Clinton has put in a lot of time doing supposedly public service, showing those who care to see it that she’s actually, basically, Tony Blair in a pantsuit. Obama hadn’t been around long enough yet to demonstrate his similarly thorough fealty to the neoliberal overlords. Plus, he does a better job than she does of acting genuine and sincere, which did fool many on his left.
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I’m one of the more vocal anti-Hillary people here, and I voted against Obama in Ohio.
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Well thank goodness I have a father, otherwise I might have no value at all, since no one ever married me and likely never will. What shall I do when dad dies?
Ok, that was sarcastic, and I’m not trying to argue with you. But, I’m one of those anonymous people, receiving a distinct lack of empathy. In fact, sometimes telling someone “I’m taken” is the only way to get enough respect for them to leave me alone. It’s utterly demoralizing, to be honest.
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I love John Legend’s music, and my criticism here will illicit the response of “Its just song lyrics meant for entertainment”…BUT…come on man. You are coming down on these men for condemning Trump, when you write lyrics that are also demeaning and awful.
http://www.azlyrics.com/j/johnlegend.html
Number One comes directly to mind…
You can’t say I don’t love you
Just because I cheat on you
Cuz you can’t see all I do
To keep you from knowing the things I do
Like erase my phone
And keep it out of town
I keep it strapped up when I sleep around
Well I should have known one day you’d find out
But you can’t go and leave me now
I am not comparing Legend to Trump. I am stating he should be applauding the GOP for standing up against Trump, regardless of what they invoke for their outrage.
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Is he supposed to be a Platonic ideal of something in order to advocate for it? I would actually think that makes it worse. It would only piss me off if he were some martinet telling everyone what he wants them to do. On the other hand, this is a flawed person calling out something that’s way worse. And it is way worse. John Legend is singing about someone (probably him) who sleeps around, but he’s not singing about sexual assault, advocating sexual assault, or saying he sexually assaulted anybody.
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I support Hillary, but I support Hillary of thirty years ago more than I support Hillary of 2016. She has become quite a centrist in her public policy. I could speculate why, but I won’t.
Even though I disagree with many of her policies (I voted for Bernie), I don’t think there has ever, ever been a more capable, qualified candidate. It is a little scary that I know she is gonna do things I don’t like. But she still gets my vote.
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I am not comparing Legend to Trump.
Perhaps you didn’t read that part of it. I will say it again. I am NOT comparing legend to Trump. And I also believe that his lyrics are meant to be stories for entertainment, not reflections of himself, his life experiences, or that which he advocates.
No one thinks Stephen King advocates the horrors upon humanity which he writes about in his novels.
My issue is that in my opinion we should be thankful that men like Romney, Bush, and Cornyn are calling out Trump regardless of how they are doing it. Take the victories where they are.
Regardless to how the message is phrased or to whom its addressed, the sentiment remains the same:
A person who has behaved deplorably and said repugnant & divisive things for at least the last 30 years prior to this most recent horrible thing wants to be the leader of the free world… but some people are just now realizing how unfit he is to lead?
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So with a ~140 character tweet people ought to make sure they dislike the right thing, and cite the most important reason. Not you know, the one that resonates with them the most strongly, or maybe that they think resonates with others the most strongly. Sure.
While we are at it why not pile on people for coming to the wisdom of “Trump Bad” late? I mean I figure if you didn’t think he was a crappy candidate 13 months ago you should just shut up.
Oh, wait, what’s that? Someone, sorry someone mentioned people have thought he was lousy a decade before I cared? Oh, sorry to have an opinion.
Songwriters often write personal songs about their experiences. Horror novels are less autobiographical.
Regardless of whether or not John Legend was writing about himself, his lyrics are not part of the same problem that Trump’s comments are. He’s not advocating for the type of behavior he’s singing about.
He is totally correct in calling out the people who are upset by Trump’s comments, if those people are only upset about because of possessiveness over people they consider their personal property. Benevolent sexism is still sexism.
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Option, or an opinion?
No snark; I’m genuinely curious as to what you meant.
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One problem with this approach is that while everyone who wasn’t raised from birth in a remote monastary knows at least a few women, there ARE plenty of Americans who don’t personally know any Muslims or Mexican immigrants or other groups Trump is hell-bent on demonizing.
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Any candidate is going to do things you don’t like once elected.
In part because it is super rare that you will find a candidate that actually matches your values AND your approach to problem solving (i.e. maybe they agree with you about what the problem with banks is, and how important fixing it is, but they think the fix is one thing and you think it is another).
Even if you do find that unlikely match they will spend more time over the next few years studying the problem closer then you will, so they may well diverge in approach (well I’ve gone over records and found that while I thought X was the problem 30% of the banks that didn’t do X also had the same bad outcome, and 100% of the banks that did Y had the bad outcome so I have come to believe that Y is really the problem, X seems bad but is actually Ok!).
Even if that doesn’t happen they have to deal with other politicians with other agendas and still get something done. So they and you might agree on the right thing to do, but they know it won’t get done, but they can do half a right thing here, half a right thing there, and a mostly good but partly bad thing over here.
The problem is they actually need to do the job, while we just think about what “the right thing” is. So our politicians will always disappoint. (some far more then others though, so it absolutely isn’t a waste to decide who you really want to see in a position!)
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Yeah that one. Oops.
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Unfortunately, being unfamiliar with a groups makes it easy to ignore, demonize, hate, etc. It is with familiarity that one sees they are more or less like everyone else.
Some times the simple act of knowing some one can change attitudes.
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This. Nobody deserves to be talked to or about like Trump does, and I would be upset if someone talked like that to my wife or mother, but they are also adults who are more than capable of speaking for themselves when they are mistreated. My 6 month old daughter is not able to speak up for herself yet. I was opposed to Trump for his sexism (and racism and other assorted bigotry) before she was born, but now the thought of him leading the country she grows up in and being the first president she remembers makes it much more personal. I support the fair treatment of all women, but it is my job to protect my daughter until she is able to do so herself, and to teach her how to treat other people and how to expect to be treated herself. I don’t need an angry orange man in the round room on the TV teaching her the opposite of the right thing.
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Exactly. I really do think this is a bigger scandal for the dumpster fire than his other vile comments is because of “married women”. It’s about ownership.
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The point is, it’s appealing to a sexist view of women. That because we “belong” to men, that other men should respect that. We don’t “belong” to anyone. We’re individuals and people in our own right.
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Legend isn’t running for president, and you really shouldn’t necessarily take song lyrics at face value. Of course, I don’t think their is anything wrong with pointing out misogyny in his lyrics, just that I don’t agree with comparing that to someone who is running to lead the free world. Apples and oranges.
[ETA] You noted that you aren’t comparing, so why bring it up?
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