2020 US Election

  On 11/6/2020 at 3:10 PM, randomsummer said:

My totally uninformed and naïve opinion is that it could be due to the rise of the internet and social media, which has been used to dupe previous non-participants into going right, and right-leaning into going further right, primarily because conservatives tend to be less educated and able to critically digest all of the information being thrown at them nowadays compared to liberal or left-leaning people who are typically more critical thinkers.

Probably internet has something to do with it but I think that leftist politics becoming more focused on identity and liberal values instead of class struggle, worker's rights, economic justice and other old leftist values, and the middle class takeover of left leaning parties has resulted in the working class and the lower middle class abandoning them.

See f.e. Tony Blair's New Labour starting from mid-90s.

  On 11/6/2020 at 3:34 PM, cwmbrancity said:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ouroboros

Good analogy for it methinks

I just think people instinctively follow the bully. Anyone with a disregard for truth or empathy finds the bully appealing to get behind. Narcissists. Lackeys. Simpletons. Abdicate responsibility. Bullies generally appear to get their way and wield influence, so maybe some survival genetic trait going on there, makes them resemble ‘natural’ leaders. Biological, social, privilege and mentality aspiration. We’re animals afterall.

  On 11/6/2020 at 3:39 PM, Roo said:

I just think people instinctively follow the bully. Anyone with a disregard for truth or empathy finds the bully appealing to get behind. Narcissists. Lackeys. Simpletons. Abdicate responsibility. Bullies generally appear to get their way and wield influence, so maybe some survival genetic trait going on there, makes them resemble ‘natural’ leaders. Biological, social, privilege and mentality.

I think that's about right. There seem to be a lot of male Trump supporters who think he's "alpha" or "macho" because he talks big. But where the rubber meets the road he's a wet noodle. Incompetent, cowardly and weak. All bark and no bite.

  On 11/6/2020 at 3:10 PM, randomsummer said:

My totally uninformed and naïve opinion is that it could be due to the rise of the internet and social media, which has been used to dupe previous non-participants into going right, and right-leaning into going further right, primarily because conservatives tend to be less educated and able to critically digest all of the information being thrown at them nowadays compared to liberal or left-leaning people who are typically more critical thinkers.

New media definitely plays a role. In case of Europe one big factor was the 2015 refugee wave that caused an administrative crisis and spurred xenophobia. It played into the hands of right-wing populists perfectly. It would help if certain powers stopped messing around in the Middle East and cause more refugee waves.

  On 11/6/2020 at 3:00 PM, dingformung said:

All these autocrats and wannabe autocrats that have been able to get into power all over Europe lately (especially in the East) are accepted by Western Europe because they in return help the conservatives to stay in power. We even give these systems cute names like "illiberal democracy" instead of calling them what they are: autocracies.

It's more complicated than that. These people came to power by different reasons.
First, I believe, is the intellectual and statecraft vacuum that has been left gaping wide because people of (trully) elite pedigree are simply not interested in becoming politicians anymore. And even if they do, dealing with the established "deep-state" druids can make a life for a decent and competent leader very hard and work nearly impossible. It's the erosion of discourse, disinformation, populism, always centered around the lowest common denominator, stained by fabricated scandals and institutionalized obstruction. Basically it's a mad house.
Second, it's the systematic subduction of media and democratic safety-locks. There is not a single independent, non-party oversight, meaning the legislative branches are led by party henchmen, incompetent liars and manipulators, put in those positions to solidify the far-right party's reign, and making its leaders immune to prosecution.
Only in Third, the satellite EU countries (ours included) are set up to have these autocratic fanboys because it's easier to control the interests of the big players. In case of Germany and Austria, to make Slovenia a buffer state to control the influx of middle-east refugees. And in the case of USA, to secure the global agenda of making everything privatized. It is easier to achieve this by supporting a power-hungry demagogue, who is promising well-being to uneducated and brain-washed masses, who don't realize they are being raped in their asses in the long run.
 

  Quote

The far-right and moderate conservatives are in the same EU party. Orbán, Janša and Merkel are in the same party. It's a nasty collaboration between center and far-right. The EVP really isn't helping Europe at all. This of course, doesn't explain why people keep voting for them. Partly to blame is of course the media which has its own interests, but I really don't know what this global shift to the right is all about.

The collaboration you're speaking of is existing because our autocratic leaders are playing a smart game. On the outside, they appease the democratic norms ("constructive" EU alignment), suck up to everyone who have the power to slap them on their hands. American top-level visit comes only to lay out the agenda and give instructions, they don't care how it is achieved, as long as the end-goal is according to their plans. Such environment is bursting with far-right scum.

  On 11/6/2020 at 3:34 PM, zkom said:

Probably internet has something to do with it but I think that leftist politics becoming more focused on identity and liberal values instead of class struggle, worker's rights, economic justice and other old leftist values, and the middle class takeover of left leaning parties has resulted in the working class and the lower middle class abandoning them.

See f.e. Tony Blair's New Labour starting from mid-90s.

Yes, agree. Gender-sensitive language seems to be more of a concern these days than good ideas for a welfare state that can deal with the upcoming transformation of the job market as a result of digitalisation and automatisation. The left is also pretty good at pointing out what is going wrong right now but often fails to offer perspectives and visions for a needed political/economic/societal transformation.

  On 11/6/2020 at 3:08 PM, sweepstakes said:

Biden just took the lead in PA. 538 id saying Trump's chances for recovery there are infinitesimal and it's just a matter of time before it's called.

  On 11/6/2020 at 3:08 PM, sweepstakes said:

Biden just took the lead in PA. 538 id saying Trump's chances for recovery there are infinitesimal and it's just a matter of time before it's called.

proud boys need to "stand back and stand by"

  On 11/6/2020 at 4:34 PM, Nebraska said:

 

got a bottle of whiskey and a smoke on the ready. just waiting for the green light

Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk
 

 

Expand  

lol, partner and i opened a bottle of wine on election night.. drinking accelerated when florida was called.. we both ended up passing out with npr on the speakers.  woke up around 2am and checked for results, which were identical to earlier in the night.  i can only imagine there are some people who have spent this whole week in some sort of long-drawn-out bender / daze

  On 11/5/2020 at 1:20 AM, ignatius said:

omg someone put him out of his misery

 

Expand  

I love how bored everyone is. "Let the baby have his temper tantrum".

Latest batch of votes from AZ goes 52/48 for Trump/Biden.  However, going into this batch Trump had to avg. 59/41 split to earn a tie.

Trump now has to avg. 63/37 in the remaining ballots to tie.  Becoming increasingly unlikely, but not impossible that Trump can gain enough in AZ.

President Biden needs to seize power immediately and crush these crying dogs

Goddamn will they just call it already this can't be doing anyone's blood pressure any good.

Also I know it's been pointed out many times, but it shouldn't be this agonisingly close when Biden has FOUR MILLION more votes than the other guy.

this election has allowed me to know what a sample feels like when it's time stretched

  On 11/6/2020 at 6:50 PM, danshoebridge said:

Goddamn will they just call it already this can't be doing anyone's blood pressure any good.
 

Let's go over to Donald Trump's house and shit in his face

  On 11/6/2020 at 3:34 PM, zkom said:

Probably internet has something to do with it but I think that leftist politics becoming more focused on identity and liberal values instead of class struggle, worker's rights, economic justice and other old leftist values, and the middle class takeover of left leaning parties has resulted in the working class and the lower middle class abandoning them.

See f.e. Tony Blair's New Labour starting from mid-90s.

That's an over simplification that doesn't ring completely true for the UK.  Yes, the new clause 4 marked a shift to the right for New Labour, but there'd been attempts within the party to re-draft it for the previous 40 years.  The adoption of third way politics was largely a rebalancing between the social democratic and the democratic socialist tendencies of the party, that had always been there, and a mish mash of thatcherite/liberal/socially conservative policies sprinkled over the top that have always appealed to a big section of the British working class in any case. 

The whole identity politics thing is the bastard child of American politics, media, academia and the unique racial history of the country that has steadily been imported in a UK specific form by the right as culture war politics have proven effective.  You can blame Tony Blair for a lot of things but you can't really blame him for that.  One of the stupidest things Corbyn did was to engage with this i.e. calls for an inquiry into colonialism had as prominent a place in the last manifesto as housing policy.  But this position was coming from his and party instincts as an old labour internationalist fighting for the underdog (as long as they're not jews obv) refracted through the lens of having a thick as pig shit apologist like Seamus Milne as your main adviser, as much as the identity politics of the younger/student side of the party which again for obvious reasons will always find themselves outside of the Overton window.  It's why Keir Starmer is dodging the culture war as far as possible, it's a battle he can't win i.e. see his responses to the BLM protests and toppling of statues in the UK.          

  On 11/6/2020 at 7:12 PM, Braintree said:

Let's go over to Donald Trump's house and shit in his face

  On 11/6/2020 at 3:01 PM, zero said:

MAGA cultists better start praying to witch doctors, or cthulhu, or something for some cosmic intervention here... maybe if they start chanting "deus ex machina," a zombified Herman Cain will show up and burn down the vote counting buildings.

"please Jah, send us the power of the Cain Train to crush this election, and let our boi mister ronald trump win with his love."

Expand  

  On 11/6/2020 at 7:50 PM, ignatius said:

Expand  

what in the actual fuck... i mean sure, trumpism is a cult, but this is genuinely disturbing.

I LOVE THE SMELL OF NAPALM IN THE MORNING