DocWatts

Have to give a mention to Uncle Ruckus from The Boondocks.

Thanks for laying this out in such a clear, concise, and helpful way. It's so much more constructive to try and understand these people rather than just demonizing them. In order to diffuse these sort of ideologies, you really need a clear understanding of what makes them so attractive to people.

I guess in my mind it's a balancing act between being open to other points of view and being cognizant of the harms that someone is causing to other people. I think understanding why a person has a particular point of view is very important, regardless of my feelings one way or another. And I try to be understanding and empathetic towards people I disagree with, but I'm also human and there's limits in my patience when I see someone harming or brutalizing others. I also think there's healthy and unhealthy versions of most political views, and its much more difficult to be friends with someone who's fallen into a toxic manifestation of a worldview, because it tends to infect others areas of thier life.

If you are comfortable answering this, how have you been able to support yourself financially through actualized.org, considering that most of your Content is free and not supported by ads?

I do genuinely feel bad for some of these people because it's obvious that they're being lied to and manipulated. But I do have to weigh that against the harm that they're causing other people, especially the people being directly harmed by the policies they're supporting (black people, poor people, gay people, immigrants... just to name a few). I'm always going to have more sympathy for someone being brutalized that I am for someone manipulated into brutalizing others.

I think that the conversation around 'personal responsibility' needs to be reframed in a way that it can be reclaimed from people who only use it to moralize thier selfish behavior. As in once your own needs are met, you have a Personal Responsibility to help other people in your community, especially if you can do so at little cost to yourself. Maybe reframe the conversation so that having the moral conviction to help others is looked at with the same romanticism as Rugged Individualism is in the current environment. ... Welp, guess I'll pull my heads out of the Clouds and return to reality, such as it is.

I know a handful of these people, it's genuinely sad to see them being so obviously manipulated and taken advantage of. Fact is that the Republican party has literally nothing to offer the average American that will make their lives better in any way, so it makes sense that they have to resort to these sort of tactics to win elections. And that's in addition to just outright disenfranchising people.

Also people don't become fantastically devoted to a hateful political ideology because everything in their life is going awesome; just going off from the MAGA supporters that I've personally known, most of them have had some sort of obvious unmet deficiency need in their life that they project outwards on to others. People whose lives aren't going great and who feel like they have nothing to lose are obvious fodder for being propagandized into violence. Of course more of these people are just weak men LARPing as soldiers, but no way to tell at a glance who might be unbalanced or radicalized enough to shoot someone in the face or drive their car through a crowd of people. Of course it doesn't even have to come to that, just making someone who happens to be black think twice about potentially putting themselves in harms way in order to Vote accomplishes the same thing.

Humorous look at stage Green narcissism.

From an awesome rap album that's a playful stage Green take down of Corporate Greed, Privatization, and of shallow Consumerism ruining Rap as an art form. Also happens to be a concept album that's set in a cyberpunk dystopia with a host of science fiction references for good measure. Wind the clocks back to a simpler times Where you could talk and speak your mind Without assault or attack or combat All resources available in large quantities Before the deceit and greed and privatization Of everything that society placed inside it Spaces as a service to the patrons Now you pay for it and your credit better be good Or if there's an emergency, never see a foot Extended in your direction to help forget it Shred any evidence of wrong doing to make pledges Among secret societies with freaky fetishes Lie about what's really inside, they never let us in

Yeah I can think of a number of public intellectuals on the Left who've had some negative experiences with some aspect of Green (usually some politically charged culture wars issue that's impacted them in some way), and end up dipping a toe in to Right wing reactionary politics in response to this. You don't want to throw out the baby with the bath water though, as people can still provide valuable insights through their work, despite them having somewhat unenlightened or misinformed positions on some social issues.

@Leo Gura That's amazing. Don't think the writers of the show could have predicted how prescient this feels in 2020.

This ^^ %1000.

If anyone is familiar with Mos Def, that was where he got his start. First rapper I think of for stage Green.

Even more cringeworthy for anyone else who can see a younger version of themselves resonating with that mindset, rather than engaging with the messy realities of the political system in the US.

Another good example of Stage Green socially conscious hip hop.

As an aside, the Roman Republic used a similar system with thier governing system, where they would elect two Consuls to serve as heads of state; and it didn't stop their system from collapsing in on itself. For a system like that to even have a chance at working both sides would have to be working in Good faith, which is far from a given in when you consider that one of our two political parties operates as a corporatist shill with no moral qualms about eroding Democracy if its politically advantageous to do so (look at almost anything that Mitch McConnell has done if you want evidence for this).

What obligations do middle class and wealthy people living in first world nations have for charitable giving towards people in poorer and less developed parts of the world? What are you your thoughts on donating money to charities vs. political advocacy organizations as far as making the world a better place?

Agreed. One of the more interesting things about Michigan is how diverse it is in different areas. You have urban sprawl, vast stretches of forested wilderness, incredibly wealthy areas populated with mansions, giant sand dunes, a handful of progressive cities that would be at home on the West Coast, urban ghettos, hipsters, rednecks... the list goes on and on.

No kidding. Scary how prescient that movie feels some three or four decades later. I'm not saying that Detroit is a microcosm of the decay of American society with its crumbling infrastructure, decimation of the middle class, corrupt governance, and racial tension; but it doesn't feel like too much of a stretch to frame it that way. Also you'd be surprised at just how rural alot of Michigan is outside of the major cities; travel to the Northern parts and you'd be mistaken for thinking you took a wrong turn and ended up in Kentucky.

Ha! Well at least a handful of us have it as a next door neighbor and drive through it on our way to more interesting places.

A way I like to describe Michigan for people who don't live here is: imagine a blend of Oregon and Ohio, with a scattering of post-apocalyptic looking cities, and you won't be far from the mark.

How long until we're all surprised by seeing "Joe Rogan Experience #2145 : Leo Gura" pop up in our YouTube feed?

Look to The Clash for a great example of stage Green punk.

Considering that Trump has had four years to make an ass of himself, Considering that Trump has had four years to make an ass of himself, the bad publicity from multiple scandals and corruption charges, and his disastrous Covid response fresh on people's minds going in to an election, the hole he's been digging is deep enough to reach China. Yet despite this enough people have been propagandized by right wing media to leave the election results very much in doubt. Also keep in mind that this is a guy who won last time despite losing the popular vote by 3 million votes, and became president despite two thirds of the country not liking him