That’s completely beside the point anyway. In this case, every action taken against her was justified, authoritarian government or not.

The thing is, she wasn’t even harmed. This could have happened in any country that’s taking suppression of the pandemic seriously. Rwanda being authoritarian doesn’t even factor into this particular story.

Who writes “United States, America”? Name a reputable news outlet which does that.

No one writes “Canada, America”, primarily because “America” isn’t a continent.

Umm... no. It really isn’t. The continent part is what makes it dumb.

You should, because the main purpose of wearing a mask is to protect other people.

How many times does this need to be said?

I really don’t know why people cling to absurd conspiracy theories when the stuff that’s being done in broad daylight is just as bad, but without a sensationalist bent. Politicians don’t need to act in secret to funnel money into the pockets of, if not necessarily themselves, their wealthy donors. It happens at the…

No, see, they support teaching about slavery, but it has to be framed as a necessary evil that ultimately produced an enduring good. And also how great our country is for sacrificing almost a million of its people to put a stop to that necessary evil, which was largely perpetuated by Democrats – even though slavery…

They can if he’s fake macho enough to do things like pardon them after they commit war crimes.

Granted, not a majority of them (he’s especially unpopular with officers), but a good number.

Sure you are.

It is very obvious that Kay was throwing the gun away when he got shot, but it happens so quickly that it’s possible that the officer really did see him drawing the gun and, not knowing Kay intended to throw it away and surrender, shot him in self-defense.

He did only fire once, stopping when he realized the gun wasn’t…

Well... that’s progress!

Donald Trump is the very incarnation of narcissism. But I prefer to consider him to be Patrick Bateman without the patience to exercise and eat right.

Sadly, it won’t. Trump and his allies have poisoned that well for good. People will continue to politicize the issue and treat any admonition to wear a mask as a politically- or ideologically-motivated attack that betrays one as a partisan or at least establishment sheep.

Masks, guys. Masks, for fuck’s sake. This is…

Yeah, they don’t matter. Nothing matters. Trump figured out that the best way to be corrupt is to be audacious about it, and he’ll suffer no real consequences as long as he can cling to power – which he has so far, thanks to the bottomless cynicism of elected Republicans and a steady diet of anger and hate for his…

The part where it isn’t just about you. Taking measures to avoid infecting other people, such as wearing a mask and socially distancing, are essentially costless means of protecting your fellow human beings from hospitalization or death. Why does this have to keep being pointed out?

IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT YOU.

Of course he is. But that isn’t stopping my brother, and many more like him, from insisting that Donald Trump should be elected because it will “send a message” to protesters. He has told me that he believes the protesters are motivated to establish a socialist government and will succeed if allowed to because local…

They are (like my brother, I’m sad to say, who is otherwise not a Trump fan) under the impression that Donald Trump will use heavy-handed federal policing to a much larger degree than he already has, and so the riots (and protests, but they don’t see any distinction between them at this point, and probably never did)…

That’s because, while Donald Trump has all the characteristics of a human being – blood, flesh, skin, hair– he does not have a single, clear, identifiable emotion, except for greed and disgust.

(...and narcissistic rage.)

Ugh. At least Patrick Bateman could be funny.

There should be absolutely no tolerance for assault by inmates as a form of extralegal punishment.

Yeah, I’m talking to the commentariat.

I don’t care who the victim is; turning a blind eye to this kind of thing because you consider it to be “karmic” justice helps contribute to a system that is less interested in actual…

What “efforts”? Trump has done jack-shit; it’s all been left to the states, whose patchwork responses (some very good, some horribly bad), without strong federal leadership, have resulted in not only more cases and more deaths, but more and longer-lasting economic damage.

You also can’t simultaneously claim that slowing…