CuriousCat Archive Page 143 of 202

  1. You've talked about the "liberal fantasy of putting someone in their place" before but I think even separate from politics it can be really difficult not to argue with people whose ideas are infuriating, & people could often use more reminders that sometimes it's just not worth it.

    No question here, I just appreciate these answers you've given here.

    in response to Different anon but I believe that as a collective leftist whole, we can at least reply to each inaccurate statements on capitalism, especially given the fact that the user stated that capitalism existed for 100,000 years when it actually is just 500 years

  2. Social democracy is basically the "Nordic model" or what people used to call Keynesianism. They're liberals who agree with democratic socialists a lot more than most liberals, but aren't ready to tip all the way into socialism yet.

  3. Have you played the “Sisters of Battle” boss in the Godmaster dlc?

    It’s the Mantis Lords but phase 2 has all three of them attacking. It’s really cool.

    in response to What's your favorite boss and area in hollow knight respectively?

    Godmaster is the one DLC I decided I did not have the fortitude for. Got partway through the second pantheon and was just like... no, this isn't going to happen.

  4. What are your thoughts on Thor: Ragnarock?

    it's fun enough. thought the anti-colonial message, though appreciated, was pretty muddled.

  5. Why do stories with non-capitalist, non-fascist social systems seem like they need to do so much spadework 'justifying' themselves.
    Parts of starship troopers (book or satire you pick) or enders game run on magic and 'well we just said its true, so it is'. So why does "the dispossessed" say, need to go further in explaining small details?

    because the authors are interested in the small details

  6. What if someone says they want to make capitalism more equitable in the short term, but says that in the long term it cannot be maintained and must be phased out? Are they a "short-term liberal, long-term socialist" or something?

    in response to Since you wrote "BERNIE IS A LIBERAL". Could you explain the difference between a liberal, a social democrat, and a socialist?

    I mean, that's how every socialist has to operate. You can claim to be a short-term socialist, but socialism is not going to come about in the short term, so your only option is to work within capitalism for the time being.

  7. So what's your take on the idea of a confederation for different areas of the US?

    For example: a separate Navajo nation, a separate Chicano nation ect.

    I would need to know how Chicano and Navajo people feel about that, but that sounds suspiciously like ethnostates.

  8. What's your favorite boss and area in hollow knight respectively?

    REALLY hard to pick favorites, but I guess the Mantis Lords and the City of Tears?

  9. Do you think all drugs should be legalized?

    I think they should be decriminalized, which is somewhat different.

  10. Are you pro-sex worker?

    yes, I support full decrim

  12. Do you think people who are not properly informed should not vote?

    define "properly"

  13. As a democratic socialist who used to be a social democrat, "social democrat" is usually what people who say "well, I want a mixed economy" mean a lot of the time (though some people who say that IME are democratic socialists who are sold on dismantling capitalism but are less sold on the greatness of socialism as a replacement system/think it needs some checks): they want partial socialism, usually more so than liberals, but not all the way like democratic socialists do. They're more committed to liberalism first before socialism. So Bernie and Warren = social democrats.

    so here's where we get into the squidginess of labels: I would say both candidates are social democrats in *practice*, but Warren *identifies* as a liberal capitalist and Sanders *identifies* as a democratic socialist. which is why I get frustrated when people act as though there's a fundamental difference between them, because, while there are differences, the only fundamental one is branding.

  14. Did you read Homestuck? Did you watch Homestar?

    no

    yes

  15. Any cancelled pieces of media you wished existed? Stuff like Satoshi Kon's Dreaming Machine, or Campo Santo's In the Valley of Gods.

    In the Valley of Gods isn't technically canceled, don't say that!!!

    I will forever crave the two planned sequels to LOOM.

  16. Favorite Final Fantasy

    I have never finished a Final Fantasy.

  17. Any films, books, documentaries, docudrama that you liked that explores the nature of fakery?

    Besides Orson welles F for Fake

    Exit Through the Gift Shop, maybe?

  18. Name the next Smash DLCs

    NiGHTS or gtfo

  19. Would you mind linking some research you found on the backfire effect? Seems super interesting

    in response to It's probably worth noting to that user that studies on "debunking" show that exposing people to a bad take makes them more likely to agree or continue to agree with said bad take, so it's better to address stuff more abstractly without linking directly to it. Like you're doing on Twitter with Coffin's nonsense about Gamergate and "pinkwashing," that's the right approach.

    Sure. The You Are Not So Smart Podcast did a three part series on The Backfire Effect, and then did a follow-up episode explaining why the data was inaccurate.

    https://youarenotsosmart.com/2018/01/29/yanss-120-the-backfire-effect-part-four/

    This is a link to the follow-up episode, which has links to the original three-part series as well as a bunch of papers.

  20. Are you any specific kind of leftist (eg. Ancom, Market Socialist, Marxist, etc)?

    I haven't settled on an ism. I'm a democratic socialist if I'm anything, but I think Amy Dentata phrased it best: "I believe capitalism needs to be replaced, I'm just not sure what to replace it with."

  21. Are there any prominent filmmakers working today that could accurately be described as "socialist"?

    Boots Riley?

  22. Do you talk down to people who eat meat in your family?

    please don't ask me to prove I'm not "one of THOSE vegans" or assume I am unless I demonstrate otherwise, it's really condescending

  23. Since you wrote "BERNIE IS A LIBERAL".

    Could you explain the difference between a liberal, a social democrat, and a socialist?

    That's a big question that I'm only going to answer super briefly, but:

    liberal: a person who works to make capitalism more equitable

    socialist: a person who believes capitalism cannot be made equitable and seeks to replace it with a classless society

    social democrat: near as I can tell, a liberal capitalist who just wants strong social programs like single-payer healthcare and universal basic income; not to be confused with democratic socialists, who are socialists who want to make sure the system that replaces capitalism is still democratic (as opposed to the authoritarian versions of communism we've seen in Russia or North Korea)

  24. It's probably worth noting to that user that studies on "debunking" show that exposing people to a bad take makes them more likely to agree or continue to agree with said bad take, so it's better to address stuff more abstractly without linking directly to it. Like you're doing on Twitter with Coffin's nonsense about Gamergate and "pinkwashing," that's the right approach.

    in response to Different anon but I believe that as a collective leftist whole, we can at least reply to each inaccurate statements on capitalism, especially given the fact that the user stated that capitalism existed for 100,000 years when it actually is just 500 years

    While it is true that debunking is often ineffective at changing minds, and can be used to spread bad ideas to people who weren't familiar with them, incidents where having an idea debunked actually makes someone double down - aka The Backfire Effect - have been proven extremely rare. Generally speaking, presenting people with correct information does not make them latch onto false information more strongly; that only happens in *very* particular cases. However, what seems common is people just pivoting to different information, e.g. if someone argues that you can't have a post-capitalist society because capitalism has always existed, and you point out that capitalism is only 500 years old, they will likely just find a different reason why capitalism is eternal. They'll begrudgingly accept the new information, but it won't change their mind.

    Not to be too persnickety, I just did a bunch of research into The Backfire Effect a little while back. :)

  25. Do you support the idea of a leftist Universal Basic Income Plan?

    I like the idea of UBI, but if you're angling to get me endorsing Yang, it's not gonna happen.

  26. Different anon but I believe that as a collective leftist whole, we can at least reply to each inaccurate statements on capitalism, especially given the fact that the user stated that capitalism existed for 100,000 years when it actually is just 500 years

    in response to Is there a more nuanced response to respond to pro-capitalist statements like this? 👇🏼 https://twitter.com/Goku47929939/status/1222137860985241600?s=19

    Some statements are so patently wrong that responding to them at all is giving them more credit than they're worth. Like, if someone stands up and says "the law of gravity is just a theory," you don't have to prove the existence of gravity from first principles. You are allowed to just treat some things as a given. Make sure anyone in your audience knows what capitalism is and how far back it goes and try not to draw attention to the person saying something phenomenally wrong-headed.

  27. Do you think refusing to pay your taxes (as a working class citizen, not a company or a rich person) is a valid form of protest/direct action?

    If you don't have money to make ends meet, lying on your taxes is a valid decision, especially when your taxes don't seem to go to systems that benefit you. But I wouldn't call it praxis.

  29. If healthcare becomes cool and student debts get repaid, would you go back to college? What would you want to learn

    I went to community college after high school and then transferred to a university. Then the recession hit and I dropped out. Five years later, I went back to college part-time and, after a very long time, finally got my degree.

    All in all it took me fifteen years to get a bachelor's degree and nine and a half of them were spent enrolled in a school.

    I'm never going back.

  30. When someone has done something worrisome a long time ago and its on the internet and archived. Do you think it's okay to use that possibly negative information/ 'dirt' from years ago and bring it up whenever someone has done/said something questionable recently?

    Like can that be used as evidence to suggest that person is untrustworthy or bad or something seen negative at large?

    what do you feel about all this? do you do this as well?

    additional context: i'm mostly talking about internet personalities not politicians.

    There is no rule for this. A person is not defined by every statement they've ever made, but by how they grow and evolve. If someone said something bigoted 5 years ago but has since renounced those beliefs, apologized, and committed to the cause of equality not just in words but in action, then bringing it up again is empty purity politics. But if a person has given only empty apologies and evasions, has never demonstrated any growth, and seems to behave in the same ways as they did in the past, then those comments are still relevant.

    I generally don't participate in that kind of "bringing up old shit" tactic, because, if a person *hasn't* grown and evolved since doing something shitty, there are probably pretty recent examples of the same mentality. If the only examples you can find of a person being untrustworthy are from several years ago, maybe ponder for a moment what that means.

    And maybe try to let go of the idea that people can be "bad" rather than do bad things. I try to keep focus on behavior rather than intrinsic value, because the latter is always debatable.

  31. Do you think the Birds of Prey movie looks interesting? I personally quite liked Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn and am interested to see more of her regardless of if the movie as a whole is any good.

    It also does not, to my knowledge, feature the Joker, which is a big plus.

    in response to Is Joker a nazi movie?

    I mean, I like Robbie, and she seems like she's having fun. I just really don't care about superhero extended universes anymore. I might see it if the reviews are good.

  32. For what it's worth, whole difficulty thing is mostly a myth. They are difficult, but it's more that they have a odd learning curve that takes a bit of time getting used to, but once you start understanding how to read the language of the game, they're not that hard. That's why players who played Souls games tend to have an easier time with other Souls and souls-like games they then go on to play.

    Except Sekiro. That one really does live up to the meme.

    in response to Have you played any of the Souls series? If not, do you want to? If so, can you talk about them a bit?

    Sekiro is the one I'm most interested in.

  33. As a German I'm wondering what exactly is meant by "abolish ICE". Isn't it just shorthand for "stop the bad practices and overreach against undocumented immigrants" as opposed to "literally have no units at all that specialize in dealing with actual criminals that aren't citizens"? The latter just strikes me as unreasonable, or is there another agency to handle the real bad apples? (I kind of struggle to make the distinction clear because Republicans slander all immigrants as criminal, but I hope you get the point I'm trying to make)

    ICE has only existed since 2002. We handle criminality at the border just fine before then.

  34. Is Joker a nazi movie?

    I don't care about Joker

  35. Have you played any of the Souls series? If not, do you want to? If so, can you talk about them a bit?

    I've enjoyed some games that take inspiration from Souls, but, until the recent Switch ports, I'd never owned a console they were on. I'm not sure I have the patience for something that punishing, but maybe I'll give them a shot one day.

  36. They do get a share in the profits, they get paid a wage. It's not just about profit it's also about control. If i pay for the entire operation then why should the guy I hire get to tell me how to run my business. I would essentially be taking all the financial risk and my employees would get to make a bunch of dumb decisions and then leave me broke while they get off free.

    in response to Does that expand into private business? If I buy all the materials, equipment and do all the organising then why should the people I hire have any say over what I do. And if that's the case why would I ever hire anyone. The business would collapse in a few months.

    you're talking about a socialist system but still thinking like a capitalist boss. if the workers control the means of production, then they aren't your employees, they're your partners. and in sharing the profits, they also share the risk. and you wouldn't be expected to buy all the materials yourself, other workers would split the cost.

    under capitalism, the workers do not share in the profits. profit is what's left over after you clear expenses; the workers' wages are an expense. no matter how much profit they make for you, they don't see an additional dime unless you agree to give them a raise. their hard work makes you more money than you would make alone, and yet no matter how much profit they generate they only get more money when you gift it to them.

    that, dear friend, is why we say capitalism is exploitation.

  37. i think youtube men still like talking about gamer gate because its good for viewership and twitter clout

    gg laid the groundwork for the Alt-Right, so lefties are kind of bound to bring it up from time to time

  38. Why do you think Bernie is surging in the polls right now, whereas a couple months ago Warren seemed to be doing better of the two progressives in the race? I really don't want to believe it's this whole "the Very Online left has decided that ONLY Bernie is good enough" but I'm afraid that's what it is. Then again, the kind of people who think that way tend to be a small part of the electorate and don't have a huge effect on polls, especially in places like Iowa and New Hampshire, so what do you think?

    It seems the pivot happened when Warren released her Medicare for All bill and it wasn't single payer. And by saying Bernie said something mildly dismissive of her chances of winning two years ago (which everyone immediately spun into "Warren is calling Bernie a misogynist, and that cannot possibly be true," which are both false statements), Warren made the fatal error of admitting that sexism exists, and the one thing a female candidate can never do is acknowledge sexism.

    So, some valid and some shitty reasons.

  39. Cleopatra has been the butt of misogynistic jokes in art for ages, and uh did this anon miss the part where Joan of Arc had to pretend to be a boy at first and also she was burned at the stake? And was also treated misogynistically in art for ages? Just look at what Shakespeare had to say about her.

    It doesn't affect every woman the same way, because of intersectionality, but misogyny touches us all from the Queen of England on down to the poorest most destitute woman in the world. Heck, you'd know that just from watching The Crown, anon. (And then after reading all those articles about how they paid Matt Smith playing Prince Philip more than Claire Foy playing THE LEAD Queen Elizabeth, until the show got backlash for it.) Even the most powerful women usually have it worse than they would if they were similarly powerful men. Go read a book, anon.

    in response to You say women were at the bottom of society historically? So no Queen Victoria, no Cleopatra, no Joan of Arc? Or was a man pulling the strings?

    also love holding the queen up as an example of feminism when the only reason she got to be queen is because there wasn't a single male heir

    supes progressive

  40. I appreciate the way you're calling out the idea of voting for Bernie as a litmus test for leftism. I've been a socialist since I was in high school in the mid 2000s, when it was not popular to be so, and I hate that I don't feel like I have a place in my local DSA because I prefer Warren to Bernie (for various reasons, mostly that she seems far more likely to actually achieve her progressive promises as president). And like every event I'm getting from the DSA lately that isn't a Bernie campaign thing is like, a workshop on what socialism "really means" and how "really understanding it" means understanding how Warren falls short and only Bernie works. Which is just wild to me, because as you've said before, they're both basically liberals with some socialist policies. They're both social democrats. I've heard that DSAs are a lot better in person sometimes, and in general I've had the experience that leftist and related progressive spaces (like queer spaces) tend to be far less focused on purity politics and more on what actually matters once you get people away from the Internet. But the one where I live is not giving me a great impression so far with the opportunities it's giving me to get involved. And it just frustrates me because like, most people I know who identify as "socialist" have only been into politics for a few years, and I just feel like my movement has been stolen out from under me just because I won't pledge fealty to this one old white dude?

    I think DSAs are super variable from place to place. I know some minority folks who've said they don't feel welcome there, that there's a streak of class-first, white guy brocialist that can be pretty off-putting depending on where you are.

    Again, I like a lot of Bernie's policies and will happily vote for him, I'm just sick of him being deified like this.

    Like... every single one of his policies is a liberal policy that's just more progressive than most. He wants to give the vote back to prisoners. Awesome! But he's not a prison abolitionist. He wants to abolish ICE. Fantastic! But he's against open borders. He wants to institute a wealth tax. Great! He's not trying to expropriate the wealth of billionaires and make the accumulation of that much money illegal.

    These are good policies that will make our society more livable, and MAYBE they can serve as stepping stones so something truly socialist, but he is functioning as an agent of the capitalist system. He is to the far end of the Overton Window - and is often responsible for the Overton Window being as far left as it is - and we can tell ourselves that he'd be a proper socialist if that were politically viable if we want, but, whether by necessity or by sincere belief, BERNIE IS A LIBERAL.

    Honestly, one of the biggest problems I have with the hero worship is, when you make a liberal the avatar of the American Left, you make the Left less revolutionary.

  41. Even before Baked Alaska deleted his video and started showing up at alt-right rallies again, why were people skeptical of his about-face? I don't know very much about these people, but had been kind of curious when you brought that up in your video. And are there any other people who've done about-faces on the alt-right where you're skeptical of their sincerity?

    I dunno, I didn't follow it *that* closely, but the people who showed me the video thought it was bullshit, other people thought it was bullshit, a decent chunk of the Alt-Right thought it was bullshit, and it turned out we were right. Skepticism towards someone who was pretty central to the movement, especially when their apology doesn't seem to come with any real commitments or behavioral changes, is reasonable, and I would have been happy to be proven wrong.

  42. How do we deal with the "Bernie or Bust" problem on the left? You'd think four years of Trump would teach people that actually the stakes are this high, and to be fair, I've known lots of real life friends who stayed home or voted third party who realize they can't do that again. But opinion polling suggests some leftists are still BoB. How do we deal with that? Like if the past three years wasn't enough to convince you that "both parties are the same" is blatantly not true, what WILL it take?

    At this point, Bernie's poll numbers are improving, so if we're lucky he'll get the nom and BoB's will be moot. If Biden gets the nom, I don't think Bernie or Busters will be a significant enough portion of voters to affect the outcome. Biden will lose because of his own failings.

  43. And, (as another anon trying to get what’s going on) how does Peter Coffin come into this?

    in response to What is going on with Gamergate and the Dirtbag left? I keep hearing about this but I don't know anyone involved

    Peter kicked it off with a legendarily Bad Take blaming GamerGate on "neoliberal fetishization of feminism."

    If you need me to get into it further, you're going to have to give me a minute, because I just... I just don't have the strength right now.

  44. Is there a more nuanced response to respond to pro-capitalist statements like this? 👇🏼

    https://twitter.com/Goku47929939/status/1222137860985241600?s=19

    why would you respond to that

  45. You certainly do a lot of intellectual contorting when it would be much easier to say "I'm a liberal and I prefer Warren"

    sure is cool how American leftism begins and ends with one old white guy liberal with some socialist branding

  46. Does that expand into private business? If I buy all the materials, equipment and do all the organising then why should the people I hire have any say over what I do. And if that's the case why would I ever hire anyone. The business would collapse in a few months.

    in response to Lefties talk a lot about destroying capitalism. But what the hell does that mean? Do you want to abolish private property and hand it all over to the state? Because that's all capitalism is, private property. Why should you or anyone else have any say over my property.

    "why should the people creating the profits get to share in them?"

  47. Someone who’s low on context here.

    What do you mean by the “corporate pinkwashing” of feminism?

    So you know how Captain Marvel is basically military industrial propaganda with a veneer of "girl power" rubbed onto it to make it seem progressive?

    That.

    The way that liberalism will try to take identity politics and fold them into the status quo, trying to make a politics of consumption where feminism is about buying products with feminist branding as opposed to actually resisting patriarchy, and attempting to separate identity politics from class politics by folding the former *into* capitalism.

  48. Is democracy actually a good thing?

    I dunno, we should try it someday.

  49. What is going on with Gamergate and the Dirtbag left? I keep hearing about this but I don't know anyone involved

    Joe Rogan endorsed Bernie Sanders, Bernie Sanders accepted the endorsement, Rogan is a bit of a GG apologist and has a lot of GG dead enders in his audience, so now some Bernie supporters are trying to reframe GG as a group of people alienated by capitalism and a "neoliberal fetishization of feminism" (and identity politics generally) rather than being a bunch of angry sexists. Basically, trying to reframe GG so that Bernie is doing a good thing instead of a bad thing.

    And, like, there is valid critique to be made about how liberalism co-opts identity politics, but its application to GG in specific is a huuuuuuuge stretch, and the people arguing this perspective really seem to have it in for the entire concept of privilege, claiming this is a term liberals use to other people suffering under capitalism. It's such a goddamn reach.

  50. Did you watch EVO for Smash

    I missed it this year I'm afraid, had a busy weekend.

  51. How do we start the shift to voting systems that aren't dumb? Just start with local elections and see how people vibe with it?

    in response to Wyoming is most likely filled with Nazis so who cares?

    iunno

  52. What's a video game thought you've been trying to think out loud but nobody's really talking about at this moment

    I kinda wanna do a comparison of Dropsy and Alum to look at two different ways people approach Christianity in indie adventure games, one from a born-again perspective and one from an evangelical one, because I think that's really fascinating.

    But it's not like there's a lot of hot discourse for a super-niche indie adventures from 2015.

  53. What is the best video game genre for an Art Gallery

    kinect games

  54. So, first, thank you for all your work!
    It has been super interesting and insightful following you and I love your way of presenting stuff.

    Now to the question.
    I am a fan from far far away (Russia). In the minds of people here socialism will always be intertwined with totalitarianism, because dictators in USSR used it as a front cover for their regimes I guess.
    How to disentangle the two when I'm having debates with my friends who still see capitalism as (the only) way to freedom?

    If I knew, I'd be a much happier person.

  56. Can you (the general you, not YOU-you) really call yourself a leftist if you "don't care about identity politics" (especially when that sure seems to result in treating the marginalised groups of your choice with the same contempt as the right)?

    I wouldn't say "socialism that isn't feminist isn't real socialism" any more than I would say "feminism that isn't class conscious isn't real feminism" but both are deeply flawed.

    If your leftist progressivism isn't class *and* socially conscious, what good is it?

  57. You say women were at the bottom of society historically?

    So no Queen Victoria, no Cleopatra, no Joan of Arc?

    Or was a man pulling the strings?

    did you hear we had a Black president once? now slavery never happened, because exceptions always disprove the rule.

  58. Why do lefties want Bernie to lose?

    It's like okay the dedicated followers are bad but what choice do you have?

    Warren? Biden? or just 4 more years of Trump?

    I mean I'll just wait for the revolution I guess.

    I would like very much for Bernie to win, but I'm trying to think of the long-term health of the American Left, and the problems with Bernie or Bust people aren't going to magically disappear once he's elected.

  60. Why is Harris not allowed to have grown or changed either? You have been saying the same thing for over a year about how awful she is to trans people while also admitting you never followed up (unless that's changed recently and I didn't catch it).

    in response to Say do you think it weird the same people who think you can address tras-panic murder defense with a wealth tax loved screaming COP! at a women who passed a bill that banned that defense in California?

    I have mentioned Harris like 3 times. What I know is a lot of trans people who talked at length about their problems with Harris. Are you aware of her recanting her previous treatment of trans people?

  61. What if someone did? How would you react?

    in response to Do you get offended if someone wishes you, "Wishing you a Happy and Prosperous New Year" or "Hope you'll get rich soon"? Especially when they mention to us the words such as "prosperous" and "rich"? Whats a better alternative in greeting someone without mentioning that they'll be gaining more wealth at the expense of others?

    it would be weird but I wouldn't care that much

  62. What do you think about the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro?

    he not good

  65. Do vegans ever get uppity about cultures where animal products are necessary for their survival within their environments

    some do some don't

    (true facts: "uppity" has racist origins)

  66. Say do you think it weird the same people who think you can address tras-panic murder defense with a wealth tax loved screaming COP! at a women who passed a bill that banned that defense in California?

    Are we talking about Harris? Because she also denied a lot of necessary services to trans prisoners. Yes, it's hypocritical to shout her down for not supporting trans people and then say supporting trans people isn't a necessary campaign issue, but there are abundant reasons trans people didn't trust Harris.

  67. Hi! One thing that strikes me about this and related posts is that people stanning for Bernie may not be engaging with your argument b/c they can't see past the fact that, even though you see both as compromise candidates,
    (a) you're placing them considerably to the left of their competition, so much so that it seems you don't make any distinction between them, except for the gaps and weeknesses in bernie's platform on social (probably not the best choice of word there, but sticking with it) issues. Maybe I've missed your posts on them, but you can imagine how not touching the differences in the rest of their platforms can easily be read as either dismissing their significance or denying their existence.
    (b) your posts here seem to be exclusively about issues with Sanders' platform and fan base. Again, I might have missed them, but I can see how one could come away with that impression.

    Secondarily, don't know if you're someone who reads/watches mainstream media. I'm sure a lot of people who are desperate for change do watch them, consider them important (as in, older ppl are much more likely to be spending a lot of time on MSM) and are possibly hate-reading/watching smear campaigns for the candidate they think is most likely to be a vehicle for change sooner rather than later. Even though I think you're not taking your point far enough (a typical question when it comes to participating in electoral discussions in activist circles is "who would you rather be demonstrating against?", let alone believing/investing in a person or their morals), I'm not at all surprised by the responses you see.

    Not trying to excuse anything, just pointing out a dynamic that might be at play.

    in response to So, for the record, I'm not treating Warren voters like shit-- I think they're wrong, but whatever, they're entitled to their vote, and I'll vote for Warren if she wins the nomination. I'm also not going to try and filibuster to you about why I think Sanders is the better candidate, it's clear your mind's made up, and trying to change it as an anonymous stranger on the internet isn't any of my business. Anyway, my actual question is, what do you think should be done to bridge the gap between the Sanders and Warren camps?

    If people were writing in to say "Warren's Medicare plan is just as good as Sanders'," I'd be pointing out that hers not being single player makes it significantly weaker, and the way she contorted the bill to answer the Republicans' "how are you going to pay for it?" question without raising taxes fundamentally misunderstands how politics works in Washington right now. It's the same mistake Obama made, assuming that "how are you going to pay for it?" is a sincere question. Republicans don't care how things get paid for. Sanders gets flak for not having provided a concrete plan for funding his Medicare bill, but his is the right approach: how we pay for it doesn't matter, the US government runs a deficit every year with no repercussions. And I hate to think what compromises Warren made to the bill to pull off a bit of funding jiu-jitsu.

    There are plenty of similar critiques I could give, but nobody's writing me to exaggerate Warren's strengths and downplay Sanders'. If they were, it would look like I'm beating up on Warren. But, in the lefty circles I move in, everyone does the opposite.

    Both candidates have many strengths and weaknesses, and, if looked at fairly, it is perfectly reasonable to prefer Sanders to Warren. But if that preference requires hyperbole and misrepresentation, I'm going to call it out. Motivated reasoning is never good for the Left in the long run.

    And, yes, I get that Sanders supporters watching mainstream media can feel persecuted because he is so often dismissed. But I'm not the mainstream media, and the speed with which people want to lump me in with centrists for voicing any mild concern is frankly insulting. Bernie Sanders is not the litmus test for True Leftism, and we can't build a movement if any attempt at internal critique means instantly branding the critic an outsider.

  68. Donde esta la biblioteca?

    en la esquina de South y Sedgwick

  69. Thank you so, so much for being one of the few consistently reasonable people on my timeline. I really, REALLY needed it, especially about what's been going on the last few days, which I'm sure a million people are already trying to bother you about so I won't add to it.

    I hope you have a wonderful day and I wish you the best!

    thanx

  70. Lefties talk a lot about destroying capitalism. But what the hell does that mean? Do you want to abolish private property and hand it all over to the state? Because that's all capitalism is, private property. Why should you or anyone else have any say over my property.

    You are confusing "private property" with "personal property." Nobody will take your personal property.

  71. Do you have any theories as to why Biden has gotten significantly less scrutiny relative to his position as the frontrunner?

    everyone lefter-than-liberal already agrees he's trash so there's nothing to argue about

  72. If our culture were to be unchained and unregulated, would it inevitably descend into a culture of sex?

    no, but I wish

  73. Do you get offended if someone wishes you, "Wishing you a Happy and Prosperous New Year" or "Hope you'll get rich soon"? Especially when they mention to us the words such as "prosperous" and "rich"?

    Whats a better alternative in greeting someone without mentioning that they'll be gaining more wealth at the expense of others?

    Nobody says those things to me.

  74. You said that Warren didn't claim to be Native American, but did she set the record straight when Harvard law school called her their first female professor of colour?

    If people were saying "didn't set the record straight when Harvard Law School called her their first female professor of color" I would be in agreement with them. But they're ship-of-Theseusing that into "posed as a Native American."

  75. "But maybe I'm just foolishly misinformed like all the rest of the bozos here. I dunno. Go on and yell at me." Wow they're getting real defensive aren't they?

    in response to What distinction are you drawing between economic and social issues? Issues like the climate crisis, Medicare For All, and student debt disproportionately impact the poor, and the poor are disproportionately composed of LGBTQ+ persons and people of color, so although Sanders may not be as serious about issues that more obviously and exclusively impact those minorities as Warren is, doesn't his stance on those economic issues make a stronger case to vote for him, since those issues effect everyone, gay or straight, white or black, or whatever? But maybe I'm just foolishly misinformed like all the rest of the bozos here. I dunno. Go on and yell at me.

    People feel very slighted by misgivings on Sanders, even mild ones. I still think he's a genuinely good candidate, I just want people to look at him with clear eyes.

Anon commented:
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