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American Politics Thread

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Rantaro said:
All of this is one big fucking nightmare.
Click to expand...

The National Guard has remained at the Capitol since they ejected the insurgents from there, so I don't think we'll see a repeat of the previous breach.
 
Anyone else find it strange that it’s been 5 days since the attack, and we haven’t gotten a briefing from the FBI or any of the other security agencies?
 
swiftfox said:
Anyone else find it strange that it’s been 5 days since the attack, and we haven’t gotten a briefing from the FBI or any of the other security agencies?
Click to expand...
If there's a chance that they want to go after Trump, Rudy, and co. for incitement, they won't say anything.
 
Rantaro said:
If there's a chance that they want to go after Trump, Rudy, and co. for incitement, they won't say anything.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I’m inclined to think there are a few bombshells they don’t want to drop until after Trump leaves.
 
Let's just say that there are a lot of things I could say , but I don't want to be banned.
 
swiftfox said:
Anyone else find it strange that it’s been 5 days since the attack, and we haven’t gotten a briefing from the FBI or any of the other security agencies?
Click to expand...
Oh, this whole mess is definitely getting a special investigative committee in Congress once Biden is in office.
 
Analytic commentary by Politico on the nature of the coup.
www.politico.com

Opinion | Yes, It Was a Coup. Here’s Why.

What Trump tried is called a “self-coup,” and he did it in slow motion and in plain sight.
www.politico.com www.politico.com
Quote:
"
These observations are based on the idea that a coup is a sudden, violent seizure of power involving clandestine plots and military takeovers. By contrast, Trump’s goal was to keep himself in power, and his actions were taken over a period of months and in slow motion.

But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a coup attempt. Trump disguised what he was doing by operating in plain sight, talking openly about his intent. He normalized his actions so people would accept them. I’ve been studying authoritarian regimes for three decades, and I know the signs of a coup when I see them.
[...]

There’s a standard coup “checklist” analysts use to evaluate coups. We can evaluate Trump’s moves to prevent the peaceful transfer of executive power against it. To successfully usurp or hold power, you need to control the military and paramilitary units, communications, the judiciary, government institutions, and the legislature; and mobilize popular support. [bolding added]
"

Five of the bolded sections above are explained in the article.
 
This is the very scary, and even more scary knowing that we can't necessarily trust all of the police. I really wish they would at least do the inauguration somewhere undisclosed instead, that way we could avoid the insurrectionists altogether. Biden, Harris, and the House/Senate Democrats (and the Republicans that did not go along with Trump) will all need much protection at every place they are from now on and that's really frightening.
 
Very short piece, touching on misinformation and the increasing splitting of US residents by beliefs, community links, and information channels.

www.axios.com

Insurrection and misinformation is tearing the country into three Americas

It's breaking into blue America, red America, and Trump America.
www.axios.com www.axios.com

"Why it matters: America, in its modern foundational components, is breaking into blue America, red America, and Trump America — all with distinct politics, social networks and media channels."

There's some notes about conservative Americans further coalescing into Trump supporters and ones who do not. Also:

" There's no hard evidence yet that Trump America has shrunk significantly, despite the lies about the election and mob assault on the U.S. Capitol."
_____

Pretty sure everyone's well aware of filter bubbles and personalization of search tools and platforms leading to curated and un-representative framing of what information is available in the aggregate.

www.techopedia.com

What is a Filter Bubble? - Definition from Techopedia

This definition explains the meaning of Filter Bubble and why it matters.
www.techopedia.com www.techopedia.com
www.forbes.com

The Social Media Filter Bubble's Corrosive Impact On Democracy And The Press

Social media was supposed to expand our horizons, giving voice to the voiceless and letting us see, experience, debate and learn from the world. Instead, it has walled us off ever further, while making us feel the entire world agrees with us.
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com
https://medium.com/@10797952/the-ca...er-bubbles-and-how-to-break-free-df6c5cbf919f
From the not-unfurled Medium piece:

"Pariser argues that the phenomenon of personalization is sweeping the entire internet, saying “this moves us very quickly toward a world in which the Internet is showing us what it thinks we want to see, but not necessarily what we need to see” (Pariser, 5:18). Pariser’s main argument is that algorithms are doing a poor job controlling the flow of information, and that they should be encoded with a sense of civic responsibility."

"Algorithms do play a part in the creation of filter bubbles, but they aren’t the root of the issue. Users of the internet can also put themselves in a filter bubbles, because they feed our human weaknesses. We all tend to read content that we agree with. We don’t want our ideas to be challenged, and we don’t want to be around people who disagree with us."

" Our human nature leads to polarization, and evidence suggests that the more polarized someone is, the more they seek out content that agrees with them (Passe, 3).[...] This creates a downward spiral that creates fixed minded people who are unwilling to recognize this issue"

_____

As an aside, introspection, critical thinking, and fighting psychological bias is all hard work and effortful, and I'm not saying I'm good at it myself.

But combine those two concepts above, and what scares me isn't just that the Capitol was pretty freely raided while US lawmakers/politicians were present. It's that there's still so significant an amount of support for such an undertaking from the general US populace.

From swiftfox's YouGov poll link:
Rainfall said:
Surprised, that is, at this particular set of stats from the link above:
1610184635452.png

71% to 21% isn't the worst. But 45%, really?
Click to expand...
_____
 
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