5 ms·

A lot of the discontent as you put is race based. Whites soon will no longer have a majority and there is an ongoing shift in the demographics. There is a sen

by syki 5y ago

A lot of the discontent as you put is race based. Whites soon will no longer have a majority and there is an ongoing shift in the demographics. There is a sense amongst uneducated whites and lower class whites that things aren’t right and their ire is focused at the wrong thing. There is also a rural/urban divide. As is common in America the lower classes get sidetracked by talking about race instead of class. There is anger and it is being successfully diverted from the oppressor to the “other” side. There is definitely a white nationalist backlash at a grand scale. America is changing demographically and the infrastructure is declining. Women are dominating in terms of college degrees now and in terms of graduating from college. Russia and others have done a great job at sowing dissent. Corporate media too have done a great job. Humanity is not prepared to be manipulated at the scale Facebook enables and the cost doing this manipulation is cheap. The U.S. is in a long term state of imperial decline. We are not ready for the social changes that are occurring. All of these things suggest to me that the country is ripe for authoritarianism. It just takes a demagogue with an ounce of competence to install it. Trump, fortunately, is devoid of competence and he failed. The next demagogue will likely succeed.

zozbot234 5y ago
> Whites soon will no longer have a majority and there is an ongoing shift in the demographics. The "ongoing shift" narrative turns out to be quite illusory. Hispanics are increasingly joining the "white" bandwagon, so "whites" will not become a demographic minority any time soon. Yes, this also means lots of potential voters for either party: there will be no raw demographically-based prominence for either Republicans or Democrats.
- syki 5y ago
  Well, Republicans haven’t quite shifted their views/policies enough to include Hispanics as a whole in their party. Rabiblancos (Panamanian Spanish term) are acceptable but even ones like Rafael Cruz feel the need to go by names like “Ted”. Republicans went hard for the white nationalist vote in 2016 and 2020. Can they shift enough, soon enough? I don’t know. They have a propensity - and Democrats too - to care about the next election and not long term.
gspetr 5y ago
>Russia and others have done a great job at sowing dissent. This has been debunked by non-corporate journalists like Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, etc. After 1.5 years of investigation, unlimited subpoena powers and 10s of millions of dollars spent, nobody can name 1 american citizen who has been convicted under the original premise of the Russiagate, which was criminally conspiring with the Kremlin to interfere in the 2016 election. EDIT: While we're at it I'll also address this comment you've made: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29776626 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29776626 >Regardless of whatever happened in the past the fact remains that the government was almost overthrown on January 6 and the instigators (the top leaders) have not been brought to justice. 700+ people are charged with crimes associated with Jan 6. Not a single one, not one has been charged with insurrection, inciting an insurrection, attempting to overthrow a government, sedition, treason, etc. They're all just common crimes: Trespassing, violent assault for the ones who used violence, interrupting government procedures/processes, etc. If this was an actual insurrection, or a seditious act, or a coup, why is the Justice Dept. under the control of the Biden administration, not William Barr or Donald Trump, not charging anybody with those crimes that are alleged to have taken place? Why are they charging them with common crimes that happen at protests and riots instead? Could it be because that was all that event was?
- syki 5y ago
  I wasn’t referring to Russia gate as such. It is clear that foreign governments are using bots and fake accounts to sow dissent. China uses a lot of people to do this. Israel uses fake accounts and whatnot to try to sway opinions regarding Palestinians and Iran. Mass manipulation is quite cheap and easy in the age of Facebook. You don’t think this occurs? January 6 was an insurrection. Why DOJ chooses to or not to pursue charges is not something I’m privy to. Biden, Pelosi, Garland and others are governing as if the political norms haven’t drastically changed. While DOJ is headed by a moderate Republican it’s not as if he can control the rank and file to do his bidding. He has great influence but he’s not a dictator. Trump couldn’t dictate exactly what he wanted DOJ to do either. We haven’t reached that point yet. Politics are involved and those in power do what they think is right considering their personal moral views/ambitions and their reading of what is politically feasible. That it isn’t being treated as an insurrection indicates to me the fragility of the system. The precedent has been set. Don’t like the result of a Presidential election and you have an army of fanatics willing to assault the Capitol then you may have them do so with impunity. That reasonable people such as yourself don’t see the danger in this tells me that we are past the point where we will ever return to normalcy in governance. Eventually one side or the other will lead us to authoritarianism or secession. EDIT: Capone was never charged with murder. Do you think he was never guilty of murder or being the cause of murders? One must disassociate the actions/intent of a person from the charges used against them. Perhaps prosecutors think Republican jurors will balk at the notion of insurrection and will never convict on this charge despite the evidence. You appear to ignore the plain evidence of insurrection and refuse to use that term.

by syki 5y ago

zozbot234 5y ago

> Whites soon will no longer have a majority and there is an ongoing shift in the demographics. The "ongoing shift" narrative turns out to be quite illusory. Hispanics are increasingly joining the "white" bandwagon, so "whites" will not become a demographic minority any time soon. Yes, this also means lots of potential voters for either party: there will be no raw demographically-based prominence for either Republicans or Democrats.

syki 5y ago
Well, Republicans haven’t quite shifted their views/policies enough to include Hispanics as a whole in their party. Rabiblancos (Panamanian Spanish term) are acceptable but even ones like Rafael Cruz feel the need to go by names like “Ted”. Republicans went hard for the white nationalist vote in 2016 and 2020. Can they shift enough, soon enough? I don’t know. They have a propensity - and Democrats too - to care about the next election and not long term.

gspetr 5y ago

>Russia and others have done a great job at sowing dissent. This has been debunked by non-corporate journalists like Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, etc. After 1.5 years of investigation, unlimited subpoena powers and 10s of millions of dollars spent, nobody can name 1 american citizen who has been convicted under the original premise of the Russiagate, which was criminally conspiring with the Kremlin to interfere in the 2016 election. EDIT: While we're at it I'll also address this comment you've made: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29776626 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29776626 >Regardless of whatever happened in the past the fact remains that the government was almost overthrown on January 6 and the instigators (the top leaders) have not been brought to justice. 700+ people are charged with crimes associated with Jan 6. Not a single one, not one has been charged with insurrection, inciting an insurrection, attempting to overthrow a government, sedition, treason, etc. They're all just common crimes: Trespassing, violent assault for the ones who used violence, interrupting government procedures/processes, etc. If this was an actual insurrection, or a seditious act, or a coup, why is the Justice Dept. under the control of the Biden administration, not William Barr or Donald Trump, not charging anybody with those crimes that are alleged to have taken place? Why are they charging them with common crimes that happen at protests and riots instead? Could it be because that was all that event was?

syki 5y ago
I wasn’t referring to Russia gate as such. It is clear that foreign governments are using bots and fake accounts to sow dissent. China uses a lot of people to do this. Israel uses fake accounts and whatnot to try to sway opinions regarding Palestinians and Iran. Mass manipulation is quite cheap and easy in the age of Facebook. You don’t think this occurs? January 6 was an insurrection. Why DOJ chooses to or not to pursue charges is not something I’m privy to. Biden, Pelosi, Garland and others are governing as if the political norms haven’t drastically changed. While DOJ is headed by a moderate Republican it’s not as if he can control the rank and file to do his bidding. He has great influence but he’s not a dictator. Trump couldn’t dictate exactly what he wanted DOJ to do either. We haven’t reached that point yet. Politics are involved and those in power do what they think is right considering their personal moral views/ambitions and their reading of what is politically feasible. That it isn’t being treated as an insurrection indicates to me the fragility of the system. The precedent has been set. Don’t like the result of a Presidential election and you have an army of fanatics willing to assault the Capitol then you may have them do so with impunity. That reasonable people such as yourself don’t see the danger in this tells me that we are past the point where we will ever return to normalcy in governance. Eventually one side or the other will lead us to authoritarianism or secession. EDIT: Capone was never charged with murder. Do you think he was never guilty of murder or being the cause of murders? One must disassociate the actions/intent of a person from the charges used against them. Perhaps prosecutors think Republican jurors will balk at the notion of insurrection and will never convict on this charge despite the evidence. You appear to ignore the plain evidence of insurrection and refuse to use that term.