• @OpenStars
    link
    English
    -23 months ago

    Thank you for at least attempting to be polite. The other responses make me realize that Trump is going to win, when even this bastion of liberalism on Lemmy remains mired at the level of discourse that seems to me to be about kindergarten level.

    First, this article is EXTREMELY thin - it says nothing that I have not heard for literal decades - e.g. I liked this one (explaining, among other things, that e.g. a “2-party system” is nothing new in world history), and more recently this series, or for a more mathematical bent watch this one (but ngl, this related one may really fuck you up… seriously, you were warned).

    Second, the attitude of the Greek stoics is that we cannot control what lies outside our purview, but we MUST control what lies within that (if we claim to be responsible… and yet not a hypocrite). I did not think that I was making 10-D chess moves here to say that we might want to try acting like grown-ups. Like for one thing, there are ~80% of Americans that lie somewhere between the two extremes of far-left and far-right, but even if only 2% could be swayed to vote to R v. D, that actually might be enough to turn the rudder of this entire whole ship, b/c that’s just how plurality rules voting works (within the constraints of the electoral college).

    I guess democrats calling them a basket of deplorables and then calling them dumb racist white supremacists for two years straight was not really an insult.

    My absolute hero, Jon Stewart, once said: “liberal media aims to be correct, but conservative media aims to be effective”. I suppose it is too much to ask that we hold ourselves to a higher standard, in at least an attempt to be both?

    Or, you know, we could stick our fingers in our ears and cry “nah nah I can’t hear you”, attempting to gain solace in being “correct”, while downvoting and criticizing people (in this case, MataVatnik@lemmy.world) who even so much as dares to voice an opinion that the flavor of the month crowd decides is “bad”? Again: this is why Trump will win. B/c while conservatives may argue amongst themselves, at the end of the day they pull together and vote as a block, while liberals instead eat our own. Which convinces me that whatever may come from the next election, we fucking brought it upon ourselves, by refusing to live in reality, e.g. if we cannot even talk politely amongst ourselves here, then what hope is there for the wider election audience?:-(