Tuesday, 29 September 2020

How to Defeat PragerU: Introducing the Gravel Institute

quote [ There's a big problem on the internet: right-wing groups like PragerU pour lies and disinformation into the feeds of every American. H Jon Benjamin (of Bob's Burgers and Archer) explains how The Gravel Institute is fighting back. ]

Their first video:
Is Big Government Really the Problem? - YouTube
Decent animation, clear cut presentation. Hopefully it will make a difference.
[SFW] [politics] [+3 Insightful]
[by steele@11:42amGMT]

Comments

Hugh E. said @ 11:52am GMT on 29th Sep
That video is oddly both-sidesy while outlining problematic policies one party has been responsible for implementing for the past 60 years.
mechavolt said[1] @ 12:09am GMT on 30th Sep [Score:2]
I mean, it's objectively true that both Republicans and Democrats are bought by the same monied interests. The main difference is how they get voters: Republicans through fearmongering and xenophobia, Democrats through empty promises of social/racial justice. The best part about both of these is that in the grand scale, nothing ever changes for the big money folks.
steele said @ 5:29pm GMT on 30th Sep
Good news, the Dems have added fearmongering and xenophobia to their repertoire as well!💁‍♂️😅
Hugh E. said @ 12:01am GMT on 1st Oct
Come on. How facile apathetic hipster can you be?
Which party supported marriage equality? Women's rights to property ownership? Workers' rights? Reproductive rights? etc. etc. etc. but you know this.

What is the point of this nothing matters everything sucks burn it all down pose? There are things to be fixed, for certain, lots of things. And in this FPTP/two party system, one party has shown itself more amenable to the aforementioned accomplishments. That's the objectively true fact.
mechavolt said @ 1:40am GMT on 1st Oct
Hey, I'd like to thank you for reading so much into my comment.

Of course one party is better than the other. That doesn't mean they're perfect. Need I remind you of Democrat-led justice reform that hurt minority communities? Or globalist economic policies that hurt the lower class? Or the abandonment of union workers in favor of technocratic voters?

I vote Democrat, because despite all their fuck ups (and they are significant fuck ups) they are still the better option.

But enjoy your strawman, you seem to getting along just fine with him.
Hugh E. said @ 5:06am GMT on 1st Oct
Where is the fallacy? You posit that Democrat promises of social/racial justice are empty. The response points to examples of them delivering.
The response recognizes more needs to be done. You agree.
Where is the argument?
mechavolt said[1] @ 4:17pm GMT on 1st Oct
So here is your fallacy:

Marriage equality: Might I remind you what party implemented Don't Ask Don't Tell? It's only been within the last decade that Democrats have finally come around on LGBT rights -- they have a much longer history of flat out ignoring them. And what they've come around to supporting is just marriage -- there is still huge amounts of discrimination that the Democratic lawmakers just do not address. Furthermore, it was the Supreme Court who decided on marriage equality, not Democratic lawmakers.

Women's right to property ownership: This is going so far back that it's not even the same party anymore.

Worker's rights: Again, this is the old Democratic party. The current neoliberal establishment does not give a fuck about worker's rights. They don't support unions. They don't support livable wages.

Reproductive rights: Democrats have been relying on Roe v Wade for over FORTY YEARS instead of actually changing the laws to permanently protect this. If you're talking about contraception, kudos to adding it to the ACA, but then they went and allowed the religious exemption, which effectively neuters it for many people.

And here is your strawman: How facile apathetic hipster can you be? What is the point of this nothing matters everything sucks burn it all down pose?"

Again, my position is the Democrats are preferable to Republicans, but they are far from perfect. I still stand by my argument that the social change they promise is empty or limited in scope to where it doesn't affect their true constituents' pockets. Any social change you see from the Democratic establishment is economically neutered.
steele said @ 4:46pm GMT on 29th Sep
That would probably be because America is a politically Right country with two right wing parties. That one party happens to be the left of an openly fascist party does not make that party Leftist.

We had a pretty good amount of posts regarding that back in 2015/2016 but the linchpin of them was mostly my Neoliberal Reading list, which could probably use a small update.
Hugh E. said @ 11:51pm GMT on 30th Sep
What of the idea of degrees? Two things can be not ideal while at the same time one is markedly worse. Shouldn't the worse one be given more attention and warning as it is more dangerous?
steele said @ 1:41am GMT on 1st Oct
Two people. One tells you vaccines are fake, while the other tries to sell you a fake vaccine. They're both keeping you from being vaccinated because they've locked actual doctors out of the discussion, which one is worse?
Hugh E. said @ 4:54am GMT on 1st Oct
lol And I'm the one getting accused of making a straw man argument. eyeroll emoji goes here.
steele said @ 4:36pm GMT on 1st Oct
That's not a strawman argument, that's a metaphor. One applicable to healthcare, justice reform, public institutions, raising taxes on the wealthy, and numerous other political topics.
endopol said[1] @ 9:20pm GMT on 29th Sep
Government has a duty to the people regardless of their ability and willingness to subsidize policymakers. The video supports the Democrats insofar as it agrees with their deeds and platform.
endopol said[1] @ 10:02pm GMT on 29th Sep
There's no harm in both-sidesing, as long as it doesn't dull your sense of perspective. After flirting with the Libertarians for a while, Mike Gravel came back to the Democratic party, so he seems to have kept his.
endopol said @ 9:09pm GMT on 29th Sep
I assumed it was named for H. Jon Benjamin's gravelly voice.
conception said @ 12:02am GMT on 30th Sep
The Introduction video is really bad. Really bad.

But the Big Gov one is really good.

Signed up nonetheless. Hopefully more of the latter and less of the former.
damnit said @ 7:49am GMT on 1st Oct
Blocking their main YouTube channel and FB page gets rid of their ads on YouTube or your FB timeline.

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