The Most Active Threads Since Friday

The most active thread over the weekend was the thread I discussed before about childfree weddings. That topic turns out to be more divisive than even I expected. After that was a thread titled, "Inaugural on Monday Moved Inside" and posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. As I am sure everyone is aware, today is Inauguration Day and President-elect, cult leader, and convicted felon Donald Trump will become President, cult leader, and convicted felon Donald Trump. I'll have to update my macro. While I am sure that we were all looking forward to hearing about the biggest crowd ever that stretched from the steps of the Capitol to the shores of the Potomac River, we will have to live with our disappointment. Instead, Trump's inauguration has been moved inside the Capitol rotunda. This is said to be due to the weather, which is quite cold in D.C. today. However, it was colder during former President Barack Obama's inauguration, and that was held outside. But, this is what happens when a Florida man wins the election. This is a strange thread because liberals are mostly poking fun at Trump for being a wimp who is afraid of the cold. Conservatives, on the other hand, repeatedly accuse liberals of "raging" and being angry about the change. I am not sure to which liberals these posters are referring, but they don't exist in this thread. The conservatives clearly have a difficult time dealing with mockery. Several even blame liberals for the move. Rather than the weather, they claim liberal plans to disrupt the inauguration (plans that only appear to exist within MAGA minds) are the reason for the change of venue. Others claim that there are security concerns. After all, Trump only has so many ears that he can give for his country. I suppose that this thread is representative of what we have to look forward to for the next four years or so. MAGAs tend to thrive on resentment, and their primary technique for political discussion is to manufacture outrage. That is a little harder to do when your party controls every aspect of the federal government. As such, MAGAs will either fight among themselves, invent imaginary enemies, or attack liberals whose primary "crime" is likely to be criticizing MAGAs. In that regard, criticize is something that you can count on liberals to do. Whether it is capitulating to the weather or cutting social security, there will be plenty of Republican actions to criticize.

The next two most active threads were the Blake Lively thread and the ECNL soccer league thread that I have discussed previously. After those were a thread posted in the "Off-Topic" forum and titled, "Goodbye TikTok (for now)". The thread is mostly posters arguing about whether TikTok is good or bad. I'll just take this opportunity to recount the whole sordid affair, which is really a low point in our political history. Part of the anti-TikTok fervor that once hit America was based in the perennial battle between the young and the old. While older folks were immersing themselves in Facebook or Twitter, the younger generation was filming themselves dancing or demonstrating makeup on TikTok. This would have been okay, but then TikTok became a medium for political messaging as well. I think it is safe to say that the olds didn't like the politics that was reaching the youngs on TikTok. President-elect, cult leader, and convicted felon Donald Trump was particularly bothered that TikTok was owned by a Chinese company. He argued that China was manipulating the content presented to users and spying on them by using the application to gather information about them. Trump was correct on the second point. TikTok is basically a spy application, but so are most of the apps on your phone. Trump could have led an effort to protect Americans' privacy by championing laws to regulate how information about users is collected and what is done with it. Instead, he issued an executive order that would effectively ban TikTok. That order was struck down in court. Things got even worse for TikTok after the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas. TikTok became a hotbed of posts favorable to the Palestinians. This was not the message that the U.S. political establishment wanted anyone to hear, and several politicians from both parties began justifying banning TikTok due to its pro-Palestinian messaging. This led to Congressional legislation requiring that TikTok be sold or to stop operating in the U.S. While the legislation was bipartisan, its strongest proponents were Republicans. After President Joe Biden signed the measure into law, Trump was visited by Jeff Yass, a billionaire investor in ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok. Yass is also a major Republican donor. After Yass met with Trump, Trump had a change of heart about TikTok and all of a sudden became a fan of the service. As the deadline for TikTok to close neared this weekend, politicians from both sides of the aisle realized just how unpopular shutting the service would be and ran for cover. Biden basically tossed his arms in the air and said TikTok would become Trump's problem. Saturday night, TikTok underwent what might be described as a performative shutdown. Biden had said that he would not enforce the ban, and Trump had offered similar assurances. Nevertheless, TikTok stopped providing service in the U.S. While nothing new actually happened, TikTok restored service Saturday afternoon, giving credit to Trump. Trump, of course, is happy to take credit. How a move inspired by Trump and led by Republicans turned into a Democratic political disaster is something that only today's Democratic Party could engineer.

Next was a thread titled, "Why do you engage with MAGA on DCUM?" and posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. The original poster said that she had been up with a sick child and, during that time, read a number of threads in the political forum. She said that it appeared to her that there were only a few very active MAGA posters who were likely Boomers. She wonders why others don't simply ignore them rather than essentially "feeding the trolls". First, let me say that while neither I nor the original poster have precise data available to us, it is my impression that the original poster is basically correct. It has been my observation for years that the vast majority of MAGA posts come from a small number of users who post an inordinate number of messages per day. I have also felt that most of those posters are retired men for whom posting on DCUM is their hobby. I have often wished that they take up golf instead. The MAGAs in this thread deny that there is a small number of them or that they are old. Of course, neither the original poster nor I suggested that all of them are old men, just that generally that is true. Of course, there are exceptions. There are plenty of female MAGAs as well, though I also suspect most of them are also Boomers. While MAGA posters constantly insist that they come to DCUM to engage in serious discussion, I have not observed that to be the case. It is my impression that DCUM, known as an extremely liberal site, attracts MAGAs because they want to challenge liberals. If they only wanted to discuss conservative politics, there are plenty of other sites that would be better choices. But, it is the liberals on DCUM that they want to debate. From the liberal viewpoint, these debates are not necessarily welcome. Liberal DCUMers are not always interested in debate, but rather simple discussion. In their view, the MAGA posters are trolling. The reasons for engagement are pretty simple. If someone responds to your post in a contradictory manner, there is a strong urge to reply to them. Moreover, MAGA posts are often so inane that they are low-hanging fruit for a rebuttal. Even the most disciplined liberal cannot resist responding. MAGA posters often accuse liberals of wanting our own bubble. That's not necessarily wrong. Why wouldn't a group of liberals want a place in which they can talk among themselves? Moreover, it's not like most of the MAGAs are engaging in particularly stimulating conversations. They post a lot of talking points and "whataboutisms". There are MAGA posters who will turn every thread into a discussion of immigration or Hunter Biden regardless of its original topic. Frankly, the vast majority of the MAGA posters are simply tiresome and DCUM would be better off without them.

The final thread that I will discuss today is another one that was posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. Titled "Feeling of pending dread", the original poster says that she feels like there is a collective sense of denial about what is going to happen after President-elect, cult leader, and convicted felon Donald Trump is inaugurated. She expects the next four years to be "crazy" and wonders where the resistance is, saying she is truly scared about what is coming our way. It has been my observation that a significant number of those who might ordinarily compose the opposition to Trump are demoralized, tired, and simply uninterested in fighting at the moment. Part of that is a lack of leadership. The Democratic Party is currently rudderless. President Joe Biden is basically unacknowledged and being treated like a feeble uncle that is hidden in the basement. Vice President Kamala Harris appears to be headed back to California and probably couldn't garner much support as the Democratic leader in any case. Speaker of the House Hakeem Jeffries has hardly emerged from the shadow of Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi. None of the candidates to lead the Democratic National Committee has much national stature. Elected Democrats appear more interested in trying to work with Republicans rather than opposing them. Senator John Fetterman, whose own wife is a Dreamer who came to the U.S. illegally, recently cosponsored a bill that would subject Dreamers to possible detention and deportation. With leaders like that, no wonder we are demoralized. In addition, a significant number of Democrats are White and affluent. They have determined that they will personally be fine under Trump. As such, they are not motivated to protest. Others have gone even further and accommodated themselves to Trump. Apparently, they are big believers in the "if you can't beat them, join them" theory. Moreover, I think a number of potential resisters are waiting to get to the "find out" stage of "F around, find out." Their hope is apparently that future resistance will involve a number of current Trump supporters. One way that both Trump supporters and Trump opponents have tried to put the best face on things is to say that things will not be as bad as one might think based on Trump's words. For example,  there is a debate about whether the mass deportations that are supposed to start tomorrow will turn out to be small affairs meant to be symbolic — as some would have it — or turn into massive attempts to deport millions as Trump has promised. The first case may keep resistance mostly in check, but the second would likely see it ramp up.