this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2024
507 points (89.9% liked)

Showerthoughts

35376 readers
1638 users here now

A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. No politics
    • If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
    • A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS

If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.

Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Hux@lemmy.ml 77 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Kinda depends on how you are measuring it.

It sounds like you are just going by elected presidents, but quite a few were multiple-term presidents, and those presidents had multiple elections with different opponents.

And sometimes, a losing opponent would go on to win a later election.

Also, no one ran against George Washington, twice.

Out of 59 elections (if you include Washington), I think there have been 49 white guys and one white lady who have lost a US Presidential election at least once (and may or may not have gone on to be President in a later election).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_presidential_elections_by_popular_vote_margin

I am exactly as fun at parties as you would imagine.

[–] Shiggles@sh.itjust.works 34 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It’s also technically a lot more if you remember that we do in fact have several marginalized parties running in every general election.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago

And multiple candidates per party who lose during the primary stage.

[–] Modva@lemmy.world 42 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I like Kamala. You have a real shot at taking Trump out with her. The stakes could not be higher. Maybe for the world. He is a truly dangerous person.

I wonder if I can get the next statement out without venom coming back at me, but I'll say it anyway:

I think you guys should try hard to steer the rhetoric away from anything polarizing (race or gender), and do everything you can to create inclusion (from anyone). I'm seeing a lot of things like that, and I don't think it plays out into more support. And there's nothing more important now than maximizing support.

[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 14 points 11 months ago

I feel similarly, but my whole life Democrats keep thinking "maybe if I compromise with the right wing and move right, I'll get more votes" and saying aw dang better luck next time when the right wing's dwindling base votes red down the whole ticket, while party insiders actively sideline Democrats who win big on left wing messaging. So when I hear Harris striking a tone of inclusion and unity, I'm glad because I feel it's laudable, but I'm also not thrilled because I've heard this song before.

[–] MindTraveller@lemmy.ca 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The problem isn't appealing to centrist moderates. The problem is getting leftists excited to vote. Polarising is good.

[–] Maalus@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago (2 children)

"polarising" is how you lose elections.

[–] MindTraveller@lemmy.ca 8 points 11 months ago

Funny, I thought it's how the Republicans won 2016

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Carighan@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

She's the first candidate in a while where I feel she might genuinely be good as a president, not just "not bad".

[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 33 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Only if you only count two parties.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 23 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Dude....I'm 40. I probably don't have the energy for ONE party tonight. Let alone TWO!!!

UGGGGHHHHHH........

slaps own face really hard, chugs 750ml of whiskey, and splashes some water on my face

OK.....LETS DOOOO THISSSSSS!!!!! RAAAAWWWWRRRRRRR!!!!!

[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Middle aged rave up in here! Woooooot

Okay, I'm spent, going to bed now

[–] Burninator05@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

I'm already there.

[–] Jimbo@yiffit.net 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] sxan@midwest.social 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

a few moments later

Zzzzzzzzzzz.....

[–] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

As someone whose almost 40....hyep.

I remember one night me and a friend passed a handle of gin back and forth and drank the whole thing right from the bottle. What the hell happened? That was only like 15 years ago.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Vinny_93@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Someone said to me that even if the majority would now vote for a third party, they wouldn't get anything done because the Senate Ave Congress are still all dems and reps.

I don't know enough about how US elections work though

[–] themurphy@lemmy.ml 3 points 11 months ago

It's just an excuse.

They will be hard to deal with, but for the first time ever, they need to learn compromise.

It also opens up for legitimate third part candidates in next Senate election.

[–] ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml 26 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (5 children)

Trump has also never won the general election for POTUS against a man but is undefeated against women so far, so let's hope that changes. For America, and the rest of the world, he better not win.

[–] DontTreadOnBigfoot@lemmy.world 11 points 11 months ago

Beating women does seem to be on-Brand for him...

[–] itsnotits@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

he'd* better not win

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] callouscomic@lemm.ee 24 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I have also never lost an Olympics, or lost a Formula 1 race, or lost a fight against Mike Tyson, or lost the Super Bowl.

[–] jeffw@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago

This is your year dude, good luck in Paris!

[–] Nollij@sopuli.xyz 22 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Ignoring how meaningless the statement is in the first place, obligatory XKCD.

https://xkcd.com/1122/

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

Interestingly, if Kamala wins, that last streak will still hold true.

[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 20 points 11 months ago

I know she didn’t make it all the way to the general election, but I’d like to take a moment to remind everyone about Shirley Chisholm.

https://www.history.com/news/shirley-chisholm-career-milestones

[–] ChihuahuaOfDoom@lemmy.world 18 points 11 months ago (9 children)
[–] jeffw@lemmy.world 12 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

facepalm thanks, fixed the titled

Edit: I’m still wrong. But this was a shower thought. There’s a reason this community isn’t called “well thought out comments”

[–] Cuberoot@lemmynsfw.com 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Don't correct that. He's wrong. It's way more than 46, most multi-term presidents defeated several different contenders.

Edit: I got 63 white men and 1 white woman, not counting pre 12th amendment elections, not counting minor candidates who didn't win any states electors. There's a lot more if you include minor candidates, but then one of them would be Cynthia McKinney who is a black woman.

[–] snooggums@midwest.social 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Also a lot of people ran in the general election that weren't members of the two major parties.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

And I raaaan. I ran so far awaaaay.

I just ran.

I ran all night and daaaay!!!

........I couldn't get away.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

I voted for Aunt Jemima in 1978, after I was born at age 6 without a face in 1983.

[–] CrimeDad@lemmy.crimedad.work 3 points 11 months ago

That's right.

load more comments (7 replies)
[–] ByteJunk@lemmy.world 17 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I get the feeling in OPs post, but for those unfamiliar, there are more people on the ballot other than the 2 main picks. This even varies by state, as they can have different criteria for defining who makes it to the ballot.

So perhaps a black woman has at some point ran for president (as in, made it to the ballot at least)?

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Hell, at least one, Shirley Chisholm, campaigned to be on the Democrat ballot in 1977. That counts as running for president, even if they don't win the primary right?

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] redrumBot@lemmy.ml 16 points 11 months ago (1 children)

From wikipedia:

Charlene Alexander Mitchell (June 8, 1930 – December 14, 2022) was an American international socialist, feminist, labor and civil rights activist. In 1968, she became the first Black woman candidate for President of the United States.[1][2]

Charlene Alexander Mitchell

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Vinny_93@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago (3 children)

What really bugs me is that both sides are just attacking the other rather than talking about why they are the right choice. US elections are always about smear campaigns

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I remember the first election I was old enough to vote in (the 2004 election) paying close attention to all the political ads I saw and, at least for that election, only the Republican ads were focused on "other guy bad, so vote me." The opposing side's ads were entirely focused on their own platform and never even mentioned the other side.

[–] halvar@lemm.ee 3 points 11 months ago (6 children)

From what I see most elections always are.

[–] Vinny_93@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

It's not what I'm used to in the Netherlands. There are personal attacks sometimes, but mostly by guys who don't have the best reputation in the first place.

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Ullallulloo@civilloquy.com 12 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Way more people than that have lost in the general election (hundreds, if not thousands), including Cynthia McKinney in 2008 as the most successful black female loser, but plenty of other black women have lost the general election.

[–] Etterra@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Sample size too small, please try again in 1000 years.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

It’s equally valid to say that a black woman has lost the election every time.

Edit: Vacuous truth

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›