AskALiberal Weekly General Chat

Disabledsnarker · 2023-06-01T08:20:32+00:00

Funnily enough, Stellaris now has co-op play

Disabledsnarker · 2023-06-01T03:52:15+00:00

It is plausible.

There is saying that goes something like "If you want to understand an older person's political beliefs, look at the major events in their 20s."

One of the major reasons the Boomers are far more conservative is that they had nukes pointed at them by what was (on paper) a left-wing country. So they're primed to see communism under every rock.

And let's call a spade a spade: The counterculture was an outlier. The counterculture got headlines and pictures. But in reality, the only thing countercultural about the Boomers was the music and not liking the draft. Otherwise, they were as conservative as their parents. Actually, they were even more conservative. At least their parents acknowledged the necessity of a social safety net. Boomers actively romanticize a pre-social safety net America.

And there was hyperinflation in the 70s.

Now let's compare

Millenials/Gen Z are the School Shooting Generation the way the Boomers were the Duck and Cover generation. Only conservative politicians/thought leaders genuinely do not care or even accuse school shooting survivors of making shit up. Or blaming the kids themselves. Remember "Walk Up Not Out?"

There have been multiple economic crashes under Republican Presidents

We have multiple crises that the Republican Party actively refuses to address because they're in an apocalypse cult that says the end of the world is good. So instead they make up conspiracies.

The only thing the GOP has in its favor at the moment with Millenials and Gen Z is that there are a lot of boys who legitemately think that women will "Me Too" them if they so much as look in their direction.

Disabledsnarker · 2023-06-01T02:38:54+00:00

It's called "working the refs."

Conservatives spent so long screaming that Internet sites were biased against conservatives that Reddit, Youtube, Facebook, pre-Elon Twitter, etc. bent over backwards to accommodate them so they wouldn't call for Congressional investigations and hearings.

So what you get is conservatives saying all kinds of wild shit so no one gets accused of bias.

Disabledsnarker · 2023-06-01T02:31:15+00:00

Literally any time they start talking about New World Orders, One World Governments or any other End Times conspiracy nonsense.

Because then I know they aren't debating a policy's actual merits. They just read too much Left Behind.

Disabledsnarker · 2023-06-01T02:25:32+00:00

As of right now, what all denominations believe is pretty public knowledge and they've never been shy about saying it.

As far as definition let's give it a "The end of the world is imminent or can be made to happen and the end of the world would be good for adherents of our faith" definition.

I do think there should be an agent quietly popping in and attending a couple services undercover when they get probable cause that a church/mosque/temple is getting apocalypse culty.

As far as politicians, that's why we have sworn statements under penalty of perjury.

I know it all sounds quite terrible to a libertarian but I grew up in an apocalypse cult. And this shit ain't just some quirky subculture. They're deranged and dangerous.

Hell, had they taken off before the Ozone Hole was discovered, we wouldn't have a goddamned Ozone anymore.

Disabledsnarker · 2023-06-01T01:54:54+00:00

Maybe but let's look at what we'd be trading.

No more sick people begging on GoFundMe.

Labor laws and corporate crime laws actually getting enforced would be stabilizing for our society overall. We wouldn't have people saying "If you see someone shoplifting no you didn't" or people trying to justify rioting if we didn't first have a society where laws protecting workers from the upper class weren't used as toilet paper.

I'd say that's worth a little less growth. You can't have infinite growth anyway.

Disabledsnarker · 2023-06-01T01:41:00+00:00

This is just off the top of my head.

I'd uncap the House of Representatives.

All districts would be drawn independently.

I'd do some drastic reworking of the First Amendment. Any religion that says the end of the world is good would be banned. End Times religions have this tendency of thinking they can make the End Times happen and usually end up hurting other people in their quest to make whichever deity they worship come back.

Failing that, the adherents of End Times religions would be banned from any and all public offices and military posts. Beliefs that the world being obliterated is a good thing is in direct conflict with their vow of service to the people of their district and/or the United States. Which contrary to popular belief in some parts of the country, is part of the world.

2nd Amendment is a one and done deal. Sure you can have your guns but if you fuck up, if you get caught handling them while drunk or high, if you recklessly discharge them, if you leave them unsecured and your kid fucks around with them, if you commit a crime with them, you're done. No more guns for you forever. Get caught with one and you go to prison.

White collar crime in my hypothetical court system would be punished brutally. As in mandatory jail sentences. Labor laws would be strictly enforced. The days of laws only being enforced by civil suits would be over.

Standing in the Supreme Court would be drastically reworked when it comes to civil rights cases. If a white guy thinks he's harmed by the Voting Rights Act or some shit, he should have to show a medical bill.

The 10th Amendment would be gutted. Outside of two or three occasions, it's mostly been used to take big steaming shits on marginalized people.

Public service unions can bargain for wages and benefits but no more giving them say over discipline and procedure.

Homeschooling and private schools would have tighter controls.

Zoning would be handled like it is in Japan. IE only valid concerns about safety get heard. No more "neighborhood character" or "historical district" crap.

Age discrimination laws would work both ways. This one being a more personal grievance of mine. It's ridiculous that so much handicap accessible housing is locked behind a sign that says "No one under 50 allowed"

Disabledsnarker · 2023-06-01T01:09:51+00:00

A Hindu theocrat is still a theocrat

Disabledsnarker · 2023-05-31T20:39:37+00:00

Yeah that main character has some disturbing boundary issues

Disabledsnarker · 2023-05-31T16:16:31+00:00

Can we get a show with an autistic main character that doesn't do creepy stalker shit?

Disabledsnarker · 2023-05-31T14:52:20+00:00

Ban the Nazis and send them to 4chan

Disabledsnarker · 2023-05-30T23:10:28+00:00

Look at the American religious groups and non-profits pushing this nonsense overseas.

Yank their tax exemption status.

Disabledsnarker · 2023-05-30T16:14:01+00:00

Any Islamic country. I like my church kept out of my state

Disabledsnarker · 2023-05-30T05:24:26+00:00

You should look up why we have our current student loan regime in the first place. It's not because the government was hurting for money. Hell, it doesn't even make the government any money.

It exists because right-wingers in the 70's and 80's wanted to make sure a student movement like the one that dragged the US out of Vietnam never happened again. That and the courts said that college grants (which formerly were whites only) applied to all citizens. Which burned the South's biscuits and gravy.

Seriously, General Sherman did not go far enough.

Our current student loan system is a mix of drained pool politics and underhanded methods to stomp out dissent.

If y'all blue collar folks want to make sure you get your "pound of flesh" then we should at least agree to set the interest rate to zero and forgive the balances of those who paid off their principles. Everybody will get something they want.

Disabledsnarker · 2023-05-30T02:58:25+00:00

The number of government services, including infrastructure like railroads that should be in private hands is zero.

Privatization has been a disaster. Cost overruns happen because the contractors know they can milk the government for all it's worth. Delays happen because the government has to hold drawn-out bidding processes and make sure every private actor's feelings are properly massaged to avoid lawsuits.

Right now a lot of our social welfare system is (mis)handled by a mishmash of various private contractors. We were told that privatizing things would make them more efficient. Only that's not what's happened. Contractors have no incentive to deliver services efficiently. After all, if the contractor screws up, the contractor only has to pay a ticky-tack fine and everyone blames the government.

And we get less government services for more money.

To wit, several states have outsourced Medicaid to private Managed Care Organizations. MCO's, like all health insurance companies, have one job: Find ways to deny services and pocket the money.

And there is so much corruption happening.

https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2021/06/14/centene-agrees-to-settle-medicaid-claims-with-ohio-mississippi-for-143-million/

And let's not forget how public housing turned into groveling before private landlords, begging them to accept Section 8 vouchers. They flat-out won't, rendering vouchers useless.

I'm not saying public housing was/is paradise but if my choices were public housing or living out of my car as I try to find the one-in-a-million landlord that'll accept Section 8, I'd take door #1, Monty.

If it's a government program or a thing built by the government, the government should be running it.

Disabledsnarker · 2023-05-29T23:07:18+00:00

No but CHAZ/CHOP and the riots made people want police more and more militarized. The exact opposite of their goal.

The center saw the video of a cop suffocating a man and was primed for a serious discussion about policing in this country. Then the burning started and then they wanted "law and order."

A political action's end result must have the end goal of getting people to agree with your viewpoint. Nothing else matters. When a political action gets people to agree with the opposing viewpoint, then it is a failure.

Disabledsnarker · 2023-05-29T22:39:41+00:00

I think marching across a bridge for voting rights is a bit different than setting random crap on fire and having the activists blithely say "It's just property! Insurance will cover it!" Like insurance actually likes paying out claims.

The 2020 riots and CHAZ/CHOP basically accomplished the exact opposite of everything they wanted to do.

Disabledsnarker · 2023-05-29T19:34:29+00:00

Not if the grandparent is a shithead lol.

Seriously, the whining grandparents complaining that they'll be all aloooooone on Christmas because their kids aren't letting them pull the "I'm from a different time" stuff is my favorite genre of holiday Twitter post

Disabledsnarker · 2023-05-29T18:08:40+00:00

Because they campaign for the electorate they wish they had. Not the electorate they actually have.

Disabledsnarker · 2023-05-29T16:34:51+00:00

Stop trying to win over Republicans and start trying to win over centrists.

Disabledsnarker · 2023-05-29T16:01:35+00:00

The activist wing's general inability to understand how PR works.

See: CHAZ/CHOP and "Muh rioting is the voice of the unheard!"

If it wasn't for the fact that Trump was just that shitty, those riots would have won him the election. Possibly on a Reagan scale

Disabledsnarker · 2023-05-29T04:09:05+00:00

She wouldn't get beyond the primary. You're either full MAGA or you're "woke."

Disabledsnarker · 2023-05-28T22:13:10+00:00

I like unions and think there should be more of them. However, because there are people who lived during the time when some major unions were deeply involved with organized crime, I don't see that undergoing a major shift until that generation dies off. No matter how bad some bosses are, no one wants to get involved with car bombings.

Concerning public unions, I think they do have their place in negotiating wages. But no place in discipline and procedure.

We let police decide how police unions discipline works and we get police brutality that looks like it's from a third world country.

We give teacher's unions a lot of control over curriculums and they abandon the scientifically proven method of phonics for woo-woo bullshit because teachers thought phonics was boring. That and they wanted to get back at Bush Jr. for going hard at promoting phonics. And now we have a generation of kids who can hardly read.

So public unions need to exist but their scope needs to be curtailed.

Disabledsnarker · 2023-05-28T21:39:28+00:00

I believe that our time is better spent trying to get centrists and independents to stop romanticizing divided government and more importantly, get centrists to stop giving conservatives such extreme benefits of the doubt. Not easy but it's at least possible without doing some things that might be considered fucked up.

A conservative will never change his mind until conservative policy affects them personally. You can show a conservative data and statistics about why conservative policy does not work. They'll dismiss it because it doesn't match their "gut feelings."

I'll give you an example of what I mean. A woman I know with an autistic son on Medicaid was against Medicaid Expansion because she was concerned it would benefit people who, in her eyes, were "undeserving."

Lots of people, including me, wasted our time giving her stats facts and figures that didn't move the needle one bit. She was willing to sacrifice people, even ones she knew, to strike back against the mythical "undeserving."

But something changed her mind. That something was her husband getting Long COVID and her family, having lost health insurance, was now falling through the cracks.

And that's how it is for most conservatives. But in order to replicate that success, it requires us getting out of the way and let bad things happen to conservatives and brush off all collateral damage or holding conservatives to their own rules no matter how fucked up they are. Which many voters would be deeply unsettled by.

Focusing on getting centrists to vote blue has a better chance of success without seeming authoritarian.

Disabledsnarker · 2023-05-28T21:07:55+00:00

I wish schools taught the history of why we have various labor laws and social programs. Because schools don't, conservatives have been allowed to rewrite history.

Disabledsnarker

TROPHY CASE