2020 US Election (Part One)

[Lexicus]

Given it is one year to the actual election, it seems really dumb to have 18 candidates...

Don't worry. The Winnowing will begin soon. Also, I'm convinced that at least one of the campaigns is just a donation-soliciting scam with no intention of winning (Gabbard).

 

[hobbsyoyo]

A guy on Fresh Air claimed that Gabbard has a lot of support from the extreme right of the country. He didn't lay out enough evidence to convince me of that but it was interesting.

 

[Estebonrober]

Don't worry. The Winnowing will begin soon. Also, I'm convinced that at least one of the campaigns is just a donation-soliciting scam with no intention of winning (Gabbard).

Heck I figured about 13 of them were this including Patrick's pitch today. Its for the publicity it generates allowing them to do more things in the future. Its also really easy as a democrat right now to stand up and say all sorts of flowery things when the GOP is this corrupt and reckless.

 

[Lexicus]

A guy on Fresh Air claimed that Gabbard has a lot of support from the extreme right of the country. He didn't lay out enough evidence to convince me of that but it was interesting.

Well, I'm sure this isn't what they were talking about, but her affiliations with the far-right in India are pretty well-known. She has received donations from a lot of people aligned with BJP and RSS (the latter is a literal fascist paramilitary organization).

Anyway, here is some more anecdotal evidence that she mostly appeals to Trumpers:
https://thebaffler.com/latest/inside-the-tulsi-hive-malmgren

Back in Brooklyn, an hour before the June 26 debate, The Craic was humming with giddy anticipation. An organizer dispensed plastic leis, a relaxed selection of tropical button-ups peppered the crowd, and a pack of guests huddled around a corner tray of fruit kebabs—later complimented by roving pans of Hawaiian pizza—as a stream of arrivals stocked the room. Seated in the middle of the bar, a young man laughed with his friends while clutching a ukulele and sporting a white hat with a familiar slogan: “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.”

The guy in the MAGA hat, who asked that I call him “Sam,” told me he was unlikely to vote for any Democrat in 2020, but that he’d come out with a friend who was “obsessed” with Gabbard. I mentioned that I was surprised to find a MAGA hat at a Democratic debate party, and a middle-aged man from Long Island laughed at the sentiment. “I think you’ll find a lot of invisible MAGA hats here,” he said, adding that he was a Trump supporter as well.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

According to the guy on Fresh Air, the extreme right is attracted to her because of her anti-war stance and the perception that she'd be a disruptive figure like Trump. But this guy also said the most extreme elements of the far right (like actual Klansmen and neo-nazis) are beginning to turn on Trump over his bombings in Syria and the wider middle east so I'm not sure I believe him on any of it.

 

[Lexicus]

According to the guy on Fresh Air, the extreme right is attracted to her because of her anti-war stance and the perception that she'd be a disruptive figure like Trump. But this guy also said the most extreme elements of the far right (like actual Klansmen and neo-nazis) are beginning to turn on Trump over his bombings in Syria and the wider middle east so I'm not sure I believe him on any of it.

I mean, it's like Berzerker-brain (the next level above galaxy-brain) to believe the far right are pacifists, so...

 

[hobbsyoyo]

It was certainly news to me

 

[AmazonQueen]

According to the guy on Fresh Air, the extreme right is attracted to her because of her anti-war stance and the perception that she'd be a disruptive figure like Trump. But this guy also said the most extreme elements of the far right (like actual Klansmen and neo-nazis) are beginning to turn on Trump over his bombings in Syria and the wider middle east so I'm not sure I believe him on any of it.

Trump Jr got booed off stage by an alt right crowd after he refused to do a Q & A. Supposedly some of the far right thinks Trump Sr is soft on race.

 

[Takhisis]

don't be silly takh, religion is a myth created by the church of atheism to scare you straight

But I am straight… or am I? Wait, my head hurts.

Yes. We're openly despised and disparaged but a lot of the stigma has faded with the younger generation even as it persists with the older people. Coming out as an atheist can break up a family the same way coming out as gay did for most people until recently (and it still happens for gay people of course but is trending better). It's almost completely verboten to be an atheist in politics as a result.

People say that age is the last area where discrimination is allowed in our society but I disagree because of how atheists are treated and perceived.

Ah, I see. Maybe everybody is presumed to be at best-worst a lapsed Christian. Given how Evangelical Protestantism is the unofficial official religion of the US by virtue of the Founding Fathers™, then a rejection of the concept of God itself is to them like anarchy.

The above is peculiar to the US; to me government and church are two separate things. Obviously linked in the sense that they both are figures in society, but they cater to different needs… also if we outlaw sin then more or less everybody, definitely including me, should be imprisoned or otherwise punished, because we can certainly find somebody somewhere who'll find something I've done sometime to be sinful.

 

[innonimatu]

I mean, it's like Berzerker-brain (the next level above galaxy-brain) to believe the far right are pacifists, so...

If they can be persuaded to be pacifists just out of contrariness, even for a decade or so, that's fine by me! One day at a time, ending or preventing wars can use all the help it gets.

 

[Bugfatty300]

Comprehension fail.

Religion exists, Trek doesn't it's entertainment.

Entertainment = non-existence?

They're both abstract human creations that are manifested in real media and actions. What's the justification for calling one real and other not?

 

[Zardnaar]

Entertainment = non-existence?

They're both abstract human creations that are manifested in real media and actions. What's the justification for calling one real and other not?

Big difference in scale.

 

[Bugfatty300]

Big difference in scale.

Scale = existence?

If something is bigger than the other then the former is real and the latter not?

 

[Zardnaar]

Scale = existence?

If something is bigger than the other then the former is real and the latter not?

Context religions real, not to many people are claiming treks real except as a TV show/movies etc.

 

[Bugfatty300]

Context religions real, not to many people are claiming treks real except as a TV show/movies etc.

So more people claim it's real then it must be real? Is that your criteria?

 

[Zardnaar]

So more people claim it's real then it must be real? Is that your criteria?

Nitpicking much?

Religions real for the people who believe in it. I don't think to many trekkies think it's real and the ones that do probably have other issues.

You don't see trekkies going in crusade and jyhad.

 

[Kyriakos]

Why exactly are all those corporatists keep joining the race?

 

[Lexicus]

If they can be persuaded to be pacifists just out of contrariness, even for a decade or so, that's fine by me! One day at a time, ending or preventing wars can use all the help it gets.

I mean, I'm not sure that allowing them to build up for an apocalyptic race war for a decade is an improvement on the normal sort of slow-burn of imperialist war.

 

[Socrates99]

I mean, I'm not sure that allowing them to build up for an apocalyptic race war for a decade is an improvement on the normal sort of slow-burn of imperialist war.

Gosh, it's almost like Trump didn't crush the establishment GoP and Clinton herself with a lot of anti interventionist rhetoric. His jabs at Jeb were primarily focused on his brother's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Rand Paul, Mike Lee, paleo cons and other libertarianish "extreme right" are all pretty antiwar. It's not "Berserker brain" to come to that realization...

 

[Lexicus]

Gosh, it's almost like Trump didn't crush the establishment GoP and Clinton herself with a lot of anti interventionist rhetoric. His jabs at Jeb were primarily focused on his brother's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Rand Paul, Mike Lee, paleo cons and other libertarianish "extreme right" are all pretty antiwar. It's not "Berserker brain" to come to that realization...

Yeah, if you think that the libertarian right wouldn't go to war for the sake of US corporations regardless of what they say, you're a dupe and fool (not that it matters because the likes of Rand Paul know they'll never be in power, ie, in a position where they have to follow through on their promises).

I guess I'm living in an alternate universe where Trump promised to commit war crimes on the GOP primary debate stage and received huge cheers. And where Trump has relaxed the rules of engagement for the US military and significantly increased civilian casualties over Obama.