Likability has to be the most important characteristic to electability. JFK, Reagan, “I’d have a beer with Bush Jr.,” Obama, etc… It’s pretty much the “trump card” if you have it to any election; and Unlikability guarantees you’re doomed.
If we had someone half-ways likeable; half-ways young… Well, that would basically be a trump card, dare I say. Harris isn’t it.
FDR was generally charismatic and a great speaker — albeit not as much so as Teddy — and if anything his being wheel-chair bound worked in his favor by the end as a sob-story.
Eh, I’ve seen a bunch of “Trump is our first criminal president” memes. Which really requires you to blind yourself to everyone from Nixon and his wiretapping to Obama and his extrajudicial drone-striking.
No it doesn’t because Donald is the first proven convicted felon in a court of law. That’s just a fact. The rest is basically a Two-Wrongs-Make-a-Right / Tu Quoque / Whataboutism argument that suggests a race-to-the-bottom mindset while people speculate over allegations of former Presidents without actually testing those theories in a court of law and in front of a Jury. We should be gleeful that Lady Justice has grabbed Don by the balls and even the President is no longer above the law — regardless of past actions of Presidents; clearly a new standard has been made now which is a great thing for our country.
There’s a massive difference between mocking a kind person for needing diapers, and mocking the bully who mocks others for the same sort of things.
This really has nothing to do with the diaper usage and has everything to do with giving him a taste of his own medicine because we know he’s an insecure piece of shit, and so are his supporters.
Israel already had one or the two piece puzzle to stopping Hamas from being a threat; they had a strong air-defense system, and could’ve used their military reserves to actually properly defend their border. A disgrace that motorcycles and gliders could just waltz on over, especially in lieu of known intelligence of an impending attack.
Leveling Gaza only exacerbates radicalization for decades to come without actually addressing the root causes for said radicalization.
For the longest time I thought this was solely a matter of education; but these days, I’m beginning to think such right-wing extremism is also a matter of mental illness.
Things like poor parenting, brain injuries from football, lead exposure from guns and motorsports, substance abuse, shitty diets, etc. – all culminate in a banner of people who are… Not of sound mind.
Saying this as a former rural Appalachian Republican from decades ago.
You’re likely right that education is still the prevailing issue, but I think we need to get more specific on what kind of education people receive in terms of safeguarding against false rhetoric. Drilling in the logical fallacies, teaching ethics, and even teaching common propaganda techniques so you can identify them. We need to step back and ask ourselves how we managed to escape the rabbit hole when others could not.
The echo-chambers have become so ironclad that it’s so difficult to pierce through and drag someone out.
The thing is, you can sometimes get through to these Trump supporters if you can deprogram them from their echo-chamber… That requires very long conversations, an expose of facts, dismantling of their fallacies, and keeping them away from right-wing propaganda and peer pressure for an extended period of time.
… Which just so happens to be what jurors go through.
Russia has accused Nato and the US of “provoking a new level of tension” after the US and Germany became the latest allies to let Ukraine’s military to use Western-supplied weapons to strike targets inside Russia....
Remind a Maga that native-born citizens commit more crime on average than undocumented immigrants. Deport the maga. Keep the mother, father, and children seeking a better life.
I guarantee the crime rate of maga is greater than the undocumented immigrant population. We already know undocumented immigrants commit less crime than native-born Americans as a whole.
I remember when they said he’d win big in 2020. I remember when they said he wouldn’t be indicted. Next it’s some other silly line in the sand. They’re not exactly great prognosticators.
They call it a sham but I ask, where is the proof? There is, of course, zero.
Dude Bernie was chill as fuck and his supporters some of the nicest most intelligent people I’ve been around.
Then came the astroturfing shitheads - a mixture of chapotraphouse tankies and right-wing operatives trying to wedge-drive. This worsened a lot for his 2020 run.
But skip the online games and go to any of his rallies and it was a good message not full of hate but of love and working together. Our identity was always that; it’s just that for once we felt represented.
Ah I’m frustrated I forgot to hit send on my message to you and lost it when my phone updated lol.
To summarize, I come from the idyllic Republican — perhaps MAGA — roots: Rural Appalachian Christian conservative; my family voted for Bush Jr., in his first time; they marched at pro-life rallies. Guns 'n all. For a couple reasons we as a family were able to perform a complete 180 from those days for a couple unique reasons. Generally I attribute the change to three things: (1) The Wild West of the Internet. At the time, echo-chambers weren’t established so you were exposed to a wide range of viewpoints that opened our minds. (2) Iraq echoed the Vietnam war, for which my dad was heavily-invested in his hippie days. The parallels helped shatter the Republican indoctrination. (3) My mom homeschooled us but put a massive emphasis on empathy, and eventually the dissonance became too strong in the Republican party. Since then we became non-religious and voted Democrat every election.
So I appreciate that man you encountered, because my family is living proof people can change. It’s just harder today. The propaganda is so incredibly strong…
Anways, I try to tell people if you’re looking for fear and rage Republicans may be for you; but if you’re looking for love and solidarity, I think you can find that among people who gather around folks like Bernie. Follow the love.
As part of an analysis of how U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Judge Aileen Cannon, reports from her courtroom show a judge who is both “prickly” and" insecure" and often has trouble understanding what lawyers from both sides try to explain to her....
Yes, you are correct — their rhetoric is more further-reaching, no doubt. They control the narratives, absolutely. But this isn’t because they’re being rhetoricians, it’s because:
They lack the morality to care.
They have the vast majority of the money and with it a greater loudspeaker.
Selling fear and rageporn and lies and half-truths will always be easier than conveying the complexity and nuance of truth and reality.
Again, your belief is not what matters; what matters is how you enforce aforementioned human rights issues with a toothless government where private property ownership reigns supreme. This is the key hole in your argument you’ve yet to address.
The Civil Rights Act was necessary at the time, but would not be necessary now.
Says who — you? Considering how rampant discrimination and racism still is, I beg to differ. If someone refuses to hire you because YOUR race makes them uncomfortable, that remains utterly unenforceable under a utopic Libertarian society. The key point being: We wouldn’t have ever passed a Civil Rights Act under such a Libertarian society in the first place. And so when another issue comes along just as slavery, segregation, same-sex marriage, trans rights, bathrooms and so forth… Where will Libertarians be? Curiously absent in the fight to enforce aforementioned civil rights. Why? Because the government they believe in literally makes said government toothless against enforcing such laws in the first place. So while you may or may not choose to believe in “socially liberal” things, you’ve constructed a society that doesn’t promote said socially liberal things. To that end, we’d probably still have the Confederacy with slavery.
By the way, people still get rejected based on race all the time, it’s just more hidden so it’s not like the law solves the entire issue. The question of the matter is whether we should encourage the dumb racists to express that opinion on public. I would certainly want to know so that I don’t accidentally patronize their establishments
Of course it doesn’t resolve the issue; that’s like saying “outlawing murder doesn’t stop murder,” — no shit, but it sure as fuck reduces it.
The question of the matter is whether we should encourage the dumb racists to express that opinion on public. I would certainly want to know so that I don’t accidentally patronize their establishments
Yeah that’s no working so hot, considering the damage MAGA has caused out in the open. I’d rather make it harder than easier, if that’s truly what you’re trying to suggest here.
What happens when the bigots run amok? What happens when they run the local town, the state, the country? What happens when, say, the average individual is a total piece of shit? In our country the idea is to put our best minds forward. We fought a damn civil war for crying out loud; it wasn’t like the North could just boycott plantations in the south and that would’ve resolved the issue of slavery. It wasn’t like vast swaths of the country who actually evolved beyond segregation could boycott southern states like Alabama and prevent discrimination both at state level (schools such as in Brown v. Board of Education), or stop going to bars that were well-received locally. Such segregated establishments of the deep south were surely thriving. Such civil rights laws are used to provide a gateway of Protections and Change not just for issues that have been resolved but for future issues that violate the spirit of said laws.
My concern remains to be the contradictory argument that government should be small but yet large enough to enforce interpersonal conflicts and civil rights issues. If we open up the door to that, then you are probably getting closer to what the average Democrat is today. There really isn’t a difference between sending your tax-dollars to a Democratic institution versus a charity; in fact the former can be stronger because they have the capacity to create and enforce laws, whereas charities can only really address symptoms as opposed to root causes. Moreover we must understand that there have been largely needless middle-men and our convoluted private health insurance system is chief among them as to why making a profit off of healthcare is both morally wrong and inefficient. So while I’m not opposed to having a regulated market system of trade and enterprise, there should certainly be industries off-limits and considered a public service – hence why I’m more closely aligned with Social Democracies.
You’re spot-on regarding manufacturing – both in terms of addressing negative market externalities like pollution, as well as how much we’ve pivoted to building elsewhere. Though at the same time I don’t think many Americans particularly want to do the kind of work China and Taiwan do; or at least not accept the price we’d have to pay upfront for it either. I remember my conservative Economics professor touting this as “comparative advantage,” but really, let’s call it what it really is: human rights exploitation.
Whether MAGA is being called out – they still win elections and still sow terrible consequences for people across the country; their results have taken away rights from women, taken away rights from voters in axing the VRA. They are still a threat despite being out in the open because that’s the nature of ignorant populism built on fearmongering and lies. In a perfect world they’d be shunned and explained why they’re wrong, but that’s not how rhetoric works – especially when the largest megaphones are held by the conservatives. And due to the Electoral College, MAGA can still easily win despite never once attaining the popular vote of the country. So clearly more must be done beyond just calling them out; action must be taken for a group who knows no shame and a group who props itself up and enables their businesses to continue operating.
'Old and decrepit' Trump rant exposed him as 'a shadow of what he was four years ago' (www.rawstory.com)
Good, Igor, more lies (lemmy.world)
Do you have any smell you like/dislike even though most people don't?
I’ll start with the fact that I kind of like the smell of gasoline, and also bleach for some reason.
It just doesn't make any sense! (i.postimg.cc)
Nice to see us all agreeing for once (lemmy.world)
And here I thought only Newshour was covering the trial on PBS... (lemmy.world)
May his ulcers have ulcers. (lemm.ee)
Hamas no longer poses major threat to Israel, Biden says (www.politico.com)
'Dox the Jurors': Trump fans on a mission to make those who convicted him 'miserable' (www.rawstory.com)
"My juror": Trump believed a loyalist on the jury could save him, until the very end (www.salon.com)
Moscow warns West of escalation after Ukraine told it can hit Russia (www.bbc.com)
Russia has accused Nato and the US of “provoking a new level of tension” after the US and Germany became the latest allies to let Ukraine’s military to use Western-supplied weapons to strike targets inside Russia....
Trump supporters call for riots and violent retribution after verdict (www.reuters.com)
Meltdown
Debunking the Myth of the ‘Migrant Crime Wave’ (www.brennancenter.org)
Archived at web.archive.org/…/debunking-myth-migrant-crime-wa…
Surprised this hasn't been posted here (lemmy.world)
Twas like sweet nectar from the Gods (lemm.ee)
'Confused' Judge Cannon needed concept explained 'slowly' to her in court by lawyers: NYT (www.rawstory.com)
As part of an analysis of how U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Judge Aileen Cannon, reports from her courtroom show a judge who is both “prickly” and" insecure" and often has trouble understanding what lawyers from both sides try to explain to her....
Makes me laugh (lemmy.world)