David Rubin on why todays progressivism has become a faux moral movement

[GreenGoldSharpie]

Trump won by collectively under 100k votes. Stop pretending it was some big "fuck you" to sjws. That isn't what happened despite what all the alt-right and conservatives want to pretend.

But, their narrative?

I dunno, man. When it comes down to this people may be annoying, but if you base your voting habits on annoying people then there's something fundamentally wrong with you. There are plenty of policy houses and discussion venues (on and offline) where actual minorities discuss the issues that impact their lives, and if you fail to seek them out I'm generally of the opinion that you're either ignorant to what folks are accidentally saying or maliciously against them. Either way, it's intellectual lazy to take the loudest voice in the room and build a block on enemies around that one voice.

[BannedForViews]

Prager and strawmans go together like peanut butter and jelly.

strawmans?

[Kraenen]

strawmans?

I'm just picturing a scarecrow made of PBJ

[Draco-Onis]

the whining from the left has always been there, since like marx wrote his manifesto
identity politics are orthogonal to the left/right spectrum

It's not identity politics when you give it a cool name like the southern strategy or bible belt.

[Kiri]

Well people try that.

But they mention one thing they are for or against and the other side attacks.

*agree with something the left supports* "YOU FUCKING LIBERAL CUCK SJW!"
*agree with something the right supports* "YOU FUCKING RACIST NAZI ALT-RIGHT SCUM!"

I am doing that all the time and no one has called me either so far. Though I do think I likely appear as more left because I am anti-Trump's policies. But it is easier to be in the middle if you are not American, given that I don't even really know how to be 'progressive' or anything like that in the sense you guys understand it. I just know what I like and what not and I know politics as well as economics. So I just tend to argue among those lines and not ideology-partisan ones.

On topic: yeah, the further you go to the left or to the right, the louder people get. That is not a new observation. Both sides tend to see the other side as one big, homogeneous mass, as 'them', just because they do not know them so well. And then it becomes easy to associate said other side with their 'loudest' members. It is a natural human reaction. As a species, we seek others that align with us and are quick to judge those who do not. That's why I prefer 'tribalism' to 'partisanship in this regard. Because in many of these threads you just see tribes fighting one another, making assumptions about one another and putting those above actual facts. That's the sad part. The video basically does the same.

[Sky High]

Also, really? He's making vids for that retarded PraggerU now? first he has that POS Tommy Sodomiz-your on his show and now this? What a fucking joke this guy is.

[Kraenen]

Also, really? He's making vids for that retarded PraggerU now? first he has that POS Tommy Sodomiz-your on his show and now this? What a fucking joke this guy is.

Yeah... that was a pretty substantive critique.

[Sky High]

Yeah... that was a pretty substantive critique.

That's nice you think that. /shooing motion

[Kraenen]

That's nice you think that. /shooing motion

Likewise dude. Maybe hit some points instead of name-calling some people who actually made some decent points on the show.

[DSRilk]

David Rubin 'left the left' and sees it today as a REgressive system and a recipe for authoritarianism.
I strongly agree with his message. Today conservativism is standing up for the rights that progressivism has abandoned.

He is absolutely correct about the left. YOU are absolutely INCORRECT about today's conservatism. Sadly, there's just no place in either party for the likes of us at the moment. However, I can tell you that most of us that are "leaving" the left for the reasons Rubin is, are finding ourselves anywhere but with the republican party these days. You'll find us going Green, occasionally libertarian, but mainly just complaining about the fact that we still have to find ourselves voting Dem given the only other realistic option - note that I am not one of those still voting Dem.

[Sky High]

Likewise dude. Maybe hit some points instead of name-calling some people who actually made some decent points on the show.

Pffffft, sure, if you say so.

[DSRilk]

It's just a whine video about how those poor white christian males have it so tough.

He's a gay atheist with very (non-authoritarian) liberal ideas. It's not about poor white Christian males. He just happens to believe in letting conservatives speak their mind on his show, and asks questions to help clarify their position vs. trying to debunk it.

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I want my 5 minutes back, that video was a bunch of pointless egotistical masturbation on Rubin's part and said nothing remotely interesting, true, relevant, or significant. Hope he at least "feels" better after that strawman filled whine.

I will say that his interviews are actually quite good. However, I do find myself skipping over his 5 minutes of moaning in the beginning of each one.

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I think he agreed with Sam Harris that 1% of Muslims are radical terrorist and that 1% of 1 billion is a large number enough to be concerned about it.


Democrats don't like people saying anything bad about their perceived potential voter bsae.

Sam's opinion seems to be less about the 1% and more about the 40% (or more in some countries) of ones that (occasionally quietly) agree with what that 1% are doing, even if they wouldn't do it themselves.

[Belize]

I'm so glad the Left is some sort of singular hivemind. It's makes strawmanning so much easier

[Jeezy911]

Trump is president because Hillary was a terrible candidate who was smeared for 30 years and dumbass on-the-fencers thought she was a sure thing and either didn't vote or threw a vote away for a 3rd party candidate. Along with Comey putting out information that led to nothing suggesting there was new information on Hillary regarding an investigation.

Trump won by collectively under 100k votes. Stop pretending it was some big "fuck you" to sjws. That isn't what happened despite what all the alt-right and conservatives want to pretend.

That's a great theory, except the part where the right controls the house and senate as well. Is that because of Hillary too or a wider problem within the democratic party?

[Deleted]

I think he agreed with Sam Harris that 1% of Muslims are radical terrorist and that 1% of 1 billion is a large number enough to be concerned about it.


Democrats don't like people saying anything bad about their perceived potential voter bsae.

According to brigitte gabriel, it's more like 15-25%.

[Dezerte]

It's always a bit weird when you talk about the political left in the US.

Anyway, the video comes across as a strawman with some feel-good arguments and virtue signaling baked in. Not very insightful or appealing to me as it is a dishonest video. I feel like this video was made for the echo chamber.

I also looked into the source, Prager, and found it has an interesting character as it's founder. It may explain why the video is done in this manner.

[DSRilk]

That's a great theory, except the part where the right controls the house and senate as well. Is that because of Hillary too or a wider problem within the democratic party?

Or many years of gerrymandering...

[Mafic]

The political left in the US needs to focus on green energy. Green energy = jobs and a better future. Better economic opportunity also lessens racial tensions along with ethnic strife and inequality.

Progressivism is bogged down by engaging in identity politics because most of the general population doesn't care about these thought experiments. Leave the thought experiments to academia.

[alexw]

That's a great theory, except the part where the right controls the house and senate as well. Is that because of Hillary too or a wider problem within the democratic party?

No it points to a wider problem with the electoral system. When democrats get more votes but lose all three branches, it tells you the system is broken. Thankfully one part of that broken system should disappear soon - gerrymandering - after SCOTUS rules against it.

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Or many years of gerrymandering...

Half of it is due to gerrymandering the other half is due to small states having too much political power relative to their population.

[Paranoid Android]

I'm so glad the Left is some sort of singular hivemind. It's makes strawmanning so much easier

Bzzzzzz. Where are we all meeting tonight? Bzzzzz.