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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Hmm... they might tell themselves that in order to not feel guilty, but I'm not sure it's really something they honestly believe.
I think they do honestly believe that if they give other people any power whatsoever that those people will do the exactly same things they do to them though. Because Evil Cannot Comprehend Good. They really do believe that everyone, everywhere, is only looking out for themselves like they do, and will use whatever tools are available to cheat their way ahead at the expense of others. The people who haven't succeeded are therefore just really bad at it.
Edited by Clarste on Oct 24th 2020 at 6:32:00 AM
I think there's a bit of conflation of the Republican base and party elites going on in this discussion. There's a great deal of overlap but there are some differences - I think the base is much more likely to actually buy into their own righteousness.
Though TBH, I also don't really think there's much of a point to all this psychoanalysis anyway. I've long since concluded that no amount of poking holes in their worldview will matter to the 40 percent or so of Americans who make up the Republican core. The only option seems to be to keep voting them out and waiting for time to take its toll on their numbers.
(Hence, again, why apart from everything else I am very, very frightened about a Trump reelection killing all motivation among younger people who otherwise would largely make for a more progressive generation.)
Edited by nrjxll on Oct 24th 2020 at 8:38:28 AM
True, there is a difference between the Republican leaders and their base.
As for the armchair psychoanalysis, I don't think it would help you convince anyone to change their mind, but it sort of vaguely helps you to understand why they do what they do. Republican leaders lie as easily as they breathe because they see no value in telling the truth, they will only ever say what they think benefits them the most at that particular time. If the truth doesn't benefit them, it's worthless. And they will do this with no guilt whatsoever because that's how they approach everything in life.
Edit: Like, people jumped on Lindsey Graham for his hypocrisy with replacing RGB, but Lindsey Graham doesn't give a rat's ass and he didn't four years ago either. You can't play "gotcha" with these people because they simply don't care.
Edited by Clarste on Oct 24th 2020 at 6:43:15 AM
I've softened on criticizing Democrats due to the fact they're the only army we have versus the American Nazis but I will point out they have a losing argument with Barrett.
Because the Republican argument not to install someone in an election year is bullshit. They knew it was bullshit.
So the Democrats forwarding it just leaves them with a BS argument too.
And yes, Lindsay only cares about "winning" so his base doesn't care about hypocrisy.
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Oct 24th 2020 at 6:48:58 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.Are monks in monasteries just cels, then?
On-topic: It seems to me that "Let's wait until the old people die" is not the most effective of political strategies. And also, it's too "Passive Robocop" for me. "Won't be Republicans if the Republicans die."
Edited by MichaelKatsuro on Oct 24th 2020 at 4:07:03 PM
I mean, I agree it's a terrible solution, but we're living with a reality where 40-43 percent of the country still supports Donald Trump as president after - literally everything - and where there's a legitimate chance that he could be reelected. So it's not like there is any reason to believe there's a more plausible solution.
(And I don't want to come across as being stupid enough to believe there's no young conservatives - I'm just thinking in terms of percentages).
Edited by nrjxll on Oct 24th 2020 at 9:15:14 AM
I wanna say that a fair number of young rightist incel types are just counter-culturalists at heart; like young folks - who I see a lot of in this country - who don't wear masks because they don't wanna be told what to do, public safety be damned, and they're young so they think that makes them immune to COVID anyway. Similarly, they don't like being told to respect women and minorities purely on the basis that 'no-one tells me what to do!', which makes them easy to reel in to the more nefarious side of things.
Which really makes them Not So Different from their older counterparts - the only real distinction is the possibility that they might grow out of it when they get older. I know I wasn't exactly the model of tolerance when I was younger (though thankfully I didn't flirt with outright Nazism - I did flirt with being a Tankie for a bit, but thankfully I got over that quickly. :V)
Edited by PresidentStalkeyes on Oct 24th 2020 at 3:15:03 PM
Those sell-by-dates won't stop me because I can't read!This is one of those weird pseudo-symbiotic relationship things - because part of why hospitals started charging exorbitant amounts was due to Insurance companies telling them "We're sending you all these patients, so we deserve a discount for how much business we're giving you!" That would, incidentally, also make the insurance company look good to their customers, since they could then say "Look how much money we just saved you!" Because of that, something of an arms race started up between the two, leaving us where we are now - though the costs may also be a way to defray costs of expensive equipment (both purchase and maintenance) on the hospitals' end.
For example, I had a COVID test about a month ago - I didn't pay a cent for it, but my insurer wound up shelling out nearly $1,500 for it.
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"Gen Z is more Democratic than the current average US voter - it doesn't mean that they'll be the generation to magically do away with Republicans, but the GOP is already a minority voice in the country.
Edit: The evidence of (vocal) groups of conservative young people is not indicative of the political leanings of the overall demographic.
Edited by nova92 on Oct 24th 2020 at 7:24:54 AM
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/23/early-voting-numbers-swing-states-431363
Lots of early numbers.
Basically, Republicans are very worried as only one key state has had any Republican surge (Florida).
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.Big take-away from that article? Republicans are relying heavily on a massive Republican turn-out on Election Day itself. It's also much safer for Democrats to make that assumption, too, because the feeling is that Democrats are benefiting from a shift in their usual base's voting habits (early voting instead of Election Day voting) so they're exhausting their reserves early, so to speak. The Republicans therefore expected to close the gap on Election Day — dramatically in some places. However, when looking at the underlying data, the encouraging sign is that the swing voters in the swing states are breaking for Biden. Even here, however, no-one's quite sure what Election Day will look like.
So, Election Day turn-out is what everyone's waiting for. That's where Republicans will start closing the gap. And everyone's waiting to see how polling stations handle volume in the middle of a highly polarised election during a pandemic.
The Republican advice now is for voters to get out as early in the day as possible on Election Day. That should probably be the Democrats' advice, too.
One thing I'm wondering is this: what about people who decide they're going to go to a polling station the day before and set up camp so they can be as early in the voting queues as possible the next day — the way people do for entertainment venues, and the way Trump supporters have been doing for some of Trump's rallies.
Is there anything stopping people from doing that?
Edited by Wyldchyld on Oct 24th 2020 at 5:30:19 PM
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.Granted, the article points out it's not that unusual as the Boris Johnson government expects Biden to win and wants to get in good with the presumed next president before he gets into office. Which apparently is a tall order since Biden and Johnson's relationship is decidedly "meh."
The only argument I can really see is that some people won't want to show up to vote in person on election day because they don't want to catch covid, which will depress democratic turnout more than republican since republicans on the whole are more inclined to take the virus and its risks less seriously, and a lot of democrats have voted by mail already as it stands and republicans will try to undermine mail in ballots wherever they can whether it's not counting them properly or "losing" them.
But this is an election where people are highly motivated to turnout regardless of political affiliation so even then, you could see such big turnout on both sides that republicans might only have a slight lead on election day in key states with in-person votes, which when combined with mostly democratic leaning mail-in votes means they get defeated anyway. It's been pointed out that it's not unlikely we won't know the full results of multiple races for days after the election.
I guess there's a possible concern that people who would of otherwise voted for Biden on election day might stay home for their own safety.
However I think it's more likely that a surge in COVID-19 cases on the eve of the election will be a net negative for Trump. Mostly because it runs the risk of making people angry, which is always a strong negative for the incumbent.
Turnout is already 40% of total 2016 turnout.
In Texas, it’s over 75% of total 2016 turnout (don’t get excited - more registered Republicans than registered Democrats have voted).
In the following other states, it’s over 50% of total 2016 turnout: Washington, Montana, Colorado, New Mexico, Vermont, New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida.
https://electproject.github.io/Early-Vote-2020G/index.html
Edited by Galadriel on Oct 24th 2020 at 1:07:21 PM

Which, again, is part of their general "we are special and deserve better treatment than the masses" attitude. They really do have an extremely feudalistic worldview.
They just fundamentally don't believe in equality.
Edited by Clarste on Oct 24th 2020 at 6:02:37 AM