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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Quite. The main purpose of the electoral college is to rig the system in the GOP's favor. It's based on the elitist idea that dumbf*ck citizens are too stupid to know what's good for them so we need controls in place to keep democracy from happening to our republic.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.or, ostensibly, to keep an unfit, unqualified populist from stealing the presidency. That Sure Worked Out Well
"Coffee! Coffeecoffeecoffee! Coffee! Not as strong as Meth-amphetamine, but it lets you keep your teeth!"Realistically I don't think the EC is ever going to do that. The electors aren't these Great Wise Men who live separated from modern society and not beholden to its pressures and traditions. Electors going faithless would undoubtedly cause political instability and nobody wants to do that, they chose to do so even when faced with Trump.
If America is going to shoot itself in the foot by electing a populist, authoritarian demagogue, then it should be because that populist authoritarian demagogue was chosen by the majority of the people and so he has a mandate to unleash his terribleness. At least then you can say that America chose its own fate, unlike this scenario with Trump where he lost the vote by a factor of 3 million or more last I checked.
The alt-right is essentially a new right-wing movement mostly buoyed by younger people who grew up in a culture of cynicsm, apathy and nihilism on the internet. They are basically a natural extension of the kind of people you see on 4chan, coupled with revanchism from mostly white males who resent women and people of color making advances in society and fearing that their economic and social privileges are being compromised. They are very driven by stereotypical ideas of masculinity and strength which is why they hate "SJW's" and call people "cucks", they think they are weak and pathetic.
edited 21st Feb '17 2:35:30 PM by Draghinazzo
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That sounds about right RE the evil part.
So, there's a Wikipedia article on the term Alt-Right
, which is what its members coined to call themselves. The tl; dr version is that it's pretty close to the Dark Enlightenment idea
- basically people who support conservatism and have moved away from supporting democracy because democracy doesn't guarantee the desired results/allows poor and/or non-white people to take part in the system.
I don't think Alt-Left is really a thing. I've seen the term variously used by people to designate people on the Left (i.e. Bill Mahr) who share the quasi or openly racist ideology of the Alt-Right, as well more or less the opposite, being used as a criticism of non-racist people on the political left by people on the Alt-Right.
edited 21st Feb '17 2:35:03 PM by Hodor2
Alt-right is basically a politically correct term for neo-nazis. They're far right on issues of women's rights, lgbtq rights, racial issues, immigration, non-Christian rights, and social welfare. They want women back in the kitchen, gays back in the closet, minorities back in chains, immigrants back where they came from (or at least not here), non-Christians forcibly converted or killed, and the poor left to starve (unless they're poor white people, who are instead precious nuggets of "real America" who must be saved from all the other things the alt-right hates). If you don't believe me when I say they're neo-nazis, they literally heiled Trump and victory when he was inaugurated. Also, if you remember The Hashtag That Must Not Be Named, a lot of those guys went on to found the alt-right.
The so-called "alt-left" is basically a hypothetical neo-communist backlash that doesn't actually exist in any meaningful numbers.
edited 21st Feb '17 2:37:34 PM by Balmung
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The alt-right is a loose collection of reactionaries, white supremacists, opportunists, and trolls that (before Trump got nominated) the mainstream conservative movement wouldn't touch, at least openly.
The alt-left isn't really a thing, apart from a slur used against progressives, liberals and even moderates by the above
. The far-left, as in actual communists and hard socialists, has little power or influence in the US. Closest thing you'll get are some quacks in the Green party and a handful of questionable Democrats who are (for now) outside of the party's ruling factions.
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edited 21st Feb '17 2:38:04 PM by Rationalinsanity
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.The main difference between "Dark Enlightenment" and the alt-right is that the latter is much bigger and frankly much more puerile.
The alt-right wants to make its ideas mainstream, and the stereotypical alt-righter is a white male between the ages of 14-30 something who acts in a really petulant, arrogant manner, bemoaning "SJW's" and harassing and insulting people they don't agree with. I'm not really scared of them because I understand them, their chest-beating bravado betrays how insecure and pathetic they really are.
Dark Enlightenment / N Rx/etc is a much smaller community composed of a few loosely-associated bloggers who don't really care to make all the media fuss the alt-right does (they actively refuse to speak to journalists), and what I have seen from them is FAR more frightening than the alt-right, mostly because hey're not motivated by petty spite and insecurities like the alt-right. They are 100% ideological, they have stared into the abyss and laughed pleasantly afterwards. There was an article posted a while back where they talked about the founder and the guy is utterly chilling, he talks in a pretty polite, genial way except he seriously asks "what was so bad about the nazis?" and justifies it by saying the people opposing them were really no better and since then nobody's cared about any minorities anyway. He's so convinced of himself that he doesn't feel the need to chest-beat or hide who he is.
edited 21st Feb '17 2:47:43 PM by Draghinazzo
Then again, the EC, which was made to avoid disasters that the populace preferred, bestowed upon the planet the gift of Trump and Dubya, so I'd say it clearly hasn't fulfilled it's purpose.
Alt-Right is the Politically Correct term for neofascism, used, of course, by the people who decry Political Correctness, yet get offended if you wish them happy holidays. Alt-Left is an attempt by the right to keep playing the game of "the left is just as bad as we are, so vote us". The main difference, the Alt-Right chose that moniker, the "Alt-left" is an external imposition (another term used is "ctrl-left".
agreed 100%
EDIT:
everywhere
edited 21st Feb '17 2:56:42 PM by IFwanderer
1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KVThe EC itself also contributes to reducing voter turnout, which is another reason it needs to go. The common knowledge is that your vote doesn't actually matter so why bother voting? It's not entirely true, but it kind of is true. If your state doesn't go your way, then your vote actually doesn't matter. Only the votes of the side that won the state mattered.
As much as we talk about trying to reduce the GOP's voter suppression, one of the most effective cornerstones of voter suppression is the f*cking system we use to vote!
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Pretty much. Everybody complains about New York and Cali dictating things but those states also have massive Republican populations too. Take California for example. While it's true it gave Hillary a solid win it's also notable that Trump got almost a third of the votes. That's millions of Republicans who have no say in who gets to be President. Forget votes not meaning as much across different states. Why should they get no say in who gets to be President?
The Anne Frank Center doesn’t think much of Trump's attempts to portray anti-Semitism as bad
.
The Texan plan to defund Planned Parenthood has been blocked by a judge
.
NBC Reports Russian Officials are creating a Psychological Dossier on Donald Trump
. Make of that what you will.
RUSSIAN AGENT: Okay, let's see here... Make America Great Again, okay, nothing there... 'Bad hombres'; uh, alright, don't know what the hell that's about, but okay... 'Grab em by the pussy?'
{Some time later...}
RUSSIAN AGENT: Uh, yes sir, I'd like to request a transfer...
edited 21st Feb '17 7:23:00 PM by kkhohoho
Regarding the Alt-right movement I want to add that another characteristic of them is a strong bias against Globalisation. Most alt-right supporters think culturally and more importantly economically in the framework of a nation missing the connected socioeconomic reality of today.
This is just a personal assessment. I do not think that all critics of Globalisation are part of the alt-right movement.
I am a simple man, I like stories therefore I dissect and discuss them.

Of course, there's always the possibility of this biting everyone in the ass if we ever get a Trumpesque candidate who also wins the popular vote, but I think there's enough potential benefit to outweigh the risk.
edited 21st Feb '17 2:11:17 PM by sgamer82