Weststander
Well-known member
From the Right Wing Dog Whistle Mail on Sunday.
Well it's an interesting discussion and on some of that (but not all of it - No platforming/curtailing freedom of speech for example, is authoritarian) I agree and it's not contrary to what I said, but I'm glad you acknowledge my central point, which wasn't that the left are fascists by the way, but that Trump isn't one.
"You would be hard pushed to find many on the left in America who believe in the pre-eminence of the USA as a state, over the good of the people who live there" - When you put it like that, sure. But when you put it another way, "You would be hard pushed to find many on the left in America who believe that group identity and group interests are more important than the identity or interests of the individual", I think you would find that that's modern leftist politics in a nutshell.
I'm thinking of staying up for a late nighter (superbowl style) but Mrs Wz is at the gym, I'm onto my second glass of Malbec and dinner's only just gone into the oven. Rather like the superbowl and election it could be a close run thing, or it's more likely to be over very early
Supposed to be about 11 so worth staying up for, but who knows.When are the first results of the battle ground states due in? Is it worth staying up?, or maybe getting up early?
When are the first results of the battle ground states due in? Is it worth staying up?, or maybe getting up early?
The left are consistently labelled as being overly-concerned with defining individuals as just being part of an identifiable group. Obviously individuals don't want to be defined by just one of their characteristics or traits. It feels dehumanising. The problem for the left is that the Marxist analysis of capitalism is a macro one and we live in a micro era. The analysis requires language that makes broad generalisations even if its intent is the betterment of all individuals.
For me, Marx was right in a lot of his analysis of the failings of capitalism and in identifying the winners and losers. He was wrong in trying to produce predictions of how the fundamental flaws in the system would be resolved. All political predictions based on economic models seem to be equally wrong, ignoring as they do, the fact that economics is but one of many drivers for the multitude of actors who create the future.
The right seems to have found ways to better appeal to the emotional, rather than analytical side of the brain. This seems effective, because the human brain tends to favour rationalising intuitive decisions to changing them upon challenge. It also doesn't help that the critique provided by the left is often telling people that they have more than they perceive themselves as having and asking that they give up power/status/money/privilege to benefit others. The challenge is made even greater by the separation of economic and political power that has accompanied the establishment of the capitalist hegemony (Sorry, I just couldn't avoid the word). This latter historical concept goes some way to explaining how the current crisis in capitalist democracies has arisen and how Trump's election was a symptom of the problem. It's explained far better by Yanis Varoufakis in the first part of this lecture:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIIgJq27HHA&pbjreload=101
I'm thinking of staying up for a late nighter (superbowl style) but Mrs Wz is at the gym, I'm onto my second glass of Malbec and dinner's only just gone into the oven. Rather like the superbowl and election it could be a close run thing, or it's more likely to be over very early
When are the first results of the battle ground states due in? Is it worth staying up?, or maybe getting up early?
I really hope Trump gets booted out.
Party registration does not tell the result. Republicans need to be ahead in registration numbers in Florida because the sizeable unaffiliated vote leans democrat and the Dems get more crossover votes than Rs. They need to be about 400k votes ahead of Dems to win but we're only up about 100k at lunchtime, and that's without Miami-Dade and other large Dem leaning counties reporting their numbers.
Don’t think I’ve done an all nighter for a US election before, but I do for all UK general elections (even when I was at secondary school). But I will for this one.
By all accounts, the earliest possible indications of anything would be 4am GMT. So going against my natural night owl body clock, I’m going to try to go to sleep at a decent time, setting the alarm for 4.
I’m well aware that due to the complexities of the Electoral College and the vastness of the size of some states, it may be a day or two before we really know. Even then the bungling orange cnt won’t accept defeat if he’s being kicked out of the WH.
I will keep watching, with no idea of what's happening when, until the Malbec or the old age gets me
Those of you who are planning to stay up late for some/all of it - what coverage are you watching?
I quite like watching the American programming for this - horrible glitzy logos and big primary colours everywhere. I want something centre-left (by US standards...) - recommendations?