Tuesday's Most Active Threads

The most active thread yesterday was the Blake Lively thread that I've already discussed. The thread was the most active despite being locked for part of the day. Another thread in the "Website Feedback" forum was created about that thread — I think that makes four now — and there was some interesting back and forth in that discussion. I ordinarily would not address a thread that has been discussed already, and the Website feedback thread is not even close to being among the most active. However, between the two threads, there are some issues that might be worth discussing. Some posters feel the Lively thread — and indeed many threads on DCUM — is overwhelmed by misogyny. This has spurred repeated requests, including one in the latest Website Feedback thread yesterday, that I lock the thread. In response, I did lock the thread, but only to then face an onslaught of requests that I unlock it or allow a new thread on the topic. These posters accused the original poster of making claims of misogyny simply because she didn't like the anti-Lively tone of the thread. That allegation is remarkably similar to the ones being made about Lively herself. As I understand the controversy — and believe me, I wish I did not have to understand it — Lively accused her "It Ends with Us" co-star Justin Baldoni of sexually harassing her during the production of the movie. Baldoni defenders, in turn, have argued that Lively is exploiting the power of "#metoo" claims to retaliate against Baldoni due to other grievances. In both the Lively/Baldoni controversy and on DCUM, women are being accused of making spurious claims of anti-woman behavior for nefarious reasons. Being a White male, I am often accused by members of various minority groups of not being sensitive to bias and prejudice towards them that appears on DCUM. Generally, though not always, I try to defer to such posters and give considerable weight to what they see as such bias. However, as I explained in the Website Feedback thread yesterday, this presents a problem when, as is the case here, both sides of a dispute are from the same marginalized group. Both those supporting Lively and those supporting Baldoni are largely women. Some of them think the discussion is full of misogyny, others don't. So where does that leave me? My solution was simply to create guidelines prohibiting the most blatant sorts of misogyny. This is not to say that I condone more subtle forms of misogyny, but simply a recognition that I have neither the interest nor the qualifications to do more than that.

The next most active thread was posted in the "Political Discussion" forum and titled, "Trump says ‘US will take over the Gaza Strip’ — after relocating ‘all’ Palestinians". This thread was started after a meeting between cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who also happens to be an indicted felon as well as an indicted war criminal. In a press conference following their meeting, Trump said that he wanted to clear all the Palestinians out of Gaza, potentially moving them to Egypt and Jordan and then place Gaza under U.S. ownership, using U.S. military forces if necessary. This idea stems from Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who has in the past suggested clearing Gaza of Palestinians and then redeveloping the beachfront property. The idea also is in line with the imperialistic ideas that Trump has embraced during his second term. He has suggested that the U.S. would retake control of the Panama Canal, gain possession of Greenland, and annex Canada as the 51st state. Now he apparently wants to make Gaza a U.S. territory. As would be expected, many posters were appalled by this suggestion, having both moral and practical objections. Realistically, this plan is dead on arrival. Neither Egypt nor Jordan is interested in millions of disaffected refugees who would likely be destabilizing. The government of Saudi Arabia has already announced its opposition, and the Palestinians obviously don't support it. Even Netanyahu was lukewarm in his reception of the proposal. It's not clear whether Trump actually believes his idea is good and will pursue it or if it is simply a bargaining position. Recently, Trump has taken hardline stances against Mexico and Canada with regard to tariffs, only to back down with face-saving gestures once he faced opposition. It could be that his Gaza proposal is meant to pressure the Palestinians into further concessions. As things now stand, the U.S.-endorsed ceasefire plan will leave Hamas in control of Gaza. Trump may be hoping that the threat of a U.S. occupation will result in another outcome. One development in this thread on which I do want to comment is the repeated posts gloating about "Dearborn Arabs" "getting what they had coming". To the posters who post such things, I want to say clearly, you are no better than Trump. Like Trump, your politics is not based on values, but rather it is transactional. Either you value human rights or you don't. If you only support human rights when it benefits you politically, you don't really support such rights. Moreover, this is not the dunk that you seem to believe that it is. Trump may be advocating ethnic cleansing, but former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris supported and supplied the genocide of Gazans. Even in your transactional worlds, you must realize that ethnic cleansing, deportable as it is, is better than genocide.

Next was a thread titled, "Trump Voters: How has he made your life better?", and posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. Liberal DCUM posters seem to have an insatiable desire to ask supporters of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump questions. I got so tired of such threads that I began summarily deleting them yesterday. But they were being created so frequently that I got overwhelmed and couldn't keep up removing them all. I finally relented and allowed this and one other thread to remain. My feeling is that the great majority of these threads addressed to Trump supporters are really passive-aggressive ways of saying, "I told you so." Even if they are meant in good faith, they are generally not received well by Trump supporters. By and large, Trump supporters are not well-informed and they do not share liberal values. A Trump supporter seeing the light and renouncing his previous support for Trump is a rare unicorn indeed. If the original posters of these threads are expecting Trump supporters to suddenly join them in opposing Trump's actions, they are going to be severely disappointed. In this case, the original poster lists developments since Trump was inaugurated and asks Trump supporters how their lives have been improved. To be fair, Trump hasn't had a lot of time and the repercussions of many of his actions won't be apparent for a while. Regardless, for the most part, Trump supporters support his actions — such as disbanding the U.S. Agency for International Development — either because they are unaware of the full ramifications or they actually are in favor of poor people starving in other countries. Many times their justification is that we have starving people in America as well. That's true. It's also true that Trump has no plans to help those people either. This thread contains some truly astounding demonstrations of MAGA delusion. For instance, one poster said that his life was better because there the country was no longer being governed by "a puppet figure with a shadow government behind him". Just how far does your head need to be buried in the sand not to know that our country has been taken over by a drug-addled, former illegal immigrant, billionaire, and a cadre of recent high school graduates whose names are being kept secret? What is Shadow President Elon Musk if not the leader of a "shadow government"? Trump, realistically, is more of a puppet than Biden in his worst moments. Does anyone believe that Trump has any idea what Musk is doing? To their credit, some Trump supporters do make good-faith efforts to explain how their lives are better. Generally, these so-called improvements, such as prohibiting transgender women from women's prisons, don't impact them or anyone they know. The most commonly cited example that does affect them is the removal of anything having to do with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Some are happy that they can now offend others, particularly minorities, and not have to worry about repercussions.

The final thread that I will discuss today is another one posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. Titled, "the leopards have come for the Venezuelans", the original poster discusses the administration of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump dropping temporary protected status for Venezuelan migrants. Temporary Protected Status is given to migrants from countries that are deemed unsafe to which to return. TPS allows those covered to obtain work permits, and many immigrants have had TPS protections for lengthy periods of time. Venezuelan-Americans strongly supported Trump during the campaign. Republicans were fairly successful in convincing many Hispanics that Democrats are communists who support communism in Latin America. Venezuelan-Americans generally are strongly opposed to the current Venezuelan leader, Nicolás Maduro, and likely had hopes that Trump would do more to oppose him. According to quotes provided by the original poster, Venezuelan-Americans were told by Republicans during the campaign that TPS would be continued for Venezuelans. Now that this has been proven not to be the case, Venezuelans feel betrayed. During the campaign, Trump often criticized TPS and was particularly vocal in his opposition to Venezuelan migrants. He frequently falsely stated that Venezuela had emptied its prisons and sent the occupants to the U.S. as migrants. Overblown claims of Venezuelan gangs taking over apartment buildings were a mainstay of Republican propaganda during the campaign. As such, Venezuelans should not have been expecting much from a Trump presidency. Rather than oppose Maduro, Trump has actually warmed relations and is now eager to see Venezuelan migrants returned to their home country. As the original poster says in the title of the thread, Venezuelans are upset that after voting for the leopard-eating-faces party, leopards are eating their faces. A common theme among Democrats during the campaign was that they would not personally suffer under a Trump administration but that many Trump supporters would. Democrats constantly stressed that Trump supporters were voting against their own interests. Once Trump's victory was apparent, many of these same Democrats turned to predicting that, having "f'd" around, Trump voters would soon find out. With the horror show that the Trump administration has been for liberals, being able to say, "I told you so" is one of their few pleasures. However, as I said when discussing Gaza above, either you have values or you don't. Situational values are not values; they are political positions. If you supported TPS for Venezuelans before Trump's election, you should support it now regardless of for whom Venezuelan-Americans voted. I personally can take no pleasure in anyone, regardless of their presidential preference, being uprooted from their home in America and being sent to a country of few opportunities and many dangers such as Venezuela at this time.