Wednesday's Most Active Threads

The most active thread yesterday was a bit of an odd ball. Posted in the "Entertainment and Pop Culture" forum and titled, "Country Music Songs to Get a Country Hater to Like Country", the original poster lists a few country songs that she plans to play for someone who "refuses to like country". She invites additional suggestions. I haven't replied in this thread, but I should because I am sort of an expert on this topic. I am married to someone who refuses to like country music and I've managed to get her to attend multiple country concerts and she has even learned to like some of the artists. In that regard, I consider this thread to be a total failure because not one person suggested Steve Earle. Admittedly, his catalog is so large that narrowing it down to a song or two is not easy. Despite this glaring flaw, there are a number of good suggestions in the thread though I think that in many cases posters simply resorted to listing their own favorite country acts with no regard to how a country music hater would respond. Many posters rightly suggested avoiding "the twang", but equally important in my opinion is to avoid steel guitars. While I personally enjoy the instrument, I think it can be triggering to those who don't like country music. Some of the suggestions with which I agree are Kacey Musgraves, though I would stick to her first two albums, and Jason Isbell. Of course, Johnny Cash should go without saying. Overall this is a fun thread and I challenge anyone to get through it without being inspired to listen to at least one of the suggestions.

The second most active thread yesterday was titled, "Can someone explain how DeSantis ever wins?" which was posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. As the title reveals, the original poster wonders why Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is able to win given how his policies should — in the original poster's opinion — alienate significant numbers of Florida voters. I would not advise anyone to waste even a minute reading this thread. I certainly wouldn't bother myself, but unfortunately have had to due to the large number of posts that have been reported. My issue with this type of thread is that there is no real discussion. Just posters reiterating the same points they've made in tons of other threads and insulting each other. I personally think it is a fool's errand to attempt to analyze DeSantis' policies based on their substance. I doubt that he has any concerns in that regard, but rather is only interested in the political impact. His actions should not be viewed as public policy, but rather political antics. Moreover, his primary goal appears to be trolling liberals so getting upset about things only plays into his hands. That actually suggests a more intersting topic now that Republicans control the House of Representatives. Republicans have no real policy ideas these days beyond opposing anything suggested by Democrats and engaging in culture war battles. It is necessary to oppose these efforts, but so often the Republican's main goal is simply to generate outrage. How do you counter what is essentially a party of trolls without feeding the trolls? One would think that DCUM posters would be uniquely qualified to provide answers to this given our history of dealing with trolls.

The third most active thread yesterday was posted in the "Relationship Discussion (non-explicit)" forum. Titled, "In child custody dispute, breastfeeding mom is ordered to use bottle", the original poster links to a Washington Post article detailing a judge's order in a child custody case requiring a mom to begin bottle-feeding her infant child in order to facilitate visits by the father. Opinion was surprisingly strongly against the mother in all but a few exceptions. Posters tended to agree with the child's father's lawyer that the mom was "weaponizing" breastfeeding. Several posters pointed out that the child was old enough to begin eating solids and that the mom could pump breast milk (though the mother says that she had tried and failed at pumping). A handful of posters argued that the mother was trying to do what was best for the baby and criticized the father for opposing her. Moreover, some posters suspected that the father was simply trying to increase the number of nights the child could spend with him in order to reduce his child support. The generally controversial topics of breastfeeding and child custody arrangements receive a lot of attention in this thread, with many users recounting their own personal experiences. A number of those responding criticized the judge for not properly understanding the dynamics of infant feeding which they suggest should be on demand rather than scheduled.

The final thread at which I'll look today was another one from the "Political Discussion" forum. Titled, "Ukraine can win; but they have to be absolute bad guy", the original poster lists several steps she believes Ukraine must take in order to win its war with Russia. Basically the original poster is arguing that Ukraine must invade Russia and then cede back territory in order to establish a demilitarized zone in eastern Ukraine and the Crimea. I've only read the first page of this thread but both the original post and the replies seem unaware of many of the dynamics of the conflict. For instance, it is not clear why Ukraine would have to capture Russian territory in order to make it's own concession to demilitarize its own territories. Posters debate whether Ukraine will or should bomb Russia without appearing to realize that Ukraine has already repeatedly bombed Russia, including some bases quite distant from Ukraine's borders. As is usual for threads about Ukraine these days, there are some posters who oppose any US involvement in the conflict and those who believe we are headed towards World War III. At least one poster disputes the original poster's contention that Ukraine needs to capture Russian territory in order to win by pointing out that Russia was defeated in Afghanistan without the Afghans capturing any Russian territory.