On the old board in response to the tired conservative trope that the left is against nuclear power I created a poll that asked people’s stance on it. I can’t see the poll anymore (can anybody?), but the majority response was that people supported regulated nuclear power. So either the trope is wrong (which is what I believe) or this board does not lean left (possible I suppose), but either way Sam is wrong with at least one assumption.
This whole thread and it’s genesis disturbs me. Sam was one of the more intelligent conservative posters on this board and it now clear to me that he has gone completely off the rails. The same is true with many of my conservative friends and acquaintances in real life; they believe completely crazy things and seem to be completely radicalized. My neighbors (who are otherwise nice, normal people) called Hillary Clinton “Killary” and constantly talked about Seth Rich. My well educated uncles (a civil engineer and lawyer) argued with me about Climate Change being a conspiracy of the vast majority of the world’s scientists (who all happen to be liberal???) . For the record, I am an instrument scientist that has spent the last 10 years of my career building instruments for NASA to study solar weather both at Earth and Mars. My cousin just posted something to facebook claiming that Obama executed the seal team that killed Bin Laden; I have no idea what that is about and am not about to dig further. Another neighbor, a veteran, when asked what he thought about the Russians reportedly paying bounties on American soldiers went off on a tear about what a great President Trump is and talked about Veterans Choice (a law passed by Obama). Don’t even get me started on QAnon; there are several people in my neighborhood that believe that garbage. The list goes on and on. These are not outliers, this is ubiquitous with every conservative I discuss politics with.
I am constantly trying to understand what happened. I relate to a lot of what conservative espouse. Not only that, but I relate to it due to discussions I have had with smart people like Sam. I can see how regulations can lead to perverse incentives (note: the tragedy of the commons still exists). I can see how capitalism leads to greater wealth for a society and is the best system in history for the reduction of poverty (but I believe poorly regulated capitalism leads to monopolies, capture of the government, and rife inequality). I am pro-gun because I believe that citizens need to be able to defend themselves (both from criminals and the government/police). But conservatives no longer talk about these things. They just talk about how the centrist Biden is a communist and crook (but Trump is draining the swamp!!!), Obama is a Muslim terrorist, and Hillary Clinton is a murdering pedophile. It is fucking whack-a-do and I just don’t know what we can do about. What happened Sam? Have you stood back and really looked at the shit you are believing these days? Have you ever really examined your sources of information? I agree we live in the time of Fake News and it is easy for me to see stories that are trying to rile me up with fear and hatred of conservatives, but the shit that the right wing media shovels seems to me to be SOOOO MUCH WORSE. Do you ever question your narrative Sam?