...American democracy is now in grave danger... Excerpts from a 11/6/2024 Vox article by Zack Beauchamp.
+Яump's second term poses an existential threat to the republic.
...while the election itself was clearly on the level, what comes next may not be. Having won power democratically, Trump is now in a position to enact his long-proposed plans to hollow out American democracy from within.
Trump and his team have developed detailed plans for turning the federal government into an extension of his will: an instrument for carrying out his oft-promised retribution against President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and anyone else who has opposed him. Trump's inner circle, purged of nearly anyone who might challenge him, is ready to enact his will. And the Supreme Court, in its wisdom, has granted him sweeping immunity from his actions in office.
In nearly every conceivable way, a second Trump administration will likely be more dangerous than the first, a term that ended in over 1 million deaths from Covid-19 and a riot at the Capitol. A predictable crisis -- a president consolidating power in his own hands and using it to punish his enemies -- looms on the horizon, with many unpredictable crises likely waiting in the wings.
No country at America’s level of political-economic development has ever collapsed into authoritarianism. There are some reasonably close modern analogues, most worryingly modern Hungary, but even they are different in crucial respects.
**skip**
This is not to make an argument for complacency or naive optimism. Quite the opposite: The next four years will be American democracy's gravest threat since the Civil War; if it survives them, it will surely do so battered, bruised, and battle-scarred.
**end vox article excerpt**
An excerpt from the 11/6/2024 airing of The Stephanie Miller Show...
The Rude Pundit: ...I think the biggest thing that [explains what] happened, is so many people are effing stupid! They are just dumb. How dumb do you have to be to vote for putting abortion rights into your constitution and then voting for the person who is going to take them away?
Stephanie Miller: That just took that right away from you.
The Rude Pundit: Or voted for, in Missouri, a hike in the minimum wage. And then voted for people who don't suport raising the minimum wage. At some point you're stupid. You're just an idiot. We have tens of millions of stupid people in this country. Who may be actually stupid, or who have been rendered stupid by their stupid media.
Stephanie Miller: We are in full on Idiocracy. ... drink up your Brawndo. ... It's like mass hypnosis. They believe anything he says.
Just think how bad the other guy musta been...
ReplyDeleteNow you think Kamala Harris is trans? Or maybe Michelle Obama disguised herself as Kamala Harris and ran in her place? You did say the Democrat's nominee was going to be Michelle Obama and was NEVER going to be Kamala Harris.
ReplyDeleteCoPilot: The average IQ in the United States is 98, which is slightly below the global average of 100. This places the U.S. 24th in the world in terms of average IQ, tied with countries like Australia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Latvia, and Spain.
ReplyDeleteDervish Sanders: In my opinion recent events suggest that the average IQ in America must be more than "slightly below the global average". How do the people who measure such things know it isn't? How recently was the data analyzed that lead to the determination that the average American IQ is 98?
CoPilot: I understand your concerns! The average IQ in the United States is often reported to be around 98. This data is typically derived from standardized IQ tests, which are periodically revised to maintain a mean score of 100. The most recent comprehensive studies on this topic were conducted by researchers like Lynn and Meisenberg in 2010.
Dervish Sanders: So the average IQ could have gone down since 2010, right?
CoPilot: Yes, it's possible that the average IQ could have changed since 2010.
New research on Trump voters: They're not the sharpest tools in the box. Now there's proof: Trump's voters lack "cognitive sophistication," often believe Bible is literal word of God. ... Recent research by Darren Sherkat, a professor of sociology at Southern Illinois University, demonstrates that America's democracy crisis may be even more intractable than the above evidence suggests. In his recent article "Cognitive Sophistication, Religion, and the Trump Vote", which appeared in the January 2021 edition of Social Science Quarterly, Sherkat examined data from the 2018 General Social Survey and concluded that there are substantial negative differences between the thinking processes and cognition of white Trump voters, as shown in the 2016 presidential election, as compared to other voters who supported Hillary Clinton or another candidate, or who did not vote at all.
Sherkat observes that Trump support has been linked to religion and level of education, but until now not to "cognitive sophistication", which was found "to have a positive effect on voting, but a negative effect on choosing Trump". 3/23/2022.
tRump supporters = morons motivated to vote. Also racist and misogynist. That often accompanies stupidity.
"Those statistics" are fake. Why do you continually deny being a White Supremacist when you so clearly are? HOW is it not White Supremacist to insist that such a large percentage of Blacks and Latinos are morons? Wouldn't it simply be a fact that Whites are (in general) superior if your statistics were true?
ReplyDeleteCopilot: The topic of race and intelligence is highly controversial and has been widely debated. The Psychology Wiki page on "Race and intelligence" discusses various studies and theories, but it's important to note that the scientific consensus is that differences in IQ scores among racial groups are largely due to environmental factors, not genetics.
Claims that certain racial groups are inherently less intelligent are rooted in pseudoscience and have been debunked by modern research. The differences in IQ scores observed in some studies are influenced by factors such as socio-economic status, access to education, and other environmental variables.
It's crucial to approach such claims critically and rely on reputable sources. The idea that intelligence is determined by race is not supported by credible scientific evidence and perpetuates harmful stereotypes.