In my experience, it's not fruitful to argue with folks like you. You're just going to believe what you believe, as if politics and current events are football or religion. Best of luck.
But honestly, I stated my "priors" unequivocally, with specific examples of current legislation that's coming from only one side, and you went "both sides", didn't answer a specific thing, and left in a huff?
What conclusion do you actually think I'm drawing about this interaction. You posted on my comment.
> you went "both sides"
I don't know why people like you act like this is a bad thing. The left isn't good, or really great. In fact, it kind of sucks, just a little less than the right. White-bashing has become common place and acceptable in left-leaning circles, misandry has taken off like never before, when I was living in San Diego I watched self-proclaimed leftists in Ocean Beach dressed in all black, helmets, and baseball gear beat the shit out of people with bikes, knives, and CS gas. A prominent antisemite has been allowed to not only stay in office but also continue in committees and receives praise to this day.
On the other hand, you're right that the right has allowed bad behavior to make it into the actual representational ranks with those like MTG (there are more, just an example). From my perspective, that doesn't make the left any much better than the right, other than that they have some material functions within the DNC that allow them to keep those kinds of people (who are still constituents) away. I do think the RNC needs to implement these functions, and I understand why they didn't, but the US never would've gotten a world with Donald Trump had the right implemented super delegates the way the left does.
Maybe instead of acting like the left is a rosy and immaculate institution you should examine the fractures in the facade that people try to cover up with warm rhetoric.
https://freedomforallamericans.org/legislative-tracker/schoo...
https://freedomforallamericans.org/legislative-tracker/anti-...
FindLaw is a pretty ideologically neutral resource:
https://www.findlaw.com/legalblogs/law-and-life/book-banning...
https://www.findlaw.com/legalblogs/law-and-life/understandin...
https://www.findlaw.com/legalblogs/law-and-life/can-academic...
I could go on and on but you'll see it or you'll find reasons not to.
This comes from one political quadrant.
There is no other side to this issue, which is the issue I've been discussing.
I don't know what to tell you to get you to see that substituting some rioting anarchist self-proclaimed leftists who have no representation in our politics for the liberals I referred to is insulting to my intelligence.
> I don't know what to tell you to get you to see that substituting some rioting anarchist self-proclaimed leftists who have no representation in our politics for the liberals I referred to is insulting to my intelligence.
I guess one primary differentiator in our views is that you view the actions of representatives as more important than the actions and hegemony of constituents. I do not.
One side is making laws banning speech and criminalizing identity, yet every single article about this talks first and foremost about some nebulous threat to free speech, and when questioned for real examples, real measure of the phenomenon, are only met with dissembling.
I absolutely do question liberal politicians; their failures are extremely frustrating. Far left antics don't touch them at all; as for The Squad, they're some of the most responsible politicians in this country. Those are my judgments. What I don't countenance is that anything like the problems with liberal and left-wing politics measures up against the systemic assault on human freedom being waged around the world by right wing political parties, making actual policy.
If you had an example of a liberal or even left-wing law that suppresses speech I feel like you would have supplied it. Some things are not balanced. Some things are not true. Some things are not right.
I don't even know what black bloc is. These are the folks: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/public-safety/stor...
That area is near where I lived and where I'd visit often. I guess to you it's not a problem, but to me it was very visible. Also entirely anti-liberal and they faced very little if any formal condemnation.
> Far left antics don't touch them at all; as for The Squad, they're some of the most responsible politicians in this country.
Ilhan Omar is the antisemite I was talking about, and it wasn't some one-time occurrence either [1]. AOC, to me, is an agitator similar to Matt Gates or Ted Cruz. As for the rest of the "the squad" I have no idea what they do.
Liberals suppressing free speech is almost entirely grass roots, it's a certain type of liberal constituent that's grown over time. As I said earlier, the DNC generally has a mechanism for keeping them out of office, but there are notable exceptions. I don't think constituency is something to ignore though.
A notable example of how these constituents do things: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_Eich#Appointment_to_CE... While I don't agree with Brendan on a lot (if you search through my account I've argued with him on here before), using extra-legal measures to force someone out of a position especially after they've tried to make amends was fairly sickening. The cherry on top was that it was over two past political donations during a time when those views were certainly mainstream. Examples like this aren't really hard to find and, no, I'm not going to sit here and enumerate them for you. Especially as you've been bragging about how intellectually superior you are.
1: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/3/6/18251639/il...
8 arrests. Wow. Looks like they burned your whole town down. Except that didn't happen, and the police won. The Democrats did this to you? No. Far left activists in masks.
Seems like Brendan Eich had a raw experience. He also seems like he's doing fine. "Extra-legal"? Nonsense word.
Maybe too many people are losing their jobs due to accidentally saying mean things about gay people; maybe this is politically lopsided; if so, quantify it.
Again, if you think it's anything like the equivalent of the laws listed in those prior links, you're simply refusing to reckon with what I'm saying.
I think I'm finished. Wish HN allowed for account deletion.