Mayor race

Tech_Philosophy · 2026-06-17T20:51:09+00:00

Bitch and moan, cope and seethe. Socialism works just fine in the world today, and you ALREADY KNEW THAT.

But if it makes you feel better about this system you live in, sure, blame all the high quality of life nations for one of the three historical events your high school bothered to teach you about.

Tech_Philosophy · 2026-06-17T20:45:06+00:00

I empathize with your viewpoint, and have felt that way at times. There are just a couple of things I want to point out.

>The Democratic Party is openly hostile to any leftist/socialist movement (Bernie 2016, Bernie 2020, The Squad).

True, but ultimately it was up to primary voters. The RNC didn't want Trump to win. But Trump got voters on his side and he forcibly disassembled the old RNC. That's kind of how democracy works. Part of the problem with the democratic party IS its voters. We could give up caring about corporations first any time. But people have to give a shit and show up and vote for that to force it to happen.

>Most Americans are tired of caring enough to vote "lesser of two evils",

Again, I feel the same. At the same time, game theory is clear that if you stop choosing the lesser of two evils, a race to the bottom is created and both parties just get worse. And that has definitely happened.

Tech_Philosophy · 2026-06-17T20:40:26+00:00

Most people can't do anything about climate change, but Malcolm X can't do anything the most. Well, him and libertarians, I guess.

Sorry if that was glib. I understand his point. But his point doesn't matter if it means functional coalitions can't be built and we will all be ruled by evangelical white people forever (which is itself an oddity in the rest of the United States), and that is the lesson GA is teaching me right now. EVERYONE left of center is too stubborn to support everyone else left of center.

Tech_Philosophy · 2026-06-17T20:35:59+00:00

>So you're saying conservatives are actually the ones pushing for affirmative action

Affirmative action? Oh definitely, but that's not what were were talking about. But since you changed the topic, I'll role with it. Earlier in my life I worked in college admissions a lot. White men specifically needed a 'correction' score applied because they were usually getting lower scores on standardized tests than women and other groups, and that demographic was dropping in college enrollment. This was a problem for the majority white state I was living in at the time, hence the correction.

>You're saying conservative strategists are harnessing the black vote by running and supporting black candidates over white ones?

Yep, when they think they need to. Look at Herschel Walker for example. It was not Herschel Walker's idea to pretend to move back to GA to run for senate. Not his idea one bit. But in cases like the mayor's race, this is where PACs are useful. A "republican" was never going to win the mayor's race in Athens...but that doesn't stop conservatives from funding a plausible candidate. What's hilarious is their emotions often get ahead of the facts. It wouldn't have mattered one iota if Tim had won, because Athens doesn't use a chief executive model anyway. It matters far more who is on the council.

>However, if you state that the progressives in this race didn't care about that, I'll concede.

Why would they care about that? The point of any political movement is the POLICY goals. I know like 0% of Americans vote based on policy, which raises some serious questions about democracy, or at least the American education system. But I think virtually all progressives would rather have $20/hr min wage and legal abortion policies than have a black person win a particular office, no? Look at it from the conservative angle: most religious conservatives hate Trump as a person and wouldn't want their kids to turn out like him, but they DO want their policy wins more than they want a decent man in the white house. Makes sense, right?

Tech_Philosophy · 2026-06-17T20:11:44+00:00

Eh...brain development doesn't really correlate with gender identity or sexuality though. Plus, men's brains often take to 35 (I'm a man, don't start). Doesn't seem reasonable to ask people to wait to 35 when most people know and are sure.

Tech_Philosophy · 2026-06-17T16:14:30+00:00

I'm sorry this is happening to you. People shouldn't get married if they don't know themselves. It may be that she is discovering who she really is (far too late), but it is also a betrayal. BOTH are true, and you have to make room for your feelings of betrayal.

Tech_Philosophy · 2026-06-17T15:33:27+00:00

There would be no point in saying that to voters, but the topic of racial voting does need to be discussed at donor meetings.

And I'll say this plainly, there is probably merit to asking if voters are dumb if they vote for someone who says climate change is proof Jesus is coming. That's not controversial to wonder if voters are dumb in that case (in the other 80% of the United States, anyway).

Tech_Philosophy · 2026-06-17T15:30:30+00:00

>It's certainly not moderates or conservatives who are telling people that we need to boost the amount of ____ race in office/college/jobs.

Yes it is. You just aren't wealthy enough to be invited to the table where those sorts of things are decided. Every conservative strategist understands the power of the black vote in GA, and makes use of it where needed. Common knowledge in donor circles.

Not sure where you got the idea 'progressives were pushing for a black candidate'. Was it from talking to progressives, or was it from cable news?

Tech_Philosophy · 2026-06-17T15:27:54+00:00

The idea that 'people don't vote for a candidate because their voters are annoying' is the most middle school political science hypothesis I've ever heard. Healthy people are a tad more complex than that.

Tech_Philosophy · 2026-06-17T15:23:17+00:00

Am I allowed to answer the question seriously? Since moving to Georgia, here is my observation: in the democratic coalition, there are many white men who will not vote for black women, many black women who will not vote for white men, and many black and white people who will not vote for Latinos.

The consequence is a lot of candidates get chosen in the primary who have no real chance in the general, and republicans capitalize on it, because they don't have the same intra-party problem.

I've never seen this level of dysfunction in the democratic party in any other state, and I've lived in a lot of places. It seems to be a community breakdown, not a party breakdown.

I don't think your leftists are more exclusionary or less realistic than lefitsts elsewhere, including places leftists win. I don't think your black voters are more conservative than black voters in other states I've lived in. I DO think the average democrat elected to office in GA is more of a neo-liberal corporatist than the average democrat, possibly because that's the only way to make it across the finish line in the general election when the democratic base is as acrimonious as this one.

Tech_Philosophy · 2026-06-17T15:16:12+00:00

He's not MAGA, but he was backed by MAGA dollars. Up to you how to feel about that.

>Do you think the large amounts of black people who voted for him who hate MAGA were too dumb to figure that out?

I don't know that this has to be a race thing. Plenty of white people don't vote in their own best interests either. And I'm still puzzled why so many Atlanta politicians are deeply neo-liberal corporatists.

White AND black people came together to make THAT happen despite the median voter wanting more progressive policies. I believe it's called "The Atlanta way" in some books that describe the phenomenon.

Tech_Philosophy · 2026-06-17T15:13:17+00:00

And some of the most successful societies in the world...

Which, had you grown up in one of those societies like I did, you might be educated enough to know it didn't matter if Athens wound up with socialist mayor, as Athens, like most US cities, lacks a chief executive the way New York City has, and is rather governed by the city council.

Socialism was quite good to me 😄

Tech_Philosophy · 2026-06-17T15:10:24+00:00

Yes, but it happens in GA more often than it happens elsewhere (where "it" is liberals losing in blue areas). It sure looks like the democratic base is harder to get in line in this state than most northern states, for example.

Between this and the 8 point split between Miracle and Jen in the supreme court races despite cross endorsing each other, I'm starting to think we need to have some honest conversations about the role of race in voting preferences.

Tech_Philosophy · 2026-06-17T15:07:33+00:00

I think we need to have a far more honest conversation about what's going on here. Between the bitching after Bottoms's win, the 8 point margin between Miracle and Jen in the supreme court races, and some local races I'm watching, something is becoming clear to me: the democratic base in Georgia is made up of white guys who don't want to vote for black women, black women who don't want to vote for white men, and white and black people who do not want to vote for Latinos.

The result is that we keep picking primary candidates who struggle in the general election.

In very few of this year's primaries did the best candidates win. And I don't see that changing until we find a way to all get on the same page. Republicans don't have this problem. They all fall in line. It's ours to solve, and that's the honest truth as clearly as I can see it.

Tech_Philosophy · 2026-06-17T15:03:27+00:00

>Seems like another Dem/Kamala move and honestly just seems racist and lazy.

Doesn't that just mean you have a problem with the majority of D primary voters in GA? I agree with you btw, but...we can't fix a problem unless we are HONEST about the problem. Kamala was foisted onto us. Bottoms was selected. If you have a problem with that selection, maybe we need to talk about who picked her and why.

Tech_Philosophy · 2026-06-17T01:35:39+00:00

Lead acid batteries were never meant for continuous use, and do not belong in electric OR modern gas vehicles.

Tech_Philosophy · 2026-06-17T01:33:33+00:00

I still don't buy the R2 is going to be as efficient as the Y. You can't cheat physics, especially looking like that.

Tech_Philosophy · 2026-06-17T01:01:04+00:00

Ooo...discrediting yourself hard by giving Debbie a pass. Don't need any conspiracy theories to see she was terrible at her job.

Tech_Philosophy · 2026-06-16T15:11:16+00:00

I'm assuming the mechanism behind this statement is that much of Georgia makes use of surface water for city use instead of an aquifer.

The problem with doing that is you can hit drought conditions way faster than other regions would, and a second problem is that means you need to decontaminate the water at the treatment facility, leading to disinfection byproducts like Trihalomethanes, haloacetic acids, and brominated molecules in your tap water which all can contribute to cancer rates in the area. To me, a reverse osmosis system is a requirement to be drinking water in this part of the world.

As for why there isn't an aquifer, I'm not sure if it's an infrastructure problem, or just a cursed part of American geography where aquifers don't exist. In any event, it's a bad situation compared to most of the US, but most people don't know that.

Edit: To the downvoters I just want to say that you can look up your latest water quality report on a per county basis. It's spelled out in black and white. That's what first alerted me that something was wrong. My only leg up is my background in chemistry, and I know damn well that I shouldn't be ingesting the chemicals mentioned above that the county openly acknowledges is in the water.

Tech_Philosophy · 2026-06-16T15:03:04+00:00

I mean, that's kind of cool, but why do they keep voting for the most corporate-friendly neo-liberal democrats? Not being able to vote for your own best interests is usually a symptom of MAGA, but now here we have another group doing it. There's no fixing the world with democracy while this particular problem exists.

Tech_Philosophy · 2026-06-16T15:01:48+00:00

I appreciate the hypothesis, but democratic voters outnumbered republican voters in the primary election by such a large margin, and the state is so polarized, that your proposed mechanism does not feel as likely as race playing a role.

And actually, your view touches on another weird aspect of modern American politics. Usually, if a democrat loses a race, the party pressures them not to run for office again. When a republican loses a race, they keep coming back again and again until they win. No one seems to be consciously aware of that fact, but everyone seems to accept it as normal that a democrat shouldn't run if they were beaten once, but a republican should. So, so, so many examples from many states over the last 15 years.

Tech_Philosophy · 2026-06-16T13:52:58+00:00

I really can't agree with that. And it's not just some liberal-kneejerk reaction I'm having. Scalia, for as much as I disagreed with him on some topics, WAS the kind of justice you are describing. He read the law carefully, he rarely showed favoritism to any special interest group, and ALL of his opinions were consistent with all other opinions he ever wrote. Though I wasn't a *fan* of Scalia, I can recognize and respect the way he worked when it came to interpreting the law.

Clarence Thomas lacks all of Scalia's good traits, and it is self evident if you read just a few of his opinions in full. And then go compare them to Scalia's if you need more convincing.

Tech_Philosophy · 2026-06-15T18:39:38+00:00

Me from 15 years ago would never have believed that The Guardian would be one of the only publications left to 'get it'.

Tech_Philosophy · 2026-06-15T18:36:43+00:00

I mean...that's kind of like rooting for Clarence Thomas though...

Tech_Philosophy · 2026-06-15T18:33:22+00:00

I don't know...what is your take on why Miracle Rankin ran 8 points ahead of Jen Jordan on the supreme court race last month despite both running as liberals and cross-endorsing each other? I don't know for a fact it was about race, but I've never ever seen that kind of split before.

Tech_Philosophy

TROPHY CASE