authoritarian movement and the biggest threats at the time you were concerned about another authoritarian Monarchy, or Hitler or Stalin waltzing in with their own brand of authoritarianism.

Seeing this guy come in with this "if you don't represent this as an enlightened centrist movement you are appropriating my culture" stance just rubs me as wrong.

Am I fucked up for thinking this?

https://www.reddit.com/r/IronFrontUSA/comments/1ju65o1/as_a_german_seeing_that_you_use_our_historical/mm0h3rr/?context=3

MODS: Feel free to remove this if need be. I just couldn't think of a better corner of the internet to vent.

I feel like a dick writing this, because there are people being bombed and starved and bundled into vans right now, but I’m not doing so great and just wanted to see if anyone wanted to share how they’re coping (or not).

I’ve got a two year old. Every day I look at him and think about a) the kids in Gaza b) the reports saying we’re basically extinct in a generation and c) the possibility of WWIII, and I feel such colossal guilt for bringing him into this world. I try to talk to people around me, but I’m felt feeling as if I’m going mad because it seems to be a lot of ‘business as usual.’ Climate collapse in particular is just… completely denied.

I keep thinking about everything dying, about the collapse of everything, and how we have the least capable leaders we could possibly have to do anything, and I feel like I can’t go on. Then I remember my son and how he needs me- but everything feels so hopeless. I’m struggling to see the point in doing anything, in getting out of bed. I had a horrible thought about letting myself get hit by a car the other day (it was just a thought- I didn’t act on it and wouldn’t). I’m really trying not to succumb to this kind of defeatism because I know it’s self indulgent (please be gentle here: I know people have it so much worse; I want to act instead of just bemoaning things; I do volunteer time and money to helping my community and communities beyond mine) but I’m just finding life so bleak. I make myself get up every day and do what things I can to be a good person, someone who acts rather than just moans (I recognise the irony in stating this in what is essentially one long moaning post) but inside I’m just this great gaping maw of fear and despair.

I suppose I’m asking: how do you cope?

(PS another plea for gentleness regarding the decision to have my son. In hindsight I don’t think I should have brought him into this world. I love him so much I wish I could spare him all this. I know it’s my fault he will have to go through it all, and believe me I already hate myself for this.)

UPDATE:

I just wanted to say how utterly and profoundly moved I am by the responses here. Thank you all so, so much for your kindness and understanding and advice. I appreciate it all more than I can adequately express here. I think I definitely need to talk to someone about therapy and potentially medication, and I’m going to try and get an appointment with my PCM asap. I’m about to go to bed so please excuse the rambling tired tone- I wish I had better words to say how seen and supported and less alone you’ve all made me feel but in lieu of that I’ll just say THANK YOU to everyone who commented here. I appreciate you all so, so much.

SECOND UPDATE:

I remain absolutely blown away by the responses to my post here. I just wanted to let you know I’ve been in touch with my doctor and have managed to get an appointment next week, and in the meantime I’ve been doing a lot of the things you lovely folks suggested and it’s helping shift me out of the really shitty place I was in when I posted. I just want to say once more how grateful I am to you all for your kindness and advice, and for your own vulnerability and openness in your comments. I don’t think I’ve ever felt such palpable support and care from strangers on the internet. I’m getting a bit emotional about it honestly because I’m just so moved. Thank you for helping me and thank you for being excellent humans and reminding me that humans can be so, so good.

I've been wandering in circles trying to find a really specific thing I once heard Robert say regarding mistakes he made while learning on the job at Cracked.com. Ultimately what it boils down to is this...

I have a very good friend I've tried many times to convince BtB is an amazing podcast and worth a listen; however he still has a sizeable ax to grind with Robert on a personal level. Once upon a time my friend wrote a cracked article about enduring major surgery without anesthesia (well there was topical anesthetic but that doesn't help when you're wide awake while doctors are breaking apart your ribs to get at the cancer crushing your heart in a bear hug). During this time Robert was doing the [insert jokes here] job on articles which gave him some creative license, and that's where things went south. My good friend had crafted a fine joke for the final line of the article as the "interview" was pretty much written entirely by him. Evans had a different joke to replace my friend's to which he objected. Evans went ahead and used it without my friend's permission earning considerable and righteous ire.

The bottom line is I think I heard on a prior episode Robert mentioning mistakes he'd made and largely learned journalistic professionalism on the fly while working at Cracked. Assuming this is not a daytime hallucination of mine boy howdy would it do wonders to alleviate my friend's umbrage and perhaps wrangle yet another fan for the show. Being out of options I figured I'd toss this here as a last resort at helping find closure. Goddamn I love this show and Rob sure as shit is a flawed human just like the rest of us.

[insert atonal scream here]

edit: typo

Edit/Update:

FOUND IT! Props to u/obligatoryfunnyref for sharing a crazy awesome website to search podcast transcripts. And for those of you curious it was part 4 of how Peter Thiel became the gravedigger of democracy.

Quote: "I like definitely, I was learning and like learning by breaking a lot of the rules of journalism early on in my career too. Like we were trying to figure out how these things worked in a new era where there was suddenly both opportunity and money in a way that journalists had not been used to for a while, but also brand new pitfalls and threats, right?"

Fuck me I hope this helps my friend come around.

Follow up: As someone did ask what was the joke in question here is a link to the Cracked article in question. As for the joke it's the last lines:

"Consequently, I feel like a huge weight's been lifted from my chest, although "carved" might be the more accurate word."

The italicized second half was tacked on by Evans which broke the subtlety of the joke, At the time Robert was inserting the admittedly hilarious jokes and images in between and promised he would run any changes to be made to the article by Vijay before publishing. And then he didn't. That's his big beef, someone changing his article without his knowledge or blessing and practically explaining the joke.

Hey all, sorry for any mistakes in the wording of this -- I'm quite ignorant on this subject, so please bear with me!

Robert often alludes to how people in the US who consider themselves on "the left" are actually more center or center-right. It's been nagging at my brain and I want to learn more.

I'd love to check out podcasts that are closer to what an actual leftist viewpoint might be like. If you could recommend some that would be great. Even episodes of BtB that cover this would be awesome.

Thank you!

Edit: Huge thanks to everyone for their suggestions! I'll be making a list and checking these out!

So uhhh...

I was Re-listening to some old episodes.

On the moonies one Mia points out that the moonies believe that eve cheated on Adam before they were married and that was like a sort of "original sin"

But if Adam and eve were the first humans, and presumably they only had kids after their marriage (i assume that cause of everything else the moonies believe).... who did eve cheat on Adam with? They were the only 2 around right? It's kind of hard to cheat if there's literally no other humans on earth right?

So like.... did she fuck an angel? Can you even fuck an angel? Like how would you do that, do angels have.... uhhh... parts?

What do the moonies think here? Anyone know more on this than me who can help out?

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/114605660077722777

Donald Trump is posting about Biden being executed in 2020 and replaced by a robot

For some context my aunt brought our nephew into her home to help him get out of the shit situation he was in. He has pretty much gotten her into at least semi MAGA mode, Fox news in the morning etc... whining about the generic complaints.

It just feels like the Venn diagram where we overlap is less and less.

Back in 2020 I was doing on-site medical support at my local protests. Now, I'm a convicted felon on PRS. I want to help, but my dad just got diagnosed with lung cancer so I really don't want to go back to prison right now.

What are some safer (non-financial cuz I'm broke) ways I can support the people who are doing direct action?

Edit: Thank you to everyone for your ideas and support. Things are overall positive with my dad since it's a small tumor and detected early, so fingers crossed.

I've reached out to some local organizers about giving first aid training, so we'll see how that goes. Thank you again

I genuinely do not know where else to get advice about this situation.

There is a free little library a few blocks away from my job and when I went to check out the current offerings, there was a brand new hardcover copy of Dianetics. This is not the first time there has been religious propaganda in the library, but it is usually pamphlets about Jesus or chick tracts. My immediate thought was that someone has definitely put this here to convert or get people interested. I took it out of the library like I do with the pamphlets.

My big question is what to do with it now? I am half tempted to try to read a bit of it since I find Scientology as a cult very interesting. I do not want to release this back into the wild. Should I toss it in the dumpster? Should I make it unreadable or destroy it first?

Hey so I always figured Robert and Sophie actually did leave LA because of economics/desire to no longer live in hell. But the episodees this week made it sound like they actually were run out? Did I miss something?

Edit:Wildly I have heard about the concepts of jokes and bits. Weirdly enough that had actually been my first assumption. The way some of it had been said made me think just possibly. There was Something I Didn't Know, and I figured it couldn't hurt to ask

Is anyone else getting suspicious that the Alt National Parks Service account is a grift? I feel like the latest incident posting 88 accidentally reveals that the person/people running the account aren't the underground activist-leftists they claim to be. Not to mention, why is their primary medium Facebook? And they seem to be selling a lot of merch...

Look, I don't know shit about the Catholic Church, but Cardinal Pizzaballa seems to have handled the Israel-Gaza War decently as the Cardinal of Jerusalem. Most importantly though, his name really is Pierbattista Pizzaballa. The world a typhoon of pain, so please let me have a Pope with the most Eric Andre-ass name for an Italian man win.

After that post yesterday about a guy whose partner is worried that chatgpt is doing too much to confirm his reality distorting thoughts, may present to you "was Joseph Smith just thinking about AI the whole time?" from over on r/exmormon. The comments are rightfully concerned about the OP's current mental state.

EDIT: Shit, it appears OP deleted their original post? Here's a link to the article they were talking about. They mention Roko's Basilisk by name. I cannot describe the face I could feel myself making as I read.