Benjamin Badgers

conservatives are proof that a poor understanding of history leads to poor outcomes because generations of Americans have refused to believe that slavery was, in fact,
bad, and early 20th c laws on food safety, labor, and the environment were good.

As someone who professionally gritting my teeth as people say misguided things at me about the US rev war I agree, but finding a catchy, short slogan for a mass movement is hard. I’m not losing any sleep over No Kings when the Trump admin is trying to make telling the truth about US hist illegal.

Alas, “The Loyalists had a lot of good
points, but Trump is still bad” just isn’t as catchy.

I work in ww2 currently and get to try to keep a straight face while listening to leftists compare American plantations to Nazi extermination camps (Mt Vernon was not, in fact, Sobibor). The degree to which people are bad at drawing historical comparisons has yet to cease to amaze me.

“No Kings” is a succinct, catchy slogan referencing a shared pop history/myth of a founding as an elected democracy that values the rule of law vs personal dictatorship, in a country that has very few shared reference points left, especially w/ US history. If it bafffles you, you’re overthinking it.

In addition to how our schools mostly teach the American side of the war’s politics because of our obsession w the Declaration &Constitution, all our surviving stuff is American things in the form of battlefields and historic buildings & enthusiasts tend to focus on that, not the UK political system

I’ve spent almost a decade as an interpreter at various rev war historic sites and the degree to which even educated Americans understand the British political background of the war is minimal; very few
can articulate the difference between parliament and the king or know who Lord North is.

I don’t want another generation of concentration camp guards & Ordnungspolizei to slink back to their families & pretend they didn’t do anything or were just following orders. They know what they’re doing. Trials first to be publicly tarred with breaking laws. THEN we can talk reconciliation.

That’s all nice but I still want ppl who knowingly & enthusiastically broke the law to be charged, tried, &, if found guilty, listed as having committing crimes. Maybe that leads to reconciliation not prison but I want criminals who broke the law trying to destroy the US to be labeled as such.

Rich white NIMBYs in Annapolis quoting John Lewis to fight a bill that will rezone 840 lots currently zoned single family home only to allow for construction of duplexes (aka build more missing middle housing) is *chef’s kiss*.

A judge walks out of his courtroom, laughing. A colleague asks, "What’re you laughing about?"
”I just heard a great joke about Charlie Kirk,” the judge says, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.
"A joke about Charlie Kirk? Tell me!"
"Are you crazy? I just shipped a man to CECOT for that joke!"

No, this is just a case of a staff member who didn’t know what was going on. If they had worries they should have reached out internally. This person’s irresponsibility in going to the press has now put media and WH attention on a long-planned project and people are fucking pissed.

The museum spokesperson’s telling the truth: the exhibit refresh was planned for years & not b/c of Trump. The staff member who forwarded that email didn’t talk to anyone actually on the exhibits team. People are freaking out for no reason instead of focusing on actual attacks on museum integrity.

Meanwhile people in the county are convinced that they could get shot if they go to Main Street.

White people who live in Annapolis will complain about how bad crime is when all they have to deal with is opportunists swiping stuff if you forget to lock your car door overnight, which is quite unpleasant but I consider to be an acceptable trade-off to living in a gorgeous walkable town.

A picture of someone holding a ripe fig with a text exchange beneath: Text: Just saying my figs are currently ripe and the blossoms on my vines are sweet. Response: High quality biblical sexting

So many bangers in the shapenote tradition!

Yes

I grew up next to Sleepy Creek WMA hiking and hunting all over it, and the PAT is a real hidden gem, the area around Devils Nose in particular. Gorgeous photos - glad you had a great time in my neck of the woods!

If I had just normal rich people $ where I didn’t have to worry about bankrupting my family if I failed I’d buy the empty bank in my tiny WV home town & turn it into a coffee shop and teen friendly community space. There’s no indy coffee shops within 25 min & it’s got a drive thru! It’d be great.

I would spend the entirety of my grotesque fortune on doing whatever it would take to rebuild the railway that connected Annapolis to Washington DC between 1840 and 1935 so I don’t have to drive to the f$&@ng metro and sit in traffic to get to DC for work or fun.

Orban, Putin, & Duarte are better parallels to warn Americans about the dangers of 21st century authoritarianism but, like, national myths have power for a reason. Personally I want more pre-Civil War imagery like the Wide Awakes but the grievances of the D of I are a widely known shared vocabulary!

Please

White collar federal employees long for the mines

“As those imperfect geniuses wrote in our Declaration of Independence, ‘we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.’ Now is the time. It’s not left or right: it’s right or wrong. Let’s get into good trouble.

Madam President, I yield the floor.”

[paraphrased]

This is what happens when you can’t send people to penal colonies.

Radiant twinsies!

The Strauss Cube has been whispering to you again, I see.

Horde here - so long ago I forget my username. Still very good friends with plummetingsloth . I’ll ride with JB too!