Fractal Softworks Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

Author Topic: Make America Great Britain again!  (Read 5363 times)

kazi

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 714
    • View Profile
Make America Great Britain again!
« on: November 09, 2016, 03:18:37 PM »

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/queen-offers-to-restore-british-rule-over-united-states

In all seriousness though, a little horrified at my home country right now (full disclosure: I'm an American who's been living in Canada for the last decade, voted for Hillary). I don't think most Trump voters realize the damage that just got done for the sake of "sticking it to the man".

All of that said, I don't think Trump will end up being the literal end of the world like most people make him out to be (based on cabinet picks, Trump seems to be pretty "Republican establishment"). All of the climate change-denial is worrying, but damage there should be mitigated a bit by binding agreements already in place and senate filibusters (the market also has been aggressively adopting clean energy on its own lately, which is a positive sign). And if there's any silver lining to all of this, it's that the Democratic party is going to get razed to the ground and will get some actual reform for once (we all know the Dem candidate should have been Bernie...).

Anyhow, thoughts? Never thought I'd be looking back wistfully on the Bush administration, of all things...  :-X

* edited to be slightly less inflammatory - I'm not trying to burn Trump voters here, just start a discussion <3
« Last Edit: November 09, 2016, 06:05:13 PM by kazi »
Logged

Tartiflette

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 3529
  • MagicLab discord: https://discord.gg/EVQZaD3naU
    • View Profile
Re: Make America Great Britain again!
« Reply #1 on: November 09, 2016, 04:18:44 PM »

No no no no no no noooooooo nope nope don't do that, don't do that, You know it's not going to end well stop it now.
Logged
 

Camael

  • Lieutenant
  • **
  • Posts: 70
    • View Profile
Re: Make America Great Britain again!
« Reply #2 on: November 09, 2016, 05:09:32 PM »

Well, noone expected him to win with such massive superiority in the electoral college (people tend to forget looking at the actual voters' count which is roughly 50/50) but it's a symptom and an important signal. As a European I am kind of glad it went exactly like this (the only other good result would have been a participation below 20%) because the signals are coming in. Brexit. Front National. AFD. Now this guy. People will happily vote for someone who has broken all rules of good taste and civilized ... well... existing, who has proven to be a total failure even in his non-political profession... just to, as You say it, "stick it to the man". It probably won't work at all, (maybe it will, the guy is just unpredictable enough to actually fokk up the big economic players active in the U.S.) but it tells the established political factions in the western world that they have to start getting their shyte together. And in Germany at least, they have started panicking and worrying yesterday morning. These are delicate times, if not war, then climate change and overpopulation will wreck our planet pretty soon. And the western culture is responsible. We invented and exported the ultimate "change" blockers, mass media, mass industry and automated weapons. Now we are just sitting here, not feeling responsible, while our core values degenerate and our political system has become little more than an administrative tool for the economy. People notice. People don't know exactly what went wrong, what is wrong, how to get out of it, but they notice something is severely broken. And I sincerely hope the Trump election will make it a necessary point on every party's agenda to demonstrate that they can control the economy. At least. And at some point maybe actual western culture will be reinforced, instead of the choice between slightly idealized plutocracy and dumb nationalism. Right now I think it's not yet too late (sorry U.S., You'll have to deal with classic republican nonsense again for four years, but meh, You'll survive) but this boot in the face of "reason" might just be enough to wake up our own leaders over here.

Then again, nobody took Stalin seriously, and the German industrialists thought Hitler was a clown and easy to control. Especially with the latter, he also rose to popularity after a period of liberalism and reason, that just did not manage to properly repair the country quickly enough. We'll see.
Logged

TJJ

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 1905
    • View Profile
Re: Make America Great Britain again!
« Reply #3 on: November 09, 2016, 05:35:18 PM »

My biggest concern is the ease with which all these anti-establishment movements have taken hold.
All it took was a recession, followed by slow recovery, for a majority of the electorate in both the UK & US to lose all sense of reason & perspective.

Imagine when we hit peak oil, and economic growth stagnates globally.
Then factor in the effects of global warming; reduced food yields and more unpredictable weather patterns, leading to more frequent extreme weather events.
Mass migrations on a scale never seen before seems like an inevitable consequence to me; can you imagine a less prosperous EU coping with 10 Syrian refugee crisis' simultaneously?

Maybe The Wachowskis had it right; ~1999 was the peak of our civilisation!
Logged

kazi

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 714
    • View Profile
Re: Make America Great Britain again!
« Reply #4 on: November 09, 2016, 05:41:28 PM »

No no no no no no noooooooo nope nope don't do that, don't do that, You know it's not going to end well stop it now.

ahahahaa toooooo late

Maybe The Wachowskis had it right; ~1999 was the peak of our civilisation!

Well, you're not wrong...  :P
Logged

The2nd

  • Lieutenant
  • **
  • Posts: 81
    • View Profile
Re: Make America Great Britain again!
« Reply #5 on: November 09, 2016, 05:53:12 PM »

can you imagine a less prosperous EU coping with 10 Syrian refugee crisis' simultaneously?

One doesn't need to imagine much, just watch "Children of Men".



From an outside perspective it's kinda amusing. American politics have become like a bad reality TV show. It still seems surreal.

Interesting times.
Logged

Midnight Kitsune

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 2846
  • Your Friendly Forum Friend
    • View Profile
Re: Make America Great Britain again!
« Reply #6 on: November 09, 2016, 06:32:56 PM »

Why don't you come down and try living here for a decade instead of hiding in the great white north. You weren't here when my family had to drop their health insurance because it had doubled. You weren't there when they lost their jobs because of the "Affordable" Care Act forcing businesses to provide health insurance (which they bypass by firing and cutting hours). You weren't there when they were getting their cars and houses vandalized JUST because they supported Trump.

Republicans got through 8 years without protests and riots so surely you can make it through 4 years of Trump. If you don't like it then get off your ass and try to change it. Or hell, why don't you listen to Hilary and work towards UNITY instead of throwing temper tantrums all across the US.
Logged
Help out MesoTroniK, a modder in need

2021 is 2020 won
2022 is 2020 too

Alex

  • Administrator
  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 23986
    • View Profile
Re: Make America Great Britain again!
« Reply #7 on: November 09, 2016, 06:55:48 PM »

Hmm, yeah, let's not. I'm glad this has been civil but the likelihood of it staying that way if left open seems vanishingly low.
Logged