5 ms·

No it is not. (if you really "living in Scandinavia") You literally don't understand what are you talking about, which is damn obvious when you comparing Scand

by Arech 5y ago

No it is not. (if you really "living in Scandinavia") You literally don't understand what are you talking about, which is damn obvious when you comparing Scandinavia or even US to Russia. You basically comparing Tesla car to horse-drawn carriage and draw similarities on a basis that both have 4 wheels and therefore they are both great and safe transportation devices.

jhgb 5y ago
I'm not from Scandinavia and the vast majority of US politicians look like interchangeable parts to me as well.
- ansible 5y ago
  > I'm not from Scandinavia and the vast majority of US politicians look like interchangeable parts to me as well. USA citizen. What's hilarious is that 10 years ago, I would have readily agreed with you. Both parties were too deeply beholden to special interests and corporate interests. There were some policy differences, but not that much, really. In the last five years, however, one party has gone completely batshit insane. Norms, precedent, common decency, acceptance of basic facts, acceptance of basic common sense... these have all gone out the window. And been replaced with cult-like unwavering loyalty to a single man. The other party, though still frequently dissapointingly inept and incompetent, now has my unhesitating support. It is not even close in my mind anymore.
  - sershe 5y ago
    The way I see it, one party has gone dumb, and the other party is obviously going evil (I am from Russia so you can guess what I think of leftism). The question is whether you prefer your government dumb or evil; I think dumb is... the lesser of two evils. But I can agree on the timing aspect, I'd vote for Obama OR Romney over literally any politician prominent in 2021.
    - tialaramex 5y ago
      If you're from Russia, what part of the Democratic party looks like "leftism" to you?
      - ansible 5y ago
        The "left wing" in the USA is the "center-right" in other parts of the world. We're still a ways away from basic stuff like universal health care that every other developed country has.
        sershe 5y ago
        Not really... somebody posted here recently, I cannot find a comment; supposedly posting CDU (German center-right party) policies into the recent NYT poll gets you lumped with trumpist wing of GOP. Many policies that are considered right-wing in the US enjoy broad support in European countries (e.g. official languages). Some things practiced Europe, like the Danish "immigrant ghetto" policies, would cause the US left to melt down so hard they'd burn a hole thru the Earth and come out in the Indian ocean (to be clear, I don't support or don't know/care enough to have an opinion about most of this stuff). Universal healthcare is provided by many countries from Singapore, that few would call left-wing; to outright totalitarian regimes, e.g. modern Russia. It's an indicator of statism, not leftism; I am not a big fan of that either, but non-leftist statism (a-la Singapore) is ok and totally different from what I'm talking about. Tangentially but helpfully, I would recommend looking up the difference between social democracy and democratic socialism, as described by democratic socialists.
        abandonliberty 5y ago
        Politicalcompass.org is super helpful for items like this. It turns out we're living in a very authoritarian/right wing world. Here's a country comparison for the EU. Turns out most of Europe is fairly authoritarian/right wing: https://politicalcompass.org/euchart https://politicalcompass.org/euchart Most countries at least have a somewhat relevant political party in quadrant 3 (libertarian/left), as you can see in the charts for EU, Germany, and Canada. The 2020 US political candidates show very little differentiation between Trump/Biden, with both very authoritarian/right wing: https://www.politicalcompass.org/uselection2020 https://www.politicalcompass.org/uselection2020
  - rurp 5y ago
    Same here. I used to vote for a third party candidate in most elections since that was usually who my views aligned most closely with, but in recent years I've switched to voting for the least bad major party because of how awful and terrifying the opposing side has become.
- Arech 5y ago
  It doesn't matter. What matters are how many of them and their staff or supporters gets bullied by the authorities, forced to flee the country, found themselves or their relatives in the middle of absurd lawsuits, gets beaten, poisoned or killed?
  - jhgb 5y ago
    My point was purely about elections, and that elections only matter if you have a reasonable amount of choice. You're arguing about something completely different.
    - Arech 5y ago
      My arguing is exactly about that! You can't name something as "elections" when ~~a huge~~ any part of country's people not just don't have a political representative at all, but gets actively counteracted to have such representative.
      - jhgb 5y ago
        What is "a huge any part"? Looks like too many determiners to me, so I'm not sure what you're saying there. > don't have a political representative at all That doesn't make a lot of sense, unless you live in a place like Puerto Rico. I'm not sure if Russia has similar places, but I assume it doesn't.
        Arech 5y ago
        > What is "a huge any part"? HN doesn't support a strike-through markup. "~~a huge~~" means striked-through font here. I've written it first and then after some thought tried to show that actually the proper word there is "any". > That doesn't make a lot of sense, unless you live in a place like Puerto Rico. I'm not sure if Russia has similar places, but I assume it doesn't. You are so much disconnected from what is and how it's happening here...
        5y ago

by Arech 5y ago

jhgb 5y ago

I'm not from Scandinavia and the vast majority of US politicians look like interchangeable parts to me as well.

ansible 5y ago
> I'm not from Scandinavia and the vast majority of US politicians look like interchangeable parts to me as well. USA citizen. What's hilarious is that 10 years ago, I would have readily agreed with you. Both parties were too deeply beholden to special interests and corporate interests. There were some policy differences, but not that much, really. In the last five years, however, one party has gone completely batshit insane. Norms, precedent, common decency, acceptance of basic facts, acceptance of basic common sense... these have all gone out the window. And been replaced with cult-like unwavering loyalty to a single man. The other party, though still frequently dissapointingly inept and incompetent, now has my unhesitating support. It is not even close in my mind anymore.
- sershe 5y ago
  The way I see it, one party has gone dumb, and the other party is obviously going evil (I am from Russia so you can guess what I think of leftism). The question is whether you prefer your government dumb or evil; I think dumb is... the lesser of two evils. But I can agree on the timing aspect, I'd vote for Obama OR Romney over literally any politician prominent in 2021.
  - tialaramex 5y ago
    If you're from Russia, what part of the Democratic party looks like "leftism" to you?
    - ansible 5y ago
      The "left wing" in the USA is the "center-right" in other parts of the world. We're still a ways away from basic stuff like universal health care that every other developed country has.
      - sershe 5y ago
        Not really... somebody posted here recently, I cannot find a comment; supposedly posting CDU (German center-right party) policies into the recent NYT poll gets you lumped with trumpist wing of GOP. Many policies that are considered right-wing in the US enjoy broad support in European countries (e.g. official languages). Some things practiced Europe, like the Danish "immigrant ghetto" policies, would cause the US left to melt down so hard they'd burn a hole thru the Earth and come out in the Indian ocean (to be clear, I don't support or don't know/care enough to have an opinion about most of this stuff). Universal healthcare is provided by many countries from Singapore, that few would call left-wing; to outright totalitarian regimes, e.g. modern Russia. It's an indicator of statism, not leftism; I am not a big fan of that either, but non-leftist statism (a-la Singapore) is ok and totally different from what I'm talking about. Tangentially but helpfully, I would recommend looking up the difference between social democracy and democratic socialism, as described by democratic socialists.
        abandonliberty 5y ago
        Politicalcompass.org is super helpful for items like this. It turns out we're living in a very authoritarian/right wing world. Here's a country comparison for the EU. Turns out most of Europe is fairly authoritarian/right wing: https://politicalcompass.org/euchart https://politicalcompass.org/euchart Most countries at least have a somewhat relevant political party in quadrant 3 (libertarian/left), as you can see in the charts for EU, Germany, and Canada. The 2020 US political candidates show very little differentiation between Trump/Biden, with both very authoritarian/right wing: https://www.politicalcompass.org/uselection2020 https://www.politicalcompass.org/uselection2020
- rurp 5y ago
  Same here. I used to vote for a third party candidate in most elections since that was usually who my views aligned most closely with, but in recent years I've switched to voting for the least bad major party because of how awful and terrifying the opposing side has become.
Arech 5y ago
It doesn't matter. What matters are how many of them and their staff or supporters gets bullied by the authorities, forced to flee the country, found themselves or their relatives in the middle of absurd lawsuits, gets beaten, poisoned or killed?
- jhgb 5y ago
  My point was purely about elections, and that elections only matter if you have a reasonable amount of choice. You're arguing about something completely different.
  - Arech 5y ago
    My arguing is exactly about that! You can't name something as "elections" when ~~a huge~~ any part of country's people not just don't have a political representative at all, but gets actively counteracted to have such representative.
    - jhgb 5y ago
      What is "a huge any part"? Looks like too many determiners to me, so I'm not sure what you're saying there. > don't have a political representative at all That doesn't make a lot of sense, unless you live in a place like Puerto Rico. I'm not sure if Russia has similar places, but I assume it doesn't.
      - Arech 5y ago
        > What is "a huge any part"? HN doesn't support a strike-through markup. "~~a huge~~" means striked-through font here. I've written it first and then after some thought tried to show that actually the proper word there is "any". > That doesn't make a lot of sense, unless you live in a place like Puerto Rico. I'm not sure if Russia has similar places, but I assume it doesn't. You are so much disconnected from what is and how it's happening here...
        5y ago