American Politics Thread: The Hunt for Blue November

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Who the heck is Lanny?

[Coach]

Originally Posted by Azure

McCain would have been 72 if he would have been elected.

Biden will be what, 78?

Why are we electing old white guys who can't possibly deal with the stress of being President?

I don’t disagree. They are/were all too old to be President, in my opinion.

I was commenting on the pettiness of going back decades worth of posts to say “Aha!” to people about something so small. Is that really worth your time?

[Jeff Lebowski]

Originally Posted by White Out 403

Can't disagree. I am definitely an #######.

desperately seeking cool daddy.

Originally Posted by Itse

I really kind of want to like this post, but I don't, because while it's accurate, I have a lot of sympathy for these people.

A lot of people to whom these "intellectuals" appeal to are genuinely curious about understanding the world and usually at least of medium intelligence. The vast majority of them are pretty young; typically they are young men because the "intellectual dark web" is also a boys club where cool daddy figures or big brothers tell you you're cool and smart because you believe in them, and believing in them makes you more of a man, and all them feminists who make you uncomfortable are just dumb-dumbs you can laugh at.

I believe it's mostly just a question of having the wrong heroes at the wrong time. I think most of us remember to some extent what it was like when you were young and you were really impressed by someone for the first time. Typically it's some artist, a writer or a musician maybe, you're just completely at awe at their "deep ideas" or what ever. Then you eventually run into other thinkers who you also like, but who's thoughts don't form any kind of coherent whole with the ideas you previously latched on to. You start to grasp relativism and perspectives and the fact that most people are both right and wrong, and that world can't be divided into people who are right and the ones that are wrong. Or you just realizes what dumb s*** you believed in before. I think that's happened to a lot of us

But if the thing you latch on to is a constantly self-referencing and self-reinforcing intellectual jerk-circle with multiple similar voices who make a very convincing act of being smarter and just always more right than the people outside the circle, and who also constantly ridicule everyone who thinks differently, it can lead to some pretty toxic development.

It's really a lot like belonging to a cult. They will tell you things you want to hear and build you up by telling you you're so smart and so much more right about everything than anyone because you believe what the cool daddy says, but just like a cult they will instantly turn on anyone who starts asking the wrong questions.

Spend enough time in that echo chamber and "being right", "being smart" and "believing in the cool daddy" become one, and they become a part of your identity. Then when you run into a situation where you realize you might be wrong about something important, it threatens your whole identity. This is why these people become so verbally aggressive so quickly.

It's a kind of intellectual essentialism really. Being right = being the right kind of person = believing the cool daddy.

It's why I now try to give some slack to these people. They lash out because they've already realized they might be wrong. Pressuring them to admit it is pointless, it's too scary for them. The smart ones will eventually re-evaluate their positions in the safety of their own heads, and I can't force the other ones to change their minds no matter what I say.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Who the heck is Lanny?

New Era.

You don't remember Lanny_McDonald?

I liked him better as Lanny. I don't get the name changes.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Originally Posted by Azure

McCain would have been 72 if he would have been elected.

Biden will be what, 78?

Why are we electing old white guys who can't possibly deal with the stress of being President?

Age really is just a number. My dad is around Trump’s age but looks way healthier and better and has stayed very active throughout his 70s. He still hikes and bikes and he is still resisting the idea of retiring... my father in law is close to the same age but retired and sedentary and there is no chance he could take on a stressful or busy job. Only one of them is really showing his age.

Trump might be 4 years younger than Biden but to me Biden appears to be healthier and to have more vitality and energy. I do think both are “too old” for the job in an absolute sense but if I were concerned about age I would be more concerned about Trump, quite honestly.

With that said the actual answer to your question is “because these are the choices.” It’s not a good answer but it’s the answer we have.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by Coach

I don’t disagree. They are/were all too old to be President, in my opinion.

I was commenting on the pettiness of going back decades worth of posts to say “Aha!” to people about something so small. Is that really worth your time?

Not really, but around these parts you get labeled a lot for past views depending on if your fall into line with the groupthink or not.

I just find it amusing how these things come up and certain people are strangely quiet about it.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan

Age really is just a number. My dad is around Trump’s age but looks way healthier and better and has stayed very active throughout his 70s. He still hikes and bikes and he is still resisting the idea of retiring... my father in law is close to the same age but retired and sedentary and there is no chance he could take on a stressful or busy job. Only one of them is really showing his age.

Trump might be 4 years younger than Biden but to me Biden appears to be healthier and to have more vitality and energy. I do think both are “too old” for the job in an absolute sense but if I were concerned about age I would be more concerned about Trump, quite honestly.

With that said the actual answer to your question is “because these are the choices.” It’s not a good answer but it’s the answer we have.

Go look at some Obama before and after pictures. Presidents greately age while in office, and there should be a dis qualifier in place when candidates get too old. There is no way that Biden can handle the stress that comes with being President, and therefore I will safety assume that he'll be a good puppet.

You are right that the answer is what it is. Election after election we get treated to the lowest common denominator when it comes to candidate quality in politics. That is true for both Canada & the US.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Pretty soon they're not gonna let me use the names Mike Hunt or Mo Lester for my created player, and then the SJW Terrorists have really won.

Just get creative, make your first Russian-born player; Jack Meyov.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by Azure

New Era.

You don't remember Lanny_McDonald?

Ah. No. Must have been before my time.

[Lanny_McDonald]

Originally Posted by Azure

Not really, but around these parts you get labeled a lot for past views depending on if your fall into line with the groupthink or not.

I just find it amusing how these things come up and certain people are strangely quiet about it.

You should be careful about who you try and paint with your brush. I've long held that there should be term limits and limitations on age when you have to retire from office. IMO, no one should be allowed to run for an elected office after their 60th birthday. That would mean that there would be no one in office over the age of 66, which is about right for cognitive decline. But that specific question never came up, seeing as Trump is in his 70s as well.

But if you ask the question of, "is Biden too old for office," the answer is hell yes. The fact we have two septuagenarians engaged for the highest office is a joke IMO. Neither one of them should have been eligible for the office in the first place. I would much rather have a young guy like Buttgieg or Yang as the candidate as they better understand the modern world. But that's just my opinion. I can only work with the candidates that get selected, and given the choice between the two, Biden is way better than Trump.

Oh, and Harris is 10,000 times better than Pence, but that's another argument altogether.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

I really don't care how old Biden is (I do agree both candidates are too old for the job) because the entire point of this election is just to get Trump the hell out of there. If it's the dinosaur Biden that can do it, so be it. He might not even complete his first term if he wins, and I think there's about a 0% chance he'd run for a second term. He's a fossil trying to get another fossil who's a danger to his own country out of the office. As the orange moron says himself - 'it is what it is.'

[KootenayFlamesFan]

This is why even a dinosaur like Biden needs to win. This is ridiculous, and dangerous. He's not well mentally.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1303476745681670147

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by Azure

McCain would have been 72 if he would have been elected.

Biden will be what, 78?

Why are we electing old white guys who can't possibly deal with the stress of being President?

Because that's who the average american voter is the most comfortable with, you can tell that by the fact that both in the Primaries and the elections of both parties that is who they voted for with only three exceptions, Obama and the two middle aged white guys that seem really young only because every other President in a Century has pretty much been a geriatric and the whole idea of this is to win a competition, you and I might prefer an NHL dominated by small speedy skillfull players but that aint who wins the cup.

You can run who you like but if you want a win you need an old white guy, they are getting older only because we are getting older, the seventies these days are no different from the sixties 40 years ago

[Coach]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

Because that's who the average american voter is the most comfortable with, you can tell that by the fact that both in the Primaries and the elections of both parties that is who they voted for with only three exceptions, Obama and the two middle aged white guys that seem really young only because every other President in a Century has pretty much been a geriatric and the whole idea of this is to win a competition, you and I might prefer an NHL dominated by small speedy skillfull players but that aint who wins the cup.

You can run who you like but if you want a win you need an old white guy, they are getting older only because we are getting older, the seventies these days are no different from the sixties 40 years ago

The vast majority of presidents have been aged 45-65 when taking office. To have 3 men in their late 70s be the top candidates for president is an anomaly. Yes people live longer, but that doesn’t mean the electorate has some long running fascination with Grandpa running the country. With the exception of Reagan, the most popular presidents have been in their mid-40s and 50s. The median age is 55. Which seems reasonable. This isn’t weird, it makes sense to want people who will live for the next few decades to have an idea on how to go about that.

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by KootenayFlamesFan

This is why even a dinosaur like Biden needs to win. This is ridiculous, and dangerous. He's not well mentally.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1303476745681670147

It's not a sign of mental illness. It's just a sign of complete disregard for the electoral process. He is consciously making all sorts of moves to create chaos on election day.

[Scroopy Noopers]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

It's not a sign of mental illness. It's just a sign of complete disregard for the electoral process. He is consciously making all sorts of moves to create chaos on election day.

At this point I’m convinced he thinks everything is TV. He doesn’t see anybody else as normal people living normal lives. It’s all a game, he’s ####ed up.

[burn_this_city]

Watching Hannity tonight it's the collapse of civilisation if Biden wins. They had footage of some protester idiots harassing some patio diners in Pittsburgh. The way the segment went you'd assume they dragged everyone out into the street for a beheading. Trump will amp up the fear thing and Fox and everyone in the right wing ecosystem is playing along. I don't see how this doesn't end in some sort of horrific violence.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Originally Posted by White Out 403

This is a fairly giant response for an alleged nothing-burger.

Colin Kaepernick is one of the biggest celebrity faces of the BLM movement, and Madden is one of the biggest video game franchises.

The amount of pearl clutching over my original post is ####ing incredible considering all the responses are "omg stop being so offended".

It's newsworthy, it's political in nature, and I think it's dumb EA is virtue signaling by making him an 81 which puts him ahead of fully half the QB's who are currently in the game. All the Karens who are upset this is being posted here: feel free to ignore the post

The simple fact that you think video games are newsworthy is the ####ing problem right there. It's especially problematic when you are debating the player rating in a video game.

No offense, but there are real issues to discuss and debate. This is a waste of everyone's time.

[JohnnyB]

He's pretty transparent about what he's doing and what he wants. He has interfered with the mail-in voting process to make it more difficult to do. He has encouraged his supporters to both vote by mail and in-person. He is encouraging people to go watch the polls so that there will be people challenging the legitimacy of other voters. He has seeded distrust in the electoral process, both within his own followers and in those on the other side because it's obvious he's going to cheat if he can. And underpinning all of that has been the ongoing attack on facts and media reporting over the last four years so that nobody can even agree on the truth or share find common trust in a source of news.

He's not aiming at winning a fair and free election. He's aiming at there not being a fair and free election.

The interesting questions now are just how much he can succeed in corrupting the election and how well he can hold on to power in the aftermath.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Just as a side note:

I've been receiving texts from various people named "Trump" without being the main names you hear in the family. The main one has been Lara Trump. The texts ask me to "vote for America", "answer the call", "do my duty", etc.

Of late they have been asking me to "request my ballot" especially because I need to ensure to "make my vote count".

Today I got a text from "Pres Trump" asking me to request my ballot like "he" did in the primary. The link took me to his webpage.

Honestly, I'm not sure if this is nefarious or not, but to me it seems like Russian bots meddling in the election down here. I don't know how much this would actually move the needle, but is incredibly disconcerting to see.

I sincerely hope that people are too smart to fall for this crap, but, well...you know...Florida and all.

Cross your fingers everybody.

Edit: FYI, I'm registered as an independent voter, mostly because I don't want to be bothered by parties asking me for money etc, not because I would even consider voting Republican in this current climate.