Hadn't seen anyone share this which came out last week. Thought it was well worth some time and reflection.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archi ... ss/572581/
The Reader's Digest version -
On social media, the country seems to divide into two neat camps: Call them the woke and the resentful. Team Resentment is manned—pun very much intended—by people who are predominantly old and almost exclusively white. Team Woke is young, likely to be female, and predominantly black, brown, or Asian (though white “allies” do their dutiful part). These teams are roughly equal in number, and they disagree most vehemently, as well as most routinely, about the catchall known as political correctness.
Reality is nothing like this. As scholars Stephen Hawkins, Daniel Yudkin, Miriam Juan-Torres, and Tim Dixon argue in a report published Wednesday, “Hidden Tribes: A Study of America’s Polarized Landscape,” most Americans don’t fit into either of these camps. They also share more common ground than the daily fights on social media might suggest—including a general aversion to PC culture.
...
According to the report, 25 percent of Americans are traditional or devoted conservatives, and their views are far outside the American mainstream. Some 8 percent of Americans are progressive activists, and their views are even less typical. By contrast, the two-thirds of Americans who don’t belong to either extreme constitute an “exhausted majority.” Their members “share a sense of fatigue with our polarized national conversation, a willingness to be flexible in their political viewpoints, and a lack of voice in the national conversation.”
Most members of the “exhausted majority,” and then some, dislike political correctness. Among the general population, a full 80 percent believe that “political correctness is a problem in our country.” Even young people are uncomfortable with it, including 74 percent ages 24 to 29, and 79 percent under age 24. On this particular issue, the woke are in a clear minority across all ages.
Youth isn’t a good proxy for support of political correctness—and it turns out race isn’t, either.
...
If age and race do not predict support for political correctness, what does? Income and education.
While 83 percent of respondents who make less than $50,000 dislike political correctness, just 70 percent of those who make more than $100,000 are skeptical about it. And while 87 percent who have never attended college think that political correctness has grown to be a problem, only 66 percent of those with a postgraduate degree share that sentiment.
Political tribe—as defined by the authors—is an even better predictor of views on political correctness. Among devoted conservatives, 97 percent believe that political correctness is a problem. Among traditional liberals, 61 percent do. Progressive activists are the only group that strongly backs political correctness: Only 30 percent see it as a problem.
So what does this group look like? Compared with the rest of the (nationally representative) polling sample, progressive activists are much more likely to be rich, highly educated—and white. They are nearly twice as likely as the average to make more than $100,000 a year. They are nearly three times as likely to have a postgraduate degree. And while 12 percent of the overall sample in the study is African American, only 3 percent of progressive activists are. With the exception of the small tribe of devoted conservatives, progressive activists are the most racially homogeneous group in the country.
I've been ruminating on this for a week now. And frankly I've not been able to settle in my mind what it is that it says about America.
It brought to mind this other article from earlier this year on essentially the same demographic group (affluent, well-educated white Americans) -
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ar ... cy/559130/
Let’s talk first about money—even if money is only one part of what makes the new aristocrats special. There is a familiar story about rising inequality in the United States, and its stock characters are well known. The villains are the fossil-fueled plutocrat, the Wall Street fat cat, the callow tech bro, and the rest of the so-called top 1 percent. The good guys are the 99 percent, otherwise known as “the people” or “the middle class.” The arc of the narrative is simple: Once we were equal, but now we are divided. The story has a grain of truth to it. But it gets the characters and the plot wrong in basic ways.
It is in fact the top 0.1 percent who have been the big winners in the growing concentration of wealth over the past half century. According to the UC Berkeley economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, the 160,000 or so households in that group held 22 percent of America’s wealth in 2012, up from 10 percent in 1963. If you’re looking for the kind of money that can buy elections, you’ll find it inside the top 0.1 percent alone.
Every piece of the pie picked up by the 0.1 percent, in relative terms, had to come from the people below. But not everyone in the 99.9 percent gave up a slice. Only those in the bottom 90 percent did. At their peak, in the mid-1980s, people in this group held 35 percent of the nation’s wealth. Three decades later that had fallen 12 points—exactly as much as the wealth of the 0.1 percent rose.
In between the top 0.1 percent and the bottom 90 percent is a group that has been doing just fine. It has held on to its share of a growing pie decade after decade. And as a group, it owns substantially more wealth than do the other two combined. In the tale of three classes (see Figure 1), it is represented by the gold line floating high and steady while the other two duke it out. You’ll find the new aristocracy there. We are the 9.9 percent.
So what kind of characters are we, the 9.9 percent? We are mostly not like those flamboyant political manipulators from the 0.1 percent. We’re a well-behaved, flannel-suited crowd of lawyers, doctors, dentists, mid-level investment bankers, M.B.A.s with opaque job titles, and assorted other professionals—the kind of people you might invite to dinner. In fact, we’re so self-effacing, we deny our own existence. We keep insisting that we’re “middle class.”
As of 2016, it took $1.2 million in net worth to make it into the 9.9 percent; $2.4 million to reach the group’s median; and $10 million to get into the top 0.9 percent. (And if you’re not there yet, relax: Our club is open to people who are on the right track and have the right attitude.) “We are the 99 percent” sounds righteous, but it’s a slogan, not an analysis. The families at our end of the spectrum wouldn’t know what to do with a pitchfork.
We are also mostly, but not entirely, white. According to a Pew Research Center analysis, African Americans represent 1.9 percent of the top 10th of households in wealth; Hispanics, 2.4 percent; and all other minorities, including Asian and multiracial individuals, 8.8 percent—even though those groups together account for 35 percent of the total population.
One of the hazards of life in the 9.9 percent is that our necks get stuck in the upward position. We gaze upon the 0.1 percent with a mixture of awe, envy, and eagerness to obey. As a consequence, we are missing the other big story of our time. We have left the 90 percent in the dust—and we’ve been quietly tossing down roadblocks behind us to make sure that they never catch up.
Woke or Resentful? Most Likely Neither
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_honorentheos
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Woke or Resentful? Most Likely Neither
The world is always full of the sound of waves..but who knows the heart of the sea, a hundred feet down? Who knows it's depth?
~ Eiji Yoshikawa
~ Eiji Yoshikawa
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_honorentheos
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Re: Woke or Resentful? Most Likely Neither
https://www.moreincommon.com/hidden-tribes/
The report that informed the first article is available at the above link. Also worth reading. For example, they used their research to identify seven belief-based identities or tribes in the US which are worth considering given the propensity to focus on either conservatives or liberals. Their categories:
Progressive Activists: younger, highly engaged, secular, cosmopolitan, angry.
Traditional Liberals: older, retired, open to compromise, rational, cautious.
Passive Liberals: unhappy, insecure, distrustful, disillusioned.
Politically Disengaged: young, low income, distrustful, detached, patriotic, conspiratorial.
Moderates: engaged, civic-minded, middle-of-the-road, pessimistic, Protestant.
Traditional Conservatives: religious, middle class, patriotic, moralistic.
Devoted Conservatives: white, retired, highly engaged, uncompromising, patriotic.
Some here might find the graph on page 9 regarding attitudes towards feminism interesting given the purpose of this board...
The report that informed the first article is available at the above link. Also worth reading. For example, they used their research to identify seven belief-based identities or tribes in the US which are worth considering given the propensity to focus on either conservatives or liberals. Their categories:
Progressive Activists: younger, highly engaged, secular, cosmopolitan, angry.
Traditional Liberals: older, retired, open to compromise, rational, cautious.
Passive Liberals: unhappy, insecure, distrustful, disillusioned.
Politically Disengaged: young, low income, distrustful, detached, patriotic, conspiratorial.
Moderates: engaged, civic-minded, middle-of-the-road, pessimistic, Protestant.
Traditional Conservatives: religious, middle class, patriotic, moralistic.
Devoted Conservatives: white, retired, highly engaged, uncompromising, patriotic.
Some here might find the graph on page 9 regarding attitudes towards feminism interesting given the purpose of this board...
The world is always full of the sound of waves..but who knows the heart of the sea, a hundred feet down? Who knows it's depth?
~ Eiji Yoshikawa
~ Eiji Yoshikawa
-
_honorentheos
- _Emeritus
- Posts: 11104
- Joined: Thu Feb 04, 2010 5:17 am
Re: Woke or Resentful? Most Likely Neither
From the opening page of the report -
Political polls and years of knife-edge elections have convinced many that our country has become a 50:50 society, divided into two opposing political tribes and trapped in a spiral of conflict and division.
Our research uncovered a different story, one that probes underneath the issues that polarize Americans, and finds seven groups that are defined by their core beliefs, rather than by their political opinions, race, class or gender.
In talking to everyday Americans, we have found a large segment of the population whose voices are rarely heard above the shouts of the partisan tribes. These are people who believe that Americans have more in common than that which divides them. While they differ on important issues, they feel exhausted by the division in the United States. They believe that compromise is necessary in politics, as in other parts of life, and want to see the country come together and solve its problems.
In the era of social media and partisan news outlets, America’s differences have become dangerously tribal, fueled by a culture of outrage and taking offense. For the combatants, the other side can no longer be tolerated, and no price is too high to defeat them.
These tensions are poisoning personal relationships, consuming our politics and putting our democracy in peril.
Once a country has become tribalized, debates about contested issues from immigration and trade to economic management, climate change and national security, become shaped by larger tribal identities. Policy debate gives way to tribal conflicts.
Polarization and tribalism are self-reinforcing and will likely continue to accelerate. The work of rebuilding our fragmented society needs to start now. It extends from re-connecting people across the lines of division in local communities all the way to building a renewed sense of national identity: a bigger story of us.
Our polarization is not simple, but nor is it insoluble. We need to understand it, so we can fix it. More in Common hopes that this report can help inform and inspire this urgent work.
The charts on pages 9 and 10 are perhaps the most illuminating, in my opinion. Page 9 shows how various demographic groups respond to questions on four issues typically considered central to American liberal thought while page 10 shows the contrast between the two extreme tribes on either end of the spectrum when it comes to six issues considered central to American conservative thought. Both show that the two extremes of the spectrum are exactly as far apart as we perceive society to be with over 90% being for or against the positions in almost every case according to their allegiance. But given that the far left end, termed Progressive Liberals, constitutes only 8% of the population and the far right, termed Devoted Conservatives, only represents 6% of the population, it disproportionately overshadows the views of the vast majority who reside between them.
As a news source I recently read put it, American doesn't seem to be divided perfectly and evenly along these extreme ideological lines. We all have strong views, perhaps shallowly developed as EA has said elsewhere. But those views seem more likely to be an ala carte taking between the poles. A person could be pro-gun rights and favor minimalist government including the belief people should be able to do what they want in their bedrooms provided all parties are grown, consenting adults. All while also being opposed to large corporations buying that government and with the conflicting view that health care costs are a big enough problem the government needs to do something about it while not raising taxes, with the thought that legalized taxed pot sales might be part of the solution for both. While not consistent and unlikely to be thought out, there is a lot of room for compromise there compared to when one just looks at the most extreme views that we tend to assume are shared by everyone defined along binary lines.
Political polls and years of knife-edge elections have convinced many that our country has become a 50:50 society, divided into two opposing political tribes and trapped in a spiral of conflict and division.
Our research uncovered a different story, one that probes underneath the issues that polarize Americans, and finds seven groups that are defined by their core beliefs, rather than by their political opinions, race, class or gender.
In talking to everyday Americans, we have found a large segment of the population whose voices are rarely heard above the shouts of the partisan tribes. These are people who believe that Americans have more in common than that which divides them. While they differ on important issues, they feel exhausted by the division in the United States. They believe that compromise is necessary in politics, as in other parts of life, and want to see the country come together and solve its problems.
In the era of social media and partisan news outlets, America’s differences have become dangerously tribal, fueled by a culture of outrage and taking offense. For the combatants, the other side can no longer be tolerated, and no price is too high to defeat them.
These tensions are poisoning personal relationships, consuming our politics and putting our democracy in peril.
Once a country has become tribalized, debates about contested issues from immigration and trade to economic management, climate change and national security, become shaped by larger tribal identities. Policy debate gives way to tribal conflicts.
Polarization and tribalism are self-reinforcing and will likely continue to accelerate. The work of rebuilding our fragmented society needs to start now. It extends from re-connecting people across the lines of division in local communities all the way to building a renewed sense of national identity: a bigger story of us.
Our polarization is not simple, but nor is it insoluble. We need to understand it, so we can fix it. More in Common hopes that this report can help inform and inspire this urgent work.
The charts on pages 9 and 10 are perhaps the most illuminating, in my opinion. Page 9 shows how various demographic groups respond to questions on four issues typically considered central to American liberal thought while page 10 shows the contrast between the two extreme tribes on either end of the spectrum when it comes to six issues considered central to American conservative thought. Both show that the two extremes of the spectrum are exactly as far apart as we perceive society to be with over 90% being for or against the positions in almost every case according to their allegiance. But given that the far left end, termed Progressive Liberals, constitutes only 8% of the population and the far right, termed Devoted Conservatives, only represents 6% of the population, it disproportionately overshadows the views of the vast majority who reside between them.
As a news source I recently read put it, American doesn't seem to be divided perfectly and evenly along these extreme ideological lines. We all have strong views, perhaps shallowly developed as EA has said elsewhere. But those views seem more likely to be an ala carte taking between the poles. A person could be pro-gun rights and favor minimalist government including the belief people should be able to do what they want in their bedrooms provided all parties are grown, consenting adults. All while also being opposed to large corporations buying that government and with the conflicting view that health care costs are a big enough problem the government needs to do something about it while not raising taxes, with the thought that legalized taxed pot sales might be part of the solution for both. While not consistent and unlikely to be thought out, there is a lot of room for compromise there compared to when one just looks at the most extreme views that we tend to assume are shared by everyone defined along binary lines.
The world is always full of the sound of waves..but who knows the heart of the sea, a hundred feet down? Who knows it's depth?
~ Eiji Yoshikawa
~ Eiji Yoshikawa
-
_Some Schmo
- _Emeritus
- Posts: 15602
- Joined: Tue Mar 27, 2007 2:59 pm
Re: Woke or Resentful? Most Likely Neither
honorentheos wrote:https://www.moreincommon.com/hidden-tribes/
The report that informed the first article is available at the above link. Also worth reading. For example, they used their research to identify seven belief-based identities or tribes in the US which are worth considering given the propensity to focus on either conservatives or liberals. Their categories:
Progressive Activists: younger, highly engaged, secular, cosmopolitan, angry.
Traditional Liberals: older, retired, open to compromise, rational, cautious.
Passive Liberals: unhappy, insecure, distrustful, disillusioned.
Politically Disengaged: young, low income, distrustful, detached, patriotic, conspiratorial.
Moderates: engaged, civic-minded, middle-of-the-road, pessimistic, Protestant.
Traditional Conservatives: religious, middle class, patriotic, moralistic.
Devoted Conservatives: white, retired, highly engaged, uncompromising, patriotic.
Some here might find the graph on page 9 regarding attitudes towards feminism interesting given the purpose of this board...
The best fit description here for me is "moderate."
I'm slowly letting go of the idea that I'm a conservative, but it's mostly surrendering to the weird definition this country has for the word.
I'm also coming to the conclusion that the insanity I perceive in this country is mostly limited to the nuts I share the Internet with.
God belief is for people who don't want to live life on the universe's terms.
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_Doctor CamNC4Me
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Re: Woke or Resentful? Most Likely Neither
So, I actually read your thread, large portions of the 160 PAGE REPORT you linked, and of course the linked article. I've gone back to all three a few times over the last few days, and I think I kind of came to a conclusion. I'll try to be succinct.
1) While we get a lot of the Right's history, intents, and behavior typically broken down into generally coherent and comprehensible opinion pieces in the media and discussion forums, we lack large consumption of the Left's history, intents, and behavior in a similar fashion we do for the Right. Bear with me while I make my point.
2) We need to dispassionately discuss the failures of the Left. The closest we've gotten is some vague hand-wringing over unelectable candidates, e-mail servers, and voter complacency. If the Left is unable to internalize the manner in which it has failed, then ultimately it will continue to make those mistakes (which it is presently doing). It hasn't mastered realpolitik, yet.
Second Amendment) People don't have a problem hearing about how other people are wrong but the moment you tell them they are wrong, they entrench. You'll notice a lot of talk about creeping fascism, or as Bill Maher says, "A slow-motion right-wing coup.", but the moment you assess your own Party you're all the things the partisans say are wrong with the opposition. This is a problem.
So, here is where it's going to get a bit weird because I think my values align with the insufferable EA's values.
*I'm going to pause and go smoke a cigar. I want to think about what I'm posting before I hit enter. I think I'm pretty close to verbalizing an approach I've been suggesting the Left ought to take if it wants to preserve our current institutions.
- Doc
1) While we get a lot of the Right's history, intents, and behavior typically broken down into generally coherent and comprehensible opinion pieces in the media and discussion forums, we lack large consumption of the Left's history, intents, and behavior in a similar fashion we do for the Right. Bear with me while I make my point.
2) We need to dispassionately discuss the failures of the Left. The closest we've gotten is some vague hand-wringing over unelectable candidates, e-mail servers, and voter complacency. If the Left is unable to internalize the manner in which it has failed, then ultimately it will continue to make those mistakes (which it is presently doing). It hasn't mastered realpolitik, yet.
Second Amendment) People don't have a problem hearing about how other people are wrong but the moment you tell them they are wrong, they entrench. You'll notice a lot of talk about creeping fascism, or as Bill Maher says, "A slow-motion right-wing coup.", but the moment you assess your own Party you're all the things the partisans say are wrong with the opposition. This is a problem.
So, here is where it's going to get a bit weird because I think my values align with the insufferable EA's values.
*I'm going to pause and go smoke a cigar. I want to think about what I'm posting before I hit enter. I think I'm pretty close to verbalizing an approach I've been suggesting the Left ought to take if it wants to preserve our current institutions.
- Doc
Last edited by Guest on Mon Oct 22, 2018 11:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
In the face of madness, rationality has no power - Xiao Wang, US historiographer, 2287 AD.
Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.
Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.
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_schreech
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Re: Woke or Resentful? Most Likely Neither
Some Schmo wrote:I'm slowly letting go of the idea that I'm a conservative, but it's mostly surrendering to the weird definition this country has for the word.
I'm also coming to the conclusion that the insanity I perceive in this country is mostly limited to the nuts I share the Internet with.
This seems relevant here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fuckthealtright/comments/9qdos5/how_to_explain_what_happened_to_the_republican/
How to Explain What Happened to the Republican Party to your Kids
"your reasoning that children should be experimented upon to justify a political agenda..is tantamount to the Nazi justification for experimenting on human beings."-SUBgenius on gay parents
"I've stated over and over again on this forum and fully accept that I'm a bigot..." - ldsfaqs
"I've stated over and over again on this forum and fully accept that I'm a bigot..." - ldsfaqs
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_Doctor CamNC4Me
- _Emeritus
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- Joined: Mon Jun 15, 2009 11:02 am
Re: Woke or Resentful? Most Likely Neither
*cont'd*
4) So, I think the Left is or are the actual patriots in this country. Before you laugh, you Conservatives who might've made it this far, I don't mean this in a good way.
The Right has never really believed in the Constitution, Republicanism, civil rights, or that sort of thing. I probably see this through the lens of Mormonism, which historically has been anti-federalist in its narrative, but it goes deeper than that from what I've seen in the South and other Red states (like Texas). Their professed support for something like patriotism is actually borne out of a superiority complex and an exceptionalism that imbues them with belief rather than an a practical appreciation of our institutions and shared American values.
5) I've come to realize over time the real problem is that the Left actually believes in the founding ethos of this country. It believes that the United States is inherently a place of justice, equality, and freedom despite all their bitching about the unfair historical institutions and hypocritical figures of American history. They bitch about our country because they want it to live up to its stated ideals and promises.
Leftists believe in our institutions, they trust in them, and as a consequence they are in a perpetual state of denial about how precarious their situation is. The Right, on the other hand has always had a deep sense that the government is unfair and is ready and capable of tyranny. Right-wing ideology, politicians, and media has instilled its adherents with a sense of alertness and combative dedication to their beliefs. Whereas American Liberalism (I'm using Leftist and Liberals or Liberalism in the same context with this post because I want to avoid redundancy) has rendered the Left astonishingly, mindbogglingly, infantalized and defenseless when it comes to actually being able to oppose injustice.
What do I mean by this?
4) So, I think the Left is or are the actual patriots in this country. Before you laugh, you Conservatives who might've made it this far, I don't mean this in a good way.
The Right has never really believed in the Constitution, Republicanism, civil rights, or that sort of thing. I probably see this through the lens of Mormonism, which historically has been anti-federalist in its narrative, but it goes deeper than that from what I've seen in the South and other Red states (like Texas). Their professed support for something like patriotism is actually borne out of a superiority complex and an exceptionalism that imbues them with belief rather than an a practical appreciation of our institutions and shared American values.
5) I've come to realize over time the real problem is that the Left actually believes in the founding ethos of this country. It believes that the United States is inherently a place of justice, equality, and freedom despite all their bitching about the unfair historical institutions and hypocritical figures of American history. They bitch about our country because they want it to live up to its stated ideals and promises.
Leftists believe in our institutions, they trust in them, and as a consequence they are in a perpetual state of denial about how precarious their situation is. The Right, on the other hand has always had a deep sense that the government is unfair and is ready and capable of tyranny. Right-wing ideology, politicians, and media has instilled its adherents with a sense of alertness and combative dedication to their beliefs. Whereas American Liberalism (I'm using Leftist and Liberals or Liberalism in the same context with this post because I want to avoid redundancy) has rendered the Left astonishingly, mindbogglingly, infantalized and defenseless when it comes to actually being able to oppose injustice.
What do I mean by this?
In the face of madness, rationality has no power - Xiao Wang, US historiographer, 2287 AD.
Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.
Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.
-
_Doctor CamNC4Me
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- Posts: 21663
- Joined: Mon Jun 15, 2009 11:02 am
Re: Woke or Resentful? Most Likely Neither
*cont'd*
6) Liberals, to their detriment, believe the system works. They conceive of no response to any problem they face beyond "protest" and "vote". They do this despite knowing the system is rigged against them; lobbyists control our law-makers, districts are gerrymandered with no fix in the foreseeable future, the Senate changes rules when it suits them, you see them griping about voters being dropped from the rolls, and their solution? Go out and vote. Or wear a knit cap, wave a sign around, and complain for a couple of hours.
That is utter insanity.
It believes in the democracy that fails them, like, consistently. All the time. Liberals will tell you with a straight face that the key to overcoming a rigged system, which by design disregards the majority, is to vote a lot and in greater numbers than the Right.
Do they not know our current system, by design, is to create the illusion of a legitimate and popular government, but doesn't serve them? Liberals or Leftists or populists want to believe the system works, they don't consider the possibility that maybe the system isn't experiencing a temporary hiccup, that things will go back to normal because they believe 'it can't happen here.'
They're wrong.
And their wrongness is going to cost us a lot more before they finally realize that their aversion to conflict and belief in our system is preventing them from taking the action needed to save the very institutions they love and trust. Bannon, after all, openly stated that he wanted to 'burn the whole thing to the ground', and he lit the fire. crap's on fire, yo.
*give me a sec, because I'm actually getting to something thanks to honor's OP and links*
- Doc
6) Liberals, to their detriment, believe the system works. They conceive of no response to any problem they face beyond "protest" and "vote". They do this despite knowing the system is rigged against them; lobbyists control our law-makers, districts are gerrymandered with no fix in the foreseeable future, the Senate changes rules when it suits them, you see them griping about voters being dropped from the rolls, and their solution? Go out and vote. Or wear a knit cap, wave a sign around, and complain for a couple of hours.
That is utter insanity.
It believes in the democracy that fails them, like, consistently. All the time. Liberals will tell you with a straight face that the key to overcoming a rigged system, which by design disregards the majority, is to vote a lot and in greater numbers than the Right.
Do they not know our current system, by design, is to create the illusion of a legitimate and popular government, but doesn't serve them? Liberals or Leftists or populists want to believe the system works, they don't consider the possibility that maybe the system isn't experiencing a temporary hiccup, that things will go back to normal because they believe 'it can't happen here.'
They're wrong.
And their wrongness is going to cost us a lot more before they finally realize that their aversion to conflict and belief in our system is preventing them from taking the action needed to save the very institutions they love and trust. Bannon, after all, openly stated that he wanted to 'burn the whole thing to the ground', and he lit the fire. crap's on fire, yo.
*give me a sec, because I'm actually getting to something thanks to honor's OP and links*
- Doc
In the face of madness, rationality has no power - Xiao Wang, US historiographer, 2287 AD.
Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.
Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.
-
_Doctor CamNC4Me
- _Emeritus
- Posts: 21663
- Joined: Mon Jun 15, 2009 11:02 am
Re: Woke or Resentful? Most Likely Neither
*cont'd*
So, let's pretend, for argument's sake, that Trump, I dunno, shuts down all the news orgs he thinks are Enemies of the State. As a reminder, Trump is literally pinging on virtually every point-by-point of what constitutes a dictator.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/11/23/te ... -dictator/
This is a fun bit if you have a few minutes:
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/20 ... ecklist-m/
What would outraged pussyhat-wearing-warrior-goddesses do?
7) Protesting is a waste of time. The Left is eye-rollingly predictable. People would go out with pieces of cardboard and wave them around for a few hours, then go home. A few kids would start fires and graffiti some buildings, which would make the rounds on Conservative media about the out-of-control Left. And then? The Right would do what it always does, ignore the protests, because the Right doesn't care what the Left thinks. Media centers would remain closed or whatever, and the Left would continue to pin their hopes on tomorrow: the next peaceful protest, the next Democratic challenger, the next Trumpian example of oppression which will "surely" convince the Average Joe that the Right is "evil" and whatever other nonsense hysterics and tantrums they like to do.
I'm not advocating this, but the Left has forgotten that protests used to involved getting their heads smashed in, shot, and all sorts of nastiness. Whatever idealized version it thinks MLK and Gandhi did, they forget most protests ended in death, imprisonment, and oppression, REAL oppression. Will some loudmouthed Millennials and fat housewives risk being brutalized? Probably not these days because we actually are pretty comfortable.
eta: Protest is effective only when those in power believe that if the fail to deliver what you want, then their heads might end up on a pike. The Left won't do anything but go home if they don't get what they want. Their bluff has been called. damned Trump straight up told Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes, in front of a national audience, something to the effect of, "Screw you. WE WON. SUCK A DICK." And she just sputtered a bit while the Right-wing media trumpeted (no pun intended) the interview wide and far crowing day and night about their victory.
*one sec*
So, let's pretend, for argument's sake, that Trump, I dunno, shuts down all the news orgs he thinks are Enemies of the State. As a reminder, Trump is literally pinging on virtually every point-by-point of what constitutes a dictator.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/11/23/te ... -dictator/
This is a fun bit if you have a few minutes:
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/20 ... ecklist-m/
What would outraged pussyhat-wearing-warrior-goddesses do?
7) Protesting is a waste of time. The Left is eye-rollingly predictable. People would go out with pieces of cardboard and wave them around for a few hours, then go home. A few kids would start fires and graffiti some buildings, which would make the rounds on Conservative media about the out-of-control Left. And then? The Right would do what it always does, ignore the protests, because the Right doesn't care what the Left thinks. Media centers would remain closed or whatever, and the Left would continue to pin their hopes on tomorrow: the next peaceful protest, the next Democratic challenger, the next Trumpian example of oppression which will "surely" convince the Average Joe that the Right is "evil" and whatever other nonsense hysterics and tantrums they like to do.
I'm not advocating this, but the Left has forgotten that protests used to involved getting their heads smashed in, shot, and all sorts of nastiness. Whatever idealized version it thinks MLK and Gandhi did, they forget most protests ended in death, imprisonment, and oppression, REAL oppression. Will some loudmouthed Millennials and fat housewives risk being brutalized? Probably not these days because we actually are pretty comfortable.
eta: Protest is effective only when those in power believe that if the fail to deliver what you want, then their heads might end up on a pike. The Left won't do anything but go home if they don't get what they want. Their bluff has been called. damned Trump straight up told Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes, in front of a national audience, something to the effect of, "Screw you. WE WON. SUCK A DICK." And she just sputtered a bit while the Right-wing media trumpeted (no pun intended) the interview wide and far crowing day and night about their victory.
*one sec*
In the face of madness, rationality has no power - Xiao Wang, US historiographer, 2287 AD.
Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.
Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.
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_Some Schmo
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Re: Woke or Resentful? Most Likely Neither
I don't usually reddit, but that was a fun thread.
schreech wrote:How to Explain What Happened to the Republican Party to your Kids
Hehe...
God belief is for people who don't want to live life on the universe's terms.