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Politics 2: Electric Boogaloo — Page 734

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The Clintons are undoubtedly evil but I still would have rather had Hillary than Donald.

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If I remember correctly, no one in my presentation group even mentioned either Clinton.

.

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Isn’t it still an illegal operation no matter who was in the Oval Office at the time? Or is it okay in this kid’s world view because both allegedly did the same thing? He’s not thinking his put downs through.

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Where were you in '77?

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SilverWook said:

Isn’t it still an illegal operation no matter who was in the Oval Office at the time? Or is it okay in this kid’s world view because both allegedly did the same thing? He’s not thinking his put downs through.

The point of “what-aboutism” is that it changes the subject. It even worked on us.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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Time for a major revival of Boot to the head to counter this whataboutism menace! 😉

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Where were you in '77?

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CatBus said:

SilverWook said:

Isn’t it still an illegal operation no matter who was in the Oval Office at the time? Or is it okay in this kid’s world view because both allegedly did the same thing? He’s not thinking his put downs through.

The point of “what-aboutism” is that it changes the subject. It even worked on us.

Is that the point of it? Asking for a friend.

The blue elephant in the room.

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Just in case you didn’t know: whataboutism is a real thing, it just hasn’t been a signature feature of American politics until recently.

This particular brand of changing the subject is called “whataboutism” — a simple rhetorical tactic heavily used by the Soviet Union and, later, Russia. And its use in Russia helps illustrate how it could be such a useful tool now, in America. As Russian political experts told NPR, it’s an attractive tactic for populists in particular, allowing them to be vague but appear straight-talking at the same time.

The idea behind whataboutism is simple: Party A accuses Party B of doing something bad. Party B responds by changing the subject and pointing out one of Party A’s faults — “Yeah? Well what about that bad thing you did?” (Hence the name.)

It’s not exactly a complicated tactic — any grade-schooler can master the “yeah-well-you-suck-too-so-there” defense. But it came to be associated with the USSR because of the Soviet Union’s heavy reliance upon whataboutism throughout the Cold War and afterward, as Russia.

Whataboutism — particularly directed toward the U.S. — was so pervasive in the USSR that it became a joke among Soviets, often in a subversive genre called “Armenian Radio” jokes, explains one Russia analyst.

“Armenian Radio would be asked, ‘How much does a Soviet engineer get paid?’ and they’d be like, ‘I don’t know, but you [in America] lynch Negroes,’” said Vadim Nikitin, a Russia analyst and freelance writer. Eventually, that punchline came to be synonymous with the whole phenomenon of whataboutism, Nikitin said.

Translated from Armenian into English, that punchline is “But her e-mails!”

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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CatBus said:

Just in case you didn’t know: whataboutism is a real thing, it just hasn’t been a signature feature of American politics until recently.

To be honest, that was one thing I also didn’t like about Hillary’s campaign during the general election. She didn’t seem to be running so much for herself as she was running against Donald Trump. I liked her much better when she would talk about what she was for rather than when she talked about why Trump couldn’t be allowed access to nuclear codes.

TV’s Frink said:

chyron just put a big Ric pic in your sig and be done with it.

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I see the value of the term when used to describe reference to something totally unrelated that distracts from the topic at hand.

But sometimes the term is used to describe things that are invoked to add context or direct comparison. And when the term is (mis)used in that way, I find it just as bad.

And sometimes it’s hard to tell if a person is seeking to distract or intending to broaden the discussion.

The blue elephant in the room.

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chyron8472 said:

CatBus said:

Just in case you didn’t know: whataboutism is a real thing, it just hasn’t been a signature feature of American politics until recently.

To be honest, that was one thing I also didn’t like about Hillary’s campaign during the general election. She didn’t seem to be running so much for herself as she was running against Donald Trump. I liked her much better when she would talk about what she was for rather than when she talked about why Trump couldn’t be allowed access to nuclear codes.

To be honest, that was one thing I also didn’t like about Trump’s campaign during the general election. He didn’t seem to be running so much for himself as he was running against Hillary Clinton. I liked him much better when he would talk about what he was for rather than when he talked about why Hillary couldn’t be allowed access to the nuclear codes.

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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I’ll pretend that’s why I voted for neither of them and for someone vastly superior.

The blue elephant in the room.

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Whataboutism != negative campaigning.

I’ll pretend that’s why I voted for neither of them and for someone vastly superior.

Who did the people of your state elect on your behalf?

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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NeverarGreat said:

chyron8472 said:

CatBus said:

Just in case you didn’t know: whataboutism is a real thing, it just hasn’t been a signature feature of American politics until recently.

To be honest, that was one thing I also didn’t like about Hillary’s campaign during the general election. She didn’t seem to be running so much for herself as she was running against Donald Trump. I liked her much better when she would talk about what she was for rather than when she talked about why Trump couldn’t be allowed access to nuclear codes.

To be honest, that was one thing I also didn’t like about Trump’s campaign during the general election. He didn’t seem to be running so much for himself as he was running against Hillary Clinton. I liked him much better when he would talk about what he was for rather than when he talked about why Hillary couldn’t be allowed access to the nuclear codes.

Troll is as troll does.

 
I did like Hillary, but I was annoyed that she didn’t focus more on herself and less on him.

CatBus said:

Whataboutism != negative campaigning.

I suppose not, but either way it’s still pointing fingers. There’s far too much of that that goes on.

TV’s Frink said:

chyron just put a big Ric pic in your sig and be done with it.

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Mrebo said:

I’ll pretend that’s why I voted for neither of them and for someone vastly superior.

Who had zero chance of winning. Have a cookie.

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NeverarGreat said:

I liked him much better when he would talk about what he was for

Big fan of racism, sexism, and self-fellation, I see.

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TV’s Frink said:

Mrebo said:

I’ll pretend that’s why I voted for neither of them and for someone vastly superior.

Who had zero chance of winning. Have a cookie.

You say that like I wouldn’t do virtually anything for a cookie. And to answer CatBus, the state went to Clinton as expected.

The blue elephant in the room.

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chyron8472 said:

CatBus said:

Just in case you didn’t know: whataboutism is a real thing, it just hasn’t been a signature feature of American politics until recently.

To be honest, that was one thing I also didn’t like about Hillary’s campaign during the general election. She didn’t seem to be running so much for herself as she was running against Donald Trump. I liked her much better when she would talk about what she was for rather than when she talked about why Trump couldn’t be allowed access to nuclear codes.

Hillary was a terrible candidate and for some reasons we were all just expected to to vote for her even though she was barely campaigning.

The Person in Question

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Well, today’s Avenatti news was he’s started leaking who was receiving payments from Cohen’s shell company. First leak? Demeter Direct Inc. What do they do? That’s not really clear – it’s basically yet another shell company, but the owner is Mark Ko, who says he worked with Cohen on that Korean Aerospace deal, so there’s the link between the inbound and outbound money. But what is it exactly that Mr. Ko does?

Well, that’s not really clear either, just some flowery words about “assisting companies in the United States and Asia in entering or expanding into global markets”. But what is clear is there’s this property he owns on Wilshire (not giving the address because it’s the Internet, but it’s everywhere now so you can find it if you really want) with a really weird sales history. On July 13th, 2016, it sold for $600,000. Later, it sold for $2.4 million. That crazy California real estate market. You sit on a property for only a couple years and someone nets almost 2 million! So… how much time had elapsed between these sales?

Less than 24 hours had elapsed. The two sales for wildly different prices happened on the exact same day. For it to be registered like that it would really have had to have been within less than 8 hours, and probably a lot less than 8. The only question in my mind is if he did this in one sitting or took a bathroom break in between.

So… he’s into flipping real estate then. You know how people dig upgrades. Updated kitchen, bath, …laundry

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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Trident said:

I think this thread needs this about now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SraaOCwRnbA

Because it’s ah. Slightly political.

You’re welcome.

I’d like to see a band do a cover of that and perform it in a similar fashion on a late night show.

The blue elephant in the room.

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moviefreakedmind said:

chyron8472 said:

CatBus said:

Just in case you didn’t know: whataboutism is a real thing, it just hasn’t been a signature feature of American politics until recently.

To be honest, that was one thing I also didn’t like about Hillary’s campaign during the general election. She didn’t seem to be running so much for herself as she was running against Donald Trump. I liked her much better when she would talk about what she was for rather than when she talked about why Trump couldn’t be allowed access to nuclear codes.

Hillary was a terrible candidate and for some reasons we were all just expected to to vote for her even though she was barely campaigning.

That barely campaigning part is just your usual hyperbole.

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Relatively speaking she barely campaigned, especially not compared to Trump or Bernie. Her campaign didn’t speak to me at all so I didn’t vote for her. She didn’t win me over and that’s her fault. I might’ve voted for Sanders, although that would’ve gone against my principle of not voting.

The Person in Question

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moviefreakedmind said:

I might’ve voted for Sanders, although that would’ve gone against my principle of not voting.

Cool. Makes perfect sense.

Hope you’re enjoying Trump.

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I’m not, but voting doesn’t mean anything in my state. It’s just a waste of time.

The Person in Question