I’ve decided that it’s actually much funnier if Joyce and Dorothy are both 100% straight, but the universe is just conspiring to make them constantly do gay things for lols.
We’re getting close to a situation where Dorothy somehow demonstrates to Joyce how to have sex. Cause that’s just what a straight person does for their homies!
Sure. Completely heterosexual Joyce just sent a picture of her Bisexual Pride Flag-colored panties to completely heterosexual Dorothy, who wears a Pride Flag on her modest chest.
We don’t really see the rest of her life too much, but she certainly was closeted to her family. She’s out to some level online, but we don’t know much more than that.
It’s been pointed out that a loooong time ago, we saw that Dorothy’s contact in Joyce’s phone is titled “Roll, Perfect Cinnamon,” which is probably right next to “Rosenthal, Joe”…
Showalter Fountain! Fun fact: One of the demonic fish was ripped out and delivered to Bob Knight’s front yard by protesting students the night he was fired back in 2000.
Whoops, I was curious about where in the plot that strip was AND BOY DID IT ONLY TAKE EXACTLY ONE STRIP FORWARD TO FIND OUT. No wonder I forgot that panel existed
Huh. That is… enormously contrived, but at least it’s been established. I mean, contacts in my (and everybody else’s, I guess) phone are just sorted by their first name.
The joke about Dorothy being in Joyce’s contacts as “Roll, Perfect Cinnamon” is going on a decade old at this point, I’d be very surprised if it was deliverate set-up for this gag
It’s possible at the time it was written, it wasn’t a deliberate setup, and in the almost decade since he just decided to make it a joke. Since continuity is pretty good in this comic, I’m guessing he either has a big reference document or just rereads it often or just memorizes things, I dunno his specific process.
Mine are sorted by last name because I went into the settings and changed it to sort by last name because I’m used to looking for last names. It’s also nice because it groups family members who share last names nearby each other if for some reason I want to reach out to a few people one right after another, or in a group message.
Do people actually put contacts in their phone last name first like a bibliography entry???? Mine were first name last initial for a long time until I ended up knowing too many people with a common first name and the same last initial and kept texting the wrong one
I put first name in the first name field and last name in the last name field, and let it figure it from there. A quick check says … it lists them as First Last, but groups them by the last name’s first letter.
So, there’s a group of people with B last names, but they’re all alphabetized by their first name within that group, and shown the same way.
Huh. Bit of an odd way to go about it, but it gets the job done.
… Still don’t understand how someone does this though.
My contacts show by last name; all my non-business contacts show up sorted by last name. In the uncommon case I don’t have their last name, I either make up a last name for them based on how I know them or don’t give them one.
How’d she manage to send a picture to Dorothy, then a text to Joe, and THEN a second picture to Dorothy? I could see one mistake, but the switching back and forth and back again?
Oh well. There are much worse people to accidentally send lewd pics to, I suppose. At least she’s not sending them to Jocelyne. That would be awkward.
Could be the text was sent from the texting app, but the image was shared to the texting app from the camera or gallery app making her have to choose a contact for it.
I have definitely sent my sister messages meant for my boyfriend before. Not as lewd (thank god) but still. Happens. They have similar names in my phone
Mood. One of my work bff’s and my favorite things to do is confuse new coworkers by acting incredibly couple-y. (I’m gay in the other direction, but it’s quite fun.)
If one of the two friends in question wasn’t engaged to a different woman I’d definitely be giving them some suspicious looks. As it is, yeah I just sit back and laugh.
Joyce tends to take things a little too far, so she’ll take Dorothy’s advice to heart, do a few things like buy a ring light, a better camera, maybe some LED strips for colorful mood-lighting, find a secure place to host the pics so not just anybody can find them…
A week later Roz angrily shows up at her door.
Roz: “How is your OnlyFans bringing in more money than mine?!”
Personally I think a really good friend would be upfront about it when their friend does something potentially embarrassing without realizing, even if its awkward in the moment, its best to avoid having the same thing happen again.
I agree with you. I would hate to do it, and it would make me super uncomfortable, but I am not the person these pictures are for, it is likely not something they want me to see, they might escalate and “embarrass” themselves more.
If it makes you feel better, I do think Trump’s going to have a hard time implementing at least some of his agenda. Not because Republicans have even a sliver of a moral backbone but because so many of them HATE each other and are gonna be wrestling for their own gain. With any luck, his coalition will be a damn powder keg.
We have to hope Republicans continue to be grossly self interested and incompetent. Please give us the same party that spent four years failing to dismantle the ACA.
Yes, here, here. Let’s hope a few of them have a smidgen of ethics, qualms, or old-school Republican morals. Or that they just fight viciously for four years.
IIRC in the 1960s there was a massive political realignment where a lot of southern conservatives who were former Democratic Party where convinced by Nixon that the Republican Party was their new home. In any case,
The distinction is largely irrelevant in this context, and frankly a situation where the Republicans stop being the most conservative party is probably even more dire
Just to add to this: Trump has already demonstrated himself to be both incompetent and unwilling to take anyone’s advice. Adding to that his continued mental decline and… well, there’s a good chance that they’ll repeatedly fail at being evil in what may well be the last Republican presidency ever (they’re losing voters to time, after all).
Obviously, I can’t guarantee anything, but hopefully it’s just a matter of surviving the next four years and the rebuilding; it’s possible that a second Trump presidency, with even more mismanagement than the first, might be what we need to provoke a stronger anti-Republican backlash and get more people to take politics more seriously than some sort of us v them game.
As to Dumbing of Age and other things you like possibly becoming illegal… well, there’re lots of illegal things on the internet. Compare The Pirate Bay, which is much better known, has far more enemies and has shrugged off efforts to shut it down for longer than this webcomic has existed.
On that last subject: I tried using a few URL to IP lookup sites to get the IP address for Dumbing of Age (as a precaution against it potentially being scrubbed from DNS servers) and consistently got 192.110.161.58 — but this didn’t seem to work, just giving a page saying only “Uh oh”, without HTTPS support. Also, the Remote IP tab of Firefox’s developer console is just listing it as “unknown”. Is this a problem on my end or something to do with the website configuration?
I’m hoping David Willis will answer, because having a potentially more reliable way to reach the site could address one of the many worries people may be having these days.
Seems that the Repulsivans (the haters) will do whatever their hateful party leadership wants them to do.
Seems that the Republicans (the conservatives) won’t, but seem to be in the minority.
The damage will take years (decade+?) to heal from. This pendulum swing is going to suck, badly, before our overall society gets better again for all of us.
I think there’s enough power hungry Repulsivans that they won’t have Trump become a dictator at least, because that means THEY have no shot at the top spot. If not, there’s enough high ranking people who aren’t straight up Trumpian but are happy to go along to get in. I do not think, say, Cruz will wait around for the rest of Trump’s life before he tries to become President again.
Pandemics aren’t exactly super common, so I wouldn’t worry too much about that one. Although other diseases that we’ve already defeated might become epidemic.
SSI is going to be hard to touch, as part of Social Security. It may not improve, and harsh judges may be appointed to the administration, but it’s there by longstanding statute and will be hard to eliminate. They can make customer service shittier, though, and advocacy/accessibility help harder to find. Presidents primarily have the power to make qualitative changes over administrative programs.
Plus, advocates on both sides of the aisle have disabled children. Wanting money for one’s own children is a rare common interest.
This. We can’t rely on the GOP to actually be good people or politicians but we can expect them to work towards their own interest and as much as they publicly tear down the ACA or threaten to gut social security, they like and benefit from it too.
Another silver lining is that Trump is essentially their last guaranteed win. The MAGA voter love Trump specifically and that’s why he has such a consistent voter base to rely on, but the last four years have shown the GOP don’t have anyone but Trump. Tearing everything down and then expecting to win another election without Trump seems unlikely. They gotta spend time building up a new god to worship and I don’t see anyone nearly as charismatic as Trump to get behind in 2028.
Things WILL get worse, the supreme court will likely be hyperconservative for the next 50 years. Queers and minorities will be in more danger. Billionaires will get richer. But they can’t completely erode all our rights in just four years. They couldn’t even build a proper wall last time.
1. The MAGA hive mind gonna juggle guns around like a bunch of IRL Beavus Buttheads and Dale Gribbles and kill themselves by accident with sheer stupidity.
2. Other countries around the world take it into their own hands to intervene on behalf of the vulnerable and the SANE, if need be resorting to extreme measures to restrain what’s become a nationalist, militaristic MONSTER.
3. By some miracle a species of parasite or virus which they refuse to get vaccinated against crawls into their earthling brainsacks and turns them into vegetables, preventing them from hurting us or the environment any further
4. There’s no way outta this. We all gonna die. Life is a b_tch.
In Scenario 3, can they be literal vegetables, like radishes and cabbages? Only, I’d like to get some value out of them, and seein’ as so many folk are hungry an’ all…
It’s not going to be the literal end of the world, but there’s not going to be some miraculuous fix either. It’s gonna be a rough few years and we’ll be living with the consequences for decades to come
I don’t have a lot of money to spare, but we have a room to spare. It is in Germany through, so probably not feasible for a lot of people, and things are getting worse for queer people here too.
I am so sorry. I really wish I could be of real help. Sending you lots of strength. Do not despair. It is not over, stay save.
Have a cup of tea and a lie down and you’ll feel better. You’ll be all right, the country has survived worse and you won’t help yourself getting worked up over things you can’t change.
You have friends so concentrate on the that and the other good things in your life.
Clearly someone who has no idea what they’re talking about. Put your head in the sand all you want, but there are people who are severely affected by the policies he’s talking about putting in place and they’re right to be concerned. You’re being an ass by pretending their concerns are silly.
@shrub: I truly believe your heart is in the right place, but you are being incredibly aggravating. Your comments come across dismissive/patronizing/minimizing toward people’s feelings and very real concerns. What the fallout is going to be like is different for different people. “You’ll be all right” is not guaranteed.
Here’s a somewhat hopeful thought about that – the worst case climate scenario is currently better than it was 10 years ago. Not because any politicians got their sh*t together. But because science and engineering improved. Because renewable energy is becoming more economical. Science can save our collective asses even when idiots are in charge.
I’m officially giving up on the US. Previously at least the majority didn’t choose Trump, and maybe a lot of people didn’t really know what he was.
This time everybody knew, he’s a 34 times convicted felon, a rapist and an incredibly racist, misogynist dirtbag… and he f*cking carried the popular vote.
This time Americans are fully responsible for what happens. The majority of voters wanted fascism, and damn the consequences.
I’m holding you all responsible for what happens. Senile old Uncle Sam has become a problem for the whole planet.
You are right for giving up, people born at random into this country are mislead to apotheosize the specific, honestly archaic way our democracy is done, which is demonstrably unable to accurately represent our interests in the circumstances of the 21st century.
(if ya got time please check out the essay i wrote some comments down)
Joyce, you’re such a dweeb, why would you send a photo of your panties to him when you could remove your pants in front of him while you two are in the same room?
The whole point of nudes and sexting is because there’s physical distance, it makes no sense if you’re in the same room.
Joyce really likes working from lists or turning stages of social interaction into equations (which is an ASD-coded thing in media) and in her mind, either “meeting my sibling in an official capacity” comes after “sending suggestive (but not nude) pics” OR the latter offsets the perceived cost of the former.
(and to be clear, actually stripping in front of your partner seems higher up the list)
Alternatively, it could be that the manufactured distance of sexting someone right next to you keeps that interaction contained, and isn’t likely to lead to other things (right now).
Ok, now I’m curious: How did she send the photos to the wrong person, but the text to the right person in-between the photos? Can understand if the first photo initially went to the wrong person, but then the second photo should have gone to Joe?
Yea, maybe. Don’t know of the messaging apps she’s using here. I’ve made similar mistakes (though not involving self-nudes) where I sent something to a friend instead of to my partner for the first message; subsequent messages are always correct though!
Extremely constructed scenario: she took a picture with the camera app, clicked on share from whatever file manager the camera app uses, and chose the contact in her phone called “<3".
Then she opened the messaging app (which used Joe's actual name instead whatever someone saved him as, so there was no discrepancy Joyce noticed), sent the message, and closed out of the message app.
Ok, yea, that’s possible. Do people use the camera > photos > sharing route now though? I just use the messaging app’s camera feature; it’s faster and easier that way, though the images usually aren’t as good.
She thought she texted with Joe last but it was Dorothy, so she just reflexively brings up the most recent and sends it. She then goes on autopilot and does it a second time.
On a serious note – I’m sorry to all the Americans here. You deserved better. Once again, America proves it hates women more than it cares about itself. I’m sure this’ll be great for Dorothy’s pessimism in the future.
Oh, I’m sure the Democrats will keep trotting out it’s shambling corpse for as long as they can profit from it.
Eagerly excited for them to double down on shit like the Cheney endorsement and continue abandoning any semblance of left-wing progresssivism. If they just tilt a little more to the right I’m sure they’ve got this next time.
If left wing progressives continue being an unreliable voting bloc that’s definitely what’s going to happen, especially when the country in general is turning hard to the right.
Because centrists and “moderate republicans” are reliable? The Dems ran a super centrist campaign and courted the republican vote hard at the cost of embracing progressive policies, and it uh, extremely didn’t turn out. They lost, overwhelmingly. Why would anyone vote for diet republican when they can get the real thing?
Yeah. Republicans show up and vote. We’ve seen several times now that left wing progressives do not do that reliably. And while it’s not great seeing the Cheneys in any political capacity ever again, Kamala didn’t make policy concessions to the Cheneys and in a tight race like this one was guaranteed to be, trying to lure Republicans who weren’t happy with Trump (which we KNOW there are a lot of – Nikki Haley proved it) was an understandable strategy. I hate that she wanted to be harder on the border, but unfortunately it IS the majority opinion in the States right now, and the rest of her platform had PLENTY of things progressives ostensibly wanted. Not enough to turn up and VOTE for her though.
Progressives talk a big game, but when you ask them to put action behind it, they just curl up in the fetal position and bawl about their best option not being 100% perfect, and by the time they’re done despairing, the election is over and they wonder how they lost. Maybe if the weak-willed fucks would actually vote like they pester the rest of us to, they’d win something for once.
Wasn’t a very tight race, ultimately. Turns out Republicans vote for Republicans, and spending the little campaign they had chasing stuff like a Cheney endorsement just kills the Democrats momentum with voters who don’t want to vote Republican.
To be clear I’m not trying to excuse a lack of turnout. That does suck, the Harris campaign was absolutely the better option, and that voters largely are irrational and vibes-based is extremely frustrating
But that’s not going to change because we want it to. And so the question becomes how do we beat the Republicans despite that.
One problem I see is that the two Great Parties each try to take in absolutely every position between dead center and infinity to one side. The result is incoherence.
yeah like, literally no other democracy has the Two Great parties shit we do, as unhealthy as the binary thinking it inspires is, it gonna stay this way because of how the Electoral College works and the current meta
In formal Game Theory terms, this situation is what is known as a Pareto Equilibrium: none of the players can change their current strategy without making themselves worse off. (-_-)
What would Kamala have been able to do anyway, if not be a novelty I would have loved but wouldn’t have been able to do much, as Dorothy has realized the hard way?
Black woman president or not, things like Universal Public Health Care, student debt relief, they would have never happened regardless because The Establishment needs those as enticements to join the military and uphold the United States’ global imperialist hegemony, and all the violence and desolation there-of in places like the Middle East which they absolutely RUINED
the United States government simply can no longer accurately represent our interests, period.
If there’s anything we’ve learned from the passing of the 13th, 14th, 15th amendments and the Jim Crow South and systemic racism designed to circumvent those, as well as countless other instances of the same pattern, it’s that declaration of social justice in Law does NOT make it so in life.
More than anything what needs to happen is that we need to start forming social safety nets derived from means OTHER than formal government.
Over a million public servants have received student debt relief from the Biden administration. The Biden administration placed new requirements on health care insurance that made mental health care accessible to 175 million people, not to mention dragging the country out of the pandemic hellhole Trump left it in. Kamala had plans for helping the Middle East rebuild. The Biden administration also had the largest investment in infrastructure and green energy in years. They passed the Respect for Marriage Act, forcing states to recognize gay marriages from other states even if it’s banned again. Hurricane response and disaster relief.
I know that we’re all tired, depressed, angry and scared right now and there’s good reason for that, but this sort of ‘well nothing ever gets better’ posting does not help. It’s untrue and it’s demoralizing. Why bother to try if nothing can ever get better? I agree we need non government social safety nets but there’s a lot government can do and (putting this energy out there) will do to make things better. It won’t happen overnight but then these issues didn’t happen overnight either. Systemic, multifaceted issues won’t be completely fixed quickly but they can sure as hell be made BETTER.
And we’ll need people like Dorothy to get involved for that to happen. It’s one reason among many I hope she doesn’t actually permanently give up her goal.
We’re all in the terrified reaction phase now, but a lot of the talk I’ve seen has basically just been people confirming their priors: “If Democrats had just done what I want them to do, they would have won.” Whether that’s force an end to the Gaza conflict and UHC or actually swing farther right, cracking down on immigration and cutting spending.
My priors are more that it’s basically racism and sexism and policy plays a very small role. Even economic issues, which used to, are now more vibes-based than anything – though a real downturn will still tank an administration.
My kingdom for an edit function, “lot of discontent, especially about inflation” is such a fucking vibes-based platitude. Worthless.
Point I was trying to make is that this seems to be a global issue, every country whose politics I am remotely familiar with is trending anti-incumbent right now.
Yeah. I also think that Biden in 2020 was an early reflection of that. Early enough that his successor got caught up in it as well.
Inflation feels bad, but Biden actually got us a softer landing than basically any other major country and got inflation under control well before the election. I don’t anyone could have done better under the circumstances.
Also, a terrifying large percentage of the population really likes Trump. They like his image and what he represents. That doesn’t seem to hold as much for most of the politicians trying to imitate him.
It’s easy to frame this completely in terms of Democratic failure, often combined with claims of Trump is a horrible candidate, but we’ve got to accept that Trump still is a huge political force.
Agreed. It doesn’t help that the media likes Trump and wants him to win for the clicks and so they’ll coddle him and treat him with kid gloves until he wins. They downplay the awful shit he does and nothing Democrats do will ever be good enough to make a lasting news story because the media wanted Trump to win.
one of the many ways in which capitalism demonstrates itself to be intrinsically anti-democratic
The State is THE State only so long as it can maintain a monopoly on the legitimate means of coercion within a defined territory.
If the legitimized coercive power of the supremely wealthy can rival that the democratically elected state via corporate shit in our daily lives, and even basically buy out government, the “official” democratically elected state effectively does not exist.
Declaration of social justice via legal fiat does not automatically make it so in life. The history of our country makes this very clear.
I’m pretty sure it’s the huge propoganda machines: Fox News, News Max, and for immigrant communities Epoch Times. The republican whose office is next to mine believes George Santos (disgraced congressman) was a democrat and all sorts of Covid things spread on Fox News.
There’s also the black woman thing and the voter suppression thing. And Russian terror threats and the media both sidesing. But I think Trump could have done zero campaigning and just showed up on Fox and he’d have gotten 40% of the country.
Well, yes. It’s certainly a problem that the FCC fairness doctrine was abolished under Reagan, which gave rise to Fox News in its current form. There’s also the spread of disinformation via internet that no one is able to curb. Not helped by the fact that Elon Musk deliberately transformed Twitter into a platform that only dispenses hatred. He’s unwilling to change that. The larger picture is that a) the internet is a discerning factor in the rise of rightwing extremism and b) the wealthy & powerful of this world (Musk, Putin etc.) benefit from the spread of dissent & distrust, which is what they keep deliberately engineering.
What I’m saying is that we shouldn’t really be depending on formal government to make things better for the downtrodden, environment and oppressed minorities that much because the way democracy is actually DONE in this country via Electoral College and otherwise actively works against our interests in the 21st century, with present conditions and new technologies the Founding Fathers could have NEVER anticipated.
Hell even the much revered tradition that there has to be but a SINGLE president of the United States elected with all that power that’s allegedly supposed to represent the best interests of Everyone™ is still part of the problem. When the Articles of the Constitution were first being written, lots of people objected to the idea of a President, they thought it was too much like a king. Frankly I AGREE with them, and would rather it be a GROUP of people with the same powers and responsibilities.
Not to mention the fact that in present conditions with new technologies, orders of MAGNITUDE more tumultuous change could happen within the span of a 4 year term today than what was possible when the USA’s plan for government was written down.
The Founding Fathers hadn’t any foresight of inventions such as the Internet, gasoline-powered automobiles, airplanes, machine-guns and other devastating implements of war, the military-industrial complex, vaccines, climate change, baby-boom resulting from industrialization, etc. If they did, that would have resulted in a VERY different plan for government they intended to look after citizens’ interests than the one they had produced under pressuring, present circumstances that were at the top of their minds in their time (mostly that of the issue of slavery in the United States).
At the national or arguably even just the state level, there is simply not one person who can accurately represent a massive population like that, you’re not gonna find everything you need for effective leadership and representation in a single person, that’s just NOT how human nature works, period.
By fostering hope for the ideal package to come one day like some Messiah or Superman or something, the governed are and will remain their own impossible problem.
The election of but a single person for representing a population as a President, is something which will inevitably favor the country’s Everyman™ — that in which being the Everyman confer Power upon you is literally systemic bigotry by very definition.
Oh so very kind of God to arrange matters such that, no matter where on earth or when in history you happen to be born, the country and government you were born into by pure chance just so happens to be *okay just as it is*, or even the one most worthy of undying faith.
Subjects of the British Crown 300 years ago with the English Bill of Rights also thought their government to be The Most Free And Effective Government Ever™, if only because they were frequently mislead to apotheosize government itself and had not conceived of any better alternative, AKA the government we have now.
Governments in the end are human-made inventions, as much as the one we have now Just Works™, there is ALWAYS room for improvement.
Regardless of who is currently in power in our system, if citizens at large are not willing to do the mental and physical WORK needed to actually make free, fair society happen, they might as well not vote at ALL.
Hence the marked importance of our education system. Students in the United States still see education as an exhausting, demeaning chore, and if we want a more free, more fair, more just society and government to happen, that’s something that needs to CHANGE.
It is my hope that with my skills as a game developer, I can make educational game series to be adopted by and vastly improve the education system which is the backbone of a democratic society.
Our government the education system are a long way away from the MAJOR revisions needed to represent and accommodate the needs of the populations living in this country in the 21st century.
Until then, I, my disabled, queer/trans homies and respective communities and the state of California and those surrounding and our allies are all going to do EVERYTHING in our power to make sure none of the bigoted goals of Project 2025 are fulfilled — even if that eventually comes down to having to DRAW A LINE IN THE SAND:
i.e. if this country has to voluntarily split into self-sovereign pieces for there to be PEACE, and accurate representation of our interests, so be it.
And woah that was MUCH longer than I anticipated for what was supposed to be for a micro-essay originally.
But at the same time, oh well? The big-picture behind the effectiveness of our government in 21st century post-industrial information-age circumstances isn’t that simple, like all other complex human-made and natural systems which impact our lives, the truth about them that people need to understand isn’t something that can always fit neatly into 128 characters.
Ironically this is also why I think social media and the unquestioned value of timed “””debate””” is more than demonstrably stupid, as well as the incredible importance of the education system in a democratic society:
“There is a LIMIT to how simple you can make the truth while still having it be *the truth* — lies on the other hand, have no such limitation. There is no limit to how simple a statement can be when it doesn’t have to conform to the complex reality in which we live.
Play the game of who’s got the simpler argument, liars win every time. However if you can convince people that the world in which we live is complex, it means simpler arguments are already automatically thrown into suspicion. It may be too late to do that for your racist uncle you gotta talk to on Thanksgiving, but maybe it’s not too late for your young cousins.” 👀
Even if you believe that Kamala wouldn’t be a net positive, neutral is great in comparison to Trump. I would elect a Magic Eight Ball over Trump; at least it isn’t actively trying to oppress everyone who’s not a rich, cishet, white man.
(I do appreciate trying not to be depressed about the whole thing, it’s just… maybe better to focus on areas outside of politics, instead of trying to come up with ways that the outcome of the election is Not That Bad Actually.)
but our country was already well on the way to decline because the Electoral College and other ways democracy is actually DONE in this country simply cannot represent our interests as populations in the 21st century, let alone accommodate our needs, especially that of the most vulnerable.
the way things have been done in this country are simply unstable and unsustainable, period.
also if it any consolation, typing out that essay i just did above actually helped me a lot mood-wise, if my autism causes me to ruminate on this stuff for however long, at the very least I can use it as an opportunity to reflect on the big picture and see things more clearly, beats just fruitlessly spiraling and doom scrolling by a long-shot to say the very least
it’s just as you earthlings say, “life gives you lemons, make lemonade”
Major factor: Our low-education (and thus low-income) white men went largely for Rump 8 years ago, and went even more for the orange one this time. Their economic prospects look to be worsening, they aren’t interested in more education or re-skilling, so they’re flailing around with hate and resentment. It’s probably going to be worse for them in 4 years, not better. But likely, they’ll keep following the hateful rhetoric of their leadership, if Vance can get charismatic and “tough guy” enough for them.
“Looks to be” is an operative phrase here. In the future, Democrats are going to have to shove back HARD on the ‘Republicans are good for the economy’ bullshit.
A very difficult thing, this time around. Things were more or less better for most of us. But the fly-over-country and small-town-shrinkage was and is a problem that isn’t easy to fix. As long as our mega-corps are outsourcing as they do (since our govt won’t / can’t stop them), the problem will persist. As long as men overall continue their declines in educational outcomes, for its various reasons, the problem will persist. I don’t see it being better in 2028. And the Dems’ only real ways to show improvements are too math-centric and fact-based. That just doesn’t fly with the crowds who don’t want math and facts in the first place.
It’s also just hard to make the argument that things are better if they don’t feel better. Voters tend to be pretty vibes based and most aren’t super well informed.
if there’s anything i want to do with the power of video games, it’s to aid the Public School system in need of a major fuckin overhaul
young students in this country majorly see school as an exhausting chore, if we want democracy to work that’s something that really needs to fucking change
Thank you. We will try. And I would like to apologize now for whatever worsening evils my country’s executive controllers will perpetuate on the world (as they did after the election of 8 years ago).
Poor, poor Dorothy… Btw, I’m glad Joyce will meet her sister for the first time with Joe. It’s very probable she’ll needs someone able to calm and support her. Also, I want to see Joceline’s reaction to Joe.
Copy picture & cut it down to desired size in Paint. Otherwise use Cutting Tool. Then google “Gravatar” for instructions. First part is probably easier to do on a laptop or desktop.
I think they’re already planning the fight to be Vance’s running mate in 2028. The cabal of billionaires, et al, behind the Rumpster will want to keep their puppets in power so they can keep the economy in their pocket.
If Trump’s dementia pulls him into the Sunken Place for reals, it gonna look like an episode of Royal Crackers as those assholes claw each other for power and gold
If he’s not gonna die or lose his entire sense of self, he could at least start a Presidential mukbang channel and just eat pizza rolls long after it stops being interesting, to the detriment of any other behaviors or actions. Imagine what a paradise it would be if that orange twerp did nothing but eat and stare into a camera for at least 16 hours a day.
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I’ve decided that it’s actually much funnier if Joyce and Dorothy are both 100% straight, but the universe is just conspiring to make them constantly do gay things for lols.
totally with you
We’re getting close to a situation where Dorothy somehow demonstrates to Joyce how to have sex. Cause that’s just what a straight person does for their homies!
New Slipshine concept… Dotty shows Joyce how to do a sex!
I mean, all of the “oops accidentally homoerotic” stuff is much funnier *because* they’re both largely straight. 😀
This, right here. This would retroactively be much less funny if DorothyxJoyce was even in the realm of actual possibility.
Joyce and Dorothy will happen and it is possible. The joke is that they can’t realize their feelings.
“Dorothy, you’ve got some mac and cheese on your chest. Mind if I lick it up with my tongue?”
-Purely platonically Joyce.
😳
“Whoops I seem to have dropped my bowl of mac into your lap. Waste not, want not!”
AAAAAH 😳
Sure. Completely heterosexual Joyce just sent a picture of her Bisexual Pride Flag-colored panties to completely heterosexual Dorothy, who wears a Pride Flag on her modest chest.
Nah, they’re blue and black.
The underwear are? Uh oh, we may have another dress situation on our hands, cuz that’s not the colors I’m seeing.
I think its like a Tweak and Craig thing, where the universe pushes so hard it’s ambiguously maybe true.
to be fair… I hardcore ship Tweak x Craig. ~<3
“I don’t get it! I’m sending pics to SexyPersonWhoLovesMe, why isn’t Joe getting them?”
Joe: Have you tried BringerOfOrgasms?
Joyce: Yeah! Also HotBedmate and StudyBuddyWithBenefits, nothing?
*Joe shrugs*
Has Joe given her an orgasm? I guess she’s probably gotten off to him, at least.
Narrator: Joe was not about to meet her brother
It’s possible he might meet one of the brothers soon, depending on how this goes. Just not the sibling Joyce thinks she’s talking about here.
… he’ joking about the fact Joyce apaprently has a closeted trans brother
Trans sister, but yes.
I just wouldn’t be surprised if circumstances conspired as such that Joe also ended up meeting John or Jordan in the imminent future
Jocelyne isn’t closeted and isn’t a brother but other than that, yeah
We don’t really see the rest of her life too much, but she certainly was closeted to her family. She’s out to some level online, but we don’t know much more than that.
I’m hearing this in the Veggietales Silly Songs with Larry v.o. voice.
How do you not realize who youre texting
I was gonna say, did we miss a bit where Joyce swapped Dorothy and Joe’s names in her contacts?
It’s been pointed out that a loooong time ago, we saw that Dorothy’s contact in Joyce’s phone is titled “Roll, Perfect Cinnamon,” which is probably right next to “Rosenthal, Joe”…
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-6/01-to-those-whod-ground-me/meetin/
Oh my gosh it’s that fountain with the weird off-balance Aphrodite. You can’t really see the demonic fish though.
Showalter Fountain! Fun fact: One of the demonic fish was ripped out and delivered to Bob Knight’s front yard by protesting students the night he was fired back in 2000.
I still don’t understand how she managed to send Joe the text announcing the impending picture and then Dorothy the pic itself right after.
Camera app versus Messages app.
Whoops, I was curious about where in the plot that strip was AND BOY DID IT ONLY TAKE EXACTLY ONE STRIP FORWARD TO FIND OUT. No wonder I forgot that panel existed
Willis pointed out that he seeded that next to Rosenthal, Joe is Dorothy’s contact: Roll, Precious Cinnamon.
Like the joke of playing with fire having two contacts in your phone for Dad and Daddy.
Is dorothy dad or daddy
Oooooh
Time will tell
Does that mean Roz is after Joe?
Could be dangerous too.
Roz has been upon & under Joe, so I think she’s over him instead of after him.
Huh. That is… enormously contrived, but at least it’s been established. I mean, contacts in my (and everybody else’s, I guess) phone are just sorted by their first name.
I think it’s more of a happy coincidence
The joke about Dorothy being in Joyce’s contacts as “Roll, Perfect Cinnamon” is going on a decade old at this point, I’d be very surprised if it was deliverate set-up for this gag
How long have you been reading Willis comics?
It’s possible at the time it was written, it wasn’t a deliberate setup, and in the almost decade since he just decided to make it a joke. Since continuity is pretty good in this comic, I’m guessing he either has a big reference document or just rereads it often or just memorizes things, I dunno his specific process.
Mine are sorted by last name because I went into the settings and changed it to sort by last name because I’m used to looking for last names. It’s also nice because it groups family members who share last names nearby each other if for some reason I want to reach out to a few people one right after another, or in a group message.
Do people actually put contacts in their phone last name first like a bibliography entry???? Mine were first name last initial for a long time until I ended up knowing too many people with a common first name and the same last initial and kept texting the wrong one
I don’t know about “people” but it does sound like a Joyce thing.
Mine seems to decide on its own whether to sort each entry by first or last name. I should investigate.
I put first name in the first name field and last name in the last name field, and let it figure it from there. A quick check says … it lists them as First Last, but groups them by the last name’s first letter.
So, there’s a group of people with B last names, but they’re all alphabetized by their first name within that group, and shown the same way.
Huh. Bit of an odd way to go about it, but it gets the job done.
… Still don’t understand how someone does this though.
My contacts show by last name; all my non-business contacts show up sorted by last name. In the uncommon case I don’t have their last name, I either make up a last name for them based on how I know them or don’t give them one.
Mine are always something silly that uses their first name. For example, “Birthday Lisa” (the Lisa I know I hang out with on people’s birthdays)
Oh no…
<.<
lololol (on the Dad/Daddy contacts)
Few things are as gross to me as the idea of a lover calling me daddy. That’s just sick.
Don’t kink shame. If it’s what people like, it’s fine lol
Is Joyce the kind of person that lists people she’s close to as Rosenthal, Joe and would not change it to “Lover <3” or something?
How’d she manage to send a picture to Dorothy, then a text to Joe, and THEN a second picture to Dorothy? I could see one mistake, but the switching back and forth and back again?
Oh well. There are much worse people to accidentally send lewd pics to, I suppose. At least she’s not sending them to Jocelyne. That would be awkward.
Could be the text was sent from the texting app, but the image was shared to the texting app from the camera or gallery app making her have to choose a contact for it.
Haha, that’s exactly what I was thinking too.
I have definitely sent my sister messages meant for my boyfriend before. Not as lewd (thank god) but still. Happens. They have similar names in my phone
Cause you open the texting app and forget who the last person you were texting was and don’t pay attention
To quote a couple friends of mine “We’re definitely just friends, but we’re also never going to beat the allegations.”
Mood. One of my work bff’s and my favorite things to do is confuse new coworkers by acting incredibly couple-y. (I’m gay in the other direction, but it’s quite fun.)
If one of the two friends in question wasn’t engaged to a different woman I’d definitely be giving them some suspicious looks. As it is, yeah I just sit back and laugh.
Dorothy liked the first first better, now she’s definitely planning to teach Joyce how to take proper lewd pix
Oh gods, yes…there will be a TUTORIAL.
Joyce tends to take things a little too far, so she’ll take Dorothy’s advice to heart, do a few things like buy a ring light, a better camera, maybe some LED strips for colorful mood-lighting, find a secure place to host the pics so not just anybody can find them…
A week later Roz angrily shows up at her door.
Roz: “How is your OnlyFans bringing in more money than mine?!”
Joyce: “My whatnow?”
Very good. Could happen!
Joyce has more pronounced curves than Roz has, for one thing. While that’s not all that matters, it certainly wouldn’t hurt her prospects.
Willis’ lewd Patreon **is** Joyce’s OnlyFans.
Which is funny, because Amber features there way more often.
I bet Dorothy’s gotten really turned on from these steamy pics.
You can tell by her expression.
I mean, I can’t tell where/what her non-phone-holding hand is and what it’s doing; it could be in her crotch?
She’s having the most irritated wank ever.
Total case of “sighhh…*unzips”.
Why doesn’t Dorothy text Joyce back to let her know?
Love her expression on panel three.
She might stop.
Probably to not let Joyce self-combust from embarrassment. Dottie is a good friend after all!
Personally I think a really good friend would be upfront about it when their friend does something potentially embarrassing without realizing, even if its awkward in the moment, its best to avoid having the same thing happen again.
I’d probably do this kind of thing in-person rather than over text; easier to mollify someone in-person.
I agree with you. I would hate to do it, and it would make me super uncomfortable, but I am not the person these pictures are for, it is likely not something they want me to see, they might escalate and “embarrass” themselves more.
She might now have recognized what the first one was
Yeah, my guess is she didn’t fully realize what the first picture was, and now just has no idea what exactly Joyce is doing
I suspect she is either trying to busy herself with other things, or isn’t sure how to tell her without humiliating her.
Alternative take: she is busy plotting out a lesson plan for teaching Joyce how to take a sexier lewd selfie.
She needs to respond in kind to this escalation! Titty for tat! An eye for an eyefull!
YO GABBA GABBA WHAT THE FUCK
AHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA XD
I fucking hate everything today but this was nice.
my hatred is overcast by the fact that i just so fucking SCARED
if i can’t get food stamps or shelter independent living place if SSI is gutted, what am I gonna do to sustain myself?
am i gonna have to rely on gamedev stuff, Ko-Fi and GoFundMe to live? i depended on donations before, but not like THIS
are Dumbing of Age and my favorite works gonna be outlawed?
am i gonna be helpless as I and my fellow queer and trans homies are persecuted by the state?
if RFKs anti-vaccine shit passes and a pandemic strikes, I and other disabled folk could wind up DEAD
I’m really fucking worried, if anyone has some assuring news and sources, appreciated more than ever
more than anything PLEASE HUG ME IM SCARED 😭😭😭
*hugs*
If it makes you feel better, I do think Trump’s going to have a hard time implementing at least some of his agenda. Not because Republicans have even a sliver of a moral backbone but because so many of them HATE each other and are gonna be wrestling for their own gain. With any luck, his coalition will be a damn powder keg.
We have to hope Republicans continue to be grossly self interested and incompetent. Please give us the same party that spent four years failing to dismantle the ACA.
Yes, here, here. Let’s hope a few of them have a smidgen of ethics, qualms, or old-school Republican morals. Or that they just fight viciously for four years.
Any hope reliant on republicans having morals is delusion, it’s been that way for longer than I’ve been alive, probably longer than my father has
Republicans or Conservatives?
IIRC in the 1960s there was a massive political realignment where a lot of southern conservatives who were former Democratic Party where convinced by Nixon that the Republican Party was their new home. In any case,
“God, guns, brand new hive mind!!!” (-_-)
The distinction is largely irrelevant in this context, and frankly a situation where the Republicans stop being the most conservative party is probably even more dire
hear, hear!
Just to add to this: Trump has already demonstrated himself to be both incompetent and unwilling to take anyone’s advice. Adding to that his continued mental decline and… well, there’s a good chance that they’ll repeatedly fail at being evil in what may well be the last Republican presidency ever (they’re losing voters to time, after all).
Obviously, I can’t guarantee anything, but hopefully it’s just a matter of surviving the next four years and the rebuilding; it’s possible that a second Trump presidency, with even more mismanagement than the first, might be what we need to provoke a stronger anti-Republican backlash and get more people to take politics more seriously than some sort of us v them game.
As to Dumbing of Age and other things you like possibly becoming illegal… well, there’re lots of illegal things on the internet. Compare The Pirate Bay, which is much better known, has far more enemies and has shrugged off efforts to shut it down for longer than this webcomic has existed.
On that last subject: I tried using a few URL to IP lookup sites to get the IP address for Dumbing of Age (as a precaution against it potentially being scrubbed from DNS servers) and consistently got 192.110.161.58 — but this didn’t seem to work, just giving a page saying only “Uh oh”, without HTTPS support. Also, the Remote IP tab of Firefox’s developer console is just listing it as “unknown”. Is this a problem on my end or something to do with the website configuration?
I’m hoping David Willis will answer, because having a potentially more reliable way to reach the site could address one of the many worries people may be having these days.
Seems that the Repulsivans (the haters) will do whatever their hateful party leadership wants them to do.
Seems that the Republicans (the conservatives) won’t, but seem to be in the minority.
The damage will take years (decade+?) to heal from. This pendulum swing is going to suck, badly, before our overall society gets better again for all of us.
I think there’s enough power hungry Repulsivans that they won’t have Trump become a dictator at least, because that means THEY have no shot at the top spot. If not, there’s enough high ranking people who aren’t straight up Trumpian but are happy to go along to get in. I do not think, say, Cruz will wait around for the rest of Trump’s life before he tries to become President again.
Or, knowing that Trump isn’t in great shape and can’t be long for the world, will they be fighting to be the power behind the throne/successor?
Pandemics aren’t exactly super common, so I wouldn’t worry too much about that one. Although other diseases that we’ve already defeated might become epidemic.
Uh. That’s all I got. Hope that helps?
appreciated
i don’t even wanna think about the much greater risk of me winding up HOMELESS if SSI is gutted
if it comes to that can only hope it’s like camping with change T_T
SSI is going to be hard to touch, as part of Social Security. It may not improve, and harsh judges may be appointed to the administration, but it’s there by longstanding statute and will be hard to eliminate. They can make customer service shittier, though, and advocacy/accessibility help harder to find. Presidents primarily have the power to make qualitative changes over administrative programs.
Plus, advocates on both sides of the aisle have disabled children. Wanting money for one’s own children is a rare common interest.
🙏🫖☕️🤝✊️🕯💓🤞🗝🗽🫂🤝
This. We can’t rely on the GOP to actually be good people or politicians but we can expect them to work towards their own interest and as much as they publicly tear down the ACA or threaten to gut social security, they like and benefit from it too.
Another silver lining is that Trump is essentially their last guaranteed win. The MAGA voter love Trump specifically and that’s why he has such a consistent voter base to rely on, but the last four years have shown the GOP don’t have anyone but Trump. Tearing everything down and then expecting to win another election without Trump seems unlikely. They gotta spend time building up a new god to worship and I don’t see anyone nearly as charismatic as Trump to get behind in 2028.
Things WILL get worse, the supreme court will likely be hyperconservative for the next 50 years. Queers and minorities will be in more danger. Billionaires will get richer. But they can’t completely erode all our rights in just four years. They couldn’t even build a proper wall last time.
Thank you Laura, appreciated more than ever 🫂
Always, fam.
Just take good care of yourself, ‘K?
That, I shall.
writing all that I did here, as well as you and everyone elses’ replies really did make me feel better and more assured.
Thank you. 🥲🫂
Everything will be ok
It wasn’t last time, and it’s probably going to be worse this time.
Especially given, y’know, the looming ecological and climate collapse where our chance at mitigation is rapidly slipping away if it’s not already gone
I foresee several outcomes:
1. The MAGA hive mind gonna juggle guns around like a bunch of IRL Beavus Buttheads and Dale Gribbles and kill themselves by accident with sheer stupidity.
2. Other countries around the world take it into their own hands to intervene on behalf of the vulnerable and the SANE, if need be resorting to extreme measures to restrain what’s become a nationalist, militaristic MONSTER.
3. By some miracle a species of parasite or virus which they refuse to get vaccinated against crawls into their earthling brainsacks and turns them into vegetables, preventing them from hurting us or the environment any further
4. There’s no way outta this. We all gonna die. Life is a b_tch.
In Scenario 3, can they be literal vegetables, like radishes and cabbages? Only, I’d like to get some value out of them, and seein’ as so many folk are hungry an’ all…
I mean sure, if SSI is gutted I guess some vegetables would be nice change from shitty cup ramen and wild prickly pears I’d have to live on (;-;)
It’s not going to be the literal end of the world, but there’s not going to be some miraculuous fix either. It’s gonna be a rough few years and we’ll be living with the consequences for decades to come
“The end of the world is like a slow break-up. It’s always ‘not happening’ until it’s already happened”
— Ian Danskin
I don’t have a lot of money to spare, but we have a room to spare. It is in Germany through, so probably not feasible for a lot of people, and things are getting worse for queer people here too.
I am so sorry. I really wish I could be of real help. Sending you lots of strength. Do not despair. It is not over, stay save.
Have a cup of tea and a lie down and you’ll feel better. You’ll be all right, the country has survived worse and you won’t help yourself getting worked up over things you can’t change.
You have friends so concentrate on the that and the other good things in your life.
Clearly someone who has no idea what they’re talking about. Put your head in the sand all you want, but there are people who are severely affected by the policies he’s talking about putting in place and they’re right to be concerned. You’re being an ass by pretending their concerns are silly.
Why don’t you shove a cup of tea up your ass?
They’d just be able to drink it like normal, as far as they’ve shoved their head up there.
Look the result has happened, nothing can change it but giving into despair won’t help anybody
There’s always something to be thankful for
fuck all the way off shrub
@shrub: I truly believe your heart is in the right place, but you are being incredibly aggravating. Your comments come across dismissive/patronizing/minimizing toward people’s feelings and very real concerns. What the fallout is going to be like is different for different people. “You’ll be all right” is not guaranteed.
Fair enough, I’ll back away from the thread
For scenario 4: while it’s probably not much consolation for us personally… Apparently, even the most generous estimates put the earliest examples of Hominidae at about 20 million years ago, apparently (if someone knows better, please correct me on this). The sun shouldn’t make the planet uninhabitable for another billion years. Scenario 4 still gives time for replacements for humanity to pop up.
Sources:
https://phys.org/news/2015-10-primate-species-root-tree-extant.html
https://theconversation.com/the-sun-wont-die-for-5-billion-years-so-why-do-humans-have-only-1-billion-years-left-on-earth-37379
If our replacements aren’t sexy, I’m gonna be really pissed off.
Here’s a somewhat hopeful thought about that – the worst case climate scenario is currently better than it was 10 years ago. Not because any politicians got their sh*t together. But because science and engineering improved. Because renewable energy is becoming more economical. Science can save our collective asses even when idiots are in charge.
Can you please provide some links to Scientific Articles confirming this, as well as that of the promising new technologies for this ends?
Would be very much appreciated. 😔
Kurzgesagt has a good YouTube video on this, including sources.
Nope, definitely not everything.
It’s going to be rough as hell, but we’ll get through it. We don’t really have any other choice.
NGPZ I wish I had something comforting to say. I can’t even promise support, as I have no income myself (don’t worry, I’m ok due to reasons).
I’m officially giving up on the US. Previously at least the majority didn’t choose Trump, and maybe a lot of people didn’t really know what he was.
This time everybody knew, he’s a 34 times convicted felon, a rapist and an incredibly racist, misogynist dirtbag… and he f*cking carried the popular vote.
This time Americans are fully responsible for what happens. The majority of voters wanted fascism, and damn the consequences.
I’m holding you all responsible for what happens. Senile old Uncle Sam has become a problem for the whole planet.
You are right for giving up, people born at random into this country are mislead to apotheosize the specific, honestly archaic way our democracy is done, which is demonstrably unable to accurately represent our interests in the circumstances of the 21st century.
(if ya got time please check out the essay i wrote some comments down)
What gets me is that Trump won the popular vote as well. That is inexcusable.
Dorothy just reply to her texts and let her down politely
I wanna see Becky’s freak out over Dorothy getting Joyce lewds
Hahaha YES
Lol poor jorothy is all “wth doyce wtf are you sending me”
Joyce, you’re such a dweeb, why would you send a photo of your panties to him when you could remove your pants in front of him while you two are in the same room?
The whole point of nudes and sexting is because there’s physical distance, it makes no sense if you’re in the same room.
Well, Joyce is a dweeb, and I think they’re in the corridor?
A corridor is just a room with fewer limitations.
Joyce has been pantsless in the corridor before.
Actually, come to think of it, given the laundry room and kitchen incidents, stripping in the corridor is pretty on-brand for Joyce.
Joyce really likes working from lists or turning stages of social interaction into equations (which is an ASD-coded thing in media) and in her mind, either “meeting my sibling in an official capacity” comes after “sending suggestive (but not nude) pics” OR the latter offsets the perceived cost of the former.
(and to be clear, actually stripping in front of your partner seems higher up the list)
Alternatively, it could be that the manufactured distance of sexting someone right next to you keeps that interaction contained, and isn’t likely to lead to other things (right now).
That’s what Joe likes about her, she’s a huge awkward dorkus.
I can’t wait for Becky to find out Joyce sent Dorothy lewd photos.
Ok, now I’m curious: How did she send the photos to the wrong person, but the text to the right person in-between the photos? Can understand if the first photo initially went to the wrong person, but then the second photo should have gone to Joe?
Maybe she closed the messages app in after the text, then made the mistake again.
That or she sent the photos over something like Snapchat but the text over another app?
Yea, maybe. Don’t know of the messaging apps she’s using here. I’ve made similar mistakes (though not involving self-nudes) where I sent something to a friend instead of to my partner for the first message; subsequent messages are always correct though!
Extremely constructed scenario: she took a picture with the camera app, clicked on share from whatever file manager the camera app uses, and chose the contact in her phone called “<3".
Then she opened the messaging app (which used Joe's actual name instead whatever someone saved him as, so there was no discrepancy Joyce noticed), sent the message, and closed out of the message app.
Totally plausible. Blame the share sheet.
Ok, yea, that’s possible. Do people use the camera > photos > sharing route now though? I just use the messaging app’s camera feature; it’s faster and easier that way, though the images usually aren’t as good.
Folks like Joyce who didn’t grow up with mobile phones…
if youre sharing directly from the photos app its way easier to click the wrong person
She thought she texted with Joe last but it was Dorothy, so she just reflexively brings up the most recent and sends it. She then goes on autopilot and does it a second time.
“If she’s going to send me boob pics, she could at least send me good ones. The framing has a certain informal charm, but I can’t see shit.”
That panel 3 pic!
SO HOT.
*fans self
Joyce has become Louise C. Pantry from Octopus Pie. (That’s a while back, though.) The same casual attitude to taking pictures.
If a candid vaginal self-portraitist can’t make a living, what hope is there for the REST of us? 😀
Like. Amazing that you got this! Or maybe you’re good with Google. Kudos for that, too.
Both. Had to do a quickie googly to get the words right. 😀
Cute underwear, in any case.
Are we sure that’s not just her shirt?
Dorothy, you taught her how to masturbate, like, last week, you can’t be that put off
She’s probably disgusted because she knows who those photos were meant for.
She’s disgusted at the amateur quality of the lewds. She knows she is going to have to tutor Joyce in that now. 😀
XD Well, Dorothy is having an interesting day.
On a serious note – I’m sorry to all the Americans here. You deserved better. Once again, America proves it hates women more than it cares about itself. I’m sure this’ll be great for Dorothy’s pessimism in the future.
Neoliberalism is dead. What’s taking it’s place isn’t any better, but I still take a sort of cold comfort in that.
Oh, I’m sure the Democrats will keep trotting out it’s shambling corpse for as long as they can profit from it.
Eagerly excited for them to double down on shit like the Cheney endorsement and continue abandoning any semblance of left-wing progresssivism. If they just tilt a little more to the right I’m sure they’ve got this next time.
If left wing progressives continue being an unreliable voting bloc that’s definitely what’s going to happen, especially when the country in general is turning hard to the right.
Because centrists and “moderate republicans” are reliable? The Dems ran a super centrist campaign and courted the republican vote hard at the cost of embracing progressive policies, and it uh, extremely didn’t turn out. They lost, overwhelmingly. Why would anyone vote for diet republican when they can get the real thing?
Like I would be mad about a lot of this even if they won. I’m not going to be happy about them campaigning with the Cheneys under any circumstances.
But it didn’t even work! They made a deal with the devil and got nothing for it, they lost to the tune of millions of votes!
Yeah. Republicans show up and vote. We’ve seen several times now that left wing progressives do not do that reliably. And while it’s not great seeing the Cheneys in any political capacity ever again, Kamala didn’t make policy concessions to the Cheneys and in a tight race like this one was guaranteed to be, trying to lure Republicans who weren’t happy with Trump (which we KNOW there are a lot of – Nikki Haley proved it) was an understandable strategy. I hate that she wanted to be harder on the border, but unfortunately it IS the majority opinion in the States right now, and the rest of her platform had PLENTY of things progressives ostensibly wanted. Not enough to turn up and VOTE for her though.
Progressives talk a big game, but when you ask them to put action behind it, they just curl up in the fetal position and bawl about their best option not being 100% perfect, and by the time they’re done despairing, the election is over and they wonder how they lost. Maybe if the weak-willed fucks would actually vote like they pester the rest of us to, they’d win something for once.
Wasn’t a very tight race, ultimately. Turns out Republicans vote for Republicans, and spending the little campaign they had chasing stuff like a Cheney endorsement just kills the Democrats momentum with voters who don’t want to vote Republican.
To be clear I’m not trying to excuse a lack of turnout. That does suck, the Harris campaign was absolutely the better option, and that voters largely are irrational and vibes-based is extremely frustrating
But that’s not going to change because we want it to. And so the question becomes how do we beat the Republicans despite that.
I’m thinkin’ a big heavy stick. What are y’all bringin’?
We do have a Progressive Party.
One problem I see is that the two Great Parties each try to take in absolutely every position between dead center and infinity to one side. The result is incoherence.
yeah like, literally no other democracy has the Two Great parties shit we do, as unhealthy as the binary thinking it inspires is, it gonna stay this way because of how the Electoral College works and the current meta
In formal Game Theory terms, this situation is what is known as a Pareto Equilibrium: none of the players can change their current strategy without making themselves worse off. (-_-)
What would Kamala have been able to do anyway, if not be a novelty I would have loved but wouldn’t have been able to do much, as Dorothy has realized the hard way?
Black woman president or not, things like Universal Public Health Care, student debt relief, they would have never happened regardless because The Establishment needs those as enticements to join the military and uphold the United States’ global imperialist hegemony, and all the violence and desolation there-of in places like the Middle East which they absolutely RUINED
the United States government simply can no longer accurately represent our interests, period.
If there’s anything we’ve learned from the passing of the 13th, 14th, 15th amendments and the Jim Crow South and systemic racism designed to circumvent those, as well as countless other instances of the same pattern, it’s that declaration of social justice in Law does NOT make it so in life.
More than anything what needs to happen is that we need to start forming social safety nets derived from means OTHER than formal government.
Over a million public servants have received student debt relief from the Biden administration. The Biden administration placed new requirements on health care insurance that made mental health care accessible to 175 million people, not to mention dragging the country out of the pandemic hellhole Trump left it in. Kamala had plans for helping the Middle East rebuild. The Biden administration also had the largest investment in infrastructure and green energy in years. They passed the Respect for Marriage Act, forcing states to recognize gay marriages from other states even if it’s banned again. Hurricane response and disaster relief.
I know that we’re all tired, depressed, angry and scared right now and there’s good reason for that, but this sort of ‘well nothing ever gets better’ posting does not help. It’s untrue and it’s demoralizing. Why bother to try if nothing can ever get better? I agree we need non government social safety nets but there’s a lot government can do and (putting this energy out there) will do to make things better. It won’t happen overnight but then these issues didn’t happen overnight either. Systemic, multifaceted issues won’t be completely fixed quickly but they can sure as hell be made BETTER.
And we’ll need people like Dorothy to get involved for that to happen. It’s one reason among many I hope she doesn’t actually permanently give up her goal.
Thank you. Really well said.
Thank you. This is exactly right.
We’re all in the terrified reaction phase now, but a lot of the talk I’ve seen has basically just been people confirming their priors: “If Democrats had just done what I want them to do, they would have won.” Whether that’s force an end to the Gaza conflict and UHC or actually swing farther right, cracking down on immigration and cutting spending.
My priors are more that it’s basically racism and sexism and policy plays a very small role. Even economic issues, which used to, are now more vibes-based than anything – though a real downturn will still tank an administration.
It’s partially just that it’s a bad time to be an incumbent in general. Lot of discontent, especially about inflation.
That it was as bad as it was is a sign that there were some grievous errors, but this was going to be a difficult race no matter what.
My kingdom for an edit function, “lot of discontent, especially about inflation” is such a fucking vibes-based platitude. Worthless.
Point I was trying to make is that this seems to be a global issue, every country whose politics I am remotely familiar with is trending anti-incumbent right now.
We’re also in the middle of a global shift right-wards and the owning of massive platforms like Twitter by right wing fuckheads doesn’t help.
Yeah. I also think that Biden in 2020 was an early reflection of that. Early enough that his successor got caught up in it as well.
Inflation feels bad, but Biden actually got us a softer landing than basically any other major country and got inflation under control well before the election. I don’t anyone could have done better under the circumstances.
Also, a terrifying large percentage of the population really likes Trump. They like his image and what he represents. That doesn’t seem to hold as much for most of the politicians trying to imitate him.
It’s easy to frame this completely in terms of Democratic failure, often combined with claims of Trump is a horrible candidate, but we’ve got to accept that Trump still is a huge political force.
Agreed. It doesn’t help that the media likes Trump and wants him to win for the clicks and so they’ll coddle him and treat him with kid gloves until he wins. They downplay the awful shit he does and nothing Democrats do will ever be good enough to make a lasting news story because the media wanted Trump to win.
re: clicks,
one of the many ways in which capitalism demonstrates itself to be intrinsically anti-democratic
The State is THE State only so long as it can maintain a monopoly on the legitimate means of coercion within a defined territory.
If the legitimized coercive power of the supremely wealthy can rival that the democratically elected state via corporate shit in our daily lives, and even basically buy out government, the “official” democratically elected state effectively does not exist.
Declaration of social justice via legal fiat does not automatically make it so in life. The history of our country makes this very clear.
I’m pretty sure it’s the huge propoganda machines: Fox News, News Max, and for immigrant communities Epoch Times. The republican whose office is next to mine believes George Santos (disgraced congressman) was a democrat and all sorts of Covid things spread on Fox News.
There’s also the black woman thing and the voter suppression thing. And Russian terror threats and the media both sidesing. But I think Trump could have done zero campaigning and just showed up on Fox and he’d have gotten 40% of the country.
Well, yes. It’s certainly a problem that the FCC fairness doctrine was abolished under Reagan, which gave rise to Fox News in its current form. There’s also the spread of disinformation via internet that no one is able to curb. Not helped by the fact that Elon Musk deliberately transformed Twitter into a platform that only dispenses hatred. He’s unwilling to change that. The larger picture is that a) the internet is a discerning factor in the rise of rightwing extremism and b) the wealthy & powerful of this world (Musk, Putin etc.) benefit from the spread of dissent & distrust, which is what they keep deliberately engineering.
There’s so much fucking money and institutional power behind the hard right it’s depressing.
What I’m saying is that we shouldn’t really be depending on formal government to make things better for the downtrodden, environment and oppressed minorities that much because the way democracy is actually DONE in this country via Electoral College and otherwise actively works against our interests in the 21st century, with present conditions and new technologies the Founding Fathers could have NEVER anticipated.
Hell even the much revered tradition that there has to be but a SINGLE president of the United States elected with all that power that’s allegedly supposed to represent the best interests of Everyone™ is still part of the problem. When the Articles of the Constitution were first being written, lots of people objected to the idea of a President, they thought it was too much like a king. Frankly I AGREE with them, and would rather it be a GROUP of people with the same powers and responsibilities.
Not to mention the fact that in present conditions with new technologies, orders of MAGNITUDE more tumultuous change could happen within the span of a 4 year term today than what was possible when the USA’s plan for government was written down.
The Founding Fathers hadn’t any foresight of inventions such as the Internet, gasoline-powered automobiles, airplanes, machine-guns and other devastating implements of war, the military-industrial complex, vaccines, climate change, baby-boom resulting from industrialization, etc. If they did, that would have resulted in a VERY different plan for government they intended to look after citizens’ interests than the one they had produced under pressuring, present circumstances that were at the top of their minds in their time (mostly that of the issue of slavery in the United States).
At the national or arguably even just the state level, there is simply not one person who can accurately represent a massive population like that, you’re not gonna find everything you need for effective leadership and representation in a single person, that’s just NOT how human nature works, period.
By fostering hope for the ideal package to come one day like some Messiah or Superman or something, the governed are and will remain their own impossible problem.
The election of but a single person for representing a population as a President, is something which will inevitably favor the country’s Everyman™ — that in which being the Everyman confer Power upon you is literally systemic bigotry by very definition.
Oh so very kind of God to arrange matters such that, no matter where on earth or when in history you happen to be born, the country and government you were born into by pure chance just so happens to be *okay just as it is*, or even the one most worthy of undying faith.
Subjects of the British Crown 300 years ago with the English Bill of Rights also thought their government to be The Most Free And Effective Government Ever™, if only because they were frequently mislead to apotheosize government itself and had not conceived of any better alternative, AKA the government we have now.
Governments in the end are human-made inventions, as much as the one we have now Just Works™, there is ALWAYS room for improvement.
Regardless of who is currently in power in our system, if citizens at large are not willing to do the mental and physical WORK needed to actually make free, fair society happen, they might as well not vote at ALL.
Hence the marked importance of our education system. Students in the United States still see education as an exhausting, demeaning chore, and if we want a more free, more fair, more just society and government to happen, that’s something that needs to CHANGE.
It is my hope that with my skills as a game developer, I can make educational game series to be adopted by and vastly improve the education system which is the backbone of a democratic society.
Our government the education system are a long way away from the MAJOR revisions needed to represent and accommodate the needs of the populations living in this country in the 21st century.
Until then, I, my disabled, queer/trans homies and respective communities and the state of California and those surrounding and our allies are all going to do EVERYTHING in our power to make sure none of the bigoted goals of Project 2025 are fulfilled — even if that eventually comes down to having to DRAW A LINE IN THE SAND:
i.e. if this country has to voluntarily split into self-sovereign pieces for there to be PEACE, and accurate representation of our interests, so be it.
Stay safe, stay woke, and may peace be with you.
And woah that was MUCH longer than I anticipated for what was supposed to be for a micro-essay originally.
But at the same time, oh well? The big-picture behind the effectiveness of our government in 21st century post-industrial information-age circumstances isn’t that simple, like all other complex human-made and natural systems which impact our lives, the truth about them that people need to understand isn’t something that can always fit neatly into 128 characters.
Ironically this is also why I think social media and the unquestioned value of timed “””debate””” is more than demonstrably stupid, as well as the incredible importance of the education system in a democratic society:
“There is a LIMIT to how simple you can make the truth while still having it be *the truth* — lies on the other hand, have no such limitation. There is no limit to how simple a statement can be when it doesn’t have to conform to the complex reality in which we live.
Play the game of who’s got the simpler argument, liars win every time. However if you can convince people that the world in which we live is complex, it means simpler arguments are already automatically thrown into suspicion. It may be too late to do that for your racist uncle you gotta talk to on Thanksgiving, but maybe it’s not too late for your young cousins.” 👀
— Ian Danskin
Even if you believe that Kamala wouldn’t be a net positive, neutral is great in comparison to Trump. I would elect a Magic Eight Ball over Trump; at least it isn’t actively trying to oppress everyone who’s not a rich, cishet, white man.
(I do appreciate trying not to be depressed about the whole thing, it’s just… maybe better to focus on areas outside of politics, instead of trying to come up with ways that the outcome of the election is Not That Bad Actually.)
oh dont get me wrong, it’s BAD
but our country was already well on the way to decline because the Electoral College and other ways democracy is actually DONE in this country simply cannot represent our interests as populations in the 21st century, let alone accommodate our needs, especially that of the most vulnerable.
the way things have been done in this country are simply unstable and unsustainable, period.
*accurately represent our interests
also if it any consolation, typing out that essay i just did above actually helped me a lot mood-wise, if my autism causes me to ruminate on this stuff for however long, at the very least I can use it as an opportunity to reflect on the big picture and see things more clearly, beats just fruitlessly spiraling and doom scrolling by a long-shot to say the very least
it’s just as you earthlings say, “life gives you lemons, make lemonade”
Major factor: Our low-education (and thus low-income) white men went largely for Rump 8 years ago, and went even more for the orange one this time. Their economic prospects look to be worsening, they aren’t interested in more education or re-skilling, so they’re flailing around with hate and resentment. It’s probably going to be worse for them in 4 years, not better. But likely, they’ll keep following the hateful rhetoric of their leadership, if Vance can get charismatic and “tough guy” enough for them.
“Looks to be” is an operative phrase here. In the future, Democrats are going to have to shove back HARD on the ‘Republicans are good for the economy’ bullshit.
A very difficult thing, this time around. Things were more or less better for most of us. But the fly-over-country and small-town-shrinkage was and is a problem that isn’t easy to fix. As long as our mega-corps are outsourcing as they do (since our govt won’t / can’t stop them), the problem will persist. As long as men overall continue their declines in educational outcomes, for its various reasons, the problem will persist. I don’t see it being better in 2028. And the Dems’ only real ways to show improvements are too math-centric and fact-based. That just doesn’t fly with the crowds who don’t want math and facts in the first place.
It’s also just hard to make the argument that things are better if they don’t feel better. Voters tend to be pretty vibes based and most aren’t super well informed.
if there’s anything i want to do with the power of video games, it’s to aid the Public School system in need of a major fuckin overhaul
young students in this country majorly see school as an exhausting chore, if we want democracy to work that’s something that really needs to fucking change
I cannot stress enough how flappin’ hot I find what Joyce is doing is.
The expression on Dorothy’s face is golden
to be fair, i’ve sent a few messages to people and they have told me “i didn’t get these” and… i never actually learned who did
Oh no…
NARRATOR: He was not about to meet her brother.
As far as she knows right now…
Once is an accident,
twice is a coincidence,
thrice is a pattern.
… except in this case, ’cause there’s already a pattern on those panties.
I see your face Dorothy…
but where is your hand?
Where is your hand!!!?
jk 😛
Now it’s more amateur artworks than lewd photos.
(Dorothy has somehow earned Joyce’s) stripes
Everyone in the US, please stay safe and stay strong.
Thank you. We will try. And I would like to apologize now for whatever worsening evils my country’s executive controllers will perpetuate on the world (as they did after the election of 8 years ago).
oh. oh my. wow…
OK, as funny as this is, Dorothy why haven’t you messaged Joyce back to tell her that YOU’RE getting Joyce’s lewd pics? XD
Does she even recognize that’s what they are? The focus and lighting seem to be very bad.
Dorothy is gonna text her something like “stop sending me your lewd pics” and Joyce is gonna read it and freak out when she’s with her sister.
She’s going to read it out loud:
Joyce: Woops, text from Dorothy.
Jocelyne: Oh, what’s up with her?
Joyce: “Please stop texting me your lewd pix.”
Jocelyne: What?!
Joyce: [face]
Joyce is wearing striped underwear now? The girl’s gone wild!
She punches out baddies, she wears shimapan, she is basically a shonen protagonist
Queer-bait shipping, box thoroughly checked.
Or striped.
Dorothy, what that right hand doing? 😇
God, I love Dorothy’s face there XD
You know, if Becky learns of this she will lose her mind
Dorothy isn’t doing so hot mentally with it either, it looks like.
Poor, poor Dorothy… Btw, I’m glad Joyce will meet her sister for the first time with Joe. It’s very probable she’ll needs someone able to calm and support her. Also, I want to see Joceline’s reaction to Joe.
C’monnnnnn show me Jocelyne alreadyyyyyy
how exactly would a fellow make panel 3 dorothy his avatar pic? anybody? ELI50, pls.
Copy picture & cut it down to desired size in Paint. Otherwise use Cutting Tool. Then google “Gravatar” for instructions. First part is probably easier to do on a laptop or desktop.
I think they’re already planning the fight to be Vance’s running mate in 2028. The cabal of billionaires, et al, behind the Rumpster will want to keep their puppets in power so they can keep the economy in their pocket.
The only thing that belongs in their pockets is a grenade with the fucking pin pulled.
If Trump’s dementia pulls him into the Sunken Place for reals, it gonna look like an episode of Royal Crackers as those assholes claw each other for power and gold
*pulls out blast shield*
If he’s not gonna die or lose his entire sense of self, he could at least start a Presidential mukbang channel and just eat pizza rolls long after it stops being interesting, to the detriment of any other behaviors or actions. Imagine what a paradise it would be if that orange twerp did nothing but eat and stare into a camera for at least 16 hours a day.
It would be a better world but I would NOT watch that — for reals I’d rather swallow PISS
Come on, lets see her sister! I need some cheering up……..
“Well Dorothy Keener, you have a choice. Finally prove to yourself these feelings are just platonic, once and for all, or delete those pictures.”
I mean at this point it’s on Dorothy for not responding.