Haven't seen anyone talk about this yet besides r/VoteDEM, but the big thing about this that the article doesn't mention is the Democrats actually flipped the school board. One of the names listed, Bridget Ziegler, is one of the founders of Moms for Liberty. Yes, them. This is something big.
As an adaptation of a notoriously deeply cynical and graphic comic from the 2000's, The Boys in its TV show form had to update its predecessor's criticism of Bush-era corporatism and politics to reflect massive polarization in response to the presidency of the guy who everyone used to know from The Apprentice and Art of the Deal, along with the cameo in Home Alone 2 where he seems to leer at Macaulay Culkin in the background after his line ( brrr ). On the surface, that seems like a reasonable response, with Trump's connections to lots of shady figures and organizations...
Until, in the third season of the show, the writers found their mark and applied the moniker of Trump Parody to none other than Homelander.
Before you start typing, I want to make clear that I could see how it works at first glance. Prior to entering politics, they were both blond-haired celebrities with ties to business, even if one of them ran an unsuccessful line of steaks and bankrupted casinos. They both had dreams of being able to do more with their power, and a shot at the highest office in America was the perfect way to get that done.
But with that on the table, let's get into why Homelander and Trump aren't the same kind of person.
Homelander in the show is quite handily humiliated at every chance fate gets, ending with him dying brutally and deservedly in the end.
Trump, for all of his other qualities, at least confidently pretends to know how business works, and had a lot of good things going for his position prior to becoming President, which is basically him getting exactly what he wanted: Immunity to do whatever he feels like. He isn't the kind of guy to take losing very well, as evidenced by the one time he lost at something in 2020 and, for lack of a better term, tried and failed to go "nuh uh, I actually won reelection!".
Homelander's liability to Vought in terms of his childish outbursts and desperate need for love that he never got as a child never seems to drag the corporation down with him, and in the end they essentially get away scot-free with having their golden child usurp the Oval Office and enact superhero-ICE on everyone that he doesn't like.
Trump, as a similarly immature and petty man, lashes out at everyone who doesn't agree with him, and has become an anchor for the entire Republican party in what many hope and put in the work to be a generational wipeout. The Boys doesn't get into elections except for the one time in season 4 where the Presidential is the main focus, but you would think with things looking more fascist a lot of people would act similarly, uprooting figures who agree with Vought/Homelander.
Lastly, Homelander is said to be decades younger, but as I've said acts even younger than that, but there's no indication that anything seems to affect him on a biological level. There are scenes in S4 where he has gray pubes ( why pubes specifically Eric Kripke ) and Sister Sage tells him he does age, but in the next season he gets V1 and that problem goes away just as quickly as it was raised.
Trump's probably got dementia, but it's not like he'll tell. There are signs though, such as him seeming to fall asleep and forget what he was just talking about, and also leaning onto stuff whenever he stands for what looks to be support. He's 80, but he sure doesn't act like he has much energy left in him compared to other 80-year-olds.
As the midterms loom over us and a post-Trump era emerges, I've thought about the things that we did under the Obama/Biden terms that, while good, weren't done with any anticipation of what was to come. Fortunately, the progressive movement that's been sparked following Trump's election is proof that we are increasingly more aware of how things got to this point, and are more than able to address it once we get back into power.
I have little doubt in my mind that as soon as we officially make Trump a lame duck, we will get to work on improving messaging and going full speed ahead on safeguarding our democracy and futures against anything like the current admin from rising from the ashes of the old GOP.
https://www.dw.com/en/german-lawyers-ban-on-far-right-afd-likely-successful/a-77726537
On paper, this seems good, but the reason I'm tagging it as Seeking Optimism is because in the article, it outlines that despite a neo-Nazi political party being a clear danger and allegedly going against the German Constitution, the political will to ban them just somehow isn't there. The article does outline that the fact it's even a talking point might give the idea traction, but it might come too late before next year's elections.
I'm aware of how the far-right is trying to gain ground in Europe, and seeing Orban be booted from Hungary gave me hope. But with how popular the AfD is, and how France is going through its own rise of fascists with Marine Le Pen, I'm worried that we might end up having a double whammy of losses for democracy if the French and German far-right win.
https://www.dailynews.com/2026/05/15/trump-epa-coal-wastewater-rule/
I know climate change stuff isn't exactly allowed on here, so tell me if this breaks any rules.
The language in this article is confusing, but it seems that they might be deliberating this before they decide whether or not to roll it back. If it goes through, millions of people could be getting cancer from their drinking water at unforeseen rates. I don't live near any known coal plants, but I'm not willing to take any risks.
The article does mention that states can still prosecute these coal plants, but there's a depressing amount of red states, so we might see people get cancer from this anyway, possibly even people on this sub who live in red states.
Is there any optimism to be found that this might not go through?
I say this to a subreddit specifically devoted to optimism, but I write this after seeing a comment elsewhere that put down people in need of hope and wanting to do something but feeling powerless, as worse than elected Democrats and being fascists with crocodile tears. Fuck that person, but I'm not talking about them.
What I'm talking about is that just as dark as these times are, only then will you see the light. Mandatory paraphrased MLK quote, I know, but it's very true.
I used to be like those people, utterly devastated after the results of 2024. I actually briefly considered ending it all to not face whatever came next, convinced that democracy was over, America wasn't worth fighting for. and nothing good would ever happen again. It wasn't until someone on r/VoteDEM, just as distraught, urged me to keep going.
So I did.
I stayed because I was in dire need of hope, like everyone else, and I found it. That hope made me realize that while Trump is absolutely the most awful President we've had so far, he and his ilk aren't invincible. They can be fought, and we can win against them. I spread hope to try and urge others to fight like hell if they want this country to be something better than what we had before and bring us out of this Second Gilded Age.
Now, I know some people will just move the goalposts as an excuse to not do anything, and I won't bother talking to them. But for every soul that has the spark in them to fight, they will be a part of the fighters we need to stamp out the conservative ghouls everywhere in 2026 and beyond.
Because they'll have been dared to hope.
Longer version of a comment I left in the main megathread.
Yes, I have seen the news, and this does indeed suck, especially after a particularly anxiety-inducing night where it looked like No might have won out. But all isn't lost. In fact, this is more of an opportunity to do this the right way, and here's why.
I'm admittedly not well-versed on Virginia law, but the way the referendum was conducted was not the best way we could have done it. We only went through *a* special session instead of having two regular sessions along with the big vote in April, which was evidently enough of a risky move to land us where we are now.
All isn't lost, however. We can do this properly next year, provided we tell the current legislature to do so and not have them challenge this immediately. Two of the justices who struck this down will be replaced by less partisan people anyway. This is a setback, but it shouldn't deter us.
The GOP are getting more unpopular by the day.
Dems are winning by insane margins.
Regular people are waking up more and more.
Volunteer and campaign your ass off for every election and vote in the primaries, then in the general. Get out the vote so everyone knows what's happening. For the love of God, make November the blue tsunami you want it to be. That's the only way we can unfuck all of this.