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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.

#701
I am convinced that the main problem in the US is the structure of the Senate. It is preposterous to assert that the state of Rhode Island or the welfare state of Kentucky is as important to the security or economic health of the nation as California or Texas.

We are a divided nation: people trying to make the best of their situation, and the Senate, a fantasyland where we pretend that every state is equally relevant.

The "2 per state" rule worked back in 1776 because the states were roughly the same size, everyone was a farmer, and fertilizer had not yet been invented.

Today, senators should be allocated based on the GDP of each state.

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

#703
post #659

OK, so the transition from Make America Great Again slogan to Make America Decent Again (and Better) reality is inevitable and welcome. It is easy to get overjoyed by results of the U.S. Presidential Election (and some celebration certainly is in order). Uniting the country is definitely a commendable goal, though it is easier said than done. The election results across all levels clearly illustrate just how divided…

Anyone read a practical 20 year plan to decrease divisiveness in the US (say, to 1990s levels)? Or: Ignoring funding, what would you do? An example year 1 goal: "Get X million people to watch 10 hours/year of strangers who they would normally not encounter or agree with, and to see them as real people." To do that, produce and televise + stream a long-form TV show, like a version of Braver Angels' Red/Blue Workshops[…

I think any plan that neglects ratcheting down high-stakes issues to more local levels is fighting against strong headwinds.

In other words, we can avoid winner-take-all dysfunction by allowing more diversity in governance. If we make every issue national, it makes it too important who runs the national government.

Within reason, we should find ways to let California be California and Alabama be Alabama. Alabama and California shouldn't have to struggle against one another as much as they do.

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

#704

It's amazing. My friends on the left think the only reason for voting trump is racism, and friends on the right think the only reason for voting biden is socialism. Where did all the intellect go? The social dilemma documentary I think is very useful. It feels like social media bubbles are a large component, although of course there have been many contentious elections in the past. Being centrist I can relate to part…

What do you mean by centrist? America doesn’t really have a left-wing political group, certainly not in any mainstream way. Obama referred to himself as a Reagan Republican and Biden is even more right-leaning. Even figures like AOC and Bernie Sanders are extremely anodyne, not at all “left wing” just barely more liberal than American centrists.

The “centrist” view in America is extremely far to the right, which then allows factions like Trump’s to be far right to deeply fascist, racist extremes (this is not hyperbole, Trump is dangerously fascist) and yet still act like he’s just “on the right” because “centrist” positions in the US are themselves so deeply far right already.

The US really urgently needs more mainstream far left politicians, instead of nearly-Republican examples like Harris, Warren, Biden, Buttigieg, etc. AOC & Sanders are the closest, but by no means do they represent views that are anywhere near being a healthy “far left” ideology to help draw a compromise from the far right and towards a healthier centrist position.

“Centrist” in the US would at least be on the fence of letting individual own assault rifles, withdrawing federal funds for abortion, reducing the EPA and decommitting from international agreements on climate change, granting large tax breaks to corporations, eliminating social welfare programs for oppressed classes of people (in ways that overtly hurt the poor, minorities and women), and creating a legal chasm blocking any road to universal medical care, all while buying into jingoistic ideas about America being the best and dehumanizing other groups like immigrants and foreigners.

That’s the centrist position in the US. When anything further left is even suggested, the socialism boogeyman is drummed up and huge populations of people will vote against it for no other reason than “socialism bad.”

Any sense of acting like there’s a benign Republican core of ideas around states’ rights or lower taxes to be discussed in good faith is just gobsmackingly wrong about the US. That is just simply a falsehood.

What passes for middle of the road, “good faith” centrist discussion is deeply far right already, and “both-sides-ism” where “liberals claiming all Trump voters are racist” is disingenuously used to act like it’s “the same as” the behavior of the American far right is both completely wrong and contributing to the problem.

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

#706
post #659

OK, so the transition from Make America Great Again slogan to Make America Decent Again (and Better) reality is inevitable and welcome. It is easy to get overjoyed by results of the U.S. Presidential Election (and some celebration certainly is in order). Uniting the country is definitely a commendable goal, though it is easier said than done. The election results across all levels clearly illustrate just how divided…

This site used to not be filled with leftist cheerleaderism, as far as I can remember. Shocking that such a nebulous non comment is at the top. It's my opinion that freedom should be of primary importance in America, not feel good authoritarian inducing woo.

It seems to me that the left is the side supporting freedom right now. I don't think someone is free if they don't have the material resources to make their own decisions. That's to say nothing of minority rights and ending the war on drugs.

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

#707
post #659

OK, so the transition from Make America Great Again slogan to Make America Decent Again (and Better) reality is inevitable and welcome. It is easy to get overjoyed by results of the U.S. Presidential Election (and some celebration certainly is in order). Uniting the country is definitely a commendable goal, though it is easier said than done. The election results across all levels clearly illustrate just how divided…

Anyone read a practical 20 year plan to decrease divisiveness in the US (say, to 1990s levels)? Or: Ignoring funding, what would you do? An example year 1 goal: "Get X million people to watch 10 hours/year of strangers who they would normally not encounter or agree with, and to see them as real people." To do that, produce and televise + stream a long-form TV show, like a version of Braver Angels' Red/Blue Workshops[…

The thing is, any reasonable, evidence based discussion is going to end up concluding that the 90% of GOP talking points are lies, so right leaning people would claim the show is left biased.

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

#709
post #659

OK, so the transition from Make America Great Again slogan to Make America Decent Again (and Better) reality is inevitable and welcome. It is easy to get overjoyed by results of the U.S. Presidential Election (and some celebration certainly is in order). Uniting the country is definitely a commendable goal, though it is easier said than done. The election results across all levels clearly illustrate just how divided…

This site used to not be filled with leftist cheerleaderism, as far as I can remember. Shocking that such a nebulous non comment is at the top. It's my opinion that freedom should be of primary importance in America, not feel good authoritarian inducing woo.

While it’s certainly true that America is not the most free country in the world, it’s still inside the top 50. What freedoms are you trying to exercise but are being stifled?

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

#710

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…

My view is this is because at its core human brain has evolved to not reject reality however weird it may be (bear with me), The problem is that when 'facts' are presented in form of live media (audio, video) the chances of it being interpreted as 'reality' by our adaptive brain as reality is high.. because you just saw & heard it, there in very little space there to inject intellectual discretion there, and even if you do you still have to have a special case for 'that reality'.

the best counter to fake news IMO is to not consume any news in a narrated form unless its from a really trusted source & I mean invite-home-and-fireside-chat trusted. I prefer reading news to this. the other benefit is that you can read at your own pace instead of the narrators pace so you have better chance of not missing crucial detail. Second is free is bad, my take away after last election cycle was we need to pay for the news. I got NYT & wapo sub and have not cancelled it since. Just these two things, paying for the news and reading it helps me keep this conspiracy BS at bay.

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