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Post by jdredd on Oct 4, 2019 20:26:20 GMT -5
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Post by jdredd on Oct 7, 2019 14:44:48 GMT -5
Once again, because I am a masochist, I bought the WSJ. But in between all the stories of America's bullying of dozens of countries for this reason or that, was one cheerful story of how doctors, once a bastion of Republicanism, have been moving Democratic. Part of the reason is the movement of young doctors from rural areas to cities, even though they generally get paid less in the cities. Could it be they are fleeing the cultural stagnation of the Guns 'n Jesus states?
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Post by jdredd on Oct 14, 2019 12:43:56 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2019/10/14/opinion/iowa-trump.html"And the local culture goes much deeper than Fox News, which doesn’t create the reality of conservatives here so much as reinforce it. To my devout conservative neighbors, liberals are tearing America apart. Mr. Trump is the only conservative with the courage enough to stand up to their way. They see the hand of God in this, and many truly believe he is the “chosen one.” To them, Democrats are amoral and spiritually empty. Where evangelical Republicans worship God and see Jesus as the only path to him, Democrats have banned Jesus from the public sphere at great cost to society and the potential salvation of millions. To rural white conservatives, their culture is being rubbed out right before their eyes. Compared with that, Mr. Trump’s sins — Ukraine and all — are trivial, while the Democrats are unrepentant and persist in their wrongdoing." Ha-ha! Here's an update from one of your typical Guns 'n Jesus states. Their stagnant "culture" is being wiped out right before their eyes? What's the bad part?
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Post by jdredd on Oct 15, 2019 14:36:26 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2019/10/15/opinion/democrats-debate-republicans.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage"Candidates like Senator Cory Booker, who called giving illegal immigrants free health care “common sense,” and former Representative Beto O’Rourke, who promises gun confiscation, don’t appear to care about attracting these folks. Whether it’s climate change policy, health care solutions or immigration remedies, a majority of candidates offer curiously similar ideas. They are skittish about offending the base and quick to placate culture warriors who demonize those with traditional beliefs about sex and gender. They have abandoned once widely accepted concepts like strong border security. This ideological purity may win fanfare from the media and the pundit class, but it does not offer what swing voters may need to take a leap of faith to the left." For the second day in a row, the "liberal" NYT features a columnist from the Midwest telling the Dems they have to move right. If Trump does not gross out these people enough for them to vote Democratic already, I don't know what to say.
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Post by jdredd on Dec 20, 2019 23:46:38 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2019/12/19/sports/football/nfl-100-violence-american-culture.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage§ion=Sports"The N.F.L. looks remarkably spry at 100 years old. The game is still spectacularly popular across bipartisan lines in the United States. An array of problems threatens its future — from how it deals with domestic violence to the blackballing of Colin Kaepernick to the concussion crisis to a cord-cutting population migrating away from traditional television. But the league remains enormously popular across lines of gender, race, age, class and even politics, and N.F.L. games remain pretty much the only sure thing for high ratings on the networks’ schedules — in 2018, they accounted for 34 of the top 50 broadcasts." We've had a hundred years of this shiite? So much for human progress. But we already knew that was bunk.
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Post by jdredd on Feb 7, 2020 14:46:28 GMT -5
Contemplating Trumpism, I'm wondering which is more important, the Culture War or which bozo is President. Looking back on our Presidents since Bill was elected in 1992, the culture has continued to stagnate through all of them IMHO. We already know that conservatives prefer cultural stagnation. It is amusing to watch the right wing media try so hard to regain control of the culture, and it may be hard going with a classless ignoramus like Trump as their leader.
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Post by jdredd on Mar 28, 2020 13:22:03 GMT -5
Is C-19 on it's way to bringing a cultural revolution? Of course everybody wants everything to go back to "normal" post C-19. But will we really go back completely to the pre-C-19 philosophy that the only philosophy there is is "Make more money"? That life is just a never ending party? Or the only thing that matters is personal "happiness"?
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Post by jdredd on Apr 3, 2020 1:14:05 GMT -5
Of course us old folks will just wait this whole thing out and then go back to business-as-usual consumerism. But I'm wondering if this will traumatize a younger generation enough to question the boundless materialism of their parents. Or make it worse.
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Post by jdredd on Apr 4, 2020 1:04:34 GMT -5
I would think experiencing the paranoid hoarding by their parents would make an impression on young minds. And the every-man-for-himself mentality behind it.
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Post by jdredd on Apr 16, 2020 23:34:44 GMT -5
So one of my favorite actresses, Cate Blanchett, is playing American villain Phyllis Schlafly on TV. I'm sure it's not very sympathetic, nor should it be.
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Post by jdredd on Apr 17, 2020 12:51:29 GMT -5
So no Comic-Con. Which has been a force AGAINST cultural stagnation (remember how dull movies were before the superhero era?). Hopefully it will be back next year bigger and better than ever.
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Post by jdredd on Jun 6, 2020 13:46:17 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2020/06/04/style/fashion-industry-dead-or-alive.html?action=click&module=Editors%20Picks&pgtype=Homepage"It is a truth that may be hard to imagine in a world devastated by illness and economic insecurity, riven by racism and unrest, but we will get dressed again. Dressed not for the anonymity of the hospital or the essential work force, the heat and heartbreak of the protest, the anomie of the supermarket or the park, but for the next stage catharsis. Capital D Dressed. It is both history and human nature. “We will come out of this, like we come out of a war,” said Li Edelkoort, a trend forecaster. “The buildings are still there, but everything is in ruins. We will want two things: security and to dance.” “We will be aching for something new, to refresh our personalities,” she said. “Eccentric clothes, romantic clothes.” And that is why, after months in which the death of fashion was proclaimed loudly and regularly, a week when it was once again forced to confront its own role in preserving inequality, the motor of the industry has begun to shift into gear once more, in Europe and Asia if not yet in America, where stores remain nailed shut."
Someone actually thought women's fashions were dead? They have outlived wars and even religions. I'm sure "cavewomen" were styling their body hair.
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Post by jdredd on Jun 12, 2020 12:47:59 GMT -5
However things come out, at least I can say that the Cultural Stagnation of the last decade or more has broken up a bit. More importantly than the problem of Covid-19 is the willingness of the Millennials to challenge conventional wisdoms pawned on them by the Boomers, especially when it comes to race and law enforcement. Unfortunately the November elections is a choice between Tweedledumb and Tweedledumber.
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Post by jdredd on Jun 24, 2020 12:25:15 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2020/06/23/opinion/baby-boomers-trump.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage"I think it was the 50th anniversary of Woodstock last summer that finally pushed me over the edge. All summer long we’d been reliving the ’60s. Again. There were the boomers, reminiscing about Howdy Doody, Vietnam, the Summer of Love. Watching all of this, I thought, well, damn. I don’t have anything in common with these people at all. Which is awkward, because I too am a baby boomer. Or so I thought. Because then a friend of mine — born, like me, in 1958 — told me that we’re not boomers. We’re Generation Jones. It was a term I’d never heard before, although a quick internet search revealed that yes, Generation Jones is an actual thing. It refers to the second half of the baby boom, to a group of people born roughly from 1954 to 1965." "Unlike older boomers, members of this generation are reliably conservative, perhaps because the traumas of the 1970s led us to distrust government. But Mr. Pontell thinks that Jonesers are now tipping to the left, for two reasons. First, Mr. Trump’s fumbling response to the Covid-19 crisis has hurt him with Jonesers, who are part of the demographic most at risk from the disease. And then there is Mr. Trump’s cruel mocking of Joe Biden’s senior moments. “There are lots of seniors out there that also have senior moments,” Mr. Pontell says. “They don’t really like the president mocking those one bit.”
Yes, it was the younger Boomers that brought us disco. I won't hold a grudge, especially if they turn on Trump.
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Post by jdredd on Jul 7, 2020 3:24:48 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2020/07/03/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-mount-rushmore.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage“Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children,” Mr. Trump said, addressing a packed crowd of sign-waving supporters, few of whom wore masks. “Angry mobs are trying to tear down statues of our founders, deface our most sacred memorials and unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities.” Even though I already commented on Trump's bizarre 4TH of July speech, it still is rattling around in my head, especially this "indoctrinate or children" line. Assuming there is some cabal of lefties conspiring to do it, why would it be as successful as claimed? What is the inherent weakness in the conservative narrative to make young people so vulnerable to leftist indoctrination?
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