USA Politics

Yax said:
I think you've made it clear that you consider non-blatant right to be "biased". And there are loads of studies on that, how people tend to consider reporting contrary to their own beliefs biased.
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It`s just the right then who fall in to this category i presume.
 
Fozzie said:
It`s just the right then who fall in to this category i presume.
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In a world where you have essentially gone "BBC and Channel 4 are BIASED!" while, at least according to GoC, have tons of more "right-wing" leaning outlets, I think you can do the math. We live in a world where everything, (almost) everything in terms of western political systems, has gone towards the right for 30+ years, yet we are always talking about leftist-bias. It is strange.
 
Yax said:
In a world where you have essentially gone "BBC and Channel 4 are BIASED!" while, at least according to GoC, have tons of more "right-wing" leaning outlets, I think you can do the math. We live in a world where everything, (almost) everything in terms of western political systems, has gone towards the right for 30+ years, yet we are always talking about leftist-bias. It is strange.
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At this rate people would be saying that Margaret Thatcher was a moderate centrist politician if not clearly a Marxist!
 
Yax said:
In a world where you have essentially gone "BBC and Channel 4 are BIASED!" while, at least according to GoC, have tons of more "right-wing" leaning outlets, I think you can do the math. We live in a world where everything, (almost) everything in terms of western political systems, has gone towards the right for 30+ years, yet we are always talking about leftist-bias. It is strange.
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I never said that as you well know that but don`t you let facts get in the way of twisting words. Antifa don`t get much air time on the BBC when they turn up on our streets.
 
Yax said:
Here are the receipts.
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Left biased and lean that way i said, not shouting BIASED as you put it.

You don`t like or agree with my views that`s fine , i aren`t keen on yours ,it`s run it`s cause now as this subject always does. No one is changing their opinion and both think they are correct , it`s a well worn path.
 
Fozzie said:
Spot on and i did mean in general going back to disagreeing on Maiden as a bit of a joke,it wasn`t aimed at you directly which is probably how it incorrectly read.
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I did not take it personally, but just wanted to refer to your recent message about those songs on the Senjutsu thread. :)
 
UpTheIrons said:
In that case, if a huge chunk of the populace (enough to win democratic elections) are morons (predominantly the people that disagree with you of course, conveniently) what do you propose to do? IQ test to be eligible for voting?
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I never said only the other side has morons. "My side" has plenty of them. In fact, the average voter, regardless of political affiliation, is largely uninformed and ignorant. No need to assume my positions or put words in my mouth; I'm more than happy to elaborate on my positions ;)

And no, I'm against IQ testing. I wish we had better educational systems that teach people critical thinking skills, how to navigate a post-truth society dominated by social media and ragebait, to determine the quality of a source.

Fozzie said:
I am not offended i can name call and slag off with the best of them but find it tedious and try to avoid that sort of thing just because someone doesn`t share my opinion, regardless of the subject.
The name calling from the left is more visible than from the right in the UK as we have a left biased media, certainly TV. You tube is a more even mix albeit a dangerous rabbit hole obviously.

Name calling is for school playgrounds is my opinion and that was my main point of posting on this thread regarding the view of the `right`
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From what I've seen "left biased media" couldn't be further from the truth, but that's not really the main point of the thread, so I won't dwell on that.

I don't know or really care if name calling is immature or childish. A huge chunk of the problems we are facing globally nowadays were directly caused by various right-wing administrations, I have no interest in taking the high road. If I see a fool, I will call them as such.

As an example: The US is still dealing with the consequences of Reagan to this day. Trump's actions from 2016 onwards are felt today and what is happening right now will be felt for decades to come, globally.

Also, the majority of UK media is leaning right, not left. That's not really up for debate, that's just a fact. Even the BBC that you mention has shifted further right over the years. We could argue that they are centrist in a way, but calling the BBC an example of left leaning media is laughable.

I'll reiterate my main point though:

Fascists don't solve problems, they only make things worse. We can see the outcome of far right populist agendas in the US, where things are objectively getting worse and worse. Anyone who thinks Reform is somehow going to be the sole example of far right populism that won't fall into the same old issues and patterns... Well, I've got a bridge and various other pieces of infrastructure to sell them.

And because I don't want it to be brushed aside, it bears repeating:

You might vote for Reform for one particular issue but with your vote endorse every other position of theirs as well. It's time to be honest and let people take responsibility for their choices. We are talking about adults here, right? It's convenient how conservatives and moderates always try to shift the blame unto progressives instead of admiting that whole-ass adults made dumbass choices and have fucked up. Like the earlier mention of the the left somehow being responsible for not keeping the votes of morons who fall for populist lies and propaganda.

Also, also: Once more this thread is drifting off course and ignoring the fact that the world's most powerful man was part of a literal pedophile ring and a convicted sexual abuser, because a centrist felt the need to quote state sponsored propaganda in an effort to attack the left once again, which cause this whole derailement. Wonderful.
 
Vaenyr said:
I never said only the other side has morons. "My side" has plenty of them. In fact, the average voter, regardless of political affiliation, is largely uninformed and ignorant. No need to assume my positions or put words in my mouth; I'm more than happy to elaborate on my positions ;)

And no, I'm against IQ testing. I wish we had better educational systems that teach people critical thinking skills, how to navigate a post-truth society dominated by social media and ragebait, to determine the quality of a source.
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I suppose the question I am trying to answer is, if you assert that society is largely composed of 'morons' and under a democratic system the vote of the 'moron' is worth just the same as the vote of the 'intellectual', then what is your solution to that issue?
 
Also to keep things in perspective about why I said blaming the left for certain voter behavior is disingenuous:

Last year, after Biden dropped out, we had a member here who expressed that he wasn't really interested in politics. A regulr guy who just wanted to grill, have a BBQ in his backyard and drink some beers. Raised valid concerns about the enoconomy and a couple of other things.

Multiple members explained to him that for the exact issues he mentioned Harris would've been an objectively better choice and that her proposed policy would actually deal with the issues, while Trump's would make things actively worse (lo and behold, the exact things we warned him about happened and are even worse than we assumed). He ignored everything and said that he doesn't care about the details, he just wants a better economy.

Turns out he was lying all along. He was a staunch Trump supporter radicalized by sites like 4chan and was simply trolling us. He came out and praised Trump's unconstitutional behavior. Hell, he outright used neo nazi slogans. There wasn't a single ounce of good faith behavior in his posts in this thread.

We ("the left") did everything in our power to explain to him patiently (and without condescension) the actual facts. He wasn't interested in any of that. He cared much more about calling ICE on a neighbor with somewhat darker skin (he gleefully admitted to that).

So, to those who try to flip the responsibility and who claim that the left is to blame for not convincing such an individual otherwise I say:
Fuck no. Why isn't it the right wing's responsibility to not cultivate neo nazis?


UpTheIrons said:
I suppose the question I am trying to answer is, if you assert that society is largely composed of 'morons' and under a democratic system the vote of the 'moron' is worth just the same as the vote of the 'intellectual', then what is your solution to that issue?
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I literally addressed that point in the comment you quoted. I'll copy/paste it:

I wish we had better educational systems that teach people critical thinking skills, how to navigate a post-truth society dominated by social media and ragebait, to determine the quality of a source.
 
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Vaenyr said:
I literally addresses that point in the comment you quoted. I'll copy/paste it:

I wish we had better educational systems that teach people critical thinking skills, how to navigate a post-truth society dominated by social media and ragebait, to determine the quality of a source.
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I'm not being facetious in asking this, I genuinely want to better understand your point of view. As you have indicated in previous comments that you believe that many Western democracies are embarking on a downward spiral towards fascism by way of far-right populism, do you think this wish is remotely likely to come true before that process is completed?
 
UpTheIrons said:
I'm not being facetious in asking this, I genuinely want to better understand your point of view. As you have indicated in previous comments that you believe that many Western democracies are embarking on a downward spiral towards fascism by way of far-right populism, do you think this wish is remotely likely to come true before that process is completed?
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Just to make sure I'm not misunderstanding your question:
Wish = better informed voters
Process = descent into fascism
correct?

Unfortunately no, I don't think we are able to change things in time. We are in the middle of this. People are refusing to learn from past mistakes and are seemingly desperate to get parties like the AFD in Germany in power, despite them not having any experience governing, not having any realistic policies, and also making blatantly unconstitutional promises.

Add to that the fact that somehow the left gets blamed for the problems of the right.
Germany had 16 years of conservative rule, 4 of center-left - which was actively sabotaged by one of the coalition partners, who are right wing - and now conservative rule. The center-left coalition was blamed for issues directly caused by the previous 16-year conservative rule. Similar thing with the Dems and the GOP in America. The latter routinely tanks the economy, the former manages to correct things, but the voters return to the GOP again under the objectively wrong premise that they are better for the economy, when the data very clearly shows that to be wrong.

It would take decades of effort, work and clever politics to make things better, but I'm afraid that's utopic. Hell, take climate change for example. It is blatantly obvious and clearly supported by facts that humans are impacting it and are making everything worse, yet you have a big chunk of the population who puts their feelings over any facts, chooses to believe populists instead of experts and scientists, just because "their team" chose to make this a culture war issue. On top of that you have mainstream media which are either dominated by right wing influence or are far too lenient to the right while being actively hostile to the left, and I'm left wondering if there's anything we can do to change any of that.

But I can guarantee you: moving to the right, abandoning minorities and throwing them under the bus, and voting for fascists will only make things worse, not better.
 
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