Hotter, Badder, and Unpopularer Takes

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

I've lived in LA for three weeks now, and non-ethnic whites of LA are consistently the worst, most entitled people I've ever met. Hispanics, Armenians, Middle Easterners, East Asians, etc. have all been friendly and inviting, but your typical whites are just unrepentant trash.

Perhaps the only part of the US where the locals made travel a completely negative experience - and I am no tourist. This sounds like a complete expected take that holds true.

[Xing]

For all of the talk of Atlas being full of Democratic hacks, I'd say that the Republican hacks are far more hackish and delusional on average. Of course, this doesn't apply to all or even close to all blue avatars, since many aren't hackish and make perfectly reasonable predictions. However, you'd be hard-pressed to find any Democrats on this forum who think that states like Mississippi or South Carolina are competitive (maybe one or two fall into this category), while at least a handful of Trump supporters on this forum think states like New Mexico, Oregon, or even Connecticut are competitive.

[Hammy]

Upper class white liberals helped contribute to some extent to the current increase in violence against minorities and immigrants, doing the equivalent of hitting a hornets nest by writing article after article essentially gloating about outbreeding cons, using already marginalized people as a useful tool ("they have to vote for us because the other side is worse" mentality) and nothing else without actual concern for actually improving their lives.

[Insomnian]

Upper class white liberals helped contribute to some extent to the current increase in violence against minorities and immigrants, doing the equivalent of hitting a hornets nest by writing article after article essentially gloating about outbreeding cons, using already marginalized people as a useful tool ("they have to vote for us because the other side is worse" mentality) and nothing else without actual concern for actually improving their lives.

Let's not even mention that the most extreme racial "wokeness" tuff almost entirely comes out of upper class white liberals, not non-whites. And that the behavior, policy, and conduct that most normie Americans see as anti-white racism have been deployed almost exclusively by upper class white liberals who only care about those racial issues and neglect the bread/butter economic issues that left-leaning non-whites care about.

[RINO Tom]

-Lifehouse and Sum 41 are great bands.  More broadly, the early 2000's was the best time for music overall.

-Many people who are pro-choice know deep down abortion is wrong but resist it as they are uncomfortable with with the implications of fetal personhood as it relates to our national moral fabric and inherent individual depravity.

As a relatively moderate pro-choicer, I hardly represent the grouping well, but of course abortion is wrong.  My issue with blanket pro-life legislation is more the precedent that the government could force you to extract something OR someone from your body against your will.  That’s just my gut feeling, not some overly wonky guiding philosophy, as I VERY much support a cutoff for “late term abortions” that aren’t for medical reasons, as those seem rather indefensible ... which leads me to my own hot take:

Ideologically inconsistent middle ground solutions like the one above are almost always the best, most workable outcomes, and history shows this time and time again.

[Crumpets]

One cannot both hold the opinion that "we need to do something about the fires in the Amazon" while also believing the US should embrace a non-interventionist foreign policy.

[Tartarus Sauce]

For all of the talk of Atlas being full of Democratic hacks, I'd say that the Republican hacks are far more hackish and delusional on average. Of course, this doesn't apply to all or even close to all blue avatars, since many aren't hackish and make perfectly reasonable predictions. However, you'd be hard-pressed to find any Democrats on this forum who think that states like Mississippi or South Carolina are competitive (maybe one or two fall into this category), while at least a handful of Trump supporters on this forum think states like New Mexico, Oregon, or even Connecticut are competitive.

An addendum to this point, which I'm pretty sure is another thing I said earlier on in this thread: just because somebody has opinions that go against the grain of a particular group doesn't mean they actually hold good opinions. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't, just like everybody else. But going against the grain is only as good as the perspectives they offer in alternative.

There are some genuinely garbage right-wing posters on this forum that more reasonable conservatives will defend just because they add another conservative voice to the tally.

[RINO Tom]

For all of the talk of Atlas being full of Democratic hacks, I'd say that the Republican hacks are far more hackish and delusional on average. Of course, this doesn't apply to all or even close to all blue avatars, since many aren't hackish and make perfectly reasonable predictions. However, you'd be hard-pressed to find any Democrats on this forum who think that states like Mississippi or South Carolina are competitive (maybe one or two fall into this category), while at least a handful of Trump supporters on this forum think states like New Mexico, Oregon, or even Connecticut are competitive.

Being a hack, to me, isn’t just predicting your side to win.  A Democrat who buys the party message hook, line and sinker but thinks the party can’t win a race in MS or KY because there are too many dumb, racist voters to ever vote for the *Democratic Party* and repeats this with damn-near pride is arguably an even bigger hack.

[OSR stands with Israel]

There is nothing hypocritical about speaking out against Trump’s behavior and rhetoric while voting with him 90% of the time on policy

[America Needs a 13-6 Progressive SCOTUS]

There is nothing hypocritical about speaking out against Trump’s behavior and rhetoric while voting with him 90% of the time on policy

Far more than just the "other 10% of votes" on Trumps policy positions are on issues that are very much intertwined with Trumps behavior and rhetoric in the impact they have on society.

[America Needs a 13-6 Progressive SCOTUS]

Most people have completely failed to learn a very important lesson from 2012 regarding the impact of polarization on the performance of incumbent presidents running for re-election, and the failure to apply such to 2020 predictions has people insanely overestimating Trumps chances and performance in 2020.

[OSR stands with Israel]

There is nothing hypocritical about speaking out against Trump’s behavior and rhetoric while voting with him 90% of the time on policy

Far more than just the "other 10% of votes" on Trumps policy positions are on issues that are very much intertwined with Trumps behavior and rhetoric in the impact they have on society.

Almost all the bills were written by Ryan, McConnell or the Congressional Republican Leadership and Trump just happened to endorse it.

[Deblano]

Lindsey Graham's recent rapprochement in massive support of Trump is because he wants to be nominated as Secretary of State/Defense.

[Badger]

Since we're talking about bands, I'm not much of a Iron Maiden fan to be honest.

Not a bad opinion at all. They suck.

You may now both DIAF

[morgankingsley]

Lindsey Graham's recent rapprochement in massive support of Trump is because he wants to be nominated as Secretary of State/Defense.

Woah

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

Don Blankenship, now officially (WV-D) would do better in a GE as the dem nominee against Capito than Swearingen.

Same goes with if he went back to his birth state of KY and ran against McConnell. He would do better as the dem nom in the GE than McGrath.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

Also, my congressman Colin Allred is one of the most underrated house freshman of the past decade, and he is one of us, and also a non stop working machine, and an A tier candidate and house member. I believe that especially as a young person in politics with plenty of time, and great health and family, he will be doing even greater stuff soon. I also believe that he will win reelection in an even more impressive manner next year than last year, best analogy I can give is Josh Gottheimer.

[Gracile]

I don't like Andrew Yang.

[morgankingsley]

Since presidents are decided by electoral percentage and not popular percentage, it is better to talk about presidents victory margins by their electoral percent, like Trump winning 57 percent of the vote

[morgankingsley]

Also here is the really hot one that gets you condemned by anybody ever: Third parties took more from Trump than Hillary

[7,052,770]

On The Office, Jim should have stayed with Karen instead of dumping her for the clearly inferior Pam.

[Mad Deadly Worldwide Communist Gangster Computer God]

On The Office, Jim should have stayed with Karen instead of dumping her for the clearly inferior Pam.

Inferior on what grounds, dare I ask?

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

On The Office, Jim should have stayed with Karen instead of dumping her for the clearly inferior Pam.

It is Pam who should have been with the vastly superior Toby. I find him much dreamier!

[YE]

Michael Dukakis didn’t bomb the death penalty question in 1988.

[7,052,770]

On The Office, Jim should have stayed with Karen instead of dumping her for the clearly inferior Pam.

Inferior on what grounds, dare I ask?

Karen just seems smarter, more career-driven, higher achiever. Jim was a slacker, but she seemed like a good match who could influence him to maximize his potential. Pam, who had little ambition and failed art school, seemed annoyingly insecure (a plot point several times in the later seasons, after they were already married), in contrast to Karen's high confidence.