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Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#107401: Dec 22nd 2015 at 3:05:27 PM

Yes, its also true that the Latino community (and Catholics in general) aren't into the GOP's message of "screw poor people". To some its a deal breaker.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
pwiegle Cape Malleum Majorem from Nowhere Special Since: Sep, 2015 Relationship Status: Singularity
Cape Malleum Majorem
#107402: Dec 22nd 2015 at 3:06:13 PM

[up][up]For some, it has the opposite effect. Namely getting their hopes up, then dashing them in a cheap ploy.

edited 22nd Dec '15 3:06:32 PM by pwiegle

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TheHandle United Earth from Stockholm Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
United Earth
#107403: Dec 22nd 2015 at 3:13:16 PM

I guess it all depends on how much likely you find that "Trump runs means Clinton wins" as opposed to "Trump runs means Trump wins means world burns". For me, Trump is a tool. To make the GOP implode. I find his winning very unlikely. So, for me, him not running is a bit of a relief, and a great deal of a disappointment, but mostly a huge deal of a surprise.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
pwiegle Cape Malleum Majorem from Nowhere Special Since: Sep, 2015 Relationship Status: Singularity
Cape Malleum Majorem
#107404: Dec 22nd 2015 at 3:15:52 PM

At this point, I'm so sick and tired of hearing about (and from) Donald Trump. I wish he would just STFU and go away. (But I know he won't because he's such an attention whore...)

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TheHandle United Earth from Stockholm Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
United Earth
#107405: Dec 22nd 2015 at 3:20:24 PM

But he's so rewarding to pay attention to. He's an outrage goldmine. Looking a Trump makes us all feel better about ourselves and the people we know. It is a consoling sight; that money does not buy class, respect, or even intelligence. It is reassuring, to see the idiots rally behind him, in an easily-ostracized clump.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
pwiegle Cape Malleum Majorem from Nowhere Special Since: Sep, 2015 Relationship Status: Singularity
Cape Malleum Majorem
#107406: Dec 22nd 2015 at 3:27:56 PM

That's one way of looking at it.

But a man can dream, can't he?

edited 22nd Dec '15 3:29:46 PM by pwiegle

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TheHandle United Earth from Stockholm Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
United Earth
#107407: Dec 22nd 2015 at 5:05:44 PM

The mods have given me a cold shower. Understood.

edited 22nd Dec '15 5:06:29 PM by TheHandle

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
TheHandle United Earth from Stockholm Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
United Earth
#107409: Dec 22nd 2015 at 5:18:19 PM

But what about the American Civil Religion?

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
darksidevoid Anti-Gnosis Weapon from The Frontiers (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: Robosexual
Anti-Gnosis Weapon
#107410: Dec 22nd 2015 at 6:53:54 PM

Frankly, though, "rednecks" (rather, poor whites) are better served economically by voting Democrat, as they will be beneficiaries of the wealth redistribution that Democratic governments try to institute. Voting Republican is very much a self-defeating strategy for them.
It's only a self-defeating strategy in terms of the economics, but the Republican meme machine has been reinforcing the importance of voting on social wedge issues, upon which such voters are on the whole more conservative, for decades. Social issues are currently more important to those voters than economic issues, so it's just a matter of what they prioritize more.

National Dems have only been helping Luntz et al. craft that narrative, continuously shooting themselves in the foot on this by focusing largely on social issues and tacking on economic issues as an afterthought. Southern voters in particular are actually rather leftist in their economic leanings even as they are generally rightward in their social leanings, allowing the economically-oriented Dems actually delivering economic progress in my state to hold on to power at the state level for over 100 years, for example, in spite of scandals and so on.

Dem leaders should have been lending equal effort toward pushing an economic message and a social message instead of triangulating away most of their roots as the party of economic populism and passively allowing the Repubs to control the narrative. The grandest irony in all this is that Dems would have been advancing the social agenda even more if they'd focused on economics, given that it's hard to sell the "your lot is awful, but look at [insert group to hate here]" message to people who see themselves as economically secure.

(I know this doesn't have that much to do with your post in context, to be clear. I'm just using it as a convenient segue into something that I don't see brought up nearly often enough.)

edited 22nd Dec '15 6:54:17 PM by darksidevoid

GM: AGOG S4 & F/WC RP; Co-GM: TABA, SOTR, UUA RP; Sub-GM: TTS RP. I have brought peace, freedom, justice, and security to my new Empire.
JackOLantern1337 Shameful Display from The Most Miserable Province in the Russian Empir Since: Aug, 2014 Relationship Status: 700 wives and 300 concubines
Shameful Display
#107411: Dec 22nd 2015 at 7:17:30 PM

Why America is moving left. I would also like to add that the riots and various social disorders today have nothing on what happened in the 60's. As far as I know nobody was killed in the Baltimore riots. We don't have the Symbionise liberation army. Our college students may act get a bit worked up about various issues, but they aren't holding their professors hostage. Only time will tell if it stay this way, personal I see the left gaining an even more radical edge as it gains more victories. But I'm not in much of a position to say. Regardless, change is coming.

Students at Oberlin are claiming that the terrible food they are served from various foreign cultures is cultural appropriation. See this is why people get a bit freaked out at the prospect of the country moving leftwards.

edited 22nd Dec '15 7:21:03 PM by JackOLantern1337

I Bring Doom,and a bit of gloom, but mostly gloom.
shimaspawn from Here and Now Since: May, 2010 Relationship Status: In your bunk
#107412: Dec 22nd 2015 at 7:25:12 PM

Read the actual article about the food. People are upset about things like making Tandoori to celebrate an Indian holiday, with beef, which most Indians can't eat for religious reasons.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick
JackOLantern1337 Shameful Display from The Most Miserable Province in the Russian Empir Since: Aug, 2014 Relationship Status: 700 wives and 300 concubines
Shameful Display
#107413: Dec 22nd 2015 at 7:27:50 PM

[up] That's one example, but other are upset about the Sushi for example.

I Bring Doom,and a bit of gloom, but mostly gloom.
shimaspawn from Here and Now Since: May, 2010 Relationship Status: In your bunk
#107414: Dec 22nd 2015 at 7:28:40 PM

Cafeteria sushi is generally upsetting, in part because it's not certain if it's safe to eat.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick
pwiegle Cape Malleum Majorem from Nowhere Special Since: Sep, 2015 Relationship Status: Singularity
Cape Malleum Majorem
#107415: Dec 22nd 2015 at 7:29:31 PM

Cafeteria food, full stop, may not be safe to eat. And is frequently upsetting.

edited 22nd Dec '15 7:32:18 PM by pwiegle

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JackOLantern1337 Shameful Display from The Most Miserable Province in the Russian Empir Since: Aug, 2014 Relationship Status: 700 wives and 300 concubines
Shameful Display
#107416: Dec 22nd 2015 at 7:31:52 PM

[up][up] Oh I'm not arguing about that, or that it may be extremely demoralizing for a homesick student from Japan to think they've found something familiar, only to be forced to eat that crap. What I am arguing about is that it is culturally offensive, instead of offensive to one's taste buds and digestive system.

I Bring Doom,and a bit of gloom, but mostly gloom.
Protagonist506 from Oregon Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
#107417: Dec 22nd 2015 at 7:43:32 PM

Well, I get the Tandoori with beef complaint, but on with things like sushi: Sure, it's bad. But I wouldn't call it culturally offensive. If I had to stay in a far-off country for a while and the only burgers they sold were crap, I wouldn't be happy, but I wouldn't accuse them of anything other than being terrible at cooking burgers.

Leviticus 19:34
JackOLantern1337 Shameful Display from The Most Miserable Province in the Russian Empir Since: Aug, 2014 Relationship Status: 700 wives and 300 concubines
Shameful Display
#107418: Dec 22nd 2015 at 7:49:36 PM

[up] Exactly.

I Bring Doom,and a bit of gloom, but mostly gloom.
Silasw A procrastination in of itself from A handcart to hell (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
A procrastination in of itself
#107419: Dec 22nd 2015 at 7:52:26 PM

I agree that it's shitty for them to label it as "authentic [nationality food]", like there's a legit complaint there, but I suspect that the students are using the wrong label due to a desire to be heard and simply not knowing how else to phrase it.

But realy it's a meh, younge people who are not fully grown up do a mildly silly thing, also catholic bears pope in the woods.

[up][up] Even if they kept calling them "authentic all American burgers"?

edited 22nd Dec '15 7:53:10 PM by Silasw

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
JackOLantern1337 Shameful Display from The Most Miserable Province in the Russian Empir Since: Aug, 2014 Relationship Status: 700 wives and 300 concubines
Shameful Display
#107420: Dec 22nd 2015 at 7:54:38 PM

Hillary Clinton moved to tears by young girl's question about bullying. We can't solve bullying. It's the sad truth. People have been bullied since the beginning of time, and people will be bullied at the end of time. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't stop trying.

I Bring Doom,and a bit of gloom, but mostly gloom.
darksidevoid Anti-Gnosis Weapon from The Frontiers (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: Robosexual
Anti-Gnosis Weapon
#107421: Dec 22nd 2015 at 7:55:10 PM

That analysis of the shift left was excellent. Thanks for linking it, Jack.

GM: AGOG S4 & F/WC RP; Co-GM: TABA, SOTR, UUA RP; Sub-GM: TTS RP. I have brought peace, freedom, justice, and security to my new Empire.
NativeJovian Jupiterian Local from Orlando, FL Since: Mar, 2014 Relationship Status: Maxing my social links
Jupiterian Local
#107422: Dec 22nd 2015 at 8:01:37 PM

Why America is moving left.
The tldr version of the article, which goes on for waaaaay too long:

The Democrats of the 80s and 90s were centrist, which let the right-leaning Republicans pull the entire country to the right. This resulted in the election of Bush in 2000, who proceeded to fuck up so badly both domestically (the recession) and abroad (the war on terror) for the next 8 years that it sent Democratic-leaning voters stampeding to the left. This resulted in the election of Obama (because Hillary was too centrist). Obama doing well-but-not-well-enough only encouraged people to move even farther left, which has pulled Hillary to the left of where she was when she ran on 2008, and allowed Sanders to enjoy a fair amount of support while running to the left of her. This movement to the left has allowed social issues long ignored — health care, gay marriage, Black Lives Matter — to become national issues. Much of this push left is fueled by the millennial generation (defined as people between the ages of 18 and 34, here), and the political gap between the old and the young (of both parties) is as large or larger than the gap between the parties themselves.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
Ogodei Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers from The front lines Since: Jan, 2011
Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers
#107423: Dec 22nd 2015 at 8:08:18 PM

That move by Greg Abbott is going to lead to trouble. The Freedom From Religion Foundation puts these displays up to mock the fact that Christians demand nativity scenes in state capitol buildings, but the first amendment means that everyone else gets to have their say too. Someone's been putting up a gay pride themed Festivus Pole in several state capitols in order to mock the concept, but the state has to leave them there, lest they get sued for discrimination.

Now, Abbott's setup could work if the building in Austin also took down all Christmas displays, but i really doubt he's going to try.

Plus it'll attract the attention of worse trolls. Next the Satanic Temple will come in with something that'll really make the fundies mad.

Skycobra51 A suitable case for treatment from The US of A Since: Nov, 2013 Relationship Status: Only knew I loved her when I let her go
A suitable case for treatment
#107424: Dec 22nd 2015 at 8:19:09 PM

I'm mostly center myself, though compared to my parents I'd definitely be considered left-leaning.

[up][up]No offense, but I've never bought into social activist groups like "Black Lives Matter" I honestly can't stand those kind of people, most are only in it for the attention at any rate and usually shoot their own message, fizzle out etc.

Look upon my privilege ye mighty and despair.
LeGarcon Blowout soon fellow Stalker from Skadovsk Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Gay for Big Boss
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
#107425: Dec 22nd 2015 at 8:20:13 PM

Those social activist groups are the only reason we don't have separate water fountains anymore.

Oh really when?

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