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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.

#881
post #726

One candidate supports separating children from their families for certain groups of illegal immigrants, kept those children in cages for some time, and has since lost track of around 500 of them; not reuiniting them with their families. This has all been extensively documented. And approximately seventy million people have voted for that candidate. Okay, so with all of that in mind, please provide the nuance you wan…

The family separations policy was applied to asylum seekers. Seeking asylum is an established legal process, so 'illegal immigrant' doesn't apply.

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

#882
As a Hongkonger I am more worry about a) the problem of USA infrastructures due to the split. The nearly 50% vote for trump this time ... and b) the external resolve and attention paid to Asia especially Taiwan. I did note it is Clinton that sent in 2 aircraft carriers for Taiwan last time, which unlike hk is not yet that much a lost case.

For Hong Kong, I do not have much hope but given it is not much of hope to begin with, fight on beyond the last stand.

Best wish for USA and Taiwan, whilst I can still send message.

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

#883

On the data nerd side I continue to be shocked at how people misinterpret the certainty of polls/forecasts. Forecasts give us probability distributions based on historical polling error data. Not infallible predictions the expected value will 100% happen. It’s fairly revealing of society’s general innumeracy, just as it was 4 years ago when Trump won.

>Forecasts give us probability distributions based on historical polling error data.

They would give you a probability distribution if they were truly random samples. But in reality, response rates are very low, and pollsters make up for this using demographic weighting and modeling - so the results don't actually represent any real population, but rather are extrapolated from people who respond onto a hypothetical population that the pollster thinks is likely to vote. This is why they are spectacularly and systematically off, more and more over time. It's not just variance.

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

#884

Ok legit question, is Biden’s mental health an issue? (i.e. Dementia, Alzheimer’s). Surprised my family brings this up, and I’m not sure how to reply back to them..

My brother met him in an informal setting about two years ago, and expressed concern then over "wow he seemed really old / out of it". But Biden's current speeches and interviews seem lucid and coherent so maybe he was just having a bad day back then.

The presidency, like most other executive jobs, ends up being run by a team of people working together behind the public figurehead. I have faith in Kamala, in the White House advisors, in the picks for cabinet positions, etc. Biden will probably invite back many Obama-era advisors, as opposed to white nationalists like Stephen Miller. Decent people tend to build decent organizations.

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

#885

There's a famous optical illusion with a spinning silhouette of a dancer. When you look at it, you'll swear it's spinning in one direction -- say, counter-clockwise. In fact, you'll be so sure it's spinning counter-clockwise, that the idea it could be spinning in the opposite direction will seem impossible to you. But if you stare at it long enough, and intently enough, you can make it spin the other way. I've notice…

The difference is that with the spinning dancer optical illusion, there's never a "wrong" way to view it.

This isn't always the case with politics, or any kind of view for that matter. It's important to empathize with people you disagree with, but it's just as important that we start with a foundation of agreed upon facts.

In other words, reality isn't a point of view.

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

#886
post #859

There's a famous optical illusion with a spinning silhouette of a dancer. When you look at it, you'll swear it's spinning in one direction -- say, counter-clockwise. In fact, you'll be so sure it's spinning counter-clockwise, that the idea it could be spinning in the opposite direction will seem impossible to you. But if you stare at it long enough, and intently enough, you can make it spin the other way. I've notice…

There is an alternative to such polarized views. In many countries, politics is just politics, it happens in the background and is about as heart felt as the weather report. It can be controversial and felt by all sure, but it shouldn't be a lifestyle or ideological platform that the general public use to divide themselves. It's backoffice stuff, for the most part, and I am too busy being friends to really mind what…

Issues like basic rights for transgender people, protection of voting rights for minorities, health care for unavoidable illnesses, and the major economic retooling needed to mitigate the effects of climate change are 'just politics' only for people privileged enough not to suffer because of them.

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

#887

There's a famous optical illusion with a spinning silhouette of a dancer. When you look at it, you'll swear it's spinning in one direction -- say, counter-clockwise. In fact, you'll be so sure it's spinning counter-clockwise, that the idea it could be spinning in the opposite direction will seem impossible to you. But if you stare at it long enough, and intently enough, you can make it spin the other way. I've notice…

Makes me think of San Francisco Bay Area politics, where progressives have become so progressive that they in one breath say that all minorities should be accepted and that the environment is precious, but in the next espouse policies and weaponize environmental legislation to prevent immigrants from entering while simultaneously destroying the environment, as though there's no internal contradiction in those actions…

Quite a lot of local politics becomes more comprehensible when you add a 'NIMBY/YIMBY' axis completely separate from other stated political views.

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

#888
post #408

Personally I think we are watching the slow death of the USA. May be from France I am not getting all the subtle details about the situation on the ground but the country seems to be completely divided. There is almost nothing now that holds America coherent as a country. It has too much variance to form a sensible cluster. It went from a basically almost racially homogeneous, English speaking, Christian - with a lot…

I've heard this take from many in the EU, sounds like it's being pushed explicitly by media there.

Any student of US history can tell you that the current events are not especially indicative of the "death of the USA" or some such, and proposing that view just shows the hyped up fearmongering lens though which US events are portrayed to the world

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

#889

There's a famous optical illusion with a spinning silhouette of a dancer. When you look at it, you'll swear it's spinning in one direction -- say, counter-clockwise. In fact, you'll be so sure it's spinning counter-clockwise, that the idea it could be spinning in the opposite direction will seem impossible to you. But if you stare at it long enough, and intently enough, you can make it spin the other way. I've notice…

No surprise you've been upvoted so much. Yours is a truly remarkable comment, and observation.

I'd humbly add that at least to my eyes, most of the time the discussions on disagreements between two political parties are simply ineffective at trying to solve the disagreement, and rather irrational or badly arranged. In other words: most political discourse you hear these days seems useless.

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

#890
post #693
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…

> Uniting the country is definitely a commendable goal This is hard and may backfire in a deeply divided country. To me, instead of trying to achieve a common ground (which, in the current situation often means forcing 49% to the position of the 51%; with the chance of a swap in 2-4 years) we should learn to live, share space and collaborate with folks who hold different political views. We can disagree on politics,…

> We can disagree on politics

The problem here is that treating politics as 'just politics' is the realm of people privileged enough that they have never directly suffered because of those politics.

Transgender rights, for example, are never 'just politics' for me: they are a basic moral issue that deeply affects the life of one of my close friends.

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