What's new
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

POTUS 45:54: My Polls Are Better Than Your Polls

Status
Not open for further replies.
Re: POTUS 45:54: My Polls Are Better Than Your Polls

Not silenced, but definitely opened to criticism, ridicule, hate mail, doxxing, deplatforming, termination of employment, etc...


I am literally scared to speak my mind at staff meetings anymore for fear of being marched out the door. My views on identity politics and racial relations do not line up at all with the company line my employer (a labor union) likes to trumpet. They don't practice it very often mind you, but the leadership likes to pat itself on the back and throw down their racial justice bona fides all the time.

We really do live in a polarized society and while the right has raised it to an art form, some on the left **** me off even more.
 
Re: POTUS 45:54: My Polls Are Better Than Your Polls

I am literally scared to speak my mind at staff meetings anymore for fear of being marched out the door. My views on identity politics and racial relations do not line up at all with the company line my employer (a labor union) likes to trumpet. They don't practice it very often mind you, but the leadership likes to pat itself on the back and throw down their racial justice bona fides all the time.

We really do live in a polarized society and while the right has raised it to an art form, some on the left **** me off even more.

This. I have to be more careful than ever opening my mouth.
 
Re: POTUS 45:54: My Polls Are Better Than Your Polls

I work for a firm where I'm sure our conservatives struggle to keep their mouths shut about the announcements and initiatives for Pride Month, Mental Health Awareness, Community Outreach, Women in Tech, Transgender Advisory Board, and our many other "(((cUlTuRaL mArXisT)))" initiatives. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
Re: POTUS 45:54: My Polls Are Better Than Your Polls

Excuse me for speaking in hyperbole. It wasn't a quote from the article.
 
Re: POTUS 45:54: My Polls Are Better Than Your Polls

I am literally scared to speak my mind at staff meetings anymore for fear of being marched out the door. My views on identity politics and racial relations do not line up at all with the company line my employer (a labor union) likes to trumpet. They don't practice it very often mind you, but the leadership likes to pat itself on the back and throw down their racial justice bona fides all the time.

We really do live in a polarized society and while the right has raised it to an art form, some on the left **** me off even more.

I would never speak my mind at work. The right wing groupthink in my industry is lethal to any sort of intelligent discourse. The righty nonsense that pours from people's mouths during just workaday stuff is astounding. I eat it and cash my check. What am I going to do, go back to their cribs and undo 50+ years of racism, sexism, and conservative political idiocy?

If they're dumb enough to believe that stuff they're too dumb to have a conversation.
 
Re: POTUS 45:54: My Polls Are Better Than Your Polls

This is how the right has always operated. There's nothing new about it.

But the white pride people can't speak about their beliefs, no matter how much you and I disagree with them (not meaning to single YOU out, your post was the most relevant). Works both ways. It's not just the right. It's not just the left. It's EVERYONE nowadays. How many white pride paraders have been fired? Same reason as for the Trump cartoon writer.
 
Re: POTUS 45:54: My Polls Are Better Than Your Polls

Civility is in short supply, as is patience. But statements like Bob Gray used to make that he was being suppressed every time his statements were criticized is pure BS. Being criticized, even harshly, is not being suppressed. Private citizens will attempt to use the market place to affect speech, and that is fair. We just need to keep a sharp eye on how gubmint suppresses speech.

I don't know if a president has ever made such an attempt to delegitimize political speech before. That's as serious a threat to political speech as we face now, IMO. He'd pull an all-out Erdogan if he could.
 
Re: POTUS 45:54: My Polls Are Better Than Your Polls

But the white pride people can't speak about their beliefs, no matter how much you and I disagree with them (not meaning to single YOU out, your post was the most relevant). Works both ways. It's not just the right. It's not just the left. It's EVERYONE nowadays. How many white pride paraders have been fired? Same reason as for the Trump cartoon writer.

"You had some very fine people on both sides."
 
Re: POTUS 45:54: My Polls Are Better Than Your Polls

But the white pride people can't speak about their beliefs, no matter how much you and I disagree with them (not meaning to single YOU out, your post was the most relevant). Works both ways. It's not just the right. It's not just the left. It's EVERYONE nowadays. How many white pride paraders have been fired? Same reason as for the Trump cartoon writer.

Why can't you call them what they are, white supremacists?

You have to put it in that mealy mouthed "both sides" phrasing. As you do with everything.
 
Re: POTUS 45:54: My Polls Are Better Than Your Polls

But the white pride people can't speak about their beliefs, no matter how much you and I disagree with them (not meaning to single YOU out, your post was the most relevant). Works both ways. It's not just the right. It's not just the left. It's EVERYONE nowadays. How many white pride paraders have been fired? Same reason as for the Trump cartoon writer.

Being a Nazi is not the same thing as being anti-Trump or whatever other bucket you're trying to establish as equally abhorrent.
 
Re: POTUS 45:54: My Polls Are Better Than Your Polls

Why can't you call them what they are, white supremacists?

You have to put it in that mealy mouthed "both sides" phrasing. As you do with everything.

Fine, they're white supremacists (and they are, I was using what they call themselves). Either way, until they take illegal action, they are just saying words, just like the anti-Trump/etc people. All of them have the *right* to say what they say, and all have to face the consequences of what they say.

So, if a white supremacist can get fired for what they say on their personal time, a political cartoonist can certainly get fired for what they do while on their employer's time. It's sad, I'd rather have the paper say that the cartoon went too far, and they will do a better job in filtering some stuff, than just up and fire the guy. Better yet, state that that was the cartoonist's interpretation of the popular opinion, and they don't filter what he was hired to do in the first place.
 
Re: POTUS 45:54: My Polls Are Better Than Your Polls

As if the cartoonist had any say in what actually gets printed in the paper. This should be 100% on the editor.

(and he should be rewarded for recognizing that this cartoon would be poignant, impactful, relevant, and yes, controversial)
 
Last edited:
Re: POTUS 45:54: My Polls Are Better Than Your Polls

As if the cartoonist had any say in what actually gets printed in the paper. This should be 100% on the editor.

(and he should be rewarded for recognizing that this cartoon would be poignant, impactful, relevant, and yes, controversial)

The cartoonist could have not drawn that in the first place. ;)

Kudos that he did, but yeah, this is on the editor. However, to the creator goes the spoils, good or bad.
 
Re: POTUS 45:54: My Polls Are Better Than Your Polls

Civility is in short supply, as is patience. But statements like Bob Gray used to make that he was being suppressed every time his statements were criticized is pure BS. Being criticized, even harshly, is not being suppressed. Private citizens will attempt to use the market place to affect speech, and that is fair. We just need to keep a sharp eye on how gubmint suppresses speech.

I don't know if a president has ever made such an attempt to delegitimize political speech before. That's as serious a threat to political speech as we face now, IMO. He'd pull an all-out Erdogan if he could.

I think your first sentence is an important one.

I don't think Bob left because his ideas were criticized. I think he bailed when he felt it got personal, as it frequently does here, elsewhere on social media, and even face to face now when politics are discussed.

When people feel strongly about issues, such as political issues, and when they feel like people aren't understanding the correctness of their position, or are just being obtuse in arguing against it, they will naturally be frustrated, maybe even angry. At that point there is a temptation we all feel to make it personal, to stoop to an attack that we know will provoke a response. Maybe it's a derogatory name. Maybe it's questioning their intelligence. Whatever. Frequently it's done by saying something like "anyone who believes that is a racist," hence avoiding the statement "you're a racist for believing that" but nevertheless getting the personal attack through.

I understand that frustration, because we all feel it. It's really, really hard to suppress it. That's why people avoid these topics at places like work.

You can talk politics at work, but many times it takes letting the other person get in the last word. It takes resisting the temptation to go beyond simply stating your argument or position or belief, and if the other side denounces it, let it go and walk away.

I personally think its sad people feel like they can't talk about political issues in larger groups or with strangers or at work. I wish more people would take the approach of simply stating their belief, engaging in adult dialogue, but walk away the minute it starts to escalate.
 
Re: POTUS 45:54: My Polls Are Better Than Your Polls

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Twitter history is the best history. <a href="https://t.co/i1QRz1AtpN">pic.twitter.com/i1QRz1AtpN</a></p>— Charlie Sykes (@SykesCharlie) <a href="https://twitter.com/SykesCharlie/status/1145480030656565248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> Why wasn't I told about "Bring Your Kids to the DMZ Day"?
 
Re: POTUS 45:54: My Polls Are Better Than Your Polls

I will only talk about politics with coworkers if someone else brings it up, which usually only happens after we've gone out for a team dinner and that person has had a couple of drinks to remove their filter.
 
Re: POTUS 45:54: My Polls Are Better Than Your Polls

Tensions were heightening before, but by culminating in a racist pig being president, falling people names, mocking disabled people, etc- discourse is not nearly as possible since so many on the right are emboldened to copy.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top