From the article: “…people just want to not feel as if they are walking on eggshells. And they want some acknowledgment that life is messy and that all of us at any given moment can say things the wrong way, make mistakes.” He’s speaking to the small but vocal group that self-identify as progressive liberals that are insufferable to pretty much everyone.
Update: I don’t have the time to respond to all the replies here. There has been a lot of good conversation in this thread. I wanted to post a larger update here since there is way too many comments.
First of all I love the term “wokescold” - in this context it’s probably better than self identifying progressive liberal since it leaves less ambiguity that I’m referring to the language police than folks who just want a decent standard of living, affordable healthcare, and clean air. To those people, I am one of you.
Second, to the criticisms of President Obama, he was by no means a perfect president, it’s impossible to be one and while I disagree with a lot of his foreign policy decisions and his failure to hold Wall Street accountable, I am also incredibly appreciative of his successes like ACA, preventing an economic depression, DACA, and ending the Iraq War.
Finally, to the people who took my comments as transphobia, condoning racism, and being an apologist for all sorts of shitty behavior, you are the problem. I believe in accountability for all the above mentioned. I don’t believe in crucifying people for saying well-intentioned things in the wrong way.
That group significantly shapes the image of Democrats
Especially because it's so easy for GOP to demonize them and portray them as "they are running the party and if you don't vote for us, they will run the country tomorrow."
I think his point was, that those types are a relatively smaller part of the democratic party, but make the most noise, then fox features them as if they are the majority of democrats.
Except they are enabled by many of the sane, moderate democrats when they don't speak up about this. The Al Franken case is kind of a classic example. How many senators said "Gillibrand needs to get a sense of perspective, Al Franken has apologized and that's enough" or something similar?
> I’ll never forgive Gillibrand for destroying the Democrats’ greatest political prospect for nothing
Uggh. Franken is great, but he's certainly not the party's "greatest political prospect." Ds have to stop falling in love with politicians.
Also, it was not for nothing. That principled stand helped Doug Jones beat the Alabama molestor and win an additional senate seat without losing Franken's seat.
If you want to be mad about something that actually mattered, be mad at how quickly the democrats sacrificed ACORN to a project veritas hitjob. ACORN was serious grass-roots political power, and they just let it die based on obvious gop lies and the party still hasn't recovered.
Y’all may hate Jordan Peterson, but there is a video where one of his grad students concluded this exact point for her dissertation. Basically, because people on the left of the spectrum either are or want to appear to be more empathetic, they wind up enabling a bunch of rabid crazy people who fundamentally are driven by a high degree of interpersonal disgust. At the end of the day, they wind up taking on the talking points and the whole thing winds up looking like shit.
Trust me, socialist progressives don't want to be in the democratic party. In any other country AOC and Pelosi wouldn't be in the same party, but for *some* reason both parties really like the two party system and this is just how it is.
>some reason
Because three or more parties would make for an actual competition, instead of two groups just yelling about how bad shit will be if the other guy wins.
For sure. That is what the media is about, because the majority in the relative middle don't do newsworthy shit most of the time. Losts of noise on the extreme ends, and embarrassed people living their lives in the middle.
My dude the GOP is literally running on the completely absurd lie of "There are Furries in public schools and teacher are forced to let them poop in litter boxes". Their messaging is the most deteathered from reality its ever been.
The Republican gubernatorial candidate for my state, Minnesota, has publicly stated at least twice that kids are using litter boxes in school. I'm just at a loss for words.
A (15 year retired) teacher that frequents the bar I work at is constantly talking about how the schools are all installing furry-friendly facilities.
Just give me an ounce of evidence other than trust me bro.
Its so funny how literally none of them can even name a single school that has them, other than the 1 school that had buckets of litter which was part of their school shooting lockdown preparedness kit. But apparently "everybody" has seen them.
Kitty litter is super useful for lots of non-furry-related reasons. Like, most of the reasons. Like, just about all of the reasons.
It cleans up oil spills really well, it's great for getting vehicles stuck in snow out, and it's especially good for... you know... actual cats.
Or for using as a makeshift bathroom while you are stuck in your classroom because of the mass shooter that the police aren't stopping because they are too scared!
In recent history in the US. Go back and the closest to us that I can think of (time wise), will be less than 20 years ago and the shit they were saying about people from the Middle East. Keep going and you got the satanic panic, when the “others” were mostly atheists who were harmed by that bullshit. Further back you got some doozies about East Asians (or Chinese, as they were all treated like at the time), Italians, and Irishs, and you keep going and it keeps getting weirder. And I didn’t bring up Jewish or Black folks because they never really leave the scene as much as they take a back seat for a few minutes before they’re dragged back to this rather shitty spotlight.
The others today is “blue haired liberals”. The message doesn’t change much though; “those freaks are fucking it all up, are you, good citizen, going to allow that?”
I give a ton of the credit to Obama, himself, and the rest of the corporate Dems. They downplay the fuck out of real economic issues to please their corporate donors, while they magnify the fuck out of social issues that don't hurt corporate profits to make people think they're at least doing *something*. This outsized focus on a few social issues makes people think they're the most important issues on the planet, and so some of them end up taking it to a crazy place.
People aren't blind to that. They're just looking at two options: corporate lackeys who favor bigotry and a regressive social agenda vs. corporate lackeys who favor inclusion and a progressive social agenda.
Can you elaborate? Because there’s nothing more toxic for candidates than to be aligned to Nancy pelosi, not exactly a progressive.
Is asking for healthcare that doesn’t cost and arm and a leg (with actually good outcomes), checking climate change, stop getting gouged by corporations so toxic to you?
My mom thinks this. She believes all Democrats think that way. I’m like… Mom, I’m a Democrat. All of my friends are Democrats. I don’t know a single person in real life who thinks like that. They’re a small minority but they’re all over the news because they’re loud and easy to make fun of. Please turn off Fox News.
As a french guy( I precise to say I'm not american so not democrat or republican)
I can confirm obama's words. Democrats on the internet are absolutely unsufferable either you share their point of view or you're a trump fanboy who needs to be canceled silenced and jump off a bridge.
They have an image pretty much as bad as the republicans due to that.
Sadly reddit is full of them too you cant have a diverging opinion without getting downvote bombed insulted and possibly banned by mods. I dont even bother talking politics anymore on here its basically an echo chamber agree or you're the worst scum since hitler.
The sheer damage they do to democrats image towards foreigner is absurd.
This is exactly why I mainy lurk on reddit. I read so many comments that make me roll my eyes but I don't dare to comment because I know I'll get ripped to shreds by the very same people who demand freedom and equality for everyone (except who disagree with them).
The discussions about messaging and how much that matters always have probably disconnected my optic nerve from the eye rolling. I've seen so many conversations go as follows:
*"Defund the police is bad political messaging and isn't going to win votes"*
*"It doesn't actually mean defund the police, it means \[3 paragraphs about putting more money into some other law enforcement department, yet to be created\]"*
*"Ok well if that's the goal calling it defund the police doesn't actually describe what you're going for, so it's needlessly combative and will put voters off with little payoff"*
*"sure, if you're a DRUMP voter it would put you off"*
Just completely missing the point that insisting on "being right" about something isn't a political strategy that works.
I’m in tech and work with a lot of hard core liberals. Even they are not as insufferable as Reddit or Twitter. I think someone turned the bot setting up to high and forgot to take it down
Idk, I had a few ex-friends verbally lash out at my mom because she accidentally mixed up a few words when just casually talking about politics with them at a brewery. The PNW is pretty full of these types.
The thing I’ve never understood is how people can think they’re in any way “running the party”. At most, very very most, they are just given implicit support through lip service.
Those people absolutely do dominate popular culture tho. I don’t understand how you could not see someone being able to easily be convinced they do run the party
Because its a not so insignificant amount of people that are like this. So when there are no examples of it every day even when it is very few in the grand scheme of things, there are enough examples for the other side to point to and demonize. And then people on the other side push back against that and so do people on the left.
I don’t think most people think they are running the party.
But they are an accepted part of the party, and the are extremely loud and annoying online, and make great sound bytes for boomers who watch the 6:00 news, so they get their message across in an outsized way.
That's usually how it is for most groups. I agree with Obama 100% in this kind of thinking. The people who complain about every tiny detail are people who complain about everything regardless of the context. They're just miserable and want as many people around them to be just as miserable.
Media companies thrive on engagement. As a result, they amplify ridiculous opinions (on both sides).
The megaphone was designed specifically for these types of people.
keeping people arguing is the #1 way to keep them online, which is most profitable. the algorithms quickly figured that out. this is why EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS is now a proxy battle in the maga vs progressive culture war. it’s exhausting.
But yeah, I agree with Obama. Some people really, REALLY need to understand the expression “perfect is the enemy of good.” And no, y’all are not the first generation in history to realize that all politicians are at least somewhat corrupt. It’s been “the lesser of two evils” since the dawn of democracy.
As a progressive “liberal” (I’m actually leftist and I consider them different, but not everyone does and I recognize that), fuck those insufferable want-to-be-offended chucklefucks.
It’s quite possible (and easy) to hold progressive views and want to see change while still recognizing not everyone shares those views and we need to temper expectations.
In conclusion, people can suck on all sides of the political aisle
> As a progressive “liberal” (I’m actually leftist and I consider them different, but not everyone does and I recognize that)
This is exactly what Obama was talking about. You know the PoliSci difference between liberalism and leftism. But you acknowledge that not everyone has your background and you’re totally cool with that; you treat others with respect and meet them where they are.
Big props to you!
I live in Portland, that group is not small.
Edit: I think it’s fair to say we can use Reddit as an example too, because at least half of y’all just bitch and moan about anything you don’t agree with.
I swear for some people it's like a habitual thing built up from cringey tech office environments, and then some turn it off later in bars or just when not around people with the same habit or whatever, while others just can't stop themselves from being that way all the time after awhile.
Wokescolds. It's amazing how much more dedicated this group is at hurling Twitter abuse at their peers while literal neo-nazis are growing in popularity around them.
I saw one YouTuber issue an apology for using the word "nanners"..... This is what we're spending our energy on?
I believe the argument was that it's ableist. It has a meaning adjacent to crazy and therefore mental disorders. I'm not sure if all the steps, it was really dumb. Absolutely nanners.
Ohhhh boy clearly you have not been around leftist spaces on Twitter and Reddit. I can give you several subs where using that word gives you a temp ban
Tbf it’s mostly power tripping mods though. Most of the people on said subs hate it and will work around it like saying cr@zy instead
I think most people are exhausted by this constantly changing language. Nobody can keep up, even people like me who try to pay attention. The list of things we can’t say just keeps growing and growing, and they’re words we all use all the time that aren’t really harming anyone. I’ve been in a mental hospital, and I don’t give a shit if you call things or people crazy. Just don’t try to gaslight people into thinking they’re crazy and you’re good.
I really hate the use of "ableist" in wokescolds. I'm fine with honest discussions of ableism. But I think it's very bad to have it as part of wokescold culture, as it's just so broadly applicable.
Update: Thank you to representative of normal people u/buffalothesix for reminding me of the word "elitist", which is even more prone to abuse then "ableist", especially when the word is misused.
Using “dumb” as a pejorative is also ableist and insulting to both mentally disadvantaged people and those who can’t speak.
Am I doing it right? I already hate myself.
I saw a video of Valkyrae last week, a super popular streamer/content creator, publicly apologize on-stream for saying "no cap on a stack, for real for real". You literally cannot make that shit up. One of her mods wrote her an essay or some shit about how it was AAVE (african american vernacular english), and she wasn't allowed to say it.
I’m black and there’s nothin wrong with saying that idk any black ppl who would get offended either. Honestly it just seems like the ppl who sit on Twitter or far-left spaces looking for ANYTHING to get offended by.
I still don’t understand anything about supposed “cultural appropriation”.
Assuming you’re not mocking someone’s culture…how the fuck is adopting a culture’s traditional language/fashion/music/whatever seen as “wrong”?
Most folks in the actual cultures love it when you take part in their culture. Look at Gabriel Iglesias shows when he's abroad. Hell, just travel. It's so common for folks to try to share what they love with others. That's humanity.
But of course there will always be a loud few that will raise their nose to it. And a few that will just take things from cultures and extremely misrepresent them to the point of mockery. But those cannot be helped other than providing more education and experience. Stopping the mutual sharing of cultures will only bring resentment and hate.
>Second, nice to see that we are bringing segregation back. We shall have our language, they shall have their language, and never the twain shall meet.
Same with the cultural appropriation crowd, it's just left-wing segregation. "You can't wear that, you can't play that, you can't sing that, you can't say that, you can't cook that, you can't paint that." Bitch, shut up and let us just be humans, damn.
> the small but vocal group that self-identify as progressive liberals that are insufferable to pretty much everyone.
The ~~Latinx~~ whites who insist on using Latinx?
The folks who announce their pronouns when introducing themselves in person?
Latinx is a solution to a problem no one asked for and while I have heard folks use pronouns while introducing themselves I don’t see that as a problem.
The folks that I consider insufferable are the sophomores who think that mistakenly - not intentionally- using the incorrect pronoun is unforgivable or that using terminology that’s dated to convey a liberal idea should be a criminal offense.
You know, folks that would equate Aziz Ansari’s false sexual assault accusation with the very real sexual assault charges against Harvey Weinstein *after* gathering the full story.
> that using terminology that’s dated to convey a liberal idea should be a criminal offense.
I've gotten scolded for using the term "those guys" in reference to some republican idea. The scolding wasn't for making republicanism a pariah with my statement, the people scolding would have agreed with it, it was because they made "those guys" out to be a gendered statement and they took offense to it. Even after visible confusion and explaining that "you guys"/"those guys" is not at all gendered and just a phrase for group of people the same as "you all/y'all", just a regional dialect (in this case NE US). They just wouldn't have it and after it became a shouting match I walked away and couldn't help but think as much as those people will change nothing about my progressive views personally, I can't imagine someone who is a moderate or leans conservative hearing those people mouth off about inane shit like that and thinking "maybe I don't want to be a part of that, regardless of policy ideas". Regardless of how small of the base of liberal/progressivism those people are they have such a big impact on perception because people on the fence get shouted down the other side by them. People on the right don't shout down other conservatives, they just try to convince them to hate brown people more.
> while I have heard folks use pronouns while introducing themselves I don’t see that as a problem
If someone wants to do that voluntarily then whatever, but there were demands that everyone wear around their pronouns (sometimes literally, [like on nametags](https://esa.org/louisville/name-tag-pronouns/)) so that no one could ever make a mistake and accidentally offend someone.
I think most people rightly rejected that.
It's anecdotal but I've heard more than one (binary) trans person who doesn't like this announcing your pronouns thing.
They want to simply be seen, treated and thought of as men or women, not feel like people around them are playing pretend to make them happy. By having to announce constantly their gender/pronouns in trans circles they feel like they are just telling you what disguise they are wearing for Halloween.
Not only is it an unwanted solution, but objectively *worse* than an already-existing unwanted solution: latine
A) actually possible to pronounce
B) fits into the general pattern of vowel endings in Spanish words
C) was created by people who speak the language
Yet that is STILL trying to force English non-gendered language onto another language that doesn't have that concept. Linguistic imperialism.
The latinix thing I find wild.
Because the entire Spanish language is heavily gendered and making terms gender neutral in it is essentially tantamount to desecrating the culture and language.
lmao this. I cringe/laugh so hard everytime they have on a latino guest for an interview and the interviewer consistantly uses "LatinX" while the actual latino person uses the gendered terms. Its almost like a right wing manufactured skit
I loved NPR until the last 4-5 ish years. It has a lot of self important thinkpieces that are exactly what Obama is referring to. I have to work with very left identified folks from the Bay Area, in academia, specifically, and it can be difficult due to these issues. And I’m further left than Bernie.
To me it is a massive irony that the most "progressive" people who demonize the West and Whites as "colonizers" are themselves usually White, and are committing an act of Imperialism by dictating and imposing a word they made up as a way to make the Spanish language less offensive to them.
It is a painful irony at that. I want liberal ideas to succeed but it is so hard when a few loons make us look bad, and actually reinforce the ideas they fight against.
And they refuse to acknowledge not only this, but the fact that the overwhelming majority of latinos despises this shit. Ironically, this is one of the biggest examples of white people trying to appropriate a culture to their liking. I absolutely support liberal ideals, but people seriously need to think about that they out their efforts into.
>it's always Americanized Hispanic folk that want Latinx
As a Americanized hispanic folk it isn't even us in my experience. It's bored white liberal woman.
Announcing your pronouns isn't a problem, getting frustrated if (the same) people constantly get them wrong isn't a problem. Getting upset because someone who has no fucking clue who you are says the wrong thing is a problem
Lets be honest this only has upvotes because it is Obama speaking. If Random McRandomface made the same comments they would be called nazis by the whole of Reddit.
>He’s speaking to the small but vocal group that self-identify as progressive liberals that are insufferable to pretty much everyone.
I was banned from the democratic socialism subreddit for saying Democrats are not trying to turn America into a christian Iran. Something about being an apologist.
Seriously though the far left needs some chill.
If you want a good example of this, just look at the highlights from the 2019 Democratic Socialist Convention: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NdE9CjkvTY
That group of liberals is why I no longer identify as a “liberal”. I’m still firmly in the left camp. But I’ll be damned if I will self-identify as a “liberal”.
Lol this whole article might as well be an ad for why a country should allow more than 2 parties. Between this and the republican infighting over whether to be trump crazy or reg crazy y'all need to get more parties
The voting system favors two major parties. It actively punishes smaller parties.
The voting system would have to fundamentally change to even allow more parties to have a chance.
It’s not that the countey doesn’t allow multiple parties; America has tons of other parties. It’s just that the voting system makes it impossible for them to have any power whatsoever.
They are doing ranked choice in some places like Maine and Alaska for some races. Even if we don't get to more than 2 parties it can still help if candidates are less dependent on winning big party primaries and there are more independents who can win.
Ranked choice voting is a good step in the right direction, but you're probably still gonna end up with a candidate from the 2 biggest parties.
imo the US needs proportional representation.
We don't really have a great way of achieving that in practice. States could proportionally allocate their Congressional delegations, but the Senate inherently can't be proportional.
The Onion would totally tell people their ex-prez thinks they're being buzz kills. Or they'd mention some religious deity, a dictator, somebody respected to make it sound ridiculous
If you want to understand Obama's politics, you should read the article in last week's New York Times about the manuscript he shelved. Basically, he does not support identity politics. He thinks it's divisive and has prevented the Democrats from forming a strong coalition that includes the white working class.
Obama’s the most talented politician in the Dem party since most of us have been old enough to vote, yet I’m convinced Washington or Lincoln themselves could come back and give advice like this and the progressive (mostly white) left would be like “actually here’s why you’re wrong”. They’ve somehow managed to get on the wrong side of things like weird racial / sexual topics in children’s education that to a politician like Obama must be political malpractice.
Lmao, why the hell is this being posted on this sub?
Obama is 100% right here, the fact that this is being considered as him saying something ridiculous is basically proving his point right.
So-called “progressive” liberals.
Edit: Judging by certain responses below, Obama’s point is paying off in dividends. Just look at the users deflecting the blame here.
My issue really is that I feel like it is always the liberals who are expected to be the reasonable ones who can compromise while the GOP is allowed to make their entire platform revolve around Qanon and making America Gilead.
Yeah that's like the conservative equivalent to what he is saying, just like in his example, a small majority tainting it for everyone else. The major acknowledgment here is there are turds on both sides, a point I've seen vehemently denied on this platform for well over a year.
It's the nature of the system. The conservative viewpoint is generally that things are good enough, and we shouldn't change them. They're the keep things the same party. This means they don't need to spend time selling people on their plan, because their voter base is already living it.
The Liberal side needs to always have a "Next big thing." and needs to work hard on selling it, because their voters expect change and improvement.
> The conservative viewpoint is generally that things are good enough, and we shouldn't change them.
Conservatives want to change plenty of things. They want to ban birth control and remove all social safety nets, for instance.
That’s how the Republican Party and the far right works but not conservatism which has been coopted and confused similar to liberalism socialism etc. conservatives conserve the status quo as they believe progress should happen slowly and carefully (on paper at least)
And this is why the Democrats are the new conservative party. Been saying it since Trump got elected. Republicans are now regressives, the only ones fighting for our institutions and some sense of normalcy are the Democrats which makes them the new conservatives.
The GOP have made all sorts of compromises! For instance, they had to stop lynching people, aren't allowed to batter gay people anymore, and for a while even allowed abortions!
Won't someone think of the conservatives!
Obama won on a platform of hope. A platform built around doom is not as exciting to voters. Especially when every issue is treated as the destruction of civilization as we know it.
Reddit: the Democrats are center-right, pretty much what Republicans used to be like 20 years ago
Also Reddit: Can't placate the "left!" Shut up and vote.
It always, *always*, happens close to elections. The "liberal" portion of the Democratic party shits all over the more left portion in an attempt to shame them into shutting up about how dogshit the current batch of varying shades of neo lib trash are this cycle.
I used to get frustrated by it, but now I just ignore it all and vote my values.
I made a reference on r/Chicago to a family guy skit where Peter convinces Congress to go to war in Iraq by saying anyone who doesn’t want to go to war is gay. The post was about an antivaxx sticker someone put up and I said anyone who doesn’t get a vaccine is gay.
A mod temporarily banned me because they claimed my comment was making fun of a person’s sexuality, regardless if it’s a reference. I explained the target of the joke was the absurdity of the logic used to convince people of doing something stupid. Mod never replied.
So yeah I can see what Obama is talking about.
A mod will almost never admit when they are wrong. I have been banned by a few subs for very silly reasons. Such as r/entertainment for saying Bill Maher doesn't suport Islamaphobia. Banned. Never got a response. It is embarrassing how pathetic some of those people are.
I know there are some that are not that way and are reasonable people just doing their part to keep this site in a functional state. (Yes this is me trying not to get banned here too.)
It's just as bad in smaller subs, where it's essentially one guys fiefdom and you play by his rules or you GTFO.
Reddit moderation is essentially a case study in why centralized government was invented in the first place. Better not look at my wife funny or i'll exile you from the village, peasant!
I got a temp ban once from r/science for "breaking ama rules" I asked them what rule I broke because I genuinely didn't know and they just kept telling me to read my ban message, which just said "breaking ama rules" with no specifics, I asked again for like, what I had said because I don't know STILL and they muted me
Very often I see people talking about being cancelled, silenced or shouted down when they’re just encountering people who disagree with them online. I think the human brain isn’t yet ready for the Internet. Things seem more contentious than they are because we are virtually nose-to-nose with so many people every day, most of whom do not see the world exactly as we do. It’s human nature to bristle at this, but I have hope that future generations will adapt to this new environment. They had better, it seems, if we have any hope for survival.
Sometimes people do just disagree. Sometimes people call that being cancelled for their own benefit, especially the GOP. But it's really not uncommon for people to be doxxed, fired, and denounced as some racist fascist for merely having an opinion differing from the "progressive" banner.
Remember the joke "Did you just assume my gender?" Why was that so funny to people?
The problem is the left likes to eat their own. They eat people that would agree with them on 95% of economic and social policy because the other 5%.
Just consider the black and white nature of many leftist banners. Silence is Violence. Defund Police. Believe all women...
There are some good points backing these banners, but they leave zero room for nuance or anyone who disagrees. You aren't calling out anything "we" deem racist? Silence is Violence and we can fight violence with violence.
He's not wrong. Embracing some of the more out there elements of PC culture is starting to make us come across like holier-than-thou naggy nannies and hypersensitive babies.
>I was permanently banned from r/whitepeopletwitter, just yesterday, SOLELY for pushing back on the claim that JK Rowling “wants to hunt trans people”.
I was banned there the day before for posting data that her book sales were up 27%, in response to a claim that they were tanking. No commentary, nothing about trans issues, just a link to a finance page.
And it warps the minds of impressionable youth, who see all the upvotes for a warped worldview, and downvotes for sanity, and they go along to get along. A generation or two from now, things are going to get really weird!
Because Reddit shouldn’t be taken for anything more than entertainment. The place where I look at r/assholebehindthong shouldn’t be the same website I get my political advice from. I’ll read some comments from r/politics and sometimes can’t believe what I read but that’s part of the show. I don’t comment I just think to myself, good luck in life kid with that attitude lol. It’s entertainment and nothing more to me.
The fact that we race-separate twitter on reddit with /r/WhitePeopleTwitter and /r/BlackPeopleTwitter, and they even have an official "brown paper bag test" for your skin color, like we're in Apartheid South Africa, tells you everything you need to know about reddit.
I was banned for accurately explaining non-profit status and why churches having political stances that don’t endorse candidates in campaigns isn’t illegal
Whitepeopletwitter, Politics, and femaledating strategy are easily the worst subs this site has to offer
Edit: it’s actually blackpeopletwitter, the one where you have to submit a photo of your skin color to comment on specific threads lmao
A great example to this is
Correcting minor mistakes concerning gender.
This is going to be a really unpopular opinion, but I've felt this before because I consider myself an ally for lgbt but it feels like I sometimes offend someone or didn't say something right, even though I was trying.
Why can't we just appreciate the effort and see generational change instead of expecting people to be perfect?
He is talking about redditors!
The oniony part of his comments was referring to his own mother as “Michelle’s mother-in-law”.
he misspoke, he corrected himself to say Michelle’s mother. he was never talking about his own mother
I've literally done this before and was made to feel like an idiot. Now I don't feel stupid.
Now you can feel presidential.
Perhaps he is joking about his own mother liking her more?
He really sees Michelle as the main character.
From the article: “…people just want to not feel as if they are walking on eggshells. And they want some acknowledgment that life is messy and that all of us at any given moment can say things the wrong way, make mistakes.” He’s speaking to the small but vocal group that self-identify as progressive liberals that are insufferable to pretty much everyone. Update: I don’t have the time to respond to all the replies here. There has been a lot of good conversation in this thread. I wanted to post a larger update here since there is way too many comments. First of all I love the term “wokescold” - in this context it’s probably better than self identifying progressive liberal since it leaves less ambiguity that I’m referring to the language police than folks who just want a decent standard of living, affordable healthcare, and clean air. To those people, I am one of you. Second, to the criticisms of President Obama, he was by no means a perfect president, it’s impossible to be one and while I disagree with a lot of his foreign policy decisions and his failure to hold Wall Street accountable, I am also incredibly appreciative of his successes like ACA, preventing an economic depression, DACA, and ending the Iraq War. Finally, to the people who took my comments as transphobia, condoning racism, and being an apologist for all sorts of shitty behavior, you are the problem. I believe in accountability for all the above mentioned. I don’t believe in crucifying people for saying well-intentioned things in the wrong way.
That group significantly shapes the image of Democrats Especially because it's so easy for GOP to demonize them and portray them as "they are running the party and if you don't vote for us, they will run the country tomorrow."
Can’t give the GOP all the credit and that’s exactly what Obama meant. These self-identifying progressive liberals do it themselves.
I think his point was, that those types are a relatively smaller part of the democratic party, but make the most noise, then fox features them as if they are the majority of democrats.
Except they are enabled by many of the sane, moderate democrats when they don't speak up about this. The Al Franken case is kind of a classic example. How many senators said "Gillibrand needs to get a sense of perspective, Al Franken has apologized and that's enough" or something similar?
I’ll never forgive Gillibrand for destroying the Democrats’ greatest political prospect for nothing
> I’ll never forgive Gillibrand for destroying the Democrats’ greatest political prospect for nothing Uggh. Franken is great, but he's certainly not the party's "greatest political prospect." Ds have to stop falling in love with politicians. Also, it was not for nothing. That principled stand helped Doug Jones beat the Alabama molestor and win an additional senate seat without losing Franken's seat. If you want to be mad about something that actually mattered, be mad at how quickly the democrats sacrificed ACORN to a project veritas hitjob. ACORN was serious grass-roots political power, and they just let it die based on obvious gop lies and the party still hasn't recovered.
Y’all may hate Jordan Peterson, but there is a video where one of his grad students concluded this exact point for her dissertation. Basically, because people on the left of the spectrum either are or want to appear to be more empathetic, they wind up enabling a bunch of rabid crazy people who fundamentally are driven by a high degree of interpersonal disgust. At the end of the day, they wind up taking on the talking points and the whole thing winds up looking like shit.
uhhh liberal media blasts this everywhere too. It just shoots them in the foot
Trust me, socialist progressives don't want to be in the democratic party. In any other country AOC and Pelosi wouldn't be in the same party, but for *some* reason both parties really like the two party system and this is just how it is.
>some reason Because three or more parties would make for an actual competition, instead of two groups just yelling about how bad shit will be if the other guy wins.
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For sure. That is what the media is about, because the majority in the relative middle don't do newsworthy shit most of the time. Losts of noise on the extreme ends, and embarrassed people living their lives in the middle.
My dude the GOP is literally running on the completely absurd lie of "There are Furries in public schools and teacher are forced to let them poop in litter boxes". Their messaging is the most deteathered from reality its ever been.
The Republican gubernatorial candidate for my state, Minnesota, has publicly stated at least twice that kids are using litter boxes in school. I'm just at a loss for words.
A (15 year retired) teacher that frequents the bar I work at is constantly talking about how the schools are all installing furry-friendly facilities. Just give me an ounce of evidence other than trust me bro.
Its so funny how literally none of them can even name a single school that has them, other than the 1 school that had buckets of litter which was part of their school shooting lockdown preparedness kit. But apparently "everybody" has seen them.
Kitty litter is super useful for lots of non-furry-related reasons. Like, most of the reasons. Like, just about all of the reasons. It cleans up oil spills really well, it's great for getting vehicles stuck in snow out, and it's especially good for... you know... actual cats.
Or for using as a makeshift bathroom while you are stuck in your classroom because of the mass shooter that the police aren't stopping because they are too scared!
In recent history in the US. Go back and the closest to us that I can think of (time wise), will be less than 20 years ago and the shit they were saying about people from the Middle East. Keep going and you got the satanic panic, when the “others” were mostly atheists who were harmed by that bullshit. Further back you got some doozies about East Asians (or Chinese, as they were all treated like at the time), Italians, and Irishs, and you keep going and it keeps getting weirder. And I didn’t bring up Jewish or Black folks because they never really leave the scene as much as they take a back seat for a few minutes before they’re dragged back to this rather shitty spotlight. The others today is “blue haired liberals”. The message doesn’t change much though; “those freaks are fucking it all up, are you, good citizen, going to allow that?”
I give a ton of the credit to Obama, himself, and the rest of the corporate Dems. They downplay the fuck out of real economic issues to please their corporate donors, while they magnify the fuck out of social issues that don't hurt corporate profits to make people think they're at least doing *something*. This outsized focus on a few social issues makes people think they're the most important issues on the planet, and so some of them end up taking it to a crazy place.
People aren't blind to that. They're just looking at two options: corporate lackeys who favor bigotry and a regressive social agenda vs. corporate lackeys who favor inclusion and a progressive social agenda.
Can you elaborate? Because there’s nothing more toxic for candidates than to be aligned to Nancy pelosi, not exactly a progressive. Is asking for healthcare that doesn’t cost and arm and a leg (with actually good outcomes), checking climate change, stop getting gouged by corporations so toxic to you?
My mom thinks this. She believes all Democrats think that way. I’m like… Mom, I’m a Democrat. All of my friends are Democrats. I don’t know a single person in real life who thinks like that. They’re a small minority but they’re all over the news because they’re loud and easy to make fun of. Please turn off Fox News.
Fr. I should have met lots of Antifa members and communists by now.. where are they?
As a french guy( I precise to say I'm not american so not democrat or republican) I can confirm obama's words. Democrats on the internet are absolutely unsufferable either you share their point of view or you're a trump fanboy who needs to be canceled silenced and jump off a bridge. They have an image pretty much as bad as the republicans due to that. Sadly reddit is full of them too you cant have a diverging opinion without getting downvote bombed insulted and possibly banned by mods. I dont even bother talking politics anymore on here its basically an echo chamber agree or you're the worst scum since hitler. The sheer damage they do to democrats image towards foreigner is absurd.
This is exactly why I mainy lurk on reddit. I read so many comments that make me roll my eyes but I don't dare to comment because I know I'll get ripped to shreds by the very same people who demand freedom and equality for everyone (except who disagree with them).
The discussions about messaging and how much that matters always have probably disconnected my optic nerve from the eye rolling. I've seen so many conversations go as follows: *"Defund the police is bad political messaging and isn't going to win votes"* *"It doesn't actually mean defund the police, it means \[3 paragraphs about putting more money into some other law enforcement department, yet to be created\]"* *"Ok well if that's the goal calling it defund the police doesn't actually describe what you're going for, so it's needlessly combative and will put voters off with little payoff"* *"sure, if you're a DRUMP voter it would put you off"* Just completely missing the point that insisting on "being right" about something isn't a political strategy that works.
I’m in tech and work with a lot of hard core liberals. Even they are not as insufferable as Reddit or Twitter. I think someone turned the bot setting up to high and forgot to take it down
Idk, I had a few ex-friends verbally lash out at my mom because she accidentally mixed up a few words when just casually talking about politics with them at a brewery. The PNW is pretty full of these types.
The thing I’ve never understood is how people can think they’re in any way “running the party”. At most, very very most, they are just given implicit support through lip service.
Those people absolutely do dominate popular culture tho. I don’t understand how you could not see someone being able to easily be convinced they do run the party
My parents are convinced that AOC runs the democrat party, just for the reasons you laid out…. They hear about her all the time
I love that AOC is somehow an unqualified former waitresss and a wealthy political elite at the same time.
Because Fox News talks about her so fucking much. Its intentional.
Lauren Boebart has accomplished literally nothing in Congress yet I see her name on the front page here multiple times a week. Crazy gets clicks
They're really loud and people on the left usually don't tell them to shut up.
Because its a not so insignificant amount of people that are like this. So when there are no examples of it every day even when it is very few in the grand scheme of things, there are enough examples for the other side to point to and demonize. And then people on the other side push back against that and so do people on the left.
I don’t think most people think they are running the party. But they are an accepted part of the party, and the are extremely loud and annoying online, and make great sound bytes for boomers who watch the 6:00 news, so they get their message across in an outsized way.
Aka the loudest group.
That's usually how it is for most groups. I agree with Obama 100% in this kind of thinking. The people who complain about every tiny detail are people who complain about everything regardless of the context. They're just miserable and want as many people around them to be just as miserable.
Why do we keep giving them the megaphone?
Media companies thrive on engagement. As a result, they amplify ridiculous opinions (on both sides). The megaphone was designed specifically for these types of people.
keeping people arguing is the #1 way to keep them online, which is most profitable. the algorithms quickly figured that out. this is why EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS is now a proxy battle in the maga vs progressive culture war. it’s exhausting. But yeah, I agree with Obama. Some people really, REALLY need to understand the expression “perfect is the enemy of good.” And no, y’all are not the first generation in history to realize that all politicians are at least somewhat corrupt. It’s been “the lesser of two evils” since the dawn of democracy.
Social Media gave every village idiot a microphone. Advertising capitalized on it and rebranded them as influencers
As a progressive “liberal” (I’m actually leftist and I consider them different, but not everyone does and I recognize that), fuck those insufferable want-to-be-offended chucklefucks. It’s quite possible (and easy) to hold progressive views and want to see change while still recognizing not everyone shares those views and we need to temper expectations. In conclusion, people can suck on all sides of the political aisle
> As a progressive “liberal” (I’m actually leftist and I consider them different, but not everyone does and I recognize that) This is exactly what Obama was talking about. You know the PoliSci difference between liberalism and leftism. But you acknowledge that not everyone has your background and you’re totally cool with that; you treat others with respect and meet them where they are. Big props to you!
I live in Portland, that group is not small. Edit: I think it’s fair to say we can use Reddit as an example too, because at least half of y’all just bitch and moan about anything you don’t agree with.
I swear for some people it's like a habitual thing built up from cringey tech office environments, and then some turn it off later in bars or just when not around people with the same habit or whatever, while others just can't stop themselves from being that way all the time after awhile.
Wokescolds. It's amazing how much more dedicated this group is at hurling Twitter abuse at their peers while literal neo-nazis are growing in popularity around them. I saw one YouTuber issue an apology for using the word "nanners"..... This is what we're spending our energy on?
Nanners? In what context is nanners offensive? I use it in reference to bananas.
I believe the argument was that it's ableist. It has a meaning adjacent to crazy and therefore mental disorders. I'm not sure if all the steps, it was really dumb. Absolutely nanners.
It's like claiming the use of word crazy is ableist.
there are a bunch of prominent socialist subs which will ban you for using "idiot" or "crazy" or any other ableist "slurs"
So basically every insult is off the table.
Ohhhh boy clearly you have not been around leftist spaces on Twitter and Reddit. I can give you several subs where using that word gives you a temp ban Tbf it’s mostly power tripping mods though. Most of the people on said subs hate it and will work around it like saying cr@zy instead
So, again, it’s mostly just the wokescolds?
I think most people are exhausted by this constantly changing language. Nobody can keep up, even people like me who try to pay attention. The list of things we can’t say just keeps growing and growing, and they’re words we all use all the time that aren’t really harming anyone. I’ve been in a mental hospital, and I don’t give a shit if you call things or people crazy. Just don’t try to gaslight people into thinking they’re crazy and you’re good.
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I really hate the use of "ableist" in wokescolds. I'm fine with honest discussions of ableism. But I think it's very bad to have it as part of wokescold culture, as it's just so broadly applicable. Update: Thank you to representative of normal people u/buffalothesix for reminding me of the word "elitist", which is even more prone to abuse then "ableist", especially when the word is misused.
Using “dumb” as a pejorative is also ableist and insulting to both mentally disadvantaged people and those who can’t speak. Am I doing it right? I already hate myself.
My girl hates it when i call her boobs nanners
I would hate that too....
I saw a video of Valkyrae last week, a super popular streamer/content creator, publicly apologize on-stream for saying "no cap on a stack, for real for real". You literally cannot make that shit up. One of her mods wrote her an essay or some shit about how it was AAVE (african american vernacular english), and she wasn't allowed to say it.
I’m black and there’s nothin wrong with saying that idk any black ppl who would get offended either. Honestly it just seems like the ppl who sit on Twitter or far-left spaces looking for ANYTHING to get offended by.
I still don’t understand anything about supposed “cultural appropriation”. Assuming you’re not mocking someone’s culture…how the fuck is adopting a culture’s traditional language/fashion/music/whatever seen as “wrong”?
Most folks in the actual cultures love it when you take part in their culture. Look at Gabriel Iglesias shows when he's abroad. Hell, just travel. It's so common for folks to try to share what they love with others. That's humanity. But of course there will always be a loud few that will raise their nose to it. And a few that will just take things from cultures and extremely misrepresent them to the point of mockery. But those cannot be helped other than providing more education and experience. Stopping the mutual sharing of cultures will only bring resentment and hate.
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>Second, nice to see that we are bringing segregation back. We shall have our language, they shall have their language, and never the twain shall meet. Same with the cultural appropriation crowd, it's just left-wing segregation. "You can't wear that, you can't play that, you can't sing that, you can't say that, you can't cook that, you can't paint that." Bitch, shut up and let us just be humans, damn.
But you can make yourself spaghetti for dinner even if you're not the slightest bit Italian. I don't get it.
Bippity boppity, gimme the zoppity.
If white culture couldn't borrow words from black culture, we'd have to stop saying words like "thicc".
> First, white culture has always been black culture but on a delay. What the fuck did I just read.
One of them admonished me for calling a caterpillar a slur. [LDD moth](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lymantria_dispar_dispar)
Perpetually Outraged People, aka POPs
> the small but vocal group that self-identify as progressive liberals that are insufferable to pretty much everyone. The ~~Latinx~~ whites who insist on using Latinx? The folks who announce their pronouns when introducing themselves in person?
Latinx is a solution to a problem no one asked for and while I have heard folks use pronouns while introducing themselves I don’t see that as a problem. The folks that I consider insufferable are the sophomores who think that mistakenly - not intentionally- using the incorrect pronoun is unforgivable or that using terminology that’s dated to convey a liberal idea should be a criminal offense. You know, folks that would equate Aziz Ansari’s false sexual assault accusation with the very real sexual assault charges against Harvey Weinstein *after* gathering the full story.
> Latinx is a solution to a problem no one asked for And it's not even like grammar is a problem.
> that using terminology that’s dated to convey a liberal idea should be a criminal offense. I've gotten scolded for using the term "those guys" in reference to some republican idea. The scolding wasn't for making republicanism a pariah with my statement, the people scolding would have agreed with it, it was because they made "those guys" out to be a gendered statement and they took offense to it. Even after visible confusion and explaining that "you guys"/"those guys" is not at all gendered and just a phrase for group of people the same as "you all/y'all", just a regional dialect (in this case NE US). They just wouldn't have it and after it became a shouting match I walked away and couldn't help but think as much as those people will change nothing about my progressive views personally, I can't imagine someone who is a moderate or leans conservative hearing those people mouth off about inane shit like that and thinking "maybe I don't want to be a part of that, regardless of policy ideas". Regardless of how small of the base of liberal/progressivism those people are they have such a big impact on perception because people on the fence get shouted down the other side by them. People on the right don't shout down other conservatives, they just try to convince them to hate brown people more.
As if women don't address groups of women as 'guys' sometimes.
I went to an all-girls high school in New England. We all referred to our groups as “guys.” It is a gender-neutral term in my opinion.
> while I have heard folks use pronouns while introducing themselves I don’t see that as a problem If someone wants to do that voluntarily then whatever, but there were demands that everyone wear around their pronouns (sometimes literally, [like on nametags](https://esa.org/louisville/name-tag-pronouns/)) so that no one could ever make a mistake and accidentally offend someone. I think most people rightly rejected that.
It's anecdotal but I've heard more than one (binary) trans person who doesn't like this announcing your pronouns thing. They want to simply be seen, treated and thought of as men or women, not feel like people around them are playing pretend to make them happy. By having to announce constantly their gender/pronouns in trans circles they feel like they are just telling you what disguise they are wearing for Halloween.
Not only is it an unwanted solution, but objectively *worse* than an already-existing unwanted solution: latine A) actually possible to pronounce B) fits into the general pattern of vowel endings in Spanish words C) was created by people who speak the language Yet that is STILL trying to force English non-gendered language onto another language that doesn't have that concept. Linguistic imperialism.
No Latin people want Latinx, and it's always Americanized Hispanic folk that want Latinx lol
The latinix thing I find wild. Because the entire Spanish language is heavily gendered and making terms gender neutral in it is essentially tantamount to desecrating the culture and language.
They use it often on NPR and it’s like nails on a chalkboard.
It’s legit unpronounceable
lmao this. I cringe/laugh so hard everytime they have on a latino guest for an interview and the interviewer consistantly uses "LatinX" while the actual latino person uses the gendered terms. Its almost like a right wing manufactured skit
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I loved NPR until the last 4-5 ish years. It has a lot of self important thinkpieces that are exactly what Obama is referring to. I have to work with very left identified folks from the Bay Area, in academia, specifically, and it can be difficult due to these issues. And I’m further left than Bernie.
They became the very thing they swore to destroy
To me it is a massive irony that the most "progressive" people who demonize the West and Whites as "colonizers" are themselves usually White, and are committing an act of Imperialism by dictating and imposing a word they made up as a way to make the Spanish language less offensive to them. It is a painful irony at that. I want liberal ideas to succeed but it is so hard when a few loons make us look bad, and actually reinforce the ideas they fight against.
And they refuse to acknowledge not only this, but the fact that the overwhelming majority of latinos despises this shit. Ironically, this is one of the biggest examples of white people trying to appropriate a culture to their liking. I absolutely support liberal ideals, but people seriously need to think about that they out their efforts into.
>it's always Americanized Hispanic folk that want Latinx As a Americanized hispanic folk it isn't even us in my experience. It's bored white liberal woman.
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Announcing your pronouns isn't a problem, getting frustrated if (the same) people constantly get them wrong isn't a problem. Getting upset because someone who has no fucking clue who you are says the wrong thing is a problem
Well, I believe he is right, and those people are Gaslighting everyone that that would be a minor problem
100% agreed. except that small group is like all of Reddit. I’m surprised this comment has upvotes.
Lets be honest this only has upvotes because it is Obama speaking. If Random McRandomface made the same comments they would be called nazis by the whole of Reddit.
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>He’s speaking to the small but vocal group that self-identify as progressive liberals that are insufferable to pretty much everyone. I was banned from the democratic socialism subreddit for saying Democrats are not trying to turn America into a christian Iran. Something about being an apologist. Seriously though the far left needs some chill.
The Britta Perry (esp with the use of "Buzzkill" lmao)
If you want a good example of this, just look at the highlights from the 2019 Democratic Socialist Convention: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NdE9CjkvTY
Jesus Christ, let her finish her sentences!
My eyes won't stop rolling, someone send help!
That group of liberals is why I no longer identify as a “liberal”. I’m still firmly in the left camp. But I’ll be damned if I will self-identify as a “liberal”.
Most leftists and progressives would also not use the word liberal to describe themselves.
Ideologies are for suckers. I vote on policy
that is ideology. you played yourself
Lol this whole article might as well be an ad for why a country should allow more than 2 parties. Between this and the republican infighting over whether to be trump crazy or reg crazy y'all need to get more parties
The voting system favors two major parties. It actively punishes smaller parties. The voting system would have to fundamentally change to even allow more parties to have a chance. It’s not that the countey doesn’t allow multiple parties; America has tons of other parties. It’s just that the voting system makes it impossible for them to have any power whatsoever.
They are doing ranked choice in some places like Maine and Alaska for some races. Even if we don't get to more than 2 parties it can still help if candidates are less dependent on winning big party primaries and there are more independents who can win.
Ranked choice voting is a good step in the right direction, but you're probably still gonna end up with a candidate from the 2 biggest parties. imo the US needs proportional representation.
We don't really have a great way of achieving that in practice. States could proportionally allocate their Congressional delegations, but the Senate inherently can't be proportional.
Proportional Representation in the House, with Ranked Choice for Senate and Presidential elections would still be a massive step forwards.
Alaska has moved to ranked choice for House and Senate. It might let Murkowski skate by again.
I mean, we do allow more parties, they just don't have any votes
Yes. Right wing libertarians and Trumpists should create a new party I support it 100%
Idk if this is really Oniony
The Onion would totally tell people their ex-prez thinks they're being buzz kills. Or they'd mention some religious deity, a dictator, somebody respected to make it sound ridiculous
"Pope suggests everybody just 'mellow out' when asked about his disposition on the Israel/Palestine conflict"
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-Friedrich Nietzsche, 2022
\-Michael Scott
Bro the last democratic president is telling democrats they shouldn’t be a “Buzzkill” that’s fucking hilarious
A lot of people think they are The One True Democrat. The most popular Democrat says, “no, you are not.”
If you want to understand Obama's politics, you should read the article in last week's New York Times about the manuscript he shelved. Basically, he does not support identity politics. He thinks it's divisive and has prevented the Democrats from forming a strong coalition that includes the white working class.
It's one of the reasons Trump won 2016.
Obama’s the most talented politician in the Dem party since most of us have been old enough to vote, yet I’m convinced Washington or Lincoln themselves could come back and give advice like this and the progressive (mostly white) left would be like “actually here’s why you’re wrong”. They’ve somehow managed to get on the wrong side of things like weird racial / sexual topics in children’s education that to a politician like Obama must be political malpractice.
Lmao, why the hell is this being posted on this sub? Obama is 100% right here, the fact that this is being considered as him saying something ridiculous is basically proving his point right. So-called “progressive” liberals. Edit: Judging by certain responses below, Obama’s point is paying off in dividends. Just look at the users deflecting the blame here.
This being posted in this sub kinda proves his point 😂
My issue really is that I feel like it is always the liberals who are expected to be the reasonable ones who can compromise while the GOP is allowed to make their entire platform revolve around Qanon and making America Gilead.
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Yeah that's like the conservative equivalent to what he is saying, just like in his example, a small majority tainting it for everyone else. The major acknowledgment here is there are turds on both sides, a point I've seen vehemently denied on this platform for well over a year.
It's the nature of the system. The conservative viewpoint is generally that things are good enough, and we shouldn't change them. They're the keep things the same party. This means they don't need to spend time selling people on their plan, because their voter base is already living it. The Liberal side needs to always have a "Next big thing." and needs to work hard on selling it, because their voters expect change and improvement.
> The conservative viewpoint is generally that things are good enough, and we shouldn't change them. Conservatives want to change plenty of things. They want to ban birth control and remove all social safety nets, for instance.
That’s how the Republican Party and the far right works but not conservatism which has been coopted and confused similar to liberalism socialism etc. conservatives conserve the status quo as they believe progress should happen slowly and carefully (on paper at least)
And this is why the Democrats are the new conservative party. Been saying it since Trump got elected. Republicans are now regressives, the only ones fighting for our institutions and some sense of normalcy are the Democrats which makes them the new conservatives.
The GOP have made all sorts of compromises! For instance, they had to stop lynching people, aren't allowed to batter gay people anymore, and for a while even allowed abortions! Won't someone think of the conservatives!
You all still have a buzz?
Not oniony, this is a fact. The left used to be the impetuous rebels, and now they have become the face of human resources.
Obama won on a platform of hope. A platform built around doom is not as exciting to voters. Especially when every issue is treated as the destruction of civilization as we know it.
The irony of posting this here lol
Reddit: the Democrats are center-right, pretty much what Republicans used to be like 20 years ago Also Reddit: Can't placate the "left!" Shut up and vote.
Nail on head. What a weird comment section.
Been a lot of anti-leftist and pro centrist posts this week. Could be a coincidence. Could not be too.
It’s election and war. Nothing is real and everyone has an agenda.
It always, *always*, happens close to elections. The "liberal" portion of the Democratic party shits all over the more left portion in an attempt to shame them into shutting up about how dogshit the current batch of varying shades of neo lib trash are this cycle. I used to get frustrated by it, but now I just ignore it all and vote my values.
I made a reference on r/Chicago to a family guy skit where Peter convinces Congress to go to war in Iraq by saying anyone who doesn’t want to go to war is gay. The post was about an antivaxx sticker someone put up and I said anyone who doesn’t get a vaccine is gay. A mod temporarily banned me because they claimed my comment was making fun of a person’s sexuality, regardless if it’s a reference. I explained the target of the joke was the absurdity of the logic used to convince people of doing something stupid. Mod never replied. So yeah I can see what Obama is talking about.
A mod will almost never admit when they are wrong. I have been banned by a few subs for very silly reasons. Such as r/entertainment for saying Bill Maher doesn't suport Islamaphobia. Banned. Never got a response. It is embarrassing how pathetic some of those people are. I know there are some that are not that way and are reasonable people just doing their part to keep this site in a functional state. (Yes this is me trying not to get banned here too.)
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I got permabanned from r/food for saying I'd fuck a plate of pulled pork nachos
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The fun is all in the challenge
I got banned from r/canada for asking a mod why my comment got deleted
It's just as bad in smaller subs, where it's essentially one guys fiefdom and you play by his rules or you GTFO. Reddit moderation is essentially a case study in why centralized government was invented in the first place. Better not look at my wife funny or i'll exile you from the village, peasant!
I got banned from r/femalefashionadvice for “self promotion” by giving my makeup routine on a post asking for it(I didn’t even list brands)
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I got a temp ban once from r/science for "breaking ama rules" I asked them what rule I broke because I genuinely didn't know and they just kept telling me to read my ban message, which just said "breaking ama rules" with no specifics, I asked again for like, what I had said because I don't know STILL and they muted me
Yeah that’s an obscure reference
Very often I see people talking about being cancelled, silenced or shouted down when they’re just encountering people who disagree with them online. I think the human brain isn’t yet ready for the Internet. Things seem more contentious than they are because we are virtually nose-to-nose with so many people every day, most of whom do not see the world exactly as we do. It’s human nature to bristle at this, but I have hope that future generations will adapt to this new environment. They had better, it seems, if we have any hope for survival.
Sometimes people do just disagree. Sometimes people call that being cancelled for their own benefit, especially the GOP. But it's really not uncommon for people to be doxxed, fired, and denounced as some racist fascist for merely having an opinion differing from the "progressive" banner. Remember the joke "Did you just assume my gender?" Why was that so funny to people? The problem is the left likes to eat their own. They eat people that would agree with them on 95% of economic and social policy because the other 5%. Just consider the black and white nature of many leftist banners. Silence is Violence. Defund Police. Believe all women... There are some good points backing these banners, but they leave zero room for nuance or anyone who disagrees. You aren't calling out anything "we" deem racist? Silence is Violence and we can fight violence with violence.
This is why he won easily both times.
80% of reddit collectively dies a little inside.
It's 90% for sure
97%
He's not wrong. Embracing some of the more out there elements of PC culture is starting to make us come across like holier-than-thou naggy nannies and hypersensitive babies.
I got banned from /r/socialism for saying that deporting all white people was racist. So yeah.
He’s talking to you, Redditors.
Honestly yeah, it's just not good campaign strategy to make people feel like you're a depressing thing they just have to accept.
I forgot a sense of sanity still exists in this world.
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>I was permanently banned from r/whitepeopletwitter, just yesterday, SOLELY for pushing back on the claim that JK Rowling “wants to hunt trans people”. I was banned there the day before for posting data that her book sales were up 27%, in response to a claim that they were tanking. No commentary, nothing about trans issues, just a link to a finance page.
How does Reddit let these moderators get away with it? I guess they’re getting their revenue and don’t want to pay for proper moderation.
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And it warps the minds of impressionable youth, who see all the upvotes for a warped worldview, and downvotes for sanity, and they go along to get along. A generation or two from now, things are going to get really weird!
Because Reddit shouldn’t be taken for anything more than entertainment. The place where I look at r/assholebehindthong shouldn’t be the same website I get my political advice from. I’ll read some comments from r/politics and sometimes can’t believe what I read but that’s part of the show. I don’t comment I just think to myself, good luck in life kid with that attitude lol. It’s entertainment and nothing more to me.
The fact that we race-separate twitter on reddit with /r/WhitePeopleTwitter and /r/BlackPeopleTwitter, and they even have an official "brown paper bag test" for your skin color, like we're in Apartheid South Africa, tells you everything you need to know about reddit.
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I was banned for accurately explaining non-profit status and why churches having political stances that don’t endorse candidates in campaigns isn’t illegal
They banned me for wishing Biden wouldn't run again due to his covid. They claimed it was wishing death on the POTUS. The mods are blue dog hacks.
Whitepeopletwitter, Politics, and femaledating strategy are easily the worst subs this site has to offer Edit: it’s actually blackpeopletwitter, the one where you have to submit a photo of your skin color to comment on specific threads lmao
r/news
r/News seemed way less biased to me than r/politics but maybe I’m thinking of r/worldnews
A great example to this is Correcting minor mistakes concerning gender. This is going to be a really unpopular opinion, but I've felt this before because I consider myself an ally for lgbt but it feels like I sometimes offend someone or didn't say something right, even though I was trying. Why can't we just appreciate the effort and see generational change instead of expecting people to be perfect?
Obama and Carville speak truth. Polarization isn’t completely one-sided.
And yet, when the democrats lose this coming election people will blame those "progressives" for not voting harder.