Vaush Quotes

I think that one of my biggest issues with, like, broader political discourse is that -- especially on the left -- people fixate, like, really, really hard on being a good advocate. God's honest truth is, the first step to winning is being a good person. And I don't just mean good in the sense of, like, being morally good. I mean being good at being a person. Being disciplined and effective. Saving your money when you need to. Being community-oriented. It's not just a matter of being morally correct, it's a matter of being in a position where, if you have the opportunity, you can most effectively advocate for your beliefs. Discipline matters. Community matters. Not just community with other people like you, community with people who you don't like as well. I'm sorry to say, but you gotta know your neighbors. Even if they're Trump supporters, you gotta know your neighbors.

The problem with Cuties on Netflix isn't that 11 years are going to watch it and feel represented. The problem is that adults if we're being charitable are going to watch it to reflect on their youth, or if we're being uncharitable they're going to watch it while ******* it to the many provocative dance scenes done by minors.

I do find myself agreeing with liberals on a lot of stuff. Not, mind you, because I don't have better ideas than them -- I do, and I've argued for them -- but because the other ideas that are being thrown their way are so bad that I can't risk the left being pulled down with them. I want you guys to have a better understanding of liberals so you can better critique them. I don't want you to be complacent like the liberal, I want you to know what you're up against.

"Every day I draw breath is a victory against fascism in my books." Mm-hm! If your life is intolerant to them, then live just to spite them.

Could they really divide us that well? Could Trump or "The Powers That Be" commit that well to a doctrine of dismantling, not only our democracy, but all of the protections, all of the interconnectedness that queer people, people of different races, whatever, that all of them have managed to build? I don't think so.

Sorry that the memory of you being told that you're loved has to be tainted by the moment it was associated with.

I do think there is a bit of a glimmer of hope. For one, as I have pointed out [...], there is a global tide of fascism that is creeping up, but if we look at comparable examples of this happening in other countries [...], there seems to be a very pronounced lack of sauce in a lot of these fascist movements -- an inability to fully collapse the liberal democracies they're built off of.

First and foremost, if you're dealing with somebody who cares about you in any capacity [...] the most valuable tool you have to convince them of any position is the empathy they hold for you.

No matter how good you are at debate, you always need both sides to be invested in doing it. Like, if I showed up for a debate and they just made farting noises with their mouth, I can't make a good point in that environment. It requires two people engaging with some standard of mutual competency. It's not even a matter of performing well, it's just unfun. All of the rhetorical skills that I'm interested in? Meaningless. You just scream your soundbites. That's it.

People used to be a lot more willing to wish death on others because people used to be a lot less human to each other. I think it's a little bit easier to sympathize with people in an environment where you can pop open Twitter and just see 'The Enemy' be normal.

The main thing you want, if you want to survive difficult times, is know your neighbor. You can get more done as a group than you ever can as an individual, and the last thing that you want during socially difficult times is to not have your neighbor's number.

"Do you believe in unity or only winning?" What unity is there with fascists? What do you mean by that? How do you unify with them? On what issues? If "winning" means, uh, like "everyone supports what I support" and that is unity, then sure, then that, to me, is winning. Right now, unity just means trying to build bridges with fascists.

One of the most shamelessly predatory, pedophilic ideas I've ever seen taken half-seriously is The Wall. [...] The idea that women become unattractive and lose all sexual value after the age of 30. I know the harm of this specific idea is mostly hypothetical because the median believer in The Wall is, like, a fourteen-year-old boy who doesn't talk to women anyway, but it's still an example of how political ideologies can influence the extent to which predatory attitudes against women are socially normalized. To make a change for the better, y'know, you'd probably have to look into some kind of, uh, I don't know, uh, feminism thing.

People aren't always rational, countries aren't always rational. Fascism is not rational.

There are lots of people all around the world who endure worse circumstances than you have up to this point, and what you will endure over the next four or however many years. I'm not saying you got it easy; you don't. I'm not saying that you should be "Oh, y'know, because kids in Africa are starving" or whatever. I'm just saying, they do make it work in a lot of cases.