Random Politics Thread

[The Cat]

I watch a lot of You Tube. For the most part it's different interests I have - the last video I watched was about freeze drying fruits and vegetables.

I also watch people like Mark Blyth or Richard Wolff or others in the economic/political arena that don't worship capitalism. Because of that, I get a lot of suggestions like Common Sense or Hunter Avallone, although I don't know why, maybe it's because the stuff I watch are also podcasts? Not sure. But mostly bread tubers - some are good some are eh.

They have shut down The Serfs, which is lefty satire (maybe because they make fun of Gavin McGinnis?) so I never really buy that whole - they hate me because I'm conservative!!! - professional victim battle cry.


If You Tube really wanted to do us a favor, it would stop running commercials of Lara Trump begging people to wish Trump a happy birthday via text.

I wonder what people are actually signing that isn't a birthday card

 

[Red Memories]

I watch a lot of You Tube. For the most part it's different interests I have - the last video I watched was about freeze drying fruits and vegetables.

I also watch people like Mark Blyth or Richard Wolff or others in the economic/political arena that don't worship capitalism. Because of that, I get a lot of suggestions like Common Sense or Hunter Avallone, although I don't know why, maybe it's because the stuff I watch are also podcasts? Not sure. But mostly bread tubers - some are good some are eh.

They have shut down The Serfs, which is lefty satire (maybe because they make fun of Gavin McGinnis?) so I never really buy that whole - they hate me because I'm conservative!!! - professional victim battle cry.


If You Tube really wanted to do us a favor, it would stop running commercials of Lara Trump begging people to wish Trump a happy birthday via text.

Oh my god I am beyond sick of those ads too. XD I'M NOT WISHING HIM A HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

I'll have to check out those channels...I'm a bit new to political commentaries in general through the youtube scope. the most "political" person I've listened to was Prince EA, and I really liked some of his commentary on the education system being screwed up and etc.

 

[ceecee]

Oh my god I am beyond sick of those ads too. XD I'M NOT WISHING HIM A HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

I'll have to check out those channels...I'm a bit new to political commentaries in general through the youtube scope. the most "political" person I've listened to was Prince EA, and I really liked some of his commentary on the education system being screwed up and etc.

If you want a good recommendation - ContraPoints. She is fantastic and very entertaining and good at maybe re-directing misinformed people.

 

[ceecee]

I wonder what people are actually signing that isn't a birthday card

I usually skip immediately but my husband was watching it this morning like...

 

[ceecee]

How to Remove Racist Statue | Physics of Taking Down Statues

 

[The Cat]

I usually skip immediately but my husband was watching it this morning like...

It's some next level wtf that's for sure. @_@

 

[Red Memories]

If you want a good recommendation - ContraPoints. She is fantastic and very entertaining and good at maybe re-directing misinformed people.

I actually subscribe to contrapoints and really like a lot of their commentary. :3 I only found them like...a week ago, but I appreciate someone also who really takes such a deep dive into things. Its hard to find youtubers that are willing to make that hour long video into real discussions.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

you have got to be kidding me

I love the idea of matriarchy and matrilinealism, also love gynocentricism but I bet its something different to what these authors mean

I love the idea of gender-blind egalitarianism myself. To each their own.

 

[Stigmata]

Remember when the biggest decorum controversy surrounding the executive branch was whether or not it was appropriate for the president to wear a tan suit to a news conference? Pepperidge farm remembers...

 

[Red Herring]

Remember when the biggest decorum controversy surrounding the executive branch was whether or not it was appropriate for the president to wear a tan suit to a news conference? Pepperidge farm remembers...

I hear he liked Dijon mustard. Such a snob.

 

[Lark]

Has anyone seen those hilarious memes which feature all the confederate and nazi flags or symbolism as, rightly, motifs of surrender and defeat?

I follow an excellent page on Facebook called Teddy Roosevelt's Mustache or something like that and its been posting loads of them, there was this class "these colours dont run" pic which had been connected to a pic of the generals shaking hands after the civil war and the caption "no, they surrender"

And another with a guy saying he preferred the real flag of the confederacy to the stars and bars and this guy posts a Texan flag and he says "no, the real one" and then there's a pic of a white flag on a stick and the guy says "perfection", hilarious.

Plus all the stuff about the confederacy lasting less time than Star Trek and Star Trek being more part of American heritage than white supremacy. Excellent.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Has anyone seen those hilarious memes which feature all the confederate and nazi flags or symbolism as, rightly, motifs of surrender and defeat?

I follow an excellent page on Facebook called Teddy Roosevelt's Mustache or something like that and its been posting loads of them, there was this class "these colours dont run" pic which had been connected to a pic of the generals shaking hands after the civil war and the caption "no, they surrender"

And another with a guy saying he preferred the real flag of the confederacy to the stars and bars and this guy posts a Texan flag and he says "no, the real one" and then there's a pic of a white flag on a stick and the guy says "perfection", hilarious.

Plus all the stuff about the confederacy lasting less time than Star Trek and Star Trek being more part of American heritage than white supremacy. Excellent.

A lot of the thing about people making a big deal about the confederacy goes back to the social engineering that resulted from the lost cause movement lasting approximately from reconstruction through the early 20th century.

Actual firsthand historical documents from the 1860s show that A) slavery was the primary cause for secession and war. This can be read in most of the seceding states' declarations/articles of secession, where they explicitly state protecting the institution of slavery as a primary cause for secession. B) most poor white southerners in the 1860s knew it was a rich man's war and were not keen on the idea of seceding (you'd think by white southerners' reactions today to protecting their monuments and avenue names that white southerners in 1860 unanimously rallied behind the cause, but hardly the case and in some instances the CSA had to rely on conscription to get able bodied men to join their cause).

Both of these facts were heavily obscured by the lost cause movement, which influenced historians' writings and the general public's ideas about the period for years--many white southerners still believe the lost cause narrative and view attempts to set the historical record straight as "revisionism", when the lost cause narrative itself was driven by a revisionist urge to romanticize the south and portray the war as being about anything but slavery. Hell, people are now questioning the validity of the long running narrative about Lee being a master military strategist. Given some of his blunders, and you know, the fact he lost.

 

[Lark]

A lot of the thing about people making a big deal about the confederacy goes back to the social engineering that resulted from the lost cause movement lasting approximately from reconstruction through the early 20th century.

Actual firsthand historical documents from the 1860s show that A) slavery was the primary cause for secession and war. This can be read in most of the seceding states' declarations/articles of secession, where they explicitly state protecting the institution of slavery as a primary cause for secession. B) most poor white southerners in the 1860s knew it was a rich man's war and were not keen on the idea of seceding (you'd think by white southerners' reactions today to protecting their monuments and avenue names that white southerners in 1860 unanimously rallied behind the cause, but hardly the case and in some instances the CSA had to rely on conscription to get able bodied men to join their cause).

Both of these facts were heavily obscured by the lost cause movement, which influenced historians' writings and the general public's ideas about the period for years--many white southerners still believe the lost cause narrative and view attempts to set the historical record straight as "revisionism", when the lost cause narrative itself was driven by a revisionist urge to romanticize the south and portray the war as being about anything but slavery. Hell, people are now questioning the validity of the long running narrative about Lee being a master military strategist. Given some of his blunders, and you know, the fact he lost.

A lot of the Lee romanticism could be explained by the "we're all countrymen, honour in defeat, dishonour in death, worthy opponent, well played" ideas of chivalry which were kind of not entirely snuffed out by then. Its in Theodore Roosevelt's books about bravery and heroic deeds of battle. Its also supposedly part of the history of high noon dueling, which in theory survived in the west and south longer than anywhere else including after the civil war. Its all meant to be based upon or a throw back to the whole gentlement in top hats meeting at dawn on the meadow (I was really surprised to learn all this, its much more bizarre than the Western novels and movies would make you believe, the closest to it that I've seen on screen was in Roots and the Roots reboot).

The sea battles interest me more than the land battles when it comes to civil war because of the iron clads (the south had the edge there) and also the geo-political scene as the British, French and Russians were all prepared to intervene on different sides at one point. Its interesting the extent to which the whole "anglosphere" idea did not exist yet and the Northern/Union forces still saw themselves as Republicans in opposition to the British. Even the fact that the Republican party was the anti-slavery, sometimes anti-racism party, is a bit of a flipside on the present.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

A lot of the Lee romanticism could be explained by the "we're all countrymen, honour in defeat, dishonour in death, worthy opponent, well played" ideas of chivalry which were kind of not entirely snuffed out by then. Its in Theodore Roosevelt's books about bravery and heroic deeds of battle. Its also supposedly part of the history of high noon dueling, which in theory survived in the west and south longer than anywhere else including after the civil war. Its all meant to be based upon or a throw back to the whole gentlement in top hats meeting at dawn on the meadow (I was really surprised to learn all this, its much more bizarre than the Western novels and movies would make you believe, the closest to it that I've seen on screen was in Roots and the Roots reboot).

The sea battles interest me more than the land battles when it comes to civil war because of the iron clads (the south had the edge there) and also the geo-political scene as the British, French and Russians were all prepared to intervene on different sides at one point. Its interesting the extent to which the whole "anglosphere" idea did not exist yet and the Northern/Union forces still saw themselves as Republicans in opposition to the British. Even the fact that the Republican party was the anti-slavery, sometimes anti-racism party, is a bit of a flipside on the present.

Yes, the technological aspect of that war has always interested me. Some refer to it as simultaneously being the first modern war and the last “traditional” war. Armies were still using a lot of old school tactics while both sides were also experimenting with submarines, ironclad battleships, spy balloons, Gatling guns, etc. I don’t know if it was THE first, but certainly one of the first wars where telegraphs made almost instanenous communication between the front lines and distant headquarters a possibility, whereas previously communications could take weeks or more.

 

[ceecee]

Supreme Court rules Trump cannot end DACA in big win for Dreamer legal immigrants

 

[Lark]

Yes, the technological aspect of that war has always interested me. Some refer to it as simultaneously being the first modern war and the last “traditional” war. Armies were still using a lot of old school tactics while both sides were also experimenting with submarines, ironclad battleships, spy balloons, Gatling guns, etc. I don’t know if it was THE first, but certainly one of the first wars where telegraphs made almost instanenous communication between the front lines and distant headquarters a possibility, whereas previously communications could take weeks or more.

I read some interesting stuff written by Orwell, dont know if it was in The Lion and The Unicorn or elsewhere about how he thought that the generals in the UK where fighting each war like the last, using out of date tactics with up to date weapons that had made those tactics obsolete, in so much as he was repeating everyones experience of the first war that was probably right but it sounded like what you are describing here.

I remember reading a historian who said that the US civil war did more for the modernization of small arms production, particularly revolvers, automatic weapons and artillery than anything before then and the evidence of the US civil war should have resulted in no horses or horse troops being used in the first war at all.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

I read some interesting stuff written by Orwell, dont know if it was in The Lion and The Unicorn or elsewhere about how he thought that the generals in the UK where fighting each war like the last, using out of date tactics with up to date weapons that had made those tactics obsolete, in so much as he was repeating everyones experience of the first war that was probably right but it sounded like what you are describing here.

I remember reading a historian who said that the US civil war did more for the modernization of small arms production, particularly revolvers, automatic weapons and artillery than anything before then and the evidence of the US civil war should have resulted in no horses or horse troops being used in the first war at all.

yep. infantry lining up opposite opposing infantry in Napoleonic formations, yet firing at one another with increasingly high velocity, high range ammunition. for that matter, weren't there even still mounted units operating at least in the early stages of WWI? Weird. WWI was a modern war fought by people clinging to 19th century ideals and notions of chivalry. The image of a German soldier in an old style pointed helmet yet wearing a gas mask sums it up for me.

for that matter, in WWII you still hade guys like Patton who somewhat fashioned themselves as cowboy generals, as though they were more interested in romanticizing the old west.

 

[Virtual ghost]

From other thread since I am curious.


How big percentage of US citizens would belongs into "socially conservative, financially liberal" box, in your opinion ? I always presumed this is the least common combination in USA out of 4 possibilities. Since It just doesn't seem to fit the narrative of the two parties or national history. While here it is almost surely the most numerous one.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

From other thread since I am curious.


How big percentage of US citizens would belongs into "socially conservative, financially liberal" box, in your opinion ? I always presumed this is the least common combination in USA out of 4 possibilities. Since It just doesn't seem to fit the narrative of the two parties or national history. While here it is almost surely the most numerous one.

People who supported both Bushes and Reagan, IMO, tend to fit into this box

- - - Updated - - -

 

[Red Herring]

From other thread since I am curious.


How big percentage of US citizens would belongs into "socially conservative, financially liberal" box, in your opinion ? I always presumed this is the least common combination in USA out of 4 possibilities. Since It just doesn't seem to fit the narrative of the two parties or national history. While here it is almost surely the most numerous one.

By "financially liberal", do you mean financially left i. e. big government or financially laissez-faire, i. e. small government? I'm asking because this keeps coming up between us


I would say that most Germans are mildly conservative on social issues (less so than Americans but more than, say, Scandinavians) and mostly pro-big-government (within reason). I would describe myself as socially progressive (though not 100% onboard with wokeness) and cautiously pro-big-government.