All-purpose news and politics thread: Two Steps Beyond!

[ed2962]

Plus there was that poster from South America with the Mojo avatar who seemed to be an actual fan of Milo's and kept defending him as "he is just like a shock jock." He posted about him quite a bit for a while.

He's not wrong...Milo is just like a shock jock. The problem is that some people have elevated him to being some sort of deep political thinker or social critic. And somehow folks want to pretend that he's a free speech martyr because after he's gone a little too far a couple of times, certain folks cut ties with him.

[Jack Dracula]

Antifa = anger
KKK = hate

Different things! Antifa isn't perpetrating their message to instill fear, but to raise awareness about societal injustices.

I understand the idea behind Antifa, but am not convinced there aren't better ways to raise awareness. It's a natural reaction to want to punch a bigot or white supremacist in the face, but it does nothing to counter the ideas these assholes represent. If anything, it galvanizes all the other assholes preconceived beliefs and ideas about the "Intolerant Left."
Personally, I'm more in favor of making them look like the fools they are using tactics like humorous subversion.

[Tendrin]

I understand the idea behind Antifa, but am not convinced there aren't better ways to raise awareness. It's a natural reaction to want to punch a bigot or white supremacist in the face, but it does nothing to counter the ideas these assholes represent. If anything, it galvanizes all the other assholes preconceived beliefs and ideas about the "Intolerant Left."
Personally, I'm more in favor of making them look like the fools they are using tactics like humorous subversion.

I mean, I think we just ought to say, "Okay. What are we intolerant of? Racism. Sexism. Bigotry. Fascism. I'd say being intolerant of those things is okay," and punch fascists.

Don't underestimate the necessity of confronting fascism on the streets from time to time. It's self defense.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cable_Street

[4saken1]

I understand the idea behind Antifa, but am not convinced there aren't better ways to raise awareness. It's a natural reaction to want to punch a bigot or white supremacist in the face, but it does nothing to counter the ideas these assholes represent. If anything, it galvanizes all the other assholes preconceived beliefs and ideas about the "Intolerant Left."
Personally, I'm more in favor of making them look like the fools they are using tactics like humorous subversion.

I agree. Merely explaining the difference between the two. Humorous subversion would be a welcome alternative, especially if it proves effective.

[TheFerg714]

Antifa = anger
KKK = hate

Different things! Antifa isn't perpetrating their message to instill fear, but to raise awareness about societal injustices.

Who cares what their message is? If they are using violence, they're instilling fear and are obviously full of hatred.

[JCAll]

Who cares what their message is? If they are using violence, they're instilling fear and are obviously full of hatred.

Yeah, and where did that get the Jedi? Exterminated.
You're a bad leader Yoda, go back to the Muppet Show.

[TheFerg714]

Yeah, and where did that get the Jedi? Exterminated.
You're a bad leader Yoda, go back to the Muppet Show.

ITT: Actual Sith.

[PaulBullion]

Following your original post, where you compared what I wrote to Godwin's Law, I responded that Godwin's Law didn't make sense, so your contrast didn't mean anything.

That's not the conversation we had, but revisionist history ("lies") is the thing your side does, so I am not surprised. At some point, I'll have to stop expecting better from a former intern with the Comics Journal.

[PaulBullion]

Pinch yourself, you're still dreaming. I didn't defend Milo; I maintained that he had a right to free speech as the law defines it now. If the law ever re-defines his speech as hate speech, then he may be arrested. But in the real world, these vigilantes aren't any better than white supremacists because the former claim to be anti-racists.

Sigh.
See my above post. I said you OWNED him. You called him a conservative, literally during the same post storm when you complained about liberals calling him a conservative. How more blatantly dishonest can you got, bo?

[PaulBullion]

I just wanted to share a couple videos some of you will hate and others will like.
Democrats just don't get it.

Calling Sanders' opponents within the Democratic party "elite" and "corporate" is so blatantly from the GOP "demonizing your opponent" playbook and it's incredibly dangerous to our plan of getting rid of Trump and fixing this country. People haven't learned from 2016. Or they don't care and think that for a REAL left wing revolution, we need 8 years of Trump and more kids in cages because not enough people in the Rust Belt care yet.

[Tazirai]

Calling Sanders' opponents within the Democratic party "elite" and "corporate" is so blatantly from the GOP "demonizing your opponent" playbook and it's incredibly dangerous to our plan of getting rid of Trump and fixing this country. People haven't learned from 2016. Or they don't care and think that for a REAL left wing revolution, we need 8 years of Trump and more kids in cages because not enough people in the Rust Belt care yet.

I don't even know where you're going with this. We should let the Elites and Establishment who are blatantly doing what they can to not go after Trump, but go after Progressives, just keep repeating the same mistakes that gave us trump?

[Tazirai]

Database errors again?

[PaulBullion]

I don't even know where you're going with this. We should let the Elites and Establishment who are blatantly doing what they can to not go after Trump, but go after Progressives, just keep repeating the same mistakes that gave us trump?

They could start by not referring to Unions as "corporate" and Planned Parenthood as "the establishment." They could accept that Democrats include a political spectrum of decent people, and that running to the left in a purple state won't always work.

[PaulBullion]

I don't even know where you're going with this. We should let the Elites and Establishment who are blatantly doing what they can to not go after Trump, but go after Progressives, just keep repeating the same mistakes that gave us trump?

They could start by not referring to Unions as "corporate" and Planned Parenthood as "the establishment." They could accept that Democrats include a political spectrum of decent people, and that running to the left in a purple state won't always work.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Koch Network Leaders Blast Trump White House As ‘Divisive’

The group also criticized his trade policies. When people behind the scumbag Kochs call you out, you KNOW you're doing something wrong.

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Actor Ving Rhames Says Police Held Him At Gunpoint In His Own Home

The “Mission: Impossible” star said a neighbor had reported a “large black man” was breaking in. Now we have "Living In Your Own Home While Black". How in the hell can anyone NOT know who Ving Fucking Rhames is for crissakes? Even celebrities aren't immune to this sort of racist profiling. Now, if I'm Mr. Rhames, I channel Marcellus Wallace from Pulp Fiction, find out who that neighbor was, then call a couple of hard, pipe hittin' bruthahs and go to work on that snitch with a pair of pliers and blowtorch!

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Donald Trump Promised Dirt On Clinton 2 Days Before Trump Tower Meeting

He touted special speech that didn’t happen after Trump Tower meeting was a bust. Well, this is certainly interesting.

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Yemeni American Commits Suicide After Trump Travel Ban Bars His Family

Tragic death underscores toll of harsh immigration policies. Jesus. This sort of **** should NOT have to happen.

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The Trump Administration Says Poverty Is Over. They’re Lying.

The Trump administration would like you to believe that poverty doesn’t really exist in the United States of America.

First, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N Nikki Haley argued in June that it was “patently ridiculous” for the United Nations to study poverty in America, a waste of “time and resources.” Then President Donald Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers released a 66-page report all but asserting that poverty isn’t a problem in the country. In service of the administration’s goal of imposing work requirements on any anti-poverty program it can, like health insurance or housing, it’s declaring victory in the war on poverty launched a half-century ago. The true problem, the administration claims, is not that people are poor, but that they’ve been made lazy and have to be forced to work.

They couldn’t be more wrong. Poverty exists, and the administration’s favored policy changes will only make it dramatically worse.

We have other ways of knowing that poverty is still a huge problem in the U.S. You can just ask poor people whether they exist. If Trump and his advisers want to claim that it’s been solved, they have a lot of people to explain themselves to.

They should tell that to the more than half a million people in the U.S. who are homeless on any given night — including almost 200,000 who have no shelter at all — a number that is widely considered to be an undercount. The Trump administration points out that, according to this count, “99.9 percent of people had shelter and 99.8 percent were housed.” Even if that’s accurate, those who constitute the administration’s rounding error still go without a home in one of the wealthiest countries in the world.

If the Trump administration really thinks poverty doesn’t exist in the U.S., they should tell that to the 15.6 million American families who were food insecure for at least part of 2016, meaning they had limited access to food because they couldn’t afford what they needed. More than 6 million of those families went through times where someone in the household had to cut back on how much they ate and their eating patterns were disrupted because they couldn’t afford enough food. It’s true, as the CEA report notes, that “the vast majority of Americans have reliable access to food.” But even a small bout of cutting back on nutrition has huge health impacts, particularly on children.

The administration should tell it to the people teetering on the edge of financial ruin, including the 7 percent of adults who say they struggle to get by and the 40 percent who wouldn’t be able to cover an unexpected expense of just $400.