#askevilelitest

[evilelitest2]

What do you think are the biggest "crux moments," in American history. Like, what were political events that would have completely changed the trajectory of the country up to the modern day if they had had a different outcome? Sometimes I feel like our modern day America is the "bad timeline" and that a more successful Reconstruction is the good timeline.

I mean...there are so many, that is always a difficult question for me. Honestly, you could make a very good argument that every single year in American history. Like off the top of my head what comes to mind as alternative history possibilities include the War of 1812 turning out a more aggressive British victory, The Mexican American War not starting, Reconsturction going a different way, Wilson not winning election, WWII, the election of Eisenhower and 9/11

I don't think we are in a bad timeline, I would imagine every timeline is a different form of bad

[evilelitest2]

I mean they want to win a primary, shouldn't Sanders and Warren have at it?

No because Biden is the frontrunner and his supporters aren’t showing any sign of leaving any time soon.  Now if one of them could just drop out that would be great, but both have enough money and supporters that they aren’t going to leave any time soon, so fighting each other is kind of a waste of time. Because if Warren attacks Sander’s, his supporters will hold it against her, and if Sanders supporters attack Warren, her supporters will hold a grudge.  Which is happening right now and I hate it. 

The things, Bidens base is made up of three groups

1) Moderate Dems who don’t like progressivism and thus see him as a bulk against it.  

2) Dems who just think he has the best chance of winning (self fulfilling prophecy) 

3) And people who just know him due to name recognition/nostalgia for the Obama administration. 

The first group is never going to vote for either Warren or Sanders but the latter two might be won over if enough pressure is put on biden to make him look weak.  The problem is that by fighting each other, Biden can escape media attention and just look normal by default.  

[evilelitest2]

Speaking of violence, how about your opinion on Dirty Harry and the authoritarian swing of american culture it represents?

I fucking hate Dirty Harry, I have hated that movie since I was in middle school, in fact the reason why I didn’t answer your question earlier is because of how much I hate it I just can’t express it without just swearing incoherently.  Dirty Harry is part of a larger problem in American culture, which is that people understand major political problems through media rather than like…facts.  LIke a major reason why so many Americans are just so pro Cop despite how we have an overwhelming amount of documented evidence of the broken police system in this country is that there is an entire genre which is basically like…propaganda for police?  LIke Dirty harry is filmed like a war propaganda film but policing isn’t a fucking war. Also the film was inspired by the Zodiac killer but like…the reason why the Zodiac killer got away had nothing to do with the police being restricted by rules, its because the police were really incompetent at their jobs.  

 I mean David Simon was so pissed about this sub genre which is why he made the Wire, as exemplified here

Basically people think policing is just a matter of being tough, while its actually a job that requires actual skills, and the way we conflate police with cowboys or soldiers is pretty damaging 

[evilelitest2]

"I love that you didn’t ask about Biden in this question." probably because the majority of us would prefer to pretend he does not exist at all in this primary

Yes I do as well.  The thing is though, despite his lack of internet presence, Biden is still the frontrunner and I don’t think the progressive left realizes how strong he is.  So i see a lot more of progressives fighting each other rather than focusing on the very real threat.  I can very easily see progressives getting super excited and then getting confused when Biden wins in a few months.  Warren vs. Sanders battles are a waste of everybody’s time.  

[evilelitest2]

What is Bernie's Biggest weakness? What is Warrens?

I love that you didn’t ask about Biden in this question.  Ok just focusing on weaknesses 

Sanders biggest Weaknesses are 

1) There is a lot of bitterness towards Sanders within the Party, both among the elites and the voters.  Part of this is nonsense (like blaming him for Clinton’s defeat) and some more legitimate.  Regardless however, Sander’s has earned a lot of enemies so getting them to come vote will be difficult.  

2) He is 78 and had a heart attack, like that is a liability

3) Antisemitic attitudes towards him.  There are a lot of racist comments I see floating around directed at Sanders for being Jewish

4) A certain segment of his fans.  I don’t think that is the majority of sanders supporters, but if you go on social media, especially, there is a segment of Sanders supports who seem to be everywhere and are just vicious.  Now study after study has shown that this is a minority of Sanders fans, but the fact that they dominate so much of the discourse around him is very hurtful to Sanders, because their behavior alienates people who otherwise might support him.  THis is especially evidence with Warren voters, who have an obvious reason to be interested in Sanders, but I keep seeing borderline abusive comments online which alienates them.  This isn’t true of Sanders himself, and this problem isn’t unique to sanders, but even compared to Clinton fans in 2016, I see a lot of just toxic behavior, which is hurting Sanders.  

Warren’s biggest weakness are 

1) The assumption that a women can’t win/other sexist assumptions 

2) She has the lowest name recognition/control over her image as the other two major candidates (i’m not counting Pete) 

3) She is a technocrat, which is why I like her so much, but it remains to be seen if Americans will ever bother to something that isn’t made of buzzwords

4) She doesn’t doesn't seem to have the sharpest political instincts 

5) The donor class seems to view her as a greater threat and are putting a lot of effort into bringing her down 

[evilelitest2]

I've just come to the conclusion that the 'moderate' left (if you could even call it that) and the actual left in America are just all imbeciles but for different reasons

you got it right

The vast majority of people are imbeciles, especially for politics, especially involving politics.  The Centrist/Moderate left are stupid because they are stuck in the 90s, have conflicting values, and can’t quite believe that the Republicans are as crazy as they are.  The more progressive left are stupid because they get fixated on purity tests, fall for cults of personality, are easily duped by conspiracy theories, and seem to view “selling their message” as something akin to treason in favor of incomprehensible insularity.  And these are the good guys here, the true centrists are a bunch of Golden Mean fallacy equivocation obsessed clueless morons who are like “Both sides have a point” while the Right is just a massive cesspit of anti intellectualism, bigotry, and corruption.  

[evilelitest2]

"The US is a nation of goldfish" or a crab bucket...

It can be two things 

[evilelitest2]

Are you a communist?

oh god no.  I think a lot of Marxists critique of capitalism is valid, and he is worth reading, but no communism is sort of where I I stop drifting left, leaving me firmly in the Democratic-Socialist/Social Democrat territory.  I don’t like Utopian politics generally (hence why i’m not an Anarchist) but Marxist theory really loves huge categories which kinda turns me off.  Like Bourgeois, which is a term that isn’t that useful in contemporary American politics (unlike 1848).  Which gets worse when Marxits oline abuse the language, like I see people calling Warren Neoliberal which makes no sense unless Neoliberal=anybody who isn’t a communist or a conservative.

Which gets to my larger issue which is how marxist social spaces are so damn toxic, which I think if an ideology produces so much venom that doesn’t speak well of it

TLDR: Left wing, not a communist