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PoliGAF 2016 |OT7| Notorious R.B.G. Plans NZ Tour

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One of my more anti-Clinton (although rational) friends posted this:
https://www.theguardian.com/comment...ussels-dc-beltway-political-interests-classes

Seems he views the Brexit as a rejection of oligarchical power, rather than xenophobia. I'm sure there's a little of that, but I'm not hearing/seeing that from anywhere else. Is this a notable thing? Is the EU considered to be "neoliberal" (I hate that term) to the point that splitting from the EU would be preferable?

This word cloud makes it pretty clear what the driving force behind the leave movement was:

nAk3fya.jpg
 
I'm sure this is old news, but I see that Bernie wanted to trigger me today.

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/po...-global-economy-is-not-working-for-everybody/



WHAT? WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? HOW DID YOU LOOK AT THE PEOPLE WHO VOTED FOR LEAVE AND COME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT IT WAS BECAUSE THEY WERE SKEPTICAL ABOUT THE GLOBAL ECONOMY?

THEY WERE EITHER RACISTS, UPSET THAT THE EU COULD PASS LAWS THAT EFFECTED BRITAIN, OR DISENFRANCHISE AND SAW THIS AS THE ONLY OPPURTUNITY TO CHANGE SOMETHING OR ANYTHING. THOSE ARE THE THREE MAJOR REASONS.

It wasn't a referendum on a global economy. It just wasn't.

And it's fucking awful. And I am not happy about anyone trying to point to it as proof that their platform is great. Fuck fuck fuck.

Yeah. Hi guys. I'm still holding it together somewhat.
Because, for Bernie, everything is about the rigged economy. There is one issue. All of society's ills are tied to this ONE specific issue. That's all. There's nothing else. It's just millionaires and billionaires and RIGGED.

Glad you're still holding it together.
 
Texit is not funny. In 2014 a Reuters poll found over half of Republicans and 34% of the state in general favored secession. Imagine if the Supreme Court had ruled in favor of DACA. Imagine what happens if Clinton gets elected with a Hispanic vice president. Imagine what happens if Clinton stacks the court against conservatives for 30 years.

EDIT: I'm definitely pro-Texit, however, because 1) I live in California, so all the business fleeing would come over here, and 2) as the third most populous state in the union, it would dramatically cut the number of Republicans in our House.
 
I went to look for this story and couldn't find it, so can't really comment.

To be clear, I think the EU will have a free trade agreement with the U.K. eventually. The question is whether they'll do it to keep the UK in the EU, or whether they'll let them leave and then negotiate something worse.

Both the UK and larger EU signed the WTO conventions. If the UK won't agree to a special partner status they'll deal with same tariffs as the US, Japan, China, etc. Which would be really bad for them as most of their firms don't have the scale to compete directly with those multi-nationals.
 
You could start by not generalizing all their concerns as being racist and xenophobic.

I think calling 38% of the UK racist xenophoes who vote against their own self interest is the exact opposite of looking for common ground.

The majority of Leave voters selected "Multiculturalism is bad" according to polling.

I don't know if we need to go deeper than this?

Trump in particular is ridiculous because he only talks immigration with regards to crime when we have the lowest crime rates in the history of the nation and most Trump voters are in low crime areas. There's not many things other than racial hatred that drives Trump voting.

Unless you're for nuclear war I guess.

Yeah, I get that it's a tough pill to swallow, but it seems the only counter-argument to "These movements are driven by racism" is "No way, then there'd be a ton of racists!"

Surprise, there are a ton of racists. Europe and the States are full of them, and they're largely white people opposed to browner folks (read that Atlantic piece where they link to a study that anti-immigrant thoughts were much more muted when the immigrant in a news story was changed from a Hispanic guy to a Russian guy). It's racism, plain and simple.

It's nice to think that people are just decent and misled (and maybe they are misled), but there are just a shit ton of racists.
 
Texit is not funny. In 2014 a Reuters poll found over half of Republicans and 34% of the state in general favored secession. Imagine if the Supreme Court had ruled in favor of DACA. Imagine what happens if Clinton gets elected with a Hispanic vice president. Imagine what happens if Clinton stacks the court against conservatives for 30 years.

EDIT: I'm definitely pro-Texit, however, because 1) I live in California, so all the business fleeing would come over here, and 2) as the third most populous state in the union, it would dramatically cut the number of Republicans in our House.

The closest they came to voting to leave the union was under President Clinton.

Still, that was a less progressive Texas that while still firmly red, has been slowly trending blue if my memory is right. So I would be shocked if they voted to leave now.

Don't they vote on it every general election? I didn't think they needed to do anything to get it on the ballot. I thought it was a standard item down there.
 

Iolo

Member
Texit is not funny. In 2014 a Reuters poll found over half of Republicans and 34% of the state in general favored secession. Imagine if the Supreme Court had ruled in favor of DACA. Imagine what happens if Clinton gets elected with a Hispanic vice president. Imagine what happens if Clinton stacks the court against conservatives for 30 years.

EDIT: I'm definitely pro-Texit, however, because 1) I live in California, so all the business fleeing would come over here, and 2) as the third most populous state in the union, it would dramatically cut the number of Republicans in our House.

Imagine that we already constitutionally settled this question forever, unlike the EU who crapped out the legal exit that is article 50. Mess.
 
Wow. Greg Gutfeld is an asshole.
He's hilarious. I like his show, lol.
The closest they came to voting to leave the union was under President Clinton.

Still, that was a less progressive Texas that while still firmly red, has been slowly trending blue if my memory is right. So I would be shocked if they voted to leave now.

Don't they vote on it every general election? I didn't think they needed to do anything to get it on the ballot. I thought it was a standard item down there.

I am quite certain they don't vote on it every election. Only recently did the state GOP nearly put to a vote whether to put it on its platform.
Imagine that we already constitutionally settled this question forever, unlike the EU who crapped out the legal exit that is article 50. Mess.
Then they'll just... Leave. You can't force an entire state to stay in the union. What moral imperative would we even have this time?
 

Grizzlyjin

Supersonic, idiotic, disconnecting, not respecting, who would really ever wanna go and top that
Texit is not funny. In 2014 a Reuters poll found over half of Republicans and 34% of the state in general favored secession. Imagine if the Supreme Court had ruled in favor of DACA. Imagine what happens if Clinton gets elected with a Hispanic vice president. Imagine what happens if Clinton stacks the court against conservatives for 30 years.

EDIT: I'm definitely pro-Texit, however, because 1) I live in California, so all the business fleeing would come over here, and 2) as the third most populous state in the union, it would dramatically cut the number of Republicans in our House.


Austin would be airlifted to California. I can't believe there are people in Texas that would even entertain the idea. Yay, you get to slap another bumper sticker on your car. I'm for it for the same reason I'm for splitting California into multiple states, I just want to see the fuckery. But realistically, I would never want to see it.

I want to coin the next secession hashtag. Somebody convince Massachusetts to leave so we can use #MassExodus
 

sphagnum

Banned
Then they'll just... Leave. You can't force an entire state to stay in the union. What moral imperative would we even have this time?

You don't really need a moral imperative to enforce a law.

That said, couldn't Texas actually secede if the other states agreed to it? That seems to be what Texas v. White decided.
 
You don't really need a moral imperative to enforce a law.

That said, couldn't Texas actually secede if the other states agreed to it? That seems to be what Texas v. White decided.
It doesn't matter what the Supreme Court says. If they want to leave, they'll just leave. Seriously. Americans wouldn't be able to stomach a war against Texas. What are we going to do, hold them hostage? If Britain can flip its shit over LEGAL Indians and Polish then it is well within the realm of possibility that a Texas completely appalled by liberalism and overrun by illegal Mexican immigrants will take matters into its own hands.
 

pigeon

Banned
It doesn't matter what the Supreme Court says. If they want to leave, they'll just leave. Seriously. Americans wouldn't be able to stomach a war against Texas. What are we going to do, hold them hostage? If Britain can flip its shit over LEGAL Indians and Polish then it is well within the realm of possibility that a Texas completely appalled by liberalism and overrun by illegal Mexican immigrants will take matters into its own hands.

Wait, is this a joke?

Are you seriously arguing that America wouldn't fight a war to preserve the Union?
 

sphagnum

Banned
It doesn't matter what the Supreme Court says. If they want to leave, they'll just leave. Seriously. Americans wouldn't be able to stomach a war against Texas. What are we going to do, hold them hostage? If Britain can flip its shit over LEGAL Indians and Polish then it is well within the realm of possibility that a Texas completely appalled by liberalism and overrun by illegal Mexican immigrants will take matters into its own hands.

If Texas seceded you know a bunch of other southern states would decide to take the opportunity as well to show the Yankees what's what, and we'd have the same thing happening again, except worse this time since the South isn't some agricultural backwater. But there's no way the federal government would tolerate insurrection.
 
Wait, is this a joke?

Are you seriously arguing that America wouldn't fight a war to preserve the Union?
You really want to bomb Houston into submission? Seriously? I wouldn't be able to stomach it. I have fucking friends in Texas.

No, and never.

If Texas seceded you know a bunch of other southern states would decide to take the opportunity as well to show the Yankees what's what, and we'd have the same thing happening again, except worse this time since the South isn't some agricultural backwater. But there's no way the federal government would tolerate insurrection.

The North and West would not go to war with the South again. We'd just have a free trade agreement and move on with our lives. You know we'd be better off without the South anyway. I can't tell you how often it pisses me off that this country can't progress in a way that the North Atlantic seaboard, the Great Lakes states, and the Pacific West want to progress in when there's a racist, reactionary south dragging it back at every step.
 
If only the United States had fought a Civil War over whether the Union ought to be kept together...instead of fighting over the benefits of purse first.
 
D

Deleted member 231381

Unconfirmed Member
Personal bit.

I've been through many elections in my life. Some were triumphs where it felt like the entire country was coming together in one voice - 1997. Some were sad gasps of despair where I honestly wondered how we could be here - 2015.

But none have ever hit me like the EU referendum result. I'm going to borrow the language of the right wing here - I honestly don't feel like this is my country anymore, and I want it back. We've made a decision that fundamentally alters everything about our place in the world and our future based on lies, deceit and racism. Unlike an election, there's no bolt hole in 5 years time, no opportunity to rest, recuperate and then resume the political fight. Instead I'm just left hollow, shattered and in utter shock at what's happened and how we got here.

Yesterday I was a member of one of the largest groupings of nations voluntarily coming together in history. Yes it was flawed, but I was proud to be a European citizen.

Today, everyone who ever mocked England for being stuck in the past and obsessed with faded glory was proven right. It honestly feels like my future has been stolen, in a way no general election ever has come close too.

I feel essentially the same way. There's no take-backsies after this one; what's done is done. We can't toss the bastards out in five years and try again, this was it. I feel like a stranger in my own country.
 

pigeon

Banned
You really want to bomb Houston into submission? Seriously? I wouldn't be able to stomach it. I have fucking friends in Texas.

No, and never.

I don't support bombing Texas, but I do support arresting people who shoot at federal officials, and that's exactly how it would go down, just like last time. There's no authority to secede from the Union. The federal government would just continue to do federal government stuff, and if state officials tried to resist them they'd be criminals, and would be arrested. If they resisted arrest with deadly weapons then that would be bad, but, like, what is even the point of having a state monopoly on violence if they're not going to use that monopoly to put other violence providers out of business?

I'm not saying that I want this to happen, I just don't think this question is a live one. If 99% of Texans voted to secede, maybe. With a bare majority? No chance. America's still responsible for the well-being of its citizens.



On an antebellum note, I do want to respond to the discussion about anti-immigration policies and xenophobia but I need to collect my thoughts.

I generally agree that there is a fundamental problem in the global economy right now in that we're in the middle of another Gilded Age, and that that's creating no small amount of stress and pain for people who aren't gilded, which is leading to reactionary impulses. I even mostly agree with sphagnum that the theoretical response to this issue is socialism (or at least social democracy). The other alternative is, you know, an international worker's revolution, and I don't want to do that until we have self-driving cars figured out or it will take forever to get them working.

However I still don't think recognizing those economic concerns should outweigh recognizing that the reactionary impulses being generated are reactionary impulses! Being a racist because of economic factors that are affecting your life is not that much better than being a racist because of societal upbringing or because of the subreddits you frequent. It's still bad to be racist!
 

Cybit

FGC Waterboy
Wait, is this a joke?

Are you seriously arguing that America wouldn't fight a war to preserve the Union?

I kind of figure the nukes on both sides sort of behoove a peaceful solution.

EDIT: It does depend on the vote though. 51/49 would be way different than like 75/25. That said, you're not going to get US military to potentially fire on TX National Guard / US citizens en masse. Basically, if we've hit the point that secession becomes an actual option, the other things that have had to have happened to get to that point basically means any real prognostication is probably out the window.
 
I'm not a troll. I'm seriously fucking appalled that people here so casually would go to war with an insurrectionist south. What the hell. What the hell. People accuse me of being an authoritarian but this is way beyond the pale.

I thought the whole point of state governments was the ability for states to govern their region in a manner they see fit? With more and more power coalescing into the federal government, cultural conservatives, racists, and gun lunatics are hampering America's steady progression onward. Why on Earth would people here want to preserve a Union of bitterly divided people when we have so much more potential away from this toxic relationship? Is our partisan bullshit, NRA shitfest, and healthcare stalling really fucking worth killing people we have more in common with than anyone else on the entire planet?


I don't support bombing Texas, but I do support arresting people who shoot at federal officials, and that's exactly how it would go down, just like last time. There's no authority to secede from the Union. The federal government would just continue to do federal government stuff, and if state officials tried to resist them they'd be criminals, and would be arrested. If they resisted arrest with deadly weapons then that would be bad, but, like, what is even the point of having a state monopoly on violence if they're not going to use that monopoly to put other violence providers out of business?

I'm not saying that I want this to happen, I just don't think this question is a live one. If 99% of Texans voted to secede, maybe. With a bare majority? No chance. America's still responsible for the well-being of its citizens.
There's no way this would be violent. I just don't believe it. I imagine there would be a peaceful return of American military equipment. Any violence would have to start from the federal government. They're the ones with the drones.
 
You really want to bomb Houston into submission? Seriously? I wouldn't be able to stomach it. I have fucking friends in Texas.

No, and never.



The North and West would not go to war with the South again. We'd just have a free trade agreement and move on with our lives. You know we'd be better off without the South anyway. I can't tell you how often it pisses me off that this country can't progress in a way that the North Atlantic seaboard, the Great Lakes states, and the Pacific West want to progress in when there's a racist, reactionary south dragging it back at every step.

There is the issue of Texas having U.S. government property in the form of things like Fort Hood and other installations. There is zero way they're allowed to seize that equipment to form a new military.

Not to mention an independent Texas must fund all its own transportation projects; that it would instantly lose the NASA Houston complex and all the 17,000 jobs there; that major companies like AT&T, ConocoPhillips, Southwest Airlines, and Halliburton would suddenly find themselves headquartered in a new country away from the rest of their business with no trade agreements in place ... it would be chaos.

It's not a matter of going to war or not; it's that simply seceding has a number of complex issues, even more when things like national defense are things you have given to a federal government.
 

Zornack

Member
I'm not a troll. I'm seriously fucking appalled that people here so casually would go to war with an insurrectionist south. What the hell. What the hell. People accuse me of being an authoritarian but this is way beyond the pale.

I thought the whole point of state governments was the ability for states to govern their region in a manner they see fit? With more and more power coalescing into the federal government, cultural conservatives, racists, and gun lunatics are hampering America's steady progression onward. Why on Earth would people here want to preserve a Union of bitterly divided people when we have so much more potential away from this toxic relationship? Is our partisan bullshit, NRA shitfest, and healthcare stalling really fucking worth killing people we have more in common with than anyone else on the entire planet?

Because a war to persevere the union would probably be less messy than a fractured U.S.
 
I thought the whole point of state governments was the ability for states to govern their region in a manner they see fit? With more and more power coalescing into the federal government, cultural conservatives, racists, and gun lunatics are hampering America's steady progression onward. Why on Earth would people here want to preserve a Union of bitterly divided people when we have so much more potential away from this toxic relationship? Is our partisan bullshit, NRA shitfest, and healthcare stalling really fucking worth killing people we have more in common with than anyone else on the entire planet?

1. People thought that states had the right to secede pre-Civil War. They lost and no one has seriously held that opinion in the last 150+ years.

2. If a 52% of people in Mississippi wanted to secede the federal government should intervene to protect to rights of everyone else. What do you think life will be like for blacks in the Confederacy 2.0? Are they and their descendents just SOL because of a vote?
 

pigeon

Banned
I'm not a troll. I'm seriously fucking appalled that people here so casually would go to war with an insurrectionist south. What the hell. What the hell. People accuse me of being an authoritarian but this is way beyond the pale.

I thought the whole point of state governments was the ability for states to govern their region in a manner they see fit? With more and more power coalescing into the federal government, cultural conservatives, racists, and gun lunatics are hampering America's steady progression onward. Why on Earth would people here want to preserve a Union of bitterly divided people when we have so much more potential away from this toxic relationship? Is our partisan bullshit, NRA shitfest, and healthcare stalling really fucking worth killing people we have more in common with than anyone else on the entire planet?

gettysburg address said:
Four score and seven years ago, our forefathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, can long endure.

Allowing states to secede from the Union because they don't want to support civil rights is not just a betrayal of our commitment to civil rights, but fatally wounds the federal government's ability to enact policies that protect civil rights over the arguments of state governments. It would be the end of the American experiment.

That's literally the whole point of the Civil War, come on.

There's no way this would be violent. I just don't believe it. I imagine there would be a peaceful return of American military equipment. Any violence would have to start from the federal government. They're the ones with the drones.

The federal government wouldn't be violent, they'd just show up and start taking tax dollars and arresting people for federal crimes and stuff.

If the state government is willing to just go along with that then they can call themselves independent all they want.

If they're not willing to go along with that, then they'd have to violently resist the federal government.

To the point as to peaceful return of American military equipment, please see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Sumter

I am actually super impressed, if this is not actually a troll, with your ability to literally recapitulate the entire Civil War from first principles. I kind of want to keep going and see if we can get all the way to Gettysburg.
 
Because a war to persevere the union would probably be less messy than a fractured U.S.

Yeah, I might get the point if we were talking about MS or AL, but TX is a huge part of our country's economy and structure. It would be much easier to just arrest their governor, say "it's unconstitutional to leave, duh," and then just deal with any other silliness.

Edit:
I'm certain money would not be my deciding factor if I were considering killing Americans.

I thought they weren't Americans! ;)
 
1. People thought that states had the right to secede pre-Civil War. They lost and no one has seriously held that opinion in the last 150+ years.

2. If a 52% of people in Mississippi wanted to secede the federal government should intervene to protect to rights of everyone else. What do you think life will be like for blacks in the Confederacy 2.0? Are they and their descendents just SOL because of a vote?
I imagine a region inundated with politicians who almost literally jerk themselves off on our Constitution would retain a version for themselves and start from there.
I thought they weren't Americans! ;)
They're Americans even if they leave, for ethical considerations.
 

ampere

Member
Obviously the first step to prevent a state from succeeding is not bombing them, but it's not like the options during such an event would be: a) bomb them or b) let them leave, there actually are other options

I am actually super impressed, if this is not actually a troll, with your ability to literally recapitulate the entire Civil War from first principles. I kind of want to keep going and see if we can get all the way to Gettysburg.

I'm super impressed people fall for his posts every time!
 

CCS

Banned
Obviously the first step to prevent a state from succeeding is not bombing them, but it's not like the options during such an event would be: a) bomb them or b) let them leave, there actually are other options

Actually bombing a state would be a very good first step to stop them succeeding.
 
Obviously the first step to prevent a state from succeeding is not bombing them, but it's not like the options during such an event would be: a) bomb them or b) let them leave, there actually are other options
I certainly agree that there are other options. Pigeon proposed that the US would absolutely go to war with Texas. I would be shocked.
If it mean protecting the rights of all the different minorities I would gladly support puttinf down any kind of insurrection
Isn't this what the Russians said when they invaded Crimea? To protect the Russian minority from those nasty, racists Ukrainians?
 

shem935

Banned
I certainly agree that there are other options. Pigeon proposed that the US would absolutely go to war with Texas. I would be shocked.

Isn't this what the Russians said when they invaded Crimea? To protect the Russian minority from those nasty, racists Ukrainians?

Except Texas is already part of the US?
 
I'm not a troll. I'm seriously fucking appalled that people here so casually would go to war with an insurrectionist south. What the hell. What the hell. People accuse me of being an authoritarian but this is way beyond the pale.

I thought the whole point of state governments was the ability for states to govern their region in a manner they see fit? With more and more power coalescing into the federal government, cultural conservatives, racists, and gun lunatics are hampering America's steady progression onward. Why on Earth would people here want to preserve a Union of bitterly divided people when we have so much more potential away from this toxic relationship? Is our partisan bullshit, NRA shitfest, and healthcare stalling really fucking worth killing people we have more in common with than anyone else on the entire planet?

You would abandon countless black, Latino, gay, trans, etc. people who live in these regions and call it their home? What if those folks don't want to be re-patriated?

Your argument that the south is cultural conservatives, racists, and gun lunatics and that's about it is absurd. Look at a state like MS, for example, with a large black minority population. You think you can re-patriate all of them? You think they all want to leave their homes? Do you want to leave them at the mercy of a regressive modern confederate government? We need to change these places for the better from within the union, not abandon them because a few nutbars vote yes on a referendum to secede or whatever.

I'm sorry that I took the bait, but these posts are so absurd that I couldn't help myself.
 
D

Deleted member 231381

Unconfirmed Member
Because, for Bernie, everything is about the rigged economy. There is one issue. All of society's ills are tied to this ONE specific issue. That's all. There's nothing else. It's just millionaires and billionaires and RIGGED.

Glad you're still holding it together.

He's right on this one, though. Again, I'm having to point out that a large number of racial minority communities and second-generation immigrant communities voted for Leave; you can't simply apply the American perspective to this and expect it to work. There was obviously xenophobia in this campaign; but there was also an incredibly sharp class divide that transcended typical political alignments. Higher-income brackets voted Remain, lower-income brackets voted Leave - because they've not seen any of the gains from free trade or globalization. It's just lead to their skills being devalued by an influx of foreign labour, and their industries going under because they can't compete with cheap labour abroad.

There's more to it than that - this would never have been a problem if the proceeds of free trade had been used to support these communities, provide them with new jobs. I've lived in north Wales; the place is still destitute since Thatcher killed the mining communities and that was three decades ago. But the key point that remains is that the current political echelons have overseen a thirty year decline in the living standards of the old industrial class; and they're lashing out. Anger and despair don't take the form of a nicely worded argument full of logical links and well-supported data. It takes the form of an establishment put to the sword, regardless of their provenance.
 

sphagnum

Banned
However I still don't think recognizing those economic concerns should outweigh recognizing that the reactionary impulses being generated are reactionary impulses! Being a racist because of economic factors that are affecting your life is not that much better than being a racist because of societal upbringing or because of the subreddits you frequent. It's still bad to be racist!

It's not that it's better to be racist for x reason vs y reason or something like that though, it's just that we have to understand all the reasons behind something or else we can't properly figure out how to fix it. Just going "yeah well they're racist" without being critical of the economic environment allows liberals to wash their hands of the situation and act like telling people "stop being racist" is going to solve anything. Although you understand that already!

As for Texas, I don't think anyone would want to bomb them, but if they became a literal military insurrectionary movement? Well, do what's necessary. That's war. Exhaust all other options first but don't let a bunch of racist traitors break off to form their own government and give anyone else ideas. Now if Texas presented their case to the country and a referendum were held and a supermajority of the other states agreed to let them go, then whatever.
 
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