US Politics: them's indictin words

[DireWolfSpirit]

1 hour ago, Tywin et al. said:

It shames me to no end that he got a degree from my alma mater. But at least the university is also openly ashamed of him and he's not really welcomed back at all.

I joke regularly that the administration at UGA has to be horrified that MTG somehow got her degree from there.

It lessens every degree holder that such a creature is in the group. Its like Republican Christians that crowd out people with devout beliefs, better to call oneself non religious than be tarnished with such association.

University of Georgians burn your degrees now!

[Tywin et al.]

40 minutes ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

"The Nation" with another amazing op-ed on the whole right wing media contrived controversy with the  Womens College Basketball (NCAAWB) National Championship.

https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/caitlin-clark-basketball-ncaa/

The Maga agents were doing there sickest trying to create a black/white racist spectacle over a hard fought, highly viewed Womans Championship.

Thier only problem, Caitlin Clark refused to be there tool.

Great essay over there at the Nation, well worth the read and time imo.

This has been one of the dumbest sports stories ever. I'm sure Jill Biden meant well, but I get why Angel Reese was offended even if her response was rather silly. The funny part is Reese and Clark might have been the two biggest heels in the tournament, so essentially you got a wrestling match where you didn't know who you were suppose to root for until the clear champion emerged. 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

3 hours ago, Zorral said:

You all have seen that the Duke of Clarence and Ginni Thomas's sugar daddy is a nazi?  Harlan Crow (swear he's right out of Justified) collects personal possession possessed by Hitler. Partner says this is all over the twit spaces.

 

Nazi memorabilia and Hitler paintings, plus the signed edition of Mein Kampf obviously. However, I find his taste for garden designs at least as disturbing as his Nazi fetish.

[Tywin et al.]

Bob Todd?

Fishing rod??

Blame Pod???

The people demand likely boring answers.

Jokes aside, Clarence Thomas is a next level crook. 

[Zorral]

Happy Lee Surrenders At Appomattox Anniversary We All! 

We managed it before, we will manage it again, ya hear yawl?

[Tywin et al.]

Watching Chuck Todd, hey, wait a minute, interview Trump's new lawyer is painful. His argument is basically if you step on someone's foot or shoot them in the face with an AR-15, same crime. And the pushback from Chucky is well maybe he kicked him in the leg.

Journalism is dead. 

[DireWolfSpirit]

7 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Watching Chuck Todd, hey, wait a minute, interview Trump's new lawyer is painful. His argument is basically if you step on someone's foot or shoot them in the face with an AR-15, same crime. And the pushback from Chucky is well maybe he kicked him in the leg.

Journalism is dead. 

The MSM networks have had thier nose up White House wazoos for a generation at least. The excuse, "We must play nice to keep access to bring you all the fluff BS like the First Ladies China collections and the latest Ivanka/Jarrod/DonJr musings."

Mustn"t upset our masters with icky critical questioning.

[James Arryn]

Nothing earthshaking, but I think one of the facets of more and more sources of news is the degree to which being first and/or getting access becomes the name of game. That will necessarily mean that softball pitchers will become more and more successful, and actual journalism mainly plays to the part of the audience that’s already on board. 
 

But moreover we are seeing the inherent flaw in the progressive vs. conservative ideologies; conservatives want to win arguments too, but as a back-up, anything that makes government or the media look worse…even if it’s the conservative politicians or media actually looking worse…feeds into their underlying ideology. 
 

Goebbles always said his actual aim with propaganda was not to win everyone over, but rather to create an environment where all news is distrusted and perceived as biased. In that informational vacuum people with the worst intentions…or as he phrased it, ‘people of will’…have a huge advantage. That’s why ‘ah, they’re all the same’ is such a useful fallback position for the right-wingers in your life. 
 

Psychology studies have indicated that generally speaking, conservative people tend to be more motivated by fear, liberals by anger. Fear is historically easier to generate, but more importantly group psychology clearly indicates that people who are afraid are MUCH easier to control and direct than people who are angry. A frightened crowd will almost automatically follow the person who seems to know the way out, whereas angry crowds are much more fractious and unwilling to take direction from the same source. This is why the Autocrat’s template is almost always 1) tell people what they should fear 2) tell them how you are the one to protect them from that.  

[Zorral]

It's interesting that -- so far -- with all the prohibitions etc. on pills, They haven't passed or presented legislation that prohibits the actual manufacture of such women's reproductive health medications.  How long ... pills, as we've noticed, like guns, have a way of getting through, over, around laws and prohibitions of all kinds. So .... hmmmm.  Are They feeling that Big Pharma is actually Too Big to take on directly?  But desatanis isn't afraid to go after Disney . . . .

OTOH, it's the progress of medical and pharmaceutical technology and science that finally allowed Them to go after contraception, i.e. impose forced birth, among many other unhealthy matters upon women.  Further, because of these advances it has allowed them to go crazy over trans, etc. -- as medically such things weren't available until some years past.  But here they came and They grabbed these advances to grab SCOTUS, etc.

Strange times, yes.

[Derfel Cadarn]

Another mass shooting, Kentucky this time.

Moar guns! Moar guns!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65233350

[KingintheNorth4]

1 hour ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

Another mass shooting, Kentucky this time.

Moar guns! Moar guns!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65233350

I only lived in Louisville for a year. It's where I graduated 8th grade. It's where I met my closest friends. They brought me out of my shy, autistic shell, and I'm forever grateful to them for it. Louisville quickly became my second home.

A mass shooting happening there hurts my soul. 

[Zorral]

Kaintuck's gub had friends at that bank, an some got shot. He's in shock that this happened -- like guns in the hands of miserable crazy people can't hurt US!  But -- one did.

Seems to have been a disgruntled ex-employee?

[Zorral]

That Eff-word, that we aren't supposed to use, is being used, more often, by more people who are informed, and used about more people who are, indeed, behaving in the ways that the eff-worders do behave:

https://www.newsweek.com/ron-desantis-called-fascist-college-director-resignation-letter-1793380#

 

[Corvinus85]

2 hours ago, Zorral said:

Kaintuck's gub had friends at that bank, an some got shot. He's in shock that this happened -- like guns in the hands of miserable crazy people can't hurt US!  But -- one did.

Seems to have been a disgruntled ex-employee?

Apparently he was fired last week. 23 years old with a good college degree. 

The argument that gets me the most used by conservatives all the time to protest gun control measures is that law abiding citizens should not be punished for this. Some of the most recent high profile mass shooters were law abiding citizens until the moment they started discharging the weapons they legally purchased.

[Wilbur]

I wonder if the head injuries he suffered playing ball caused a CRT incident after he was fired.

I support red flag gun control laws, and given the experiences of some NFL players after leaving the game, I wonder if "head injuries" shouldn't be one of the flags.

[Tywin et al.]

Rep. Justin Jones has been reinstated. Live feed of TN Republicans right now:

 

[Ormond]

23 hours ago, James Arryn said:

 

Psychology studies have indicated that generally speaking, conservative people tend to be more motivated by fear, liberals by anger. Fear is historically easier to generate, but more importantly group psychology clearly indicates that people who are afraid are MUCH easier to control and direct than people who are angry. A frightened crowd will almost automatically follow the person who seems to know the way out, whereas angry crowds are much more fractious and unwilling to take direction from the same source. This is why the Autocrat’s template is almost always 1) tell people what they should fear 2) tell them how you are the one to protect them from that.  

Perhaps this works in actual crowds. However, on an individual level it is harder to get an angry person to listen to new information than a fearful one. Angry people tend to not be receptive to information which contradicts their beliefs, while fearful people are more motivated to search out new information about what they are afraid of. 

[James Arryn]

5 minutes ago, Ormond said:

Perhaps this works in actual crowds. However, on an individual level it is harder to get an angry person to listen to new information than a fearful one. Angry people tend to not be receptive to information which contradicts their beliefs, while fearful people are more motivated to search out new information about what they are afraid of. 

Yes, but listening to new ‘information’…which can break either way…is part of getting people to follow you. I was not talking about rationality, neither anger nor fear is terribly helpful there, and in an environment where news has been commodified (and therefore tailored) neither group is as we speak spending too much time researching the merits of the Other Side. I was talking specifically about how they operate socially, as groups, from the perspective of which is more useful to an aspiring autocrat. 

[LongRider]

Hey! Hey! NRA!

HOW MANY KIDS DID YOU KILL TODAY?!

 

repurposed anti-war chant

[The Anti-Targ]

2 hours ago, Ormond said:

Perhaps this works in actual crowds. However, on an individual level it is harder to get an angry person to listen to new information than a fearful one. Angry people tend to not be receptive to information which contradicts their beliefs, while fearful people are more motivated to search out new information about what they are afraid of. 

My assumption would be that both angry and fearful people will only really be inclined to listen to any information which reinforces their justifications for their fear / anger rather than listen to anything that seeks to demonstrate that their fear or anger is unfounded, or at least somewhat of an overreaction.