~Half of Republicans

[KingSweden]

I’m going to ignore most of Fuzzy’s whataboutery other than concurring that unfortunately a lot of this didn’t start with Trump and that he’s the natural symptom and result of disease that has been metastizing for over twenty years

[KingSweden]

Most of the media is an enemy of the people.

Citation needed.

[KingSweden]

What percentage of Democrats advocate the idea of having open borders by simply ordering our Border Patrol to stand down?  What percentage of Democrats oppose spending more money to oppose the upgrading of detention facilities to bring pressure to "Let 'em all in!"?  (Probably 2/3 at least if you go by Atlas.)

Boy, you're about to look stupid.

66% of Clinton voters want secure borders over open borders

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Dumbassery aside, 47% of Republicans now support same-sex marriage and 64% of the country total. In 5 years, a majority of Republicans will probably support SSM. So not sure what your point is.

Ugh. I have Fuzzy on ignore for just this reason, but I have to respond to the "no scientific proof" blah blah.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/psychological-medicine/article/genomewide-scan-demonstrates-significant-linkage-for-male-sexual-orientation/864518601436C95563EA670C5F380343

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cross-cultural-evidence-for-the-genetics-of-homosexuality/

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1529100616637616

There's a whole bunch more. Yeah, it hasn't been proven without a doubt, and there are obviously different factors involved, but science does show that it is much more likely to be a genetic thing than a personal choice thing.

Plus, add in all the people who have no reason to lie because their lives have been made miserable by being homosexual who would love nothing more than to be heterosexual and the nearly universal failure of "conversion therapy," and there is simply nothing to support your claim.

Same goes for transgender people, I’d add, though the science behind gender dysphoria seems a little more murky as far as I can tell.

Edit: that’s not to say that gender dysphoria = being transgender. Plenty of people who experience dysphoria don’t wind up being trans, contrary to what the more extreme activists on both sides of the debate claim

[KingSweden]

This is what happens when a political party (the Republican Party) pushes anti-intellectualism for over 50 years.

It all started with the John Birch Society and it's been downhill ever since.

Also, conservatives are factually much more likely to believe conspiracies than liberals.

liberals are more likely to have counter-factual opinions regarding GMOs.

While I suspect this is true, that’s not nearly as bad as the statistics presented by the OP that have much more serious ramifications for sound governance

[KingSweden]

Most of the media is an enemy of the people.

Citation needed.

Do you really think that they have anything to gain from having the peoples' best interests in mind?

The media is an enormously powerful tool in that it has the power to manufacture & distribute narratives that influence public opinion. Media outlets on both sides of the political aisle, left-wing and right-wing alike, are mostly in the business of pushing agendas.

For the most part they aren't objective, and they bend the truth to form a narrative. They're just dishonest hacks that trumpet the sensationalized BS that they're fed through a teleprompter.

This is an argument that the media business model is utterly broken (one which I agree with!), not that they are actively “enemies of the people,” which is dangerously authoritarian language. They can be sensationalist hacks with a net negative influence (particularly cable news) without rising to the inflammatory description you deployed.

[KingSweden]

Most of the media is an enemy of the people.

Citation needed.

Do you really think that they have anything to gain from having the peoples' best interests in mind?

The media is an enormously powerful tool in that it has the power to manufacture & distribute narratives that influence public opinion. Media outlets on both sides of the political aisle, left-wing and right-wing alike, are mostly in the business of pushing agendas.

For the most part they aren't objective, and they bend the truth to form a narrative. They're just dishonest hacks that trumpet the sensationalized BS that they're fed through a teleprompter.

This is an argument that the media business model is utterly broken (one which I agree with!), not that they are actively “enemies of the people,” which is dangerously authoritarian language. They can be sensationalist hacks with a net negative influence (particularly cable news) without rising to the inflammatory description you deployed.

They are in the business of deceiving the people. If that does not make them an enemy, what would?

I understand your concerns about that sounding authoritarian, but it's simply true. I believe in a free press and I believe that members of the press have the right to call out corruption, to hold leaders accountable, to express any and all opinions, and generally to say what they want.

But unfortunately, that's not what most American media is interested in doing. It isn't profitable. Being sellouts to the highest bidder, however, is.

I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree on the “enemy” verbiage even though we’re broadly in agreement on all else