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.