At least he turned it into a teaching moment…
It would be hilarious if McConaughey won Gov of Texas, lol.
Lol. McConaughey is a class act. He’s dangling a lifeline to the Neo Marxists. Will they get grab on?
Or impale themselves on the blunt stupidity of Stalinism?
I don’t believe you understand him at all. You’re so binary in perspective it’s difficult for you to understand people who do not fit into your preconceived categories.
Look Ray. We’ve had this chat many times and I know it’s hard sometimes. You see Duality everywhere. I see a multisystematic culture, society, economy.
And reality is (not your idealogical vision or mine) Texas, right now has two dominant Governor candidates - Abbott and Beta - with Beta having no chance with popularity declining.
I see Matthew’s Opinion piece as a “bridge the divide” attempt to bring both sides together as well as perhaps giving those in the center a voice. Reality is Right wins regardless so will likely be less motivated to change.
Since the Left in Texas is destroying itself through single-perspective ideology, will they grab the opportunity offered to increase relevancy or pour another gallon of ideological gasoline on themselves?
There didn’t use to be a Left in Texas at all, so going from zero to anything is hardly “destroying themselves” lol.
In order to lead me to believe you do not think in binary terms, I’d need you to respond without using exclusively binary terms like “Left / Right” in every discussion about politics.
What you are missing is that what it means to be on the “Right” has been shattered completely, and your image of the “Left” is from a bygone era and not relevant in 2022.
Hmmm… Seems there have been multiple Democrat Congresspersons, Senators, Governors, Cabinet members and even a President from Texas. There has always been a very large perhaps minority of Conservative Democrats in Texas. But I do agree, this population is shrinking year by year.
I think you’re confused on the the trending in Texas.
I spent the entirety of a decade in Texas as a Democrat and absolutely agree completely that the Left today bears no resemblance to the Left of a bygone era only a few election cycles in the past.
It’s tough to stay “Meta” when at some point we drop down out of the clouds and engage with the real world. That messy old language of politics leading to elections, then on to the harsh reality of legislation/laws is hard to escape from even the most idealized viewpoint. That is if you want to implement your thoughts.
Mahalos Ray!
The reverse. Here is my data. Do you have numbers to support your opinion that Democrat numbers are falling in Texas?
Looks like a Blue Wave coming. Maybe Beta does win the Gov race.
Live remembrance of One of the Uvalde victims. May Mayte rest in peace.
Straw man. Fact is the data clearly shows a trend in double digits over 20 years.
This is all despite the fake conservative news hype that Republicans have been fleeing California and going to Texas.
Not something we hear much about. Those living in the most crime ridden neighborhood are seemingly impacted the most. Makes sense the living in an Amber/Red neighborhood is most susceptible to the types of crime a firearm could prevent.
Perhaps we should be most focused and conveyor belting Red to Amber and Amber to Orange. Is the best path to mandate Orange to Green, Green to Teal?
“the past two landmark Supreme Court rulings on gun control were fueled by black plaintiffs who simply wanted to defend their homes and their families. Moreover, they hailed from cities controlled by liberals who have done an extraordinarily bad job of protecting low-income minorities from criminals.”
@Michelle, I’ve had this on my mental list to come back to and comment on for the past 10 days. I listened to it two weeks ago, and really enjoyed Schrei’s vivid and poetic language and the music he used throughout. He did an excellent job of “making his case,” I thought, with the help of Ehrenreich’s work, filling in elements of the magical-mythic stage that war may be a substitute for. We’re used to thinking of war from amber perspectives (race and religious ideologies in conflict) or from the orange-rational perspectives (cold abstractions, policy, territory and property claims, win-lose dynamics, etc.). While Schrei did not use the phrase “subtle body of war,” I thought your characterization as such was spot on.
I also thought of extreme sports and some of the edgier (perhaps dangerous) Tik Tok challenges we see, as well as some teen risky behavior in general, as examples of the need or drive to experience intensity. Cultural anthropologist Angeles Arrien has written about intensity as a deep pattern we share as a species. Her focus was largely on addiction to intensity, which she called a “substitute for love.” Ehrenreich also gets at that, according to Schrei’s comments here, saying war meets some of the same psychological needs otherwise filled by “love, intoxication, religion, and art.”
Anyway, thanks for sharing this. I was glad I could relate to it!
Bill Maher asks why we can’t portray fat shaming or smoking cigarettes in a movie yet can portray heros getting revenge mowing down hordes of humans with guns. Key plot line is grievence, revenge, all justified.
On average kids see 280,000 acts of gun violence on TV by the time they are 18.
Kind of bridges gun violence and disinformation topics showing the Integral nature of the cosmos.
Sadly we’ve lost another close Clinton associate to suicide by gun. He hanged himself AND shot himself in the chest with a long guns. This was a herculean level of despair to simultaneously commit your own double suicide.
I saw the racist comment by MAGA Blake Masters in the Arizona Senate race having said, “It’s people in Chicago, St. Louis shooting each other. Very often, you know, Black people, frankly,” Masters clarified. “And the Democrats don’t want to do anything about that.”
Sadly the homicide numbers do not refute the MAGA candidates seemingly outright Racist statement. First column is 2019 homicides, 2nd column is 2020. In parentheses are the (rate per 100,000). CDC linked here.
As a point of comparison, 4 unarmed Black men were killed by police in 2021.
Can we tease out something from the 10 TIMES higher gun homicide rate of Blacks over Whites?
Is mandating Intersectionality based preferences the answer perhaps?
Well - what do you, @FermentedAgave, think the reason is for 10 times higher rate of gun homicide of African Americans over White Americans?
- Do you believe it is genetic?
- Do you believe that it is the cultural inferiority of black people in general?
I would call those racist explanations. When people don’t follow up with their own explanations of why they say numbers or what conclusions they are drawing, it leaves the listener to guess. When someone say “It’s Black People Frankly”, it kind of infers one of those meanings unless they explain.
Next, on to the political explanations?
- Do you believe that food stamps causes gun violence?
- Do you believe gun regulations cause the gun violence?
- Do you believe lack of Capitol punishment or prison reform causes it?
- Do you believe police incompetence is the reason?
Or another reason?
So establishing that Black people kill each other more than White Americans - WHY? To not state an opinion why and just say “Well, it’s because they are black” or something similar is racist and does not get to the actual rot of the matter.
It’s like if I say, well, Native Americans have a really high incidence of death by alcohol. I could just say “Well, it’s just because they are Indians.” I can say “Alcohol doesn’t kill people, people who can’t handle alcohol kill themselves” and never confront the actual reasons why Native Americans turn to alcohol in the first place.
Another curious one I see is Accidents. I could just think something racist like “Well, maybe Native Americans are just more clumsy or reckless.” without considering other logical explanations.