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General politics thread (was: General U.S. politics thread)

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Comments

  • "you duck spawn, refined creature, you try to be cynical, yokel, but all that comes out of it is that you're a dunce!!!!! you duck plug!"
    Honestly, more recent events have only served to prove Fukuyama wrong because he was going on about how liberal democracy tied to market economies were the final political ideal that everyone was drifting towards and if that was the case, there wouldn't be so much populism going around and people drifting towards strongmen (e.g. Erdogan, Orban, Trump, etc.). I think Fukuyama has even gone on record admitting he was a bit naive in that essay somewhere, which, to be fair, published right after the end of the Cold War and everyone being in a bit of celebratory mood, it made sense a bit to feel a bit celebratory.
    So, I read that so I could discuss it without feeling awkward about it; linky's here in case anyone else wants.

    Of recent I have read a bunch of - by which I mean, at least two separate - articles invoking Fukuyama. The gist was that when you read him all these years later, it sounds less triumphal than it did back then, that this end of history meant there is no longer a viable, universal ideological alternative to liberal democracy. Marxism-Leninism fell on its ugly face, nationalisms are at most a matter of national interests, and religious fundamentalism lacks appeal towards those who aren't co-religionists already.

    (He claimed nationalism counts as a competitor to liberal democracy only if it's as developed and ambitious as fascism or Nazism were, national interest or statism alone don't.)

    At the end of the essay, Fukuyama expresses vague hope that history will begin to "move" again... well, feels like it did. (Oh Harambe, had you not...)

    I don't know of Fukuyama's any recent thoughts on the matter, but he said something along the lines of conflicts will happen, so I don't know if stuff like Russia-Ukraine war counts as a shock to this concept or not. But assuming it counts - I'd say it cound be interpreted as one of the first rousings of a new contending idea. The alt-righties are certainly trying hard to convince people their decentralized para-fascisms are the new in-thing, so far only Putin seems to have ever got anywhere near that point, but he had it easy with Russia to work upon. Perhaps armchair leftism of the Internet will cohere into a rejuvenation of socialism in some form, but we'll yet to see that.
  • Perpetually Peckish
  • edited 2025-05-19 18:23:02
    Perpetually Peckish
    By the way, there's a certain set of numbers I keep seeing around and wondering if someone could explain things to this non-American. 8646 and 8647. I get they have something to do with Trump and Biden but why is the 86 there?
  • "you duck spawn, refined creature, you try to be cynical, yokel, but all that comes out of it is that you're a dunce!!!!! you duck plug!"
    why is the 86 there?

    *checks wikipedia*

    Huh. Turns out it's not about the part of the legal code dealing with murder. TIL.
  • Perpetually Peckish
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-20/federal-politics-may-20/105311448



    Welp, there goes the right-wing opposition down here. Maybe the Liberals can finally drag themselves back to the centre without the Nationals dragging them even further to the right...
  • "you duck spawn, refined creature, you try to be cynical, yokel, but all that comes out of it is that you're a dunce!!!!! you duck plug!"
    With so much going on everywhere else I kind of forgot you guys too have your own politics.
  • edited 2025-05-22 17:59:06
    Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    By the way, there's a certain set of numbers I keep seeing around and wondering if someone could explain things to this non-American. 8646 and 8647. I get they have something to do with Trump and Biden but why is the 86 there?

    "86" is foodservice slang for removing something, such as cancelling an order or indicating that a menu item is unavailable. From there it became slang for ejecting unruly customers. And from there it became slang for getting rid of assholes, in general.

    I remember seeing "86 43" to indicate displeasure with George W. Bush ("43" since he was the 43rd president of the U.S.). I haven't personally seen these usages in the wild yet lately but presumably by analogy the 47 refers to Donald Trump. (Why 46, I don't know.)

    Wiktionary entry: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/86#English
  • edited 2025-05-22 17:59:01
    Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    Oh, it seems that the "46" comes from the usage of the term during the Biden administration. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/86_(term) for details.

    Sigh, Vanilla still can't properly include parentheses when parsing URLs.
  • "you duck spawn, refined creature, you try to be cynical, yokel, but all that comes out of it is that you're a dunce!!!!! you duck plug!"
    I just saw youtube recommend a video on recent history and I've been thinking. @Stormtroper, @fourteenwings, would you say you know of a good under-60min youtube video explaining the last twenty or thirty years of stuff going on where you live? As in, something that you personally would consider a good entry-level stuff, and it's in a language I can understand a video in (which shamefully means English). I'm not promising I'll find time to watch but it'd be good to know.

    (The rest of you guys can join in if you really want to recommend something, too.)
  • Disappointing answer: I can't think of any. I'm sure there's lots of good/memey videos out there but I haven't come upon any.
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