Hegar

Yes! House of reps is what I meant. Thank you.

There are some exceptions and it's definitely not all they do, but attending to the interest of the powerful is their day-to-day work.

Senators accept bribes from various industries and wealthy individuals in order to block or advance legislation on their behalf.

Because a Senator's electorate is the entire state, they are more likely to be servants of large state-wide industries like dairy in WI, oil & gas in TX, etc.

This is as opposed to the Congress, where the make-up of their specific district can alter which moneyed interests they benefit most from serving.

Every state has only 2 federal Senators, compared to a variable amount of congressional reps based on population. So individual Senators are generally considered more powerful.

I dunno, teenagers all smoke and they seem pretty on the ball.

that face is a consequence, not a goal.

My understanding is that it is a goal. It's not just a botched face job or over use of botox. People walk in and ask for a face like that.

I have no idea if you're being serious.

Tbh I struggle with that myself sometimes.

But mar-a-lago face is a real thing and while the first instinct is to recoil in horror at what these people have done to themselves, elites have a long history of this kind of extreme identity signalling. And I do think this phenomenon is best understood as part of that tradition.

2, 3 & 4 are examples of what's called "Mar-a-lago face" - really blatant plastic surgery to emphasize your ability to afford plastic surgery.

Elites frequently engage in body-modification intense enough to look grotesque to others as a way of marking their status. Mayan and Hunnic cranial deformation and Chinese foot-binding are prominent other examples.

Thats largely untrue though. In crises people come together. The term academics use is "spontaneous self organization". It's really just the upper classes who turn to brutality at every possible opportunity.

The point of Lord of the Flies is that the upper class are always brutal savages.

It's not an accusation, it was a question.

I don't have strong feelings about AI art, I just enjoy going over the tiny details that makes it look so AI-y. That's why I commented instead of searching - I was hoping for discussion more than I wanted an answer.

Your detailed response was the kind of thing I was hoping for. I just could've done without the unnecessary defensiveness, but otherwise thanks!

Allowing Russia free rein to directly manipulate US voters and create false realities has already enabled a fascist coup.

I don't want an authoritarian level of internet censorship, but not censoring hostile foreign lies online is a big part of the reason that russian-bought plutocrats are able to kill your grandma and thousands of other americans who need Medicaid to live.

This list is very silly.

Not just because the meanings are off for many of them and "very" is fun to use sometimes, but because you need multiple replacement options for the different contexts of common adjectives. It would've been more helpful to provide 4-5 options for 25-30 words.

But it's not meant to be helpful, it's not a YSK, it's just an ad for some proofreading company.