Xan wrote: ↑Tue Jun 18, 2019 8:57 pm
I think Moda is saying that the phenomenon of people blaming things outside their control for things going wrong in their lives is not unique to one side of the proverbial aisle. As far as how prevalent it is one place versus another, I don't know. Can anybody come up with something approaching hard numbers?
I think Moda would agree (not to speak for you!) that there are knuckle-dragging perma-supporters on both sides of the aisle as well. He was asking whether flyingpylon's suggestion applied to the pro-Trump ones.
There's no need to pile on Moda, and Moda probably could be a little better about being less abrasive. Let's stay a place where people who disagree can discuss things reasonably rather than another echo chamber.
I don't feel piled on, but thanks for moderating the room a bit. I do lay on a heavy-ish level of snark atop my arguments & assertions, so I understand the distaste to it. That-said, the implicit leftward-directed ire around here carries so much implicit ad-hom and personal-attack garble that I don't mind coming righto out with it.
While I tend to use "knuckle-dragging" almost entirely towards the right, it's more out of a will for some good snark-branding than an attempt to assert they're all dumber than dems/libruls, and I reserve terms for the left more aligned with my issues with them, such as virtue-signalling, willingness to be piss-poor on anti-war or civil libertarian stuff when it suits their tribal instincts, corporate/establishment, SJW-obsession or commie wings get a heaping of praise. Those don't lend themselves as well to snarky names, but my favs are feminazi, "militant leftist," commie, etc. Like I said weak sauce but for now I insist on keeping knuckle-dragging squarely on "the right" as it just works too well. If it helps anyone to know where my alignments are, I'd probably vote for most dems before Trump, but my top picks are Tulsi Gabbard & Andrew Yang, with Bernie bringing up the rear mostly out of being a genuine dude and him being solid on civil libertarianism and foreign policy (though he doesn't champion those issues, the Presidency naturally tilts itself very heavily towards those being important, as he's in so much direct control). Bernie's a bit fast and loose on economics, but he's not king, he's president.
But I'd be preaching to the choir on this forum if I dogged on "the left" constantly. It's such a huge crutch for "the right" and their terrible ideas and/or swampy pragmatism just to "own the libs" it's sickening. If I have to point out some basic lack of balanced-thought facts around here (such as that the left and right are both utterly dogged by fowl people, terrible ideas, astonishing corruption, childish behavior, and horseshit critical thinking skills), then that's where my efforts are best placed in political discussion here.
Lastly, I'd like to point out (and I'd be curious to see if people agree with me), in my family, personal and professional life, I see
very little correlation between the quality of person you are as a human and your politics. Sure there are certain issues that tend to bring out the shit-head wing of both sides of the political spectrum, but for the most some of the best people I know (and people I'm quite sure most here would say are fantastic human-beings) are both of the "right" and "left" politically. Similarly, some of the sketchiest shit-balls I know are, similarly, of both the "right" and "left."
Do people here really see a high correlation between political leanings and quality of human in their personal lives? Maddy appears to. I just don't see it. I know plenty of very successful and happy millennials, and plenty of utterly lost and bitter and utter-failure baby-boomers. Even though I insist that as a generation the only good thing Boomers gave us was classic rock music as they drove our country like a rental car, I think many of them are personally very kind, thoughtful, responsible, praiseworthy people, and plenty of them (again) are conservatives... plenty are liberals.
Statistics seem to also bear this out (bare this out??). When you look at city vs country, blue states vs red states, I see very little correlation between politics and quality of people, if perhaps a slight benefit to "the left," though I could see someone argue (at-most) a slight benefit to "the right."
Anyway this is probably a post for another thread (moderators? you know I'm not moving it... I can't even size my pics right), but I am baffled at how some folks are willing to levy very personal stakes on what are political questions. Yes I realize "knuckle-dragging" seems to do the same, but that was meant as a very political-oriented insult, not personal.
To pull outside the political box a bit, there are quite a few amazing people that I know (thankfully including my GF) who are simply NOT political, but if you press them they could give you an opinion you disagree with vehemently, but who really cares that sweet aunt Mable isn't a perfect civil libertarian on the drug war because you asked her sternly if black-tar heroin should be sold on her street corner and she nervously said no.