Donald Trump and US politics

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The_Reporter wrote:

Confirmed: Russian interference https://www.thedailybeast.com/exclusive-russia-activated-twitter-sleeper-cells-for-election-day-blitz?source=twitter&via=mobile

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Anticipating a Trump loss, the Russian trolls’ final election mission was to sow doubt about the legitimacy of the vote.

They got you fam.

Somehow I missed this earlier.

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Jennik wrote:

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ScrotieMcB wrote:

The Democratic narrative is...
The previous election was rigged... and not rigged by messing with vote counts, but rigged with a few thousand dollars of Russian internet ads. People are deterministic flesh machines who do what their smartphone screens tell them to do. Hillary won the popular vote, but Trump stole it with the archaic electoral college. Your vote didn't matter, and it won't matter.

Are you lying or do you seriously have a small child's fanciful, overly simplistic misunderstanding of this issue?

Some of the problems with the election, all of which are regularly discussed:

1) Voter suppression carried out by Republicans across the country (limiting early voting, cancelling Sunday voting in areas with black communities, voter ID laws designed to disenfranchise certain groups, voters unknowingly being unregistered, etc.)

2) Voter suppression inherent in our voting system (the electoral college silencing the voices of millions of Americans)

3) A large number of radicalized, uninformed, and historically misinformed Americans, largely stemming from propaganda (Fox "News," right-wing insanity factories, Russian interference (paid ads, internet trolls, fake Twitter personalities, and more), fake news on social media sites (actual fake news, not what the right calls literally any information they dislike), and so on)

That's not an inclusive list. Your absurd claim that "the Democratic narrative" (as if such a thing even exists) is "Russia did it" is so outside the realm of reality and rationality that you should be ashamed of yourself. Your willful ignorance and the ease with which you belief any ridiculous claim demonizing the left makes me call you out for nonsense like this constantly.

First off, all major political movements have narratives and propaganda to advance said narratives. Sometimes the narrative is true and the points used to advance it are true; sometimes not so much. But they obviously exist.

That said, the focus of my point wasn't "Russia did it" (and, indeed, I made no claim about Russia you haven't confirmed you believe). My focus was "your vote didn't matter, and it won't matter." Maybe I should have put it in bold or something.

All of your talking points fall into the "your vote doesn't matter" theme. I specifically mentioned the electoral college narrative and the Russian meddling narrative, you added the racist voting rules narrative, and you say it's not an inclusive list. I agree that there are many variations, of which we've identified only some. You say such narratives are regularly discussed, which I do not doubt.

I could argue whether these narratives are true or not, but that isn't my point. My point is that these narratives do not serve your cause. The Democratic Party should not want to convince its base that elections are illegitimate and their votes do not matter. They should be working overtime to convince their base that the next election will be legitimate and their votes will matter. You're focused in the past and not paying attention to the future.

A thought exercise: let's pretend for a moment that the claims of the Birther movement were actually true, but could never be proven. If so, was it in the Republican interest to focus on it, or did the attention received by the Birther movement tarnish the Republican brand more than it helped it? If the latter, wouldn't it be good strategy for Republicans to drop the subject, regardless of what one believes regarding Obama's birthplace?

I'm not really demonizing the Democratic Party here. Honestly, that would be giving them more credit than they deserve. I'm not saying their current narratives are evil; I'm saying they're stupid. They are shooting themselves in the foot. And as I said since, I genuinely want them to do better next time.

Finally, regarding donations: in the last election, Clinton outspent Trump nearly 2:1. Money can buy brains, but it can't fix stupid.

First openly transgender state legislator elected in Virginia

Very depressing day for Democrats everywhere. We've fully realized that our votes don't matter, but somehow managed to accidentally stumble our way into the polls in record numbers for a landslide victory and a massive swing in the state legislature anyway. Oh well, we'll just have to learn to live with our mistake and try to not vote double hard next time.

Alternatively, maybe people pulling some ridiculous notion about defeatism out of their asses are wrong, and the worst, most corrupt administration in living memory along with a radicalized and increasingly evil right are motivating decent people everywhere to fight for progress? Couldn't really say either way.

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Jennik wrote:

First openly transgender state legislator elected in Virginia

Very depressing day for Democrats everywhere. We've fully realized that our votes don't matter, but somehow managed to accidentally stumble our way into the polls in record numbers for a landslide victory and a massive swing in the state legislature anyway. Oh well, we'll just have to learn to live with our mistake and try to not vote double hard next time.

Alternatively, maybe people pulling some ridiculous notion about defeatism out of their asses are wrong, and the worst, most corrupt administration in living memory along with a radicalized and increasingly evil right are motivating decent people everywhere to fight for progress? Couldn't really say either way.

As I've stated before, intersectional minority-identitarianism is a horrible idealogy but one of strategic use within the two-party system, and one of the few areas in which the Democratic narrative is currently strong. That's why I've already opined that it would behoove Democrats (in the short term at least) to pick almost exclusively from non-Christian women of color (ex: Tulsi Gabbard), especially the transgender variety. Really gets those SJWs mobilized.

I mean, seriously, look how excited you are about a transgender person winning a mere seat at a state legislature, despite knowing almost nothing about them or their politics! You're practically giddy. Really skips all the issues bullshit and gets straight to what matters... for you.

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ScrotieMcB wrote:

I mean, seriously, look how excited you are about a transgender person winning a mere seat at a state legislature, despite knowing almost nothing about them or their politics! You're practically giddy. Really skips all the issues bullshit and gets straight to what matters... for you.

B-but muh progress!

Good lord, Scrotes. Your fear of the SJW menace has gone far beyond irrationality. Your stream of buzzword nonsense reads like a parody of an insane right-winger. Also, please look in a goddamn mirror for once. You talk about "identitarianism" more than anyone else here. Right-wingers' entire fucking deal is based on the perceived dangers of other races, religions, nationalities, etc. (aside from the guys up at the tip-top, who want tax cuts at the expense of everyone else).

Singling out Democrats for caring and talking about identities when literally everybody cares and talks about identities only highlights your own bigotry and prejudices when it comes to which groups you feel are worth caring about.

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I mean, seriously, look how excited you are about a transgender person winning a mere seat at a state legislature, despite knowing almost nothing about them or their politics! You're practically giddy.

Your skill at projecting all kinds of bullshit into my posts is still going strong. I'm not excited about a transgender person winning. I give no shits about that whatsoever. The article I linked was the top story about the election results on Reddit. I'm pretty damn happy Democratic candidates made huge gains over Republicans, though. That would have shone through if you read the words I actually wrote instead of crafting a ridiculous, bullshit narrative of your own instead.

THe fact that a trangender won is a good thing in itself. It show that the person got elected on their capacities and ideas rather than what was in their pants at birth vs now. At least, I hope so.

Playing XCOM in a nutshell

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Jennik wrote:

Spoiler

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I mean, seriously, look how excited you are about a transgender person winning a mere seat at a state legislature, despite knowing almost nothing about them or their politics! You're practically giddy.

Your skill at projecting all kinds of bullshit into my posts is still going strong.

I'm not excited about a transgender person winning. I give no shits about that whatsoever.

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faerwin wrote:

THe fact that a trangender won is a good thing in itself.

No, it isn't. I don't much care about whether a public official is trans or cis, man or woman. If I said it was a good thing qua itself that an election winner was white, you would immediately recognize me as a racist — because I'd be one. The statement "it is a good thing in itself that the transgender candidate won" is bigoted against cisgender people.

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Jennik wrote:

Singling out Democrats for caring and talking about identities when literally everybody cares and talks about identities only highlights your own bigotry and prejudices when it comes to which groups you feel are worth caring about.

You're literally calling me bigoted for not being bigoted the way you admit you (and "literally everybody") are.