I haven't commented in a long time, so I figure that I should introduce myself, at least where I stand politically.
About me: I will be honest, there are many issues where I find myself struggling to find a solution. I used to consider myself a moderate independent, but I feel like both political parties have moved towards extreme viewpoints. There seems to be very little grey anymore. However, after the shift (whether perceived or reality), I do find myself leaning right. I lean left on: Global warming, abortion, gay rights, net neutrality, etc. I lean right on gun control, economic freedom, illegal immigration, racial privilege, etc. Also against the war on drugs, not sure either side is doing a great job there.
I am sure that I left out many key issues, this is just off of the top of my head. I voted third party, I am Hispanic, I love my country and consider myself a patriot. That doesn't mean that everything is perfect, but I would rather live here than 85% of the developing / undeveloped world.
On Topic: I don't like Milo, he comes across as a provocateur, a douchebag, and a troll. However, I believe all schools of thought should be discussed civically, especially at "institutions of learning". He obviously had supporters at the event. I sometimes wonder if it would be better if counter protests were forced to take place a certain distance from the event?
I do have a question for you all. How many of you listen to alternative viewpoints? I know some of you do, judging by how you respond to Emnofseattle; Cretanbull and akritenbrink come to mind. I am just curious, not being judgemental. I read these forums, certain twitter feeds, watch John Oliver, etc. for left wing viewpoints.
I like Dave Rubin for getting different points of view. He's the way I get any Ben Shapiro time, for instance.
I haven't commented in a long time, so I figure that I should introduce myself, at least where I stand politically.
About me: I will be honest, there are many issues where I find myself struggling to find a solution. I used to consider myself a moderate independent, but I feel like both political parties have moved towards extreme viewpoints. There seems to be very little grey anymore. However, after the shift (whether perceived or reality), I do find myself leaning right. I lean left on: Global warming, abortion, gay rights, net neutrality, etc. I lean right on gun control, economic freedom, illegal immigration, racial privilege, etc. Also against the war on drugs, not sure either side is doing a great job there.
I am sure that I left out many key issues, this is just off of the top of my head. I voted third party, I am Hispanic, I love my country and consider myself a patriot. That doesn't mean that everything is perfect, but I would rather live here than 85% of the developing / undeveloped world.
On Topic: I don't like Milo, he comes across as a provocateur, a douchebag, and a troll. However, I believe all schools of thought should be discussed civically, especially at "institutions of learning". He obviously had supporters at the event. I sometimes wonder if it would be better if counter protests were forced to take place a certain distance from the event?
I do have a question for you all. How many of you listen to alternative viewpoints? I know some of you do, judging by how you respond to Emnofseattle; Cretanbull and akritenbrink come to mind. I am just curious, not being judgemental. I read these forums, certain twitter feeds, watch John Oliver, etc. for left wing viewpoints.
I think the way that you describe yourself is probably close to how most people think of themselves as well. Very few of us are cookie-cutter walking examples of any party's complete platform. I think that there's a HUGE portion of the population who are socially liberal but economically conservative and neither party speaks directly to them.
About me: I grew up in a suburb of Montreal, it was a small (15,000 pop) mostly English speaking community surrounded by other mostly French speaking people. When I was a kid Quebec (the Province that Montreal is in) was actively trying to separate from the rest of Canada, lead by a movement of French people who felt that they weren't being treated fairly by the rest of Canada. My family was poor, and my generation (myself, my brother, my cousins) were the first in our family to learn how to speak French - it was literally forced on us (by law)...my mum, dad, aunts, uncles, grandparents etc never learned how to speak French at all. At the time (early 80's), a lot of French people really resented English people and it was socially and politically very tense....it wasn't nearly as bad as Northern Ireland, but it was similar - there were kidnappings, murders, bomb threats etc. all aimed at the English community by French separatists. The town that I lived in was known for being mostly English and was targeted for trouble by Separatists...we had our car 'keyed', the windows of our house smashed and were often threatened in other ways. As I mentioned, by law I was forced to go to French school and things were as bad there (for an English kid!)...I was picked on, teased, beaten up...in grade 3 my teacher told me that I was stupid because I was struggling to learn French.
I bring all of that up because even though I'm a white, male, middle-aged and now middle-class guy, I know what it feels like to be a minority and be marginalized. In many ways, that's what's shaped my political views - a driving force to end the things, impulses, fears etc that keep us apart - racism, sexism, homophobia etc. I live in Toronto now, and being a white-anglo-saxon-protestant WASP puts me in a position of social privilege. Toronto has a massive immigrant population (a full 50% of the people who live in Toronto weren't born in Canada!). My childhood being what it was, I strongly relate to the struggles of new Canadians and have a great deal of empathy for the barriers that they face.
Politically, I'm a member of a party called the NDP (New Democratic Party). There are 5 national parties in Canada, so it's not just a "are you a Democrat or a Republican?" question here. The three main ones are the Conservatives - who range from centre-right to right, the Liberals who are centre to centre-left, and the NDP who range from centre-left to left. The closest American comparison to the NDP would be Bernie Sanders. Our party was started in the early 60's by a Christian minister (Keifer Sutherland's grandfather!) and has pushed for and defended Canada's social programs - the NDP introduced socialized healthcare here
I went to university and got a Masters degree in Criminology. I now work for the provincial government in an office that is devoted to crime reduction. My specific work mostly deals with developing programs to lower the rate of criminality and recidivism among young people. Almost everyone that I work with is Conservative (like maybe 25 out of the 30 people) but we all get along. It's much more of research and fact-based field that isn't politically driven....we put forward programs that have a track record of working rather than what suits our personal beliefs. If/when I want to develop a program that might be considered leftist (restorative justice rather than punitive justice for example), I'm not told "no" I'm told "prove it works". It's results based...funding is given and sustained based on results, not on what we want or hope will work based on our beliefs.
As for news sources - I'm a news junkie! I get the Toronto Star every day (a centre-ish news paper, I think Conservatives would call it left leaning...as a lefty, I don't think that it is though) and regularly read The Guardian, New York Times, Financial Times and Wall Street Journal (I'm paid subscriber to their online content!). For Canadian stuff, I watch the CBC - our national broadcaster (it's like the UK's BBC if you're familiar with that). For American stuff, I usually watch CNN but as I've said here many times - the actual news portion (not their commentary) of Fox News isn't bad at all. Generally speaking, with so many friends and co-workers who are centre and centre-right I pick up on whatever is going around in those circles - either by talking at work, socializing or through Facebook shares.
I don't have time to go in depth right now but I just wanted to say I really enjoyed reading these point of view posts.
I am a Liberal party member (current govt) living in Alberta - a VERY conservative province. I have voted NDP in several federal elections and support the NDP here in Alberta.
The local media tends to cater to the conservative majority.
I just wish people would discuss issues civilly and not throw around names.
I'm sick to death of the hypocrisy on both sides. I'm fed up with selective everything. Bill Clinton was great, but Donald Trump is a pig. Cliven Bundy is a patriot. Edward Snowden is a traitor.
Fox News is horrible, MSNBC, is great. And, vice-versa. If you support this policy on the right, you are racist. If you support this policy, on the left, you hate America.
Shut the @!$&@ up. Thinking immigrants should come in legally isn't racist. Thinking we should have compassion for people escaping poverty the only way they could is not stupid. There were two terrible candidates in 2016. Picking Clinton or Trump over the other one doesn't mean you're stupid, ignorant, or any "ist" or "phobic" people want to think the other side is. It means you found the other candidate even more detestable than the one you picked.
There are compromises to be had on almost every issue out there. Too bad the extremes is both parties seem intent on preventing that, and the politicians too cowardly to act anyeay.
Taking away all guns from law abiding citizens leaves only criminals armed. Letting all eligible citizens have machine guns is a really bad idea. Some of them will pass a background check and be crazy as hell. Pass something in the muddle. The extremes won't like it, but the 60% of people in the middle will.
Picking Clinton or Trump over the other one doesn't mean you're stupid, ignorant, or any "ist" or "phobic" people want to think the other side is. It means you found the other candidate even more detestable than the one you picked.
Well it means you were too stupid and ignorant to not vote 3rd party...
I think it flies against the spirit of democracy to say a vote is ever thrown away, or imply that it means more if you vote for someone popular. But that's just me.
In the future, I don't think we'll have political parties anymore. The internet eliminates the need for them.
I mean democracy means you can literally vote for whoever you want, however if you’re voting for someone with basically no chance of winning you do have to acknowledge that you’re essentially throwing your vote away as a form of protest which is valid way to vote, just not an electorally successful way to vote. I would also caution people that even if you dislike the two most likely candidates to win, if you think one of the two is considerably worse than the other, maybe you should reconsider voting for that third party with little to no chance of winning because you might end up with the worst possible option.
I appreciate those that have responded to my post I found it very insightful. There are people who I disagree with 90%+ of their posts, not to name names, even about artistic works (which is purely subjective). I still enjoy reading their thoughts. I am glad that we can discuss things civically and without judgement about the person's background, gender, racial identity, etc. It makes me proud to be apart of this community.
I haven't commented in a long time, so I figure that I should introduce myself, at least where I stand politically.
About me: I will be honest, there are many issues where I find myself struggling to find a solution. I used to consider myself a moderate independent, but I feel like both political parties have moved towards extreme viewpoints. There seems to be very little grey anymore. However, after the shift (whether perceived or reality), I do find myself leaning right. I lean left on: Global warming, abortion, gay rights, net neutrality, etc. I lean right on gun control, economic freedom, illegal immigration, racial privilege, etc. Also against the war on drugs, not sure either side is doing a great job there.
I am sure that I left out many key issues, this is just off of the top of my head. I voted third party, I am Hispanic, I love my country and consider myself a patriot. That doesn't mean that everything is perfect, but I would rather live here than 85% of the developing / undeveloped world.
On Topic: I don't like Milo, he comes across as a provocateur, a douchebag, and a troll. However, I believe all schools of thought should be discussed civically, especially at "institutions of learning". He obviously had supporters at the event. I sometimes wonder if it would be better if counter protests were forced to take place a certain distance from the event?
I do have a question for you all. How many of you listen to alternative viewpoints? I know some of you do, judging by how you respond to Emnofseattle; Cretanbull and akritenbrink come to mind. I am just curious, not being judgemental. I read these forums, certain twitter feeds, watch John Oliver, etc. for left wing viewpoints.
I like Dave Rubin for getting different points of view. He's the way I get any Ben Shapiro time, for instance.
I listen to Ben Shapiro's podcast. I disagree with him quite often, but I still enjoy the way in which he presents his arguments.
I mean democracy means you can literally vote for whoever you want, however if you’re voting for someone with basically no chance of winning you do have to acknowledge that you’re essentially throwing your vote away as a form of protest which is valid way to vote, just not an electorally successful way to vote. I would also caution people that even if you dislike the two most likely candidates to win, if you think one of the two is considerably worse than the other, maybe you should reconsider voting for that third party with little to no chance of winning because you might end up with the worst possible option.
It's not logically consistent. If one believes one's vote has worth, and can be "electorally successful," then be consistent about what is "electorally unsuccessful." My vote for a 3rd party was as worthless as every vote for Hillary, for instance. So over half of the country threw their vote away.
I understand your arguments that "a vote for X is a vote for Y," because when I'm voting for someone I'm inherently not voting for someone else, but I'm not sure how the "a vote for Y" part of the equation is a certainty. It's usually just whomever that individual fears will win. It's speculation presented as fact.
Fact is, there aren't only two ways to vote. Fact is, there've been more than 2 candidates before and there will be more than 2 candidates again, and again, and again, so we should all just vote accordingly and stop feeling angsty and trapped.
I haven't commented in a long time, so I figure that I should introduce myself, at least where I stand politically.
About me: I will be honest, there are many issues where I find myself struggling to find a solution. I used to consider myself a moderate independent, but I feel like both political parties have moved towards extreme viewpoints. There seems to be very little grey anymore. However, after the shift (whether perceived or reality), I do find myself leaning right. I lean left on: Global warming, abortion, gay rights, net neutrality, etc. I lean right on gun control, economic freedom, illegal immigration, racial privilege, etc. Also against the war on drugs, not sure either side is doing a great job there.
I am sure that I left out many key issues, this is just off of the top of my head. I voted third party, I am Hispanic, I love my country and consider myself a patriot. That doesn't mean that everything is perfect, but I would rather live here than 85% of the developing / undeveloped world.
On Topic: I don't like Milo, he comes across as a provocateur, a douchebag, and a troll. However, I believe all schools of thought should be discussed civically, especially at "institutions of learning". He obviously had supporters at the event. I sometimes wonder if it would be better if counter protests were forced to take place a certain distance from the event?
I do have a question for you all. How many of you listen to alternative viewpoints? I know some of you do, judging by how you respond to Emnofseattle; Cretanbull and akritenbrink come to mind. I am just curious, not being judgemental. I read these forums, certain twitter feeds, watch John Oliver, etc. for left wing viewpoints.
I like Dave Rubin for getting different points of view. He's the way I get any Ben Shapiro time, for instance.
I listen to Ben Shapiro's podcast. I disagree with him quite often, but I still enjoy the way in which he presents his arguments.
I've seen him be annoying, but with Dave Rubin, he's not that annoying. He stays respectful. (And maybe I saw an uncharacteristic clip of him, when he was making pot shots.) They did a podcast/interview recently where Dave said he thinks he can get Shapiro to change his mind on transgender issues, and I can imagine it happening. Because Shapiro has this odd personal/public dichotomy of how he treats transgendered people. I suspect it's based on pandering to the right. It reminds me of, "Oh being gay is fine but keep it out of my TV and movies." So you're off-the-hook personally but still making sure the transgendered haters keep your pockets filled. Oy vey.
I haven't commented in a long time, so I figure that I should introduce myself, at least where I stand politically.
About me: I will be honest, there are many issues where I find myself struggling to find a solution. I used to consider myself a moderate independent, but I feel like both political parties have moved towards extreme viewpoints. There seems to be very little grey anymore. However, after the shift (whether perceived or reality), I do find myself leaning right. I lean left on: Global warming, abortion, gay rights, net neutrality, etc. I lean right on gun control, economic freedom, illegal immigration, racial privilege, etc. Also against the war on drugs, not sure either side is doing a great job there.
I am sure that I left out many key issues, this is just off of the top of my head. I voted third party, I am Hispanic, I love my country and consider myself a patriot. That doesn't mean that everything is perfect, but I would rather live here than 85% of the developing / undeveloped world.
On Topic: I don't like Milo, he comes across as a provocateur, a douchebag, and a troll. However, I believe all schools of thought should be discussed civically, especially at "institutions of learning". He obviously had supporters at the event. I sometimes wonder if it would be better if counter protests were forced to take place a certain distance from the event?
I do have a question for you all. How many of you listen to alternative viewpoints? I know some of you do, judging by how you respond to Emnofseattle; Cretanbull and akritenbrink come to mind. I am just curious, not being judgemental. I read these forums, certain twitter feeds, watch John Oliver, etc. for left wing viewpoints.
I like Dave Rubin for getting different points of view. He's the way I get any Ben Shapiro time, for instance.
I listen to Ben Shapiro's podcast. I disagree with him quite often, but I still enjoy the way in which he presents his arguments.
I've seen him be annoying, but with Dave Rubin, he's not that annoying. He stays respectful. (And maybe I saw an uncharacteristic clip of him, when he was making pot shots.) They did a podcast/interview recently where Dave said he thinks he can get Shapiro to change his mind on transgender issues, and I can imagine it happening. Because Shapiro has this odd personal/public dichotomy of how he treats transgendered people. I suspect it's based on pandering to the right. It reminds me of, "Oh being gay is fine but keep it out of my TV and movies." So you're off-the-hook personally but still making sure the transgendered haters keep your pockets filled. Oy vey.
But, he's interesting for sure.
I agree 100%, I have definitely seen him take (sometimes ridiculous) pot shots. He likes to straddle the line between being outrageous and applying plain common sense. He also makes no bones about leaning right. I respect someone that understands their bias.
Ben Shapiro helped me to understand the right's view on net neutrality for instance. I disagree with him, but I still appreciate the insight into what they are thinking.
Off topic, but some more about me: I was born in Pennsylvania, but grew up in Baltimore (statically 63% Black, 31% White, 5% Hispanic). I work construction and I have lost count of the number of Mexicans that have tried to communicate to me in Spanish. I been told that my face looks Spanish (my mother was born in Puerto Rico). I have always felt ashamed that I don't know the language. I have some knowledge of very basic words / questions / answers. For those that have a better grasp of the language, how difficult is it to learn?
All depends on the person really. While you are learning it’s always best to try and immerse yourself. Practice makes perfect personally I only speak very little, but can understand more. I spent two weeks in PR once and by the end I was much better off than when I started. It was a baptism by fire you could say
There's also a great free app called Duolingo that helps you learn a second language. You get to pick one, with Spanish being one of the options. I also totally agree with KingKobra that immersion really helps. I took Spanish in High School, which is longer ago than I'd like to admit, lol. But it was amazing how much came back to me after spending a week in Mexico!
There's also a great free app called Duolingo that helps you learn a second language. You get to pick one, with Spanish being one of the options. I also totally agree with KingKobra that immersion really helps. I took Spanish in High School, which is longer ago than I'd like to admit, lol. But it was amazing how much came back to me after spending a week in Mexico!
Ive been self immersing by watching Argentine films (Argentina actually has a fairly large film industry that’s well represented on Netflix) and what I’ve found is I can understand the dialog now when I watch Argentine films and listen to podcasts and the like, and I still can’t understand Mexicans, turns out down there they speak a completely different dialect.
I will say I can tell the difference between accents, and the sad thing is I learned to differentiate different accents before going back and watching breaking bad, and the very idea Gus could be a Chilean is so preposterous just off of his accent in Spanish (I’m not the only one who noticed this, it was a perennial topic on Reddit) that I tuned out of BB and never finished watching it, I don’t usually nitpick everything about shows, until the right nitpick hits me and I tune out.
Off topic, but some more about me: I was born in Pennsylvania, but grew up in Baltimore (statically 63% Black, 31% White, 5% Hispanic). I work construction and I have lost count of the number of Mexicans that have tried to communicate to me in Spanish. I been told that my face looks Spanish (my mother was born in Puerto Rico). I have always felt ashamed that I don't know the language. I have some knowledge of very basic words / questions / answers. For those that have a better grasp of the language, how difficult is it to learn?
I know a few phrases, I can usually parse written Spanish pretty close to its meaning. I’m currently trying to learn the language because of a trip to Chile with a short hop over the Andes to the home of my favorite wine, Mendoza Argentina
I’ve watched the same three domestically made Argentine movies on Netflix now like 5 times each, one was a police procedural action movie, a rom-com, and a horror flick, and since I’ve memorized the English subtitles I now watch with no subtitles and repeat the Spanish phrases in the dialog to the TV, it’s not made me fluent by any means, but I’m not totally out of the loop, I can hear and comprehend most of a sentence, unless it’s a Mexican talking because apparently Rioplat (the dialect spoken in Argentina and Uruguay) is accented far differently then Mexico anc Central America
Off topic, but some more about me: I was born in Pennsylvania, but grew up in Baltimore (statically 63% Black, 31% White, 5% Hispanic). I work construction and I have lost count of the number of Mexicans that have tried to communicate to me in Spanish. I been told that my face looks Spanish (my mother was born in Puerto Rico). I have always felt ashamed that I don't know the language. I have some knowledge of very basic words / questions / answers. For those that have a better grasp of the language, how difficult is it to learn?
I know a few phrases, I can usually parse written Spanish pretty close to its meaning. I’m currently trying to learn the language because of a trip to Chile with a short hop over the Andes to the home of my favorite wine, Mendoza Argentina
I’ve watched the same three domestically made Argentine movies on Netflix now like 5 times each, one was a police procedural action movie, a rom-com, and a horror flick, and since I’ve memorized the English subtitles I now watch with no subtitles and repeat the Spanish phrases in the dialog to the TV, it’s not made me fluent by any means, but I’m not totally out of the loop, I can hear and comprehend most of a sentence, unless it’s a Mexican talking because apparently Rioplat (the dialect spoken in Argentina and Uruguay) is accented far differently then Mexico anc Central America
So your interest in Chile started with Pinochet right?
Off topic, but some more about me: I was born in Pennsylvania, but grew up in Baltimore (statically 63% Black, 31% White, 5% Hispanic). I work construction and I have lost count of the number of Mexicans that have tried to communicate to me in Spanish. I been told that my face looks Spanish (my mother was born in Puerto Rico). I have always felt ashamed that I don't know the language. I have some knowledge of very basic words / questions / answers. For those that have a better grasp of the language, how difficult is it to learn?
I know a few phrases, I can usually parse written Spanish pretty close to its meaning. I’m currently trying to learn the language because of a trip to Chile with a short hop over the Andes to the home of my favorite wine, Mendoza Argentina
I’ve watched the same three domestically made Argentine movies on Netflix now like 5 times each, one was a police procedural action movie, a rom-com, and a horror flick, and since I’ve memorized the English subtitles I now watch with no subtitles and repeat the Spanish phrases in the dialog to the TV, it’s not made me fluent by any means, but I’m not totally out of the loop, I can hear and comprehend most of a sentence, unless it’s a Mexican talking because apparently Rioplat (the dialect spoken in Argentina and Uruguay) is accented far differently then Mexico anc Central America
So your interest in Chile started with Pinochet right?
Actually the numerous coastal lighthouses. I’ve been up the US West Coast taking pictures of ocean coast lighthouses. I am also interested in historical sites on Chiloe island, the Catholic Churches on the island such as Iglesia de San Francisco in Castro, As well as three lighthouses, Faro Carranza, Faro Corona, and there’s two in Tierra Del Feugo I’ll visit on a later trip. a friend of mine has been to that country many times and recommended it as a relatively safe modern country unlike much of the Continent.
you can read about Chiloes unique churches here, they have an architecture style found nowhere else in the world.
But you've never traveled outside the US, IIRC? I might be mixing you up with someone else. If so, I'm just totally fascinated by your fixation on Chile. I've been to 6 continents myself, and I've never once considered visiting Chile. Cusco, Peru is as close as I've gotten. It looks beautiful though, so I don't mean to sound like I'm knocking it. Or that my experience is the norm. Every place is worth visiting.
I was going to say, Easter Island would be amazing, but holy shit that's like Chile's Hawaii.
But you've never traveled outside the US, IIRC? I might be mixing you up with someone else. If so, I'm just totally fascinated by your fixation on Chile. I've been to 6 continents myself, and I've never once considered visiting Chile. Cusco, Peru is as close as I've gotten. It looks beautiful though, so I don't mean to sound like I'm knocking it. Or that my experience is the norm. Every place is worth visiting.
I was going to say, Easter Island would be amazing, but holy shit that's like Chile's Hawaii.
I’ve been to substantial portions of western Canada. I’m still yet to hike the West Coast Trail to see the Pachena point Lighthouse but that’s on the agenda.
A good old friend of mine worked for NOAA in the late 1970s and early 80s doing scientific surveys to Antarctica, he told me a lot about the country and has a few historical artifacts he bought from various people there. I also heard the Lore podcast about Chiloé Island. And it’s accessible, they are fairly open to US tourists. Plus my favorite wine is made in Argentina just inside the border from Chile, 4 hours out of Santiago and one can tour the Malbec vineyards
Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, freshly appointed to the Judiciary Committee, had excellent outings today (with DHS head Kirstjen Nielson, who has that Trump Administration affliction of goldfish memory). I really like the contrast in styles. A possible future Harris/Booker ticket?
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To summarize: carrying a knife is a threat, carrying a gun is not.
I like Dave Rubin for getting different points of view. He's the way I get any Ben Shapiro time, for instance.
About me:
I grew up in a suburb of Montreal, it was a small (15,000 pop) mostly English speaking community surrounded by other mostly French speaking people. When I was a kid Quebec (the Province that Montreal is in) was actively trying to separate from the rest of Canada, lead by a movement of French people who felt that they weren't being treated fairly by the rest of Canada. My family was poor, and my generation (myself, my brother, my cousins) were the first in our family to learn how to speak French - it was literally forced on us (by law)...my mum, dad, aunts, uncles, grandparents etc never learned how to speak French at all. At the time (early 80's), a lot of French people really resented English people and it was socially and politically very tense....it wasn't nearly as bad as Northern Ireland, but it was similar - there were kidnappings, murders, bomb threats etc. all aimed at the English community by French separatists. The town that I lived in was known for being mostly English and was targeted for trouble by Separatists...we had our car 'keyed', the windows of our house smashed and were often threatened in other ways. As I mentioned, by law I was forced to go to French school and things were as bad there (for an English kid!)...I was picked on, teased, beaten up...in grade 3 my teacher told me that I was stupid because I was struggling to learn French.
I bring all of that up because even though I'm a white, male, middle-aged and now middle-class guy, I know what it feels like to be a minority and be marginalized. In many ways, that's what's shaped my political views - a driving force to end the things, impulses, fears etc that keep us apart - racism, sexism, homophobia etc. I live in Toronto now, and being a white-anglo-saxon-protestant WASP puts me in a position of social privilege. Toronto has a massive immigrant population (a full 50% of the people who live in Toronto weren't born in Canada!). My childhood being what it was, I strongly relate to the struggles of new Canadians and have a great deal of empathy for the barriers that they face.
Politically, I'm a member of a party called the NDP (New Democratic Party). There are 5 national parties in Canada, so it's not just a "are you a Democrat or a Republican?" question here. The three main ones are the Conservatives - who range from centre-right to right, the Liberals who are centre to centre-left, and the NDP who range from centre-left to left. The closest American comparison to the NDP would be Bernie Sanders. Our party was started in the early 60's by a Christian minister (Keifer Sutherland's grandfather!) and has pushed for and defended Canada's social programs - the NDP introduced socialized healthcare here
I went to university and got a Masters degree in Criminology. I now work for the provincial government in an office that is devoted to crime reduction. My specific work mostly deals with developing programs to lower the rate of criminality and recidivism among young people. Almost everyone that I work with is Conservative (like maybe 25 out of the 30 people) but we all get along. It's much more of research and fact-based field that isn't politically driven....we put forward programs that have a track record of working rather than what suits our personal beliefs. If/when I want to develop a program that might be considered leftist (restorative justice rather than punitive justice for example), I'm not told "no" I'm told "prove it works". It's results based...funding is given and sustained based on results, not on what we want or hope will work based on our beliefs.
As for news sources - I'm a news junkie! I get the Toronto Star every day (a centre-ish news paper, I think Conservatives would call it left leaning...as a lefty, I don't think that it is though) and regularly read The Guardian, New York Times, Financial Times and Wall Street Journal (I'm paid subscriber to their online content!). For Canadian stuff, I watch the CBC - our national broadcaster (it's like the UK's BBC if you're familiar with that). For American stuff, I usually watch CNN but as I've said here many times - the actual news portion (not their commentary) of Fox News isn't bad at all. Generally speaking, with so many friends and co-workers who are centre and centre-right I pick up on whatever is going around in those circles - either by talking at work, socializing or through Facebook shares.
I am a Liberal party member (current govt) living in Alberta - a VERY conservative province. I have voted NDP in several federal elections and support the NDP here in Alberta.
The local media tends to cater to the conservative majority.
I'm sick to death of the hypocrisy on both sides. I'm fed up with selective everything. Bill Clinton was great, but Donald Trump is a pig. Cliven Bundy is a patriot. Edward Snowden is a traitor.
Fox News is horrible, MSNBC, is great. And, vice-versa. If you support this policy on the right, you are racist. If you support this policy, on the left, you hate America.
Shut the @!$&@ up. Thinking immigrants should come in legally isn't racist. Thinking we should have compassion for people escaping poverty the only way they could is not stupid. There were two terrible candidates in 2016. Picking Clinton or Trump over the other one doesn't mean you're stupid, ignorant, or any "ist" or "phobic" people want to think the other side is. It means you found the other candidate even more detestable than the one you picked.
There are compromises to be had on almost every issue out there. Too bad the extremes is both parties seem intent on preventing that, and the politicians too cowardly to act anyeay.
Taking away all guns from law abiding citizens leaves only criminals armed. Letting all eligible citizens have machine guns is a really bad idea. Some of them will pass a background check and be crazy as hell. Pass something in the muddle. The extremes won't like it, but the 60% of people in the middle will.
Well it means you were too stupid and ignorant to not vote 3rd party...
In the future, I don't think we'll have political parties anymore. The internet eliminates the need for them.
It's not logically consistent. If one believes one's vote has worth, and can be "electorally successful," then be consistent about what is "electorally unsuccessful." My vote for a 3rd party was as worthless as every vote for Hillary, for instance. So over half of the country threw their vote away.
I understand your arguments that "a vote for X is a vote for Y," because when I'm voting for someone I'm inherently not voting for someone else, but I'm not sure how the "a vote for Y" part of the equation is a certainty. It's usually just whomever that individual fears will win. It's speculation presented as fact.
Fact is, there aren't only two ways to vote. Fact is, there've been more than 2 candidates before and there will be more than 2 candidates again, and again, and again, so we should all just vote accordingly and stop feeling angsty and trapped.
I've seen him be annoying, but with Dave Rubin, he's not that annoying. He stays respectful. (And maybe I saw an uncharacteristic clip of him, when he was making pot shots.) They did a podcast/interview recently where Dave said he thinks he can get Shapiro to change his mind on transgender issues, and I can imagine it happening. Because Shapiro has this odd personal/public dichotomy of how he treats transgendered people. I suspect it's based on pandering to the right. It reminds me of, "Oh being gay is fine but keep it out of my TV and movies." So you're off-the-hook personally but still making sure the transgendered haters keep your pockets filled. Oy vey.
But, he's interesting for sure.
I also totally agree with KingKobra that immersion really helps. I took Spanish in High School, which is longer ago than I'd like to admit, lol. But it was amazing how much came back to me after spending a week in Mexico!
I will say I can tell the difference between accents, and the sad thing is I learned to differentiate different accents before going back and watching breaking bad, and the very idea Gus could be a Chilean is so preposterous just off of his accent in Spanish (I’m not the only one who noticed this, it was a perennial topic on Reddit) that I tuned out of BB and never finished watching it, I don’t usually nitpick everything about shows, until the right nitpick hits me and I tune out.
I’ve watched the same three domestically made Argentine movies on Netflix now like 5 times each, one was a police procedural action movie, a rom-com, and a horror flick, and since I’ve memorized the English subtitles I now watch with no subtitles and repeat the Spanish phrases in the dialog to the TV, it’s not made me fluent by any means, but I’m not totally out of the loop, I can hear and comprehend most of a sentence, unless it’s a Mexican talking because apparently Rioplat (the dialect spoken in Argentina and Uruguay) is accented far differently then Mexico anc Central America
So your interest in Chile started with Pinochet right?
you can read about Chiloes unique churches here, they have an architecture style found nowhere else in the world.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churches_of_Chiloé
But you've never traveled outside the US, IIRC? I might be mixing you up with someone else. If so, I'm just totally fascinated by your fixation on Chile. I've been to 6 continents myself, and I've never once considered visiting Chile. Cusco, Peru is as close as I've gotten. It looks beautiful though, so I don't mean to sound like I'm knocking it. Or that my experience is the norm. Every place is worth visiting.
I was going to say, Easter Island would be amazing, but holy shit that's like Chile's Hawaii.
A good old friend of mine worked for NOAA in the late 1970s and early 80s doing scientific surveys to Antarctica, he told me a lot about the country and has a few historical artifacts he bought from various people there. I also heard the Lore podcast about Chiloé Island. And it’s accessible, they are fairly open to US tourists. Plus my favorite wine is made in Argentina just inside the border from Chile, 4 hours out of Santiago and one can tour the Malbec vineyards