Jan. 6 Committee Public Hearings Thread - 2nd Hearings to occur on 6/13 @ 10 a.m. ET

[puporing]

12 minutes ago, Hardkill said:

I am seriously considering it. Though I don’t know how possible that would be for me. 

Yeah.. I heard it's not that easy to do. Certain skills easier than others.

[Leo Gura]

1 hour ago, puporing said:

Y'all should move to Canada.  

Well it's not perfect but I appreciate many things here in comparison...

Life is too easy up there

[Razard86]

54 minutes ago, puporing said:

Yeah.. I heard it's not that easy to do. Certain skills easier than others.

How's the weather in Canada?

[Hardkill]

16 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Life is too easy up there

At least that country seems like it has a promising stable future and has a much higher level of democracy, whereas ours is on the precipice of Armageddon.

I honestly am losing so much reason have pride as an American. The USA is the most overrated country on planet and is becoming the worst 1st world country in the world to live in. 

Why should I even believe that the American dream is still very possible for me to achieve when the growing economic inequality and rise of authoritarianism throughout the country is only going to get continually worse for the next 2-3 decades?

Edited June 11, 2022 by Hardkill

[puporing]

34 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Life is too easy up there

Hah, relatively speaking.. Similar challenges exist especially the big cities if one is aiming for economic freedom. Less political drama I guess.  

Seemingly good welfare system on the surface, but has lots of holes in it still once you take a closer look. 

But yes it's hard to critique things when speaking to an American rofl.

22 minutes ago, Razard86 said:

How's the weather in Canada?

LOL, I like the weather here with the distinct seasons. Winters can be a bit long for some. I can't take the heat for too long so this is good. Might be bit of a problem if things keep warming up..

Edited June 11, 2022 by puporing

[puporing]

31 minutes ago, Hardkill said:

At least that country seems like it has a promising stable future and has a much higher level of democracy, whereas ours is on the precipice of Armageddon.

I honestly am losing so much reason have pride as an American. The USA is the most overrated country on planet and is becoming the worst 1st world country in the world to live in. 

Why should I even believe that the American dream is still very possible for me to achieve when the growing economic inequality and rise of authoritarianism throughout the country is only going to get continually worse for the next 2-3 decades?

I think if your values are strongly clashing with the status quo (and leading you to feel discontented more often than not and not feel at peace..), that is a valid reason to try to move. Because you might desire to live more and more in alignment with your values whenever possible (Unless you have some ambition to change things, have some other calling or career related things to keep you there). 

Edited June 11, 2022 by puporing

[mmKay]

4 hours ago, puporing said:

Y'all should move to Canada.  

Well it's not perfect but I appreciate many things here in comparison...

Don't jinx it. You wanna see a Canadian Trump? ?

[puporing]

5 hours ago, mmKay said:

Don't jinx it. You wanna see a Canadian Trump? ?

LOL nope. Just sayin moving to a different country doesn't magically solve all your problems either. Gotta give the fair warning.

[Thought Art]

 

[axiom]

Personally I think Trump will feel emboldened by the horrific state of the economy in 2024, and he'll be very likely to win if he runs. If I was a US citizen, then I'd be voting for the most entertaining candidate. It's a bit trickier this time around though. I didn't rate Biden at first, but he gets more entertaining with time.

[Oeaohoo]

10 minutes ago, axiom said:

I didn't rate Biden at first, but he gets more entertaining with time.

And more senile…

[Yarco]

10 hours ago, Razard86 said:

How's the weather in Canada?

72F and sunny today, 86F later this week. We've had shootings in my city within the last month though and crime is steadily getting worse with the economic downturn so don't think you're gonna escape that . I passed an investigation of overnight gunfire on the way to get coffee this morning.

8 hours ago, mmKay said:

Don't jinx it. You wanna see a Canadian Trump? ?

There are people here working on it at both a provincial and federal level. People compare the Ontario Premier (who just got re-elected with a majority lol) to Trump a lot.

Only about 5% support the crazy right-wing party at the moment though and I don't see them getting enough traction for critical mass. We had our mask mandate lifted in March and about half the people I see in shops are still voluntarily wearing them, it's a totally different environment more like Scandinavian countries. Our "Progressive Conservatives" are the right-most mainstream party and are more in line with the US Democrats than the Republicans. The actual right wing parties fall into the "Other / Independent" category and doesn't even get mentioned, behind the Green party.

Edited June 11, 2022 by Yarco

[abundance]

 

Hopefully this will impact voter decisions come November. One can only hope. 

 

We're in a very dangerous moment in history right now. I fear that if Trump's brand of Republicans take the house and senate they'll become more emboldened and overt in their attempts to undermine Democracy. It sounds hyperbolic but 2022 and 2024 could be our last chance to change the direction of this country for a very long time. 

Edited June 11, 2022 by abundance

[Bobby_2021]

10 hours ago, Hardkill said:

At least that country seems like it has a promising stable future and has a much higher level of democracy, whereas ours is on the precipice of Armageddon.

I honestly am losing so much reason have pride as an American. The USA is the most overrated country on planet and is becoming the worst 1st world country in the world to live in. 

Why should I even believe that the American dream is still very possible for me to achieve when the growing economic inequality and rise of authoritarianism throughout the country is only going to get continually worse for the next 2-3 decades?

Bruh. US is still orders of magnitude better than >=90% of the planet. It's one of the easiest places to build wealth any time of the year. You will squander all the opportunities if you give in to this stupid media narrative. 

Also your personal life isn't affected by "growing authoritariansm". 

The local minima that the world is going through will only last a few years into the future, not decades. 

[abundance]

7 minutes ago, Bobby_2021 said:

Bruh. US is still orders of magnitude better than >=90% of the planet. It's one of the easiest places to build wealth any time of the year. You will squander all the opportunities if you give in to this stupid media narrative. 

Also your personal life isn't affected by "growing authoritariansm". 

The local minima that the world is going through will only last a few years into the future, not decades. 

Unless your on the receiving end of their wrath and are apart of the scapegoated "other". 

If you're not a straight, white Christian male or can easily disguise yourself in that demographic you can expect life to get a little bit harder and have a much lower margin of safety. 

Edited June 11, 2022 by abundance

[DocWatts]

24 minutes ago, Bobby_2021 said:

Bruh. US is still orders of magnitude better than >=90% of the planet. It's one of the easiest places to build wealth any time of the year. 

Just add "if you're already wealthy" to the end of that sentence, and you'd have an accurate statement about living in America.

It's this kind of thinking that prevents the US from building the actual support structures that are necessary to facilitate class mobility.

Edited June 11, 2022 by DocWatts

[Oeaohoo]

46 minutes ago, abundance said:

Hopefully this will impact voter decisions come November. One can only hope. 

I doubt it. People in right-wing circles have a radically different perspective on all of these things. They will use perceived double-standards in the way non-white riots are reported, perceived denial of white in-group preference as opposed to other groups, perceived bias in media and so on as reasons to dismiss this out of hand. I’m not saying that any of this is true but that’s how they see it. Many still seem to believe that the insurrection was all just a joke, a meme, a photo shoot; postmodern irony culture and hyperreality seem to have corroded most people’s capacity to take anything seriously! Most of the people watching probably already hate Trump.

The rift in America is very deeply rooted. It’s like people today literally live in different realities. That’s why they are always accusing each other of gaslighting!

46 minutes ago, abundance said:

We're in a very dangerous moment in history right now. I fear that if Trump's brand of Republicans take the house and senate they'll become more emboldened and overt in their attempts to undermine Democracy. It sounds hyperbolic but 2022 and 2024 could be our last chance to change the direction of this country for a very long time. 

Well, Democracy itself seems to have a peculiar knack for setting up such “dangerous moments”! Anyway, I hope it goes well for you.

Edited June 11, 2022 by Oeaohoo

[Bobby_2021]

39 minutes ago, abundance said:

Unless your on the receiving end of their wrath and are apart of the scapegoated "other". 

If you're not a straight, white Christian male or can easily disguise yourself in that demographic you can expect life to get a little bit harder and have a much lower margin of safety. 

You can easily delude yourself with any media narrative as you wish.

White christian Americans are not even the most privileged group in the US.

I think we all see what we want to see and listen to what we want to hear. 

37 minutes ago, DocWatts said:

Just add "if you're already wealthy" to the end of that sentence, and you'd have an accurate statement about living in America.

It's this kind of thinking that prevents the US from building the actual support structures that are necessary to facilitate class mobility.

What kind of support structure are you hoping for?

US already has some pretty good infrastructure. 

Well we all like to look at people who have more opportunities than us. Reality will never be equal never has been and never will be. So you might as well stop making it a huge issue.

My larger point was that billions of people from Africa/China/Russia/India/South America would love to be born in the US. We are all looking to someone who had it better than us. 

This dosen't invalidate my initial point that being born in the US gives you more opportunities than other parts of the world which looks even more pathetic and hopeless.

You are already born into the top 90% crying that you are not a part of the top 95%.

Edited June 11, 2022 by Bobby_2021

[Hardkill]

34 minutes ago, DocWatts said:

Just add "if you're already wealthy" to the end of that sentence, and you'd have an accurate statement about living in America.

It's this kind of thinking that prevents the US from building the actual support structures that are necessary to facilitate class mobility.

Do you have any reason to be optimistic that things will truly get better for our country in any meaningful way? 

[Hardkill]

1 minute ago, Bobby_2021 said:

You can easily delude yourself with any media narrative as you wish.

White christian Americans are not even the most privileged group in the US.

I think we all see what we want to see and listen to what we want to hear. 

 

What kind of support structure are you hoping for?

US already has some pretty good infrastructure. 

Well we all like to look at people who have more opportunities than us. Reality will never be equal never has been and never will be. So you might as well stop making it a huge issue.

My larger point was that billions of people from Africa/China/Russia/India/South America would love to be born in the US. We are all looking to someone who had it better than us. 

This dosen't invalidate my initial point that being born in the US gives you more opportunities than other parts of the world which looks even more pathetic and hopeless.

You are already born into the top 90% crying that you are not a part of the top 99%.

I don't believe that chart is correct.

Look, we need a new progressive reform era on the level of what Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, or JFK/LBJ did ASAP.