thett3

My objection wasn’t about unwise monetary decisions, it was about donating money to a political campaign which the owner of that money doesn’t support.

Whether a CEO decides to sell a product is a completely different issue, company profits are not so black and white. There is a reason advertisers for example pull back from certain shows, it’s not because their leadership suddenly grew a conscious.

Pressure from activists will not stop a company from selling a product unless that company believed it would be worse for their bottom line to keep selling it. But even if it were the case for one company, it’s absurd to suggest a few hecklers could make this the case with every company. By that point the hecklers you describe would have to make up the majority of society. I assume it’s not your position that society should have no control over what circulates within it.

Not sure where this came from, but moving on from a pandemic doesn’t make it disappear. Look at the test positivity rates. The red states make up the majority of the highest rated states while blue states are mostly at the bottom. Total death counts are a horrible statistic because no one separates the early pandemic deaths from those after policy was implemented and had a chance to kick in, plus treatment has gotten much better with time making it even more misleading.

That is strange since  total cases per 1M in New York is 91,906 and in Florida it is 92,171.  DeSantis must not be reporting all the deaths

This was in the local paper:

The state of Florida is hiding information about coronavirus deaths from citizens. Under the direction of Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Department of Health (DOH), the state has consistently refused to inform the public about deaths and infections in Florida nursing homes, prisons and now, coronavirus deaths as documented by public medical examiners.

I have a serious issue with corporations donating to political campaigns. Companies are owned by shareholders, and no CEO should get to decide what political campaign to spend someone else’s money on.

 If people want that book it can be sold elsewhere and if no one else will sell it then that is the free market we used to hear so much about.

That’s how we got to this point where half the country is trying to move on from a pandemic while the other half is fighting against fake victimization over a few Twitter bans. This in my view, is worth pointing out.

Trump has reduced the Republican party to a single issue- the decline of the White Man. The only topic Trumpists are really looking to discuss is their feeling of loss as the rest of America  ends her traditional deference to white power.  Nobody really believes that Trump won the election in 2020 but pretending gives white men a venue for their grievances.  So it is with cancel culture.   Trumpists experience hasbro's mr potato head marketing choice as a loss of masculinity and demand government interference in that market.  Trumpists experience the estate of dr Seuss's marketing choice as loss of supremacy and demand govt interference in that market.

Jordan and Buck's letters of grievances are a direct affront to free market principles but they are on brand with their likely voters in 2022 who just want to talk about how they feel that something is being taken from them.

Cancel culture has become a right wing obsession as of late, but it’s purely a product of the free market. Do conservatives still believe in it?

It's a difficult comparison to make.  A job that commands a $53,000/yr salary in rural Arkansas might merit $80,000/yr in Connecticut.  I note that Arkansas ranks 49th in the US for internet access so a job like mine that requires dependable connectivity from home might not even be an option.  The most common job in either place is a fast food worker but if I take a job flipping burgers at McDonald's in Arkansas, I'll start at $7.50/hr and work my way up to an avg $8.48/hr ($16,960/yr).  If I take the same job in Connecticut, I'd start at $13.75 and average $15.26/hr ($31,732/yr).  The most telling statistic might be cost of living vs median household income.

In 2018, a living wage in Arkansas was estimated at $44,571/yr whereas

a living wage in Connecticut was estimated at $59, 502/yr BUT

In 2018, the median household income in Arkansas was $44,334 whereas

the median household income in Connecticut was  $73,433

So- while it costs $15,000/yr more in Connecticut to maintain the same basic standard of living, the median family income in Arkansas falls a couple hundred dollars short of meeting that basic standard while the median family in Connecticut has almost $14,000 more to spend beyond the basics per year. 

POST #16 this thread  "Biden’s winning base in 509 counties encompasses fully 71% of America’s economic activity, while Trump’s losing base of 2,547 counties represents just 29% of the economy."  The economic gap widened significantly to the credit of counties voting for Biden.

I can't find hard data on this but that's certainly the popular perception.  To my mind, the education trend is the most telling.  College degree is the most important class and income divider in the US and both 2016 and 2020 saw significant swings in college educateds away from the GOP and toward Democrats.  The fact is that college degrees increased 25% over 10 years in blue counties but not at all in red counties.  The fact is that income and productivity is rising fast in blue counties and declining in red.  Even if the average Republican voter's income was greater than the average Democrats in 2020 (I am skeptical but that basic number breakdown is hard to come up with), that advantage seems to be reversing quickly.

Ultimately, I view such statistics as more data refuting Friedman and Republican "trickle down" economic policy generally.  The Keynesian public-private partnerships modeled by the more progressive urban areas have proved more efficient and more sustainable.

• Democratic districts have seen their median household income soar in a decade—from $54,000 in 2008 to $61,000 in 2018. By contrast, the income level in Republican districts began slightly higher in 2008, but then declined from $55,000 to $53,000.
  
• “Blue” territories have seen their productivity climb from $118,000 per worker in 2008 to $139,000 in 2018. Republican-district productivity, by contrast, remains stuck at about $110,000.
  

If we really want to level the playing field then we should tax inheritance a lot more than we do. It's looking like a trillion+ a year of wealth coming from inheritance for the next 30 years or so, probably more. Tax that 40% IMO. That's 400 billion a year. Sounds good to me. I won't inherit anything anyway.

To put it simply, I trust corporations more than I trust government. Corporations themselves are the people with the biggest impact. With the recent fiasco with Robinhood, my outright anger at Robinhood and anger at AOC for dividing the party when there is bipartisan agreement, I lose faith in both parties. Thus is where Libertarianism comes in. Corporations think for themselves by using the people to compete. In short, corporations are the people who help understand the consumer more than the government.

Pretty much divide and rule. And we're divided and ruled by the rich. This will probably continue ad nauseam in American politics until the minorities grow enough in number to squelch the white identity vote or there is some racial separatism, or something like that.

I don't much connection between Harald Schmidt and the CDC recommendations.

Because the picture is far far bigger than some people with established  ideas,  fears and prejudices.

And you do understand the point, because you were able to formulate a counter argument.

And the newer influx of Middle Eastern and North African migrants would also love to be at home.   If only, the U.S. and it's Allies hadn't bombed the f**k out of their homelands. (Just an easy  jibe, but with an undeniable  element of truth to it.)....Will it be Iranians next, when the U.S. and their Israeli overlords eventually decide to bomb the f**k out of Iran.....(Hurry up Mr Biden)....More jibes with elements of truth attached.

Nonetheless... The homogenization of humanity  will move inexorably onwards and the old guard will be left behind scratching their heads and arses....(In my opinion.)

When they say America is a nation of immigrants or has a long history of immigration, the stated fact forms a premise that can support various conclusions. (e.g. ergo it is hypocritical for America to oppose immigration or ergo immigrants are your people.) The conclusions aren’t stated because the proponents of the argument know the arguments are weak and are concealing that weakness. America is a sovereign nation and has every right to exert strict control over its borders and to set immigration policy, and is no less entitled to do so simply because there was immigration in the past.

The U.S.A....A  new nation, wholly founded on immigrants, despising immigration.  To put it mildly, this does appear to be something of a hypocritical contradiction

Yes, there are anti-human forces at work here that want us reduced to consumers. It's horrible what our society has done to women in particular, almost every young woman I know is profoundly miserable and a great number are mentally ill, needing an intense cocktail of drugs to cope with what is materially an extremely comfortable life. Maybe I'm just being sexist, but I think hyper capitalism is harming women a lot more than men even if they are increasingly "winning" the competition.

100%. They try to relate it to something ridiculous about cops just shooting you for "no reason", Black families needing to give their kids the "cop talk", or something like that.

But honestly, I'm pretty sure most White parents tell their children to keep their hands on the wheel, be respectful, and not to be rustling around in their glove box. That is common sense. Mine did, and my skin is only slightly darker than sour cream during the winter.

It is just overprivileged college students who don't understand how sh*t it is to be a demonized "evil hick/white trash/redneck" who lives in a trailer park. That world is so foreign to the gated community elite.

The lax enforcement of immigration laws and high importation of low-skilled workers only exacerbates the problem. They undercut the wages in jobs that high school educated people, which are often Latino and Black, need like construction work.

But bringing back blue collar jobs isn't going to be enough. The vast disparities of engaging in poor decisions creates too many issues. People don't invest in high-crime neighborhoods. Single parent households create poverty and crime.

(Looks like you touch on these later lol. I write responses paragraph-by-paragraph)

Unfortunately, since most people aren't informed, disparities will always be racism.

Reminds me of how the whole feminist movement is corporate sponsored. The million Maga march rivaled the numbers of the woman's march, which had months of planning and millions to astroturf their insane cause VS a week-notice social media campaign. "We need to make women work so that we can pay everyone less after expanding the labor pool. Having kids is demeaning! You wouldn't want to take months off of work and future vacation and leave days to take care of them and go to their recitals, would you?"

Honestly, I hate capitalism sometimes. Social conservatism just isn't profitable, so inevitably any soulless corporation will lobby against it at every turn. "Drug war? No, we should make money selling these drugs! Anti-abortion? We want money to kill babies and sell their bodies to researchers! Having children? We want more workers and we don't want them doing something silly like taking time off for kids!" And don't even get me started on the massive GAY WEDDING CAKE LOBBY!!!!! Just kidding >:)

It is all lip service about supporting the working class, but they will use any slur they can to ridicule working class White people. Just makes them feel good to pretend they gaf about them. I read part of Jim Goad's "The Redneck Manifesto: How Hillbillies, Hicks, and White Trash Became America's Scapegoats" (good book, but only could borrow for so long). Starts off with Chapter 1 "White N***ers Have Feelings Too". He talks about how the use of words like "redneck" are commonly used in publications, both in quotes and from the actual writer, but the "n-word" is only ever used in quotes, generally to demonize some White person. So, redneck, being the White version of n***er, is a common slur that is allowed to be said by all.

Also, in case you haven't seen it, Amazon's Whole Foods internal documents show they want diversity to lower the risk of unionization. If you are Black, of course you wouldn't want to degrade yourself by pairing up with that evil White janitor! Lovely identity politics.

Social justice is the uneven application of the law based on immutable characteristics under the guise of correcting past perceived social injustices.  Revenge and ham-fisted reparations can't be a good thing for America.

In other words you never heard the teacher say this; it's a paraphrased and (clearly) overgeneralization of someone's perspective of this teacher. I would bet my life she doesn't say "blacks good, whites bad" so this is just feeding into the narrative of people stereotyping teachers as liberal hacks. 

Re: public school, my wife actually had a falling out with her best friend over a similar misunderstanding. Her friend claimed that she knew someone whose kid was 10 years old and claimed to be LGBT (or something) based on learning about LGBT issues in school. So the friend told my wife she was never sending her kid to public school because clearly mandatory LGBT education in school is why the 10 year old said that. Meanwhile the law requires middle and HS students are exposed to the contribution or civil rights issues of gay people in history -- it's not telling kids to go have gay sex. But that's the misguided and false narrative of public schools "brainwashing" kids any time they try to teach something that highlights past or present injustice. Obviously some lib college professors are over the top, but they generally don't peddle outright falsehoods.

Lol @ liberal teachers telling white people to hate themselves.

I'll take your word that Exit Polls are unreliable, but increased Hispanic turnout in one city doesn't mean Trump has the support of most Hispanics across the country. I still haven't seen any evidence to that effect.  Latinos are not a unified voting bloc and tend to vote per geographic location just like white people do. It also tends to be Latino men that support Trump and it's for similar reasons that white men love Trump: his disgusting personality lol. It's that brash, crass, in your face, IDGAF attitude that people find appealing which they have repeatedly said over and over when asked why they support President Trump, so pretending it's about policy is disingenuous IMO, especially since Trump has been so politically ineffective. 

It's undeniable that we had a pretty strong economy these last few years. One thing I think is interesting about the report you shared being from 2016-2019 is that Trump did not  take office until 2017, meaning 33% of the data considered for that report isn't even applicable to Trump's presidency. I also think it's worth noting that Trump has ripped Fed Chairman Jerome Powell a new asshole at every single turn and has done nothing but heap criticism at him while simultaneously taking credit for the booming economy. 

Regarding tax cuts, those did not take effect until 2018. So by that time, unemployment had already dropped, household incomes had already increased, and millions of new jobs had already been created per the report. Therefore it's not honest for the GOP to credit the tax cuts for any of those achievements.  They were already underway and there was no measured relationship between the size of the tax cut companies received and their subsequent investments as far as I can tell. 

Furthermore similar gains could have been made years earlier had it not been for an insanely obstructionist Republican Congress. Obama repeatedly tried to get Republicans to sign on to additional spending and tax cuts for the middle and lower class, but the GOP refused every single time. You had Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Mitch McConnell, et. al insist that higher deficits were philosophically unacceptable and financially ruinous. Even when the Obama admin proposed a moderate stimulus plan in 2016 that would have targeted infrastructure, Republicans would not budge. However under Trump the GOP has presided over the largest two-year deficit in U.S. history outside of a recession with no care in the world. You really think they're going to continue that philosophy once a Dem administration is back? I don't but we shall see.

Almost everyone acknowledges that it is notoriously hard to convict a cop, and that unions + other systemic policies make it hard to get rid of bad cops. But nobody ever wants to budge on policy. I don't want to hear "of course we need to get rid of bad apples" ever again. I want to know what policy changes, specifically, are being promoted, implemented and enforced. I don't want to live in a society without police either (even though I was very much of the ACAB philosophy and  still maybe kinda sorta am). I don't think any cop is blameless under the status quo because of the thin blue line / blue wall of silence, plus just the inherent nature of police business. I resent the fact that off duty cops can drive around going 90 mph on their cell phone with marijuana on them and nobody's going to think twice about it. Maybe that's childish of me but I watch too many documentaries and have had too many personal experiences and observations to let it go. Of course I think decriminalizing drugs would have a great impact on policing but I know you probably disagree. 

Nick Sandmann spoke at the RNC and won a lawsuit for millions of dollars.  His negative experience with the media did not usher him into obscurity, but instead promoted him to fame and fortune beyond his wildest dreams. How is he the poster child for Cancel Culture then?

I have mixed feelings on this. Some conservatives I know are cheering the decline of NBA ratings since players have gotten "too political." Whether or not that's true doesn't matter so much as their perception that calls for NBA boycotts are working. They definitely TRY to utilize and implement Cancel Culture just as much as liberals. For instance conservatives go ape shit when Disney threatens to even hint that a character might not be straight. I mean Disney is still going strong of course,  but conservatives absolutely act like whiney snowflakes who call for Cancellations over things they don't like. It's probs not as effective in part because it's hard to mount a PR campaign against liberal causes. What are they gonna say: "stop being so inclusive and uplifting!" 

Well, the idea isn't to just let criminals leave prison sooner. It's also about providing them with the educational and mental health resources they need to successfully reintegrate into society. The idealist in me would like to think that's more effective than mass-incarceration, but I recognize that it probably isn't

I'm aware that China got fucked over by the tariffs. But how much did that really achieve for the working class? I honestly can't tell.

It feels like the GOP is eagerly getting onboard with Trump's anti-trade schtick because it makes it easy for them to claim the PARTY OF THE WORKING CLASS mantle without actually doing jack shit for the working class -- just slap on some tariffs and claim victory.

I didn't say all deregulation is bad! I was referring to specific things Trump has done, like repealing the individual mandate and lowering the overtime pay threshold

Even if all President Hillary Clinton did was implement one or two of her major policy proposals (e.g. creating a public health insurance option, making community college tuition-free, expanding the child tax credit), that would still have made her better for the working class than Trump.

Like, I'm honestly just in complete awe of how badly Trump squandered these past 4 years.

Obviously, I agree that many of the ideas circulating on the far-left are dangerous, and that the people who support them shouldn't be allowed anywhere near positions of power. However, it simply isn't true that Democrat politicians are among those people. Even Bernie and AOC don't support that shit. Look at the actual policies they advocate on criminal justice and racial inequality. None of it is insane. Most of it is good and necessary. 

I'm gonna have to completely disagree here. Trump made a couple of flashy moves on trade, but they amounted to nothing -- outsourcing has actually gotten worse under his administration. Someone like Bernie or AOC would do a much better job of making substantive changes to U.S. trade policy. 

Furthermore, trade is not the only issue that's important to the working class. What about improving the affordability of major expenses like healthcare, housing, childcare, and education? What about regulating employers to guarantee fair wages and decent work/life balance? What about regulating banks and credit card companies to prevent them from ripping off unwary consumers? What about strengthening social safety nets so that we're prepared for the economic displacement inflicted by automation? What about creating blue-collar jobs through direct federal investment in infrastructure? What about getting money out of politics? The list goes on...

The sad reality is that Trump has fucking SUCKED on most working class issues. And it's not like he was obstructed by the Republican establishment -- he didn't even try! He went right along with their agenda, and actively *hurt* the working class with some of his deregulation bullshit. Literally any Democrat, including Hillary Clinton, would have been better for the working class than Trump was.

If non-whites are more moderate and the influence of non-whites is growing, should the party remain closer to moderate? 

I don't deny that leftists have more "star power" in culture; I deny that it's significant. Celebrities have the most clout with young people who notoriously do not show up to the polls. The most reliable voters are old people who couldn't care less about who Cardi B is endorsing. And if it's true that celebrities had a ton of sway then we wouldn't see Republicans being so dominant for so long. Obama was a centrist with a Republican Congress for the majority of his term. And then we got Trump whom every celebrity hates. Obviously "the failing New York Times" has more readers than Breitbart, but Steve Bannon made a very convincing case for how conservative media led to Trump's victory. Do you disagree with that? 

Yeah I'm only going by exit polls. Can you explain how increased turnout in some places though means increased turnout overall? For instance if Trump got 100 more voters in Houston than he did in 2016, but 100 more Hispanic New Yorkers showed up for Dems in 2020 than in 2016, is that really Trump increasing the Hispanic vote? I haven't followed this closely. 

You said the economy was EXTREMELY solid under Trump, so again I will ask: how much did blue collar people's wealth really increase the last 4 years? Has your family got a lot more wealth? (I ask because you live in the midwest iirc.) More property? More assets? A significant increase in take-home pay?  I think we can all agree Trump prioritized the stock market and Wall Street over "Main Street" which is fine but seems like a dishonest narrative from the people who pretend Trump has changed their lives. They're still poor. They still can't afford healthcare. 

It sounds like you're trying to have it both ways in portraying Trump as some sort of guru who saved the economy, while at the same time knowing low-income earners and the working class did not improve their class status much if at all. The gap is still there and may have even been widened. Earning $2 more per hour is nice, but did the working class gain any substantial wealth at all?

It's also important to remember the riots did not occur in a vacuum. They were a response to (another) horrific murder by a police officer in a profession that routinely gets away with misconduct. Race aside, it is just an absolute fact that police unions are extremely powerful entities and have many tools in place that allow for the continued employment of "bad applaes."

Like I said I think where the left has dominated Cancel Culture in a problematic way is academia and throughout real attempts at intellectual discourse. I couldn't care less if Milo Yiannopolis is heckled out of some university. Silencing someone that is not being intentionally provocative though? That's shitty and it's a real problem. Again my issue with calling it a "leftist problem" is that it seemingly hand waives away all the times conservatives do it, and they do it a lot. I maintain when the President is asking for certain media personnel to be fired because they portrayed him unfavorably, and proceeds to tag the chairman of the FCC, it creates just as much if not more problematic Cancel Culture trends as unjustified blowback in the private sector. I take issue with people who champion the right to discriminate and who would be the first ones to demand boycotts and firings ("HAPPY HOLIDAYS? FUCK STARBUCKS") having such a yuge problem with trigger happy firings by liberals. It just annoys me.

You think so? I hardly ever make predictions like this. I think it's too soon to tell. Who do you think some Republican frontrunners will be for POTUS?

So you think electing Bernie Sanders would have destroyed the Democratic Party? I agree. Wish I had that moral support from you back in March :) 

Are there any other examples? You said it was routine. I'd like to think about the trends and see if they tell a story. 

In addition to Fox News, there's Breitbart, The Washington Times, National Review, Red State, Ben Shapiro, Alex Jones, The American Conservative, The American Spectator, Candace Owens, and many more very popular right-wing commentators and publications. Virtually every NASCAR and country music star is pro Trump, and middle America tends to resent Hollywood and the media anyway.

I think it depends on which Hispanics you're referring to; Trump only increased his share of Hispanic support by 4 percent. Biden still got 2/3 of the Latino vote. I do think some of it has to do with establishing an "us vs. them" distinction between good immigrants and bad ones.  Why do you think so many Hispanics support Trump? Is it just anti BLM stuff + social conservatism, or do you think they hate themselves given many of them are first generation Americans with both legal and illegal immigrant family members and friends?

Again why do you think Republicans who emphatically endorsed "free market capitalism" for the last 40 years suddenly did a 180 for Trump though? And do you believe Trump delivered significant results for the poor and working class, particularly in the heartland where he promised to do so? I read a study that found relative stagnation in economic conditions throughout the Midwest.  Apparently median household income grew at a slower pace (2.1%) during Trump's first three years in office compared to the last three years of Obama’s presidency when annual average income growth was 2.6%.  Another report says  under Trump, annual pay also grew more slowly in counties that voted for Obama twice but then voted for Trump in 2016. In fact, the average annual wage growth during the Obama presidency was nearly twice that of the Trump presidency in the counties that swung for Trump.

Almost all seem to have died down in July after about a month and a half, except a few might have popped up in cities where a black person was shot. I believe there was one in Philly not too long ago. I haven't heard of anything else. I think a lot of the civil unrest could have been thwarted if Trump took a more balanced tone instead of thriving off the "Dems hate law and order" narrative though. He barely acknowledges the problem of unchecked police unions, choosing instead to focus on the "thugs." I get that it's politics but he could have done a much better job at being a good leader. 

That is 100% irrelevant though. These stories of alleged suppression tend to be simply anecdotal because the facts simply don’t back up sweeping assertions. People at Media Matters have done study after study after study after study showing that conservative content on Facebook receives significantly greater engagement than other content. The New York Times’  has shown that the top-performing link posts on U.S. Facebook pages are dominated by conservatives like Trump, Ben Shapiro and Fox News contributors. The examples that conservatives give of alleged censorship are usually just examples of individuals breaking the rules or people who don't know how social media works. 

This "phenomenon" of being cancelled is not new at all though. Here is an apropos meme. History is chock full of firings and harassment and lawsuits against people who were targeted and taken down for disagreeing with the status quo. You should look into how people were treated if they spoke out against the Vietnam War. I agree there is a huge problem with Cancel Culture and silencing dissent and punishing people with different POVs, but I completely disagree this is a new thing or that it is unique to the left. That's whiney ass Tucker Carlon crying again about things he cannot back up. And if you challenge that notion that this is not new or unique to the left, I'll just inundate you with tons more examples proving that straight up factually isn't true (I believe I already gave like a dozen examples). It's nothing personal I just loathe this demonstrably false take. As I stated there is a difference between having your Facebook profile silenced for 30 days and having the government demand loyalty oaths. There's a difference between being kicked of twitter and being fired for being gay.

Conservative speakers are just as welcome on liberal college campuses as liberals are at Trump rallies I guess.

Maybe it's true Republicans overperformed because I wasn't paying attention to specific races, but if it's true that people voted Republican down-ballot and against Trump then it's just as much a signal that Americans dislike his style as much as they like it. I feel like focusing on how dire things are for Democrats though is just a red herring. Like it's true but can't we all breathe a collective sigh of relief to have this chimpanzee out of the highest office? I think everyone knows it's an uphill battle from here. 

But Hi-Tech?  They may vote liberally, but they allowed Trump to spout his lies all over their platforms because they believe in Freedom of Speech.  I, personally, think that when it comes to voting  ---  nothing should be published that is an objective lie.  I'm not talking about subjective crap like "I am the better choice" or "Make America Great Again".  I mean facts.  There should be a bi-partisan fact checking MEDIA group that works in real-time.  I know I am dreaming.  But damn, you get one set of "facts" from one news outlet and another from Fox News   (ummm  . . .  I mean . . . and another from a different news outlet).  Seriously, just teasing here.  But I wish there was an Associated Press (AP) News type deal for major elections.  ONE FACT-CHECKED SOURCE.

My point is this.  Despite the "cultural" control you talk about, it was Trump's misinformation that got the most attention.  He and Tucker and Hannity and podcasts like InfoWars DOMINATED social media.  People who work for Tech companies (like myself) are generally moderate to liberal --  this is TRUE.  But, we will defend Freedom of Speech to the end.

I agree brown Dems are more moderate,  but can you give some examples of where they have ever saved the party?

Such as? I don't know what cultural power means...Where have there been riots for six months straight? 

So it's funny because I happened to be watching that episode of Tucker Carlson the other night where he relentlessly mocked the idea that brown people could be racist against themselves; he showed a clip of some liberal pundit suggest Hispanics "hate themselves" to a degree and thought it was absurd. First off the irony of him ridiculing this idea is that he (and you) have just argued that white liberals are the ones who go hardcore in favor of "anti white" policies, so why is it so hard to believe that brown people could promote anti brown policies?

I've thought about this and I really don't think I am. I feel confident saying all Trump supporters are bigots or very okay with bigotry. If they were just concerned about their financial security, why not vote for Bernie Sanders' version of populism? Or rather why  did they vote for the party of "free trade capitalism" for the past 40 years? 

Big Tech is not just a mouthpiece for the left. There's a ton of research that shows because of the algorithms on social media, they create massive echo chambers where people are just constantly fed things from likeminded people and that's how so many conspiracy theories and disinformation campaigns go viral. Russians and others have utilized social media to influence people toward batshit crazy wackjob conservative conspiracy theories like QAnon by just ensuring people see nonsense in their feeds. Everyone is subjected to it, not just liberals. If you're a conservative you'll see nothing but right wing stuff in your feed all the time.

Are you doubling down that Cancel Culture is a "leftist" issue? Because yeah that's just wrong. In addition to the plethora of examples I could give disproving that, one of the most egregious hypocrisies is when Trump took out a full page ad asking to execute the Central Park 5 who he wrongly accused of rape. Even after being exonerated by DNA evidence, Trump refused to apologize or even admit he was wrong about that. He not only smeared these people's names but insisted they be murdered by the state - but he's going to have the audacity to talk about Cancel Culture? Yikes. ..I've never seen so many boat parades or truck flags or clothing and other paraphernalia for any other politician  in my lifetime but yeah, maybe. 

  He's only down by ~50K in those states, but they still have hundreds of thousands of ballots left to count most of which are presumed to be in favor of Biden. Even assuming he won AZ, WI and GA though it's still come down to PA which Biden is winning by 45K votes and counting. Admittedly the election was way too close for comfort. Florida was another huge surprise for me. 

That is absolutely true. It's a great narrative because it's half accurate. The far left is pretty insane and intolerant, but the party as a whole is very corporatist and very moderate. It always has been. In fact that's why progressives take issue with the party, so for Fox News to keep fear mongering about how socialists are "taking over" the Dems when progressives are routinely ignored is not honest. There's like 7 of them in Congress and they loathe establishment Dems. Bernie lost handedly to a barely cognizant dinosaur specifically because the party is not far-left. 

To be clear I only love to make fun of the ones that are bigoted (Trump supporters). I have nothing but empathy and respect for the others. 

I agree social media changed the game and I agree that Cancel Culture is a huge problem in academia and intellectual discourse (I'm pretty indifferent about it in the private sector though).  What I don't agree with is perpetuating the falsehood that this is a "leftist" issue when it's just so clearly not.  Throughout history conservatives have been the first ones to demand cancellations of people they disagreed with. Even now Trump asked all of his  "we hate cancel culture!" supporters to cancel the NFL because one player kneeled during a song he likes. When Twitter marked one of his tweets as factually non-credible, Trump threatened to shut them down. The examples of right-wing Cancel Culture are innumerable and more dangerous coming from politicians or the president than say Chrissy Teigen or Alyssa Milano. 

100 percent. Why do you think Trump came within 50K votes though? I stopped paying attention days ago. Too exhausting.

The America we live in today has a different culture than the time of the Ellis Island immigrants. The people we are letting in are no longer from the "Western world". Their cultures may be less receptive to what we have to offer. Our economic style, now heading towards a service economy is much harder to adapt to than a factory job that doesn't even require a high school diploma. We also have a welfare state that allows people to not learn the language, while older waves of immigrants would have starved had they not adopted the language. We used to change peoples' names to be more "American" to cut their old ties with foreign lands.

Let us assume that the GOP won't become irrelevant ever. That all they simply have to do, as you say, is "change". Doesn't that defeat the entire purpose of being the "conservative" party? If they must abandon their values to reach a broader range of immigrants who don't hold American values, then any form of conservatism as we know it will be forever gone. 

I think the biggest takeaway is the inaccuracy of pollsters which I don't believe was intentional. Contrary to the assertion that Dems are trying to rig the election by putting out false polls (which isn't even "rigging" anyway and may even encourage people to vote for Trump since he appeared to be behind) I know for a fact that Dems believed those polls were accurate. I have a few friends who work for the Party and they were genuinely shocked and gutted at how wrong they were about a few races, particularly Susan Collins. I dunno if she's a goddess though so much as just someone everyone knows. She's been in Congress for like 23 years. According to Republicans, wouldn't that make her an Establishment hack? Interesting. 

Did that circle jerk chat finally get too boring for you :) 

Pointing out a history of white supremacy (and backing it up with facts) is not a condemnation that "white men are scum" lol that's clever though. That's a brilliant narrative for the GOP to push considering so many uneducated and low-information fragile white people will definitely believe that's what Demonrats are saying.

But Cancel Culture is nothing new. Conservatives have been the biggest culprits of all and it's not even close. Like I said in another thread: they'd cancel my marriage if they could. They relentlessly tried to cancel celebrities and media personalities who say "offensive" things for decades (like Eminem or Howard Stern) with government agencies like the FCC. They tried to criminalize dissent of Israel, with even convincing some states to require loyalty oaths to Israel in order to get government contracts.

and certain elements of the right wear white hoods and burn crosses. Every group has extreme elements...this is obviously not a widespread belief. I'm not sure anyone advocates for that, but if they do, they are a tiny, tiny group. 

you are aware that both parties have the exact same outlook right? They both cater the wealthy and corporations. Do you really think the republicans are against outsourcing jobs?

what mass immigration? America's population growth rate is 0.6%. That isn't particularly high. For example, Canada's is 1.4%, India's is 1.0%. The current population growth in the US is some of the slowest it has been in a century. Without immigration, it would be negative. 

The idea that there is a massive wave of immigrants is a bad joke. America's population is growing relatively slowly, and alot of that growth is based on immigration. Without it, the US population would shrink and the economy along with it.