[jbondeson]

> 59million liked all new age sjw stuff

That is such an absurd and reductionist dismissal of this election that is no different than the equally wrong people saying "59 million people liked all the old sexist, homophobic, racist and xenophobic attitudes, and 59 million other people didn't"

What you are doing here is just perpetuating the problems that have plagued this election cycle and made it so people are completely unable to discuss real issues.

[zzalpha]

I almost think this was a textbook troll.

Start with a reasonable statement. Back that up with some interesting facts. Then drop a bomb in the room and wait for the aftermath. Pretty nicely crafted, all things considered...

[jbondeson]

Could be, but personally I'm done with being silent and just chuckling silently to myself or rolling my eyes when people pull out these infotainment zingers disguised as "insight".

The last year has ripped covers off the culture war that the US has been slowly boiling in like a frog. BLM and Trump aren't one offs, there are tons of people with serious gripes in this country, and for myself I'd rather call out the BS that obscures this than just sit here and let it stand unchallenged.

[zzalpha]

Could be, but personally I'm done with being silent and just chuckling silently to myself or rolling my eyes when people pull out these infotainment zingers disguised as "insight".

I agree. Throwing a derogatory zinger out there like "SJW" (which is unquestionably a dog whistle... anyone who would claim otherwise is being dishonest) does nothing to enhance public discourse, and it's about time we all worked to recognize and discourage that kind of behaviour while we all try to have honest, forthright conversations that help everyone understand each other a little better.

That is what you meant, right?

[jbondeson]

It's not just that, it's also the people who want to trot out "hur hur hur, only uneducated people voted for Trump"

I'm just so sick of all the navel gazing going on between the Bernie or Bust'ers, the Establishment Dems, the NeverTrumps, the Pro-Trumps, the Libertarians, and on and on and on.

Every last one of them is pushing some absurdly reductionist hot take argument in their bubbles and papering over the real issues plaguing people.

[zzalpha]

I couldn't agree more.

I'm as liberal as they get, but Trump appealed to a broad demographic. Reducing it to "uneducated whites" does a disservice to the very foundations of American democracy, as it dismisses out of hand the very real concerns of nearly 50% of the American electorate.

It would behoove everyone, including those in the media and the political system, to step back and get in touch with the values and concerns of those folks. Without that, the US is only going to become more polarized... and I'm not sure how much longer that can go on.

[qubex]

I don't live in the US... what does SJW mean?

[sickbeard]

I think you missed the point of my post. We live in a distortion field, but it's not because our beliefs are wrong, rather we underestimate how many people don't share it.

Pre election they were all over trump. post election they have completely flipped and are blaming democrats/hillary/etc. When in reality we have a near perfect balance of competing views

[renaudg]

He's actually not that wrong if you think about it. This cultural divide was a major issue : https://reason.com/blog/2016/11/09/trump-won-because-leftist...

[dlp211]

Recognizing a cultural divide is fine, labeling one side new age SJW's and the other side racists bigots doesn't do that though. It just polarizes us even more and actively moves us further apart when we desperately need to start looking at ways to come together.