In case you're like me, and had no idea what an "ego death" involves other than a vague awareness of it being some kind of Freudian nonsense:

Oh, he went nuts. Why not just say so?

So Bardfinn was a normal well adjusted functioning adult 20-30 years ago?

Not exactly.

That's right. Our neighbor walked away from the best job he ever had because the boys wanted to go to Hooters.

Now he collects welfare payments and creates AI horrors he can post on BlueSky for 27 likes.

Favorite bit is that he dislikes the term "pro-choice" because it "supposes that choosing to have a child cannot be wrong".

I support abortion rights, not "choice".

Telling on myself here, but I mostly only listen to true crime podcasts, and almost exclusively when I'm running or working out. I like them because there's a built-in element of drama and kind of trashy gossip of digging around in the refuse of someone else's life. Also a little tiny bit of fear/danger element that gets me amped up when I'm running, especially at night like what if I have to run away from a psycho???

I don't generally like sort of hang-out-and-shoot-the-shit interview podcasts, but I see that so so many people do. Is it a parasocial thing? Like if you like the hosts and you want to imagine being friends/lovers with them? Or maybe you are not a funny and clever person yourself / you have no inner monologue, so you need a podcast to fill your head with other people being funny and clever on your behalf?

Anyway, what do you look for in your podcasts? What should I start listening to?

Or this is an open thread, just chat about whatever. I got a new breadmaker and it fricking sucks. How do you know if a breadmaker is bad or just the recipes or maybe you suck at pouring four ingredients in a pot and pressing the "start" button correctly? Someone told me I should use the recipes off Bread Daddy instead of the ones in the book that came with the machine. Anyone here tasted the Bread Daddy's dough?

I mean it really is his fault. She clearly refused the sacred holy sacrament of the government religion Redditors praise. It's an unforgivable sin and there is no atonement.

We are now finally in an era where you can freely ‘virtue signal’ but with normal virtues.

Tony from LC sign is the king.
He will be my first choice if I need a sign.

pic.twitter.com/H4hcIUMH3s

— Staida (@staidaz) February 10, 2025

!chuds !transphobes

in b4

I recently polled my people and this is what they wanted me to write about. Fortunately I can use declassified CIA documents for most of my research.

There were multiple huge crises in the Middle East in 1958 that seemed like they were going to lead the world into war. There was even a major deployment of US troops there. But you never hear about them. Why? Because there wasn't a war. I'm going to tell you some stories about what scared the heck out of everyone in the USA and the Middle East but they managed to get it under control. Think of it as the anti-Chernobyl.

Buddy Holly - Peggy Sue. Yeah, those were the days.

Syria

The first big crisis of the year, the one that got everything rolling, was Syria's admission to the United Arab Republic. Or to say it another way, Syria being annexed by Egypt. Every state in the region and the superpowers had been expecting something like this to happen eventually since World War II. Now it seemed that the balance of power had been overturned and all of the pent-up conflicts in the Middle East were about to blow up.

I'm guessing it wasn't really a 99.99% vote in favor of it because Nasser had grave misgivings about this and could barely be persuaded to.

Syria was the most failed "failed state" that you could imagine. It owes its existence to the French demand at the end of World War I that after all their sacrifices they deserved their own chunk of the Ottoman Empire. In 1946 it gained its independence but it didn't have much of a national identity other than being the land that France used to own. It was widely expected that it would soon be absorbed into a larger Arab state with Iraq and Jordan. But for extremely complicated reasons this didn't happen and little Syria survived.

Notice how everything he mentions being in "Syria" is in what we call "Lebanon" now.

Soon it wished it hadn't survived. After independence Syria had about one successful coup every two years and countless failed ones. By 1958 most of the factions had been purged from political life and it was Ba'athists who held a tenuous grip on power. They couldn't even trust their fellow Ba'athists, and worse, the Communists were becoming dangerously powerful. And nobody likes a commie. In order to make sure they didn't seize control, in January 1958 Syria's leaders came up with a creative strategy: Become part of Egypt.

One of the main factions that briefly held power there in the early 1950s was the batshit crazy SSNP. I heard the British were supporting them back then.

Egypt

This was pretty crazy but not as crazy as it sounds. There was a strong desire across the region to unite into one Arab nation. What is the heart of the Arab nation? Egypt. And its leader Nasser was the only one who could do this. Two years earlier in the Suez Crisis, Eisenhower ordered Britain and France back into their cucksheds and forbid them to invade other countries anymore. But Arabs saw this as a great victory where Nasser stood up to the colonial powers and defeated them, which at least had a kernel of truth to it. Many people across all the Arab world considered him to be their leader and were annoyed that their country hadn't joined him yet.

Some of the most extreme cope I've ever seen. British troops withdrawing in humiliation from Egypt under American orders, never to return.

The only problem is, how do you get Nasser onboard? He wants to to unify the Arabs, but he doesn't want to start out by being responsible for this basket case country that doesn't have its shit together. Eventually he agrees on a few conditions: The Syrian people have to vote for him. All political parties will be dissolved. The army will get out of politics.

The conservative monarchies are not about to take this lying down. The Saudis try to arrange a coup before unification can happen, but it is terribly inept. The King of Iraq, who kinda hoped he was gonna be the one to annex Syria and lead the Arab world, proposes merging with Jordan. It's another pro-British monarchy ruled by his brother so it makes sense in these dangerous times. The problem is, the Saudis are afraid of Nasser but they're also afraid of Iraq and Jordan getting too powerful, so they have trouble coordinating a response.

This is what the government of Iraq was like in the 1950s. I wonder what will happen to them...

The UAR

On February 22 Egypt and Syria join together as the United Arab Republic.

• The kings of Iraq and Jordan are worried that this will lead the many Nasserists among their own people to overthrow them.

• King of Saudi Arabia is too busy dealing with getting overthrown by his brother to do much.

• President Chamoun of Lebanon is extremely alarmed. The domestic situation is already really screwed up and the last thing he needs is Nasserists on 80% of the country's border.

• Israel doesn't really care since both Egypt and Syria are already hostile to them. Their only problem is if Iraq and Jordan merge because Iraq would be the senior partner and they are not fans of the whole Zionism thing.

• The British are desperate to keep alive the Arab monarchies they set up after WWI. Their whole imperial plan was to build these up and now they only have Iraq and Jordan left.

• The USA is ambivalent. Nasser is hard to deal with, but at least he kept the commies out of the region.

• The Soviets are probably as mad as Boris Badenov when one of his plots fails.

Epilogue

Nasser soon sends Egyptians to take over key government positions away from Syria. The Ba'athists are understandably butthurt as they're the ones who invited the Egyptians to come and now they're getting pushed out of power and having their newspapers shut down. The Egyptians probably figure that if these people are so incapable of running their own lives that they ask us to take over their country, they can't be trusted in leadership roles. There's also less obvious divisions, like business people being butthurt about how the Egyptians don't understand that their economy is different. These tensions were already obviously before the year was out. In 1961, a coup topples the Egyptians. Like so many others who tried to control Syria in this era, they lasted about two years.

Damascus, 1950s. According to some redditor.

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[removed] (1506)

Do you mind pointing me to your sources for these statistics? (9)

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K. Why? (-7)

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Why do you not think they should compete? If you think they have an unfair advantage, I advise educating yourself more on the subject. (-25)

Angriest Comments

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Leftists take every logical take the right has (or even ones that may technically be wrong but are not coming from a bad place), add an ist or an ism, add nefarious intent where there isn't any, emotionally supercharge it, then scream it from the roof tops constantly in unison in an attempt to invalidate and vilify any and everything else the right does. Examples:"You don't care about women, you just hate trans people!!""You don't care about immigration, you're just racist!!""You don't care about runaway government spending, you just hate poor people!!" *as if the US government has been an effective vehicle for supporting them lolAnd on and on and on. You're not allowed to care about or discuss blatant, obvious issues-even ones that literally the rest of the non-western world has no issue calling what they are and managing properly like illegal immigration-without them making some disingenuous emotional argument that immediately falls apart under any scrutiny. Meanwhile they complet... (1)

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An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.Apple podcasthttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/trumps-american-takeover/id928790786?i=1000687599740Slate https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/amicus-with-dahlia-lithwick-law-justice-and-the-courts/id928790786Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/show/7DpL32jgjwBTah8o9HQkBl?si=oDZr7d9WQPivjhddnonGswTrump doesn't want any constraints. He wants to be able to sign with a pen and do whatever he wants.MAGA performative cruelty is designed to accomplish two things. One is it's designed to develop scapegoats and people to blame, and to also create distractions from the consolidation of executive power going on with things like the restructuring of the executive office of the president, which doesn't seem as important because it doesn't leave bodies buried in the streets yet. Important, but a distraction. But here's the second. It puts everybody else in fear. Because if Trump can do this to anybody he pulls out of a ... (1)

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Trans women are women so denying them rights or space in places set up for women is transphobia. The question is why don't you want them in sports? Below are the most common misconceptions people have:MYTH"TRANS WOMEN HAVE A 'BIOLOGICAL ADVANTAGE' OVER CIS WOMEN."FACTEVIDENCE INDICATES TRANS WOMEN DO NOT HAVE AN ADVANTAGE & BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY IS EVERYWHERE.In elite level sports, trans women are required to suppress testosterone in order to compete in the women's category, lowering T levels to cis women levels. There is no testosterone level advantage.Available evidence indicates trans women who haveundergone testosterone suppression have no clear biological advantages over cis women in elite sport.Consider that when cis men are good, they are praised. (e.g. Michael Phelps.) But when women - especially marginalized (Black or Brown and/or trans) women are good, they are accused of being unfair. (e.g. Serena Williams, Simone Biles, Sha'Carri Richardson, Caster Semenya, and many more.... (1)

Biggest Lolcow: /u/bsubtilis

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Guess the fact that those 10 athletes aren't exactly regularly outperforming their biological counterparts parts doesn't matter hey? Ofcourse it doesn't you don't give a frick about women lol. (85)

https://old.reddit.com/r/self/comments/1ijzwib/why_are_people_freaking_out_over_trans_people_not/mbj6cvm/?context=8 (-9)

Basedness: 🔥🔘🔘🔘🔘

Why have competition if you are going to let it be unfair? It's silly (22)

Because you are making a mountain out of a mole hill. The amount of trans athlethes is minescule in the big picture. There are bigger problems to be solved. (-26)

Basedness: 🔥🔘🔘🔘🔘

Out of 500,000 NCAA athletes 10 are transgender 😂 completely made up issue (239)

This logic is flawed. While there maybe only 10 transgender athletes, those athletes impact more than just 10 people. They individually impact everyone they ever play with and against. That number is certainly larger than 10. Rules like this aren't for the individuals that they prohibit, they are for everyone else that are affect by them. (-8)

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Imagine if someone made a rule that red headed people were no longer allowed to go to the movies, because their red hair was so bright it might hurt other people's eyes while watching. That's silly, right? There's no evidence of that, there are very few red haired people even that exist, and the majority of the people watching movies are cool with red haired people.Maybe not getting to go to the movies and have a source of major enjoyment that other people get to have isn't a big deal to you.But next they will say red haired people are distracting - we shouldnt allow them to drive either, they can cause accidents.Redhaired people start getting fired from jobs and no longer getting hired, or their businesses no longer patronized since people don't want to risk being around themRed haired people start being murdered and r*ped and committing suicide more often, because criminals know they can get away with it.Then they will say we should round all the red haired people up and put them... (2)

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The reasoning behind it is flawed and masked in "protecting women" when it's about targeting the LGBTQ community Cis women are being targeted and accused of being trans if someone feels they are too good, too masculine presenting or they just don't like them/what they have to sayCis women are being accused of being trans because of how they biologically exist, such as naturally occurring variance in hormones. Once this information is released people refuse to the believe they're women and all their accomplishments as athletes are thrown away. I was born with 9 times the amount of testosterone that I am suppose to have. It never made me a better athlete but people don't care and if that were given out the the public, people would die on the hill that I am biologically male even though I have had two children emerge from my body that lived in my uterus with my eggs that were naturally released through my fallopian tubes.This issue unfairly targets people of color who have a long histo... (8)

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J.K. Rowling says it bestJ.K. Rowling@jk_rowlingThis 'why do you care about a tiny fraction of the population?' line is, and always was, utterly ridiculous.Gender ideology has undermined freedom of speech, scientific truth, gay rights, and women's and girls' safety, privacy, and dignity. It's also caused irreparable physical damage to vulnerable kids.Nobody voted for it, the vast majority of people disagree with it, yet it has been imposed, top down, by politicians, healthcare bodies, academia, sections of the media, celebrities, and even the police. Its activists have threatened and enacted violence on those who've dared oppose it.People have been defamed and discriminated against for questioning it. Jobs have been lost and lives have been ruined, all for the crime of knowing that s*x is real and matters.When the smoke clears, it will be only too evident that this was never about a so-called vulnerable minority, notwithstanding the fact that some very vulnerable people have been ha... (1)

Biggest Lolcow: /u/xChops

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According to data from USASpending.gov, the U.S. government has granted over $270 million to the East-West Management Institute (EWMI) over the past 15 years. EWMI is an organization partnered with George Soros' Open Society Foundations. Additionally, another $90 million was obligated to the institution over several contracts. The East-West Management Institute describes its mission as "strengthening democratic societies by fostering collaboration between governments, civil society, and the private sector to build transparent and accountable institutions." Its funding primarily comes from USAID and the U.S. Department of State. Programs include judicial reform, legal aid, and rule of law initiatives in countries like Albania, Armenia, Cambodia, and Georgia, as well as civil society training in nations such as Kyrgyzstan and Uganda.It's important to note that while EWMI has received substantial funding from USAID, this funding is directed towards the organization's initiatives and n... (15)

I never voted to have any of my tax dollars spent in Albania, Armenia, Cambodia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Uganda. I am all for cutting USAID and keep all of our money to fix the problems we have in this Country We could house all of the Homeless in America for the amount of money we give to foreign nations (-9)

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USAID also someone how paid $8M for 47 Politico "subscriptions" which happens to be a left leaning media source. The corruption by dems is out of control. (-4)

Basedness: 🔥🔥🔘🔘🔘

Not accurate. (3)

accurate, it's officially stated as payment for their "pre editorial" product. like please read between the lines. (-4)

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Look, idk wtf happened to reddit where it became this woke safe haven. And God it's annoying that any kind of nuanced opinion that isn't left leaning is downmarseyd immediately....But bro all of this USAID shit is getting annoying as frick. Like don't get me wrong, if there is waste and it leads back to the left ok fine, end that waste... But Jesus Christ this feels so witch hunty. I'm not hearing a goddarn thing about right wing waste and I do not believe for one second that those mother frickers are any cleaner than the left.ALL of those people are funneling money from all kinds of mother frickers to other mother frickers and in their own pockets. Left, Right... 2 sides, same coin. (And don't give me that "lesser evil" bullshit)It's just so annoying to see all of these right wing talking heads (Even Joe Rogan) go on and on about the left doing all this dark money shit while not hearing a peep about the Republicans. Nah son.... You're all dirty as sin. Please shut the frick up with this h... (1)

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Can you prove that investing that 10M would have stopped Al Qaeda from rising to power? When that same 10M could be used to provide at home infrastructure support or tax cuts?Also, how does supporting DEI initiatives abroad improve our national security? Asking for a friend. (1)

There has been countless studies that spending on foreign aid yields dividend in the form of both reduced military spending and increased foreign trade. This view was championed by Trump's own secdef, James Mattis. This view is not a controversial one. Trump and his people all are aware of the reality. But they said they would find waste and fraud in govt spending, and they can't find any actual waste or fraud, so they're pointing to the old reliable boogey man that his dumb supporters fall for every time, foreign aid.This last question is idiotic propaganda for weak minded people. Point to a bad program. Don't regurgitate your masters bs. (1)

Angriness: 😡😡😡😡😡

Nice attempt to divert from the truth. The liberal meltdown over the USAID getting forensic accounting is astonishing. What are you so afraid of? (-2)

If they expose a bunch of bad things in those lying liars worldwide and claim but everything we did as bad because most of what we did as bad. No, even if we do a bunch of bad things that doesn't prove that everything we do is bad. No, we still do good things. With all that tax money we're taking the giveaway, we still do a few good things. We shouldn't destroy so much government waste Internet up to save money. (1)

Biggest Lolcow: /u/BrandoPolo

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!nooticers !transphobes

Apparently morbius got a C+

https://old.reddit.com/r/boxoffice/comments/1iptarn/captain_america_brave_new_world_gets_a_b_on/mcuykdc/?context=8

Not to go there but we will look back at the insane cultural bubble that was 2019-2022 and the havoc it's wrought on pop culture with disbelief; it will legit be studied.

The way Disney has CRATERED its most valuable IPs in the service of fake cultural clout from what was always a vanishingly tiny minority and audiences that simply don't (and have never) existed as a way to take story telling shortcuts and up their ESG score. It's like something out of a dystopian novel, it nearly beggars belief.

Happy Lunar New Year to the dramanauts who celebrate it. 2025 is the Year of the Snake.

I made this for @NotX (definitely not @X, formerly chiobu) even though he never actually asked for it.

The following have sparks. Which one do you like best?

Update: Slightly more than a day later, 1 has 36 votes, 2 has 15 votes, and 3 has 21 votes. I will submit 1.

Yes, I realize that you wouldn't actually hold firecrackers like that. I copied the design from something on Google because I waited too long to start drawing this and couldn't come up with a better design that wasn't too similar to the previous ones. I started it around January 24.

^{The tiger is by @Dramarama. The others are by me.}

Without Firecrackers

The title is a reference to @TwoLargeSnakesMating, former rDrama codecel who left rDrama in early 2023

(Drawn with Inkscape, referenced )

Lol

the maymays said musk was gonna make genetically engineered catgirls why he makin the eggs cost more

The cavity vaccine is finally shipping out to customers.

It's very likely that if people use this to replace the Streptococcus mutans in their mouth with this variety that puts out alcohol instead of lactic acid, cavities will become far less common. https://t.co/01RaXU2L2v pic.twitter.com/PtRUVjTQy6

— Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil) February 18, 2025

>FAIRHOPE, AL—Exploiting the popular online game platform for his own perverse ends, local Roblox user Rodney McKinney, 68, was accused of grooming 56-year-old Roblox user Walter Rhodes, sources confirmed Wednesday. "For the past several months, Mr. McKinney, a 68-year-old Roblox user, used the game as a means to foster an inappropriate relationship with an impressionable young 56-year-old that was sexual in nature," said officer Mike Cavazos, noting several obscene messages in which the baby boomer offered the much younger Gen X user Robux in exchange for lewd images of Rhodes' flabby, mature body. "It was clear from their correspondence that Mr. McKinney knew the victim was 56, as he stated in chats that he was 'old enough to be [Rhodes'] supervising manager.' And though he claimed that messages inviting the victim to move off Roblox to a more private LinkedIn chat were innocent, we believe otherwise." At press time, authorities claimed McKinney attempted to conceal his indiscretions by warning Rhodes not to "tell your mom, if she's still alive."

🚨🇺🇸 U.S. GOVERNMENT’S ANCIENT TECH GETS A DOGE UPGRADE

Elon just rebranded US Digital Services to US DOGE Services to drag the government’s outdated computer systems into the 21st century.

Despite spending $90B a year on IT, 80% goes to maintaining relics—some over 50 years… https://t.co/dFroVGkcYj pic.twitter.com/NKrPuwn4aG

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) February 5, 2025

ignore the 0 effort plating

https://rdrama.net/post/338842/diddykongdancediddykongscaredkongmaxxing-event-badges-galore-return-of

!badgemaxxers refer to above thread

Also a sneak peek of something

Also if I can figure out how to stream from the steamdeck would you guys watch me play donkey kong

I'm not very good

There would be no voice or camera or anything literally just dkc2