Outlaw83
1yr ago
Sounds like what every older generation says about the newer generation, as they come up.
I guarantee you whenever they went into the military, there was some veteran claiming the new recruits were going to ruin the military because of whatever reason x got a hair up their ass. Meanwhile, we're still so far ahead, that the stuff we have in basically the shed we forgot about is beating back the Russian's, likely w/ help from a bunch of they/them furries w/ security clearances giving targeting assistance to some Ukranian's with HIMARS
Outlaw83
1yr ago
I mean, I can absolutely guarantee you there were more cases of parents killing their child under 10 in the First World in whatever time you considered The Good Times than now - depending on the time period, there might've been somewhat sympathetic economic reasons to do so, but regardless, children being killed by their parents isn't something that's happening because...women work and have careers now.
Outlaw83
1yr ago
Ironically, this is somehing that's missed in the cancel culture discourse. Now, sometimes the person does admit they were wrong, and things continue, but far more, it's person does or says x, people get upset about it, then there's the backlash to the backlash, then the 'why won't group y forgive person x', and usually, person x still thinks they're in the right. Now, that might be fine and dandy, but then, there should be no discourse about forgiveness or group y moving on, even if you think person x is correct, or shouldn't be sanctioned for what they said or did.
For IRL example, take Eddie Murphy. He said what could be considered by a lot of people some terrible jokes about gay people and women in his 80's specials, that were hugely popular. So, why doesn't a Tweet along w/ a video clip of some joke from Raw never get any traction? Because Eddie doesn't do that kind of comedy anymore really and he's admitted that stuff was shitty to say. So, there's nothing to cancel, because Eddie admitted what he said was dumb, and everybody moved on, which pushes against the idea that's pushed that you'll be shamed forrever if you ever do anything wrong.
People just have to actually believe you're sorry for saying or doing what you did.
Outlaw83
1yr ago
Hell, we're even fine w/ Russia not being part of the West. If it wants to be an authoritarian state treating it's people like crap, we honestly don't care that much. Just stop invading other nations, and Putin's kids will have billions to play with in Swiss accounts for generation after he kicks the bucket, but Putin is honestly, too dumb to do that.
Outlaw83
1yr ago
I mean, personally, as a left-winger, I'm glad some of our bloated defense department budget is finally get put to use for a good reason for once. If we have to "spend" (ie. send basically our leftover equipment in the back of the garage to Ukraine) a stupidly small amount of GDP to turn Russia into a wreck, win-win.
Outlaw83
1yr ago
I mean, sure people would've done the various policy stuff, but what I mean is deep down, every major US official from the left to the right, outside of a few weirdos, was fine long-term with how Russia was behaving prior to the past few years - sure, we'd rattle our sabres, complain about Putin, but we weren't doing anything major about it. Now, we're dropping off tons of unused equipment and allowing the they/them army to give logistical support so the Ukrainians have plenty of targets.
Outlaw83
1yr ago
I'm just going to be honest and say, I think Dreher got Orban's actual views down, and since he's a commentator, author, and columnist, not a reporter, he wasn't aware that wasn't supposed to be shared outside of that interview room and the "of course we want to be in the EU" is typical political CYA.
Outlaw83
1yr ago
As a left-wing social democrat, I'm going to say the "living paycheck to paycheck" poll numbers are basically BS.
Yes, a lot of people live 'paycheck to paycheck', but that living paycheck to paycheck includes putting money in retirement accounts, saving forr your kid's college, and so on, and so forth and that's why you have $0. The actual amount of money with zero wiggle room is actually fairly low.
If the standard American family w/ two jobs making $65k a year lost one of those jobs, I'm not saying it'd be tough. But the idea they'd be in desperate straits immediately simply isn't true. First of all, depending on their state, they'd be getting 1/2 to 2/3 of their former wages in unemployment for up to six months, and even after that, the big spending (mortgage, etc.) have a relatively light touch if you're not obviously just walking away and paying nothing.
There are people who would be screwed quickly without a job, but many of those people are getting financial assistance in addition to their current job at the moment anyway. Now, as a left-wing social democrat, of course, I want a bigger and stronger safety net for everybody, but at the moment, the couple making $100k who claim they're living paycheck to paycheck may have no money in their bank account on the 14th of the month, but they're not actually without a cushion.
Outlaw83
1yr ago
As other people have pointed out, a Russia engaged largely in their own internal political (and possibly actual) knifing each other in the back over the failures of the Ukraine invasion is a nation that's far less able to cause issues on the world stage, even if somebody to Putin's right comes to power. Because it may take a decade-plus for said new guy to centralize his power the way Putin did. After all, Putin wasn't Putin until the end of the 2000's, really.
Russia, despite it's myriad of issues, has basically zero chance of becoming a "failed state" the way say, you could argue Syria, some African countries, etc. are, because Russia is still, by global standards, fairly wealthy with a lot of resosurces. They're currently messing that up, but they can mess it up to a far larger degree and still be OK (of course, the US can mess up to about 1,000x more degrees and still be fine.)
Now, obviously, an actual civil war in Russia would be bad, but that's honestly, incredibly unlikely to happen.
Outlaw83
1yr ago
The actual long-term issue for the anti-woke is how long will the centrists deal with the excesses and weirdness of the right they're currently allied with. It's one thing to talk about you're uncomfortable with puberty blockers, girls' sports, or whatever, but are fine with adult transistion, use people's chosen pronouns and names, etc., how long are you going to put up with statements from right-wing evanglicals they want to ban even adult gender affirming care to get what you want to be done.
Now, yes, there will be a group of people who are radicalized enough on this issue they're fine, and even begin agreeing more with the Matt Walsh's of the world, on the overall issue, but the reality is, if you're in general, a center-left to centrist liberal, and unlike some people on Twitter and Substack who make money off it, you're spending your own time about this, how long until you just give up, especially if your kids are exiting high school and college themselves, and it you get tired of trying to explain why you're on the same side of people who talk about groomers, but who also want to double check menstrual cycles and the genitals of teens, because half a dozen trans kids in your state want to compete.
Same thing w/ other woke issues - because actually, even 'normal' conservatives don't care about the issue that much, as seen in post-midterm exit polling, so the people who do care are kind of weirdos about it. This is a general issue w/ the GOP at this point and part of the reason why they lost the midterms. They looked likee the weirdos obsessed with stuff you only know about if you're on Twitter and/or watch Fox News or OANN all the time. Your median voter is like, "litter boxes in schools? What - I'm worried about inflation and that you want to ban abortion. I think the Democrats are spending too much money, but at least I understand what the hell they want to spend money on."
This is also why I'm not that scared of DeSantis - he'll talk about Disney, AP College Board classes, and M&M's, an Biden will say, "OK, what I care about is what most American's care about - Social Security & Medicare, that while in Congress, Governor DeSantis voted for cut x times, while supporting massive tax cuts for the rich blah blah blah." If DeSantis is really dumb, he'll also pass a six-week abortion ban as well, as he's stayed he'd be open too.
Outlaw83
1yr ago
I agree - there is an easy solution, parents can't stop freaking out that 6 or 12 or 7 or whatever number of trans high school athletes there are is going to ruin their little Olivia or Sophia's chance at her first choice college.
The thing about high school athletics (which I'm old enough to remember when conservatives thought Title IX existing at all was "political correctness" taking money away from real sports, like football) and part of why it's a nothing burger in a national political campaign is, as we've seen truly elite female athletes don't care that much, because it doesn't really effect them so they can be woke, and the vast majority of other high school athletes are using the fact thy competed at all, as their bonus, and don't care if a trans kid means they finish 16th instead of 15th.
So, who this truly affects - basically, the strivers who think their kid doing well in swimming will mean they can get into a better college, are the only ones truly upset, outside of normal ideological conservatives, are the type of "center-left until it affects me" types that conservatives dislike because they still call themselves liberals and the rest of the center-left coalition gets kind of annoyed. I guarantee the type or parent upset their kid might not get to the college of their choosing has a lot of overlap with people who try to block apartments or even duplexes being built in their neighborhood.
I'm not saying the median voter is woke. I'm saying the median voter doesn't really care that much, and caring deeply about this makes people you're kind of weird. They get why a trans person would care, but just like people eventually found conservatives obsessed with gay people weird, it'll be the same thing. Heck, in North Carolina, in 2016, a Republican Governor lost re-election by focusing on the bathroom issue, all as Trump was winning his state.
Outlaw83
1yr ago
1.) Because normie center-left liberals don't want to be in a political coalition with the Matt Walshes of the world. Again, I'm not talking about columnists or whatever, I'm talking about normal parents out there in suburbia in center-left areas, who if they try to bring up their qualms, have to deal with various right-wing media, politicians, and talking heads saying things they do heavily disagree with, but now they have to explain that's not what they mean. Now, some people push through, but the vast majority just give up because it's not worth everything else they believe in, and the vast majority of the small amount of people who continue to push on it, move to the right on everything else, just like a lot of Bush/McCain/Romney voters are solid liberals now, because of actions Trump did they dislike, and the higher valence of issues they were always more moderate on. It's just Trump being an ass in ways suburban voters in Wisconsin doesn't like is a lot bigger thing than random centrist/center-left liberals getting upset over puberty blockers, or whatever.
2.) Of course not - but smart poltiics is not talking about the things you're underwater on, then get in office, and doing them quietly. Hoping there's not too much backlash over it. Because despite how loud you think they are, most center-left politicians don't actually talk a lot about wokeness or trans issues or anything else. Go through the vast majorities of Congressional candidates or even Presidential candidates and there's not actually a whole lot of talk about that stuff in campaigning. Biden talked a lot about the soul of America, Build Back Better, and then OK'd a bunch of left-wing people in the federal government in jobs that were appointments.
Now, the GOP used to be smart about this - they'd talk a lot about jobs, America, the troops. and such, and then put some former oil lobbyists in charge of the EPA, a union-busting lawyer in charg of the NLRB, etc. and appoint 82 judges who all believe the New Deal was basically unconstitutional. Hyperbolic, slightly, but you get the point. Even on abortion, they'd talk about life in vague ways. They weren't talking about completely banning abortion, getting overly focused on stuff that's usually done by school boards, and so on.
Heck, based on post-mid-term polling, if instead of wasting tens of millions of dollars on anti-trans ads, all that money would've gone into anti-crime or anti-inflation ads, they might've pulled off a Senate win and had enough House sats not to worry about the Freedom caucus as much.
Outlaw83
1yr ago
The vast majority of "unattractive people" aren't celibate. Look out in the US. Yes, maybe a very specific brand of unattractive person who works in a specific industry and who works in a specific area of the country might be out of luck, but there's lots of ugly people of both genders getting laid. Usually by each other.
Outlaw83
1yr ago
Well, "Dad bod" doesn't mean beer belly or even out of shape.
Dad bod means the kind of in-shape that normal, attractive people used to look like, as opposed to the HGH monsters even comedians who get Marvel gigs have to become. Harrison Ford in the 80's is kind of the ideal of this, and obviously, not many guys can look like Harrison Ford in 1985, but it's lot easier to be 70% of Harrison Ford in 1986, than 70% of Chris Helmsworth in 2019, and the upside is a lot of women actually prefer 70% of Ford, as opposed to 70% of Hemsworth (or for a more hyperbolic example, The Rock).
Outlaw83
1yr ago
Actually, their just used to be a lot more reporters. Almost every decent-sized (let's say Top 25) had multiple international correspondents and there were actual strong local reporters. Now, you're lucky if there's a single 24-year old covering city council meetings even in pretty major cities, and it's not a case of Gen Z not wanting to do that job, it's that the hedge fund that bought the paper decided to cut the jobs in the first place.
Also, due to the Internet, it turned out most people didn't buy newspapers for the articles, but for the classifieds, and once that moved to the Internet, the only people still reading were partisans.
Outlaw83
1yr ago
"Could a white supremacist who was a serial rapist of black women be rehabilitated in the public eye"
I'm pretty sure that despite the best efforts of my fellow wokists, we still cover Thomas Jefferson in school fairly positively.
Outlaw83
1yr ago
I mean, the actual answer to this is, "probably the same as if I had a child - somebody being hopefully paid a decent wage to do so."
Outlaw83
1yr ago
Yup, people claim this, but all around the world, even where the fairly right-leaning government were also fairly pro-COVID measures, in almost all cases, the pressure to lessen COVID restrictions and against masks came from the right. Hell, by most measures, everybodies favorite NatCon leader Orban has COVID restrictions that would make Gavin Newsom blush, but even he felt pressure from his right to loosen them eventually.
One kind of sad thing is Trump seems to be dropping support of one of the few unequivocally good things he did (Operation Warp Drive) because the GOP base is so crazed on vaccines.
Outlaw83
1yr ago
Why not? The only reason to be fearful of NATO at your door is well, if you're planning to do the types of things Russia has been doing for the past year. Sweden and Finland weren't part of NATO for decades, and they seemingly never felt any pressure that NATO was going to invade, because they weren't acting like a weirdo countries.
Again, this isn't some "Russia needed to become Denmark." All they had to be was a regular second-tier authoritarian power, and Europe would've happily gobbled up their gas, oil, and oligarchical money for years until Putin finally kicked the bucket.
Outlaw83
1yr ago
I'm sure there are Eastern Orthodox Ukranian's who wish to reintegrate w/ Russia, but the actual actions of the war show that while there may have been some eastern citizens who may have no liked the shift toward the EU, it seems overwhelming, even in the East, they dislike the whole invading the country thing more.
If the people in the Donbass wanted to split from Ukraine, there are a myriad of political ways to do it, that would actually get you widespread international support. Look at Scotland or the Basque people, for example. However, one way to lose that support is to team up with a neighboring country to start a low-scale terrorist action within your action for nearly a decade, then play the victim once the actual sovereign government punches back.
Outlaw83
1yr ago
Just like the Dr. Suess issue, this is what happens when you let greedy families of authors keep control of a work. Put in the public domain, and a thousand versions could come out.
Outlaw83
1yr ago
If you actually look at nuclear development, electricity deregulation made it impossible to do the long-term funding to build nuclear reactors, because the time to get your money back is such a long tail.
It's not a surprise that France, the only country that continued to basically directly control nuke reactors via the gov't were the only ones to continue to really build them. Ironically, in a situation where a New Dealer like Hubert Humphrey was POTUS, nukes might've been better off.
Outlaw83
1yr ago
Here's a Twitter thread to peruse - https://twitter.com/jmkorhonen/status/1625095305694789632
Outlaw83
1yr ago
If you look actually at what the NATO account posted, they were posting a quote from a Ukrainian journalist turned soldier who said that. Here's a link to the start of the Twitter thread -
https://twitter.com/NATO/status/1628687934000885760
Now, you can disagree w/ any of this soldier's statements, but this isn't official NATO propaganda, in the way you're stating it is.
OTOH, yes, why are you shocked people point to widely known cultural artifacts as symbols. Far more people will know the Nav'i or Han Solo than some random underdog force.
It's cringe, but most change in society happens because normies w/ cringe views get on the same side as activists.
Neither CNN nor Fox News are really news stations w/ reported, at least during primetime. They're opinion states.
Also, the liberal media does dominate in someplace people forget about - the nightly news. Twenty million people still watch the nightly news daily. Yes, most of those people are over 55, but even w/ that 3.4 million in the demo (25-54) still watch it daily averaged, which dwarfs even Tucker's 25-54 ratings.
(https://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/week-of-jan-16-evening-news-ratings-world-news-tonight-continues-to-outpace-competition-despite-week-to-week-losses/522615/)
Throw in newspapers, and the fact the conservatives just can't create a right-leaning version of the NYT (or frankly, considering the actual make-up of the reporters there, the Wall Street Journal's news pages, as opposed to it's opinions pages), I think that's going to continue, until conservatives can learn how to write-up news stories to sound even to the normal person, but be biased as we on the left have.
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