Post AlEdTULxtSxJVtAz6O by Canecittadino@mastodon.world
(DIR) More posts by Canecittadino@mastodon.world
(DIR) Post #AlEPcurzHD3106kuYq by interfluidity@zirk.us
2024-08-22T17:04:36Z
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I’ve watched most of the Democratic National Convention thus far, and in the moment found it hopeful and inspiring, even the speeches by political figures I dislike.But I woke up this morning with a kind of hangover, or really nausea, what you get after eating a lot of tasty but empty calories. 1/
(DIR) Post #AlEPuwC95XsGK5mHYm by interfluidity@zirk.us
2024-08-22T17:07:53Z
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"We will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth.”It’s a beautiful line. Spoken by a woman worth 10s of millions, on a stage shared over the course of the convention with at least two billionaires.I’m not saying the sentiments are fake, or trying to call out hypocrisy. I am saying that it takes some work to reconcile these facts, that some consciousness or self-consciousness, something other than pretending it doesn’t matter, would be helpful. 2/
(DIR) Post #AlEQHW4QNvYNxYvstU by interfluidity@zirk.us
2024-08-22T17:11:57Z
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The speeches really were very inspiring!But my experience of profound, almost fatal, disillusionment with Democratic politics is a story of inspiring words giving cover to profound betrayals. I’m doing everything I possibly can to maintain a willing suspension of disbelief this time, and to be fair, so far the candidate herself has surprised me positively, on several occasions now. 3/
(DIR) Post #AlEQUdanjFWR3PKijQ by interfluidity@zirk.us
2024-08-22T17:14:20Z
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I do envy the other side just a bit, though.George W. Bush didn’t speak, or even show, at the RNC. Democrats like to chalk that up of evidence that Trump is so terrible an aberration and rupture that leaders of the kinder, gentler Republican Party that came before are cut out or have the decency to cut themselves out. 4/
(DIR) Post #AlEQiOonSKYTHpRRTM by interfluidity@zirk.us
2024-08-22T17:16:48Z
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But another way to look at it is that George W. Bush led the country through a period of terrible error, a period that has left the country fraying at its seams, a circumstance to which his choices contributed. So maybe his not holding a place of honor at a contemporary convention is a way of communicating to the public that there has been some change, some reform. 5/
(DIR) Post #AlEQr8WRPhv3Lr1R6u by ralph058@mstdn.social
2024-08-22T17:18:22Z
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@interfluidity Hmmm. The earliest conventions I remember watching were the RNC and then DNC in 1952. I can't recall missing any. I can't recall any that were strong on policy.I think your complaint is emptier than your perceived meal.
(DIR) Post #AlEQtJg0uen6WdXUH2 by interfluidity@zirk.us
2024-08-22T17:18:47Z
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George Bush’s presidency was neither the start not the end of the period when the United States dismantled itself, both as an industrial power and as a proud, morally cohesive nation. The Iraq War was one of the largest errors of the period. But it was far from the only or earliest one. /fin
(DIR) Post #AlEQthIR5yBvmSgzr6 by Theblueone@mastodon.social
2024-08-22T17:18:47Z
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@interfluidity Thought: The American political system needed a FDR, as much of a “class traitor” as we could collectively cough up, to enact sweeping changes. So, there’s precedent. So we’ll hope, watch and wait…and shove where necessary
(DIR) Post #AlER9PRfEWJ538V7Sq by interfluidity@zirk.us
2024-08-22T17:21:42Z
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@ralph058 Perhaps I expect too much. I’ve frankly never before sat through nearly the whole, four-night extravaganza before.From my perspective, the stakes are exceedingly high. If it is unreasonable that my expectations should match them, I guess I can’t help that my hopes do.
(DIR) Post #AlESPyilwhFr2ky3tY by buermann@mastodon.social
2024-08-22T17:35:52Z
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@interfluidity I finally turned the convention on last night and immediately turned it off because it was the Democratic party's top rapist who put the country on its dual track to the housing bubble and the invasion of Iraq and who had encouraged Donald Trump to run for President against his oft-betrayed wife that was once against speaking as the party's honored guest.
(DIR) Post #AlEZ8KgWFJgBd4RlGS by Canecittadino@mastodon.world
2024-08-22T18:51:04Z
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@interfluidity The problem with your analysis lies in the “morally cohesive” part. From the Declaration’s “merciless Indian savages” to the Constitution’s 3/5 compromise, it’s clear that “morally cohesive” was never a term that could be applied honestly to the USA. Our founders, like today’s eternally earnest Democrats, believed they’d done the best they could under the circumstances, and sadly, we’ve been putting lipstick on that pig ever since. We should be more honest with ourselves.
(DIR) Post #AlEZSNuJySHxPpSpqi by interfluidity@zirk.us
2024-08-22T18:54:46Z
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@Canecittadino every thing you say is true, but everything is relative. something broke over the last two decades to a degree it wasn’t broken before.
(DIR) Post #AlEbNYGQF1mtzoco0e by Canecittadino@mastodon.world
2024-08-22T19:16:17Z
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@interfluidity Maybe, but, IMNSHO opinion, this is arguable at best. At the risk of besmirching my atheist credentials, I’m tempted to characterize our current political and social agony as the “wages of sin,” meaning for the original sins of genocide, slavery, and Marx’s primitive accumulation. In some sense, as real as it is ironic, we’re getting what we deserve. Denying that we deserve it seems to me to be adding yet another pecadillo to the mortal sins for which we’re already being judged.
(DIR) Post #AlEcglQ5eUEKFqs7c0 by interfluidity@zirk.us
2024-08-22T19:30:56Z
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@Canecittadino No offense, but I recommend more atheism. Our duty is to make a decent world for everyone today — included the people we and our forebears historically excluded and abused. But that is the only payment due. We are not bound to suffer because our predecessors sinned.
(DIR) Post #AlEdTULxtSxJVtAz6O by Canecittadino@mastodon.world
2024-08-22T19:39:46Z
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@interfluidity None taken. If you’ll pardon yet another religious reference, you’re preaching to the choir here. I actually found myself laughing at the accuracy of your judgment.In truth, I’m a *very* complete atheist, secular humanist, direct descendent of the Enlightenment, etc., etc. (As though credentials could ever encompass even the humbler parts of reality. /1
(DIR) Post #AlEe2OWlXtPFa2sANM by Canecittadino@mastodon.world
2024-08-22T19:46:04Z
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@interfluidity I view the U.S. as the laboratory of human possibility. Jefferson had warts, so for that matter do I, but like him I see the US as the first place in the world where a continental tabula rasa could permit human beings to experiment with the political limits of rationality. In that sense, and that sense only, the U.S. was, and may yet remain, Madeleine (ugh!) Albright’s “indispensible nation.” This is something we need to work on, with that much I agree completely. /2 END
(DIR) Post #AlEiFcQjZBxeHQc2Xg by interfluidity@zirk.us
2024-08-22T20:33:18Z
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@Canecittadino Only the future will tell, but I sure like to hope we’re still tabula rosa enough to remedy what we’ve broken and create something better than all the warts that were. We definitely have plenty to work on. I’m glad to sing on the same choir.
(DIR) Post #AlGAtYSkjE9LQvLdjM by kentwillard@zirk.us
2024-08-23T13:28:58Z
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@interfluidity Given enough time, all nations make tragic errors, even atrocities. The US won't even acknowledge Iraq, bombing Laos, etc., because to do so would lead to the conclusion that where there is guilt, there should be punishment—not only for our leaders who are above punishment but also for their supporters, who may, too, be complicit to some degree.
(DIR) Post #AlGBBkEZhZ2x9bOFEm by interfluidity@zirk.us
2024-08-23T13:32:15Z
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@kentwillard to be fair, the contemporary Republican party has pretty fully acknowledged Iraq, not just with loose words but with some degree of accountability. none of that war’s protagonists have any place in Trump’s party. indeed some have become quite partisan Democrats (while retaining conservative views and commitments).