United States Politics Thread 47

[rotting bones]

The people who are left-of-center who are worried about things smacking of Communism in that sense tend to be only barely left-of-center, e.g. people like my parents, who are really centrists, and who sometimes almost sound like anti-Trump conservatives.

The kind of people who were into The West Wing used to be considered left-leaning in America. That show is certainly McCarthyist in the sense of having paranoid Anti-Communism.

[Ares Land]

For me, a bigger worry than Russia is Milei's popularity after the way he governed.

I don't know enough about Argentina to tell if that's going to last long. But I'd expect Milei to be a model for future conservatives.

For stuff like this?

I don't understand it either. Milei is obviously crazy -- there's also the chainsaw, also that whole business with his dogs. But even here you come across a lot of people going 'Afuera!'

[Ahzoh]

The US is so damn cucked. The fascists are taking over the US faster than they took over Germany and faster than Stalin seized power after Lenin's death.

And now they done fired all the nuclear-related workers.

[keenir]

And now they done fired all the nuclear-related workers.

given what happened when the head of the FAA in the USA was fired a week or three ago, should we start the clock to see how long before the President asks "first you wanted me to go swimming, now you want me to go nuclear swimming?"

[Raphael]

Out of curiosity, how are you counting this? How do you arrive at the 12 years number?

Loosely:

McCarthy became involved in Anti-Communism in 1950: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyi ... nvolvement

John Henry Faulk won his court case in 1962: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism#Decline

Thank you!

[malloc]

The US is so damn cucked. The fascists are taking over the US faster than they took over Germany and faster than Stalin seized power after Lenin's death.

And now they done fired all the nuclear-related workers.

Quite. Trump has spent the past month steamrolling over one institution after another and repealing the past century of progress. Democrats in elected office have offered only token resistance and the few protests thus far have struggled to reach thousands of participants. Barring some truly fantastical miracles and vast swathes of the country suddenly changing their minds on political and social issues, Trump has already won.

[Ahzoh]

The US is so damn cucked. The fascists are taking over the US faster than they took over Germany and faster than Stalin seized power after Lenin's death.

And now they done fired all the nuclear-related workers.

Quite. Trump has spent the past month steamrolling over one institution after another and repealing the past century of progress. Democrats in elected office have offered only token resistance and the few protests thus far have struggled to reach thousands of participants. Barring some truly fantastical miracles and vast swathes of the country suddenly changing their minds on political and social issues, Trump has already won.

One might suspect the Democrats are in on it. They're effectively collaborationists at this point.

[Raphael]

Something someone who's posting on Bluesky under the pseudonym "William B. Fuckley" posted a few weeks ago:

In hindsight I think a generation of scholars and activists made a massive mistake in assuming that the conditions of (a, yes, deeply flawed in many ways) liberal democracy as the floor, the worst things could get, and so felt free to portray them in worst possible light. Whoops!

I've thought of that a lot since I first saw it.

[malloc]

Something someone who's posting on Bluesky under the pseudonym "William B. Fuckley" posted a few weeks ago:

In hindsight I think a generation of scholars and activists made a massive mistake in assuming that the conditions of (a, yes, deeply flawed in many ways) liberal democracy as the floor, the worst things could get, and so felt free to portray them in worst possible light. Whoops!

I've thought of that a lot since I first saw it.

Quite. Liberal democracy has plenty of room for criticism, but it also represents a genuine advance over authoritarian systems. Many people fail to appreciate the significance of multiparty elections and rule of law for instance. It often seems like some people confuse critiquing capitalism and liberalism with cynically rejecting the Enlightenment and modernity more generally.

[alice]

Quite. Liberal democracy has plenty of room for criticism, but it also represents a genuine advance over authoritarian systems. Many people fail to appreciate the significance of multiparty elections and rule of law for instance. It often seems like some people confuse critiquing capitalism and liberalism with cynically rejecting the Enlightenment and modernity more generally.

Don't forget there are also those, some of whom are very influential, who equate capitalism with rejecting the Enlightenment, and think this is a good thing. In their minds the Enlightenment was a mistake and has failed.

[rotting bones]

Something someone who's posting on Bluesky under the pseudonym "William B. Fuckley" posted a few weeks ago:

In hindsight I think a generation of scholars and activists made a massive mistake in assuming that the conditions of (a, yes, deeply flawed in many ways) liberal democracy as the floor, the worst things could get, and so felt free to portray them in worst possible light. Whoops!

I've thought of that a lot since I first saw it.

1. People cannot be motivated to fight without promising them more than what they have now.

2. People were repeatedly warned about Project 2025.

The fact is, humans have a lunacy problem:

https://youtu.be/P05xaNS2qYo?si=iYD7qJdA_p5nmyZ1
https://youtu.be/I2Gld5yhgAM?si=HdDTXMPzOIcVkeMb
https://youtu.be/KO07h7qrWEY?si=wX3PwzFJxl925Z-X
...

[Ahzoh]

The Onion is not satire:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWdN4hA-rB0

[jcb]

More details from www.youtube.com/watch?v=P05xaNS2qYo :

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... sraeli-men

A Jewish man in Miami Beach is facing charges of attempted murder following accusations that he opened fire on two men he believed were Palestinians but reportedly turned out to be Israeli visitors.

While in custody, Brafman spontaneously told detectives that while he was driving his truck, “he saw two Palestinians and shot and killed both”, arrest documents said.

Further complicating the incident, one of the injured men reportedly posted “death to the Arabs” in a message on social media after the shooting. “My father and I went through a murder attempt against anti-Semitic background,” he wrote.

“It is deeply ironic and telling that both the alleged pro-Israel perpetrator and the pro-Israel victim in the Miami Beach shooting reportedly hold racist anti-Palestinian views,” said Cair’s national executive director, Nihad Awad, on X.

The Onion wishes they came up with this.

[jcb]

Something someone who's posting on Bluesky under the pseudonym "William B. Fuckley" posted a few weeks ago:

In hindsight I think a generation of scholars and activists made a massive mistake in assuming that the conditions of (a, yes, deeply flawed in many ways) liberal democracy as the floor, the worst things could get, and so felt free to portray them in worst possible light. Whoops!

I've thought of that a lot since I first saw it.

1. People cannot be motivated to fight without promising them more than what they have now.

2. People were repeatedly warned about Project 2025.

The fact is, humans have a lunacy problem:

https://youtu.be/P05xaNS2qYo?si=iYD7qJdA_p5nmyZ1
https://youtu.be/I2Gld5yhgAM?si=HdDTXMPzOIcVkeMb
https://youtu.be/KO07h7qrWEY?si=wX3PwzFJxl925Z-X
...

The lesson that we should take from this is that Democrats shouldn't expect that simply being the non-White party is enough to win. Non-whites are not a monolithic bloc of voters. They have internal fractures based on economics, bigotries, and wishful thinking just like Whites.

[Ahzoh]

https://apnews.com/article/doge-elon-mu ... 9510f2a43c

Resignation makes me feel mixed. On one side it's principled, on another side, they'll just replace you with sycophants and make their goals easier to achieve.

More details from www.youtube.com/watch?v=P05xaNS2qYo :

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... sraeli-men

A Jewish man in Miami Beach is facing charges of attempted murder following accusations that he opened fire on two men he believed were Palestinians but reportedly turned out to be Israeli visitors.

While in custody, Brafman spontaneously told detectives that while he was driving his truck, “he saw two Palestinians and shot and killed both”, arrest documents said.

Further complicating the incident, one of the injured men reportedly posted “death to the Arabs” in a message on social media after the shooting. “My father and I went through a murder attempt against anti-Semitic background,” he wrote.

“It is deeply ironic and telling that both the alleged pro-Israel perpetrator and the pro-Israel victim in the Miami Beach shooting reportedly hold racist anti-Palestinian views,” said Cair’s national executive director, Nihad Awad, on X.

The Onion wishes they came up with this.

Just like transphobes accusing each other of being men disguising as women.

[jcb]

Update on Gaz-a-Lago, it's going to look like this:
- https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrum ... 7897265338
- https://youtu.be/Wc4S8KWdxFY?si=-pXITwZIvXvVfM9o&t=227

In other news, Trump fired some top people in the military (and will replace them with a supporter of his, I assume), which is a big deal, because the continuance of American democracy might come down to the military deciding whether to side with Trump, or with democracy.
- https://slate.com/news-and-politics/202 ... caine.html

[malloc]

The Washington Post swings far to the right with a new editorial policy. Yet another example of mainstream media propagandizing for the new regime. With liberal and left wing views almost excluded from the media these days, public opinion will undoubtedly become hegemonically reactionary soon.

[jcb]

The Washington Post swings far to the right with a new editorial policy. Yet another example of mainstream media propagandizing for the new regime. With liberal and left wing views almost excluded from the media these days, public opinion will undoubtedly become hegemonically reactionary soon.

(1) This should dissuade liberals of trying to court "good billionaires" to their side. At the end of the day, a billionaire is still a billionaire.
(2) A silver lining to this situation is that it's easier than ever to access non-billionaire-funded news, thanks to the internet.

[Dune]

The Washington Post swings far to the right with a new editorial policy. Yet another example of mainstream media propagandizing for the new regime.

Oh, goodie, it's time for me to make my biannual overlong post about the legacy media. (Which I suspect nobody wants, but neener neener, I'm going to do it anyway.)

This is really bad. Just ... incredibly disappointing. And to me, personally, heartbreaking, because WaPo was the paper I grew up reading. I canceled my subscription a few years ago. Couldn't stand watching it get gutted from the inside out.

Some of the responses to this have still been a little frustrating to read, because a lot of people seem to not quite realize what makes it bad. Going purely off of journalistic ethics, Bezos isn't actually doing anything wrong ... outlets are allowed to take editorial stances and let them influence their opinion sections (just never their reporting). That's fairly common—not new and not scandalous. But WaPo has never been that kind of paper. It used to feature a fairly diverse range of voices and was run by people who weren't afraid to make bold, sometimes-risky editorial decisions. It's a complete waste to give that up to be a watered-down, Johnny-come-lately version of the WSJ or Reason.

And this is so clearly at odds with the paper's stated reasons for not endorsing a candidate last year. If you claim you're declining to endorse because you're returning to your roots of political neutrality, maybe don't fucking rebrand as an explicitly libertarian rag four months later. You can't have it both ways. But, of course, this isn't happening because Bezos is cleaving to any actual principles. He's just a coward and a hypocrite and doesn't care who knows it.

With liberal and left wing views almost excluded from the media these days, public opinion will undoubtedly become hegemonically reactionary soon.

This, though, is too far. This is a really upsetting turn for a once-great paper, but you can still find varying flavors of liberal/left-leaning/progressive journalism in ... well, most mainstream publications. The US isn't North Korea yet; it isn't even Hungary yet. Which isn't a call for complacency, because it easily could slide in that direction.

[rotting bones]

The NASA engineer I know is hiding his identity. MAGA is attacking NASA engineers.