Haven't they heard??

A Trump never pays their debts.

Perhaps. I mean, I was naïve enough to thing there was no possible way the Orange One could win in 2016, so I suppose I could see having a blind spot for this monster they've crated. Still, you'd almost have to be going out of your way as an actual politician to not see the results of all their "games".

Republican senators say they are alarmed at how many Republicans, including those with higher levels of education and income, buy the unsubstantiated claims that the last presidential election was stolen.

A second Republican senator who spoke with The Hill said the growing strength of radical populism “makes it a lot more difficult to govern, it makes it difficult to talk to constituents.”

“There are people who surprise me — I’m surprised they have those views. It’s amazing to me the number of people, the kind of people who think the election was stolen,” the lawmaker said. “I don’t want to use this word but it’s not just a ‘red-neck’ thing. It’s people in business, the president of a bank, a doctor.”

How far up your ass does your head have to be to not see that your party is practically driven by conspiracy theories and falsehoods after the last decade??

Quite the whiplash indeed!

The long and short of it is that the pledge of allegiance is exactly what it says on the tin; you are pledging that your loyalty is to the flag (by proxy, to the United States). However, as a US citizen, one has a 1st amendment right that is supposed to protect you from being forced by the government to say the pledge (otherwise known as compelled speech). Constitutionally, you cannot be arrested or otherwise punished for not saying the pledge, or for expressing distaste for the pledge, leaving out the "under God" part while reciting the pledge, or even saying that you think the flag is nothing more than a nationalist propaganda symbol.

That all said, I feel like there is at least one or two stories a year where a student is accosted by a teacher because they refused to recite the pledge. Any teacher who does this is setting themselves and the school up for a lawsuit, as accosting/punishing a student for not reciting the pledge is flat out unconstitutional..

On a different note, as an American who grew up mindlessly citing the pledge throughout my K-12 years, it was a pretty harsh realization when I learned that this is essentially a kind of indoctrination. I honestly feel a bit gross when I go to my kid's school events and the first thing they do is trot out the flag and start the pledge. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a push to have it removed as a regular thing at public schools in the US (nor would I be surprised at a reactionary response from the "patriots" in our country if there was a movement against the pledge...).

We were forced to attend John Birch Society events in school

Damn, that sounds unconstitutional as hell. I imagine you went to some time of Christian private school?

Following in the footsteps of Wells Fargo, are we BoA? Glad I quit them way back when.

Couldn’t help but notice this issue (or something similar?) happening on Reddit before I left. Pretty sure something funky is going on on imgur’s end.

The schadenfreude from election deniers suffering the consequences of their own actions sustains me. 😌

Oppositional Defiance Disorder

Oooo I love learning a term that perfectly describes something I previously couldn’t!!

ETA: Oh my.

Oppositional defiant disorder (Also called: ODD).
A disorder in a child marked by defiant and disobedient behavior to authority figures.

Bruh, “in a child”? These are full grown adults!

Some children with ODD outgrow the condition by age eight or nine. But about half of them continue to experience symptoms of ODD through adulthood. People with ODD report feeling angry all of the time, and about 40 percent of them become progressively worse and develop antisocial personality disorder.

Wow. WOW. So many things in the world just made so much more sense to me in the last 5 minutes. Holy shit.

“She is missing birthdays and holidays for this. She truly believes this is all real and we are the crazy ones for trying to get her to come home. But she won’t, I don’t believe she will ever come back from this. We are in mourning.”

We truly have a sickness in our society. Sure would be nice if certain politicians - who are quick to blame mental health issues for our societies woes - could focus on things like the Qanon Qult tearing apart families rather than, oh, you know, the gays.

Hard to imagine losing a professional license for someone who dropped you like a sack of potatoes after throwing caution and profession to the wind to go to bat for them.

This, folks, is the result of actual Trump Derangement Syndrome. 🤷🏽‍♂️