Azal

I can understand that.

However I grew up in the US south. My response was "Yea... that sounds about right..."

I imagine the GOP would actually do something about it though

My state has a supermajority Republicans for the last ten or so years. The cities police are under control over the state instead of the cities themselves. Crime has risen... but they still parrot that "liberal cities are crime infested" (feature not a bug), we can vote on bills through a petition process, they're trying to kneecap that, while the past few bills pass overwhelmingly progressive parts but the Republican supermajority either reintroduces the bill with confusing language to overturn it, overturns it directly while saying "People didn't know what they were voting for", or just outright ignores it (We put into our constitution for medicaid expansion. They've not implemented it in over five years, just ignoring it). We're now a flyover state that is about to get rid of income tax and increase sales tax, despite the two major population centers are right on the border for other states.

Yet our idiots that live here keep voting for these assholes.

It's not about the confederacy itself but look up the book "Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth" to learn how a relatively unimportant location in Texas has become an international symbol of defiance and American spirit... when it was a bunch of slave owners invading Mexico, ignoring the laws, then stealing the land.

The book covers the history of Alamo, and the battle of the Alamo is only in the first quarter, it goes all the way to modern era. It helps show how that group twists myths to their advantage.

The Confederacy should have been burned to the ground, its leaders and supporters hanged and their bodies left to rot in the sun.

I come from the south, I know my heritage has a confederate officer in it.

John Brown did nothing wrong.

"Will 2026 finally be the year when a critical mass of Americans wakes up and realizes that Republicans always screw up the economy?"

I live in a red state.

LOL. LMAO even.

They WILL vote against their interests as long as the R is next to the name.

I’ve also been in construction long enough to know there are faster ways into a house than through the doors if I’m trying to be dishonest.

Only super tangentially unrelated, I had a friend ask if he should get me a lockpick set. I told him I tried to learn, it's not my thing, it doesn't make sense in how I feel. He asked what if I needed something open.

"I have a sawsall with a demolition blade. There are very few things I cannot open."

I’m so tired of unelected people making rules for my life.

When people ask if I trust the government on any conversation that things like this come up I tell them my motto is "Don't trust the government, unless it means trusting a corporation. Then DEFINITELY don't trust the corporation."

I think the United States as we knew it is dying

I grew up in the US south.

This IS the US as I've known it.

The rest of the country got complacent about the people that supported the splitoff faction that wanted to own people as backwoods hicks and not as a viable threat despite them infesting many of the states that literally sent men to die to stop them. Laughed when they said "The south will rise again" despite them having an outsized power in politics and when called out were nice when they said "It's heritage, not hate."

They were ready to arrest those who went against the president during Bush Jr era. Nixon welcomed them into the fold after LBJ pissed off the Dixiecrats by signing in the Civil Rights Acts and every Republican since, just as the Democrats did before. The country never finished the job and now the house is infested.

“we’ll burn that bridge when we get to it”

I use that so much I legitimately forget the whole "cross that bridge" when I'm in serious conversation.

Unfortunately my greatest suggestion is reading text, Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey. Pern is a planet where a red star comes and drops "thread" which is a material that consumes all organic material, but can be burned by fire. The dragons and their riders are what keeps people/crops/etc from being ravaged by the thread.

The dragons and their riders have a telepathic bond, where the dragons are intelligent.

I am sad I only have but one upvote to give this post because it's the correct answer.

I'll be blunt, I've never actually met a libertarian by the definition of libertarian.

I found the easiest way to find out. Ask about gay marriage and abortion, they'll want them outlawed, want the government stepping in.

Libertarians were just Republicans who wanted to smoke weed, and now that Republicans are cool with weed they don't really have anything left.