CYBERDAGGER'S PROFILE

Standard game conventions indicate that if you want to find something of a hero, you should stop by the hero's statue at least once. Look around the statue.

author=Shinan

author=harmonic
Socialism is a death sentence. European countries are dropping like flies. Spain is now joining Greece in the list of nations that have drowned themselves with not enough cart-pullers, and too many freeloaders.

Over here some are the opinion that the reason there's a crisis in the first place is the move away from socialist thinking. All that privatization that has happened in the social sector more recently (with plenty of horror stories to go with it. Though I doubt in the end it is that bad)

You got to it before I did. Just because European countries are more left leaning, doesn't mean that everything bad economically that happens there is because of socialism. That's just going back into a Cold War era witch hunt mentality.

harmonic seems to think European economies are failing because there are many people who don't want to work, wanting to simply leech from the state, as evidenced by the "freeloaders" comment.

It's quite the opposite. Every day, I see news of local factories closing just because their owners got a cheaper deal in China. I see people despairing because they can't find a job. People over 45 who have had their previously stable jobs swept from under them and don't have any hope of being hired again because of their age. Huge lines forming in the streets by people wanting to get a job, any job, no matter how humiliating, as long as it pays the bills. People using the last of their economies to move to a country that will give them something to work on. If there were so many freeloaders, I think these people would simply take the jobs they didn't want. They don't have jobs not because they don't want them, but because they're being taken elsewhere.

So no, European countries are not "dropping like flies because of socialism. To see it that way is just another facet of an American quasi-fascist "Greatest Nation On Earth" patriotism, of a country which is considerably more shifted to the right than the rest of the western world and as such thinks socialism = the devil.

I'm repeating myself here a bit, but I have to point out that, to the rest of the western world, Obama is center-right, not an ultra-liberal like you see him. That's how shifted to the right you are. And socialism is good in the right doses. Socialism is the reason why you were able to get a decent education without going bankrupt. State-funded education is socialism.

Ugh... This is the reason why I say that the US lost the Cold War. But that's for another time

author=Itaju
stuff...

Exactly. That's why I said it's not likely to happen. Everyone benefits from the unfairnaess on way or another.

And conservative indeed. From an European point of view, Obama's center-right.

Please tell me Orson Scott Card is actually a very good troll. That was actually painful to read.

What I hope happens is that this causes a mindset shift in the Republican Party. The fanatics should be rightfully ridiculed, and the people willing to compromise and see both sides of the picture, instead of seeing politics as good versus evil, should be the ones to have their voices heard.

Luckily I see the will for that to happen. While on Reddit during the aftermath of the election, I went to the Conservative sub, hoping to have a few laughs at the rage and butthurt. No laughs were had, as no raging was found. Instead, what I fouund was people honestly congratulating the opposing candidate, without a hint of sarcasm, discussing with each other why their party was no longer abe to connect with the general public, and what could be done to fix that, with much blame put on the radical positions of the party.

Unfortunately, while these people are numerous and wise, they are unlikely to be able to change the party from the inside, at least short term. The main force there is still selfish businessmen supported by uneducated hicks who follow them blindly, seduced by magic words like freedom and Jesus.

Having a truly democratic election process would help this, I think. Many are disillusioned with the current state of the party, but are unwilling to vote for its main opponent, due to party loyalty or ideology. If the election process was proportional, I could see these people voting for minor parties in protest. While that would only make the Democrats more likely to win, it would be just the slap in the face the Republican party would need to show that they are alienating their moderate base.

The winner takes all state-based election system is outdated, and it shows. It's based on the premise that if the people want change, they'll start to vote differenly and change the state's political impact. With how easy it is to travel now, a person who is not comfortable with their own state is much more likely to move to another state than try to fix things from the inside. This means that red states stay red and blue states stay blue, and the transfer of voters between them only reinforces that, making the swing states even more important.

The solution to this, is to drop the whole electoral college crap and make the elections a democratic process with no intermediaries. Votes are counted country-wide, and whoever gets the most votes wins the election. Of course, I can't see this happening just like that, so a good compromise would be to keep the electoral college working as it is, but have all states give their seats proportionally. Not likely to happen, as heavily red or blue states would not be happy with ending up giving votes to the opposing party, and swing states don't want to lose their importance. But a man can dream...

Nigel. Bully's name is Nigel.