DocWatts

Trump's presidency is overtly racist to anyone who has even a basic understanding of dog whistle rhetoric (ie saying extremely bigoted things with the thinnest veneer of plausible deniability). We'll see what happens as Trump and the RNC adopts overt racism as it's primary campaign tactic against Harris, in place of emphasizing Biden's age and senility (let's be honest, they don't have much else to go off from other than that and sexism). Trump's base may love that, but it's likely to turn off apolitical normies who aren't already in his camp.

I mean, only a matter of time before Trump or someone else goes mask off and forgets that normal people aren't comfortable with overt displays of bigotry.

If you're going to vote third party, I appreciate that you're at least being strategic about it. In reality, if you want more choices push for Ranked Choice voting in your state.

If you're interested, this is a quick Claude AI summary of the phenomonology of Color Perception, from a book called 'The Embodied Mind : Cognative Science And Human Experience' (a book I'd highly recommend). Color is not inherent in objects, but arises from the interaction between an organism and its environment Color perception is shaped by our embodied experiences and sensorimotor capacities Colors are not fixed categories, but flexible and context-dependent Cultural and linguistic factors influence color perception and categorization The book challenges the idea of color as an objective property that exists independently of perceivers Instead, it proposes an enactive approach where color emerges from the dynamic coupling of organism and environment

Thing is, that's not the only empirical evidence that perception shapes Reality. Far from it in fact. I would encourage you to investigate the phenomenology of color perception, and how it challenges the outdated idea that colors are objectively 'out there' in some external Reality.

If they want to win this election, Democrats need to be speaking to the public with this level of conviction and confidence.

While it's correct to point out that US institutions are of course very flawed, people who use this as an excuse to disengage from politics are failing to understand or imagine how much worse things can and will get under a theocratic Trump dictatorship - both for Americans and for the rest of the world. Hate what's happening in Gaza? The Christian Nationalists that Trump has allied himself with will turbocharge Israel's genocidal ambitions. Planning on starting a family, or care about someone with a womb? Imagine them being forced to carry a non-viable fetus to term, with all the trauma and health risks that entails after abortion has been outlawed nationally. Concerned about a declining population? That is only going to get worse as theocratic policy makes it much more dangerous to become pregnant, where necessities like education and health care become unaffordable to the point where only extremely wealthy people can afford to raise a family. Concerned about climate change? Well, the largest economy in the world abandoning all of its commitments to transition away from fossil fuels is a near certainty under Trump and the Christian Nationalists. Know or care about an LGBTQ person in your life? Trump is an existential danger to their wellbeing and safety. The plan is to push gay and trans people back in the closet, and strip away all of the rights they've gained in the laat half century.

Honestly, this is a great angle that Dems should tap into more. ___________________________ The Cop Against the Criminal. Let’s Do This. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-vs-kamala-harris-cop-vs-criminal.html

Hilariously, this now make Trump the oldest presidential candidate in US history.

I agree, but the time for that was 3 or 6 or 12 months ago. At this late stage in the game it's a logistical impossibility As AOC correctly pointed out, people think that this election is in November - when in actuality, the first ballots need to finalized by September. Additionally, changing candidates from Harris to anyone else would make it extremely likely that the election would be decided by the MAGA Supreme Court, since Republicans have been readying a bevy of 'lawfare' for this possibility.

You're failing to understand or imagine how much worse things can get. It's a bit like someone in early 1930s Germany imagining that whatever the future holds, surely the political situation in Germany couldn't get any worse than things were under the Kaiser.

Agreed. A charismatic vice president on the ticket could help the Dem's chances, though I'll be honest it's not looking good.

Problem is that a 'moderate take' on Trump basically necessitates downplaying or excusing his calls to political violence and his bevy of illegal behavior. There's no world where the Jan 6 insurrection and Project 2025's plan to turn America into a Christian theocracy 'aren't a big deal'. Conservatives who reject MAGA extremism are welcome here.

I agree with Lichtman that if Biden's dropping out, he should also resign the presidency for health reasons, giving Kamala the incumbency. Then work like hell to unite the party behind her.

Alan Lichtman has been stressing this exact point, and IMHO he's %100 right.

Kamala pretty much has to become the nominee, since she's the only one who's legally entitled to the hundreds of millions of dollars that have been raised for the Biden campaign. Moreover, holding a primary at this late stage in the game all but guaranties a bevy of lawsuits from the Republican Party, where there's a good possibility that the election gets decided by the MAGA Supreme Court. Also, as AOC pointed out, people think this election is November - when in actuality, it's in September, since that's when the first mail in ballots need to be finalized. If someone has information that I don't I would be open to changing my opinion, but beyond it being a terrible move strategically, it would be pretty much logistically impossible to hold an open primary at this late stage.

@integral Thanks! Thought it might be fun to do a chicken crossing the road scenario for the embodied phenomenology book I'm writing : Enactivism The road is an interactional category that's created and sustained by the chicken's mind, intelligible for the chicken because of its embodied experiences within the world.

I welcome conservatives who are principled enough to call MAGA out on its flagrant corruption and hypocrisy. Not making excuses for Trump, or downplaying the existential threat that Project 2025 and the Christian Nationalists pose to American democracy is the low bar I would expect someone to clear for a Conscious Politics forum. Preserving US democracy takes precedent over any other differences we may have.

I'd recommend 'How Civil Wars Start: And How To Stop Them' by Barbara F Walter for a thorough survey of civil wars in the 21st century. Which goes into how they start, what they look like once they happen, and how they can be prevented.

So basically a 21st century version of Jim Crow, sanitized to be more palatable for normies then? Seems like modern authoritarians have figured out that the best thing way to stay in power is to be less overt in their oppression than thier 20th century counterparts.

Would love further elaboration on Object-Oriented-Ontology and Speculative Realism - as they're two perspectives I've yet to dive into very deeply.

Most level headed take I've seen on the topic so far. (I'm sure the immature online Left via TYT and the like will rake her over the coals for this highly reasonable take).

I'll share something I posted elsewhere, because a quick an overview of the Banality of Evil is highly relevant for our current moment: "[They] did not know before 1933 that Nazism was evil. They did not know between 1933 and 1945 that it was evil. And they do not know it now [in 1946].” ― Milton Sanford Mayer, They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45' In Weimer Germany's last free elections, not everyone casting ballots for the Nazis would have described themselves as a Nazi, and a lot of them didn't have any particular animosity towards Jewish people. What was far more common was that folks saw some personal advantage to throwing their lot in with vengeful nationalists, and were willing to downplay and excuse the monstrous things that Hitler and the Nazis were saying and doing at the time - just as people today are willing to downplay Trump's violent hateful rhetoric, his numerous crimes, the January 6th insurrection, and the Republican Party's ongoing coup attempt. Likewise, the vast majority of Trump supporters don't think of themselves as fascist enablers, but what they fail to recognize is that today's fascism couches itself in traditional American values, weaponized against out-groups within American society - just as Nazi fascism marketed itself in traditional German values, weaponized against the out-groups of its day.

Thank you, Leo - been disappointing to see so many low quality takes on what's supposed to be a Conscious Politics Forum, especially considering the gravity of ongoing events.

These are great! As someone writing a book on the topic, I got a chuckle out of the Heidegger one. Of course, I'd say the road is more 'ready-to-beak' for our chicken. 😆 Also, not sure if you managed to compile this from pre-existing knowledge of all of these different ontologies, but if you did colour me impressed.