DocWatts

I know a handful of these people, it's genuinely sad to see them being so obviously manipulated and taken advantage of. Fact is that the Republican party has literally nothing to offer the average American that will make their lives better in any way, so it makes sense that they have to resort to these sort of tactics to win elections. And that's in addition to just outright disenfranchising people.

Also people don't become fantastically devoted to a hateful political ideology because everything in their life is going awesome; just going off from the MAGA supporters that I've personally known, most of them have had some sort of obvious unmet deficiency need in their life that they project outwards on to others. People whose lives aren't going great and who feel like they have nothing to lose are obvious fodder for being propagandized into violence. Of course more of these people are just weak men LARPing as soldiers, but no way to tell at a glance who might be unbalanced or radicalized enough to shoot someone in the face or drive their car through a crowd of people. Of course it doesn't even have to come to that, just making someone who happens to be black think twice about potentially putting themselves in harms way in order to Vote accomplishes the same thing.

Humorous look at stage Green narcissism.

From an awesome rap album that's a playful stage Green take down of Corporate Greed, Privatization, and of shallow Consumerism ruining Rap as an art form. Also happens to be a concept album that's set in a cyberpunk dystopia with a host of science fiction references for good measure. Wind the clocks back to a simpler times Where you could talk and speak your mind Without assault or attack or combat All resources available in large quantities Before the deceit and greed and privatization Of everything that society placed inside it Spaces as a service to the patrons Now you pay for it and your credit better be good Or if there's an emergency, never see a foot Extended in your direction to help forget it Shred any evidence of wrong doing to make pledges Among secret societies with freaky fetishes Lie about what's really inside, they never let us in

Yeah I can think of a number of public intellectuals on the Left who've had some negative experiences with some aspect of Green (usually some politically charged culture wars issue that's impacted them in some way), and end up dipping a toe in to Right wing reactionary politics in response to this. You don't want to throw out the baby with the bath water though, as people can still provide valuable insights through their work, despite them having somewhat unenlightened or misinformed positions on some social issues.

@Leo Gura That's amazing. Don't think the writers of the show could have predicted how prescient this feels in 2020.

This ^^ %1000.

If anyone is familiar with Mos Def, that was where he got his start. First rapper I think of for stage Green.

Even more cringeworthy for anyone else who can see a younger version of themselves resonating with that mindset, rather than engaging with the messy realities of the political system in the US.

Another good example of Stage Green socially conscious hip hop.

As an aside, the Roman Republic used a similar system with thier governing system, where they would elect two Consuls to serve as heads of state; and it didn't stop their system from collapsing in on itself. For a system like that to even have a chance at working both sides would have to be working in Good faith, which is far from a given in when you consider that one of our two political parties operates as a corporatist shill with no moral qualms about eroding Democracy if its politically advantageous to do so (look at almost anything that Mitch McConnell has done if you want evidence for this).

What obligations do middle class and wealthy people living in first world nations have for charitable giving towards people in poorer and less developed parts of the world? What are you your thoughts on donating money to charities vs. political advocacy organizations as far as making the world a better place?

Agreed. One of the more interesting things about Michigan is how diverse it is in different areas. You have urban sprawl, vast stretches of forested wilderness, incredibly wealthy areas populated with mansions, giant sand dunes, a handful of progressive cities that would be at home on the West Coast, urban ghettos, hipsters, rednecks... the list goes on and on.

No kidding. Scary how prescient that movie feels some three or four decades later. I'm not saying that Detroit is a microcosm of the decay of American society with its crumbling infrastructure, decimation of the middle class, corrupt governance, and racial tension; but it doesn't feel like too much of a stretch to frame it that way. Also you'd be surprised at just how rural alot of Michigan is outside of the major cities; travel to the Northern parts and you'd be mistaken for thinking you took a wrong turn and ended up in Kentucky.

Ha! Well at least a handful of us have it as a next door neighbor and drive through it on our way to more interesting places.

A way I like to describe Michigan for people who don't live here is: imagine a blend of Oregon and Ohio, with a scattering of post-apocalyptic looking cities, and you won't be far from the mark.

How long until we're all surprised by seeing "Joe Rogan Experience #2145 : Leo Gura" pop up in our YouTube feed?

Look to The Clash for a great example of stage Green punk.

Considering that Trump has had four years to make an ass of himself, Considering that Trump has had four years to make an ass of himself, the bad publicity from multiple scandals and corruption charges, and his disastrous Covid response fresh on people's minds going in to an election, the hole he's been digging is deep enough to reach China. Yet despite this enough people have been propagandized by right wing media to leave the election results very much in doubt. Also keep in mind that this is a guy who won last time despite losing the popular vote by 3 million votes, and became president despite two thirds of the country not liking him

Fair question! The reason being that human memory and visual perception are fallible and prone to biases. Our visual perception doesn't record events like a video camera, instead of creates stories that warp and change due to the emotions and biases of the person in question. The article I posted goes in to more detail on the issue; I'll just add that a number of people have been wrongly convicted of crimes due to eyewitness testimony, only to have their convictions overturned due to more objective verification methods. https://www.psychologicalscience.org/teaching/myth-eyewitness-testimony-is-the-best-kind-of-evidence.html That's not to say the eyewitness testimony is worthless %100 of time; just to keep its limitations in mind.

Anyone who's studied psychology could tell you how unreliable eyewitness testimony is. Not trying to rain on anyone's parade, but for such a huge paradigm shift it feels like the sort of thing we should withhold judgement on until it can be verified to the high standard that would be used if life were discovered on another body in our Solar System. I don't really have a dog in the race on way or another, but I do see alot of overlap between this subject and the larger Conspiracy Theory community.

Surprised this isn't being talked about more than it is. I guess microbes aren't as exiting as grainy footage of flying saucers https://theconversation.com/the-detection-of-phosphine-in-venus-clouds-is-a-big-deal-heres-how-we-can-find-out-if-its-a-sign-of-life-146185

Very well thought out post. I'd like to take a moment to give recognition and praise to the current Pope, Pope Francis, for using his position of authority to advocate for urgent action to combat Climate Change; framing it as an issue of social justice that the world's poorest people will end up shouldering the burden of. Mad props to the guy for using his religious authority to advocate for social responsibility. https://insideclimatenews.org/news/06082020/climate-change-pope-francis

I think the catch-22 is that it's generally hard to find Conservatives who are thoughtful and open to growth, because that sort of mindset is inimical towards the rigid thinking needed to maintain that sort of worldview. And the ones that are open minded to growth will have already realized this and left that worldview behind them. While there's alot to be learned by interacting conspiracy theorists or religious fundamentalists, and it's important to understand what attracts people to these ways of thinking, there's plenty of others forums on the internet to do so. I would hope that the selection bias here is such that most of us are aware of the dangers of echo chambers, and that we have enough common sense to have interactions with the real world to counter balance this.

Really hope this is one of those situations where my initial misgivings turn out to be completely unfounded; could be that I might be over reacting somewhat to 2016 without giving enough consideration to the differences between the situations then and now. Welp, guess I'll try to convince who I can to get out and Vote.