Oh, agreed, definitely. I guess I’m just saying that Congress has done a fantastic job for the past 6 years of making it seem like the US government fundamentally doesn’t work. Which is sad, and can be fixed. One thing that gives me hope is that Bernie’s Our Revolution group is focusing its efforts on downticket races across the country, building grassroots support in a smart and organic way, which can only help Hillary if she’s elected.
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What minds?
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I suppose it’s hard to win minds without a heart.
If you’re some regular joe on the street and you insult the Pope, it’s nothing of note.
If you’re seeking a job as one of the most powerful and influential world leaders, insulting the spiritual leader of 1.2 billion people is shockingly inappropriate.
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I don’t know about that. And it’s not just about that, either. It’s also about how he’s empowered certain elements and they’ve already shown a desire to act on that and to become more political active. It’s not just about congress, but about the local/state elections too. Don’t forget in the American system, we have a diffusion of power across several levels of government.
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Exactly. Therefore confront them with logic and discussion, not insults.
Sigh…
I have rarely used the word in any context. I find Hillary’s speaking voice to be unnecessarily loud and shouty. I feel like she is trying to act out emotions and enthusiasm she does not feel. “Shrill” is not perfect here as most definitions of the word include “high pitched” as part of the problem and that’s really not the issue here. If you have a better term, I’m all ears. Maybe “very unpleasant” or “grating”?
And yes, there are insults and descriptors that work better for one gender over another. It’s not a misogynistic conspiracy. Ever call a woman an asshole? It doesn’t work.
Strangely, this is just some weird affectation she has taken on when giving speeches. I have heard her interviewed one on one and her voice and speech are normal.
She has been reminding me of someone from school but I couldn’t remember who. It finally hit me this morning. My highschool was the first in the region to have a computer lab and some courses around computers. Consequently, it was packed with nerds. Not the cool Zuckerberg type of nerds. 80’s nerds with highwater jeans, eyeglasses repaired with tape and (I swear to god) sliderules worn in belt holsters. The school had sports teams but nobody gave a crap. After a pep rally was held and almost nobody showed up, a mandatory pep rally was held. Our female principle gave a speech that was half shaming for not having enough school spirit and half "AREN’T WE ALL SUPER EXCITED ABOUT THE BIG GAME NEXT WEEK?!?!. It was awkward. It was crystal clear that she gave 0 fucks about the football team just like the rest of us but she was out there trying to fire up a crowd. It was 100% a Hillary speech.
I droned on for around 500 words and explained things in a way that didn’t boil things down to simple maxims. I’ve talked to Trump supporters kind of a lot since I’m on a few closed political discussion boards with a mix of viewpoints where we debate things and try to hash things out. It’s an interesting mix of fun and frustration. The approach I used there does work sometimes for people talking about voting third party (though rarely). It’s totally ineffective when trying to persuade Trump voters. Best to stick to one or maybe two sentences with simple ideas, minimal nuance, and a lot of emotional punch. A very brief argument ad absurdum can work sometimes.
Trump supporters are by and large not intellectuals. Trump supporters are by and large anti-intellectual. They are not motivated by any kind of drive to understand nuance or complexity, and many have actually expressed disdain for that kind of approach, since they’re generally comforted by black and white thinking. Every one that I’ve encountered and spent time talking to was at their core driven by a deep-seated sense of resentment against people least deserving of that resentment. Every one was mostly motivated to present arguments demonizing some minority group and praising Trump for demonizing them. Every one that I’ve discussed matters with was also shockingly credulous.
This is just my experience, but I do have that experience, and have spent many hours talking to various Trump supporters. So while I’m all for explaining and clarifying what the election’s purpose is, and what the job actually entails, a nuanced approach will fail for a large segment of the audience. They’re mostly interested in demonizing muslims, black people, hispanic people, and libruls.
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The delusional apathy, it’s real.
I know it can be confusing considering how farcical this whole election cycle has been, but this shit isn’t a game to the people who genuinely have something to lose in the event of the worst case scenario.
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Then move on. But take the high ground.
If that’s all true for half your population, then you’ve got bigger issues than who’s going to be your next president.
It just sounds like a lazy stereotype though, understandably brought on by the loudest, most obnoxious voices you hear.
I have, actually.
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I kinda thought you would.
It’s not half the population, fortunately, but yes, we do have many big issues. The US educational system is a horrible, broken mess, esp. in red states, with the poor being utterly shafted by virtue of their parents’ postal code. In my state, TX, the GOP’s platform rejects critical thinking skills, since these “have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.” Seriously, that’s what they wrote.
If you want to talk about the US in an informed way, you really ought to visit, and take some trips though the whole place. There are a whole lot of pig-ignorant, poorly educated people. Most are nice, and they’re not monsters, but an all too large number are really poor at dealing with intellectual challenges. Things are bad. Electing Trump as an administrator in charge of the Department of Education would be completely disastrous. There are a lot of other states controlled by the GOP with anti-education agendas that also need fixing.
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Again, I think I have. But for some, pointing out that Trump is peddling racism and a good percentage of the population is just licking that up is just as bad as peddling racism (or sexism, etc). For some people, being called a racist is worse than being the victim of actually racism (or sexism, etc).
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Probably because they’ve never experienced it first hand,
Again, they need to take the John Howard Griffin challenge:
Walk a mile, or two; hurt your feet.
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Have you not been reading?
Yes I have. What did I miss? Please point to a specific instance.
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