You do not defeat reactionaries that are ready to kill whoever they please and unseat a despot by playing fair. You can prove they lied infinite times and expose their corruption as much as you like, but they'll keep at it with the *power* they hold through *force*.

Relatedly, the low-grade but ever-present scourges of lead paint, lead pipes and asbestos are things you'd think we'd just decide to enact broad-based efforts to erase from civilization (as opposed to just ban for future use, as we largely have), but we mostly, uh…don't.

kind of darkly funny that "gender studies" is the stereotypical "useless degree" because gender studies will help you understand a large and important chunk of the current psychosis in american life

sure sure you can have hegemony by trade, ideology and cultural influence, but does that make your dick hard?