Meh. As Dorothy Parker once said, “you can lead a horticulture but you can’t make her think.” People who trust everything they read on Teh Interwebz and don’t have an ounce of inquisitive nature have only themselves to blame for their ignorance.
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A society in which we don’t have to care if someone tortures animals is not a good goal, I think. But maybe that’s just my opinion.
A society in which we don’t have to care if someone believes in Creationism as somehow an equal theory for evolution would be nice, except that the Creationism people have been perverting science education in the US (and elsewhere) for years. Creationism is not science, period. Evolution is science, and has been show to be an accurate description of reality time and time again. Somethings in science are absolute and not subject to democracy.
Yeah, I guess I don’t care about the stupid example. But it’s just sad that people can’t get interested in real science, which is amazing.
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I don’t know what to tell you. That’s the definition.
I get that your trying to say that Genetically were effectively all the same, thus the idea that people can rationally judge people based upon the color of their skin is ludicrous. Alas that’s not necessarily true, people have used things like skin color, accent, clothing, smell, gate, size, weight, etc. to assess others since we evolved into multi-cell-organisms so saying that there is no actual difference is irrelevant as observable differences are what everyone cares about when initially assessing someone.
If people use skin color to divide people then we call them racist. Sex-Sexist. Clothes/tasteless. Weight/Heartless. and on and on.
People do these things because it’s like Cliffs-Notes for separating the US from the THEM. Is it ideal nope, but it’s not likely going to go away nope.
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Exactly this. If you think Creationism is science, you don’t understand how science works. Teaching Creationism is unteaching the Scientific Method.
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Agreed! But we can work on it, with better education. How to do that I have no idea.
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I think you are right to point out that Trump’s popularity is part of broader discontent, but I think the article makes that point that for a significant proportion of Trump’s base naked racism is at the core of his appeal, and it’s an ugly fact that is hard to discuss calmly and objectively.
It’s something that must be considered though, and addressed.
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What I mean is that as a person who believes in “science” you don’t want someone who believes in “gods-work” to have control over what you say/think based upon that belief.
The funny thing about most scientific facts like evolution is that at the scale of day to day human existence it actually does not effect anything what people believe. Most people don’t care what the evolutionary views of their plumber are, so long as he knows about pumping shit.
That’s not to say that there are not places where your opinion matters. As a Preacher at a snake handling church your expected to believe gods-work. As a Physician of Infectious Disease your going to need a strong understanding of evolutionary theory.
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Depends what you mean by “racist”
“Motivated by an abiding hatred of racial minorities” - maybe you’re right that many of his supporters are not racist given that definition
“Sufficiently indifferent to the wellbeing of racial minorities that they can wave away the racial hatred of a candidate and still support him because they like some other aspect of his platform (if his incoherent rants can even be called a ‘platform’)” - definitely all of them are racist given that definition.
ETA: OK, not ALL of his supporters are racist even given the latter definition. There are probably some number of them out there who pay no attention to the news or any candidate’s speeches or publications - the crew who would vote for “Sack of Potatoes ®” and go home satisfied with their participation in the political process.
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Seems like working on what makes us alike instead of focusing on what separates us will bring us together better. Unfortunately that does not seem to be the focus in schools and college where we decided the best way to make whites like other people was to blame every problem on them. Yeah winning strategy, that doesn’t make people throw up barriers and start to think of things as us vs. them.
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I hate that article. I was raised in and have tons of family in areas like that. The cracked writer is trying to have it both ways. Lazily and crudely mischaracterizing working class and rural people in the exact same way he’s making a show of criticizing others for doing. Meanwhile the Vox article undermines most of the concepts using actual facts and research
Trumps serious supporters are wealthier than average. People in the places most effected by the great recession and globalization more often back the Hillary and other democrats. And so forth. All of it fits nicely with what I see from Trump supporters every day.
Older white men with good jobs, new cars, full benefits, and multiple homes. Government pensions. Or own their own successful business. If they’re distinct it’s because they’re well off but not truly wealthy. The kind of guy who drives a buick not a Cadillac. The guy who’s vacation home is in Florida, not the Bahamas.
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So, 80+ years old.
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60+ and thinks either of those brands are still impressive.
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Chinese?
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I wasn’t aware people still bought Buicks. In the late 80s, the Buick Century was the car to get. Then they became the cars to steal and were found mainly in rougher neighborhoods. Then they just disappeared.
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The demo in question certainly does. And they’re down right angry that it doesn’t impress you. Also extra angry they can’t quite afford a car that will impress you. Like a corvette! That’s still the most advanced, expensive car in existence right! Not like that Jap garbage! Also check out this new Harley I bought and don’t ride.
Eta: also before anyone throws my own criticism of the cracked article in my face. These are my neighbors. And if they can put up threatening Trump signs in public, And scream at me in the super market. I can lazily mischaracterize them on the internet.
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I guess that’s one way to thin the herd…
Sure. We just don’t need one dimension articles. There is too large an audience out there that feeds on this.
Dan
Those curves you see are kinda misleading. The only solid data points are at four-year intervals, so the first time we see a drop-off in the “thermometer” reading is in 2008. When Obama was running for president.
On a walk yesterday, I saw a very new-looking Buick in the church parking lot by our house. I suspect there is a connection between this and the aging demgraphics of church attendance in Canada
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I heard a report on NPR today about states that won’t accept Syrian refugees.
A woman from Montana said they couldn’t be racist because they’re living in a homogenous all-white state. I don’t know if she was lying or if she really believed that.
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