Hardkill

Of course it can't be prevented. It's already been here for many decades. But what hope is there that we will be even have enough political will to develop the kind of new technology and infrastructure we would need to be able to prevent the catastrophic levels of environmental disaster that experts have been sounding the alarm on? Also, how are we going to live through the next decades of much worse environmental conditions? Will the US become a much more hazardous country to live?

On what alternate reality would China ever lead the world in fighting climate change? They are about 50 years behind in overall societal development and for several years it has produce the largest amounts of pollution in the world. You think Xi Jinping or anyone will care at all within the next few decades about combating climate change?

Yes, I definitely think that along with what's going to happen to our natural environment are cause for real concern. This is all because both the Democratic Party and Republican Party shifted to the right. The majority of Democrats became Neoliberals starting in the 70s and then by the early 90s shifted even to the right economically and militarily by becoming the centrist corporate Dems that still exist to this day. This is due to both the exponential increase in corporate lobbying within the Democratic Party since the late 1900s and the Party having to shift more to the center in some way in order to compete with Republicans on a national level after being dominated by the conservative resurgence and Reaganism within the country for over 12 years. The GOP particularly shifted so far to the right both economically and socially, starting in the late 60s to early 70s, beginning with the Nixon campaign's racist southern strategy after LBJ, the Democrats, and the civil rights movements successfully ended all segregation, won real full US citizenship, major reduction in racial discrimination, and real equal voting rights for all colored people throughout the entire country. The southern strategy worked by using racist dog whistle statements that won over the racist southern and rural democrats who already were prepared to leave the Democratic Party out of resentment for the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Right Acts and their own party's increasingly liberal stance on racial integration since the late 40s. Then in the mid 70s, the party shifted even further to the right by appealing to even more swaths of conservative voters on conservative cultural issues including anti-abortion, pro-gun rights, and climate change denial. The party shifted even further to the right economically, militarily, and socially during the late 70s to early 80s due to the rise of conservatism and Reaganism all over America. Afterwards, Newt Gingrich and his followers in the 90s took Republican Party even further to right with his Contract with America agenda and pre-Trumpian way of undermining democratic norms and making his party even more noticeably polarizing and hostile than before. At the same time, the voter demographics at the state level in the southern and rural areas of the country became even more Republican. During Obama's presidency, the Republicans particularly those such as McConnell, significantly increased their obstructionism by vowing to stop as much as of Obama's centre-left agenda as possible. Finally, Trumpism as we all know took right-wing extremism in the party to a whole new level with his racial demagoguery and fake right wing populism. As result, the vast majority of Republicans are not willing to do anything save our natural environment from climate change and provide enough funding for social safety nets such as social security. The conservative justices in SCOTUS and in many of the other federal courts out there have currently greatly limited the government's ability to fix these issues. What makes this even more depressing is that we still don't have enough Democrats in power who are willing to fight against climate change.

I get that devilry doesn't win in the long-run and there is hope that democracy in America will eventually be fully healed decades from now. However, given that the right wing has already significantly damaged the democracy of the US and they will continue to damage it even further and further and further over the next few decades, should most Americans who are not rich and not white expect that A LOT more of their rights will taken away from them over the next decades? Will something like the Jim Crow laws or nationwide ban on gay rights return in America for about a decade or so? Will social safety nets such as Medicare, Social Security, Obamacare, etc. all be gone within the next few decades?

Actually, you're right about social injustices such as Jim Crow laws or bans on gay rights largely not coming back ever again. After contemplating more on this issue over the past week and having brushed up on my history of politics and US history, it would be impossible for something like to ever to come back. It would also be impossible for most of the equal voting rights for non-white Americans to ever be abolished. This is because unlike the nationwide abortion rights, desegregation and equal voting rights for Americans of all races were codified by Congress during the 60s. Also, the 1964 civil rights act which outlawed segregation everywhere in the country (except in schools) at the time needed a two-thirds majority in the Senate and a simple majority in the House to pass. Ultimately the bill was passed with overwhelming majorities and a significant amount of bipartisanship in both chambers of Congress. The Senate voted for cloture by a 71–29 vote, which was more than enough to overcome the filibuster and passed the bill by a 73–19 vote (which includes 47 Democrats who voted yes, 16 who voted no, 30 republicans who voted yes, and 2 republicans who voted no. As for the House of Representatives, 290 Democratic and Republicans representatives in the chamber voted yes, and 130 representatives who voted no. The 1965 Voting Rights Act, which prohibited the federal, state, or local governments all over America from having poll taxes, literacy tests, and many other racist bureaucratic restrictions on all black and brown voters in the south and anywhere else throughout the whole country was also passed with overwhelming majorities and a significant amount of bipartisanship in both chambers of Congress. The Senate voted for cloture by a 70–30 vote, which was more than enough to overcome the filibuster and passed the bill by a 77–19 vote (which includes 47 Democrats who voted yes, 16 who voted no, 30 republicans who voted yes, and 2 republicans who voted no. As for the House of Representatives, 333 Democratic and Republicans representatives in the chamber voted yes, and 85 representatives who voted no. Plus, there's the Twenty-fourth Amendment (Amendment XXIV) of the US constitutional amendment, which bans Congress or any of the states to enact any kind of laws that allow any of kind to occur poll taxes on any one throughout the entire country no matter what any one's reasons or argument for having poll taxes are. This amendment was ratified in 1964, which needed the requisite two-thirds majorities in the House and Senate two-thirds of majorities in the House and Senate. After that, it needed a solid majority of each of the state legislatures to sign off on it as well. It got passed in the House with 295 Dem and Repub representatives who voted yes and 86 Dem and Repub representatives who voted no. It got passed in the Senate with 77 Dem and Repub senators who voted yes and 16 Dem and Repub senators who voted no. Afterwards, each of the states ratified the amendments with overwhelming majorities and great bipartisan support within each of the state legislatures throughout the whole country. Plus, all of these laws have been amended several times over by Congress and president several times within the last 5 decades. Furthermore, there probably have already been way too many courts cases over the past 50+ years that already been ruled in favor by countless courts from the local level to the highest level of the courts throughout the whole USA for keeping all of the major or core provisions of each of these laws. Plus, with regard to the culture of current society, even though there are still a lot of racists in America, I believe that a solid majority of people in the US don't believe in racial desegregation or having the levels of racial discrimination that occurred in the mid 1900s or any time before that. We of course can't forget that America already twice elected the first black POTUS in all of US history (Obama even won his first presidential election in a landslide, and his second one decisively), and just elected the very woman of color VPOTUS in all of US history about a year and a half ago. Not to mention that the amount of other non-white people that having been holding all other various kinds of high level government positions has kept growing even after Obama left office. Lastly, conservatives have never in US history ever had a massive majority in either chamber Congress (Except in the House during one 2-year period in the early 1920s). Therefore, there's absolutely no way that any conservative or Republicans fascist would ever have anywhere near the level of support they would need to be able to bring back Jim Crow to level that happened long ago. As for nationwide gay rights, Congress never codified that into law. So, that still vulnerable to being struck down by SCOTUS. Regarding, Medicare and Obamacare, I am no longer worried about those being totally eliminated. There was always way too much support for Medicare since the 60s and conservatives have proven for well over a decade that they are unable to repeal it all through Congress (except for the individual mandate) or get it struck down by any of the courts. Even SCOTUS last year, which had 6 conservative justices on the bench, ruled 7-2 in favor of keeping it. So, there's no way that the core of that act will ever be gone. I am now very worried about what the EPA can do now and what will happen to it in the future.

So, then what should Americans like me do for the next decade or two?

Tragic news. Don't know much about Abe, but he seemed like he was a good guy.

Okay, with regard to the monoclonal anti-body treatments and DeSantis, I would have to say that was actually a good thing that he did. So, credit where credit is due. However, you are totally mistaken and short-sighted regarding the vaccine mandates. Bodily autonomy is one thing, but you do not have the right to infect others with a deadly virus. Vaccine mandates are a necessary part of law and order (which Republicans and Conservatives always tout as one of the essential tenets of American life) for the safety of everyone in the country.

The constitution of Russia was supposed to grant freedom of speech and press for its people, but of course the reality is that hardly any Russian citizen has any true freedom of speech and press. Likewise, the constitution of China was supposed to grant freedom of speech and press for its people, but obviously the reality is that there is very limited freedom of speech and press for all Chinese citizens. Do the people of Russia and the people of China not really care about having any kind of freedom speech that 1st world countries have?

Okay, that’s what I thought. Just wanted to make sure. Now, what about what the progressives have saying about this issue? TYT and other progressives out there have been hurting have been screaming at the establishment Dems in Washington for “doing nothing” about this issue, even though we know that in reality that is there absolutely nothing they can do to get the votes they need to codify nationwide abortion rights into law. Cenk and Ana even yelled on their channel to not support any of these. “loser Dems” in Washington anymore. Aren’t the progressives hurting the Democratic Party politically with their stupid blaming their own party for failing to protect abortion rights?

I just thought of something. If most voters are generally ignorant and dumb then will enough of the general US population realize or understand who were truly responsible for ending nationwide abortion rights? Do or will most adults even know about roe vs. wade having been overturned by the conservative majority in SCOTUS? What if the right-wing media like Fox News is able to spin it in a way that actually persuades at least half of the entire population that it wasn't the right-wing who were at fault? Or as crazy or stupid as this may sound, what if they scapegoat Biden and the Dems in Congress for ending the right to have an abortion in most states because "it happened under their watch"?

It's kinda creepy when you think about it. I wonder how some people who grew up in a fundamentalist religious environment like in those Mormon sects or Amish areas were actually able to save themselves by leaving their religion and becoming so liberal.

Ah, so JP and Shapiro were born and raised in cultures that influenced them with a less developed set of ideas and memes, whereas people like you and me were born and raised in cultures that influenced us with a more developed set of values and ideology.

But what exactly is the root cause of their terrible epistemology, great self-bias, and need to preserve their ego at all costs? Why do everyday liberals like me have less of an inherent self-bias and rigid survival mindset?

So, are JP's and Shapiro's lack of true intelligence due to their religious dogma?

I see.... I guess that is a very different definition of intelligence than the one that is commonly understood by people.

Be that as it may, why is it that more educated people generally vote more for Dems and Libs whereas the more ignorant generally vote more for Repubs and Cons, but not educated individuals like Shapiro and Peterson? Is it simply because of their religious dogma? How does a society raise the true intelligence of its people on a collective scale over time? Also, are you saying that liberals like me are actually more intelligent than JP or Shapiro, even if people don't have as high of academic achievements as those two are?

We definitely shouldn't underestimate China's growing power at all. The country will inevitably become the largest economy in the world and the second most powerful nation in the world in about a decade from now. Also, there are some aspects of their type of economy that I believe are better than America's including the greater level of centralized planning by those who have been appointed to administer their entire country's economy solely based on their elite level of expertise in economics and governing. I also appreciate their government's ability to establish greater unity and civic duty amongst all of their citizens in their country than the US governments' ability to do so with its citizens. However, most of their citizens are still not nearly as developed as most Americans in many ways. Most of the citizens of China still apparently hold much more primitive cultural values than Americans do. They don't have freedom of expression and freedom of press anywhere to the level that most Americans do. In relation to that, despite the country being socialist, which was supposed to mean total equality for everybody, the people of China don't really believe in the values of democracy and true egalitarianism like those in 1st world countries do. Not to mention, there's much greater amount of corruption in China than there is in the US. Plus, their level of education per capita, GDP per capita, military power, medical and scientific breakthroughs and achievements, infrastructure, environmental regulation are all at much lesser degree in China than in the US. It's going to take several decades for China to become as developed overall as the US is.

Shapiro and Peterson may not have nearly as high of consciousness or intelligence as someone like you do, but they are still smarter and more educated than most ignorant conservatives in America. You even mentioned before about how that the more education you have and the more effective of a knowledge worker you become the more free you are able to use your mind to see the injustices in the world, become more skeptical about the cultural traditions of your society, and demand freedom for greater self-expression and greater democracy. https://youtu.be/_8kybdrx1Xo?t=7231 Is there something that I am not understanding from what you're saying about that?

Oh wow! This looks like New Age gospel for the youth. It definitely looks very welcoming to all people of all races/ethnicities and other backgrounds.

The Republican Party has continuously shifted to the right both economically and socially since the 70s, while the Democratic Party has continuously shifted to the left socially since the 70s and to the left economically since the early 2000s. Considering that most Americans are still more appealed to fear, tradition, ideology, dogma, security, and status quo than they are to logic, science, open-mindedness, advanced policies, and reform, then why haven't most Americans always voted for Republican politicians since around the 70s?

But I don’t think that they both achieved the kind of top educational level they each got by simply regurgitating concepts and knowledge. They also had to constantly use and enhance their critical thinking skills. Also, why do higher educated individuals tend to vote more for liberals and Democrats?

Well, both Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro are well-known religious conservative intellectuals, which is probably why they resonate with each other. However, I've never fully understood why guys like them who are much smarter, much more educated, and less scummy than most conservatives and Republicans are, are still totally on side of conservative Republicans. If guys like Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro are undoubtedly smarter and more educated than the average American then why haven't they been able to question both their own religious dogma and all of right-wing politics?

I actually made a mistake when I previously said on this forum that Ron DeSantis could be the next Ronald Reagan of the GOP. According to this recent New Yorker article, DeSantis doesn't have nearly the historic levels of Charisma that someone like Reagan had. I am not trying to downplay the threat of DeSantis at all. I am still very very worried about him becoming president. However, he seems to be more like a Trump clone who like Trump would be considered incredibly popular within the entire Republican Party, but in the grand scheme of things only appeals to a relatively small slice of all Americans throughout the entire country. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/06/27/can-ron-desantis-displace-donald-trump-as-the-gops-combatant-in-chief I am really frightened by the idea that DeSantis could be very capable of finding more ways to erode our democracy by being able to find a lot of loopholes that neither Trump nor W. Bush were able to find. Perhaps he could become an extreme right wing version of Nixon.

I understand why those two countries had to be authoritarian 100-200 years ago and I am not expecting these countries to become democracies within the foreseeable future. Also, the US has actually always been one of the most ethnically heterogeneous countries in the world. But why did US already granted full freedom of speech and press right around the beginning of the 1800s and throughout the entire 19th century, America had actually much less developed technology, lower level of access to quality education, and poorer economic living conditions per capita than citizens in Russians and citizens in China in the late 1900s and 2000s have had? I am kind of surprised that there haven't already been some kind of mass revolt or widespread protesting for freedom of press and expression on all of the corruption that they have in their countries. Btw, allowing greater freedom of the press and speech provides government leaders the honest feedback and knowledge they need to improve their leadership capabilities. Why do you think that Putin has been constantly misinformed by everyone working for him and by the media in Russia? Because of how authoritarian Putin has gotten, all of his advisers and the media in Russia are all too afraid to tell him 'full truth' about the numerous failures his military has made and the mistakes that he and his military have made in their war against Ukraine.