The American Politics thread

[morgieb]

John McCain would be up there, judging by what people said about him when he actually died.

What about Bush snr?

[Uppercut]

John McCain would be up there, judging by what people said about him when he actually died.

I thought of him too, but I wasn’t celebrating really, just rolling my eyes at the eulogies.

Not that I ever crack open champagne, but sometimes my first reaction is ‘wahey’.

[RossTaylorsBox]

Don't think any of the Bushes are respected enough to get offended over. Aung San Suu Kyi would be mine if it happened right now.

[Teja.]

I’m split about the death celebration debate. AlI know is that it has a lot of philosophical depth but is ultimately, highly pointless.

If celebrating the death of someone is right because he was a bad person who did bad things in the past and seeing bad things happen to bad people is worth celebrating as a karmic win, that sounds really unsound to me because by that logic a bad person getting raped or tortured would be also be worth celebrating. That doesn’t sit right with me. Particularly because people who see life through this prism tend to have a inclusive definition of who is a bad person.

If celebrating the death of someone who is a bad person is wrong because death as an event is an objective tragedy regardless of person, it ignores cases where people are not celebrating for the karma factor but for a very pragmatic reason - said person cannot be be a negative influence on their lives or the world anymore.

The worst though are people who cannot write a thousand words about why specifically they would have wished death about the person but are celebrating purely to hurt and provoke responses from greiving people who they see as bad. The dead person is so systematically dehumanised that they are just a stepping stones during recess breaks at the culture warroom.

My monkey brain gut reaction is that the type of people who’s death that I actively would be happy about is not evil administrative or political influencers but people who are maliciously and sadistically cruel for the specific purpose of deriving pleasure in being cruel to helpless beings who trusted them (Ted Bundy types, pedarasts, rapriests and the like). You can poke a million holes through this using the standards I applied above but it’s just how I personally react to death.

I’m not saying I was sad that McCain died. Much like with Richard Spencer getting punched, I just couldn’t get myself to care.

[Gnske]

I hear the Clintons had a magnificent VIP orgy in New York State after Epstein hung himself then slit his own wrists 52 times.

That I can tolerate, celebrating death like in this thread is a no go.

[RossTaylorsBox]

Good job by the DNC for not allowing a debate on climate change.

[Burgey]

Whose is the most offensive death you would celebrate? Someone widely popular and respected who you think did something that's unforgivable even when they're dead?

Not sure there's anyone in the U.S. that would fit the bill better than Bush jnr for me. In a UK context there are probably a few "respected elder statesmen" that contributed to bringing internment to NI.

Joel Wilson

I don't know about celebrate, but I won't mourn Howard's passing.

As far as raising a glass, probably Murdoch. Bloke's just been a cancer on so many western democracies for nigh on half a century.

[morgieb]

Joel Wilson

I don't know about celebrate, but I won't mourn Howard's passing.

As far as raising a glass, probably Murdoch. Bloke's just been a cancer on so many western democracies for nigh on half a century.

Rupert would not be an offensive death to celebrate IMO.

Would anyone celebrate a death of a celebrity that wasn't politically involved? I don't think I could, though the majority I wouldn't really care about either way.

[Niall]

https://twitter.com/davekarpf/status...71837082079232

This is amazing. Some relatively unknown dude tweeted a joke about Brett Stephens which got no traction and well it got wild.

Brett has wrote articles on how important free speech is btw.

[Uppercut]

https://twitter.com/davekarpf/status...71837082079232

This is amazing. Some relatively unknown dude tweeted a joke about Brett Stephens which got no traction and well it got wild.

Brett has wrote articles on how important free speech is btw.

I'd be surprised if there's a more boring collection of people anywhere in the world than the NYT Opinion writers. Bret Stephens inviting someone to dinner should be considered a threat.

[RossTaylorsBox]

So mad he deleted his Twitter.

[Spark]

courtney hagle
@CourtneyHagle
Bret Stephens goes to MSNBC to comment on the bedbug situation, saying the rhetoric is "dehumanizing and totally unacceptable." He also says that there's a "bad history" of "being analogized to insects that goes back to a lot of totalitarian regimes"

i don't even know what to say to this

[StephenZA]

esquire.com/news-politics/amp28829576/bret-stephens-bedbug-david-karpf-interview

Bret Stephens is above me in the status hierarchy. He knows this. I know this. He has won a Pulitzer Prize and has a regular op-ed column in the New York Times. I am just some professor. I’ve written two books, but unless you are professionally involved with digital politics, you probably have never heard of me.

So I was surprised to receive an email from Bret Stephens last night. The subject line read “From Bret Stephens, New York Times.” The provost of my university was cc’ed on the message. Stephens had found a tweet that I had written earlier that afternoon. Riffing on the headline “Breaking—there are bedbugs in the NYT newsroom,” which was drawing rounds of Twitter jokes, I had written “The bedbugs are a metaphor. The bedbugs are Bret Stephens.” The tweet had landed with a thud (nine likes, zero retweets), and I went about my day.

[Niall]

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/...39524762296320

Trump tweeting live on the debates is going to be something else.

[weldone]

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/...39524762296320

Trump tweeting live on the debates is going to be something else.

Haha that's good trolling from Trump I must say.