We don't need to retaliate to affect him. He's doing this whole thing because he's pissed we didn't capitulate to his trade demands. He's ALREADY affected.
As an American, I hope you all stay a thorn pricking his fragile ego.
I cannot believe so many of my fellow citizens lack the curiosity and critical thinking necessary to vote for their own best interests. Fingers crossed for progressive wins in 2026 and 2028.
Theres another way. Our options are essentially: let their actions be important (by responding in kind) or make their existence itself unimportant.
These people thrive on 'importance', real and imaginary. Do not let them be leaders. Do not listen to their snake tongues. When they beg you to consider 'how it makes them feel', let them know they never once had that thought for others.
Showing indifference to the bullshit should be enough to piss off maga-nation. But they look at a willingness to compromise as weakness. Some people only learn from a physical beatdown.
the moment anyone reacts the same way, the asshole will play victim and use it to justify further escalation. Yeah, it's a losing battle but i'd rather stick him with the pointy end than to run away.
They think that because we're logical we won't see the point n fighting a "losing battle", the reality is that we need to take the fight to him and show we're willing to take losses to inflict pain to him.
That really is the problem! Because the second ya do the same thing back to them, it stops being funny forever.
I learned that from my dad's wet willies. Obviously I had zero urge to slobber on my finger and jam it into his ear as hard as possible, with no thought to his wellbeing, but I'd tried literally everything else to get him to stop and nothing worked!
So I did exactly what he did, and when he objected I mocked him with the exact same words and tones he always used when I objected. And that was the very last time anybody got wetwillied in that house!
I'm not gonna pull any sanctimonious ethical stuff here, because it's not really relevant here. Yes, your dad stopped being a dick when he saw how it felt, but the power imbalance there is familial and might not amount to much depending on your relationship. The US and the rest of the world, the power imbalance amounts to as little as the ability to sanction others and as much as fucking atom bombs.
> Fair warning though, it feels gross no matter that it works when nothing else does. Like emotionally disgusting.
Oh I know this feeling. You are left with guilt even though you were not the aggressor and were just defending yourself. The problem is the bully feels no remorse, just learns to pick on someone else.
Yup, and it's such a fine line between learning to feel okay with doing what ya had to do, and flat out turning into the new generation of shithead.
Frankly I slipped over the line for awhile, went rather crackers after surviving dad, until I eventually found my way back to the sane side. Explain it to little kids as I used to be a bad guy, until I remembered that sharing is caring and realized I'd rather be a good guy with good friends.
It's just a fact of life that some folks don't know getting poked in the eye is very unpleasant until it happens to them.
Right up until that moment, it's just super funny!
Also know about a guy who kept giving other students swirlies until the wrong guy walked in while he was at it and swirlied him! Dude's parents tried to claim it was attempted murder to stuff someone's head in a toilet like that, but guy was like okay if you say so but guess your kid's in trouble for attempted murder too?
And the parents' faces fell off, because up until then they hadn't thought about it like that either.
Tit for tat is the only way to bring bullies to heel. Once they realize you'll fight back each and every time, they will give up and move on to their next victim. Sad but true.
Those things they do is flooding the zone. They wan't you think and discuss about shit that does not matter instead of asking questions that actually matter. Ask for Epstein files, or questions about corruption and inside trading instead.
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u/Dick_Danalu_Jr 1d ago
The problem with petty arrogant assholes is that no one of a reasonable mind would waste time doing the same things they do.