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kallend

'O, wad some pow'r the giftie gie us. . .

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To see oursels as ithers see us!

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/03/us-rightwing-dictatorship-2030-trump-canada

The US could be under a rightwing dictatorship by 2030, a Canadian political science professor has warned, urging his country to protect itself against the “collapse of American democracy”.

America is now in fascism’s legal phase

“We mustn’t dismiss these possibilities just because they seem ludicrous or too horrible to imagine,” Thomas Homer-Dixon, founding director of the Cascade Institute at Royal Roads University in British Columbia, wrote in the Globe and Mail.

“In 2014, the suggestion that Donald Trump would become president would also have struck nearly everyone as absurd. But today we live in a world where the absurd regularly becomes real and the horrible commonplace.”

Homer-Dixon’s message was blunt: “By 2025, American democracy could collapse, causing extreme domestic political instability, including widespread civil violence. By 2030, if not sooner, the country could be governed by a rightwing dictatorship.”

The author cited eventualities centered on a Trump return to the White House in 2024, possibly including Republican-held state legislatures refusing to accept a Democratic win.

Trump, he warned, “will have only two objectives, vindication and vengeance” of the lie that his 2020 defeat by Joe Biden was the result of electoral fraud.

A “scholar of violent conflict” for more than four decades, Homer-Dixon said Canada must take heed of the “unfolding crisis”.

“A terrible storm is coming from the south, and Canada is woefully unprepared. Over the past year we’ve turned our attention inward, distracted by the challenges of Covid-19, reconciliation and the accelerating effects of climate change.

“But now we must focus on the urgent problem of what to do about the likely unraveling of democracy in the United States. We need to start by fully recognising the magnitude of the danger. If Mr Trump is re-elected, even under the more optimistic scenarios the economic and political risks to our country will be innumerable.”

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1 hour ago, kallend said:

The author cited eventualities centered on a Trump return to the White House in 2024, possibly including Republican-held state legislatures refusing to accept a Democratic win.

I am not particularly worried about a return of Trump. He is in poor health and too old at this point. However I do see a danger in the possibility of R held states refusing to return D electors. The stage is being set for that now. If it does happen there is at least some danger of the nation splintering leading to the military getting involved.

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35 minutes ago, gowlerk said:

I am not particularly worried about a return of Trump. He is in poor health and too old at this point. However I do see a danger in the possibility of R held states refusing to return D electors. The stage is being set for that now. If it does happen there is at least some danger of the nation splintering leading to the military getting involved.

We'll see. How do you suppose he'd fare against an AOC-Jayapal ticket? 

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1 minute ago, gowlerk said:

That's the sort of ticket I could see state legislatures refusing to support despite the vote. 

Most predictions of the collapse of democracy in America lately are focused on 2030-2050. Seems to me that the only way for that to be wrong is to advance the date a little. 

I don't know

but I believe

In President AOC

Sound off.......

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1 minute ago, JoeWeber said:

Most predictions of the collapse of democracy in America lately are focused on 2030-2050. Seems to me that the only way for that to be wrong is to advance the date a little. 

I don't know

but I believe

In President AOC

Sound off.......

Well, she would need to be nominated first. She is not going to go anywhere as an independent. And I'm fairly certain she is never going to be popular enough to win a primary unless she makes drastic changes to her positions and image. But I'm sure you are looking for something more...... uplifting........ ? 

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2 hours ago, kallend said:

Over the past year we’ve turned our attention inward, distracted by the challenges of Covid-19, reconciliation and the accelerating effects of climate change.

But now we must focus on the urgent problem. . .

Throw in wokeism and maybe we can start talking. 

Any other concessions?

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4 minutes ago, gowlerk said:

And it isn't. Who is pushing "wokeism"? No one. It only exists on the right.

Wokeness vs Wokeism

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/feeling-our-way/202108/the-psychology-wokeism

"every movement is susceptible to becoming the thing it despises. Nietzsche said it best, perhaps: “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.”

"On the political left, wokeness sometimes drifts into wokeism—a system of thought and behavior characterized by intolerance, policing the speech of others, and proving one’s own superiority by denouncing others. It’s not hard to see how wokeism benefits the intolerant"

“The surest way to work up a crusade in favor of some good cause is to promise people they will have a chance of maltreating someone. To be able to destroy with good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behavior ‘righteous indignation’—this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats.”

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(edited)
38 minutes ago, Coreece said:

"every movement is susceptible to becoming the thing it despises. Nietzsche said it best, perhaps: “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.”

Probably inspired Dylan,

In a soldier's stance, I aimed my hand at the mongrel dogs who teach
Fearing not that I'd become my enemy in the instant that I preach

38 minutes ago, Coreece said:

To be able to destroy with good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behavior ‘righteous indignation’—this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats.”

This reminds me of zealots storming school board meetings loudly proclaiming that they will not stand for having their children taught to hate themselves for being white.

 

And also from the article you link to is this opinion:

 

Wokeness, in my view, is a good thing, as I have often blogged (for example, here). Awareness of unfairness in the treatment of others not only makes the world a better place and us better people, it creates a culture in which the marginalized receive empathy instead of blame. Everyone has marginalized thoughts, feelings, and desires. Everyone has a history of managing unfair expectations and humiliations. A woke culture would be a pleasure to live in for everyone.

Edited by gowlerk

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1 hour ago, Coreece said:

"On the political left, wokeness sometimes drifts into wokeism—a system of thought and behavior characterized by intolerance, policing the speech of others, and proving one’s own superiority by denouncing others. It’s not hard to see how wokeism benefits the intolerant."

Yep.  Every movement has its extremists.  I don't support that, any more than you support the people who tried to overthrow the election, or the abortion activists that murder doctors.

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1 hour ago, gowlerk said:

And also from the article you link to is this opinion:

 

Wokeness,

That's why I said Wokeness vs Wokeism.

 

23 minutes ago, billvon said:
2 hours ago, Coreece said:

"On the political left, wokeness sometimes drifts into wokeism—a system of thought and behavior characterized by intolerance, policing the speech of others, and proving one’s own superiority by denouncing others. It’s not hard to see how wokeism benefits the intolerant."

Yep.  Every movement has its extremists. 

Right, the article is more balanced than the quotes suggest.  And it's not just about the extremists, but society in general.

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3 minutes ago, Coreece said:

That's why I said Wokeness vs Wokeism.

In any case it is difficult to deny that the most common use of the word by far is to denigrate it. Outside of right wing objections to it barely exists. The term has become a rallying cry for those who want to forget America's history in the same way that the Japanese suppress the painful and embarrassing parts of theirs.

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6 minutes ago, gowlerk said:

In any case it is difficult to deny that the most common use of the word by far is to denigrate it.

Yep - second only to critical race theory.  If you listen to right wing news sources, they are teaching that to every preschooler  now, and will do so 24/7 until it is banned.

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31 minutes ago, gowlerk said:

In any case it is difficult to deny that the most common use of the word by far is to denigrate it. Outside of right wing objections to it barely exists. The term has become a rallying cry for those who want to forget America's history in the same way that the Japanese suppress the painful and embarrassing parts of theirs.

You mean like people who call God a sky puppet. Or, those who want to forget American Christian History in the same way that the Japanese suppress the painful and embarrassing parts of theirs.  

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(edited)
6 minutes ago, BIGUN said:

You mean like people who call God a sky puppet. Or, those who want to forget American Christian History in the same way that the Japanese suppress the painful and embarrassing parts of theirs.  

I object. No one wants to forget American Christian history, we just don't want Christianity to dominate society.  How can we forget the sexual abuse perpetrated by the Catholic Church for instance? 

Calling God a "sky puppet" is denigrating other's beliefs and is uncalled for.

Edited by gowlerk

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51 minutes ago, BIGUN said:

You mean like people who call God a sky puppet. Or, those who want to forget American Christian History in the same way that the Japanese suppress the painful and embarrassing parts of theirs.  

Puppet?   I've not seen that.  

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1 hour ago, gowlerk said:

Calling God a "sky puppet" is denigrating other's beliefs and is uncalled for.

Agreed. Thank you. While I "identify" more with pantheism and Buddhism, I've heard people referring to those who believe in God as sky puppet worshippers or those who believe in sky puppets. To me,  it is as disparaging against a culture as it is to call someone a racial slur. 

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