You touched on one of my favorite tactics - I pretend to be very clueless and very politically low-info - while they are terminally online and expecting everyone to cop to their culture war BS shorthand, I ask them to explain what they mean and ask what are they talking about.

Takes the wind right out of their sails.

They hope that you’ll act like a “triggered” liberal and give them the dopamine hit they want by shrieking or howling or whatever it is that they want, maybe followed by some gamed-out “debate” that follows a track that they want to go down so they can work in some “zinger” think-piece like “the Democrat Party doesn’t even know what a woman even is” (like I just saw Dan Crenshaw do on Maher’s show), or that you give them the Faux Nooz nod and the wink, maybe a “I getchooo bro! finger guns” and the high five.

They get neither. Trying to explain a joke of any kind utterly ruins it, especially if it’s one of their punching down kind. The hard part is me not laughing right in their face when I see the look of disappointment on their face. The easy part is keeping my cool and not letting them try to annoy me, while doing the “just asking questions” routine that they themselves love in other instances - I’ve been doing this kind of thing my whole life. I can do a poker face like no one’s business. It was a life skill I needed early in life just for basic survival. But trying to keep from laughing at their predictable response (oh so predictable) is a lot harder.

Unfortunately, I see lots of liberals, moderates, etc…fall for the bait.

Did they ever make good jokes?

For the record, I used to live among the hillbillies. Surrounded by the yokelest of the rubes. A lot of their “comedy” and “jokes” and “pranks” seemed to be comprised of (actually) hurting people and animals. The rest of it was about verbally abusing others they considered “less than”. Most of their jokes were filled with ethnic slurs and mostly about some ethnic group.

To be honest, other hillbillies thought all this was high comedy; a real knee slapper. Psychopathy was often rewarded by others with psychopathy. But anyone with brain cells and some normally-firing synapses connecting those brain cells found their behavior utterly exhausting and tiresome.

Again, I lived it. I’m trying to think of one funny person that stayed in the area. The ones that aspired to something else and were actually funny - all moved the fuck away, if they could.

I always wondered who the signs are FOR, really. I mean does anyone see the signs and think, “oh yeah, I’ll vote for that guy/gal”. Do some people that are low-info just vote for the person whose name they saw the most on lawn signs?

Yes, also the “laptop” was actually the hard drive (and one with a very dubious chain of custody) supposedly from Joe Biden’s son’s laptop, Hunter, and Hunter has no position in government and isn’t running for one.

But, for some reason, Marge wanted to enter revenge porn of Hunter’s dong into the public record or something. Obviously of primary concern to the safety of the American people or somesuch…

Meanwhile, donOLD and his merry band of criminals, thugs, and fascists seem to be laying plans to end American democracy, maybe kick of political imprisonment, possibly state-sanctioned murder against their political enemies, which seems likely to be expanded to many, many Americans, and not just prominent politicians like Pelosi, Biden, etc…in some cases, for merely existing.

I think both a donOLD sign and a Kennedy sign might signify that the owner of the house has brain worms, though.

I seriously watched Dan Crenshaw try to claim, over and over again, while sitting next to James Carville on Maher’s show, that donOLD beats Kamala/Biden on matters of policy, and referenced the BS “mean tweets” narrative again.

It was surreal. And he’s supposed to be one of the “good ones”. JFC.

Whee, bOtH sIdEs!

I have to ask - do they hand out Chick comics as a “treat” for all the kiddies to read?

We had one of those in a neighborhood we lived in a while back. Kids knew to avoid like the plague after one visit to the place. What kid is grateful to get a preachy bullshit comic about Jaysus on one of the funnest nights of the year?

Would not be surprised if they got pranked, too.

Wise words. Unfortunately, they are conflated all the time in this country. Cannot tell you how many times I’ve been told it’s impossible to be moral without (their) god (meaning Jehovah/Yahweh/Allah). Also, this conversation often may end with a threat of violence - “if I didn’t believe in [my] [g]od, I’d kill you for being an unbeliever in [my] [g]od, but because of the Ten Commandments and being such a good xtian, I won’t!” kind of thing.

Yep. People that go out of their way to plaster a bunch of xtian virtue signalling on their house, their car, their cubicle, their FB page, their body…are often some of the most immoral people I’ve ever seen.

Yup. This is just like the days when the Yellow Pages were still a thing and people would plaster fishes and crosses in their section. You know, I think some people assume being a “good Christian” means you are going to be a good person, but that kind of xtian virtue-signalling in a business advertisement tells ME they are looking to fleece dumbasses that actually believe that and I’m going to steer clear.

Other cult members. Oh, and the Enlightened Centrists and the Tone Policing “independents” that constantly remind us that it is “both sides” to blame for Republican behaviors.

You should take pictures and helpfully put it up on review sites…sure some chuds might go, but many normal people will know to avoid.

Well, the fine print on the FREEZED PEACH types is: “offer only good for cons.”

Xitter is a Nazi hang out, taken over by a sympathizer. No explanation needed.

I wonder if he ever had it.