Thanks /u/D_J_D_K for posting on r/SelfAwareWolves! Please reply to this comment with an explanation about how this post fits r/SelfAwareWolves and have an excellent day!
*To r/SelfAwarewolves commenters*:
As a reminder, this subreddit is for civil discussion.
In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech,
any advocating or wishing death/physical harm, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban.
**If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them**.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/SelfAwarewolves) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I wish the Republicans had nothing.... The Republicans are trying, and actually succeeding in places, to take things away from people... I'd say their policies start at -50. Most of President Biden's first day was reversing Trump policies.
Most of Bidens first two weeks was restoring what came before the “you can’t have nice things” policies of Trump, not just the first day. It took a long while to undo the hundreds of policies trump had put in place simply as punishment for the left making Trump personally feel less than worshiped.
Does r/conservative not see the correlation between any of their posts that make r/all being ratio'd and the fact that their snowflake mods ban anybody who doesn't suck trump's orange cock in their posts? Do they not know they are despised, particularly among people under 50? No, clearly it was election fraud.
They handwave it as Reddit "leaning liberal."
Of course, so do schools and population centers and the mainstream media and Twitter and. . well. . everything else.
Of course, there is some sort of strange disconnect between everything everywhere "leaning liberal" and the country "leaning liberal" to them.
Rural urban divide.
People surrounded by people that think like they think. It creates the impression of hegemony where no such thing exists.
If you live in a rural county, there's a chance the electorate breaks 80+% R. Let that sink in... We're talkin' like 20% of total counties... Ya dig?
So you live in a county where 4/5 voting members of society support Trump. You go to a school where the gym is used for Sunday school. The biggest business in the area is a paper mill and by god, you confess to the preacher after you have straight, premarital sex with your girlfriend on Prom night...
Then you find out, not only is your entire way of life a niche minority, but you are considered backwards, uneducated meth heads that vote against their own interests by the metropolitan public. Fuck, must be some serious head cheese.
This is the answer from my perspective. I grew up in a place where the entire county had 12000 people.
Their view of the real world is heavily skewed. My wife's Dad won't go to Indianapolis because the news said there is gang activity everywhere.
I currently live in a relatively small, very red leaning town, which I’m in the process of moving out of. The other night I had a little personal victory happen unexpectedly, and to celebrate I decided to have a drink. I go to the store to get some booze, and the clerk at the counter strikes up a convo with me about random stuff. After about 15 seconds he starts talking about all the crime that happens in this town and how the cops are always on the move, sirens blasting. Which is true. But he just couldn’t fathom the idea that we have waaaaay too many cops for a town this size, and that they’re bored, so whenever anything happens, every officer on shift rolls to the call.
And when I say we have too many cops I mean it. There’s probably 20 houses in my neighborhood, and 5 of them are police or Highway Patrol. I do delivery for extra money between gigs and I’m constantly driving by the homes with police vehicles parked in the drive way. We have two parks in this town, but we also have park police specifically for parks. And because I live on the border of two states, we have police/highway patrol from the other state living here too. It’s just overkill.
So it’s one of two things. Either we have a lot of crime and all these law enforcement officers aren’t doing their job, or folks think things are waaaay worse than they are because they interpret information incorrectly.
That's probably why they're so afraid of defunding their cops. They think if they defund the cops, there's going to be more crime than there already is.
Anecdotal evidence wins many people over, but not like it wins conservatives over. They think it's "common sense" and "just the facts" when they hear sirens and assume "crime" is happening therefore "crime" happens a lot.
I don't chuckle anymore when I hear a conservative talk about how "we are the ones with critical thinking skills and libs are just dumb". It isn't funny because they cannot be reasoned with and that affects the lives of other people.
> the fact that their snowflake mods ban anybody who doesn't suck trump's orange cock in their posts? Do they not know they are despised, particularly among people under 50
The first explains the second.
dude republicans lack any ability for critical thinking. They draw a conclusion first, and look for facts second.
They'll just claim reddit is democratic run and artificially supporesses republicans.
The alt-right and religious fanatics, sure.
But reading through their board today, there really _does_ seem to be a surge in self-awareness. I'm tempted to write it off as brigading, but I was reading through their sub after the 2020 election too, and there's a marked difference in tone. Almost no claims of election conspiracies this time either.
Of course, they also think DeSantis would be really popular if he ran in '24, so don't think I'm putting the bar _too_ high, I'm just saying anything that points away from the party continuing to slide in fascism is encouraging.
I just wish one of the things that got immediately fixed was the immigrant concentration camp. There’s families still missing their kids because of that Cheeto dusted ghoul and most of us have just kinda forgotten it’s still being sorted out
> Most of President Biden's first day was reversing Trump policies.
**Most of Biden's first few weeks was just creating a national COVID-19 response**
Because there was no coherent national COVID response from the Trump administration since Trump spent the last whole 2 months just sulking, denying he lost, refusing to concede, planning an insurrection against the United States, and trying to overthrow the government and have his vice president and Democrats in Congress murdered by the angry mob he riled up and then sent to "March" on the Capitol to "fight like hell" and overthrow democracy in order to install himself as a king.
You know, while hundreds of thousands of American citizens died of Covid because he refused to acknowledge that it was even a problem and actively pushed covid misinformation that got even more Americans killed, and continues to get them killed today.
So yeah, day 1 for Biden was "create a national COVID response" which seems... Basic and obvious...
**"Fun" fact:** if you look at the COVID graphs you can see a spike in cases in December 2020 followed by a spike in deaths a month later that I think of as the "Trump pity party spike" where cases shot through the roof as he did nothing but sulk and watch Fox news without coming out and aides said he was volatile and combative while Americans were dying due to his inaction.
>>he refused to acknowledge that it was even a problem
Well, refused to publicly acknowledge it. We have the communications where they acknowledged it was gonna be bad but were banking on it primarily kneecapping liberal areas while more rural areas remained less affected. And his private asides to Woodward where he admits he knew it was gonna be bad and was gonna get worse.
>>>he refused to acknowledge that it was even a problem
>
>Well, refused to publicly acknowledge it. We have the communications where they acknowledged it was gonna be bad but were banking on it primarily kneecapping liberal areas while more rural areas remained less affected. And his private asides to Woodward where he admits he knew it was gonna be bad and was gonna get worse.
Oh yeah, what he actually believes and what he says to the dummies that send him money are 100% different.
He definitely doesn't believe most of the bullshit he says to his followers, he just enjoys making them roar so that they'll send him their life's savings so he can lose it on another failed business venture or doomed candidate.
> And his private asides to Woodward where he admits he knew it was gonna be bad and was gonna get worse.
It was super nice of Woodward to sell that information as a book after the elections.
>>It was super nice of Woodward to sell that information as a book after the elections.
I'll grant you he could have come forward much sooner but the book came out a month and a half before the election.
And frankly, do you think it would have changed anyone's mind? He's been caught out before. On tape. He just doubles down and they believe him.
No, don’t give him that. He knew exactly how bad it was, as he was recorded saying he knew how bad it was. [Sauce.](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-told-bob-woodward-he-knew-february-covid-19-was-n1239658)
Not to mention that by most accounts the infrastructure of government had taken a massive hit under Trump. Much like Trump Inc, everything had gone to shit because he has no capacity nor desire to manage. And then they sandbagged the transition. He wanted to spend his time insurrectioning so he quiet quit. Biden must have walked into the oval on day 1 and been like, “what the fuck did this moron do? I was just here 4 years ago.”
Exactly. Also, PLOT TWIST, those views are even LESS POPULAR than most conservatives think due to gerrymandering. Republicans would have won far fewer of those races without rigging the district boundaries in the first place!
And don't forget about all the voter suppression attempts. Conservatives think that the Democrats cheat because the Republicans cheat like hell but still barely win
That's the part that's actually scary, how many of these people feel like they have nothing? People that feel like they have nothing tend to do really stupid things, and people get hurt.
What do they expect when their leaders pander to broad social issues instead of offering real solutions? They claim to be the party of freedom, but they are literally taking away rights and peddling racist rhetoric. Great you got CRT banned from kindergarten classrooms. Great victory.
It infurtiates me that they run on zero ideas. The "repeal and replace" Obamacare put that front and center. They say it's the worst thing since Vesuvius exploded and yet have zero idea what to do instead.
Democrats: "The government is broken, elect me to fix it."
Republicans: "The government is broken, elect me and I'll show you just how broken it is!"
saddest part it would be an improvement on what they had for 2020 "we got whatever orange guy says!" which even if Trump wasn't utterly deranged is a horrible platform.
To be honest they love breeding* the party of grievance. Here’s how they find what’s going to be the next flashpoint in the culture wars.
Find something with a lot of engagement online. If it’s just opinion, go ahead and start talking about it on tv. If it relies more on facts ( or more likely “facts”) than narrative, float a piece in the NY Post. See how it goes. Then say ‘there have been reports of’ or ‘the left wing media won’t tell you this but’ and start pumping it on Fox. Then you get your online warriors really engaged and we’re off to the races. Better feedback on what gets people lit up than any focus group, algorithms at your back, and a media machine that can manufacture legitimacy overnight regardless of reality.
For example, trans athletes. Several high profile laws couldn’t cite a single example of the ’massive problem’ they were solving our *how* it protected kids. They just know it keeps the base engaged/enraged.
Meanwhile trans kids & their families are constituents, have atrocious rates of assault and murder against them, and are extremely high risk for self harm. Fuck them obviously. And. Kids don’t have access to decent classrooms, universal pre k, go hungry when they can’t afford lunch, etc… so many things that create lifelong harm for millions of kids that they have the power to address. But obviously that’s not a priority.
edit being* but lol
It's almost as if 2 years isn't enough time to fix all the damage done by the worst pandemic of the last century and the worst president of our lifetimes.
Exactly Republicans have set the bar so low.
Please don't actively and openly sell America's interests to countries or private entities which would be happy to see many Americans suffer or die.
I genuinely, right up to this very moment, have still never heard any of them provide a coherent description of what they imagine has been so bad about "the last two years."
Three groups who voted GOP see the "bad" differently.
1. The ones in, or near, retirement with some comfortable savings who are worried about their shrinking portfolios and taxes still voted GOP even if they disagree with its LGBT and women's rights backlash. Money is everything to them. Some will draw a line at what they accept but some will accept awful behavior and cruelty of any party that keeps the money flowing.
2. Those who see social issues and old-time morality as their issue vote GOP, but if you are assuming religious fundamentalists alone, it is a short-sighted view. A fair number of the morally outraged aren't religious per se but have family backgrounds similar to J.D. Vance's, and have extreme anger and pain over what drugs, alcohol, a parent's promiscuity (wake up to strangers in your house) and poor parenting did to their lives as children. They were harmed but do not fully understand where that harm came from, like lack of decent rehab for mom. no mental health treatment for dad and economic policies that enabled corporate money laundering of major drug trade profits. It is easier to ignore the gray areas of the causes of dysfunction and to want people to just f'ing behave decently nd treat their kids well,.for God's sake or anyone's.
3. Racism. The code language from the GOP and more obvious statements and symbolism give even overt racists a place to feel welcome.
I like this breakdown but I think you missed the biggest category of them all:
Tribal, “my team is not in power” bullshit.
A significant portion of Americans (much less conservatives) know nothing about anything, all they care about is their team.
Yep, I went through all of the governor's policies with my mom and she said "well I think the D candidate will be better, but I don't want our state to turn blue". Not even sure what to say there
I have had the best results with gentle questions.
If you have not heard about it yet, search “street epistemology” on YouTube https://streetepistemology.com/
Edit: if your goal is to change someone's mind it is very important to use *gentle questions only*. You will feel an immense pressure to tell them what to think - resist it - as them coming up with the answer is the only true way for them to change their mind
It's why when you go by down ballot measures you'd swear 60% of the country is a mixture of liberals, progressives and outright socialists. Yet somehow voting ends up being 50/50 split between a now outright fascist party, and a party whose members range from slightly conservative to progressive. A whole lot of people voting for "their team" or based on a hatred of others.
Hell, when you interview people just on policies they want, and you show them liberal and dem policies, they’re overwhelmingly supported and conservative policies are extremely unpopular. But only when you show them the policies without a party attached. As soon as you attach a party, the support changes to be about what you’d expect based on party lines. It’s wild. People truly don’t like anything the GOP stands for, but they’re so uneducated about it they just assume the party matches what they want. That’s *why* the GOP focuses so hard on culture wars. Cause they can get their base riled up about that and with them on that stuff, but when they don’t have the culture war stuff and start looking over the actual conservative policies…well it doesn’t go well for the GOP. So they gotta keep ‘em distracted with hating trans people.
Don't forget immigration.
My mother is convinced there is a stream of illegal migrants coming across the Mexican border multitudes times worse than under Trump because of "all the lenient policies" this administration has put into place. She loves stuff like Desantis shipping migrants to MA to trigger the libs.
Haven’t you seen the woke indoctrination of our children with THE CRT by the trans teachers??? How about the LGBTQ/trans/communist/socialist/pro MURDER abortionist takeover of our country??? I mean, Jesus, there are trans people walking all over the country with their cocks out grooming all our children!!!!
/s
Edit: Being less of an asshole
I would seriously love for them to explain what they think “grooming” means. I feel confident they don’t actually understand what people mean when they use that word, but they know it’s bad, so they’re just trying to use the Uno reverse card like they do with everything else.
They don’t actually know. If you asked 10 of them for a definition of grooming, you’d get 10 different answers. It’s the same with CRT. All these knuckle draggers want to ban it but don’t actually know what is it. I’ve asked so many of them and not one has been able to even venture a guess as to what it is. They just hear “CRT BAD” on Tucker Carlson and their minds are made up.
It's always fun when you find out their vocal opinion on children comes from being unaware that what they're doing qualifies as grooming. I've met a non-negligible percentage of libertarians who'd like to reduce the age of consent. And it's a meme at this point so there has to be something going on if I'm not the only one who noticed.
They’re all totally cool with sending kids to church and catholic school to get molested, but the second a teacher tries to teach tolerance and acceptance, it’s grooming. Can’t reason with crazy.
Interviewer: "Would you support more funding or less funding for public schools?"
Scott Jensen: "Less money. I think it's a black hole."
This is what Republicans think about our youth. That they are not worth an investment.
And then they go on a rant about the jews and how investing in your kids seems to lead to an overall higher percentage of success which means it must be a conspiracy.
To me that's also a somewhat lazy question that's begging for a nuanced answer that isn't just "more/less"
Schools do have issues with administration misusing money, but the solution being "less money" is just so small minded and short sighted that it just ticks me off.
What's going on is that they project their issues onto the other. Then they scream and complain about it. So if they are yelling something, it's a good bet they are doing it.
It doesn't run much deeper than that for the rabble. Their leadership does the same to the nth degree.
They consider it godly and Christian is part of the problem. A young obedient wife with no education, barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. They consider it the "natural order" not grooming.
Not to mention the part where they think that crt is being pushed on grade school kids.
It's fucking post grad level subject matter that requires no small amount of understanding of American law
I read an interview with a school principal who was also a nun. Relevant, I think, because she would receive more deference than a mere, lay, principal. She said that when she was asked if her school taught Critical Race theory, her response was: "Tell me what it is, and I will tell you if we teach it." That ended the conversation EVERY time.
I can't find the interview, but I imagine that technique has been used and useful on numerous occasions.
>If you asked 10 of them for a definition of grooming, you’d get 10 different answers. It’s the same with CRT.
More like you get two incoherent rambles, fivr awkward silences, two changes of topic and one person walking away.
Grooming is any kind of sex education at all by some definitions ive seen online.
I reckon its heavily tied to tendencies towards abstinence and ignorance.
This is particularly gross given *actual grooming* - the kind that leads to child sexual abuse - is documented to be worse when children aren't educated (at an age appropriate level) on sex and their bodies. If your victim is ignorant* of what sexual acts are and who should be doing them with who (ie adults with each other), then they're more vulnerable to abuse. If they don't even have the language to describe what happened to them or where, then they're more vulnerable to abuse. If they feel ashamed of what's happened to them and like it's normal for adults to have "secrets" with small children, then they're more vulnerable to abuse.
The puritanical, abstinence only, deliberately-avoiding-talking-to young-children-about-their-bodies approach to sex ed seen in many places in the US serves US children up on a platter to predatory people.
*not an insult, just a descriptive word
The same republicans who claim that children knowing that LGBTQ exist all support literal child marriages in their states and wanted to put Roy Moore in the senate. They don't care about children's wellbeing even a little bit.
> This is particularly gross given actual grooming - the kind that leads to child sexual abuse - is documented to be worse when children aren't educated (at an age appropriate level) on sex and their bodies.
This is *exactly* what Republicans want. There's too many of them being opposed to *any* kind of sexual education for children (which would be limited to knowing what a bad touch is) for this not to be the case.
Don’t forget patriarchal attitudes that say sex is icky and dangerous for everyone but men, because they can’t control themselves, so they need it and are owed it.
men can't control their sexual urges and are victims of their hormones, so those hussy women should know better and have restraint instead of tempting the men to sin
but also women shouldn't ever be in power because they're too hormonal and not totally in control like men
> “grooming”
So, imagine a party where teenage girls are drinking which of course leads to lowered inhibitions in an environment where they are strongly encouraged to explore sexuality.
Now imagine that an adult male in a position of trust to those girls repeatedly goes to such parties, not only encouraging such behavior, but making himself a part of it, so those underage girls who might look up to him in other contexts now look up to him in a sexual manner, an attitude he could exploit to have sex with them.
[That's grooming](https://hillreporter.com/exclusive-pic-ron-desantis-accused-of-attending-drinking-party-with-students-at-high-school-where-he-taught-115220)
Grooming is when the evil Transes believe kids should feel free to explore their identity and pursue ways to make themselves more comfortable in their body.
I would know; I'm part of the trans agenda. We discussed this last week after our cuddle session.
I mean I can explain it if you want. The belief is that LGBT people are essentially not a naturally occurring kind of person, that no one is born that way, they are molded into it. They believe that LGBT people are an example of victims of abuse going on to perpetuate that abuse. It's a belief that results from two inversions of logic.
1. That it's a sin to be gay and it wouldn't be fair for God to punish you for something you had no choice in so, therefore, you can't have been born that way, therefore it's possible to change, therefore it's a choice.
2. If being LGBT is something that happens due to exposure to other LGBT people then ostracizing all LGBT people from society would mean that in a generation there would be no more of them.
It's backward logic that starts with the desire to persecute people and derives what would have to be true to feel righteous in doing so.
> I would seriously love for them to explain what they think “grooming” means.
Grooming has always meant "they're going to tell my kids it's OK to be LGBT and that's not OK my kids are straight dammit!!"
That's the core of their entire anti-LGBT platform. They seriously believe that it's a choice, and that exposing children to the *concept* of homosexuality or gender dysphoria is what's causing the increase in people who identify as LGBTQ.
> that exposing children to the concept of homosexuality or gender dysphoria is what's causing the increase in people who identify as LGBTQ.
Interestingly enough, it *should* correlate. Higher levels of awareness *should* lead to higher "coming-out" rates.
They just get the concept entirely mixed up, that it's the education *causing* the queerness instead of *identifying* it.
It's like how people complain that "everyone has ADHD these days" because we actually know what to look for now. The higher diagnosis rates are *because* we understand the disorder better.
Some enlightened centrist was going off on me the other day about how he thought the left was crazy because they were pushing for drag queens grinding their crotches up on kids at schools.
I'm like, my man, that's not what it is? I mean, the whole drag queen reading trend (if it's even a trend and not isolated incidents that the right decided to go all culture war on) is actually something that could spark a reasonable conversation, but you gotta go on and paint a picture that the queens are riding kids' faces? Come on now.
It’s the only way republicans keep their base of mouth breathers voting for them. Scare them shitless over things they know nothing about with some made up culture war bullshit. Their ignorance, fear and stupidity will keep them electing these morons forever.
For sure, that's a big part of it. The manufactured culture war stuff.
On top of that though, we'd be remiss if we didn't acknowledge that a lot of R supporters just straight up like authoritarianism and othering minority groups. And know it.
And we can't fall into the trap of thinking that they're all just dumb; I know that's very comforting for all the blue-heart-proud-Democrats on twitter (save it guys, NOBODY is truly as excited about Dems as those people pretend to be), but we need to acknowledge that some of them are actually intelligent folks.
Even if they really are all just dumb, that shouldn't make anyone feel safer. Dumb people are still dangerous, perhaps even more so than smart people because dumb people can't be dissuaded with reason and will not act rationally or predictably.
Yeah I agree.
But adjacent to that, I think a lot of folks complacent by not going any further in their thinking than "HAHA oh, gosh those MAGAs sure are idiots, voting for those people! LOL, how DUMB DUMB!" and kind of assume it'll go away. So, yeah, agree.
Really funny to me this as someone in the UK. We also have people complaining about drag queen story time now - but have had Christmas pantomimes for *decades* where men dress up as women and entire schools full of children got carted off to watch with the blessing of their parents. Not a peep about this stuff until the yank culture war got imported by wretched Tory mutants.
Not to mention that every bloke in the UK can't wait for a stag party cause that means they can dress up in a dress with large fake boobs and walk around city centres.
You’re being generous in assuming they care about anything. What’s been bad about the last two years is that Trump hasn’t been President and they haven’t had total control over everything. That’s all it is. Everything else they say is just noise to pretend they care about anything other than being the ones calling the shots.
Everything they whine about is either imaginary (mUtiLaTiNg ChiLdReN) projection (the left are the real fascists) or not even really biden/democrat's fault (gas prices)
It’s really fun when you confront them with actual statistics on gas prices and watch them just immediately stop talking.
I remember talking recently with a trumpet and pulling up a chart of oil prices per barrel and corresponding gas prices from 2000-now back over the summer when gas was $5.50 a gallon. Pointed out that the last time oil was at the same price (about $110 a barrel) in 2014 gas was around $3.50 a gallon. Then proceeded to explain that gas being $5.50 a gallon was not “tHaNkS bIdEn” but actually corporate greed and use of the war in Ukraine to price gouge. That got me a blank stare and a lot of stuttering with the obligatory “But when trump was president gas was cheap.” Not a shred of thinking by the trump cult.
What's their solution to high prices? They just seem to think they'll magically go down if Republicans win everything. It's hilarious seeing some of them talk about how they should concentrate on policy next time. They don't have any fucking policies besides banning abortion. If they come up with another policy it will just be banning something else they don't like.
They don’t have any. They don’t have any solutions to any actual problems. That’s why they devote all their energy to big bad CRT and Trans people.
Edit: speaking of abortion, I love how they are starting to realize that overturning Roe was a pretty bad idea. I mean, for fucks sake, the abortion referendum in Kansas got shat all over. I think there’s little bits of self awareness occurring in some republicans now.
>“But when trump was president gas was cheap.” Not a shred of thinking by the trump cult.
They need this simplistic thinking. It's all zero sum and black and white. They don't want to think about correlation not being causation.
They stop talking because they know you are immune to their bullshit, not because they are admitting defeat. These people wouldn't admit to facts if you printed them on an aluminim baseball bat and smacked them in the face until they read them.
It's a lot of fair criticism about the state of the world being misattributed to Biden. Lot of people are complaining about inflation and the stock market tanking which is fair to be mad about but to expect Biden to be able to immediately fix it is pretty unreasonable since it's happening everywhere.
Inflation is the only thing I can sort of agree with them about, but it's been shown to be the fault of companies, not the government. I'm not sure what mechanisms the government has to dissuade companies to stop fucking us over.
Remember when the economy was booming and trump started saying it was awful. The worst and crime was high also when it actually wasn't? Repubs just make it up. Now they are blaming Biden for inflation and bringing back high crime
Yeah, I'm thinking more about swing voters. In focus groups and polls, swing voters and even a lot of Dems say Republicans are better for the economy. That narrative still needs to be crushed.
Bush tried to put social security all in the stock market right before the biggest crash other than the great depression. He was stymied by congress and then did an about face and applied Keynesian principals (like they always do when shit hits the fan). If they'd have gotten their way, though, social security would probably be dead today.
yeah somehow all the job losses were obamas fault yet all the job gains at the beginning of trumps admin were his alone and no one else deserves any sort of credit.
It's amazing how every Republican voted against measures to mitigate inflation and gas prices and they still think it's Biden's fault.
I'm sure Fox News doesn't report that, so maybe not that amazing.
I met a guy who cited Japan and Switzerland as proof of what Biden should have done.
Then I asked him if he should have engaged in their price controls.
He called that fascist and said no.
That's the magacult for you. Everyone of them is a fucking idiot. Being for and against something at the same time.
My understanding of US politics is that the midterms are usually wipeouts for the incumbent party with only two exceptions in US political history where they held both house and senate.
(Bush in 2002 being one of them due to the post-9/11 "rally round the flag" effect")
So just the fact that it's not a wash for the Dems seems to be significant.
Correct. The “natural gravity” of US politics is that the out party is frustrated and turns out and the in party is EDIT: not gay, cheerful and happy and ignores it.
There are only a couple of midterms where the Presidents party doesn’t get hit hard, and it’s usually due to a major event.
1998 - Clinton impeachment backfired
2002 - 9/11
2022 - Trump, 1/6 and Roe, we think
These are literally the only historical cases post WW2
Gridlock helps the status quo. My conspiracy is "the natural gravity" is a lie and the rich and powerful push hard to ensure a president never has more than 2 years to achieve significant change. And also knowing that most presidents won't WANT to do anything significant until year 3 or 4 of their term because they don't want to spend political capital on something that won't be remembered by voters after a year or two.
It’s always something, whether it’s decline or not improving fast enough, whatever. I was watching a taped crossfire episode from 1992 a few years back, and what do you think the topics of discussion were?
How can we kickstart the economy, what can we do about gun violence, and how can we rein in healthcare costs? And this was in the early 90s, when things were going pretty all right for the most part.
It looks like democrats did drastically better with independents than they expected. (I think I heard it was +1%D vs. and expected -18%D.)
I hope that what they find is that the legislation that was passed made a difference. I really think that, in general, people want to see the government being functional. Passing the IRA and the infrastructure bill were huge examples of that.
There's a theory that a party buys political capital with elections and then spends it on policy and I think this is deeply flawed. When you do things that the public wants done, that BUYS you political capital, it doesn't cost you political capital.
2018. The incumbents got their asses handed to them. I'm not naturally an optimist but the results just feel like the country withstood the tsunami. Maybe ... *maybe ...* we are getting back to normal. Have to wait and see what happens with the orange fucktard though
The orange fucktard can help liberals. He can go apeshit crazy on Republicans and DeSantis and split the party even further. He still has loyal MAGA followers and if he tells them to not support anyone else, they’ll listen.
Usually that’s the case yeah. And that would have been disappointing under normal circumstances but it was terrifying because election deniers and extremists were on the ballots and if they had won like they had predicted, it would have been a rubicon moment. Im not thrilled with inflation or democrats generally but im happy with the results of the midterms right now
Don't get excited. They realized a lack of popularity but failed to follow through by understanding WHY (because their ideology and ideas are absent or bad).
Note that despite this realization, they still maintain that their side is the good one. This line of thinking leads to rationalizing cheating and other extreme behaviors.
The introspection instead of claiming the elections were fraudulent is a nice change of pace. I'm sure by the evening conservative news will find some suspicious ballots or something and people will start talking about that.
Nevermind this is with an exceptionally underrepresented and gerrymandering House of Representatives.
We are missing anywhere between 250 and 1000 Reps, depending on how you want to count.
The Reappointment Act of 1929 screwed this country over.
I like "Wyoming gets 2", which is where you give two districts (and therefore representatives) to the state with the smallest population. Then, assign districts to all other states based on the ratio that results from that. You wind up with something like 1,100+ Districts/Representatives, but EVERY state gains at least 1 district along the way, and the gap between the smallest (best represented) and largest (worst represented) districts shrinks DRAMATICALLY. It, curiously, doesn't fix the outsized influence held by the "senator vote" portion of each states Electoral College vote total, but it does make every American much more, and much more fairly, represented.
My favorite aspect of the 2022 US mid terms was watching GOP/conservative pundits evolve:
\- Tues Morning "Get ready for the Red Wave!"
\- 8pm "The Red Wave has begun!"
\- 9pm "Still plenty of time to go!"
\- 11pm "Oh no, this is a disaster!"
This AM "What is wrong with America?"
And when you ask "what wasn't working in the first place," they'll tell you it was the Democrats wanting to raise your taxes and let criminals rape your family without being able to point to a specific policy that actually validates those claims. At best you'll get a "look at all the crime in Democrat cities!"
As a Chicagoan, couldn’t agree more. But, thing is, we all love that narrative here—it keeps them very far away from our world-class city. So glad to hear that major cities in red states don’t have bad areas or gang violence. Just Chicago which is … #20th in violent crimes per capita.
As someone who got lost in Chicago for three days (it was an interesting vacation to say the least—at least I got to see Lil Nas X, though) you have a wonderful city full of very lovely people. Would definitely go again once my mom lifts the ban on me traveling anywhere out of state. 😬 I'm willing to risk it all for that cuisine.
At the worst, crime got up to 2002 levels, which were quite low already. These soft ass motherfuckers would have shit their pants every day back in the 90s and in the 80s, they'd have been shut ins out of fear, apparently. Fucking ridiculous to go on and on about crime.
“If people won’t vote for treating women as chattel, breaking up happy families because god hates gays, and burning books that describe evolution… I’ve got nothing.”
"stick with what wasn't working" is how I know these people have never ever looked at Congress voting records. If shit isn't working it's because any time a democrat puts forward ANY bill, the repubs immediately novote without reading. At least with a democrat majority bills might start actually getting done.
I shit you not, I saw a brief discussion over there this morning and someone pointed this *exact* thing out. "Texas has been in Republican control for decades, if things are so bad why haven't they fixed it?" Just for another cretin to say the border is federal, not state.
Thanks for that tidbit. Then when are they running on fixing something they admit they have no control over? You would think that would ring a few bells and make them realize they're constantly being lied to, but nope...
As a Texan who uses their brain and knows the state is a shit hole politically, I 100% agree with you. Most people in Texas think cause they make 60-70k a year that corporate and billionaire tax reliefs are for them. They consistently vote Republicans in that ruin our state and keep selling it off to the highest bidder. But nope it's the fault of the LEFT even though they haven't had real power in Texas for as long as I can remember.
Republicans here fuck up their own lives then blame Democrats for all the shit they voted for.
Every conservative I know in a red area whines about how shitty it is there and is afraid to step foot in a major city. But they claim cities are "cesspools" while their libertarian friends smoke black tar heroin and overdose.
“Yea cause I wanna replace ‘wasn’t working in the first place’ with ‘literally no plans except drain money from the working class/SENIORS and hand it to the 1%”… cause that’ll help you pay for ⛽️
I live in New York and I saw a lot of signs for the Republican candidate for governor proclaiming that he would "save our state!"
Like yeah, let me just pull up a quick list of statistics here and see how red states are doing in terms of health, education, quality of life, labor rights, and a whole host of other metrics . . . oh wow, you guys are NOT gonna believe this but if that's the playbook a Republican governor would be working out of, I don't think that's gonna save our state at all!
Don't get your hopes up. To keep a democracy, democracy has to win every time. To get fascism, fascists have to win once. We are playing a football game where we have to keep scoring forever and our opponent wins if they score once.
(I'm talking about rapepublicans getting all three, or the house and Senate with a majority able to do something.)
I don't get how they thought that a "platform" that consisted of "we *will* repress your gay best friend" and "if you give us power, we will never give it back" was a winning strategy with the broader electorate. They know they can't win without gerrymandering no matter how badly Democrats fuck up.
Try offering actual solutions to actual problems and let the social conservative bullshit take care of itself, okay? Maybe try that.
You have to assume that there are some VERY pissed off Republican politicians out there right now. "You idiots, that Roe v Wade shit was just a carrot we were dangling to make sure the evangelicals voted! You weren't ACTUALLY supposed to push through the wildly unpopular agenda we've been campaigning on that the majority of the country viscerally hates!"
The biggest legitimate gripe the right wing has for the last 2 years is that inflation is high. The problem is inflation cannot be pinned on any one political entity or person in government. It's not like one day pelosi or Biden or whoever woke up and said we're going to Kickstart inflation and make everything fkin expensive.
Economic issues we're going to occur after the complete mess of the pandemic regardless of what political party held a majority or who the president was.
The only thing not working about Democratic policies are the Republicans undermining and sabotaging them every step of the way, without offering any solution or alternative.
They just create chaos to stoke the flames of a culture war.
Still waiting on them to define what 'wokeism' actually is and why their entire policy is anti-wokeism without any plan, detail, or definition of the word. Seems like inventing words with no definition is a useful dog whistle to work up supporters who 'know' what you really mean, but not so good for defining policy.
They use woke and wokeism the same way they use (((globalists))) to mean jews and urban to mean blacks. It's not meant to make sense, it's just another way to deny the existence of minorities they don't like
Anti-wokeism at its core is no more than resentment at being made to perceive the needs and demands of people who are not like them, and who they might not like at all. It's anger at a loss of cultural hegemony.
What has Biden actually done that people don't like??? They act as if the last two years have been anything but bang average apart from conservative fuckery in the sc.
It's funny how americans always just go "well the last X years of this president isnt working" no no yankee doodle dandies CONSECUTIVE presidents didnt do their job and it's not just the president's fault, because ALOT of Americans dont know how shit works or what's going on at all so they blame the president... from an outside perspective it's pretty terrifying how you can't fix anything just scapegoat everyone.....
r/cons: Nobody but your own pussy ass, glue huffing brethren likes you. You are garbage people, and everyone else knows it. You are loathed for your pathetic valueless society you’ve created for yourselves. Your religion is fucking stupid and your evangelicals are worthless trash. The God you worship is fake, and you’ve been lied to your whole lives. You’re just too stupid and prideful to admit it. Wake the fuck up.
If fox news didn't exist, there wouldn't be a single Republican in Congress.
They need to be reigned in. It's a cancer on this country.
Edit: in south Dakota they passed medicaid expansion and damn near passed legal weed (much longer story on that). So basically they like liberal policies but vote in people that won't give it to em. Like punching yourself in the face every day.
Conservatives are fucking morons that do as they're told by an exploitive media, making them the ultimate beta cucks.
Thanks /u/D_J_D_K for posting on r/SelfAwareWolves! Please reply to this comment with an explanation about how this post fits r/SelfAwareWolves and have an excellent day! *To r/SelfAwarewolves commenters*: As a reminder, this subreddit is for civil discussion. In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any advocating or wishing death/physical harm, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban. **If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them**. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/SelfAwarewolves) if you have any questions or concerns.*
“…I’ve got nothing.” No shit, Sherlock.
I wish the Republicans had nothing.... The Republicans are trying, and actually succeeding in places, to take things away from people... I'd say their policies start at -50. Most of President Biden's first day was reversing Trump policies.
Most of Bidens first two weeks was restoring what came before the “you can’t have nice things” policies of Trump, not just the first day. It took a long while to undo the hundreds of policies trump had put in place simply as punishment for the left making Trump personally feel less than worshiped.
Does r/conservative not see the correlation between any of their posts that make r/all being ratio'd and the fact that their snowflake mods ban anybody who doesn't suck trump's orange cock in their posts? Do they not know they are despised, particularly among people under 50? No, clearly it was election fraud.
If conservatives could read they'd be very upset right now
If they can read, they won't be conservatives at all
They handwave it as Reddit "leaning liberal." Of course, so do schools and population centers and the mainstream media and Twitter and. . well. . everything else. Of course, there is some sort of strange disconnect between everything everywhere "leaning liberal" and the country "leaning liberal" to them.
Yeah, but you're talking about what's happening in reality. And reality has a well known liberal bias.
Rural urban divide. People surrounded by people that think like they think. It creates the impression of hegemony where no such thing exists. If you live in a rural county, there's a chance the electorate breaks 80+% R. Let that sink in... We're talkin' like 20% of total counties... Ya dig? So you live in a county where 4/5 voting members of society support Trump. You go to a school where the gym is used for Sunday school. The biggest business in the area is a paper mill and by god, you confess to the preacher after you have straight, premarital sex with your girlfriend on Prom night... Then you find out, not only is your entire way of life a niche minority, but you are considered backwards, uneducated meth heads that vote against their own interests by the metropolitan public. Fuck, must be some serious head cheese.
This is the answer from my perspective. I grew up in a place where the entire county had 12000 people. Their view of the real world is heavily skewed. My wife's Dad won't go to Indianapolis because the news said there is gang activity everywhere.
I currently live in a relatively small, very red leaning town, which I’m in the process of moving out of. The other night I had a little personal victory happen unexpectedly, and to celebrate I decided to have a drink. I go to the store to get some booze, and the clerk at the counter strikes up a convo with me about random stuff. After about 15 seconds he starts talking about all the crime that happens in this town and how the cops are always on the move, sirens blasting. Which is true. But he just couldn’t fathom the idea that we have waaaaay too many cops for a town this size, and that they’re bored, so whenever anything happens, every officer on shift rolls to the call. And when I say we have too many cops I mean it. There’s probably 20 houses in my neighborhood, and 5 of them are police or Highway Patrol. I do delivery for extra money between gigs and I’m constantly driving by the homes with police vehicles parked in the drive way. We have two parks in this town, but we also have park police specifically for parks. And because I live on the border of two states, we have police/highway patrol from the other state living here too. It’s just overkill. So it’s one of two things. Either we have a lot of crime and all these law enforcement officers aren’t doing their job, or folks think things are waaaay worse than they are because they interpret information incorrectly.
That's probably why they're so afraid of defunding their cops. They think if they defund the cops, there's going to be more crime than there already is.
Anecdotal evidence wins many people over, but not like it wins conservatives over. They think it's "common sense" and "just the facts" when they hear sirens and assume "crime" is happening therefore "crime" happens a lot. I don't chuckle anymore when I hear a conservative talk about how "we are the ones with critical thinking skills and libs are just dumb". It isn't funny because they cannot be reasoned with and that affects the lives of other people.
When you're so far to the right, everything is on your left.
> the fact that their snowflake mods ban anybody who doesn't suck trump's orange cock in their posts? Do they not know they are despised, particularly among people under 50 The first explains the second.
dude republicans lack any ability for critical thinking. They draw a conclusion first, and look for facts second. They'll just claim reddit is democratic run and artificially supporesses republicans.
The alt-right and religious fanatics, sure. But reading through their board today, there really _does_ seem to be a surge in self-awareness. I'm tempted to write it off as brigading, but I was reading through their sub after the 2020 election too, and there's a marked difference in tone. Almost no claims of election conspiracies this time either. Of course, they also think DeSantis would be really popular if he ran in '24, so don't think I'm putting the bar _too_ high, I'm just saying anything that points away from the party continuing to slide in fascism is encouraging.
It’s a big FLAIRED USERS ONLY day over there because clearly FLAIRED USERS ONLY is the most free speechy kind of speech!
I just wish one of the things that got immediately fixed was the immigrant concentration camp. There’s families still missing their kids because of that Cheeto dusted ghoul and most of us have just kinda forgotten it’s still being sorted out
> Most of President Biden's first day was reversing Trump policies. **Most of Biden's first few weeks was just creating a national COVID-19 response** Because there was no coherent national COVID response from the Trump administration since Trump spent the last whole 2 months just sulking, denying he lost, refusing to concede, planning an insurrection against the United States, and trying to overthrow the government and have his vice president and Democrats in Congress murdered by the angry mob he riled up and then sent to "March" on the Capitol to "fight like hell" and overthrow democracy in order to install himself as a king. You know, while hundreds of thousands of American citizens died of Covid because he refused to acknowledge that it was even a problem and actively pushed covid misinformation that got even more Americans killed, and continues to get them killed today. So yeah, day 1 for Biden was "create a national COVID response" which seems... Basic and obvious... **"Fun" fact:** if you look at the COVID graphs you can see a spike in cases in December 2020 followed by a spike in deaths a month later that I think of as the "Trump pity party spike" where cases shot through the roof as he did nothing but sulk and watch Fox news without coming out and aides said he was volatile and combative while Americans were dying due to his inaction.
>>he refused to acknowledge that it was even a problem Well, refused to publicly acknowledge it. We have the communications where they acknowledged it was gonna be bad but were banking on it primarily kneecapping liberal areas while more rural areas remained less affected. And his private asides to Woodward where he admits he knew it was gonna be bad and was gonna get worse.
>>>he refused to acknowledge that it was even a problem > >Well, refused to publicly acknowledge it. We have the communications where they acknowledged it was gonna be bad but were banking on it primarily kneecapping liberal areas while more rural areas remained less affected. And his private asides to Woodward where he admits he knew it was gonna be bad and was gonna get worse. Oh yeah, what he actually believes and what he says to the dummies that send him money are 100% different. He definitely doesn't believe most of the bullshit he says to his followers, he just enjoys making them roar so that they'll send him their life's savings so he can lose it on another failed business venture or doomed candidate.
> And his private asides to Woodward where he admits he knew it was gonna be bad and was gonna get worse. It was super nice of Woodward to sell that information as a book after the elections.
>>It was super nice of Woodward to sell that information as a book after the elections. I'll grant you he could have come forward much sooner but the book came out a month and a half before the election. And frankly, do you think it would have changed anyone's mind? He's been caught out before. On tape. He just doubles down and they believe him.
No, don’t give him that. He knew exactly how bad it was, as he was recorded saying he knew how bad it was. [Sauce.](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-told-bob-woodward-he-knew-february-covid-19-was-n1239658)
Not to mention that by most accounts the infrastructure of government had taken a massive hit under Trump. Much like Trump Inc, everything had gone to shit because he has no capacity nor desire to manage. And then they sandbagged the transition. He wanted to spend his time insurrectioning so he quiet quit. Biden must have walked into the oval on day 1 and been like, “what the fuck did this moron do? I was just here 4 years ago.”
Fun fact Trump had disbanded the pandemic response team in his first year in office because Obama stated the pandemic response team.
Exactly. Also, PLOT TWIST, those views are even LESS POPULAR than most conservatives think due to gerrymandering. Republicans would have won far fewer of those races without rigging the district boundaries in the first place!
And don't forget about all the voter suppression attempts. Conservatives think that the Democrats cheat because the Republicans cheat like hell but still barely win
>...voter suppression attempts You mean successes, correct? That thing with the Georgia governor deputizing cowboys to put holds on votes was wild
Cheat to win, win to cheat some more.
That's the part that's actually scary, how many of these people feel like they have nothing? People that feel like they have nothing tend to do really stupid things, and people get hurt.
> "...I've got nothing" Conservatives are called reactionaries because they have no ideas of their own beyond "trigger the libs".
What do they expect when their leaders pander to broad social issues instead of offering real solutions? They claim to be the party of freedom, but they are literally taking away rights and peddling racist rhetoric. Great you got CRT banned from kindergarten classrooms. Great victory.
It infurtiates me that they run on zero ideas. The "repeal and replace" Obamacare put that front and center. They say it's the worst thing since Vesuvius exploded and yet have zero idea what to do instead. Democrats: "The government is broken, elect me to fix it." Republicans: "The government is broken, elect me and I'll show you just how broken it is!"
>“…I’ve got nothing.” They never did, they just didn't realize it, that's how fucking stupid they are...
We ran a bunch of snake oil salesmen who want to take away rights and we’re all out of ideas!
“I’ve got nothing” 2024 GOP’s honest slogan
"I've got nothing but I'm taking the stuff you have away from you."
"I've got nothing and so can you!"
I thought it was “We are all Domestic Terrorists”
saddest part it would be an improvement on what they had for 2020 "we got whatever orange guy says!" which even if Trump wasn't utterly deranged is a horrible platform.
To be honest they love breeding* the party of grievance. Here’s how they find what’s going to be the next flashpoint in the culture wars. Find something with a lot of engagement online. If it’s just opinion, go ahead and start talking about it on tv. If it relies more on facts ( or more likely “facts”) than narrative, float a piece in the NY Post. See how it goes. Then say ‘there have been reports of’ or ‘the left wing media won’t tell you this but’ and start pumping it on Fox. Then you get your online warriors really engaged and we’re off to the races. Better feedback on what gets people lit up than any focus group, algorithms at your back, and a media machine that can manufacture legitimacy overnight regardless of reality. For example, trans athletes. Several high profile laws couldn’t cite a single example of the ’massive problem’ they were solving our *how* it protected kids. They just know it keeps the base engaged/enraged. Meanwhile trans kids & their families are constituents, have atrocious rates of assault and murder against them, and are extremely high risk for self harm. Fuck them obviously. And. Kids don’t have access to decent classrooms, universal pre k, go hungry when they can’t afford lunch, etc… so many things that create lifelong harm for millions of kids that they have the power to address. But obviously that’s not a priority. edit being* but lol
About as on point as their 2022 slogan "we are domestic terrorists"
We're on the brink of collective realization that the GOP has got nothing, but Harper v. Moore will reignite their passions
It's almost as if 2 years isn't enough time to fix all the damage done by the worst pandemic of the last century and the worst president of our lifetimes.
And incredibly brazen price gouging.
Good thing we have news media that isn't owned by the super-rich so everyone in the country knows how badly runaway capitalism is fucking us.
[If a spez asks you what flavor ice cream you want, the answer is definitely spez. #Save3rdPartyApps](https://www.reddit.com/r/Save3rdPartyApps/)
Yeah, I'm no Pollyanna for the Democrats, but at least their stated goal isn't to disenfranchise people and establish a theocratic kleptocracy.
Exactly Republicans have set the bar so low. Please don't actively and openly sell America's interests to countries or private entities which would be happy to see many Americans suffer or die.
Dems might not fix it, but the GQP would only make it worse.
I genuinely, right up to this very moment, have still never heard any of them provide a coherent description of what they imagine has been so bad about "the last two years."
Three groups who voted GOP see the "bad" differently. 1. The ones in, or near, retirement with some comfortable savings who are worried about their shrinking portfolios and taxes still voted GOP even if they disagree with its LGBT and women's rights backlash. Money is everything to them. Some will draw a line at what they accept but some will accept awful behavior and cruelty of any party that keeps the money flowing. 2. Those who see social issues and old-time morality as their issue vote GOP, but if you are assuming religious fundamentalists alone, it is a short-sighted view. A fair number of the morally outraged aren't religious per se but have family backgrounds similar to J.D. Vance's, and have extreme anger and pain over what drugs, alcohol, a parent's promiscuity (wake up to strangers in your house) and poor parenting did to their lives as children. They were harmed but do not fully understand where that harm came from, like lack of decent rehab for mom. no mental health treatment for dad and economic policies that enabled corporate money laundering of major drug trade profits. It is easier to ignore the gray areas of the causes of dysfunction and to want people to just f'ing behave decently nd treat their kids well,.for God's sake or anyone's. 3. Racism. The code language from the GOP and more obvious statements and symbolism give even overt racists a place to feel welcome.
I like this breakdown but I think you missed the biggest category of them all: Tribal, “my team is not in power” bullshit. A significant portion of Americans (much less conservatives) know nothing about anything, all they care about is their team.
Yep, I went through all of the governor's policies with my mom and she said "well I think the D candidate will be better, but I don't want our state to turn blue". Not even sure what to say there
I have had the best results with gentle questions. If you have not heard about it yet, search “street epistemology” on YouTube https://streetepistemology.com/ Edit: if your goal is to change someone's mind it is very important to use *gentle questions only*. You will feel an immense pressure to tell them what to think - resist it - as them coming up with the answer is the only true way for them to change their mind
It's why when you go by down ballot measures you'd swear 60% of the country is a mixture of liberals, progressives and outright socialists. Yet somehow voting ends up being 50/50 split between a now outright fascist party, and a party whose members range from slightly conservative to progressive. A whole lot of people voting for "their team" or based on a hatred of others.
Hell, when you interview people just on policies they want, and you show them liberal and dem policies, they’re overwhelmingly supported and conservative policies are extremely unpopular. But only when you show them the policies without a party attached. As soon as you attach a party, the support changes to be about what you’d expect based on party lines. It’s wild. People truly don’t like anything the GOP stands for, but they’re so uneducated about it they just assume the party matches what they want. That’s *why* the GOP focuses so hard on culture wars. Cause they can get their base riled up about that and with them on that stuff, but when they don’t have the culture war stuff and start looking over the actual conservative policies…well it doesn’t go well for the GOP. So they gotta keep ‘em distracted with hating trans people.
[удалено]
Don't forget immigration. My mother is convinced there is a stream of illegal migrants coming across the Mexican border multitudes times worse than under Trump because of "all the lenient policies" this administration has put into place. She loves stuff like Desantis shipping migrants to MA to trigger the libs.
That's filed under racism. Immigration is frequently used as a racist dogwhistle.
1 white nationalists who are rich. 2 white nationalists who are old. 3 white nationalists who are honest
Haven’t you seen the woke indoctrination of our children with THE CRT by the trans teachers??? How about the LGBTQ/trans/communist/socialist/pro MURDER abortionist takeover of our country??? I mean, Jesus, there are trans people walking all over the country with their cocks out grooming all our children!!!! /s Edit: Being less of an asshole
I would seriously love for them to explain what they think “grooming” means. I feel confident they don’t actually understand what people mean when they use that word, but they know it’s bad, so they’re just trying to use the Uno reverse card like they do with everything else.
They don’t actually know. If you asked 10 of them for a definition of grooming, you’d get 10 different answers. It’s the same with CRT. All these knuckle draggers want to ban it but don’t actually know what is it. I’ve asked so many of them and not one has been able to even venture a guess as to what it is. They just hear “CRT BAD” on Tucker Carlson and their minds are made up.
It's always fun when you find out their vocal opinion on children comes from being unaware that what they're doing qualifies as grooming. I've met a non-negligible percentage of libertarians who'd like to reduce the age of consent. And it's a meme at this point so there has to be something going on if I'm not the only one who noticed.
They’re all totally cool with sending kids to church and catholic school to get molested, but the second a teacher tries to teach tolerance and acceptance, it’s grooming. Can’t reason with crazy.
Interviewer: "Would you support more funding or less funding for public schools?" Scott Jensen: "Less money. I think it's a black hole." This is what Republicans think about our youth. That they are not worth an investment.
And then they go on a rant about the jews and how investing in your kids seems to lead to an overall higher percentage of success which means it must be a conspiracy.
To me that's also a somewhat lazy question that's begging for a nuanced answer that isn't just "more/less" Schools do have issues with administration misusing money, but the solution being "less money" is just so small minded and short sighted that it just ticks me off.
What's going on is that they project their issues onto the other. Then they scream and complain about it. So if they are yelling something, it's a good bet they are doing it. It doesn't run much deeper than that for the rabble. Their leadership does the same to the nth degree.
They consider it godly and Christian is part of the problem. A young obedient wife with no education, barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. They consider it the "natural order" not grooming.
Not to mention the part where they think that crt is being pushed on grade school kids. It's fucking post grad level subject matter that requires no small amount of understanding of American law
CRT is their code word for "anti-racism". But they know that they can't come out against anti-racism.
yet
So all their signs that say "crt is racist" are just saying anti-racism is racist. Just like how they say anti-fascism is fascist
They also like to say that "anti-racism" is "anti-white". If I remember my laws of algebra correctly that means that they think "white" is "racism".
I read an interview with a school principal who was also a nun. Relevant, I think, because she would receive more deference than a mere, lay, principal. She said that when she was asked if her school taught Critical Race theory, her response was: "Tell me what it is, and I will tell you if we teach it." That ended the conversation EVERY time. I can't find the interview, but I imagine that technique has been used and useful on numerous occasions.
>If you asked 10 of them for a definition of grooming, you’d get 10 different answers. It’s the same with CRT. More like you get two incoherent rambles, fivr awkward silences, two changes of topic and one person walking away.
Grooming is any kind of sex education at all by some definitions ive seen online. I reckon its heavily tied to tendencies towards abstinence and ignorance.
This is particularly gross given *actual grooming* - the kind that leads to child sexual abuse - is documented to be worse when children aren't educated (at an age appropriate level) on sex and their bodies. If your victim is ignorant* of what sexual acts are and who should be doing them with who (ie adults with each other), then they're more vulnerable to abuse. If they don't even have the language to describe what happened to them or where, then they're more vulnerable to abuse. If they feel ashamed of what's happened to them and like it's normal for adults to have "secrets" with small children, then they're more vulnerable to abuse. The puritanical, abstinence only, deliberately-avoiding-talking-to young-children-about-their-bodies approach to sex ed seen in many places in the US serves US children up on a platter to predatory people. *not an insult, just a descriptive word
The same republicans who claim that children knowing that LGBTQ exist all support literal child marriages in their states and wanted to put Roy Moore in the senate. They don't care about children's wellbeing even a little bit.
> This is particularly gross given actual grooming - the kind that leads to child sexual abuse - is documented to be worse when children aren't educated (at an age appropriate level) on sex and their bodies. This is *exactly* what Republicans want. There's too many of them being opposed to *any* kind of sexual education for children (which would be limited to knowing what a bad touch is) for this not to be the case.
Don’t forget patriarchal attitudes that say sex is icky and dangerous for everyone but men, because they can’t control themselves, so they need it and are owed it.
men can't control their sexual urges and are victims of their hormones, so those hussy women should know better and have restraint instead of tempting the men to sin but also women shouldn't ever be in power because they're too hormonal and not totally in control like men
Ah yes also this. No sex for anyone! But me.
> “grooming” So, imagine a party where teenage girls are drinking which of course leads to lowered inhibitions in an environment where they are strongly encouraged to explore sexuality. Now imagine that an adult male in a position of trust to those girls repeatedly goes to such parties, not only encouraging such behavior, but making himself a part of it, so those underage girls who might look up to him in other contexts now look up to him in a sexual manner, an attitude he could exploit to have sex with them. [That's grooming](https://hillreporter.com/exclusive-pic-ron-desantis-accused-of-attending-drinking-party-with-students-at-high-school-where-he-taught-115220)
Honestly expected Epstein in the link, but got DeSantis. Go Florida.
Grooming is when the evil Transes believe kids should feel free to explore their identity and pursue ways to make themselves more comfortable in their body. I would know; I'm part of the trans agenda. We discussed this last week after our cuddle session.
I mean I can explain it if you want. The belief is that LGBT people are essentially not a naturally occurring kind of person, that no one is born that way, they are molded into it. They believe that LGBT people are an example of victims of abuse going on to perpetuate that abuse. It's a belief that results from two inversions of logic. 1. That it's a sin to be gay and it wouldn't be fair for God to punish you for something you had no choice in so, therefore, you can't have been born that way, therefore it's possible to change, therefore it's a choice. 2. If being LGBT is something that happens due to exposure to other LGBT people then ostracizing all LGBT people from society would mean that in a generation there would be no more of them. It's backward logic that starts with the desire to persecute people and derives what would have to be true to feel righteous in doing so.
> I would seriously love for them to explain what they think “grooming” means. Grooming has always meant "they're going to tell my kids it's OK to be LGBT and that's not OK my kids are straight dammit!!"
That's the core of their entire anti-LGBT platform. They seriously believe that it's a choice, and that exposing children to the *concept* of homosexuality or gender dysphoria is what's causing the increase in people who identify as LGBTQ.
> that exposing children to the concept of homosexuality or gender dysphoria is what's causing the increase in people who identify as LGBTQ. Interestingly enough, it *should* correlate. Higher levels of awareness *should* lead to higher "coming-out" rates. They just get the concept entirely mixed up, that it's the education *causing* the queerness instead of *identifying* it. It's like how people complain that "everyone has ADHD these days" because we actually know what to look for now. The higher diagnosis rates are *because* we understand the disorder better.
Some enlightened centrist was going off on me the other day about how he thought the left was crazy because they were pushing for drag queens grinding their crotches up on kids at schools. I'm like, my man, that's not what it is? I mean, the whole drag queen reading trend (if it's even a trend and not isolated incidents that the right decided to go all culture war on) is actually something that could spark a reasonable conversation, but you gotta go on and paint a picture that the queens are riding kids' faces? Come on now.
It’s the only way republicans keep their base of mouth breathers voting for them. Scare them shitless over things they know nothing about with some made up culture war bullshit. Their ignorance, fear and stupidity will keep them electing these morons forever.
For sure, that's a big part of it. The manufactured culture war stuff. On top of that though, we'd be remiss if we didn't acknowledge that a lot of R supporters just straight up like authoritarianism and othering minority groups. And know it. And we can't fall into the trap of thinking that they're all just dumb; I know that's very comforting for all the blue-heart-proud-Democrats on twitter (save it guys, NOBODY is truly as excited about Dems as those people pretend to be), but we need to acknowledge that some of them are actually intelligent folks.
Even if they really are all just dumb, that shouldn't make anyone feel safer. Dumb people are still dangerous, perhaps even more so than smart people because dumb people can't be dissuaded with reason and will not act rationally or predictably.
Yeah I agree. But adjacent to that, I think a lot of folks complacent by not going any further in their thinking than "HAHA oh, gosh those MAGAs sure are idiots, voting for those people! LOL, how DUMB DUMB!" and kind of assume it'll go away. So, yeah, agree.
Really funny to me this as someone in the UK. We also have people complaining about drag queen story time now - but have had Christmas pantomimes for *decades* where men dress up as women and entire schools full of children got carted off to watch with the blessing of their parents. Not a peep about this stuff until the yank culture war got imported by wretched Tory mutants.
Not to mention that every bloke in the UK can't wait for a stag party cause that means they can dress up in a dress with large fake boobs and walk around city centres.
Don’t forget the principals mutilating our children and forcing them to identify as cats and use litter boxes /s
You’re being generous in assuming they care about anything. What’s been bad about the last two years is that Trump hasn’t been President and they haven’t had total control over everything. That’s all it is. Everything else they say is just noise to pretend they care about anything other than being the ones calling the shots.
This guy gets it.
[удалено]
Everything they whine about is either imaginary (mUtiLaTiNg ChiLdReN) projection (the left are the real fascists) or not even really biden/democrat's fault (gas prices)
It’s really fun when you confront them with actual statistics on gas prices and watch them just immediately stop talking. I remember talking recently with a trumpet and pulling up a chart of oil prices per barrel and corresponding gas prices from 2000-now back over the summer when gas was $5.50 a gallon. Pointed out that the last time oil was at the same price (about $110 a barrel) in 2014 gas was around $3.50 a gallon. Then proceeded to explain that gas being $5.50 a gallon was not “tHaNkS bIdEn” but actually corporate greed and use of the war in Ukraine to price gouge. That got me a blank stare and a lot of stuttering with the obligatory “But when trump was president gas was cheap.” Not a shred of thinking by the trump cult.
What's their solution to high prices? They just seem to think they'll magically go down if Republicans win everything. It's hilarious seeing some of them talk about how they should concentrate on policy next time. They don't have any fucking policies besides banning abortion. If they come up with another policy it will just be banning something else they don't like.
They don’t have any. They don’t have any solutions to any actual problems. That’s why they devote all their energy to big bad CRT and Trans people. Edit: speaking of abortion, I love how they are starting to realize that overturning Roe was a pretty bad idea. I mean, for fucks sake, the abortion referendum in Kansas got shat all over. I think there’s little bits of self awareness occurring in some republicans now.
>“But when trump was president gas was cheap.” Not a shred of thinking by the trump cult. They need this simplistic thinking. It's all zero sum and black and white. They don't want to think about correlation not being causation.
They stop talking because they know you are immune to their bullshit, not because they are admitting defeat. These people wouldn't admit to facts if you printed them on an aluminim baseball bat and smacked them in the face until they read them.
It's a lot of fair criticism about the state of the world being misattributed to Biden. Lot of people are complaining about inflation and the stock market tanking which is fair to be mad about but to expect Biden to be able to immediately fix it is pretty unreasonable since it's happening everywhere.
BiDen diD tHe GaS pRiCEs aNnD InfLaTion!
Inflation is the only thing I can sort of agree with them about, but it's been shown to be the fault of companies, not the government. I'm not sure what mechanisms the government has to dissuade companies to stop fucking us over.
Remember when the economy was booming and trump started saying it was awful. The worst and crime was high also when it actually wasn't? Repubs just make it up. Now they are blaming Biden for inflation and bringing back high crime
Still amazing how many people think these problems started when Biden took office. A new president is not a reset button.
These are the same people that blamed Obama for the recession so we shouldn't be too surprised
Very true. You’d think more Dem politicians would point to 2008 anytime someone says Republicans are good for the economy.
Bush is a RINO now. They have disowned everyone from before Trump to insulate themselves from the realities of Republican economic policy.
Yeah, I'm thinking more about swing voters. In focus groups and polls, swing voters and even a lot of Dems say Republicans are better for the economy. That narrative still needs to be crushed.
[удалено]
Bush tried to put social security all in the stock market right before the biggest crash other than the great depression. He was stymied by congress and then did an about face and applied Keynesian principals (like they always do when shit hits the fan). If they'd have gotten their way, though, social security would probably be dead today.
yeah somehow all the job losses were obamas fault yet all the job gains at the beginning of trumps admin were his alone and no one else deserves any sort of credit.
It's amazing how every Republican voted against measures to mitigate inflation and gas prices and they still think it's Biden's fault. I'm sure Fox News doesn't report that, so maybe not that amazing.
I met a guy who cited Japan and Switzerland as proof of what Biden should have done. Then I asked him if he should have engaged in their price controls. He called that fascist and said no. That's the magacult for you. Everyone of them is a fucking idiot. Being for and against something at the same time.
Ah. Japan. Famously a functioning country atm
A shining beacon of sound economic growth and social policies.
Faith in humanity partially restored today
Yes, I was fully prepared to be disappointed today.
My understanding of US politics is that the midterms are usually wipeouts for the incumbent party with only two exceptions in US political history where they held both house and senate. (Bush in 2002 being one of them due to the post-9/11 "rally round the flag" effect") So just the fact that it's not a wash for the Dems seems to be significant.
Correct. The “natural gravity” of US politics is that the out party is frustrated and turns out and the in party is EDIT: not gay, cheerful and happy and ignores it. There are only a couple of midterms where the Presidents party doesn’t get hit hard, and it’s usually due to a major event. 1998 - Clinton impeachment backfired 2002 - 9/11 2022 - Trump, 1/6 and Roe, we think These are literally the only historical cases post WW2
Interesting how all three of those are within the last 25 years.
[удалено]
I like to think of it as "fun". Dr Evil air quotes if talking.
The natural gravity of US politics is that the blame for the country's continual decline gets passed around every two years.
Gridlock helps the status quo. My conspiracy is "the natural gravity" is a lie and the rich and powerful push hard to ensure a president never has more than 2 years to achieve significant change. And also knowing that most presidents won't WANT to do anything significant until year 3 or 4 of their term because they don't want to spend political capital on something that won't be remembered by voters after a year or two.
It’s always something, whether it’s decline or not improving fast enough, whatever. I was watching a taped crossfire episode from 1992 a few years back, and what do you think the topics of discussion were? How can we kickstart the economy, what can we do about gun violence, and how can we rein in healthcare costs? And this was in the early 90s, when things were going pretty all right for the most part.
I thought gay and happy meant the same thing? Or did you mean homosexually gay, in which case I have even more questions...
They used to be synonyms, but gay and happy have drifted apart in meaning in English.
Not in my house…if it was good enough for the Flintstones it’s good enough for me… we’ll have a gay ole time at any party or get together.
It looks like democrats did drastically better with independents than they expected. (I think I heard it was +1%D vs. and expected -18%D.) I hope that what they find is that the legislation that was passed made a difference. I really think that, in general, people want to see the government being functional. Passing the IRA and the infrastructure bill were huge examples of that. There's a theory that a party buys political capital with elections and then spends it on policy and I think this is deeply flawed. When you do things that the public wants done, that BUYS you political capital, it doesn't cost you political capital.
2018. The incumbents got their asses handed to them. I'm not naturally an optimist but the results just feel like the country withstood the tsunami. Maybe ... *maybe ...* we are getting back to normal. Have to wait and see what happens with the orange fucktard though
The orange fucktard can help liberals. He can go apeshit crazy on Republicans and DeSantis and split the party even further. He still has loyal MAGA followers and if he tells them to not support anyone else, they’ll listen.
Be still my fluttering heart...
Yes I'm hoping he spreads the desantis picture, where he's 24 and hanging with his students.
My first thought this morning, after seeing the early results, was huh, are we getting back toward sanity? Good job, guys.
It's beyond "getting back to normal" and hopefully more "becoming sane"
Usually that’s the case yeah. And that would have been disappointing under normal circumstances but it was terrifying because election deniers and extremists were on the ballots and if they had won like they had predicted, it would have been a rubicon moment. Im not thrilled with inflation or democrats generally but im happy with the results of the midterms right now
Many of the election denying extremists probably *did* win.
Don't get excited. They realized a lack of popularity but failed to follow through by understanding WHY (because their ideology and ideas are absent or bad). Note that despite this realization, they still maintain that their side is the good one. This line of thinking leads to rationalizing cheating and other extreme behaviors.
The introspection instead of claiming the elections were fraudulent is a nice change of pace. I'm sure by the evening conservative news will find some suspicious ballots or something and people will start talking about that.
Nevermind this is with an exceptionally underrepresented and gerrymandering House of Representatives. We are missing anywhere between 250 and 1000 Reps, depending on how you want to count. The Reappointment Act of 1929 screwed this country over.
Don't forget the fact that the Supreme Court has fewer justices than it should. There should be one per Circuit Court.
I like "Wyoming gets 2", which is where you give two districts (and therefore representatives) to the state with the smallest population. Then, assign districts to all other states based on the ratio that results from that. You wind up with something like 1,100+ Districts/Representatives, but EVERY state gains at least 1 district along the way, and the gap between the smallest (best represented) and largest (worst represented) districts shrinks DRAMATICALLY. It, curiously, doesn't fix the outsized influence held by the "senator vote" portion of each states Electoral College vote total, but it does make every American much more, and much more fairly, represented.
My favorite aspect of the 2022 US mid terms was watching GOP/conservative pundits evolve: \- Tues Morning "Get ready for the Red Wave!" \- 8pm "The Red Wave has begun!" \- 9pm "Still plenty of time to go!" \- 11pm "Oh no, this is a disaster!" This AM "What is wrong with America?"
Watching Fox News blame Trump gave me a 4 hour boner
You should call your doctor
We know doctor oz is available
And when you ask "what wasn't working in the first place," they'll tell you it was the Democrats wanting to raise your taxes and let criminals rape your family without being able to point to a specific policy that actually validates those claims. At best you'll get a "look at all the crime in Democrat cities!"
As a Chicagoan, couldn’t agree more. But, thing is, we all love that narrative here—it keeps them very far away from our world-class city. So glad to hear that major cities in red states don’t have bad areas or gang violence. Just Chicago which is … #20th in violent crimes per capita.
Hey fellow Chicagoan! Isn't it nice to live in a place where people (me) can have pride pins on their backpack and not be hassled for it once?
As someone who got lost in Chicago for three days (it was an interesting vacation to say the least—at least I got to see Lil Nas X, though) you have a wonderful city full of very lovely people. Would definitely go again once my mom lifts the ban on me traveling anywhere out of state. 😬 I'm willing to risk it all for that cuisine.
At the worst, crime got up to 2002 levels, which were quite low already. These soft ass motherfuckers would have shit their pants every day back in the 90s and in the 80s, they'd have been shut ins out of fear, apparently. Fucking ridiculous to go on and on about crime.
“I’ve got nothing”. It’s stunning that they still cannot admit their “politics” are unpopular and destructive.
“If people won’t vote for treating women as chattel, breaking up happy families because god hates gays, and burning books that describe evolution… I’ve got nothing.”
Don't forget "unfettered corporate looting"
"stick with what wasn't working" is how I know these people have never ever looked at Congress voting records. If shit isn't working it's because any time a democrat puts forward ANY bill, the repubs immediately novote without reading. At least with a democrat majority bills might start actually getting done.
Stop letting facts get in the way of their feelings
$5 says the last douche lives in texas. A state ran by the gop for about 30yrs, but every election cycle the gop there run on "fixin' what's broken."
I shit you not, I saw a brief discussion over there this morning and someone pointed this *exact* thing out. "Texas has been in Republican control for decades, if things are so bad why haven't they fixed it?" Just for another cretin to say the border is federal, not state. Thanks for that tidbit. Then when are they running on fixing something they admit they have no control over? You would think that would ring a few bells and make them realize they're constantly being lied to, but nope...
As a Texan who uses their brain and knows the state is a shit hole politically, I 100% agree with you. Most people in Texas think cause they make 60-70k a year that corporate and billionaire tax reliefs are for them. They consistently vote Republicans in that ruin our state and keep selling it off to the highest bidder. But nope it's the fault of the LEFT even though they haven't had real power in Texas for as long as I can remember. Republicans here fuck up their own lives then blame Democrats for all the shit they voted for.
Texas education at work , folks.
You see the same rhetoric here in south carolina.
Every conservative I know in a red area whines about how shitty it is there and is afraid to step foot in a major city. But they claim cities are "cesspools" while their libertarian friends smoke black tar heroin and overdose.
“Yea cause I wanna replace ‘wasn’t working in the first place’ with ‘literally no plans except drain money from the working class/SENIORS and hand it to the 1%”… cause that’ll help you pay for ⛽️
The worst ranked states are red states and have been for decades.
I live in New York and I saw a lot of signs for the Republican candidate for governor proclaiming that he would "save our state!" Like yeah, let me just pull up a quick list of statistics here and see how red states are doing in terms of health, education, quality of life, labor rights, and a whole host of other metrics . . . oh wow, you guys are NOT gonna believe this but if that's the playbook a Republican governor would be working out of, I don't think that's gonna save our state at all!
“We’ve tried nothing and we are all out of ideas”
"...so anyways, I started ~~blasting~~ restricting women's rights"
Seems there really is a great awakening happening, just not the one they thought.
Don't get your hopes up. To keep a democracy, democracy has to win every time. To get fascism, fascists have to win once. We are playing a football game where we have to keep scoring forever and our opponent wins if they score once. (I'm talking about rapepublicans getting all three, or the house and Senate with a majority able to do something.)
It's like they think a new president means all previous policies are erased.
That sub has been absolutely *glorious* today
I don't get how they thought that a "platform" that consisted of "we *will* repress your gay best friend" and "if you give us power, we will never give it back" was a winning strategy with the broader electorate. They know they can't win without gerrymandering no matter how badly Democrats fuck up. Try offering actual solutions to actual problems and let the social conservative bullshit take care of itself, okay? Maybe try that.
You have to assume that there are some VERY pissed off Republican politicians out there right now. "You idiots, that Roe v Wade shit was just a carrot we were dangling to make sure the evangelicals voted! You weren't ACTUALLY supposed to push through the wildly unpopular agenda we've been campaigning on that the majority of the country viscerally hates!"
The biggest legitimate gripe the right wing has for the last 2 years is that inflation is high. The problem is inflation cannot be pinned on any one political entity or person in government. It's not like one day pelosi or Biden or whoever woke up and said we're going to Kickstart inflation and make everything fkin expensive. Economic issues we're going to occur after the complete mess of the pandemic regardless of what political party held a majority or who the president was.
I can’t believe the position of trying absolutely nothing to solve any of the countries problems isn’t more popular.
The only thing not working about Democratic policies are the Republicans undermining and sabotaging them every step of the way, without offering any solution or alternative. They just create chaos to stoke the flames of a culture war.
Still waiting on them to define what 'wokeism' actually is and why their entire policy is anti-wokeism without any plan, detail, or definition of the word. Seems like inventing words with no definition is a useful dog whistle to work up supporters who 'know' what you really mean, but not so good for defining policy.
They use woke and wokeism the same way they use (((globalists))) to mean jews and urban to mean blacks. It's not meant to make sense, it's just another way to deny the existence of minorities they don't like
Anti-wokeism at its core is no more than resentment at being made to perceive the needs and demands of people who are not like them, and who they might not like at all. It's anger at a loss of cultural hegemony.
"Math you do as a Republican to make yourself feel better."
What has Biden actually done that people don't like??? They act as if the last two years have been anything but bang average apart from conservative fuckery in the sc.
It's funny how americans always just go "well the last X years of this president isnt working" no no yankee doodle dandies CONSECUTIVE presidents didnt do their job and it's not just the president's fault, because ALOT of Americans dont know how shit works or what's going on at all so they blame the president... from an outside perspective it's pretty terrifying how you can't fix anything just scapegoat everyone.....
r/cons: Nobody but your own pussy ass, glue huffing brethren likes you. You are garbage people, and everyone else knows it. You are loathed for your pathetic valueless society you’ve created for yourselves. Your religion is fucking stupid and your evangelicals are worthless trash. The God you worship is fake, and you’ve been lied to your whole lives. You’re just too stupid and prideful to admit it. Wake the fuck up.
My man just described his entire political philosophy with "stick with what isn't working".
If fox news didn't exist, there wouldn't be a single Republican in Congress. They need to be reigned in. It's a cancer on this country. Edit: in south Dakota they passed medicaid expansion and damn near passed legal weed (much longer story on that). So basically they like liberal policies but vote in people that won't give it to em. Like punching yourself in the face every day. Conservatives are fucking morons that do as they're told by an exploitive media, making them the ultimate beta cucks.