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Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

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Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#641
post #293

Just curious. Does anyone have a reasonable response to the following contention: Trump claims to have engineered the world's greatest economy, but in fact he has just benefitted from the Fed holding rates artificially low in spite of an ongoing economic expansion. In other words, he's taking credit for something he essentially had no hand in.

His tax cuts, coupled with loosening energy regulations, led to a great deal more buying power for US consumers. Gasoline, heating oil, coal (clean) for electricity generation have the US a net exporter of energy for the first time in decades. Energy costs plummeted, putting more $ in consumer pockets.

That drove the economy to new heights. The US Unemployment rate was at all-time lows prior to the pandemic. Even now, it are already back into the 'marginally acceptable' range at 6.9%.

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#642

What is really keeping me up at night is the existential problem the US faces for the next 50 years: the ever increasingly large divide that is the polarizing of the electorate. We have to come together as Americans or someone will divide and conquer us.

There's no divide larger than 50/50 which is just about where it's at.

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#643

My biggest concern is how seemingly so many conservative people are becoming huge conspiracy theorists. I don't mean normal conspiracy theories like there being something more behind the JFK assassination, but like QAnon, Bill Gates injecting people with microchips, Pizzagate, etc. A lot of people in my own family in a rather backwards state believe that stuff. It's making me completely lose faith in this country and…

I think we now have a propaganda apparatus that folks in the past could not even have dreamt of. I fear that this will take us to a very dark place.

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#645

My biggest concern is how seemingly so many conservative people are becoming huge conspiracy theorists. I don't mean normal conspiracy theories like there being something more behind the JFK assassination, but like QAnon, Bill Gates injecting people with microchips, Pizzagate, etc. A lot of people in my own family in a rather backwards state believe that stuff. It's making me completely lose faith in this country and…

I do have some hope that the more extreme conspiracies pass in time and don’t permanently damage the psyche of those involved. Growing up in the Bible Belt during the Satanic Panic, I was legit afraid of being caught and sacrificed by satanists after a friend’s dad had us watch a movie about the “Pagan Invasion”. Satanists out to kidnap kids for ritual sacrifice was a Big Fucking Deal that many people actually believed —- Paradise Lost is a good documentary from that wave of hysteria.

I know of very few people that are terrified of satanists any longer.

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#647
Canadian who has been living in the US for 5 years. Perm resident but not naturalized. Arrived a year and a bit before Trump 2016 win.

This election was so polarizing I am very afraid the country can recover from it.

I am worried enough we have bug out bags packed, with critical documents, as I expect this could easily escalate to a civil war as both sides are convinced they are right; and more worrisome is that the other side is so completely corrupted that they are not Americans or humans and should be taken out like the trash.

We have Trump who will not concede and will fight this to his last moment; and then will continue to fight it from the side lines.

We have AOC on twitter asking people to send names for her registry of Trump supporters for future retribution. You know who else kept such lists? Hitler, Mao, Mussolini.

Really scary times down here. Much worse than when Trump won in 2016.

The US needs all the help, prayers, and luck it can muster right now to find it's way through this.

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#648

One of the things this election, and the last four years, has shown me, is the impact of technology on our political discourse. It hasn't been a "good" insight. Federal Election records indicate that the leadership of technology companies overwhelmingly supported a set of values that their employees appear to just as overwhelmingly reject. That dissonance is really quite remarkable. I see one of the fundamental chall…

> Such a technology, if weaponized, to could kill hundreds of thousands of people.

Try and drive a Tesla through a red light or through a person that it clearly sees. Try and drive a Tesla fast without being in it. It just doesn't work.

On the other hand, nothing stops someone from attaching a simple remote control system to a regular truck and driving through a crowd of people.

Nothing stops someone from making an aimbot for a machine gun. That can kill a lot of people fast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QcfZGDvHU8

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#649

Anyone else want to see more states adopt something other than a winner-take-all allotment of electoral votes? Here in Pennsylvania we’d be about evenly split. I wonder if splitting our electoral votes would moderate our politics.

It would unquestionably help republicans. The problem is that the collective models highly favors small states. So even if large states agree to split their votes, small rural states will still drive the count.
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