I'll also vouch for dlew, good people.
I do struggle with at what point I'll make the decision to be an absolutist about people willing to stand up for civil rights of others. This has nothing to do with dlew per se, as I don't have a clue as to where he stands on this, we've never had a conversation about it. I do feel like as the current administration has made a point to actively attack civil rights, as opposed to the Laissez-Faire approach that all other administrations have taken since LBJ, I may have to take a stand here.
I wonder what the expectation of people like Pete, who has explicitly expressed that civil rights aren't a priority, are for spending time with people who are being targeted by the administration. Like are we supposed to just hang out and eat tapas and have refreshing drinks while the administration actively erases the existence of trans people and black history?
People like Pete? You can be a miserable $!#* sometimes you know that?
I'm legitimately confused by your reaction to this. Did you stop reading that sentence at the word "Pete?" I used your name because you explicitly stated, more than once, and fairly aggressively, that the position that this administration has taken on civil rights, isn't a priority for you. If I'm misinterpreting this, please let me know, I'll retract.
I refuse to wholesale support whatever the democrats come up with anymore. I have done that for 32 years. I am done with it. They have violated my trust. Going forward, I will pick and choose the issues that I support based on my own judgment and not the propaganda of a given party.
I agree that the Democrats don't deserve wholesale support but I also don't think wholesale support (or excusing) of everything Elon Musk says or does is the best alternative.
That’s why I don’t wholesale support everything Elon Musk does. And I also choose to not get bent out of shape by really pussy crap while he’s still achieving gains on the things that really matter.
Yeah I hedged it with "excusing" what you don't wholesale support. What is the "really pussy crap" you're referring to?
A current topical example of this is Trans rights. This is a hot topic at the moment in our country. I am 100% in full support of trans rights. However, if a trade has to be made, and it means sacrificing trans rights for meaningful progress on one of the other three big issues for me (national debt/economy, defense, AI) then so be it.
I accept that I do not live in a world where I get everything that I want. I also accept that I live in a world where compromises must be made, and that frequently horrible collateral damage occurs even when we make the right decision for the aggregate good . I do not like that and I do not approve of it, but I accept it.
Too many Democrats seem willing to compromise on the most important things in order to achieve an ideological victory that benefits very few relative to the detriments.
A number of you have accused me of being a Trump guy or Rogan guy or (insert whatever right wing name you find offensive) guy. Three things have impacted my political opinions enormously over the last 8 years.
1. The national debt: Our national debt is very close to the point interest payments will exceed our revenue. This could easily lead to an Argentinian style hyper inflationary mess. This is very very dangerous. Cuts must be made to spending, AND taxes must be increased. Spending cuts are more effective than taxes, but both are necessary. I believe the democrats to be too weak to make spending cuts…they are incapable of making tough decisions…too fearful of scorn from very small groups.
2. Risk from international enemies: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shook me up. For a very long time I personally laughed at the idea that large countries would engage in wars of conquest. I thought that time was behind us as a species. I was wrong. The world is more dangerous than it has ever been. With resources coming under increased contention and changes occurring rapidly to our planet environment, nations are acting more and more out of self interest in very aggressive ways. We need to continue to have a strong defense and take no steps backward and the quality and effectiveness of our defense however, because of our need to cut costs, we need to do this in new ways that cost much less than the legacy defense contractors, the old guard of both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are 100% in bed with legacy defense contractors. The military industrial complex is currently in place though there are some who are making dents in it Elon Musk and other tech leaders have demonstrated that they can produce results and a fraction of the cost of the legacy defense contractors. We need vastly more of this. This is very scary to the legacy defense contractors who have run this country since Eisenhower’s warnings years ago…. The legacy defense contractors will fight this with everything that they have the Democrat Democrats do not have the spine to fight them and the legacy Republicans are bought and paid for by them already. We need new thinking in this area.
3. Risk of AI: I believe that we cannot stop AI from advancing. The recent Chinese Deep Seek advancements demonstrate this. My belief is that eventually whoever controls the alignment of AI will control all within domain of a given AI. I do not like this. I accept this. I want the “controller” to be the United States of America (and its corporations) rather than China, Russia, etc. America’s comparative advantage over our foes is our vigorous market economy. In order for us to win, we need to lean on our comparative advantage and unleash capitalism to drive AI innovation and stay ahead of our foes. Joe Biden‘s administration attempted to limit all United States efforts in this area to just a handful of companies in which they could maneuver and create regulatory capture. They wanted to fight China with Chinese style tactics. We will not beat China using Chinese style tactics. We will not beat China at China’s game. We must play America’s game. The Democrats have demonstrated that they are in opposition to this and as a result, they lost the support of Silicon Valley in the last election.
To sum up, the Democrats are feckless failures and half the Republicans are bought and paid for by the defense industry. Unfortunately, at the present time, the other half of the Republicans are bigoted fucks. It’s a crap situation. I’m making my choices on what is most likely to allow America to persevere, and by extension the notion of democracy to persevere. The freest countries on the face of the Earth are NATO countries and I don’t expect that to change while America is in charge, and that’s what I support.
When I told you that your first post that I quoted personally hurt and I told you why, you replied with a daxian like whataboutism with an indication that I should just grin and bare it, for some nebulous greater good.
oof pete, this personally hurts, actually. I hope I get to read a retraction/clarification in the next three pages. You have to know that the assault on trans rights is just an entry to more, right? I mean they are literally carrying this out now. You think that the plan is to just remove civil rights for a group of people that comprise less than 1% of the population? The messaging from the white house is that trans rights, rights of minorities, rights of women, rights of those with disabilities are all the same. They aren't just targeting the trans community when they are looking to eliminate all dei programs. When fighting for civil rights you can't just pick winners and losers, that's never how it has worked or will ever work. Most, if not all, of the EOs that mention gender also mention race.
Federal law allows the Education Department to withhold funds from any school that discriminates based on race or sex. In a strikingly different ideological posture, Trump and his allies argue that lessons about systemic racism amount to discrimination, because they presume certain things about people based on race, such as that White Americans enjoy certain privileges based on their race. And they say that giving rights to transgender students, especially transgender girls and women, discriminates against cisgender girls and women by forcing them to share spaces and sports teams.
How did you feel about Obama when he said that he would not endorse gay marriage and instead only civil unions? 2008 he said he only supported civil unions and it took him until 2012 to change his mind. I remember thinking at the time that that sucked, but admitting to myself that it was probably a smart move to wait to fight that fight later.
I feel like you're wanting me to soft pedal your direct quotes to spare your feelings, while completely dismissing mine. I don't feel like I said anything to merit that response, unless you feel like you don't need to provide clarity on what you said, if that's the case then it is what it is, I guess, but it feels odd to expect the benefit of the doubt when your words, as interpreted, say otherwise.
