Controversial Political Opinions

[Eric the Green]

(05-20-2022, 12:21 AM)JasonBlack Wrote:

(05-19-2022, 11:24 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Perhaps you can accept feminism and equality in the abstract or in law, as deserving equal pay, or equal opportunity and promotion, or not being abused, or having the rights to own property, vote and go to school, etc., and still not approve or still disdain the way that some millennial women behave today in the USA. I understand your experience, Jason, although it may not be everyone's. Not being in contact with many such women, I can neither confirm or deny. I don't care about today's celebrities so I am not informed about them, although I know who Johnny Depp is.

Myself, I resent the way old rural white guys vote, and their attitudes and some of their behavior these days. But I still think they and everyone deserve equal rights. I am very wary of forming political opinions based on bad personal experiences.

Indeed, but while it is important to make the distinction between political policies and the behaviors and culture of those who champion them. In practice, the latter is what generally people vote for. ie, votes for a certain policy give more power to a regime or coalition who favor them, and this often needs to be considered on top of the implications of the individual policies themselves.

If not consciously, liberals usually still understand this on an intuitive level. "It doesn't matter if Trump enacts ____ policy. He's pushing a racist agenda and needs to be stopped". Whether or not this is actually true, it illustrates the point that you have to pay attention to the actual character of interest groups and political factions, not just any particular action they want to take.

I don't see it that way. Liberals oppose Trump's policies, almost all of them, because he is wrong on almost all of his policies.

I know though that the Republicans do this, in a sense. McConnell opposed all of Obama's policies just because he wanted to defeat the Democrats. He admitted as such. But this wasn't because he disapproved of the character of Obama and the Democrats. 

It was political strategy, and it frequently works. People tend to blame the president if his opponents block his agenda. That is what is happening to Biden now.

I don't think you can lump all millennials feminists with those whose behavior you disagree with.

The particular action advocated is what counts. Not whether or not we like those advocating them.

But, if your point is that people often don't do the right thing, and base their votes on their liking or not for those who advocate them, I agree that does happen. Especially among conservatives, since they seem to be more emotionally and reaction-based.

And sometimes they project this onto liberals, if my own experience is any indication. People said that people like me were against Bush because we didn't like him and his style. But that was not true. He is a pretty nice guy in person. His policies, however, were horrific. And conservatives don't want to face up to this, so they say we were against Bush because we hated Bush. Now you seem to be saying the same thing about liberals and Trump, and it's not true about liberals and Trump either. At the very least, Trump is entertaining. He connects well with his audience. But his policies, too, are horrific. And not just his racism; all of them.