Support NeoGAF

[Dubbedinenglish]

Uh was this posted:

Micah Grimes ‏@MicahGrimes 8h8 hours ago

JUST IN: Pentagon: US fighter jets scrambled to protect US special forces with Kurdish fighters who were nearly bombed by Syrian jets Thurs.

MORE: Pentagon: US special forces "all safe," but Syrians would be “well-advised” not to interfere with coalition forces in future.

MORE: Pentagon asserts the incident is the closest US forces on the ground have come to an attack from the Syrian regime.

JUST IN: US official: 2 US fighter jets "met" 2 Syrian fighter jets in “visual range" over Hasakah, Syria, on Friday, before Syrians left.

HOLY SHIT.

 

[TheLostBigBoss]

So we should just ignore that the vast majority of muslims worldwide favor laws that oppress women and punish apostasy with violence? These are legitimate issues that lead to the rise of groups like the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and yes, ISIS. Pretending they don't exist is just as ignorant as the views held by Trump supporters.



That's fine, and I'm not saying liberals should hang on his every word like gospel. But more often than that, he speaks the truth, especially when it comes to Republicans and conservative "ideas" in general.

We have a political party that supports conversion therapy, removing gay rights, civil rights, womens rights.

Maybe it's just conservatism that is the issue. I wonder how many Christian Americans would be cool with their religion becoming the official state religion?

 

[Piecake]

Who wants to ignore them? What people push back against is when those things are used as justifications for various flavors of jingoism and, as Maher has a record of doing, skepticism of things like accepting refugees from war zones.

This idea gets thrown around a lot that there's a certain class of liberal who's soft on Islam in the name of "tolerance", but I don't actually see very much of that, if any. What I do see is people who refuse to allow criticism of Islam to spill over into bigotry. And yes, I think Maher has crossed that line on multiple occasions

There is no real point in calling it out either. The Bible has some nasty stuff in it that Christians were perfectly fine in implementing for a long long time. Politics and culture changed and then the Christianity that these nations believed in changed as well.

Hopefully that will eventually happen with Islamic countries as well (where it hasn't happened), and that is what is, for the most part, seems to be happening in America and Canada as well. We aren't going to speed up the process by calling out Islam and Muslims as barbarians. Hell, that is just going to extend and prolong that transformation because when you attack someone's core identity and beliefs they are not going to change, they are going to retrench and double down.

 

[Rebel Leader]

No.
"Specifically what statements do you regret? Calling Mexicans "rapists"? Belittling the heroism of POWs like Senator McCain? Saying that a Gold Star family sacrificed nothing or were Taliban sympathizers? Or was it that a debate moderator must have been on her period because

and why must you read from a teleprompter regarding these regrets? If you sincerely regret anything, you don't need a teleprompter telling you so.

 

[Crisco]

Uh was this posted:



HOLY SHIT.

Yikes.

 

[The Technomancer]

What exactly has he said that you disagree with? That Muslim refugees from parts of the Middle East where Sharia Law is extremely popular probably won't fit in with European liberal culture too well? He's absolutely right about that. I don't he's ever said we should stop accepting them, just that we shouldn't expect there to be no problems.

I find his tone around the matter completely unhelpful, frankly. Yes, he is "just" saying that, in an antagonistic way that further fuels those with anti-refugee sentiment. Hell, he's gone as far as suggesting, more or less, that Muslim cultures are incapable of adaption or integration with other cultures, something which, again from my very personal experience, is false

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

Uh was this posted:



HOLY SHIT.

Not sure if Assad incompetent or ready to die.

 

[The Technomancer]

There is no real point in calling it out either. The Bible has some nasty stuff in it that Christians were perfectly fine in implementing for a long long time. Politics and culture changed and then the Christianity that these nations believed in changed as well.

Hopefully that will eventually happen with Islamic countries as well (where it hasn't happened), and that is what is, for the most part, seems to be happening in America and Canada as well. We aren't going to speed up the process by calling out Islam and Muslims as barbarians. Hell, that is just going to extend and prolong that transformation because when you attack someone's core identity and beliefs they are not going to change, they are going to retrench and double down.

I don't go quite as far as saying we can just be completely hands off. I'm fine with countries like the US bringing things like "pass better laws protecting women" or "knock off executing gay people" to the negotiation table. But broadly yes, I don't think either bombing them or just closing the borders and saying "well enjoy your countries" are solutions

 

[Resident_UA]

So we should just ignore that the vast majority of muslims worldwide favor laws that oppress women and punish apostasy with violence? These are legitimate issues that lead to the rise of groups like the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and yes, ISIS. Pretending they don't exist is just as ignorant as the views held by Trump supporters.

I have a solution. Lets just ban them from coming to the US! LOL

Seriously, you can criticizing religion without all of this pretentious bullshit. I know conservative Muslims and conservative Christians. Often Christians are much worse. And the reason terrorism exists has very little to do with religion. It has more to do with bombing the shit out of entire regions in the middle east.

 

[benjipwns]

I remember getting grief here and elsewhere and in real life for poo-pooing OWS and saying that it would quickly fizzle away if it couldn't settle on even a nebulous reason to exist and participate in the normal political process like the Tea Party did:

What do the kids want, and how can they be bought off? Some Occupiers shot back in defiance, “Demands are for terrorists!”

But as the movement has grown—taking in veteran organizers and garnering declarations of solidarity from labor, progressive community groups, left-leaning intellectuals, think tanks and even members of Congress—the question has become more insistent. Some pressure has come from these allies, who have been happy to grab onto Occupy’s unexpected coattails or collaborate on a series of direct actions but who approach politics from a more constituent-based, results-driven model. No doubt, elected officials would also like to see demands made, as everyone from President Obama to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has comically tried to both sympathize with and distance themselves from the Occupation’s primal expressions of frustration and rage. With approval ratings at 43 percent and climbing (that’s almost five times higher than Congress’s 9 percent), the movement has intruded upon electoral politics, and a list of demands that could be rejected or accommodated would certainly help the pols fill out their dance cards.

But the push for demands has come from the inside too. A Demands working group took shape in early October, largely outside Liberty. A hasty New York Times article almost exclusively quoting its members provoked fierce criticism at that night’s General Assembly, which released a statement saying that “the GA has not reached a consensus regarding any statement of demands…and the demands list submitted to the NYT was never presented to the GA.” Likewise, on October 21, OccupyWallStreet.org posted a disclaimer saying that the Demands group is “not empowered by the NYC General Assembly,” is “not open-source and does not act by consensus” and “only represents themselves.”

But a movement that claims to be open to all isn’t in a great position to exile its dissidents, so since that dustup, the Demands group has been absorbed into the process. It now posts its documents online and uses modified consensus rules, although some question the group’s fidelity to such procedures and consequently also the group’s legitimacy. These issues flared up at the October 30 General Assembly, when the Demands group presented its first proposal, a call for “a massive public works and public service program” that would create “jobs for all.” After a heated and messy deliberation that failed to get past even the first round of questions, the proposal was tabled until the next week, allowing Demands to conduct more meetings and outreach.

That General Assembly exposed a clear ideological schism between anarchists, on the one hand, and Marxists, progressives and liberals, on the other, with the former predisposed to reject any demands (like jobs for all) that appeal to the state instead of directly to the people. But the meeting wasn’t particularly well attended—as many Occupiers at Liberty were milling about reading, singing or kibitzing on other matters as were clustered around the human mic—and away from the fray, in the working groups themselves, the issue seemed much less polarized and much less significant. Most organizers I spoke with were open to demands at some point but preferred to focus on movement building for now. “I think one day there could come a time for demands,” says Katie Davison, “but right now I think demands would fracture and divide people…. We need a movement of solidarity that is about values first, and we’re still coming together and finding out what we all agree on.”

"No, you don't understand, OWS isn't about that, it's about a new paradigm of political and cultural action!"

Had this undergrad TA tell me that OWS would usher in a completely new and unthought of form of economy where resource abundance would eliminate the need for unnecessary work and all worked to their potential gladly for the community instead of greed. He insisted it was nothing like Marxism (which I wasn't using as a critique but instead to say I thought I had heard of the idea before) because he had read the Communist Manifesto and that it was typical that a "hardcore Republican" like me would instantly try to smear any good idea as Marxist.

He was going to go to Zuccotti Park and everything and participate in the revolution. But by then it had descended into petty madness and rape tents and Bloomberg had them clear it out.

So he went to work for the Obama campaign.

Really inspirational stuff.

 

[Rebel Leader]

#WheresHillary is trending and..... let's just say "sickening" doesn't even describe it

 

[Tranqueris]

Maddow with these 15 minute preambles for whatever she wants to talk about for the night. The topic is important, but damn.

 

[Crisco]

I have a solution. Lets just ban them from coming to the US! LOL

Seriously, you can criticizing religion without all of this pretentious bullshit. I know conservative Muslims and conservative Christians. Often Christians are much worse. And the reason terrorism exists has very little to do with religion. It has more to do with bombing the shit out of entire regions in the middle east.

I mean, it's just a completely false equivalency in my opinion. Not even Rick Santorum or Michelle Bachman support replacing the President and Congress with the clergy. Yes, conservative Muslims who've lived in the US for generations are fine, but that's not who Bill is talking about.

 

[Crocodile]

Maddow is taking her time but she's basically providing example # 535353223 that Trump and those he associates with are super racist (his new ad).

Maddow with these 15 minute preambles for whatever she wants to talk about for the night. The topic is important, but damn.

LOL yeah sometimes I just want to whip out the wrapitup.gif

 

[HylianTom]

Maddow with these 15 minute preambles for whatever she wants to talk about for the night. The topic is important, but damn.

Yeah, she didn't just go over the river and through the woods; she took a detour through the swamp and stopped for ice cream before finally moving on to Grandmother's house.

 

[Avon Barksdale]

Jack Kingston is a Trump adviser? LMAO.

 

[Clefargle]

How is trump holding up?

To shreds you say. Tsk tsk tsk

How is manafort handling it?

To shreds you say...

 

[benjipwns]

Jack KingstonVerified account
‏@JackKingston
Lost: Obama's Plane Ticket to Louisiana. Last seen sitting next to Hillary's emails. Potus -"It just disappeared!"

oh snap

 

[HylianTom]

Okay, I love seeing Dan Rather on with Rachel.

Met him when I worked at the Texas Senate. Sharp, sharp guy. I wish he were still on TV regularly.

 

[Joeytj]

Uh was this posted:



HOLY SHIT.

Putin ordering Syria to start skirmishes with U.S. during campaign?

 

[NYCmetsfan]

This chick is playing a punk cover of cher. All I can think of is the drag gifs jamming to this

#willamsburg

 

[Effect]

Maddow with these 15 minute preambles for whatever she wants to talk about for the night. The topic is important, but damn.

They really could be a few minutes shorter. Or at the very least she could talk faster during them.

As for the other thing above. I hate twitter at times. It allows people that should not have an outlet to have one completely unfiltered. I'm of two minds about it as a service. As a means of communication during a crisis it's good to allow information to spread. Assuming people just aren't making shit up to cause panic and posting things with no warning. It's a good way to signal boost important things. However it has allowed racist, bigots, etc an air horn and echo chamber to the point if the company where to go down and twitter ceased to exist I'm not sure if I'd feel disappointed.

 

[Oblivion]

oh snap

The president has to get plane tickets to use air force one?

 

[Piecake]

I don't go quite as far as saying we can just be completely hands off. I'm fine with countries like the US bringing things like "pass better laws protecting women" or "knock off executing gay people" to the negotiation table. But broadly yes, I don't think either bombing them or just closing the borders and saying "well enjoy your countries" are solutions

I don't think lecturing someone about their morals really works. All it does is make the person who is lecturing feel morally superior. And like I said, there is a negative side effect in that you will just piss the other side off and put you in an antagonistic relationship with those nations leaders and the citizens of that country.

Using less direct means like globalization, culture, ideas, economic growth, etc. are far more effective ways because all those things help the people change themselves instead of forcing them or telling them to change.

 

[kirblar]

I have a solution. Lets just ban them from coming to the US! LOL

Seriously, you can criticizing religion without all of this pretentious bullshit. I know conservative Muslims and conservative Christians. Often Christians are much worse. And the reason terrorism exists has very little to do with religion. It has more to do with bombing the shit out of entire regions in the middle east.

The relative issue w/ conservative Muslims vs Christians is probably because the religion holds less power here, and because you aren't really within its sphere of influence.

 

[Piecake]

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said Friday the face veil, or burqa, worn by some Muslim women “doesn’t fit in with our open society” and called for the garment to be banned. It’s unclear if such a ban would permitted under Germany’s constitution, however, and de Maiziere suggested as much in remarks a day earlier.

“We reject the full veil—not just the burka but the other forms of full veil where only the eyes are visible,” he said Friday, in remarks reported by the BBC. “It doesn’t fit in with our open society. Showing the face is a constituent element for our communication, the way we live, our social cohesion. That is why we call on everyone to show their face.”

http://www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2016/08/germany-face-veil-ban-proposal/496610/

Looks like Germany might be following in the footsteps of France.

I am honestly surprised that Trump hasn't proposed something like this.

 

[BlastProcessing]

@VaughnHillyard
Sheriff Joe Arpaio, surrogate for Trump, referred for criminal contempt for defying court orders on racial profiling

 

[Iolo]

Man I had forgotten about Joe the puppet master. Wonder if he ever got his doctorate.

 

[benjipwns]

http://www.bestofneworleans.com/blo...ctive-coming-to-cafe-istanbul-mudlark-theater

Joseph Therrien, a touring company member with Bread and Puppet Theater, knows how to start a revolution. To win hearts and minds, skip the canvassing and start making puppets.

“People  —  their inhibitions, their ideological beliefs — kind of soften when they see a puppet,” he says. “Especially with [Bread and Puppet], because we use a lot of humor and music, as opposed to someone who’s on the street, ranting on a soapbox, or someone trying to get signatures for a petition. As important as those things are … [puppets] really unlock something in people and make them more receptive.”

Therrien, an MFA graduate in puppetry, first connected with Bread and Puppet's organization through company alumni who had become involved with Occupy Wall Street. The group is the brainchild of founder and show director Peter Schumann; it’s based on a Vermont farm and is known for performances with an activist slant. In its shows, performers use giant puppets made from papier-mache, cardboard and other materials to illuminate issues facing the community.

The company’s current touring production is called Public Access Center for the Obvious Presents: The Situation. In the show, anarchist leader Emma Goldman makes a cameo; members sing a polka about smashing banks. A huge rhinoceros puppet, soft-edged but imposing, towers like an Easter Island sculpture.

Therrien calls it a “dark clown” show.

“People know us a lot for our circuses and it has circus elements to it; it has music, it has some acts in it," he says. "[The show] takes the audience through a journey of some of the really challenging, twisted parts of our Western civilization."

Though highbrow elements will ostensibly appeal to adults, Therrien says the singing, dancing and imaginative qualities of the company's shows are appropriate for children, and he doesn't discourage families from attending. But he hopes the show's audience is inspired by its social message.

“Puppetry, one of the amazing things about it is that you can actually create the world that you’re trying to show people. It’s sort of the anti-propaganda,” he says.

fuck i love this guy

 

[ElectricThunder]

I find it odd that Maher's show takes a month off and seemingly almost the entirety of his deeper-than-it-should-be Republican bench has quickly shacked up with the Trump campaign.

 

[Iolo]

http://www.bestofneworleans.com/blo...ctive-coming-to-cafe-istanbul-mudlark-theater

fuck i love this guy

You can't blame him for doing what he loves!

 

[Random17]

I'd define alt right as the manifestation of the anti-PC, anti-elitism movement, with the main social difference with the GOP being the general lack of influence of religion.

It's the GOP's future social policy with the currently unpopular fat (religious law) trimmed, basically.

Many alt righters are atheist, you can't say the same for most social conservatives, though.

 

[benjipwns]

His Indiegogo campaign got funded!
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/jack-and-the-corporate-beanstalk#/

Jack and the Corporate Beanstalk
An anti-Corporate Puppet Music Spectacle!

Jack and the Corporate Beanstalk is our latest outreach attempt to educate and excite the 99% about taking back power from the 1%. A workshop version was performed at the Greenpoint Theatre Festival & the full length version wil premiere at The NYC International Fringe Festival during August as well as at Bread and Puppet Theater in Septemebr, and many street corners throughout New York City.


Summary: Out of work Jack goes to college to get some magic beans and grow a beanstalk to visit the Giant Job Creator in the sky -but once Jack is saddled with debt they're still at the mercy of the Corporate Giant! In this puppet music spectacle, the audience has to get involved and help Jack take back the Golden Goose for the 99%!

$25 USD
Joseph Therrien
We'll give you a shout out on facebook or twitter for helping bring down the corporate giants!
10 out of 99 claimed

$100 USD
tour of the puppet studio
A tour of the secret puppet lair, a place where the OWS puppet guild has made hundreds of puppets over the last 8 months.
0 out of 99 claimed


$500 USD
your own revolutionary puppet
One puppet made for your cause designed and built by the hard working members of the Puppet Guild.
1 claimed
Ships Worldwide

http://www.wbur.org/artery/2016/02/16/bread-puppet-oscar

When Vermont’s Bread and Puppet Theater brought its show “The Seditious Conspiracy Theater Presents: A Monument to the Political Prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera” to New York’s Theater for the New City last December, a woman arrived at the opening night with a letter from Lopez Rivera himself and read it aloud to the crowd before the show.

“I would like to thank the members of the Bread and Puppet Theater for its solidarity with the campaign for my excarceration,” Lopez Rivera wrote. “I'm extremely grateful for the support you're giving me and for all the support you have given to just and noble causes. … Puerto Ricans, who have struggled for the independence and sovereignty of our beloved homeland, have a good appreciation of how important compassion and solidarity are to keep the spirits strong and hopes alive especially when we have had to face oppression, criminalization and imprisonment. I believe no one should accept colonialism no matter where it exists or who practices it, because it's a crime against humanity.”

“We weren’t anticipating it,” puppeteer Joe Therrien says. “That was incredible. We were all just backstage. … It felt really personal to me.”

Bread and Puppet Theater, which was founded by Peter Schumann in New York in 1963, is known for its tradition of distributing fresh baked bread free to audiences at the end of performances; its monumental, mythic papier-mâché puppets; and its participation in street protests against the Vietnam War, nuclear weapons, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, American torture. The company was also one of the landmark New York experimental theaters of the 1960s—and continues to elaborate its signature blend of vanguard performance, expressionist dance and folk pageantry.

“Peter has said the point [of this show] is to bring enough attention to it that [President] Obama will pardon him before he gets out of office,” Therrien says. “We didn’t expect to hear from him [Lopez Rivera].”

Bread and Puppet has long critiqued the problems of the world. But often the issues can seem big and abstract, impenetrable or far away. So the shows become as much about inspiring people not to give up hope as they are about protest. But the Oscar Lopez Rivera show has more specific, concrete, immediate aims. Could this play—which the company will perform at Massachusetts College of Art and Design’s Tower Auditorium in Boston at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, Feb. 17 to 20, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 21—actually help win a presidential pardon for Lopez Rivera?

bless joe's heart

 

[Resident_UA]

I mean, it's just a completely false equivalency in my opinion. Not even Rick Santorum or Michelle Bachman support replacing the President and Congress with the clergy. Yes, conservative Muslims who've lived in the US for generations are fine, but that's not who Bill is talking about.

It is false equivalency for you because you don't actually bother to learn what people actually want. Also what can Bill say about people that he doesn't know anything about except for one poll that he keeps talking about? He doesn't know anything about their culture, about their actual beliefs and about action they would take when actually confronted with moral dilemma. I'm not offended by his criticism of Islam, I'm offended by his ignorance when it comes to understanding other cultures.

And I should probably clarify that I don't think that understanding other culture would justify all the prejudices which that culture carries.

 

[Syncytia]

@VaughnHillyard
Sheriff Joe Arpaio, surrogate for Trump, referred for criminal contempt for defying court orders on racial profiling

I hope this gets to trial quick and destroys him in the election. Polls are tight and his popularity here has been slowly declining, thank god. It was very close in 2012.

 

[dramatis]

FFXIII spoilers below, but this is one of the five worst cutscenes I've seen in my life.

Did you ever get to the end of 13?

She was a public defender at one point and defended someone accused of of child molestation or something.

Then she was asked about the case, and talked about how they made the dude take a polygraph test, even though everyone knew they were bullshit and couldn't be used, but the dude passed anyways (he pleaded guilty).

Point being, she was laughing about how stupid lie detector tests are, and anyone who hates her now say she was laughing because she got a pedo off or something.

That wasn't why she laughed in the interview. It had to do with a piece of evidence (underwear) that the lab completely ballsed up and sent out of the lab with a giant hole in it where the evidence was supposed to be.

 

[Iolo]

Well did the dude get pardoned, and if not, what the fuck is POTUS still doing on vacation?

Also if anyone of means is listening, I would not necessarily mind a $500 revolutionary puppet.

 

[CoffeeJanitor]

I don't think lecturing someone about their morals really works. All it does is make the person who is lecturing feel morally superior. And like I said, there is a negative side effect in that you will just piss the other side off and put you in an antagonistic relationship with those nations leaders and the citizens of that country.

Using less direct means like globalization, culture, ideas, economic growth, etc. are far more effective ways because all those things help the people change themselves instead of forcing them or telling them to change.

The relative issue w/ conservative Muslims vs Christians is probably because the religion holds less power here, and because you aren't really within its sphere of influence.

Completely agree with both of these

Surround people with acceptance and culture and support liberal values and these people and cultures will move toward the future.

At least, that's a start

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

Did you ever get to the end of 13?

I did, the ending is nearly as bad, it's true. However, deus ex machina bothers me somewhat less than a character abandoning their philosophy on a drop of a hat.

More FFXIII spoilers:




I fucking love that they try to kill one of their gods even though... killing him/her will kill everyone in the world. And the gods are trying to kill everyone in the world because maybe their mom/dad will come back if they kill enough people?

 

[benjipwns]

This is why he couldn't help save lives in Louisiana:
http://radaronline.com/videos/malia-obama-smoking-pot-claims-twerking-video-dad-barack-reaction/

The party’s over for Malia Obama! After RadarOnline.com released the shocking video of an eyewitness accusing President Obama‘s 18-year-old daughter of smoking pot, furious Barack confronted the teen on their summer vacation, said a source.

The source said that Barack went into crisis mode after the “First Wild Child” had to be hauled out of a house party on Martha’s Vineyard — just before local cops went in for a raid!

Sgt. Skip Manter with the West Tisbury Police Department confirmed that neighbors “complained about noise.”

Malia, 18, was hurried out of the rowdy bash by Secret Service right before police arrived.

“This is the president’s worst nightmare!” a source told Radar. “The end of his term is in sight — and the carefully crafted image of a world-beating family is unraveling right before his eyes!

“I’m sure he had some choice words for his daughter during that walk they took” after the party, said the source.

As Radar previously reported, a series of bombshell photos and videos surfaced after Malia was caught partying it up at the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago on July 31.

The shocking images showed Malia, who is currently taking a “gap year” before entering Harvard in 2017, smoking a suspicious cigarette, exposing herself and twerking.

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

Rex Ryan endorsed Trump and now every player on the Bills is either suspended or injured.

Don't endorse Donald Trump.

 

[Retro]

Maddow with these 15 minute preambles for whatever she wants to talk about for the night. The topic is important, but damn.

I'm in the camp that actually likes the long history lessons, though the one tonight certainly was roundabout. It's very easy to say "Trump's new ad is connected to an anti-immigrant think tank founded by a eugenicist", but it's another to provide the background, show the "Swarm" ad, etc. and give some context to it.

One of the best she ever did was covering the split between the Bush family and the Rockefeller republicans and how Eagle Forum and all that came about. It was right after Phyllis Schlafly gave her endorsement to Trump.

Might just be the history geek in me though.

 

[studyguy]

This is why he couldn't help save lives in Louisiana:
http://radaronline.com/videos/malia-obama-smoking-pot-claims-twerking-video-dad-barack-reaction/

First Wild Child is pretty good.

What is Trump even doing other than doing the whole 'look at shit and take photos then tweet' tour anyway?

 

[PlayALLtheGames]

Watched her in some interviews and I see Kellyanne Conway is basically responsible for apologizing on behalf of Trump; trying to convince people he understands why what he said was wrong.

What a shitty job.

 

[ampere]

i've done nba analytics for 15 years or so

whaaaaat, had no idea. I did figure you had some sort of poly-sci degree

And I don't think you're really "tesseracting", his posts were just meme shitposts in garbled english

i won't go because i don't want to accidentally wind up on the campaign staff due to facetious posts i've made on GAF

nice

 

[Skiptastic]

Watched her in some interviews and I see Kellyanne Conway is basically responsible for apologizing on behalf of Trump; trying to convince people he understands why what he said was wrong.

What a shitty job.

She is just helping out her old boss and letting Mike Pence take a break from doing that exact job.

 

[User 463088]

Nm didn't sense make sorry

 

[royalan]

Just watched Joy's interview with that annoying Trump supporter.

THAT IS HOW YOU DO IT.

Don't let them spit nonsense, and don't let them avoid questions without calling them out.

BRAVO

 

[Dominican Power]

Just watched Joy's interview with that annoying Trump supporter.

THAT IS HOW YOU DO IT.

Don't let them spit nonsense, and don't let them avoid questions without calling them out.

BRAVO

Jack Kingston is a piece of shit and a fucking idiot that can't argue for the life of him. All these Trump surrogates are a bunch of fucking trolls. Joy Reid is one of the best on MSNBC.

 

[AntraxSuicide]

See, this post is why benji is great even though most of the time he's trolling and he doesn't even bother to argue about the fundamental legitimacy of the state any more.

I think this is more or less accurate. The term "alt-right" only exists because some people noticed a bunch of super racist and sexist people coming out of 4chan and "crazy reactionaries who organize on anime pornography message boards" sounded too dumb to do hot takes on.

If you want to talk about the alt-left you need to define what you think the distinctive characteristics of an "alt" political group is first. (If you asked me, I'd say the closest we got to an alt-left is Occupy Wall Street, especially near the end when all the democratic meetings got taken over by meth addicts.)

But ultimately like fifty years ago the "alt-right" was just "the right." The only reason they're the alt-right now is that they lost the culture war and their beliefs are no longer considered socially acceptable.

The closest I could get to a coherent definition is based on the bold, which I think is spot on. I'd say that "alt" really only defines a subgroup that throws off political capital that could be gained from "playing the game" through the use of dog-whistles and other wink-wink-nudge-nudge moves. The alt-right is fundamentally opposed to the Southern Strategy, not on actual content, but in delivery. They don't want to use coded language, they want parades. They don't want Columbus Day changed to a Native holiday, they want it to be European Appreciation Day. Etc....

An alt-left would have to be some group that decided to get rid of the coded language of the Democrats, of which there isn't much, since the Dems generally believe what they push. Like, in theory, the alt-left would be a group of people loudly campaigning on a massively Communist platform; real "death of capitalism and wealth" stuff here. But that would only be "alt" if such a group was actually a subgroup of the American Left, which is represented by Democrats. The thing is that those groups do exist, but they aren't part of the Democratic Party (for the most part) since the Dems generally support the positions they claim to support in the language they use to support it.

Alt-right groups are important to study because they do participate in our electoral system (as in, they recognize that our system supports 2 parties and have moved to take one of them over). Alt-left groups exist, but none of them are in any capacity to move on the position that the Dems have.

Also, pigeon, for some reason, I apply tone to your posts in a way that I don't do to everyone else, and it's always based on your avatar. You used to be smug all the time with PRyanPumpingIron.jpg but now I keep picturing your posts like a crazy Ted Cruz running into the room to say stuff.