agamemnonymous

First, I know what most of you are going to say. I myself was an internet atheist 20 years ago, quoting Dawkins and Sagan at magic-sky-daddy believers. But this isn't about convincing anyone to believe.

This is about pragmatics. And, pragmatically, the single biggest enemy right now is the conservative Christian right. Anything to fracture that coalition benefits the left.

Luckily, their gospels are pretty left-wing. So, I offer for your consideration, the Christian angle.

I encourage those of you who went to Sunday school to brush up on your Scripture. Matthew is a treasure trove. When you're talking to someone on the right, start hitting them with chapter and verse.

If nothing else, this is initially shocking. They're supposed to be the Christians, and you're some filthy commie reminding them that Jesus called the wealthy priests hypocrites, and told us to feed the hungry and aid the sick.

They have defense mechanisms against your crybaby commie talk. They don't have defense mechanisms against their own scripture. At worst, you shake them loose from their script and confuse them, giving you openings for gentle deprogramming.

At best, they might reflect on their leadership and how closely they follow Jesus' commands. Anyone who really believes in him and really reads the gospels is going to wind up a leftist, whether they call it that or not.

Just food for thought. Read up on what Jesus said, use that against the people who claim to follow him. You don't have to believe yourself to recognize a powerful rhetorical tool.

Not Christianity, Jesus.

Sometimes you ask a question that's a sincere attempt to solicit an actual answer, but everyone assumes it's a rhetorical question. Like no, I'm actually asking.

I'm looking to get a halfway decent general purpose scanner, and the market is all over the place. I don't need anything with industrial engineering precision, but I would like to be able to scan broken parts around the house to print replacements with at least decent precision.

I expect most of my use cases would be in the 1cm³-1dm³ range, but it would also be fun to be able to scan bigger subjects. Mostly people, so I can make personalized tabletop minis, but I also like the prospect of miniaturizing other things.

Blue laser looks super cool, but also very pricey.

What are the best options in the $500-1000 range? I'm kinda outta my depth here.

Not actually my house, it was an AirBnB outside Seattle, but it's mysterious and I'm hoping someone here might know the function.

Inside the main closet in the master bedroom is a weird giant staircase leading to a square hole that looks into the area outside the bedroom. Here's the other side:

The inside of that cupboard beneath is just a small empty space, much smaller than the staircase, tiled at the bottom and possibly sized for an electric fireplace or something.

My friends and I could not figure out what it was supposed to be, and it's driving us a bit crazy.

The Republican base is an increasingly unsteady partnership of tech-bro, white nationalist, red-pill MAGA nuts, and salt-of-the-earth conservative types who vote R because that's what their pappy did.

This community exists explicitly as a byproduct of leftist infighting, which was very possibly engineered by malicious parties to divide and conquer.

I say, let's flip the script.

As the current administration becomes more unsavory, conscientious old-school blue-collar conservatives and libertarians are finding the pill harder to swallow.

Leftist policies are extremely popular, even among the "right". It's Leftist terminology that sours the deal. The American people have been submerged in anti-left propaganda for a century, at least.

There is a massive opportunity to fracture the right by introducing a third party that mimics right wing terminology to promote a leftist message. 'Murica is about Freedom and Jesus. We can define Freedom, and dive into the teachings of Jesus we were talking about, after the election.

Or never. Voters don't typically peruse their representatives actual voting record. All they really care about are soundbites, and it's not hard to hit the right notes.

Honestly I think that if we're clever about marketing, we can peel off a significant portion of the Right's base. Hopefully, a couple cycles can bury the alt-right shit and replace the Republican party with the Patriot Party, or whatever.

Ideally, savvy leftists will figure out the ploy, and pile in once the scale starts to tip. But it has to start with the blue-collar Right. The Republican party is enemy number 1, the Democrats have enemy-of-my-enemy status until the Patriot Party (or whatever) is established and displaces enemy number 1.

On an unrelated note, here's a fun game:

Describe a leftist policy in the most right-wing language possible. Try to guess what it is in the comments! If your description stumps the commenters, you win 1,000 Internet points.

"Censorship is bad" yeah, sure, I agree. But the fact that you still know it's a curse word means it's not really censoring anything.

Curse words are so common now that they've lost a bit of their oomph. They're supposed to convey intensity, but they're used so casually that they're basically lazy filler.

A strike through line, or a box that doesn't quite cover, reintroduces a bit of the taboo. This is a bad, naughty word, you shouldn't be reading it. You know what it is, but attempting to cover it draws attention to the fact that it's something some people want to cover, which reintroduces some of the oomph.

It's kinda like sequined pasties at a nudist colony; it turns something that was once taboo, but had since been normalized, back to taboo again to reclaim some of the intensity.

I'm no lover of firearms. In normal times, I think firearm proliferation makes for a nervous and violent populace. These ain't normal times though.

I'm a pasty white man, I can, and do, blend in with crowds dominated by Trump supporters. I have basically no social media presence (tied to my actual identity) to betray my political inclinations. I don't really have to worry about being scooped up by ICE, I'm more likely to be recruited if anything.

But that's not the case for my wife or neighbors. This administration can claim credit for inspiring my enthusiasm for the Second Amendment.

And I think that's not an uncommon position for leftists. We are, largely, in the awkward position of feeling conflicted between our distaste for mindless gun violence, and the very real threat of a fascist administration. This leads to some apprehension towards the whole firearm acquisition process.

Just do it. I went into a gun shop today for the first time ever to buy an AR-15 because it's a popular and reliable platform, and I had my reservations. But it was quick and easy. I did my research and knew what I wanted to buy, and I was in and out in 20 minutes. Still gotta wait 5 days to actually pick it up, but it was a surprisingly simple process.

If you're on the fence, just do it. Do it now, get some range time in, learn to use and service your weapon. Be ready when shit really hits the fan. Don't wait to prepare until it's too late, who knows what kind of obstacles may be erected in the near future.

Personally I went with a Ruger 556 because it's highly regarded at a ~$600 price point. If you have a bit more budgetary restriction, Palmetto State Armory has options under $500 that are still pretty well reviewed.

But if you're intimidated by the prospect, don't be. It's really very straightforward, at the end of the day a gun shop is a business and they want to make a sale. Especially if you're a minority, get a firearm and learn to use it.

I could see the process being a bit more complicated if you're trans, personally if your ID reflects your birth sex I'd bite the bullet (no pun intended) and crawl back into the egg on your application for simplicity. No need to complicate your personal safety, though !trans_guns@lemmy.blahaj.zone can probably offer more targeted service.

Just do it. It's surprisingly simple and you didn't want to be caught unprepared when it's too late.

You can snap your fingers tomorrow, and it's the day after the revolution, time to sign the Constitution. How does it work?

Assume total creative control, but once it's written it's in the hands of the general population. They will eventually twist and distort it any way they can.

ETA: I should have been more specific. I'm looking more for basic structure, not policy. Monarchy, direct democracy, democratic republic, that angle. Should everything be a pure democracy referendum? Should we delegate to representatives? How much power do we give them? How do we delineate governmental strata (nation, state, county, city, neighborhood, etc.)? How do we allocate authority to those strata? How do we divide powers, and how do those powers check one another?