The Most Active Threads Since Friday

The most active thread over the weekend was one that was just created yesterday. Titled, "Shooting at Trump’s FL golf course while he was there" and posted in the "Political Discussion" forum, the thread was created just after reports that there had been a shooting in the vicinity of former President, current cult leader, and convicted felon Donald Trump. The first news of this shooting came from a report by Trump's communications director who simply said that there had been shooting near Trump but that Trump was safe and unhurt. A New York Post tweet soon circulated saying that the shooting occurred outside Trump's Florida golf course and involved two individuals shooting at each other and was unrelated to Trump. This caused a number of the early posters to suggest that Trump was attempting to milk an unrelated situation to generate sympathy and redirect attention from his anti-immigrant remarks involving Haitians in Springfield, Ohio. However, officials soon held a press conference in which they described what had happened as a planned assassination of Trump. A U.S. secret service agent had discovered an individual hiding in bushes with a rifle aimed toward the golf course at which Trump was golfing and opened fire. An individual had later been arrested and a semi-automatic rifle had been found at the scene. Once the name of the individual arrested was publicized, posters engaged in a desparate contest to determine his political leanings and blame the opposite political party. In the case of the earlier shooting of Trump, the shooter had unclear political leanings and had researched the whereabouts of political figures across the political spectrum. Trump appears to have been nothing more than a target of opportunity with no particular partisan political significance to the shooter. The individual involved in this incident has a similarly confusing political identity, though one that was much more public. The attempted assassin previously tweeted that he had voted for Trump but then become disenchanted with him. He also tweeted support for former Republican presidential candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley. But, reports showed that he is a registered Democrat. The earlier shooter was a registered Republican but posters devoted pages of posts insisting that party registration was meaningless and that, in fact, people register for a party they don't support all the time. However, in this case, posters insisted that party registration was definitive. The individual in the lastest incident clearly is obsessed with Ukraine, having traveled there and attempted to recruit foreign volunteers to fight against Russia. If he has any political motivation to shoot Trump, it is probably related to Ukraine and its conflict with Russia. However, it is most likely that the man who was arrested suffers from mental health issues. As such, it may be difficult to find logic in his actions. Regardless, posters of all political persuasions in this thread seem entirely uninterested in facts other than using them to support their personal political arguments, even if that meant twisting them or ignoring unwanted information. Very few posters are willing to wait to see what the facts reveal but, instead, simply want to score political points. The result is the thread getting bogged down in disputes over meaningless minutiae such as whether liberals or conservatives are more likely to build sheds for the homeless.

The next most active thread over the weekend was also posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. This thread was titled, "I’m a secret Trump voter, anyone else?". The original poster says that she voted for former President, current cult leader, and convicted felon Donald Trump in the past two elections and plans to vote for him again. However, she is embarrassed by Trump's antics and is ashamed to reveal how she votes. She says that her husband doesn't even know that she supports Trump. The phenomenon of "secret" Trump voters has come up repeatedly on DCUM. Keeping support for Trump a secret due to embarrassment is a new twist, however. Normally posters claim that they are keeping their voting preference a secret because they are afraid of retaliation from liberals. The original poster says that Trump's social and fiscal views align with her own and, even though she views him as a "doofus", she is not prepared to support Democrats with whose policies she disagrees. Predicably, the original poster came under a storm of criticism. Some posters suggested that she wasn't so much embarrassed by Trump's antics, but rather was ashamed to admit her support for his policies. They then challenged her about those policies. While the original poster had cited fiscal policies as something with which she agrees with Trump, several posters pointed out that Trump is hardly conservative when it comes to the economy. He previously ran up huge budget deficits and his current proposals promise to do just the same. Rather than summarize the back and forth in this thread, I'm inclined to go off on my own tangent. This thread demonstrates how little actual facts matter compared to what we might call the "narrative" or "vibes". Factually, the Trump administration was marked by the COVID pandemic which resulted in tremendous economic disruption. Americans were literally suffering from toilet paper shortages during the Trump presidency. President Joe Biden was handed an economic basketcase. That is indisputable fact. Biden, with bipartisan support in most cases, chose to shore up the economy with financial assistance to individuals and businesses and increased government spending. Economists warned that this would be inflationary and, indeed, inflation followed. However, the alternative — the preferred alternative for many esteemed economists — was massive unemployment and a slowed economy. Had unemployment reached the levels that many economists said was necessary, inflation would have likely been avoided simply because fewer people could afford to buy anything. High unemployment has many undesirable downstream effects and it is my personal belief that that impact of high unemployment would have been exponentially worse than high inflation. Moreover, it can be argued and supported with plenty of evidence that much of the inflation that has occurred within the U.S. has nothing to do with Biden's spending policies. Rather, prices have risen due to rising costs of such things as shipping and transportation. In addition, corporate profits have risen as companies raised prices opportunistically while blaming it on inflation. Nevertheless, inflation is now under control and, in many cases, prices are dropping. Biden actually pulled off a miracle by reviving the economy without increasing unemployment. By any rationale measure, Biden's fiscal performance should praised. Instead, the "narrative" exists that Biden's economy has been a disaster. I always wonder how those like the original poster who are upset about high prices would have reacted to losing their jobs or their husbands losing their jobs? Would that have been a preferable outcome?

Next was a thread titled, "JD Vance posting a baseless and racist rumor against Haitians on social media". As with the previous two threads, this one was posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. This thread was started back on September 9 and addresses a topic that has come to dominate political discourse. The original poster quoted Ohio Senator and Republican candidate for Vice President J. D. Vance accusing Haitian immigrants in Springfield, OH of causing a number of social and economic problems. In addition, Vance claimed that pets were being abducted and eaten by the Haitians. In fact, there is no evidence that pets have been stolen and eaten and even Vance has come to admit that this was an invented "story". Reports indicate that this rumor was started by a member of a neo-Nazi group who has since bragged about getting the allegation into circulation. Vance's claim about pets being eaten was soon seized upon by many on the right and the allegation was even repeated by former President, current cult leader, and convicted felon Donald Trump during his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris. The discussion in this thread mirrors the national debate that has taken place. Right-leaning posters are inclined to accept Vance and Trump's claim about pets being eaten as fact. Left-leaning posters disbelieve it and ask for evidence. As is often the case, right-wingers demonstrate an inability to distinguish an apple from an orange or fact from fiction. Because no evidence of pets being eaten by Haitian immigrants exists, right-wingers come up with all kinds of claims that involve other activities. Posters found a video showing a clearly mentally-disturbed woman who is not Haitian being arrested for killing and eating a cat. That event did not occur in Springfield, but rather Canton, Ohio which is over 170 miles away from where the Haitians are located. Next, attention turned towards geese. Right-wingers uncovered a 911 call during which an unidentified individual reported that Haitians had taken geese from a park. Never mind that geese are not cats or dogs, Springfield authorities said that there is no evidence concerning this event beyond the call. Police who investigated found nothing. Posters also found a photo of a Black man carrying a couple of dead geese but that later turned out to have happened in Columbus, Ohio. Once again, the man was not Haitian and he was simply disposing of road kill. The failure of any of these allegations to turn out to be true did not discourage the right-wingers in the least. But they were wrong on even more basic facts. For instance, posters repeatedly referred to the Haitians as "illegals". In fact, the Haitians are in the U.S. legally under temporary protected status. Even the number of Haitians in the city is disputed with right-wingers claiming there are 20,000 of them but many officials suggesting the real number may be less than half of that. In addition, the Haitians were not "dumped" on Springfield as many posters allege, but rather moved to the city in response to demand for workers. The Haitians, far from destroying Springfield as alleged, have contributed to its revival. One irony is that Springfield is almsot exclusively represented by Republicans, many of whom are so exasperated by the lies told by Vance and Trump that they are threatening to vote for Democrats.

The final thread that I will discuss today was posted in the "Entertainment and Pop Culture" forum and titled, "Gen Xers - Do you find Taylor Swift’s music bland?". The original poster says that she doesn't understand why Taylor Swift is so popular. She finds Swift's songs to be boring and bland and she wonders whether other members of Generation X agree. Veteran blog readers will know that I hate generational labels so, right off the bat, I have issues with this thread. The idea of generations such as "Gen X" is that most people in that age group have similar experiences that impact their outlook on life. What I continually argue is that this is only true for those in the age bracket who are in specific geographic areas and in certain racial or ethnic groups. Today, a young Muslim girl in Flint, Michigan is having a much different formative experience than a Jewish boy in Manhattan, Black Christian children in Alabama, or secular White kids in Iowa City, Iowa. To expect that all of these kids will have similar views about something 20 years from now seems foolish to me. Similarly, I think that it is ridiculous to believe that most folks between the ages of 44 and 59 have the same views about a pop singer. As it turns out, they don't. Many posters who are Gen X agree with the original poster that Swift's songs are uninteresting and they don't enjoy them. Few, however, are haters. But a number of Gen X posters claim to be Swifties who love both Swift's music and her public persona. Members of other generations are similarly mixed in their reaction to Swift with both fans and those who don't appreciate her music. Let me go far outside my lane — I probably can't name a single Swift song and am far from a music expert — and give my own opinion about Swift's popularity. From what I have observed, mostly from moderating many Swift threads on DCUM, is that Swift is able to connect to a huge number of people, especially women, with her lyrics which often exactly capture the experience of many of her listeners. Swift is able to put her fans' feelings and life challenges into words and set them to music. Second, Swift has an incredible stage presence. Similarly to how her lyrics connect to fans, she personally connects to them from the stage. She does this without elaborate costumes or stage effects. As for her music itself, it is good enough not to be annoying. If Swift had to exist based on her music itself without the connections I've described, I expect that she wouldn't be very successful. The result is that there are very broadly two types of Swift fans. Those who on one of the saddest days of their lives put on a Swift album, or more likely a digitized song, and found that it spoke to them in a very special way and those who love the Swift spectacle. Again, very broadly, more of the first group are older and more of the second group are younger. Hence the phenomenon of mothers and daughters attending Swift concerts together and both being fans. Those like the original poster, for whatever reason, have not connected to Swift's lyrics. Perhaps they never got involved with the wrong guy or lamented about failed relationships or, maybe they did but simply don't want to dwell on it. Regardless, it probably has nothing to do with age. I've always thought that if you write enough, you will eventually write something foolish. I have written an awful lot and perhaps this post is my turn to be foolish. Frankly, I have no idea.