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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
It's not even outside the realm of possibility. From a story I posted earlier today:
NRA Was 'Foreign Asset' To Russia Ahead of 2016, New Senate Report Reveals – Emails and interviews detail the extent to which the National Rifle Association helped two of Moscow's agents ahead of the election, Senate Finance Committee Democrats say
RE: "House of Quark" comparison
If you want to do something evil, put it inside something boring.
And yeah, that was... not a great move on the Times' part, but that can be partially chalked up to a mentality of "We want to be the first to break the news so that we can get all the clicks!"
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"Uh, The New York Times have been hacks for a while, this isn't Trump's power growing it's just media sources desperate to appear "unbiased" hiring Right-wing opinion writers and carrying water for the Right.
It's not a super new thing, and shouldn't be a cause for any particular concern.
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji YangThe NY Times really doesn't know how to handle an environment this polarized with one side being pretty obviously in the wrong compared to the other.
I don't think most people know how to deal with it either. I suspect that's part of the "appeal" of Biden: "I just want this to be over and for everyone to get along again". Even though that's not really possible.
That's basically it. NYT has some very good reporting — indeed, some of the best in the business — but they are unfortunately mired in the cult of centrism that's infected the mass-market media since the eighties. In order to appear unbiased, they present "both sides" of the arguments, then refuse to take a stand on which is right.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Yeah, the idea that the Left in the U.S. would be considered the Center in Europe has been a thing for a long time, but it's not really true. To be sure, most Europeans take things like universal healthcare and strong gun control as given, while they are still very controversial here, but European politics has been drifting rightward in much the same way as ours. It's a problem because you get this dismissive attitude coming into the conversation that stops it from moving forward. Our mainstream Left is active, vocal, and powerful.
If anything, the biggest difference is that, while we have some nutty "hard leftists" in the U.S., they aren't part of the political conversation unless some external agent stirs things up, like all the aid Russia gave to the Green Party in 2016. In a parliamentary system, they end up with some votes and thus some voice, able to swing politics with their choice of alliances. Not so here.
Edited by Fighteer on Sep 28th 2019 at 11:38:16 AM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"The Shane Gillis controversy is amazing because of how it personifies the problem here.
SNL hired Shane Gillis because he's a right-winger who could provide a nice other side for their comedy. And then they had to fire him for going on a racist tirade.
That's the centrist fiasco in a nutshell right there. Bothsiders are constantly surprised by the sheer level of diplorableness that exists on the Right.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Sep 28th 2019 at 9:46:55 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.@Fighteer: Yeah, that idea become more and more laughable when you see the "European" Political Spectrum (Europe is put like that because Europe isn't a monolyth)
Like, Trump has people like him in Europe.
Edited by KazuyaProta on Sep 28th 2019 at 10:53:52 AM
Watch me destroying my country

Unfortunately, I think the beast is wounded but arguably not even dying. They got rid of their money pit network after all.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.