u/put-on-your-records

Recap: Barack Obama won Florida twice. Donald Trump narrowly won Florida in 2016. In 2018, Ron DeSantis won the FL gubernatorial election by a razor thin margin of 0.4% (34,000 votes).

Yet, as of 2026, Florida is basically a safe red state and most Democrats have written it off.

I'm curious about what exactly caused this quintessential swing state to become a deep red state in less than a decade.

Some theories I've heard include:

• The FL Democratic Party being a mess
• The fear of socialism among the Hispanic/Latino population
• Newer retirees being more conservative
• Florida becoming a magnet for conservative in-migration and the hard right turn under DeSantis causing liberal out-migration

My guess is that (ironically, considering their talking points in our timeline) they would be attacking her family and/or the authorities for being neglectful and not doing anything to save her.

See title for question

When Starmer's Labour Party won a historic landslide back in the 2024 UK general election, a common refrain you heard from pundits was that this was the fruit of him getting the party back on track after the leftist turn it took under Jeremy Corbyn, who caused Labour to come off as too left-wing and thus alienated voters outside of diehard left-wingers.

Now, in the local elections earlier this month, Reform (led by Nigel Farage) beat Labour; the polls show that Labour is losing ground to upstart parties like Reform and the Greens; and more than 60 Labour MPs have called for Starmer to resign.

So, I'm curious as to whether you guys think that Starmer's woes represent a cautionary tale for left of center parties moving right (in the aftermath of the 2024 US presidential election, a number of Democratic politicians, strategists, and pundits have said this is the path to go) or if his woes are rather the results of failings unique to him as a leader/issues specific to the UK that not really applicable elsewhere?

If you look at it objectively, Britney and JLo aren't that different as artists: mid to subpar vocalists, barely wrote any of their songs, their main talents are as dancers/performers; and, let’s be honest, a huge part of their fame had to do with sex appeal and persona drama.

Yet JLo is seen by the GP as a catty, unlikeable, self-important diva with minimal talent, while Britney is seen as a sweet, innocent girl victimized by everyone uwu. I know that there are many accounts of JLo being rude and difficult to work with, so I’m not glazing her at all, but that is nothing compared to what Britney has done-getting a DUI, feeding her children food they were severely allergic to, burning their scalps with hair bleach, making them bathe with her when they were 10-11, beating Preston with a belt, and getting sued by a former bodyguard for sexual harassment.

For all of her flaws, JLo is a hardworking professional, while Britney is a serious risk to herself and others.

I once saw a tweet from an MJ stan saying that the South Park episode "The Jeffersons" was one of the meanest depictions of him in the media ever.

Yet, objectively speaking, by both South Park standards (this is the show that depicted Kanye West humping fish, Mel Gibson as an unhinged masochist, Paris Hilton getting shoved up Mr. Slave's ass, Bono as a literal piece of shit, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg raping Indiana Jones, and Barbra Streisand transforming into a monster called Mecha-Streisand) and by the standards of MJ discourse in the 2000s prior to his death, it was pretty tame.

MJ was depicted as a developmentally stunted manchild weirdo who was a bad parent and engaged in anti-social behavior yet Matt and Trey went out of their way to make clear that they did not believe the allegations of him being a child predator were true.

That MJ stan melodramatically complaining about The Jeffersons strikes me as an encapsulation of how his stans expect everyone to uncritically worship the "King of Pop".

Considering how large blue states (e.g., NY, CA) are the face of the national housing crisis and red states, especially Texas, generally have lower housing costs and are reaping the fruits in the form of population growth and in-migration, what are some examples of the inverse: blue states that get housing right and red states that are failing at housing?

Here's mine:

1. Blackout
2. In the Zone
3. Britney
4. Glory
5. Circus
6. Femme Fatale
7. Oops I Did It Again
8. Baby One More Time
9. Britney Jean

To state the obvious, left wing (e.g., Bernie Sanders, AOC, Zohran Mamdani) and right wing populism (e.g., Donald Trump, Nigel Farage, Jair Bolsonaro) both exist. So, populism definitely isn't a cohesive overarching ideology the way that socialism, liberalism, conservatism, etc. are.

However, would you say that populism is just a rhetorical style or does it go deeper than merely framing things around "the people vs the elites" and entail certain policy and ideological elements common to all populists, no matter if they are left or right wing?

Britney stans act like Justin is the Devil incarnate and call Xtina a bitchy mean girl, all the while portraying Britney as a sweet and innocent girl victimized by all the evil people in her life.

Yet Britney has fed her sons shellfish knowing that they were severely allergic, beaten Preston with a belt, made her sons bathe with her when they were 10-11, and publicly attacked them. Beyond her awful parenting, she also has a DUI and has been sued for sexual harassment by a former bodyguard.

Now, imagine how Britney stans would react if JT or Xtina had done even a fraction of the things Britney has: what if JT fed his children food they were severely allergic to or what if Xtina was sued by a bodyguard for sexual harassment?

Disclaimer: I'm not saying that JT or Xtina are perfect people. For example, JT has a DUI, and, earlier in her career, Xtina did have a documented history of being unpleasant to others. However, I am just trying to illustrate the double standards in how Britney stans baby her while demonizing others, despite her objectively far more harmful behavior to herself and others.

A common refrain I've seen on this sub is that Britney wishes she had a daughter instead of sons. Also, some of her stans have rationalized her documented bad parenting by saying that everything would have been so much better if she had daughters instead.

It is documented that Britney has been a shitty mother to Preston and Jayden: feeding them shellfish despite knowing they were allergic, beating Preston with a belt, making them bathe with her when they were 10-11, forcing a potty trained Jayden to wear a diaper.

So, if Britney had a daughter, what would she have been like as a parent toward her?

IMO her narcissistic mother tendencies would have still manifested, albeit differently than how it does toward her sons. She would have wanted her daughter to be a mini-me, like a living doll, and would have retaliated hard once she grew up and became her own person with an independent identity and thoughts. Also, she would be constantly comparing herself to her daughter and would grow to resent her if she turned out to be prettier than her.

We all know that Britney has an obsession with babies-she constantly talked about how she wanted to have another baby, and, more than once, she’s had encounters with random strangers‘ babies.

Yet she has publicly attacked and even abused (feeding them shellfish despite knowing they were allergic; beating Preston with a belt) her own sons.

I’ve seen theories that Britney is obsessed with babies but resents her own children because she loves the idea of caring for something cute and pliant (see her many pets that she cycled through like trends) but hates the fact that her babies have grown up to humans with independent identities and thoughts.

I find this theory quite plausible, considering the documented instances of her inappropriately infantilizing her sons: e.g., making them bathe with her when they were 10-11, forcing a potty trained Jayden to wear a diaper.

"WE WANT PRIVACY! WE WANT PRIVACY! WE WANT PRIVACY!" "STOP LOOKING AT US!"

Britney claims to hate the media attention and the paparazzi, but she can't stop the bizarre attention seeking behavior on Instagram and in public places.

"Remy Ma achievements" is a Stan Twitter term that refers to achievements that only exist due to extremely specific and narrow criteria and are otherwise irrelevant. "Remy Ma is the most streamed female rapper born in May 1980 whose name starts with an r."

For example, I've seen MAGAs boast about Tom MacDonald getting number 1 songs on iTunes. However, that isn't really much of an accomplishment at all since, due to digital sales being so low in the current streaming era, it’s very easy for stans to push songs that otherwise have no impact in real-life to the top of the iTunes chart.

• Britney was only allowed to eat canned vegetables and chicken during the conservatorship
  • There are tons of photos of her eating junk food from this period
• Britney only kissed Wade Robson once
  • Annet Artani said that Britney and Wade had a full blown affair
    • Note that Annet was friends with Britney and co-wrote Everytime with her, so she can't be dismissed as just a hater out to smear Britney's name
• Britney had no idea about Kevin and Shar Jackson
  • Shar says that Britney knew about her pregnancy and was waiting in a car outside the hospital while she gave birth
• Justin Timberlake said "fo shiz" to Ginuwine.
  • Ginuwine responded by saying that he has no recollection of the alleged incident, and that, if JT had said it, he definitely would have looked at him weirdly. https://ew.com/ginuwine-responds-justin-timberlake-fo-shiz-britney-spears-memoir-8413544
    • This is more of a ”he said, she said” than a falsehood or lie. However, her stans treat this disputed hearsay as the gospel truth.

Feel free to name more false/debunked/disputed claims from The Woman In Me

If not for the extensive damage control during the conservatorship that covered up her many scandals and instances of disturbing and harmful behavior, no one would have bought the narrative of Britney being a poor innocent victim who had a bad day, shaved her head, and got put into a conservatorship for no reason.

Disclaimer: I get that not every artist needs to be an auteur and that Britney was always more of a dancer/performer (although her skills went downhill post-Onyx Hotel Tour) than a vocalist or songwriter.

That being said, one of my pet peeves is when Britney's stans hype her up as an artistic visionary and compare her to Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, or even Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Janet Jackson.

I recently did an entire breakdown of Britney's songwriting credits on every one of her albums (here's the link: https://www.reddit.com/r/discussingbritney/comments/1tf5lhv/the\_double\_standard\_with\_how\_britney\_stans/).

TLDR: In The Zone is the only album where she wrote the majority of the songs, and she also wrote a significant number of the songs on Britney and Glory. Although she is credited as a songwriter on every Britney Jean track, she didn't even sing on most of the tracks; so, I think it's fair to say she didn't write much of it either and that the writing credits were only added to deceivingly market it as her "most personal album ever".

While that isn't nothing, you can't reasonably put her in the same tier as JT, Xtina, Madonna, MJ, or Janet in terms of creative involvement.

As for her singles (let's be honest, outside of Britney, ITZ, and Blackout, she's never been much of an albums artist), she has written a miniscule number of them.

• She wrote none of the singles from her first two teen pop albums
• For Britney, the only single she wrote was Anticipating and that was, at best, a minor hit.
• For ITZ, she wrote two of the four singles-Me Against the Music and Everytime (imo Everytime is her magnum opus as a songwriter)
• She wrote none of the singles from Blackout, Circus, or Femme Fatale.
• She is credited as a songwriter on both of the singles from Britney Jean-Work Bitch and Perfume-although, as I noted before, she didn't even sing on most of the tracks, so who knows if she actually wrote Work Bitch and Perfume.
• She wrote one of the singles from Glory-Make Me.

So, the only iconic hits Britney has written are Me Against the Music, Everytime, Work Bitch and Perfume (if you take any of the Britney Jean songwriting credits at face value), and Make Me (best described as a moderate hit rather than an iconic song).