this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2024
477 points (96.1% liked)

politics

19241 readers
2750 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

The purchase of The Baltimore Sun is further proof that conservative billionaires understand the power of media control. Why don’t their liberal counterparts get it?

You have no doubt seen the incredibly depressing news about the incredibly depressing purchase of The Baltimore Sun by the incredibly depressing David Smith, chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group, the right-wing media empire best known for gobbling up local television news operations and forcing local anchors to spout toxic Big Brother gibberish like this.

The Sun was once a great newspaper. I remember reading, once upon a time, that it had sprung more foreign correspondents into action across the planet than any American newspaper save The New York Times and The Washington Post. It had eight foreign bureaus at one point, all of which were shuttered by the Tribune Company by 2006. But the Sun’s real triumphs came in covering its gritty, organic city. And even well after its glory days, it still won Pulitzers—as recently as 2020, for taking down corrupt Mayor Catherine Pugh, who served a stretch in prison thanks to the paper.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] rivermonster 29 points 10 months ago (8 children)

There are no liberal counterparts. The billionaires are all capitalists. That's all there is to it. Any other political theater they perform for you playing left and right is just theater.

Dems and Republicans are identical parties on economic policy (note I said economic, not all policies).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I don't think they're the same on economics, neoliberals push for advantages to entrenched entities and the status quo, while post-neoconservatives push for rapid moves and sabotaging existing systems

The combination of the two is crippling, and they have a lot in common (like cutting welfare programs and shaping the landscape to put up barriers of entry to reduce competition), but their styles are very different

An important thing to note - it's not a single dichotomy, there's 3-6 axises, minimum.

[–] rivermonster 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The worst crackdown in recent memory on welfare happened under Clinton and the neolibs. I think both of these groups have examples of doing the things you've listed.

I appreciate your insights but respectfully disagree as there are examples of your listed priorities across party lines.

The end part is right. The same billionaires and companies pay both sides campaign bills. Which is why they're basically the same economically.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

You're correct about Clinton, but that's not the norm. Normally, they go one step forward one step back, but they're happy to cut welfare quietly

But today, Republicans don't really go after welfare anymore - they try to pass corporate welfare and slash regulation instead

"They're the same" is a shortcut our minds take to make thinking simpler. It skips thinking about a bunch of details.

They're similar, but not the same - the subtleties matter. Even if you want to replace them all, it's important to understand them at a level deeper than "they're all corporate shills".

You have to be able to communicate about them clearly and be able to evaluate fresh faces, otherwise you're just generally complaining about how things suck

load more comments (5 replies)