If the medium is the message, may we conclude that the magaverse and the postmodernists are all Post-Truthers? Truth is bent to accomplish one's political ambitions and vanquish opponents rather than to establish a common foundation of facts and address societal problems. If those are the two controlling factions within US society, is there any future for the "united" part of The United States of America?
The Democrats are where a party should be that hasn’t had a new idea since FDR or, more sympathetically, LBJ. Also, I am 74 years old and haven’t watched network or cable TV for about 5 years.
People do not like being lectured to, even when it's subtle. People don't like liberal virtue signaling. Many of us don't want to hear about structural racism; we work with people of all races and everyone gets along well. We don't want to hear about how trans people are so persecuted. We are pretty sure that the only places in America where trans people would actually be in physical anger are gang dominated neighborhood in cities . Probably not white gangs. We don't want to hear about climate change from people who vacation in Europe every year.
I too have been plagued by the specter of black and hispanic gangs being the sole cause of preying on transgender people. But I've come to see it's a logical response as transgenders are notorious for lecturing others on climate change and then skipping off to Europe.
Haha. But surely you have heard the claim made by LGBTQ+ advocates and their allies ( propagandized by the media) that trans people are in deadly physical danger in many parts of the United States. They never say that the trans people are in danger in many foreign countries which is probably true. No, they say trans people are in danger in the United States. When I ask: "Where exactly are the trans people in physical danger?", the response is usually some mumbling about red states or rural areas. Now clearly, when you think about this it's absurd. Red states are not filled with knuckle dragging Trump voters who want nothing more than to beat up some Trans people on a Saturday afternoon.... In all honesty, the only possibly dangerous place in the whole country is going to be somewhere there are a lot of recent immigrants from Africa and the Middle East whose cultures are not tolerant. And I don't want to accuse anybody, because probably that's not even the case. Trans people's lives are not in danger in this country, no matter what they believe. However this stupid trope is used to justify trans activism.
I'm not familiar with claims that trans people are generally in "deadly physical danger" anywhere in the U.S. Fortunately the overall U.S. violent crime rate is at a 50 or 60 year low. Some claims of higher suicide rates are out there - not sure if they have been validated. What has been true throughout my (70 yr) lifetime, and I believe long before that, is that those perceived to be in some way sexually abnormal or "disgusting" and hence designated as unworthy do experience violence from those in need of feeling superior at meaningfully higher rates than everyone else - LGB, drag queens, and more recently the distinctions around QTIA+. Same is true for school and social media bullying and other negative social experiences. Seems obvious that some extreme views of the extent society should go in making folks with identifiable sexuality differences feel fully included have gotten out of whack, but of course virtue signalling goes both ways as evidenced by new state laws making the lives of trans people and their families more difficult medically, socially and emotionally, passed purely for politicized culture war purposes to pander to certain more conservative religious groups. I think the situation in other world areas with more religion-focused cultures increases the experience of violence if someone is out/outed with a perceived "deviancy". But those making their online arguments are probably focused on U.S. politics and not situations outside of our jurisdiction.
I absolutely agree that trans people, like LGBTQ, deserve full respect, love, dignity like everyone else. They should not be discriminated against, and should have full civil rights- which they do. I would ask what laws are you referencing in terms of " making their lives more difficult;"? The only laws I know of are the states which have banned gender surgery and prescribing synthetic hormones on minors. Lets be clear that we are talking about giving pre pubescent children chemical castration hormones (in many cases the same as are given to sex offenders) and surgically removing their genitals! This is called " gender affirming care." Its unsupported by science, it's irreversible, it has many terrible long term side effects. So the laws to ban it are progress. Several European countries like Sweden which were allowing this surgery until recently have also banned it now due to bad outcomes. Yet the Biden admin went after the state of Tennessee and Louisiana for passing these laws. SCOTUS supported the states right to ban these surgeries.
May I politely disagree? The MAGA universe exists in a news and information environment totally at odds with true journalism. The MSM historically and currently provides American voters with journalism, sometimes left biased but not dishonest. Liars in the MSM are found out and banished. Mistakes in reporting are discovered and corrected. News and information is vetted by journalists and their multiple fact-checkers and editors. Walter Cronkite was the "most trusted man in America". Then, in 1989, Rush Limbaugh began to weaponize the First Amendment for fun and big profit. Right-wing talk radio hit every major market in the AM and gave the listeners Rush in the afternoon. Journalism standards of reporting were ignored, insults, lies and conspiracy theories were the red meat that created the "Ditto Heads" and the Tea Party patriots. Cable news and information got in on the money train. Murdoch's version was Fox News. Now it has many imitators. The Internet has been an incredible force multiplier of bile. The left cannot fight the information war by being equally cavalier with the truth. If the democratic republic is to be saved, the First Amendment needs to address the hate speech, disinformation, character assassination and conspiracy theories of the current information environment. It certainly won't happen under this administration nor may it ever. However, James Madison made the point clearly: "A democratic republic requires a well-informed electorate". First Amendment purists would rather defend that which has divided us than live in a democracy. Ill-informed voters and democracy are mutually exclusive. Pick a side.
This the reality. I'm sorry that Persuasion has been a forum for apologists to the far right and to slamming Democrats for behavior that would be downright centrist in most European countries. And this is actually yet another although Sam makes the medicine go down in a Mary Poppins way!
If MSM is so great, Why was the covid origin lab leak story called a racist conspiracy theory for so long? Common sense suggested that since covid first emerged in the neighborhood of a lab doing gain of function research on coronaviruses, that the lab leak origin should be seriously investigated.. Yet to this day, the whole story has never been adequately or honestly covered in MSM. Taibbi, Greenwald, Jeffrey Sachs, Alex Berenson and others have covered it independently Real coverage would include how Fauci leaned on a bunch of high level scientists ( who depend on NIH for grant money) to publish a paper saying covid probably came from nature. These same scientists in emails earlier had said covid probably came from a lab. This is a story which deserved a lot more attention considering how the world was upended for 3 years. And considering what it says about the corruption of science at the highest levels and with the highest stakes.
She would have persuaded at least some of the voters that voting for trump because of his Rogan appearance . And of course her notorious wouldn’t do anything differently interview on the View: https://youtu.be/oMbvsnYqcl8?si=cJ80hqYNA-qNUBXj
How about the Dems just point out the fact that MAGA and the far right have little interest in anything but the white capitalist power structure. And that Fox news is a hellhole of white supremacy. Message enough for this Dem....
If the medium is the message, may we conclude that the magaverse and the postmodernists are all Post-Truthers? Truth is bent to accomplish one's political ambitions and vanquish opponents rather than to establish a common foundation of facts and address societal problems. If those are the two controlling factions within US society, is there any future for the "united" part of The United States of America?
The Democrats are where a party should be that hasn’t had a new idea since FDR or, more sympathetically, LBJ. Also, I am 74 years old and haven’t watched network or cable TV for about 5 years.
People do not like being lectured to, even when it's subtle. People don't like liberal virtue signaling. Many of us don't want to hear about structural racism; we work with people of all races and everyone gets along well. We don't want to hear about how trans people are so persecuted. We are pretty sure that the only places in America where trans people would actually be in physical anger are gang dominated neighborhood in cities . Probably not white gangs. We don't want to hear about climate change from people who vacation in Europe every year.
I too have been plagued by the specter of black and hispanic gangs being the sole cause of preying on transgender people. But I've come to see it's a logical response as transgenders are notorious for lecturing others on climate change and then skipping off to Europe.
Haha. But surely you have heard the claim made by LGBTQ+ advocates and their allies ( propagandized by the media) that trans people are in deadly physical danger in many parts of the United States. They never say that the trans people are in danger in many foreign countries which is probably true. No, they say trans people are in danger in the United States. When I ask: "Where exactly are the trans people in physical danger?", the response is usually some mumbling about red states or rural areas. Now clearly, when you think about this it's absurd. Red states are not filled with knuckle dragging Trump voters who want nothing more than to beat up some Trans people on a Saturday afternoon.... In all honesty, the only possibly dangerous place in the whole country is going to be somewhere there are a lot of recent immigrants from Africa and the Middle East whose cultures are not tolerant. And I don't want to accuse anybody, because probably that's not even the case. Trans people's lives are not in danger in this country, no matter what they believe. However this stupid trope is used to justify trans activism.
I'm not familiar with claims that trans people are generally in "deadly physical danger" anywhere in the U.S. Fortunately the overall U.S. violent crime rate is at a 50 or 60 year low. Some claims of higher suicide rates are out there - not sure if they have been validated. What has been true throughout my (70 yr) lifetime, and I believe long before that, is that those perceived to be in some way sexually abnormal or "disgusting" and hence designated as unworthy do experience violence from those in need of feeling superior at meaningfully higher rates than everyone else - LGB, drag queens, and more recently the distinctions around QTIA+. Same is true for school and social media bullying and other negative social experiences. Seems obvious that some extreme views of the extent society should go in making folks with identifiable sexuality differences feel fully included have gotten out of whack, but of course virtue signalling goes both ways as evidenced by new state laws making the lives of trans people and their families more difficult medically, socially and emotionally, passed purely for politicized culture war purposes to pander to certain more conservative religious groups. I think the situation in other world areas with more religion-focused cultures increases the experience of violence if someone is out/outed with a perceived "deviancy". But those making their online arguments are probably focused on U.S. politics and not situations outside of our jurisdiction.
I absolutely agree that trans people, like LGBTQ, deserve full respect, love, dignity like everyone else. They should not be discriminated against, and should have full civil rights- which they do. I would ask what laws are you referencing in terms of " making their lives more difficult;"? The only laws I know of are the states which have banned gender surgery and prescribing synthetic hormones on minors. Lets be clear that we are talking about giving pre pubescent children chemical castration hormones (in many cases the same as are given to sex offenders) and surgically removing their genitals! This is called " gender affirming care." Its unsupported by science, it's irreversible, it has many terrible long term side effects. So the laws to ban it are progress. Several European countries like Sweden which were allowing this surgery until recently have also banned it now due to bad outcomes. Yet the Biden admin went after the state of Tennessee and Louisiana for passing these laws. SCOTUS supported the states right to ban these surgeries.
May I politely disagree? The MAGA universe exists in a news and information environment totally at odds with true journalism. The MSM historically and currently provides American voters with journalism, sometimes left biased but not dishonest. Liars in the MSM are found out and banished. Mistakes in reporting are discovered and corrected. News and information is vetted by journalists and their multiple fact-checkers and editors. Walter Cronkite was the "most trusted man in America". Then, in 1989, Rush Limbaugh began to weaponize the First Amendment for fun and big profit. Right-wing talk radio hit every major market in the AM and gave the listeners Rush in the afternoon. Journalism standards of reporting were ignored, insults, lies and conspiracy theories were the red meat that created the "Ditto Heads" and the Tea Party patriots. Cable news and information got in on the money train. Murdoch's version was Fox News. Now it has many imitators. The Internet has been an incredible force multiplier of bile. The left cannot fight the information war by being equally cavalier with the truth. If the democratic republic is to be saved, the First Amendment needs to address the hate speech, disinformation, character assassination and conspiracy theories of the current information environment. It certainly won't happen under this administration nor may it ever. However, James Madison made the point clearly: "A democratic republic requires a well-informed electorate". First Amendment purists would rather defend that which has divided us than live in a democracy. Ill-informed voters and democracy are mutually exclusive. Pick a side.
This the reality. I'm sorry that Persuasion has been a forum for apologists to the far right and to slamming Democrats for behavior that would be downright centrist in most European countries. And this is actually yet another although Sam makes the medicine go down in a Mary Poppins way!
If MSM is so great, Why was the covid origin lab leak story called a racist conspiracy theory for so long? Common sense suggested that since covid first emerged in the neighborhood of a lab doing gain of function research on coronaviruses, that the lab leak origin should be seriously investigated.. Yet to this day, the whole story has never been adequately or honestly covered in MSM. Taibbi, Greenwald, Jeffrey Sachs, Alex Berenson and others have covered it independently Real coverage would include how Fauci leaned on a bunch of high level scientists ( who depend on NIH for grant money) to publish a paper saying covid probably came from nature. These same scientists in emails earlier had said covid probably came from a lab. This is a story which deserved a lot more attention considering how the world was upended for 3 years. And considering what it says about the corruption of science at the highest levels and with the highest stakes.
Kamala’s non appearance on Rogan was her “potatoe” moment. Rogan is objectively kind of objective! Even a leftist blogger like Freddie DeBoer admits this https://open.substack.com/pub/freddiedeboer/p/joe-rogan-is-still-hiding?r=zdzyw&utm_medium=ios
She would have persuaded at least some of the voters that voting for trump because of his Rogan appearance . And of course her notorious wouldn’t do anything differently interview on the View: https://youtu.be/oMbvsnYqcl8?si=cJ80hqYNA-qNUBXj
How about the Dems just point out the fact that MAGA and the far right have little interest in anything but the white capitalist power structure. And that Fox news is a hellhole of white supremacy. Message enough for this Dem....