Oh, unlike George W. Bush, who burnished our image in the world with such aplomb. I guess if Trump tried to massage Merkel's shoulders, it would carry the extra creep factor of his weird baby hands, but beyond that it couldn't be any worse.

I'm not disagreeing that Biden is a power player, I'm explaining the likability gap. Part of it is misogyny, definitely, but Biden is also exceptionally likable on a human interest, sympathetic life story level.

Personality and demeanor are pretty cosmetic. In terms of integrity, what exactly do you mean by that? George W. Bush literally orchestrated (or allowed to be orchestrated) a campaign of misinformation in order to invade Iraq. He appointed industry cronies to the department of the interior who had cocaine-fueled…

Except that the rate at which immigrants, documented or undocumented, commit crimes is significantly lower than the rate at which citizens commit crimes. Donald Trump's ridiculous braying about "safety" and "crime" are pure racial dogwhistling. And, by the way, we do have border control, and always have.

He's like a functioning teleprompter and two or three policy positions off a completely standard Republican candidate. Beyond his rhetoric, what distinguishes him from Mitt Romney other than his immigration stance?

Seriously. It's like her and Taft. I can't think of anyone else who comes close, including Eisenhower.

Biden also has an incredibly heartwarming story and persona. Amtrak Joe getting sworn into office in the hospital where his wife and daughter were pronounced dead, flanked by his injured boys, who commuted from Delaware on the train every day so that he could raise his kids and serve as Senator at the same…

Oh, I see, it's not racism because it's just discrimination against Muslims, and anyone can be a Muslim, so that's totally okay. It's just bigotry that happens to form a perfect circle when venn diagrammed against anti-Arab racism, not racism per se. So much better.

When he called Mexicans rapists and criminals? And some, he assumes, are good people.

I kind of love using it that way. It's like the yiddish version of "fam."

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Auschwitz-Birkenau

Harry Potter and the Deathly Camps

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Zyklon-B.

Yeah, kind of messed up how that works. Google suggested figures as high as $0.0076 per view (successful YTer) and as low as $0.00045 per view (regular YTer). That means a 2 million view video for an already successful YTer nets north of $15,000, while a regular YTer who strikes viral gold (or bronze, I guess) gets…

Again, I think we're probably basically on the same page here. I'm not necessarily calling 36 with 23 amoral, I'm just saying that it is often coincident with other things I don't like, and thus raises my suspicions.

We're kind of splitting hairs here, but mugging is a nonconsensual relationship and so not really analogous to what we're talking about.

We send the supervillains to fight and win, too. If they die, that's part of making a victory omelette. How many people know the status of soldiers? How many American military personnel have died in Afghanistan this year?

I guess it's bad PR, but otherwise it's the same thing, right? Except that metahumans are harder to replace than poor kids you've given guns. Soldiers are "inherently expendable," and we know that because we send them to fight and die. "As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free" and all that.

Okay.

What you've described is literally asymmetry. You've just added the words "different thing" to justify the asymmetrical treatment. I agree that what you've said is factually true—I do feel differently about the behavior of the younger member of a May-December relationship than the behavior of the older member—but I…