Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A Worsening Culture War

taibbi.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 284 posts

Re: A Worsening Culture War

#101

Post by rmrk »

was making sense until the bs "both sides" conclusion: "We have two donor-fattened parties that across decades of incompetence have each run out of convincing pitches for how to improve the lives of ordinary people."

I find the ideas of fixing healthcare, reinvesting in our economy and infrastructure, and shoring up our social programs highly convincing. And I'm pretty sure the polls show those ideas resonate across the political spectrum. And I only hear those ideas coming from one party.

Re: A Worsening Culture War

#102

Post by matwood »

Loughla wrote: post #60
bluntfang wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No offense, but neither the 2 major parties in the US are left/workers rights. I don't see any candidate running on the "improve quality of life for wage earners" platform. for example Joe "nothing with fundamentally change" Biden...and well the last 4 years.

That's what people missed about Trump's supporters in 2016. People genuinely believed he was going to work for the common man. He talked about workers rights (in a xenophobic sort of way, but still) he talked about increasing pay for blue collar workers, and about restoring the lost legacy to places that have been abandoned by globalization. That never got talked about by Trump detractors. Union working class Joe-Sch…

Not sure why you're downvoted, because that sort of populism is exactly what Trump said and ran on. Like most things he said, it's also still 2 weeks away.

Re: A Worsening Culture War

#103

Post by lotsofpulp »

zo1 wrote: post #71
lotsofpulp wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t understand “red/blue” shit. For me, it’s “improving quality of life for wage earners and affirming civil liberties / vs not doing the aforementioned” shit. A cousin in my family has a very valid grievance against business owner uncles that support politicians who don’t want to provide meal breaks or bathroom breaks. This cousin has to work 12 to 14 hour shifts, and eat standing up while working and sneak in b…

So you picked your political allegiance based on the party that most aligns to the criteria that are important to you. That's far from universal and other people have different criteria that are important to them.

Yea, but the point is it’s not color A versus color B. It’s “I pick my political allegiance based on the party that will most likely help those at the bottom of the totem pole” versus “not doing that”.

All of my fellow republican business owners were bristling at the idea of Obama’s executive order increasing the minimum salary for exempt workers. This is because they would have had to pay their immigrant workers $44k per year for 60+ hour work weeks who they designated as “managers”, rather than $30k per year under current rules.

Again, I’m not saying Democrats are perfect, and they are far from it. But at least some Democrat states, and politicians are making an effort, whereas I can’t say the same about Repubs. Hence, it’s not just color A vs color B.

Re: A Worsening Culture War

#104

Post by enriquto »

stareatgoats wrote: post #84
enriquto wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Modern journalism and social networks in a nutshell. Wonder when the next big thing will be helping people to sort out their differences, instead of pitting folks against each other. Maybe the latter is what you do after you finished your beer and popcorn, but it wasn't quite clear in that case.

It's just my way of overturning insufferable arguments, there's not much depth to it.

Re: A Worsening Culture War

#105

Post by refurb »

Loughla wrote: post #72
refurb wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh please. You think it's the poor who is spending hours on Twitter arguing with each other? Or watching CNN for hours a day? They don't have the time nor is it of any consequence to their lives. They're too busy trying to pay this month's rent. It's all middle and upper-middle class Americans who have the luxury and time to spend time on social media (often at work).

I mean, even poor folks have smart phones with data plans now. You'd be surprised how full facebook is with Twitter screenshots and right-wing "news" orgs in the very poor, rural area that I live. So, no, it's not just middle- and upper-middle class Americans on social media.

No doubt the cleaning lady I see in my building working 12 hour days trying to house and feed her two kids is prioritizing getting her political thoughts out on Twitter.

Re: A Worsening Culture War

#106

Post by kodah »

djitz wrote: post #52

Some of the responses here are amazing examples of this very thing.

I was sitting here scrolling and my immediate thought was, "Did these people even read the article?" then it dawned on me how late stage this is. People can read an article that speaks clearly about the overarching problem and how it is fueled, but they miss everything that would make a connection to things they value or believe in.

Re: A Worsening Culture War

#108

Post by lukebitts »

javert wrote: post #79
tenebrisalietum wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's cruel about it?

It would be cruel if he blamed the Jews. It would be cruel if he blamed the blacks. It would be cruel if he blamed the poor. Somehow it's not cruel if he blames the rich?

This isn't a good argument. If there is blame to be assigned it is not unthinkable that some groups are not to blame and another is.

Re: A Worsening Culture War

#109

Post by lotsofpulp »

criddell wrote: post #65
lotsofpulp wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See the list of states with parental leave: https://www.patriotsoftware.com/blog/payroll/states-with-pai... Similarly, see the list of states (and cities) with half decent unemployment benefits, minimum wage laws, non tipped wages, sick leave, required meal breaks, non compete bans, Medicaid, marijuana legalization, etc. You will see a trend in which parties’ governance wage earners have these benefits (which are a p…

While being a very Republican state, Oklahoma has a pretty long history of some very progressive programs. For example, Oklahoma funds pre-K programs for children: https://hechingerreport.org/why-oklahomas-public-preschools-...

That’s great, but unfortunately, it’s an exception. Again, my comment wasn’t to imply that one party is perfect, but to show that the policies they push make a real difference in people’s lives, especially lower income earners.

Re: A Worsening Culture War

#110

Post by tomatotomato37 »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #25
PopeDotNinja wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it’s worth, I’m an American & American politics strains my American relationship with my American friends & family. Fuck this red/blue shit.

I don’t understand “red/blue” shit. For me, it’s “improving quality of life for wage earners and affirming civil liberties / vs not doing the aforementioned” shit. A cousin in my family has a very valid grievance against business owner uncles that support politicians who don’t want to provide meal breaks or bathroom breaks. This cousin has to work 12 to 14 hour shifts, and eat standing up while working and sneak in b…

That's a class thing, not a culture war thing, and I bet you'll find many the stereotypical redneck that would also be in support of better working laws, because the stereotypical redneck is also poor and working shit jobs. The thing is they also have strong opinions on guns or abortion or whatever else social issues and this all-or-nothing attitude in politics means they have to align themselves with whatever group they perceive will abuse them less
Post reply on HN