It's so retarded pain the arse. Like just lift the shirt to cover the face and run away. I have a mate stood around a car he crashed for hours and just lived 100 meters away.
I can only hope these people are for the most part young and first time voters. Still caught up in this election in a kind of perverse mirror of Obama's in 2008 - where instead of pinning their hopes and dreams and admiration on a stupidly overconfident politician they're focusing new found rage, hatred, and frustration on a stupidly overconfident politician. Both involve heading down absurd paths. Obama the savior who can do no wrong, Trump the anti christ who can do no right. Ultimately that shit didn't last long for Obama. Hopefully it doesn't last long for Trump.
(And yes, inb4 fervent Trump supporters are no different, irrationally loathing Obama and irrationally loving Trump. I agree with that.)
Uh, I don't know what bizzaro version of 2008 you remember, but Obama was never stupidly overconfident.
He made fairly sensible and reasonable campaign promises, and tried as best as he could to follow through with sensible compromises in his legislative agenda.
"I'm gonna close down Guantanamo Bay" is a far cry from "I'm going to build a giant fucking wall and make Mexico pay for it"
People really need to stop acting like there's some equivalence between Obama and Trump. There just isnt. People don't like Obama because he's a democrat, they like him because he's a calm sensible guy who took a country that was in the shittier and made things better. While Trump is taking a country that's doing pretty damn well and fucking up already.
And yes, despite the chucklefucks bemoaning the loss of their factory and mining jobs, the country IS doing well. Could it be doing better? Sure, we can always do better. But it's not at 2008 levels where we're all staring down the barrel of a depression that could dwarf the crash of the 1930s. And I know this because I graduated college in 2008. Job market sucked ballsack then. Now? Much, much better.
Fine, forget Trump and Obama. Even comparing Trump to Bush Jr, Trump is still a massive assclown.
That's the horrible thing about all this, it's not normal. It's not just another politician getting elected and rah rah support your party nonsense. It's some seriously fucked up shit.
Like, 15-20 years ago, people claimed that Bill Clinton was in the pocket of the chinese. But the people who did it were crazy talk radio hosts, and their evidence was some flimsy conspiracy bullshit with no real evidence. Whereas now, there's actual real evidence that Russia hacked into the DNC and tried to manipulate the US election to get Trump elected. We're so far gone into crazyville that shit that used to be a dumb conspiracy theory is now basically true.
Certainly, we end up ending the sanctions against Russia for annexing Crimea. Probably Russia steamrolls a couple other eastern European countries while we do even less about it than under Obama. Following on from that is a weakening of NATO as all the folks who were clamoring to join decide that they'd be better off kissing the Russian boot if we aren't going to protect them anyway. Down the road, this hurts American diplomacy and prestige.
Specific effects here in the US? Who knows, maybe we lose some trade deals. Maybe Russia doubles down on the 2020 campaign and gets a talking monkey elected somehow.
The one thing we do know is that none of the effects will be good.
Are you really, seriously trying to compare a promise to close a prison with a promise to build the second Great Wall and make the country on the other side of the border pay for it?
One is merely hard. The other is laughably impossible.
Nothing's "impossible" about building a shitty border wall. He also has for like ~6 months if not more said Mexico is gonna pay for a wall via tarrifs / import taxes / by the feds stealing mexican American assets / etc . Not directly pay for it.
It's stupid and wasteful. But doable and probably slightly more achievable than closing Gitmo.
And eh wasn't really trying to compare the two but the nebulous bullshit and letdowns of "hope and change" and "MAGA" are probably gonna be similar in scale in terms of disappointments
And eh wasn't really trying to compare the two but the nebulous bullshit and letdowns of "hope and change" and "MAGA" are probably gonna be similar in scale in terms of disappointments
I actually doubt it. Lots of the MAGA people are already thrilled with Trump's performance. It doesn't matter what really happens, as long as he poses for some photo ops near something that looks like a wall, gives a speech about jobs at some place that looks like a busy factory, and says enough insulting things about Muslims, then they will be overjoyed and eagerly vote for Trump again.
People voted for Trump for emotional, not rational, reasons. I don't see why they would turn against him for rational ones.
But it's not at 2008 levels where we're all staring down the barrel of a depression that could dwarf the crash of the 1930s. And I know this because I graduated college in 2008. Job market sucked ballsack then. Now? Much, much better.
I read this article recently, and, well, see Figure 3 there -- it looks like the labor market at large has never recovered, and the very fact that parts of it that you see obviously did should scare the living shit out of you because it means that there are parts out there that has gotten worse.
What I see there is an Op Ed by someone with a vested interest and desire to portray the country as in decline. The facts don't lie. Unemployment is down. Wealth is up.
While I will agree that some parts of the country are lagging behind, that doesn't change the overall picture of prosperity.
It's like this. Let's say you have a business. And overall profits are up. Most of the employees got performance bonuses. But there's a small division that's lagging behind. Does that mean the company is fucked and about to go bankrupt? Hell no.
The facts don't lie. Unemployment is down. Wealth is up.
"Lies, damned lies, and statistics" etc. I suggest reading the entire article, the author honestly shows stuff like wealth going up. The problem is that there are, uh, alternative statistics that paint a much less happy picture, so you gotta wonder what's going on. Like, are you sure that it's just a small number of employees who are struggling while most got their bonuses, and not vice versa, with a few executives who got insane bonuses with the rest of the company left to suck shriveled dicks, to use your metaphor?
For example, speaking of facts that don't lie: unemployment stats only count people who are searching for job. When someone manages to get on disability or something and permanently drops out of the workforce, unemployment decreases and you get happy rainbows and singing unicorns, statistically speaking. But it's still very interesting to look at that graph on Figure 3 that tracks raw workforce engagement, and see an absolute 5% drop (from 64% to 59%) during the crisis, on top of even more accumulated since 2000, which has never come close to recovering.
Who are those people? What's happening to them and their families? I mean, suppose I grant you that it's not 1% but like half of the country that has fully recovered from the recession and is getting richer than ever (though it appears to be contradicted by other statistics, such as life expectancy), but how much of a permanently, generationally unemployed underclass is it OK to have, 10%, 20%, 40%? Do you think that their suffering is offset by the rich getting richer, from the moral perspective? Are you aware that they vote, from the practical perspective and speaking of the country getting fucked?
My point is "I and people like me are in a shitty place" is not equivalent to "the country is in a shitty place". Does that make sense? That it's selfish and shortsighted to piss all over the progress the country as a whole is making just because you, specifically, are having a bad time.
Cause, newsflash, if you fuck up the recovery and the whole country goes down the tubes, it's not actually going to fix your problem. It'll just take everyone else down with you.
My point is "I and people like me are in a shitty place" is not equivalent to "the country is in a shitty place". Does that make sense?
Do you measure the shittiness of the place the country is in by the average wealth or by the bottom 30% of the wealth? And I remind you that they vote, you can't go full Omelas in a democracy, nobody is even asking if your conscience bothers you, you just get Trump instead.
That it's selfish and shortsighted to piss all over the progress the country as a whole is making just because you, specifically, are having a bad time.
Now consider it from their point of view and realize that this game of chicken is happening on both sides.
Like, surely you guys are not going to elect a moron who threatens the progress of the country as a whole, right? So be nice and vote for Hillary and ask your doctor for some oxycodone prescription, because you're never getting anything better in your life anyways.
The problem is that the option "get the country better but also the poorest parts of the country better" is conspicuously missing. It's not on the table. The option on the table is "get the rich richer, the country better, and you die", which the Dems think they can get away with because the alternative is Trump, and surely that'd be worse for you as well. So they don't put that option on the table because they think that the poors would have to chicken out anyway. Well, guess what.
On a side note, the poor whites might even be actually getting their self-interest after all. There was a piece by Slavoi Zizek where he was sort of disturbed by the fact that the ultra-nationalist government in Poland that's, like, the Right, is turning out to be in effect way better for the common people than the Left, because nobody blocks them from creating all sorts of awesome social programs giving tons of support to the poor and young parents etc, that the Right would've totally blocked if the Left won and tried to push for. So there's that.
The problem is that the option "get the country better but also the poorest parts of the country better" is conspicuously missing.
It's not like the Democrats don't want to help poor rural white guys. They do. It's just that's its more complicated and difficult than "kick out the foreigners and give us good jobs". It always has been, and always will be, no matter how much some union douchebag jerks himself raw over the prospect of fucking overy Mexicans.
Really, the Dems mistake was that they didn't lie their asses off like Trump did.
the ultra-nationalist government in Poland that's, like, the Right, is turning out to be in effect way better for the common people than the Left
And hey, the Nazis did a great job for the common people in Germany, right?
Shit, at least the Nazis were honest about what they were doing. Prosperity at the cost of fucking over minorities and forcibly invading other countries is not prosperity any sane person should want. We already HAD Nazi germany. It's not like it's some new idea that nobody has tried before.
t's not like the Democrats don't want to help poor rural white guys. They do.
They do a very good job of keeping that burning desire to themselves, that they do.
My favorite example: go to Hillary's website and check out her policy on immigration. There's like ten bullet points and not a single one gives even a lip service to the citizens' concerns that the immigrants might be taking their jobs. None. Because being concerned about citizens' jobs is a nazi thing to do, that's well established and used all the times in arguments, and no right thinking person would be caught dead mentioning that.
the ultra-nationalist government in Poland that's, like, the Right, is turning out to be in effect way better for the common people than the Left
And hey, the Nazis did a great job for the common people in Germany, right?
No, you don't understand. It's not about being on the right side of history or anything. It's a simple, factual observation that a populist-right party can (and does in Poland) actually make good on its populist promises and earn popular approval by implementing unashamedly socialist policies. Like, they are not Darths Vaders focused on inflicting misery indiscriminately, they can do good.
And that's extremely concerning because the good they do happens to come bundled with with some xenophobic, genocidal bullshit. Not in any way intrinsically, just accidentally, but no less really.
Not in any way intrinsically, just accidentally, but no less really.
That's the thing, it's not accidental.
Like the thing about "nativist concerns over immigrants taking their jobs". Everyone does acknowledge that, yes, locking out immigrants would mean specific increases in job security for native workers. What should also be understood is that it would be a bad idea for other reasons.
I mean, that's always been the promise of the populists. "Vote for me and I'll put the boot to minorities and women so you have a leg up". Shit, you go all the way back to Andrew Jackson promising to give the Indians an ass fucking so the poor southern white folk could take their land. And it really, really shouldn't have to be explained why that's a bad idea.
Everyone does acknowledge that, yes, locking out immigrants would mean specific increases in job security for native workers. What should also be understood is that it would be a bad idea for other reasons.
Why? I mean, there can be a healthy level of protectionism, obviously. Just as there is a reasonable number of refugees a country can take without disrupting its normal functioning too much. Just like there's a reasonable level of extra precautions to be taken against some of them being religious extremists or criminals.
Problem is, the left (broadly speaking) has successfully established a rhetorical rule that any amount of that stuff makes you a deplorable racist, which is very useful for scoring points against political opponents, but means that anyone who's actually concerned about bad things happening has to take it on faith that it's just doublespeak, that "everyone does acknowledge" and will do the needful, it's just that it's not allowed to be said. Then things happen and it becomes obvious that it's not even doublespeak, that the actual policies end up being exactly as insane as the rhetoric is.
Anyway, getting back to the original point somewhat, I think that you, personally, don't get to say that the important thing is the "overall prosperity" and how the parts that are lagging behind should stop whining, and then claim that xenophobia is the core part of economic populism -- you have only yourself to blame for the lack of economic populism without xenophobia. Like, if Hillary actually visited Michigan and told them that she cares, and they still voted for Trump, you could say that this shows that they are more interested in being bigots than in economic security, but as it happens she didn't so you can't.
And, to get fully back to the original point, you also don't get to call out "the chucklefucks bemoaning the loss of their factory and mining jobs", maybe with an entirely perfunctory admission that yes it's sad that absolutely nothing can be done about those left behind our booming postindustrial economy, expecting them to chicken out and vote democrat anyway, and then complain how "selfish" they are to refuse to roll over and die and to call your bluff.
how? how exactly did Obama make things worse? By giving people access to healthcare? By being a black democrat, so the Republicans and Tea Party just had to strangle any sort of congressional action during his presidency?
By arming Syrian rebels, droning civilians, mandating the purchasing of his healthcare and overstepping government power, and adding more debt to our country in 8 years than nearly all of the presidents of the US combined. Take ur pick fam
I thought people were pissed because Obama didn't help the rebels.
droning civilians
And how did this make things worse than the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. At worst, you could call it maintaining the status quo ante.
mandating the purchasing of his healthcare
Oh, how terrible, he improved access to healthcare. Man, what a terrible world where the president tries to make sure people get basic health coverage.
adding more debt to our country in 8 years
A large chunk of which was Bush era deficit spending.
Syrian rebels have direct ties to Isis, and it is well known that he sends supplies to the rebels. Droning civilians did nothing but cause further turmoil in the Middle East. The pulling out of Iraq and Afghanistan created a power vacuum which was immediately filled by Islamic extremists. Obamacare largely fucked the middle class, due to rising premiums that only benefited a small minority of people.
Wew laddie indeed. I mean thanks, I guess, for using a title biased enough that anyone could see from it where you stand on this and why you posted it.
64 comments
n/a SnapshillBot 2017-02-28
I can take a 9-inch dildo up my butt, because I'm an adult and I solve my own problems
Snapshots:
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n/a wwyzzerdd 2017-02-28
I am always amazed (in a sad way) by people who defend multiple DUI's.
n/a Ultrashitpost 2017-02-28
Illegal Mexican hits innocent American family after robbing a liquor store. Sad!
n/a Minimum_T-Giraff 2017-02-28
It's so retarded pain the arse. Like just lift the shirt to cover the face and run away. I have a mate stood around a car he crashed for hours and just lived 100 meters away.
n/a riemann1413 2017-02-28
i fuckin' hate the users in /r/Trumpgret tbh
n/a -jean-paul- 2017-02-28
Is it time for a 'no grandstanding' rule already 😂😂😂
n/a riemann1413 2017-02-28
no, i generally refuse to do things as a moderator
it's just telling that
is at +28. if you hate Donald Trump so much it's made you cool with DUI, reconsider your life
n/a phedre 2017-02-28
FTFY
n/a going_for_a_wank 2017-02-28
^ This, (presumably also) unironically
n/a CucksLoveTrump 2017-02-28
wtf I love drunk driving now
n/a -jean-paul- 2017-02-28
I can only hope these people are for the most part young and first time voters. Still caught up in this election in a kind of perverse mirror of Obama's in 2008 - where instead of pinning their hopes and dreams and admiration on a stupidly overconfident politician they're focusing new found rage, hatred, and frustration on a stupidly overconfident politician. Both involve heading down absurd paths. Obama the savior who can do no wrong, Trump the anti christ who can do no right. Ultimately that shit didn't last long for Obama. Hopefully it doesn't last long for Trump.
(And yes, inb4 fervent Trump supporters are no different, irrationally loathing Obama and irrationally loving Trump. I agree with that.)
n/a Che_Gueporna 2017-02-28
Uh, I don't know what bizzaro version of 2008 you remember, but Obama was never stupidly overconfident.
He made fairly sensible and reasonable campaign promises, and tried as best as he could to follow through with sensible compromises in his legislative agenda.
"I'm gonna close down Guantanamo Bay" is a far cry from "I'm going to build a giant fucking wall and make Mexico pay for it"
People really need to stop acting like there's some equivalence between Obama and Trump. There just isnt. People don't like Obama because he's a democrat, they like him because he's a calm sensible guy who took a country that was in the shittier and made things better. While Trump is taking a country that's doing pretty damn well and fucking up already.
And yes, despite the chucklefucks bemoaning the loss of their factory and mining jobs, the country IS doing well. Could it be doing better? Sure, we can always do better. But it's not at 2008 levels where we're all staring down the barrel of a depression that could dwarf the crash of the 1930s. And I know this because I graduated college in 2008. Job market sucked ballsack then. Now? Much, much better.
n/a Soulwound 2017-02-28
paging /u/the_reason_trump_won to the nearest courtesy phone
n/a The_Reason_Trump_Won 2017-02-28
This tbh. ,
n/a -jean-paul- 2017-02-28
Oh honey. Forget Trump and Obama.
Anyone who runs for prez of the US of A is stupidly overconfident.
n/a Che_Gueporna 2017-02-28
Fine, forget Trump and Obama. Even comparing Trump to Bush Jr, Trump is still a massive assclown.
That's the horrible thing about all this, it's not normal. It's not just another politician getting elected and rah rah support your party nonsense. It's some seriously fucked up shit.
Like, 15-20 years ago, people claimed that Bill Clinton was in the pocket of the chinese. But the people who did it were crazy talk radio hosts, and their evidence was some flimsy conspiracy bullshit with no real evidence. Whereas now, there's actual real evidence that Russia hacked into the DNC and tried to manipulate the US election to get Trump elected. We're so far gone into crazyville that shit that used to be a dumb conspiracy theory is now basically true.
n/a -jean-paul- 2017-02-28
Assume Trump and his appointees are Russian shills.
What happens over the course of the next four years?
n/a Che_Gueporna 2017-02-28
Who the fuck knows.
Certainly, we end up ending the sanctions against Russia for annexing Crimea. Probably Russia steamrolls a couple other eastern European countries while we do even less about it than under Obama. Following on from that is a weakening of NATO as all the folks who were clamoring to join decide that they'd be better off kissing the Russian boot if we aren't going to protect them anyway. Down the road, this hurts American diplomacy and prestige.
Specific effects here in the US? Who knows, maybe we lose some trade deals. Maybe Russia doubles down on the 2020 campaign and gets a talking monkey elected somehow.
The one thing we do know is that none of the effects will be good.
n/a raps_caucasionally 2017-02-28
Russia didn't hack the DNC fam
n/a The_Reason_Trump_Won 2017-02-28
" I'm gonna close down Gitmo but I can't cuz dese bad Republicans stand in my way alllllll the time"
That's not an outlandish promise then ?
Also pay no mind to the new abu graibs in Poland and Lithuania and elsewhere that I didn't do shit about during my term
n/a Che_Gueporna 2017-02-28
Are you really, seriously trying to compare a promise to close a prison with a promise to build the second Great Wall and make the country on the other side of the border pay for it?
One is merely hard. The other is laughably impossible.
n/a The_Reason_Trump_Won 2017-02-28
Nothing's "impossible" about building a shitty border wall. He also has for like ~6 months if not more said Mexico is gonna pay for a wall via tarrifs / import taxes / by the feds stealing mexican American assets / etc . Not directly pay for it.
It's stupid and wasteful. But doable and probably slightly more achievable than closing Gitmo.
And eh wasn't really trying to compare the two but the nebulous bullshit and letdowns of "hope and change" and "MAGA" are probably gonna be similar in scale in terms of disappointments
n/a Che_Gueporna 2017-02-28
Well yeah, but most people don't have a virulent dislike of Trump just because of MAGA.
If all Trump did was trot around meaningless slogans, he'd be fine. It's all of the rest of it that's shitty.
n/a anotheraccount323 2017-02-28
I actually doubt it. Lots of the MAGA people are already thrilled with Trump's performance. It doesn't matter what really happens, as long as he poses for some photo ops near something that looks like a wall, gives a speech about jobs at some place that looks like a busy factory, and says enough insulting things about Muslims, then they will be overjoyed and eagerly vote for Trump again.
People voted for Trump for emotional, not rational, reasons. I don't see why they would turn against him for rational ones.
n/a YourGayOpinion 2017-02-28
Fuck Muslims, fuck liberals. USA
n/a anotheraccount323 2017-02-28
/u/The_Reason_Trump_Won ^ see?
n/a raps_caucasionally 2017-02-28
Go away fag, no one wants your paragraphs about why you think being liberal makes you smarter than everyone else.
n/a anotheraccount323 2017-02-28
> /u/The_Reason_Trump_Won
n/a Works_of_memercy 2017-02-28
I read this article recently, and, well, see Figure 3 there -- it looks like the labor market at large has never recovered, and the very fact that parts of it that you see obviously did should scare the living shit out of you because it means that there are parts out there that has gotten worse.
n/a Che_Gueporna 2017-02-28
Bullshit.
What I see there is an Op Ed by someone with a vested interest and desire to portray the country as in decline. The facts don't lie. Unemployment is down. Wealth is up.
While I will agree that some parts of the country are lagging behind, that doesn't change the overall picture of prosperity.
It's like this. Let's say you have a business. And overall profits are up. Most of the employees got performance bonuses. But there's a small division that's lagging behind. Does that mean the company is fucked and about to go bankrupt? Hell no.
n/a Works_of_memercy 2017-02-28
"Lies, damned lies, and statistics" etc. I suggest reading the entire article, the author honestly shows stuff like wealth going up. The problem is that there are, uh, alternative statistics that paint a much less happy picture, so you gotta wonder what's going on. Like, are you sure that it's just a small number of employees who are struggling while most got their bonuses, and not vice versa, with a few executives who got insane bonuses with the rest of the company left to suck shriveled dicks, to use your metaphor?
For example, speaking of facts that don't lie: unemployment stats only count people who are searching for job. When someone manages to get on disability or something and permanently drops out of the workforce, unemployment decreases and you get happy rainbows and singing unicorns, statistically speaking. But it's still very interesting to look at that graph on Figure 3 that tracks raw workforce engagement, and see an absolute 5% drop (from 64% to 59%) during the crisis, on top of even more accumulated since 2000, which has never come close to recovering.
Who are those people? What's happening to them and their families? I mean, suppose I grant you that it's not 1% but like half of the country that has fully recovered from the recession and is getting richer than ever (though it appears to be contradicted by other statistics, such as life expectancy), but how much of a permanently, generationally unemployed underclass is it OK to have, 10%, 20%, 40%? Do you think that their suffering is offset by the rich getting richer, from the moral perspective? Are you aware that they vote, from the practical perspective and speaking of the country getting fucked?
n/a Che_Gueporna 2017-02-28
Yeah, I get all that.
My point is "I and people like me are in a shitty place" is not equivalent to "the country is in a shitty place". Does that make sense? That it's selfish and shortsighted to piss all over the progress the country as a whole is making just because you, specifically, are having a bad time.
Cause, newsflash, if you fuck up the recovery and the whole country goes down the tubes, it's not actually going to fix your problem. It'll just take everyone else down with you.
n/a Works_of_memercy 2017-02-28
Do you measure the shittiness of the place the country is in by the average wealth or by the bottom 30% of the wealth? And I remind you that they vote, you can't go full Omelas in a democracy, nobody is even asking if your conscience bothers you, you just get Trump instead.
Now consider it from their point of view and realize that this game of chicken is happening on both sides.
Like, surely you guys are not going to elect a moron who threatens the progress of the country as a whole, right? So be nice and vote for Hillary and ask your doctor for some oxycodone prescription, because you're never getting anything better in your life anyways.
The problem is that the option "get the country better but also the poorest parts of the country better" is conspicuously missing. It's not on the table. The option on the table is "get the rich richer, the country better, and you die", which the Dems think they can get away with because the alternative is Trump, and surely that'd be worse for you as well. So they don't put that option on the table because they think that the poors would have to chicken out anyway. Well, guess what.
On a side note, the poor whites might even be actually getting their self-interest after all. There was a piece by Slavoi Zizek where he was sort of disturbed by the fact that the ultra-nationalist government in Poland that's, like, the Right, is turning out to be in effect way better for the common people than the Left, because nobody blocks them from creating all sorts of awesome social programs giving tons of support to the poor and young parents etc, that the Right would've totally blocked if the Left won and tried to push for. So there's that.
n/a Che_Gueporna 2017-02-28
It's not like the Democrats don't want to help poor rural white guys. They do. It's just that's its more complicated and difficult than "kick out the foreigners and give us good jobs". It always has been, and always will be, no matter how much some union douchebag jerks himself raw over the prospect of fucking overy Mexicans.
Really, the Dems mistake was that they didn't lie their asses off like Trump did.
And hey, the Nazis did a great job for the common people in Germany, right?
Shit, at least the Nazis were honest about what they were doing. Prosperity at the cost of fucking over minorities and forcibly invading other countries is not prosperity any sane person should want. We already HAD Nazi germany. It's not like it's some new idea that nobody has tried before.
n/a Works_of_memercy 2017-02-28
They do a very good job of keeping that burning desire to themselves, that they do.
My favorite example: go to Hillary's website and check out her policy on immigration. There's like ten bullet points and not a single one gives even a lip service to the citizens' concerns that the immigrants might be taking their jobs. None. Because being concerned about citizens' jobs is a nazi thing to do, that's well established and used all the times in arguments, and no right thinking person would be caught dead mentioning that.
No, you don't understand. It's not about being on the right side of history or anything. It's a simple, factual observation that a populist-right party can (and does in Poland) actually make good on its populist promises and earn popular approval by implementing unashamedly socialist policies. Like, they are not Darths Vaders focused on inflicting misery indiscriminately, they can do good.
And that's extremely concerning because the good they do happens to come bundled with with some xenophobic, genocidal bullshit. Not in any way intrinsically, just accidentally, but no less really.
n/a Che_Gueporna 2017-02-28
That's the thing, it's not accidental.
Like the thing about "nativist concerns over immigrants taking their jobs". Everyone does acknowledge that, yes, locking out immigrants would mean specific increases in job security for native workers. What should also be understood is that it would be a bad idea for other reasons.
I mean, that's always been the promise of the populists. "Vote for me and I'll put the boot to minorities and women so you have a leg up". Shit, you go all the way back to Andrew Jackson promising to give the Indians an ass fucking so the poor southern white folk could take their land. And it really, really shouldn't have to be explained why that's a bad idea.
n/a Works_of_memercy 2017-02-28
Why? I mean, there can be a healthy level of protectionism, obviously. Just as there is a reasonable number of refugees a country can take without disrupting its normal functioning too much. Just like there's a reasonable level of extra precautions to be taken against some of them being religious extremists or criminals.
Problem is, the left (broadly speaking) has successfully established a rhetorical rule that any amount of that stuff makes you a deplorable racist, which is very useful for scoring points against political opponents, but means that anyone who's actually concerned about bad things happening has to take it on faith that it's just doublespeak, that "everyone does acknowledge" and will do the needful, it's just that it's not allowed to be said. Then things happen and it becomes obvious that it's not even doublespeak, that the actual policies end up being exactly as insane as the rhetoric is.
Anyway, getting back to the original point somewhat, I think that you, personally, don't get to say that the important thing is the "overall prosperity" and how the parts that are lagging behind should stop whining, and then claim that xenophobia is the core part of economic populism -- you have only yourself to blame for the lack of economic populism without xenophobia. Like, if Hillary actually visited Michigan and told them that she cares, and they still voted for Trump, you could say that this shows that they are more interested in being bigots than in economic security, but as it happens she didn't so you can't.
And, to get fully back to the original point, you also don't get to call out "the chucklefucks bemoaning the loss of their factory and mining jobs", maybe with an entirely perfunctory admission that yes it's sad that absolutely nothing can be done about those left behind our booming postindustrial economy, expecting them to chicken out and vote democrat anyway, and then complain how "selfish" they are to refuse to roll over and die and to call your bluff.
n/a raps_caucasionally 2017-02-28
Obama made things worse bruv
n/a Che_Gueporna 2017-02-28
how? how exactly did Obama make things worse? By giving people access to healthcare? By being a black democrat, so the Republicans and Tea Party just had to strangle any sort of congressional action during his presidency?
n/a raps_caucasionally 2017-02-28
By arming Syrian rebels, droning civilians, mandating the purchasing of his healthcare and overstepping government power, and adding more debt to our country in 8 years than nearly all of the presidents of the US combined. Take ur pick fam
n/a Che_Gueporna 2017-02-28
I thought people were pissed because Obama didn't help the rebels.
And how did this make things worse than the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. At worst, you could call it maintaining the status quo ante.
Oh, how terrible, he improved access to healthcare. Man, what a terrible world where the president tries to make sure people get basic health coverage.
A large chunk of which was Bush era deficit spending.
n/a raps_caucasionally 2017-02-28
Syrian rebels have direct ties to Isis, and it is well known that he sends supplies to the rebels. Droning civilians did nothing but cause further turmoil in the Middle East. The pulling out of Iraq and Afghanistan created a power vacuum which was immediately filled by Islamic extremists. Obamacare largely fucked the middle class, due to rising premiums that only benefited a small minority of people.
n/a Pablopubes 2017-02-28
I fuckin' hate you
n/a riemann1413 2017-02-28
i feel like you said that just to hurt me
n/a Pablopubes 2017-02-28
I've had a bad day, I'm lashing out. Sorry 😐
n/a riemann1413 2017-02-28
it's okay bae 😍😍👅🍑👅🍑👅💦💦💦💦
n/a toiracse 2017-02-28
...God the way you emoji it's like you must even have to get your phone tested for STDs.
n/a riemann1413 2017-02-28
😉😉😉💯🔥🍾💦🍑👅😉😉😉
n/a -jean-paul- 2017-02-28
You somehow forgot this: [AGENDA POST]
Sage
n/a Washington_vape 2017-02-28
Wew lad
n/a -jean-paul- 2017-02-28
Wew laddie indeed. I mean thanks, I guess, for using a title biased enough that anyone could see from it where you stand on this and why you posted it.
n/a Washington_vape 2017-02-28
Its like you don't even bait
n/a -jean-paul- 2017-02-28
No, it's like I don't read minds.
n/a Works_of_memercy 2017-02-28
Stupid normies and their
ability into theory of mindspooky mind reading, reee. Reee.n/a -jean-paul- 2017-02-28
That's funny. Implying >>> autism. Ha. Ha. Implying I'd spend two seconds trying to figure out if this vapist is reeetarted or just pretending.
I hope you're not still mad about the other day, sweetheart.
n/a going_for_a_wank 2017-02-28
Sage
Global rule #7 you silly newfriend
n/a -jean-paul- 2017-02-28
http://i.imgur.com/HktlPFx.png
n/a splintersmaster 2017-02-28
Ha, that was me
n/a Washington_vape 2017-02-28
It sure was you magnificent drama devil
n/a Nomadlads 2017-02-28
Good on you for not supporting drunk driving.
n/a Mexagon 2017-02-28
Welp now the left loves DUIs too. Thanks for the free wins in 2018, dems!
n/a theDeletedTruth 2017-02-28
Is it better to deport them, or force them into a life of actual slavery?
I vote for the latter.
They come here as refugees, we enslave them.
n/a Washington_vape 2017-02-28
This but Unironically
n/a YourGayOpinion 2017-02-28
YOU HAVE TO GO BACK