Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

applegrove

applegrove's Journal
applegrove's Journal
December 26, 2013

Single women overwhelming vote for

Obama in 2012 and within a year there is suddenly great strife between feminists and others on the DU. I smell GOP sockpuppets. Who is with me? I mean I've been here for almost 10 years and never seen such consistant anger directed at each other on one topic like the last 4 months.

December 19, 2013

I wasn't sure if I should post this. But I figure there are people much more

involved in gun control than me out here on the DU who might like to know where the research is going. We have less of a gun love culture in Canada and we have way less in the way of shootings, though we have had some. I think gun "culture" is the difference. Guns are at the ready in the usa: mentally as a 'solution' and physically available. We in Canada watch the same movies as you and get the same video games. So that is not what I mean as culture. It is the way the NRA and the GOP have placed guns in the minds of suburban and urban americans. That taking things into your own hands and shooting is a much bigger fantasy in American men's culture. You have a much more emotional culture than Canada too. Things are solved with outward emotion in the USA. In Canada things are solved by empathy. IMHO

December 16, 2013

The GOP always try to co-opt events that stick in people's minds. Look at the way

they screamed bloody murder when Paul Wellstone's funeral had a democratic air to it. Look how they said nice things about Kennedy when his 50th anniversary was about: so as not to alienate their older base who were all deeply affected by Kennedy's assassination when they were young. And now this doing in of the idea of background checks. Blatant co-option of the thing that will stick in people's minds about 2012: Sandy Hook. These memories, which have a when and where you were when you heard component, make up the cornerstones in our lives and give us new direction, with an emotional engine to back it up. Manipulators need to control these if they want to control our narratives...which they do by interrupting the flow of passion. Hasn't worked. The victims and families of are organizing. Still, shame on you NRA. Shame on you.

December 15, 2013

Looks like the NRA made a big mistake in denying background checks. Sandy Hook

families, & other victims, are going to change the world. I heard on Anderson Cooper's show on the families today that some people on the right didn't want research into bad apples in the past, afraid that it will give criminals an excuse when they do wrong they say. Well Sandy Hook families are going straight to the heart of the matter. They will fund research into mental illness. And look below. Look how many ways they are making the world such a better place.

Newtown charities raise $27 million in wake of tragedy

By Daniella Silva, NBC News

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/14/21875236-newtown-charities-raise-27-million-in-wake-of-tragedy?lite




December 15, 2013

I wonder if all this underemployment is a goal in and of itself for the GOP. Cause

it used to be you got a job with your level of education and stayed there for a career. And you did not go out and get a better job that suited your improving talents. And corporations benefitted from that over-qualification of many employees. It made for more productivity.

Now with the unemployment rate high, and the GOP is no hurry to fix it, people are forced to take jobs that don't pay as well, that don't use all their skills. More productivity for CEOs. Just a thought.

It really is class warfare.

December 6, 2013

Why so much hate for Mandela on the part of the GOP base?

The whole GOP political strategy is based on the base hating african americans. What would happen if the base heard stories of one of the greatest leaders in the world who 1) chose love over hate 2) is black? It might grow the hearts of the base. Thus the stirring of the terrorist and communist memes in places where base voters of the GOP congregate. This is about the cornerstone memories the base has. And how the right wants to control what becomes the pinnacle in their bases' minds. The base might be moved by Mandela's humanity. Mandela's death is one of those events that make it into people's episodic memories (where were you when Mandela died?), which then become part of a person's personal narrative. This is about controlling the minds/hearts/narrative of the base. Teaching hate of Mandela is about politics in the USA and the 2014 elections. The base is a cult. They must 1)hate 2) hate African Americans. The GOP will fight to the death to keep it so.

My point is the GOP is very aware of tending the episodic memories/cornerstones of their base. That's how cults work. The GOP always goes all out when great Liberal leaders die or have anniversaries: Paul Wellstone, JFK, Mandela - the GOP was all over these events so no new liberals would be created.

Profile Information

Member since: Mon Feb 7, 2005, 03:14 AM
Number of posts: 118,631
Latest Discussions»applegrove's Journal