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Notes -
FreedomToons' video after the Trump assassination attempt satirized this quite well. "Trump supporters are already alleging that we encouraged the brave hero who shot at him." "There is no room for political violence against the Nazi who is a living embodiment of all our trauma." It's sadly not all that far from actual rhetoric.
There are a few principled voices who unequivocally condemn political violence, for or against their side. But that's not what engages people.
I'll toss out, I don't follow him a lot, or at all really. But Cenk Uygur is virtually the only lefty I've seen not 1000% on board the "Trump is evil and we must murder all his followers" train. I watched him argue for an hour with Krystal Ball, before I couldn't stand her anymore, that there was tons of populist common ground between MAGA and the populist left where progress could be made. That MAGA is not a cult, and they push back when Trump doesn't follow through with his populist agenda. That Don Jr and JD Vance are open to a lot of populist left proposals.
Krystal of course dismissed all this as hopeless because they're all brainwashed fascist and there is no hope in stopping or reforming any of them inside the democratic system.
Even now Cenk is saying that we need peace and reconciliation after this shooting, and because he's on the left, he'll apologize first. And I believe him.
Krystal's latest round of fake tears and pretending that blanket dismissing everyone who disagrees with her as capital F-Fascist who are irredeemable had nothing to do with this I find less convincing.
Thanks for sharing this bit about Cenk. I know very little about him but, in times like these it's heartening to discover that prominent members of your outgroup are more honorable and principled than you had assumed. A little ray of hope.
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Wow, yeah. Cenk's tweet is perfect. And I remember he was similarly classy and principled after Trump's near miss. He's way to the left of me, but it's clear that he's just a fundamentally decent person. If we could only incentivize having more pundits like him, political discourse in this country would be much, much healthier.
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Wow some niche internet gossip I rarely see around here! What the hell happened to Krystal? It seems like her brain is just fully broken at this point. She broke up her family to go marry the coworker she was obviously cheating with, and the show she in some sense started with Saagar Enjeti rarely features him anymore. The times where he and Krystal are together, they frequently end up just bicker: https://youtube.com/watch?v=fcLqYwo4Z4o
I'll be honest I used to watch their show daily, and even tried to become a premium subscriber. Now I'll tune in sometimes as a hate listen, and can rarely make it more than a minute or so.
I donno man. I was a premium subscriber since they started Breaking Points, they were my goto for live coverage or reactions to the debates or election nights. But I made it about a month into this administration before I just couldn't handle it anymore, unsubscribed after years, and told them explicitly why. I don't hate watch, or check clips, or anything anymore. It's best to make a clean break from people you were fans of. No need to add insult to injury watching their trajectory.
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