Quite frankly if boring suburban visitors want to sell other boring suburban visitors on only hanging out in Surbiton, I’m fine with that

That’s fair. A big one is I’m not American, so while it’s constantly around and tough to get away from, US domestic politics is allegorical and conceptual

I hope you’re wrong. If all they can do now is give in, the “good enough” you’re willing to accept is going to slide a lot further to “bad” very quickly

Watch out you don’t make your own self fulfilling prophecies there!

Not everyone will have cookie cutter beliefs, and the ability to find ways to work together is core to building community and making progress. But I worry the left right now is too quick to make big concessions

I think this is where you and I split again: you can continue to speak to the other side like they’re humans, while holding firm on your core beliefs. Some tactics can be on a good/perfect scale, but on core tenets “good enough” isn’t an option

I get that. The systems built around us are so complicated it often means we have to choose the lesser evil when doing simple things like going grocery shopping, let alone operating in a two party political state

Oh I thought we were talking about broader hypotheticals here, not that the trench warfare buddy was a literal person with a record to examine.

In real life, of course you have to evaluate based off all the info you have, but personally appeasing the other side sounds the alarms

But is it “convincing” yourself if they’ve already expressed alignment with some of the worst parts of the side you’re opposing

But shouldn’t you care that at any given moment they might turn on you and say “now actually, the Nazis have some good points”

The interaction wasn’t exactly a wild success: she moved it to someone else’s seat rather than throw it out, but I didn’t threaten to throw it at her

Anyway I feel like I’ve unlocked a new level of friendship with my book club now

Not sure how we got onto the topic… the book was The Gentleman from Peru by André Aciman and was well liked by all. We just really wanted to talk through how one might behave at like a backyard bbq with Rachel Weisz ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Feels like the kind of thing written on a white board in the My Pillow guy’s garage

Totally get it. I was surprised when I found out Crown Royal is MASSIVE in Texas, but turns out people have no clue it’s Canadian, they might just love the velvet bag (which is fair)

Caveat: I say this with a Canadian lens, not American, so take it with a grain of salt

I’m not sure Irish whiskey’s success/volume in North America is strictly because of its national identity, but more its price positioning and occasion as a shooting whiskey. A lot of people order a shot of Jamieson because it’s $3, not knowing it’s Irish.