The implosion of the Democratic Party thread

And the boogeyman. Don’t forget the boogeyman.

Resolved: states only have "competing interests" because states exist.

No states, no competing interests - the interests of a given locality can be represented in the House of Representatives (I agree with Lanz about gerrymandering but I still think RCV and multi-rep districts have promise) and the broad interests (like water rights and so forth) are the interests of the whole nation, not shit for arbitrary geographic distinctions to squabble over

Evil dies tonight!

States have competing interests because their people have competing interests. Getting rid of states wouldn’t change that. And some states have skew interests because their governments don’t know — and don’t need to know — everything about everywhere else.

Why does eg. Maine care about water rights on the Colorado river? What does a Mainer even know about the Colorado River? If anything there should be multi-state regional governments somewhere between the existing states and the federal government to deal with regional issues. What part they might play (if any) in the federal government is debatable, but states exist for multiple reasons. Getting rid of the Senate has some obvious upsides and debatable downsides. Getting rid of states has a lot of obvious downsides (loss of metis in local governance being the most obvious, but also loss of experimental democracy, an explosion of federal law and executive branch size and power to compensate for the loss of state governments, the inability to ever hold politically motivated criminals accountable across presidential party turnovers with no crimes beyond the President’s pardon power, an acceleration of the ongoing nationalization of political parties, etc., etc.) and little upside that couldn’t be accomplished with less drastic reform.

I thought he’s Jewish and the hard right culture warrior turn was a recent pandering thing. Or was that someone else? Maybe you’re thinking of Josh Hawley?

Once again, let’s say that’s true (and frankly, that’s ultra generous, and I’m well beyond steelmanning to give you this), what does BLM have to do with CRT? The real or imagined version, I’ll let you pick.

Several pages ago, I proposed an alternate way to put the "blocs with smaller population need to have their influence expanded through disproportionate representation" principle into action. Looking back, I see that the post got a "Facepalm" reaction but no actual argument against it ...

Almost as if it isn't really about the principle, but about making sure there's a way for the dwindling number of rural, conservative white voters to cling to power.

American states are for the most part arbitrary bullshit designed to help Republicans maintain control of the Senate. In most other places, different states tend to exist for practical reasons, like different majority languages or different political cultures. (For the longest time political analysts would go on about how it's good that Alberta and Saskatchewan are separate provinces because Alberta historically had a rancher based economy and "everyone for themselves" conservative mindset, and Saskatchewan had more of a socialist "let's all help each other with the harvest" philosophy due to having so many crop farmers. )


I'm not going to guess how many states America should actually have, but the proper number is more than 3 (Alaska and Hawaii each deserve to be one) and a hell of a lot lower than 50.

I wasn’t even 4 years old when my father and uncle started calling me a bleeding heart liberal. now explan that one blaming college professors and primary schools - mind you, I was totally immersed by parental ( totally right wing) prior to kindergarten at 6 years old.

Yeah, but that was like a hundred years ago during the progressive era, things have changed since then.

It was 54 years ago. But that doesn’t answer the question. I wasn’t indoctrinated as you were, that liberalism is a bad thing or that liberals are destroying America. So, I ask you agin, how was I indoctrinated by college professors?

I hated college professors. If you cannot do, teach. Yes, there are some good teachers, but college is a money making scam at bachelors levels. Many kids at that age are idealistic, and progressives are idealistic. This is why colleges are idealistic, and why the customer service representatives known as professors are idealistic. You have to get along with the kids because they pay your salary and are the reason you are there. Most of those kids are liberal, exploratory, progressive, and escaping from the oppression of their parents.

I do not overly blame the kids for not wanting the right wing christian fascists near them now that they are on their own. You just got to college and are ready to do your own thing, so who wants charlie kirk and ben shapiro freaking out because you listen to WAP. Go hang with my grandfather. I do not want the hall monitor around because he was a fucking NARC. Conservatives are Buzzkills. That is their job and identity. In all honesty the professor is probably going to turn us in for drugs, alcohol, and sex too.

It is not the professors making the right wing look bad and getting them uninvited. It is being a prude asshole with a giant stick up their ass and the desire to ruin everyone's fun and the need to cosby chicks to get laid.

Stop blaming the professors because you are are right wing prude mr @Federal Farmer . Pull the fucking stick out, have a joint and some beers, and stop being the bossy right wing hall monitor and you will find people at college will like you. Just a bit of advice for you when you graduate because all your high school peeps are not going to be at your school so you will be able to reinvent yourself as a decent person. Ask yourself what @Uncle Albert and @Paladin would do and do not do that shit because it pisses people off.

What the fuck are you talking about?

It's both sad and fascinating to see someone in 2021 to be so scared of Teh Commies!!
Or even that the American right wing (yes, that includes so-called libertarians like you @Federal Farmer) still uses Communism and even socialism(there is a major difference between the two @Federal Farmer) as a bogeyman in this day and age...
But then again, they still believe people when they claim to be Prophets(more like profits) from God...

-The Tererun Story.

You might not like the terminology, but dividing society into "oppressors" and "oppressed" for the purpose of determining what is expected of them and what you may do to them, the resemblance is there. And no, I never claimed it was a definition you would get out of a textbook that I know of. It's a subjective comparison.

When the behaviors add up to unspoken, unattributed permission to harass and attack people for having the wrong opinions, you bet your bony ass I do. I am someone who must remain wary of the mounting dozens of ways a bad afternoon could end in prison time. I do not respond well to being fucked with.

Cultural Marxism. Empowering groups who declare themselves marginalized victims to dictate the terms of "justice" by which everyone must be forced to abide or face consequences. People like to declare themselves revolutionaries because they think it's a blank check to live out their power fantasies.

Also, it's vital to observe the difference between being "anti-racist" and simply not being racist. It's no longer good enough that I have never oppressed anyone, never treated anyone as lesser because of some superficial attribute we don't share. Now you're expected to, what? Berate people in public for using insensitive language? Blow up social media until someone loses their job because they were once photographed standing in proximity to the wrong person, possibly even *gasp* making a hand gesture? It's stupid. Most people aren't racist. But most people also want to be left the fuck alone to live their lives. Enter the "anti-racist." Read: some sanctimonious windbag who intentionally casts a net so wide that everyone must be guilty of something if they aren't actively proving they aren't. Fuck that, and fuck anyone who thinks that way.

Yeah, yeah, you're the fucking Hulk.

"That's my secret, Captain.... I'm always retarded"

That's history. It doesn't need a new term.

Don't put words in my mouth to bolster your bullshit argument, princess. I never said I was ashamed of anything, and in fact with regard to race I have nothing to be ashamed of.

As for how you feel, I don't give a greasy pinch of shit.

I don't see anyone making that argument. I see people resisting collective guilt and "sins of the father" invoked as a claim on attention and resources. That's taking things outside the realm of rote education and into one of academic debate, which itself is fine if the whole exchange takes place in a setting where debate is allowed and everyone signed up for it.

Not facts. Opinions slid in between facts, to be accepted on faith as a display of moral purity. You're not making the religious argument you think you are.

You don't have to win a fight to face legal consequences for it, brainiac.

Yeah, I get it. Someone you super-duper hate forEVAR once uttered the term, and that's all you need to know. The echo chambers you haunt must be a screechy shitshow.

Did I say there was a new "cultural marxist" political party, with meetings and placards? No. It's an imperfect term applied to very real social trends.

That's your fantasy definition of Marxism.

Also, what the fuck is Cultural Marxism?

Ohhh....

You're not really winning any points on the anti-racist argument if you're basing your argument on an anti-semitic conspiracy theory.

Who has asked you to do that?

Who has asked you to do that?

Who thinks that way?

How is any of what you're saying something other than a fantasy that lives in your head? No one is asking you to do anything, but again, if you're going to rely on antisemitic conspiracy theories, you aren't doing yourself any favors...

Remember when UA used to call BearTM "Nazi file clerk"?
He used to be able to spot crypto-fascists.
Now he drinks their Kool-Aid with greedy gasping gulps.
What the fuck happened?

It's really, really, really, really, REAL, guys!
Look, he has a sample under the microscope!
*Cut to an empty table with no microscope*
The display is up on that HDTV!
*Cut to a framed picture of Gloria Steinem with the face of Stalin glued over her face with rubber cement*
See?
Its science!

Remember when you used to be funny? Neither do I. Fuck off.

Ooohhhh!!!!

Associate it with something evil as a low-effort way of discrediting something they cannot refute. Never seen that tactic before.

And any asshole can edit a fucking wikipedia page. The bias in that text is cartoon-level.

No one has asked me, personally to do anything. And if direct personal experience is now a hard requirement, you might as well deactivate the board for all the SHUTTING THE FUCK UP you people are about to do.

List names or it's a fantasy? Fuck off.

Calling it that doesn't make it that. The author of that page clearly had a grudge.

I mean, it doesn't have to be Joe Blow from Kokomo, how about an organization or something?

It fucking is, all right?
Just like "white genocide" and "the great replacement" come exclusively from the Klan and the skinheads.
You can trace the fucking history of it.
Jesus, you're gonna play the fucking "fake news" card now?
Yeah, but you're not a Fox dupe.
No, you're a real independent rebel.

You keep wafting my way like I can't smell your bullshit. One article can be dismissed as a narrow anecdote. One person will be dragged down because he once said a word you don't like. Even invoking behaviors in academia will trigger the "anti-intellectual identified" conditioning in the 80 lines of BASIC that dictates your responses. And so we circle back to FUCK OFF.