I saw someone today – ostensibly a non-US person – comment like this:
For the sake of the rest of the planet you should be voting Biden. [...]
I do hope you're not voting based on a single issue, it needs to be the whole picture.
Obviously, I now must dispense my wisdom. 😄
Unfortunately, "the whole picture" is something like this.
Regardless of who wins:
Covid will unfold the way it's unfolding. The US has had 7.6 million confirmed cases. That means tens of millions of actual infections. Community spread will continue until it arrives at a natural end. Any attempt to slow it more than is necessary for hospitals to function will delay arrival at the natural end.
A "natural end" means the super-spreaders will get it and get over it. That's mostly young people who won't suffer much from it. The virus will continue to circulate, people will wear masks but hospitalizations and deaths will return to a previous average without forceful top-down measures. The economy starts to adapt and overcome.
Now. If Biden wins:
The US government will resume functioning. (+)
We might be better off in terms of women's rights. (+)
A bit might be done about climate change, though not much. (?)
Invasions of the Middle East will resume. (-)
Will appease China, an astonishingly racist and genocidal regime, in full contradiction to liberal values at home. (-)
Critical race theory will spread unchecked in government, schools, and business. (-)
NSA and CIA encroachment on laws and constitution will resume. (-)
He might overdo anti-pandemic measures, delaying its natural end. (-)
The US will be restored to an imperial Presidency, where the President is a god-like figure of authority. (-)
If Trump wins:
He will continue to avoid significant new wars. (+)
He will not appease China. (+)
He will continue to reign-in the intelligence community. (+)
He will help slow the spread of critical race theory. (+)
Won't overdo anti-pandemic measures. (+)
Four more years of entertainment with President as a goof. (+)
He will continue to sabotage various government functions. (-)
There might be significant encroachment on women's rights. (-)
The government will not act on climate change. (-)
There's risk of regression on women's rights, but all things considered, Trump seems the better option. 🙂
Biden will give back to the media-military-industrial complex that which they crave, which is foreign invasions. Unless you live in Australia, this should concern you.
The millions of refugees in Europe, the resulting political tension in every EU country, the rise of the European far-right and the exit of Britain from the European Union all stem to US-caused violence in the Middle East. It all stems to the US media-military-industrial complex and the foreign policy that has been run on its behalf by both US parties.
Incidentally, most US voters don't care about that. But the rank and file in the US military does, because they pay for it in lost limbs and coffins. But there are flags on those coffins, so that part is nice.
Showing 7 out of 7 comments, oldest first:
Comment on Oct 8, 2020 at 19:39 by DanSmith
Do you really not care about the fact that Trump's statements like where he calls various countries shitholes, or refers to COVID19 as "China virus" etc. are fanning racism? That the fact, that the entire country is watching him, is greatly increasing the chance of racially motivated crimes- including murders?
How come you're so concerned about loss of innocent life in the Middle-east because of US policies, when you apparently don't care about loss of innocent life of your own _countrymen_?
Comment on Oct 8, 2020 at 19:42 by DanSmith
Comment on Oct 9, 2020 at 03:13 by denisbider
We lived in those countries. Caribbean and Central America. 10 years.
They are shitholes. We moved to the United States because those countries are shitholes.
We like it here way more than there. Here, there's life. There, there's misery.
The reason those countries are that way is because of the people who make them. You can call it mentality, culture, economics, genetics. Whatever you call it, it's the people.
The nature is great. Anywhere on Earth, the nature is great. The problem is always the people.
Trump is 99% correct about immigration. If you import into the US poor people who risk their lives instead of immigrating legally; or pardon those who stay in the US illegally; then you are importing, into the US, the same dysfunction from which they run.
If you import enough, the US will become like those countries. Because the reason the US is prosperous is not the nature. It's the people. It's the mentality, culture, economics, genetics.
Immigrants do help the US, if you take the right ones. People who follow the process, who are useful for their talent and knowledge. Those contribute greatly. They are the reason the US is the single country in the world that has created the most wealth for the most people. When it imports people like that, the US benefits from brain drain. This harms the countries from which such people are coming.
This is not the case for people who jump the border though; or people who stay here illegally; or those who win the visa lottery.
The left no longer believes in IQ because it is racist. However, average IQ in Sub-Saharan Africa is around 70. Let's say it's instead 80. Average IQ in the US is 100 by definition.
When a person with IQ 90 moves from Nigeria to the US, this depresses the IQ in both countries.
Consider that for a few minutes.
Of course, the left no longer believes in objective measures. A California judge has recently banned the UC from using SAT and ACT tests in admissions – because objective tests are classist, sexist, ableist and racist.
DanSmith: or refers to COVID19 as "China virus"
It came from China. The Communist Party is claiming to their population that it came from the US. This is outrageous and demonstrably false.
We still call the 1918 flu the Spanish Flu. There was nothing Spanish about it. It's called Spanish is because the world was at war, but the Spaniards permitted newspapers to report on the flu. So it looked like it hit Spain first. It didn't.
The origins of that flu are uncertain – but China is on the short list for that, too.
DanSmith: fanning racism?
There are fewer Asians infected with the woke virus than there are whites. This intellectual dysfunction of seeing racism in every nook and cranny is primarily white, supported by radical blacks. It's not even supported by most black people.
Asians are skeptical of this propaganda because they know they're not held back by racism. They don't have a victimhood mentality and they know it won't help blacks.
DanSmith: greatly increasing the chance of racially motivated crimes- including murders?
As opposed to most people, I can do basic math, and predict that such deaths will remain trivial.
The fanaticism here is the left's making. It's the idea of racism everywhere, the projection of victimhood onto blacks and guilt onto whites, and the hate engendered by this.
The left projects its fascism and its authoritarian tendencies on what it hates. It does not see that it has those properties.
DanSmith: How come you're so concerned about loss of innocent life in the Middle-east
What a way to show that the number of people affected doesn't matter to you, only their nationality. This is hundreds vs. hundreds of thousands.
If you call yourself progressive, this betrays those values.
Comment on Oct 10, 2020 at 12:23 by DanSmith
It's hard to tell whether it's sheer stupidity or courage to openly and publicly state, while living in the midst of the US, that you don't value the lives of your fellow citizens more than those of some Middle-easterners (who probably don't feel the same back towards you).
Comment on Oct 10, 2020 at 12:38 by DanSmith
Comment on Oct 10, 2020 at 23:11 by denisbider
This point seems nonsense. The President is elected by the population, so you're saying that the population has an effect on itself.
DanSmith: However, as a national leader, you have the responsibility to not state things that will incite violence against some of your own citizens.
Trump says lots of bullshit but the net damage has been negligible. It is blown out of all proportion by media that are part of an interest group that hates him.
Obama didn't say much bullshit, but him being an inspiring figure did not preventing him doing much damage abroad. He also failed at what he should have done at home, and betrayed the public. Instead of reinforcing principles, his response to the leaks by Snowden, Manning and Assange reinforced unaccountable federal authority and legitimized systematic corruption, as long as it respects hierarchy.
DanSmith: It's hard to tell whether it's sheer stupidity or courage to openly and publicly state, while living in the midst of the US, that you don't value the lives of your fellow citizens more than those of some Middle-easterners (who probably don't feel the same back towards you).
Does someone pay you to make these manipulative statements? Or do you somehow believe that communicating like this is constructive?
I have said, and will say again, that people create their own countries. Absent external meddling of more powerful nations – and the US does a lot of meddling – the problems of countries all over the world can be attributed to the people in them.
This obviously suggests the US should not mass-import random people from Mexico or Honduras, and the EU should not mass-import from Iraq or Syria. If they do, the conditions that prevail in those countries will also become visible in the US and Europe.
BUT THIS DOES NOT MEAN WE ARE ENTITLED TO KILL 100,000 OF THEIRS TO SAVE 100 OF OUR OWN. If you insinuate this, you are a racist of the worst kind, and this makes your proclaimed liberalism a disgusting hypocrisy.
Now please refrain from further comments because you have shown you are a despicable person, and you are no longer welcome on this blog.
Comment on Oct 11, 2020 at 20:39 by denisbider
You must understand that only people with a deficit of self-respect will tolerate an anonymous person addressing them repeatedly with abusive language. You may learn this over time as other people in your life also tell you to bugger off. On my behalf, this exchange has ended and you will need to learn your further lessons about constructive communication elsewhere.