US Politics Thread

[BodyButter]

Yes its quite an authoritarian state, Austin is the bluest city in the freest state in the freest country. Obviously that's all a joke but this is how the Texans see themselves and America. The book banning alone tells you almost everything you need to know about the states.

I often wonder what is by design and what is just an unintended consequence. The militarization of the police is a big one. The war on terror gave the local cops big fat budgets which they struggled to spend on normal police equipment and activities. And like every company I've ever worked for they have a "use it or lose it" budget. If you want to keep getting your big fat budget you need to keep spending. The story goes the military-industrial complex started to target the cops knowing they had unspent budgets and this how we end up with small towns having APCs and weapon rooms full of m16s.

The Defund the Police crowd are on to something they just haven't packaged it right. The cops seem to respond to every call the opposite way you'd want them to as a citizen.

Re: the flags and nazism and so on, that's a whole other thing. I am not sure how to even tackle that statement but I get what you're saying. And I think the truth is there are elements of that in American society. There are a lot of American Nationalists but its white Americans and whiteness. And that is essentially Nazism, I think its simultaneously a lot of people but also not a lot. Like as a % of society its not that many but because there are 300m people its an enormously large amount of people in pure numbers.

I often wonder if the brains behind Operation Paperclip scooped up more than the scientists.

 

[CDX_EIRE]

I often wonder if the brains behind Operation Paperclip scooped up more than the scientists.

You wouldn't have to there was a large Nazi rally in NYC in the 30s. Lots of Germans had already immigrated to the States by this time too so they were already concerned about discontent at home.

This stuff won't just die off, look at Germany, did everything they could to eradicate Nazism and they still have far-right lunatics in their country. The states never tried and worse, republicans encourage white supremacist policies and goade poor white people into believing they have enemies walking among them.

 

[mike_field]

You can't kill an idea, you can only temper it with fact.

When I fully go off on one even when I'm only speaking to myself on here, I prove the point, the biggest problem now is the polarisation. At least we all have our moments but largely listen even if we disagree, way too much now features no listening because it's self involved, and you look at politics and it's 'me' or the media and it's 'make a profit'.