5 ms·

>Quite honestly, in the past 10 or so years, the Republican party has made itself extremely easy to dump on. Quite the opposite actually. As the contemporary l

by Helmet 9y ago

>Quite honestly, in the past 10 or so years, the Republican party has made itself extremely easy to dump on. Quite the opposite actually. As the contemporary left has taken over mainstream culture and turned into the de facto "establishment" that it originally railed against, it's grown intellectually soft and dishonest. Both sides play to populist emotional appeals and sentiments, but the left-wing outrage industry and identity politics has left them intellectually vulnerable. I mean, if you want a case study on this vulnerability just head on over to the major liberal think-piece sites and read some of the essays (Salon, Slate, The Atlantic). Last night I read a piece in The Atlantic that bemoaned the fact that some people expect their neighborhoods to be orderly and not riddled with crime, drugs, and gangs, arguing that these attitudes unfairly discriminated against minorities. This, from a "respectable" magazine!

AFNobody 9y ago
> Quite the opposite actually. As the contemporary left has taken over mainstream culture and turned into the de facto "establishment" that it original was against, it's grown intellectually soft and dishonest. LOL. Name 10 GOP politcians that aren't easy to dump on.
- Helmet 9y ago
  I think your response encapsulates everything I need to know. Have a good day sir.
  - coderdude 9y ago
    He illustrated the point he quoted. It's amazing.
  - AFNobody 9y ago
    I think the fact you did not rise to the occasion makes my point. You just assume everyone is a Democrat that doesn't agree with you and you can't think of such a list without serious time investment.
    - objectivetruth 9y ago
      You're arguing with a closed-minded libertarian/conservative -- check the rest of his/her posts and save your breath :-)
hackbinary 9y ago
The left has not taken over anything. We have lived in a very conservative, anti public services regime since the early 1980s. Rollbacks and defunding public schools, health and infrastructure has been on the basis that media has systematically attacked taxation and public spending as wasteful while military spending never seems to be targeted like other social programmes. We have stop perpetuating this narrative that the media is in anyway 'left' leaning because it is not. When was the last time you read an opinion piece that called for the nationalisation of some private industry?
- Helmet 9y ago
  >The left has not taken over anything. I specifically said that the dominant culture is left - and it most certainly is, not the economic order. Virtually every major newspaper in every major city is left-leaning, almost every single cable news network, and all the major tech giants, who are a gateway to content, are undeniably liberal. And academia...well that goes without saying - half are card carrying communists, while the other half are in the ballpark. In fact, it's heresy to even be conservative at most major tech companies.
  - darpa_escapee 9y ago
    > In fact, it's heresy to even be conservative at most major tech companies. I've found more self-professed libertarians in this field than I've found of their left-leaning counterparts.
    - gerbilly 9y ago
      Instead of being conservative or liberal why don't we just try being nice to people? All these hot button issues that divide conservatives/liberals would evaporate if each side just tried, in each interaction to treat the other with dignity and according to their needs. You know, the golden rule: Treat others like you would like to be treated? That's a good start, but we really need the platinum rule: to treat people how they would like to be treated. Attempting to walk this path is a much harder task than relying on a dusty old book or on an enumeration of freedoms. It requires one to try to develop humility and wisdom. I believe there are no moral absolutes, and that only by paying attention the entire situation in the moment can you tell what you should do. When you adopt this point of view, you see that labels like liberal/conservative are just a set of received ideas that people use to avoid the difficult work described above. They are just an interrelated set of heuristics allowing you to take shortcuts in our day to day interactions with others.
rconti 9y ago
Disagree. The extent to which "the left" is the establishment in the media today, was also true 10 and 20 years ago. Again, the appeals to populism, human interest stories, and so on, have been staples of popular media for ages. The attitudes you speak of in some opinion pieces may be laughable in some ways but thought-provoking in others. Is it not true that some crime-fighting techniques disproportionately affect minority communities? Eg, not in proportion to the rate at which those communities commit crimes? You can't tell me that considering these factors is without merit, even if you disagree wholeheartedly with the conclusions. It's difficult to honestly compare a perhaps laughable premise or conclusion from one end of the political spectrum, with outright disregard for basic facts, truths, and reason-based discourse on the other. I will not participate in calling these things equivalent, however many points it may score with folks who are too afraid to offend. (We won't go into the irony of the great offense felt by folks who are hostile to truth itself, who expect their hurt feelings to entitle them to being treated as if their (lack of) ideas have merit).
whyaduck 9y ago
This article? https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/12/the-criminalization-of-gentrifying-neighborhoods/548837/ https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/12/the-cri... In no way, shape or form does that "bemoan" efforts to fight _serious_ crime in changing neighborhoods. It DOES take into account the impact of gentrification on the less affluent residents. Is actually discussing that impact considered "liberal"? If you want to criticize liberalism honestly, then you probably shouldn't grossly mischaracterize your evidence.
- ameister14 9y ago
  Interesting. This is a tangent about that article, as I hadn't read it before, but I live in that part of Brooklyn, have for a few years. Last year on J'ouvert, 2 people were shot about two and a half blocks from my apartment building. This happened every J'ouvert until this most recent one. I'm fine with the extra police presence for that one. When I moved in, there were drug dealers on every corner, including mine. Going to work, I had to go past their pitbulls in the morning or walk in the street as they all crowded the sidewalk. That ended a few months ago. I've seen more police, and more police called for things like a drunk beating up and robbing another drunk where that used to just be let go - it's not all minor crimes, it's an attitude change as people move in that don't expect to have dangerous people and violence around them. Sure, they shouldn't necessarily call the cops on the guy barbecuing in the street at midnight, but honestly? I don't think it's a really bad thing.
  - Helmet 9y ago
    >I don't think it's a really bad thing. Who in their right mind would? Uppity liberals and fringe left-wing protesters affiliated with various left-wing identitarian groups. The rest of us, rich, poor, middle-class, black, white, whatever, would prefer our neighborhoods to be safe, and not filled with gang violence and drugs. But this doesn't fit their narrative, so here we are.
    - objectivetruth 9y ago
      So, in your world, there are: * uppity liberals and fringe left-wing protestors * "the rest of us" Interesting. Lots of people on both sides of the aisle admit that there are uppity conservatives and fringe right-wing protestors, but you neglected to mention them. Do you feel that you're "in the middle" and not a conservative?
MaysonL 9y ago
If you want a case study of how the Republican party has sunk to extreme dunk-on-ability, read the Twitter feeds of David Frum, Bill Kristol, and Rick Wilson: three stalwart Republicans.
- MaysonL 9y ago
  Curious about the reasons for downvotes. In case I wasn't clear, those three are very critical of the current Republican party, especially the current administration

by Helmet 9y ago

AFNobody 9y ago

> Quite the opposite actually. As the contemporary left has taken over mainstream culture and turned into the de facto "establishment" that it original was against, it's grown intellectually soft and dishonest. LOL. Name 10 GOP politcians that aren't easy to dump on.

Helmet 9y ago
I think your response encapsulates everything I need to know. Have a good day sir.
- coderdude 9y ago
  He illustrated the point he quoted. It's amazing.
- AFNobody 9y ago
  I think the fact you did not rise to the occasion makes my point. You just assume everyone is a Democrat that doesn't agree with you and you can't think of such a list without serious time investment.
  - objectivetruth 9y ago
    You're arguing with a closed-minded libertarian/conservative -- check the rest of his/her posts and save your breath :-)

hackbinary 9y ago

The left has not taken over anything. We have lived in a very conservative, anti public services regime since the early 1980s. Rollbacks and defunding public schools, health and infrastructure has been on the basis that media has systematically attacked taxation and public spending as wasteful while military spending never seems to be targeted like other social programmes. We have stop perpetuating this narrative that the media is in anyway 'left' leaning because it is not. When was the last time you read an opinion piece that called for the nationalisation of some private industry?

Helmet 9y ago
>The left has not taken over anything. I specifically said that the dominant culture is left - and it most certainly is, not the economic order. Virtually every major newspaper in every major city is left-leaning, almost every single cable news network, and all the major tech giants, who are a gateway to content, are undeniably liberal. And academia...well that goes without saying - half are card carrying communists, while the other half are in the ballpark. In fact, it's heresy to even be conservative at most major tech companies.
- darpa_escapee 9y ago
  > In fact, it's heresy to even be conservative at most major tech companies. I've found more self-professed libertarians in this field than I've found of their left-leaning counterparts.
  - gerbilly 9y ago
    Instead of being conservative or liberal why don't we just try being nice to people? All these hot button issues that divide conservatives/liberals would evaporate if each side just tried, in each interaction to treat the other with dignity and according to their needs. You know, the golden rule: Treat others like you would like to be treated? That's a good start, but we really need the platinum rule: to treat people how they would like to be treated. Attempting to walk this path is a much harder task than relying on a dusty old book or on an enumeration of freedoms. It requires one to try to develop humility and wisdom. I believe there are no moral absolutes, and that only by paying attention the entire situation in the moment can you tell what you should do. When you adopt this point of view, you see that labels like liberal/conservative are just a set of received ideas that people use to avoid the difficult work described above. They are just an interrelated set of heuristics allowing you to take shortcuts in our day to day interactions with others.

rconti 9y ago

Disagree. The extent to which "the left" is the establishment in the media today, was also true 10 and 20 years ago. Again, the appeals to populism, human interest stories, and so on, have been staples of popular media for ages. The attitudes you speak of in some opinion pieces may be laughable in some ways but thought-provoking in others. Is it not true that some crime-fighting techniques disproportionately affect minority communities? Eg, not in proportion to the rate at which those communities commit crimes? You can't tell me that considering these factors is without merit, even if you disagree wholeheartedly with the conclusions. It's difficult to honestly compare a perhaps laughable premise or conclusion from one end of the political spectrum, with outright disregard for basic facts, truths, and reason-based discourse on the other. I will not participate in calling these things equivalent, however many points it may score with folks who are too afraid to offend. (We won't go into the irony of the great offense felt by folks who are hostile to truth itself, who expect their hurt feelings to entitle them to being treated as if their (lack of) ideas have merit).

whyaduck 9y ago

This article? https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/12/the-criminalization-of-gentrifying-neighborhoods/548837/ https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/12/the-cri... In no way, shape or form does that "bemoan" efforts to fight _serious_ crime in changing neighborhoods. It DOES take into account the impact of gentrification on the less affluent residents. Is actually discussing that impact considered "liberal"? If you want to criticize liberalism honestly, then you probably shouldn't grossly mischaracterize your evidence.

ameister14 9y ago
Interesting. This is a tangent about that article, as I hadn't read it before, but I live in that part of Brooklyn, have for a few years. Last year on J'ouvert, 2 people were shot about two and a half blocks from my apartment building. This happened every J'ouvert until this most recent one. I'm fine with the extra police presence for that one. When I moved in, there were drug dealers on every corner, including mine. Going to work, I had to go past their pitbulls in the morning or walk in the street as they all crowded the sidewalk. That ended a few months ago. I've seen more police, and more police called for things like a drunk beating up and robbing another drunk where that used to just be let go - it's not all minor crimes, it's an attitude change as people move in that don't expect to have dangerous people and violence around them. Sure, they shouldn't necessarily call the cops on the guy barbecuing in the street at midnight, but honestly? I don't think it's a really bad thing.
- Helmet 9y ago
  >I don't think it's a really bad thing. Who in their right mind would? Uppity liberals and fringe left-wing protesters affiliated with various left-wing identitarian groups. The rest of us, rich, poor, middle-class, black, white, whatever, would prefer our neighborhoods to be safe, and not filled with gang violence and drugs. But this doesn't fit their narrative, so here we are.
  - objectivetruth 9y ago
    So, in your world, there are: * uppity liberals and fringe left-wing protestors * "the rest of us" Interesting. Lots of people on both sides of the aisle admit that there are uppity conservatives and fringe right-wing protestors, but you neglected to mention them. Do you feel that you're "in the middle" and not a conservative?

MaysonL 9y ago

If you want a case study of how the Republican party has sunk to extreme dunk-on-ability, read the Twitter feeds of David Frum, Bill Kristol, and Rick Wilson: three stalwart Republicans.

MaysonL 9y ago
Curious about the reasons for downvotes. In case I wasn't clear, those three are very critical of the current Republican party, especially the current administration