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> So now, I'm of the notion that all east coast politicians are hiding skeletons in their closets. Serious question… What percentage of people do you think ha

by csa 3y ago

> So now, I'm of the notion that all east coast politicians are hiding skeletons in their closets. Serious question… What percentage of people do you think have not done something in their youth (let’s generously call that 22 and under) that would offend one or more groups of people? Of those, what percentage do you think want to become politicians? My guess is that the Venn diagram of these two groups rounds to 0%. People make mistakes, sometimes egregious, though sometimes (often times?) without malice. If we want a wider pool to select our public figures from, we need to find room to forgive folks for transgressions if we can reasonably conclude that they have grown from and/or beyond their more offensive mistakes, especially if they occurred when the person in question was younger. Just my 2 cents…

true_religion 3y ago
I think we all make mistakes. However when you are running for elected office, you need to admit your faults and not hide them. If you want to be private about rape allegations, and incidents of racism, sexism, or harassment of any protected minority group then you ought to simply be a private citizen. Otherwise the public deserves to know. How many people would have not voted for the governor if they knew his past was something he still denied, and had not come to terms with?
- csa 3y ago
  > If you want to be private about rape allegations, and incidents of racism, sexism, or harassment of any protected minority group I think the problems with all of these is that they are not always clear and they change over time. I’ve mentioned some examples in another part of this thread, but to summarize: 1. If you have not asked explicit permission and received an affirmative response at every stage of a romantic endeavor ever, you can be accused of sexual assault or rape. The affirmative response can be deemed invalid if any alcohol was involved, and can be plausibly denied if there was no written agreement (these actually happen). 2. “Racism” can be something as simple as wearing a costume of a character that is not your race (think Moana or Blue Marvel), or being a member of a group that doesn’t have the right racial ratios (even if there are no discriminatory policies or practices). 3. You can be considered to be a harasser of a protected minority group for doing things like using the word “niggardly” (not etymologically a race-based word) or assigning the book To Kill a Mockingbird as a teacher. These may seem like extreme examples, but these are all things that are happening right now, and I think it’s safe to say that the vanilla forms of all of the actions mentioned above don’t warrant a confession from a potential politician. … yet there are people that will have no problems tarnishing a potential politician’s reputation via highly subjective allegations alone if they don’t agree with that person’s politics. For examples of each of the above, search for): 1. Harvard “rape” case in the 00s, and Duke lacrosse team. 2. Silicon Valley hiring practices. Also see most cases where the term “cultural appropriation” is weaponized. 3. WaPo article (today?) about TKM. “Water buffalo” case at UPenn in the 90s. People getting into trouble for playing the circle game, not realizing that the “OK” hand sign has become a racist dog whistle in some circles.

by csa 3y ago

true_religion 3y ago

I think we all make mistakes. However when you are running for elected office, you need to admit your faults and not hide them. If you want to be private about rape allegations, and incidents of racism, sexism, or harassment of any protected minority group then you ought to simply be a private citizen. Otherwise the public deserves to know. How many people would have not voted for the governor if they knew his past was something he still denied, and had not come to terms with?

csa 3y ago
> If you want to be private about rape allegations, and incidents of racism, sexism, or harassment of any protected minority group I think the problems with all of these is that they are not always clear and they change over time. I’ve mentioned some examples in another part of this thread, but to summarize: 1. If you have not asked explicit permission and received an affirmative response at every stage of a romantic endeavor ever, you can be accused of sexual assault or rape. The affirmative response can be deemed invalid if any alcohol was involved, and can be plausibly denied if there was no written agreement (these actually happen). 2. “Racism” can be something as simple as wearing a costume of a character that is not your race (think Moana or Blue Marvel), or being a member of a group that doesn’t have the right racial ratios (even if there are no discriminatory policies or practices). 3. You can be considered to be a harasser of a protected minority group for doing things like using the word “niggardly” (not etymologically a race-based word) or assigning the book To Kill a Mockingbird as a teacher. These may seem like extreme examples, but these are all things that are happening right now, and I think it’s safe to say that the vanilla forms of all of the actions mentioned above don’t warrant a confession from a potential politician. … yet there are people that will have no problems tarnishing a potential politician’s reputation via highly subjective allegations alone if they don’t agree with that person’s politics. For examples of each of the above, search for): 1. Harvard “rape” case in the 00s, and Duke lacrosse team. 2. Silicon Valley hiring practices. Also see most cases where the term “cultural appropriation” is weaponized. 3. WaPo article (today?) about TKM. “Water buffalo” case at UPenn in the 90s. People getting into trouble for playing the circle game, not realizing that the “OK” hand sign has become a racist dog whistle in some circles.