We can begin with our own internal redistribution of the wealth. If each person sends me $100 we'll be off to a good start.
I don't post as much in D&D as I used to, and seriously considered taking a D&D hiatus for a while once the season began. Why? The endless troll threads started by a handful of members, some of whom I have on ignore, had a lot to do with possibly walking away. I don't post in threads started by members I have on ignore, unless those members post quality stuff in the other forums, like basso. I read his takes in Hangout and the GARM (few as they are in the GARM), but stay out of his trolling threads here. Obviously, I changed my mind about the hiatus, but will continue spending less time down in the Basement. The Rockets are playing! The idea? Sorry, but I have to pass. I belong to a political party that needs all the help it can get, and that gives me plenty to do. My belief is that working within the system has more of a chance of actually accomplishing something than working outside of it. I've had a lot of experience doing both, so I didn't come to that conclusion easily. Organize. Fund. Vote. That makes a difference. Pick a party and work to change it from within. A look at the history of 3rd parties tells you all you need to know about how effective they are, so work to change one of the major political parties from within. God knows, they both need serious work. My opinions, of course.
I'm with you. I don't know if I've ever conceded an argument on the D&D, but I am nevertheless influenced by intelligent arguments I've read. And, there's lots of subjects on which I likely would have formed no opinion at all if I wasn't introduced to the debate by the D&D -- by having a chance to tell someone how dumb their idea is, I get to formulate my own thinking. The D&D sucks in a lot of ways, but I don't think we're simply spinning our wheels. As for actual, useful political action -- nah, it's a lot easier to fling poo here than to do something tangible in an actual politicial arena. I have a day job, a business, and a family; I can take a few minutes to pontificate, but that's it.
So true. It's also relatively anonymous. I don't think I would fling just as freely in real life :grin:.
Yeah, I was speaking to some people and the issue is that any kind of policy is going to get labeled very quickly as being too conservative or too liberal - probably the later in today's climate. Instead what the focus should be on education. The problem is that macroeconomics is very confusing since it runs opposite to microecon. We're trying to think of a ridiculously easy way to try to show people why this is. Just know that can help empower people to make better decision.
Yes, a lot of news and opinions are posted here that I'd never see or hear otherwise so that has value to me. The trolling/pwned/brah stuff not so much.
I have said this before while there is a ton of poo here there are is also a lot of good info and good arguments here. I am frequently impressed with how much diverse knowledge there is here and if you can shovel your way past the poo there is a lot that can be learned here. I agree that anonymity gives a lot of people an excuse to behave here in ways they wouldn't offline which is why I have made it a point to behave here as I would offline. I might even be a little nicer here than I am offline. I think if everyone had that attitude this would be a much different place. As far as starting some sort of political movement I am not sure how valuable that is. Clutchfans is too small and too spread out I think to make much of a difference. What I think is more valuable about it is to take the time here to educate yourself and others on the issues and apply that to your own local politics. One big problem with America is that there is too little involvement at the local level with that is really where an individual and a handful of individuals can make a difference. Instead of thinking about getting a president elected start with your school board, then city council, then mayor, then representative and so on. From there you will see more change happening sooner.
Louis Dreyfus is hot, that chick from the Couch Trip looks like every K-12 teacher I've ever had. The contestant on the left looks bizarrely familiar, but I have no idea who he is. Good skit, bad era. Completely unworkable today.
gonna need an address. better to post it here, where everyone can see it so you don't waste your time with endless PMs.
Because change has to start somewhere. If you have limited resources taking on something like a national campaign right away is bound to be problematic and failures early on inevitably breed cynicism. For example look at what has happened with gun control since Newtown. There were was huge push at the national level to get major legislative change but that fell flat. Since then support for gun control has dropped again. While major national legislation failed what is forgotten though is that legislation did succeed in a some states and municipalities. This a think globally but act locally strategy which can prove more fruitful in the short term while building towards the longterm.
Let's just cut to the chase on this. We need his bank account and routing information so that we can use direct deposit.
You can learn a lot by going to a school board meeting. Watch how uncomfortable they get when you pull out a pad and take notes throughout the meeting. One person can have a real impact because they are so sparsely attended. However, I am in full agreement with Deckard. Start working at the precinct level in either the Democratic or Republican party. You can impact which minor office candidates win and they can impact which bigger fish get support. I haven't had much time for the D&D because this is the critical part of the political season that forms the matrix of campaigns. It's worthwhile ... and fun.
D&D turned for the worse during the run-up to the Iraq war as Bush was trying to build support by using the "Your with us or against us" tactics. This country has been polarizing for years (esp during the Clinton years) but the GWB years pretty much cemented that polarized psyche into Americans. As an aside, Obama got to be the lucky recipient of the first Dem president elected after the Faux News propaganda machine was operating at 100% of capacity. It seems now the machine may be operating above 100% and is spewing out lunatic Tea party candidates that will cause an implosion to their machine (hopeful).
I am not sure how attending school board meetings will impact national macro economic policy. Seems VERY disconnected. I think you are talking about "making a difference" which comes across as a bit patronizing. I actually do "act locally" and am involved in many things. I am not talking about this but rather the fact that macroeconomics is counterintuitive to anything that happens on a local level. For example, increasing savings and avoiding deficit spending makes a lot of sense for an individual household, but would be absolutely disastrous for a gov't to do that. Regardless, I appreciate your response. I know you mean well. And I have enjoyed reading yours and many other posts over the years. It's been a great pleasure and I have learned a lot. But lately, the asymptote has been reached...and reached for a long while. I won't post in the D&D again. It's been fun, and I bid you and everyone else here a fond farewell. May all your hopes and dreams come true.
I totally agree. Many posters have elevated my knowledge of politics and government theory by far. Few shout outs to rimrocker, Major, rhadamanthus, Hayestreet, and responses to basso's trollbait threads from the years I used to read them. They tend to have a habit of dominating and driving discussion with their insights and research, and I probably would post far less as they contribute less. That's not to say the tier of posters below them (which I could probably name 20-30) wouldn't be able to dominate on a different forum, so there's an underrated component to the D&D because people outside are mainly turned off by political vitriol and how it spills over personally among different members, with sometimes catastrophic collateral damage. I've been posting less here because I've been giving less of a crap to the bull**** of taking sides when neither really fixes anything substantial but are rather symbolic victories to feed to their frenzied supporters. Obama is a disappointment to me who's only potential is maintaining the gains he's made in his first 30 months. His executive decisions reeks of paranoia and ham fistedness that totally outweighs whatever messaging or pulpit he's trying to convey. I'm open towards considering my opinion unfair as he's had to deal with too much and too soon, so holding base and having heavily jimmied recoveries might be as extenuating a circumstance as the search and seizure of our and the world's personal civil liberties, but I'm just deflated over the lack of progress in both our political parties and its growing reliance of huge dump trucks of corporate money. Maybe I was too young to realize it, but I had the opinion that both parties were civil enough to treat each other's positions with dignity around the late 80s? That totally went to **** with Clinton and I guess we never looked back.
I think a good place to start would be to get people to buy less televisions and to travel more. Especially internationally.
