waybread
Well-known member
NO MEMES ON THIS THREAD.
Don't get me wrong. My politics are as follows. Independent. Moderate. I am independent because I pick and choose from both liberal and conservative platforms.
What I am not is either a leftist or a rightwing Trump supporter.
Moderator Tim Wilson just shut down a thread in which he argued extensively against some of my posts, without giving me a chance to reply. Much of Tim's post #281 criticized "leftists." Since I am not a leftist, I'm not here to defend them, merely to present alternative viewpoints.
https://www.astrologyweekly.com/forum/showthread.php?t=137715&page=12
I will try to do justice and fairness to Tim's points. I think they-- and my responses-- merit further discussion.
1. The shutdown of Parler, amazon.com, and other Big Tech intrusions into freedom of expression.
Response: These are business decisions. If conservatives support laissez-faire capitalism, they have to accept that businesses will make decisions they don't like. Leftists do not dictate to billionaire CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and Jeff Bezos.
2. The Washington Post and New York Times perpetrated "the Russia hoax."
Response: The DOJ Mueller report found no evidence of Trump's 2016 campaign "colluding" with Russia. It reported ample evidence of Russian operatives attempting to sway voter opinions via social media, and handed down indictments. Since these operatives were back in Russia, they weren't going to be extradited. The Trump DOJ subsequently "investigated the investigators" and found only minimal evidence of anti-Trump actors; not enough to make a difference to the outcome of the Mueller report.
3. The conservative Fox News network offers balanced perspectives.
Response: Fox News does what the so-called liberal media outlets do: invite interviewees who are known for opposite political opinions. Granted. But look at the hard right views consistently expressed by the Fox News "talent": Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson, Maria Bartiromo, &c.
No, friends: the 2020 election was not stolen. Not according to something like 90 judges, including the SCOTUS, who dismissed something like 60 lawsuits filed by the Trump legal team, principally for lack of evidence. Many of these judges are conservative and some are Trump appointees.
Notwithstanding, Fox News continued to promote false information about the 2020 election. For this reason, many Americans are unclear why they should have to pay for a bundled cable/satellite media outlet that used its pulpit to damage American democracy.
4. President Lyndon Johnson's (1963-69) "Great Society" left poor people worse off.
Response: LBJ became highly unpopular over the Vietnam War. But he stick-handled passage of the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act, the Fair Housing Act, and others. These ended the highly discriminatory Jim Crow laws that prevailed in the segregated South. They did not leave disenfranchised African Americans "worse off than they were before."
Johnson left office long before the emergence of major drug addiction crises and soaring health care costs that are major factors in American poverty today.
(To be continued)
Don't get me wrong. My politics are as follows. Independent. Moderate. I am independent because I pick and choose from both liberal and conservative platforms.
What I am not is either a leftist or a rightwing Trump supporter.
Moderator Tim Wilson just shut down a thread in which he argued extensively against some of my posts, without giving me a chance to reply. Much of Tim's post #281 criticized "leftists." Since I am not a leftist, I'm not here to defend them, merely to present alternative viewpoints.
https://www.astrologyweekly.com/forum/showthread.php?t=137715&page=12
I will try to do justice and fairness to Tim's points. I think they-- and my responses-- merit further discussion.
1. The shutdown of Parler, amazon.com, and other Big Tech intrusions into freedom of expression.
Response: These are business decisions. If conservatives support laissez-faire capitalism, they have to accept that businesses will make decisions they don't like. Leftists do not dictate to billionaire CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and Jeff Bezos.
2. The Washington Post and New York Times perpetrated "the Russia hoax."
Response: The DOJ Mueller report found no evidence of Trump's 2016 campaign "colluding" with Russia. It reported ample evidence of Russian operatives attempting to sway voter opinions via social media, and handed down indictments. Since these operatives were back in Russia, they weren't going to be extradited. The Trump DOJ subsequently "investigated the investigators" and found only minimal evidence of anti-Trump actors; not enough to make a difference to the outcome of the Mueller report.
3. The conservative Fox News network offers balanced perspectives.
Response: Fox News does what the so-called liberal media outlets do: invite interviewees who are known for opposite political opinions. Granted. But look at the hard right views consistently expressed by the Fox News "talent": Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson, Maria Bartiromo, &c.
No, friends: the 2020 election was not stolen. Not according to something like 90 judges, including the SCOTUS, who dismissed something like 60 lawsuits filed by the Trump legal team, principally for lack of evidence. Many of these judges are conservative and some are Trump appointees.
Notwithstanding, Fox News continued to promote false information about the 2020 election. For this reason, many Americans are unclear why they should have to pay for a bundled cable/satellite media outlet that used its pulpit to damage American democracy.
4. President Lyndon Johnson's (1963-69) "Great Society" left poor people worse off.
Response: LBJ became highly unpopular over the Vietnam War. But he stick-handled passage of the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act, the Fair Housing Act, and others. These ended the highly discriminatory Jim Crow laws that prevailed in the segregated South. They did not leave disenfranchised African Americans "worse off than they were before."
Johnson left office long before the emergence of major drug addiction crises and soaring health care costs that are major factors in American poverty today.
(To be continued)
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