As a white American, when I hear people speaking Spanish all around me, it just makes me so grateful for the language practice.
@danielpunkass That's OK, I'm sure those horrible people will soon be put into their place by your brave boys in blue: medium.com/@Jonathan.
@danielpunkass What happened in this guys life to fill him with such irrational hatred? Sad.
Even if you're on the more conservative side of the undocumented workers fence, it doesn't require racism and hate.
@simonwoods 😥 I know our country has always been this way (or worse), but it's heartbreaking to see progressives vote for such terrible legislation.
@simonwoods A glimpse of hope in Philly though. We need a lot more politicians/DAs like Krasner. (Sorry for the repeated post. I messed up the link).
@Bruce That's also further proof to a thing I greatly believe in: local power is the ultimate counter-balance to national power. Hopefully the recent sparks of activism lead to full-blown fires of an engaged populace, at every level. It's much the same over here (in the UK).
@simonwoods True. Though Krasner is the very rare defense attorney to become a DA. And it took a pretty fucked up situation in Philly for that to happen.
@simonwoods Plus you've got the weird situation in the US where the "local" conservative state governments can overrule the actual local governments. cf North Calrolina and Charlotte with Trans* Rights.
@Bruce It'll be interesting to see how long those local quirks last as more people become better educated and equipped as a result, mostly, of advances in technology (knowledge via the internet, automation tech becoming cheaper, etc). I hope there are waves of revolutionary changes, all of which could happen pretty close to each other; not instant but not as stretched out from one another as has historically been the case.
@simonwoods This could be my ignorance, but it's my impression that structural change is easier in the U.K., with its unwritten constitution. With things codified in the US and the plethora of veto points, change is harder. Add the over representative of rural/conservative areas, opening things up can be dangerous.
@simonwoods I'm definitely being pessimistic. And the teacher strikes in conservative states may be the start of a big change. But there's a lot of factors that reinforce conservatism in the US.
@Bruce Size helps mostly, when it comes to comparisons at least. Also referendums exist for potential quick change, but as has recently been proven they are genuinely terrible as pieces of a societal system go. We do have the problem of apathy on the side of people who tend to not vote for the more conservative parties, which also appears to be the case over there.
Eh, it's weird for me because I have yet to be convinced that we shouldn't strip away national government power and put more into the hands of local government, with improvements to direct access for people to their elected officials.
@simonwoods About half the states don't have real referendums. And looking over our history, devolving National power to the States would be abandoning a lot of people to truly terrible governments. The legacy of slavery and Jim Crow lives on.
@simonwoods Hell, the Republicans in North Carolina staged a mini coup when a Democrat was elected governor.
@Bruce Definitely points to your earlier remarks about the structural differences and how they make certain things difficult. It seems local-focused change would need at least a few big other kinds of changes first. Perhaps our country will do it first and help prove that it works well -- at this point I'm willing to try any angle for a constructive approach to push change.
@Bruce Trump's biggest weapon is his pro-isolationist response. It hits a chord with people who are too afraid to admit they like him and happen to be a part of the political establishment. It's looking more and more that actual moderate (and the tiny liberal percentage) citizens have just spent a long time in denial of how powerful these people have become. No wonder The Youth are so angry and entirely done with it.