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I would think being highly competent and good at building political consensus that promoted the good for the people would be the most important things, no matte

by cubano 11y ago

I would think being highly competent and good at building political consensus that promoted the good for the people would be the most important things, no matter what gender or profession, no?

lispm 11y ago
Political topics in a country of the size of Germany (and even more in countries like the US or Russia which are much larger and have a much larger political reach) are a very complex and complicated domain. I'd say it helps a lot to have the most intelligent political person at the top. Not that I would agree to all of Merkel's political decisions, but she is without doubt the most intelligent politician in Germany of her generation.
antirez 11y ago
Woman: is good not because woman is inherently better, but don't we have enough of male-only leaders? However if you ask me women may be superior politically to men in general because of dialectic abilities, human considerations when sending people to war, ability to be brutally pragmatic and so forth. So woman = good for me in different ways. Scientist: I want politicians to do the Right Thing not to build consensus, and I believe a scientist is better in today's world compared to another politician by profession that comes from a different non-specializing background. It could also be an expert linguistic researcher and would be fine as well, but the point is, the new challenges we face are often science related...
- gdy 11y ago
  "human considerations when sending people to war, ability to be brutally pragmatic" Don't you think these two are contradictory? :-)
  - antirez 11y ago
    Nope... "We need to export freedom and defend our culture" is an abstraction. Pragmatism is another thing.
- Shivetya 11y ago
  We have had more than enough example of women leaders who are just as hawkish as men and as diabolical too. Heck, just look at the past ten years across the globe for some who belong in the animal farm camp (as in, I can't tell the difference anymore). Perhaps it just soft discrimination that some think women are more understanding and less likely to be as rotten. Its a political thing, a power thing, it is certain not filtered by the sex of the person
  - Grishnakh 11y ago
    Exactly, just look at Hillary: she's totally a war hawk, whereas Bernie is definitely not. Seriously, look at all the female candidates we've had in the past half-decade: Sarah Palin (Republican war-hawk and all-around ditzy moron who didn't know Africa isn't a country), Hillary (war hawk, on the payroll of Goldman Sachs, voted for Bush's Iraq invasion), Carly Fiorina (probably the worst tech CEO ever, drove HP straight into the ground and helped destroy Lucent before that, Republican). If you want someone who isn't going to rush to jump into another war, or someone who really wants to help people at home with better social policies (leave aside the debate on how realistic they are), then you need to look at white men: Bernie Sanders, Dennis Kucinich back in '08, etc. These days, it seems the sexist feminists would rather vote for a war hawk who'll screw over the middle class for her rich buddies, just because she has a vagina.

by cubano 11y ago

I would think being highly competent and good at building political consensus that promoted the good for the people would be the most important things, no matter what gender or profession, no?

lispm 11y ago

Political topics in a country of the size of Germany (and even more in countries like the US or Russia which are much larger and have a much larger political reach) are a very complex and complicated domain. I'd say it helps a lot to have the most intelligent political person at the top. Not that I would agree to all of Merkel's political decisions, but she is without doubt the most intelligent politician in Germany of her generation.

antirez 11y ago

Woman: is good not because woman is inherently better, but don't we have enough of male-only leaders? However if you ask me women may be superior politically to men in general because of dialectic abilities, human considerations when sending people to war, ability to be brutally pragmatic and so forth. So woman = good for me in different ways. Scientist: I want politicians to do the Right Thing not to build consensus, and I believe a scientist is better in today's world compared to another politician by profession that comes from a different non-specializing background. It could also be an expert linguistic researcher and would be fine as well, but the point is, the new challenges we face are often science related...

gdy 11y ago
"human considerations when sending people to war, ability to be brutally pragmatic" Don't you think these two are contradictory? :-)
- antirez 11y ago
  Nope... "We need to export freedom and defend our culture" is an abstraction. Pragmatism is another thing.
Shivetya 11y ago
We have had more than enough example of women leaders who are just as hawkish as men and as diabolical too. Heck, just look at the past ten years across the globe for some who belong in the animal farm camp (as in, I can't tell the difference anymore). Perhaps it just soft discrimination that some think women are more understanding and less likely to be as rotten. Its a political thing, a power thing, it is certain not filtered by the sex of the person
- Grishnakh 11y ago
  Exactly, just look at Hillary: she's totally a war hawk, whereas Bernie is definitely not. Seriously, look at all the female candidates we've had in the past half-decade: Sarah Palin (Republican war-hawk and all-around ditzy moron who didn't know Africa isn't a country), Hillary (war hawk, on the payroll of Goldman Sachs, voted for Bush's Iraq invasion), Carly Fiorina (probably the worst tech CEO ever, drove HP straight into the ground and helped destroy Lucent before that, Republican). If you want someone who isn't going to rush to jump into another war, or someone who really wants to help people at home with better social policies (leave aside the debate on how realistic they are), then you need to look at white men: Bernie Sanders, Dennis Kucinich back in '08, etc. These days, it seems the sexist feminists would rather vote for a war hawk who'll screw over the middle class for her rich buddies, just because she has a vagina.