Nov 2023 Mod notice:
There may be other, more specific, threads about some aspects of US politics, but this one tends to act as a hub for all sorts of related news and information, so it's usually one of the busiest OTC threads.
If you're new to OTC, it's worth reading the Introduction to On-Topic Conversations
and the On-Topic Conversations debate guidelines
before posting here.
Rumor-based, fear-mongering and/or inflammatory statements that damage the quality of the thread will be thumped. Off-topic posts will also be thumped. Repeat offenders may be suspended.
If time spent moderating this thread remains a distraction from moderation of the wiki itself, the thread will need to be locked. We want to avoid that, so please follow the forum rules
when posting here.
In line with the general forum rules, 'gravedancing' is prohibited here. If you're celebrating someone's death or hoping that they die, your post will get thumped. This rule applies regardless of what the person you're discussing has said or done.
Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
I'll take Nothing for $1000, Alex!
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Trump has energized the neo-Nazi groups within our society. They finally see a public figure espousing their beliefs and not being destroyed for it.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Here's an editorial
from a right-wing source, of how Donald Trump is making the Republican party look like what liberals have claimed it was all about all along.
Yeah, Trump just blew its cover. It was pretty blatant if you knew where to look, though, starting way back with Reagan.
edited 15th Dec '15 7:15:00 AM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Well, yeah, that's what I meant. Reagan made it politically acceptable to be a covert racist. Trump has made it politically acceptable (or at least is trying) to be an overt racist.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"It's sort of cyclical. We were overtly racist (slavery, Jim Crow) up to the 1960s, then we said, "You can't do that anymore." The racists went underground for a few decades, popping back up when Reagan found a politically correct way to express it. As I said way back in my megapost about the Republican Party, our country was founded on racism and it continues to be quite possibly our defining cultural element.
edited 15th Dec '15 7:21:21 AM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Here's my big concern (among many) about Trump being hypothetically elected: Fear often leads to giving up personal freedoms. If Trump wins, the surveillance state would inevitably expand to Orwellian levels. And before anyone says "The racists don't care, because they just think non-whites will be the ones targeted.", it may start out that way but once you open the Genie bottle it's hard to put it back in. By that I mean, the invasive surveillance would inevitably expand to EVERYONE.
edited 15th Dec '15 8:19:03 AM by speedyboris
WARNING: this post contains baseless generalisations.
![]()
To be fair to Americans, I'd like to point out that Europe has some serious xenophobia issues as well, and is currently seeing a rise of the extreme-right too. It's just slightly less pronounced due to us not having as great a percentage of non-whites/natives.
It's just that kinda age, really. Economy does bad, people want solutions, dumb people that don't understand economics blame minorities and vote en masse, smarter people understand there's no easy solution, get disillusioned and don't vote.
It should be better in a decade or so when everyone's slice of the pie gets bigger again. And then it will start all over.
At least the war that's being fought over it this time manages to be relatively low-key.
edited 15th Dec '15 7:39:56 AM by Kayeka
Washington Post tells us that Trump may benefit from an emphasis on terrorism,
since he's seen as the "toughest" candidate.
Ideally, I'd like to see Trump become the GOP nominee when terrorism is the big talked-about issue, then have people shift their focus to the economy, get scared of Trump, and nominate and later vote for Sanders.
An acceleration of terrorist attacks in the U.S. could well spur voters to gravitate towards Trump.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Daesh does not have the manpower to actually do stuff like what Al Qaeda did. They can, from a distance, spur lone wolves into action and that is the best they can do. And even that, at great cost.
It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothesSome days, Trump reminds me of the Westboro Baptist Church...
That maybe they're only extreme fronts to make the right look bad.
edited 15th Dec '15 8:18:31 AM by Keybreak
You gotta believe me when I scare you away, all that I wish for is that you would stay

Can we talk about something other than the presidential elections? Like, what is Congress doing right now?
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman