Mad_Machine76
Mad_Machine76's JournalSome do and some don't
But whether or not they actually believe it, when they say things that are crazy and false it still influences and disinforms people which leads to direct harm, January 6 being the ultimate example. Some of those people who stormed the capitol REALLY believed what Trump was saying and felt that their actions were therefore wholly justified. But the lies also hurt women, LGBTQ people, and other minorities. How did years of lies about abortion not help contribute to ridiculous and harmful laws restricting abortion and ultimately Roe being overturned? When lies are spread about Monkeypox being connected to gay and bisexual people, it's going to harm them. When lies are spread about Transgender children, it leads to laws preventing them from getting the help they need or being kept out sports. The motive for spreading false and misleading information is ultimately less important than the effect IMHO.
"He will never be president again"?
If he's alive and not sitting in a jail/prison cell somewhere, what's going to stop him from in 2024 if he wants to (and by all accounts he does)? And if he runs, who's to say he can't win the nomination and if wins the nomination, he certainly *can* be elected again. Trump(ism) still poses an active threat to this country. Also, some GOPers even want to make him Speaker if they win the House in November (while that's highly unlikely, it's still a relevant threat). Why *wouldn't* we talk about him?! He's not the only thing that we need to talk about but the future of a lot of what we are talking about hinges on whether he fails or succeeds in being elected again.
I'm so tired
of the "blame Democrats first" for Republican acts mentality. Roe v. Wade was settled law for nearly 50 years- until it wasn't. We have a Supreme Court Justice (and probably confederates on the bench) who are chomping at the bit to do more. When something isn't in immediate jeopardy, other things take priority, especially when, in the last 30 years or so, Democrats have controlled or will control the WH and Congress for a grand total of *checks notes* 6 non-consecutive years and the last 4 with a severely obstructionist GOP that practically refuses to let anything come to a vote without Republican support. It's not like, however, people haven't been warned about what the electoral consequences of sitting at home and/or protest voting and allowing Republicans to win elections at every level year after year after year were going to be, especially in 2016. BTW Congress did recently attempt to codify Roe but couldn't get the votes to overcome the filibuster and Traitor Joe also refused to vote for it.
The question of when the soul enters the body
is a spiritual one and, as our country is not supposed to be a theocracy, the argument is totally irrelevant/moot. In fact, the argument about whether or not abortion is actually murder is bound up in religious dogma that isn't even universal in its position and thus again totally irrelevant/moot, which is why the abortion "debate" is so frustrating. We shouldn't be having these kind of debates over abortion in a secular democratic country such as ours.
I don't like the idea of people carrying guns around in public spaces (concealed or not)
Am I glad that the killer only killed 4 people before somebody else intervened? Yeah. but things like this usually only add to the glorification of guns and vigilantism JMHO and it worries me. Now, Simon Malls is probably going to be attacked and pressured (I'm already seeing it on local news pages- I live very near Greenwood and visit that mall a lot) into ignoring the fact that this guy had a gun against policy and/or dropping its ban on weapons in the mall because more guns in more places is always the only answer most of our elected officials (certainly those in Indiana) believe in and promote.
I agree with some of what you say
but we need to challenge this notion that PUBLIC health can be PRIVATELY managed. When confronting an epidemic/pandemic, we have to dismiss the notion that you can have a patchwork of different local, state, and federal regulations and means to prevent the spread of contagious diseases. The widespread mismanagement of COVID has ensured that it will continue spreading and mutating indefinitely, and proves that you can't regulate it one way in one place and regulate it differently in another and hope to succeed.
Profile Information
Name: Mara Alis ButlerGender: Female
Hometown: Indianapolis, Indiana
Home country: USA
Current location: Indianapolis, Indiana
Member since: Sat Feb 28, 2004, 01:13 AM
Number of posts: 24,406