If the OP's point in this thread was to create a wonderful little microcosm on how any Cave thread goes he has succeeded.
Mods could do a better job with threads/posters
- Thread starter kcbob79clone
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CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
Here's a hint to some. EVERYTHING is political when the GOVERNMENT controls everything. A world with very limited government would have very limited politics. Wouldn't that be nice?
I had a friend that carpooled with a guy we worked with from DSM to Ames. He told me they couldn't talk about personal stuff nor could they talk about work so it left the weather.
That is way better than a wet fart, or Spiderman!!!
I do not think anything on this site changed my general bent or set of opinions politically, but I think it did teach me quite a bit about the "mass psychology" of politics, especially in late 2010s and 2020s America.
To quote Selina Meyer --
"I’ve met some real people, okay? And I’ve got to tell you, a lot of them are ******* idiots."
It is not a very nice thing to say, but it is undeniably true. Most people have very little idea what it takes to run a government, the large bureaucratic organizations that it controls, and about actual policymaking. I have also noticed that an interest in politics does not necessary correlate with an increase in the knowledge level. Most people on the street (or in here) could not tell you the five largest items in the federal budget without cheating and looking it up.
It also taught me that most people are not into politics for the sake of good governance or even really to achieve a specific set of well-thought policy goals. They are in it to "win" -- this is why nobody could care less about local school boards, state legislatures, and Congress, but they sure love POTUS and SCOTUS contests.
They are more interested in what politics "says about ourselves, as a symbol of our nation and the American people" than the practical (and messy) realities of needing to comprise on policy and budgeting.
I see why, though. Math and public finance are aggressively boring, for one. The ones who make fun of me on here for long posts, charts, and tables are blatantly admitting (and bragging about) their ignorance about actual governance and how complex the world really is. All that takes work, and they are after fun. Most people (incorrectly) see elected leaders as avatars of ourselves, and humans seem to have some need to personify everything (sort of stealing from Dune there, for the numerous fans) in the personae of a Great Leader, however flawed they may be.
We are still only just one iota above the hunter-gathers that were our ancestors for 200,000+ years before we figured out agriculture around 12,000 years ago. And then we have had smartphones... maybe 10ish?
We want to "win" because winning as a hunter-gatherer tribe in competition with others was all that mattered. Your tribe, and its great chieftain, had to beat the other one down the road for status, power, and resources. Because, if you lost, you probably died (as a man) and probably ended up a slave (as a woman or child). So your tribe HAS to win and HAS to be right all the time, no matter what... it is literally a question of survival (in your brain, it is).
The decline of religion has brought a lot of people to need some other source of profundity and meaning to their life besides existential salvation, and politics is the best simulacra of that profundity out there. Both sides see themselves as bettering the world through a set of abstract principles and as the heirs to the historical progress of humanity (which... is something religions do, too). So they latch onto it, and bring the same level of life-or-death intensity... even if the reality of government is pretty boring and technical most of the time. It is really fascinating to watch this all play out live.
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Again, I wasn't the person who decided if anything should be questioned in the OG, and apologize if that came off that way.
I think getting caught up in a discussion like that with someone that behaves like they do is a mistake as it inly spirals. I'd say we all need to check ourselves on that.
There were discussions around the context of some things that went pretty well compared to how else they go. I pointed out some citations from sources that clearly had an agenda right up front. They imo were the opposite equal of if I were to post from something like the Huffpost. It's going to be *****y information.
I too like to complain about things I get for free.
Politics are about decision making within a group, that play into many situations and don't require government either, so there would still be lots of politics.
I can only speak for myself, when I saw recent studies that seem to call into question the earlier findings on hydroxychloroquine I opted, discretion being the better part of valor, I opted not to post it because I knew it would doom the thread to the cave. I will have to dig up the study but it said zinc was really good against Covid and hydroxychloroquine helps the body absorb zinc.
You would get along well with my wife
And if that information were to be presented from the get-go with a timely explanation, who for or when it should be used, etc. it becomes less of a debate instead of a 'take this and you're free!' message.
Just got my flu shot the other day, and the guy giving it to me said they had to stop selling it because Dr.s were hoarding it.
Are you trying to deflect by bringing up - and this is just a guess - Hunter Biden? What does Hunter Biden have to do with your proclivities?
