this whole new thing with russia putting bounties on soldiers, and trump doing nothing since 2019, is beyond fucked. I don't see how any vet or military person could vote for him
this whole new thing with russia putting bounties on soldiers, and trump doing nothing since 2019, is beyond fucked. I don't see how any vet or military person could vote for him
I worry about messaging so solely focused on Trump like this. It completely ignores the system that put him there. He's not an abberation, and unless we actually accept and deal with the rot that...
I worry about messaging so solely focused on Trump like this. It completely ignores the system that put him there. He's not an abberation, and unless we actually accept and deal with the rot that has gripped the Republican party, we will only see more evil and competent fascists come to power.
If a factory is torn down but the rationality which produced it is left standing, then that rationality will simply produce another factory. If a revolution destroys a government, but the systematic patterns of thought that produced that government are left intact, then those patterns will repeat themselves. . . . There’s so much talk about the system. And so little understanding.
--Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The courts are going to be one of the trickiest problems, since the Republicans have spent the last 4 years filling them with barely qualified Federalist Society goons who will stymie any...
The courts are going to be one of the trickiest problems, since the Republicans have spent the last 4 years filling them with barely qualified Federalist Society goons who will stymie any meaningful attempt at legislative change. The Democratic party needs to use every avenue of power available to them as soon as possible, as often as possible. That means things like impeaching every single judge the Trump admin has pushed through, or packing the Supreme court. They cannot negotiate with fascists.
It's symptomatic of a larger failure to understand our current moment. I obviously wouldn't expect an exhaustive breakdown, but he should at the very least call out the Republican party for their...
It's symptomatic of a larger failure to understand our current moment. I obviously wouldn't expect an exhaustive breakdown, but he should at the very least call out the Republican party for their role in enabling Trump and making everything worse for everybody.
Yeah. I hope Trump's ties to Russia, not allowing witnesses to testify during his impeachment trial, Lafayette square and a lot of other stuff becomes a 'never forget' moment like 9/11 ended up being.
That pursuit of a more perfect union has been thrown off course in recent years — and no one bears more responsibility than President Donald Trump. Every day, he finds new ways to tarnish and dismantle our democracy — from baseless attacks on our voting rights to the use of military force against Americans protesting peacefully for racial justice. He has systematically gone after the guardrails of our democracy: the free press, the courts, and our fundamental belief that no one in America — not even the president — is above the law. He has made it clear time and again that he won’t hesitate to tear apart our most cherished democratic structures for an ounce of personal gain. And that corruption of our founding principles threatens everything this nation has worked so hard to build, blighting our ability not only to elevate our values, but also to lead the world.
Yeah. I hope Trump's ties to Russia, not allowing witnesses to testify during his impeachment trial, Lafayette square and a lot of other stuff becomes a 'never forget' moment like 9/11 ended up being.
I'm always up for being idealistic, but I don't see it happening. The Republican Party is still there. So is FOX News. So is the socioeconomic climate that overwhelmingly prefers riches over the...
Exemplary
I'm always up for being idealistic, but I don't see it happening.
The Republican Party is still there. So is FOX News. So is the socioeconomic climate that overwhelmingly prefers riches over the art of governing. I'm not even going to cite sources on that last one: go check out Last Week Tonight.
He didn't come out of nowhere. He found fertile soil in what is a very fucked-up political situation, with tribalism and American exceptionalism rampant to a degree that's startling upon first gaze and terrifying afterwards. Unless the whole zeitgeist shifts, either with his ousting or before it, Trump may very well remain a martyr for the half of the population that's been manipulated into prioritizing affiliation over empathy, voice of one over voices of many, idolization over helping thy neighbor, and – overwhelmingly – emotion over reason.
I'm trying to map the possible outcomes of this – and I'm struggling. This is a unique situation. Oppression of a particular group of people is predictable, but using a mass technology with unknown potential in order to manipulate thousands of people at once is not. Persuading a crowd is predictable, but the decades-long climate of dismissing knowledge and expertise over short-term satisfaction is not. My amateur analytics yield nothing of value to report. Something could be done, someone could help, but it's clearly a systemic problem more than it is of a single source.
The Republicans aren't going to go away, but elections are won based on numbers and the numbers are looking good. It's no reason to get complacent, but not seeing the possibility of change for the...
The Republicans aren't going to go away, but elections are won based on numbers and the numbers are looking good. It's no reason to get complacent, but not seeing the possibility of change for the better seems unduly pessimistic?
Perhaps this time. But the constant swing between Republicans and Democrats has been heavily trending Republican since the 80's. The real answer is to drastically reform our legislation and voting...
but elections are won based on numbers and the numbers are looking good
Perhaps this time. But the constant swing between Republicans and Democrats has been heavily trending Republican since the 80's.
The real answer is to drastically reform our legislation and voting systems. Ranked choice would be a good first step, as it's pretty easy to implement. Getting other parties viable again would go a long way to breaking the duopoly of Democrats and Republicans. Sadly neither of the current parties seems much interested in fixing that particular problem.
That’s just not true. It’s tilted heavily towards formal non-affiliation, while the independents have increasingly been ideologically leaned heavily towards The Democrats. This is more a...
But the constant swing between Republicans and Democrats has been heavily trending Republican since the 80's.
That’s just not true. It’s tilted heavily towards formal non-affiliation, while the independents have increasingly been ideologically leaned heavily towards The Democrats. This is more a reflection of dealing with liberals and leftists being like herding cats while Republicans are fiercely partisan. But that’s an intensity thing, not a numbers thing.
Yeah (although Hispanics and black people can often be quite conservative which will be the next quality wedge issue in the D/left-er coalition after M4A and campaign finance are milked sour by...
Yeah (although Hispanics and black people can often be quite conservative which will be the next quality wedge issue in the D/left-er coalition after M4A and campaign finance are milked sour by the right) , hence the GOP apparently abandoning democracy.
Not in short term. To root out the reasons I've mentioned, it takes not only intelligent legislation and genuine political design: it also takes time. My guess? If Trump is out today and...
Not in short term. To root out the reasons I've mentioned, it takes not only intelligent legislation and genuine political design: it also takes time.
My guess? If Trump is out today and everything needed to change the climate (cultural, social, economic, and political) is written into law tomorrow, it'll take something like 10 years just to see trends shifting.
It does take time, but how much depends on your perspective and doesn't seem predictable. Obama was a surprise. And I thought the country changed its mind about gay marriage pretty quickly, but...
It does take time, but how much depends on your perspective and doesn't seem predictable. Obama was a surprise. And I thought the country changed its mind about gay marriage pretty quickly, but maybe it wouldn't seem so to someone who had been waiting a long time for it?
I'm reminded of the story about an overnight success taking twenty years. Also the story about a failure that happened slowly, and then suddenly.
The US has had openly-LGBT persons in offices around the country before Clinton went on and said "No gays in my army!". The gay-marriage court cases have gone since at least the 70s. It was only...
I honestly think it's both. On a macro level, we've made huge strides on LGBT acceptance very quickly. I'm amazed at how much change I've seen in my lifetime, and I'm not very old! On the other...
I honestly think it's both. On a macro level, we've made huge strides on LGBT acceptance very quickly. I'm amazed at how much change I've seen in my lifetime, and I'm not very old!
On the other hand, on an individual level, this "quickness" doesn't get experienced in the same way. When I met and started dating my current husband, it was pre-marriage equality, and I assumed that we simply wouldn't ever be able to get married. I was also uninterested in pursuing any half-baked version of marriage (e.g. marrying in another state that wouldn't be recognized in our current one), so for the beginning years of our relationship, my boyfriend and I just lived as mutually monogamous, long-term committed partners but with no official legal recognition of that status and, more importantly, no desire to pursue one.
I work with a man who has been with his male partner nearly 30 years, and they're still unmarried. I asked him about this, and he said that a marriage isn't what they have because it isn't something that was ever offered to them. Having it suddenly appear 25 years into their relationship doesn't feel like equality to them -- it feels like a consolation prize. I very much feel like my husband and I would have been in the same boat had we been dating longer. We only had five years under our belts when marriage equality passed. Had it been decades or more, I could fully understand why we might have discarded rather than indulged this new possibility.
Even after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, we still didn't get married immediately not because of any doubts about the relationship but because the potential for marriage was a door that had always been locked for us. Some couples had been waiting years for it to be unlocked for them and they threw open that door and rushed to courthouses immediately. Meanwhile, my husband and I had to slowly decide whether to even open that door for ourselves because we never assumed it would even be a possibility. And, like my coworker, there are many who kept the door closed, even after it was unlocked. When you discard something as unimportant decades ago, you're not holding your breath for it to show back up in your life.
I think this is one of the hardest things to articulate about my experiences, and the experiences of everyone else facing systemic injustice. There's an opportunity cost that rarely gets examined and can't be adequately articulated. It's not that injustice causes disproportionate outcomes; it's that injustice causes people to operate as if -- and even sometimes genuinely believe -- those outcomes aren't unjust in the first place. When faced with something as big and faceless as systemic prejudice, you can either exhaust yourself by throwing your body against a seemingly immovable boulder hoping that it will change, or you can simply accept the rock's presence in your life and learn to live with it, navigate around it, and try not to notice all the other people who live without similar rocks in their way.
To strain another metaphor, I think when we look at trends and a big picture, we're looking at a giant barge with considerable momentum. Seeing it make a quick turn, even one that takes years, is still breathtaking and impressive. I genuinely do believe that the US has made incredible progress on LGBT acceptance. On the other hand, when we zoom in to the individual lives for the people on that barge, the course and direction it's taking don't matter nearly as much as what they're currently experiencing. Such broad turns of the barge can be almost imperceptible on a day-to-day basis. I know people who are no longer here because they took their own lives on account of the mistreatment and injustices they faced for being LGBT where I lived. Had my attempt on my own life been successful, you could count me among them. I wouldn't be here now, able to appreciate the arc we were on or where we would end up because what mattered in that moment wasn't the direction of justice for the future but the immediate injustices I faced, many of which were far more severe than a lack of legal marriage.
Yes, we've changed directions fast, but it's worth remembering that for those experiencing its worst effects, things will never be changing fast enough. Suffering demands immediate relief, and that desire that isn't fulfilled by the possibility -- or even promise -- of an amortized relief over time in the future.
this whole new thing with russia putting bounties on soldiers, and trump doing nothing since 2019, is beyond fucked. I don't see how any vet or military person could vote for him
I worry about messaging so solely focused on Trump like this. It completely ignores the system that put him there. He's not an abberation, and unless we actually accept and deal with the rot that has gripped the Republican party, we will only see more evil and competent fascists come to power.
The courts are going to be one of the trickiest problems, since the Republicans have spent the last 4 years filling them with barely qualified Federalist Society goons who will stymie any meaningful attempt at legislative change. The Democratic party needs to use every avenue of power available to them as soon as possible, as often as possible. That means things like impeaching every single judge the Trump admin has pushed through, or packing the Supreme court. They cannot negotiate with fascists.
I mean, it’s a 4th of July speech. I’m not sure it’s the time or place to be expecting a TED talk on all that ails the country.
It's symptomatic of a larger failure to understand our current moment. I obviously wouldn't expect an exhaustive breakdown, but he should at the very least call out the Republican party for their role in enabling Trump and making everything worse for everybody.
Yeah. I hope Trump's ties to Russia, not allowing witnesses to testify during his impeachment trial, Lafayette square and a lot of other stuff becomes a 'never forget' moment like 9/11 ended up being.
I'm always up for being idealistic, but I don't see it happening.
The Republican Party is still there. So is FOX News. So is the socioeconomic climate that overwhelmingly prefers riches over the art of governing. I'm not even going to cite sources on that last one: go check out Last Week Tonight.
He didn't come out of nowhere. He found fertile soil in what is a very fucked-up political situation, with tribalism and American exceptionalism rampant to a degree that's startling upon first gaze and terrifying afterwards. Unless the whole zeitgeist shifts, either with his ousting or before it, Trump may very well remain a martyr for the half of the population that's been manipulated into prioritizing affiliation over empathy, voice of one over voices of many, idolization over helping thy neighbor, and – overwhelmingly – emotion over reason.
I'm trying to map the possible outcomes of this – and I'm struggling. This is a unique situation. Oppression of a particular group of people is predictable, but using a mass technology with unknown potential in order to manipulate thousands of people at once is not. Persuading a crowd is predictable, but the decades-long climate of dismissing knowledge and expertise over short-term satisfaction is not. My amateur analytics yield nothing of value to report. Something could be done, someone could help, but it's clearly a systemic problem more than it is of a single source.
The Republicans aren't going to go away, but elections are won based on numbers and the numbers are looking good. It's no reason to get complacent, but not seeing the possibility of change for the better seems unduly pessimistic?
Perhaps this time. But the constant swing between Republicans and Democrats has been heavily trending Republican since the 80's.
The real answer is to drastically reform our legislation and voting systems. Ranked choice would be a good first step, as it's pretty easy to implement. Getting other parties viable again would go a long way to breaking the duopoly of Democrats and Republicans. Sadly neither of the current parties seems much interested in fixing that particular problem.
That’s just not true. It’s tilted heavily towards formal non-affiliation, while the independents have increasingly been ideologically leaned heavily towards The Democrats. This is more a reflection of dealing with liberals and leftists being like herding cats while Republicans are fiercely partisan. But that’s an intensity thing, not a numbers thing.
I thought that long-term, demographics favored Democrats? Virginia turned blue recently.
Yeah (although Hispanics and black people can often be quite conservative which will be the next quality wedge issue in the D/left-er coalition after M4A and campaign finance are milked sour by the right) , hence the GOP apparently abandoning democracy.
Not in short term. To root out the reasons I've mentioned, it takes not only intelligent legislation and genuine political design: it also takes time.
My guess? If Trump is out today and everything needed to change the climate (cultural, social, economic, and political) is written into law tomorrow, it'll take something like 10 years just to see trends shifting.
It does take time, but how much depends on your perspective and doesn't seem predictable. Obama was a surprise. And I thought the country changed its mind about gay marriage pretty quickly, but maybe it wouldn't seem so to someone who had been waiting a long time for it?
I'm reminded of the story about an overnight success taking twenty years. Also the story about a failure that happened slowly, and then suddenly.
The US has had openly-LGBT persons in offices around the country before Clinton went on and said "No gays in my army!". The gay-marriage court cases have gone since at least the 70s. It was only in 2003 that same-sex was allowed to have same-sex sex in the confines of their bedrooms.
A long story indeed.
I honestly think it's both. On a macro level, we've made huge strides on LGBT acceptance very quickly. I'm amazed at how much change I've seen in my lifetime, and I'm not very old!
On the other hand, on an individual level, this "quickness" doesn't get experienced in the same way. When I met and started dating my current husband, it was pre-marriage equality, and I assumed that we simply wouldn't ever be able to get married. I was also uninterested in pursuing any half-baked version of marriage (e.g. marrying in another state that wouldn't be recognized in our current one), so for the beginning years of our relationship, my boyfriend and I just lived as mutually monogamous, long-term committed partners but with no official legal recognition of that status and, more importantly, no desire to pursue one.
I work with a man who has been with his male partner nearly 30 years, and they're still unmarried. I asked him about this, and he said that a marriage isn't what they have because it isn't something that was ever offered to them. Having it suddenly appear 25 years into their relationship doesn't feel like equality to them -- it feels like a consolation prize. I very much feel like my husband and I would have been in the same boat had we been dating longer. We only had five years under our belts when marriage equality passed. Had it been decades or more, I could fully understand why we might have discarded rather than indulged this new possibility.
Even after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, we still didn't get married immediately not because of any doubts about the relationship but because the potential for marriage was a door that had always been locked for us. Some couples had been waiting years for it to be unlocked for them and they threw open that door and rushed to courthouses immediately. Meanwhile, my husband and I had to slowly decide whether to even open that door for ourselves because we never assumed it would even be a possibility. And, like my coworker, there are many who kept the door closed, even after it was unlocked. When you discard something as unimportant decades ago, you're not holding your breath for it to show back up in your life.
I think this is one of the hardest things to articulate about my experiences, and the experiences of everyone else facing systemic injustice. There's an opportunity cost that rarely gets examined and can't be adequately articulated. It's not that injustice causes disproportionate outcomes; it's that injustice causes people to operate as if -- and even sometimes genuinely believe -- those outcomes aren't unjust in the first place. When faced with something as big and faceless as systemic prejudice, you can either exhaust yourself by throwing your body against a seemingly immovable boulder hoping that it will change, or you can simply accept the rock's presence in your life and learn to live with it, navigate around it, and try not to notice all the other people who live without similar rocks in their way.
To strain another metaphor, I think when we look at trends and a big picture, we're looking at a giant barge with considerable momentum. Seeing it make a quick turn, even one that takes years, is still breathtaking and impressive. I genuinely do believe that the US has made incredible progress on LGBT acceptance. On the other hand, when we zoom in to the individual lives for the people on that barge, the course and direction it's taking don't matter nearly as much as what they're currently experiencing. Such broad turns of the barge can be almost imperceptible on a day-to-day basis. I know people who are no longer here because they took their own lives on account of the mistreatment and injustices they faced for being LGBT where I lived. Had my attempt on my own life been successful, you could count me among them. I wouldn't be here now, able to appreciate the arc we were on or where we would end up because what mattered in that moment wasn't the direction of justice for the future but the immediate injustices I faced, many of which were far more severe than a lack of legal marriage.
Yes, we've changed directions fast, but it's worth remembering that for those experiencing its worst effects, things will never be changing fast enough. Suffering demands immediate relief, and that desire that isn't fulfilled by the possibility -- or even promise -- of an amortized relief over time in the future.