Damage control. Lol @ Obama invited criticism. He threw whistleblowers in prison at an unprecedented rate. He maintained a kill list that was not subject to congressional oversight.
I’m not echoing him. I’m a new fan of Omar. I support her against the Dem party, and I’ll be interested to hear more from her in the future.
Maybe you aren’t so bad after all, Will. I too hope the Omars of Congress can effect real solutions, and not just lick the balls of the wealthy.
Slacker: So, your position is that Omar is a true anti-Semite, and thinks Obama was nothing but a pretty face? Am I reading you correctly?
This was a fucking hilarious self-own, ten minutes after calling ME “stupid”. 
I don’t know about the anti-Semitism. What is clear (no matter how many times Andy insists otherwise) is that she buys fully into the hard-left narrative about Obama that is illustrated well by the Glenn Greenwald I linked to. She just forgot that as an elected Democrat, she has to keep it even more in dogwhistle mode than she did (if a Republican was even dogwhistling half as much as she was, Andy would be all over it).
And that narrative, to be clear, is not “Obama is nothing but a pretty face”, which only implies that he is a lightweight or an insincere politician–I disagree with that but it’s not the calumny that I’m talking about. It’s about Obama as a smiling, soothing face for a corrupt, imperialistic war machine, grinding innocent brown children under its treads, plus of course an Orwellian surveillance state at home. It’s a very, very dark picture they paint.
I can’t really disagree (especially since I know you mean the Biden of “first clean, articulate African American” or whatever it was). But that’s not good. Being in any way reminiscent of Cynthia McKinney is definitely not good at all. (Note that McKinney got primaried out of her seat.)
BWAHAHAHA! I love a sick burn, even if I’m the target. Nicely played. A very erudite burn at that.
Congratulations on your mind reading ability! You’ve joined a long list of Doper mind readers, most of whom, like you, can only read the minds of liberals. Hopefully you’ll use your powers for good!
What a joke. Mild criticism, at worst, of Obama, is not a dog whistle. As for her statements about Israel and Jews, some of them (two, by my reading) have indeed been anti Semitic, and I’ve been critical of her for them on this board.
At least you’ve recognized the incredibly idiocy of your earlier comparison to King.
Andy is still furiously spinning, even after a huge chorus of voices has pointed out how dubious that spin is.
Oh no, someone disagreed with you and made arguments against you! And they tried to use nuance, of all things! How horrible. Best just dismiss them without even trying to refute them! 
The rhetorical reason why SlackerInc is saying he is a Democrat is not to say “I vote (D) in elections.” It’s to try and argue that he’s not unique in his views. He specifically calls himself a “centrist Democrat.” But he’s not. He doesn’t hold the beliefs of a centrist Democrat. And these are based on the views he has.
I have no reason to doubt that he votes (D). He seems to hate Republicans even more than he hates Democrats. But I do not believe his claim that he is one of us. He’s pulling the same shit the “BernieBros” did, just from the other direction.
Also, he’s a racist, Islamophobic, male chauvinist who listens to and argues in agreement with a lot of genuinely awful people. I actually try not to overly criticize him simply because I can’t figure out why someone with those beliefs votes (D). Like it or not, he’s in our tent.
I’m still gonna call him out for his shit, though. Being a Democrat does not make you above criticism. It just means I’m not going to deliberately antagonize you as a lost cause.
Not actually a lie, because:
Also apparently not a lie, the parts you edited out:
Now that is an outright lie.
The man clearly said he was taking his bike, not his ball.
(Yeesh! Some people just won’t see what’s in front of them.)
Wow, You’re Donald Trump’s speechwriter. Who knew?
Certainly not Donald
He praised essentially 98% of what Obama did and you are baffled that he would be a loyal Democrat.
Ask yourself what would the analog be. It’s 25 years ago and someone is praising 98% of what GHWB or Reagan did. What else might you learn about that person that would cause you such disbelief a person could be a Republican? What’s more is this person’s views would by and large match up with an author/speaker of the day with a massive following, being the analog to one Sam Harris, who would have happened to be speaking out against a (something we can all agree upon & that theoretically would have existed) great scourge of the time. BernieBro’ish indeed.
My take on Slacker is more boring than some of these leaps that imagine things he never said. Sure he’s a bit of a cur (and raacist). He is what he says he is, history doesn’t lie [I’d actually like to see someone try to dredge up old post(s) that would snare him in a web of misrepresenting himself]. His honing of his political acumen is akin to a vanity project, moreso than most (many are probably guilty of this to a degree). (Kimstu on his showing he’s the smartest guy in the room is another way of putting it.) He gave away his lack of empathy in the late term abortion discussion. He wasn’t necessarily arguing an indefensible position, but you can tell there was no concern for the needless suffering that could take place, there’s nothing there.
Certainly not. Donald was pretty honest when he felt he was no longer a democrat.
Yes, well summarized. (I take issue BTW with some of what you said in your last paragraph, but that would be a hijack here. If you want to argue about that stuff, we can do so in my PIt thread if you like.)
What this all holds up to the light is that there is a group, way overrrepresented online, that does not consider it kosher to endorse 98% of what the supposedly “center-right” (:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:) Obama stood/stands for.
In reality, there are a lot of Democrats who don’t engage in these online discussions, who have viewpoints this group would find unacceptable. But you need us to win, and we likewise need you. So we need to find a way to coexist, but that way is not for the less leftist Democrats to give in to the left on everything. We will definitely lose if we do that, regardless of what you think is right on the merits. But the pragmatists and center-left certainly need to make concessions as well–not so much for electoral viability as fairness to provide representation for the left wing.
And you apparently believe I AM unique in my views? 
Where do I fundamentally differ with Sam Harris (as Covfefe noted) or Bill Maher for that matter? The former has a huge following, I think we can agree; and the latter has had a TV show for decades now, one that has garnered twenty Emmy nominations, showing a constituency for his takes in the Academy: Real Time With Bill Maher - Emmy Awards, Nominations and Wins | Television Academy
Do I, though? Maybe in all my thousands of posts, there is a post where I call myself that, but I would bet against it. I feel that I have generally described myself as “center-left”, a “maverick leftist”, a “pragmatic progressive”, or more recently just an acolyte of “IDW” figures like Sam Harris, Steven Pinker, Coleman Hughes, and Bret Weinstein.
Maybe you can define what “one of us” means, and cite where I claimed that this is what I am. Obviously, in hating Republicans more than Democrats, and voting (D), I am indisputably aligned with you and the majority here. So you must mean something else, even though I thought I had made no secret of my disagreements with the majority here on several subjects.
As an example of the contempt I believe SlackerInc has demonstrated for black women, I’ll offer several posts in this thread: https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=20963073#post20963073
When you with the face (a black woman) challenges his assertion that black people are inherently mentally inferior, on average, as a relatively mundane instance of casual white supremacism, he insists that his doubling-down response actually “show[ed] her true respect in a debate setting” and that she was “butthurt” for mocking his repeated white supremacist posts.
I think everyone should keep this sort of thing in mind when Slacker goes on a rant about a woman of color (like Omar). There are certainly reasonable criticisms of Omar, IMO. I think it’s reasonable to be skeptical when an admitted racist who doubles down on his white supremacism goes on such a rant.
Well, no, because he doesn’t. I specifically mentioned the beliefs he has, all of which are at odds with Obama and Democrats in general. Even you admit he’s racist, yet he’s votes for the party that tries to fight against racism. Promoting scientific racism utterly and completely opposed to what Obama stands for.
Sam Harris is right wing. But he agrees with him. That means SlackerInc is right wing. Yet he votes for the left wing party. Similarly, if someone agreed with, I dunno, Bernie Sanders on everything but voted Republican all the time, I would find that strange.
It’s why I think the people who said they went from Bernie to Trump are all liars, and were Trump supporters all along, trying to stir up conflict.
I actually worry that, one day, the guy will wake up, have an epiphany, and think “Why do I vote Democratic?” It seems to me mostly the type that votes (D) because he hates the (R)s more. I’ve heard him talk pretty horribly about Trump, and several other Republicans. I worry that all that will have to happen is a Republican being nice enough to him.
Nifty syllogism. Unfortunately, it’s based on a false premise. :smack: Sam Harris is definitely not right wing. He does acquire right wing followers (who are being as obtuse as you are), who then periodically freak out and unsubscribe when they learn the truth. The past couple years, this has mainly been when he has gone on a rant against Trump (FTR he supported Hillary in the election, not Gary Johnson or whomever). But a few years ago, he said he had his biggest mass unsubscribe ever, after taking a strong stand against income inequality and in favor of increasingly progressive “soak the rich” taxation.
He also supports gay rights, women’s rights (he recently invited Rebecca Traister on his podcast and strongly recommended her book), and civil liberties, while opposing the religious right on stem cell research, teaching “intelligent design” in schools, etc.
To call him (or Bill Maher, or Bret Weinstein, etc.) “right wing” because they have an antipathy to political correctness and identity politics shows either dishonesty or lack of perspicacity. Do you think Jonathan Chait is right wing too?
Nice try at a “gotcha”, but I’m very comfortable with people reading that post. Happy, even. 
I’d also recommend to them other replies of mine to that same poster a little earlier in the thread, like these:
https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=20960744&postcount=945
https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=20961748&postcount=954
You still seem to think that your lack of hatred or malevolent intent excuses your racism. It doesn’t. White supremacism doesn’t, and never did, require hatred or malevolent intent, in order to oppress and brutalize. Most slave owners probably would have said that they didn’t hate their slaves – many would have even insisted they loved them.
If you don’t want to be criticized for racism, stop saying racist things. Stop providing rhetorical aid and comfort to white supremacists.
From Sam Harris’ wiki: