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saintambrose · 4 years

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haha it’s US politics hours

listen, this tumblr has always been a fandom place since its inception and I’ve not really designated it as a space for political discussion because 1) I have several other avenues for that arena of discussion and 2) escapism was the theme here; but I’ve finally watched The Comey Rule and I have some THOUGHTS

and I’m not really sure how active anyone is here anymore anyway, because I’ve not really been around as regularly as I was before the nsfw-ban shitstorm, so. Diving right in.

Probably my favorite thing was how it painted the American right wing as this faux-centrist bastion of impartiality at first, the whole circus with HiLLaRy’S EmAiLs being about how they legitimately believed they could play the angle that the emails were a threat to national security all while they knew damn well it was a huge big nothingburger (with a side of hatred of women) while doing that thing that right wingers have done since the Reagan administration where they malign anything left of fascism as communism (including basic human rights) and then, predictably, you have all these very furrowed-browed old white men sitting around a conference table being VERY CONCERNED that precisely the thing they wanted to happen came true and they are completely unprepared to do damage control on the mess they engineered because WHITE MEN ARE INCAPABLE OF UNDERSTANDING THE CONCEPT OF CONSEQUENCES OF THEIR OWN ACTIONS. 🤣😂🤣😂

In all seriousness. I wasn’t crazy about Hillary either. I don’t like dynasties of any kind, royal or political. I don’t like establishment dems who are really just center-right in the real world while masquerading as left in backwards-ass bizarro-world USA. But I’m an old motherfucker now, I’m well into my 30s, I’m boring and watch CSPAN for leisure and shit. I read the reports coming out of the DOJ. One of my degrees is in political science, though admittedly, that’s the least thing that matters, in the scope of everything else these days. But it’s safe to say Hillary was unfairly maligned while republicans committing atrocities exponentially worse have been treated with kid gloves for decades. A very distinct double standard has been applied here for....longer than I’ve been alive, that even the most educated people on the left have refused to acknowledge for far too long. I watched that entire BeNgHaZi hearing (which is easily accessible on youtube, so there’s literally no excuse not to know the facts on this), and everyone knew -- everyone knew it was a bullshit smear campaign.

So, this post isn’t so much a review of the miniseries more than it’s an indictment of the corruption of American politics. The most damning aspect being that, on principle, US politics has always had a problem with embracing progressive policy, and basic civil rights in general. That’s not news; people have known this for some time. But the thing that this miniseries really illustrated in a very cartoonish, yet succinct, way is that there are experienced professionals who hold the highest, most powerful seats of authority in this country who won’t bat an eye at dedicating their entire careers to denigrating common decency, basic human rights, and even constitutional law, while being absolutely incapable of conceiving the long-term consequences of these actions, who will then turn around and concern troll over the ashes of the empire they enthusiastically helped to burn down. It’s nauseating. It’s infuriating. It shows a pathological disregard for personal responsibility.

Everyone was so preoccupied with their massive turgid erection for hating the Clintons (and women) that no one saw they were enthusiastically living in a henhouse built by fucking foxes. No one saw the genuine threat.

And, by extension, no one had the balls to acknowledge that age-old instinct of white men willing to engage in a scorched earth campaign simply to satisfy their worst impulses and entitlement complexes.

Can you fit “Who cares if we’re screwing over several generations with corrupt court-packing and a flagrant disregard for checks-and-balances predicated entirely on the honor system; we just don’t feel like doing domestic labor or respecting women and minorities so we’ll continue expediting reprehensible policies that exploit the most vulnerable people in this country because we can’t compete in an authentic meritocracy" onto a campaign slogan banner?

I sounded the alarms on this trend 20 years ago, meanwhile. My parents and I had just gotten US citizenship, luckily months before 9/11 and the patriot act; and as an outsider looking in, as someone who had risked their life escaping a dangerous regime at an incredibly young age, I saw the warning signs in the republican party even back then. Naturally, I was denigrated as an alarmist and a butthurt liberal.

You know, I’ll acknowledge that as a white person, I’m not the average American’s image of what an “immigrant” looks like. My experiences here over the past couple of decades have thrown into sharp relief how “immigrant” is just a dogwhistle for racist bullshit, because people who concern troll about us don’t seem to have many problems with us white ones. But I came out of a communist country. I’m straight outta the eastern bloc. And I don’t think there are any words in any spoken language that can do justice to how insulting it is when americans try to americasplain communism to me. Bitch. Y’all don’t fucking know. You just don’t.

The point is, even back then, I could see the slippery slope republicans were tumbling down, and I can't say I derive any pleasure from being vindicated in such an extreme fashion. Like. I told y’all motherfuckers. TWO DECADES AGO.

People who aren’t familiar with US politics, and even long-term US citizens who for some reason feel like it’s a waste to pay attention to your own shit, seem to spend a lot of time trying to unpack what precisely went wrong. My observations came up with 1) the manipulative aspect of US history in public schools glossing over, and even omitting, the most gruesome aspects of the revolutionary war, the holocaust, and the cold war (and oftentimes, the cold war is NEVER EVEN COVERED, which is especially insulting to me, for obvious reasons); 2) the manipulative aspect of US history in public schools teaching kids that the Declaration of independence and the Constitution are unassailable doctrines of freedom and liberty, and, as such, after independence was won, no further activism to maintain democracy was needed so we can all just smoke a bowl and be complacent because all those authoritarian third world regimes we constantly ridicule and criticize can NeVeR HaPPeN hErE 😒; and 3) how limpdick both-sidesism replaced civil, comprehensive political discussion because the right spent so long abusing, denigrating, and bullying the left that it was just easier to play it safe and take the milquetoast ~centrist~ stance, which always, always, always capitulates to the lowest common denominator, which is always the oppressor.

And generally just this age-old trend of holding the victims of systematic oppression to a higher moral and behavioral standard than the perpetrators of systematic oppression.

Guys, I’m tired. I’m so tired.

I’ve gotten a few questions over the years about why my writing is so angsty, why it always seems to follow the same themes; war crimes, PTSD, gore, torture.

I already escaped one authoritarian regime. The USA promised us one thing, and then once we got here, it started emulating the very tyrants we worked so hard to get away from. A lot of people have no idea what that feels like. How much of a betrayal that is. Especially considering all the financial and legal landmines one has to navigate just to do it, and then we’re punished for that, too.

I write about PTSD because I fucking have it. I write about war crimes because I’ve experienced them firsthand - just as a victim and not the perpetrator. I so often write about soldiers committing them because I want to roleplay what it’s like to not be a victim for once.

tbh writing a fucking Hamilton fanfiction is one of the most cathartic things I’ve ever done, but the extensive research I’ve had to do to be able to write this thing has been low-key traumatic. There’s a lot of historical material I’ve consumed that should have been covered at the most basic level of compulsory education, but conspicuously isn’t. And I know that’s a feature, not a bug. It’s by design.

Democracy - and independence, freedom, liberty, justice, civil rights in general - isn’t just some final xbox achievement that you unlock and then just shelve the game and forget about it for the rest of your life. You have to keep grinding to maintain it, because there will always be selfish, malicious people out there who will dedicate their entire lives playing a long con to ensure you don’t get the same opportunities as them. For the love of god, stop playing the both-sidesism game. From someone coming out of the eastern bloc, I can tell you with great confidence that that was part of the propaganda campaign you were fed to keep you from engaging so they could install a dictatorship under your nose. Do some self-guided historical research, guys. It can be very illuminating.

Anyway. I’ve gone on long enough here, but damn, don’t screw this up again, guys. Today is the first day of early voting in Texas, and I’m going to do my duty. When I first came to this country, after experiencing the rigorous vetting process and labyrinthine legal requirements of US citizenship, I was led to believe that in exchange for that privilege, I was personally responsible for my own civic self-education. It’s so much more important than you've been led to believe.

#uspol #long post #also uhhhh brendan gleeson really needs to win an award #i hope he's ok mentally after playing that role yikes yikes yikes #also 'why do your characters so often have alcohol abuse problems' uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

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the50-person · 4 years

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HONG KONG UPDATE 13 DEC 2019

0830: Central. Walk to Work protest, these protests have been going on for weeks in different parts of the city of HK and are meant to show persistence and incorporate resistance into everyday lives.

0900: Wan Chai. Japanese man shows solidarity for HK by serving free coffee outside MTR station while busker plays Glory to Hong Kong on saxophone next to him. He came all the way from Japan.

1300-1500: Tsim Sha Tsui. White collar workers (admin and secretarial) union to meet to register members.

11,000 HK police officers have received HK$950 million (averaging $86,000 per officer) in overtime pay. Where does all that money come from? Taxpayers. For what. Attacking and repressing said taxpayers. UPDATE: New reports say that USD120,000,000 overtime pay from Jun to Nov 2019 for police that do nothing but terrorise and hurt citizens? Gov’s own figures for protest damage to public facilities was HKD 10.5 million as of Nov 2019 (though they do inflate the figures as they deflate protest turnout LOL). Sooooooo city spent 90 times as much paying a goon squad. Who’s really destroying HK and causing economic chaos? Hmmm?

Gov said proposed pay rise to all civil servants include overtime pay for police and relevant adjustment if the proposal is passed. Not immediately clear how much short of funding police is, but let’s be real, they are NOT short on money. Finance Committee, which has a pro-Beijing majority, voted down a democrat-proposed motion to summon police reps to answer questions at the legislature.

Financial info provider Refinitiv has blocked more than 200 Reuters stories abt the HK protests in mainland China, with the self-censorship denying Refinitiv customers in China access to coverage of one of the year’s top stories.

1500: Police say 70 teachers and teaching assistants have so far been arrested. Gov has investigated about 60 teachers and is ‘considering measures’ against 30. The political crackdown continues. Education sector lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen (pro-dem) points out clear double standards: police officers can commit the most egregious abuses e.g. deliberately running over citizens with motorcycle and shooting people, with no consequences; teachers who are arrested (not even convicted) can be suspended.

1800-2100: Tsim Sha Tsui. Hundreds of Sham Shui Po and Yau Tsim Mong secondary students hold rally to support arrested peers. Yesterday, around 600 Tuen Mun students rallied. The over 2,300 arrested students come from over 300 secondary schools.

#hong kong #china #chinese #human rights #anti-extradition #news #and so the world spins

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agatapacho · 4 years

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70 strategies that white people in the UK can adopt to fight racial injustice

“Washing one’s hands off the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.” — Paulo Freire

“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” — Alice Walker

To help to turn ideas of equality, justice and safety for all into practice, I’ve listed 70 strategies that white people can adopt in their lives to take a stance. Anti-racism is a verb. "I'm not a racist" disclaimer has never saved lives or contributed to greater equality in the workplace. We need direct action, online & offline. We need continuous efforts.

Fight for racial justice is an international and intersectional struggle. The strategies can be adapted or linked to others, which are more appropriate for different contexts.

**Note that this article is continually updated on agatapacho.wordpress.com

Action against police brutality & violence against immigrants

1. Follow and support The United Families & Friends Campaign (UFFC), a coalition of those affected by deaths in police, prison and psychiatric custody, supports others in similar situations. Participate in marches and demonstrations they organise, donate, spread the word.

2. Go to protests and demonstrations. When faced with the police, go to the front - you are less likely to be arrested and more likely to be treated with dignity.

3. When media outlets arrive to interview protesters, let POC speak. Don’t try to be the voice of the movement, be the ally.

4. Use your phone to record police arrests, racist attacks and racist behaviour. It will be easier to make a complaint afterwards. Make sure that the victim is ok with you sharing the recording with others.

5. Follow and support the work of organisations that monitor police, defend the right to protest and campaign for justice for those affected by police violence. You can find a list of organisations here.

6. Join Movement for Justice By Any Means Necessary, set up in 1995, following the murder of Stephen Lawrence, to tackle racism in institutional and established forms. Join demonstrations, which they organise against detention centres and deportations.

7. Support No Borders UK, a network of groups and individuals who fight against borders and immigration controls.

8. Download the Y-Stop app on your phone. The app is a tool for you to monitor how police stop and search is conducted. It helps you film and collect your own evidence and share it with Y-Stop, no longer having to rely on police records. It makes it easier for making a complaint about what happened and, for the victim, to access support and advice. Y-Stop is a project run by Release in partnership with StopWatch.

9. Attend trails to show support to POC. Remember that discrimination and white supremacy are institutionalised in the legal system and legal institutions.

10. Learn about the Windrush scandal and donate to The Windrush Justice Fund.

Out & about and AWARE

11. Don’t be shy to talk about white supremacy online and offline. Start with your friends, family and colleagues. Tell them that you care about racial justice and explain why it’s important to you. Invite them to the discussion, share articles and tweets that challenge problematic views.

12. Never be silent about that racist joke or remark. Calling people out gets more comfortable with time.

13. Challenge all forms of racism, from the use of N-word to those seemingly more innocent ones, for example, claims to colour-blindness.

14. Prepare yourself to tackle the usual racist arguments, such as ‘black on black crime’. See how others are doing it, learn about the origins of the racist remarks to be able to unpack them skilfully until the person understands the wrongness of them.

15. Support Black women. Promote their work and support their businesses. Challenge colourism (discrimination faced by darker-skinned black people) and jokes or negative comments about natural hair.

16. Attend active bystander training. Learn how to intervene when you witness a racist attack. Putting yourself at risk is not going to be useful. It’s safer to call out behaviour if you’re in a group. If this is not an option, report it to others who can act. Focus on the victim, ask if they need your help and what kind of help. When intervening, remember the four Ds: direct, distract, delegate, delay. Do not aggravate the situation - stick exactly to what has just happened. Distract by interrupting and starting a conversation with the perpetrator - this will help the victim to escape the situation. Delegate: find someone who can help and make sure that the help is offered to the victim. Delay: if it is too dangerous to challenge the attacker, help the victim to get them away to safety. You can report the situation later - this will be easier if you or someone else record the situation.

17. If you notice that you are being served first at a bar even though a POC was there before you, challenge the bar staff. Make a complaint and say that you won’t be visiting them again.

18. Blackface is never ok. It can always be avoided. That includes using Snapchat and Instagram filters to make your skin darker and using non-white emojis.

Online activism

19. Do not dismiss symbolic action. Use hashtags (#blm #blacklivesmatter #blackhistory #blackhistorymonth #nojusticenopeace), add frames to your FB profile picture. Gary Younge, professor of sociology at Manchester University, writes: “No one can claim a causal connection between #MeToo and the historic number of women that were elected to the US Congress a year later. But the contextual relationship between the two is hard to dismiss.”

20. Every time you witness, hear or read on social media about an instance of racism, complain. Contact the organisation, company, or an institution involved to express your disappointment. Share the story with others together with the contact details to encourage wider protests. The company might have initiated the event or failed to protect a POC from harm done by a third party. They need to hear from us. If you are dealing with a company that relies on customers, say that you will not spend money there. And stick to it!

21. Be vocal on social media about the misrepresentations and racist agenda in media. Do not accept them as a status quo.

22. Also, be critical of tokenism (Tokenism is the practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort to be inclusive to members of minority groups, especially by recruiting a small number of people from underrepresented groups in order to give the appearance of racial or sexual equality within a workforce).

Decolonize your mind & your ways

23. Be a part of the decolonisation movement. If you are a student, demand that your curriculum includes a diverse list of writers of colour and their voices are considered not exclusively on topics of race and racism. If you are an educator, make sure that you introduce works written by POC. Encourage your colleagues to do the same. Encourage your students to let the school/university know diverse curriculum is important to them.

24. Find out how history is being taught at your child’s school and advocate that it is taught correctly when it comes to the topics of the British Empire, slavery and immigration. Naznin Rahman, Teacher of Sociology and Religious Studies, says that even younger non-white pupils may be aware that the statistics tend to portray them as under-achievers and, as a result, feel disempowered. At the same time, the way in which the curriculum is delivered has an impact on how they see themselves. Decolonised curriculum may be a tool of empowerment.

25. Scrutinise popular heroes and role models. Remain critical towards those cherished by the establishment. This article on Gandhi should do as a warning.

26. If you attend a cultural event that lacks diversity, challenge the organisers on that during a Q&A, or by contacting them afterwards. Share your disappointment on social media. Bad publicity may inspire change.

27. Visit institutions and attend events that promote artists of colour. Subscribe, purchase a membership and spread the word. If you are based London, check these out: Iniva, Black Cultural Archives, Autograph, Rich Mix, Royal African Society, 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning.

28. Join a group/society that engages with art produced by POC. If you can’t find one near you, start one.

29. Buy books and choose films and tv shows written and directed by non-white artists. Consider that when buying gifts for family and friends.

30. Decolonise your bookshelf. Make sure that, if you enjoy literature, you read authors of colour.

31. Avoid cultural appropriation. gal-dem explains: “At a basic level, cultural appropriation is the process of adopting certain elements of another culture, such as practices, ideas, or symbols, and removing them from their original cultural context. It is considered inappropriate for many reasons, such as the profiting off the intellectual property of other cultures, disrespecting spiritual or religious figures and practices, and the double-standards involved when a dominant culture adopts aspect of a culture they have historically oppressed.”

32. Do not buy from brands that appropriate non-western traditional attires profit with no recognition of the heritage behind them. This article explains the harm of cultural appropriation.

33. Always be critical of the media you consume and the information you encounter. Investigate who funds particular platforms, who are the intended audiences and who profits from certain representations of racial groups and events. It has been documented that stereotypes, myths and racist ideologies promoted in media have led to violence against POC. Claudia Rankine writes: “because white men can’t police their imagination, black men are dying”.

34. Watch films and tv series that have POC playing lead characters and that show full humanity of those characters.

35. There has been a reported renewal of interest in eugenics with London Conference on Intelligence meetings on eugenics secretly held at University College London. If you happen to hear about similar events, report them to the authorities and the University and College Union.

36. Be mindful of the pornography you consume and avoid racist content. The porn industry is affected by racism like any other industry.

Learn

37. Know British history. Learn about non-European history. Check out the work of David Olusoga who is one of the UK's foremost historians and an expert on the history of the British Empire.

38. Campaign to increase the visibility of soldiers of colour who fought for Britain. Share their histories on social media on Remembrance Day.

39. Explore BFI’s collection Black Britain on Film and the National Theatre’s Black Plays Archive.

40. Follow accounts that provide commentary on current events and issues: Gary Younge, Emma Dabiri, Akala, Reni Eddo-Lodge, Nikesh Shukla, Handsworth Revolution, Cyndi Handson Ellesse.

41. Follow Black Lives Matter UK, gal-dem, Media Diversified, S.M.I.L.E-ing Boys Project, Blacxellence.

42. Read ‘The Good Immigrant’ and follow authors who contributed to the collection.

43. If you are an educator, read bell hooks’ ‘Teaching to Transgress’ and ‘Teaching Community’ to learn about diverse strategies and work towards anti-racist education.

44. Educate yourself about the history of activism of POC in the UK.

45. Educate yourself about the long history of contributions made by academics of colour to how we understand the world today.

At work

46. Campaign to hire more POC at your workplace, especially in managerial positions.

47. Whenever you can, speak against the Prevent Strategy.

48. Challenge your workplace if they exclusively make allowances for Christian festivals. Check if there is an accessible multi-faith prayer room. If there isn’t one already, campaign for setting it up.

Economic impact

49. Support business owned by POC. This website offers a list of independent Black British businesses. Choosing where you spend money is one of your most powerful weapons. Take away £££ from racist businesses and support POC.

50. Don’t support businesses that use prison labour. This article explains why prison labour is problematic.

51. Be aware of where your favourite brands choose to advertise - do they fund white supremacist media?

52. Always credit artists whose work you use to make your social media accounts interesting and pretty. Also, never claim credit for work you have not done. If you steal from a POC, the offence is even bigger.

53. Support artists of colour by investing in and purchasing their work. Don’t stream illegally.

54. Understand how the area where you live is affected by gentrification. Think about the impact of those changes on POC living there. Join local efforts against gentrification and support business that are at risk.

55. Buy makeup from brands that cater to everyone. Boycott those that don’t offer enough shades and inform them on social media about your decision.

Hold your MPs accountable

56. Vote for those who are committed to racial justice. Put pressure on your local MPs to specify how they are planning on tackling racism. Continue writing to them.

57. Keep yourself updated on changes to legislation. Write to your local MPs if you are concerned that new amendments can affect the lives of POC negatively. Start a petition and share your worry on social media. Let them know they are being watched.

58. Support the legalisation of the recreational use of cannabis. This is not because POC use it more frequently but because they are arrested for possessions more often.

Know how to be a part of the debate

59. Know that POC do not have the responsibility to share their experiences with you, educate you about racial inequality or even discuss it. That also refers to the conversations you have with those who are your friends or partners.

60. At the same time, appreciate when they do share their knowledge and experiences and advise you on how you can help.

61. When attending events organised by POC, focus on listening and learning. Don’t question speakers’ experiences of racial discrimination, do not compare their experiences to yours, do not assume that you know already. Appreciate that you’re allowed into that space and remain respectful.

62. When told about someone’s experiences of racism, never ask for evidence or challenge them. Don’t suggest waiting out - you are asking them to continue to suffer.

63. Do not rush to share videos of police brutality with your friends/colleagues/partners who are POC. Accept that they are affected to a far greater extent than you are. Also, do not tell them how to grieve or how to cope with the trauma. Be there to listen and care.

64. It’s ok if you’re not welcomed to all spaces. Respect the right of POC to exclude you from the conversation. Reni Eddo-Lodge cites her friend who advocates the need for creating spaces exclusively for black women. That’s how she describes participating in mixed feminist groups: “Even if you’re really confident and really vocal, there is still a holding back that you have to do. Because as a normal human being, you kind of don’t really like confrontation. And there’s an element of just speaking the truth of what it means to be a black woman in the UK that it would be ridiculous, as a white person, to not read that as implication you.”

65. When a POC complaints about racism to you, don’t take it personally. Unless they are specifically referring to your actions, it is not about you. They talk about the systematic racism, which you have the responsibility to fight. Listen to the complaints and learn from them how you can do better.

66. Don’t whitesplain. Ever. No, you do not know better. Ever.

67. Don’t play devil’s advocate in debates about racism. You’re only restating and reinforcing the status quo, disrespecting others’ critical thinking skills and positioning your thought process as superior and more valuable than someone’s lived experience. As a consequence, you are more likely to shut down the conversation rather than add to it or learn from it.

68. Make sure that you know the difference between well-meaning and consequences. Having good intentions isn’t enough. Always consider the potential consequences of your actions on the lives and well-being of POC.

Final thoughts

69. Do not feel demotivated if your efforts are not recognised. Keep doing the work when no one is watching. As Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie famously said, “'Racism should never have happened and so you don't get a cookie for reducing it.”

70. Support other allies who put themselves in dangerous situations to fight for racial justice. The Stansted 15, a group of non-violent human rights activists who took action to stop a deportation flight leaving from Stansted Airport were spared jail after campaigns in their defence.

This post has been inspired by Corinne Shutack’s article.

#blacklivesmatter #blm #blacklivesmatteruk #blmuk #nojusticenopeace #woke #antiracism #racism #resist

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helly-watermelonsmellinfellon · 5 years

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Why are people so ready to hate on Taylor for shit everyone else does all the time??? I’m so tired. Honestly I have no strong feelings for her because I only listen to a little of her music, and I don’t follow her, but this is disgusting and I’m so thankful I follow u who always has her back against nonsensical bullshit. They really are making me wanna stan just to spite their pathetic misogynistic world views. For real. Ugh. Just thanks for being a breath of fresh air. It’s relieving.

^-^

I will call out anything. I’m not saying she’s never made a mistake. She has indeed, but she apologizes, learns, and then grows. When people claim that 5 years ago she was very White Feminist, it isn’t necessarily wrong. She was for the most part. It isn’t that she believed only white women’s rights mattered, it was that she believed everyone mattered, but she wasn’t very vocal or demonstrative about it so it was hard to tell where she stood on anything.

She has grown though. Her eyes have been opened even more to issues outside of her own experiences. She’s talking more and more about things that don’t even affect her as a person. She won’t benefit from helping LGBTQ+ people. She’s lost fans over it. She’s getting attacked from both Reps and Dems over it. This isn’t a win for her. She’s not making astronomical amounts of money by starting a petition for the Equality Act.

She personally credited Todrick Hall, a black, gay man, and also one of her dear friends, for helping her learn better. They’ve had long discussions with Tiffany Haddish on what’s going on in this country. The world. She listens and asks questions. She has friends from all walks of life to learn from who have admitted to teaching her better.

Her feminism has grown all the more. She is not the same person she was 5 years ago. She’s had new experiences. She’s lost friends. Gained new friends. The political climate has changed entirely. The US has changed. She’s been sexually assaulted and had to defend herself in court while her assaulter attacked her mother and then deliberately took months to pay her the $1 the jury determined he owed her.

People can grow. The same people always complaining about how it’s toxic to not let people grow from their old ways and learn, are the same hypocrites who will hold something Taylor did years ago, which wasn’t even bad, against her as a fault of her feminism. They will ignore her great strides for Equality in these past 2 years alone, to bring up something from 10 years in the past in which she has changed from.

Double standards aren’t cute but the internet loves them when it’s Taylor Swift.

I’m not the same person I was 5 years ago. I’ve grown. Why do I get a pass but Taylor Swift doesn’t?

#Taylor Swift #feminism

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patriotsnet · 3 years

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Are Republicans Or Democrats More Educated

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/are-republicans-or-democrats-more-educated/

Are Republicans Or Democrats More Educated

Where Do We Go From Here Democrats Benchmarks And The Way Forward

Not only are there particularly large shares of non-college voters in these key states, but Democrats underperformed their national numbers with non-college voters in these states in 2020. This is likely because the non-college populations in nearly all of these states are whiter than the national non-college-educated population.

While Democrats current numbers and trajectory with non-college voters raise warning flags, some Democrats have shown in just the past two election cycles how to hit the necessary benchmarks with non-college voters to pull off victories nationallyand in the toughest swing states.

In Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, and Arizona, Biden hit benchmarks with non-college voters that, combined with his strong performance with college-educated voters, were enough to hand him victories. While he did not win majorities with non-college voters, he won a large enough share to win statewide. In these states, Democrats need to maintain their current standing and ensure that they do not slip further with non-white non-college voters or fall further behind with white non-college voters in the midterms and beyond.

The table below includes benchmarks that Democrats need to hit with non-college voters in key Senate race states for 2022, if they manage to hold Bidens 2020 performance with college-educated voters constant.

Gender Gaps Have Grown Under Biden Trump

Gender gaps in early presidential approval ratings have grown since the Clinton presidency, with both Biden and Trump showing double-digit differences in ratings among men and women. Obama and Bush had gender gaps just below 10 points, while Clinton had a very small gender gap of three points.

Biden’s job approval rating is higher among women than among men, and Trump was rated better by men than women. Notably, the two have had nearly identical approval ratings among men at the same stage in their presidencies, but vastly different ratings among women.

Men 56 3

Figures are based on average approval ratings in polls conducted from Jan. 20-March 31 in the year of the president’s inauguration. Gallup

Women have consistently been a Democratic-leaning group in their party affiliation, though the margin in favor of the Democratic Party has fluctuated: It was 19 points in early 1993, 10 points in 2001, 21 points in 2009 and 15 points in 2017, and is 22 points today.

Men’s party preferences have been more variable, with the group tilting Republican in 2001 and 2021, tilting Democratic in 1993 and 2009, and evenly divided in 2017.

The larger gender gap in Biden’s approval seems to be driven mostly by the widening gap in party preferences of men versus women. Currently, 28 points separate the net party preferences of men and women , compared with 13- to 18-point gender gaps in party preferences for the prior four presidents.

Midterms Reveal That More Educated Americans Are Fleeing The Republican Party

The midterm elections showed that college-educated voters are fleeing the Republican Party and casting ballots for Democratic candidates, to The Wall Street Journal.

Democrats had gained control of 33 formerly Republican house seats as of Friday, with other races too close to call.

Twenty-eight of the 33 flipped seats “are in the top half among all House districts for educational attainment, meaning more than 30% of adults there have bachelor’s or more-advanced degrees,” the Journal reported.

The Democratic Party now controls 90 percent of the 30 House districts with the highest proportions of college-educated people. Going into the midterm elections, Democrats only held two-thirds of these seats.

Democrats have accumulated control over the most educated 30 districts over the last quarter century. Republicans and Democrats evenly split these seats when Bill Clinton took office.

Even in 2016, Republicans still maintained control of 10 of these seats.

Midterm voting revealed some other notable demographic shifts. Democratic support from college-educated white women increased eight percent from 2016, to The Washington Post, which cited Cooperative Congressional Election Study data and a voter model to estimate patterns for the 2018 contests.

While, overall, college-educated voters selected Democratic voters, white college-educated voters did so by a smaller margin.

Fifty-three percent of white college-educated voters selected Democratic House candidates.

News Media Doesnt Help

You might think that people who regularly read the news are more informed about their political opponents. In fact, the opposite is the case. We found that the more news people consumed, the larger their Perception Gap. People who said they read the news most of the time were nearly three times more distorted in their perceptions than those who said they read the news only now and then. We cant prove that one causes the other, but these results suggest that rather than making Americans better informed, media coverage is now feeding our misperceptions.

What The Exit Polls Are Telling Us

Editors Note: Jennifer Lawless and Paul Freedman wrote this piece as part of the University of Virginia Democracy Initiatives effort to provide context around the 2020 presidential election. Scholars from across the University are providing real-time analysis on this page tracking the 2020 election and its aftermath. This post was published in two parts on Thursday and Friday. On Saturday morning, former Vice President Joe Biden was projected to win the election, becoming president-elect. Lawless is the Commonwealth Professor of Politics and chair of the Woodrow Wilson Department of Politics, as well as a senior fellow at UVAs Miller Center. Freedman is an associate professor of politics and teaches courses in media, campaigns and elections, research methods, and the politics of food.

In the immediate aftermath of a national election, exit polls offer the best glimpse of what the electorate looked like who voted for whom and what seemed to drive their choices.

Us Senators And House Members Are Smarter Than You Think

Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself. Mark Twain

“Congress’s Average I.Q. Expected to Rise in 2015” The Borowitz Report

In a recent USA Today poll, roughly half of responders said we should replace everyone in Congress. Twains quote and Andy Borowitz’s humor column for The New Yorker suggest the view that Congress members are not very bright is an old and popular belief.

Although there have been research studies examining whether liberal and conservative voters differ in brainpower level, there have been no studies looking at Congress. Until now.

In one of my research papers published earlier this year, Investigating Americas Elite: Cognitive Ability, Education, and Sex Differences, I examined the brainpower levels of multiple groups who hold influence in American society: Fortune 500 CEOs, billionaires, federal judges, Senators, and House members.

Individuals were deemed to be in the top one percent of ability if they attended an undergraduate or graduate school that had extremely high average standardized test scores that put the average person in the top one percent . Researchers have determined that standardized tests, such as the and , are good measures of general intelligence, or g. For more detail on the method used, including its limitations, please read the paper, published in the journal Intelligence.

But what happens when we examine Republicans and Democrats?

References

Republicans Are Becoming The Poorly Educated Party

Reprinted with permission from

There are several key attributes that define the Republican Party in its modern incarnation: its overwhelming whiteness; its self-reported religiosity; its slavish devotion to a man who boasts he could shoot someone and not lose a single vote, thus proving his point. Moving forward, that list should probably also include as a distinguishing factor the fact that the party is less educated than its Democratic political rivals, and growing increasingly more so.

Thats according to a study released earlier this month by the Pew Research Center. The polling organization now finds the widest educational gap in partisan identification and leaning seen at any point in more than two decades between Republicans and Democrats. In 1994, the majority of U.S. residents with four-year college degrees leaned or identified as Republican, at 54 percent; just 39 percent of college graduates leaned or identified as Democrats. As of 2017, those numbers have switched exactly, with the majority of college degree holders now leaning Dem-ward.

Pew notes that white voters continue to be somewhat more likely to affiliate with or lean toward the Republican Party than the Democratic Party .

Percent Of Representatives Have A Degree Look Where Thats Got Us

All these credentials havent led to better results.

Opinion Columnist

Over the last few decades, Congress has diversified in important ways. It has gotten less white, less male, less straight all positive developments. But as I was staring at one of the many recent Senate hearings, filled with the usual magisterial blustering and self-important yada yada, it dawned on me that theres a way that Congress has moved in a wrong direction, and become quite brazenly unrepresentative.

No, its not that the place seethes with millionaires, though theres that problem too.

Its that members of Congress are credentialed out the wazoo. An astonishing number have a small kite of extra initials fluttering after their names.

According to the Congressional Research Service, more than one third of the House and more than half the Senate have law degrees. Roughly a fifth of senators and representatives have their masters. Four senators and 21 House members have M.D.s, and an identical number in each body have some kind of doctoral degree, whether its a Ph.D., a D.Phil., an Ed.D., or a D. Min.

But perhaps most fundamentally, 95 percent of todays House members and 100 percent of the Senates have a bachelors degree or higher.Yet just a bit more than one-third of Americans do.

This means that the credentialed few govern the uncredentialed many, writes the political philosopher Michael J. Sandel in The Tyranny of Merit, published this fall.

History Of The Republican Party

The Republican Party came into existence just prior to the Civil War due to their long-time stance in favor of abolition of slavery. They were a small third-party who nominated John C. Freemont for President in 1856. In 1860 they became an established political party when their nominee Abraham Lincoln was elected as President of the United States. Lincolns Presidency throughout the war, including his policies to end slavery for good helped solidify the Republican Party as a major force in American politics. The elephant was chosen as their symbol in 1874 based on a cartoon in Harpers Weekly that depicted the new party as an elephant.

Two Ways To Read The Story

Quick Read

Growing up in a conservative white household outside Atlanta, Brendon Pace says he always thought of himself as a Republican. But after attending college and starting medical school in Virginia, he became unhappy with the GOP under President Donald Trump, and recently cast a ballot for Joe Biden. Maybe someday hell vote Republican again, he says but for now, theyve definitely lost me.

The diploma divide in U.S. politics predates Mr. Trump. But like many partisan fault lines, from gender to religion, it has gaped wider under his presidency, sending into hyperdrive a decadeslong realignment of the Democratic and Republican parties.

The More Educated A Democrat

Interesting since so many Democrats claim they are better educated than GOP voters or Trump supporters and pretend that means their views are correct.This much we might guess. But whats startling is the further finding that higher education does not improve a persons perceptions and sometimes even hurts it. In their survey answers, highly educated Republicans were no more accurate in their ideas about Democratic opinion than poorly educated Republicans. For Democrats, the education effect was even worse: the more educated a Democrat is, according to the study, the less he or she understands the Republican worldview.

Anti-vax rhetoric threatens our liberty

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Anti-vax rhetoric threatens our liberty

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Anti-vax rhetoric threatens our liberty

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As Americans Become More Educated The Gop Is Moving In The Opposite Direction

Americans are pursuing higher education at growing rates, but those without a college education are increasingly finding a home in the GOP.

According to new released by the Pew Research Center, higher educational attainment is increasingly associated with Democratic Party affiliation and leaning:

In 1994, 39% of those with a four-year college degree identified with or leaned toward the Democratic Party and 54% associated with the Republican Party. In 2017, those figures were exactly reversed.

More than half of registered voters who identify as Democrat have a bachelor’s degree, while fewer than 4 in 10 registered voters who identify as Republican have a bachelor’s degree.

Those with graduate degrees are even more likely to find their political home in the Democratic Party, according to the survey:

In 1994, those with at least some postgraduate experience were evenly split between the Democratic and Republican parties. Today, the Democratic Party enjoys a roughly two-to-one advantage in leaned partisan identification. While some of this shift took place a decade ago, postgraduate voters affiliation with and leaning to the Democratic Party have grown substantially just over the past few years, from 55% in 2015 to 63% in 2017.

Meanwhile, the GOP has increasingly become more of a political destination to Americans who lack a college degree, according to Pew:

This may not bode well for the GOP long-term as the American public becomes increasingly educated.

Cultural Views Override Economic Arguments

Matt Grossman, who heads the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research at Michigan State University, said he believed Democrats in 2020 were smart to adopt a class-based message after Clinton didn’t. Historically, voters respond favorably to the idea of Democrats representing the middle class, he said, and negatively to Republicans as the party for the rich and big business.

“But I think we should learn from the 2020 election that Biden at least made some effort to do that and it doesn’t seem to have made much difference,” Grossman said. “So maybe messaging is not enough to move the needle on these broad social changes.”

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The fact Biden struggled with non-college-educated white voters, according to Grossman, reflects the overall shift toward politics based on social and cultural divisions rather than economic. The same trend is found in European nations.

With his cultural not economic brand of populism, Trump fanned fears about racial equity protests that erupted in cities. He pushed for “law and order” during the campaign, slammed the Black Lives Matter movement and accused Democrats of being soft on violence and anti-police. He warned that Biden would turn the USA into a “socialist” country and accused the Democrat of wanting to take away Americans’ guns. Trump even said, “There will be no God” if Biden was elected.

Energy Issues And The Environment

There have always been clashes between the parties on the issues of energy and the environment. Democrats believe in restricting drilling for oil or other avenues of fossil fuels to protect the environment while Republicans favor expanded drilling to produce more energy at a lower cost to consumers. Democrats will push and support with tax dollars alternative energy solutions while the Republicans favor allowing the market to decide which forms of energy are practical.

What These Shifts Mean For Future Elections

The exit polls and results from this years presidential election paint a somewhat different picture than the previous two races. After Obamas second victory in 2012, Democrats were touting a voter constituency made up of young people, diverse voters, and college-educated whites that they felt would provide them solid support for several elections to come. It even prompted Republicans to issue an urging the inclusion of a wider voter base. Yet after Trumps 2016 victory with strong support from older, less urban, and noncollege whites, many Republicans stayed onboard their earlier train.

In retrospect, it seems that both the 2012 Obama coalition and the 2016 Trump coalition overperformed in those elections. The 2020 results suggest neither party can rely solely on those particular sets of voters. As I have , there is no doubt that changing demographicsespecially rising diversityshould benefit Democrats in the long run .

But in the interim, the results of the 2020 election make plain that both parties need to address the interests of a coalition made up of all of these groups. The Trump presidency did not do thisperhaps a Biden presidency can.

Diagnosing The Problem Nationally

National exit poll data over the past few cycles paint the clearest picture of Democrats declines with non-college voters. Under Barack Obama, Democrats won this group in both 2008 and 2012. But while Obama won non-college graduates 51-47% in 2012, Clinton lost these voters 44-52% in 2016. In 2020, Biden split the difference with a narrow 48-50% loss.

Looking at non-college voters by race, it appears at first glance that Democrats only problem is with white non-college voters. Clinton lost white non-college voters by a whopping 37 points, and Biden lost them by a similar 35 points. And this margin does not account for the high turnout among white non-college voters that propelled Trumps margins.

But Democrats problems are not exclusively with white non-college voters. While Biden won non-white voters without a college degree by 46 points, the trend with these voters is not in Democrats favor. From 2016 to 2020, Trump increased his support with non-white non-college voters from 20% to 25%. While this may not look like a large share, because of the centrality of non-white voters to Democrats coalition, any slippage with this group does not bode well for future elections and requires attention.

Biden Party Gaps Nearly 10 Points Higher Than Trump’s; 30 Points Above Others’

An average of 86 percentage points have separated Democrats’ and Republicans’ ratings of Biden so far, eclipsing the 77-point gap in the early ratings of Trump. This difference results from Biden’s higher scores among his fellow partisans than Trump received . Each got the same low 10% approval ratings from supporters of the opposition party.

Party gaps in approval ratings were about 30 points lower for Obama, Bush and Clinton than they have been for Biden. This is primarily because about one-third of opposition-party supporters approved of the job those presidents were doing early in their terms.

But Biden’s approval rating among his fellow Democrats is also higher than those for Obama and Clinton among Democrats, and for Bush among his fellow Republicans .

Democrats 28 50

Figures are based on average approval ratings in polls conducted from Jan. 20-March 31 in the year of the president’s inauguration. Gallup

Independents’ 55% approval of Biden during his inaugural period is similar to their ratings of Clinton and Bush, slightly lower than for Obama , but well above the group’s rating of Trump .

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more >Victor Morton

When it comes to education, the parties have switched places over the past two decades.

According to a Pew Research Center released this week, Democrats are now the party of college graduates, especially those with post-graduate work. Meanwhile, people with a high-school degree or less, by far the larger group, slightly lean toward Republicans.

Both preferences are the reverse of what they were in the 1990s.

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According to Pew, 54 percent of college graduates either identified as Democrats or leaned Democratic, compared to 39 percent who identified or leaned Republican. One-third of Americans have a college degree.

Just 25 years ago, those numbers were perfectly reversed in the Pew survey, with the GOP holding a 54-39 advantage among people with college degrees.

The discrepancy becomes even greater when Pew distilled the sample down to people who have post-graduate education at least some work toward a masters, doctorate, law or similar degree. In that group, Democrats had a 2-to-1 edge, by 63 percent to 31 percent. In 1994, the two parties were almost evenly divided, with the Democratic lead just 47-45.

While some of this shift took place a decade ago, postgraduate voters affiliation with and leaning to the Democratic Party have grown substantially just over the past few years, from 55% in 2015 to 63% in 2017, Pew wrote.

More Highly Educated Adults Have Consistently Liberal Views

As Pew Research Centers 2014 report on political polarization found, the share of the overall public that is ideologically consistent that is, the share that takes either consistently liberal or consistently conservative positions opinions across the 10 values is relatively modest, but has grown substantially over time, especially over the past decade.

In the new study, nearly a quarter of Americans have either consistently liberal or consistently conservative views . In 2004, just 11% were either consistently liberal or consistently conservative .

Much of the growth in ideological consistency has come among better educated adults including a striking rise in the share who have across-the-board liberal views, which is consistent with the .

Currently, about a third of those with postgraduate experience give down-the-line liberal responses across the 10 items, up from 19% in 2004 and just 7% in 1994. Among college graduates with no postgraduate experience, 24% have consistently liberal values, compared with 13% in 2004 and 5% a decade earlier.

Among postgrads and college graduates, the shares expressing consistently conservative views also have grown since 2004, from 4% to 10% among postgrads and from 4% to 11% among college graduates. But among both groups, consistently conservative views are at the about the same levels as they had been in 1994.

Overall Us Jews Remain Largely Democratic And Liberal

U.S. Jews are still a largely Democratic and politically liberal group today, as they have been for decades. Overall, about seven-in-ten identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, including 68% of Jews by religion and 77% of Jews of no religion. Just 26% of U.S. Jews overall identify with the Republican Party or lean toward the GOP.

Jews by religion are considerably more likely than U.S. Christians to identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party; they look much more similar to religiously unaffiliated Americans in this regard, with Democrats making up about two-thirds of each group. Among Christian subgroups, only Black Protestants show higher levels of Democratic support .

Pew Research Center political surveys conducted over the past two decades show Jews have consistently identified with the Democratic Party over the GOP by a wide margin.

Furthermore, the new survey finds that 50% of Jews describe their political views as liberal, triple the share who say they are politically conservative . Jews of no religion a group that is considerably younger, on average, than Jews by religion are especially likely to call themselves liberal .

Whites Made Biden Competitive In Racially Diverse Sun Belt States

As the final votes were being counted, three Sun Belt states remained competitive between Biden and Trump: Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada. While their final outcomes also depended on nonwhite racial groups, white voting blocs in these states shifted since 2016 in ways that benefitted Biden. See Figure 4 and .

Take Arizona. It is a state that has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1996. While rapidly diversifying, its older white population has leaned heavily toward Republicans. This time was different; white college graduate women and men flipped sharply toward Democrats, from 2016 Republican advantages of 2% and 12%, respectively, to 2020 Democratic advantages of 15% and 3%. Likewise, white noncollege men reduced their Republican support from 28% to 10%. In addition, Arizonas senior population flipped from Republican support to even Democratic-Republican support.

These shifts, as well as increased Democratic support among 18- to 29-year-olds and continued Democratic support from the states Latino or Hispanic voters, contributed to Bidens vote gains in Arizona.

Georgia, a longtime deep red Republican state, has been inching toward battleground status due to its large and growing Democratic-leaning Black population. Yet its strong white Republican margins have led to GOP presidential wins since 1996. This year, those white Republican margins were reduced enough to make the state competitive.

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statetalks · 3 years

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Are Republicans Or Democrats More Educated

Where Do We Go From Here Democrats Benchmarks And The Way Forward

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Gender Gaps Have Grown Under Biden Trump

Men

Figures are based on average approval ratings in polls conducted from Jan. 20-March 31 in the year of the president’s inauguration. Gallup

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