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It’s a strongly expressed opinion that isn’t necessarily supported by evidence. Do you know of any statistical or anecdotal evidence? I personally don’t know an
by finfinfin 5y ago
It’s a strongly expressed opinion that isn’t necessarily supported by evidence. Do you know of any statistical or anecdotal evidence? I personally don’t know anyone who changed their opinion of GCHQ for better because of their support of LGBT. I don’t agree that it’s so easy to draw such conclusions and exclaim “sure they spy on us but look at their flamboyant support of social justice”.
- zpeti 5y agoTo give you the perfect example, I think all the types of people who were protesting (100% correctly) at the Occupy Wall Street movements have been completely neutered and neutralised with this woke movement in corporations. These bankers and banks basically destroyed the american dream like no other person/corporation in history, they did more damage to minorities than any "white oppressor", yet they've basically been forgotten because activists types feel like they can make a difference by introducing trans issues into corporations. No, you didn't. The same crooked billionaires are syphoning off even more cash, not to mention the government is now printing money for them to socialise their losses. I have to congratulate these corporations, it's been the perfect divide and conquer tactic. Almost everyone's forgotten the 2008 crises, who caused it, and what damage it did.
- notahacker 5y agoName one person who has decided banks are no longer to blame for 2008 because rainbow flags. The Occupy movement failed because sitting in tents complaining about systems almost invariably fails, and people aren't as angry about a deep recession caused by subprime mortgage lending because it's 13 years later and the deep recession we experienced most recently wasn't caused by anything at all to do with the banking system. Some overlapping but largely different groups, with different priorities and strategies had more success in making a difference; perhaps not a difference you care for but a difference. Rather than wonder if certain groups of "woke" activists were better at organising and picking their goals, and can be learned from, you accuse them of "neutralising" unrelated causes you feel closer to, as if it's impossible for any activist to be opposed to homophobia and Goldman Sachs, and spend your message board days railing against "woke" activism instead of corrupt bankers. It's the perfect divide and be conquered tactic, and you can guarantee nobody appreciates your argument that the real reason billionaires got away with crookedness is some trans activists had a bit of success more than crooked billionaires.
- rayiner 5y ago> Name one person who has decided banks are no longer to blame for 2008 because rainbow flags. The Democratic Party: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/16/wall-street-donors-line-up-behind-biden-in-massive-third-quarter-fundraising-haul.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/16/wall-street-donors-line-up-b... Parties are coalitions of voters. A lot of the anti-Wall Street populists are rural or working class whites who may have regressive views on social issues. As the Democratic Party moved to the left on social issues since 2010, it has replaced those working class white voters with high income professionals, including most of Wall Street. Remember, in 2009, Democrats held both Senate seats in West Virginia. Now, those working class white states have all flipped Republican. Biden’s 2020 run failed to recover Obama’s 2008 support in the Midwest. He won the presidency thanks to vote Reagan suburbs around Atlanta and Phoenix going Democrat. (My traditionally red Maryland county went +14 for Biden but +30 for Larry Hogan, during a blue wave. It voted for both Romney and McCain.) You can’t have a meaningfully left party when your marginal voters are socially liberal Republicans.
- tptacek 5y agoThe people who camped out in Zuccoti Park in NYC during Occupy Wall Street were not rural whites. I don't really understand the point you're trying to make here. It doesn't take a social scientist to figure out what's going on in West Virginia. West Virginia is East Wyoming. It's overwhelmingly white, has no urban centers, and is starkly less educated than Iowa (itself a heavy lift for the Democratic party). Your point is what? That the parties have polarized on education? Yes, I think we've priced that in now. The last Democratic Presidential candidate who took West Virginia was Bill Clinton. There were still Dixiecrats in the party when he won it. It's a red state; in fact, it's the second reddest state in the union. Even Alabama sends a Democrat to the House. Not WV. Capito slaughtered Swearengin in 2020 i in every county in the state. What that tells us about Democratic attitudes towards banks is precisely zero. Get rid of Republic Senate votes in the south and we'd have broken up the major investment banks (I don't think that would have been a good thing).
- rayiner 5y ago
- TechBro8615 5y agoWhat? The statement doesn’t make any claims about GCHQ except that they take morally reprehensible actions like spying on people, scanning emails, etc. Is the idea that GCHQ (a spy agency) spies on people a claim that requires evidence?
- finfinfin 5y agoGreenwald is claiming that people are becoming less opposed to GCHQ’s spying due to their support for social issues like LGBT rights. I am asking whether there is any evidence to support that.
- TechBro8615 5y agoNot sure about GCHQ, but in the US there is a stark left/right divide in support for intelligence agencies. Notably, if you could find similar polls from 2003, the polarization would be almost completely inverted. [0] https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2018/07/24/growing-partisan-differences-in-views-of-the-fbi-stark-divide-over-ice/ https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2018/07/24/growing-part...
- shlant 5y ago> the polarization would be almost completely inverted And how are you going to go about proving causation between pinkwashing and support for intelligence agencies? Do you think maybe the Trump/Qanon rhetoric around the FBI/CIA/Deepstate might have had something to do with republicans opinion shift? (your own link alludes to that)
- dabbledash 5y agoThe left i remember from the 90’s and early 2000’s would have been skeptical of huge corporations suppressing political dissent and providing political training at work, for example. They aren’t skeptical now because the corporations are “on their side” on the issues they now consider most important. Issues that conveniently don’t threaten corporate power in any way.
- nextaccountic 5y agoIt's just PR. Companies do this too, not just government agencies. You can say that PR doesn't work, but if done properly should at least generate some amount of goodwill. I mean, if PR didn't work, why would any organization spend money to do it?