Random Politics 2

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Random Politics 2

Postby dEhiN » 2019-03-24, 1:24

Continuation of Random Politics. The old thread can now be found in Forum Archives.
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Re: Random Politics 2

Postby Yasna » 2019-03-24, 5:54

A whole thread just for politics?! That could get heated.
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Re: Random Politics 2

Postby md0 » 2019-03-25, 18:24

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the start of the NATO bombing campaign of rump Yugoslavia (yesterday), Greek anti-nationalist media started republishing a very thorough documentation effort that shows Hellenic Greek and Cypriot Greek complicity in Milošević's crimes. That let me to this Greek documentary about how the Cypriot government and particularly prominent lawyer and later President of the Republic Tassos Papadopoulos helped Milošević bypass UN sanctions (and buy weapons) by doing what Cyprus does best. It's hardly news of course, but every time I come across this story again in some way, I am enraged all the same. It's not nice, and it's not completely rational, but Papadopoulos has become the symbol of everything that was wrong with the Greek Cypriot political elite - from his secret plans to disestablish the Republic of Cyprus the very year it was founded, to him being accessory to crimes against humanity in Yugoslavia, to his stance in 2004 that probably made sure that Cyprus will never be reunited.

To this day, he remains the only person I was actively happy that he died, even though that changed nothing: it didn't stop or revert the harm he has caused, not did it end the kind of politics and policies he supported. I guess British people can relate to that feeling if they compare him to Thatcher and her death.
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Re: Random Politics 2

Postby Antea » 2019-04-02, 18:59

:cry: Don't understand much about politics, but I still don't understand why do they want to leave Europe.
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Re: Random Politics 2

Postby Johanna » 2019-04-02, 20:21

Antea wrote: :cry: Don't understand much about politics, but I still don't understand why do they want to leave Europe.
https://youtu.be/DiYmRBEtdU8

Scotland definitely doesn't want to leave the EU, which that video is all about really.

Honestly, if the Brexit referendum had been held before that for Scottish independence, Scotland would most likely not have been part of the UK for much longer and in full swing to prepare their application back into the EU.
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Re: Random Politics 2

Postby md0 » 2019-04-03, 4:32

It looks like the rest of the UK doesn't want Brexit either, they are just in a political deadlock of their own making.
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Re: Random Politics 2

Postby Saim » 2019-04-19, 15:02

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKwMVfVhBbY

The radical centrists are at it again

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Re: Random Politics 2

Postby Yasna » 2019-04-19, 21:48

Lol. They should have stuck to the Internet.
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Re: Random Politics 2

Postby Yasna » 2019-04-22, 17:02

Ich bin nicht mehr links

"Die längste Zeit meines Lebens war ich mir sicher, politisch auf der richtigen Seite zu stehen. Als Schülerin demonstrierte ich gegen den Golfkrieg, während meines Psychologiestudiums probte ich mit Häftlingen ein Theaterstück. Als die Flüchtlinge nach Deutschland kamen, nahmen wir nächteweise junge Männer aus Syrien und Afghanistan auf. Ich war links. Und links zu sein hieß für mich, aufgeklärt, kritisch und tolerant zu sein. Es bedeutete, an Gleichheit und Solidarität zu glauben und Menschen nicht einfach sich selbst zu überlassen. Diese Haltung war für mich politische und emotionale Heimat zugleich. Doch seit einiger Zeit verliere ich mein Gefühl der Zugehörigkeit. Das linksliberale Milieu, aus dem ich stamme, befremdet mich mehr und mehr."

"Diese gedankliche Enge versperrt auch den Blick auf die eigenen Widersprüche: Nationale Grenzen lehnt man zwar ab, aber die Grenzen rund um die eigene Komfortzone schätzt man umso mehr. Tatsächlich werden in meinem großstädtisch geprägten Bildungsbürgermilieu linksliberale Ansichten längst als die einzig wahre Form von Menschlichkeit gesehen. Besonders deutlich wird das in der Flüchtlingspolitik. Es gebe doch tatsächlich Menschen, die für eine Obergrenze seien!, rief ein Bekannter bei einem Brunch in die Runde. Und alle schüttelten den Kopf. Unvorstellbar! Ich schwieg. Ich wollte den Morgen nicht verderben. Denn manchmal, habe ich festgestellt, ist die Stimmung auch unter denen, die prinzipiell für Vielfalt sind, nur so lange gut, wie alle einer Meinung sind."

"Anfang des Jahres traf ich eine alte Freundin auf der Straße wieder. Es war kalt, und wir sprachen nur kurz, aber sie empörte sich trotzdem sofort über die Kölner Silvesternacht und das racial profiling, das ihrer Meinung nach dort stattgefunden hatte. Meine Frage, wen die Polizisten denn hätten kontrollieren sollen, wenn nicht Männer, die den Tätern vom Vorjahr ähnelten, beantwortete sie nicht. Stattdessen sagte sie, dass die sexuellen Übergriffe damals doch nichts anderes als Oktoberfest-Grapschereien gewesen seien."

"Wozu diese narzisstische Selbstüberhöhung führt, bekam ich neulich in Berlin mit. Im Mauerpark im Bezirk Prenzlauer Berg gibt es einen Abschnitt, in dem die Mitglieder des Mauergarten-Vereins ihre Hochbeete haben. Dort, unter vielen zugezogenen Bullerbü-goes-Berlin-Familien gärtnert auch ein älterer Herr aus der DDR. Er kümmert sich um den Komposthaufen des Vereins. Schneidet Küchenabfälle klein, kauft kiloweise Würmer der Firma Superwurm, setzt sie hinein, schippt um und belüftet. Er macht Führungen für Schüler aus dem Wedding, von denen viele noch nie eine Tomate an einem Strauch gesehen haben. Vor einigen Monaten dann forderte ein anderes Vereinsmitglied per Mail den Ausschluss dieses älteren Herrn, weil er in der AfD ist. "Entnazifizierung" stand in der Betreff-Zeile. Ich habe den Mann getroffen. Er ist kein Björn Höcke. Er hat auf seinem Hochbeet auch nie eine AfD-Flagge gehisst. Er hat einfach nur Zucchini angebaut."
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Re: Random Politics 2

Postby linguoboy » 2019-04-24, 17:07

So I'm fascinated by how the landscape is changing on prisoners' rights in the run-up to the next election. I first starting paying attention to politics in the high-crime 80s, when pillorying Democrats as "soft on crime" was a major part of the Republican strategy for winning elections at all levels. This culminated in the passage of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 by a Democratic Congress, which was signed and enforced by a Democratic President. Alongside its many positive provisions, it eliminated funding for educating inmates, criminalised gang membership, and enshrined "three-strikes laws" on the Federal level.

Criminal justice reform struck me as a policy without a constituency. The prisoners themselves couldn't vote and the number of people who were strongly in favour of helping them was outnumbered by the number strongly opposed while the majority couldn't be motivated to care about them at all. Advocating for prisoners' rights seemed like political suicide to anyone up for election.

The first solid evidence I noticed of a change in attitude was the passing of a referendum in Florida last November which automatically reenfranchised ex-felons. (Florida used to be one of the five remaining states where ex-felons could only regain voting rights by individual petition; the process for doing so was notoriously opaque and unsuccessful.) A previous reform had been reversed by the Republican governor and I didn't expect this one to pass.

If I wasn't expecting voters to support reenfranchising former prisoners, I'm nothing short of amazed to see that enfranchising current prisoners has become a campaign issue among Democratic candidates. Sanders came out in support of it, prompting Buttigieg to condemn it. Others, such as Harris and Warren, have been more noncommittal. (Warren was quoted as saying, "I'm not there yet", Harris as "I think we should have that conversation".) If you had asked me a year ago if I thought this is where we'd be at today, I would have scoffed.
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Re: Random Politics 2

Postby md0 » 2019-05-05, 17:37

A translated article from some British anarchists I have never heard before is making the rounds in Greek libertarian left media, and the title is something like "Against Anarcho-Liberalism and the curse of identity politics".

Now, I said it before and on several occasions that I have come to consider identity politics necessary, bu insufficient on their own. If they are not supplemented with more political theory, they can lead you to some absurd conclusions and get you stuck in local maxima as far as libertarian leftist goals are concerned. Still, it's a necessary framework, and honestly, it's the master narrative of the 21st century, even if you absolutely hate it, you will have to act in relation to it somehow.

So, I did go into the article positively predisposed. It doesn't start well, but if you can squint hard enough, you see some good points expressed in a very divisive way. From the middle of the text onwards, it devolves into a defence of TERFs, whose voices are silenced by ivory tower academic middle class entryist liberal trans activists :roll:
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Re: Random Politics 2

Postby Saim » 2019-05-05, 18:23

md0 wrote:So, I did go into the article positively predisposed. It doesn't start well, but if you can squint hard enough, you see some good points expressed in a very divisive way. From the middle of the text onwards, it devolves into a defence of TERFs, whose voices are silenced by ivory tower academic middle class entryist liberal trans activists :roll:


Eugh, "left" critiques of identity politicals are almost always tainted by that kind of nonsense. It seems that to make a left critique of liberal identity politics it's best to do so without the frame of being "anti-identity politics" at all... especially since generally people think of any and all "minority issues" as being identity politics, it's quite a slippery term.

I've generally been a proponent of a sort of anarchist intersectionalism, but I keep hearing Marxists saying "class isn't an identity" which I find a pretty baffling statement on the face of it. :para:

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Re: Random Politics 2

Postby md0 » 2019-05-05, 18:54

I keep hearing Marxists saying "class isn't an identity" which I find a pretty baffling statement on the face of it. :para:

I think that can be read in multiple ways. There's clearly an identity that is based on class, which I think of in a way analogous to how some characteristics of a person become racialised and are used to create a group.
But there's also class in the relations to economic production sense of the word, which I can see how it's not an identity.

I don't think you ever have one without the other though.
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Re: Random Politics 2

Postby md0 » 2019-05-09, 5:47

Happy 9th of May to antifascists everywhere
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwcKwGS7OSQ
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Re: Random Politics 2

Postby linguoboy » 2019-05-10, 20:35

The Pew Research Center just released the results of a new survey on racial and ethnic diversity in the USA. Although they asked about a lot of different aspects of diversity, the one that's getting the most play in the press is the question about being bothered by hearing languages other than English.

About a third of whites said it would bother them "some" or "a lot" to hear a foreign language spoken in public. However--as you might expect--the distribution varies quite a bit according to age, class, and political affiliation. Only 18% of those under 30 are that bothered (with 55% being "not at all" bothered) while the figure for seniors is 55%. 46% of those with a high school education or less are bothered but only 22% with college degrees. And 47% of Republicans are bothered vs 18% of Democrats. This last factoid is what most of the press coverage led with.

In the ensuing discussion, several of us raised the possibility of underreporting. We suspect that slightly more (perhaps on the order of 10%) of those who consider themselves politically progressive feel pressured to say they're less bothered than they really are. Other studies I've seen show that people are quick to assume others are talking about them when they can't understand what's being said (either due to language barriers or poor hearing) and this doesn't seem to vary significantly according to education or politics.
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Re: Random Politics 2

Postby vijayjohn » 2019-05-10, 22:38

I think there are probably additional complications on top of that since it may also depend on the context where someone is speaking a language other than English. I remember a white co-worker who's roughly the same age as me saying that it bothered him when people used languages other than English in a very specific context (on a chatting app we're supposed to use at work), not because he thought people were talking about him or whatever but because he felt it could be too confusing. (Honestly, they were only short utterances, and it was pretty obvious what they were talking about since everyone chatting was talking about the same thing at the same time. I don't know for sure what he thought would be confusing. I didn't want to press the matter further since I was afraid that would make it escalate into an argument, but I'm guessing he was afraid someone would tag the wrong person using the wrong language).

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Re: Random Politics 2

Postby md0 » 2019-05-13, 3:28

How's everyone feeling about the European Parliament elections? I am agonising a lot over whether I should vote this time.
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Re: Random Politics 2

Postby Car » 2019-05-13, 7:48

Honestly, there've been a few articles stating how great the EU is, but basically nothing about what the parties actually want. The election posters are, as always, (almost) impossible to read when driving past them and when you do, it's mostly meaningless stuff (as is normal for any election - both things). I'll vote, but not because I find the parties so convincing.
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Re: Random Politics 2

Postby Aurinĭa » 2019-05-13, 18:10

I'm voting, and I even have some idea whom to vote for (I want to do a bit more research first, though). Somehow I've always found it easier to decide whom to vote for for EU elections than for any other level. I still have no idea for the Flemish and federal elections, which are on the same day. I know whom I definitely don't want to vote for, but not whom I might want to vote for.

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Re: Random Politics 2

Postby vijayjohn » 2019-05-14, 0:34

That sounds kind of like how Americans hear a lot more about the federal election than about the more local ones that actually matter more.


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