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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Yeah, I feel like the current left is ironically doing what it accused the right of doing for so many years. Thinking in moral absolutes, convinced that every facet of their world view is correct and that anyone who disagrees is an evil infiltrator who shout be shut up. And it feels like often, and I may be taking this the wrong way, but more often than not they seem to believe that individuals have no agency and that your are nothing beyond your various groupings, class, race, and gender. Don't get me wrong these things do matter a lot, but I feel like the very idea of rising above them gets roundly mocked at best, or else dismissed as race/class/gender treason.
I Bring Doom,and a bit of gloom, but mostly gloom.The majority of republicans are supporting Trump though. There are exceptions, but that doesn't mean it isn't true that the GOP is backing him.
And this all started because Ambar said some people, subconsciously, won't vote for Clinton because she's a woman. "Women can't be president" has been passed around for decades. Of course people believe it!
Look, folks, this isn't all that hard. If Trump were really representative of only a fraction of the Republican base, then why is he their nominee?
edited 22nd Jul '16 9:49:06 AM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Really? Because the impression that I always got growing up was that a woman hadn't been President yet, but that it was going to happen in my lifetime. I think that's why people aren't more excited about Hillary. We've been told this would happen for so long that nobody is elated when it does.
I don't think people are talking just about Trump. Most people that get hit with the most extreme stuff are on the left. In fact radical groups seem to have a thing for this, both the French and Russian revolutions regularly purged their own members. I'm sure the right does this too, but I feel the left has more of a problem with it.
edited 22nd Jul '16 9:50:05 AM by JackOLantern1337
I Bring Doom,and a bit of gloom, but mostly gloom.@Smokeycut: I'm hardly saying that. What I'm saying is that there's a growing culture of intellectual laziness among the social justice mindspace; certainly not among SJ intellectuals and activists, but among casual supporters. Right now, it's nothing sinister, nor is it widespread enough to cause serious problems. It's there however, and as social justice concepts become increasingly mainstream, it's important to pay attention how the ideas filter down to he lowest common denominator.
That's something that could be incredibly dangerous under the right circumstances; the kind of people who are a legitimate threat to democracy don't care what ideology they have to court, and will happily say whatever they need to say and support whoever they need to support to get what they want. If this festering issue is ignored for long enough, sooner or later somebody like Trump is going to seize on the opportunity, and you'll be faced with a populist demagogue no less threatening than Trump.
edited 22nd Jul '16 9:52:14 AM by CaptainCapsase
If they won't admit it to themselves, bringing it up will only make them defensive.
Fiction didn't help. The only time I saw a female US president in a work of fiction was in Y The Last Man. Where every man on Earth had died, save for one.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.See I took the "repressed totalitarian" to mean the narrative from the right that everyone is actually sexist/not-PC and just pretending otherwise. When people on the left instantly assume that anyone who dislikes their candidate is a bigot (even if the person is themselves on the left and has shown no signs of bigotry) they feed into that narrative.
Doctor Who and Supergirl have both recently had female US presidents.
edited 22nd Jul '16 9:53:30 AM by Silasw
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranThe SJ world has been intellectually lazy practically since it started, but that's a basic trait of humanity: nothing ruins a noble movement like giving it to the masses.
This isn't very hard to calculate, though. While not all opponents of Obama are racist, and not all opponents of Clinton are sexist, when one looks at their arguments and finds a total lack of intellectual rigor, one is forced to fall back to default answers. It's the old "stupid vs. evil" question.
edited 22nd Jul '16 9:52:53 AM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"@Jack on the bottom of the previous page: Disenfranchised communities are, by their very definition, communities. People treat trans people like shit, so we band together and support each other. Black people are treated like shit, so they have a community for support. As a result, the part of us that results in us being treated like shit becomes a big part of who we are. It's why we're treated like crap, so it becomes a big part of our identity, and affects who we interact with and how we act.
COD had a female president. Batlestar Galactica, Independence Day 2, Project Moonbase, Kingdom Come, Iron Sky, Doctor Who, Hunger Games, Commander In Chief....
I can go on. Fiction has a long history of showing women as president of the US.
- Was there even a US at that point?!
- Ain't watched it. Good news.
- Project what?
- Kingdom Come had a POTUS featured?
- Iron what?
- Doctor Who: I thought the Doctor was President of the World?
- Hunger Games: I thought president Snow was a dude? Pale, smells of blood and roses?
- Commander in What?
Look them up, some are "So Bad It's Good" others are just bad. My point remains, there has been plenty of depiction in fiction, even in the Call of Duty franchise, of female or non-white presidents of the US. Even well before Obama was elected.
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edited 22nd Jul '16 9:59:49 AM by OblongReality
Scratch a Trump supporter and you find either an open racist or someone who has unconscious racism that informs their views. It's really that simple.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Well, it's a pity that these fictional presidents didn't leave more of an impression, then. Me, the first US prez that come to mind are the one from 24, Bartlett, and Harrison Ford.
Oh, and that piece-of-shit Underwood.
Come to think of it, do you think the whole of House Of Cards is part of the whole smear campaign against the Clintons? Could it have had something to do with the Establishment Phobia going on right now?
Because, honestly, after watching that show, I can't see a well-polished, eternally-smiling politician without feeling an overwhelming sense of threat.
Dude, there's nothing to gain from calling a dumbass dumb, no matter how dumb they really are. Especially if said dumbass has power in the form of votes. I don't say pander to them, but I say treat them with a minimum of charity and consideration. If they assume you hate and despise them out of principle, they'll never listen to you or compromise with you.
edited 22nd Jul '16 10:05:57 AM by TheHandle
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

@Protag
I liked, deeply liked, President Obama's statement about Speaker Ryan. How he and Ryan may have deep ideological differences, and a difference of opinion about the NFC North, but that would never make him say a negative thing about Ryan as a man, a father, a person. How Ryan was a fantastic father, a good man of deep faith, and a generous person.
That kind of thing is what I've long felt missing from US Politics, the ability to sit down and have a drink with someone you thoroughly disagree with. To hammer out a compromise despite partisanship.
I just wish that it were possible in the current environment for Ryan to grab that olive branch and run with it.