Would You Drive A Stranger To Vote For The Other Side?

[Moderate Right]

Speaking of being honest, would you please answer a couple of questions?

Exactly who do you expect "the other side" actually is?

If you follow the money, the primary means of "keeping score" in our capitalist "paradise", is it not reasonable to consider the "two sides" to be the
"haves" and the "have nots"? IOW, the most influential, vs the least?

Isn't everything else, just noise?


IOW, who have been the "masters of distraction", the prominent names who have been at each others throats for the past 25 years?







Click on "New Posts" and look at the thread titles. It is not Clinton or Toensing, or the news media that is hurting, is it?
It is the people who "take the bait" that are predictably distracted into incoherence, as far as their political influence and goals.
The "tug of war", presented on the surface, enhances revenue, stimulates political contributions.....

And this is the result, as intended.:

View attachment 67291642

I guess the other side could be defined as not your side.

 

[Dacke]

then why spend any time here? Yes, it is very important to me.

Politics is only good for the lols. It is fun to talk and argue about and it is fun to laugh at stupid things politicians do and say. However, one should not allow themselves to get too absorbed by it because ultimately it doesn't matter. Your own happiness and your own life is far more important than those of the lying scumbags who rule us.

Whether a Democrat or a Republican is in office has little to no significant influence on anyone's life or freedoms and it is simply very uncivilised to let party preferences dictate your actions and how you value other people. Even less interesting is nonsense such as Peloisi said x about Trump who replied with y, like, who the heck cares?

I am here not to discuss practical politics, but to discuss philosophy.

 

[Dacke]

I guess the other side could be defined as not your side.

Both Democrats and Republicans are on my other side though.

 

[Dacke]

We literally have apps to get rides from strangers now.

We have literally had taxis for many, many decades before those apps and probably even dudes who gave you rides in their horse and carriage before that. Not to mention busses, trains, trams, subways and airplanes.

 

[Wayne Jr]

We have literally had taxis for many, many decades before those apps and probably even dudes who gave you rides in their horse and carriage before that. Not to mention busses, trains, trams, subways and airplanes.

Ok but I wasn't alive for all that. The base reference is modern day warning of children not to get rides from strangers. Tf ever happened centuries ago has nothing to do with anything.

 

[Fiddytree]

I think the spirit of this question is less that the passenger is someone you don't know ("stranger") and more about whether you will transport someone you know will vote for the other side. As such, I would say I would.

That being said, because you explicitly said "stranger": no, I would not.

 

[Fiddytree]

Politics is only good for the lols. It is fun to talk and argue about and it is fun to laugh at stupid things politicians do and say. However, one should not allow themselves to get too absorbed by it because ultimately it doesn't matter. Your own happiness and your own life is far more important than those of the lying scumbags who rule us.

Whether a Democrat or a Republican is in office has little to no significant influence on anyone's life or freedoms and it is simply very uncivilised to let party preferences dictate your actions and how you value other people. Even less interesting is nonsense such as Peloisi said x about Trump who replied with y, like, who the heck cares?

I am here not to discuss practical politics, but to discuss philosophy.

This is an obnoxious post on so many levels and almost perfectly fits the libertarian stereotype of someone who thinks of politics as a game or conversational pastime.

 

[Dacke]

This is an obnoxious post on so many levels and almost perfectly fits the libertarian stereotype of someone who thinks of politics as a game or conversational pastime.

Simply throwing around insults and accusations without further elaboration or justification is not the proper way of constructing an argument.

Practical politics is not a "conversational pastime", it is far less interesting and important than that. Actual politics is just the final link of the chain that stretches from metaphysics to epistemology to ethics and only then, and lastly, comes politics.

You are a Centrist, so it is not like you are on the side of good.

 

[Fiddytree]

Simply throwing around insults and accusations without further elaboration or justification is not the proper way of constructing an argument.

Practical politics is not a "conversational pastime", it is far less interesting and important than that. Actual politics is just the final link of the chain that stretches from metaphysics to epistemology to ethics and only then, and lastly, comes politics.

You are a Centrist, so it is not like you are on the side of good.

Have you ever been in a room with politicians negotiating public policy or funding decisions, or even attempted to influence them while in the room? On what basis do you act as though none of this matters? As such, I do throw around insults and have no interest in pulling back insults on people who have such a blithe view of the world.

 

[Dacke]

Have you ever been in a room with politicians negotiating public policy or funding decisions, or even attempted to influence them while in the room?

No, I do not waste time on such useless activities. I prefer to focus on my own life and my own happiness.

On what basis do you act as though none of this matters?

It doesn't. Whether Part X or Party Y is in charge has an insignificant effect on my life and whether the tax should go down by 10 dollars or go up by 5 is irrelevant. Only in a scenario where there is an actual threat to my freedom and happiness would I ever consider wasting my time on voting.

As such, I do throw around insults and have no interest in pulling back insults on people who have such a blithe view of the world.

I view reality for what it is and reality is that politics don't matter. Do you think about politics when you are out grocery-shopping? Do you ever wonder what the chef who cooked you your meal while at the restaurant voted for? When was the last time you actually sat down to read some silly 300 page-report from the government on how to, I don't know, regulate table cloths?

Politics don't matter.

 

[Fiddytree]

No, I do not waste time on such useless activities. I prefer to focus on my own life and my own happiness.


It doesn't. Whether Part X or Party Y is in charge has an insignificant effect on my life and whether the tax should go down by 10 dollars or go up by 5 is irrelevant. Only in a scenario where there is an actual threat to my freedom and happiness would I ever consider wasting my time on voting.


I view reality for what it is and reality is that politics don't matter. Do you think about politics when you are out grocery-shopping? Do you ever wonder what the chef who cooked you your meal while at the restaurant voted for? When was the last time you actually sat down to read some silly 300 page-report from the government on how to, I don't know, regulate table cloths?

Politics don't matter.

So you admit you have no idea what you're talking about and are in a comfortable enough position to be able to focus on reading about metaphysics while the world passes you by.

Do you think about politics when you are out grocery-shopping?

Yes. During the COVID-19 era, that's hard to not do. We are going to have a 5-15% budget reduction for each state agency, on top of the past decade's 10% reductions on budgets. A number of us are worried about the impact COVID-19 will have on our state legislature's deliberations, because the legislature is able to conduct business in-person as are state government representatives, but members of the public and lobbyists (such as myself) are not allowed to be in the building. That imbalance could potentially mean life or death to programs people rely on or that we spent the last several years building to actually help people, and in my case, could lead to an even greater increase of suicides when my state already leads the nation in suicides. Heck, we've spent the last few years holding back an attempt to make it far easier for a person to have their liberty stripped from them and be committed to a state institution (try providing proof to a court that you will not be a danger to yourself or others in 45 days). The people that want to do that have easy access to legislators, while we do not.

So yeah, I think about that as I walk into a grocery store that has a sign on the front of the establishment clarifying that they will need to restrict who is able to enter into the building. I think about it every time I need to stay away from people. That's because COVID-19 has brought great urgency to politics, it is of great importance to those that I know, and it is my job.

 

[post]

Ok but I wasn't alive for all that. The base reference is modern day warning of children not to get rides from strangers. Tf ever happened centuries ago has nothing to do with anything.

While Nixon was president, I stood at the bottom of a freeway entrance ramp in San Bernadino with $30 in my pocket and my arm raised with my thumb extended hopefully. 3-1/2 days later, the last motorist who had picked me up, dropped me off 50 miles north of NYC. This was a couple of years after "the Manson Family" had been "brought to justice".

What's happened to us, as a society? I blinked, and must have missed the transformation.

While in California, on that trip, I had arrived one afternoon in Palo Alto. The summer before, I was driving in my local area with my black roommate.
We saw a young couple hitchiking in the busy intersection, ahead. They were loaded down with knapsacks and other bags. I pulled up next to them and my roommate gestured to them to get in the car.

They were headed to Maine, had no place to stay, and it was early evening. After just a few minutes, we invited them to stay at our place and an enjoyable evening learning more about Northern California.

Months later, I recalled their names and that the guy had said he worked for his father, a veterinarian. I found a number in the Palo Alto phone book that matched what I hsd remembered. A short time later a different friend who I had made the trip to California with, and I, were sitting at the guy's who I had extended hospitality to the year before, parents' dinner table. We went out that evening and he introduced us to some of his friends.

He had to go to work early the next morning, and I can remember his mother, left alone in their house with my traveling campanion and I, serving us breakfast before seeing us off on our way to "Yose-might" National Park.

Our behavior was normal for those times in America, from coast to coast. One hand scratched the other. When did we become so fearful, and so reflexively more commercial and divided? The 1960s civil rights movement, the 1960s riots, the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers and of Dr. King, and even the division over the Vietnam War didn't change our society immediately, and neither did Manson's helterskelter.

It didn't help that hitch hiking was legislated into a misdemeanor offense in many jurisdictions. Air conditioning shut our car windows. Maybe it had something to do with seemingly everyone owning a car and there was no longer a perceived need to give anyone "a lift".

I drove for Uber, six years ago. I got back some of that old feeling of living more in the moment and letting down "my guard". I'm not sure I noticed when I had put it up! We're at our best when we are open and empathetic and not preoccupied with situational awareness, which actually makes us less aware. because it is calculating, vs. "be here, now". Some of us, during our adult journey, have transitioned from offering rides to hitch hikers, to obtaining a "full carry permit".

.... for a lead role in a cage?

 

[Dacke]

So you admit you have no idea what you're talking about and are in a comfortable enough position to be able to focus on reading about metaphysics while the world passes you by.

I have no idea what any of this means and it is evident that you do not know anything about philosophy and how it relates to reality and how it, in extension, affects politics.

Yes. During the COVID-19 era, that's hard to not do. A number of us are worried about the impact COVID-19 will have on our state legislature's deliberations, because the legislature is able to conduct business in-person as are state government representatives, but members of the public and lobbyists (such as myself) are not allowed to be in the building. That imbalance could potentially mean life or death to programs people rely on or that we spent the last several years building to actually help people, and in my case, could lead to an even greater increase of suicides when my state already leads the nation in suicides.

Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooring.

 

[Fiddytree]

I have no idea what any of this means and it is evident that you do not know anything about philosophy and how it relates to reality and how it, in extension, affects politics.


Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooring.

Alright, I'll leave you to childish pursuits.

 

[Wayne Jr]

While Nixon was president...

The base reference is the modern-day warning of children not to get rides from strangers. Tf ever happened while Nixon was President has nothing to do with anything.

 

[cpwill]

If I had to drive someplace to vote, I would give someone a ride so long as they didn't really give off like serial-murder vibes.

That was the only restriction in my mind, as well. No getting robbed, murdered, and dumped in a ditch, thanks.

 

[cpwill]

I have no idea what any of this means and it is evident that you do not know anything about philosophy and how it relates to reality and how it, in extension, affects politics.


Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooring.

Wow. It's been a while since I saw a poster discredit themselves as thoroughly as you just did, and in as few words.

 

[PirateMk1]

I don't allow a stranger or my spouse in my car for any reason.

My SO commandeers my car regardless of my consent.

 

[Vadinho]

Politics is only good for the lols. It is fun to talk and argue about and it is fun to laugh at stupid things politicians do and say. However, one should not allow themselves to get too absorbed by it because ultimately it doesn't matter. Your own happiness and your own life is far more important than those of the lying scumbags who rule us.

Whether a Democrat or a Republican is in office has little to no significant influence on anyone's life or freedoms and it is simply very uncivilised to let party preferences dictate your actions and how you value other people. Even less interesting is nonsense such as Peloisi said x about Trump who replied with y, like, who the heck cares?

I am here not to discuss practical politics, but to discuss philosophy.

Your philosophy about life should include what man can do to man or it is an empty philosophy is it not? How can one live a life without concern for the nation, culture, government and world we live in? Sorry, you only have this luxury because other people care enough about politics to protect you.

 

[DiAnna]

This isn't a total stranger. This is your elderly neighbor who you don't really know well other than waving or saying hi to every once in a while. Or, it could be an elderly person from your second cousin's church that your second cousin asked you to drive. I just figured people would be smart enough to know I wasn't talking about a hitchhiker walking down the street or a bum who approached you in a parking lot.

Words matter.

 

[uptower]

How about if he is just a feeble senior from across the street wearing a Trump T-shirt and red MAGA hat?

Sure, I would

 

[post]

I guess the other side could be defined as not your side.

“There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party … and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat. Republicans are a bit stupider, more rigid, more doctrinaire in their laissez-faire capitalism than the Democrats, who are cuter, prettier, a bit more corrupt — until recently … and more willing than the Republicans to make small adjustments when the poor, the black .....”

― Gore Vidal

.....

Opinion | The peril of valuing celebrity over history - The New York Times
The peril of valuing celebrity over history
By James Carroll
July 30, 2007

.....Yet, speaking of history, this conjuring of the appearance of opposition where none actually exists has been mandated by the American political system since the onset of the Cold War. The quadrennial political puppet show, highlighting not opposition but its appearance, is essential to keeping the captive-taking war machine running and to inoculating the American people from the viral knowledge that they themselves were first to be captured....

.......

The fixation of Trump supporters, and before that, the republicans, with scapegoating the least influential is fascinating, considering the investment in the manipulation that has been so successful in achieving such an attitude, to the degree it is "knee jerk". Without this manipulation, people tend to approach politics motivated by their own best interests. Practically their are two competing factions, "haves" or "have nots".

Without the manipulation (constant themes emphasizing division by race, class, gender, religious affiliation) of wealthiest conservatives and the religious leaders they've aligned with, anyone serious about making their politics about economic security and government transparency and accountability, would easily discern their political opposition to be the wealthiest 75,000 households, versus everyone else

PolitiFact | What percentage of Americans own stocks?
PolitiFact | What percentage of Americans own stocks?
The accompanying graph details the "distribution of stock ownership by wealth percentile," specifically 84 percent for the "top 10 percent," 9.3 percent for the "next 10 percent" and 6.7 percent ...

In another thread,

The quote box near the bottom of this Harvard Business Review is from a link inside the article, itself.

Why Do Boards Have So Few Black Directors?

Why Do Boards Have So Few Black Directors?

by J. Yo-Jud Cheng , Boris Groysberg and Paul M. Healy

August 13, 2020

.....The underrepresentation of Black professionals is especially bleak in the highest echelon of corporate America: boards of directors. Although newly-appointed directors are increasingly diverse, 37% of S&P 500 firms did not have any Black board members in 2019 and Black directors comprised just 4.1% of Russell 3000 board members that same year. In light of these persistent racial inequities, Reddit’s co-founder and executive chairman of the board, Alexis Ohanian, recently stepped down, stating: “I’ve resigned as a member of the Reddit board, [and] I have urged them to fill my seat with a Black candidate.” Reddit has since appointed its first Black board member: Y Combinator CEO Michael Seibel.

..To answer those questions, we draw upon a survey we previously conducted of over 1,000 U.S. board directors between 2015-2016. We note that only 24 of our survey respondents identified as Black/African American, reflecting our own shortcomings in engaging a diverse set of survey respondents as well as the state of board diversity in the U.S. today. Our small sample size necessitates that we be careful in interpreting our results....

Interviews with 59 Black Female Executives Explore Intersectional Invisibility and Strategies to Overcome It

....Black women continue to be sorely underrepresented in leadership roles in corporate America. Currently, they make up 12.7% of the U.S. population, yet they represent only 1.3% of senior management and executive roles of S&P 500 firms, 2.2% of Fortune 500 boards of directors, and in a post-Ursula Burns world, there is not a single black female CEO in the Fortune 500.

 

[jamesrage]

This came up in another thread and made me want to post a poll. No one can see your vote so you can be honest.

I picked other. I wouldn't drive a stranger anywhere regardless of political affiliation. That's nuts giving rides to people you don't know.

 

[Dacke]

Your philosophy about life should include what man can do to man or it is an empty philosophy is it not? How can one live a life without concern for the nation, culture, government and world we live in? Sorry, you only have this luxury because other people care enough about politics to protect you.

By having concern for yourself, the - unavoidable - effect is also one that benefits the nation and "your fellow man". Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos became billionaires and at the same time they imrpoved the living standard for every single person on Earth. They had no political motives and anyone who has ever ordered from Amazon or bought a PC has never done so with the aim to benefit anyone's life but their own.

This Statist and altruistic nonesense that you are presenting above is the exact reason why there is so much unrest in contemporary society.

 

[Moderate Right]

By having concern for yourself, the - unavoidable - effect is also one that benefits the nation and "your fellow man". Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos became billionaires and at the same time they imrpoved the living standard for every single person on Earth. They had no political motives and anyone who has ever ordered from Amazon or bought a PC has never done so with the aim to benefit anyone's life but their own.

This Statist and altruistic nonesense that you are presenting above is the exact reason why there is so much unrest in contemporary society.

It's simply called jealousy. Someone else has more than you do, sometimes a lot more. The left also believe that everything is a zero sum game and that for every dollar Gates and Bezos have, it takes away a dollar from someone else. It doesn't.