Hotter, Badder, and Unpopularer Takes

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

even if Trump were to landslide, Colin Allred would still be favored

[Hindsight was 2020]

You’re not a bad person if you don’t feel bad for Rush Limbaugh getting lung cancer. He’s been a ass to victims himself in the past and got sick through his own unhealthy lifestyle.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

You’re not a bad person if you don’t feel bad for Rush Limbaugh getting lung cancer. He’s been a ass to victims himself in the past and got sick through his own unhealthy lifestyle.

Yes, you are a bad person. But not for that reason.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Anyone who argues "The Civil War was about state's rights" is just being a troll

You think this claim is hot? That's like the default position of 80% of Atlas.

Maybe 80% of Atlas Republicans, definitely not 80% of Atlas.  Besides, you forget we have quite a few posters here who don't automatically think of the Counterrevolutionary War for Slaveholders' Rights when they hear the phrase "Civil War". The British War for Divine Right and the World War II dress rehearsal come to mind.

80% of Atlas Republicans absolutely do not believe that.  49% of ACTUAL Republicans say slavery was the main cause (which, I guarantee implies that a very healthy majority of Republicans outside of the South agree with this ... no?), so I would imagine Atlas Republicans would be even higher.

http://maristpoll.marist.edu/wp-content/misc/usapolls/us150722/CivilWar/McClatchy-Marist%20Poll_National%20Release%20and%20Tables_The%20Confederate%20Flag_August%202015.pdf

You have a higher opinion of posters here than I do.  That said, I used 80% only because that was the figure given for Atlas as a whole in the post I quoted.

However, I must take objection to the idea that Northern whites are generally better on racial issues.  The reason Northern voters generally preferred the Republicans in 1860 was definitely not that they thought Blacks should be free, they were more interested in making certain they stayed in the South. For many Republican voters in 1860, the only good things about Blacks were that they weren't Catholics or Jews.

I take objection to your objection. Obviously the Northern whites were made up of multitudes and even the unionists had their various reasons for supporting the cause. But to argue the defense of the Union was merely a cynical enterprise of Know Nothings falls short. Are we supposed to believe the radical evangelicals who sprung up in their multitudes in the 1820's and 30's demanding immediate emancipation were merely nativist scum? As for the Union soldiers, a lot of them essentially became radicalized as the war approached and dragged on: what started as mere patriotic outrage at the South for attacking the flag broadened into moral denunciations of slavery as an institution (this is according to James McPherson's research).

Multitudes? Out and out abolitionists were decidedly a minority in the north pre-Civil War. Yes, many Union soldiers became abolitionist during the war, but for many it was because they came to the conclusion that ending slavery was necessary to preserve the Union rather than other reasons.

[Yellowhammer]

Libertarianism/Classical Liberalism is against human nature. Most people support and crave a strong centralized government, especially in times of crisis.

Liberty does generally go against human nature, but that's because the nature of most human beings is self-handicapping, and generally dead wrong.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Ethnic nationalism is an utterly morally and intellectually bankrupt "ideology" (really an AAAAAH FURRENERS knee-jerk amygdalic response that hopelessly aspires to be an ideology) and is just this side of downright evil. It's an emporium of humanity's worst impulses and darkest historical nightmares, it battens on bigotry and secrecy and fear, and it's lawless, atavistic, and amoral at its core. It should have been utterly and permanently discredited seventy-five years ago, and everybody knows exactly why even if they pretend they don't.

[Continential]

Open Borders should happen, and there should be a world government.

[John Dule]

Libertarianism/Classical Liberalism is against human nature. Most people support and crave a strong centralized government, especially in times of crisis.

So "most people" get to define what human nature is now? The fact that you deliberately avoided making a universal claim about "what humans want" here proves that it isn't "human nature" to want an authoritarian government either.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Ethnic nationalism is an utterly morally and intellectually bankrupt "ideology" (really an AAAAAH FURRENERS knee-jerk amygdalic response that hopelessly aspires to be an ideology) and is just this side of downright evil. It's an emporium of humanity's worst impulses and darkest historical nightmares, it battens on bigotry and secrecy and fear, and it's lawless, atavistic, and amoral at its core. It should have been utterly and permanently discredited seventy-five years ago, and everybody knows exactly why even if they pretend they don't.

Ok there are like three words in this post that I've literally never once heard in my life before

[Hindsight was 2020]

It’s more likely Martin Luther King’s assassination was a government conspiracy and coverup then JFK despite the latter getting all the attention and theories

[RINO Tom]

Ethnic nationalism is an utterly morally and intellectually bankrupt "ideology" (really an AAAAAH FURRENERS knee-jerk amygdalic response that hopelessly aspires to be an ideology) and is just this side of downright evil. It's an emporium of humanity's worst impulses and darkest historical nightmares, it battens on bigotry and secrecy and fear, and it's lawless, atavistic, and amoral at its core. It should have been utterly and permanently discredited seventy-five years ago, and everybody knows exactly why even if they pretend they don't.

Tribalism has proven to be near essential to human nature and survival throughout history ... I don’t see why using one’s ethnicity is especially suspect ?

[OSR stands with Israel]

You cant be racist and a nationalist as racists care more about racial identity than national identity so racists should be called separatists instead of nationalists 

[morgankingsley]

The vader scene in rogue one is probably the most over rated scene in cinema history

And this is coming from somebody who really enjoys rogue one

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Ethnic nationalism is an utterly morally and intellectually bankrupt "ideology" (really an AAAAAH FURRENERS knee-jerk amygdalic response that hopelessly aspires to be an ideology) and is just this side of downright evil. It's an emporium of humanity's worst impulses and darkest historical nightmares, it battens on bigotry and secrecy and fear, and it's lawless, atavistic, and amoral at its core. It should have been utterly and permanently discredited seventy-five years ago, and everybody knows exactly why even if they pretend they don't.

Ok there are like three words in this post that I've literally never once heard in my life before

"Amygdalic", "batten", and "atavistic"? Those are the words I really pulled out the stops for when writing this post. (I'm actually misusing the first--it's supposed to mean "of or relating to almonds"--but there's no other adjective for things pertaining to the amygdala.)

Ethnic nationalism is an utterly morally and intellectually bankrupt "ideology" (really an AAAAAH FURRENERS knee-jerk amygdalic response that hopelessly aspires to be an ideology) and is just this side of downright evil. It's an emporium of humanity's worst impulses and darkest historical nightmares, it battens on bigotry and secrecy and fear, and it's lawless, atavistic, and amoral at its core. It should have been utterly and permanently discredited seventy-five years ago, and everybody knows exactly why even if they pretend they don't.

Tribalism has proven to be near essential to human nature and survival throughout history ... I don’t see why using one’s ethnicity is especially suspect ?

1. I don't care about "human nature".
2. Think about using something like civic nationalism (i.e. ideology-based nationalism, let's be honest here) or even linguistic nationalism. Do you really not see why it's less repugnant to include or exclude people from a civic community based on personal characteristics like those than it is to include or exclude them based on who they happen to be descended from?

You cant be racist and a nationalist as racists care more about racial identity than national identity so racists should be called separatists instead of nationalists 

You know, you're an all right guy, OSR.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

It’s more likely Martin Luther King’s assassination was a government conspiracy and coverup then JFK despite the latter getting all the attention and theories

This is a good one. Agreed.

[Gracile]

The word "folks" is such an unsightly, condescending word in our political vocabulary, and it's disgusting that virtually every person seeking elected office unironically uses that term. Just call people "people".

[Fuzzy Bear]

The word "folks" is such an unsightly, condescending word in our political vocabulary, and it's disgusting that virtually every person seeking elected office unironically uses that term. Just call people "people".

https://talkelections.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=277564.0

77.4% of the forum disagrees with you.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

The word "folks" is such an unsightly, condescending word in our political vocabulary, and it's disgusting that virtually every person seeking elected office unironically uses that term. Just call people "people".

I think it's one of those words where you can tell immediately if it's part of someone's natural vocabulary or if they're forcing their use of it to sound #populist (or, worse, woke). The latter bothers me too.

[Hindsight was 2020]

Honestly the reason I think MLK assassination was a coverup is that there is nothing about James Earl Ray that gives off a motivation. There is no records of him being an outspoken racist nor mental illness. His bio is that of a two bit crock so why is he going off a sniping MLK? At least with Oswald he had clear political motivations to kill JFK being an outspoken communist and all. But Ray? Nothing about him suggests he’d do this. Now I can tell you who did at the time had a well documented desire to see MLK dead and that’s the head of the FBI J. Edgar Hoover

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

We should enact Medicare For All Citizens and pay for it by de-funding Israel.

Yes. NATO too.

[heatcharger]

We should enact Medicare For All Citizens and pay for it by de-funding Israel.

Our annual foreign military aid to Israel isn’t even 1/100th the annual amount of health care spending in this country. What compelled you to turn your brain off before posting this?

[America Needs R'hllor]

(((I wonder why was))) (((I s r a e l))) (((specifically mentioned?)))

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

I find PragerU videos amusing.

[Boobs]

(((I wonder why was))) (((I s r a e l))) (((specifically mentioned?)))

Because they leech off our tax money and give us nothing in return.

ignoring the blatant... whatever it is that is weirdly specific about (((I s r a e l))), quite literally American military aid to Israel is in the form of subsidies to American defence contractors... it's just a roundabout way of giving corporate welfare to arms manufacturers in the United States. But again, you have never been concerned with facts or morality, or anything at all remotely intellectually curious, so this is likely a fruitless venture.

[lfromnj]

(((I wonder why was))) (((I s r a e l))) (((specifically mentioned?)))

Because they leech off our tax money and give us nothing in return.

And what about the 40 billion?
Atleast Israel doesn't have a history of hating America like most of our foreign aid.