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Ugh, the both sides are bad trope combined with a ton of “my feels” argument. There’s just a tremendous amount to unpack here. The United States is a vast, no

by codyb 8y ago

Ugh, the both sides are bad trope combined with a ton of “my feels” argument. There’s just a tremendous amount to unpack here. The United States is a vast, nonhomogenous, capitalistic culture with it’s fair share of issues. The war in Iraq was a travesty and reconstruction efforts were unmitigated money grabs by a certain subset of well connected contractors. The war in Afghanistan has gone on for almost two decades and appears unlikely to ever be “won” in any traditional sense of the word. Despite that, our continuing presence there is actually a rather mature decision to not let millions of Afghani peoples fall back under the oppressive and horrid Taliban rule they were under before. We have issues with undue corporate influence, and the issue of voting weight disproportionality among our citizens when the Senate, gerrymandering, and Electoral College are taken into account are indeed insane. However. There is a very clear difference between Republicans and Democrats. Republicans, excluding this horror story of a Presidency, have something like 38 times the number of indictments as compared to Democrats when taken on an equal number of years in power. Republicans consistently expand the deficit while cutting social programs. They investigate Benghazi for six years then moan about a two year investigation. Enough about that distinction, but it goes on. The Republicans are a drastically different party than the Democrats. And no, the Democrats aren’t perfect. But you know who had plans for fixing infrastructure and the opiod crisis? Democrats. And they still do. Go look at their policy positions. Staggeringly enough there actually well thought out and decent, progressive policy initiatives laid on Sanders’, Warren’s, and Clinton’s websites. Finally. The young people of America are fantastic. Gay rights have moved forward dramatically in the last two decades. The MeToo movement is helping to stamp out a culture of sexualization and rape throughout our industries. We produce culture, and planes, and tremendous advancements in science, and research. And our framework has held up pretty damn well against a clearly authoratative demagogue. The post WWII period which has been centrally defined by the rise of American Hegemony features plenty of mistakes, but it’s also been the singular most peaceful era of global history and seen the greatest decrease in world poverty. So please don’t reduce us to “drugged to muh gills” and “endless war”.

scottlocklin 8y ago
I'm sorry: I do not share your optimistic views that there is one side better than the other. I look, in fact, at people who have such views as dupes who are making the country worse. "You" and the US as a whole do not produce "culture, and planes, and tremendous advancements in science, and research" -these are achievements of the US in the cold war era. They stopped post cold war; the country is now a sheep shearing operation fueled by eternal war. The bipartisan consensus is: drug the population, eternal war and keep the peons fighting each other while we pick their pockets and slowly enslave them. Were you not sentient during the Obama administration? That's as left wing as we're gonna get. It was basically the Goldman-Bush administration ... with a shitty republican health care plan. FWIIW I was born in the US and lived here almost my entire life; I don't plan on dying here. Good on you for sticking it out: I'll vote with my feet while I still can.
- codyb 8y ago
  Yes because it’s always been the Democrats who’ve opposed making healthcare better. And the Democrats who started those wars. And the Democrats who give tax cuts to the wealthy. And the Democrats who get indicted for corruption constantly. The idea that the Obama administration is as left as we can get is some seriously revisionist history which disregards which party was continually blocking any attempt at progress the other party made. The Democrats never blocked Supreme court nominees for a year, or stone walled any attempt at legislation put forth by the other party. No Democratic Senate Majority Leader ever said “our only goal is to make this guy a one term President”. And during the Bush years there were many examples of bipartisan initiatives which went forward. That all ended after Obama’s second year as President when Republican’s won the House and Senate and decided the only thing they would be for was being against Obama. You’re placing the blame on both parties for the Obama administration and yet only one party is to blame for the abject lack of forward progress during that administration. And despite that, under Obama millions and millions of American’s gained healthcare, gays got the right to marry, the United States came out of an absolutely tremendous recession, the US scaled back it’s wars in the Middle East, and the US regained some of the respect it lost under the Bush administration. And yes, I, and the US as a whole absolutely produce tremendous amounts of culture, technology, science, and research. No idea where you think Hollywood movies come from, or many of the advances in healthcare, or silicon valley came from.
  - scottlocklin 8y ago
    Look at you, litigating this as if it's a party thing. It's not a party thing. It's a false oppos thing. Nobody in this country except the "fringe" candidates, who are purposefully kept fringe, are talking about real issues. You aren't either; you're talking about meaningless emotional bullet points. You've drunk so much kool aide, blaming the dumb rednecks for all your problems, you might as well be writing the stuff. Many advances in healthcare? Name one! The US population's average lifespan is declining; something that has never happened before. Yay muh "health care" and alleged medical advancements. Hollywood is garbage, and I don't watch it, basically, at all. Your civilization is declining, physically, culturally, even technologically. The last interesting technological thing the US did was search engines, and that happened in the 20th century. Anyway, you can console yourself with the fact that I'm leaving! And every time I interact with people like you, or your ideological opposite, I'm more determined to GTFO the sinking ship while I still can.

by codyb 8y ago

scottlocklin 8y ago

I'm sorry: I do not share your optimistic views that there is one side better than the other. I look, in fact, at people who have such views as dupes who are making the country worse. "You" and the US as a whole do not produce "culture, and planes, and tremendous advancements in science, and research" -these are achievements of the US in the cold war era. They stopped post cold war; the country is now a sheep shearing operation fueled by eternal war. The bipartisan consensus is: drug the population, eternal war and keep the peons fighting each other while we pick their pockets and slowly enslave them. Were you not sentient during the Obama administration? That's as left wing as we're gonna get. It was basically the Goldman-Bush administration ... with a shitty republican health care plan. FWIIW I was born in the US and lived here almost my entire life; I don't plan on dying here. Good on you for sticking it out: I'll vote with my feet while I still can.

codyb 8y ago
Yes because it’s always been the Democrats who’ve opposed making healthcare better. And the Democrats who started those wars. And the Democrats who give tax cuts to the wealthy. And the Democrats who get indicted for corruption constantly. The idea that the Obama administration is as left as we can get is some seriously revisionist history which disregards which party was continually blocking any attempt at progress the other party made. The Democrats never blocked Supreme court nominees for a year, or stone walled any attempt at legislation put forth by the other party. No Democratic Senate Majority Leader ever said “our only goal is to make this guy a one term President”. And during the Bush years there were many examples of bipartisan initiatives which went forward. That all ended after Obama’s second year as President when Republican’s won the House and Senate and decided the only thing they would be for was being against Obama. You’re placing the blame on both parties for the Obama administration and yet only one party is to blame for the abject lack of forward progress during that administration. And despite that, under Obama millions and millions of American’s gained healthcare, gays got the right to marry, the United States came out of an absolutely tremendous recession, the US scaled back it’s wars in the Middle East, and the US regained some of the respect it lost under the Bush administration. And yes, I, and the US as a whole absolutely produce tremendous amounts of culture, technology, science, and research. No idea where you think Hollywood movies come from, or many of the advances in healthcare, or silicon valley came from.
- scottlocklin 8y ago
  Look at you, litigating this as if it's a party thing. It's not a party thing. It's a false oppos thing. Nobody in this country except the "fringe" candidates, who are purposefully kept fringe, are talking about real issues. You aren't either; you're talking about meaningless emotional bullet points. You've drunk so much kool aide, blaming the dumb rednecks for all your problems, you might as well be writing the stuff. Many advances in healthcare? Name one! The US population's average lifespan is declining; something that has never happened before. Yay muh "health care" and alleged medical advancements. Hollywood is garbage, and I don't watch it, basically, at all. Your civilization is declining, physically, culturally, even technologically. The last interesting technological thing the US did was search engines, and that happened in the 20th century. Anyway, you can console yourself with the fact that I'm leaving! And every time I interact with people like you, or your ideological opposite, I'm more determined to GTFO the sinking ship while I still can.