Politics

[E. Gadd Industries]

A friend of mine has come up with a clever little saying that sums all of it up in two words: "Pound downed."

[Pianist Da Sootopolis]

The Brexit movement also harbored an unsettling amount of neo fascists, for what it's worth. Granted, it wasn't the majority of the supporters, but it was a fair amount.

[Yug_Guy]

so britian voted out of the EU just now.  I hear that's a pretty bad thing for world politics

Forget politics, all the world's stock markets took a massive nosedive today. The Dow Jones and the S&P 500 dropped 3.6% and 3.4% respectively, and similar indexes in Europe have dropped as much as 8%. And, it's probably going to get even worse once the UK Parliament actually votes on whether or not they're actually going to leave.

[mikey]

maybe this will end up being good for everyone

[Pianist Da Sootopolis]

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/bernie-sanders-finally-endorse-hillary-clinton-n607591

To my fellow progressives who feel that Bernie has betrayed you:
He hasn't. He's made the best of the situation that he's in. He's throwing his support behind a candidate who, yes, has all the Wall Street and big business connections that she does. But the alternative would have been to have been horrible about the whole thing, and what good would that actually do? He's managed to push (and keep) the democratic platform significantly to the left, whereas if he had been nasty about it and instead, say, endorsed Jill Stein, he would've both split the progressive vote more than it already is and gotten nothing done in the meantime.
The Democratic platform isn't perfect, but now it has things that liberals have been wanting for a while: a pathway to legalization of marijuana, $15 minimum wage, and language to defeat climate change.
There are plenty of things that I wish WERE in there, like ending corporate welfare and funding elections with public money, as to get rid of corruption in the system. But the notion that Bernie has sold out is false; he hasn't, he's doing what he can to make HRC and her platform as progressive as possible.

[Altissimo]

hey, thanks. this narrative of him being a sellout is so annoying

[Pianist Da Sootopolis]

It's really only based in dislike of Clinton.
I don't like her either, she's the status quo establishment democrat that isn't really gonna do much, and will do all the same corporate welfare and favors for big business, but she's FAR better than Trump.
As for Bernie being a sellout, you need only look at his (extensive) voting record.

[BlackDragonSlayer]

I think* the reason why people are calling Bernie a sellout/shill/whatever term you want to describe his support with, is because, despite (as you said) trying to mitigate the effects of a potentially harmful candidate (that goes for both of the nominees), what he's doing essentially amounts to throwing his support behind (and enabling, so to say) someone believed by many to be someone perfectly willing to screw over the American people (for lack of a more apt description) and the common welfare of the country, something that is directly contradictory to his previously-stated goals, especially when the "best" alternative would be simply to remain neutral and retain the faith of his most vocal/loyal supporters.

*(DISCLAIMER: the statements expressed in this post do not reflect my personal opinions and are simply an observation about the situation, and as such I cannot debate this any further because I am simply stating what I believe other people to think about Bernie allegedly being a "sellout" and not necessarily what I believe personally)

[Pianist Da Sootopolis]

I think* the reason why people are calling Bernie a sellout/shill/whatever term you want to describe his support with, is because, despite (as you said) trying to mitigate the effects of a potentially harmful candidate (that goes for both of the nominees), what he's doing essentially amounts to throwing his support behind (and enabling, so to say) someone believed by many to be someone perfectly willing to screw over the American people (for lack of a more apt description) and the common welfare of the country, something that is directly contradictory to his previously-stated goals, especially when the "best" alternative would be simply to remain neutral and retain the faith of his most vocal/loyal supporters.

*(DISCLAIMER: the statements expressed in this post do not reflect my personal opinions and are simply an observation about the situation, and as such I cannot debate this any further because I am simply stating what I believe other people to think about Bernie allegedly being a "sellout" and not necessarily what I believe personally)

I get where those sentiments (and I acknowledge that they aren't necessarily your own) are coming from, but they're still wrong from a political strategy standpoint. If Bernie had remained neutral, he wouldn't have pushed the democratic platform to the left as he has. Do you think Hillary would've put a 15 dollar minimum wage in there had Bernie not been campaigning for it since day 1, and not given up now at the most crucial moment? Same with climate change and marijuana legalization. Would she just randomly decide to throw those things in had Bernie not been pushing for them all throughout his campaign?

[mikey]

why are you all so intent on legalizing marijuana, it's kind of humorous

[Sebastian]

why are you all so intent on legalizing marijuana, it's kind of humorous

It feelsz gerd mahn

[Bubbles]

I know this is kinda steering the convo off topic lmao but I was actually on board with legalizing marijuana until I hung out with a heavy smoker for a wekeend. She talked about it casually and tried to explain why it's not that bad and why she does it so much but I read between the lines and genuinely got scared for her

I mean I'm sure there's more casual users and it's not inherently bad if not abused but from how she described it it sounded like she used to be one of those casual people 6 years ago before it started slowly taking over her life.

[FireArrow]

why are you all so intent on legalizing marijuana, it's kind of humorous

because you wouldn't know what it's like to feel strongly about a political stance amirite

[Pianist Da Sootopolis]

why are you all so intent on legalizing marijuana, it's kind of humorous

Because a) it's none of the govt's business what substances I choose to put into my body, b) it's not nearly as dangerous a drug as already legal substances such as alcohol and tobacco (and therefore locking people up for its use is ridiculous), and c) blatant banning of substances creates a black market for them; we see this now in the Latin American drug cartels.

[Pianist Da Sootopolis]

I know this is kinda steering the convo off topic lmao but I was actually on board with legalizing marijuana until I hung out with a heavy smoker for a wekeend. She talked about it casually and tried to explain why it's not that bad and why she does it so much but I read between the lines and genuinely got scared for her

I mean I'm sure there's more casual users and it's not inherently bad if not abused but from how she described it it sounded like she used to be one of those casual people 6 years ago before it started slowly taking over her life.

There will be people who treat it this way, of course. But the vast majority of people who use marijuana recreationally are just as in control as people who have a glass of wine with dinner.