You should not rank either of them, whether at the top or the bottom. Ranking them at all either does nothing or helps them win against better candidates, no possible beneficial outcome.

Well hopefully if he had daughters they wouldn’t be breeding with his sons…

There’s no paywall, you can just click “continue reading” on that pop-up.

I was just a kid, get off my back!

You have not really been civil at all, and have repeatedly engaged in bad faith interpretations of what I and the article say, while accusing me of bias. If you can’t engage in any self-reflection over that I won’t engage with you.

The whole thing with mysterious producers approaching him out of nowhere when he’s at his lowest point to get him to record a faux-populist song that really reinforces conservative power is very Black Mirror.

-Not that this guy is necessarily a piece of shit or anything, it’s just that what’s being revealed about him through this music is the undercurrent of conservative ideology that is the water in which he swims and which he’s unconsciously reproducing in this song.

So you’re saying you perceive him as a piece of shit because your assumptions of his policy proposals that are based on your assumptions of one line that he’s saying in a vacuum?

I don’t think I can really keep engaging with you if you’re going to engage in such bad faith as to quote me saying he’s not a piece of shit and respond with “so you’re saying he’s a piece of shit” unless you apologize and promise to try to be a little more generous in your discourse going forward.

He’s blaming these problems on “rich men north of Richmond” aka Washington DC, it’s not a stretch to think about the policy implications. And what are the policies he mentions? Taxes being too high and welfare benefits being too generous. Again, not exactly a stretch to see the implied recommendation is tax cuts and welfare state cuts, pretty much the core planks of the Republican Party platform.

I definitely agree listening to the music people make and listen to can be a good way to gain insight. Really my problem with the song is the opposite of what you imply - I don’t wish he had policies drawn up at all, it’s the extent to which he does reveal policy preferences here that I have a problem with. Not that this guy is necessarily a piece of shit or anything, it’s just that what’s being revealed about him through this music is the undercurrent of conservative ideology that is the water in which he swims and which he’s unconsciously reproducing in this song.

We seem to be going around in circles a bit. You’re pointing to the various ways in which he speaks to legitimate complaints about the difficulties of life, which I’ve already agreed are valid. The problem is nothing he explicitly or implicitly suggests doing about those problems would actually help, and indeed the implied recommendations fit more with a conservative policy outlook that would be actively harmful to people with those problems.

That’s kind of what the whole article is spent laying out.

I thought this distinction between left and right populism from the article was useful:

As the political analyst John Judis has argued, this is more or less what distinguishes right populism from the left variety: Whereas left populism posits a binary between the people and the elites, right populism conjures a three-part division of society between “the people,” the elites, and the undeserving others whom the elites coddle at the people’s expense.

The song’s complaints about working class life ring true, but then whenever it gets close to a political statement, whether about taxes, politicians, or welfare it never says anything a wealthy conservative would argue with.

The issue with the song and with right wing populism generally is that it gets some of the complaints right, but points people in exactly the wrong direction in terms of looking for solutions. So it can be really maddening for people on the left because it’s substituting for a correct analysis in a way that sabotages bringing the working class together.

She is a legislator, by definition anything she does is a group effort not a solo accomplishment.

A statement denying this nasty rumor about their behavior I hope?

What’s the distinction of it being blocked vs defederated? I just want to make sure I can see their posts and they can see mine.

Not sure I understand your point - yes the runner of the instance has the ability to do whatever they want, but that doesn’t mean whatever they want to do is a good idea. If the decision is implemented my response would indeed be to move to a different less problematic instance, after complaining a bit to see if I could get the decision reversed rather than having to flee.

Vaping isn’t bad for you, nor is nicotine really, so what’s the big deal?

Both sides in regards to what? I’m pretty sure he’s firmly aligned with the Democrats against the Republicans and the left wing of the Dems against the right wing.

Yeah basically the traditional alignment is for people to vote farther left the poorer they are and farther right the richer they are. Dealignment is when that pattern gets a little scrambled as it has now, with the overwhelming support for the left by the highly educated and corresponding losses among the uneducated poor. As you say there are a lot of poor, so leftists are trying to come up with strategies to reverse that dealignment and win them back.

Important life lesson: never listen to Republicans

The OLIGARCH Act specifically establishes four tax brackets:

· 2% for all wealth between 1,000 and 10,000 times median household wealth;

· 4% for all wealth between 10,000 and 100,000 times median household wealth;

· 6% for all wealth between 100,000 and 1,000,000 times median household wealth;

· 8% for all wealth over 1,000,000 times median household wealth

For reference, current median household wealth is around $120k: https://dqydj.com/average-median-top-net-worth-percentiles/

So a the current rate would be

· 2% for all wealth between $120 million and $1.2 billion

· 4% for all wealth between $1.2 billion and $12 billion

· 6% for all wealth between $12 billion and $120 billion

· 8% for all wealth over $120 billion

That top tax rate would apply to only two people, Bill Gates and Elon Musk, with a few more just barely below the $120 billion line: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wealthiest_Americans_by_net_worth