ahem

Quote :

"as I was saying in another thread, being anti-trans is now proven to be a losing issue"

11/4/2026 2:38:26 PM

I’ve never said it was the issue they lost. I’ve said they banked on it being a winner and it very clearly wasn’t

Quote :

"ITT, but you're acting as if transphobia is somehow solved because of a blue meteor that just cratered a significant portion of MAGA, "

no, I’m saying that it’s never been a major issue for why Dems have lost, and Republicans thought it was THE reason Dems have lost in the past, and they decided to light hundreds of millions of dollars on fire to test their theory

^ A losing issue, not THE losing issue

11/4/2026 2:40:40 PM

Quote :

"if the trans activists can take the W and chill tf out"

I spend a ton of time in very left spaces and have a trans family member, and over the last year or so I've heard shouting and big public displays from tons of anti trans activists but almost none from the other side. Who on the ?pro-trans? side has anywhere near the platform of, say, a jk Rowling or even Enes Kanter (who barely had a platform)

[Edited on November 4, 2026 at 2:43 PM. Reason : E]

11/4/2026 2:42:51 PM

Quote :

"An effort to ban transgender girls from girls school sports in Washington has a significant lead in election results released Tuesday night. According to the Secretary of State’s office, 57% of voters said yes on Initiative 638, one of three ballot measures backed by conservative political committee Let’s Go Washington. Similar initiatives restricting transgender students’ participation in school sports were also leading in Colorado, Nebraska and Arizona, a bright spot for conservatives on a night otherwise marked by victories for progressives. In Washington, more votes will be counted in the coming days, and could determine the future of the blue state’s status as a haven for transgender people. Nearly 20 years ago, Washington made history as the first state to allow transgender students to compete on sports teams consistent with their gender identity. Now, Washington is among the first states in the nation to put the question of transgender participation in school sports directly before voters, an issue that has largely been decided through legislation elsewhere. "

WA was pretty much the only state in 2024 to actually turn bluer, yet this along with the Millionaire's tax being upheld (which is unconstitutional in the state of WA btw), just goes to show you that people can still pencil in hateful legislation while simultaneously waving woke/progressive flags and pat themselves on the back.

11/4/2026 2:45:49 PM

and there is a very good chance that it’ll go to the state supreme court where the newly elected justices will have an opportunity to say it’s unconstitutional

11/4/2026 2:48:39 PM

maybe in WA? Maybe not in AZ, CO, and NE...

You're still not getting it. YOU made the argument that anti-trans legislation is a losing proposition and I, and others, have simply pointed out that nah, unfortunately, it's not gone, and it can easily keep cropping up again, even in the most 'progressive' states since it's still an incredibly polarizing issue.

I wish it weren't, but that's life in 2026 for ya.

11/4/2026 2:52:43 PM

On a similar topic, the tax revolt will be a killer for any future democratic agenda at the local/state/national level

One area where Republicans were successful are regressive tax amendments in multiple states, which will leech public funds and, with our luck, the gaps will probably start to show in 2029. Democrats need to start today figuring out a makeover for taxes, a way to sell all the things they get you, etc.

11/4/2026 3:34:27 PM

Incidentally, I voted to repeal WA's millionaire tax. Not because I oppose taxing the rich, but because of the insane precedent it sets when a tyrannical governor rams policy through under duress just to placate pissed off voters. Meanwhile, why the fuck aren't Washington corporations paying their fair share? The state is home to some of the wealthiest corporations on Earth. Along with private equity, they've gentrified and gutted the very communities that welcomed them, only to pack up for other states where they'll inevitably pull the exact same BS.

Oh, well. I ain't a millionaire, so it's not like it actually affects me

11/4/2026 4:02:30 PM

I haven't had a chance to dig too much into exit poll data but I did just see this, fwiw

11/4/2026 4:04:35 PM

That seems like a terrible choice for someone supporting Democratic policies which almost always require revenue.

11/4/2026 4:04:46 PM

It's terrible of me to oppose an unconstitutional wealth tax that I never voted for in the first place? IDK man. I moved to WA because it has a great QOL and part of the reason that's possible is because my paycheck goes farther than it did in California. Don't you live in FL or TX? WA has the highest minimum wage in the country, crazy high vehicle registration fees, and very high sales tax, plus county/city taxes, and voters routinely pass bonds and levies (basically a tax that's just called something else). The state spends a ton of money already on social services, and I'm OK with that. I don't see what's so radical about opposing the way something is implemented on principle while begrudgingly accepting the reality that people are hurting everywhere, and a small group of millionaires are going to wind up either paying for it or deciding to leave ala Elon.

11/4/2026 4:46:47 PM

I don't think our country is ready yet to fully embrace trans people as a whole, but I do think that the Right making "protecting girls sports" as some issue that was supposedly as important as cost of living or the Iran War, was a complete failure.

11/4/2026 5:19:22 PM

I think that's fair.

11/4/2026 6:39:18 PM

These are not mutually exclusive statements:
The excesses of the trans rights movement harmed Democrats in 2024
Focusing on trans issues was ineffective for the GOP in 2026 when gas was 60% more expensive and people couldn't afford groceries

Fuck, why is this so hard to comprehend

11/4/2026 10:06:24 PM

what excesses?

11/4/2026 10:19:11 PM

^a bunch. I didnt move to Florida as a tax haven, I moved here bc I got a job here. Give me a tax increase to vote on and I'll almost always vote yes. Put a constitutional amendment to add a state income tax, even, I'm down.


Also from a trans "activist" (person):

Quote :

"hundreds of millions of dollars on anti-trans advertising being proven totally irrelevant- not positive, not negative, just a proper heat check that normal people simply don't care and it's lighting money on fire to try to politicize my identity- is so, so liberating "

[Edited on November 4, 2026 at 10:42 PM. Reason : E]

11/4/2026 10:41:15 PM

It’s funny you’re saying millionaires shouldn’t have a wealth tax while literally saying you’re okay with your own self paying high property taxes (which is literally a wealth tax)

Wealth taxes on wealthy people are the same principle as charging EV owners higher highway use taxes— they don’t buy gas so they have to make it up. Likewise wealthy people have a dramatically lower percentage of their wealth in things that the rest of us pay wealth taxes on, so we have to make it up somehow.

11/4/2026 10:54:02 PM

I assume that's directed at UJW?

11/4/2026 11:21:03 PM

I think?

Anyway, let the WA millionaires pay the wealth tax. I’m not exactly angry it passed since I’m not the one paying extra, and sure, I’ll benefit in some ways from their generosity. I just don’t like things that are unconstitutional becoming the norm because someone decides that rules and a state constitution aren’t important (when they are).

11/4/2026 11:30:19 PM

Also, I never said anything about supporting high property taxes, and I don't consider them particularly fair tbh. My property tax burden can go up simply because the market decides my house is worth more, even if my income hasn't changed and I haven't actually experienced any appreciation to my home value.

Aside from that, the EV analogy is a poor comparison. Road-use taxes are about contributing toward infrastructure based on how you use it. Wealth taxes are about taxing accumulated assets and net worth. Those are two entirely different tax principles.

Funny enough, I actually lease a Tesla myself So I'm definitely not arguing that EV owners shouldn't contribute toward road maintenance. I'm saying that using an EV road-use fee to justify a wealth tax is comparing two fundamentally different things.

Anyway, you’re arguing against positions I didn't take. I generally support progressive taxation, but that doesn't mean I have to support every proposed tax or consider every method of taxation as being fair or equitable. The goal and the mechanism are two separate conversations.

[Edited on November 5, 2026 at 12:14 AM. Reason : .]

11/5/2026 12:13:25 AM

Your position is paradoxical is what I’m saying. Gas cars pay part of their use tax in gasoline sales. But if everyone switched to EVs there would be zero revenue from this gas tax so they shift the tax to the reality of where people’s money is.

Wealth taxes go to fund lots of social services but wealthy people proportionally don’t pay as much property tax so it’s correct and desirable to shift the tax to where the wealth is. There’s no slippery slope here, this is just basic tax math.

But you do bring up a good point. One way to sell a rich people wealth tax is maybe to tell people you’ll reduce their middle class people wealth tax.

11/5/2026 12:22:39 AM

I think you're still missing my bigger point. I'm against unconstitutional taxes, regardless of who's paying them or what the revenue funds. The WA constitution doesn't become optional just because the governor likes the intended outcome. Amend it, and then we can talk about the nuances of various tax outcomes.

To be clear, I'm not anti-WA. I respect its state government a hell of a lot more than the federal government. We have legal weed, casinos, and a live-and-let-live brand of personal freedom, and we still care about protecting the environment and minimizing human suffering. I like that balance, and so far it seems to be working out better for us than it did in California.

I'm not arguing that wealthy people shouldn't pay their fair share. I'm arguing that constitutional limits should matter regardless of who's affected. Principles aren't principles if they only apply when they're politically convenient.

11/5/2026 1:48:55 AM

Quote :

" “You believe law governs power. What you are observing is power determining what counts as law.” "

11/5/2026 10:12:44 AM

So did Satan's Meemaw lose in NC?

11/5/2026 10:58:01 AM

She is currently losing by 99 votes.

11/5/2026 11:26:02 AM

^^^

That's not really a rebuttal so much as a restatement of my complaint

Sure, in practice power often decides what counts as law. That's exactly why it matters when people shrug it off. WA voters have rejected an income tax ten times since the 1930s, and the legislature passed one anyway and left the rest to the courts. If the answer is "well, that's just how power works," then the constitution is just for show/decoration.

Some context I probably should've led with, since im assuming nobody ITT follows WA politics closely: what everyone here calls the "millionaires tax" is actually a 9.9% tax on income over $1M, not a tax on net worth or assets. I've been sloppy calling it a wealth tax myself. That's partly why the property tax and EV comparisons don't quite line up for me.

Btw moron, your idea about selling it to the middle class is already part of the deal. The legislature paired it with tax cuts aimed at middle- and lower-income households, so Olympia was apparently thinking the same way you are. Still some votes left to be counted but it appears to be a winning strategy.

[Edited on November 5, 2026 at 12:55 PM. Reason : .]

11/5/2026 12:49:38 PM

https://bsky.app/profile/cameroncorduroy.bsky.social/post/3mzkqmzrbv22j

Quote :

"2024-2026 will be remembered as one of the stupidest national hysterias of all time a supposedly generational "vibe shift" completely disintegrated upon contact with Actual Republican Governance"

11/5/2026 2:16:45 PM

Quote :

"one of the stupidest national hysterias of all time"

amen

11/5/2026 2:26:48 PM

certainly a great data point for twitter not being real life

11/5/2026 2:53:57 PM

I feel like you just couldn't help yourself get that jab in...unless i am misinterpreting

[Edited on November 5, 2026 at 3:17 PM. Reason : Perhaps that wasn't a qfred dig]

11/5/2026 3:16:47 PM

it was not

11/5/2026 3:24:54 PM

I'm mostly just glad this midterm disintegrates the hysterical notion that the will of the people can or will be overruled by billionaires or alleged fascists

[Edited on November 5, 2026 at 3:30 PM. Reason : USA! USA!]

11/5/2026 3:28:57 PM

i don't think that's a hysterical notion.

If Trump was more politically savvy and surrounded himself with smarter people, it could have gotten a lot worse. And it's certainly not over yet.

It's happened in plenty of other countries. What makes you think it couldn't happen here?

11/5/2026 3:39:01 PM

all I'm saying is the 2026 midterm was certainly a great data point for bluesky not being real life

[Edited on November 5, 2026 at 3:45 PM. Reason : anything COULD happen here. 1979 Iran revolution style Islamic takeover COULD happen here. It's happened in plenty of other countries. What makes you think it couldn't happen here? but data points are data points, and real life is real life]

11/5/2026 3:44:33 PM

Bluesky was definitively more in tune with what happened on Tuesday

what are you talking about, man?

11/5/2026 3:47:27 PM

no it wasn't.

11/5/2026 3:48:20 PM

how do you figure?

11/5/2026 3:52:56 PM

there was a lot more "billionaires are buying the election and fascists are going to steal the election" style claims on bluesky. that thesis was thankfully proven wrong.

I'm not saying those fears weren't present on twitter and YouTube and everywhere else, even among "moderate" democrats. I'm just saying bluesky folks tend to lean into those narratives with a lot more unquestioning certainty. again, thankfully they were wrong.

not to mention the relative underperformance of the progressive/DSA left that bluesky folks tend to support
https://www.imightbewrong.org/p/how-leftists-and-moderates-did-in

11/5/2026 4:11:13 PM

there were a handful of doomer accounts that have already posted how happy to be wrong they are

that’s nothing like people who should know better thinking that there was a cultural vibe shift because of the right wing slop they see on twitter on a daily basis

11/5/2026 4:19:37 PM

I’m also guessing that your thesis that Bluesky is as far-left as Twitter is far-right, and that’s just not the case

11/5/2026 4:25:45 PM

I think what matters most is that centrists, leftists, and even MAGA themselves all turned out to vote in a display of unity that we only really see now for things like the World Cup or the Super Bowl.

I keep switching back and forth between shock, anger, and joy because I truly had lost faith that our country was capable of acknowledging reality.

11/5/2026 4:33:57 PM

Quote :

"certainly a great data point for twitter not being real life"

All of the right wing stuff I was following on X/Twitter was saying it was going to be a bloodbath, so I don't get the jab. I know at one point here I claimed the vibe had notably switched and I think it was at least a year ago. Opinions from right-wing accounts ranged from: "fuck the GOP they deserve it, vote blue" to "sit it out" to "yes Trump lied and it's garbage, but the dems are worse".

My dad, and apparently all of Fox News, was saying it was going to be a toss up, but I didn't see anything on political/tech Twitter that indicated that it would be anything less than Dem control of the house. Maybe some really sycophants and shills that have direct connects to the admin, but I do not follow anyone like that myself.

11/5/2026 5:00:26 PM

Look unless you're a psychopath who spends time on the "suggested" tabs, both bluesky and Twitter are whatever you make them. They're both very easily curated. Unlike, say, instagram that fights curating

11/5/2026 5:22:50 PM

I disagree, since only one of them has the finger of the worlds richest man on the scale of it

there have been countless writers who have said that what they’ve written and shared in the past has gotten little to no traction on twitter as opposed to Bluesky, with similar following count

again, the Vibe Shift that was alleged after the 2024 general election was proven to not be a thing. the country didn’t shift right like a lot of twitter chatter thought it had

[Edited on November 5, 2026 at 6:40 PM. Reason : .]

11/5/2026 6:38:30 PM

I think you’re using "vibe shift" to mean a permanent ideological realignment. It's not that. There was definitely a vibe shift (which can be temporary) since I followed a lot of people that were right and pro-Trump and shifted away pretty quickly by mid-2025. The right had acquired momentum after 2024--look at the exit polls. In 2024 Trump won with young people and gained ground in latinos, aftrican americans, and other groups. That completely reversed in the exit polls this time. The vibes definitely were not permanent and Republicans squandered it.

Whatever Musk does to Twitter’s algorithm, my curated right-wing feed was predicting a Democratic House and often a bloodbath and even advocating for it.

11/5/2026 7:00:05 PM

I’m not talking about midterm predictions

I’m talking about people like this:

Quote :

" Six months into Biden being president, I was like, I can't fucking do this anymore?i says a 19-year-old New Yorker who once quite literally had blue hair and attends Marymount Manhattan, which he describes as "75 percent women and 23 percent trannies." He had supported Biden, but?I hate watching the things I say. I took a much farther horseshoe around this time." Later, a former Bernie supporter (who looked like the most Bernie-supporting person one could imagine with long, curly hair and a plaid shirt) told me the same: He wanted the freedom to say "faggot" and "retarded.""

11/5/2026 7:12:16 PM

That just looks fake or a bit. There was probably some blog human centipede that tried to make that claim, but yeah that's obviously bullshit.

11/5/2026 7:30:41 PM

or all the CEO’s buddying up to Trump

or the Ellisons/Bari Weiss turning CBS into a right-wing outlet

or Dana White being hired to do a jingoistic voiceover for Dodge

11/5/2026 7:35:56 PM