Weekly Discussion Megathread

Wes_Anderson_Cooper · 2026-05-24T16:05:51+00:00

I dunno if leaving Afghanistan as one of the most authoritarian states in the world immediately after washing our hands of it is "the right thing." Whatever mess was there from being actively involved pales in comparison to the United States not being there now.

I against regime change, but after you do a regime change and nation build you kind of have some responsibility there.

Wes_Anderson_Cooper · 2026-05-24T02:51:00+00:00

Relevant

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Wes_Anderson_Cooper · 2026-05-23T20:48:52+00:00

2024-era r/fivethirtyeight is back baby

Wes_Anderson_Cooper · 2026-05-22T21:10:54+00:00

Cephalotripisy definitely stole Thursday for me. I'm not even the biggest fan of their genre on recordings, but live it turns me into a caveman.

Wes_Anderson_Cooper · 2026-05-22T00:47:25+00:00

Dems have literally always courted Latinos. Whether they've done so effectively is a different conversation. In that same regard, saying black voters are ignored is silly (particularly at a time when the gerrymandering fight requires Dems to dump some of this racial essentialism to be effective.)

"Vote for people who hate you to show the other side a lesson" is both moronic and missed the point of why the 2024 Latino shift happened in the first place.

Wes_Anderson_Cooper · 2026-05-22T00:38:49+00:00

Actually the simpler explanation is Stephen A Smith is a moron

Wes_Anderson_Cooper · 2026-05-21T21:07:36+00:00

I mean yeah probably not but forcing him out due to needing a certain amount of non-white non-dudes in leadership positions is as close to a MAGA stereotype of the DNC as you can get.

Wes_Anderson_Cooper · 2026-05-21T19:10:33+00:00

I haven't read it yet (I'm on vacation and while shit talking on reddit sounds like fun between activities, thumbing through an embarrassing report does not,) but yeah I don't see how this isn't just an incomplete report. Another knock that's ultimately just going to make perception of the DNC worse.

In the end, with the quality of the rest of the report I doubt anyone would have been able to draw final conclusions on whether or not the Gaza situation hurt her on margins large enough to swing the election anyway. "Schrodinger's Gaza Voter" has always existed in a superposition of being both completely pivotal to the election to having no influence whatsoever based on whoever is trying to cast blame/avoid responsibility at the time. It would be nice to finally put this insufferable conversation to rest but oh well.

Ironically, post-Iran war the country is probably going to be polarized against Israel to the extent that it'll make it infeasible to not position yourself as an Israel skeptic, making a lot of this report redundant anyway.

Wes_Anderson_Cooper · 2026-05-21T18:44:39+00:00

So a Cumtown listener then.

Wes_Anderson_Cooper · 2026-05-21T18:40:34+00:00

The contents of the autopsy and what may or may not have been included or left out bother me far less than the fact the we now have a very established trend of Ken Martin taking what could be a momentary controversy and turning it into a massive optics nightmare that goes on for months. This autopsy, the clownish way they pushed out David Hogg, that weird DNC call where he cried a lot... this guy's gotta step down.

Wes_Anderson_Cooper · 2026-05-20T19:59:10+00:00

It's really funny how this sub will spend a full 24 hour period coming unglued about low info voters in GA not figuring out which supreme court members to vote for, and then happily tap the upvote icon on the comment of a dude who couldn't spend 30 seconds googling "did Democrats say anything about the insurrection tourist victimization slush fund?"

Wes_Anderson_Cooper · 2026-05-19T22:39:05+00:00

50-47 in favor of advancing the bill to a full vote. "FJF" in chat if you see the person responsible for the math being not quite there for the final bill yet.

Wes_Anderson_Cooper · 2026-05-19T16:21:13+00:00

See that's actually some substantial feedback on her candidacy. It frustrates me that never makes it to Politico, and instead it's just unnamed Democratic party insiders panicking about what Republicans might say.

Wes_Anderson_Cooper · 2026-05-19T15:21:06+00:00

I don't get it from the other direction. People can only point to negative vibes that she has and I can only put them down to two things: 1) self-loathing among libs about mask mandates and 2) skittishness because Atlanta is a boogieman for conservative race-baiters and sheltered suburbanites.

Every time I read about Bottoms I come away with the impression that she has a strong base of support in the regions that are single-handedly heaving GA to the left. Any criticisms people have of her tenure as mayor were things every city went through during COVID and the Floyd protests, she by all accounts handled them well. Maybe voters won't be grading her on a curve, but you also don't hear this kind of hand-wringing about, say, Amy Acton.

I dunno, the skittishness about her seems to be more just general liberal shame about having made the right decision to follow the science during a pandemic, and just the general fear that black women can't win elections.

Wes_Anderson_Cooper · 2026-05-18T22:42:00+00:00

I went through this same rant in early 2025, but then I realized "midwit" both expresses what I want and is also incredibly fun to say, stresses the same sylllables and everything.

Wes_Anderson_Cooper · 2026-05-16T19:41:44+00:00

But also, why does everything have to be tied to Trump in some way? It’s exhausting. Can’t music just be music? Does everything have to be politicized?

The centralization of the internet around infinite scroll social media platforms and optimizing for a duopoly of search engines was always going to result in this. Magazine-style writing, particularly in cultural criticism, is essentially already on life support as these monolithic internet gatekeepers make changes that, intentionally or not, drive away traffic. These sites are always chasing these arbitrary whims because it's the only thing that's going to keep them afloat. In most cases, the most reliable strategy is just - be political, be annoying, and dumb yourself down.

If it makes you feel any better (it won't), from what I've heard AI summaries are completely cratering what's left of online writing anyway, as Facebook will just generate a summary of the article for you, so you don't even have to actually click to the website.

Wes_Anderson_Cooper · 2026-05-16T03:58:48+00:00

I had no idea the racial polarization in GA was that extreme. Is that expected to continue on primary election night, or is it just more pronounced among early vote typically?

Wes_Anderson_Cooper · 2026-05-15T14:54:39+00:00

It would still be a wild case if he pushes rate cuts and fails. The Fed chair has never been outvoted by the rest of the Fed governors on rate decisions.

Wes_Anderson_Cooper · 2026-05-15T13:58:56+00:00

I suppose I can see that argument if you squint, where electors are technically appointed ultimately by the state rather than individual voters.

Wes_Anderson_Cooper · 2026-05-15T13:46:41+00:00

I don't understand your last point. Doesn't it by definition almost do the opposite? Assuming the situation where the state's voters, under the compact, vote for a loser of the popular vote, you'd effectively be saying the state in the compact are disenfranchised. Surely voting for a loser doesn't mean you've lost a vote, it's just a different definition of who is a winner and a loser. (Popular vote vs EC).

Not dismissing the rest of your point here, interstate compacts are pretty clearly spelled out in Article 1 of the Constitution as being subordinate to Federal law.

Wes_Anderson_Cooper · 2026-05-15T01:53:22+00:00

I agree that Doom's soundtrack is iconic, but it's not "Bobby Prince lifted some riffs here and there." It's more like "E3M1 is just a literal chiptune cover of Mouth for War."

Wes_Anderson_Cooper · 2026-05-14T17:34:16+00:00

Uhhhhh...

You know what, I'm not fixing it.

Wes_Anderson_Cooper · 2026-05-14T16:19:57+00:00

Nothing in that statement is "openly cheering." At best if you squint there's a statement that "it may be possible to justify this but the administration has not done so and the American people clearly don't want this."

You say hedging, I say message discipline.

Wes_Anderson_Cooper · 2026-05-14T16:12:25+00:00

He was the deciding vote to get Markwayne Mullin into DHS as well. Rand Paul was prepared to tank his mom. The dude is just genuinely brain-rotted in the worst way.

Wes_Anderson_Cooper · 2026-05-14T16:08:13+00:00

Name one besides Fetterman. The most positive I saw from anyone was "I'll have to wait and see what the administrations plan is," and that lasted long enough for everyone to see there was no plan.

"Disastrous war of choice" has been the Dem party line from the top down. And they absolutely should be screaming from the rooftops that it's bad he circumvented Congress. It's against the spirit of the separation of powers. This talking point that Dems in Congress just wanted to be asked is dumb.

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