US Politics, June 2018: This is a total goat rodeo.

there's always more bigots in the heartland, my guy

^^^

Yeah, you think the bigots will die out but hello, there is a bumper crop every year.

I also just want to move to GA. Bigots and zombies be damned.

xpost to myself Strangely, to me at least, my wife's cousin didn't seem particularly distressed, which must be a family trait, because all of the Omaha family have been died in the wool liberals who just step up and do their thing. One of my wife's grandmothers broke from her Methodist church after some 50 years when they didn't support gay marriage. The other grandmother would, or so I was told, stand on coffee tables and decry Nixon and the Vietnam war. Those people are heroes to me, and they never leave Nebraska. With the exception of my wife's gay (and married) cousin who left Nebraska for Kansas.

and in Trump districts you'll often meet people, often under 40, with, for example, gay best buds or gay relatives whose husbands/wives/lovers they accept. Then they go on Facebook.

why I would even bet that some of their best friends are black

One of the good ones!

Americans who live in single-family homes are always going to be a problem, is basically my heuristic. They are the worst demographic at every scale.

I'm pretty sure it's a causal relationship.

I'm in a single family home. My neighbors, on my block, are black, Irish, gay, special needs, Italian, Indian, old white folks, Latino, kids, no kids, divorced, mixed families. Assholes are assholes, especially if they're surrounded b other likeminded assholes, with no contrast to reveal to them that they are assholes.

I mean in aggregate, yknow?

Oh, and my immediate neighbor, who is of Mexican descent and is married to a German, whose kids still, in this progressive paradise, get shit at school for being darker skinned.

Since moving into a single-fam home for 1st time as an adult I have caught myself having a few "the outside world is scary, my castle and kin needs to be protected at all costs" type thoughts so I get where you're coming from silby and yeah I think on aggregate there's something to it...but Josh also right that assholes are assholes and I gotta think the main factors are education/intelligence, parents as role models/morality teachers, direct experiences with wide variety of people, a strong and frequently-exercised empathy muscle, etc.

^^^People, a lot of white people, are fucking terrified of everything/willing to stab their mother to maintain what they think is godsent. Callback to that The Root article "white people are cowards."

But also about Europe. Most of it better than the US. FFS one can actually afford nice vegetables, bread and cheese here. Farmer's markets in the US are the most bougie. expensive shit.

xp to myself Those qualities are the commonalities I've noticed among non-assholes. However, if you go back a couplefew generations, pretty sure most had ancestors who lived in urban areas. Like my friends (and obv my family) had grandparents who were raised in urban areas in apartments, moved out to the burbs after WW2 to start their family, and instilled liberal mindsets in their kids, and on down the generations.

I gotta think the main factors are education/intelligence, parents as role models/morality teachers, direct experiences with wide variety of people, a strong and frequently-exercised empathy muscle, etc.

This is so right. Been thinking a lot about how parents, especially fathers, can shape this.

People, a lot of white people, are fucking terrified of everything/willing

Very small sample size and could be some data cherry-picking but I've noticed that people who have the typical "fear and loathing" conservative outlook are likewise scared to try new foods, go to unfamiliar places, deviate from routines, deviate from the crowd, and in an almost constant state of worry far out of proportion to any real threat.

Guess I'm echoing what those studies of conservative vs liberal brains have found huh. ie conservatives have larger amygdalas etc.

I guess my Boomer logic is that the fewer people voting who have direct memory of living a privileged, consequence-free lifestyle ignorant of its cost will be fewer, and thus the sense of entitlement (excuse me, "American freedom") will diminish a little.

yeah it's hard to argue with "fewer people ... will be fewer"

At this point I think the only thing that will dent Trump is if the economy seriously tanks - which of course it may well, what with trade wars and tax cuts that will mean there's no money in the coffers to deal with a downturn. But it's pretty depressing to think the only way out of this might be an economic crisis

Usually I'd say, "Fuck this guy," but Steve Schmidt is being unusually eloquent on Chris Hayes' show, and apparently he's going to help Democrats in the fall.

after watching woody harrelson as schmidt Game Change it's hard not to think of him as this charming, affable guy

^in^ Game Change

i'll say fuck that guy for you

deathbed conversions annoyed me even in Catholic school

If he contributes to the Democratic collections box, then he can expire in December 2018.

so weird to be wearing it in a place where she didn't see a single MAGA hat, let alone several, on any given day.

you know now that i think about it i'm not sure i've even seen a maga hat in person since even the election. nice!!

STFU Pelosi

https://www.salon.com/2018/06/25/nancy-pelosi-turns-on-maxine-waters-criticizes-her-unacceptable-anti-trump-rhetoric/

you don't have to agree with it, just don't make public statements against it.

well, remember how John McCain and John Boehner's condemnation of Joe Wilson in 2009 for shouting YOU LIE decisively swung the 2010 midterms in the Democrats' direction.

"I will love everyone, I will love the police as they kick the shit out of me on the street"

on in

don't even get me started on this pro-civility garbage

Lol right? Get mad about stuff that matters plz

I can't even parse that anymore

Er xp

ah ok thx

xxxxp but

Very small sample size and could be some data cherry-picking but I've noticed that people who have the typical "fear and loathing" conservative outlook are likewise scared to try new foods, go to unfamiliar places, deviate from routines, deviate from the crowd, and in an almost constant state of worry far out of proportion to any real threat.

Guess I'm echoing what those studies of conservative vs liberal brains have found huh. ie conservatives have larger amygdalas etc.

― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Tuesday, June 26, 2018 7:19 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

close but not quite; this is a fairly common result found on the Big Five/OCEAN model of personality, that openness to experience is positively associated with liberalism. (conscientiousness -- self-discipline, duty, order, etc. -- is positively associated with conservatism)

(incidentally, this is somewhat related to what Cambridge Analytica was doing with personality profiling

http://theconversation.com/how-cambridge-analyticas-facebook-targeting-model-really-worked-according-to-the-person-who-built-it-94078 )

Uh guys I think Ocasio-Cortez is gonna win the primary

She was outspent by the incumbent 10:1 so this is kind of a big deal

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/26/new-york-primary-election-results-2018-updates-677637

Yup

really????!!!! oh I hope so

Good for her

we're partying in the Dem strategy thread

Good morning!

fuckin lol

Wow! Big Trump Hater Congressman Joe Crowley, who many expected was going to take Nancy Pelosi’s place, just LOST his primary election. In other words, he’s out! That is a big one that nobody saw happening. Perhaps he should have been nicer, and more respectful, to his President!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 27, 2018

Uh, Ocasio-Cortez ain't exactly Roy Moore, dude. Don't know what your celebrating here.

Big Trump Hater loses to someone who doesn't like Trump at all. Win-win!

lol