A Misrepresentation of “Rightist” Thought
[guest post by Dana]
For your consideration: a little strawman from a Bloomberg opinion writer:
Me: Salaries should be more equal.
Rightists: No, because salaries are based on productivity.
Me: So what determines productivity?
Rightists: IQ.
Me: So you think we can incentivize people to have higher IQ by paying them more?
Rightists: No, IQ is innate.
Me: pic.twitter.com/lLX3vSInRJ
— Noah Smith đ (@Noahpinion) August 5, 2020
Raise your hand if you’ve ever heard anyone on the right say that it is IQ that determines productivity??
The writer is essentially and inaccurately positing that “rightists” believe that individuals with high IQs can’t be non-productive, deadweight layabouts and that individuals with low IQs can’t be productive even if they have a solid work ethic, self-discipline, and a sense of responsibility, pride, and purpose.
And that’s just to start with…”rightists” claiming salary should be based on “productivity”??
Anyway, the tweet reminded me to give a shout-out to the No Limits Cafe, whose mission is to “EMPOWER adults with intellectual disabilities by providing jobs and job training to help them lead fulfilling lives within our community and to increase awareness of their potential.” Wut??? This is just crazy, am I right??!!!
–Dana
This annoyed me. I dislike it when goobers dishonestly mislead about how people on the right think.
Dana (292df6) — 8/6/2020 @ 11:19 amThat guy’s argument is irritatingly bad.
Fortunately it’s also obviously bad. So much so that it can itself be used as a pass / fail IQ test.
Anyone that takes it seriously fails the test. đ
Time123 (d1bf33) — 8/6/2020 @ 11:27 amThats close to the truth. If instead of productivity you say economic value. That;s why baseball players get paid so much.
And the incentive given by higher pay is not so much to get people to have more skills but to get people with more skills to take jobs that deliver more economic value.
Of course some high wages are caused by a union and some by licensing and other economic rents and some by logrolling and some to disincentivize embezzlement.
Sammy Finkelman (fe6a9b) — 8/6/2020 @ 11:28 amDid you see my tweet in reply to Smith’s? I made the same point that Sammy just made: every “rightist” I know argues that employee compensation should be based upon the amount of value that the employee brings to the company. It’s why every single industry I am aware of evaluates a salesperson on how much revenue (“value”) he or she brings into a company and not how many customers he or she meets with (“productivity”) in a given year. And Smith’s contention that “rightists” believe that IQ is demonstrated by productivity suggests to me that he personally knows zero conservatives and is just making up opinions to ascribe to them.
JVW (ee64e4) — 8/6/2020 @ 11:55 amAlso that he flunked Econ 101.
Time123 (d1bf33) — 8/6/2020 @ 12:00 pmI’ve heard people say that IQ is one factor associated with income, but virtually no one says it’s determinative. A lot depends on where people choose to focus their energy, what interests them, whether they put a priority on wealth or on other things, whether they are confident or assertive or creative, and how many other people can do what they do as well or better.
Hard work and discipline help, but they’re not the keys to wealth. A lot depends on whether the things you have to offer happen to align with the needs or wishes of a lot of other people, and if they are able and willing to pay a good sum for the time it takes you to produce your product.
One factor often overlooked is: How labor-intensive is your craft? David Esterly was possibly the best woodcarver in the world since Grinling Gibbons (1648-1721), but he couldn’t make a living by it because there aren’t enough people who have both the money and the interest to pay enough for his works to add up to a decent hourly wage.
People in sports and entertainment have a high earnings potential in large part because they can expand their customer base (or it expands by itself) without requiring much or any additional work on their part. OTOH, they can’t control whether people will like what they offer. Public taste can be unpredictable and fickle. On the whole, it isn’t very elevated, which is why the composers of the greatest and most enduring works of music couldn’t come anywhere near the wealth of the most popular contemporary “artists.”
Long story short: If you’re smart enough, you can find plenty of explanations for why you’re not rich.
Radegunda (e1ea47) — 8/6/2020 @ 12:23 pmRaise your hand if youâve ever heard anyone on the right say that it is IQ that determines productivity?
Charles Murray.
Murray is an American political scientist, writer, and public speaker. Murray is the W.H. Brady Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C.
-source, wikibio.oops
He co-authored the book: The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life is a 1994 book by psychologist Richard J. Herrnstein and political scientist Charles Murray, in which the authors argue that human intelligence is substantially influenced by both inherited and environmental factors and that it is a better predictor of many personal outcomes, including financial income, job performance, birth out of wedlock, and involvement in crime than are an individual’s parental socioeconomic status. They also argue that those with high intelligence, the “cognitive elite”, are becoming separated from those of average and below-average intelligence.’ -source, wikibookreview.readitandweep
And of course, Nazi Germany used the IQ test to protect the âFatherlandâ from genetic impurities â low scoring individuals were forcibly sterilized.
‘National Socialism more commonly known as Nazism is the ideology and practices associated with the Nazi Partyâ officially the National Socialist German Workers’ Partyâ in Nazi Germany, and of other far-right groups with similar ideas and aims. Nazism is a form of fascism, with disdain for liberal democracy and the parliamentary system. It incorporates fervent antisemitism, anti-communism, scientific racism, and the use of eugenics into its creed.’ – source, wikidefineakraut.goosestep
DCSCA (797bc0) — 8/6/2020 @ 12:33 pmIf it’s not weird to call some people “leftists,” it should not be weird to call other people “rightists.”
(It is dumb to call people either “rightists” or “leftists”)
Leviticus (efada1) — 8/6/2020 @ 12:39 pmDCSCA,
perhaps you jumped the gun there. Murray’s notion that nature and nurture, genetics and environment, play roles in who you are, what you accomplish, etc, that’s not really saying “IQ=productivity”. I would actually say Murray’s view is the exact opposite of saying IQ determines productivity because he’s saying all these other factors can make or break you in life, even if you’re very smart.
It’s not like Nazis killing those who are genetically impure to note that IQ helps. Of course IQ helps. It’s a tool you can use or abuse or neglect, but it’s better to have it than to not have it.
Dustin (4237e0) — 8/6/2020 @ 12:52 pm@9. Dustin spins; Earth rotates.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 8/6/2020 @ 12:56 pmđ weeeee
Dustin (4237e0) — 8/6/2020 @ 1:00 pm“Hard work and discipline help, but theyâre not the keys to wealth. ”
The key to wealth is to have wealthy parents.
Davethulhu (385c64) — 8/6/2020 @ 1:15 pmThat’s quite a jump you made, DCSCA, from “intelligence is a good predictor of future success” to “intelligence equals success,” which is how Smith characterized the strawman rightist arguments he invented. It’s like saying that the claim “being seven feet tall is a good predictor of ability in basketball” is pretty much the same as “all seven footers are basketball stars.”
JVW (ee64e4) — 8/6/2020 @ 1:18 pmThe key to wealth is to have wealthy parents.
Edsel Ford might tell you that, but I don’t think Henry Ford would. Same goes for Bronnie James and LeBron James or for Lisa Marie Presley and Elvis Presley.
JVW (ee64e4) — 8/6/2020 @ 1:22 pm“Edsel Ford might tell you that, but I donât think Henry Ford would. Same goes for Bronnie James and LeBron James or for Lisa Marie Presley and Elvis Presley.”
It’s obviously not universal, but it’s the best single predictor.
Davethulhu (385c64) — 8/6/2020 @ 1:26 pm@13. Read the question – named a Rightie. =mike-drop=
DCSCA (797bc0) — 8/6/2020 @ 1:33 pmEither Mr. Smith doesn’t under conservatives, or he does understand them and was deliberately mischaracterizing. Either way, it doesn’t speak well for the guy.
Paul Montagu (f2aab5) — 8/6/2020 @ 1:35 pmI know someone whose father grew up in a very wealthy household but ended his life with most of the wealth gone, through a combination of unforeseeable bad fortune and lack of business interest himself. My acquaintance started life in a modest degree of residual privilege but has never really lived in wealth.
And it isn’t hard at all to think of people who started out in modest circumstances but became wealthy one way or another. That probably happens more often than people born into wealth ending up with not much of it, but the latter is certainly not unknown,
Radegunda (e1ea47) — 8/6/2020 @ 1:35 pmAch. Understand conservatives.
Paul Montagu (f2aab5) — 8/6/2020 @ 1:35 pmI find that most people on the left who attempt to describe how the right thinks, fall very short of the mark. And that’s because they don’t really know how the right thinks (and frankly, don’t care. Not about accuracy and truth). They have created a necessary perception in order to bolster their own agenda. Instead of presenting an accurate picture, they must present a necessarily negative picture in order to give a sharp contrast to their own self-perceived righteous views. It’s always with the intention of drawing a comparison and coming out the winner.
Dana (292df6) — 8/6/2020 @ 1:40 pmI think Mr. Smith has been reading or arguing with some on the fringe and mistaking it as a general “rightist” position. There’s been a resurgence of race based intelligence talk on the extreme right wing, but my perspective is that it’s not the overall right wing position.
Davethulhu (385c64) — 8/6/2020 @ 1:40 pmIt’s comforting for leftists to claim that conservatism is entirely about 1) racism and 2) making the rich richer and everyone else poorer, because it frees them from thinking very carefully about what really makes more people better off, and how race relations can best be improved — and it isn’t by constantly telling white people that they are permanently guilty while “people of color” are always victims, and that the most unfortunate white person is unfairly “privileged” over Will Smith’s offspring.
Smith told a funny story on a British TV show several years ago: After he had become quite successful as an actor, his father said: “Remember how I always told you there’s no such thing is as luck; it’s all about hard work?” Will: “Yes Dad, I remember.” Father: “Well, it’s not true. You’re one lucky SOB!”
Radegunda (e1ea47) — 8/6/2020 @ 2:05 pm“Smith” meaning Will Smith, of course.
Radegunda (e1ea47) — 8/6/2020 @ 2:06 pm@20, one thing i’ve noticed is a change from
A causes undesirable consequence B and that’s not worth it.
to
A causes undesirable consequence B and you’re a bad person for accepting that.
to
You want undesirable consequence B as an end in itself.
It started as ‘rhetorical framing’ but I think it’s been used so much that a lot of people buy into it.
Examples
For example
Cutting funding for social programs to balance the budget will hurt the poorest among us and that’s not right.
Cutting funding for social programs to balance the budget will hurt the poorest among us and it’s vile you don’t care about that.
You want poor people to starve in the street.
You can pick any topic you want and it’s easy to see.
The next step, which I think we’re already starting, is to just characterize all political opponents as insane and criminal.
Time123 (66d88c) — 8/6/2020 @ 2:12 pmPotential does not determine productivity, performance does.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/6/2020 @ 2:18 pmprecieved performance. I’ve know underappreciated productive people and unproductive people who made a good living. Like alot of things in life it’s the opinions of others that count.
Manotaur (0c90cd) — 8/6/2020 @ 2:22 pmWith defined goals and measurements, performance is easier to gauge/rate.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/6/2020 @ 2:30 pmThere can be a big difference between the private and public sectors in this area.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/6/2020 @ 2:32 pmWith defined goals and measurements, performance is easier to gauge/rate.
That depends. Certain jobs lend themselves to this, how many widgets did you make in an hour? How many vacuums did you sell? This really only works on low skill jobs where everyone is basically doing the same thing and you can measure them against each other. What about the people in charge of automating the widget manufacturing who are all working on different parts of the system requiring different skill sets. You can gauge them on projects completed, milestones, sprints, whatever you want but most of these things are not comparable to one another. In an environment like that it’s sometimes hard to identify who’s actually adding the most value.
Manotaur (0c90cd) — 8/6/2020 @ 2:39 pm“The next step, which I think weâre already starting, is to just characterize all political opponents as insane and criminal.”
There are posters on these very forums who believe that the left hates America and wants to destroy it.
Davethulhu (385c64) — 8/6/2020 @ 2:42 pmIâve never delved into this issue. It may make for a fascinating dialogue. What is the most pro-America statement issued by the political left in the last month?
BuDuh (6e5e1f) — 8/6/2020 @ 2:49 pm@13. Read the question â named a Rightie.
And tortured his argument beyond recognition, but oh well.
JVW (ee64e4) — 8/6/2020 @ 2:56 pm“What is the most pro-America statement issued by the political left in the last month?”
What’s the most pro-America statement issued by the political right in the last month?
Davethulhu (385c64) — 8/6/2020 @ 2:57 pm@32. You could move on to the more numerous and general Nazis and of other far-right groups with similar ideas and aims but oh well, Murray was enuf. ‘Nazism is a form of fascism, with disdain for liberal democracy and the parliamentary system. It incorporates fervent antisemitism, anti-communism, scientific racism, and the use of eugenics into its creed.â- source, wikidef
DCSCA (797bc0) — 8/6/2020 @ 3:09 pmChristian Royal Pottery
Leftists would have him claiming checks and playing victim. (Or aborted before even having a chance at life) Instead his parents saw an artist, one who just happened to have Downs Syndrome and helped him excel. Productivity is his middle name!
Marci (405d43) — 8/6/2020 @ 3:09 pmOne possibility:
Dave (1bb933) — 8/6/2020 @ 3:09 pmOne possibility:
Dave (1bb933) — 8/6/2020 @ 3:12 pm37… I was waiting for a leftwinger to invoke the name and I wasnât disappointed.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/6/2020 @ 3:16 pm…= not an answer to my question.
BuDuh (f854e4) — 8/6/2020 @ 3:22 pmI donât see the pro America drive of that speech, Dave. I see a formula on how we can do better. I assume that is because we must suck, but I am biased I guess.
Would you mind bolding all the âhooray America!â hits from the entire speech?
BuDuh (f854e4) — 8/6/2020 @ 3:26 pm“âŚ= not an answer to my question.”
Dave stole my thunder, this is the quote I was gonna use:
“The life of John Lewis was, in so many ways, exceptional. It vindicated the faith in our founding, redeemed that faith; that most American of ideas; that idea that any of us ordinary people without rank or wealth or title or fame can somehow point out the imperfections of this nation, and come together, and challenge the status quo, and decide that it is in our power to remake this country that we love until it more closely aligns with our highest ideals. What a radical ideal. What a revolutionary notion. This idea that any of us, ordinary people, a young kid from Troy can stand up to the powers and principalities and say no this isnât right, this isnât true, this isnât just. We can do better. On the battlefield of justice, Americans like John, Americans like the Reverends Lowery and C.T. Vivian, two other patriots that we lost this year, liberated all of us that many Americans came to take for granted.”
Davethulhu (385c64) — 8/6/2020 @ 3:27 pmHooray America!!!
BuDuh (f854e4) — 8/6/2020 @ 3:29 pmSounds like a blanket insult but… Hooray America!!!
BuDuh (f854e4) — 8/6/2020 @ 3:30 pmâThey are dying, itâs true. It is what it is,â
In your face leftists. ‘Merica! Oh, what’s that? You want more? Bam! Here you go!
âSo, I think Iâve done more for the Black community than any other president, and letâs take a pass on Abraham Lincoln, cause he did good, although itâs always questionable,â
yeah, Abraham Lincoln, what you got? Not what Trump got. ‘Merica!
Manotaur (0c90cd) — 8/6/2020 @ 3:33 pm“Hooray America!!!”
Are you a child?
Davethulhu (385c64) — 8/6/2020 @ 3:37 pmIn any event, your turn BuDuh.
Davethulhu (385c64) — 8/6/2020 @ 3:38 pmSince Bush is a confirmed RINO, and didn’t vote for Trump, maybe we should count his remarks as being “by the political left”.
Could I get a ruling on this, Trumpkins?
Dave (1bb933) — 8/6/2020 @ 3:40 pmSpeaking of misrepresentations, Trump piled on Biden the Pagan Heathen today.
That’s pretty funny, going after a practicing Catholic by a guy who has never professed that Christ is his personal savior, rarely goes to church and doesn’t read the Bible (although Trump does know How to Bible). Biden was quick to respond.
Paul Montagu (f2aab5) — 8/6/2020 @ 3:43 pmPretty lousy comment there, Dave. Paul would be asking for a ruling from the moderator if you popped him with that tripe. I expect it from you so big deal. I does make me break off our dialogue though. Probably for the better since you didnât post a pro-America comment yet think it is my turn.
Good luck.
BuDuh (b7a2aa) — 8/6/2020 @ 3:47 pm“Pretty lousy comment there, Dave. Paul would be asking for a ruling from the moderator if you popped him with that tripe. I expect it from you so big deal. I does make me break off our dialogue though. Probably for the better since you didnât post a pro-America comment yet think it is my turn.”
Lol I knew you’d chicken out.
Davethulhu (385c64) — 8/6/2020 @ 3:49 pmYesterday’s narrative: Biden is a drooling vegetable who doesn’t know what year it is.
Today’s narrative: Biden can hurt God.
Flattering to see Trump angling for the physicist vote, though:
“Heâs against energy.”
No word about Biden’s position on momentum, but it’s hard to muster any optimism.
Dave (1bb933) — 8/6/2020 @ 3:52 pm@41: âand decide that it is in our power to remake this country that we love until it more closely aligns with our highest ideals.â
Sorry Davethulhu, incoherence isnât pro-American.
beer ân pretzels (2fdfa0) — 8/6/2020 @ 3:54 pmGOD IS AFRAID OF BIDEN!
Dave (1bb933) — 8/6/2020 @ 3:55 pmYou are very intuitive, hula. Not answering my question before making demands always makes me chicken out. I am weak that way.
Please resume your normal conversation; it will reward you in ways no one can imagine.
BuDuh (7cba11) — 8/6/2020 @ 3:56 pm“Sorry Davethulhu, incoherence isnât pro-American.”
Whatâs the most pro-America statement issued by the political right in the last month?
Davethulhu (385c64) — 8/6/2020 @ 3:56 pm“You are very intuitive, hula. Not answering my question before making demands always makes me chicken out. I am weak that way.
Please resume your normal conversation; it will reward you in ways no one can imagine.”
We both know you never intended to respond, it’s clear from your goal post moving.
Davethulhu (385c64) — 8/6/2020 @ 3:58 pmI bet you that female engineers, black engineers and black female engineers are paid more than white male engineers with the same resume.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 8/6/2020 @ 3:59 pmGOD IS AFRAID OF BIDEN!
Biden is more popular then Jesus.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 8/6/2020 @ 4:00 pm36.
Excuse me, but what is Barack Obama talking about?
Sammy Finkelman (fe6a9b) — 8/6/2020 @ 4:00 pmAny time Trump points out Biden’s flaws, four fingers are pointing back at himself.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 8/6/2020 @ 4:01 pmGeorge Floyd is no Emmett Till, because the killing of George Floyd had absolutely no support – anywhere, nor are there a great many like him. Now maybe some people like to see things this way, but it’s not true, and Obama knows it.
Sammy Finkelman (fe6a9b) — 8/6/2020 @ 4:03 pmâHeâs against energy.â
Trump is also pro-spin and pro-strangeness. No so big on charm though.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 8/6/2020 @ 4:03 pm@60. Any time Trump points out Bidenâs flaws, four networks, fourteen cameras and forty-four microphones are pointing back at himself.
Fixed that for ‘ya.
Glorious.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 8/6/2020 @ 4:06 pmSubjugation seems like a debatable choice of words here, but it means “the action of bringing someone or something under domination or control.”
I suppose one could argue that it describes the condition of the poor, or as Obama might say, “marginalized”.
Or he might be referring to the mistreatment of victims like George Floyd by the police.
Dave (1bb933) — 8/6/2020 @ 4:10 pm@47.Since Bush is a confirmed RINO…
This is the problem w/t modern ideological conservative movement in a nutshell: too much fluoride in their coffee. Try decaf. đ
DCSCA (797bc0) — 8/6/2020 @ 4:12 pmBush was showing Lewis respect for Lewis’s boycott of his inauguration in 2001.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/6/2020 @ 4:16 pmBiden is more popular then Jesus.
Given the times, so is Satan.
But seriously… sounds like you’re hanging with the wrong crowd.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/6/2020 @ 4:19 pm@57. Maybe; maybe not– but if it was 1960 and not 2020, don’t bet the ranch on it:
“There are no colored bathrooms in this building, or any building outside the West Campus, which is half a mile away. Did you know that? I have to walk to Timbuktu just to relieve myself! And I can’t use one of the handy bikes. Picture that, Mr. Harrison. My uniform, skirt below the knees and my heels. And simple necklace pearls. Well, I don’t own pearls. Lord knows you don’t pay the colored enough to afford pearls! And I work like a dog day and night, living on coffee from a pot none of you want to touch! So, excuse me if I have to go to the restroom a few times a day.” – Katherine Johnson [Taraji P. Henson] ‘Hidden Figures’ 2016
DCSCA (797bc0) — 8/6/2020 @ 4:22 pmđ
Dave (1bb933) — 8/6/2020 @ 4:38 pm68, I bet half the day in Biden Bunker is wasted convince cing Joe he cant offer the VP to one of those JSC colored gals.
urbanleftbehind (d07d9c) — 8/6/2020 @ 5:06 pmMeanwhile there were raids in miami amd cleveland connected to kolomoisky the owner of burisma and the privat bank
Narciso (7404b5) — 8/6/2020 @ 5:18 pmNow laetitia james went after the nra but bot thiusand currents why is that?
Narciso (7404b5) — 8/6/2020 @ 5:22 pmThousand currents is based in berkeley but its role as pass through for tides foundation and act blue, isnt the definition of fraud
Narciso (7404b5) — 8/6/2020 @ 5:27 pm@39 Sigh. You understand that loving America is more than running around in a flag t-shirt yelling “America! EF YEAH!” However, since apparently we are going for simplistic.
“I love my country. And this is a moment in time that I feel a sense of responsibility to stand up and fight for the best of who we are.” Kamala Harris.
Now do “Make American Great Again.” Pesky thing, that “again.” It certainly implies something.
Nic (896fdf) — 8/6/2020 @ 5:50 pmYou tell me nic what does mrs emhoff like about america.
Narciso (7404b5) — 8/6/2020 @ 6:03 pmI love my country.
Great. The problem is, nobody in their right mind should believe it.
Nobody loves America who wants to turn it into France, or Norway, or whatever country the Left typically hypes to prove how lacking we are.
I forget who said it, but it goes something like âDemocrats regard the USA as just some country that comes after the UK and before Uruguay in a listâ.
beer ân pretzels (26e26a) — 8/6/2020 @ 6:06 pmI guess this settles the rightist/leftist thing:
Former President Bush pays tribute to immigrants in new book
Read the whole thing.
I’ll be ordering the autographed deluxe edition. Just in case you were wondering.
Dave (1bb933) — 8/6/2020 @ 6:08 pmMrs emhoff (ht other dana) pretended to have persecuted from her bailiwick in canada.
Narciso (7404b5) — 8/6/2020 @ 6:10 pmThanks, Nic, but I think you didnât quite understand. I am guessing that because you posted a quote from January.
I will try to lay this out in a way that I hope you can better understand than the others who failed in their responses.
Davethulu made a very specific claim:
I quoted that specific claim and asked a specific question:
The first response was a dodge that tried to place the onus on me to explain republicans and their actions. It was not an answer. That was followed up with several Obama quotes that only show that Obama is prepared to fix what is wrong with America. And your follow up really doesnât fall into the âin the last monthâ caveat of my question.
I donât blame you; others set a poor example.
BuDuh (9495ca) — 8/6/2020 @ 6:14 pmPre-order placed through Patterico’s Amazon search box!
đ
Dave (1bb933) — 8/6/2020 @ 6:14 pm77… immigration or illegal immigration?
Funny how they try to obscure reality…
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/6/2020 @ 6:22 pmSigh. You understand that loving America is more than running around in a flag t-shirt yelling âAmerica! EF YEAH!â However, since apparently we are going for simplistic.
It must be so tiring, having to employ straw men in your selfless attempts to enlighten the disagreeable unfortunates.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/6/2020 @ 6:31 pmWe read obamas lectures, assuming his memoir was genuine he said reagans dark deeds inspired him into community orhanizing he was against the second amendment and only situationally for the first
Narciso (7404b5) — 8/6/2020 @ 6:35 pmI have read enough of the opposition to understand them, the converse is rarely true, they called it ‘epistemic closure’
Narciso (7404b5) — 8/6/2020 @ 6:43 pm@70. We know how he feels about the 7-11 candidates:
“You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking…” – Joe Biden
DCSCA (797bc0) — 8/6/2020 @ 6:50 pm“It must be so tiring, having to employ straw men in your selfless attempts to enlighten the disagreeable unfortunates.”
Whatâs the most pro-America statement issued by the political right in the last month?
Davethulhu (385c64) — 8/6/2020 @ 6:53 pmLOL
BuDuh (d18a2c) — 8/6/2020 @ 7:00 pmSalaries should be more equal.
I cannot respond better than Margaret Thatcher did to two numbskulls in the British Parliament:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okHGCz6xxiw
Bored Lawyer (56c962) — 8/6/2020 @ 7:07 pmColonel Haiku: Probably everyone of those people in the paintings is now legal even if some of them originally weren’t.
Sammy Finkelman (fe6a9b) — 8/6/2020 @ 7:11 pm89… that’s wonderful, Sammy, but they still conflate illegal and legal immigration.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/6/2020 @ 7:17 pm64. Dave (1bb933) â 8/6/2020 @ 4:10 pm
I think Barack Obama thinks the 1950s are calling to ask for their social policy back. But the Civil Rights movement struggle has been over for over 50 years.
Sammy Finkelman (fe6a9b) — 8/6/2020 @ 7:25 pmColonel Haiku (2601c0) â 8/6/2020 @ 7:17 pm
Nobody cares, not the people who want to restrict immigration nor the people who want more freedom.
It doesn’t make sense to enforce the law just because it is the law. This isn’t done with other things tht affect people’s lives a great deal less. This notion has stalled any changes for years. It becomes a condition of amnesty that this will be the last amnesty, something that never will be.
The Democrats will get in control and simply enact a statute of limitations, unless they want to keep the issue alive.
Sammy Finkelman (fe6a9b) — 8/6/2020 @ 7:30 pm@79 “This is America. We don’t settle. We aspire. And we succeed…There’s not a single thing we cannot do.” Joe Biden. July 21, 2020
(in context of the current virus and economic situation) “What Americans have always done: Come back stronger that ever before, with the grit, toughness, and resilience that characterizes who we are.” Biden, 7/14/2020
“It’s never been a good bet to bet against the American people.” Biden 7/14/2020
“On July 4, 1776, our Founders had the courage to declare that all are created equal and to fight a revolution for the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Pelosi 7/4 (if you aren’t going to be too anal about 1 month exactly)
“This historic NASA-SpaceX mission is a symbol of what American ingenuity and inventiveness can achieve.” Obama 8/2
“protesting & American patriotism have always been irrevocably intertwined.” Tammy Duckworth 7/8 (I just thought this one was interesting.
“Does @TuckerCarlson want to walk a mile in my legs and then tell me whether or not I love America?” Tammy Duckworth 7/6
OK, enough random internet wanderings.
Things I learned in my wanderings:
Biden does not, in fact, sound like a doddering fool and his infrastructure and jobs package actually sounds good. Also, he was friends with Bob Dole.
There’s some kind of fight going on about the Americans with Disabilities act.
Tammy Duckworth is really furious with Trump about his less than proactive stance on dealing with Putin’s bounty on US troops. Really Really Furious.
Democrats and Republics have distinct style with talking about patriotism. Republicans tend to talk about how great America is, Democrats tend to talk about how great Americans are. I don’t know if there’s any significance to this or if it’s just stylistic, I just thought it was interesting.
@82 Why do you never understand what terms mean?
Nic (896fdf) — 8/6/2020 @ 9:25 pmWe can continue feeding more lives and limbs to the meatgrinder in afghanistan where we only control 40% of the country, in perpetuity.
Narciso (7404b5) — 8/6/2020 @ 9:40 pm