Discussing the David Hogg situation, Biden, and why no one likes democrats

 So, the democratic party decided to get some new blood into the party by making David Hogg, a gen Zer a new vice chair. He didn't last long. Turns out one of the first things he did was say that we needed new people in the party to primary do nothing democrats who just wanna sit there and be worthless. And he got fired for it. The democrats claim this is because they want impartiality, but where was this impartiality in 2016 and 2020. Sure, they claim impartiality on paper, but we all know the party is anything but impartial. They are basically like a country club that defends their insiders against outsiders looking to come in and take them over. And that's...why they suck in the modern era. They're stuck in the 1990s and full of geriatrics who don't wanna do anything, 

WAKE UP DEMOCRATS, NO ONE LIKES YOU. Seriously, for all the crap I've gotten over the past decade, I feel vindicated since harris lost, actually. Trump sucks, but people are really starting to realize the dems are useless and they need to actually fight the GOP. How DO we lose to a convicted felon? Well that happens when you have this crappy brand no one likes.

And since trump won, a lot of dems have learned the wrong lesson. Like I'll surf not even politics subs but gaming subs and given the tariffs impacting the hobby I see a lot of self righteous idiots going on about how if you didnt vote for harris you're part of the problem.

 If you shame people for not voting for harris, youre probably part of the problem. because that voter shaming is toxic. I mean I'm a leftie myself, but when the dems start talking like this, it literally does make me wanna not vote for them out of spite, similar to what I did in 2016 and 2020. I aint gonna go down that road now, not long as we got a fascist in power, but you know what? Im one vote out of like 150 million who vote. For all the voter shaming, my vote doesnt mean crap in the grand scheme of things. Votes matter, but no single vote matters, it's trends, and if the dems can't figure out how to crack the trends to win election, well that's their fault, and blaming the voters is pointless.

And really, we need to have a serious talk about something else too. And that's Biden. There's been a lot of talk with him recently. Going on the view, delusionally claiming he can still win, but the big thing seems to be the whole cover up of his aging, and him deciding to run for his disastrous 2024 run. Or, heck, if you go by this, even his 2020 run. 

It incenses me. We could've had bernie in 2020. We could've had bernie in 2016. They ratscrewed him in 2016 for Clinton and when it looked like he would run away with it in 2020 the party organized against him..and around Biden. And the dude wasn't quite right BACK THEN.

And then in 2024, they didnt even bother having a primary. I mean, they did, but they put SC first, blacklisted anyone who ran against biden, basically running dean phillips out of politics because "it wasn't his turn" and then touted like 90% of people voting for Biden when there wasn't even a real opposition. People like Cenk Uygur from TYT were calling out his obvious decline and ran against him despite not even being technically eligible. And yeah. The rest is history.

And if you were like me, or anyone else critical of the dems, the party would be like DO YOU WANT TRUMP TO WIN? FALL IN LINE! BIDEN IS SOOOO POPULAR BLAH BLAH BLAH YOU STUPID IDIOT! And yeah. 

 Look, I admit I kinda did fall in line behind biden in 2024. I did it because...well...you know what Trump is doing now and how much worse he was than term 1 and how he has no checks and balances? I knew this was coming. And I saw the polling, and no clear alternative at the time because, hey, guess what, they ratscrewed progressives out of politics,  so...we were stuck with him. I did the only move I could have. I even said at this time, this was just me being pragmatic. He wasn't everything I wanted, i called him saltine crackers and floater water in a desert. Ya know, disgusting but at least it wont kill ya. But yeah...that's why I did it. It wasn't that I liked Biden, it was that I hated trump and knew he would be far more dangerous this second time around. Also, Biden wasn't that bad. he wasnt great, but he wasn't terrible. 

But yeah. If you want me real views on him, well, either listen to me in 2020 or 2021, or now. I didnt really like the guy. He was okay, but only okay. He wasnt terrible, he would get us through another 4 years, but yeah, he sucked. I didnt really want him. It's just that the dems killed their bench so they didn't have an alternative. And that's the real original sin. Biden never should've run in the first place. Neither in 2020 and 2024. In 2024, they should've had biden step aside earlier so we could have a real primary, although to be fair that wasnt enough, because the dems would just push harris or buttigieg or greasy gavin on us anyway. Like, they have a brand, they're all clones of each other, and you cant just replace old senile guy with younger guy or girl with the same politics and win. Trust me, we did it, with harris.

And yeah, as the article i posted above pointed out, harris was hamstrung by the party's expectations to continue the biden brand, not to mention all the third way DNC consultants in the background obsessed with moderate suburbanites who thought abandoning the public option and campaigning with liz cheney was a good idea. 

And then in 2020. They killed real genuine grassroots energy around bernie to shove biden down our throats and then covid forced our hands. To be fair, covid was another element in this. To be fair, we couldnt do anything about that, and that was gonna be bad for us no matter what. Had bernie won, republicans would've eaten him for breakfast given the inflation that happened regardless of who was at fault. Which is...another reason why i defended biden. It was a strategic move to protect the dems from republican attacks. I really did suspect that 2024 could be an ideological victory for the GOP for the next generation. And while some are framing it that way, assuming this isn't the end of american democracy altogether, uh...i dont think it will be. Trump is screwing up SO BAD I think the dems do have a shot in 2028. But they won't have a shot unless they change.

Even now, democrats still suffer worse approval than republicans. I mean how bad do you have to F up to be worse than a literal fascist dictator who is actively destroying this country? it's baffling. Well...until the dems open their mouths, condescend to voters, roll over and play dead, and seem to do everything possible than the thing they should've done 10 years ago. Seriously, bernie and AOC are filling stadiums. Bernie is trying to rebuild the bench of progressive candidates right now. They're the real leaders of the party. But the establishment shrugs them off, and then they continue their hugbox of uselessness. 

Pathetic. Do better, democrats. Do better. You lost in 2016, you barely won in 2020, you lost in 2024, it's embarrassing. Trump never should've gotten as big as he is. It literally only happened because of democratic incompetence, and even complicity.in raising his profile to make clinton more palatable to an electorate who DIDNT WANT HER. Seriously, do we really forget about that? Holy crap. We are so cooked. The dems doomed us all. And that's why we hate them. Rather than do the right thing, they've done everything but. They elevated trump to make clinton look comparatively popular. They forced biden on us despite him being an increasingly senile old man. They forced him on us a second time. And now, when the dems get new blood into the party, and the new blood says what has been obvious all along, they fire him, because they wanna keep doing THE SAME FRICKING THING!

F this party, guys, F this party. I hate trump, but MAN democrats make it hard for us to support them. They really do. It's like they WANNA lose. At the very least they dont care about winning. They'd rather lose to trump than lose to the left.  And that's the sad thing. They'd rather the country descend into fascism, than cede power to a new generation of progressives. And that's why the country hates them. 

Discussing the FBI visiting climate activists' homes

 So, the political intimidation continues, some climate activists back in March were visited and interviewed by the FBI, but when the activists pushed back, they bugged out fast. It's like they're probing to see what they can get away with and engage in intimidation tactics. 

At the same time, maybe it is a matter of national security. Much like with Hasan and his pro Palestine activism, climate activists, sometimes go....too far. Like, it's not uncommon for them to just start committing property crimes and the like in order to advance their goals, and it is a form of terrorism. They rarely kill people to my knowledge, but some of them are weird and will do things like target animal testing facilities, etc. Having taken a criminology class on terrorism back in college, I understand why these kinds of leftists end up on the FBI's radar. They are often, at least, terrorist adjacent.

Now, again, I'm not defending this behavior. But, it seems like, at least for now, Trump is using the FBI to legally go after political opponents. And they seem to be focused on the most militant kinds of leftists who engage in protest culture that risks running afoul of the law. The free palestine people, climate activists. Dont get me wrong, these things are still first amendment protected speech, HOWEVER, sometimes the behavior practiced by these groups can....run afoul of the law. You know what I mean. The free palestine people doing stupid crap like taking over buildings and the like? Climate activists do stuff sometimes like throw red paint on stuff or even commit arson and property damage. It is possible these groups end up on the FBI's radar because of these kinds of behaviors. As I said, if i learned about similar forms of left wing terrorism in college classes, well....yeah, the FBI would possibly wanna crack down on that.

At the same time, the obvious elephant in the room is RIGHT wing terrorism. By far the worst kinds of terrorism in the US comes from the RIGHT. We love to focus on 9/11, but what about stuff like ruby ridge, the oklahoma city bombings, and more recently, january 6th with the proud boys. Right wing militias are the REAL scary threat here. Of course, the FBI under kash patel is probably going to overlook that at trump's direction and focus on the left and their stupid "omg you wear fur im gonna throw red paint on you" people.

Again, it is biased, and in a way it is targetted political intimidation. BUT...so far, this seems like...it can be justified. They're not locking people up just for speaking out against "das fuhrer". So...again, stay safe out there, dont engage in any questionable activities, disavow violence, and terrorism, and even more so, condemn it. Like...leftists have this weird tendency to try to sympathize with people who act outside of the law sometimes and honestly, it's always been something I dont like. My own activism always tries to advocate for LEGAL changes. I want bills passed, I want them signed by executives. I want to focus on stuff like VOTING and mobilizing people at the ballot box. I dont support this crap. And neither should you. 

We'll see how this continues to go. If the history of descents into authoritarianism are any indication, this is gonna ramp up and get worse. But for now, again, they seem to be operating within the confines of the law. And once again, I'll encourage everyone, in their own activism, to FOLLOW the law. I mean, I've always been at least somewhat of a law and order guy. I do have a background in things like political science, sociology, criminology, and law. I support the rule of law. My biggest critiques against trump are his brazen lawlessness and his increasing authoritarian and illiberal behavior. But so far, these intimidation tactics seem to be focusing on those who kind of operate near the fringes of that. For most of them, theyre not doing anything wrong, but again, when you talk about pro palestine stuff, climate activism, well...some of those groups trend pretty close to the grey area, ya know? So....stay safe and stay out of the grey areas. Try to do everything legally and above board. Ya know? DOnt give them anything that can be used against you. 

Discussing Hasanabi's detention

 So, it's happening. Hasanabi, an American citizen, was temporarily detained by ICE after flying out of the country and coming back in. This has been a fear that many have had during Trump. If you're not a citizen and you leave the country, immigration enforcement might not let you in. But with Hasan it's different, hes an American citizen and a political commentator, so this comes off as intimidating AF. Honestly, if you dont leave the country, you won't have to worry about this, but just the fact that this happens is problematic. Trump is playing fast and loose with detentions, and detaining an American, even temporarily, seems to be an escalation, and an attempt at intimidating critics.

Hasan was questioned regarding his political opinions, asked whether he's critical of Trump, and also questioned regarding his stance on Hamas. It seems like they knew him and were trying to trip him up and get him to admit something that would lead to further lockups. However, Hasan navigated it well, and they couldnt get anything on him. Regardless, it is problematic.

Still, at the same time, many questions were related to his sympathies with possible terrorists groups, where he was asked what he thinks of Hamas, and if they're terrorists, and this is one thing where I have to say that yeah, if you're sympathetic with Hamas, you're kinda opening up yourself to this. Like on this blog, I try to avoid anything that is even remotely considered an endorsement of terrorism or political violence. Ya know? Speech is protected, but showing sympathy for extremist terrorist groups is just bad form. Like, I can see criticizing Israel, I certainly don't support the IDF or the Netanyahu regime given how genocidal they've been in this war, but honestly, I NEVER even considered supporting Hamas to be a possibility here. Like I was against that since day 1 and when I saw leftists sympathizing with Palestine to such a degree that they'd do that, I was like wtf, no, you dont do that. Okay? like, even if you cant be supportive of israel, and there are reasons why you probably shouldnt be at this point, embracing the terrorists on the other side of the conflict should be a hard no go. Of course leftists aren't known for their nuance, so if they do stupid things like openly support Hamas, I kinda consider that to be a them problem. 

Now, ideally, free speech is free speech, and as long as the speech remains on the good side of the law, it should be protected, but at the same time I can understand why, under a regime that is so hostile toward immigration into the US, that they'd screen people for pro hamas sentiment. Not that this makes that right, especially when applied to CITIZENS, but I can understand why that would happen. And quite frankly, in this age of Trump, I do think people should use discretion with their views. Like, if you openly support terrorists, you're kinda making yourself a target for national security screenings.

Anyway, they let Hasan go, but yeah, as some said, it seems like the point of this was intimidation. Which isn't cool. And that's part of Trump's authoritarian creep. They want the opposition to shut up and self censor so they can control the populace more. And quite frankly, the more we do so, the more we give into Trump and his authoritarianism. So people should still be critical of Trump and critical of what he's doing. 

Still, let's face it, leftists have a problem sometimes with basically being sympathetic to terrorists, and uh...yeah, you're gonna get yourself on a watchlist when you do so. And that might lead to situations like this. So yeah, when it comes to extreme views like that that can be construed as "supporting terrorism", people should be more careful what they say. And yeah, I am gonna say that.

 Why do I focus on that? Because again, when they're screening people coming into the country, they're screening for sympathies and connections to know terrorist groups, because that could link you to terrorism. And quite frankly, normal innocent americans shouldnt sympathize or associate with these groups. And I can at least see, during a relatively authoritarian regime, people being locked up for that. I mean, this isn't even new. There's a reason people hated woodrow wilson for example in WWI, he locked people up like crazy. he locked up Eugene Debs for speaking out against the draft. Which is actually far worse than what Trump's administration is doing here. 

Idk, just...use actual fricking common sense people. Dont say things that get you put on a terrorist watch list, ya know?

Either way, I dont support what trump is doing here either. I think this was intended to intimidate left wingers who are critical of trump or the war in israel. Let's not ignore that angle. Just...be smart people. Dont hold dumb### stances that open you up for arrest on even more normal national security grounds, ya know? because this kind of behavior is reserved enough that the trump admin could claim it is just a routine national security thing and not politically motivated. 

Dear centrist democrats, SHUT UP!

 So...someone on the one forum I sometimes make topics about tried asking this doozy tonight:

  For those of you blaming the Democrats for why Trump won the last election, do you realize that you're saying that they're the ones responsible for why the Trump regime is doing all of these horrific thing?

 Okay, seriously, as a "Bernie or Buster", let me just say this, from the bottom of my heart, go screw yourself. 

Seriously. "Do YoU rEaLiZe YoU'rE aCtUAlLy BlAmInG tHe DeMoCrAtS fOr TrUmP?!?!?!"

Yeah. I do realize it. And I think that. Once again, screw you. 

 Here's the thing. YOU PEOPLE have had the gall since like 2015 or so, to say that if we weren't with YOU and YOUR CRAPPY CANDIDATES, that we were the ones electing Trump. Even if we simply refused to support either candidate on principle. Seriously, you guys blame ME for Trump ALL THE FRICKING TIME. And you know what? I deny responsibility for it. Because at the end of the day, parties and candidates aren't entitled to votes, they have to earn them, and democrats didn't earn them.

But still, even 9 years later, some dem apologists are still salty at Bernie or Busters from 2016, and I cant mention I voted for stein anywhere without some self righteous craplib jerk getting all up in my face about it like YOU GAVE US TRUMP! So yeah, you can live with the insinuation that you gave yourselves Trump. because I've been warning you frickers for like TEN YEARS now and you don't listen, you never listen. You keep forcing the same braindead strategy and the say crappy candidates down our throats every election cycle and then telling us that WE GAVE YOU TRUMP if we don't comply. And I'm SICK OF IT! 

And then any time we call YOU out, suddenly, it's that we cant do infighting because OMG WE HAVE TO STOP TRUMP! We can always have some hypothetical disagreement later, but we can't do it because OMG WE NEED TO STOP TRUMP RIGHT NOW. And you know what? When are we supposed to have these disagreements? You complain at us in election years that "THERE'S TOO MUCH AT STAKE" and we have to unify with you or else we get trump. And you know what? This time I gave that to you. I said, okay, fine, Trump is a fascist, so let's unite to keep him out. Not like the left had anything worth a crap going on in 2024 anyway. And the stakes did seem too high. So I voted for you, and you STILL lost. And to some extent, yes, I do blame you (the dems) for your braindead strategy in the first place. 

In 2016, you guys LITERALLY elevated Trump. Clinton was a crap candidate. No one wanted her, outside of that 20% of the country that was ride or die on the current brand of dems and voted in the primary. Ya know, the low info voter types who are consistent, but dont pay much attention to the race other than the news, and go for the candidate they at least recognize the name of over the guy they never heard of. "Hillary Clinton? Yeah, everyone knows who Clinton is, Bernie Sanders? Never heard of him" Those kinds of people. But yeah, the dems used those guys to push Clinton, and Clinton won the primary.

And then we were told we HAD to vote for Clinton or else. And I even compared it to a hostage negotiation at the time and said that I dont negotiate with terrorists. you cant just bully me into voting for someone. You have to earn it. And you didn't. And you guys even kept pushing Trump as a more extreme candidate to make Clinton look good by comparison. Ya know, good old pied piper strategy. And then Trump won, because of YOUR INCOMPETENCE. Seriously, do you guys not realize how good of a shot we had in 2016 to just wreck the GOP on a generational level once and for all? The dems went into 2016 with a built in electoral advantage. At minimum, all they had to do was hold the blue wall. They couldn't really lose if they did that, unless the GOP ran the board on every other state possible. The dems had an insane polling advantage baked in, still riding high off of the Obama era and his map. The fact that the democrats blew it and lost to TRUMP of all people was really just...wow. Like, you need to be a special kind of incompetent to do that. But you did it. Because you decided to reheat 2008's leftovers, which were then reheated from the 1990s. No one wanted that crap any more. That era of politics was over. But "it was her turn" and you had push her on the American people, and a perfect storm of everything gave you a loss when by rights you should've won easily.

And then after 2016, you didn't learn. What did you do in 2020? bernie was running away with it so you organized a behind the scenes coup to back Biden and stop Bernie from "Trumping" the democratic party. You went all in with the same brand of centrism that no one actually likes, but this time succeeded with it simply because Trump sucks so bad and people wanted him out. To be fair, I thought Trump was a one hit wonder, but after seeing how close he came to winning DESPITE everything that had happened, that terrified me. He had energy like no other republican did, and he brought the party back from the brink. And I knew then and there that we were due for a future reckoning from these guys again, because I knew Biden would do like nothing and the people would be pissed at dems in 4 years ago.

And the Biden era was both better and worse than I predicted. On the one hand, he tried to do more than I thought, but on the bad side, the COVID recovery made us relive the Carter years and it looked like we were on the verge of a complete electoral tsunami. And yet, despite being 82 and not knowing how to put a sentence together, Joe Biden decided to run again. And the dems once again refused to have a competitive primary, even displacing Iowa and New Hampshire as the first states in order to push South Carolina. btw, the dems did that because they knew that the south would just vote in lockstep with Biden and it would crush any hope of a competitive primary. 

And Biden...got the nomination. But....let's be real. The dems lived in lalaland. Biden had some delusions of grandeur about how popular he was and believed, despite the obvious evidence to the contrary, that he would win. AT BEST, I gave him like a 30% shot, and after debate gate, that went down to around 10%. We were cooked. It wasn't competitive. And to be fair, I was reluctant to get biden out since polling didnt show that another candidate would do better, but we were eventually forced to. And then Harris ran, and polling did recover.

However, let's face it, the centrists in the party decided to try to do a coup. The donors and the third way people wanted to use the opportunity to purge progressives from the party's ranks and while Biden pushing Harris as the replacement put an end to the party insiders choosing someone entirely different and even more bland and ineffectual, they still heavily influenced Harris and pushed her to the center. Made her not distance herself from Biden, who was historically unpopular. Made her run to the center economically and not offer any ideas worth a darn, and made her campaign with the cheneys, because we all know that's what Americans want, more freaking centrism. 

And while I'm not sure if the dems could've won 2024 in any circumstance due to whatever deep hole they dug themselves in, they sure as fudge made as many unforced errors as possible to ensure their victory. I almost wonder if the democrats actually want to win. Sure, they do, but only if they get to force their crappy version of centrism on us that NO ONE FRICKING LIKES! And that's the problem. The party is controlled by this political class of consultants, insiders, and old fricks who have been there since like 1992, and they DONT WANNA GIVE UP POWER. And I'm fully convinced by this point that they WOULD rather continue losing to Trump than to give up their power to someone who can actually win.

And that is why I blame the democrats for EVERYTHING. Seriously. I'm not kidding when I say I'm channeling a decade of pent up rage at the democratic party by this point. Because I've put up with this crap for THREE ELECTION CYCLES and these MFers still won't learn. And now these guys have the gall, in 2025, to pull the "party unity" thing again and say how we're the mean ones for blaming them for giving us Trump, and how we shouldn't be divided because Trump is such a threat. 

But if we dont have this discussion NOW, in 2025, right after the last election, and years before we even seriously talk 2028, when are we gonna have it? You guys dont seem to like having it when you're pushing some worthless moderate like Andy Beshear or Pete Buttigieg on us in the primaries. You DEFINITELY don't want it when we're running a general election campaign against JD Vance in 2028. So when are we gonna have it?

And that's the thing. These guys NEVER wanna have this discussion. They've been avoiding this discussion for a decade now, and are trying to hunker down, rebrand to this BS "abundance" liberalism which is just more neoliberal BS with a different name, push losers like fricking ELYSSA SLOTKIN on us, WHO NO ONE FRICKING LIKES, and who literally seems to be an ex republican who still thinks like an ex republican (compare that to ex republican me, who is now in the left flank of the democrats). 

So yeah, I'm gonna be FRICKING HOSTILE to establishment craplibs (and yeah, I'm calling them that, literally got banned from the above forum because I call them that) who keep lecturing us about how now is not the time to fight. Yes, it is, and you know what? Not only do we need to fight Trump and his nonsense, we need to fight you guys as well. Because quite frankly, most of the people fighting Trump in any meaningful way are progressives like Bernie and AOC, I admit, Cory Booker and JB Pritzker are having their moments too. As is Tim Walz. But for the most part, the establishment dems of the democratic party, including my own PA representatives, are NOT fighting Trump effectively, and it's about time they start.

Quite frankly, fighting Trump and fighting the dems arent mutually exclusive goals. If anything, given its the progressive wing showing everyone else how it's done, and how the establishment wing of the party that is pushing this faux unity BS are the ones who seem to be the most useless people in doing so, yeah, fighting both are actually quite aligned with our goals. 

Quite frankly, in 2028, it's make or break for the dems. Either they're gonna rise to the challenge of the times, or we're screwed for a generation to Trump. And YES, if the dems dont rise to the challenge, I AM going to blame the dems from now until the end of time for all that has happened. I cant blame the republicans for fighting for their interests and being successful. I mean, that's the thing. Like we have to fight the republicans. But fighting the republicans means a STRONG left, and nothing about the modern democratic party is strong. Quite frankly they seem more interest in fighting their own base and then rolling over to the GOP. And I for one am SICK OF IT. 

So yeah, I AM saying that you're responsible for the GOP winning, and either you can be part of the solution, or you get get the heck out of the way, because if you get in the actual left's way, you're literally part of the problem. Sorry, not sorry. Deal with it. Especially after you screamed at me for the past decade about helping elect Trump because I refused to support you insufferable jerks in the first place.

Discussing the new Pope

 So....we got a new Pope already. His name is Richard Prevost, a priest from right here in America, and he chose the name Leo XIV. 

Honestly, I'm not catholic, but I understand the pope's words have moral weight in the world at large, so I tend to respect a pope if he's somewhat good. I liked Pope Francis, despite not being a christian and being quite hostile to the religion, for example. He set the bar for what a good pope looks like for me, and his shoes seemed tough to fill. 

When I first heard the pope was gonna be American, I thought they chose that one super conservative american cardinal. I was like OH GOD WHY?! But then this guy was a relative unknown and he's different, and was seen as a "moderate" and "balanced" choice. With that said, I'd need to scrutinize him to see how he matches up.

So...to get the bad out of the way. He's anti LGBT+, anti trans and "gender ideology", pro life, anti contraception, and your normal cringey conservative positions on sex stuff we've come to expect from catholics.  

But then he's pro immigration (much needed in this trumpian era), progressive on racial issues, critical of the Trump administration and on economics, well, he apparently chose the name Leo because the last Leo we had as pope was so during the gilded age and he was super pro worker. So that's based.

Again, when dealing with the catholic church, I've come to expect socially conservative but economically left in the best case scenario. I mean, things would be better if we just didn't listen to old and outdated religious dogmas in general, but yeah, this is the most positive form of christianity we can expect and i actually kinda respect it. Much better than the die hard protestants. If it pisses off the Trumpers, and it is, that's a very good sign. I cant expect the church to modernize its social teachings, but it can at least advocate for economic justice and even social justice outside of their weird hangups on sex related topics. 

Basically, he's closer to pope francis than your typical christian nationalist who I've come to despise.

Discussing the insanity of 8 GB VRAM in 2025

 So...with the release of the 5000 series, and the fact that Nvidia is still selling 8 GB cards at $400, Nvidia is actually coming under fire for their scant VRAM amounts. There is a 16 GB version of the 5060 ti, and it massively outperforms the 8 GB version, in part due to VRAM limitations themselves, but also because the bus is so low with only 8 GB that the card cant even reach full speed with only 8 GB for some reason. Idk, it's kind of insane. Anyway, people are complaining about it, I agree with them, so I wanted to discuss why 8 GB is insane in 2025.

 The fact is, 8 GB has kinda been "the standard" since 2016 or so. 9 years ago, affordable 8 GB cards were already commonplace. the RX 470 and 480 had 8 GB at around $200-250, and the GTX 1070 was a $380 card with 8 GB VRAM. Nvidia was a little more conservative with 6 GB on the $250 1060, but it still was a decent amount that held up for the card's relatively long lifespan (both the 6 GB 1060 and the 8 GB 480/580 stopped being viable around 2023).  

However, let's be honest, 9 years is a long time and the amount of progress made in the industry from 2016-2025 is a lot lower than it was in the previous 9, from 2007-2016. And that's what we should be comparing the modern environment to. 

Imagine if, in 2016, they were still selling 512 MB cards. Because that's what GPUs back around 2007 often packed. the 8800 GT, a $250 card at the time, was a 512 MB card. Heck, even the $160 8600 GT packed 512 MB. And a year later I got a HD 3650 with 512 MB for $80. 512 MB was ubiquitous back then at all price levels just about. You literally had to buy like a $60 HD 3450 or like a 8500 GT or something to NOT have 512 MB standard. 

So GPUs have improved around 12-16x in the same price range from 2007 to 2016. And heck, let's go further than that. The 8800 GT/9800 GT were like the old school 60/70 tier cards at the time. Maybe closer to 70 tier with the original 8800 GT, 60 tier with the 9800 GT, which was the same thing, only cheaper. Nvidia tried to get away with overcharging with the 200 series with the GTX 260 being like $400+ MSRP, but AMD quickly knocked them in their place. By 2010 when I bought my first gaming PC, 1 GB cards twice as powerful as the 8800 GT were commonplace, stuff like the 460 and the 5850.

Fast forward a few years after that. In 2012, we started seeing 2 GB cards with the GTX 660 and higher. And these were priced around $200-300. Even the high end didnt have much more VRAM. Even the 780 only had like 3 GB in 2013. And the 760 was 2x as powerful as the 460. Fast forward again.

 By 2015, the 960 STILL had 2 GB, and back then 3 generations in a row having the same VRAM was insane. The 960 was never going to be long for this world, and quite frankly, it wasn't. Because when the market compensated for that VRAM stagnation with the 6 GB 1060 in 2016, it really blew out those old cards. And games started wanting 4 GB VRAM and anything less just didnt cut the mustard. Of course by then, you could get 4 GB with the 1050 ti for like $140 so it was all good. 

And then progress...stopped.

AMD struggled to compete after that. The 480/580 were their BEST CARDS at the time and only matched the midrange 1060. They followed up with Vega 56/64 to compete against the 1070 and 1080, but they didn't do very well. And 8 GB remained the standard. In 2018, Nvidia released their successor to the 1000 series. Given it was over 2 years later, and up to that point, performance doubled every 3, we kinda expected a doozy. Instead, we got ray tracing, DLSS, and higher prices. The $200-300 price range were occupied by the 6 GB 1660 and 1660 ti/super, while the true 2060 was bumped up to 70 range pricing with the same 6 GB VRAM. Think about it. The 2060 actually REGRESSED from the 1070 in VRAM for the money. But but, muh ray tracing! And it was only a 1080 performance wise too. The 1660 ti/super were basically 1070s with 6 GB VRAM. 

AMD struck back with the 5000 series of their cards, with the 5700 XT being $400 with 8 GB, the 5600 XT being in the $250ish range with 6 (another regression...), etc. They were unpopular despite being a bit more powerful than nvidia cards because again, muh ray tracing. Ray tracing and all that AI BS nvidia put in basically gave them a monopoly, and since then they just raised prices, while AMD barely competed.

 With the 3000 series, they still stuck with relatively low amounts of VRAM. i think the 3080s, which were like $700, had like 10-12 GB? The 3070s for $500-600 were like 8 GB still. Again, third generation in a row. The 3060 ti had 8 but the 3060 had 12. 3050 had 8. 8 was basically the standard up to $600.

AMD was a bit better but overpriced their cards, they had rudimentary ray tracing in their GPUs, but they charged nvidia prices, and they lacked nvidia's feature set, so they never made money. They ended up having to GREATLY lower prices post pandemic. nvidia still saw fit to charge 70 prices for 60 cards, while eventually 8 GB models like the 6600 and 6650 XT were available closer to the $200-300 mark I'm comfortable with. I wasnt happy about buying an 8 GB GPU in 2022 as I felt like the 8 GB era was already dragging on too long, not to mention the 6650 XT was just 2x my old 1060, but hey, that was my minimum requirement to upgrade, 2x performance for <$300, so...yeah. And yeah that was 2.5 years ago.

AMD by then had 12 GB GPUs in the $350ish range with the 6700 XT, but that was a bit too rich for my blood. And of course the 3060 was still that price, which was insane. Again, i know that covid and crypto messed with the market, but I really saw this pricing as pure greed. Nvidia just went haywire with the 2000 series and decided to start conditioning users to pay higher prices, and they largely succeeded, and now I'm called "entitled" and crap for wanting to spend $200-300 on a midrange GPU like the old days. Again, stop licking corporate boot, people.

But yeah, just up to 2022 at this point. Again, 6 years instead of 3 for 2x the performance, and we were still at 1-1.33x the amount of VRAM for the money. It was crazy. 

And the market hasnt budged since then. 8 GB 4060, same thing. Downgrading the VRAM from the 12 GB 3060. 4060 ti still had 8 with a 16 GB version like $500. I mean, wtf? We realize 80 series cards used to cost $500 not long ago, right? 

AMD....they had the 8 GB 7600 for $250 which wasnt awful I guess, given you could still buy the 6700 XT and by the time you hit $400, the 6800 with its 16 GB VRAM. Still, 8 GB was that sub $300 standard mostly. They made a 16 GB 7600 but it cost like $330 and wasnt worth it, again, due to the 6700 XT. 

And now we're getting the 8 GB 9060/9060 XT coming up, and the 8 GB 5060/5060 ti. The 5060 ti is already a joke, with games performing significantly worse than the 16 GB version even at like medium settings. It's insane. Again, this is what happens when you have NINE YEARS of 8 GB GPUs for the same rough price range. While 8 GB seemed like overkill in 2016, but 2025 it's anemic. We're having the 2 GB 960 problem all over again at this point. Whoever buys this gen of cards is gonna get burned. Having an 8 GB GPU myself it still works, it's not awful, but I feel bad having to have bought an 8 GB GPU 6 years after they became mainstream and now 9 years on its just getting sad. Nvidia is stifling the market. Their GPUs are stagnating in performance, we've had virtually no movement in the GPU market since the post COVID crash that only happened because AMD cards dropped significantly in value and flooded the market at low prices. And now things are moving the wrong way, mainly because nvidia and AMD are discontinuing their previous series before their new series is out yet, and also because tariffs. It's a mess. 

I keep saying it, but the video game market needs to crash like 1983 all over again. What we're doing isn't sustainable. Everyone is greedy, we can only afford so much, and inevitably, something is gonna have to give. 

Discussing the political climate around homosexuality in the 2000s, comparing it to the climate around trans issues in the 2020s, and what the left can learn from this

 So...a liberal asked a question on a sub i frequent asking what the climate around homosexuality was in the 2000s and how it compared to the 2020s with the trans rights issue. 

I feel uniquely situated to really discuss this from a unique perspective, as I was a conservative in the 2000s who was anti homosexuality, and I shifted with the country on the issue. If you guys recall, I didn't become a liberal until 2012, so my opinions in the 2000s are different than old timey liberals on the issue who just...dont seem to understand the right.

So...not gonna lie, I didn't even know what homosexuality was until around high school when I went to Christian school. I guess I was accused of being it back in middle school due to my relative lack of interest in women, but didn't think much of it. In high school though, I was taught it was an abomination against god explicitly forbidden in the Bible, and that it was a potential gateway to all kinds of sexual deviance and "sins" that Christians oppose. Like, one day you're doing it in the butt, the next you're doing it to children, see sodom and gomorrah, that sort of thing. 

As such, Christians took a strong moral stance against it at the time. Again, with the right, everything is seen through the lens of Christianity and its moral edicts. And most opposition to it was driven by that. I guess people could say that there were functionalist reasons to oppose it, like people having fewer babies if they didn't marry the other sex, other reasons like STDs, a lot of my christian school environment still believed homosexuality was associated with the AIDS crisis, for example (it wasn't, at least no more than promiscuous heterosexual behavior, which they also opposed). But mostly? Yeah. They opposed it simply because of their christian worldview.

I remember when brokeback mountain came out and people thought it was this huge thing because it had a gay sex scene in it. Christians acted like it was glorifying moral degeneracy or whatever. And it was a target of fun. 

While I'm not gay, I cant imagine growing up gay being particularly accepted in the 2000s well. Kids were ruthless. If they even THINK there's a chance youre remotely gay, they will mercilessly make fun of you for it, and I was one of those kids who because I had a rather delayed interest in women,  well, yeah it made me a constant target of the kinds of teenage harassment you sometimes get on this subject. And before people ask, since slurs came up in the discussion that sparked this, yeah, people used "that slur" against literally anyone and anything for any reason. My christian school didnt allow swear words for obvious reasons, and even opposed "christian swear words", but surprisingly, you could just f bomb each other like its south park every 5 seconds and no one cared. 

As far as how the left was perceived, it was strawmanned into being the stereotype of being the SJW i criticize today. You know, hyper militant and evangelical, and I remember religion teacher who was the pastor of the church i went to school at would go on rants about the "paradox of tolerance" and that for all of the tolerance they preach, they genuinely hate christians. I keep saying it, but SJW crap JUST MAKES THE RIGHT DOUBLE DOWN. Like, they expect the left to be obnoxiously over the top and militant in their defense of "sin" and see persecution from them as welcome. It's why the right fights so hard. As they see it, if they do not remain the dominant cultural force, that the christians will be persecuted. So that's part of their reason for being so aggressive in the culture war. It's about protecting themselves and their values from a militant left that won't tolerate them and hates them. Sadly, the modern left falls into this trap all of the time...

However, back during that time period, the actual SJW left barely existed. I wont' say they didn't exist at all. Rush limbaugh made fun of them, called them "feminazis", etc. But yeah the actual left was far more moderate. And as I matured and went to college, I kind of realized that the christian right was wrong on A LOT of things. In my first semester, my english class had us read the laramie project. It kind of exposed me to a variation of right wing politics that I wasnt aware of in my christian bubble. I mean, my school always had this "love the sinner, hate the sin" mentality of separating the person from the act. Rather, a lot of the westboro types with their "god hates slurs" thing ended up taking things a lot further, and got a lot more personal and hateful, making the left seem like the sane and reasonable ones in comparison.

I mean, that's the thing about culture wars, the more extreme and unhinged side loses. The sane side that can actually appeal to people where they're at seems to win. ANd we we shifted from the more conservative early 2000s to the more liberal late 2000s, the zeitgeist shifted, and I seemed to be part of a mass awakening on the subject where I realized opposing it was a bad thing. 

The fact was, Jesus was supposed to embody love, and all of the commandments were supposed to boil down to loving your neighbor. How was what westboro was doing "loving?" It kind of soured me on the subject somewhat.

That and liberals came off as more reasonable in the 2000s in the first place. When i encountered actual liberals in college, even gay ones, they were incredibly reasonable people. Maybe a little prickly in political discussions as they'd lampoon my views at the time, but to be fair, i kinda needed that. Like i remember when i stated my view on illegal immigration at the time, one of them handed me a piece of paper and said i should carry that at all times or be deported. Kinda remember that one now that we're in the trump era with all of his crazy BS. And honestly? If anything, anti homosexuality seemed to be poisoning the right. I kinda realized i had little to no reason to be against it other than my religion, and as such, I slowly shifted left on it. 

And that's what the modern left doesn't understand. Like...you dont convince a single person by getting in their face or screaming at them or canceling them or punishing them for their views. you just make them double down, you kill them with kindness, ya know? You make the otherwise realize "gee, maybe we're the bad guys?" and they'll introspect and shift. What you dont do is get in a screaming match with them. The most effective arguments at making me pro homosexuality were basically stuff like lewis blacks "gay bandidos" routine where he made fun of this idea that gay people wanna have gay sex in front of other people and "destroy the american family". They dont, they wanna enjoy their lives.

And...eventually, when I reached a point where my worldview was shot to hell from all of these internal contradictions, the gay issue actually was a big moral issue that made me challenge christianity. It kind of made me confront the fact that the letter and word of the bible went up against the spirit of jesus' message. Like....the anti homosexuality movement is largely based on irrational hate, and many christians arent preaching love on this issue, they're preaching hate. And they're not behaving in ethical ways. But again, the actual stance of the bible itself was clear, it was explicitly forbidden in the Bible, so...what do I do? Well, ultimately, I rejected the Bible. BUt once I did that, I kinda realized I was in charge of my own moral truth all along and if no longer anchored to the bible, what was my morality based on? Wasn't it just my own preferences? And yeah, it was. but by this point I kinda realized that's what most people actually do anyway, and that if god existed, they wouldnt be aligned with this bible in a literal sense anyway. So on what do we base morality? As such, I switched to secular ethics, and in doing so, I just shifted my entire value system to the left and became pro homosexuality myself. 

And that's how you convert people and win the culture war. You dont do it through this "paradox of intolerance" culture war crap, that just makes the right double down. Rather, the more gentle liberalism of the 2000s that was more live and let live did it.

But...as we know, since then, the left changed. SJWs became ascendant in 2016, and have been a dominant cultural force ever since, and as you know, I largely consider such a movement to be a disaster for the left. it just polarizes people, makes them dig down, and is confrontational. Let me say this, if I were a conservative in the 2020s opposing the SJWs on trans issues, i'd be banned from every forum, I'd laugh at liberal tears, and I'd be like F these guys. I really would. 

And that's where I would say the difference is. I mean, I said recently I've been lurking trumper subs to see what they say, and you wanna know what they say on the trans thing? Basically that they rolled over on gay issues and now that they gave the left an inch, they're taking a mile and they gotta push back. So dont expect any "come to jesus" moments (or go away from jesus?) from the modern right. Because they're also not as weak as they were in the 2000s. They've become worse, and more ideologically convicted of their positions in the face of perceived persecution. The SJW left made them double down. And quite frankly, the right is in a "no more mister nice guy" mood with trump. They LIKE his rank authoritarianism. They think it's NEEDED to beat us. And they won't show us mercy.

Meanwhile, our left has changed. I mentioned how in the 2000s the F bomb was used liberally in school environments. Well, in the 2010s, it started being phased out, mainly because the SJWs decided to do a policing campaign to make it the new "N word" more or less. I remember getting banned from a subreddit when some guy posted the word in their post and there was debate and I basically said that the word had multiple meanings at that point, pointing to say, south park and how they used to to be a word for ###hole and used it to describe inconsiderate people. And yeah, the word was so overused, it kinda lost its punch for a while into the 2010s, until the weirdo moral policers came along and started having this zero tolerance crap against anything they deemed "hate", and of course the SJW reddit mod with their cheeto dust encrusted fingers banned me for daring to ahve a nuanced opinion, insisting that it's always bad and merely asserting a different opinion than theirs was ground for being banned. So...ya know what? F you, mod, F you. 

But you know what? These guys are digging their own political graves. I dont expect the left to have the same success on trans issues any time soon. Because that authoritarian censor happy version of progressivism doesnt allow for nuance, it doesnt allow people to THINK. Like, seriously, you shift right wingers, like me, to the left, by planting a seed. You get them thinking about things, and then they start changing their opinions internally, questioning their beliefs as you provided them contradictory information, and then you let them go from there. And yeah, you can win on that front. The gay marriage battle was won by the religious freaks obsessed with it becoming a minority. The majority had been convinced that hey, this doesnt hurt anyone and its stupid to oppose it. And now the right is backlashing HARD, believing their entire worldview is under threat. And while I kinda believe that this backlash was inevitable, how successful it would be and its larger perceptions in society really depends on its opposition. I believe if the dems just continued the more 2000s era social liberalism of "live and let live" on the topic, the right would've imploded. The worst thing you can do is to feed into their persecution complex. It makes them dig in and fight, when in reality, you want them to think and lay down their intellectual arms in the confusion of their worldview contradicting itself. The modern left just makes that worldview stronger. 

It doesn't help that the trans issue does have more nuance to it than the gay issue. With the gay issue it was largely just a matter of "should they be allowed to do it in the butt and get married?" With trans issues, there are issues over sex vs gender and biology, and the weird inclusivity narratives of the modern left insisting "trans women are real (biological) women" is just a statement that gets a lot of pushback. Requiring acceptance with pronouns, an active form of acceptance on the part of the right winger, is gonna get backlash if the right winger thinks that conforming to their identities and comfort levels is stupid. There are issues with performance and competitiveness in sports. I mean, it's not JUST live and let live. On the live and let live stuff, the left should lean into that, but in some ways this active, SJW led form of liberalism requires more than that, it requires society to ACTIVELY accept their ideas on gender identity and tries to persecute those who do not. And this causes the right to...again...dig in. And heck, it even alienates me. I understand where this brand of left wing politics is coming from, but it's kinda buying into that strawman the 2000s right had where the left wants to force their ideology on you and persecute you if you don't. ANd they are...doing that. And that's bad. Again, there's no room for growth and acceptance with these toxic dynamics. only polarization and both sides doubling down.

And that is what I would say the biggest difference between the 2000s and 2020s is. In the 2000s, the left was more laid back on the whole and focused on planting seeds that then shifted peoples' perspectives over time. The 2020s left is way too over the top confrontational and kinda fits the worst possible stereotypes the right has of the left that's possible.  As such, I really dont think we're gonna go in the same direction over the next 20 years. Right now, the right is getting WORSE, they're WINNING the culture war now. The left F-ed up going down this SJW rabbit hole while the alt right went down their own. Everything is polarized, everything is inflexible, there's less room for nuance or room to grow, you're forced to take a side and once you do you're locked into that side's eco system in a toxic feedback loop that makes you increasingly more extreme. Ya know?

Really, I have to sound the alarm here. WE ARE LOSING BECAUSE OF THESE TOXIC PEOPLE ON OUR OWN SIDE. And I know a lot of people hate the fact that i punch left so much, but i kind of have to WHEN I SEE THE LARGER SUCCESS OF THE LEFT AS TIED TO DISAVOWING THESE PEOPLE. Like, I have to do the moderate "sister souljah" moment here to put these guys on the spot and disavow them. Because they're toxic to our movement. 

I'm not saying we back down and are non confrontational on everything. I think as long as we frame such confrontation as protecting people from authoritarians on the right, that it's okay because then WE can claim to be the moral high ground and on the defensive. It's not that we wanna force people to accept our ideology. It's that TOLERANCE actually requires we TOLERATE people, even if we don't personally like them or their specific views. 

And that's what we need to do with the right, we gotta kill them with kindness, we gotta tolerate them and their regressiveness. We gotta point out that they're the crazy and unhinged ones, not us. And that we just want people to live and let live and we dont wanna take away others' rights to believe and say what they want. Really, the worst thing we can do is to play into the right's persecution complex.

And that's why despite being the secular left wing culture warrior that I am, I am also explicitly anti woke. Because I think those people are hurting us, not helping us, and their extreme stances threaten the success of our entire movement. If we wanna help the trans community, we gotta understand what let to us making gay marriage legal in the 2010s. It was mostly convincing people to stop caring as they just wanted to live their lives. not getting in peoples' faces and morally policing them for "microaggressions" or whatever.