Poll: People Like Amazon More Than Any Institution but the U.S. Military

Plus: Laws against teaching critical race theory are un-American, ditching tariffs could save lives, and more...

Amazon more popular than Facebook, Twitter, and many U.S. government institutions. A new survey from The Harris Poll and the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard showcases the extreme popularity of Amazon.

As politicians continue to trash talk the online retail giant and propose new laws to break it up in the name of populism, the survey throws another blow to the idea that this is more than a politics-driven crusade.

The new poll—conducted June 15 through 17 among 2,0006 registered U.S voters—found Amazon with a higher favorability rating than all but one of the 18 institutions that surveyors asked about.

Some 72 percent of survey respondents viewed Amazon favorably. This placed it second only to the U.S. military, which was viewed favorably by 78 percent of those polled, and slightly above police, which earned a 68 percent favorability rating.

Amazon also polled more favorably than the FBI (60 percent favorability), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (58 percent), the Supreme Court (57 percent), Facebook (51 percent), the Department of Justice (49 percent), Israel (47 percent), NATO (46 percent), Black Lives Matter (45 percent), the European Union (41 percent), and Twitter (37 percent).

At the bottom of the favorability rankings were Russia (21 percent favorability), antifa (20 percent), the Palestinian Authority (19 percent), China (18 percent), and Hamas (16 percent).

The poll also looked at the public perception of current U.S. political leaders, finding net favorable ratings of President Joe Biden and mixed reviews of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Biden's favorability rating stood at 54 percent, with 39 percent unfavorable.

Harris polled at 43 percent favorable and 43 percent unfavorable.

That makes Biden more popular—and Harris less popular—than former President Donald Trump (46 percent favorability) and Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders (45 percent favorability).

None of the other political figures asked about polled at higher than 40 percent favorability. Getting close were Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (38 percent), Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis (36 percent), Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (35 percent), New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer (34 percent), former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (33 percent), South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott (33 percent), and New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (31 percent).

At the lower end of the politician favorability rankings were former Attorney General William Barr (29 percent), West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (28 percent), Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley (22 percent), Arizona Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (22 percent), Russian leader Vladimir Putin (21 percent), Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar (21 percent), Michigan Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib (20 percent), current Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (18 percent), and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (16 percent).

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FREE MINDS 

Laws against teaching critical race theory are un-American, argue Kmele Foster, David French, Jason Stanley, and Thomas Chatterton Williams in The New York Times:

https://twitter.com/jasonintrator/status/1412126854052519946

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FREE MARKETS

How ditching tariffs and export restrictions could save lives:

Let medicine and medical goods flow across the world to reduce costs and save lives! https://t.co/6qKcO9HXvr

— Jared Polis (@jaredpolis) July 6, 2021

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QUICK HITS

Julian Assange turns 50 in prison today. His "crime" is publishing journalism that exposed US war crimes in Iraq.

Meanwhile George Bush is free, Cheney is free, Condi Rice is free, Colin Powell is free & the guy who lead the Democrat push for the war is president. What a world

— Abby Martin (@AbbyMartin) July 3, 2021

• Cathy Reisenwitz on "How Exodus Cry reinvented the white slavery moral panic for a modern age."

• A vulgar vanity plate showdown in Maine.

• Embryo lawyers nixed: An Alabama law that would've granted lawyers to embryos in cases of minors seeking abortions has been ruled unconstitutional by a federal appeals court.

• "Politics is becoming religion in our country," Utah's Republican Gov. Spencer Cox complained Sunday on "Face the Nation" in a discussion of Utah vaccination rates. "Politics is becoming sport and entertainment in our country. That everything is political. It is a huge mistake, and it's caused us to make bad decisions during this pandemic and in other phases of our life as well. It is deeply troubling."

• Data from Johns Hopkins University shows the disparity in COVID-19 cases between states with low and high vaccination rates. "As of Sunday, states with lower rates of vaccination reported an average of 6 new cases per 100,000 residents every day over the past week," notes CNN. "States with higher vaccination rates reported an average of 2.2 new cases per 100,000 residents each day over the past week."

• COVID-19 has dropped from the number one cause of death in the U.S. in January to the 7th leading cause of death in June.

• The Wall Street Journal condemns "Lina Khan's power grab" at the Federal Trade Commission.

• Jeff Bezos is stepping down as CEO of Amazon.

• Why are Chinese millennials "lying flat"?

• Around a dozen Rise of the Moors militia members got in a standoff with police in Massachusetts over the weekend.

• The Advanced Research Projects Agency proposed by Joe Biden is drawing criticism. "The way Biden would make 'ARPA-H' and its $6.5 billion budget part of the sprawling National Institutes of Health is raising concern within the research community and in Congress about whether it will bring a new approach to old problems or become a duplicative bureaucracy with a lofty mandate," according to Politico.

• On Monday, Maryland's highest court "denied Gov. Larry Hogan's request to block a lower court's order that temporarily prevents the state from cutting off enhanced federal unemployment benefits for workers who lost jobs during the pandemic," reports The Washington Post. 

• Who will control the Senate after the 2022 elections? "The fight for control of the evenly divided Senate will be the most dramatic showdown of 2022," suggests CNN, reporting that the states with seats most likely to flip include Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

• BoltBus is indefinitely suspending service.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Amazon more popular than Facebook, Twitter, and many U.S. government institutions.

At least there's a clear mechanism for redress of grievances.

[Mike Laursen]

Account & Lists > Your Orders > Cancel this delivery

Try doing that with your IRS audit letter.

[Ruby Wallace]

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[Carrie J. Kawakami]

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[Ben of Houston]

And Amazon's motivations are clear and concise. Amazon wants your money. They will do what they can to convince you to give them your money, mostly by providing quick and easy services at competitive prices.

To compare, media companies (traditional and social) seem like they are trying to manipulate the minds of people. Of course they are going to be less favorable.

[Mike Laursen]

Traditional media companies these days are catering to people who already belong to a left or right political camp, telling them what they want to hear.

Social media companies are trying to sell ads. It's almost all user-provided content, so it ranges from cat videos to selfies to celebrity news to (relatively little) politics.

[Don't look at me!]

A report from captain obvious.

[R Mac]

Aka squawking from the bird.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...Harris less popular—than former President Donald Trump (46 percent favorability) and Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders (45 percent favorability).

He's running.

[Don't look at me!]

Less popular than the most hated man in politics.

[mad.casual]

You know who else was more popular than Harris?

[Chumby]

OJ Simpson at a #metoo convention?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Laws against teaching critical race theory are un-American...

Teach woke, go to the poke.

[Spiritus Mundi]

Teaching jews whites are responsible for all the worlds ills isn't exactly American.

[Jerry B.]

Wonder if teaching that Blacks are inferior and should be slaves would also be legal?

[Kungpowderfinger]

Laws against teaching critical race theory are un-American, argue Kmele Foster, David French… in The New York Times

“All the news that fits the narrative”

[JohannesDinkle]

Unlike issues of free speech, teachers in public schools where these laws apply, are actually paid for their speech. What they teach is a product they are selling, so the buyer can certainly say it is not being paid for because it is unwanted.
Any teacher can say whatever they want about CRT outside their paid job, although I am not sure how this matches up with firing police for racist statements outside their jobs.

[criticaljeff racial theorist]

They can GFTs.

The list of stuff that cant be taught is long and illustrious, and nothing deserves to be on it more than CRT

[Unable2Reason]

So no local control of what's taught in schools? When did this happen?

[Mickey Rat]

The New York Times is against laws the man the teaching of the 1619 Project as good history (as it is historically inaccurate). Gee, I wonder if the NYT might not have a disinterested opinion on this matter?

[Fist of Etiquette]

How ditching tariffs and export restrictions could save lives...

There are no nationalists in triage?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Meanwhile George Bush is free, Cheney is free, Condi Rice is free, Colin Powell is free & the guy who lead the Democrat push for the war is president.

America has spoken.

[OpenBordersLiberal-tarian]

Indeed, Biden's election — backed by patriots like David Frum and Bill Kristol — hopefully represents the return of the neocons to a leading role in American foreign policy.

#LibertariansForEmbracingNeocons
#(AtLeastTheyreProImmigration)

[Spiritus Mundi]

At least Rumsfeld is dead.

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

But he'll probably get a bust in the Capitol to replace a Confederate.

[Hank Ferrous]

I think it's more likely Saint George Floyd of Fentanyl, Partner Abuse, and Child Neglect will get a marble likeness. He already got busted. Rimshot...

[JesseAz]

We must lock up political opponents in the name of political equity.

Why is Obama curiously absent from that list?

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

Obama was not even a US Senator at the time of the Iraq invasion, so I think it is fair to leave him off. Otherwise, Trump would make the list of Obama's blunders that he inherited.

[JesseAz]

He had illegal drone strikes and 2 questionable forays into syria and Libya.

Whether you agree or not, Iraq was voted on and authorized by Congress, meaning it wasn't an illegal war.

The house only voted to repeal it a few weeks ago.

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

Oh I agree plenty to hate on Obama wars. But the tweet was specifically about Iraq. That was the focus as I read it.

[JesseAz]

Seems to be a weird focus. Wiki leaks did far more than just Iraq war leaks.

[OpenBordersLiberal-tarian]

"At the bottom of the favorability rankings were Russia (21 percent favorability), antifa (20 percent), the Palestinian Authority (19 percent), China (18 percent), and Hamas (16 percent)."

WTF?! Antifa literally means "anti-fascist"! Therefore if you oppose Antifa, you're pro-fascism.

Yeah, these numbers cannot be right. I refuse to believe so many Americans have been fooled by the right-wing infiltrators who smashed windows, looted, and burned things at otherwise peaceful progressive demonstrations.

#LibertariansForAntifa

PS — China lower than Russia also doesn't make sense. I mean, Russia hacked our 2016 election and installed a 3 decade Russian intelligence asset as President. I challenge anybody to name anything China has done that comes close.

#LibertariansAgainstSinophobia

[perlhaqr]

Given that the definition of "fascism" used by the founders of Antifa was "anything that's not Stalinist communism", then yes, according to them, I am definitively a fascist. And I'm ok with that.

[Nardz]

Golf clap

[TangoDelta]

Antifa has always been just a bunch of thugs who are willing to stomp out anyone they think might disagree with them. The modern group isn't much different from the original communists who decried capitalism as fascism and tried to silence any who opposed them regardless of the opposition not actually being fascists.

China has not so secretly transitioned from communism to fascism but still tries to fool people by calling itself communist, if you're for China you're pro-fascism.

China is also far more xenophobic and racist that Trump ever was. Then there's the whole Pooh bear thing.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A vulgar vanity plate showdown in Maine.

Imagine the poor inmate who had to stamp TITSOUT on that plate.

[Anomalous]

I like her "Condoms Prevent Minivans" sticker.

[The Encogitationer]

The sticker is not necessarily true. You could use the condom in the minivan and just save all the minivan space for you and your partner.

[Chumby]

We are fairly libertarian regarding our vanity plates. There used to be an online vanity plate check; it may still be available. The censor let a lot surprising requests through.

[De Oppresso Liber]

Two things that the prisoner can never have.

[Brian]

Excuse me, but your assumption that prisoners can’t have tits is completely problematic. Do better, De Oppresso Liber.

[Don't look at me!]

They usually have them drawn on their back.

[TangoDelta]

Imagine the inmates who make New Hampshire plates. Every single one says "Live Free or Die".

[JimboJr]

https://nationalfile.com/exclusive-new-hampshire-school-board-official-slams-anti-white-crt-propaganda-says-fk-you-in-stinging-resignation-letter/

EXCLUSIVE: New Hampshire School District Official Slams Anti-White CRT Propaganda, Says ‘F**k You’ In Stinging Resignation Letter

The training, as detailed by Concannon in a HR complaint, repeatedly referred to the problem of “white privilege” and the term “whiteness” around 18 times, claimed that children not being able to pronounce names of foreign students at first try is racist, and included openly political editorials and essays arguing that meritocracy is a myth and all white people are oppressors. Although clearly mandatory at first, with deadlines included to complete the training, it was retroactively determined to not be mandatory following Concannon’s initial complaint, and backlash in the media.

How many more examples do we need, local lefties?

[JimboJr]

The report notes Manchester’s CRT training included:

Declaring all White employees “personally privileged” — even those who came from poverty or disadvantaged situations — is likely to be viewed as problematic, as is linking every person’s “whiteness” to “white supremacy.” But it is part of the “anti-racism” ideology the webinar instructors say they are promoting …

Additional MSD training materials include a paper from a Wellesley professor who declares that all men and all White women are “oppressors” and that meritocracy — the idea that you have a job or accomplishments you’ve earned through work or talent — is a “myth.”

[JesseAz]

Its just teaching history!!!

[JimboJr]

One of the most dangerous things they are doing to these kids is the meritocracy angle.

I get why they are doing it - they want whites and everyone else to know that, those whites didn't really earn it, they cheated, they took it from POC's.

But its just such a terrible message. Fuck meritocracy, fuck working hard and proving yourself, because you are oppressed and whitey will just be ahead of you anyways. The only way forward is for whitey to give back what they stole.

Meritocracy is why immigrants that come here seem to always crush it. They are hungry, hardworking, have good work ethic. They start behind and often end up as entrepreneurs. They are teaching kids the exact opposite. Despicable

[JesseAz]

The heart of post modernism is that nobody is accountable for their own personal failures. And it is up to the state to make sure any societal wrongs that caused said failures are fixed by state benevolence.

[De Oppresso Liber]

I agree with your take here. Although I would say the heart of post modernism is the lack of objective truth, and everything else you cited proceeds from that.

Can you think of any other group, perhaps to the right, that also engages in "my truth is just as valid as actual evidence-based truth" thinking?

Bar article, but had a few noteworthy quotes:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/05/politics/trump-disinformation-strategy/index.html

Trump has spent a lifetime -- in business and politics -- repeating exaggerations, half-truths and outright lies to make himself look good.
The books he wrote prior to politics are littered with quotes extolling the virtues of making up a reality and then repeating it until people start to believe it.

"I play to people's fantasies," he wrote in "The Art of the Deal." "People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular. I call it truthful hyperbole."
"If you admit defeat, then you will be defeated," Trump wrote in "Think Big."

Once he came into the presidency, Trump, unsurprisingly, kept it up.
"Don't believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news," Trump told a VFW group in 2018. "What you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening."

Unfortunately, Trump's blueprint works.
Take the 2020 election. Despite zero evidence of any sort of widespread election fraud, a majority (53%) of Republicans said in a Reuters/Ipsos national poll in late May that President Joe Biden's victory was "the result of illegal voting or election rigging." More than 6 in 10 Republicans (61%) agreed with the statement that the election "was stolen from Donald Trump."

[JesseAz]

You were doing well for once before you let your anti trump screed take over that has very little to do with lost modernism or cultural marxism.

This is why it is useless engaging with you.

Your primary focus is being anti trump.

[Don't look at me!]

I stopped reading it halfway through.

[JimboJr]

My reply was going to be what if I care about the CRT bullshit, have an agnostic to slightly negative view of Trumps shenanigans (which is true), and dont care to spend the rest of my life analyzing everything with Trump-whataboutism?

These people are so hurt by Trump, it is at the heart of so many of them being unable to see any issues with clarity. For them it comes down to: "R's liked Trump, I hate Trump, so there is no possible way I can ever side with an R ever again, because of the Trump cooties." Liberty be damned.

[De Oppresso Liber]

Trump is still the primary focus of the GOP, and quite often yours as well.

[R Mac]

But not the primary focus of CRT, which is the discussion at hand.

[Mother's Lament]

He knows, which is why he was trying to derail the conversation.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

"If you don't have digitally-certified pdfs of notarized powerpoint training slides, this is just right-wing culture war propaganda!"--chemtard radical deathfat

[JesseAz]

The thing is jeff has been linked those multiple times and he still denies it.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

You'd think someone who moved goalposts around as frequently as he did wouldn't be such a fat fuck.

[R Mac]

Lol!

[JohannesDinkle]

Almost no American of any race pronounces Schwarzenegger's name correctly and he is white. Most Japanese names are mispronounced as well. Don't get me started on French names...

[JimboJr]

My last name is frequently mispronounced, by all races including white people. If anything I have only ever been irritated about the spelling chosen when family came off the boat (it was clearly changed from the original) but like 90% or people mess it up.

Never once have I had a "how DARE they mispronounce my name". Its such an entitled attitude. Some names are hard, and of course one mostly found in another country that is a tiny majority of the population here is more likely to be mispronounced. It is such an obvious thing that would happen, but of course it has to be racism.

Do our kids need to be familiar with every kind of last name on the globe or otherwise its white supremacy? Do we expect that of say Asian children, African children, kids from the middle east?

That warm cozy blanket of victimhood must be pretty soothing. Imagine being able to attribute everything to racism and white supremacy, everything an offense, never having to take personal responsibility or criticism.

[Hank Ferrous]

Agreed. This take is fragile, immature and self-important people railing about entitlement and privilege from their positions of entitlement and privilege.

[Ben of Houston]

Don't forget names that have different pronunciations.

When you say "Total" do you mean the cereal or the French oil company? One has a short A, the other long, and you can't tell them apart when written.

[Fats of Fury]

Think of the Slavs. 2 letters and barely a consonant, Coach Mike Krzyzewski a prime example.

[Mike Laursen]

Personally, I think this is what kids in our public schools should be learning about white people:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089277/

[Spiritus Mundi]

Should of filed an EEO complaint and sued for millions.

[JimboJr]

This is what has to happen. People being forced to sit through blatant racist training, violating the civil rights act, need to sue. It needs to be known, if you are a law breaking racist, you will pay.

[JesseAz]

Biden corrupted the EEOC more than usual. Some are arguing his moves are actually illegal, but trying to force resignations and threats to fire those who won't resign prior to their term ending.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/biden-moves-to-fire-eeoc-top-lawyer-who-wouldn-t-resign/ar-BB1ei3MD

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

EEO complaints don't apply for white people.

[Mike Laursen]

What local lefties? The only commenter defending CRT is chemjeff, and he is a libertarian. He isn't even promoting CRT; he's just speaking out against the right-wing freak-out over CRT.

[JesseAz]

Jeff is just fag enough to fuck you.

[JesseAz]

Meant to say fat... but typo is acceptable.

[De Oppresso Liber]

Your typo produced the type of insult that gets better the more the recipient tries to makes sense of it.

[Mike Laursen]

I unmuted JesseAz to see his typo. Sigh, wasn't worth my time.

[JesseAz]

People who brag daily about their mute lists are generally terrible people with nothing of relevance to say.

[De Oppresso Liber]

My bad.

[Mother's Lament]

"i mUted yoU, pleASe PaY aTtenTi0n To mE!"

[Ignore me!]

I think you're actually serious, which is truly astounding.

[Mike Laursen]

Yup, serious. Who here has given any reason to believe they are a “lefty” promoting CRT?

[Mother's Lament]

Pretty much all of us. You're well established as a fifty-center and aren't fooling anyone.

[Mother's Lament]

"chemjeff... is a libertarian"

Lol, as libertarian as Trotsky, Mussolini or Pol Pot. Who do you think you're fooling White Mike?

If any of you wonder why our paid leftist commenters like chemjeff, White Mike and SPBP2 (+socks) sound like they're reading from the same talking points pdf, that's because they are:
https://legalinsurrection.com/2021/07/union-linked-coalition-scripts-messaging-to-counter-parental-pushback-against-critical-race-theory/

[chemjeff radical individualist]

You got it. But like most things around here, a person must either be complicit with the lies told about the out-group, or be a member of the out-group itself. There is no third option.

[MP]

The laws differ in some respects but generally agree on blocking any teaching that would lead students to feel “discomfort, guilt or anguish” because of one’s race or ancestry, as well as restricting teaching that subsequent generations have any kind of historical responsibility for actions of previous generations.

That's just bullshit. I really expected more from those who co-signed this essay (except for French). Some of the state laws are more poorly worded than others. But some are well done. And as usual with the attacks on these laws, they're not directly confronting (i.e. Steel Manning) the ideology that these laws are looking to shut down.

[Fist of Etiquette]

An Alabama law that would've granted lawyers to embryos in cases of minors seeking abortions has been ruled unconstitutional by a federal appeals court.

Courts refusing to throw work to attorneys? What is this world coming to.

[Don't look at me!]

Clumps of cells don’t pay the bills.

[TangoDelta]

Is it the occupational licensing or labor laws with age minimums?

[JimboJr]

https://nypost.com/2021/07/04/nytimes-claims-american-flag-alienating-to-some-on-july-4/

The Times article — with the online headline “A Fourth of July Symbol of Unity That May No Longer Unite” — suggests that Trump supporters have embraced the flag “so fervently” that liberals have “all but ceded the national emblem to the right.”

[JimboJr]

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psychology-yesterday/202007/is-the-american-flag-symbol-racism

Is the American Flag a Symbol of Racism?
The flag can be seen as representative of white (and male) power.

Completely predictable. New national independence day, new flag, new anthem. Anyone who celebrates "old america" is a racist.

How long before the BLM fist / communist salute is put forward as a candidate to replace the flag? I bet by years end.

[Earth Skeptic]

Time to get out my "Come and Take It" flag.

[Earth Skeptic]

But this is perfectly logical in the continued pursuit of victim as virtue. Since every bit of sadness is someone else's fault, and since "silence is violence", the spineless coddled generation (and their conniving manipulators), must discover an unending series of oppressive actors. Whether or not the rest of us accept the projected guilt is up to us.

[Claptrap]

Call me crazy, but the clenched black fist on a rainbow field isn't a bad concept in a vacuum.

It would be cool to incorporate some of Angola or Mozambique's motifs, but I bet they'd be off-put by such violent imagery.

[Mike Laursen]

The flag and Independence Day are not going anywhere. Wouldn't life be more enjoyable without freaking out over every fringe opinion?

[JesseAz]

Remember how you just said nobody was defending Crt. Yet here you call it a fringe opinion as it pervades k-12.

[De Oppresso Liber]

If you actually read the article linked, the author basically has no opinion, and comes to no conclusion.

It is click bait/rage porn. And you all fell for it. Again.

[Ignore me!]

This is how it starts with the left: wondering out loud, just getting the idea out there so the extremists can begin pushing in that direction. You, ChemJeff, Laursen, and others here doing your usual "Why do you insist there's anything to see here?" routine is a pretty clear tell that you have a stake in these issues, even if you're too dishonest to admit it, and there very much is something to see.

[JesseAz]

Dol is of the impression that CRT is a new idea and hasn't been discussed here for weeks.

It is a weird stance to take.

White Mike and Jeff have been open in their defense of CRT and have pushed gaslighting to new extremes with their defense.

The entire "it is just teaching history " is ad much gaslighting as white mikes fore extinguisher gaslighting.

[De Oppresso Liber]

I was forced to listen to CRT bullshit back in 2013 when I returned to university as a mid career adult. I'm probably much more aware of it than most of you. Hence, this is not new, and you fell for rage porn (again).

[R Mac]

So do you think it should be taught as fact to elementary students?

[De Oppresso Liber]

No.

[Mike Laursen]

“is a pretty clear tell that you have a stake in these issues, even if you’re too dishonest to admit it”

Whatever. It’s a pretty clear sign resistant to getting swept up in the panic of the day.

[R Mac]

Constantly arguing on its behalf means you’re as swept up in it as those you’re arguing against.

[Ben of Houston]

Unlikely. A lot of mainstream blacks are getting turned off by the more extreme anti-American slant. Same with a lot of Indians. Their grandparents who fought in World War 2 and were celebrated as heroes are now being slandered essentially as race-traitors.

It's quiet now, but it's going to push forward. Much of black America is fundamentally conservative on most issues, and this radical push is alienating more and more of them.

[JesseAz]

There was a poll put this weekend showing the group most concerned with CRT and pushing it the hardest was white liberals.

[perlhaqr]

I'm clearly a bad person for having done the Shiprock half marathon just to get to shake the hand of one of the Code Talkers. Supporting the hegemony of oppression or something.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

That's coupled with the WaPo culture editor whining about the Statue of Liberty.

Leftists were in high Flagellant mode this past Independence Day, while wondering without any sense of self-awareness how we got to a point where we're so politically divided.

[Claptrap]

It's the Republicans fault, duh.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Remember, if you push back against the leftist agenda with any kind of real energy, you're being "divisive."

[JesseAz]

A new study confirms what most sane people have recognized, that the left has engaged in far more dehumanizing behavior than the right.

Democrats expressed more dehumanization and antidemocratic spite toward Republicans than vice-versa. … This appears to clash with research suggesting that liberals are more open, tolerant, and less biased toward outgroup members,

This is shown in many of the actions of the media as well as the seemingly blind support for assaults against conservatives and the cheering of insurrection to justify 6 months of solitary confinement for protesting and trespassing on Jan 6th.

You see it often here with Jeff/white mike/sarcadmic where they decry any counter argument as being based on a tribe and the demonization of the left, ignoring their own behaviors and 2 years of yelling trump cultist against every argument that refuted their beliefs.

This counterintuitive finding may be explained if American political affiliation is based on a “moralized identification with one political group and against another,” more akin to tribal sectarianism than well-reasoned differences in ideological preference … Since denigrating competitive outgroups also bolsters one’s social identity for highly identified Democrats, expressions of their adherence to liberalism and dehumanization of Republicans may go hand in hand.

This weekend was full of examples where they acted the victim as they generally initiated the arguments of tribalism. They are self unaware. They continue to decry such things as Ken demonizing the left instead of recognizing his arguments as being one of comparing the behavior from the two groups.

Metadehumanization [is] the perception that another group dehumanizes your own group

Jeff especially is king of the above behavior, the only kingdom he will ever truly own.

https://spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/asap.12253

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

This appears to clash with research suggesting that liberals are more open, tolerant, and less biased toward outgroup members,

This has ALWAYS been a load of shit. Liberals are more tolerant and less biased towards outgroup members whose differences are physical or mental, not political. White liberals are the ONLY ethno-political group who actually hate their own race--every single other group, from black conservatives to liberal Hispanics to moderate Asians, etc., has some sort of in-group ethnic bias. Even today, conservatives are far more likely to remain in touch with liberal friends and relatives than vice versa.

The only reason that this is getting any sort of attention now is because conservatives are starting to tell their liberal friends and relatives to fuck off, too, and the liberals don't know how to handle that because they think it's THEIR prerogative to ostracize others.

[Earth Skeptic]

Best to understand the woke liberal of today as a coddled, 13 year old girl who hates her parents (and often herself), and goes all-in on emotional political engagements based on symbolic signaling without real understanding. Of course, she still demands a comfortable lifestyle.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

"FUCK YOU, DAAAAAAD!" has been the left's philosophical cornerstone for well over 50 years.

[JesseAz]

The studies showing the mental issue rates on liberals is very telling.

[ErictheRed]

^^^ RR nailed it.

[Claptrap]

You would think there might be some sort of opportunity for a moderate or centrist movement to arise in the midst of all this stupidity.

[Hank Ferrous]

I live in a liberal state, in a progressive area; as a center/center-right libertarian voter and issue dude, I am viewed as hard-line conservative. I doubt there will be any chance for traction as long as this is the case.

[De Oppresso Liber]

I actually participate in local politics. I haven't in a while, but I used to work on libertarian or libertarian-leaning campaigns, held a lowly position in the local GOP, etc.. I still attend city council meetings, town-halls and the like.

I moved to a city center in the last several years. We have had an explosion of homeless encampments, property crime, and murders this last year, much like most other cities. Homeless people have been stealing, starting fires, and even attacking people and not going to jail, due to covid jail closures.

When I bring up or comment on the lack of logic in allowing mentally ill and known violent criminals to camp outside of, say, a state-sponsored foster home for run away LGBTQ kids to the point that they have to close that foster home down because of the threats and violent incidents against these kids (whom the lefties proclaim to love and empathize with), I am met with silence. They will not respond to this specific incident because it pits two of their chosen beloved groups against each other.

But when I bring up homeless camps being allowed amongst family homes, with one such camp resulting in a vigilante murder against a thief who was camping outside their victim's house, I get called an empathically-challenged, unenlightened bully, basically.

Their internal logic is full of holes. Why are hobos now the penultimate in the oppression olympics?

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

I actually participate in local politics. I haven’t in a while, but I used to work on libertarian or libertarian-leaning campaigns, held a lowly position in the local GOP, etc.. I still attend city council meetings, town-halls and the like.

This is why I keep hammering on the fact that more conservatives and libertarians need to be doing this. Liberals tend to be such naturally political animals that they do this as a matter of course, and can influence public policy to a far greater extent. Conservatives and libertarians need to drop the "government automatically fucks everything up/I'm not corrupt enough to get involved" pretense, and start putting some skin in the game.

If they're mad because their local and state governments are full of corrupt, incompetent assholes, then they need to start showing some civic responsibility and get involved so that it becomes less so. Government is one monopoly the Left is desperate to not give up.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Their internal logic is full of holes. Why are hobos now the penultimate in the oppression olympics?

They're not, really--they're just a demographic bludgeon to use against what the left-liberal ruling class perceives to be the "hegemonic" evil of people not living in a communist utopia.

Their entire worldview rests on the assumption that any system that doesn't produce equal outcomes for everyone must be torn down. It's a fundamentally religious belief applied to a secular environment, resulting in a circular logic that's impenetrable to facts. That's a big reason, I think, why a lot of the non-left ultimately disengage or just throw up their hands and give in--because it's pointless to argue facts with a religious zealot for whom everything is proof of their worldview.

[De Oppresso Liber]

I see lots of conservatives commenting on local news stories and on nextdoor (horrible platform), but very few in local politics. Part of the problem is that the GOP here is a joke. They never get anyone elected and the national party must have given up here completely. So we have the D's with a monopoly on policy, and conservatives disengage.

If I was going to run for local office and actually wanted to win, I would run as a conservative-leaning dem and dress my policy goals in leftist language. There is simply no way for R's to make it here.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

They never get anyone elected and the national party must have given up here completely.

Not having lived there, I suspect the 2004 election was a watershed in WA politics--the "oh, we found more ballots in the janitor's closet" type of events that made the 2000 Presidential election and the 2008 MN Senator election that put Franken in office.

I know you don't agree with how the audit in AZ is being done, but ultimately its reindeer games like this which lead GOP voters to automatically assume something nefarious is going on when last-minute ballot dumps result in massive spikes in vote gains for the Dem 9 out of 10 times. So they either become completely demoralized and wither away, like in WA, or they get aggressive and seek to nerf the things they felt gave the Dems those advantages.

I'd be curious to see how many WA GOP voters have moved to Utah, Idaho, and Montana over the last 20 years.

[De Oppresso Liber]

Gore/Bush and Trump's EC victory kinda put a damper on the view that these close races always seem to go one way, to me at least.

I think the current batch of election pessimism is driven almost entirely by Trump and co., and I do not share it. Partly because no evidence for it exists, and partly because the only rational and honorable thing to do if you truly believe that elections are rigged is to revolt.

[JesseAz]

No wonder you do the same behavior here, calling anyone to the right if Portland a trump cultist. Lol.

[De Oppresso Liber]

Not quite. But my standards may be tainted by my environment, no doubt.

[De Oppresso Liber]

I tee'd up a taint joke there for anyone interested.

[R Mac]

Nobody’s interested in your taint you sociopath.

[perlhaqr]

Or Dee's taint, for that matter.

[De Oppresso Liber]

I know that is not true for a fact.

[Hank Ferrous]

I disagree. I have found liberals/progressives to talk about racial acceptance (not class, they hate the working class and the poor), but in practice they are bigots. Virtue signaling is their entire life, but it doesn't reflect the reality of their core behaviors.

[De Oppresso Liber]

They like to lecture others about not being racist while they live in the best (whitest) part of town, shop exclusively at whole foods and online, and work in an office or from home. In short, they never have to interact with very poor or average minority people. They have one rich kid from Ghana or something at their private school, and they love their (rich) family, so they are not racist. Why can't you just be like them?

[Claptrap]

I suspect this demographic is also leading the way on the white flight reboot. But they're totally not bigots or anything.

[De Oppresso Liber]

I think the rapid increase in housing prices is mostly driving that, but the increase in crime and riots (usually in 'diverse' neighborhoods) surely went into some of their calculus.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Even after 25 years of gentrification trends, the Denver area remains one of the most balkanized urban metros I've ever seen. Keep in mind, "gentrification" complaints mostly cropped up because a Hispanic neighborhood went from about 10% white to 15%-20% white, for example, or the east Denver area north of Park Avenue that started filling in with artists galleries and rich gay men, who saw a choice real estate opportunity near Lower Downtown without paying LoDo prices. It's not like these places have become anywhere near majority white, it's just because the local left-wing activist community thinks these places should be set in amber in the same demographic makeup as they were during the late 1960s-early 1970s, when busing was the debate topic of the time.

And yeah, these white liberals would NEVER send their kid to one of the shithole schools in DPS or Aurora Public Schools. If they happen to live in the city near City Park, for example, their kids go to a charter or private school, not Manual High.

[Ignore me!]

I discuss politics with progressive family members reluctantly, and usually only if they aggressively insist on talking politics and refuse to drop the subject, but then they act like I'm attacking them out of the blue when I'm just disagreeing with some point they've been hammering away at for the past hour. It gets old. I wish they'd ostracize me. Maybe they realize they'd turn on each other without an opposition?

[Nardz]

Fuck it.
Deal with them as the active enemy combatants they are.
Get kinetic, or get subjugated.

[De Oppresso Liber]

Are you taking your own advice?

"Get kinetic"

STFU, you cosplaying, soldier of fortune reading shut in.

That's another term, along with "send it", "pipe hitter", beards with tight haircuts and fashion kafiya that military wannabe dorks have exported to the broader useless millennial hipster demographic.

Lose it. It was not yours, never was, and it was an overused mark of a dork trying to establish their bona fides since 2010, at least.

[Uilleam]

There's a special place in Hell for pretend vets douchebag.

[De Oppresso Liber]

I've been vetted several times, fuck-o. Care to step up? I require a monetary bet. You set the figure.

[The Encogitationer]

Actually, any object not at Absolute Zero temperature is kinetic, so what ever does "kinetic" even mean?

Likewise, if dressing in drag in a burqua is necessary to infiltrating a terrorist cell, then technically, a burqua is also tactical wear.

[De Oppresso Liber]

It's dorky military slang to get into a gun fight.

[Fist of Etiquette]

"Politics is becoming sport and entertainment in our country. That everything is political. It is a huge mistake, and it's caused us to make bad decisions during this pandemic and in other phases of our life as well. It is deeply troubling."

I stopped listening to his words when I saw the R after his name.

[Bill Godshall]

The poll actually found that most Americans are idiots, as Amazon's growing monopoly has relied upon Communist China and its slave laborers to manufacture most of the stuff Amazon sells and delivers.

[Spiritus Mundi]

The legacy of slavery continues. Buy moar cheep shit!

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

So shop at Walmart - the largest retailer in world?

[mad.casual]

Is this really the case? My understanding is that Amazon's e-retail business is flagging; that Americans like their American-made self-surveilling doorbells delivered by Amazon logistics and their American-made self-surveilling personal home assistants to tune in to The Handmade's Tale, The Man In The High Castle, and The Boys on Amazon Prime for them. At this point, I don't think I know anyone who thinks Amazon retail products to be anything other than Chinese-made crap practically synonymously.

[JesseAz]

The lefts beliefs are once again exposed as the experiment of restorative justice continues to be an utter failure. San Franciscoeada the way with open shop lifting of even high end purses without fear of police recourse.

https://mobile.twitter.com/DionLimTV/status/1412270903312850945

[De Oppresso Liber]

Also see the Columbia sportswear flagship store leaving downtown Seattle after several decades, along with about 200 other storefronts. City council put out a press release saying that covid had caused Columbia to pull out. Columbia quickly clarified that it was because Seattle won't protect property.

I have noticed that almost every retail store I've been to in the last couple weeks has a police cruiser parked outside. And the only people still wearing masks at these stores are also wearing giant sunglasses, and look rather young and, ehh, demographically homogeneous. And not from the demographic that has been overly concerned with covid.

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/local-business/columbia-sportswear-is-the-latest-downtown-seattle-business-to-pull-out-amid-the-pandemic/

[perlhaqr]

So, big empty space to put homeless people in?

[De Oppresso Liber]

city hall sees this as an absolute win

[Bill Godshall]

After most retailers in SF (and other high crime Democrat cities) close their businesses (due to multiple thefts, failures to arrest and refusals to prosecute), the left wing BLM activists (who encouraged, emboldened and participated in last year's race riots) will accuse the business owners of being racist, and then demand that government bring in new businesses (by wasting even more taxpayer's dollars) to replace the businesses that disappeared.

In many Democrat cities during the past several decades, grocery chains (as well as independent grocers) have shut down many stores (mostly in poor black neighborhoods) due to increasing theft, which has prompted many Democrat politicians to complain that many inner city residents are forced to travel to other neighborhoods to shop for groceries.

But very few Democrat politicians (regardless of their race or ethnicity) have called for a crackdown on thieves, or for parents (i.e. fathers) to raise/teach their children to NOT steal.

[Fist of Etiquette]

States with higher vaccination rates reported an average of 2.2 new cases per 100,000 residents each day over the past week.

There is no inoculation against post hoc ergo propter hoc.

[mad.casual]

Sub-par Fist, everybody knows there's a vaccine against post hoc disease, but it only works after the onset of symptoms.

[Ben of Houston]

Come on. You know that doesn't apply when there is a known causal link to source or prevention. You can argue side effects. You can argue the need for it is inflated. However, trying to argue that there is no link between infection rates and vaccination is to argue that it does not work at all. That's patently absurd.

There is a difference between healthy skepticism and just denying everything. It's the difference between argument and contradiction.

[mad.casual]

Considering we've had the vaccine since January, a joke about the vaccine against cherrypicking might be in order. Additionally, since this whole thing started, there's been a consistent misportrayal of relative vs. absolute (220 people daily in a population of 10M vs. 6 in a population of 100K) numbers.

Fist is right, there is no inoculation against the cancer of lying with statistics.

[JesseAz]

Father of multi racial family publicly tells school board what the teachers are teaching their children, to hate their white mother.

https://mobile.twitter.com/ConceptualJames/status/1411882228423041024

States how racial tensions have never been as high since the push for CRT in schools.

[Fist of Etiquette]

COVID-19 has dropped from the number one cause of death in the U.S. in January to the 7th leading cause of death in June.

JESUSFUCKINGCHRIST THERE ARE SIX OTHER THINGS EVEN MORE DEADLY THAN COVID?

Mask up, assholes. I don't wanna die!

[Spiritus Mundi]

Jeffy hardest hit.

[Don't look at me!]

Masks prevent death of any kind. It’s a miracle cloth!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Jeff Bezos is stepping down as CEO of Amazon.

To take over Facebook, Twitter,[sic] and many U.S. government institutions?

[De Oppresso Liber]

To finally chase pussy like a real billionaire.

[rbike]

Can't reach orbit though.

[JesseAz]

Breakdown of unempyment rates by state... Can't put my finger on what the primary trend is...

https://wallethub.com/edu/states-unemployment-rates/74907

[Earth Skeptic]

Vermont #1? Did all the hippies and trust fund babies go home?

[Hank Ferrous]

You got trust fund correct. And, the dipshits who fled the urban areas in fear of the pandemic and appear to be staying.

[Bill Godshall]

The study found that 9 of the top 10 (and 16 of the top 20) best states are RED, while 9 of the 10 worst states are Blue.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Why are Chinese millennials "lying flat"?

Planking just made it through the Great Firewall.

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

Trading with China has exported our culture!

[Ben of Houston]

I don't think this is an export of hippie/slacker culture so much as a resurgence of daoism creating a similar but independent movement. There's no real media surge that would explain it coming from us, and the slacker movie has been out of fashion in America for over a decade now.

[JesseAz]

Two different counties have done a deep dive of their covid death numbers... they reduce deaths by 25%

Everyone panic.

https://pjmedia.com/uncategorized/stacey-lennox/2021/07/05/a-review-of-covid-19-deaths-in-two-california-counties-drops-the-total-by-nearly-25-n1459543

[Don't look at me!]

Local news.

[JesseAz]

It should be national news that every entity that has done a deep audit has reduced covid caused deaths by 20-30% and that mostly covers the obvious deaths like car accidents or cancer.

[R Mac]

Anyone who signed a death certificate with Covid for something like a car accident should be arrested for fraud.

[Claptrap]

Tracks well with what I've seen of "COVID Hospitalizations."

I would rip Fauci here for stating that we've been severely undercounting, but I'm sure he changes his line based on the audience.

[Jerryskids]

Amazon also polled more favorably than the FBI (60 percent favorability), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (58 percent), the Supreme Court (57 percent), Facebook (51 percent), the Department of Justice (49 percent), Israel (47 percent), NATO (46 percent), Black Lives Matter (45 percent), the European Union (41 percent), and Twitter (37 percent).

Where was this polling conducted, Ulan Bator? Because these people are either idiots or they know nothing about the United States.

[Bill Godshall]

Nobody should be surprised that black on black shootings and murders have skyrocketed in cities where BLM rioted all last summer (by falsely claiming George Floyd's death was racist).

But if 45% of Americans (virtually all of whom are Socialists or Democrats) have a favorable view of BLM, it appears that Biden voters enjoy higher murder and violent crime rates.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Around a dozen Rise of the Moors militia members got in a standoff with police in Massachusetts over the weekend.

Warn the militias in New England: three if by interstate.

[The Encogitationer]

No winners here: It's Massachusetts Jackbooted Thugs vs. the POC auxillary of the Sovereign Citizen Movement, whose apparent purpose in life is to make libertarianism look stupid.

[American Mongrel]

Black SovCit libertarian :'(
Them al moroccans are weirdos though.

[JesseAz]

And now a comment from the NEA...

The National Education Association, in coordination with national partners, NEA state and local affiliates, racial justice advocates, allies, and community activists, shall build powerful education communities and continue our work together to eradicate institutional racism in our public school system by:
Training specific school personnel to be full-time restorative practice coordinators and providing all school employees with professional development around cultural responsiveness, implicit bias, anti-racism, trauma-informed practices, restorative justice practices and other racial justice trainings
Training educators to lead on equity and racial justice, leveraging the Leaders for Just Schools curriculum and model

Its just about teaching history!!!!!

https://pjmedia.com/columns/stacey-lennox/2021/07/05/teachers-union-commits-to-shoving-critical-theories-down-the-throats-of-students-and-parents-nationwide-n1459480

[Unicorn Abattoir]

The resolution also committed the NEA to working with Black Lives Matter, and the Zinn Education Project. The NEA may be trying to tell us something about their political leanings. Like if they lean any more towards communism, they'll fall over.

[Earth Skeptic]

For the Young Pioneers, er, children! (either way, future comrades and informants)

[Bill Godshall]

If the NEA and Black Lives Matter truly desired to "eradicate institutional racism", they'd truthfully teach children that institutional racism was created, promoted and imposed upon blacks for the past 200 years by Democrats (i.e. promoted/defended slavery, destroyed Reconstruction in the South with Jim Crow segregation, created/mobilized the KKK to terrorize blacks, interred Japanese Americans during WWII, and advocated/enacted welfare state laws that destroyed most black families).

And if the NEA and Black Lives Matter truly desired to "eradicate institutional racism", they'd truthfully teach children that Republicans fought the Civil War to free ALL black slaves (who were owned by Democrats), advocated and implemented Reconstruction (until Democrats destroyed it), opposed the KKK, were instrumental in enacting Civil Rights Act in the 1960s (while most Democrats voted NO), and reduced black unemployment rates to historic lows (during the Trump administration).

Unfortunately, NEA and BLM are race baiting left wing Democrats who have falsely accused Republicans and whites for the inhumane and violent racist history of the Democrats.

[OpenBordersLiberal-tarian]

I knew the Biden Era would be awesome. I just didn’t know it would be THIS awesome.

The 10 richest Americans have gained a combined $191 billion this year.

This reinforces my point that these days the "Libertarian Party" is redundant. Libertarianism — especially the Koch / Reason variety — is fundamentally about making billionaires even richer, and the best way to accomplish that is to elect Democrats.

#InDefenseOfBillionaires

[Fist of Etiquette]

...about whether it will bring a new approach to old problems or become a duplicative bureaucracy with a lofty mandate," according to Politico.

Biden was remaking mistakes even before the dementia.

[JesseAz]

Laws against teaching critical race theory are un-American, argue Kmele Foster, David French, Jason Stanley, and Thomas Chatterton Williams in The New York Times

How far French has gone in his hatred.

The laws don't stop parents from teaching it, it stops schools from teaching kids to identify people by race as their primary view of said person. It stops the teaching of how to be a racist. These people are lying to themselves and others.

[R Mac]

Disappointed in Kmele.

[JesseAz]

Same. Guess he is tired of the uncle tom attacks from the left and demurred.

[Jerryskids]

Laws against teaching critical race theory are un-American, argue Kmele Foster, David French, Jason Stanley, and Thomas Chatterton Williams in The New York Times

Not as un-American as critical race theory, Kmele Foster, David French, Jason Stanley, Thomas Chatterton Williams and the New York Times, however.

[Earth Skeptic]

How anti-American do you have to be to count as un-American (or vice-versa)?

[Fist of Etiquette]

On Monday, Maryland's highest court "denied Gov. Larry Hogan's request to block a lower court's order that temporarily prevents the state from cutting off enhanced federal unemployment benefits for workers who lost jobs during the pandemic..."

Professional sentence parsers, get back to work?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Who will control the Senate after the 2022 elections?

First midterms of a new president? Yeah, I can't imagine how this will go.

[DRM]

Yeah, it's dramatic like watching paint dry. The Republicans will gain control, but not enough to be filibuster-proof. But I guess the Communist News Network has to cater to its audience of brain-damaged idiots.

[JesseAz]

Data from Johns Hopkins University shows the disparity in COVID-19 cases between states with low and high vaccination rates. "As of Sunday, states with lower rates of vaccination reported an average of 6 new cases per 100,000 residents every day over the past week," notes CNN. "States with higher vaccination rates reported an average of 2.2 new cases per 100,000 residents each day over the past week."

Still pushing infection rates instead of death rates?

[Don't look at me!]

The death rate is nearly zero.

[R Mac]

But but but…THE DELTA VARIANT!

[MT-Man]

Seems like a weird thing to put in round up, but not so much at CNN that .007% versus .002% is a big deal and news worthy.

[Jerryskids]

Eliminating tariffs and export restrictions on trade in medicines and other medical goods should be just the start in new WTO rulemaking on medical trade.

Thank God we have brave people willing to call on government rule-making bodies to make a rule that government rule-making bodies shouldn't make so many rules.

[Don't look at me!]

We need to makes rules about what the rule making committees to have to follow about what kinds of rules they can recommend to the rule makers.

[Jerryskids]

Around a dozen Rise of the Moors militia members got in a standoff with police in Massachusetts over the weekend.

So two heavily-armed gangs got into a stand-off and only the less-suspicious gang wound up getting arrested on suspicion of being suspicious?

[Ken Shultz]

The biggest news from last week, that most people seem to be ignoring, anyway, is probably the power grab by Lina Khan at the FTC.

1) Lisa Khan was made Chair of the FTC.

When the Senate confirmed her, they didn't know she would be the Chair. That information is usually shared with Senate before the confirmation hearing. It wasn't this time.

2) Lina Khan pushed through rules making it so the Chair of the FTC no longer needs to ask a judge in order to get a subpoena--and no longer needs to rely on a judge for findings of fact.

"One key change would eliminate the role of the FTC’s administrative law judge in presiding over rulemakings. Instead, the FTC’s chair or a person of her choosing can act as the presiding officer, overseeing public hearings and determining the factual record behind the rule."

----Politico

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/01/ftc-lina-khan-antitrust-chair-497764

3) They pushed through a change in focus saying that the FTC doesn't need to go after companies for just hurting consumers anymore.

"[The new rules are] emphasizing that the FTC has a mandate to protect “consumers, workers and honest business owners” and “to promote a fair and thriving economy that is representative of all Americans.”

Previous chairs and commissioners have defined the agency’s primary focus as promoting consumer welfare."

----Ibidem

This dovetails nicely with Lina Khan's published ideas about how the FTC should break companies up and regulate them for tolerating things like "misinformation" and hate speech. How dare you limit the FTC's antitrust authority to simple matters of protecting consumers from monopolies and collusion? We now have the authority to regulate the way companies act on issues like race disparity and women. In fact, why shouldn't the entire economy be reorganized on the basis of social justice considerations? What, are you a racist?!

Conclusion:

Those of you who imagined that antitrust was the solution to our problems with social media, I'm here to tell you, "It's a cookbook!".

Unaccountable elitist bureaucrats inflicting their solutions on the American public, with even less judicial oversight than they had before Khan was appointed, is not and can never be the solution to any of our problems. The gallows they were building with the wood some of us were carrying for them was not meant to hang social media. They're building that gallows so that they can hang us, capitalism, and our freedom of speech.

Have a nice day.

[ErictheRed]

Lisa Kahn = Wesley Mouch

[Ron]

So essentially she can now do what she wants to any company that she doesn't like. Hello Fascism

[Ken Shultz]

She even gets to make the rules!

And she's unaccountable.

The voters can't vote her out of office.

She can force us to do the things that the American people are too stupid to want. It's the progressive dream!

[JesseAz]

Wasn't their a recent ussc ruling regarding administrative law judges? I expect the judicial branch to continue to reign those in. But if the administrative judges are out, executive judicial guidance is way out.

[JesseAz]

Ironically...
Ending 230 would again put the questions of legal rulings for SV back under the purview of the judicial branch instead if a granted exception ill defined by congress that is open to interpretation by executive groups like the FTC

[Ken Shultz]

Your ideas about what repealing Section 230 would do sometimes seem to be a lot of wishful thinking.

No one--not even in the judiciary--is about to stand idly by while the trillion dollar social media industry is sued into oblivion by conservatives suing to express their racist, xenophobic, homophobic, and sexist views--in support of "misinformation", "hate speech", and "advocacy for violence" on somebody else's platform. And that's regardless of whether you think their speech should be protected!

Yes, opposition to reparations is racist in their minds, support for a border wall is xenophobic, opposition to rainbows on wedding cakes is homophobic, and opposition to abortion is sexist in their minds. Meanwhile, arguing for the national guard to put down a mostly peaceful protest with hundreds of burning buildings is both racist and advocating violence. And regardless of how you think the judiciary should interpret the law, they're not about to force social media to tolerate this--over the objections and boycotts of advertisers--on the platforms that they own.

If we had some kind of way to resist this in Congress, the White House, or at the FTC, that might be one thing. We don't. If, despite no reason to think the will, the other team decides to put the puck in their own goal instead of ours, we could still win this game. But there's no good reason to think they want to do that. And all five guys on our team--plus the goalie--are in the penalty box. We have no one on the ice. They have five players on the ice, we don't even have a goalie on the ice, and all they need to do is score on an empty goal.

The thing you want to happen by repealing Section 230 is something that can't happen unless the progressives suddenly decide to become conservatives because it's the right thing to do and they should do the right thing.

[JesseAz]

It isnt the judiciary goal to stand up or not, but to rule on relevant law.

Yes there are activist justices, but they are generally held in check by precedence, minus case law on guns.

Administrative judges are held in check by virtually nothing.

I would rather be pushing the decisions in the judicial than the executive.

[mad.casual]

The voters can’t vote her out of office.

Not directly. They can, however, elect representatives who can effectively nullify her position and/or exact her resignation. Elections have consequences.

[Ken Shultz]

I don't believe that's so. I think Khan's term is for seven years, and she can't be removed until the end of her term.

If a new president appoints someone else as chair of the FTC, that's one thing. But I believe, just like with the Supreme Court, the members of the FTC will still be majority Democrat until vacancies arise and the president appoints enough of them that they become majority Republican.

If no vacancies arise until deep in the next Republican president's term, the FTC commission will still be majority Democrats until Republic an commissioners are appointed.

It's possible that Congress could pass laws to restrict their powers of the FTC, which is what they've done in the past. That bill would require the president's signature, so unless Joe Biden wants the FTC's powers to regulate the economy in the name of social justice clipped, that theoretical bill won't become law until there's a Republican in the White House.

[mad.casual]

It’s possible that Congress could pass laws to restrict their powers of the FTC, which is what they’ve done in the past. That bill would require the president’s signature, so unless Joe Biden wants the FTC’s powers to regulate the economy in the name of social justice clipped, that theoretical bill won’t become law until there’s a Republican in the White House.

Are you saying there's no point in electing an obstructionist Republican Congress simply because the President has veto powers? That, even if they can't vote out the chair of the FTC, there would be no other recourse or reason to vote oppositionally in '22?

[Bill Godshall]

The SCOTUS can overrule Khan's unconstitutional actions.

[Ken Shultz]

There may be a question of standing.

If Khan is setting speech rules for Facebook--that Facebook wants--who's suing over that?

Not Facebook. They might sue to oppose the FTC breaking them up, but if the FTC is writing rules for speech, and that's what Facebook wants, we'll be talking about private parties suing the FTC rather anybody suing Facebook or Facebook suing the FTC. Facebook would just be following the rules.

[Ken Shultz]

I'm saying that you can't nullify her position or force her resignation by electing a Republican Congress.

It may be necessary to elect a Republican Congress to crimp her powers, but that will not be sufficient to do so.

By the time we get a president to sign a bill to do that, the rules governing speech will already be written and the rulings governing them decided.

[perlhaqr]

Goddamn this world is getting depressing fast.

[R Mac]

And yet some of us aren’t surprised by any of this, because we were actually paying attention to what these people were saying they wanted to do. Reason was not.

[Earth Skeptic]

"Some 72 percent of survey respondents viewed Amazon favorably. This placed it second only to the U.S. military, which was viewed favorably by 78 percent of those polled, and slightly above police, which earned a 68 percent favorability rating."

Clearly these people are all white supremacist men, who worship guns and dollars. No properly woke person could like any of these enterprises. And thus enlightened morality should supersede any childish ideas of "democracy", at least the kind where too many wrong people favor something bad.

[Ken Shultz]

If the police have a 68% favorability rating, does that mean that 68% of Americans are racist?

I don't know.

CRT teach us that 100% of white people are racist, so 68% viewing the police favorably might just mean that 32% of Americans aren't white.

[Cyto]

Funny that this is not getting more play in the press. Antifa has more negatives than Hamas, and the police rank here the top of the list....

...yet the defund the police and antifa crowd hold sway with all of the mainstream press, as well as with our current national leadership.

[A Thinking Mind]

I'm skeptical about the data because I can't find a link to it. The number of respondents is in question because of a potentially misplaced comma, so it included either 2,006 responses or 20,006 responses, depending whether there was an inadvertent zero added. I don't think a sample of 2,006 is near to being representative of the American public in any regard, and even 20,006 would be highly questionable.

[A Thinking Mind]

Actually no, it's literally just 2,006, I missed the link. So I have a lot about doubts about the accuracy of the poll. If you could increase that number by two orders of magnitude, we might start getting a really good picture.

[Cyto]

This is a normal sample size for this type of poll. You rarely see them even 5x this size, let alone 10x.

Which, of course, makes things like sampling bias even more relevant....

[Brandybuck]

I don't like the military. Not our modern military. I would respect a military that was restrained and for the purpose of national defense. But I won't respect one whose purpose is to project power and "world build".

Don't get me wrong. I don't hate the individual soldier. They're just as deluded as most people into thinking they're fighting for freedom. But the military itself is the fist of a corrupt government. I can't respect the military until I can respect the government that wields it.

Which is why I can't understand this weird worship of the military by the Right.

[Ken Shultz]

That view made a lot more sense in 2004.

Isn't it harder to hold to that stance--even as we're abandoning Afghanistan?

Until recently, we were building an alliance between Bahrain, the UAE, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, and Israel--so we could withdraw from that region, too.

I appreciate that things aren't as good as they could be, but our future outlook doesn't seem to be expansionary at this point in time and mostly seems to be defensive. It was two steps forwards and now one step back (with Biden), but somehow doesn't seem to have blown the withdrawal from Afghanistan. If we can't give the military and our politicians at least some credit for doing something right, why should they bother to listen to us?

[Brandybuck]

Government is not our savior. Military is the government. The two are the same.

The problem with our modern military is that it's not restrained and has grossly exceeded its moral purpose, which is defense of the nation. Nation building is not national defense. Supporting allies who are not themselves at war. Indefinite occupation. Holy shit! We're still in Germany seventy five years after the war ended!

We have the single largest army ever seen by history, by a long shot, but people keep clamoring to make it bigger. It's a fetish.

[Ken Shultz]

"The problem with our modern military is that it’s not restrained and has grossly exceeded its moral purpose, which is defense of the nation."

Do you or do you not acknowledge the fact that the military is presently in the act of abandoning Afghanistan to the Taliban?

I don't ignore it. I think there will be a bloodbath in Afghanistan because of it, too, and I think we should leave anyway--just like we left Vietnam.

It seems to me that you've formulated this opinion, and facts, current events, and the real world are being ignored because they don't conform to your theory.

What we're actually doing--right now as I type--is a really hard thing to do in abandoning a quagmire. We're still in Japan, Germany, Korea, and Cuba, the last one a legacy of the Spanish-American war in 1898. It's a rare thing we're doing by leaving a quagmire, and it's going against the will of some in the military--because of civilian control--as far as I can tell. That's a good thing they're doing!

The military should be congratulated for the direction they're going in right now, and there is no good reason to pretend they aren't abandoning Afghanistan to the Taliban. We need more of that kind of thinking. Hooray for the military!

[Hank Ferrous]

The largest military? That doesn't even come close to passing the smell test. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/military-size-by-country

[Echospinner]

The Gaza conflict was a blip in that but Israel is back where it was. It is not a military alliance and those countries never attacked Israel. Also Israelis and those other countries are perfectly capable of conducting their own diplomacy. We could get out of there now if we wanted.

[Ken Shultz]

I'm not sure we're talking about the same thing.

The UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and others were normalizing relations with Israel and our private defense contractors were being sold huge amounts of military hardware so that they could form an alliance and defend themselves against Iranian aggression.

While it's true that Biden threw a monkey wrench in those proceedings because he wants the Untied States to retain its role as the guarantor of security in the region, the fact is that the inertia for them to continue to come together as an alliance against Iran.

The express purpose of this in the past was to extricate the U.S. from the region, in America's interests, but now that it's in the best interests of those countries to come together, that seems to be continuing to go forward. Neoconservatives and progressives in the U.S. may obsess over Gaza--the neoconservatives because it's an excuse to keep the United States as the dominant force in the region and the progressives because of their obsessions with social justice--but I'm not sure Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Sudan, Bahrain, and others are as obsessed with Gaza as the American left.

There is no good reason why Gaza should be an impediment to a regional alliance that gets the U.S. off the hook for being the guarantor of security in the region, and ultimately there's no good reason why the United States should want to be the guarantor of security in the region. Why should we be distracted by Gaza? Why is that important? It shouldn't have been important in the past either.

[mad.casual]

That view made a lot more sense in 2004.

Isn’t it harder to hold to that stance–even as we’re abandoning Afghanistan?

Harder sure, but it's one dune among, if not tectonic movements, then certainly shifting sands. Respecting the soldiers is no longer about respecting service of the Bob Doles, the G. H. W. Bushes, the John McCaines no matter how much you disagree with their politics or even the John Kerrys or John Kennedys even if you think they were completely inept in battle. Hell, it's not even about respecting the Schwarzkopfs or Patreuses for simply being able to do a job respectably.

It's quickly becoming the respect of bureaucrats for their ability to pin medals on drone pilots and make sure fellow tranny bureaucrats' medication arrives on time. Only 1800 Americans died in Afghanistan and they certainly deserve our respect, but despite pushing the departure date from Afghanistan back to 9/11, we left at Bagram at 3 a.m. and, apparently, didn't even tell our allies *at the same base* we wouldn't be there in the morning. I'm absolutely with you about being out of Afghanistan, but I don't understand how so perfectly putting a cherry on an absolute fuck up commands any respect.

Maybe into the future respect can be regained but, as of now, the future looks to be bureaucratically shortchanging our allies in life-or-death need while championing trannies and drumming out Trump supporters. Given such a haystack, I'll save my respect for the people who specifically put bullets in terrorists heads. Everyone else can go enjoy their free government healthcare.

[Ken Shultz]

People who volunteer for military service deserve our respect for doing so. They pledge themselves to defend the Constitution from all its enemies, foreign and domestic, and sometimes they are injured or killed for it. God bless every one of them.

The people who volunteered in the wake of 9./11 certainly weren't volunteering for an imperial exercise somewhere, and I doubt they were volunteering for the kind of occupation we subjected ourselves to in Afghanistan and Iraq. I have a tremendous amount of respect for them anyway, and for a lot of the people who volunteer today, I suspect their idealism is in some ways even firmer than it was in the wake of 9/11. They don't have a big emotional reaction. A lot of them doing it because they really believe in it.

You had to be a real believer in American idealism to volunteer for service in Vietnam when things were going bad--if that was the reason you volunteered. I'm pretty sure my uncle more or less did so as a conscientious objector, non-combatant medic. I know there are people volunteering today for similar reasons. I'm sure there are people who genuinely believe they're defending the Constitution and the victims of tyranny when they volunteer for Afghanistan or Iraq, too.

You can hardly get six people in my office to agree on where to go to lunch, and when we get there, they don't all order the same thing. Some of them order the same thing but for different reasons, too. When a million soldiers joined the Confederate armies, however, they all did it for the exact same reason! I'm not sure I buy that. I don't buy that everyone volunteering today is doing so in the name of American empire either. Even those that do so aren't trying to oppress anybody. They just disagree with us. Their idealism isn't the problem and neither is their willingness to serve. I think those things deserve our respect.

The way politicians choose to use those volunteers' idealism and how politicians use their willingness to serve is the problem--as well as my fellow American voters who are willing to see them used that way. Right now, the general consensus seems to be that it's time to go, and I'm having a hard time condemning so many people for doing the right thing. It's like your girlfriend yelling at you for not taking the trash out--while you're taking the trash out. At that point, "Good Job!" might be the appropriate response.

[mad.casual]

People who volunteer for military service deserve our respect for doing so. They pledge themselves to defend the Constitution from all its enemies, foreign and domestic, and sometimes they are injured or killed for it. God bless every one of them.

Again, in 1942 or even when they didn't volunteer in '64, respect, absolutely. But, today, I know too many who joined to pay for school and served in technical or logistical support positions, too many who joined out of HS and were (single before they left and) pregnant by the end of boot camp, too many who signed up because they simply and literally had nothing better to do, too many who took an oath to defend The Constitution and openly advocate for the various abridgements of it. None of them substantially more virtuous or honor-bound, and in many ways objectively much less so, than their peers who chose to work and pay their own way through school, take over their parents' business, or start a family and take up a trade. Does the Oath make them special? Even if they choose to skirt or, through action, denounce their oath while their oath-free peers live it more truly? Is it libertarianism that deems it so (and justifies their government paycheck)?

Again, if they faced gunfire and/or returned fire as part of their service, respect. But the upper estimate puts ~10% in combat zones, by the time you factor in that the ~10% is of the 60% actively deployed and that only 10% of those in any given combat zone actually see/experience combat, we're easily talking <1% who ever actually see/hear shots fired in anger. There are people who volunteer to do jobs on the South side of pretty much any major city in America that routinely do the same, are they not heroes because they didn't take an oath or because their paychecks don't show up on a DOD expense report?

How many people *should've* lost their jobs from the revelations of Assange/Snowden/Manning/Winner? How many did? Why do those multitudes deserve, in any way, more respect than this dude? Because they have good intentions and took an oath?

[Ken Shultz]

I don't think you can make blanket statements about anybody's motives.

Some people spend their weekends feeding the homeless for various organizations because they think it's a great way to meet women.

That being said, those that volunteer and swear to to protect the Constitution deserve our respect for doing that. One of the reasons we don't have a draft anymore is because there are so many people who are willing to volunteer for that. And I don't believe their desires are about colonizing and oppressing the victims of American imperialism. When they bring the recruits in for Padres games from boot camp at Camp Pendleton, and they play the Marine Corp theme, I'm happy to cheer for them along with everyone else.

Thank goodness for people who are willing to do that. They deserve our respect because they're willing to do that.

[mad.casual]

I don’t think you can make blanket statements about anybody’s motives.

Yup. That's why combat is the litmus test.

That being said, those that volunteer and swear to to protect the Constitution deserve our respect for doing that.

So, the unnamed Capitol Police officers who volunteered for the job and swore oaths or unarmed civilians? Oaths are oaths or do you/we judge by actions in combat?

[Echospinner]

Populists, both left and right, love the military. It is a source of national pride and strength. The military stands apart and is a bulwark against the elites determined to destroy the true nation. The military is what protects us from the foreign hordes who would invade and bring ruin to our country and its pure values. The military is a reminder of our glorious past and the bright future that awaits us if we continue the struggle.

[Brandybuck]

Yes, it's become a religion.

[JesseAz]

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t hate the individual soldier. They’re just as deluded as most people into thinking they’re fighting for freedom.

So you don't hate the troops but think they are all ended idiots who can't determine what freedom is.

Seriously, go fuck yourself.

[JesseAz]

All deluded idiots*

[mad.casual]

So you don’t hate the troops but think they are all ended idiots who can’t determine what freedom is.

I actually share Brandybuck's sentiment on this. He may not share my cause but as I said to Ken above, sorting the wheat that puts Al Queada terrorists in the ground from the no-shit traitorous chaff that puts forth the extra effort to ensure our nuclear missile silo operators are properly CRT conditioned (while China and Iran build hundreds of new sites of their own) is getting beyond cumbersome.

[JesseAz]

What top leadership is doing is not what the general troop is doing. There are already internal push backs against CRT.

What brandy is implying is the troops are ignorant rubes who never second guess their assignments, which simply isn't true.

[mad.casual]

What top leadership is doing is not what the general troop is doing. There are already internal push backs against CRT.

I wasn't aware that top leadership conducted the training personally? I was under the impression that they gave an order and on down the chain, oath or not, soldiers collected their government paycheck, did their job, and made sure their peers knew their place based on the color of their skin. Call me a purist, but I take a pretty hard, almost Biblical, line on hero-worthiness. Grandpa was brutal drunkard, it would probably break Mom's heart to know that her son still considers him a hero for what he did in Korea. To act like someone simply takes an Oath to become a hero is an insult to actual heroes.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Which is why I can’t understand this weird worship of the military by the Right.

Why do you think Milley is spouting woke shibboleths in Congressional committee meetings? You really think that's to bolster right-wing support of the military?

[Cyto]

It is to have a purge of Republican supporters in the Pentagon. And in every other department. They are being quite naked about it.

[Echospinner]

Actually I think most people in the military are just doing a job.

I think libertarians can agree that a strong but smaller force geared toward defense is what we need. In my view much smaller. Most of what we spend and have now is a boondoggle putting cash in the pockets of politicians and contractors.

[Hank Ferrous]

'They’re fighting for freedom.' What the hell are you on about? The oath is to defend the Constitution, not freedom. As for the fight, it generally is an individual matter. Most professionals fight for reasons you clearly wouldn't comprehend, reading that primary school gibberish. I fought for the man to my left and right, no other reason.The 'worship' by the Right, it's no worse than the fake appreciation from the Left, who only appreciate immature grandstanding and their own sophism and egocentric wallowing. Case in point: no servicemember cares whether you hate them or not, they are not aware of you or looking for your respect..

[mad.casual]

What the hell are you on about? The oath is to defend the Constitution, not freedom.

Not to mention that if there is a point of contention between your orders and your oath, orders win out a majority of the time and have for quite a while. Probably many go in with the foolish notion that they'll never be in such a contentious situation, if so, the number who choose the former over the latter despite any principles or foolish notions says much about their principles and Oath. Servicemembers who would defend their brothers to the right and left are no different than citizens who would defend their neighbors to the north and south. None are owed any special respect until they have done so and then, any oaths, principles, or foolish notions are immaterial.

[Echospinner]

I have issues with CRT. It rejects the civil rights movement and its principles which have resulted in the major gains we have made in race relations in this country since the 50s and 60s. It rejects meritocracy which is the foundation for economic growth and prosperity. It is ultimately self defeating and based on a philosophy of hopelessness and despair.

I see some problems with states passing laws banning it.

First any such law is bound to be overly vague and broad. It is difficult to define exactly what CRT is and its meaning has shifted over time. Whatever components it has varies depending on which author we are talking about.

Second the state should not be telling schools what can or cannot be taught and should not mandate what must be taught. If we are going to have public schools the curriculum should be determined at the local level. Such laws just increase the power and control of central government. There is a very slippery slope especially in the field of education. That door can swing either way.

[Mother's Lament]

CRT just isn't woke polemics. It's updated Nazi racial theories with a new villain substituted. Just because the new villain isn't an ethnic minority this time, doesn't make it any less evil.

[Ken Shultz]

If what we teach out children in public schools isn't within the proper purview of democracy, the burden is on you to explain why.

No taxation without representation.

It's not like banning CRT violates the First Amendment in any way.

[Echospinner]

Schools should be funded and administered locally. Having the central government determine the curriculum has long been a libertarian complaint. You can’t have it both ways. What if California mandates something you don’t like. Now you want states to ban something you don’t like.

[Ken Shultz]

If you're against democracy . . . ahem . . . state legislatures and governors influencing curriculum decisions at the state level--that has not suddenly become an issue because of CRT.

The Board of Education in your state has been setting curriculum standards since forever. If that's a problem in your mind, then the solution is to get as many kids as possible out of the public school system.

The solution is not to get teachers' unions out from under the thumb of elected representatives, elected governors, and their laws. The solution is to get children out from under the boot of the teachers' unions. IN

[Ken Shultz]

In the meantime, if you want to push for an amendment in your state that would prohibit school boards from being accountable to the laws of elected representatives, feel free to do so. Please don't try to tell people that the unaccountability of state bureaucrats is somehow a libertarian solution to anything. Just tell them you're a progressive instead!

[Hank Ferrous]

Zing!

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

The solution is to get children out from under the boot of the teachers’ unions.

The only way to do that is to end public schools altogether, which simply isn't happening. Every single state has its pre-college workforce under the thumb of the NEA.

The solution is to get involved in communities at the local level and push back hard against these indoctrinators and their quislings on the school boards, elect people at the state level who will back those efforts up with laws neutering the cultural Marxists, and support resistance to challenges against such efforts in the courts. That's the hydra that most parents fighting against this stuff are facing.

You want the NEA to understand that your community is a hostile environment to them, and make their efforts to inculcate their agenda there that much harder.

[Ken Shultz]

"The only way to do that is to end public schools altogether, which simply isn’t happening."

School choice, vouchers, and home schooling are all methods of doing that.

Tuition for private school should be deductible from property taxes.

[Ken Shultz]

In other words, it doesn't need to be one solution that happens all at the same time.

[Echospinner]

Lol. Disagreeing with a government policy makes me against democracy? That is just lame.

[mad.casual]

Disagreeing with a government policy makes me against democracy?

If the government policy is pro-equality or pro-democracy, then yes it does.

If a state DOE or local schoolboard started a program to teach black people that they can't/shouldn't vote and the FedGov said, "You can't do that." Your stance against the FedGov's intervention, even if grounded in libertarian sensibilities about local governance is still anti-democratic. Ken's point still applies; the correct answer is (to opposed the FedGov's actions *and*) to advocate for privatization/school choice.

[Ken Shultz]

"Disagreeing with a government policy makes me against democracy? That is just lame."

I didn't say disagreeing with me was against democracy, but not subjecting state school boards to the laws of state legislatures and elected governors is anti-democracy.

Saying that state curriculums should be set free from the concerns of politicians that are accountable to the voters is, in fact, anti-democracy.

There are places where democracy doesn't belong, which is why the First Amendment begins, "Congress shall make no law". Setting school curriculums for public schools, on the other hand, is well within the purview of democracy--and seeing legislators reflect the concerns of the voters in their efforts to prevent schools from teaching this crap to their children is an example of appropriate democracy in action.

[JimboJr]

"Schools should be funded and administered locally"

Its at least on a state level and not federal so far.

"First any such law is bound to be overly vague and broad. It is difficult to define exactly what CRT is and its meaning has shifted over time. "

This is the genius of the legislation that is out so far. They didn't go after CRT (and hard to, as the left redefines it daily, or tries to). They just said "you cant be a racist to anyone" in line with the civil rights act.

The fact that CRT advocates and teachers unions take issue with this, should tell everyone all they need to know.

[JohnZ]

Indeed. Just another reason to ban teacher's unions.

[Echospinner]

I don’t like CRT either but I am concerned about expanding the role of big government in determining ideology in education. That is a dangerous path to take and the first thing a totalitarian state will do.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

I don’t like CRT either but I am concerned about expanding the role of big government in determining ideology in education.

Most curriculums are already established at the state level. Keep in mind that French wrote an article for NR six years ago that lauded the efforts of parents who were fighting against the implementation of Common Core.

This debate isn't any different in function or substance, it's just that the left is freaking out about it because they know a law against teaching the edicts of CRT as established fact threatens a core tenet of the exercise of their ideology.

[Nardz]

Echospinner doesn't care, his role here is to condemn any opposition to totalitarian leftism and downplay their transgressions and threat.

[Hank Ferrous]

Today it appears to be reasonable... Is this the cascading message to gain acceptance for the racist message of crit race theory? That and pointing out that in 1996 some legal weirdos wrote about it, so, it must be great, and was in no way picked up by educators and social science types and made into the complete horrorshow it is now. All obfuscation, no content, the social media media school.

[JesseAz]

I advise you to go read the laws instead of guessing what the laws are.

[Cyto]

The entire point is to solve a problem that democrat party supporters have... Living in a post-racial society was wrecking their main selling point.

They laid this out for us before they did it. They lamented that Russia failed to deliver as a political duffel, and publicly cast about for a new angle. Racism was openly chosen as the new angle. The 1619 project was just one prominent element of this strategy. Remember how many "national" racism stories there were leading up to George Floyd? They were trying desperately to create such a moment, until that video delivered.

The entire point is to fan the flames of racism, undo what 50 years of civil rights progress has wrought and divide people in order to create a power base.

[JimboJr]

"The entire point is to solve a problem that democrat party supporters have… Living in a post-racial society was wrecking their main selling point."

^^ exactly

Actual racial progress has been fantastic, things are truly better than ever when it comes to sane rational people, communities, etc. Hell even 20 years ago if some white (actual) racist called someone the N word, while many would be super uncomfortable about it, at most he would get a scold. Fast forward to today, those kinds of old timey racists are few & far between. And if someone did do something like that, it would be all over social media, the news, the person would be fired, marked forever with the scarlet letter, and there would be major push back by fellow white people about how fucked up it is to act this way. Mixed race marriages are much more common, and celebrated. Diversity is appreciated and encouraged.

This is a huge problem for them. And its why CRT is the perfect weapon. It uses shifting definitions and circular reasoning so those that want to feel like they are "anti racist" enough wouldn't dare try and argue against it (and if they do its very easy to trap those that dont understand the game being played, and easier if they have low IQ). And most importantly, it creates invisible, unfalsifiable boogeymen (which they need, because things are actually better), and even merely pushing back against it is proof that the boogeymen are real, and that they are even scarier than we initially thought.

Unfortunately for them, we are seeing every day how racist hardcore left liberals are. They are openly racist to whites, and condescendingly low-expectations bigots to people of color. Truly terrible people.

[Hank Ferrous]

'It uses shifting definitions and circular reasoning so those that want to feel like they are “anti racist” enough wouldn’t dare try and argue against it (and if they do its very easy to trap those that dont understand the game being played, and easier if they have low IQ).' I remember arguing with the newly religious, or new 12-step members, who used these tactics. As did the groups that ensnared them.

[Ignore me!]

It's also really hard to explain to people what's wrong with CRT if they haven't been exposed to it. It sounds like you're just denying that racial problems continue to exist, which no, that's not it, it's that CRT is weaponizing race to wipe away the progress of the past several decades. You do a good job in your second-to-last paragraph of summarizing the problems with CRT in practice.

[Sarah Palin's Buttplug 2]

First any such law is bound to be overly vague and broad. It is difficult to define exactly what CRT is and its meaning has shifted over time.

Which is why conservatives will try to ban any mention of race or slavery in public schools.

[Mother's Lament]

Did you get orders from the boss that you and Jeff have to defend CRT now?

[Hank Ferrous]

The funniest thing is, it's been pointed out that there has been no such action, and there will be no such action except in the fervid masturbatory visions of the dishonest, like itself.

[Mother's Lament]

Also, wasn't it your party that was the party of slavery?

[criticaljeff racial theorist]

You are wrong on all counts

[Dillinger]

handle lol.

[Mother's Lament]

"Laws against teaching critical race theory are un-American, argue Kmele Foster, David French, Jason Stanley, and Thomas Chatterton Williams in The New York Times:"

Maybe if CRT was just a fringe set of ideas like Moonism or Erhard Seminars Training; but what these idiots deliberately ignore is that it's not just fringe and culty, it's evil. It's literally warmed-over Nazi racial theory, and we all remember how well it worked last time.

[Sarah Palin's Buttplug 2]

Please define CRT using a generally acceptable source (not Wingnut.com).

[Mother's Lament]

Hold up. Do you support CRT?

[Mother's Lament]

Also, Are you claiming that CRT isn't reworked Nazi racial theory?

[Sarah Palin's Buttplug 2]

I support teaching US history as it actually happened including the 3/5 rule, slavery and Jim Crow - institutional racism in the past tense.

I do not support CRT as "whitey is evil and mean to us blaeks".

My understanding is that the former is more accurately CRT.

[Mother's Lament]

I support teaching US history as it actually happened including the 3/5 rule, slavery and Jim Crow – institutional racism in the past tense.

You're fucking weaseling out. That isn't CRT and nobody is opposing that.

CRT is a intersectional social movement that relies on social constructionism, elevates storytelling over evidence and reason, rejects the concepts of truth and merit, and opposes liberalism. It opposes historicity, it doesn't teach it.

[Sarah Palin's Buttplug 2]

By your definition I oppose CRT 100%.

I have never seen anything close to that definition elsewhere.

[Mother's Lament]

Try Wikipedia.

[Sarah Palin's Buttplug 2]

OK.

While critical race theorists do not all share the same beliefs,[2] the basic tenets of CRT include that racism and disparate racial outcomes are the result of complex, changing and often subtle social and institutional dynamics rather than explicit and intentional prejudices on the part of individuals.[9][10] CRT scholars also view race and white supremacy as an intersectional social construction[9] which serves to uphold the interests of white people[11] against those of marginalized communities at large.[12][13][14] In the field of legal studies, CRT emphasizes that merely making laws colorblind on paper may not be enough to make the application of the laws colorblind; ostensibly colorblind laws can be applied in racially discriminatory ways.[15] A key CRT concept is intersectionality, which emphasizes that race can intersect with other identities (such as gender and class) to produce complex combinations of power and disadvantage

That is really not that offensive to me as a classic liberal. All I can do is make law colorblind (I oppose Affirmative Action for instance) but I have to acknowledge that laws can be applied in racist ways (crack vs powder cocaine for example.

I'm not sure this is germane for anyone less than 20 years old though. it is too complex for people struggling with naming the three branches of government.

Bottom line - not worth teaching in public school.

[Cyto]

This is also not remotely the curriculum they are pushing. This is one of their disingenuous arguments "That isn't critical race theory"... Then you go off down a rabbit hole of different definitions.

The curriculum they are pushing in schools is based on Ibram X Kendi and Robin DeAngelo and their profoundly racist views. It bears little resemblance to the academic ivory tower description of CRT... But they are the ones pushing it and this is the label they use.

[Claptrap]

How about from the mouth of an equity-in-education outfit?

Definition:
CRT analyzes the role of race and racism in perpetuating social disparities between dominant and marginalized racial groups.

CRT’s purpose is to unearth what is taken for granted when analyzing race and privilege, as well as the profound patterns of exclusion that exist in U.S. society.

5 Tenets of CRT
• Counter-Storytelling
• Permanence of Racism
• Whiteness as Property
• Interest Convergence
• Critique of Liberalism

[Mother's Lament]

If you think your definition is CRT, you should at least read some of it and then get back to me. It isn't.

[Mickey Rat]

The two pillars upon which Critical Race Theory rests: "The first is to understand the regime of white supremacy and its subordination of people of color which has been created and maintained in America, and, in particular, to examine the relationship and the social structure and professed ideals such as the Rule of Law and Equal Protection. The second is a desire to not merely understand the vexed bond between law and racial power but to change it." - from the introduction to the textbook "Critical Race Theory, the Key Writings That Formed the Movement", 1995.

The upshot of that being that the Rule of Law and Equal Protection must be changed because they uphold white supremacy.

[Hank Ferrous]

That would be the book to read, it sucks and it's been more than a decade since I picked it up, but it's worth understanding wrongheaded thinking when one comes across it.

[Ignore me!]

The use of "vexed" here is bringing back memories of the pompous, tortured academese I had to read in grad school. Jesus I hate academic clichés.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

I'm having flashbacks to "The Hermeneutics of ___________" that I had to suffer through.

[R Mac]

“including the 3/5 rule”

Lol. This is a great tell.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Shrike doesn't even realize the 3/5ths rule was created by Northern anti-slavery advocates to reduce the political power of the southern states by limiting their representation to white eligible voters, instead of allowing the southern states to enumerate their slaves (unable to vote) but get congressional representation based on their census numbers.

Public school really has failed this fucking country.

[R Mac]

How much you want to bet that, after you explained it to him, he’ll continue to repeat that nonsense?

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

You have almost no knowledge of what CRT is. Very few people do.

Critical Race Theory came about in the 1970s after great structural strides had been made in in addressing obvious forms of racism. The "Critical" part of CRT attempts to use systems of criticism (mainly borrowed from Post Modernist thought) to... 'pick away' at areas that are perceived to be contributing to the unequal outcomes seen in society. This criticism is done through "theory". Now, there are generally two forms of CRT. One is "materialist" theorists, the other "post modern". They both strive to separate themselves from the traditional "liberal approach" which, is probably what you would consider yourself. I consider myself that, and most libertarians do as well.

Materialist theorists look at more straightforward systems affect racial minorities. However, the post modern theorists (the more ascendant version of CRT) concern themselves with linguistic and social constructs-- through the deconstruction of discourses and the "detection" of "implicit biases", countering racial assumptions and attitudes. The second consists of your HR department, Robin DiAngelo (white fragility etc) and your teachers' union (and education system in general).

In particular, it is the constant harping on "implicit biases" that gets most people's blood up, and rightly so.

To be fair, some of the "materialist" Critical Theorists have criticized the Post Modern ones, for the very reasons everyone should criticize crt: The entirely subjective and intangible nature of the arguments.

Now to get specific, both versions of CRT reject incrementalism and stress a form of political radicalism. This comes out of two major CRT theorists, Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic.

The purpose of CRT, they say, is to challenge enlightenment rationalism and other areas that are considered to be part of the "liberal order" (this is where you get the "science is the white man's game" bullshit. Delgado specifically notes that critical race theorists are "discontented with liberalism as a framework for addressing America's racial problems. Many liberals believe in colorblindness and neutral principles of constitutional law. They believe in equal treatment for all persons, regardless of their different histories and different situations."

So you keep defending this stuff. Just go right ahead.

[Sarah Palin's Buttplug 2]

Who is defending it? I certainly am not. How many times do I need to say it is too complicated for K-12?

Thanks for the color on the subject.

No pun intended.

[Ignore me!]

He means, "Please define CRT using a source that agrees with what I think about it."

[Sevo]

"Please define CRT using a generally acceptable source (not Wingnut.com)."

Please fuck off and die, turd. Painfully; the world is better off with fewer pedos.

[Dillinger]

>>& the guy who lead the Democrat push for the war is president

does Twitter also not have an edit function?

[Dillinger]

also the day David French is no longer a reference will be lovely.

[Mother's Lament]

David French - Xer Majesty's Loyal Opposition

[Jerryskids]

"People will continue to die until we vaccinate everybody," Reiner said.

Does anybody want to tell him? Just because he's been vaccinated and hasn't died yet, he should check back in about 100 years or so and we'll see how he's doing.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

On a long enough timeline...

[Cyto]

The discussion of CRT based educational curriculum in schools and conservative responses to it on The Fifth Column was worth a listen. The discussion miscast the issue as one of academic freedom and a notion that these laws close off teaching critical thinking skills by not allowing schools to teach Ibram X Kendi in order to critique his ideas.

This just shows how easily manipulated and male able even smart people are.

There are zero elementary schools teaching anti-racism as an exercise in literary criticism and critical thinking. It is being taught as an indoctrination, and worse, the intention is to create racial divides for political gain. It is stupid and dishonest to pretend that the issue is the right of teachers to use these books to teach methods of rationality.

I am continually shocked that people like Matt Welch cannot see this obvious play by leftist demagogues and instead fall into the trap. Arguing that it is perfectly OK to indoctrinate elementary school kids with a racist ideology and any moves to stop it are evil and must be opposed is pretty ludicrous, but that is where most of Reason has been for the last year.

The answer to teaching Klan ideology to kids in school is to stop doing that, not arguing that people who criticize teaching Klan ideology are anti-American. The people to criticize here are not the ones who are moving to stop it, it is the people who refuse to stop.

[criticaljeff racial theorist]

Welch is a lying gaslighting shill. He is for anything icky red state rubes are against. I have no idea what possessed Kmele Foster.

Conspicuously absent from this thread are Jeff and sarc. As more and more examples of evil compulsory indoctrination are brought out, they prefer to duck and hide so they can pretend later this is a University Academic Freedom issue.

[Cyto]

Kmele was indulging his inner contrarian and got trapped by the academic freedom thread.

They also got trapped by the "how prevalent is this, really?" cannard.

Even after he reported over 5,000 separate reports, they still dug in on "this is just right wing fear mongering over nothing of import."

[StackOfCoins]

Since CRT is by it's very nature, racist, it's pretty rich seeing the cocktail class defend it. I can only wonder at what kind of mental gymnastics lead a person to see attempts to ban a racist ideology from school curricula as "un-American." No one is saying these books need to be gathered up and put to the torch. Progressives can torture themselves all they want, off the clock. It has no place in schools. Public schools are filled with enough junky thinking.

[Mickey Rat]

You had that story about student who had a failing because he refused to participate in the self denouncing "white privilege" exercises. The extra irony being he was a from a mixed race family and he looked more white.

All the evidence is that CRT concepts at K-12 levels is being taught as truth, not as something to merely consider.

[JohnZ]

It's not teaching CRT...it's indoctrination. Period.
This is how the communists operate, by dividing people against each other.
Parents: keep your children out of government schools.

[Mickey Rat]

According to Kmele Foster, David French, the NYT, et al, b et live that teaching racial essentialism and race consciousness in public schools is American?

[StackOfCoins]

We've come along way from when Kmele was encouraging Matt Welch to call him a nigger.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Speaking of the popularity of tech companies in general. Facebook is now running a national advertising campaign... demanding internet regulations. I shit you not.

[Claptrap]

Zuckerberg's no idiot. He knows that a primary effect of any of these laws will be to privilege them as large incumbents.

[Griffin3]

SMH ...

[JimboJr]

Rufo:

"Joy Reid: Critical race theory is only taught in law schools. NEA: Actually, critical race theory is our #1 priority and we want to implement it in all 50 states and 14,000 local school districts," Rufo wrote in a tweet, pointing out the discrepancy in what Reid was claiming versus the NEA's decision.

"Progressives such as MSNBC host Joy Reid can no longer disingenuously claim that critical race theory is only taught in law schools or that it is only a 'lens' for examining American history," he wrote in the op-ed. "The teachers union has nationalized critical race theory and committed to the full range of left-wing radicalism, including opposition to 'capitalism' and 'anthropocentrism.'

[Claptrap]

I plan to identify as a female fur seal and place myself at the top of the intersectionality pyramid.

[mad.casual]

Member of the oppressed Brown and S. American fur seal (Arctocephalus) or the privileged, racially-superior and therefore clubworthy Northern fur seal (Callorhinus)?

The pyramid has no peak.

[Claptrap]

Why can't I just identify as the latter transitioning to the former? Once you get to transpeciesism there's truly no limit to your identity.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Biden's favorability rating stood at 54 percent, with 39 percent unfavorable.
Hmm. Maybe favorability doesn't equal popularity.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/less-20000-tune-biden-4th-july-live-stream

As he squinted and stumbled through a 15 minute speech on the White House lawn that was solely devoted to fear mongering about COVID, fewer than 20,000 people joined the YouTube livestream.
That equates to around 0.006% of the population.
Yet he received a record 81 million votes in the election, apparently.
The figure is also less than half the number of people who attended President Trump’s huge Independence Day rally in Florida on Saturday.
In addition, a whopping 375,000 tuned in live to watch Trump’s event.

[KillAllRednecks]

So your point is the Trump worshipping traitors have no lives and nothing better to do than to suck Trump off?

[Sevo]

asshole flag

[KillAllRednecks]

Senile rummy!

[TangoDelta]

"The new poll—conducted June 15 through 17 among 2,0006 registered U.S voters"

How many? Is that an extra zero or did the comma drift?