this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2023
395 points (96.3% liked)

politics

18672 readers
2882 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
  2. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  3. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  4. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive.
  5. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  6. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 211 points 11 months ago (8 children)

"What is it with liberals and wanting to control every damn aspect of your life?"

Last time I checked, it was the liberals who wanted to let you smoke weed, have safe and legal abortions, physician assisted suicide, single payer healthcare, and free college tuition...

Somebody else opposed all that... 🤔 Who was it again?

[–] [email protected] 95 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That's what pisses me off about the democrats. They have the political slogans right in fucking plain view. The Republicans have basically written them for them......nothing.

Massive billboards everywhere should have this plastered: We want you to be able to smoke and grow weed, have women make their own choices, paid college tuition, single payer healthcare, medicine affordable for seniors, and WE WONT COMMIT TREASON AGAINST THE CONSTITUTION!

It's fucking bonkers.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago (8 children)

People already know or are utterly brainwashed. Who do attack ads convince?

[–] [email protected] 38 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Independants/undecided voters and people who don't generally participate in democracy

Something like 60% of people vote in federal elections if we're lucky. Obviously they aren't all going to unanimously vote for only one party - but Republicans are notorious for showing up to vote on anything.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago

The number of people who are politically disengaged is staggering. What better to motivate those people than to prompt some anger over an issue and hope they care about it enough to stay angry and vote. Also important to note this stuff is never done alone, there's other outreach happening at the same time. It's a numbers game, and those few disengaged folks you got fired up with a stupid ad could make or break you.

That said, I think most attack ads are damaging to political discourse by nature of demanding a concise, pithy message. Never going to get genuine criticism out of that.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Dems have always took the high ground. Which is stupid. It gives the loud minority more reach. Look at space Laser lady.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

It doesn't have to be an attack ad. Rebranding what it means to be a Democrat is actually a great idea. Kind of like those "Pass it on" billboards

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 23 points 11 months ago

I’m allowed to wear what I want and control my hormone levels in fucking Massachusetts

[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The same response can be posted to anything related to modern "conservatism".

Fascists have no shame. If they didn't have double standards they'd have none.

The propagandized are already in a bubble and refuse to accept reality. The fascist leadership can manufacture any alternate reality they want because the sheep will blindly follow.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Fascists make up false accusations about their intended victims not so that you will believe them and be misled, but as an insecure show of power.

By telling lies about you and getting away with it, they convince themselves that they are stronger and more deserving than you. This is basically a way to psych themselves up to commit crimes against humanity.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

Last time I checked, it was the liberals who wanted to let you smoke weed, have safe and legal abortions, physician assisted suicide, single payer healthcare, and free college tuition…

No, that's what progressives want. Liberals run on a subset of those sometimes, but then always have enough no votes to block them.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

The "fun" part is that the Democratic party and the Republican party are both neoliberal parties. If you really want to melt the brain of conservatives, here's one of my favorite phrases:

I'm not a Democrat, but I vote for them. They're the only good conservative party left in this country!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Who was it again?

The Judean People's Front?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (3 children)

The People's Front of Judea!

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 81 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Last I checked it was conservative states that had dry counties and locked-up alcohol sections in grocery stores on Sundays.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

Don't let reality get in the way of a good angry mob

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I live in the People's Republic of Massachusetts, let me tell you, there is nothing we love more than copious amounts of alcohol

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

As a fellow resident of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, let me tell you that your statement is wrong. Our love of weed, driving ludicrously above the speed limit, and refusal to use our blinkers all supersede our love of alcohol.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 47 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Y'all saying Cruz is an idiot are giving him way too much credit. He's a lying evil sack of shit, and he knows what he's doing is wrong.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago

Cruz' Razor: "Never attribute to stupidity that which is adequately explained by malice."

[–] Saneless 7 points 11 months ago

Yep. This is scary shit. They realized all they have to do is make their voters mad with constant lies and they'll never check it for themselves.

And he's hitting the most stupid, insecure people with things that makes them feel "manly" like meat and beer and guns. It's always those things

[–] [email protected] 39 points 11 months ago

Fled Cruise knows damn well enough of his constituents are the exact kind of fucking moron that would accept his strawman as a real issue and ignore all evidence to the contrary. It's why he still has a seat.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 11 months ago (2 children)

He once complained on Twitter about the Paris Accords, feigning ignorance of the name while asking why we'd be a part of something all the way in Europe. The man has a Harvard (or some other noble) education. He's highly intelligent. He just knows that his constituents are under-educated and incurious about the world. He's a lying sack of shit.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 27 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Ah yes only the most important issues of our time being tackled by Republican politicians these days.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

Lying to persuade people to vote for them? Yes, that is the most important thing to Republicans.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Everyone looks like a stroke away from voting for my butthole.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Put an [R] next to the campaign and your butthole has a fighting chance

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (3 children)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 24 points 11 months ago (3 children)

They have a video ad first that doesn't transition to the headlined video clip. The clip is at the bottom, and it sucks. Here's the article.

Ted Cruz rages against non-existent Biden beer limit in viral clip The Texas senator engaged in a beer-swigging on-camera stunt this week in response to a made-up federal policy limiting alcohol consumption.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz railed against the Biden administration earlier this week for imposing a strict limit on Americans' alcohol consumption in a now-viral clip—even though no such policy exists.

The saga began when Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy asked Biden's White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre if the president planned to "limit Americans to two beers a week." Jean-Pierre, who appeared baffled by the question, laughed and declined to comment.

The question apparently came from comments made by Dr. George Koob, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, during an interview with the Daily Mail last week, in which Koob said the U.S. might change it's recommended weekly alcohol intake to two drinks per week. Current recommendations advise men to limit themselves to two drinks a day and women to stick to one.

For Cruz and the conservative mediasphere, however, these comments were enough to conjure the right's latest hand-wringing, they're-coming-for-your-freedoms moral panic.

"What is it with liberals that want to control every damn aspect of your life?" Cruz raged in his Newsmax interview. "Now these idiots have come out and said, 'drink two beers a week,' that's their guideline," Cruz continued, before reaching for a bottle of beer and taking a drink on camera. "Well, I've got to tell you, if they want us to drink two beers a week, frankly they can kiss my ass!"

Cruz cranked the top off a Shiner Bock beer and chucked the cap on the ground in theatrical defiance before taking a swig. Behind him, a huddle of men dressed in cowboy hats and plaid flannel shirts followed suit, drinking their beers.

On Wednesday night, the senator posted the clip on X, formerly known as Twitter, repeating his own lines from the interview in the caption for his 6.1 million followers. "What is it with liberals and wanting to control every damn aspect of your life? If they want us to drink two beers a week, frankly they can kiss my ass."

Cruz appears to have stepped up his misinformation game on X in the past few weeks: Wednesday's nonsense diatribe against a non-existent Biden beer limit comes a few days after the senator reposted misinformation about the southern border wall, presenting a Trump-era policy as a Biden-imposed change. About a week before that, Cruz shared a well-known fake image from 2011 of a shark swimming in California floodwaters.

[–] Saneless 10 points 11 months ago

Comedy Central needs to have a reporter named Peter Doofy who's basically the character from Scary Movie, imitating Fox's questions

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 24 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The most snowy of the snowflakes: Republicans.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I do wonder how many wives of these people that get freaked out over things like....checks notes....recommendations tell their husbands behind closed doors to chill the hell out and stop all the whining over nonsense.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] atzanteol 22 points 11 months ago

Guys, this is an opportunity!

Biden needs to immediately push for legislation limiting everyone to no more than 30 beers a day. And that everyone must breathe air and eat food.

This problem will solve itself!

[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago (1 children)

He has to, take a look at what is coming in Texas. He has to fight imaginary things because reality is indefensible.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

Well, Republicans want others to die if it will increase their privilege and/or profit even one iota. So silly red meat things thrown to a low-IQ racist base will do...I mean, in Texas, fighting against measures to combat global warming - it's hard to get any dumber. But people like Cruz are not likely to suffer the consequences of such things - he could always jet off to some other destination if Texas got too hot (or too cold) for him.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

They suddenly found that "czars" thing. Again. SMH.

Also, this is a reaction over a possible health recommendation? My word, these people....do any of them stick to recommendations on health, anyway? I wonder what they do if/when the government agencies starts wising up on their health recommendations related to plant-based diets and cutting way down - or eliminating - animal products altogether? I bet they faint.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago

What an interesting strategy. All this time we've been worried about deep fakes and stuff unduly influencing public opinion. Kudos to them for just shamelessly making shit up, very innovative, I'll give them that.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Ted Cruz is a meat puppet. He sees and understands nothing unless he is specifically told to and then only exactly what he's told and nothing more.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

How dare you. Ted Cruz is totally a human. He is definitely not some puppet made of meat operated by an alien.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (2 children)

You've got to be a snowflake and a half to get triggered by a recommendation

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

Just bugger off to Cancun, Rafael.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

Turd Cruds is getting dementia

load more comments
view more: next ›