Someone disagreeing with you doesn't make them an NPC, Thomas. Conservatives like Tom Nichols and libertarians like Walter Olson seem to regularly have constructive discourse here, even when they're in the minority on a given issue, because they don't insult their sparring partners like that.
I think he’s just calling us Non-Parisian Citizens, which is fair enough, I guess
Tom Nichols is a conservative? How about that, I still like him.
Nothing constructive has ever involved Tom Nichols
You might have a worse time because you don't even really try to engage with anyone else in good faith.
He can’t.
I prefer to label myself a liberal rather than a libertarian but (with the caveat that there’s some threshold number of dumb fucking tankies that just have to be blocked to make the platform enjoyable) this is my experience as well. I miss *the people* I followed on Twitter, but that’s it.
I’m basically an FDR Dem. Somebody on here called me a tankie. Maybe it was you.
If I were inclined to call you a “tankie,” I’d have said nothing & blocked you.
I’m never going to be unsurprised about how far right this country has gone. To the point we’re expected to entertain the validity of fascist ideology on X and that some equate New Deal policies with Stalinism. I’m just glad I can post this here w/out 50 far right bots calling me a libtard groomer.
Look, I have big qualms with many of FDR’s policies but it damn sure wasn’t “Stalinism” & I wouldn’t put you anywhere near the class of political/economic flat earthers that tankies occupy.
His policies kept extreme wealth inequality in check and prevented outsized private power from dismantling democracy, as we just witnessed. Not a fan of internment camps or redlining. Those were symptoms of American racism rather than a result of economic ideology. Keynes > Friedman.
1. The fundamental problem today is that the President holds FAR too much power—FDR was *instrumental* in that establishing & entrenching that trend. 2. I don’t care about wealth inequality. 3. There’s compelling evidence that he prolonged the Great Depression—I do care about that. 4. He nearly >
You should care about wealth inequality when it is extreme, and it’s at record levels. The top 5% owns 67% of the wealth. The bottom 50% owns only 3% of the wealth. History illustrates time & again the poltical instability & concentrated power this creates. Outsized private power leads to fascism.
I’ve read the theory that the New Deal prolonged the GD. It’s a theory, not fact. The ND fostered a recovery that benefitted Main Street. The Friedman solution in 2008 benefited Wall Street and siphoned more wealth to the top that wasn’t recovered by far too many families. I’ll take the ND method.
Your entire thesis here is a just-so story. Fascism is a direct consequence of *government* power. & waving your arms at wealth inequality misses the bigger picture—wealth has been created at *every* level of American society. There’s just been exponentially more at the top than the bottom.
>micromanaged the war economy to failure multiple times. I don’t think it would or could have cost us the war (Germany & Japan’s economics were far bigger basket cases) but it certainly would have cost even more lives. 5. His administration was thoroughly penetrated by NKVD. He knew & didn’t care. >
>This put us at grave disadvantages when dealing with Stalin & set the stage for early setbacks in the Cold War. 6. Japanese Internment. Etc, etc, etc. OTOH, he was very adept as a politician. I think so many of his policies were wrong yet he convinced people otherwise—that’s leadership. He also >
See: I wasn’t an asshole or a jerk to people. I didn’t whine about not getting as much engagement as I thought I should. & the only one who had anything shitty to say was a dumb fucking tankie (& those cretins are always best ignored anyway).
IMO these tankies are more funny (albeit obviously mentally ill) than scary or infuriating
They’re definitely not scary. They are extremely stupid &, at this point in my life, are a complete waste of my time & attention, though. But if they entertain you, all the more power to you!
This place got so much better when I went on a tankie blocking spree last year.
People are really good at making fun of him over here. There's a lot of really funny dunks anytime he posts, I think that's his real problem.
He has a worse time because he hasn’t had an idea worth any engagement.