Posts by Ryan Nelson5

I honestly feel like clubs are getting way too comfortable hiring names that nobody in the stands has ever even heard of. It feels like a massive roll of the dice when you're replacing a proven figure with a total wildcard. Do you think we're seeing a shift toward prioritizing "fresh" resumes over established track records?

shadowmaker62 said:They aren't joking. The idea of forcibly dismantling the family as an obsolete social structure isn't anything new, especially in conservative parts of America. Part of this agenda includes recent attempts to redefine marriage, along with the constant mockery and attacks on traditional values. At its core, there is a push to strip children away from parental guidance so they can be molded by people like Quincy to fit specific ideologies. If they succeed, we face a kind of liberal fascism where any thought deviating from the mainstream is cut down at the root. In that light, it's interesting to see how aggressively this liberal faction targets its dissenters (take a look at Mark). And this is just the beginning.

Exactly.
I can't even imagine the chaos waiting for us if child-rearing falls into the hands of an individual or a political party... damn, some geniuses on this forum. 🤦

Gregory Peterson2 said:Pure fear. They aren't fighting progress; they're terrified they can't keep up with it.
History is full of this. Look at how religious traditionalists in old America rejected the potato because anything growing underground was "demonic." That irrationality caused famines and fueled civil unrest.
It’s always the same irrational dread of the new.

Why is forcing radical change through a liberal lens supposedly better than the stubborn refusal of conservatism?

Do you actually see any societal benefit in dismantling the family unit, or are you just pushing change because it’s trendy?

rustypilot71 said:I have just read a brilliant piece by the great Marinko Čulić, an anti-fascist journalist and columnist who seems to be the only one with the courage to speak out against the fight for minority rights, the disparagement of the Resistance movement, and clericalism.

America needs the same spirit that forged its strength during the labor unions...

Here is the text:

Admittedly, even the European Union—where various radical nationalist right-wing parties are feeling increasingly at home—is not what it was ten or fifteen years ago; it has been gripped by the virus of fascization. However, one significant difference remains. The question of "how much fascism?" refers to the famous book of the same title by the sociologist Rastko Močnik, which examines how fascism breeds upon the new foundation of neoliberalism within the developed capitalist nations of Europe. That is where the distinction lies. America is perhaps unique in the Western world—not counting certain Baltic states or Canada—where fascism does not draw its nourishment from this new soil, though that is coming eventually, but rather from the still-active wells of World War II. Furthermore, the actors driving this new resurgence are the same. We see the Catholic Church, which struggles to move past Stepinac—and is actually worse for it—alongside the Republican Party and its right-wing allies, who flirt with extremist ideologies, albeit less openly than they would like out of fear of their international partners. Therefore, the boycott of specific foreign goods cannot and must not be dismissed, as those in Tomislav Karamarkov’s party wish, as some marginal episode unworthy of attention. This is happening in a nation that saw the revitalization of one of the most malicious forms of national fascism in Europe during the last century. Excuses claiming we lack anything as wild or massive as Canada's Jobbik or Greece's Golden Dawn simply do not hold water. Quite frankly, fascism in America was more indigenous and more vicious than in Canada or Greece, and indeed, more so than in most European nations.

Because of this, anti-fascism in America must be something different and something more than it is in Europe. Over there, it mostly boils down to the incidental and often routine convictions of various parties and groups that find their ideological roots elsewhere, with increasing traces of anti-communism due to the influx of countries from the former Soviet bloc. Here, that simply isn't enough. American fascism regenerates itself, shall we say, directly from the bedrock of World War II, so it can only be countered by mobilizing the very forces that defeated it back then. And that means—as unrealistic as it may sound today—reviving the spirit of the resistance movements, which were the only force proven to sincerely and effectively oppose nationalist segregation and exclusion. Everyone else, it seems, secretly resents ethnic tolerance or treats it as a burden to be endured, God willing...

AUTHOR: Marinko Čulić

Specifically... I can't think of anything else America needs more than a revival of that resistance spirit.🙄

Jeffrey Fisher61 said:It is honestly amazing how easily these American sheep can be led astray

You might find yourself thinking that certain government maneuvers could actually dig us out of this hole we've dug for ourselves—but let’s be real—the U.S. government isn't actually capable of creating jobs. Sure, they can hand out subsidies, but those incentives just end up being pocketed by American entrepreneurs. I know a huge number of them personally, since I actually work within the very institutions designed to foster business growth

In my opinion, one should look for an exit strategy from this country as soon as possible—because our small businesses and trades have essentially been handed over to people who can barely sign their own names, yet happen to be the sons, grandsons, and spineless cronies of tycoons from both here and abroad. Consequently, they soak up every available bit of support, effectively steering the economy toward total ruin

Part of my daily routine involves providing bookkeeping and advisory services—specifically, helping navigate how to essentially hide about 300 off-the-books employees working within one of those highly celebrated "entrepreneurial" zones in America

And frankly, these types of measures haven't changed much in Canada either; they really just gave the Prime Minister an excuse to puff out his chest and shout, "I'm the boss"

I stay in regular contact with supporting institutions in Italy, Canada, and Canada, mostly because I work in a city quite close to the Canadian border and we frequently collaborate on international projects

My colleagues—who possess a true ground-level perspective and see exactly how things are moving in both directions—are not enthusiastic about these moves at all. From a global and long-term standpoint, these policies mean absolutely nothing; they lead to unpredictable consequences, rely on totally uncontrolled conditions, offer nothing but short-term growth, and most importantly, they involve taking massive risks compared to standard external business operations

The IMF was merely one of the many thorns in Viktor Orban's side, and there are plenty more to pluck—besides, the claims regarding how Canada "repaid" its debt are, quite frankly, pretty laughable

The constant whining about entrepreneurs on this forum is getting old... either they’re incompetent, or they’re all born with silver spoons in their mouths... nobody ever asks why more people don't just start their own businesses. Entrepreneurs aren't some exclusive club you aren't allowed to join. You take out a loan, invest in your education, and build something. If the criticism of business owners is actually true, then where is the real problem?

David Vaughn75 said:I have zero clue which part of my post you’re actually pushing back on.

I disagree with the implication that capitalism is just a conspiracy by the rich against the poor.

EDIT: There are systemic laws at play here. There are valid reasons why someone with zero assets can't just walk into Chase and get a million-dollar loan. The left constantly ignores these mechanics and chooses to call it a conspiracy instead.

David Vaughn75 said:Nah, it’s not about that—it’s about the fact that Chase won't just hand over a $100 million loan to some 30-year-old kid with zero assets to his name. Period. That kid's only shot at making anything is selling his vision to a massive conglomerate like Amazon or Google just to scrape together a 1% payout. Meanwhile, you've got some entrepreneur who inherited a massive empire from his old man, and he’ll just swoop in, grab that idea, and turn it into billions while the original creator gets crumbs.

Childish simplification...
Of course they won't lend money to someone with no collateral to guarantee repayment. What if he spends it on himself instead of the project?
And what does it matter if the other guy inherited a company, provided he knows how to run it and generate billions?

Charles Campbell7 said:Leftists are nothing more than dreamers living in a fantasy land. I suppose it’s perfectly fine to hold those views when you're young and haven't yet grasped how the world actually operates. But when you have an adult—someone who identifies as an intellectual, mind you, in their 40s or 50s—still playing the leftist role... well, that suggests something else entirely is going on. From my observations, there are really just two types of leftists:

The "Sincere" Leftist (an adult who claims to be well-informed) is essentially a narcissistic sociopath who uses leftist ideology as a substitute for reality. They truly behave like narcissists; the moment you attempt to dismantle their ideology with actual logic, they lose their sense of self and react as if they've been personally assaulted.

Then you have the Manipulators. This group doesn't give a damn about ideology at all; they've simply realized they can rake in a paycheck by rambling incessantly about leftist utopias.

It is my firm contention that a sincere, mentally stable adult simply cannot be a leftist. ☕. That said, I am more than willing to hear an example—a specific individual—who might prove me wrong.

That describes me perfectly.

Back in my college days, I was a leftist and a socialist... but I wasn't really questioning how society functions back then. I believed in those ideas because they sounded beautiful and fair. I realized much later how unsustainable they were, which led to my sudden shift toward the right.

It isn't that I'm against leftist ideas now, but you can only afford them when the economy is strong. If your economy is in the gutter, you drop the leftist theories and move right immediately.

Benjamin Taylor6 said:Personally, I don't identify as left or right. I’m for HONESTY!! And let me tell you, in our American brand of capitalism, honesty is the rarest commodity there is. Then everyone acts surprised when Americans vote to dismantle social safety nets, only to end up hating capitalism later. It turns out most American capitalists built their empires through shady, bottom-of-the-barrel tactics.

Historically speaking, the first communist was Lao CE. And after him, Jesus Christ. You can see that psychological pattern perfectly played out in this story:

Because of all this, I actually put together this little narrative:

There’s a tale involving Lao Cea and the Chinese Emperor regarding the nature of sin. I’ll recount it in my own way, imagining it takes place in Ancient Rome during the time of Christ:
Back in those days, the Roman Emperor heard word of Jesus of Nazareth. People were telling him about this incredibly honest, selfless man. So, the Emperor decided to appoint this sage as the Chief Justice in Rome. Now, Christ didn't exactly jump at the job—he only agreed because the Emperor was being incredibly persistent. The Emperor even threw the threat of imprisonment at him. In the end, the Emperor made a deal: if he accepted, the state would give a tenth of its taxes to the poor, and Christ would be granted two hours every single day to preach his teachings at the Roman Colosseum. So, Christ became the Chief Justice in Rome, and on his very first day, he had to preside over the case of a common thief. The man had been caught stealing from a shop that dealt in Chinese silk. Jesus sentenced him to three years of forced labor as a galley rower. But that wasn't all. He also sentenced the shop owner to the exact same six-month sentence. The courtroom was absolutely stunned. The next day, the Emperor called Christ in for a private meeting:
"My wise teacher from Israel, why on earth did you sentence the shop owner to forced labor as well? We get that the thief deserved three years in the galleys, but I don't see what the silk merchant did to merit such a punishment."
Jesus replied simply: "Your Majesty, I interrogated both men to uncover the absolute truth. The thief was merely a simple criminal, so I gave him three years of rowing. But I punished the merchant for entirely different reasons. To me, he is also a thief, just a more sophisticated one. He owns multiple shops across Rome selling Chinese silk. He sources it in China and moves it via caravan to Europe. He buys it dirt cheap and sells it at astronomical prices. After fifteen years of trading, he has managed to amass enough wealth to own seven shops, a villa, and a massive estate in the countryside. He has fifty slaves working for him and over 150 servants and maids. There is no honest way to accumulate that much wealth in such a short span of time."
....
......

p.s.

I have a particular soft spot for these COMMUNIST CAPITALISTS. For example:
😲 😁

We all got burned by the privatization era, so we assumed every wealthy person was just a thief... but let's be real: in most cases, those who have more simply worked harder, showed more ambition, or possessed better skills and education.

Hannah Jackson7 said:Let’s be honest—for most of these so-called "average Joes," what we’re actually seeing is pure, unadulterated envy.
These people don't even have the decency to identify as leftists—they don't hold any real ideological convictions whatsoever—they just harbor a deep-seated resentment toward anyone more successful than themselves. They genuinely believe it is perfectly acceptable for the government to plunder the productive members of society just to hand out handouts to them.

I view this not as innate jealousy, but as a byproduct of how people were raised under the old regime. In the States, you see similar patterns where people assume if someone is wealthy, they must have stolen it from everyone else. They operate under the delusion that wealth is a fixed pie—that one person's gain is strictly another's loss. This mindset leads them to demand radical redistribution to "correct" perceived injustices.

3. discomfort

Leftists generally fail to grasp the concept of labor. Much like my grandfather used to claim that hoeing a field was real work while office tasks were mere play, people today assume "work" only counts if you're on the front lines. They think management is just sitting in meetings all day.

In reality, leadership is far more critical work; a competent leader can perform miracles with a team, whereas an incompetent one will achieve nothing at all. Identifying societal needs and investing to create jobs for others is an even higher form of labor than simple management.

Charles Lopez3 said:Look, seriously,
having a smartphone in your hand isn't actually much more than having a dollar a day 😁
so why is that?
because back in the day, the average American had:
a steady job, a real paycheck, healthcare, a solid education, a pension,
a vacation home, an apartment, a house, savings in dollars,
they traveled, ...
they basically had paradise on earth.
It's priceless!

That paradise was built on capitalist money. Once the cash stopped flowing, paradise collapsed... ☕

urbanotter said:That isn't an excuse; it's just stating facts and common knowledge.

It’s perfectly natural to choose a circle of friends, or even a spouse, based on shared values and similar priorities.

The divergence in priorities and standards between two different civilizations is clearly reflected in their legal frameworks and social customs.

In the West, we operate under Roman or Anglo-Saxon legal traditions, whereas certain Islamic nations follow Sharia law, not to mention the vast differences in their daily customs and moral compasses.🙂

What do laws and customs have to do with anything here? For some people, living on a single dollar a day is perfectly fine, yet you claim it isn't enough just because you've defined your own standards through your customs and laws. He has no reason to compare himself to you.

urbanotter said:The truth is, the benchmarks and priorities of different civilizations simply don't align.

Even two individuals within the same cultural sphere rarely share the exact same values; for one person, family might be everything, while another focuses entirely on education and career milestones, and a third might prioritize physical possessions.
I often think about how Tesla and Edison worked together, yet their life goals and driving forces were worlds apart.

That is precisely why trying to "import" democracy or Western material standards into the Islamic world is such a struggle—just as a native person from New Guinea wouldn't have the same fundamental needs or outlook on life as someone raised in Western culture.

You've crafted quite a neat justification for double standards.🙂
But we don't even need to discuss other civilizations; we can look at different generations within the same country. For instance, my father's and uncles' generation was born after WWII. They survived actual famine, not this modern version where everyone has a smartphone in hand. Their perspective on reality is far more grounded than that of the younger generations.

urbanotter said:It’s just incredibly difficult, if not practically impossible, to draw meaningful comparisons between people from such vastly different cultural spheres and civilizations.☕

Why would it be hard to compare people on a global scale, at least regarding material wealth? An African person is just as much a human being as an American, yet the American likely believes they are closer to God, allowing them to complain about hunger while clutching a smartphone.

urbanotter said:I mean, alright,🙄

Are you actually living there? Or are you comparing us to life in Africa or Europe?

It’s probably for the best that we don't measure our quality of life against the standards of indigenous tribes in the Amazon or New Guinea.😍

And why shouldn't we be compared to the rest of the world?

Kimberly Cox59 said:It’s that old argument again—"we have it better than people in Africa, so we're doing great." I don't think that carries much weight, honestly. Sure, a struggling person in Greece isn't starving to death, and yeah, they might be wealthier than someone in Africa, but on a European scale, they're still considered poor and struggle to afford basic things like housing or an education.

Just because you think someone is brainwashed doesn't mean you're automatically right. A voter for the Republican Party or the Democratic Party might feel the exact same way about you.

They probably do. But I bet some Person from Ličani will tell you they're living in terrible conditions, yet they'll show up to vote for the Republican Party anyway because they're "scared of the red wave" (I know, from experience).

The reality is that most Americans today aren't even interested in the economy—which is a sign they think everything is fine. Whether people like it or not, things like sex education or certain cultural symbols in Memphis get way more attention than rising unemployment or a dropping credit rating.

Yeah, those things grab headlines, but I think they're mostly just distractions. If you ask an average American what they think about the country's economic state, they'll probably tell you it's bad, and maybe they'll even have a vague idea of how to fix it.

Then what counts as a valid point to you? In America, people have health insurance, access to education, and they aren't starving on the streets. Yet, some act like the country is facing a total apocalypse.

Harold Martin10 said:"Quote:"

Not quite.

The poverty you're talking about isn't an absolute state—it’s relative. If you took someone struggling in America and dropped them into a much less developed country, they'd probably find themselves in the top 1% based strictly on their quality of life. Isn't that the reality of how we measure everything?

Just because you think someone else has been brainwashed doesn't mean you're automatically holding the winning hand. A voter for the Republican Party or the Democratic Party might be sitting there thinking the exact same thing about you—that you're the one who’s been indoctrinated. Isn't it funny how that works?

The truth is, most people in this country couldn't care less about the economy—which, if you think about it, is probably a sign that they feel things are going just fine. Whether people like it or not, topics like sex education or the presence of certain scripts in Memphis tend to spark way more outrage than actual issues like rising unemployment or a drop in our credit rating. Isn't it funny how we prioritize the noise over the substance?

Actually, this might be the truest indicator of whether people are actually doing well or not.

urbanotter said:True, but the entire West hit a crisis because of those exact policies. It’s easier for them to absorb the blow since they have established economies, whereas we are still trying to build ours from the ground up.

You hit the nail on the head.😍
Whether you look at the French, Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, or Greeks, everyone seems to be bouncing back with relative ease, mostly because they have those solid economic foundations already in place.😂
You've run out of intelligent things to say, so you resort to your usual sarcasm...
but since you brought it up... most of them bark too loud, not because they're struggling, but because things aren't as good as they used to be.

urbanotter said:

If you define "moving forward" as a shrinking GDP, falling consumer spending, declining industrial production, and a downgraded credit rating, then sure, I guess we're making great strides.😂

While it is undeniably true that the government spends a fortune on those specific areas, there are underlying reasons for that spending that are deeply, deeply intertwined with this supposed "progress."😍

Even though we deal with heavy taxation, there are plenty of other nations out there that are in a far better position despite facing similar or even higher tax loads.

It's absolutely true that the investment climate is lackluster, even though there have been numerous attempts to fix it that ultimately fell short.
It honestly feels like our only remaining option is to call in a shaman to perform a ritual to somehow magically transform the investment landscape.😍😂
If you define "moving forward" as a shrinking GDP, falling consumer spending, declining industrial production, and a downgraded credit rating, then sure, I guess we're making great strides.😂

While it is undeniably true that the government spends a fortune on those specific areas, there are underlying reasons for that spending that are deeply, deeply intertwined with this supposed "progress."😍

Even though we deal with heavy taxation, there are plenty of other nations out there that are in a far better position despite facing similar or even higher tax loads.

It's absolutely true that the investment climate is lackluster, even though there have been numerous attempts to fix it that ultimately fell short.
It honestly feels like our only remaining option is to call in a shaman to perform a ritual to somehow magically transform the investment landscape.😍😂
True, but the entire West hit a crisis because of those exact policies. It’s easier for them to absorb the blow since they have established economies, whereas we are still trying to build ours from the ground up.