Hotter, Badder, and Unpopularer Takes

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

I sincerely hope that at some point in my lifetime we see the movement to tear down statues extended to include any statue of a person who consumed meat.

[Battista Minola 1616]

I am a HUGE contrarian, and I really mean HUGE.
Basically all of my hotter, badder and unpopularer takes stem from this.



I can be very easily apologetic of people whose ideology I can't stand because I can't stand even more people saying bad things about others (and I'm a contrarian).
Like, if I read an article of The Atlantic decrying Donald Trump as the ultimate threat to democracy in the US, I start almost rooting for Trump. Of course, if then I open David Horowitz's Twitter page, I come back to my usual left leanings and hope Democrats win everything.
Last year, I both attacked Giulio Andreotti once in a discussion with my father about the former Christian Democrats, AND defended Giulio Andreotti once in my classroom because I felt my teacher to be punching him unfairly. (I'm normally no fan of Andreotti)

I have a problematic relationship with the concept of marriage. I think the word marriage should be reserved for religious ones. I'm torn about what to do with civil marriage - both opposite-sex and same-sex - though. Sometimes I think it should be renamed, possibly changing its legal obligations; basically render all civil marriages civil unions. Sometimes I am in a libertarian mood and I think we should get away entirely with these concepts; after all, why do I and my fiancée need the recognition of the state? Sometimes I am in a traditionalist mood and I just surrender to reality because I feel that the words husband and wife can't be used outside of a marriage.

I get annoyed by how little coverage I see in the United States media of the plights of Native Americans compared to other minority groups.

One of the things I really can't understand of the United States, politically speaking, is how in 50 years of debates about this they haven't been able to formulate a federal compromise on abortion and then let it stand, like most of Europe, inclunding heavily Catholic Italy, has done. (Also, why death penalty is so disgustingly popular)

I am ambiguous on some social policy because on the one hand I support a fairly conservative order of things but on the other hand I think it's immoral trying to enforce it by law so I end up being liberal.

[Battista Minola 1616]

The modern American right hate democracy. Seen by their approval of Trump and McConnell sh*tting all over norms and checks and balances. Along with the fact that wannabe dictators like Bolsonaro, Le Pen, or Salvini are being invited to places like CPAC and are becoming celebrity figures in rw meme culture

Matteo Salvini has been our Minister of the Interior for 14 months. I despise him, but saying he is a "wannabe dictator" is pretty crazy and by the way Silvio Berlusconi deserved that label far more than Salvini (even though I would never use it for Berlusconi too).

[Hindsight was 2020]

The modern American right hate democracy. Seen by their approval of Trump and McConnell sh*tting all over norms and checks and balances. Along with the fact that wannabe dictators like Bolsonaro, Le Pen, or Salvini are being invited to places like CPAC and are becoming celebrity figures in rw meme culture

Matteo Salvini has been our Minister of the Interior for 14 months. I despise him, but saying he is a "wannabe dictator" is pretty crazy and by the way Silvio Berlusconi deserved that label far more than Salvini (even though I would never use it for Berlusconi too).

He’s literally been quoted as saying he hates democracy. Sounds pretty authoritarian to me

[Battista Minola 1616]

The modern American right hate democracy. Seen by their approval of Trump and McConnell sh*tting all over norms and checks and balances. Along with the fact that wannabe dictators like Bolsonaro, Le Pen, or Salvini are being invited to places like CPAC and are becoming celebrity figures in rw meme culture

Matteo Salvini has been our Minister of the Interior for 14 months. I despise him, but saying he is a "wannabe dictator" is pretty crazy and by the way Silvio Berlusconi deserved that label far more than Salvini (even though I would never use it for Berlusconi too).

He’s literally been quoted as saying he hates democracy. Sounds pretty authoritarian to me

I can't find the quote, instead I found a tweet where Salvini accuses the left of not having faith in democracy.
Anyway, I just tell you one thing about Berlusconi. It's called "editto bulgaro" and happened in 2002.
Basically there were some programs on the public television Rai that were overtly critical or satyrical towards Berlusconi. While on a foreign tour in Sofia, Bulgaria, he denounced the hosts of them as people making a criminal use of television and expressed hope that Rai would not let that happen again. The three hosts involved had their shows cancelled by Rai board of directors some months later.* Ah and by the way Berlusconi owns the largest private television company in Italy.
This sounds like some of the acts that get the left totally apesh**t at Trump. Berlusconi also always accused judges of persecuting him.

*I should point out that they weren't the first people fired by Rai for "stepping too far" in satyre towards politicians, but this case was particularly egregious and public

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

I get annoyed by how little coverage I see in the United States media of the plights of Native Americans compared to other minority groups.

They are a smaller group numerically in the US than blacks or Hispanics.  And Blacks, Hispanics, Koreans, etc. have neighborhoods where they make up a majority of the population in the big cities where the large news media organizations are based, but American Indians don't, so perhaps they are more easily forgotten.


anyway, welcome to the forum.  always nice to have another contrarian here!

[Battista Minola 1616]

I get annoyed by how little coverage I see in the United States media of the plights of Native Americans compared to other minority groups.

They are a smaller group numerically in the US than blacks or Hispanics.  And Blacks, Hispanics, Koreans, etc. have neighborhoods where they make up a majority of the population in the big cities where the large news media organizations are based, but American Indians don't, so perhaps they are more easily forgotten.


anyway, welcome to the forum.  always nice to have another contrarian here!

Thank you for your welcome!

Now I have a take that is sure to be unpopular here (and probably bad too):
I think Democrats should invest in the Alabama Senate seat to try and save Doug Jones.

[T'Chenka]

Now I have a take that is sure to be unpopular here (and probably bad too):
I think Democrats should invest in the Alabama Senate seat to try and save Doug Jones.

HAHAHAHA

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Last year, I both attacked Giulio Andreotti once in a discussion with my father about the former Christian Democrats, AND defended Giulio Andreotti once in my classroom because I felt my teacher to be punching him unfairly. (I'm normally no fan of Andreotti)

I think this is a fair stance on the man, especially when you compare him with explicit demons of postwar Italian politics like Craxi and Berlusconi. Whatever you may say about him - and you can rightly accuse him of an awful lot of crap - he was far more principled and serious a politician than the sort of politician who looted everything not bolted down and ran off.

[UkrainianRepublican]

Richard Nixon would've  been excellent president  if Watergate never happened

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Richard Nixon would've  been excellent president  if Watergate never happened

Do you prefer the four-year extension of the Vietnam War, or his entirely conscious decision to manipulate the money supply for political reasons?

[Battista Minola 1616]

Last year, I both attacked Giulio Andreotti once in a discussion with my father about the former Christian Democrats, AND defended Giulio Andreotti once in my classroom because I felt my teacher to be punching him unfairly. (I'm normally no fan of Andreotti)

I think this is a fair stance on the man, especially when you compare him with explicit demons of postwar Italian politics like Craxi and Berlusconi. Whatever you may say about him - and you can rightly accuse him of an awful lot of crap - he was far more principled and serious a politician than the sort of politician who looted everything not bolted down and ran off.

I am not sure that Andreotti was especially more serious and principled than Craxi, although they both were obviously much more so than Berlusconi.

[UkrainianRepublican]

Richard Nixon would've  been excellent president  if Watergate never happened

Do you prefer the four-year extension of the Vietnam War, or his entirely conscious decision to manipulate the money supply for political reasons?

Foreign Policy: SALT I, bombed DPRV into oblivion, forcing them to go for peace talks, opened  China.
Domestic policy: Law&Order (real one, unlike Trump, who is screaming and doing nothing good to actually stop protests and address their causes. For example, Nixon sometimes cracked down on protests and riots, but he ultimately fixed the cause of protests- ended the Vietnam War and abolished draft. Trump tries to crack down on protests but does not address why they are happening -police brutality in relation to Black communities.), EPA, introduced healthcare  reform, that sadly failed to pass.


IMO, I think that 1968 talks were doomed anyway, as North was just biding time for 1972 Tet Offensive. So, ultimately,  those negotiations would have gone to dead end by summer of 1969, if they continued. North gone to peace tables  only after their army was smashed in 1972 and their economy was disrupted by Linebacker II.

That's just my opinion, I am not forcing it on anybody. And it's  pretty much unpopular one, so that's why I posted it here.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I am not sure that Andreotti was especially more serious and principled than Craxi, although they both were obviously much more so than Berlusconi.

He was if you think of him as a man who believed in one big thing rather than lots of little things, if that makes sense.

[KaiserDave]

Anyone who spends to much time in this thread (Grassr00ts, BP) is trying to hard to be edgy

[Battista Minola 1616]

I am not sure that Andreotti was especially more serious and principled than Craxi, although they both were obviously much more so than Berlusconi.

He was if you think of him as a man who believed in one big thing rather than lots of little things, if that makes sense.

Said like this, you remind me of this phrase attributed to Archilocus: "the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing", that political analyst Nate Silver likes very much to use, and in his use the foxes are better than the hedgehogs.

[Chips]

I hate sweet things in general.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Richard Nixon would've  been excellent president  if Watergate never happened

I still think he was an excellent president (for the most part...) even accounting for Watergate.

[Hindsight was 2020]

Bernie Sanders would be beating Trump by a similar as Biden is now because at the end of the day Trump is the incumbent and the covid debacle and the mass protest reflect on him

[Battista Minola 1616]

Whenever I hear NeverTrumper takes about the pre-Trump Republican Party, I can't help but think about Real Conservatives^TM like Jesse Helms, Trent Lott and Strom Thurmond.

[GM Team Member and Deputy PPT WB]

One of The reasons why BLM has gained support so drastically is because there isn’t bread and circuses of sports on tv. There’s a reason why the most conservative figures are calling for a return to sports so quickly.

[Battista Minola 1616]

I kinda think some (many?) Democrats have a fetish for William Jennings Bryan and Theodore Roosevelt where they think that Woodrow Wilson was a Racist^TM and instead WJB and TR were not, so that they both are Good while Wilson is Bad.
Which of course is a gross oversimplification.
Not to mention that Bryan was a Prohibitionist, that he went the full religious crusader / opponent of evolution theory in the 20's, or that Roosevelt was imperialist and nativist.


(this is not meant as an apologia of Wilson, who did obviously some pretty overtly racist things like segregating the federal government)

[morgankingsley]

My Immortal is actually not the worst fanfiction ever written, unironically

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Layla Moran is hot.

[WD]

Layla Moran is hot.

This ain’t it, Chief.