Politics

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

PopeBeanie,

Character assassination is trending, alongside digression from the original or most productive topic. It’s a Bannon/Trump political (and authoritarian) tactic, tossing in flurries of accusation, invective, and dubious or irrelevant information, requiring heroic focus to maintain or return to positive, on-topic interaction… toward actually workable solutions or experiments.

If we’re going to challenge Trump and MAGA appeasement of Putin, as well as appeasement of Iran’s Ayatollahs and Emperor Xi, we need to know where it started. U.S. Presidents and politicians have practiced appeasement of tyrants–and Russian tyants in particular–for decades. Countering that appesement requires spreading the blame where due.

They throw out smoke bombs, stink bombs, and monkey wrenches to deflect from respectful, potentially enlightening dialogs and group competence. The angst is infectious, unless one regularly self-immunizes with wisdom and lifetimes/eons of human experience.

Some people fall into it just as a way to have the last word, while others in high places have strategic, long con intentions.

There will be no last word on this topic until Western leaders stop practicing appeasement of tyrants. And we’ll have at least 4 more years to actively oppose it.

• This reply was modified 1 month, 2 weeks ago by  TheEncogitationer. Reason: Tag

[PopeBeanieModerator]

Here’s the best layout of a presentation I’ve seen in a long time, especially from a politician. What Trump & Company has is doing must be more corrupt, even openly corrupt than any president in history.

@Reg, if you were considering adding this video to Sunday School, I will (or you can) steer readers to it, below.

@Enco, I’d love to hear your take on this, while I hope you can actually focus on Murphy’s presentation, and/or any of Murphy’s credibility that should be discounted for whatever reason. (I won’t actually stop you from expanding away from him or his presentation if that’s what you’d rather do. You do you, in any case.)

I do wonder if SCOTUS might possibly evolve a change of heart about Trump & Company?

Sidenote, Welcome to Trump University, postdoc research phase “Promoting Autocracies Around the World”.

28 minutes

[UnseenParticipant]

PopeBeanie wrote:

I do wonder if SCOTUS might possibly evolve a change of heart about Trump & Company?

Justice Barrett seems clearly to be signaling that nobody bought her vote.

[_Robert_Participant]

Unseen wrote:

PopeBeanie wrote:

I do wonder if SCOTUS might possibly evolve a change of heart about Trump & Company?

Justice Barrett seems clearly to be signaling that nobody bought her vote.

What…endanger their dismal record of being the most unconstitutional, ass-kissing, political, gift grabbing, SCOTUS in history. Jim Crow has nothing on this gang. They lied like thieves during their confirmation hearings. They and this congress in session will go down in history as the worst examples of democracy, if the nation even survives.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

PopeBeanie,

Isn’t the root of all the corruption in the fact that the Federal Govenment has all that power to tax and redistribute wealth, or to regulate whether products can come to market or whether whole forms of energy can be permitted or has questionable functions that require purchases of armored electric vehicles?

Shouldn’t products or forms of energy live or die on whether individuals acting in free market purchase them?

And where armored vehicles are needed for national security, who would want an oversized battery-powered toy versus internal combustion engine vehicles that run longer and over rougher terrain before requiring refuelling? And shouldn’t all contracting to attain these be done by open bidding from manufacturers who make the best product for the purpose?

The way to stop government corruption is to limit it’s function to constitional levels of dispute resolution, domestic police, and defense from foreign invaders. Everything else is corrosive gravy.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

As President Trump seeks to purge the federal government of “woke” initiatives, agencies have flagged hundreds of words to limit or avoid, according to a compilation of government documents.

accessible
activism
activists
advocacy
advocate
advocates
affirming care
all-inclusive
allyship
anti-racism
antiracist
assigned at birth
assigned female at birth
assigned male at birth
at risk
barrier
barriers
belong
bias
biased
biased toward
biases
biases towards
biologically female
biologically male
BIPOC
Black
breastfeed + people
breastfeed + person
chestfeed + people
chestfeed + person
clean energy
climate crisis
climate science
commercial sex worker
community diversity
community equity
confirmation bias
cultural competence
cultural differences
cultural heritage
cultural sensitivity
culturally appropriate
culturally responsive
DEI
DEIA
DEIAB
DEIJ
disabilities
disability
discriminated
discrimination
discriminatory
disparity
diverse
diverse backgrounds
diverse communities
diverse community
diverse group
diverse groups
diversified
diversify
diversifying
diversity
enhance the diversity
enhancing diversity
environmental quality
equal opportunity
equality
equitable
equitableness
equity
ethnicity
excluded
exclusion
expression
female
females
feminism
fostering inclusivity
GBV
gender
gender based
gender based violence
gender diversity
gender identity
gender ideology
gender-affirming care
genders
Gulf of Mexico
hate speech
health disparity
health equity
hispanic minority
historically
identity
immigrants
implicit bias
implicit biases
inclusion
inclusive
inclusive leadership
inclusiveness
inclusivity
increase diversity
increase the diversity
indigenous community
inequalities
inequality
inequitable
inequities
inequity
injustice
institutional
intersectional
intersectionality
key groups
key people
key populations
Latinx
LGBT
LGBTQ
marginalize
marginalized
men who have sex with men
mental health
minorities
minority
most risk
MSM
multicultural
Mx
Native American
non-binary
nonbinary
oppression
oppressive
orientation
people + uterus
people-centered care
person-centered
person-centered care
polarization
political
pollution
pregnant people
pregnant person
pregnant persons
prejudice
privilege
privileges
promote diversity
promoting diversity
pronoun
pronouns
prostitute
race
race and ethnicity
racial
racial diversity
racial identity
racial inequality
racial justice
racially
racism
segregation
sense of belonging
sex
sexual preferences
sexuality
social justice
sociocultural
socioeconomic
status
stereotype
stereotypes
systemic
systemically
they/them
trans
transgender
transsexual
trauma
traumatic
tribal
unconscious bias
underappreciated
underprivileged
underrepresentation
underrepresented
underserved
undervalued
victim
victims
vulnerable populations
women
women and underrepresented

Notes: Some terms listed with a plus sign represent combinations of words that, when used together, acknowledge transgender people, which is not in keeping with the current federal government’s position that there are only two, immutable sexes. Any term collected above was included on at least one agency’s list, which does not necessarily imply that other agencies are also discouraged from using it.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Reg,

The correspondance Theory of Truth should be the only governing principle for any government document, curricula, or media. You can use any word, as long as it corresponds to something real.

“Transgendered” can stay, but a sex-neutral “birthing person” will have to wait until there are successful ovary and womb transplants. “Breast-Feeding” and “Chest-Feeding” applied to males should prompt an investigation into who would require that of males who survived famines and concentration camps, (where male lactation was actually observed.)

Slavery and Jim Crow are historical facts, calling them “America’s Original Sin” is metaphysical hogwash and ahistorical, since “Original Sin” does not exist and America didn’t originate slavery or racism.

The Tuskeegee Airmen and their accomplishments were real, “Professor” Leonard Jeffries claim that Africans had manned flight centuries ago is not.

The Enola Gay was real, Robert Oppenheimer did quote Bagavadgita, but if anyone claims he actually became the Goddess Kali, that person needs relief from their position.

I think you get the drift here.

[PopeBeanieModerator]

Leftism vs Authoritarianism in America, are those the only main characters left playing now?

The 19-1/2 minute video is about Fascism taking down or converting universities into instruments of the state. Side note, “they” now want NPR and PBS to be next on the chopping block.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

PopeBeanie,

Leftism vs Authoritarianism in America, are those the only main characters left playing now?

It’s Authoritarianism all around and all the way down.

All these universities who have been on the taxpayer’s teat all these years have been imposing speech codes and speech regimens on students and dangling tenure over the heads of professors who may espouse something other than Marxist-Leninist ideology and Frankfort School Critical Theory. These same tax-funded Universities support racial and sexual quotas to get some box-ticking balance of population on campus. Now these same Universities go along with harassment and crimes against Jewish students and professors.

And now the Universities and this psycho, self-hating, suicidal egghead Jason Stanley have the nerve to scream “Fascism” when anyone–and this is not just Trump and MAGA–wants to put an end to all this nonsense???

No sane person is saying a school shouldn’t teach the worst parts of history, simply that they shouldn’t blame the living of today and future generations for it, while the school simultaneously sits on colonized land that it won’t give up. Why can’t a school take the tack of: We can be and are better than our predecessors and can be even better still?

The 19-1/2 minute video is about Fascism taking down or converting universities into instruments of the state. Side note, “they” now want NPR and PBS to be next on the chopping block.

If Universities accept taxdollars, they are by definition willing instruments of the State. If they don’t like that, they shouldn’t accept taxdollars. Let Columbia live off of it’s private $1 Billion endowment if it wants to practice and preach it’s Woke Leftist Zombie nonsense. And let them see how long that endowment lasts when donors don’t want to pay for their own destruction.

And ditto goes for NPR and PBS. They always claimed they got very few taxdollars. Why can’t they live off of selling T-Shirts, mugs, and Tote-Bags, not to mention proceeds from Seseme Street merchandise?

Of course, sales might not be so good after these videos and listeners may save an extra cup of coffee a day for themselves. The only thing that might make up for lost sales is a pay-per-view of Katherine Maher and Marjorie Taylor Green with an above-ground pool of mud!

[PopeBeanieModerator]

TheEncogitationer wrote:

If Universities accept taxdollars, they are by definition willing instruments of the State.

OK, “by definition” according to certain idealisms, but not long-standing traditions of giving academia and upper educational institutions some freedom to define curriculum and policies. Otherwise, an “instrument of the state”, by your definition, would be beholden to whatever the hell politicians or tyrants, e.g. real authoritarians demand of it. And by “real”, I mean Putin-level authoritarians that make Trump 2025 (et al) salivate.

(I’m not going to argue against what you’re saying is so wrong about all of that upper-education terrible wokeness and stuff. I still think there is a larger perspective to address.)

I start into the middle of this video so you only have to watch a few minutes of a Russian’s comparison of USA to beholden-to-Putin (Russian) universities.

(I’m taking a big chance that the USAID topic in that video doesn’t look too shiny for you to ignore.)

[PopeBeanieModerator]

TheEncogitationer wrote:

And now the Universities and this psycho, self-hating, suicidal egghead Jason Stanley have the nerve to scream “Fascism” when anyone–and this is not just Trump and MAGA–wants to put an end to all this nonsense???

I’ve made it a habit to just skip comments like this, so I’ve lost count. How does that come out so easily and so often?

To “wants to put an end to all this nonsense”, ok, but the level and speed of destruction is justified like claiming the Titanic was all about trying to put an end to those nasty icebergs.

[PopeBeanieModerator]

Enco, I promise I was only reviewing this thread, starting with its first post back in December, and my purpose was not to find examples of the kind of stuff that you write. But the following comment spurred me to point out that Jason Stanley is not the only pontificator conflating “Fascism” with policies they criticize:

TheEncogitationer wrote:

A “public-private partnership.” You do know that this is what the economic policy of real Fascism is, right?

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

PopeBeanie,

To “wants to put an end to all this nonsense”, ok, but the level and speed of destruction is justified like claiming the Titanic was all about trying to put an end to those nasty icebergs

The exaggerated sense of invulnerability and omniscience of Academia is real, unlike urban legend quotes about the Titanic. Everything rotten happening with Academia now is their own creation.

I can’t speak for anybody else, though I’m sure others would agree, but “My Mind Will Go On and On”.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

PopeBeanie,

Enco, I promise I was only reviewing this thread, starting with its first post back in December, and my purpose was not to find examples of the kind of stuff that you write. But the following comment spurred me to point out that Jason Stanley is not the only pontificator conflating “Fascism” with policies they criticize:

My use of the term comes from a place of study, specificlly from John T. Flynn’s As We Go Marching and Today’s Isms: Communism, Fascism, Capitalism, Socialism by Alan Ebenstein, William Ebenstein and Edwin Fogelman. This was an older version, after 2000, the 11th edition included Libertarianism.

• This reply was modified 2 weeks, 5 days ago by  TheEncogitationer. Reason: Spelling
• This reply was modified 2 weeks, 5 days ago by  TheEncogitationer. Reason: Spelling

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

PopeBeanie,

In other words, it takes more than just making stupid noises on EuroVision or not furnishing the apartment for me to use the term: “Fascist.” 😁

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