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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 26, 2022

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Am I crazy for thinking her first paragraph is negated by the second?

Crazy? No. But it is entirely possible to "serve the needs of all District 3 residents" while "working towards justice" for specific groups. For example, it is certainly possible that some groups have been the victims of injustice, and hence have a need for greater justice, and some groups have not. So, no, the two statements are not logically inconsistent. [NOTE: If history is any guide, there will be people who might be tempted to comment re whether the groups listed by the candidate, as well as those omitted, are or are not the victims of injustice. Please don't, because I am not expressing an opinion on that. I am merely pointing out that the OP errs when he says that the two statements are necessarily inconsistent].

I see white people irl supporting her. I don't understand their motivations.

Well, first, they don't read it the same way you do. Second, and more importantly, why did I vote for a property tax increase to fund new athletic facilities at local schools? I don't use them, and don't have kids in school. Why did white people support the Civil Rights Movement? Whites were not the victims of Jim Crow. Why would I support a candidate who pledges to never waterboard suspected terrorists, over one who explicitly pledges to do the opposite, but cut my taxes? I am very, very, very unlikely ever to be taken for a terrorist, but I certainly pay taxes every year.

The fact is, principles do matter to people. Not to every person, certainly, and they do not always trump other interests, but they do matter. So, no, contrary to what others have said, it is not all signaling.

I suggest taking a look at the section at the beginning of this paper on value rationality and what motivates suicide bombers and the like. A key quote:

Recovering a duality first proposed by Max Weber, I suggest that ethnic or national conflict is best conceptualized as a combination of “value rationality” and “instrumental rationality.” Both of these rationalities are expressions of goal-directed behavior, but their conceptions of costs widely diverge. Instrumental rationality entails a strict cost-benefit calculus with respect to goals, necessitating the abandonment or adjustment of goals if the costs of realizing them are too high. Value-rational behavior is produced by a conscious “ethical, aesthetic, religious or other” belief, “independently of its prospects of success.”6 Behavior, when driven by such values, can consciously embrace great personal sacrifices. Some spheres or goals of life are considered so valuable that they would not normally be up for sale or compromise, however costly the pursuit of their realization might be.

Why would I support a candidate who pledges to never waterboard suspected terrorists, over one who explicitly pledges to do the opposite, but cut my taxes?

What does prove exactly? People are capable of being wrong, me and you included. Nothing in nature stops humans from hitching their wagon to a wrong horse, and then rationalizing it.

The fact is, principles do matter to people.

Given that in 2020 POTUS election, 87% of African Americans vote for the perceived to be more pro-African American candidate, but only 58% of European Americans for the perceived to be more pro-European American candidate, not to all races equally.

What does prove exactly? People are capable of being wrong, me and you included. Nothing in nature stops humans from hitching their wagon to a wrong horse, and then rationalizing it.

I don't understand your point at all. The point is not that a vote is "right" or "wrong." If you think my vote was "wrong" and I think it is "right," it simply means that you value different things than I do. And THAT IS THE POINT: That is why those white voters are supporting the candidate, and the OP is not.

Given that in 2020 POTUS election, 87% of African Americans vote for the perceived to be more pro-African American candidate, but only 58% of European Americans for the perceived to be more pro-European American candidate, not to all races equally.

  1. That is a very odd argument to make, given that in the primaries, those same African American voters overwhelmingly supported Joe Biden over Kamala Harris and Cory Booker, not to mention more left candidates like Sanders and Warren.

  2. Is there some principle espoused by Donald Trump, or by the Republican Party in general, that is supposed to be a basis for voting for them? What principle to you contend African Americans are ignoring when they vote for the Democratic Party?

  3. You are assuming that the benefits which flow to European Americans from electing a "more pro-European American" candidate are commensurate to those which flow to African Americans from electing a "more pro-African American" candidate. As a European American, I can't think of any benefits that would flow to me from electing a more "pro-European American" candidate.