us election thread

[Ben]

thats a flippant comment because youre right, he is not hugely experienced but id rather have a nice guy in power than a megalomaniac

[fat lesbian]

sorry ben but it's pretty shitty to sit here borderline fellating a politician while neglecting to mention that they're a despicable person

[grue]

thats a flippant comment because youre right, he is not hugely experienced but id rather have a nice guy in power than a megalomaniac

the implication of my post is that im suspicious that he plays the nice guy card to avoid his actual policies

[Ben]

oh, in that case i would say in my experience he seems like a legitimately nice person. obviously ive never met him

also this is a crummy thing to say but because i dont ACTUALLY care THAT much ive only heard him speak at length
1) on penn's podcast
2) on joe rogan's podcast
3) in the libertarian debate
4) in the libertarian town hall

he may just be the "hey man, im a cool guy" type in the first two because those are hip/lighthearted podcasts. the third case is a poor example because everyone at the debate already agrees on any crazy shit and anyone would look nice next to the other two candidates. in the last case, you can actually watch gary say some unpleasant things about economics and drug policy BUT

i think whats interesting is that he knows theyre unpleasant but wants to tell the truth as he sees it. hes honest and kind of eccentric, and if youre really interested in a good criticism of the man id watch the town hall thing that was on CNN. i would have posted that as a more representative appearance but it hadnt happened at the time of that old post

[Ben]

my bottom line with the dude is that he's an interesting option at a time where the two more likely options are worse and uninteresting

---

id be a jill stein huckster too except that i hate women am easily triggered by anti-science schtick

[grue]

ok I can see that

I was conflating my experience of Gary with my overall experience with libertarians, which is that yeah, they usually have this relaxed freedom demeanor to them, talking about authority and weed and sex in an unabashed manner. they are inherently "cool" when talking about social issues. the problem is that when they get to the "you're poor because you deserve it" bit, the spell is shattered. now usually the sort of libertarians that i come across online are pretty sardonic about the second half of their beliefs, the neoliberal side to their politics, but Gary was being all "I'm a erious man with good, grounded morals who doesn't pull shit" and that rubbed me the wrong way

which did not stop me from enjoying the interview, btw. I also enjoy this sort of pragmatic aproach to politics. but I'm also very demanding

[grue]

also niki a quick wikipedia search is easy and effectively points out that

LGBT issues
Johnson says that "government doesn't belong in the bedroom."[37][37] He believes that the government should not regulate marriage at all.[53] He believes the government "should not impose its values upon marriage" but instead "should protect the rights of couples to engage in civil unions if they wish, as well as the rights of religious organizations to follow their beliefs."[38]
He applauded the repeal of Don't ask, don't tell, and opined that the repeal was "long overdue."[54]
Formerly a supporter of civil unions for same-sex couples, on December 1, 2011, Johnson voiced his support for same-sex marriage. He believes that "denying those rights and benefits to gay couples is discrimination, plain and simple."[55] He has also stated that marriage laws should treat every individual equally.[56]
In 2013, Johnson was a signatory to an amicus curiae brief submitted to the Supreme Court in support of same-sex marriage during the Hollingsworth v. Perry case.[57]
Gary Johnson favors a federal law to legalize gay marriage across the United States, rather than leaving the issue up to the individual states.[58]

he does support the tpp, though
but my original point with this post was to ask you to make points rather than just attacks

[fat lesbian]

supporting the tpp alone should be enough for anyone to know he's a fucking idiot with no place in international politics

[fat lesbian]

"“Certainly, religions and people of various faiths have the right to view marriage as they wish, and sanction marriage according to those beliefs. Just as government shouldn’t interfere with individual rights, government should not interfere with how marriage is treated as a ceremony, a sacrament or a privilege within a set of religious beliefs" combined with saying he supports gay UNIONS but hey what kind of politician would he be if he didn't flip flop

[grue]

libertarians have been against government sanctioned marriages for a while. all of them. straight or gay.

"Permitting couples to marry when they are of the same gender is a step in the direction of equality before the law, but a truly free society would not have government in the business of defining relationships at all," said LP Chair Mark Hinkle. "Frankly, the idea that someone's legal rights should depend on whether they've entered a government-approved relationship ought to be repugnant to all of us."

i guess gary just echoes the feeling

[Relaps]

Reddit megathread on wikileaks drop on DEC emails show some very sketchy shit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/commen...egathread/

[grue]

I know this is cynical but I've yet to see a wikileaks leak that actually accomplished anything

[grue]

Ok so I've been trying to find out about Jill Stein's anti-science stances but I can't really see it. It strikes me as odd that a doctor would be anti-vaccination and she doesn't seem to be; anti-GMO maybe? all I see is asking for GMO labelling, which is something I agree with. I know greens can be batshit crazy, but maybe that's the radical minority in the party being taken for the whole, idk

[Ben]

the actual green party platform (though yes i know you should pay more attention to the person themself):

Chronic conditions are often best cured by alternative medicine. We support the teaching, funding and practice of holistic health approaches and, as appropriate, the use of complementary and alternative therapies such as herbal medicines, homeopathy, naturopathy, traditional Chinese medicine and other healing approaches.

she did an AMA on reddit that was bizarre

For homeopathy, just because something is untested doesn’t mean it’s safe. By the same token, being “tested” and “reviewed” by agencies tied to big pharma and the chemical industry is also problematic. There’s a lot of snake-oil in this system. We need research and licensing boards that are protected from conflicts of interest. They should not be limited by arbitrary definitions of what is “natural” or not.

the fuck does that even mean

she also whines about how vaccines need to be regulated because of big pharma and shes against nuclear power which is a stance i will never understand. look at this fuckin tweet

and, gary can be nutty but he at least has some self awareness about it and isnt ever just pandering by saying completely wrong shit

im all for a third party but she isnt even interesting. everything is against her like big pharma, the corporations, etc etc and im so tired of that martyr complex shit, its destined to fail

anyway honestly i just wanted to quote the party homeopathy thing plus her weird weasely non-answer but then i fell down the rabbit hole. sorry

[fat lesbian]

imo if she's against nuclear power it's most likely for the same reasons every other candidate would be (money bag emoji)