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[McTraveller]

So, a nice quiet day in the USA, eh?


(Are we all just... exhausted?)

[hector13]

Trepidatious.

I am trying to remain optimistic that the Trump Party were supposed to sweep both houses for the mid-terms but didn’t, while keeping the fact that half the country is apparently A-OK voting for someone who hundreds of former employees from his first administration have said that a second one would be a disaster.

I watched a short clip on the BBC about what people feel about their opponent winning, and it was pretty obvious who they supported even if it had only been audio. I genuinely shouted “are you fucking mental?” at a Trump supporter suggesting that if the Democrats won they would be dictators despite all of the stuff Trump has said.

[Sirus]

Reminds me of this one time after the 2016 election, when a Trump supporter (very seriously) claimed that if Hillary Clinton had won then all white people would be enslaved. I don't think these folks live in the same reality as everyone else.

[Starver]

Everyone tends to assume that they are right (and not for the wrong reasons). If you're tied to the big-government/small-government dichotomy, you might well consider dictatorship as being tied to "excessive safety nets" than to rather more pointed concentrations of force that (you imagine) will not impact your personal life negatively.

And there's no real continuum of opinion, any more, with the centrist POV having been pulled apart like a old bit of taffy, so those who you might listen to and hear a slightly offset viewpoint which you're willing to consider (and maybe adjust to) don't really help you bridge the gap to the other side. Everyone on the left/right is apalled/disgusted/annoyed/amused by what it seems everyone on the right/left is saying, and there's little meeting of minds.

There can be, of course, but then there are voices from the outer fringes which discourage good old traditional cooperation and compromise. And one fringe in particular seems (to me) to be most discouraging, but that might just be the current political dynamics as they slowly flutter through history.


Hard to pick apart the honest beliefs (whether or not 'honestly' posed to them to start with) from your basic performative exageration, though. I'm not sure how I'd behave if asked to present a vox-pop statement, when I wasn't certain whether it'd attributively pop up in sight of my neighbours (or even if I was rather hoping if it was), having the impression that they might judge me (for well or ill) on how much I amplified their apparent position. I've had a friendship with someone vastly opposed to many of my own views, and I was always (too much, really) unwillingly to outright disagree with them.

Then there's my opinions on political "I'm supporting <Foo>" signs. Thankfully rare, around here, but imagine being the only one not displaying signs of the given hue (or any signs at all) in some neighbourhoods. I haven't been anywhere that confidently and materially contrarian/abstentionist, possibly, since I steadfastly claimed that I didn't have an average number of legs (my recollection being that everyone else said they did) in a maths lesson.

[Truean]

Please do not quote

Those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.

Anti fascism video 1945, Department of Defense. Department of the Army. Office of the Chief Signal Officer, "Don't be a Sucker."... sadly today (mis)termed propaganda." There are objectionable parts; that's the point. It is anti Hitler, anti fascism, and anti Nazi. Shows how they gained power through psychological division, their lies, how people gambled on fascism paying off for them, and how wrong they were. Everyone loses, including the faithful fascist: the sucker. 

These clips are important and in sequence. This is the fascist playbook as illustrated by the Army so we don't repeat it here:
https://i.imgur.com/vO2UEUe.mp4       "I've heard this kind of talk before but I never expected to hear it in America."

https://i.imgur.com/Ln8eV2K.mp4        "Hey that fella's talking about me!"

https://i.imgur.com/72HwOYy.mp4       "They knew they were not strong enough to concur a unified country. So they split Germany."

https://i.imgur.com/P1QSqhd.mp4       "There is no master race. That is a scientific truth. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying."

Here's the full version from National Archives. You may not relate well to it, being 79 years old. Should be shown in high school:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGAqYNFQdZ4



Learn. Remember. Think. Vote. Improve.

Please do not quote

[martinuzz]

The FBI warns the American public about two fake news videos. One has been posted for sure by Russia (R-FBI), the other one is also 'from a foreign country'.

The R-FBI video spreads false news about voter fraud in Arizona.

The other video tells people that they should worry about terror attacks on voting centres, and urges them to vote via the internet (which is not possible)

To summarize the FBI: NO FOLKS, THERE IS NO VOTER FRAUD IN ARIZONA

and

NO FOLKS YOU CANNOT VOTE OVER THE INTERNET SO PLEASE GET YOUR LAZY ASS OF YÔUR COUCH AND GO VOTE BEFORE THE VOTING CLOSES

EDIT: bomb threats forced a few voting locations to temporarily close in Maine, Georgia, and North Carolina. All bomb threats appear to have been fake. The threats have been traced by the FBI to Russian e-mail domains.

[wobbly]

It's not surprising that people believe in the BS, the whole of society is built around it being perfectly fine to be a con-man. All of marketing. All of sales game, lobbying, politics, PR. The whole of our social structure/ status quo is built around there being nothing wrong with being a con-artist. In fact you should do it if it gets you ahead in life (not my personal opinion, just the general attitude I see from society norms). From my view politics is rotten, because the society around it is also rotten.

Hard to talk about truth when everyone is constantly swimming in swill.

[Flying Teasets]

'Murikkka.

[pisskop]

I just want to say that

Spoiler: whoever wins (click to show/hide)

Love you guys <3

Spoiler: and also (click to show/hide)

They both suck and I plan to exercise my freedom of speech to bitch about either

[hector13]

I mean yeah, but one does objectively suck more than the other.

Issues with the system, really. If you only have two choices, you don’t necessarily pick the best one, but the least bad one.

[wobbly]

I mean yeah, but one does objectively suck more than the other.

Issues with the system, really. If you only have two choices, you don’t necessarily pick the best one, but the least bad one.

Yeah Kamala won't fix things but she won't make things worse either. As a non-American I can say another Trump presidency will have bad consequences, not just in America, but the world around you.

[Random_Dragon]

That's the point of two-party systems and first-past-the-post voting yeah, and basically the only reason the democrat party as an institution has any supporters at all. Our system is fucked by design in a way that means we can't do any better than voting against the fascist wannabes.

[Flying Teasets]

That's the point of two-party systems and first-past-the-post voting yeah, and basically the only reason the democrat party as an institution has any supporters at all. Our system is fucked by design in a way that means we can't do any better than voting against the fascist wannabes.

Then spend the next cycle in the single-minded pursuit of election reform. This is damn tragedy.

[Folly]

Then spend the next cycle in the single-minded pursuit of election reform. This is damn tragedy.

Election reform would require the support of lawmakers. And those lawmakers are strongly incentivized not to reform the corrupt system from which they derive their power.

[JoshuaFH]

I'm watching the counting unfold with Streamer Vaush. Don't know why I gravitated towards this guy cause he's kind of an asshole, but I guess that's besides the point, I just need someone else with me on this rollercoaster so I'm not futilely trying to parse the data myself and losing all my hair.