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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Perhaps I’m being overly sensitive, but this is the first thing I think of regarding recent FBI activity
(other than the Kavanaugh hearings).
Well, the FBI being so set on preserving the status quo actually is helpful this time around, because the status quo is NOT Trump. And unlike most other agencies, it doesn't look like Trump managed to infiltrate them. Mostly because he keeps attacking the FBI.
One thing for sure can we put the idea of a deep state which would kill any president they don't approve of immediately to bed.
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"The status quo is NOT Trump"
Err...much of his policies are what conservatives have been pursuing for centuries. Trump's view of the FBI is similar to that of J. Edgar Hoover's, and conservatives idolized Hoover.
Edited by Mario1995 on Sep 29th 2018 at 1:19:58 PM
"The devil's got all the good gear. What's God got? The Inspiral Carpets and nuns. Fuck that." - Liam GallagherNot really, yes Trump is the result of decades of Conservative radicalism but that's not the same thing as the status quo. Trump wants to tear down the domestic and international status-quo to remake it in his image, so forces of the status quo are very much opposed to him for that reason if nothing else.
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji YangThe “status quo” is white supremacy and misogyny and an entrenched aristocracy without the titles. I think this article by Sarah Kendzior
can explain better than I can.
There is not, and has never been, a unified, hierarchical resistance in the United States – nor should there be. There are simply millions of Americans who know they deserve better. It is less a resistance than an insistence that privileged impunity will no longer stand. If there is a unifying theme, it is against corruption – a rallying cry for white-collar crime to finally be punished, a repudiation of policies that steal from the poor to line the pockets of predators. There are those who rage at senators who wish to promote a man repeatedly accused of sexual assault to the highest court in the country. That is not normal, and the resistance – regular people who ask for simple checks and balances on power – won’t stop fighting against it.
She goes on to note that this is not all new.
I strongly recommend reading the entire article.
But the thing is, the status quo as far as the reactionary class (whether they call themselves conservatives, liberals or otherwise) is based explicitly on Trumpian ideals of white supremacy, segregation, inequality before the law, social darwinism and persecution of people who wield little to no institutional power. Trump is a crystallization of the status quo that institutions like the Bureau (or, really, most law enforcement around the Western world) represent. Their perception is that a world in which, at long last, some minority voices have been able to grip a microphone and speak up loudly enough to be heard is the devitation from the status quo, and this is a return to the normal, dog-eat-dog world that they think they're going to be in charge of.
This really isn't rocket science.
Still not embarrassing enough to stan billionaires or tech companies.Just because you lean towards one ideal it doesn't mean that you agree with another one, too. But that isn't even the point here. Trump is attacking the democracy itself and by extension the FBI, too, because as long as the FBI protects democracy, it is pretty independent within the set rules. If it allows a dictatorship to happen, it automatically becomes less autonome because in any dictatorship the police only exists to realize the will of the dictator, nothing else. So yes, in the current situation the FBI is a helpful ally.
Obviously, there are elements of the status-quo that Trump shares characteristics with, but it's no coincidence that Trump attacked the establishment while being elected while also opposing the free trade that has been the consensus for generations. And the other ways he has attempted to subvert or tear down both domestic and international institutions clearly show that Trump is opposed to the status quo.
Thus to confuse structural white supremacy with the specific ideological white supremacy that Trump represents is fallacious, there's a reason that Trump has been trying to attack the FBI instead of working with him. Because they have fundamentally different interests and objectives.
Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Sep 29th 2018 at 2:08:17 PM
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang![]()
That’s kinda funny, because I would argue that Trump is actually the antithesis of status-quo itself. Status-quo is our expectations of how the world usually works, and is ordered. Trump is chaos personified, and by extention, will throw everything into chaos with him.
Edited by megaeliz on Sep 29th 2018 at 2:03:14 PM
Certainly, don't misunderstand me I'm not saying that the status quo is some kind of innocent victim in all of this.
He's as much a product of it as he's opposed to it, just that as a reactionary he wants to tear down the greatly flawed status-quo and replace it with something so much worse.
Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Sep 29th 2018 at 2:17:52 PM
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji YangI’m not sure that’s accurate. What he wants is essentially the status quo turned up to 11.
Here’s an interesting thread on drinking/drugs in elite college circles.
Edited by wisewillow on Sep 29th 2018 at 2:30:35 PM
I would argue that the status quo turned up to 11 isn't the status-quo anymore considering that it would be substantively different in many obvious ways.
That's really fascinating, I never knew it was so common but I can't say I'm very surprised. As she said poor kids can't exactly afford to spend significant amounts of their time partying or high, while the same obviously isn't true about affluent people.
Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Sep 29th 2018 at 2:38:55 PM
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji YangI always assumed that it was just played up and that most college students couldn't afford to spend their time like that, still, it doesn't exactly surprise me that affluent students can afford to be debauched.
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji YangAs Drew Carey once said: "College, drink, whatever. Same thing."
Edited by speedyboris on Sep 29th 2018 at 1:51:01 PM
> I blame the alcohol laws in the US. By being so strict it makes getting drunk looking cooler than it is.
Surly it's not the laws but the culture that surrounds them that's to blame?I mean prohibation styled laws certainly dont help but there are other much bigger factors involved
have a listen and have a link to my discord serverHe was 17, she was 15. And as a middle to upper middle-class white woman who attended a small liberal arts college with a very strong Greek presence, I have never been blackout drunk, personally. Drinking culture really depends on the town and the college, but I don’t recall as much drinking as media portrays. And yeah, poor kids at college due to family sacrifice or scholarships or working their way through college are probably far less likely to binge drink.
Alcoholism is a pretty serious problem in the legal profession; based on personal observation, the richer kids are the heavier drinkers, at least at my law school.
Edited by wisewillow on Sep 29th 2018 at 2:56:34 PM
Aha! I'm glad you said this because Five Thirty Eight recently had an article on this exact topic.
Science Says Toxic Masculinity More Than Alcohol leads to sexual assault
The title pretty much says it all, there is a correlation between sexual assault and alcohol but it's far weaker than the causal relationship between it and toxic masculinity. Perhaps unsurprisingly it generally requires a negative view of women to lead to one to decide to assault them.
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang

I'm largely in agreement, as the biggest blemish on the agency stems from the antics of J. Edgar Hoover. It's a bit harder for the rank-and-file to act in good faith when the head of the agency:
And he could just fire you for stepping out of line, and likely blackball you from all law enforcement in the process.
Edited by ironballs16 on Sep 29th 2018 at 11:55:08 AM
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"