The Politics Megathread

[bigtiddyoneesan]

@2SpiritCherokeePrincess
Although I'll probably regret suggesting this, could you actually, you know, give some commentary every now and then? Might help you express your ideas more effectively than linking articles from left-leaning sites like an 8-year-old girl who's just finding out what the internet is and tries to imitate some independent reporter she saw in a desperate attempt to think of anything but her alcoholic father.

 

[BestBoy]

@Ceildric When was that posted? Can't find it anywhere. The girl's vote would likely be thrown out and she'd be charged with voter fraud. Most prosecutors just assign community service, though.

 

[Tamerlane]

@bigtiddyoneesan It's odd that some who claims that they'd never accept the label "American" and find the country so abhorrent seems to invested in its partisan politics, willing to be so concerned with one side winning, and seems to embrace the more status quo institutions of the country...


Also, she's American Indian, so that part about alcoholic fathers might be hitting too close to home...

 

[Halo]

@BestBoy Of course you can't find it anywhere, it's fake.
An allegedly deleted tweet made by a psycho, which then got posted on the /pol reddit. Top 3rd comment: "he deserves a rope." 🙄

And of course, our resident "centrists" over here have no problems with it.

 

[BestBoy]

@Halo I'm always a little suspicious of someone who retweets Marjorie Taylor Greene, the House's resident Quanon follower, but I wanted to at least see what comments were saying about it.

 

[BrapEbony]

If Democrats literally believed that Trump was Hitler, wouldn't the moral thing to do be to commit election fraud to remove him from power?

 

[Richman]

No. They would remove him from office along with everyone else that is aligned with him and do fair and square elections for the new goverment. Committing fraud is just increasing the possibility of changing one villain to another.

 

[Tamerlane]

@Ceildric
Probably fake, which is why I'd recommend not trusting screencaps from social media as evidence. Hence why I can't take anyone on twitter as a valid source without more substantive evidence, left or right.

@Bestboy
If I were to guess, the guy found out it was fake and deleted it as it's not on his twitter and I can't find the people on Facebook, though it's possible they also delete the post. If I were to guess, it probably is fake and the guy just is so much of a partisan that he didn't realize. Don't use social media posts as evidence for anything unless it can be verified because it tends to be echochamber of misinformation. It's the same reason I'm hesitant to cite any mainstream news outlet because they're more concerned about clicks than the truth. Follow articles through, read everything, make sure everything is in order, etc.

Basically, don't trust anyone, not even yourself.

@Halo
Stop poisoning the well, please.

Characterizing the twitter person as a "psycho," comparing r/TheDonald to /Pol to try and make it seem like this den of secret fascists, etc. (Wikipedia has its biases, too. Avoid their takes on non-establishment politics because they tend to lean left and misrepresent some ideas. This is unavoidable, because we all have our blindspots, but it can be a bit blatant, and it's concerning how Wikipedia will reject its lens of objectivity if it wants to slander someone or if it wants to make an idea seem bad by omitting key details or information.)

Also, why did you put "centrist" in airquotes?

@Richman

Spoiler

@BrapEbony

Probably the mindset of some people, hence why if there's fraud I don't think it's centralized, but probably a lot of individuals or people with power who have drank the Kool-Aid that have justified to themselves that they need to get him out by any means necessary, rather than the Biden Campaign itself.

Hence why I think hyperbolic politics is something that really gets under my skin. I hate how inflammatory it gets and how everyone is a firebrand nowadays. It's the people that shout the loudest with the most incendiary rhetoric that tend to get the most support on social media because they sound confident, regardless of if its true or not.

 

[Halo]

@Tamerlane Take a guess.

 

[BrapEbony]

They would remove him from office along with everyone else that is aligned with him

They tried that with impeachment and it failed though.

@Tamerlane

Stop poisoning the well, please.

You're stating this in the thread where Halo has already plainly stated he detests both sides of politics and is only here to shit stir.

 

[BestBoy]

@Tamerlane

Basically, don't trust anyone, not even yourself.

😨

 

[Tamerlane]

@Halo
(Please tell me you don't believe in the strawman that has all centrists in the exact middle of everything with no principles or values or think that centrists are just secret right wingers trying to convert everyone by presenting them as moderate. Because both those takes are really, really dumb.)

@BestBoy

You laugh but that's one of the facts of human psychology is everyone has self-serving bias and biases to preserve their own worldview and narrative. Really, if science has taught me anything, you own intuitions, experiences, and perspectives exist independently of reality, and that is why trying to prove everything false rather than proving it true is so important because people will naturally forgo the burden of proof if it benefits their own preexisting beliefs. It's also why you can't use ethos or an appeal to authority as the sole source of reasoning because even if the person has all their education in, they may still be wrong or have made mistakes in their logic or field. It's all about evidence and strength of the argument.

(Hence why I tried to disprove the Benford's Law thing ahead of time but couldn't find a compelling argument to counter it so asked for peer review)

 

[Halo]

@Tamerlane Of course not, that's ridiculous.
Rather, I wonder what made you hate right wingers so much you almost never talk to them. 🙂

 

[Tamerlane]

@Halo I talk to them more IRL, but I criticize what I encounter.

Pretty sure I criticized right wing positions a lot in this thread

 

[Halo]

@Tamerlane Sure you do 😉😉

Rather, I wonder what made you hate right wingers so much...

I talk to them more IRL

Oh. 😔

 

[BestBoy]

@Tamerlane I know. Just trying to bring some levity to the conversation. Speaking of Benford's, the github has gotten really active today. There's still no definitive answer either way though.

 

[2SpiritCherokeePrincess]

Trump's greatest hits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJOxEJKqTBI😆

When I think about it, losers like Biden & Harris probably couldn't have won against anyone else.🤒

 

[Tamerlane]

@BestBoy

What's most concerning is that no matter the outcome, someone will feel cheated, and so people will polarize and galvanize.

If Biden wins, the right will definitely feel cheated. Remember Russiagate, which had significantly less evidence than this election did? Yeah, imagine Conservatives bitching non-stop for the next few years. Paired with the persecution complex on the right due to the growing institutional power on the left, and yeah, expect more radicalization because of it.

If Trump wins, the left will feel cheated, especially if it's a Supreme Court decision given that three of them are appointed by Trump and one of them, Biden lead the coalition against Clarence Thomas's appointment and the two have bad blood, meaning he only needs one more vote to have majority. Given the left saw Trump as illegitimate previous because he did not get the popular vote, it is likely that if the Supreme Court decision in his favor or the electoral college going against the popular vote with faithless electors would go in his favor, the left would similarly feel disenfranchised and protest the result, seeing similar radicalization to that under Trump's past term.

Basically, it's a lose-lose scenario for both sides.

 

[Richman]

They tried that with impeachment and it failed though.

Still not a justification to commit the crime of electoral fraud, you must try through the legal methods or it makes you no different from the one you're trying to remove.

@Tamerlane
Ngl, I wasn't expecting anyone to get the reference lmao.

 

[BrapEbony]

@Richman

Still not a justification to commit the crime of electoral fraud, you must try through the legal methods or it makes you no different from the one you're trying to remove.

You make it sound like lawbreakers in Nazi Germany are not celebrated in stories, movies and documentaries. When it comes to Hitler, doing the illegal thing is the only moral thing. He was elected into office too you know. If you were placed in the Weimer Republic, Aughust 19, 1934, you wouldn't falsify the vote that put him as President?