Comment by megameter | Hacker News Reader

Comment by megameter | Hacker News Reader

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Being able to observe my own boomer parents firsthand, they really want to buy whatever story makes the country look good. They look online but only within a certain set of conservative commentators and more recently a bit of foreign news(Sky Australia). But they have a definite kind of answer they're seeking.

They regularly spend over an hour discussing news with the goal of, in essence, being upset about whatever story is making the US look bad today. They normally split Democrat and Republican, but as of now they want to rally behind Trump, because they really want to believe he did the right thing in the pandemic - despite also being worried to death over the virus, keeping up with the science, and avoiding as much contact as they can. They blame the news for trying far too hard to make Trump look bad. The BLM protesters are likewise characterized as "violent looters" with whatever the newspaper reports being swallowed up(despite also not trusting the paper with respect to discussing Trump). The comparisons to "Russia and China"(essentially one word) are immediate when it comes to toppling monuments - "next antifa will start saying they are in power" etc. In essence, they started working overtime to excuse the system rather than try to move with the times. They're feeling marginalized and foreign with many of these topics and that scares them even more.

I mostly stay quiet because otherwise it would be a 2v1 discussion and the time and energy they spend on this stuff vastly exceeds what I'm going to bother with. I don't think they are healthy with it, but I can't drag them away from it either. Hopefully things go well and they simply have to change their outlook to a puzzled "who ever would have known that it might get better after this?"

Thanks for writing this. Really helps understanding, but also very familiar. Also shows what social justice reform would never happen unless these people go out to the streets.

This is like an entry in a journal found many years after some catastrophe...

I'm not an American. Many of us foreigners watching the US think that what's killing you people isn't Trump himself, but the obsession that "progressives" have with that man.

Democrats have spent years hating on Trump instead of building a good case for the 2020 election.

Why have a solid candidate and a solid policy package when instead you can have a senile corpse that can't put a sentence together, partnering with quasi-marxists that want to dismantle the rule of law.

The democrats achieved what nobody thought possible. They made Trump look sane.

I guess you haven’t been watching much TV during Obama’s time in the White House. The GOP post-policy strategy is just about opposing and nothing else. This was the case since the democrats made it clear with Obama that Republicans got nothing to offer to the American people other than destroying the economy Democrats built.

Also, you might be European but trump is loathed here (Western Europe) probably more than he is in the USA.

Disclaimer: I'm not a big fan of Trump

The job of the political opposition is to oppose. What the democrats have done in the last 3 years is a whole new level of bitching. And they haven't learned anything, they seem to be following the same strategy as in 2016. Believe me that insulting the electorate to their face isn't a very good tactic. The polling situation isn't very different from 2016, but the arrogance blinds them.

I'm from an Italian-Spanish family that emigrated to South America during World War II. I lived in Europe for 5 years, in Sweden (study abroad), and I'm a European citizen.

I'm very aware of how much Europeans despise Trump. I'm also aware of how much time and energy Europeans dedicate to American politics that should be dedicated to European politics.

In a way, the Trump obsession is also destroying Europe.

Here's a list of things that Europe needs to address urgently and that the European press doesn't discuss because it's either too ignorant or too "politically correct".

- Intra-eurozone balance of payments

- Bank leverage and household debt in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Netherlands

- Debt mutualization, also known as "Eurobond"

- Uncoordinated fiscal policy that makes Luxembourg and Ireland suck up all the capital

- Runaway government deficits in the south

- Dollar-denominated debt and shortage of dollar liquidity

- Border security of the outer borders of Schengen (Frontex)

- Energy dependency, especially from Russia

- Chinese corporate takeovers

- Need to get real about defense spending, NATO won't babysit Europe forever (unless you PAY)

- Corruption in Eastern Europe, especially Ukraine

>> The job of the political opposition is to oppose.

If that were the case than there’s no point in having a political system, is there?

Regardless, we’re back in the false equivalences territory. The GOP doesn’t have any policies. It’s a block of resentment that’s not even trying anymore to pretend.

The democrats have policies and as you say, they do their job and oppose (based on their policies). They don’t oppose for the sake of opposition like you’re suggesting. They have policies they seem to be able to articulate and stand behind.

Republicans don’t. Not any more at least not since they’ve lost two election cycles to Obama.

Your problems and complaints about the EU are not relevant to the discussion. Opposition to trump is based on his action, or inaction mostly and deliberate policies written by lobbyists and white supremacists. I’d say that’s a reason to be busy opposing him.

Ps you’re. Unless your talking genetics, how does this qualify you as a “European”?

>> If that were the case than there’s no point in having a political system, is there?

Yes there is. It’s like court, you have prosecution and defense.

>> They don’t oppose for the sake of opposition like you’re suggesting.

I didn’t suggest that they “oppose for the sake of opposition”. I said they oppose because that’s their job, to keep the current government “in check”.

>> Your problems and complaints about the EU are not relevant to the discussion.

They’re not complaints, they’re observations. Some of the items, not all, like defense and dollar liquidity are very relevant because of the geopolitical interplay.

>> Unless your talking genetics, how does this qualify you as a “European”?

I didn’t say I was European. I said I was a European citizen. You see, holding a European citizenship makes you a European citizen. I even voted in the last EU parliament elections.

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