Imagine being a Pennsylvanian in 1796 and reading a pamphlet of this
hot take days after learning France, through Pierre-Auguste Adet, were
suggesting war if America didn’t elect Jefferson.
The focus of the current impeachment process is Trump apparently
encouraging Ukrainians to find and distribute true dirt on Joe
Biden.
No, what’s apparent is that Trump was extorting the president of
Ukraine to produce false dirt on Joe Biden. I guess it’s pretty innocent
sounding when you take out or change all the shady details.
And it doesn't matter whether there's true dirt or not. The channels and leverage he was exploiting to push for it makes it illegal regardless. The proper way to respond to the possibility that your political rival is corrupt is not to personally exploit the office of President to shake down foreign dignitaries for assistance.
>Trump was extorting
It seems to me that you're letting them bury the lede: "what does Trump do" elides the distinction between Trump the person, and Trump as elected rep of the nation of the United States. And this is exactly the problem
If Trump wants to sneak off to a closet in the UN and make out with Putin, that's pretty much just a personal thing for him. It speaks ill of his ability to prosecute formal international negotiations with Putin, if they were lovers, but it's not severely problematic
When Trump wants to spew tariffs at the Chinese, that's entirely within his formal powers as President.
But when Trump uses missiles as leverage to force the Ukrainian government to **talk to Rudy Giuliani**, and pursue his conspiracy theories, he's crossing the streams. Maybe if you're deep enough in the right wing, you'll actually buy the transparent "we're just trying to root out corruption!" excuse, and not notice a) it's a conspiracy theory with absolutely no demonstrated basis in fact b) their story misrepresents basic facts on the ground, like the collective international outcry that VP Biden merely joined to remove the prosecutor c) Trump is turning to Ukrainian intelligence instead of his own FBI / CIA / etc
> It seems to me that you're letting them bury the lede: "what does Trump do" elides the distinction between Trump the person, and Trump as elected rep of the nation of the United States. And this is exactly the problem
I think it was clear enough that I was referring to Trump the person abusing the power of the office he was elected to for his own political advantage above and over the interests of the country, but sure, maybe I should spell that out for some hypothetical reader who's still uninformed enough to think Trump's actions were justifiable in the ways you describe. Given the audience of my comment is /r/SneerClub, that seems like over-explaining to me, but sure.
Yes, obviously the issue is that Dems want it to be illegal for
Ukrainians to say anything about US presidential candidates. I am
confident I understand the situation exactly.
Authoritarians tend to see democracy (and its trappings, including voting rights, civil society, free press, free speech, etc.) as just a tool to gain power. They don’t value it on principle and wouldn’t object to removing it once their own power is consolidated.
So I vaguely remembered a hot take from a while back where Hanson
argued that actually China has way more freedom of speech than
America (because SJWs), and was gonna use it to troll a rationalist I
know IRL. This was literally the first article I saw while searching for
it.
I realise now the absurdity of trying to find a specific sneerworthy
article from Hanson - like searching for a needle in a giant pile of
needles.
If only there were some way to know Trump’s opinion about free speech or journalism
If you use a spam filter for your mail. You hate free speech. Boycot google!
Imagine being a Pennsylvanian in 1796 and reading a pamphlet of this hot take days after learning France, through Pierre-Auguste Adet, were suggesting war if America didn’t elect Jefferson.
No, what’s apparent is that Trump was extorting the president of Ukraine to produce false dirt on Joe Biden. I guess it’s pretty innocent sounding when you take out or change all the shady details.
Yes, obviously the issue is that Dems want it to be illegal for Ukrainians to say anything about US presidential candidates. I am confident I understand the situation exactly.
If you don’t actually value democracy at all, I can see how the Ukraine scandal wouldn’t distress you.
So I vaguely remembered a hot take from a while back where Hanson argued that actually China has way more freedom of speech than America (because SJWs), and was gonna use it to troll a rationalist I know IRL. This was literally the first article I saw while searching for it.
I realise now the absurdity of trying to find a specific sneerworthy article from Hanson - like searching for a needle in a giant pile of needles.
The funniest part is his Twitter poll says to only answer if you’re a US citizen.
Hanson should get cancer