So not planned obsolescence, then?

George Conway, a former Republican lawyer, responded: “There is a distinct possibility that some people are too stupid to participate in a democracy.”

Gee golly, I wonder whose fault that is 🙄

Collapse.

Other way around, actually.

The one so worried about their 401Ks they won’t risk the ire of the rich.

Oh, well, if Google does it then it must be okay.

Or conservapedia, the fox news of wikipedias.

6. ND folk make for an easy scapegoat for excuses to grab at yet more power.

With these kinds of people, it’s rarely personal. They only care what these actions can do for them, not how those actions affect others, whether it’s part of their in group or not.

Do you have a name to go with that torturer or do I get to just take your word for it?

“Leftist” is a particularly difficult descriptor to nail down, especially in the US. It can refer to people with actually progressive views, or just people who see something that helps them advocate violence against people they dont like, or even elements of Stalinism that people like to assume is progressive when it’s closer to fascism in practice.

Yes, but those are far-right groups who represent a tiny minority manipulating more moderate right-leaning demographics. Most Trump voters you’ll meet will probably be really personable until you hit a specific topic they’ve been trained to react negatively to.

Thats the main problem in fighting these trends, people expect everyone supporting these awful policies to actually know what they mean and represent the hard right that is just influencing them.

There’s a small hard right in the US (and probably most other places that are starting to get more authoritarian), that doesn’t stop them from manipulating their moderate compatriots.

Until we stop it, one way or another.

Talk to the Irish and Polish about 19th century racism.

Limiting racism to skin color is a more modern interpretation.

I would say influencing others has less to do with racism and more to do with power mongering. People with power influencing others to get the outcome they want. Plenty of Democratic representatives who aren’t otherwise racist are impacted by them.

It’s an early season, though, so it has a bit of TOS feel to it, at least.

One can make more than one reference at a time.

“Use the force, Harry” ~Gandalf

It’s also propaganda, AIPAC has been pushing the idea of Israel devotion for decades in the US. I’d imagine there’s similar lobbying groups (in less obvious forms) in other countries as well.

Depends on if you consider the civilians stuck in the middle of the conflict to be “in the fight”. They’re certainly casualties of it.

Is JJ Abrams involved as well?

Yeah, that’s not a radical belief analogous to what you claim to hate at all.