The opposite side of insanity: Missouri Bill Makes Teachers Sex Offenders If They Accept Trans Kids' Pronouns. Why are Americans gravitating towards both extremes?

submitted by chris3991m from (riverfronttimes.com)

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[–]TaseAFeminist4Jesus 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

This is how you win a culture war. If they start talking about late-term abortion, you don't talk about reasonable restrictions. You talk about banning IVF. Double down.

They start talking about preferred pronouns? You don't talk about making it a personal choice. You talk about throwing people who use them into prison for corrupting children.

The left has understood this for centuries. The right is only starting to get it.

[–]LordoftheFliesAmeri-kin 2.0. Pronouns: MegaWhite/SuperStraight/UltraPatriarchy 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

It's not necessarily that Americans are gravitating towards extremes, but more that the extremes are so loud, incessant, and aggressive that only they can be heard anymore. The moderates have learned that being open about their position only gets them abused (more so by the left than the right, in my own observations), so they stay quiet and let the maniacs shriek away.

Further, there's also definite efforts by a number of groups to weaponize the extremes on either side, and use to them as flashy distractions or lightning rods to draw outrage, especially during elections. That makes them more prominent and attention-getting, and keeps the fringe active and foaming up at the mouth as desired.

[–]OuroborosTheory 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

oddly I was just watching "Sideshow Bob Roberts" and was impressed how villainous they always made Quimby while all the writers (except famously Schwarzwelder) were bog-standard Dems: the point there was that without officials like Quimby and their dead-dog voters a demagogue would have no chance--but the establishment had made sure there'd be no other challengers

so who'd be the "middlemost" pol in the US right now? who do moderates have?

[–]LordoftheFliesAmeri-kin 2.0. Pronouns: MegaWhite/SuperStraight/UltraPatriarchy 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

so who'd be the "middlemost" pol in the US right now? who do moderates have?

AFAIK? Nobody. Neither side seems to have any interest (or, more likely, sees any advantage) in presenting a viable candidate that isn't as partisan as possible. Probably because doing so would require them to give ground on one or more core party stances, without the guarantee of a meaningful return that would make up for whatever they lose from the party faithful.

And, having shown that they'll loosen up on these issues enough to try and catch the moderate voters at election time, they'll be faced with the inevitable calls of "well, you were willing then, why not now" when those issues are raised at another time.

Also, and this just occurred to me, but a candidate who can bring in the moderates in numbers enough to matter might become a threat to whatever party they're from (or both, if it's a bonafide independent), forcing them to go down roads that they don't want to step foot on.

[–]OuroborosTheory 2 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItOgcdOqT0U

[–]Alienhunter糞大名 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

In some ways ironically Trump is one of the most "moderate" candidates in terms of culture war shit in a long time. At least if we judge based on the "hardline religious vs atheist humanist" metric. Christian right hated him before he won the Republican primary and became God's chosen candidate. I think his opposition was banking on being able to drag out his crass playboy history and turn the religious base against him which doesn't work because, everyone knows it already, he's god's chosen candidate already so it doesn't matter all is forgiven, and the culture war means people would rather vote for a rock than that evil guy on the other side.

I think US politics in general, outside of the media coverage does tend to be pretty moderate, but it's boring and doesn't get much coverage. The culture war is basically a kind of political entertainment designed to bring in money and while it does have social consequences (and I think it makes life worse for everyone over time) the political benefits are such that it will continue. If you look at congressional voting records you'll see a pattern where a great many bills get near unanimous support from both parties provided they aren't picked up by the media and get plugged into the political outrage machine.

[–]OuroborosTheory 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

tbqh he's the only Pres to have participated in a drag show

[–]LtGreenCo 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Because the crazier shit gets, the more authoritarian people become. And the more authoritarian people are, the more extreme the resistance, and the crazier shit gets. We're in a race to the bottom.

[–]ClassroomPast6178 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Would demand my union balloted for industrial action until the law was repealed.

I’m all for woodchippering the nonces, but equating words with sex crimes is so fucking retarded, and there’s no way I would work in a school with that law in place.

[–]Alienhunter糞大名 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

This is a typical American political tactic.

You float a bill such as this that is pretty extreme and controversial.

It rallies your political base and gives you brownie points for your reelection campaign as it makes it seem you are doing something. So your base likes it.

It gives your opposition a lot of good ammunition so they can rally their base against you, so they like it.

Ultimately the bill has little to no chance of being passed. And will fail on a constitutional challenge in the case that it does pass. So ultimately it's just a huge waste of taxpayer resources and congressional time to argue and implement or not and it ultimately will have no effect on anything. Which is great because when it ultimately does fail, one side can claim they are actually trying to do shit while actually doing nothing and they can blame their opponents to save face claiming that if only their base was more engaged it wouldn't have failed. Their opponents can check it as a win but "we almost lost" so next time they can use that to further rally their base, even though it's a constitutionally dead bill and doomed to fail anyway.

It's a political game, both sides benefit from it. The only purpose of these bills is to provide opportunities for grandstanding to encourage more fundraising. Both parties do this shit all the time.

[–]ClassroomPast6178 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Ahh, I see.

[–]UncleWillard56 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Backlash for the batshit crazy trans activists. That's how it works in the US. The pendulum always swings back the other way, but most people only concentrate on the extremes instead of the larger middle ground. That's why 49% of the public are now Independent and only 25% ea. for RNC/DNC. Shit like this just feeds both extremes.