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Who's Right Democrats Or Republicans

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Who's Right Democrats Or Republicans

Views Of The Democratic And Republican Parties

Just under half of Americans have a favorable view of the Democratic Party, while a slightly larger share have an unfavorable view.

The GOP is viewed more negatively 38% say they have a positive view of the Republican Party, while 60% rate it unfavorably. These views are modestly changed since last summer, with the share of Americans rating the GOP unfavorably slightly higher than it was in August and the share of Americans with a negative view of the Democratic Party down slightly .

About three-quarters of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents view the GOP favorably, while 81% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents view the Democratic Party positively.

Nearly all Republicans who say they strongly identify with the Republican Party express a favorable opinion of the GOP. Among Republicans who say they not so strongly identify with the party, 77% say have a favorable view, while 56% of independents who lean toward the Republican Party say the same.

Democrats who very strongly identify with the Democratic Party nearly universally view their party favorably, as do 87% of Democrats who describe themselves as not-so-strong Democrats. About six-in-ten Democratic leaners have a favorable opinion of the Democratic Party.

Within both partisan groups, views of the opposing party are overwhelmingly unfavorable across-the-board, with more than eight-in-ten strong partisans, not so strong partisans and leaners alike saying this.

Why Are An Elephant And A Donkey The Party Symbols

The Democratic party is often associated with the colour blue and the donkey mascot.

That dates back to Democratic candidate Andrew Jackson’s 1828 presidential campaign, when opponents called him a “jackass” for his stubbornness.

Instead of taking the nickname as an insult, Jackson embraced it and used the donkey image on his election posters.

It was then quickly adopted by newspapers and political cartoonists.

The Republican’s elephant symbol came along years later.

Many believe it came about, in part, due to a widely used expression during the Civil War led by Republican president Abraham Lincoln.

Soldiers entering battle were said to be “seeing the elephant” a phrase that means learning a hard lesson, often with a profound cost.

The symbol was then popularised by political cartoonist Thomas Nast; an early rendition featured in the 1879 edition of Harper’s Weekly.

Both symbols are still largely used for political campaigns.

Democrats Tend To Have A Lot More Anger And Negativity In Their Rhetoric According To Them If You Support President Trump Well Then You Are A Racist And A Nazi

They generally seem to be out to get someone making things more personal. Why are they so afraid to use the facts to reinforce what they want to do? Its agenda first then find or make up facts to support the rhetoric.

If they cant beat you at the polling booth, they try and beat you in court and thats just a great example of something thats not a pleasant experience. And not quite working in the long run. They keep getting overturned.

Crime And Capital Punishment

Republicans generally believe in harsher penalties when someone has committed a crime, including for selling illegal drugs. They also generally favor capital punishment and back a system with many layers to ensure the proper punishment has been meted out. Democrats are more progressive in their views, believing that crimes do not involve violence, such as selling drugs, should have lighter penalties and rehabilitation. They are also against capital punishment in any form.

Conservative Endorsements Of Democratic Candidates

During the 2004 election, several high-profile conservative writers endorsed the Presidential campaign of John Kerry, arguing that the Bush administration was pursuing policies which were anything but conservative. Among the most notable of these endorsements came from Andrew Sullivan and Paul Craig Roberts, while a series of editorials in Pat Buchanan‘s The American Conservative magazine made a conservative case for several candidates, with Scott McConnell formally endorsing Kerry, and Justin Raimondo giving the nod to Ralph Nader.

In South Carolina in , the Democratic candidate for United States Senator was Bob Conley, a traditional Catholic, and a former activist for the presidential candidacy of Ron Paul. Conley failed in his bid to defeat Lindsey Graham, receiving 42.4 percent of the vote.

In his campaign for reelection, Walter Minnick, U.S. Representative for Idaho’s 1st congressional district, was endorsed by Tea Party Express, an extremely rare occurrence for a Democrat. Minnick was the only Democrat to receive a 100% rating from the Club for Growth, an organization that typically supports conservative Republicans. Minnick lost to RaÃºl Labrador, a conservative Republican, in the general election.

Think Republicans Are Disconnected From Reality It’s Even Worse Among Liberals

Arlie Hochschild

A new survey found Democrats live with less political diversity despite being more tolerant of it with startling results

In a surprising new national survey, members of each major American political party were what they imagined to be the beliefs held by members of the other. The survey asked Democrats: How many Republicans believe that racism is still a problem in America today? Democrats guessed 50%. Its actually 79%. The survey asked Republicans how many Democrats believe most police are bad people. Republicans estimated half; its really 15%.

The survey, published by the thinktank More in Common as part of its Hidden Tribes of America project, was based on a sample of more than 2,000 people. One of the studys findings: the wilder a persons guess as to what the other party is thinking, the more likely they are to also personally disparage members of the opposite party as mean, selfish or bad. Not only do the two parties diverge on a great many issues, they also disagree on what they disagree on.

This effect, the report says, is so strong that without a high school diploma are three times more accurate than those with a postgraduate degree. And the more politically engaged a person is, the greater the distortion.

Should the US participate in the Paris climate accord and reduce greenhouse gas emissions regardless of what other countries do? A majority of voters in both parties said yes.

Yes Dictators Sometimes Cloak Themselves In Socialism But Tyranny Here And Elsewhere Is Always Right

Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Kim Jong-Un and Donald Trump

The meaning today of the Big Lie almost always refers to the false claim by Donald Trump and his right-wing cronies that the 2020 presidential election was somehow stolen by the left and Joe Biden, with the help of foreign agents.

Not only is this claim false, it is absurdly false.

This is hardly the first Big Lie from the right. Not even close. The right has been promulgating Big Lies for decades.

In fact, lying is the only way the right wing can win elections. After all, its policies are profoundly unpopular with ordinary people because the right-wing favors the 1% rich over the 99% working and middle classes.

How in the world could 1% of the population ever win elections over the 99%? Simple. The 1% bamboozles the 99%. To win elections, the right must conceal its true intentions from the voters and instead engage in manipulative tactics, like lying and fearmongering.

The lies are not just little lies.They are whoppers. They are the complete opposite of the truth. They are 180 degrees from the truth. They are the polar opposite of the truth, like from the North Pole all the way to the South Pole. Hence the term Big Lie.

Yet, shockingly, many of these egregious lies actually work. They take hold. They create a false impression in the mind of the public.

Once again, this is the exact opposite of the truth. Dictatorships and fascism are right-wing, not left-wing.

Shockingly, this nonsense actually works.

Who’s Right Democrats Or Republicans

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Neither, that is shy you discuss and debate and come to an agreement. It is time that the people make them sit back in their seats in the house and Senate, give the a bucket to go to the bathroom and PBJ’s for breakfast lunch and DinnerWhen the come to an agreement, then they can go home for a good night sleep and we will pick another issue and lock them in their chambers the next day and have them work that one out.Bet it would not take long for these idiots on both sides of the aisle to get the picture

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They are both wrong, but I think the Democrat senate is more wrong because they are trying to force an agreement using police stationed at national parks and monuments to make life hell for everyone. Also earlier last week the senate rejected a bill from house Republicans that would have delayed the shutdown for awhile./Edit:give the a bucket to go to the bathroom and PBJ’s for breakfast lunch and DinnerNo no no, PBJs are too tasty. Give them bread and butter.

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Liars are the worst kind of thieves-Only trust Hell No Kitty

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What Does Left Mean

In politics, left refers to people and groups that have views. That generally means they support reforms, especially those seeking greater social and economic equality.

The farleft is often used for what is considered more extreme, views, such as and . Collectively, people and groups, as well as the positions they hold, are referred to as theLeft or the left wing.

Trump Supporters The Exception

Despite political rhetoric that places them at opposite ends of the spectrum, Republican and Democratic voters appear to be similarly compassionate.

Democrats view compassion as a political value while Republicans will integrate compassion into their politics when their leaders make it part of an explicit message.

There is a caveat to this: I asked these survey questions about personal feelings of compassion in a 2016 online survey that also asked about choice of president.

The survey was conducted a few days after Republican presidential primary candidates Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Gov. John Kasich of Ohio had dropped out of the race, making Donald Trump the only viable Republican candidate for the nomination.

In their responses to the survey, a large percentage of Republican voters said they would rather vote for someone other than Trump, even though he was the unofficial nominee at that point.

The Republican voters who didnt support Trump were similar to Democrats on the survey with respect to their answers about compassion. Their average scores on the compassion items were the same. This is in line with the other survey data showing that liberals and conservatives, and Republicans and Democrats, are largely similar in these personality measures of compassion.

But Trump supporters answers were not in line with these findings.

The research indicates that appeals to compassion if made by trusted leaders should work for voters of both parties.

Republicans And Democrats After The Civil War

Its true that many of the first Ku Klux Klan members were Democrats. Its also true that the early Democratic Party opposed civil rights. But theres more to it.

The Civil War-era GOP wasnt that into civil rights. They were more interested in punishing the South for seceding, and monopolizing the new black vote.

In any event, by the 1890s, Republicans had begun to distance themselves from civil rights.

Taking The Perspective Of Others Proved To Be Really Hard

The divide in the United States is wide, and one indication of that is how difficult our question proved for many thoughtful citizens. A 77-year-old Republican woman from Pennsylvania was typical of the voters who struggled with this question, telling us, This is really hard for me to even try to think like a devilcrat!, I am sorry but I in all honesty cannot answer this question. I cannot even wrap my mind around any reason they would be good for this country.

Similarly, a 53-year-old Republican from Virginia said, I honestly cannot even pretend to be a Democrat and try to come up with anything positive at all, but, I guess they would vote Democrat because they are illegal immigrants and they are promised many benefits to voting for that party. Also, just to follow what others are doing. And third would be just because they hate Trump so much. The picture she paints of the typical Democratic voter being an immigrant, who goes along with their party or simply hates Trump will seem like a strange caricature to most Democratic voters. But her answer seems to lack the animus of many.

Democrats struggled just as much as Republicans. A 33-year-old woman from California told said, i really am going to have a hard time doing this but then offered that Republicans are morally right as in values, going to protect us from terrorest and immigrants, going to create jobs.

The Democratic Party General Policy And Political Values

The Democratic Party generally represents left-leaning, liberal and progressive ideological values, thus advocating for a strong government to regulate business and support for the citizens of the United States. Thus, one of the key values emphasized by Democrats is social responsibility. Overall, Democrats believe that a prominent and powerful government can ensure welfare and equality for all. Much like the Republican Party, political opinions within the Democratic Party stretch across a wide spectrum, as both parties are, to a large degree, decentralized. However, from a general point of view, Democrats tend to support heavy taxation of high-income households. In comparison to Denmark, where taxes are generally high, the Democratic taxation policy may not seem excessive, but on a U.S. taxation scale these tax percentages are in the heavy end.

Left Wing And Right Wing Politics

Politics is said to be split in half and you either have left or right political views. Left-wing politics is typically associated with progressive ideas and equality. Democrats are viewed as left-wingers. Right-wing politics values tradition, equity, and survival of the fittest. Republicans are viewed as right-wingers.

Left-Wing

Left-wing beliefs are liberal in that they believe society is best served with an expanded role of the government. Examples of an expanded role for the government include entitlement programs such as social security and Medicare, Medicaid, universal healthcare, food stamps, free public education, unemployment benefits, strong environmental laws, and other regulations on industries.

Right Wing

Right-wingers believe that the best outcome for society is achieved when individual rights and civil liberties are paramount and the role and especially the power of the government is minimized. Right-wing ideology would favor market-based solutions to the issues that these government programs aim to tackle. For example, encouraging a freer marketplace for healthcare, driven by consumer choice to drive down costs. Or privately held retirement accounts like 401 plans instead of government-guaranteed Social Security.

Democrats V Republicans On Jim Crow

Segregation and Jim Crow lasted for 100 years after the end of the Civil War.

During this time, African Americans were largely disenfranchised. There was no African-American voting bloc. Neither party pursued civil rights policies it wasnt worth their while.

Photo Credit

Democrats dominated Southern politics throughout the Jim Crow Era. Its fair to say that Democratic governors and legislatures are responsible for creating and upholding white supremacist policies.

Southern Democrats were truly awful.

Where Do Trump And Biden Stand On Key Issues

Reuters: Brian Snyder/AP: Julio Cortez

The key issues grappling the country can be broken down into five main categories: coronavirus, health care, foreign policy, immigration and criminal justice.

This year, a big focus of the election has been the coronavirus pandemic, which could be a deciding factor in how people vote, as the country’s contentious healthcare system struggles to cope.

The average healthcare costs for COVID-19 treatment is up to $US30,000 , an Americas Health Insurance Plans 2020 study has found.

Todays Republicans Really Hate Democrats And Democracy

1) Trumps supporters have embraced anti-democratic ideas

This chart shows results from a two-part survey, conducted in late 2020 and early 2021, of hardcore Trump supporters. The political scientists behind the survey, Rachel Blum and Christian Parker, identified so-called MAGA voters by their activity on pro-Trump Facebook pages. Their subjects are engaged and committed Republican partisans, disproportionately likely to influence conflicts within the party like primary elections.

These voters, according to Blum and Parker, are hostile to bedrock democratic principles.

Is God A Democrat Or A Republican

The Democratic Party and the Republican Party of the United States are political parties. God is so much bigger than any political party. He is bigger than the United States of America or any other country. He is bigger than the world we live in.

Psalm 8:3 says God created the stars with His fingers. Considering that our local star, the sun, is 70 times the size of the Earth, that would make God very big. Human issues are very small to Him but we will be judged by what we do.

We as believers need to keep our political party in check and be praying for the leadership of our nations. In the United States, historically parties or groups of organized political interests came later. The majority of the early settlers were true Christians fleeing persecution and the government trying to control them through a political church. The Democrats have been considered the party of the people or working class and the Republicans the party of business professionals for decades. In actuality, that is not true.

Abraham Lincoln was the US President who fought to hold the United States together when division arose about whether African slaves were people or just property of their owners. It was the Republican party that won the right of the slaves to have true freedom not the Democrats.

Vice Presidents Of The United States

John C. Breckinridge, 14th Vice President of the United States , United States Senator from Kentucky , Member, United States House of Representatives from Kentucky’s 8th District , Member, Kentucky House of Representatives from Fayette County . He was presidential nominee of the southern Democratic Party in 1860.

John C. Calhoun, 7th Vice President of the United States , United States Senator from South Carolina , 16th United States Secretary of State , 10th Secretary of War , Member, United States House of Representatives from South Carolina’s 6th District . He was a supporter of slavery, state sovereignty and a proponent of the theory of nullification.

John Nance Garner, 32nd Vice President of the United States , Member, United States House of Representatives from 15th District of Texas , 39th Speaker of the House of Representatives , House Minority Leader , Leader, House Democratic Caucus , Member, Texas House of Representatives from Texas 91st District , County Judge, Uvalde County Texas . He supported the poll tax. Although he served as vice president under Franklin D. Roosevelt, he turned against Roosevelt during his second term, taking a more conservative stance on several issues.

Thomas A. Hendricks, 21st Vice President of the United States , 16th Governor of Indiana , United States Senator from , and member of the United States House of Representatives from Indiana’s 6th congressional district and Indiana’s 5th congressional district .

What Is Happening To The Republicans

In becoming the party of Trump, the G.O.P. confronts the kind of existential crisis that has destroyed American parties in the past.

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But, for all the anxiety among Republican leaders, Goldwater prevailed, securing the nomination at the Partys convention, in San Francisco. In his speech to the delegates, he made no pretense of his ideological intent. Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice, he said. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. Goldwaters crusade failed in November of 1964, when the incumbent, Lyndon Johnson, who had become President a year earlier, after Kennedys assassination, won in a landslide: four hundred and eighty-six to fifty-two votes in the Electoral College. Nevertheless, Goldwaters ascent was a harbinger of the future shape of the Republican Party. He represented an emerging nexus between white conservatives in the West and in the South, where five states voted for him over Johnson.

agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions.

History Of The Republican Party

The Republican Party came into existence just prior to the Civil War due to their long-time stance in favor of abolition of slavery. They were a small third-party who nominated John C. Freemont for President in 1856. In 1860 they became an established political party when their nominee Abraham Lincoln was elected as President of the United States. Lincolns Presidency throughout the war, including his policies to end slavery for good helped solidify the Republican Party as a major force in American politics. The elephant was chosen as their symbol in 1874 based on a cartoon in Harpers Weekly that depicted the new party as an elephant.

Democratic Candidate Joe Biden

Reuters: Carlos Barria

The Democrats are the liberal political party and their candidate is Joe Biden, who has run for president twice before.

A former senator for Delaware who served six terms, Biden is best known as Barack Obama’s vice-president.

He held that role for eight years, and it has helped make him a major contender for many Democrat supporters.

Earlier this year, Biden chose California Senator Kamala Harris as his vice-presidential running mate.

The 77-year-old has built his campaign on the Obama legacy, and tackling the country’s staggering health care issues.

He is known for his down-to-earth personality and his ability to connect with working-class voters. He would be the oldest first-term president in history if elected.

According to 2017 Pew Research Centre data, a vast majority of the African American population supports the Democratic party, with 88 per cent voting for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential elections.

The Philosophy Behind Republican Economic Policy

Republicans advocate supply-side economics that primarily benefits businesses and investors. This theory states that tax cuts on businesses allow them to hire more workers, in turn increasing demand and growth. In theory, the increased revenue from a stronger economy offsets the initial revenue loss over time.

Republicans advocate the right to pursue prosperity without government interference. They argue this is achieved by self-discipline, enterprise, saving, and investing.

Republicans business-friendly approach leads most people to believe that they are better for the economy. A closer look reveals that Democrats are, in many respects, actually better.

A Record Number Of Americans Say Democrats And Republicans Are Doing Such A Poor Job That A Third Party Is Needed Polling Shows

Dissatisfaction with two-party politics is at an all-time high, new Gallup polling shows, with 62 percent of Americans saying Democrats and Republicans are doing such a poor job of representing their constituents that a third party is needed.

But the zero-sum, winner-take-all dynamics of U.S. elections make it nearly impossible for third parties to gain electoral traction, despite survey data that shows fully half of Americans do not identify with any party and label themselves independents. This was underscored this past weekend at the Conservative Political Action Conference, when former president Donald Trump ruled out creating a third political party to promote his brand of nationalist conservatism.

To hear those calling for change including many scholars and some lawmakers the inherent problem with our current system is that it shoehorns the into just two parties. Warnings that the nation has backslid toward autocracy driven in large part by the Republican Partys shift away from democratic norms bring added urgency, they say, and reversing that Trump-era trend will require something radical: breaking up the Democratic and Republican parties.

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statetalks · 3 years ago

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Who’s Right Democrats Or Republicans

Views Of The Democratic And Republican Parties

youtube

Just under half of Americans have a favorable view of the Democratic Party, while a slightly larger share have an unfavorable view.

About three-quarters of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents view the GOP favorably, while 81% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents view the Democratic Party positively.

Why Are An Elephant And A Donkey The Party Symbols

The Democratic party is often associated with the colour blue and the donkey mascot.

That dates back to Democratic candidate Andrew Jackson’s 1828 presidential campaign, when opponents called him a “jackass” for his stubbornness.

Instead of taking the nickname as an insult, Jackson embraced it and used the donkey image on his election posters.

It was then quickly adopted by newspapers and political cartoonists.

The Republican’s elephant symbol came along years later.

Many believe it came about, in part, due to a widely used expression during the Civil War led by Republican president Abraham Lincoln.

Soldiers entering battle were said to be “seeing the elephant” a phrase that means learning a hard lesson, often with a profound cost.

The symbol was then popularised by political cartoonist Thomas Nast; an early rendition featured in the 1879 edition of Harper’s Weekly.

Both symbols are still largely used for political campaigns.

Democrats Tend To Have A Lot More Anger And Negativity In Their Rhetoric According To Them If You Support President Trump Well Then You Are A Racist And A Nazi

Crime And Capital Punishment

Conservative Endorsements Of Democratic Candidates

Think Republicans Are Disconnected From Reality It’s Even Worse Among Liberals

Arlie Hochschild

A new survey found Democrats live with less political diversity despite being more tolerant of it with startling results

Should the US participate in the Paris climate accord and reduce greenhouse gas emissions regardless of what other countries do? A majority of voters in both parties said yes.

Yes Dictators Sometimes Cloak Themselves In Socialism But Tyranny Here And Elsewhere Is Always Right

Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Kim Jong-Un and Donald Trump

Not only is this claim false, it is absurdly false.

This is hardly the first Big Lie from the right. Not even close. The right has been promulgating Big Lies for decades.

Yet, shockingly, many of these egregious lies actually work. They take hold. They create a false impression in the mind of the public.

Once again, this is the exact opposite of the truth. Dictatorships and fascism are right-wing, not left-wing.

Shockingly, this nonsense actually works.

Who’s Right Democrats Or Republicans

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Last edited by GrassrootsConservative; 10-06-2013 at 03:35 AM.

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Liars are the worst kind of thieves-Only trust Hell No Kitty

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What Does Left Mean

youtube

In politics, left refers to people and groups that have views. That generally means they support reforms, especially those seeking greater social and economic equality.

The farleft is often used for what is considered more extreme, views, such as and . Collectively, people and groups, as well as the positions they hold, are referred to as theLeft or the left wing.

Trump Supporters The Exception

Despite political rhetoric that places them at opposite ends of the spectrum, Republican and Democratic voters appear to be similarly compassionate.

Democrats view compassion as a political value while Republicans will integrate compassion into their politics when their leaders make it part of an explicit message.

There is a caveat to this: I asked these survey questions about personal feelings of compassion in a 2016 online survey that also asked about choice of president.

In their responses to the survey, a large percentage of Republican voters said they would rather vote for someone other than Trump, even though he was the unofficial nominee at that point.

But Trump supporters answers were not in line with these findings.

The research indicates that appeals to compassion if made by trusted leaders should work for voters of both parties.

Republicans And Democrats After The Civil War

Its true that many of the first Ku Klux Klan members were Democrats. Its also true that the early Democratic Party opposed civil rights. But theres more to it.

The Civil War-era GOP wasnt that into civil rights. They were more interested in punishing the South for seceding, and monopolizing the new black vote.

In any event, by the 1890s, Republicans had begun to distance themselves from civil rights.

Taking The Perspective Of Others Proved To Be Really Hard

The Democratic Party General Policy And Political Values

Left Wing And Right Wing Politics

Left-Wing

Right Wing

Democrats V Republicans On Jim Crow

Segregation and Jim Crow lasted for 100 years after the end of the Civil War.

During this time, African Americans were largely disenfranchised. There was no African-American voting bloc. Neither party pursued civil rights policies it wasnt worth their while.

Photo Credit

Democrats dominated Southern politics throughout the Jim Crow Era. Its fair to say that Democratic governors and legislatures are responsible for creating and upholding white supremacist policies.

Southern Democrats were truly awful.

Where Do Trump And Biden Stand On Key Issues

Reuters: Brian Snyder/AP: Julio Cortez

The key issues grappling the country can be broken down into five main categories: coronavirus, health care, foreign policy, immigration and criminal justice.

This year, a big focus of the election has been the coronavirus pandemic, which could be a deciding factor in how people vote, as the country’s contentious healthcare system struggles to cope.

The average healthcare costs for COVID-19 treatment is up to $US30,000 , an Americas Health Insurance Plans 2020 study has found.

Todays Republicans Really Hate Democrats And Democracy

youtube

1) Trumps supporters have embraced anti-democratic ideas

These voters, according to Blum and Parker, are hostile to bedrock democratic principles.

Is God A Democrat Or A Republican

Vice Presidents Of The United States

What Is Happening To The Republicans

In becoming the party of Trump, the G.O.P. confronts the kind of existential crisis that has destroyed American parties in the past.

Save this story for later.

Content

History Of The Republican Party

Democratic Candidate Joe Biden

Reuters: Carlos Barria

The Democrats are the liberal political party and their candidate is Joe Biden, who has run for president twice before.

A former senator for Delaware who served six terms, Biden is best known as Barack Obama’s vice-president.

He held that role for eight years, and it has helped make him a major contender for many Democrat supporters.

Earlier this year, Biden chose California Senator Kamala Harris as his vice-presidential running mate.

The 77-year-old has built his campaign on the Obama legacy, and tackling the country’s staggering health care issues.

He is known for his down-to-earth personality and his ability to connect with working-class voters. He would be the oldest first-term president in history if elected.

The Philosophy Behind Republican Economic Policy

Republicans advocate the right to pursue prosperity without government interference. They argue this is achieved by self-discipline, enterprise, saving, and investing.

Republicans business-friendly approach leads most people to believe that they are better for the economy. A closer look reveals that Democrats are, in many respects, actually better.

A Record Number Of Americans Say Democrats And Republicans Are Doing Such A Poor Job That A Third Party Is Needed Polling Shows

source https://www.patriotsnet.com/whos-right-democrats-or-republicans/

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howardhawkshollywoodannex · 7 years ago

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Modern Celebrity and the Media

”If there's anything unsettling to the stomach, it's watching actors on television talk about their personal lives.” - Marlon Brando

With endless entertainment choices far beyond broadcast television and FM radio, how does a contemporary celebrity stand out and carve out a lasting career? It seems like there are three distinct routes they can take. First, be a social justice warrior. Aligning yourself with the right causes is always a great publicity stunt, but, watch out, as advocating unpopular causes can result in fan base shrinkage. Second, be a relentless attention seeker (media whore). The most effective course of action nowadays is being omnipresent on social media where you can turn your 15 minutes of fleeting fame into a lifetime of devoted followers . Third, reveal gross and unflattering details of your personal life, always a sure sign of strength of character demonstrated by overcoming adversity. Learning your craft or nurturing your talent is just a pointless waste of effort these days, and only for irrelevant high brow losers and also rans unworthy of attention . So much easier to tweet something provocative from your favorite comfy chair.

Aligning yourself with unpopular causes often leads to bad and unwanted media attention. Canadian Shania Twain’s impossible vote for Trump was all over the news, as was her swift retraction, putting her in the spotlight for a solid week. It’ was important enough to rate an article in the online Time Magazine, with one grief stricken fan tweeting “Shania Twain came out as a Trump supporter. This is the worst day of my life.” http://time.com/5249951/shania-twain-apologizes-vote-trump/

Kristen Stewart is the most recent exemplary social justice warrior. Just this week she wordlessly spoke truth to power and defiantly took to the Cannes Film Festival red carpet barefoot. With all the important causes in the world today, people too easily neglect the damnable Cannes dress code. We can all relate to the injustice of forcibly wearing high heels to a star studded event . https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kristen-stewart-ditches-heels-cannes-red-carpet-no-flats-rule_us_5afb4e80e4b0779345d3d248

Willow Smith is the latest celebrity to reveal unflattering and intimate details of her life whose claim to fame is having celebrity parents Will and Jada.. Crying out for attention, she was quoted “I was, like, cutting myself.” At first I thought thank goodness poor Willow wasn’t actually cutting herself, just something like it. If her behavior was “like cutting herself”, than she must have been only doing something foolish like drawing on herself. But her pain is all too real. Willow does a valuable public service in reminding people that growing up rich and famous in Hollywood is like “excruciatingly terrible,” https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/cutting-willow-smith-shocks-mom-jada-self-harm-admission-232624264.html

Carrie Underwood recently saturated the media as the victim of a freak home accident that apparently required 40 stitches to her face. Thankfully she wasn’t permanently disfigured, but the pain and heartbreak of 40 stitches I’m sure is a pain that will linger. Her before and after selfiies reveal a face that’s virtually unchanged, so poor Carrie really (or should I say really really?) dodged a bullet. Not one article or press release gives the name or location of the hospital she was rushed to, and everyone at that hospital at the time seems to be under some gag order not to discuss sharing hospital space with a country superstar. One could intuit that perhaps her (imaginary?) ordeal was all worth it for her “triumphant” return to the Opry stage and all the sympathetic publicity surrounding her stunning new music video. https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/celebrity/carrie-underwood-shares-selfie-as-she-performs-at-the-grand-ole-opry-for-first-time-since-accident/ar-AAx91cr?ocid=spartandhp&ffid=gz

Who even needs a publicist or press agent nowadays when all that’s needed to keep one’s name in the media is one inflammatory tweet. Kanye West, who has nothing to promote, other than himself, gained scads of media coverage with his foolish tweet about poor black’s historic attachment to slavery. One internet article believes only democrats will be upset. John Legend (did he first reject John Superstar, John Icon, and my personal favorite John Phenomenon, when choosing a name for himself?) grabbed some of the attention for himself with his kindly and wise reply tweet to Kanye. It was, in fact, a tweet that has already become “the most relatable thing a celebrity has ever done,” demonstrating he’s tops on the list of social justice warriors. The mind boggles at all the other selfless and humanitarian celebrity acts throughout history that can’t measure up to one remarkable and Legendary tweet.

http://dailycaller.com/2018/04/30/kanye-west-slaves-tweet/

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/04/john-legends-very-relatable-texts-to-kanye-west-about-civil-rights-republican-party.html

And Legend’s not even the most famous tweeter in the family. Wife Christy Teigen’s trick for enduring fame is that “she basically lives on Twitter.” Lucky for Christy she isn’t bothered with having to earn a living, giving her plenty of time to focus her attentions on things such as a seemingly innocuous tweet chronicling her recent revisit of something called Neopets The resultant media coverage labels it “the best thing on the internet this week”, somehow topping anything else useful, enriching, or even just amusing. https://slate.com/technology/2018/04/chrissy-teigen-revisited-her-memories-of-neopets-and-it-was-good.html

Idolizing celebrities is nothing new. The common folk have been doing it since movies were silent in black and white, and jazz age singers in the roaring twenties sang through a megaphone. What’s relatively new is that the mainstream media has now joined in on all the worship devoid of any critical thought, and it’s the common thread in all the examples above. Today nobody is more idolized in the media than Beyoncé. The crazy reverence was on full display with umpteen praiseworthy articles on her recent one time only concert. The blind adoration was universal, with each and every media outlet reaching for the gushiest superlatives. She is not just a mere mortal, but a “literal goddess” blessing her lucky audience with “the greatest performance of all time” (by anyone). The New York Times noticed that it wasn’t just a transformative experience, it was also an empowering (and no doubt bootylicious) political statement.

https://slate.com/culture/2018/04/beyonc-brought-jay-z-solange-and-destinys-child-on-stage-for-history-making-beychella-performance.html

http://www.vulture.com/2018/04/coachella-2018-beyonce-everything-that-happened.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/16/opinion/beyonce-coachella-blackness.html

I’ve never been a Beyoncé fan, not even from her days as lead singer of Destiny’s Child. There was always something cold, calculating, and off-putting in their rmusical approach. They were never a match for the classic girl groups of yesteryear, starting with The Supremes in the 60s, The Pointer Sisters and LaBelle in the 70s, Salt ‘n Pepa in the 80s, and En Vogue and TLC in the 90s to name the best. In their wake, all we have since is the disposable Fifth Harmony. Now that my celebrity rant is out into the world, it’s time to kick back and relax with the wonderful and inspiring female voices of today...Erykah Badu, Alicia Keys, Jill Scott, and now Janelle Monae, to name the best. Then I might also listen to some selected Rihanna, winner of Harvard University’s 2017 Humanitarian Award.

#celebrity #media #mainstream media #entertainment media

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daemonappreciator-blog · 7 years ago

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My Experience With The Daemon Forum (The Daemon Page

I feel guilty writing this, because I don't hate this community. But something needed to be said, something needs to change, and if I didn't write this, all these thoughts swirling around in my head were going to consume me. So here it is. A piece on my time spent with The Daemon Forum - be warned, this is going to be long.

I've been a member of The Daemon Forum for over five years now. I've accumulated quite a few posts, and I like to think I've helped out the community a few times. However, I've had several problems with it, and more and more have become apparent the more I'm around it.

But I'll start with the positives. I love the concept of daemonism. Having a daemon has helped me through some truly rough times. Finding my form through personality typing has been a really fun journey. I love surfing the analysis index, it's one of my favorite parts of the place. Having other people around to compare notes which is particularly nice, especially since it's exceptionally difficult to find experienced daemians outside the forum. I've also made several great friends on there; there are lots of friendly people around.

However, if it was all fun and games, I wouldn't feel the need to write this, and unfortunately, the majority of my time spent there was a negative experience. It should come as no surprise that I'm not going to say my account name on TDF, as I would rather not be banned; especially when all I want to do is point out problems that could be solved. I am in no trying to harm the community or drive people away from it; I'm merely sharing my honest opinion of the place - but know it is only my opinion and observations. Other people may have had none of these problems. But they were prominent enough for me to come away with an anxiety attack after every time I posted there, a couple years into it. Anxiety being something I recovered fully from before then, so it's been very unhealthy for me. As it happens, I'm extremely nervous while writing this, because I wouldn't be surprised if there was a major backlash from the community in response to this. But as I said, I have to get this out of my head, and out into the open, or it will never stop bothering me.

So I suppose that's the topic I'll start with. Potential backlash. I've noticed over the years that the staff tends to be quite sensitive to constructive criticism, and it's been punished whenever it's about something other than forum layout or glitches. Someone once posted anonymously about feeling afraid to come out as plural, because the forum treats headmates very differently than a multiple community would, and that they didn't want to be seen as "less than" all the other members just for being a headmate. They seemed scared to me, genuinely worried about this. They weren't accusatory or nasty about it. But the only reply they got was a moderator reprimanding them for 'passive aggression', and they were told they had broken several forum rules (I'm not staff, but I didn't understand what was done wrong, even with the explanation), and were essentially told they wouldn't be warned again. As someone who ran several forums myself, I would immediately get rid of that moderator. If that member was so scared they felt they had to post anonymously, that is not the correct response; especially when there's no provable way to know this is a member who has caused problems in the past. The members of the community are humans with feelings, not robots used to expand your website. I tried treating my members that way once. Didn't work out too well. Anyway, I don't know if that member ever came back after that, though I don't have any way to know who it was. I wouldn't blame them if they left after that, after exposing themself like that, being that vulnerable and being treated so for it. It must have felt awful.

Speaking of plural systems, there was one that joined for a brief stint and then left after posting a thread about real vampirism. It was a poll, asking if anyone on there had psychic vampirism. The post body was used explaining what vampirism was and wasn't, and giving educational resources on the topic. The poll got several votes, but no replies, until a moderator (or it may have been a member acting as a moderator) posted that this would not be discussed because they were 'encouraging members to drink blood' - at no point did they say so. Vampirism being a very real condition with real problems, and not something that occurs by choice; it's essentially a physiological disorder that people are born with. They are the type of people who absolutely need education and experienced peer support to remain healthy, and as the poll proved, there were several vampires on the forum, who were unable to discuss those issues with each other. It's clear the problem wasn't because it was off-topic - the thread was in a section that allows those discussions, and there are several threads for LGBTQA folk there, along with therians and otherkin, not to mention religious discussions, political talks, and so on. Again, it was a very inappropriate response, though it was a different moderator/member this time.

Then there was an incident where a novelist joined up to learn about daemonism. The members were plenty friendly to them, but the moderators met the idea with skepticism and caution. Which I suppose is understandable, since there was no way to know where this person would post their findings, though they said it was just for inspiration for a fiction novel, and that the ideas wouldn't end up being exactly like daemonsim (that already being in The Golden Compass and all). This writer made a thread asking what people think of spiritual daemonsim, and asked that only people who have experience with the topic reply. They were reprimanded for 'tailoring' the responses - however, if you look on just about any thread relating to spiritual daemonism around there, you'll find the majority of the posts by people who do not believe in such things posting about their opinion, and that landside of skepticism seems to really scare off the people who do believe in that - I know those people are around, but it seems they often end up being too nervous to post an unpopular opinion, especially when some people state their opinion as fact and imply ridiculing people who think otherwise. There's a definite worry about looking crazy or not fitting in, at the very least on that topic, because of that atmosphere. So when a mod posted on the author's thread, expressing not only that but also distrust for this person, that kept anyone else from replying. I wanted to, honestly, being someone who sees a spiritual aspect to daemonism. But no one stepped up to the plate after that, and for me personally, it was out of concern that I would be punished for giving them information, and I would imagine others felt similarly. There was a lot of posting about how the members don't know who this person is, and that the questions are 'suspicious' - I don't get that. Any member can see every other thread on these things. That writer could see far, far more incriminating things about the forum than whatever could have been shared there. It's a public forum. There's no huge secrets. That kind of response, is, again, completely inappropriate and in this case, very off-putting and suspicious itself. It implies that for some reason, the forum does not want to discuss spirituality, though to any long-time member, that concept isn't much of a surprise. Whether it's true or not, there is an air of expectation to see daemons as constructs only, and nothing else - including on The Daemon Page, where daemons are explained solely as constructs, psychological; no other view or opinion is even mentioned, and this makes the people who think otherwise feel ashamed - at least, I do. It feels like, while everyone else can talk about how their daemon came to be and their nature and all that, those of us who have differing views have to sit in a dark, quiet corner and listen to everyone else and not speak up, and it makes you feel embarrassed about having your daemon. That is not a feeling I want to have in any community, especially not one about embracing your individuality.

And now I'll move onto that topic. There is an interesting... duality, you could say, to this place. Which is ironic, given that part of the idea of daemonism is to have duality. So on one side, you've got this incredible concept of having a form that perfectly fits you, that is uniquely you, that means something intrinsically 'you'. This is what I love about the forum. It's some deep soul-searching, and self-analysis. On The Daemon Page, it's said that there's a form to fit your personality perfectly, and also a form that you prefer to take when projecting your daemon, and only you can determine both. So, when I joined, what I expected was to see a million different forms, because people are hugely varied and unique. But then you see the other side of this coin. Now, I don't take a problem with this first part - it's entirely up to someone what form fits them. There are a lot of canines. So many canines. And humans are social creatures, that makes sense. If someone feels a coyote is what fits them, then that's good, that's beautiful, and it's good that they aren't ashamed of that even if there are a lots of people with the same form. After all, one form can mean something to every individual. However, it's this next part that sits wrong with me. I have seen, so many times, people try to 'correct' each other about their forms. Say someone says their fitting form is a tiger - it would be no surprise to see someone come around and say 'you're too social for that'. I get it in the Reverse Analysis section - that's where you go on asking people to find forms that fit you, based on what you say about yourself. I mean when this happens in random threads. I've even seen people talking behind the backs of others about this, including but not limited to mocking people for their choice of form, saying people are naive or 'trying to be cool' with their choice, and therefore lying to themselves, and even one case where someone said "*eyeroll*" about someone previously on the forum, and their choice of form.

So there's a feeling of being judged. To add to that, it seems like no matter what your form is, you are expected to act like you have a canine form, even though that just isn't you. For instance, there was someone with a king cobra form, who was rather cold and distant. I saw people criticize him for being himself (he was not breaking forum rules) - and I just think it's weird that they were surprised he acted like he had a king cobra personality, when a big part of the point of daemonism is to celebrate and embrace your personality, and to truly accept your whole self. I also remember him saying he actually didn't want a king cobra form, he would prefer an octopus. But he was the type to only project what fit him best, so he wouldn't deny himself. (I had a couple discussions with him - he thought it was too fitting that people misunderstood him, when the king cobra itself is so misunderstood.) He left not long after he joined, and told me he just didn't feel welcome, despite doing his best to be friendly - he was never nasty, that I saw. On a side note, his cousin, who is also a member, made a video archive thread for reference of different animal movements and sounds, but has since disappeared off the forum. On the thread, before he vanished, a moderator offered to update the post for him if he didn't have time, but it doesn't look like anyone's done anything about it. Which is disappointing, because I was really hoping for a big library of videos. I guess I just wonder if the mods are going to get back to that at some point.

Then there's the whole debate on mixed-breed forms, extinct forms, mythical creature forms, and - the most taboo of them all - human forms. Very often, you'll see people, moderators included, saying these forms can't be 'viable'; the reason being that you can't study these creatures to find out their behavior, and that humans are too varied and individual to use. And while it's been said that you don't have to agree with the works on the analysis index, there's a distinct feeling of an unspoken rule that you do have to agree with them. Because if you take a form for reasons that don't quite match an analysis on the forum, you will have people pointing it out to you left and right - I certainly did, even though I chose my forms based on a combination of analysis and my own opinions of the animals, and to be frank, it is no one's business who chooses what form. On the previous topic, I always found it silly that people think they can determine the personality of someone (this is not including RAs) through scattered posts on an internet forum. I'm sorry, but you cannot know someone better than they know themself, no matter how close you are to them - certainly not as a stranger on the internet, and no one is in the position to tell someone else better about their form, yet as I said, I saw plenty of that. Then, back to my current subject. I recall a couple people who used dragons as forms, someone with a gryphon, and someone with a wyvern. I was really interested in that concept, and I thought it was cool they embraced what they felt fit them. So I looked up their posts, to see if they talked about what it's like to have a mythical form. I couldn't really find much. They would typically talk most about it in their introduction, quickly find out they were expected to choose animal forms, and after that they generally seemed to be cautious about talking about it. One of them stubbornly continued to talk about his daemon like she was just like any other, but his posts would largely go ignored, and it made me feel... awful. The others would typically be ignored, too, whenever they tried to talk about theirs. As an example, if you post in The Daemon Boiling pot, no matter what you post, you'll typically get around ten or so replies. It's a good place to talk about random daemon-y stuff, as a lot of people frequent it. But I hardly ever saw a reply to them on there. It would be odd to see even one. I can only imagine they felt like they were being silently judged, brushed off in the hopes they would change to fit in, and that's no way for a community to be. That's the vibe I got. I always wanted to reply to them, but I was worried that looking associated with them would earn me the same treatment, and I am very ashamed of that.

Then the mixed-breed forms were generally seen as 'trying too hard to be cool', and would be ridiculed - this was said around the forum, even with mixed-breed people present, even if not aimed directly at them. I don't understand how that isn't breaking the rules. But some people are literally a mixed breed. My best friend is half one race, and half another - two that don't get along - and not being able to fit in with either has been a huge deal in her life, and nearly led her to suicide, because she didn't belong anywhere, and she always felt ostracized. Her daemon is a half-dog, half-wolf because of that. And I think it's extremely tone-deaf and insensitive to make fun of people for having a form that means something to them, no matter what their reason may be.

And then there's the human forms. There are members who nearly only project their daemons as humans. Interestingly, they list theirs forms as animals on their profiles - as do most of the mythical forms - probably out of forum expectation, but continue to only use human forms in daily life. These people seem to be ignored similarly to the mythical ones, but receive more than that. I've seen, again, mocking behind their backs, and in these cases, I've seen people question them rudely, act uneasy about them using a human form, make lewd implications, and send insults directly at them for having a human form. I don't understand. I will never understand what the problem is with someone using a form that works for them. I also don't understand the automatic assumption that the daemian and daemon must be having sex in that scenario - first of all, why do people have to intrude on others like that - and second, that's their business. Even if they are doing it, I can't imagine something being wrong with that. As far as I understand, most people have sexual fantasies, not to mention many people feel incredible shame and self-consciousness about sexuality, and if anything, I should think this would help them accept themselves, and boost their self-confidence for dating. But I'm getting off-topic. My point is, what other people do in their own mind has zero affect on others, and no one has the right to nose into it.

Typically, it seems like when someone joins and says their daemon has a human or humanoid form, they are immediately linked to the archive to pick an animal form. Sometimes it's clearly just members being polite, at other times, it seems like it isn't a suggestion. Very often, sadly, I've seen them be patronized, like trying to correct a five-year-old too gently. I've also seen someone say, 'well maybe that's the way they've understood the concept without really knowing it', implying that the way TDF does daemonism, is in some way, 'the one true way', and that people come to be enlightened, as you do often see people having very similar practices throughout their lives, and then change how they do things upon joining the forum, even if what they've done since childhood has worked perfectly well for them.

Which brings me to the subtle rules of the place. The unspoken rules, that you will use an animal form, that you will fit the analysis of said animal, that you will act like a canine form despite your fitting form, and so one. In my search for other daemon communities (I could find none which were active, only essays), I went to Tumblr. This was the only place I could find people posting about the topic. Some of these people are from TDF. I visited every single daemon-related blog, and found, interestingly, that the only one to have any kind of rules is TDF's Tumblr page. While on the other blogs, you find people coming to share their experiences and find out what daemonism is, on the TDF blog, you'll find people asking what they can and can't do. There is a definite 'you can only have an animal form' rule there. While the others say, 'daemons generally appear as animals, but you should use whatever fits you for personal reasons', one even said that you shouldn't use the analysis archive, because it tries too hard to force people into categories that strangers created, and that those animals may mean something different to you. Another said to outright avoid TDF for similar reasons; that the community is too controlling on who can have what form.

There is more than just that, but those unspoken, unclaimed rules are a little too close to an unofficial religion for my comfort. I tried to follow those rules for a long time, and tried to make my friends follow them, too, because that was the kind of precedent the forum set. I was a huge jerk doing that, and I regret it more than I can say. Their questions of "But why do things have to be that way? Why does it matter at all?" is what first got me questioning this. Maybe TDF is just trying to maintain order, but as they've admitted time and time again, the way they do things is absolutely nothing like in HDM anymore, and so rules seem arbitrary and unneeded to me. It seems better to let people do what they want, and to be willing to talk about all those different things.

And this leads me to discussion. It seems to be nearly impossible to get a discussion started on something that is not a popular opinion. Spiritual daemonism, as I said earlier. The ties between your religion and your daemon. Non-animal forms. And many, many more topics. Oddly, a deep, philosophical discussion is particularly hard to get going. I understand people just want to have fluffy fun, and that's great (the fun threads are the ones that by far get the most posts, after all), but when you want to delve seriously into something, despite the sheer size of the community, it seems like it's a rare day that someone steps forward and participates. Maybe it's just me, but I'm the type to really want to figure out topics like this, and while this community should be the place to go for all things daemon, I just can't get anyone to humor me.

It feels like anyone that is different from the unspoken rules is treated as weird. As I said, differing forms, non-psychological views, having more than one daemon, and so on. It's a very gloomy atmosphere to those who fall under those labels.

Now onto miscellaneous problems. There's no way I will be able to cover everything, but I'll put a few out here. Putting a trigger warning on spiders and snakes. That is not what a trigger warning is for, and that light use of the term is offensive and insensitive. This is a forum about animals - censoring some types of animals is incredibly fishy. Some animals are more equal than others, it would seem. At least one of the founders/administrators of the forum left years ago, saying none of it was ever real, and that they 'outgrew' it. That's not a very hopeful light for following members. That particular admin also set a tone of being rude and sharp to the members, if I remember correctly. Come to think of it, I haven't seen an actual admin on there for quite some time, and it makes me wonder who is really running the place - not knowing who is in charge makes me, and several others, feel very uneasy, especially given how odd some of the moderators tend to act.

I also know the vast majority of the members are young to mid teenagers - I was there once, too, I understand, but it seems like they shouldn't be the ones running the place, and it often feels like they are, as some of the moderators are a bit on the younger, inexperienced side, as well. Or maybe I'm just old and judging youth too harshly.

That is another oddity around there. I keep seeing people 'move on' from daemonism, stop talking to or projecting their daemon and leave altogether in their adulthood; thirties or so. It seems I'm one of the few older members left - though I'm not sure I'll come back ever, after this. It isn't like I've done anything other than lurk for a long time, anyway.

When I would post a daemon-related topic of interest to me, something that wasn't the usual "it's my CIEday", "here's a cute picture", "I've changed forms" and so on, I would seldom get replies. It just didn't feel like a community. It felt like there wasn't a real, deep interest in the topic. It felt like I was trying to talk through a one-way mirror, and would just get overlooked constantly, and it made me wonder why. Is it me? Did I say something wrong? Because the silent treatment is something this forum does all the time, it seems. But I wasn't the only one to post more thoughtful threads, and most of them didn't get much conversation on them, either. So maybe it was a general lack of wanting to think deeply. Maybe that's just not the forum's thing. Either way, it disappoints me, because you would think a community claiming to be a resource and encompassing things on this topic would be willing to get all up in it. But maybe it's that atmosphere, again, of feeling afraid to speak up, because you might not fit in, and then people will ignore your posts, too. I know I'm not the only one who's felt that.

And in the vein of people trying to tell others better about themselves, I've seen way too much of that geared toward plural systems. Trying to tell people what their headmates are and aren't. It was, at least at one point, to the point of prejudice.

And while some people feel as though they can't post their opinions (an administrator at least once corrected someone's 'wrong opinion', I wish I was joking), others use the fact it's their opinion to flame and hate. Again, I see too much of that. I will never get why the moderators jump on what they do and ignore those posts. It seems like they have no direction, and no one in charge to determine what needs help and what does not.

For a length of time, this forum made me hate daemonism, and I stopped interacting with my daemon for nearly a year. I've fortunately gotten past that now, and realized that it's up to me to do what I want, even if I can't have anyone to talk to about it. If anyone knows of another active community, that's more open-minded, I would love to join it.

When I started talking to my daemon again, they told me, "That community is like poison, you don't see it at first, and most people don't. But over time it slowly seeps in and makes you sicker and sicker, until you break. Unlike a toxic community, it isn't immediately obvious. But it's still there."

Unfortunately I have to agree with that. I've had quite a bit of anxiety just writing this, and just thinking about the forum makes me break into a cold sweat - again, I wish I was joking. I just want this all over with and behind me forever. And doing this was a necessary part of that. I'm sure the forum will have major backlash to this, and there will be a lot of arguing. But at this point, I don't care. I'm going to stand up and say what's been going on, and no threat of getting a slap on the wrist will stop me.

I hope it was all clear. Of course, if you want to join there, you should, and form your own opinion based on your experiences. This is just what I saw, and what happened to me. Good luck with your daemonism, and don't let anyone make you give up. I just hope the forum also doesn't give up, and makes some necessary changes to make it a healthy community. If it does, I just might come back to talk again.

#daemonism daemons thedaemonforum thedaemonpage daemians TheGoldenCompass HisDarkMaterials MyExperienceWithTheDaemonForum

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news-mashable-yahoopartner-blog · 6 years ago

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Remembering Advice Animals, one of the internet's first viral memes

It’s Viral Market Crash week on Mashable. Join us as we take stock of the viral economy and investigate how the internet morphed from a fun free-for-all to a bleak hellscape we just can’t quit.

Today's internet is an endless buffet of memes. Bountiful GIFs, viral videos, and an innumerable amount of tweets are bestowed upon us on a daily basis. But before that wide and glorious selection was available to us, there was really only one entree on the table: Advice Animals.

Remember Advice Animals? Those early internet memes like Scumbag Steve and the Overly Attached Girlfriend, that consisted of a picture and two lines of text delivering a rudimentary joke. In 2006, these guys started spreading snarky jokes, embarrassing stories, and musings. They positively dominated sites like Reddit, Tumblr, and 4Chan in the late aughts.

SEE ALSO: The Origins of the Word 'Meme'

Now, however, Advice Animals have largely fallen out of favor. It's not really surprising, given the short shelf life of a meme in the wild world of the internet these days. What's more shocking is how long Advice Animals lasted — and how they met their demise.

A brief history of Advice Animal memes

Advice Animals are a category of memes originally derived from the Advice Dog meme — hence the name, though they aren't just limited to animals.

The Advice Dog meme first appeared in 2006, according to Know Your Meme, an online database dedicated to cataloguing all internet phenomena. Advice Dog's construction is simple: a goofy dog's face was placed in the center of a bright rainbow pinwheel, and (typically) terrible advice was superimposed on the top and bottom of the image. The use of the image macro format — a general term for a captioned image — made the meme fairly easy to replicate and expand on.

Soon after Advice Dog's popularity grew, so did its spin-offs, dubbed Advice Animals.

Some of the most popular Advice Animals: Business Cat, a cat sporting a tie and offering advice fit for feline co-workers; Socially Awkward Penguin, a penguin lacking in self esteem and social graces; Scumbag Steve, a youth known for his sideways cap and flair for getting into precarious situations; and Bad Luck Brian, a braces-clad teen wearing a vest who suffers from perpetual bad luck.

(Know Your Meme has an extensive Periodic Table of Advice Animals if you want to dive deep).

In 2009, Memegenerator.net became one of the first websites to allow users to create memes with their own desired text, according to Know Your Meme, with copycat sites like Memebase and Quickmeme following.

By 2010, Reddit had become a hotspot for sharing Advice Animal memes with the addition of the r/AdviceAnimals subreddit. In 2014, the subreddit had 4.2 million subscribers and was featured prominently on Reddit’s front page, according to the Daily Dot.

And then ... people slowly lost interest.

Did Reddit kill Advice Animals?

On May 7, 2014, the r/AdviceAnimals subreddit was removed from the front page. The platform issued a statement explaining that its old defaults were determined by popularity and that the company wanted to shake things up a bit with some new subs.

Amanda Brennan, a Know Your Meme alumna and current Tumblr employee who has been dubbed the "librarian of the internet," told Mashable that Advice Animals' removal from Reddit's front page could have definitely contributed to a decline in the subreddit's reach and the memes' appeal.

"Having something removed from the Reddit front page, you lose that audience that you would get from someone who is logging into Reddit, or who may just come casually," Brennan explained.

Instead, people would have to intentionally seek out the group in order to see it.

The subreddit brought in 83.7 million page views and 8.3 million uniques one month prior to its removal from the front page. The following year those numbers went down to 29.8 million page views and 3.5 million uniques, according to a 2014 report from Kernel.

Google Trends also point to a decline in "advice animals" searches after May 2014, when r/AdviceAnimals was removed as a default subreddit.

There are a handful of things that could have encouraged Reddit to remove the Advice Animals sub from its front page.

The Quickmeme Scandal

In 2013, Advice Animals faced one of its biggest scandals — the infiltration of Quickmeme.

Quickmeme, a popular meme-generating site, was launched by brothers Wayne and Stephen Miltz in 2010, generating about $1.6 million a month, according to the Daily Dot. Quickmeme links were frequently submitted to r/AdviceAnimals, though other generator sites like memegenerator.net were submitted somewhat regularly.

By June 2011 r/AdviceAnimals began looking for a new moderator to help run the growing subreddit, and Redditor gtw08 was voted into the position. Everything seemed to be going smoothly until 2012, when fellow r/AdviceAnimals moderator ManWithoutModem started to notice that gtw08 was deleting links from Livememe.

Livememe, which debuted in 2012, was one of Quickmeme's largest competitors due to its ability to support GIFs. It struck ManWithoutModem as odd that only Quickmemes were getting upvoted while Livememe's were being deleted.

ManWithoutModem's concerns were dismissed by the other mods, but after talking to suspicious members of the subreddit in a private chat they decided to go some digging. In 2013, it was discovered that gtw08 was actually Quickmeme owner Wayne Miltz, clearly gaming the Reddit system. The Miltz brothers and Quickmeme ended up being placed on a site-wide ban.

Brennan believes that the perceived manipulation of the Reddit subculture could have created a sense of distance.

"Seeing someone try to manipulate it [the subreddit community] and being called out for manipulating it gives that hive mind a, 'Oh, I don't want to get involved with someone that's trying to manipulate our culture for their own personal gain,'" Brennan said.

Advice Animals saw an influx of bigoted content

Like many internet communities, Advice Animals fell victim to racist and bigoted comments and memes.

According to a recent r/TheoryOfReddit thread dissecting why Advice Animals have become less popular, racism was cited as a big contributing factor.

"Years ago around when the Racist Unpopular Opinion Puffin was starting to take over the sub and they were starting to build a certain reputation, Reddit expanded the default subs from 25 to 50 and dropped AA as a default," wrote u/diiejso. "It's possible that at this point new users weren't automatically seeing the sub and it started a gradual decline then."

Racist Advice Animal memes are still found on the subreddit, though the community now has strict rules against using Advice Animals (specifically the Unpopular Opinion Puffin) to make bigoted statements or remarks. The new rules were instated by its moderators July 14, 2015 and have been pinned to the top of r/AdviceAnimals for newcomers and old subscribers to see.

"We're here to have a laugh; hate speech, bigotry, and personal attacks are not allowed," state r/AdviceAnimals' rules in bold.

But with millions of subscribers it's not easy for unpaid mods to catch every crude meme or remark.

Reddit has had a longstanding struggle dealing with hate speech and controversial communities. So, it's not a surprise that a subreddit as popular as r/AdviceAnimals got tangled up with the bad side of Reddit.

Brennan explained that often times people will use use popular joke structures (like those of the Advice Animals) and language online to make racist statements to see if others agree with their ideology.

"As Advice Animals get more mainstream, more people are shown that structure of language and it's like, 'Oh people are joking about this stuff, maybe let me just test the waters and see if my ideology lands with people and then I can find my racist friends,'" Brennan said.

This can create a kind of snowball effect, gathering more and more people through the use of mainstream language and mainstream attention, according to Brennan.

We can't blame it all on Reddit

Now in 2018, the still active Advice Animals subreddit has risen to 5 million subscribers, so it seems strange and a little bizarre to hold Reddit solely accountable for the decline of Advice Animal memes.

Though, even with such a high number of subscribers the interest in Advice Animals just isn't there like it once was. Memes evolve on a daily basis, reaction GIFs became a form of communication, and Advice Animals became tired, and almost juvenile.

Now, memes tend to avoid the goofiness of their predecessors. Instead they're digestible bites of complex and surreal content, think Change My Mind meme, or the Gym Kardashian memes. They're in conversation with pop culture, current events, and nuanced human emotions in ways Advice Animals never were. The crude and sophomoric language of Advice Animals just can't compete with the offbeat and irreverent memes of today.

"It is full of low effort content that just isn't enjoyable," said namer98, in a r/TheoryOfReddit thread, a year ago.

Advice Animal memes are played out and unoriginal: the pumpkin spice latte of memes.

Brennan offers an explanation for the subreddit's continued userbase: "I think that it still has subscribers out of nostalgia, people who are maybe a little older, who really participated in the 'memey-ness' of it [the subreddit] in its heyday and don't want to unsubscribe because they still find them funny."

The likelihood of Advice Animals seeing a full resurgence is slim, according to Brennan, in large part because the technology we use to view and absorb memes has changed drastically.

"If you think back to 2012 or 2011 and the way that we spoke online and the power our phones had, it was easier to download a photo than it was to download a GIF," Brennan explained. "And now WiFi is everywhere. Our phones are faster, we can make more videos with our phones. Cameras are getting better."

Still, there's a little bit of Advice Animals to be found in all present day memes, says Brennan: "There's always iterations of Advice Animals that you can find. Like, you can find some evolved version of it [Advice Animals] no matter where you look in meme culture, because all the archetypes are there. It's all about fleshing out what you understand about these ideas of people through whatever the structure of the language is."

As far as the future of memes goes, it's unclear. But Brennan says that she knows one thing to be true: people will always use memes and their language to connect to others, in addition to connecting with themselves.

WATCH: Drake's 'In My Feelings' challenge has gotten completely out of hand

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patriotsnet · 3 years ago

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Who's Right Democrats Or Republicans

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/whos-right-democrats-or-republicans/

Who's Right Democrats Or Republicans

Views Of The Democratic And Republican Parties

Just under half of Americans have a favorable view of the Democratic Party, while a slightly larger share have an unfavorable view.

About three-quarters of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents view the GOP favorably, while 81% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents view the Democratic Party positively.

Why Are An Elephant And A Donkey The Party Symbols

The Democratic party is often associated with the colour blue and the donkey mascot.

That dates back to Democratic candidate Andrew Jackson’s 1828 presidential campaign, when opponents called him a “jackass” for his stubbornness.

Instead of taking the nickname as an insult, Jackson embraced it and used the donkey image on his election posters.

It was then quickly adopted by newspapers and political cartoonists.

The Republican’s elephant symbol came along years later.

Many believe it came about, in part, due to a widely used expression during the Civil War led by Republican president Abraham Lincoln.

Soldiers entering battle were said to be “seeing the elephant” a phrase that means learning a hard lesson, often with a profound cost.

The symbol was then popularised by political cartoonist Thomas Nast; an early rendition featured in the 1879 edition of Harper’s Weekly.

Both symbols are still largely used for political campaigns.

Democrats Tend To Have A Lot More Anger And Negativity In Their Rhetoric According To Them If You Support President Trump Well Then You Are A Racist And A Nazi

Crime And Capital Punishment

Conservative Endorsements Of Democratic Candidates

Think Republicans Are Disconnected From Reality It’s Even Worse Among Liberals

Arlie Hochschild

A new survey found Democrats live with less political diversity despite being more tolerant of it with startling results

Should the US participate in the Paris climate accord and reduce greenhouse gas emissions regardless of what other countries do? A majority of voters in both parties said yes.

Yes Dictators Sometimes Cloak Themselves In Socialism But Tyranny Here And Elsewhere Is Always Right

Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Kim Jong-Un and Donald Trump

Not only is this claim false, it is absurdly false.

This is hardly the first Big Lie from the right. Not even close. The right has been promulgating Big Lies for decades.

Yet, shockingly, many of these egregious lies actually work. They take hold. They create a false impression in the mind of the public.

Once again, this is the exact opposite of the truth. Dictatorships and fascism are right-wing, not left-wing.

Shockingly, this nonsense actually works.

Who’s Right Democrats Or Republicans

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What Does Left Mean

In politics, left refers to people and groups that have views. That generally means they support reforms, especially those seeking greater social and economic equality.

The farleft is often used for what is considered more extreme, views, such as and . Collectively, people and groups, as well as the positions they hold, are referred to as theLeft or the left wing.

Trump Supporters The Exception

Despite political rhetoric that places them at opposite ends of the spectrum, Republican and Democratic voters appear to be similarly compassionate.

Democrats view compassion as a political value while Republicans will integrate compassion into their politics when their leaders make it part of an explicit message.

There is a caveat to this: I asked these survey questions about personal feelings of compassion in a 2016 online survey that also asked about choice of president.

In their responses to the survey, a large percentage of Republican voters said they would rather vote for someone other than Trump, even though he was the unofficial nominee at that point.

But Trump supporters answers were not in line with these findings.

The research indicates that appeals to compassion if made by trusted leaders should work for voters of both parties.

Republicans And Democrats After The Civil War

Its true that many of the first Ku Klux Klan members were Democrats. Its also true that the early Democratic Party opposed civil rights. But theres more to it.

The Civil War-era GOP wasnt that into civil rights. They were more interested in punishing the South for seceding, and monopolizing the new black vote.

In any event, by the 1890s, Republicans had begun to distance themselves from civil rights.

Taking The Perspective Of Others Proved To Be Really Hard

The Democratic Party General Policy And Political Values

Left Wing And Right Wing Politics

Left-Wing

Right Wing

Democrats V Republicans On Jim Crow

Segregation and Jim Crow lasted for 100 years after the end of the Civil War.

During this time, African Americans were largely disenfranchised. There was no African-American voting bloc. Neither party pursued civil rights policies it wasnt worth their while.

Photo Credit

Democrats dominated Southern politics throughout the Jim Crow Era. Its fair to say that Democratic governors and legislatures are responsible for creating and upholding white supremacist policies.

Southern Democrats were truly awful.

Where Do Trump And Biden Stand On Key Issues

Reuters: Brian Snyder/AP: Julio Cortez

The key issues grappling the country can be broken down into five main categories: coronavirus, health care, foreign policy, immigration and criminal justice.

This year, a big focus of the election has been the coronavirus pandemic, which could be a deciding factor in how people vote, as the country’s contentious healthcare system struggles to cope.

The average healthcare costs for COVID-19 treatment is up to $US30,000 , an Americas Health Insurance Plans 2020 study has found.

Todays Republicans Really Hate Democrats And Democracy

1) Trumps supporters have embraced anti-democratic ideas

These voters, according to Blum and Parker, are hostile to bedrock democratic principles.

Is God A Democrat Or A Republican

Vice Presidents Of The United States

What Is Happening To The Republicans

In becoming the party of Trump, the G.O.P. confronts the kind of existential crisis that has destroyed American parties in the past.

Save this story for later.

Content

History Of The Republican Party

Democratic Candidate Joe Biden

Reuters: Carlos Barria

The Democrats are the liberal political party and their candidate is Joe Biden, who has run for president twice before.

A former senator for Delaware who served six terms, Biden is best known as Barack Obama’s vice-president.

He held that role for eight years, and it has helped make him a major contender for many Democrat supporters.

Earlier this year, Biden chose California Senator Kamala Harris as his vice-presidential running mate.

The 77-year-old has built his campaign on the Obama legacy, and tackling the country’s staggering health care issues.

He is known for his down-to-earth personality and his ability to connect with working-class voters. He would be the oldest first-term president in history if elected.

The Philosophy Behind Republican Economic Policy

Republicans advocate the right to pursue prosperity without government interference. They argue this is achieved by self-discipline, enterprise, saving, and investing.

Republicans business-friendly approach leads most people to believe that they are better for the economy. A closer look reveals that Democrats are, in many respects, actually better.

A Record Number Of Americans Say Democrats And Republicans Are Doing Such A Poor Job That A Third Party Is Needed Polling Shows

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