Random Discussion Thread

I'm busy at work today and thought that talk about Trump's victory was a joke until I decided to watch the news in the evening. I'm not interested in US politics and cannot relate to this in any way, but for some reason I was sure that Kamala would win.

For more context, it seemed like the GOP capitalized on discontent over the direction of the country and the economy. Almost 2/3 of Americans are not happy with the way the country is going and Biden's approval rating remains at a historic low.

Good explanation, I do admit my answer was oversimplistic. I never meant to suggest Biden and the economy were the only reasons

I slightly disagree on the first point, however. Voters elected Barack Obama to the presidency twice, Kamala is the sitting VP, and there are a record number of women in Congress. That's not to discount that possibly a small segment of voters were turned off because Kamala is both a woman and POC. I just don't believe it's as large of a factor.

I give you credit for giving a fair answer though

I don’t really know enough to comment on the US election but right-leaning parties are getting more and more popular worldwide and I don’t think the left realise telling everyone who leans more to the right that they’re wrong/stupid/racist/a bigot just pushes more people that way

I lean more right wing than left wing but I’d never insult anyone who leans more left or tell them they’re wrong. Politics at the moment is very much “if you don’t agree with me you’re wrong we can’t be friends!” and it’s exhausting lol

There’s definitely extremes on both sides. For me, I definitely lean to the right on policies regarding immigration. I’m not against immigration at all, I know it’s a good thing when it’s controlled, but should the UK be accepting thousands of illegal immigrants arriving from the safety of Europe, only to spend millions on hotels for them whilst we have people living on the streets and people unable to heat their homes? A lot of people on the left here seem to think we can just keep taking and paying for more and more people who are here illegally. The trans debate is a difficult one for me. I’ve no issues with people being whatever they want to be, though it’s gone way too far when we’re giving young teens puberty blockers, and we need to respect women’s private spaces. We have huge issues with knife crime in the U.K, particularly London and the facts are the majority is within the black community. But we’ve also been told by the left that the police stopping and searching in the street is now racist, even though that’s been happening historically with no issues, now knife crime is absolutely out of control in London. We have people protesting in the street when a criminal gang member, on the run after shooting somebody and with a long history of crime, tries to run over police with his car and is subsequently shot and killed - the policeman who shot him now has a bounty on his head and is in hiding after he was taken to court charged with murder (which the jury thankfully threw out).

Just speaking for the U.K, the above are some issues that a lot of people (not all!) on the left are either unwilling to deal with, or just call you racist if you have real concerns about them.

Theres definitely extremes on both sides and there’s a lack of respect from both sides from a chunk of people. Unless views are really extreme, I think it’s sad when people just think anyone who doesn’t agree with them politically is wrong/a bad person etc. It’s definitely doing more damage to the more liberal cause when people just shout racist! bigot! at anyone who disagrees. It makes people more determined to vote against it, which I think we’re seeing across the world. Labour won the most recent election in the U.K. but right leaning parties actually made up the majority of the vote, with Reform (a new party headed by Nigel Farage who I’m sure most people are aware of lol!) pulling in 4 million votes. I think social media plays a part because it’s just a huge echo chamber so people end up with this “I’m right you’re wrong” attitude because all they see are the same views as theirs. Idk, this was a long post but I just think it’s sad politics has become SO divisive over the last 10 years.

Where are you seeing that US citizens aren’t able to register to vote or aren’t able to vote? As long as you meet the basic criteria, you can vote. But if you fail to register or obtain an absentee ballot by the deadline, that’s on you. But there’s been plenty of awareness for months leading up to the election about the deadlines and how/where to register and vote. My husband and I even moved just before the election and we had no issues with re-registering in our new town and then voting.