The Most Active Threads Since Friday
The topics with the most engagement over the weekend included a poster's view of Trump vs. Harris, short vs tall kids, Trump supporters, and a modern drama involving an influencer and her husband's suicide.
Politics continues to dominate the most active topics being discussed over the weekend and seven of the top ten most active threads were political. Many of those were threads that I've already discussed, including the most active thread (the choice of Tim Walz to run for Vice President). The first of the threads that I haven't already talked about was titled, "Trump is awful but I want helicopter money and illegal immigration to stop" and, of course, posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. The background to this title is that during the COVID pandemic the government made considerable amounts of money available to keep the economy afloat. This was metaphorically described as "dropping money from helicopters". This influx of cash has been blamed by many for the rise in inflation. The original poster says that she believes that former President, current cult leader, and convicted felon Donald Trump is "awful" and his running mate, J. D. Vance was "the wrong pick". Nevertheless, she says that she cannot take Vice President Kamala Harris seriously about the border and immigration. She says that there is a chance that Trump can fix these things because he will have other individuals at the helm running things. The original poster believes, however, that this would not be the case if Harris wins. I am not going to bother with the rest of the thread because there is plenty here on which to comment. While it seems to have vanished from our collective memory, there were economic stimulus programs during Trump's administration. This includes the $2 trillion CARES Act that provided direct payments to Americans and the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) that provided forgivable loans to millions of U.S. businesses. Therefore, if the helicopter drops were bad, Trump is also to blame. While I accept that the conventional wisdom is that the helicopter drops of money caused inflation, I believe that this is a case in which the conventional wisdom is either partially or fully wrong. What I think most people don't consider is the alternative to the helicopter drops. Respected economists were expecting a severe recession with massive loss of employment. The influx of cash kept many businesses alive and was welcome income to lower and middle class Americans. Prices did rise, but so did corporate profits. As such, corporate greed is also responsible for inflation. Under the stewardship of President Joe Biden, the U.S. economy has led the world and Biden has engineered a "soft landing" that many thought impossible. Inflation is now under control and prices are dropping. Harris will likely continue this trend. In contrast, Trump proposes a 10% tariff on all imports. This would undoubtedly be inflationary as it would lead to price increases on imported goods. With regard to immigration, this is another case of viewing Trump's presidency through rose-colored glasses. Migration actually rose during Trump's administration. His policies were either ineffective or inhumane. Many children separated from their families as a result of Trump's brutal policies still have not been reunited with their parents. Trump is now promising the forced expulsion of a million undocumented residents which would result in even greater human tragedy and potential social upheaval. Harris has been tasked with exploring the root causes of migration. As such, she likely has a more comprehensive and long term view of how to control immigration. Moreover, she supports the bipartisan immigration bill that Trump prevented from being passed. Harris would follow a course of action that has broad support from both political parties and would likely be much more effective than the inhumane approach proposed by Trump. Even in the case of appointees, there is every reason to believe that Trump's would be much worse than Harris before we even consider court nominees.
The next most active thread over the weekend was posted in the "Tweens and Teens" forum and titled, "Bragging about tall kids". The original poster is upset because she saw a social media post in which someone was bragging about the height of their son. The original poster says that height is not something to brag about because "it just happens". Even though the original poster is tall herself, she doesn't think that height is an achievement. She then goes on to say that short kids, especially boys, are often overlooked and pushed out of the way. She concludes by suggesting that it would be better to brag about children being kind than tall. DCUM has been inundated by height-related posts lately. Most of those were posted by the same poster and when I first became aware of this thread due to a report asking me to lock the thread, I quickly locked it because I thought it was another thread by that poster. In addition, the thread had gotten pretty terrible due to arguing. Later when I looked further, I realized this thread was not posted by the height poster. The original poster seemed to contradict herself by mentioning that some children can be short as a result of delayed puberty and can grow later. Specifically, she suggests that her son who is 5’4” now will eventually be taller than most of the others. As a poster responds, this suggests a certain smugness on the original poster's side that her son will eventually "win". Throughout the thread the original poster sticks to the theme that kids who are short now will grow significantly later. She shows very little concern for the short kids who won't grow significantly. The original poster is an inviting target for criticism and receives plenty from the responses. As the original poster says, there is really nothing that can be done about a child's height. Some posters compare height to having blond hair which, at least when it is natural, is something that is basically the luck of the draw. Many of the posters in this thread, including the original poster, appear very defensive about height. The original poster repeatedly argues that tall kids are much more likely to be popular and, counterintuitively, mean. As she sees things, her son suffers from two disadvantages because he is currently short. He is less likely to be popular and tall kids are apparently mean to him. But, someday he will grow and those kids will be sorry. Posters who have tall kids argue that the original poster is wrong about tall kids and that they are not more prone to be mean. As I have written many times, I am short, quite short. As such, I appreciate any attempts to create social awareness that height, like most physical traits, should not be considered an indication of an individual's value. But to the extent that this was the original poster's goal, I think she fell short. Rather than arguing against prejudice towards short boys simply because such prejudice is wrong, she argues that is it short-sighted because some of the boys — most importantly, her son — will end up tall. Ultimately, it is hard to view the original poster as not actually displaying the same appreciation of height that she criticizes others for having. In this way, she managed to offend the parents of both tall and short boys which accounts for the tremendous amount of bickering in the thread.
Next was a thread titled, "I had an epiphany today: I don’t hate trump - I hate his supporters." which was another thread posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. By her own admission, the original poster can barely contain her rage concerning supporters of former President, current cult leader, and convicted felon Donald Trump. She says that she "hates" Trump, but that, in her view, he will soon be irrelevent, probably spending the rest of his life in prison. However, she just realized that even with Trump out of the picture, his supporters will still be here. She has recently come to the conclusion that Trump is a symptom and that his supporters are the disease. Trump would be nothing, the original poster says, if it were not for the power given to him by his supporters. This thread is really a contrast of stereotypes. The original poster and several posters who agree with her view Trump supporters as hate-filled QAnon/MAGA hybrids that hate immigrants, believe in every conspiracy that comes down the pike, oppose LGBTQ rights, and present a violent threat to the country. The MAGA posters in the thread, however, believe that Trump supporters are nothing other than Sunday school teachers and other upstanding citizens. Far from presenting a violent threat, they are forced to hide their identities due to their fear of fascist liberals who will force them to accept transgender rights and awkward pronouns. I have written before that for years I have witnessed on DCUM that there are two different realities. The reality that I consider normal and the MAGA reality. The original poster appears to be living in an extreme version of my normal reality. So extreme that I don't even agree completely with her. There are certainly examples of Trump supporters who almost completely live up to the original poster's stereotype. But, many more, I assume the majority, are far closer to what we might consider normal people. Because there are so many Trump supporters who don't fit the MAGA stereotype, there is an almost undying desire among centrists that a politician will come along and unify everyone. They seem to have forgotten that Joe Biden was supposed to be exactly that politician. Biden saw himself as being able to unite the country. A political moderate who had long been aligned with the Washington establishment, Biden's victory was supposed to have signalled a return to normalcy. We have seen how that turned out. Sadly, the realities of today are such that centrists are little more than Don Quixote's tilting at windmills. Even the relatively "normal" Trump supporters are likely to live in some version of the MAGA reality. The strongest indication of this is that otherwise intelligent Republican politicians have realized that they must also accept that reality, or at least appear to do so. As such, we end up with someone like J. D. Vance who previously described Trump as an "American Hitler" but who is now Trump's running mate and fawning all over him. The challenge is to accept and understand that there is a different MAGA reality, yet not hate those who live in it. Regardless of our differences, we still need to live together and hating each other will do nothing to help in that regard.
The final thread that I will discuss today is one that initially completely flummoxed me. Posted in the "Entertainment and Pop Culture" forum and titled, "Anyone following this Candice Miller/Mama & Tata nightmare?", I had no idea who this was or what "nightmare" was involved. Moreover, this thread was created in early July and, apparently, suddenly was very popular over the weekend. Of course, I had no idea what would have caused that either. So, for those like me who have no clue what this thread is about, Candice Miller is an "influencer" who posted on Instagram under the moniker "Mama & Tata". Living in the Hamptons, Miller apparently portrayed herself as living a very high class, glamorous and expensive lifestyle. This summer, her husband committed suicide after revealing to her that he had run up millions of dollars of debt. It seems that much of the debt was owed to friends who had provided funds for an investment which was never made. Instead, the money went to fund their lavish lifestyle. Some posters suggest that Miller did not know about the debt until just before her husband's death. But others argue that she either knew about it or intentionally buried her head in the sand. What apparently prompted the interest in this thread over the weekend was a New York Times article that portrayed events as a modern-day tragedy. The article describes the couple living a gilded-age life of luxury that all came crashing down. It appears that many who once lived vicariously through Miller's Instagram feed are now enjoying the drama of her true life decrease in fortune. Repeatedly posters say that these events have the making of a Netflix docudrama. Posters in the thread discuss the life insurance that Miller has received, how much Miller knew about their true financial circumstances, and what responsibility Miller may have had for contributing to their profligate spending. Posters alternatively view Miller as a mostly innocent victim who now faces difficult circumstances or as a willing participant who is getting away with far more than she deserves. There is considerable discussion about the millions of dollars of life insurance Miller has received. Some posters argue that money should go to the creditors who have lost money. Others want to see it go to the couple's children. But most argue that legally, the insurance money will go to Miller and be unencumbered. While the family's assets are being seized and she has taken her Instagram account offline, Miller will still be able to afford an expensive lifestyle, though perhaps not one that is Instagram worthy. There are a number of aspects of this thread that are very surprising. First, that "influencer" is actually a job title these days. Second, how little it takes to be respected as an "influencer". According to the New York Times, "Mama & Tata" had roughly 80,000 followers. In contrast, DCUM has over 1.1 million monthly users. Arguably, DCUM is more popular than Miller's blog. Yet, you don't see me living in the Hamptons or photographing myself on yachts. Of course I also don't have millions of dollars of debt, so I guess there's that.