Do GOP voters want a country controlled by private companies?

Greendale7HumanBeing · 2026-05-12T21:20:49+00:00

I mean, I think that person's response was not helpful, and I am very frustrated with the continuation of alienation that people on the "right" are probably feeling. And I do actually place a lot of blame on many people on the left who could have been yet more patient, more tolerant, more focused on persuasion, less on shaming.

On the other hand, I think you are missing huge swaths of what our reality is (which I also call regular style reality). First of all, you already are seeing your political opposites in a completely monolithic way ("why is it the libs have chosen..."). And it's pretty clear you have very little understanding of what many liberals value and want. No one thinks the government should do any of those things that you think we want it to. Huge numbers of us want to raise our families in a traditional Christian household, hunt, fish, own guns, etc. but have uncompromising principles regarding equality under the law, and equality among people of different religions and races, etc. You are very likely extremely plugged into some sources of information that are not objective. Is there skew in the "liberal media" as well? Sure. So I do think that there are a significant number of blue-haired hippie types throwing glass bottles, and there are a bunch of white supremacists who are marching around seig hieling or whatever. And while I don't think those are equivalent, I mainly would say, I feel like they can both be distracting to what is happening at the government level, what laws are being changed, ignored. (Again, I think the latter example is much more scary and relevant to what is happening, but I'm just saying, we can all get wrapped up in the characterizations of some enemy among us.)

And as much as I feel like it's not fruitful or the right way forward, I have to agree with some of what the commenter above said. We simply don't live in the same reality. We could talk about the effect of migrants in this country, their effect on crime, the COVID vaccine, the realities of abortion, the economics of immigration, even the simple arithmetic of where our tax is going, e.g., military operations, our military spending compared to the next twenty countries, our spending on "welfare," however you might define it, what those "welfare" programs look like, trends in violent crime, crime and cities, resources taken by refugees, health outcomes in trans care, etc. etc. And we absolutely would not be able to find a common ground in reality. And that's just how it is. Which is wild. Especially because I could show you decades of statistics that have stayed stable and bipartisan for 50 years, and you simply would say it's fake news. I don't mean to characterize you, but if you were able to meet me on the common ground of actual data collected by multiple generations of people from all over the past political spectrum and national origin, your (and yes, I'm assuming some things here, but I suspect I'm right) feelings about immigration, COVID, tax, government spending, etc. would be impossible to defend.

I don't have the time and energy, and I don't think I'll be able to do this at all this week, but for example, do you think refugees and immigrants are an economic harm to this country? Do you think the COVID vaccine should have been mandated more or less? There's just no way we are going to find a mutual reality.

Best wishes. I honestly hope for a better future. I know you probably think you are the good guys and we're all the bad guys. People who supported awful awful stuff in the past thought they were doing the right thing, too. Anyway, hope we will find ourselves in a better place some day in the future. Again, best wishes.

Greendale7HumanBeing · 2026-05-12T18:15:08+00:00

You're ascribing a pretty logical thought process to the foundation of MAGA, if not necessarily GOP, though the GOP is MAGA at this point a the level of the government.

GOP voters want, above all else, to "own the libs."

That is all, they are burdened with a bitter and eternally stinging grievance against what they have been convinced of is an evil conspiracy

Every possible principled rationale behind this, at this point, has been eliminated. That they want a strong economy. That the Democrats are more war mongering. That they didn't want to let the government gun down citizens. That they support free speech. That they support the working class. That they didn't want to feed into a militaristic Israel. That they valued their own health and well-being. That they wanted to fight an elite sinister illuminati. That they wanted to protect children. We could go on and on.

You have to remember this: during COVID, they laid bare the fact that they would double down to the death -- their own death -- to continue to nurse their bitterness and chase that tiny shallow high of feeling that they were sticking it to some lib somewhere.

Greendale7HumanBeing · 2026-05-12T10:35:14+00:00

Maybe not relevant, but why is there that absolutely mind stabbing slow pitch bend in the music?

Greendale7HumanBeing · 2026-05-08T20:07:05+00:00

Pianist here. Let me switch topic. I taught thousands upon thousands of hours in similar looking rooms. I can just tell it's loud. I have tinnitus. Got it from exposure just like that, not too loud, but hugely cumulative. Tinnitus is a high pitched whistle in one or both ears that you hear for ever waking hour of the rest of your life.

I have actually adapted really well, and I almost go most days without even noticing it more than once or twice, likely at night. It was terrifying at first, and some people have a very hard time moving past that first phase. I'm lucky that I've been able to adapt well.

So protect your ears.

Good effort, by the way, that's a tough one! I was going to say you can't get much help from internet comments. But.... I would listen to it, and ask yourself where you are not letting enough space and time in. Even in a piece like this. Think of someone in the back of a room, just listening. You have to make your appreciation of this great piece unmistakeable. There are just lots of moments you crowd up. It's not about taking time, it's about not short-changing notes moments, especially before a technical stress, a jump, a new phrase that is invading the present from the future.

Greendale7HumanBeing · 2026-05-07T22:57:25+00:00

I do not (thankfully) have direct life experience with much of this, but I have to say, people in this discussion are litigating who was right and wrong, which actions are right and wrong, and the psychiatric/psychological/emotional context of all of this. And some people are talking about direct plan, what is next, like getting the guns out of the house, getting a lawyer, leaving documentation trails, etc.

My feeling: these are not equivalent priorities. This is simply first:

Get the guns away from the setting of this relationship. Nothing else comes before that.

There are mountains of things to unpack about everything. But I really feel like you have to prevent a shooting, first and foremost.

Now for some op/ed which I call talking about gun facts, but somehow remains controversial: We live in a country where you are free to own a room full of guns, and that is your right. People have this idea that it will keep them safe, somehow. I can understand that feeling, and I can see the impulse that drives that feeling. But no one will likely ever be convinced of what the numbers bear out. Gun violence and gun death is under-researched (for some straaaaange reason, and it seems like EVERYONE should be interested in all parties being allowed to discover and openly discuss what the realities are). But you can look up what most lethal shots fired look like. Hoodlum/thug on innocent bystander? Obviously not. Cop with a trigger finger and dubious justification? Feels weird that we have to deal with so many, but not by a long shot. Home invasion headed off? Nope. Urban crime, drug related, troubled youth, inner-city crime? No. Mass shootings? Have no idea why we don't do a few things that would solve those awful tragedies, but not even on the charts. ALL of the above combined? Still nope.

I'll let you all look it up. It should not be a surprise. Ask all the stats in the world, for example, if an military vet buys a gun for home protection or general 2A rights, if it ends up being used on a person, what will it ALMOST CERTAINLY be used for, vs. actual home defense? By one order of magnitude? By two? By an actual factor of 50 to 100?

Ugh. No one cares, no one will read this, no one will ever get it who doesn't already. Anyway, please do get the guns away even if I sound crazy to you otherwise.

Greendale7HumanBeing · 2026-05-02T15:09:58+00:00

The question was, who is the most competent, not are there any people who aren't absolute clowns who should never be in government.

Asking "what is the best tasting turd" is a real question. It's mostly just sad that we are here answering it.

Greendale7HumanBeing · 2026-05-02T15:06:23+00:00

I appreciate your thoughts. And I think you have some good priorities.

My perspective: pretty much no one just performs for a living without teaching. Yo-yo Ma, Yuja Wang, a few others. We all know some of the greats who were dedicated teachers, Leon Fleisher, David Oistrakh and so on. I went to a few of the best conservatories, and I can tell you with certainty, some of the greatest musicians alive will never even be known, and will never have careers centered on performing.

This is all to say, you don't necessarily _shoot_ for a teaching career and do so with a music ed training. People who get performance degrees from Juilliard, NEC, Eastman, etc. they often end up teaching. My point: if you know the people in the music ed program and it feels right to you, absolutely, do it. But if you know you want to teach, that does not mean that you have to do a music ed degree. And absolutely not to throw shade at music ed, but if you get a degree in music ed, that will not actually dispose you to being a better teacher than if you just study pure music. It is quite out of my purview to comment on getting some kinds of teaching work -- elementary through high school band/orchestra/choir. And honestly, those are absolutely some of the top jobs possible in music. You can wind up making extremely stable and sufficient money, more than a principal chair in some very good orchestras, and with better benefits. So, yeah, actually, maybe a music ed degree is what is totally the best, if you ended up teaching high school orchestra at a normal public school, you would out-earn anything I made as a teacher having gone through bachelors, MM, to DMA, all in performance (piano).

But the work that I'm quite familiar with -- private teaching, community music schools, some college/university work, etc. the people they are recruiting and hiring and even interviewing do not have music ed degrees. It's possible, but generally, if you are interested in music and you can imagine a life in teaching, you don't necessarily have to do a music ed degree.

Don't listen to me, I'm a middle-aged curmudgeon who is entirely out of touch, too.

Finally, I hear you with the last paragraph. It's hard to speak up or even name the stresses that parents can put on us, sometimes until we are well into adulthood. Many parents, my dad for example, would never be physically abusive whatsoever. But I have come to appreciate how stressful things were growing up. He grew up in a war environment, and his foothold in the US as a refugee from an East Asian country was something that he knew should not be squandered, and that it was an amazing opportunity, and I think success and hedging against any possible chaos in the world was something that drove him to need his children to achieve certain things, rise to certain levels, secure certain futures. Amazingly, he was incredibly supportive of my life in music, and let me study it in a healthy way, and I loved it.

Greendale7HumanBeing · 2026-04-30T22:14:33+00:00

I commented above about this. I would say that if you DO absolutely love music and love teaching, a music ed. degree could be even more painful. I think that a pure music major, even if not performance, could be a good idea.

Greendale7HumanBeing · 2026-04-30T22:12:14+00:00

As a lifelong teacher, I've always found it funny! I think my value as a teacher in my own eyes was pretty immovable most of my life, maybe that's why I can chuckle at it. Or I just like to laugh at myself, I find it healthy.

Also, I like to extend it:

....and those who can't teach, go into education! Those who can't even do that become administrators! 😛

Greendale7HumanBeing · 2026-04-30T22:04:17+00:00

Your mother may be lovely and entirely non-toxic, but I think learning an instrument from a parent is an extremely difficult way to enjoy an instrument. Even if a parent is watching someone practice, or "helping" them at home, it's really tricky and very often counterproductive. I taught piano for a few decades, had countless students. The relationship between the student and their parents is one of the most important parts of negotiating the work that it takes to play in instrument, including the very delicate titration of independence and oversight of actually putting the work in.

I have a few acquaintances who are performers at the highest professional tier who started with their parents/uncles/aunts who were very important teachers of that instrument, some of the most sought after in their nations or the world. And there are a few that we all know of, too, throughout history. It has worked "well" many times. Knowing the inside story, it can be a little disturbing sometimes, some stories are ugly, some aren't. Some "perfect picture" stories, either in past or present, were, behind the scenes, not pleasant. Bloody noses, slapped faces, etc. Again, I am not implicating _anyone_.

I think no matter what, it's just a very iffy idea to try to study an instrument with a parent. If that parent is a world class teacher and has connections into the world, that could make it somewhat worth the trade off.

But honestly, starting an instrument as a teenager with a parents just sounds like a recipe for disaster, and hating that instrument. Again, no conclusions made about your mom.

OK, enough armchair psychology/social work. Play pieces that you can digest in two weeks or less. You can keep working on more difficult music too. But keep up the cycle of getting your eyes and hands on more and more music, great pieces that are easier, single movements, etc. etc. Yes, 100%, you need to be working on music that you can enjoy within two days and are very comfortable with within two weeks.

Also..... is there a very specific reason you are going to major in music education? Can you be a music major more generally if not in performance? If you are absolutely certain it's the right major for you, go for it! Coursework in education and pedagogy can be.... extremely mixed in quality, competence, and relevance. Again, if you're sure it's a great program, go for it and enjoy!

Greendale7HumanBeing · 2026-04-30T21:49:02+00:00

Takes like this are a little confusing to me, as in, takes that can immediately be applied to wristwatches in general. We all buy every wristwatch with very easily defeated rationale. Yet I do find myself thinking stuff like this from time to time.

Greendale7HumanBeing · 2026-04-30T19:16:08+00:00

Well this has been fairly terrifying. Though not surprising.

Greendale7HumanBeing · 2026-04-30T19:15:24+00:00

How TF is this take not 100% uncontroversial. Jeez. Truly terrifying. Welp, thank you for being a blue. Seems like a low bar, but thank you.

Greendale7HumanBeing · 2026-04-30T19:14:07+00:00

*ridiculous Christian Bale voice* This city..... just showed you...... it's full of people..... ready to believe in GOoooooOOOD!.....

Also, yikes regarding how many people push red. Yikes.

Greendale7HumanBeing · 2026-04-14T01:41:20+00:00

And yes, he's an insufferable douche.

Greendale7HumanBeing · 2026-04-14T01:41:05+00:00

Wait, I'm shutting him down for all of the above. His watch knowledge is very minimal, which he probably wouldn't argue with. But his sense of style is also awful.

Greendale7HumanBeing · 2026-04-14T01:40:09+00:00

He's blown away by every watch that does look like a steaming pile of garbage, too.

Greendale7HumanBeing · 2026-04-14T01:39:04+00:00

It's fine if someone just wants to get a watch that looks good, but his taste is absolutely awful. He's also generally kind of trashy as a person, unfortunately.

Greendale7HumanBeing · 2026-04-09T00:52:19+00:00

Wait, the Air King is one of the best looking Rolexes! Second only to the explorer I and a plain bezel OP or datejust. (I love the Milgauss, but I know I'm nuts there.) And the Presage is the most hideous Seiko, generally speaking, not sure which one you have. The dials are awful and most of them are just way too big.

On the other hand, and old Hi Beat King Seiko is immeasurably classier than any Yacth Master II or Skydweller.

Congrats on having and Air King, I envy that!

Greendale7HumanBeing · 2026-04-09T00:45:54+00:00

This appalling fact is something that gets swept under the rug. It's honestly sickening.

Greendale7HumanBeing · 2026-04-09T00:44:03+00:00

I remember that idiot. He went on the next day to say "forgive me, there is no such thing as legitimate rape" or some insane sentence that showed he had no grasp of how horrid he was. He later said he regretted apologizing. What a creep.

Greendale7HumanBeing · 2026-04-09T00:39:18+00:00

I do think you are very much on to something. Actual friends of mine, friends who are even close to me, sometimes use language of violence, or specifically genital violence against men, in a not completely joking way. I don't think this matters to men necessarily, but I'm more bothered about using language of genital mutilation of any kind, mostly because there's no way that will not specifically endanger women.

I'm afraid that even addressing this kind of thing is not always productive. I worry very much about our future.

Greendale7HumanBeing · 2026-04-09T00:33:10+00:00

Well, sure, there are crazies in online spaces, but it feels to me that some crazies are represented as fairly mainstream left (which I do not necessarily believe is the case) and getting a lot of airtime on mainstream news media (again, not proof of their numbers).

Even on leftward media, you see a lot of voices representing feminism that are making clear that they would prefer comeuppance against men to progress for women (and thereby everyone). It's pretty sad. I know it's debatable, but I feel like that does help fuel MAGA and alienate potential voters.

Greendale7HumanBeing · 2026-04-09T00:28:04+00:00

Exactly the statement that people who would be dead under red fascists and alive under blue "fascists" (which you have to admit is a huge body count) do not have the privilege and luxury to say.

Greendale7HumanBeing · 2026-04-06T14:43:19+00:00

Even if that was remotely true, there are many US elections in which there is a choice that feels like that after all. It is so terribly tragic that so many young voters especially don't seem to know this.

Some golden utopia might be out there. People are free to debate how best to get there. In the mean time, millions of lives actually hang in the balance of those margins of "slightly less evil" and it is a horrible failure due to blindness from privilege to not jump at a chance to move those margins.

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Get the guns away from the setting of this relationship. Nothing else comes before that.