US Politics Thread

[Gareth Barry Conlon]

 

[BlueMoonAcrossThePond]

The comparison is apt because he was the last President who committed crimes while in office that would rise to the level of impeachable offense in a non-partisan weighing of fact.

I agree with your assessment of the Republican party - but the party representation reflects the will of Republicans - Republicans voted these candidates into office.

How did this come to pass? How is it that Republicans now support amoral, mendacious - and in some cases - criminals or would-be criminals? What happened to the centrist Republican? Are centrists still the majority but they're going to vote Republican because they always have? Or has America changed since the 1970's - and the centrist Republican is a rare species.

The state of the Republican party is due to a complex confluence of many events, and it's not just Trump.

To answer my own question...

After some thought I think that rural Americans have, for generations, been very suspicious of government and distrustful of legacy media - by which I mean TV broadcasts over air, before even cable was available, consisting of ABC, NBC and CBS. Rural Americans moreover tended to be religious - and even if not religious were very conservative. Moreover, many of them were either slightly racist or very racist, and almost none of them were favorably disposed towards non-heterosexual relations, even those who weren't religious.

Rural Americans in decades past got their news from newspapers and from the big three broadcasters which reported the news factually albeit with a left-leaning bias.

Hence when Nixon was impeached, Republicans writ large were outraged.

Fast forward to the present era - so-called news broadcasts are available from numerous sources. Moreover, Fox News has emerged for aging luddites stuck in the cable news era. Now, rural Americans - as indeed everyone - can watch news or so-called news broadcasts that perfectly mesh with their sentiments. This reinforces their ideas as truthful even if ridiculously counter-factual.

And thus, Trump's failings are easily dismissed as either untruthful, made-up left wing attacks, or as momentary lapses of judgement not reflective of his true character.

Can Democracy in America survive given the status quo in free speech - where one is free to lie about most things - lawsuits seem to be the only curb - free of consequence? In which, basically 1/2 of Americans are tuned into a false narrative?

And honestly, I think that most Republican voters don't frankly care what's true. They've been indoctrinated into an us-versus-them mentality where calamity is just around the corner unless they vote Republican.

TL/DR - The state of the Republican party, I think is due to the widespread availability of so-called news outlets - which allow one to watch broadcasts that reinforce ones viewpoint regardless of fact. It's a Goddamn mess. Even if Trump loses in 2024, it's not over. Come 2028 some new Trump will emerge and we'll be right back at the present - where Democracy is on the line.

And I don't buy for a second all the demographics ideas about young voters replacing older voters and immigrants being more likely to vote Democrat and thus demographics doom Republicans. I've heard precisely this in 1978 from my social studies teacher. Too many factors are at play to confidently predict that the far Right viewpoint in America is dying.

 

[Alvin-blue-qhd]

Can Democracy in America survive given the status quo in free speech - where one is free to lie about most things - lawsuits seem to be the only curb - free of consequence? In which, basically 1/2 of Americans are tuned into a false narrative?

I think something very bad are happening in the US, because I do know that the "uyghur genocide" is a lie, "social credit" is a lie too, and "religious oppression" "minority ethnic oppression", they are all lies. And that means, I think nearly 4/5 of American population can be tuned into a false narrative. The democracy in America is in a very dangerous situation.

 

[bluethrunthru]

she wanted to be POTUS

 

[BlueMoonAcrossThePond]

I think something very bad are happening in the US, because I do know that the "uyghur genocide" is a lie, "social credit" is a lie too, and "religious oppression" "minority ethnic oppression", they are all lies. And that means, I think nearly 4/5 of American population can be tuned into a false narrative. The democracy in America is in a very dangerous situation.

If you are in fact serious then:
1) Uyghur genocide is true;
2) I don't know what you mean by "social credit," "religious oppression," and "minority ethnic oppression" and cannot comment on this without clarification about what you mean.

 

[BlueMoonAcrossThePond]

she wanted to be POTUS

This post seems to be more than a bit misleading - as if Biden supports genocide of Palestinians.

Israel is a longstanding ally of the US and the Hamas attack on Israel was rightly met with condemnation and subsequent arms support. What's transpired since is that Netanyahu has engaged in an indiscriminate attack on Palestinians. This clearly isn't going to win anything other than perhaps support for Netanyahu among hard line Israelis.

Biden is caught in a fucking political mess. He's tried to push back on Netanyahu but that's risky - politically in the US and in terms of long term diplomatic relations with Isreal.

It's a fucking mess.

Biden is, IMO, doing about the best he can.
===
Edit:
And Haley is a fucking opportunist. Just how far her morals - such as they are - can be stretched in support of her career remains to be seen. At the very least, Haley is willing to endorse Trump as President - she stated that she'll vote for Trump. This in spite of her close contact and knowledge of Trump due to her role as UN Ambassador under his rule.

 

[Alvin-blue-qhd]

View attachment 120644

If you are in fact serious then:
1) Uyghur genocide is true;
2) I don't know what you mean by "social credit," "religious oppression," and "minority ethnic oppression" and cannot comment on this without clarification about what you mean.

Uyghurs are everywhere, uyghur genocide totally a lie.
Uyghur football players in Chinese football national team, in City Football Group's ShenZhen new peng city team , in Sun jihai's young academy team.
Don't believe those BS about Uyghur genocide.

 

[BlueMoonAcrossThePond]

Uyghurs are everywhere, uyghur genocide totally a lie.
Uyghur football players in Chinese football national team, in City Football Group's ShenZhen new peng city team , in Sun jihai's young academy team.
Don't believe those BS about Uyghur genocide.

And yet the bulk of - perhaps all of - reputable reporting from numerous outlets supports the fact that the Chinese are engaged in an all-out attempt to eliminate Uyghurs.

There's two possibilities here:

1) You are correct. BBC, NBC, ABC, CBS, US PBS, and so and and so on, are all, for whatever reason wrong about this.

2) You are wrong.

I'm going with possibility 2.

 

[BlueMoonAcrossThePond]

I think something very bad are happening in the US, because I do know that the "uyghur genocide" is a lie, "social credit" is a lie too, and "religious oppression" "minority ethnic oppression", they are all lies. And that means, I think nearly 4/5 of American population can be tuned into a false narrative. The democracy in America is in a very dangerous situation.

This post illustrates just how fucked up so-called free speech is.

We are now free to pick and choose our realities by listening to and believing broadcasts that echo our beliefs.

Worse still is upcoming... what happens when AI and Internet hacking combine to worst effect?

Credible-seeming posts from trusted outlets can easily be faked - probably now - but certainly in the next few years. Actors hostile to the US/UK/Democracy will certainly exploit this.

And then... what?... How does one know what is true and what is false? Virtually unregulated free speech is fucking bullshit.

IMO, there needs to be a huge change in free speech laws to align with modernity.

There needs to be an authority in charge of flagging political speech as truthful or not. And there needs to be a trusted stamp of approval - backed by cryptography that's (virtually) impossible to crack - even in the advent that quantum computing becomes practical (it eventually will) - such stamp from a trusted authority authenticating a post as real.

Otherwise, no one knows what's true or false, and there's zero chance that decisions can rationally be made.

 

[bluethrunthru]

This post seems to be more than a bit misleading - as if Biden supports genocide of Palestinians.

Israel is a longstanding ally of the US and the Hamas attack on Israel was rightly met with condemnation and subsequent arms support. What's transpired since is that Netanyahu has engaged in an indiscriminate attack on Palestinians. This clearly isn't going to win anything other than perhaps support for Netanyahu among hard line Israelis.

Biden is caught in a fucking political mess. He's tried to push back on Netanyahu but that's risky - politically in the US and in terms of long term diplomatic relations with Isreal.

It's a fucking mess.

Biden is, IMO, doing about the best he can.

somebody needs to tell Joe how many Muslim voters there are in the USA - especially the ones in swing states