2024 ELECTION THREAD
The next presidential race will be here soon! Please see current Bovada odds. Thoughts?
The western countries are the ones that are pioneering the way forward for the entire world, and part of it has to do with the leadership of Biden and the Democrats who have realized we can both continue to produce massive amounts of oil while also making sure that we create the infrastructure that will allow us to transition over the next 20-40 years to renewable energies that are going to end up being more and more cost-efficient. But let
European countries have been paying almost 1 eur per liter tax on gasoline for decades with little variance among them, we have lower emissions yet we are doing infinitely more than the USA, Biden is to the far right of climate change than what we have done in europe, you have no clue of how much green marxism has already assassinated the quality of life of europeans and what i am fighting against.
You are more than 30 years behind on our insanity on that. My "hypernationalism" is about the fact that we already did far far far far far more than it made sense we are bleeding horribly from it and we shouldn't do anything anymore for at least 20 years if not more.
That even in your insane models where we had a duty to do anything to being with, which i fully reject.
But anyway paying more than 3$ of taxes per gallon of gasoline since the 90s is objectively already a lot more than enough even if we literally did absoluetly nothing else about fossil fuels and emissions in any other part of the economy (which instead we did), even in your "altruist" model.
You fail to recognize that is happening and the green marxists are blocking our streets, defacing our monuments, blocking our bridges airports and trains claiming we are greedy and don't do anything for the climate. And people vote for parties that claim that and more and more regulation is happening.
Not sure you realize that RIGHT NOW in europe we passed laws to 1) ban combustion engine cars from being sold from 2035 2) fine automotive companies if they don't sell an increasing amount of EV every year (regardless of the fact that people don't want them if they don't get huge fiscal incentives) 3) mandate that any new building is *near zero emission* which makes new houses exceptionally expensive even in **** areas and even if local municipalities have good zoning
And then there is the increase in farming costs because the same psychopath go after sulfur and everything else, and ofc emissions in agriculture as well.
You think Biden is ok because he did a tiny bit (actuall congress as usual did but whatever), but what it did is to the far right of european rightwing governments. The tories proposed and implemented stuff to the far left of the democrats, and many leftist continental europe countries did a lot worse than that, + EU-wide rules.
Von der Leyen nominally is center-right but she is to the left of every single democrat senator wrt "the climate crisis".
And you dare to criticize ME because i say "enough, those are domestic terrorists"?
Trumper is not down for Bill Maher
so do you guys still think Maher is a far right conservative now?
must admit msdnc is quite catchy though 😀
Lol, the irony of putting "dumb as a rock" in quotes incorrectly. 80 years on this Earth and the man has not figured out how to use quotation marks in a sentence.
i would definitely be there, cash in hand
Alright.
I’ve deleted about 40 inappropriate posts from this recent conversation.
Rickroll will return to us in 24 hours for posting racial stereotypes about Chinese people, using the “trannies” slur, and calling another poster a “dipshit”.
Please let’s all return to posting on topic.
Thanks, friends ♥
idk about "far right" but Mahr has been rightwing for decades.
Bill Maher isn’t that bad. He doesn’t let his dislike of progressives and socialists get in the way of the real problem, which is Trump and Maga. If anything he gives far leftists way more of a platform than they deserve.
I deeply dislike him, regardless of his views.
I think pols, econ, law etc are serious subjects you have to learn about. I guess less than half of people who comment on these things professionally could get basic questions like what the difference between conservative and RW is.
That's bad enough. But, a bunch of actors and comedians discussing that stuff is even worse.
Like, let's have a show where Carrottop gives out medical advice and then brings on a bunch of celebs to debate issues in biology.
Probably one of the oldest surviving forms of comedy is satire, wherein people use the medium of comedy/humor to criticize current events/politics.
lol maher being rightwing. he's an old man who hasn't updated on trans issues and occasionally questions the dem party line on things like biden being fit to serve a 2nd term or censorship (which was a core leftist position 20 years ago)
he's a smug egotist to be sure... deeply unfunny for a self-proclaimed "comedian" and its wild he employs like 15 writers for his show, which is so far from comedy its sad. but rightwing is not an accurate descriptor.
lol maher being rightwing. he's an old man who hasn't updated on trans issues and occasionally questions the dem party line on things like biden being fit to serve a 2nd term or censorship (which was a core leftist position 20 years ago)
he's a smug egotist to be sure... deeply unfunny for a self-proclaimed "comedian" and its wild he employs like 15 writers for his show, which is so far from comedy its sad. but rightwing is not an accurate d
Remember, some of the people calling Maher right-wing think that the dems are right-wing too. The political compass quiz and its consequences have been a disaster for political discourse.
fair enough. i realize i don't know what constitutes right/left wing anymore
fun fact: maher has such a fragile ego his staff boots anyone who boos/groans during a show and doesn't allow them back
Probably one of the oldest surviving forms of comedy is satire, wherein people use the medium of comedy/humor to criticize current events/politics.
I haven't seen his show in a very long time. It used to be a little satire, and a lot of genuine commentary, maybe with a note of humor and then Rosie O'Donnell would debate gun control with Rob Schneider or something.
Pretty sure calling a dude who's voted straight dem for decades a right winger is just an idiotic attempt to shift the overton window to construct everything as right wing. That **** aint new.
Remember, some of the people calling Maher right-wing think that the dems are right-wing too. The political compass quiz and its consequences have been a disaster for political discourse.
Dems are RW on a number of issues, at least in comparison to their counterparts in other countries and American politicians of the past.
For example, wanting to be the only developed country without UHC is an outlier position. It is a position to the right of everyone else.
The short version is R is more hierarchy and L is more equality. Everyone having HC is more equal. So opposing that is a RW position
I haven't seen his show in a very long time. It used to be a little satire, and a lot of genuine commentary, maybe with a note of humor and then Rosie O'Donnell would debate gun control with Rob Schneider or something.
The point wasn't that his show is satire, my point is that comedians making political commentary is pretty in line with how comedy has always historically been used. Maybe the big difference is that some comedians like to escape the responsibility that they have as comedians and media figures by saying stuff like "well I'm just a stupid comedian, what do I know?" while having millions of people watching them. I'm thinking people like Joe Rogan or Jimmy Dore. Once you enter into the commentary space, we shouldn't allow people to be like "well I'm just some idiot what do I know?".
Dems are RW on a number of issues, at least in comparison to their counterparts in other countries and American politicians of the past.
For example, wanting to be the only developed country without UHC is an outlier position. It is a position to the right of everyone else.
The short version is R is more hierarchy and L is more equality. Everyone having HC is more equal. So opposing that is a RW position
The Democrats don't oppose universal healthcare. People conflate being against a medicare for all style system with being against universal healthcare. Plenty of countries don't have an NHS or Medicare for All style system but still have universal healthcare. Biden ran on the public option and pretty much every Democrat has a preferred plan for universal healthcare.
The issue that a lot of people don't like to talk about is twofold. First of all, most jobs nowadays give you health insurance as a benefit, so most working adults have absolutely no problem getting healthcare. Then, there are people that are super poor or old and they also get medicare or medicaid. Then there are veterans who have access to the VA. Then there are state programs for healthcare like medical for instance, there are public hospitals, free clinics, etc. Worst comes to worst, if you don't have health insurance hospitals are obliged to treat you in the ER and you incur medical debt, which can be discharged through hospital programs to help out people that don't have the money for treatment in many cases. Even if you are diagnosed with cancer, you can still get health insurance through ACA marketplaces.
And look, part of the problem is that the Democratic party might be pretty left, I mean they are a major party that has a Democratic Socialist caucus, but the system itself has so many separated powers that it's hard for Democrats to really do the same things that other countries with a parliamentary system can do. Furthermore, they are subdivided by states that have a good amount of power over what they're able to do. Furthermore we have to be careful with looking at Dems as one unified idea throughout time, because Clinton Democrats were more to the right than modern Dems. Even Biden who was considered a more centrist Dem throughout his career campaigned on a pretty progressive platform and got through some pretty decent policies.
I'm sure Luciom will now come in with some rant about how Europe is Marxist or whatever but yeah
The point wasn't that his show is satire, my point is that comedians making political commentary is pretty in line with how comedy has always historically been used. Maybe the big difference is that some comedians like to escape the responsibility that they have as comedians and media figures by saying stuff like "well I'm just a stupid comedian, what do I know?" while having millions of people watching them. I'm thinking people like Joe Ro
I am not sure why you call that a rant, you haven't addresses any of the claims.
But take Dem controlled states, states where Dem own politics completely.
There are some insane things like Hawaii, perma-dem controlled by a trifecta (state wise) with less than 20 cent of gasoline state tax per gallon.
How do you square that with democrats being even comparable to rightwing European parties which, when they manage, attempt to decrease taxes on gasoline 5 cent per liter from the 80 we are at in Italy and elsewhere?
20c per gallon doesn't even necessarily pay for road maintenance itself (which was the original purpose of the tax), there is no pigouvian adjustment for pollution (the actual real air pollution, relevant in urban settings), nevermind for carbon emissions.
Why don't Dem controlled state introduce a full universal statewide coverage for healthcare?
The right in Europe doesn't even attempt to remove it!
HOW can you defend democrats asking for Medicare for all and huge pigouvian taxes at the federal level when in the places they control in full with no opposition they don't pass the same even if they could?
Do you realize that California itself with the highest gasoline state taxes, has them at like 1/3-1/4 the continental Europe level?
California pays k12 teachers close to 100k/year, and they can't cover the totality of residents with healthcare?
Maybe, just maybe, they don't want to? Which means they lie 24/7 at the federal level, while they prove day in and day out their preferences are different?
