Random Politics 2

[Meera]

Does anyone else have boomer parents that constantly watch right-wing news and are just completely obsessed with it? My parents watch Fox 24 hours day, if they aren't watching fox then they are listening to right-wing radio and I hear them repeat these stupid talking points all day. It drives me insane. I just went on a trip to Massachuttes and my mom told me I need to be careful because Mexicans may do something to the train. They also tell all their Afghan friends that the vaccine is bad and how there are bad ingredients in it and it will make their children infertile. It is freaking insane.

[vijayjohn]

I don't, but I definitely have at least two cousins who do!

[Meera]

I don't, but I definitely have at least two cousins who do!

It's really hard to deal with, I understand everyone can have sides and not agree on things but I feel like a lot of it is harming people. Like my parents originally thought covid was fake and would not wear masks, said Muslims couldn't' get it, etc. We all ended up getting covid and now they think vaccines are terrible which can actively spread the virus affecting other people. It's so hard to hear it daily and when I try to have a conversation with them, they just yell at me and say it's their opinion and that I'm brainwashed.

[vijayjohn]

It's almost the only reason why I don't think I'll ever come out to my family.

[Yasna]

And since I read the news, I'm already familiar with Bari Weiss and her shtik. I don't need to register on some site I've never heard of to read another of her screeds.

Incognito mode is your friend. You can also find most of the article's content here.

Here's what I think you're not getting about "context": If you're going to position something as a "revolution", as a sea change in society, you have to show that what is does is fundamentally different from what went before. [...]

And that's why any talk of a "woke revolution" gets a cynical guffaw from me. As Woodhouse says, it amounts to rearranging the seats around the captain's table while doing nothing to get the ship back on course.

I agree with much of that. Although I'm actually going to defend the "woke revolution" a little and say that it is producing meaningful progress here and there, such as the end of legacy admissions at Amherst College (hopefully more will follow) and increased pressure on police to record interactions with the public and make public any controversial ones.

But performativity is only one aspect of the "woke revolution". There's the chilling effect produced by this expansive cancel culture that has led to self-censorship on a massive scale. There's the now ubiquitous CRT-inspired (re)education which has persuaded many (most?) progressives to view every interaction, every news story, every faux pas through a racial prism. There's the erosion of standards in pursuit of equal outcomes by race. Not to mention the dramatic rise in murders which is partially attributable to enfeebled policing and prosecution, a product of the "woke revolution".

I'm not that invested in calling it a revolution, but anyway the scale and pace of the societal change is like nothing I've seen in my lifetime.

[Yasna]

Does anyone else have boomer parents that constantly watch right-wing news and are just completely obsessed with it? My parents watch Fox 24 hours day, if they aren't watching fox then they are listening to right-wing radio and I hear them repeat these stupid talking points all day. It drives me insane.

Not my parents, but many of my uncles and aunts.

It's really hard to deal with, I understand everyone can have sides and not agree on things but I feel like a lot of it is harming people. Like my parents originally thought covid was fake and would not wear masks, said Muslims couldn't' get it, etc. We all ended up getting covid and now they think vaccines are terrible which can actively spread the virus affecting other people. It's so hard to hear it daily and when I try to have a conversation with them, they just yell at me and say it's their opinion and that I'm brainwashed.

Perhaps try nudging them towards some reasonable right-leaning news sources? For example, WSJ, National Review, Quillette, and City Journal are all broadly pro-vaccine (though less enthusiastic about mandates), but they avoid talking down to the skeptics and are very sensitive to their concerns.

[vijayjohn]

And since I read the news, I'm already familiar with Bari Weiss and her shtik. I don't need to register on some site I've never heard of to read another of her screeds.

Incognito mode is your friend. You can also find most of the article's content here.

But performativity is only one aspect of the "woke revolution". There's the chilling effect produced by this expansive cancel culture that has led to self-censorship on a massive scale. There's the now ubiquitous CRT-inspired (re)education which has persuaded many (most?) progressives to view every interaction, every news story, every faux pas through a racial prism. There's the erosion of standards in pursuit of equal outcomes by race. Not to mention the dramatic rise in murders which is partially attributable to enfeebled policing and prosecution, a product of the "woke revolution".

Perhaps try nudging them towards some reasonable right-leaning news sources? For example, WSJ, National Review, Quillette, and City Journal are all broadly pro-vaccine (though less enthusiastic about mandates), but they avoid talking down to the skeptics and are very sensitive to their concerns.

[Meera]

Does anyone else have boomer parents that constantly watch right-wing news and are just completely obsessed with it? My parents watch Fox 24 hours day, if they aren't watching fox then they are listening to right-wing radio and I hear them repeat these stupid talking points all day. It drives me insane.

Not my parents, but many of my uncles and aunts.

It's really hard to deal with, I understand everyone can have sides and not agree on things but I feel like a lot of it is harming people. Like my parents originally thought covid was fake and would not wear masks, said Muslims couldn't' get it, etc. We all ended up getting covid and now they think vaccines are terrible which can actively spread the virus affecting other people. It's so hard to hear it daily and when I try to have a conversation with them, they just yell at me and say it's their opinion and that I'm brainwashed.

Perhaps try nudging them towards some reasonable right-leaning news sources? For example, WSJ, National Review, Quillette, and City Journal are all broadly pro-vaccine (though less enthusiastic about mandates), but they avoid talking down to the skeptics and are very sensitive to their concerns.

I will definitely give that a try, they seem super far gone though. I almost feel like they need to be deprogrammed.

[Yasna]

Taiwanese American Michelle Wu (吴弭) makes history; Boston's first female mayor in its 200 year history

美国波士顿市长决选11月2日揭晓，候选人乔治已向台裔吴弭承认败选。身为台湾移民第2代的吴弭成为波士顿200年来首位女市长。[...]

9月14日，36岁的吴弭与同为民主党籍、47岁的乔治在初选击败另3位参选人，挺进本月2日的决选，为一直与种族和族裔纷争搏斗的波士顿开启了新纪元。

吴弭双亲从台湾移民美国，她是在伊利诺州芝加哥南区出生长大，之后为赴哈佛大学求学而移居波士顿。乔治也是移民第2代，她的母亲是来自波兰的天主教徒，父亲是来自突尼西亚的穆斯林。

[vijayjohn]

No one said it here, so I guess I will: A lot of people seem to be worried now that Chump will win in 2024.

Also, Abiy Ahmed Ali has declared a state of emergency in Ethiopia.

[Rí.na.dTeangacha]

No one said it here, so I guess I will: A lot of people seem to be worried now that Chump will win in 2024.

I think I've lost any sense of how likely this is, as he's disappeared from all media I see. How concerned do you think we should be (open question to everyone, by the way)?

[vijayjohn]

Apparently, Biden's approval rating is really low, and the Democrats lost hard in Virginia recently.

I'm actually somewhat pleasantly surprised at the possibility that Chump might win in 2024. I've been expecting a much worse Republican president that would make Chump look good in comparison.

[linguoboy]

Apparently, Biden's approval rating is really low, and the Democrats lost hard in Virginia recently.

The question is, how predictive are either of these of how a Presidential election will go in two years?

This is where I find the website FiveThirtyEight really handy. You can look at the approval polls for Joe Biden and compare them to other Presidents over the course of their terms. If you do, you'll see that he's averaging 5 pts higher than Trump was at the same point. Obama and Reagan were also underwater at this point in their first terms and still went on to win three years later (resoundingly in Reagan's case, a bit less so in Obama's).

Moreover, it's typical for Republicans to do better in elections which don't coincide with a Presidential one (which Virginia's didn't) and for the President's party to do worse in the mid-terms. Congressional Democrats are probably headed for a shellacking in 2022 but that doesn't tell us much about what will happened in the Presidential contest in 2024--which might not even be contested by Biden anyhow!

[vijayjohn]

Apparently, Biden's approval rating is really low, and the Democrats lost hard in Virginia recently.

The question is, how predictive are either of these of how a Presidential election will go in two years?

You mean three years?

[Rí.na.dTeangacha]

I'm actually somewhat pleasantly surprised at the possibility that Chump might win in 2024. I've been expecting a much worse Republican president that would make Chump look good in comparison.

Is there someone in particular you're afraid will run? I can't really imagine someone worse than Trump. But then again, I wouldn't have ever imagined him as president of the US if it hadn't actually happened, so...

[vijayjohn]

I'm actually somewhat pleasantly surprised at the possibility that Chump might win in 2024. I've been expecting a much worse Republican president that would make Chump look good in comparison.

Is there someone in particular you're afraid will run?

No (maybe Pence? Idfk).

I can't really imagine someone worse than Trump. But then again, I wouldn't have ever imagined him as president of the US if it hadn't actually happened, so...

I didn't know or care about him before he first ran for election. I wouldn't have been able to imagine someone worse than Bush, either, but there he was.

[Rí.na.dTeangacha]

I didn't know or care about him before he first ran for election. I wouldn't have been able to imagine someone worse than Bush, either, but there he was.

I remember when I was a teenager having a "Bushisms" poster on my wall of all the stupid things Bush Jr. had supossedly said, such as (apparently on his return from a trip to Latin America) "I wish I had studied Latin at school, that way I could have talked to the people". During the Trump administration, I remember wishing suh a copetent head of state was in power...

I haven't heard anything about Pence other than his being vice president to Trump, I don't even know if he's planning on running. As for trump himself, I've heard he's at least toying with the idea of running again, but I don't know how serious he is. I know he still has an extremely worrying amount of influence and popularity amongst his origonal base, such that he would certainly be a threat were he to try again. I guess I'm asking if I'm wrong about that (which I hope I am). I think we (the world) were incredibly lucky to have survived a Trump presidency with as little damage as we got away with, I'd be extremely concerned about a second round of Trump.

[vijayjohn]

I remember when I was a teenager having a "Bushisms" poster on my wall of all the stupid things Bush Jr. had supossedly said, such as (apparently on his return from a trip to Latin America) "I wish I had studied Latin at school, that way I could have talked to the people".

I think my uncle gave my brother a book of Bushisms. It was in his room. I'm in my room right now. What used to be his room is right next door to mine. I don't remember whether that particular one was in the book, but I have heard it before.

During the Trump administration, I remember wishing suh a copetent head of state was in power...

That's exactly what I'm saying; that's what people said after he won. That's exactly what I've been expecting people to say after the next election except about Chump.

I haven't heard anything about Pence other than his being vice president to Trump, I don't even know if he's planning on running.

I have no idea, but he seems less volatile, which could actually be a bad thing.

As for trump himself, I've heard he's at least toying with the idea of running again, but I don't know how serious he is.

He initially refused even to accept that he had lost in the first place, but again, he is also volatile, so who knows?

I know he still has an extremely worrying amount of influence and popularity amongst his origonal base, such that he would certainly be a threat were he to try again. I guess I'm asking if I'm wrong about that (which I hope I am).

I don't think you're wrong, I'm afraid.

I think we (the world) were incredibly lucky to have survived a Trump presidency with as little damage as we got away with, I'd be extremely concerned about a second round of Trump.

I've been assuming we will end up with worse than a second round of Chump. Even the US has been incredibly lucky under the circumstances. It could still be even after a second round, but I'm not going to hold my breath and wait to see what happens. I wish I could just evacuate about half the population so the other half could all kill each other and then maybe we could come back if we still felt like it.

[Yasna]

I think I've lost any sense of how likely this is, as he's disappeared from all media I see. How concerned do you think we should be (open question to everyone, by the way)?

It's a three-part question.

Will he decide to run? Sources close to him indicate he intends to.
Would he win the Republican primaries? He probably would unless the Republicans coalesce early on around an alternative like Ron DeSantis. But promising alternatives like DeSantis seem loathe to run in 2024 because of Trump's persisting popularity with the party base.
Would he beat the Democratic Party nominee? Biden's current level of unpopularity is not terminal, but he is growing more senile by the day, and would likely be a highly vulnerable candidate in 2024. The intended successor to Biden, his vice president Harris, is even more unpopular than Biden.

I'm not optimistic.

[linguoboy]

Will he decide to run? Sources close to him indicate he intends to.

I think this question begs another question which is: Will he be allowed to run? It's still not out of the question that he will be indicted if not convicted before the actual campaign starts. Sure, the GOP will try to portray charges as politically motivated and, at least initially, this would boost his profile and his popularity. But if he's found guilty, he will be disqualified on constitutional grounds.