Showing posts with label Conservatism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Conservatism. Show all posts

Thursday, September 19, 2024

MAGA And The Confederacy

"The framers of the new constitution hoped it would fix the problems of the first attempt to create a new nation. During the Revolutionary War, the Second Continental Congress had hammered out a plan for a confederation of states, but with fears of government tyranny still uppermost in lawmakers’ minds, they centered power in the states rather than in a national government.

"The result—the Articles of Confederation—was a 'firm league of friendship' among the 13 new states, overseen by a congress of men chosen by the state legislatures and in which each state had one vote. The new pact gave the federal government few duties and even fewer ways to meet them. Indicating their inclinations, in the first substantive paragraph the authors of the agreement said: 'Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every Power, Jurisdiction and right, which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled.'

"Within a decade, the states were refusing to contribute money to the new government and were starting to contemplate their own trade agreements with other countries. An economic recession in 1786 threatened farmers in western Massachusetts with the loss of their farms when the state government in the eastern part of the state refused relief; in turn, when farmers led by Revolutionary War captain Daniel Shays marched on Boston, propertied men were so terrified their own property would be seized that they raised their own army for protection."

Click on the link below for more. As you do so, keep in mind that MAGA wants to return to the Confederacy through the conservative mantra of "States Rights."


Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Attacks On Education: The Base Of Dictatorships

"With democracy under threat around the world, author Jason Stanley warns that the fundamental danger lies closer to home: in the schools. In his latest book, the American philosopher argues that attacks on education empower authoritarian regimes by reshaping our understanding of the past. Stanley joins the show to discuss."

Click on the link below for the history of dictatorships in recent decades:

Russia, Nazi Germany, MAGA: The Dangers of Weaponizing History and Education

Friday, September 13, 2024

Herd Mentality: Humanity's Achilles Heel

Herd Mentality: a psychological phenomenon that describes the tendency of people to conform to the beliefs or behaviors of a group they are part of. It can be seen in many aspects of life. (AI Overview)

Friday, September 6, 2024

Identity Politics And Chimpanzees

Cooperation is better than domination - - -

"The dark side of identity politics occurs when the dominant race/religion/gender (in today’s America that’s white Christian men) identifies people who aren’t part of their group as an 'other' and uses this otherness as a rallying cry to enlist members of the powerful in-group against the 'outsiders.' 

"This is what the GOP has been doing for years! Ever since 1968, when Richard Nixon picked up the white racist vote that Democrats abandoned in 1964/1965 when LBJ pushed the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act through Congress."

Click on the link below to understand that MAGA equals Chimpanzee behavior:


Saturday, August 31, 2024

15 Minutes To Really Understand US Politics

"An overwhelming majority of WHITE Christians vote Republican. And an overwhelming majority of BLACK Christians vote Democrat. Why is that? Don't they read the same Bible and pray to the same God? Which group doesn't know they're voting for the wrong party?? Phil Vischer takes us on a fast-paced trip through history to figure out why different American Christians read the same Bible, pray to the same God, and vote very, very differently."

Click on the link below to look at US history through the changes in the two major US political parties since the Civil War:

Why do White Christians Vote Republican, and Black Christians Vote Democrat?

Wednesday, August 14, 2024

Healthcare Policy: The Difference Is Stark

"The general election campaign is underway, spotlighting former President Trump, the Republican nominee, and Vice President Harris, the Democratic nominee, as the viable contenders for the presidency. Although health care reform may not be a central issue in this election as in the past, health care remains a significant concern for voters. Trump and Harris have distinctly different records and positions on health care. This side-by-side analysis provides a quick resource for understanding Trump’s presidential record and Harris’ record in the Biden-Harris administration and in previously held public office, as well as their current positions and proposed policies. Proposals are from when candidates served as president and vice president respectively unless text or links indicate otherwise. This tool will be continuously updated as new information and policy details emerge throughout the campaign."

Bookmark this post as it is updated. DO NOT ACCEPT THE DISINFORMATION FROM MAGA!!


Wednesday, August 7, 2024

Nationalism Is NOT Patriotism

"What is the 'idea' of America? The core of the American identity? Trump, Vance, and the GOP say they’re all about patriotism; in fact, they’re promoting a white Christian identity form of nationalism, which is an entirely different thing. A dark, dangerous, and deadly thing. Incompatible with our Founders’ idea of America. The work of our day is to restore the idea of America — an egalitarian democratic republic — and then help it realize its full potential after all these many long years…"

Click on this link for a video exposing the danger of white, Christian nationalism.

Tuesday, August 6, 2024

The Pre-Civil War Democrats Are Today's Republicans

" - - - Republicans crossing the aisle in 2024 are returning to their party’s origins.

"The Republican Party itself began as a coalition that came together to stand against an oligarchy whose leaders were explicit about their determination to overthrow democracy. As wealth had accumulated in the hands of a small group of elite southern enslavers, those men had turned against American democracy. 'I repudiate, as ridiculously absurd, that much-lauded but nowhere accredited dogma of Mr. Jefferson, that ‘all men are created equal,’ South Carolina senator James Henry Hammond said.

"Enslaver George Fitzhugh of Virginia rejected the other key principle of the Declaration of Independence: that everyone has a right to a say in the government under which they live. 'We do not agree with the authors of the Declaration of Independence, that governments ‘derive their just powers from the consent of the governed,’' he wrote in 1857. 'All governments must originate in force, and be continued by force.' There were 18,000 people in his county and only 1,200 could vote, he said, '[b]ut we twelve hundred…never asked and never intend to ask the consent of the sixteen thousand eight hundred whom we govern.'

"Enslavers like Hammond and Fitzhugh believed that some people were better than others and had the right—and the duty—to impose their will on everyone else. If they did not, men like Fitzhugh believed, poor men and marginalized people would insist on being equal, receiving the value of their work and living as they wished."

Click on this link to see how only the name has changed.

Saturday, July 20, 2024

Be Aware Of This Media Conglomerate

Besides Fox News and Talk Radio, there is - - -

Sinclair Broadcast Group

"A 2019 study in the American Political Science Review found that 'stations bought by Sinclair reduce coverage of local politics, increase national coverage and move the ideological tone of coverage in a direction relative to other stations operating in the same market'.[4][5] The company has been criticized by journalists and media analysts for requiring its stations to broadcast packaged video segments and its news anchors to read prepared scripts that contain pro-Trump editorial content, including warnings about purported 'fake news' in mainstream media, while Trump has tweeted support for watching Sinclair over CNN and NBC.[6][7][8][9][10] (Wikipedia)


Friday, July 19, 2024

Paul Manafort: Poster Child For The Harm Of MAGA

"Manafort was convicted of a slew of criminal charges for his work with Ukraine and obstruction of the investigation into the connections between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives, and was serving a seven-year sentence when Trump pardoned him in December 2020. Now he is back at the center of Trump’s MAGA Party."

Click on this link for an expose of an important cog in the evil of the present Republican Party: 

Thursday, July 18, 2024

Why Can't The Majority Accept Expert Opinion?

Fact: Biden is ranked 14th in scholars' presidential rankings; Trump is last (link)

Fact: Trump is ahead in most of the latest polls (link)

Fact: Republican and MAGA voters vote against themselves, especially in the south (link)

- - - - - - - - -

Thus, there is a need for universal education in Critical Thinking! (link)

Biden 14th in scholars' presidential rankings, Trump lastBiden 14th in scholars' presidential rankings, Trump lastBiden 14th in scholars' presidential rankings, Trump lastBiden 14th in scholars' presidential rankings, Trump lastBiden 14th in scholars' presidential rankings, Trump last

Wednesday, July 17, 2024

Reflections On Important Matters Now

Click on the link below for a bonus Best of the Left sample podcast looking at the following:

- How we're feeling
- The philosophy of liberal patriotism
- The positive policies Democrats should be running on to inspire voters
- The reckoning the current Democratic Party desperately needs

REFERENCES:

Liberal Patriotism Is About More Than Flag-Waving

How to Beat Trump in a World of Unreason

Democrats don’t just need a new candidate. They need a reckoning.


Monday, July 15, 2024

MAGA Lies & Evil Exposed

Click on this link for an expose of the lies of Trump/MAGA from the 2016 election through to the present. This effectively destroys the false equivalency claims of conservatives regarding election denial.

Sunday, July 7, 2024

The Disease Of Anti-Immigration Continues To Spread

"Border security around the world continues to take turns for the dark and dystopian as right-wing sentiment against migrants and refugees continues to escalate to the extreme."

Click on the link below for a 2-hour in-depth podcast addressing the rational and irrational fear of "The Other."


Saturday, July 6, 2024

The Dunning Kruger Effect: An Epidemic Within US Republicans

"The Dunning Kruger Effect is a cognitive bias that makes people believe they are smarter and more capable than they actually are. The effect is related to people’s general inaptitude to recognize their lack of ability. To learn how this comes about and what you can do to avoid it from happening to you, watch our video."

Click on the link below for a 5-minute video clearly explaining this bias within all anti-science thinkers:

The Dunning Kruger Effect

Friday, July 5, 2024

Truth: Stop Arguing About It, Understand It!

"What is truth? You can speak of moral truths and aesthetic truths, but I’m not concerned with those here, important as they may be. By truth I shall mean the kind of truth that a commission of inquiry or a jury trial is designed to establish. I hold the view that scientific truth is of this commonsense kind, although the methods of science may depart from common sense, and its truths may even offend it."

Three years ago, Richard Dawkins presented one of the best explanations of the meaning of truth. Click on the link below for such:


Tuesday, July 2, 2024

All Experts Out Of The US Federal Government If Republicans Win

"In a scathing dissent from the bench on Friday, Justice Elena Kagan excoriated her conservative colleagues for inserting themselves into the realm of current and future regulation and warned of an impending massive shock to the administrative system.

'A longstanding precedent at the crux of administrative governance thus falls victim to a bald assertion of judicial authority,' Kagan said of the court’s ruling. 'The majority disdains restraint, and grasps for power.'

"In a 6-3 ruling, the justices on Friday ended the 40-year practice that informed federal judges’ decision-making when federal agencies and their actions were challenged. The high court's 1984 ruling in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council had limited judicial decision-making in favor of agency expertise.

"A range of experts jumped on Kagan’s premonition, joining her in warning that Friday's decision will have far-reaching effects. From the halls of Congress to federal courtrooms, they say the decision opens the window for an increase in litigation against federal rules, as well as a potential chill on new ones.

“The federal government and environmental groups are going to be up to our ears in litigation just trying to preserve the status quo,” Sam Sankar, the senior vice president of programs at Earthjustice, said in a press briefing following the ruling."

As bad as the recent "Presidential Immunity" decision of the US Supreme Court was, this may have more harm. 

Click on the link below for more:


- - - - - - - - -

Click here to help save consumer protections.

Wednesday, June 26, 2024

Truth: The Most Abused Word

Truth: in accord with fact or reality (Webster's Dictionary)

- - - - - - - - - -
"Absolute truth is a statement that is true at all times and in all places. It is something that is always true no matter what the circumstances.[1] It is a fact that cannot be changed. For example, there are no round squares.[2] There are also no square circles.[2] The angles of a triangle add up to 180 degrees. These are all true by definition. Very similar are the propositions of Euclid, because they are proved once the axioms are accepted. One way or another, these are all truths because they are logically true. 

"Absolute truths are different from empirical truths. All the findings of science are empirical: based on evidence, and even if they are true in this world they don't need to be so in all the other possible worlds; they might also be wrong or incomplete due to lack of sufficient evidence. On the other hand, absolute truths might be based on logical truths, which are true by definition of their axioms." (Wikipedia)
- - - - - - - -
"Religious views on truth vary both between and within religions. *The most universal concept of religion that holds true in every case is the inseparable nature of truth and religious belief.
(*all religious opinions can't be correct, and none of them can verify/justify their beliefs)

"Truth is the sine qua non (without which, not) of politics. When lies overpower truth, politics dies. When politics dies, our world collapses, and we humans die too—because it is only in the world, among other humans, that we exist." " - - - We talk about polarization and the impossibility of dialogue, and what we mean is that we are no longer engaged in politics: We are not making a society together. This predicament is consistent with Arendt’s assertion that politics is impossible in the absence of truth.(link)
- - - - - - - - -

"However common it is to hear talk of “my truth, “your truth,” “her truth,” and even “no truth,” it’s worth asking: Is any of this actually true? We’re going to try and persuade you that this question matters most—making the case that

  a shared pursuit of truth (shaped by our unique perceptions, yes—but not completely constrained by them) is the only thing that makes conversation truly meaningful. 

If we enter into a conversation assuming that the truth itself is common to us both, yet recognizing that we don’t see it the same way, then we can at least begin to compare and contrast our perceptions of reality in order to sift out the truthful wheat from the troublesome chaff (exaggerations, omissions, mistakes, errors, lies, fake news, etc.)." (link)

Republicans don't respect the concept

Labels

Choose how you look at reality wisely. Yes, it is a binary choice.

Choose how you look at reality wisely. Yes, it is a binary choice.
Click on image

SCIENCE JUSTIFIES ITSELF

SCIENCE JUSTIFIES ITSELF
Click on image