All purpose news and politics thread part VII: News & Politics Total Landscaping

[Gray Lensman]

With the crazies in the GOP looking to boot out Mike Johnson I was wondering what you guys thought.

If it comes to a vote should the Dems vote to help him keep his job as speaker?

I think they should.

That depends on whether or not one of the rumors I am hearing is actually true - that a few Republicans have stated if there is a push for that vote they will resign, effective immediately, and by doing so create a majority for the Democrats.

Spite - it's a powerful thing, although little good tends to come from it.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

That depends on whether or not one of the rumors I am hearing is actually true - that a few Republicans have stated if there is a push for that vote they will resign, effective immediately, and by doing so create a majority for the Democrats.

Spite - it's a powerful thing, although little good tends to come from it.

I suspect the Nutbag Caucus is too far gone to care, so it doesn’t matter what their fellow Republicans do, hell, they might even dare those recalcitrant GOPers to do their worst.

[aja_christopher]

There are plenty of educated bigots out there, though. Don't get me wrong. Education helps avoid some of the problems caused by ignorance or a lack of developed reasoning but we can look at the antisemites in Ivy League universities or Chinese officials educated in the West to see that other things need to happen.

While this point is relevant data shows that education does help to counter racism and prejudice.

The perfect is not the enemy of the good -- anything that can be done to fight bigotry should be done given what we have seen of the alternative.

If you truly believe in "facts" then they should be refleced in your opinion without bias.

Likewise, there are many different types of education and courses specifically aimed at addressing historical inequalities could easily cover the most relevant topics.

In reality Republicans attack this sort of education as "critical race theory" and "LGBT indoctrination" regardless of its effectiveness in addressing bigotry.



It could easily be argued that they attack "liberal" education precisely because it is effective in countering their prejudices.

-----

"What makes people adopt conservative or liberal political views? Why are some individuals drawn to – or turned off by – certain religions or spiritual beliefs? What determines whether someone will support racism?

Academic research suggests that intelligence and education play a role in the way ideas and attitudes form. A 2008 study published in Psychological Science, for example, indicates a strong association between children’s general intelligence and their social attitudes as adults. The researchers learned that children with higher intelligence levels at age 10 tended to have more liberal, nontraditional attitudes at age 30. Another group of scholars examined the issue of intelligence and religiosity. Their 2013 study involved an analysis of 63 previous studies on the issue and found that individuals who are more intelligent tend to be less religious and demonstrate less religious behavior. The trend was stronger among college students and the general population than for individuals younger than college age.

A 2016 study published in Social Problems takes on the issue of intelligence and racism. Geoffrey T. Wodtke of the University of Toronto wanted to know whether higher cognitive abilities influence a person’s racial tolerance and commitment to racial equality. For his study, “Are Smart People Less Racist? Verbal Ability, Anti-Black Prejudice, and the Principle-Policy Paradox,” Wodtke focused specifically on verbal ability, or the skills needed to understand and analyze language-based information. He analyzed data collected from 1972 to 2010 through the General Social Survey (GSS) — a repeated, cross-sectional survey of the attitudes and demographic characteristics of U.S. residents. The GSS regularly includes an abbreviated version of the Gallup-Thorndike Verbal Intelligence Test, a short vocabulary test designed for use in survey research. Because the GSS had not collected data from sufficiently large samples of racial minorities, this study examines the responses given by a total of 44,873 white survey participants.

The key findings include:

Survey respondents with better scores on the verbal ability test were much less likely to have a negative view of black people’s intelligence and work ethic. For example, 45.7 percent of respondents who scored the lowest on the test reported that they think “blacks are lazy.” About one-quarter (28.8 percent) of the highest scorers agreed with the statement.

Respondents with higher test scores were less likely to oppose black-white intermarriage and having black neighbors. Twenty-eight percent of those scoring in the highest one-third of test takers said they oppose intermarriage compared to 46.7 percent of those in the bottom third of test takers.

White survey participants generally were more likely to support opportunity-enhancing policies such as open housing laws and tax incentives for businesses in black communities than redistributive policies such as racial preferences in employment and government aid for black people.

A small portion of all respondents said they support racial preferences in employment. But those with the highest verbal test scores were less likely to support racial preferences than those with the lowest scores. About 13 percent of respondents with top scores reported supporting racial preferences in employment compared to 8.2 percent of those who received middle-range scores and 15.2 percent who performed worst on the exam.

There is a general disconnect across all ability levels when it comes to views on racial segregation and discrimination and support for policies intended to redress those issues. For example, 88.8 percent of respondents said they think black and white students should attend the same schools. However, 23.2 percent said they support busing programs intended to integrate segregated school districts.

Differences in attitude by ability level are less pronounced among respondents who grew up before the American civil rights movement. The author states that “higher verbal ability is closely linked to rejection of overtly prejudicial attitudes among cohorts socialized during or after the 1950s and 1960s.

The study is the first to estimate the impact of verbal ability — one dimension of intelligence — on racial attitudes. But the author notes that the question of whether smart people are less racist does not have a simple answer. White people with lower verbal test scores as well as high-scoring white people who were born earlier in the 20th century have expressed racial attitudes that are akin to “old-fashioned racism,” Wodtke states. While white people with higher abilities generally give more liberal responses about questions related to anti-black prejudice and support for racial equality, they do not necessarily demonstrate liberal attitudes when it comes to policies designed to remedy racial inequality. The results of this study, according to Wodtke, “at the very least … cast doubt on the argument that cognitive ability is inherently liberalizing.”

https://journalistsresource.org/econ...equality-prejudice/

[Tendrin]

I'm shocked you guys.

n research first published as a working paper in 2020, David Hope and Julian Limberg, of LSE’s International Inequalities Institute and King’s College London, analysed the economic effects of major tax cuts for the rich across five decades in 18 wealthy nations.

If you cut taxes on the rich...they then bargain more aggressively for their own compensation at the direct expense of workers lower down the income distribution.


Their conclusion: the rich got richer and there was no meaningful effect on unemployment or economic growth. It really struck a nerve: after being press released by LSE, it attracted extensive global media coverage, went viral on social media, and was cited by high-profile economists and politicians. As a result, it became the most downloaded paper in the 18-year history of LSE Research Online - the database of all research produced by LSE academics.

*Totally* shocked.

https://www.lse.ac.uk/research/resea...down-economics

All tax cuts for the rich do is further distort and bend both the financial and political economies towards the needs of the wealthy.

[Zelena]

All tax cuts for the rich do is further distort and bend both the financial and political economies towards the needs of the wealthy.

All countries of the world should make pay the rich. These latter shouldn’t have a haven nowhere…

[JackDaw]

All countries of the world should make pay the rich. These latter shouldn’t have a haven nowhere…

Agree, but, of course, never likely to happen because individual countries see the advantage of having incredibly rich individuals and companies based in their manor, and seek to attract them by sweetheart deals.

And incidentally some of the countries that do it most never ever get criticised on this thread.

For example, Ireland has been wonderfully efficient at getting major multinational companies to base themselves there by offering low rates of corporation tax. (Then the companies concerned move a lot of their revenue there by various transfer pricing mechanisms to take advantage of the low tax.)

[Tendrin]

Singapore (or Singawhore, as my lovely Singaporean friend calls it) is also extremely guilt of this.

[Zelena]

Agree, but, of course, never likely to happen because individual countries see the advantage of having incredibly rich individuals and companies based in their manor, and seek to attract them by sweetheart deals.

And incidentally some of the countries that do it most never ever get criticised on this thread.

For example, Ireland has been wonderfully efficient at getting major multinational companies to base themselves there by offering low rates of corporation tax. (Then the companies concerned move a lot of their revenue there by various transfer pricing mechanisms to take advantage of the low tax.)

I know, I know… I put that next “it would be a good idea to avoid buying anything with plastic” and “people should stop throwing cigarette stubs on the ground”…

[hyped78]

True but adults shouldn't be let off the hook either -- with the advent of the internet there is no excuse for people not to be informed.

It could even be argued that it is their personal responsibility to be well informed before making decisions that affect the lives of others.

Besides, kids need someone to look up to when they are young and fictional characters and teachers shouldn't be their only heroes.

The internet, and especially social media, has also created a lot of challenges, unfortunately. Look at Libs of TikTok, for example - without/before Social Media, how would they have spread their "message"?

[Tendrin]

Chaya will absolutely get someone killed eventually.

[4saken1]

With the crazies in the GOP looking to boot out Mike Johnson I was wondering what you guys thought.

If it comes to a vote should the Dems vote to help him keep his job as speaker?

I think they should.

I would say yes. Going through another Republican Speaker and the ensuing chaos of finding another one who will appeal to both moderate and far right Republicans will make them look fractured and no doubt hurt them this Election.

[hyped78]

Chaya will absolutely get someone killed eventually.

Probably already has

[Tendrin]

Probably already has

I mean, she did inspire a social media post by a mass shooter.

[4saken1]

There are some distinctions.

OJ Simpsons slashed his ex-wife and Ron Goldstein. The authorities gave him a favorable trial, to avoid the bad optics of a conviction of an all-white jury. There isn't much of a sense that the Manhattan jury favors Trump.

The case is also different. Everyone can agree that double homicide is a serious crime. What Trump did is nowhere near that level.

Of course there are distinctions. The main point is that "not guilty" ≠ "innocent of the crime they have been accused of".

[tv horror]

Green is after the Speakership herself so that she can inDICK a lot more of her headline grabbing list.