Zompist Bboard Again

Travis B. wrote: ↑Sun Feb 16, 2025 7:56 pm 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.

zompist wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2025 6:11 pm

Ares Land wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2025 11:13 am

rotting bones wrote: ↑Thu Feb 13, 2025 3:15 am 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?

Ahzoh wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2025 8:59 pmAnd now they done fired all the nuclear-related workers.

rotting bones wrote: ↑Sun Feb 16, 2025 4:09 pm

Raphael wrote: ↑Sun Feb 16, 2025 7:25 am 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

Ahzoh wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2025 8:59 pmThe 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.

malloc wrote: ↑Wed Feb 19, 2025 7:04 pm

Ahzoh wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2025 8:59 pmThe 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.

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!

Raphael wrote: ↑Thu Feb 20, 2025 4:41 amSomething 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 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 20, 2025 7:50 amQuite. 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.

Raphael wrote: ↑Thu Feb 20, 2025 4:41 am 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.