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Defiant loyalists paid dearly for choosing wrong side in the American Revolution

smithsonianmag.com

161–170 of 207 posts

Re: Defiant loyalists paid dearly for choosing wrong side in the American Revolution

#161

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Yeah, no. The Overton window is so incredibly small in America that normal, run of the mill political positions - either left or right - in the rest of the world are deemed extremist and radical in America. Your Corporate media is the problem.

On the other hand, both American parties are radical compared to the rest of the world on human rights issues such as free speech

Really? Is your speech freer than mine in Canada? Are your human Rights protected better than mine? I wonder what the rioters in LA would have to say about that?

Re: Defiant loyalists paid dearly for choosing wrong side in the American Revolution

#162

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I think you are a couple decades behind the times. The current Republican party doesn't share those values any more. The current conservative movement is all in on monarchy, not what you are proposing. Look at Moldbug/Yarvin for their current philosophy.

>I think you are a couple decades behind the times. Not at all, stop getting political commentary from reddit comments. Bush, Romney, McCain were all in the past two decades. >The current conservative movement is all in on monarchy, not what you are proposing. Look at Moldbug/Yarvin for their current philosophy. The current Republican party's platform follows classical liberalism: "Classical liberalism is a political…

You may not know this, but Bush, Romney, and McCain are no longer welcome in the current Republican party.

Re: Defiant loyalists paid dearly for choosing wrong side in the American Revolution

#163
post #65
post #35

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Well the point of wearing a mask is mostly to protect vulnerable people, and to slow the spread of a disease. These protests are also about protecting vulnerable people. And, I would argue, to slow the spread of a disease.

Lest we all forget, the messaging coming out the the White House at the beginning was "masks are ineffective"

I've said this before but I'll bring it up again - people get tripped up about Covid because they don't understand it was truly novel. We have never, ever had a situation like Covid and honestly we probably won't in our lifetimes.

Our common knowledge about how things should go or what recommendations are correct just does not apply. Nobody knew anything about anything. We had to figure everything out on the fly.

The result is that yes, we were often wrong and our guidelines were a moving target. This isn't like Polio or Measles - public health threats we understand. But, just because we changed our minds or were wrong doesn't mean anybody was lying. It means that we made mistakes.

And, doing super low-risk things like masking, even if we're not 100% sure it works, makes a lot of sense. Nobody dies from wearing a mask. So even if we think there's a chance it could save some lives, it makes absolute sense to recommend it. I mean, it's not surgery or medication.

Re: Defiant loyalists paid dearly for choosing wrong side in the American Revolution

#164
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, no. The Overton window is so incredibly small in America that normal, run of the mill political positions - either left or right - in the rest of the world are deemed extremist and radical in America. Your Corporate media is the problem.

Things have been far more polarised since the rise of social media. You can blame fox news and cnn or whatever all you want, but given how far the US is from the days of Clinton, Reagan, Nixon, Kennedy etc I don't see how you can simply blame "corporate media".

The problem is not the people taking advantage of a vulnerability, but the vulnerability itself. That such a significant portion of the US population is so gullible and so ready to believe misinformation that aligns with their desires is the real issue.

Re: Defiant loyalists paid dearly for choosing wrong side in the American Revolution

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually there's a massive difference between Democrats and Republicans in the US, and that difference matters a lot

Is there? They seem only distinguishable aesthetically to me. They’re much closer to each other than UK’s Tories and Labour, for sure.

They're much, MUCH further apart than any two UK parties, or any two parties from any other English speaking country.

Re: Defiant loyalists paid dearly for choosing wrong side in the American Revolution

#166
post #28

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I don't know what happened to our values Concentration of media has allowed conservative think tanks to shape people's values. Ten years ago [0], this meant all conservatives were getting marching orders from Fox News. Today, there is the illusion of choice among conservative media outlets (Fox News, X, Newsmax, etc.), but they all send the same message. Even traditionally more moderate outlets, like the WSJ, are bei…

And where do liberals get their marching orders? Or did this effect not happen there?

There's a reason "Dems in disarray" is a meme. It's very much based on reality.

Re: Defiant loyalists paid dearly for choosing wrong side in the American Revolution

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, both American parties are radical compared to the rest of the world on human rights issues such as free speech

Really? Is your speech freer than mine in Canada? Are your human Rights protected better than mine? I wonder what the rioters in LA would have to say about that?

The US is notably "freer" for some types of speech. Quite a few countries ban Nazi flags, hate speech, etc. to some extent. The EU bans direct-to-consumer marketing of prescription drugs. The UK banned political parties from advertising on TV in 1955.

In my opinion, doing so to some extent is important to preserve the rights of other parts of society, but that's not a universally held opinion by any means.

Re: Defiant loyalists paid dearly for choosing wrong side in the American Revolution

#168

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Democratic voters want those things. It's not at all obvious the party establishment does. The tell is that when Republicans push through their policies, Democratic opposition is weak and ineffectual. Instead of ferocious opposition the Dems send one of their famous sternly worded letters. Since at least 2000 the party establishment has absolutely refused to do any of the things it could do to change this - including…

In my experience this is dead on. People have short attention spans but this has been happning the whole 21st century. In 2008 Obama won the primary despite the best efforts of leadership to nominate clinton. They even scrambled the "super delegates" (delegates who vote for the candidate chosen by senior leadership) hoping that even if Obama won more delegates, they could override the voters choice. Of course, they f…

> I'm pretty sure people like Chuck Schumer and other centrists view the LGBTQ community as a liability.

Why do you think he / “other centrists” hold that view?

Re: Defiant loyalists paid dearly for choosing wrong side in the American Revolution

#169
post #9
post #2

[flagged]

When Americans were “resisting authority” by not wearing masks and keeping their businesses opened despite lockdown orders did you feel the same pride in anti-authority behavior then? One person’s freedom fighter is another person’s terrorist. Always has been and always will be that way. The winning side when there is one usually gets to write the history of who was what. Do you still feel pride in American anti-auth…

Would the other colonies get responsible government if the British hadn't learned their lesson in the Thirteen Colonies?

Re: Defiant loyalists paid dearly for choosing wrong side in the American Revolution

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You replied to "it doesn't count as anti-authoritarian if you don't get tear-gassed". I hope you are prepared for the follow up of "it doesn't count if it's not in the USA", and whatever form of special pleading to come after that.

Comment one: "It bothers me a great deal as an American to see this anti-authoritarian thread of American identity...." Comment two: "When Americans were “resisting authority” by not wearing masks... did you feel the same pride in anti-authority behavior then?" Comment three: "Anybody get tear-gassed for not wearing a mask?" Comment four: "Yes.... In Australia"

What are you trying to say? That it's not anti-authoritarian if you don't get tear-gassed?
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