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The disenfranchised myth

I basically agree with everything you said here. But we're past the point of the right not taking ownership of the problem.

In a post 9/11 world, peaceful Muslims had a problem. Their religion was actively being weaponized by extremists for political ends. There could be no room for "sympathizers" in the peaceful ranks. But who's job was that? Who's responsibility? Does the local Imam turn a blind eye to the youth he sees at risk for radicalization? Or does he actively try to be part of the solution? It's easy to see how the events of 9/11 could dramatically change someone's sense of self-responsibility within a community.

So in my opinion, January 6th changes things. Prior to that, you could argue that despite the rhetoric, Trump was not the threat the left says he is. That all their fears were exaggerated. That's not the case anymore. The right needs to own this. Radicalized political violence doesn't need 74 million people to terrorize this country. If January 6th doesn't wake us up then it's going to get worse.
Why does January 6th change anything?

If anything, it proved that an angry mob can't affect our governmental processes.
 
Why does January 6th change anything?

If anything, it proved that an angry mob can't affect our governmental processes.
Exactly!
Kind of like 9/11 proved that a small group of Islamic terrorists couldn't stop our governmental processes. 🙄
 
Exactly!
Kind of like 9/11 proved that a small group of Islamic terrorists couldn't stop our governmental processes. 🙄
Oh good lord. Did you seriously just compare January 6th to 9/11?

Do you people really disrespect history this much? Everybody is a Nazi, whats happening at the border is like the holocaust, busting in to the capitol is like 9/11. Its no wonder the left treats covid like its ebola. You guys have lost all perspective.
 
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Oh good lord. Did you seriously just compare January 6th to 9/11?

Do you people really disrespect history this much? Everybody is a Nazi, whats happening at the border is like the holocaust, busting in to the capitol is like 9/11. Its no wonder the left treats covid like its ebola. You guys have lost all perspective.
Oooooooh. We are the ones who've 'lost all perspective.' SMH. Tell that to the guy who said this:
Why does January 6th change anything? If anything, it proved that an angry mob can't affect our governmental processes.
 
Oooooooh. We are the ones who've 'lost all perspective.' SMH. Tell that to the guy who said this:
You're right, so I apologize. We were within a hair of losing our democracy on January 6th. As the battle raged on throughout the night I had lost hope that the government could defeat the insurgents.
 
You're right, so I apologize. We were within a hair of losing our democracy on January 6th. As the battle raged on throughout the night I had lost hope that the government could defeat the insurgents.
If you think you're being cute, your humor is lost on the rest of us. People died and were injured defending our Capitol from that mob.
 
If you think you're being cute, your humor is lost on the rest of us. People died and were injured defending our Capitol from that mob.
Meh. 1 guy died defending it. 1 died trying to climb through a window that I guess was trying to make a point. A couple of people died because they had heart attacks. 3-1 for the good guys.
 
I have. Even after a g'damned attack on the Capitol, they tell me matter-of-factly with a straight face that the election was 'rigged.' Soooo...what am I supposed to 'assume' from that?
I get that part of the anger inside Trump's base is the ridicule they feel from 'those smartass elitist snobs' who make fun of them.

I was ready to assign that to a small, vocal minority in our country...until I saw that over 72 million people still voted for Trump last November. How does one rationally explain that phenomenon? I am unwilling to believe that nearly half the country represent the 'caricature' that we have that all Trumpets are the nutjobs we saw attacking the Capitol.

So what explains it? It's got to be the crazyass 'news sources' they are depending upon for their understanding of the world. YES, people like Rushbo and Hannity are entertainers. Unfortunately, not many of their viewers understand that fact.
You continue taking the laziest possible approach to “understanding” how someone else comes to a different conclusion than you, by assuming “it’s got to be the crazyass ‘news sources’” rather than fundamental differences in how they believe the country should be run.

I held my nose and voted for Trump in November because I don’t believe that the Democrat party offers much that’s positive in the long term. They’ve become a party of ridiculous political correctness, continually convincing minorities of their victimhood, and throughout COVID they’ve displayed unbelievable hypocrisy and unchecked virtue signaling and hysteria for political theatre. No, thanks.

I know it makes you feel a lot better if you believe that voting for Trump makes someone either evil, stupid, or both. That way you know you’re at least in the top half of quality humans in America, but I promise it’s just your blind spot. You don’t seem to see the things that made so many of us reject Joe Biden and Kamala “I got next” Harris. The hypocrisy, the corruption (if Don Jr. was on the board at Burisma there would - rightfully - be coverage of it around the clock on CNN and MSNBC), and the irony of someone with nearly 5 decades in Washington talking about what they’re *finally* going to fix... We don’t buy it.
 
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You continue taking the laziest possible approach to “understanding” how someone else comes to a different conclusion than you, by assuming “it’s got to be the crazyass ‘news sources’” rather than fundamental differences in how they believe the country should be run.
That explanation might work if I weren't a fiscal conservative by nature who used to routinely vote Republican. Did I change and become 'all leftie' or did the party?

I know it makes you feel a lot better if you believe that voting for Trump makes someone either evil, stupid, or both. That way you know you’re at least in the top half of quality humans in America, but I promise it’s just your blind spot.
You talk about "convincing minorities of their victimhood" and "I got next" Harris and then proceed to tell me I'm the one with a 'blind spot.' :)

You had the WH the past four years. Where did it get us? Did Trump get all your aggrievements fixed?
 
That explanation might work if I weren't a fiscal conservative by nature who used to routinely vote Republican. Did I change and become 'all leftie' or did the party?


You talk about "convincing minorities of their victimhood" and "I got next" Harris and then proceed to tell me I'm the one with a 'blind spot.' :)

You had the WH the past four years. Where did it get us? Did Trump get all your aggrievements fixed?
Don’t put quotes around “all leftie” because I didn’t say that.

The economy was excellent the past four years until COVID lockdowns put the entire world economy in the toilet.

Feel free to tell me how perpetually telling minorities they’re the victims of oppression and they need the Democratic Party to save them from white oppression is actually a good thing for minorities.

As for “I got next” Harris... what about it? She’s clearly there to scoot Joe out of the Oval Office in the next couple years. Do you honestly believe Biden finishes his term given his current mental health? All this after calling him out for supporting segregationists and saying she believed the women who accused him of inappropriately touching them. All of that was either lying at the time or no longer a big deal now that he’s her ticket to be President of the United States despite receiving just 844 votes for president in the Democratic primary.
 
The economy was excellent the past four years until COVID lockdowns put the entire world economy in the toilet.
Posters like you act like the economic growth we'd experienced under Trump started with his election. The reality is that these economic trends were a continuation of the growth that we experienced after the 2008-09 collapse (you know, those horrible Obama years.)

If Trump gave the markets additional adrenaline, it came at the expense of adding to our national debt. I would love for all of our conservatives to explain to me how the increasing debt we've added over the Trump years is making us economically stronger.

Feel free to tell me how perpetually telling minorities they’re the victims of oppression and they need the Democratic Party to save them from white oppression is actually a good thing for minorities.
How exactly is that happening? Is it by expressing outrage when a Black man is gunned down by the police for no reason? Is it by acknowledging the disparities that exist between White American and Black and Latino America?

Are there White Americans who are hurting? You bet. Do their issues need to be addressed? You bet. Joe Biden was elected, in part, because more voters recognized that fact.

Let me be crystal clear here: I am not lumping you into what I'm about to say next. But way too many Trump supporters are motivated by resentment that the leaders in the other party only looks out for minorities and not them.
 
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If you don't want to be called dumb or racist, you should probably try to stop saying dumb and racist things.
 
Posters like you act like the economic growth we'd experienced under Trump started with his election. The reality is that these economic trends were a continuation of the growth that we experienced after the 2008-09 collapse (you know, those horrible Obama years.)

If Trump gave the markets additional adrenaline, it came at the expense of adding to our national debt. I would love for all of our conservatives to explain to me how the increasing debt we've added over the Trump years is making us economically stronger.


How exactly is that happening? Is it by expressing outrage when a Black man is gunned down by the police for no reason? Is it by acknowledging the disparities that exist between White American and Black and Latino America?

Are there White Americans who are hurting? You bet. Do their issues need to be addressed? You bet. Joe Biden was elected, in part, because more voters recognized that fact.

Let me be crystal clear here: I am not lumping you into what I'm about to say next. But way too many Trump supporters are motivated by resentment that the leaders in the other party only looks out for minorities and not them.
How did the increased debt under Obama make our economy stronger in the long run?
 
How did the increased debt under Obama make our economy stronger in the long run?
Where did I say it did? I said that Trump's economic growth was a continuation of the economic growth the country experienced over Obama's eight years.

Just as I am concerned with Trump's increases to our national debt, I had similar concerns about the huge bank bailouts we experienced under both Bush and Obama. At the time, we were told they were absolutely necessary or the bottom was going to fall out of the stock market.

Widespread panic made that call a no-brainer but nevertheless, my gut tells me that hasty decisions made out of fear never work out well (e.g. invading Iraq because of the danger of his WMDs). While we made it out of that crisis and most of us recovered from that economic hit to our accounts, I personally believe that our massive federal debt is a growing problem that needs to be addressed.
 
Where did I say it did? I said that Trump's economic growth was a continuation of the economic growth the country experienced over Obama's eight years.

Just as I am concerned with Trump's increases to our national debt, I had similar concerns about the huge bank bailouts we experienced under both Bush and Obama. At the time, we were told they were absolutely necessary or the bottom was going to fall out of the stock market.

Widespread panic made that call a no-brainer but nevertheless, my gut tells me that hasty decisions made out of fear never work out well (e.g. invading Iraq because of the danger of his WMDs). While we made it out of that crisis and most of us recovered from that economic hit to our accounts, I personally believe that our massive federal debt is a growing problem that needs to be addressed.
1. We didn't hastily invade Iraq out of fear. That was a months long process that included presenting "evidence" to the UN.

2. Don't worry about the public debt. It doesn't matter anymore.
 
1. We didn't hastily invade Iraq out of fear. That was a months long process that included presenting "evidence" to the UN.
As I recall, that's the point where I decided that maybe I wasn't a Republican after all because I thought our 'evidence' was bullshit. Guess what? I was right.
2. Don't worry about the public debt. It doesn't matter anymore.
That's truly a scary thought.
 
As I recall, that's the point where I decided that maybe I wasn't a Republican after all because I thought our 'evidence' was bullshit. Guess what? I was right.
That's truly a scary thought.
Same here. Saddam was never a threat to us and that whole thing made me lose a lot of faith in the Republican party. It always seemed like if we were going to invade another country due to 9/11 and work for stability in the ME, the obvious target was Syria. I still question whether we chose Iraq was because they were trying to tether their currency to gold.
 
Number one - don't be a know it all. For these folks it's emotional. Attacking their beliefs feels like a personal attack on them. Especially when the attack is "everybody's racist".
It's easy to attack me for being a big meanie and stating what's painful obvious. But the question becomes: What is gained by trying to 'understand' people who have been brainwashed into believing in delusional bullshit?

As a functional society, we need to operate based on laws and evidence-based facts. When facts become my opinion versus your opinion, we've now seen first-hand where that led -- An attack on our nation's Capitol because of a "stolen election" for crying out loud!!!! To hell with anything like evidence, or logic, or commonsense!

The cold, hard truth is that if we had had Republican leaders with THE BALLS to tell their constituents THE TRUTH after the election was decided, the January 6th attack would never have happened. You expect politicians to play political games. But there comes a point -- and last December was one of them -- where they needed to stand up and do what was right for the good of the country instead of pandering to their constituents' delusions.
 
It's easy to attack me for being a big meanie and stating what's painful obvious. But the question becomes: What is gained by trying to 'understand' people who have been brainwashed into believing in delusional bullshit?

As a functional society, we need to operate based on laws and evidence-based facts. When facts become my opinion versus your opinion, we've now seen first-hand where that led -- An attack on our nation's Capitol because of a "stolen election" for crying out loud!!!! To hell with anything like evidence, or logic, or commonsense!

The cold, hard truth is that if we had had Republican leaders with THE BALLS to tell their constituents THE TRUTH after the election was decided, the January 6th attack would never have happened. You expect politicians to play political games. But there comes a point -- and last December was one of them -- where they needed to stand up and do what was right for the good of the country instead of pandering to their constituents' delusions.
Lol. Yeah, you are clearly the arbiter of common sense.
 
Lol. Yeah, you are clearly the arbiter of common sense.
Naw, I wouldn't go THAT far. But when it comes to common sense, I wasn't the poster who spent weeks....and weeks...and weeks....breathlessly awaiting evidence of massive voter fraud that would overturn the EC outcome in six separate States so that Donald would have four more years.
 
Oh yea I agree completely. We don't need to reach the extremes, but what we can't do is lump everyone together. When we say things like "Trump supporters are just a bunch of racists" or similar, we're making out problems worse.

What happens when someone knows Trump is trouble but they're convinced Democrats are going to destroy our country? They're wrong - but they're not unreachable. But when we say things like "Trump supporters are bunch of triggered racists" that lumps them in.

These guys need a name that differentiates them in some way. MAGA Extremists. MAGA Radicals. I dunno.

Not sure if he coined the term or not but Iove Eric Weinsteins use of the terms Wokistan and MAGAstan.

Both the left and the right keep speaking as if the entire other side is made up of the those groups and thus the perceived threat keeps elevating. What happens when the perceived threat reaches a tipping point? Well it looks like we're going to have front row seats to see.

 
I get what you're saying here. I do believe this movement Trump has unleashed is an existential threat to democracy. Right wing nationalist movements have a track record of this sort of thing. But how can I be so sure I'm right and the other guys are wrong? I think that's your question.

I saw a post on reddit yesterday that was basically asking for ex flat-earthers to explain what tipped them off to reality. Here's a response I thought was interesting:

Not me, but got a flat Earther to question his beliefs (and hopefully critically analyze them) by giving him the proof he asked for, to which he responded "mainstream science and media are lies". I asked why he asked for proof if he could just disregard it as lies either way, then told him that since he required no proof (or evidence against) to believe something, it made him the easiest person to deceive and that it seemed pretty sheep-like to me. He deleted all of his flat earth comments and hasn't posted about it since.
Straight up, you could re-write this sentence by replacing the 2 flat earth references with MAGA extremist references and not need to change a single other word.

In normal times, that type of mentality is limited to the fringes of left and right. Currently, the fringe thinking on the right is permeating mainstream Republican thinking. I just saw an article where a state senator legimately considered a candidate for VA governor said she still thinks there's a chance Trump is sworn in on Jan 20th (!).

Over 150 Republicans members of the house voted to THROW OUT THE VOTES of other states. We just broke our streak of 250+ years with a peaceful transfer of power as the capitol building was mobbed.

So when you ask me how I'm sure I'm right, I can't help but point to flat earthers. The stop-the-steal mob is at that level. This was akin to Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz saying "look, my citizens are concerned the earth might be flat - and those are legitimate concerns and should be investigated" instead of telling them the truth. These are weird times, but to a rational person schooled in history without an agenda, it's painfully obvious who's on the right side here.

One issue is people expecting 100% precision in a dynamic society involving faulty humans. Sometimes the "right" side is the one with the closest approximation to the truth. This should go without saying but we're now at a point with sooo much distrust in institutions that if any particular element of something can be discredited then they whole thing must be discarded.
 
Naw, I wouldn't go THAT far. But when it comes to common sense, I wasn't the poster who spent weeks....and weeks...and weeks....breathlessly awaiting evidence of massive voter fraud that would overturn the EC outcome in six separate States so that Donald would have four more years.
That poster doesn't exist on this board.
 
Oooooookay, if you say so. ;)
Ok. Let's break this down into its very basic form. Is it possible that any claim that the Trump supporters made about voter fraud were impossibilities? No. Any one of them is absolutely possible. Every one of them meets the principle of sufficient reason. That means you should go into the claim objectively. Can you say that you didn't dismiss any one of the claims out of hand?
 
Ok. Let's break this down into its very basic form. Is it possible that any claim that the Trump supporters made about voter fraud were impossibilities? No. Any one of them is absolutely possible. Every one of them meets the principle of sufficient reason. That means you should go into the claim objectively. Can you say that you didn't dismiss any one of the claims out of hand?

That isn't how it works, Copernicus.

Using your shitty logic, it is possible that the election was rigged by an army of Smurfs, but nobody can dismiss the claims!!
Get it?

It isn't up to anyone else to dismiss the claims. The claims have ZERO merit unless there is evidence to support them, which there is none. Stop being a moron.
 
That isn't how it works, Copernicus.

Using your shitty logic, it is possible that the election was rigged by an army of Smurfs, but nobody can dismiss the claims!!
Get it?

It isn't up to anyone else to dismiss the claims. The claims have ZERO merit unless there is evidence to support them, which there is none. Stop being a moron.
No. Its not possible that an army of smurfs rigged the election. That is an impossibility. Is it possible that someone could hack voting machines that were connected to the internet? Absolutely. Yours is a logical fallacy, the other is entirely plausible.
 
No. Its not possible that an army of smurfs rigged the election. That is an impossibility. Is it possible that someone could hack voting machines that were connected to the internet? Absolutely. Yours is a logical fallacy, the other is entirely plausible.
if-you-find-yourself-in-a-hole-the-first-thing-to-do-is-stop-digging-quote-1.jpg
 
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Thats pretty much how I feel when trying to explain logic with you guys. For some reason you don't understand the difference between "didn't happen" and "couldn't happen".
You claim to understand logic but write a dumbass comment like this?

Without evidence, nothing happened. No Smurfs. No hacking. No stealing. Nothing happened without proof.
 
No. Its not possible that an army of smurfs rigged the election. That is an impossibility. Is it possible that someone could hack voting machines that were connected to the internet? Absolutely. Yours is a logical fallacy, the other is entirely plausible.
No. Bertrand Russell's teapot.
If your scenario "COULD" happen without any proof, then the Smurf scenario "COULD" happen without proof, too.
When you claim something "COULD" happen without proof, you open the door of infinite possibilities.

Do you understand why your logic is horrible?
 
No. Bertrand Russell's teapot.
If your scenario "COULD" happen without any proof, then the Smurf scenario "COULD" happen without proof, too.
When you claim something "COULD" happen without proof, you open the door of infinite possibilities.

Do you understand why your logic is horrible?
Are you saying that it is equally possible for a smurf army to invade the polling places and change votes as it is possible that someone hacked into voting machines that were connected to the internet?

I appreciate your effort to create a false equivalency here but it really isn't working out in your favor.
 
Are you saying that it is equally possible for a smurf army to invade the polling places and change votes as it is possible that someone hacked into voting machines that were connected to the internet?

I appreciate your effort to create a false equivalency here but it really isn't working out in your favor.
That is not at all what I am saying.

I am saying it is equally IMPOSSIBLE, because there is no evidence to support either claim. This is how logic works.
 
That is not at all what I am saying.

I am saying it is equally IMPOSSIBLE, because there is no evidence to support either claim. This is how logic works.
On November 8th, would you have said the same thing?
 
Chemmie isn't a racist, but he's definitely closed minded sometimes.
This isn't closed mindedness. This is how logic works. I'm sorry you don't understand: statement X is false, until there is evidence to prove statement X is true.

As for Mike, he's a dumbass hillbilly.
 
This isn't closed mindedness. This is how logic works. I'm sorry you don't understand: statement X is false, until there is evidence to prove statement X is true.

As for Mike, he's a dumbass hillbilly.
A hillbilly from NY, you racist.
 
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