• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

PoliGAF 2014 |OT| Kay Hagan and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad News

Status
Not open for further replies.

Cloudy

Banned
http://gawker.com/agreed-he-should-be-allowed-to-deprive-people-of-basic-1494554329

Republican congressman Aaron Schock — who represents Illinois' 18th congressional district — is known for one thing: being pretty and probably-almost-certainly gay. Schock is anti-gay on the record and he's frequently affirmed his straightness, but he may be feeling a gust of air this morning thanks to a sledgehammer wielded by CBS News' Itay Hod.

Early yesterday, Hod — who is also gay — posted a long note on Facebook wondering why no journalist has ever outed Schock, who he claims has been caught by a journalist in the shower with his male roommate as well as in gay bars by TMZ. "Doesn't the media have an OBLIGATION to expose hypocrisy?" he asks:


Popcorn.gif
 

Cloudy

Banned
Yeah, that is kind of weird. However, there is no way this guy throws that out there if it's false.

I feel if you're gonna take anti-gay stances, you deserve to be outed. Every other type of political hypocrisy is quickly attacked by the media.

UPDATE: Aaron Schock just locked down his Instagram account, as outing rumors swirl.

It's not like he represents the deep south. Address this head on, take your lumps for hypocrisy and move on...
 

ivysaur12

Banned
If Aaron Schock doesn't want people to think he's gay, he probably shouldn't follow Tom Daley on Instagram. Or go out in Boystown bars looking for dudes to hook up with. Or have a boyfriend.

I see no problem outing someone who takes harmful stances against gay people and could be used to show hypocracy.

That being said, he's a completely unremarkable member of congress. What is one issue that Schock has lead on? He's boring. The most interesting thing he's ever done was the Men's Health cover. He'll never be governor. Or a senator. The only thing he has going for him is that he's young and pretty.

Also, I'm so happy I follow him on Insta before he locked his account. I'm always down for pictures of him working out. He's hot.
 

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
I don't remember, but I'm amazingly bad at remembering to reply to PM's. I tend to read them in a hurry then forget to reply later. Sorry!

Not good enough! I demand a pony!




So, in other news that one douchebag congressman caught with a significant amount of cocaine says that he won't be resigning. Aside from the obvious hypocrisy of the situation, how the hell is this dude still free? Shouldn't he be in jail even if he's a congressman?
 

ivysaur12

Banned
Schock isn't a loud social issues guy, in fact his position is basically what Obama's was a few years ago. But obviously he is a hypocrite. Personally I don't support "exposing" people's personal lives publicly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST8JnDaYPZ8

Of course you can. He voted against DADT, hate crimes act, doesn't support ENDA, supports a federal marriage amendment... He's a boring shit head who has used his position of power to attempt to block gay rights causes, all while sleeping and dating men. He's the worst type of hypocrite and I totally support someone outing him for it.

Not good enough! I demand a pony!




So, in other news that one douchebag congressman caught with a significant amount of cocaine says that he won't be resigning. Aside from the obvious hypocrisy of the situation, how the hell is this dude still free? Shouldn't he be in jail even if he's a congressman?

Because he's the hip hop conservative! (I have no idea. He's really not resigning?)
 
Schock isn't a loud social issues guy, in fact his position is basically what Obama's was a few years ago. But obviously he is a hypocrite. Personally I don't support "exposing" people's personal lives publicly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST8JnDaYPZ8
Obama wasn't soliciting men to have sex with while taking harmful votes against LGBT people.

It is hypocrisy pure and simple and deserves to be exposed.

If he were a pro-gay rights legislator who just preferred to stay in the closet for whatever reason, that'd be one thing.
 

ivysaur12

Banned
That Democrat congressman running for governor in Maine? No need to pry into his sexual orientation, and when he came out, it's no big deal.

The Foleys, Craigs, and Schocks of the world should be exposed.
 

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
Because he's the hip hop conservative! (I have no idea. He's really not resigning?)

Yup.

A few days before Christmas, fresh from a month in rehab, Radel held a news conference with his wife by his side. He apologized and said that alcohol, not cocaine, is his main problem, and that's what he was treated for.

But the main point of his news conference was to say that he would not step down from Congress.

"I love what I do," Radel said. "And I'm going to return to what I do, what you sent me to do in Washington, D.C — which is working for you and your family."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpoli...eaders-rep-trey-radel-wont-resign-after-rehab

In fairness, it seems his Republican colleagues are not happy with his decision, so I guess that's something.
 
That Democrat congressman running for governor in Maine? No need to pry into his sexual orientation, and when he came out, it's no big deal.

The Foleys, Craigs, and Schocks of the world should be exposed.
4 years ago I would have said Crist too, but it seems like he's seen the error of his ways, even if it's for political convenience above all else.

Also considering Schock seems to have been found doing this kind of stuff in very public places, that only adds to the pile.
 

Cloudy

Banned
Schock isn't a loud social issues guy, in fact his position is basically what Obama's was a few years ago. But obviously he is a hypocrite. Personally I don't support "exposing" people's personal lives publicly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST8JnDaYPZ8

Obama didn't have this on his resume:

Ever since he was elected to Congress, Aaron Schock gladly partook in, and fed, the Republican party’s virulent homophobia:

Schock voted against adding sexual orientation to the already-existing hate crimes law.
Schock voted against the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
Schock opposed the repeal of DOMA.
Schock is against gay marriage; and
Schock is for the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would add language to the US Constitution banning gay marriage and likely striking down every gay rights law and ordinance in the country.
 
I disagree with that as well. Those divisions exist and are real but they are exploited for class reasons. For example, I agree with you that race is a big reason why the US looks the way it does in terms of its weak social services and conception of the public good relative to Western European nations, but the only reason social services and conceptions of the public good are in fact weak is because it is desirable to the ruling employing class. Race divisions are useful to (and therefore exacerbated by) class war, i.e., keeping labor bargaining power and political power low. The entire Republican base has effectively been rendered useful idiots for the employing class by their xenophobia. It's not that their xenophobia is not real, but that it is encouraged, played upon, and ultimately parlayed into political power by the ruling employing (corporate) class, or at least the more extreme faction of it.

This is what makes progress for the working class so difficult in capitalism. Not only do responsible members of society have to advocate for the class interests of the exploited worker, he or she also has to fight on all of the other egregious fronts that the employing class exploits (race, religion, sex, orientation etc.). It would be entirely too easy if the only fight was over class (99.9% of the population against 0.1%).
That's why we hold different view points I do not think those differences are created or amplified by 'class warriors' more than others groups. I also think its really belittling to say someone can be to stupid to see they're being used or that a few people can exert and control that many. I don't think class is THE major dividing line.

I don't deny its exploited by some. Racial politics is real. But I don't see class as the main dividing line I see it as just another division like race, gender, nationality, religion that people use to group people together.


Edit:btw you guys following the #fullcommunist rolling stones guy on Twitter. Wrote and article advocating socialist things (2 of which Milton Friedman wanted) conservatives are in a tizzy. I don't really agree with much the guy says but it's pretty funny.
 
MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry said on Sunday that "ObamaCare" is a term white men made up to degrade President Obama and make him feel inferior.

"This word was conceived by a group of wealthy white men who needed a way to put themselves above and apart from a black man," Harris-Perry said in the opening segment of her MSNBC show.

Obama has used the word when referring to his signature Affordable Care Act, but Harris-Perry contested that his political opponents cornered him into doing so. She said that he was forced to embrace the term to prevent ObamaCare's woes from becoming directly symbolic of himself.

"[ObamaCare] was a word originally intended as a derogatory term, meant to shame and divide," she said. "So he decided, if you can't beat them, you've got to join them. And he embraced the word and made it his own."
http://thehill.com/video/in-the-news/192464-msnbc-host-obamacare-is-a-racist-term

God I can't stand her.
 

Lafiel

と呼ぶがよい
Cultural, racial, religious, gender differences all are often far more important than your 'class'. Marxism disagrees with that. If you start from a faulty premise your gonna come to faulty conclusions. Like I said I think Marx's observations about class are set and founded in the European experience.
I don't see these things as separate from class as they have a strong influence over one's class, that is heavily dependent on the society one lives in - such as for example having the right racial and religious background contributes to your status in society. Which doesn't contradict Marx observations about class in society imo.

Although from what I've learned (and someone more informed can probably correct me on this) is "class conflict" really a marxist idea exclusively? wasn't the basic thing that makes marxism stand out from other models of class analysis that were previously put forward by other social scientists of the day is the class conflict that is evident in our history leads to a dictatorship of the proletariat?
 

Diablos

Member
Loving the title. I wonder what Kay Hagan would think if she came across this from a search engine or Twitter? :D
 

War Peaceman

You're a big guy.
The David Brooks article which that satire references is so, so bad. I know the guy is a notorious bore, but christ almighty. I'm not even particularly in favour of marijuana legalisation but it is just so intellectually lazy.
 

Karakand

Member
Although from what I've learned (and someone more informed can probably correct me on this) is "class conflict" really a marxist idea exclusively? wasn't the basic thing that makes marxism stand out from other models of class analysis that were previously put forward by other social scientists of the day is the class conflict that is evident in our history leads to a dictatorship of the proletariat?

No, it permeates the non-Marxian/st left.
And Republican talking points.

What differentiated it then (and, for the most part, now) it is that Marxist conceptions of class are based on answering questions about the nature of a society's production and categorizing people based on their relation to that manner of production. The gross annual income method we generally use in the U.S. can't be meaningfully ported backwards (or possibly forwards) in time or even within the present between different locations because it's really not that empirical; historical materialism can be used to analyze and categorize any scarcity-based society.

Dictatorship of the proletariat is more of a mainstay of non-Maoist Marxist-Leninist writing than it is in Marx's writings (where the idea came from). For Marx it was a hypothesis about what would be necessary to transition away from capitalism as the bourgeoisie don't just say, "sure, hey, good luck," when attempts are made to end their monopoly on economic power.

For the record, in 2014, if you act like the economic aspect of the class war is all that matters I'm going to suspect that you're a brocialist. If you think that struggles for equality of a nonspecific economic character (e.g. racial) are superior to and largely separate from the struggles for economic equality I'm going to suggest that you read some actual books before someone starts thinking of you as a flunkey with nothing to say. (For reference, I would recommend Wendy Z. Goldman's short work "Working-Class Woman and the 'Withering Away' of the Family: Popular Responses to Family Policy [in the Early Soviet Union]".)

e: Wrong dang year.
 

Diablos

Member
It wouldn't surprise me
Yeah, it would kind of go hand in hand with constantly being in denial and employing the use of revisionist history when it best suits one's goals in the party.

I doubt they all are gay, but I'm sure a surprising amount actually are. Or are completely lost in terms of who they really think they are. You can only sip so much of that kool aid until it starts to break your psyche, I don't care who you are.
 
How would that even work?

"I hear the shower running, guess I'd better barge in on the guy naked just in case there's a story there!"
I think it goes like

1) Anti-gay marriage Congressman rumored to be gay goes in shower
2) Another guy most definitely gay also goes into shower

Journalist probably put 2 and 2 together. But yeah very tabloid-ey.
 
For the record, in 2014, if you act like the economic aspect of the class war is all that matters I'm going to suspect that you're a brocialist. If you think that struggles for equality of a nonspecific economic character (e.g. racial) are superior to and largely separate from the struggles for economic equality I'm going to suggest that you read some actual books before someone starts thinking of you as a flunkey with nothing to say. (For reference, I would recommend Wendy Z. Goldman's short work "Working-Class Woman and the 'Withering Away' of the Family: Popular Responses to Family Policy [in the Early Soviet Union]".)

e: Wrong dang year.

So you can't just disagree with their conclusions?

I also don't agree with historical materialism. I think ideas and non-material things matter and have mattered and I know marx doesn't dismiss them entirely but he claims they aren't the 'base' of social organization.
 

Lafiel

と呼ぶがよい
What differentiated it then (and, for the most part, now) it is that Marxist conceptions of class are based on answering questions about the nature of a society's production and categorizing people based on their relation to that manner of production. The gross annual income method we generally use in the U.S. can't be meaningfully ported backwards (or possibly forwards) in time or even within the present between different locations because it's really not that empirical; historical materialism can be used to analyze and categorize any scarcity-based society.
We covered that whole "gross income' method of measuring social class in a class on Marxism I took a while back. I think the overall consensus the class came to through group discussion is that from a marxist perspective, the idea of the so-called middle-class is a illusion created by the bourgeoisie, as the middle-class still don't own the means of production therefore are still very much a part of the proletariat from that perspective of class relationships, which is something that goes contrary to the fact that we like to separate the two in our society.
Dictatorship of the proletariat is more of a mainstay of non-Maoist Marxist-Leninist writing than it is in Marx's writings (where the idea came from). For Marx it was a hypothesis about what would be necessary to transition away from capitalism as the bourgeoisie don't just say, "sure, hey, good luck," when attempts are made to end their monopoly on economic power.
From my reading of the Communist manifesto - Marx always appeared to be more prescriptive when it came to that whole idea of the "dictatorship of proletariat" as opposed to this more religious description of the idea that I constantly hear from a local socialist political group in my country (which is Australia).
For the record, in 2014, if you act like the economic aspect of the class war is all that matters I'm going to suspect that you're a brocialist. If you think that struggles for equality of a nonspecific economic character (e.g. racial) are superior to and largely separate from the struggles for economic equality I'm going to suggest that you read some actual books before someone starts thinking of you as a flunkey with nothing to say. (For reference, I would recommend Wendy Z. Goldman's short work "Working-Class Woman and the 'Withering Away' of the Family: Popular Responses to Family Policy [in the Early Soviet Union]".)
What's a brocialist? is that what we call Russell Brand? :) and I don't necessarily believe that the economic aspect of the class war is all that matters when it comes to questions of equality, yet I'm going be humble for a second here and admit to you that my only knowledge of capitalism/political science/marxism come from a combination of watching five-seasons of The Wire, taking a free course on Marxism and a sociology of education unit in my own course - as well as participating in political activism events and discussion forums.;) I'll put those two on the good old reading list, thanks for the recommendation.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
From my reading of the Communist manifesto - Marx always appeared to be more prescriptive when it came to that whole idea of the "dictatorship of proletariat" as opposed to this more religious description of the idea that I constantly hear from a local socialist political group in my country (which is Australia).

That's my experience in general with the text of Marx versus the actual people who group up in real life.
 

ivysaur12

Banned
http://dryerreport.com/obamacare-the-constitution-and-the-man-who-would-be-king/

Challenge: Read both the article and browse around for 10 minutes. See how long you last.

wat

2013 was NOT a good year for America, Americans, or the world. The list of things gone wrong because of the misguided policies and corruption of the Obama administration could fill a book let alone an op-ed. Ranging from the ‘Ghosts of Benghazi’ and Extortion 17; our still faltering economy with millions of Americans out of work; the nightmare known as ObamaCare; ILLEGALS demanding amnesty; the NSA spying on ‘We the People’ and the IRS running amok; the stabbing of Israel in the back; Iran flexing its muscle and Obama acquiescing; and Syria a total mess as Obama sides with the al-Qaeda supported rebels…the list goes on and on ad-nauseum.

And lest we forget John Boehner and John McCain morphing into the vileness that is the hallmark of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi as they continue to slam the TEA Party…the one true bright spot in an otherwise dismal political year. And don’t dare get me started on Chris Christie…the man the GOP establishment is trying to cram down our throats like they did with John McCain in 2008…the man who might as well just put a ‘D’ after his name and be done with it.
 
Scott Walker is on CNN. He has the perfect face that makes you want to falcon punch.

If Wisconsinites dont boot this asshole, they deserve whatever fate befalls them.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom