On top of the fundamentally racist politics of the South is a less discussed class system between the back-woods/rural poor folk and the landed/often urban wealthy. The latter is the one that likes to tout the whole “Southern hospitality” and “gentlemanly” culture bullshit. Neither are particularly welcoming of…

The hateful rhetoric doesn’t help, and we sure as shit need allies anywhere we can find them. Writing off an entire state that still has hundreds of thousands of people who aren’t rabidly racist/homophobic/Christian identitarian is a shit idea. The frustration should be at our fucking flawed political system that…

The geography matters only in terms of where certain political tribes tend to be in higher concentration. The political tribalism itself, where people vote more based on whom they perceive to be a champion for their side (mostly cultural) rather than on some sort of political philosophy, is absolutely the main driver.…

It’s almost as if Republican and evangelical voters in the South were a bunch of reactionaries that aren’t so much voting their “conscience” or “values” as they are voting against the people they see as enemies in some sort of “culture war.” I might even go so far as to say that these voters don’t really give a shit…

Just saw this episode last night but was really drunk, so my recollection is hazy. Can someone fill me in as to why El was hanging out with the Burger King Kids Club Gang?

Of course Republicans are ultimately to blame, but it is incredibly naive to think that they are ever going to suddenly see the error of their ways, which is what Hillary’s campaign was banking on. They thought a ton of “moderate” Republicans would either defect or just not vote. The fact that Trump had won the…

Yeah, that was just a load of horseshit he claimed to reduce his own responsibility in the matter. An eleven-year-old, while not capable of consent, is not a fucking toddler; assuming no developmental disability, they’re fully capable of retelling what happened. And how the hell could it be unintentional unless he had…

Alternative theory: Hannity knows future sponsors will be reluctant to sign on if his fans prove to be rabid idiots and will “boycott” them if they ever decide to withdraw sponsorship. His advertisers probably have a sense of this already, but the opportunity to advertise to an audience of morons credulous enough to…

Ugh, such utter bullshit. Trump won primarily because Hillary was uninspiring to regular poor folk who don’t give a shit about 1,2,3, and 5. Contrary to popular opinion, the actual results of the election reflect that poor people (aside from the rural poor) are still the major base for the Dems, not fucking poly-sci…

Look, the right-wing hate machine is going to find some way to go after anyone the Dems pick. The whole “Americans don’t like dynasties” crap that pundits like to mention is about as meaningful as all the other shit they’ve said over the years regarding elect-ability. If there is any small upside to Trump winning,…

Trump has thoroughly demonstrated that the president can basically be a rampaging man-toddler with absolutely no understanding of how our system works, yet still can more or less get by kicking and screaming while a few “competent” members hold his hand. The office of presidency needs a drastic reduction in powers for…

“he appeared to have a modicum of respect for some of the US political institutions”. If anything, this is a reason to hate Bush even more. These beloved institutions have helped perpetuate a supremely fucked up underlying system, whose total disregard for the majority of its citizens helped pave the way for Trump.…

So I guess you’re off the hook then. Must be a big relief.

What, the sexual abuse in the Entertainment Industry or the reporting thereof?

That’s not the source of the cognitive dissonance. The problem is whether should we continue to enjoy something that was produced by a horrible excuse for a human being. I don’t think there is an easy answer, particularly since great works of art often have many hands in their creation. However, as consumers we sure…

I think Hannity in many ways is just the naive “true-believer” of the Fox-News crew, and may in a slight sense not be as much of a scumbag. Everyone else at his level understands the whole thing is a grift and uses it to enrich themselves and gain access to pretty, young blondes. Hannity will be the only one drinking…

And the entire Jared Fogle thing was a false flag to make Americans think it is somehow wrong or unnatural for a middle-aged man to want to date a middle-school aged girl.

Nice sentiment, but it misses the fact that the same people have always been this awful, have always been prone to conspiracy theories that support their core beliefs, and never have been nor will be convinced by high-minded ideas about civil society from outsiders. When the GOP took the South into their ranks, they…

That is the reality. The majority of the people of Alabama would absolutely elect even an unrepentant pedo over a Democrat. Liberals for some reason continue to have this delusion that cultural conservatives give a shit about being racist or actually care about “traditional values” over the promise of returning to an…

In summary, “The Leftovers is great because it takes a mysterious and haunting premise, stretches out all the trappings that go along with that premise and how people deal with it, and says ‘fuck you’ to anybody that might be interested in any sort of ultimate explanation for that premise.” <See also the rest of Damon…