The Political & Philosophy Thread

[HamburgerBoy]

Point remains, sucking one Roosevelt dick but biting the other is silly and arbitrary.

 

[Dak]

Point remains, sucking one Roosevelt dick but biting the other is silly and arbitrary.

Saying one had pros and cons and the other was all cons is "dick sucking". Otay.

 

[CiG]

Randomly came across this old comment:

Top five outlandish predictions I've read on Facebook about a Trump presidency:

1. There will be a holocaust in which every single non-white and non-Christian person in the US is exterminated
2. All the progress of the civil rights movements of the 20th century will be reversed
3. People will be jailed for defacing the American flag
4. There will be a new baby boom because abortion will become illegal
   
5. Republicans will decide it's okay to say "n i g g e r" in public again within a year

 

[The Ozzman]

Randomly came across this old comment:

The lefties probably still believe that

 

[CiG]

TJ Singh has one of the best YT channels just for the sheer prolific archiving he's done. Bartlett is a notorious Reagan ass-licker but interesting nonetheless. Usually ingroup-critique is worth listening to in general.

 

[Dak]

There's an inverse relationship between the adulation of Reagan and political knowledge on the right.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

I love how there's this universal academic consensus that Trump is 100x more evil than the guy that started two wars that killed a million brown people. GWB is easily among the all-time worst when it comes to tangible damage done, not that far from LBJ, even if FDR, Truman, and Reagan caused worse legal damage.

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

Randomly came across this old comment:

had to go back and give him a like for that one. lol

 

[Dak]

I love how there's this universal academic consensus that Trump is 100x more evil than the guy that started two wars that killed a million brown people. GWB is easily among the all-time worst when it comes to tangible damage done, not that far from LBJ, even if FDR, Truman, and Reagan caused worse legal damage.

Yeah GWB is far worse than Trump at this point, but you are looking at 8 vs not even 2 years. You left off Woodrow Wilson though.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

I know, but that doesn't stop the academics. In any case, with every action of Trump's so scrutinized and significant numbers of his underlings leaking shit, it's hard to imagine he's done anything so far that will be particularly impactful. Presidents tend to make their biggest moves early in the presidency anyways. With a good chance that Dems regain at least one branch of congress, he'll probably be pretty limited for the rest of his first term.

Yeah Woodrow Wilson had the draft, fair enough.

 

[Dak]

I know, but that doesn't stop the academics. In any case, with every action of Trump's so scrutinized and significant numbers of his underlings leaking shit, it's hard to imagine he's done anything so far that will be particularly impactful. Presidents tend to make their biggest moves early in the presidency anyways. With a good chance that Dems regain at least one branch of congress, he'll probably be pretty limited for the rest of his first term.

Yeah Woodrow Wilson had the draft, fair enough.

Trump's main positive has been court appointees and not jumping into a new war (other than the trade war anyway). The US needed to seek better relations with Russia but the deep state and the Cathedral hatve thrown all they have at stopping that. Myopic fools concerned about who talks purdy. The US's allies and China have taken advantage of the "neoliberal order". The end of history was premature. If either party could get tough & talk educatedly about it, that would be ideal. Unfortunately we don't have anything close to that available.

 

[CiG]

There's an inverse relationship between the adulation of Reagan and political knowledge on the right.

He also stated that Bill Clinton left behind a more fiscally conservative legacy than Bush.

 

[Dak]

He also stated that Bill Clinton left behind a more fiscally conservative legacy than Bush.

Well he did but you can't give credit for that to Clinton. Presidents don't pass budgets.

 

[Einherjar86]

Trump's main positive has been court appointees and not jumping into a new war (other than the trade war anyway). The US needed to seek better relations with Russia but the deep state and the Cathedral hatve thrown all they have at stopping that. Myopic fools concerned about who talks purdy. The US's allies and China have taken advantage of the "neoliberal order". The end of history was premature. If either party could get tough & talk educatedly about it, that would be ideal. Unfortunately we don't have anything close to that available.

When you say "deep state," what do you mean?

 

[Dak]

When you say "deep state," what do you mean?

Primarily elements of the intelligence community. It could extend further than that but that would require a lot of conjecture. So far it has been elements of the intelligence community (openly or revealedly) trying to subvert Trump (and related democratic processes which didn't conform to their desires). The US intelligence community are the institution par excellence in rigging elections and toppling elected officials. Sometimes this is arguably a good thing, some times it is not.

I exempt military intelligence (lol contradiction!) from this because military intelligence has a generally different mission than the CIA/NSA/FBI. I'm not even saying those intelligence branches are acting in unison, in totality. But some elements within them are:

 

[Einherjar86]

Primarily elements of the intelligence community. It could extend further than that but that would require a lot of conjecture. So far it has been elements of the intelligence community (openly or revealedly) trying to subvert Trump (and related democratic processes which didn't conform to their desires).

If it's open and revealed, then it's not "deep"... is it?

 

[Dak]

If it's open and revealed, then it's not "deep"... is it?

C'mon Pat. You're not even trying here.

 

[CiG]

Isn't the concept of deep racism the exact same, that it's not open and revealed and this is why we need to become #woke and engage in anti-bias training etc?

 

[Einherjar86]

C'mon Pat. You're not even trying here.

Well, you're not wrong...

I'm quite simply astounded often by people who vocally object to being lumped in with Trump and his lackies, yet have no problem perpetuating his delusions.

The fact that Trump is being investigated isn't evidence of any "deep state." Everything's on the surface, including Trump's criminality. The fact that it's taking this long to bring charges, and that this may not even happen, is greater evidence for there being no deep state. It's a Trump buzzword that he's using to paint himself as a victim. That you and others buy into this is more troubling to me than the possible existence of a deep state.

 

[Dak]

Criminality in?

I think it's likely he's broken many laws. As have we all, and all politicians probably more than many. The question is the nature and severity.

Why is Trump getting the microscope?