Political Discussion

BjorgenFjorgen said:
Your question seems insanely cynical. Why does the government care if anyone protests at all?
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I mean it is to a certain extent. I think the government does care about some protests. I just don’t understand this one… I’ll show you, I won’t eat for two days. It seems strange to call it a hunger strike.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
Here is something that really spoke a lot to me about the state of our country currently.

When I was home visiting my mother for Thanksgiving and watching the local news I noticed the recap of turkey day football games only listed a 6 games, and only one high school in Franklin County. And the one high school in Franklin Country was playing a different high school than they have historically have played against. The turkey day games have been set in stone for more than 40 years. The same schools always played each other.

Talking to my step father I learned it's because most high schools in Franklin County no longer have a football team. Budget cuts. If you want to play football students have to either go to the country technical school or school of choice to Frontier.

I'm amazed that we have gotten to the point where football programs have been canceled due to budgets. I'm more surprised here than the when I heard about art and music programs being cut 10 to 15 years or so back.
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Total opposite here in Texas where stadiums for high school teams reach the multiple millions and put some small colleges to shame. These usually pass pretty easily since it usually involves a bond election. Meanwhile, there's a push to further devalue public schools with Governor Abbott's private school voucher scheme. It's the usual BS of masking trying to give poor people choices in their schools when really it's just to allow people who chose to send their kids to private or religious schools some money. Thankfully, even rural Republicans are against it and are joining city big liberals in stopping it each time Abbott calls for a special session. I think we're on our 5th now and it's been taken down each time. Of course, liberals and teacher's unions are to blame for the terrible education rankings our state has every year...never mind Republicans have control all branches of government including the state board of education for almost 30 years now.
 
Lee Newman said:
I mean it is to a certain extent. I think the government does care about some protests. I just don’t understand this one… I’ll show you, I won’t eat for two days. It seems strange to call it a hunger strike.
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I guess? The Biden government has so far shown that it does not in fact care what the vast majority of Americans want—a real ceasefire—but Nixon and the others mentioned are pretty clear about why they're doing it.

"For his part, Mamdani — who will be on hunger strike for five days — explained to Time that the hunger strike’s goal is “to show President Biden the consequences of his actions. This is what he’s doing to Palestinians. It is time that he sees at his doorstep, what it means to support policies such as these… The United States is not simply a witness to this genocide. It’s an actor in this genocide.”"
 
mdmost said:
Total opposite here in Texas where stadiums for high school teams reach the multiple millions and put some small colleges to shame. These usually pass pretty easily since it usually involves a bond election. Meanwhile, there's a push to further devalue public schools with Governor Abbott's private school voucher scheme. It's the usual BS of masking trying to give poor people choices in their schools when really it's just to allow people who chose to send their kids to private or religious schools some money. Thankfully, even rural Republicans are against it and are joining city big liberals in stopping it each time Abbott calls for a special session. I think we're on our 5th now and it's been taken down each time. Of course, liberals and teacher's unions are to blame for the terrible education rankings our state has every year...never mind Republicans have control all branches of government including the state board of education for almost 30 years now.
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Yeah, figured something like this would never happen in Texas or down south where Friday Night Lights is a tradition.

Around here they don't invest anywhere near as much in football. There are no high school teams that have stadiums. Just fields with some metal bleachers. Not every high school has lights and can host night games.

Even before football programs were cut. It costs more than a grand for students to be part of the team. A lot of people couldn't afford it and I think not having enough people being able to afford to make up a full team is what led to the closure of the program. As budgets were cut it became more and more expensive to play as the buck was passed to the parents of the kids wanting to play. I think I heard a crazy number where at one school it cost more than $3,000 to play a year or two back.
 
BjorgenFjorgen said:
I guess? The Biden government has so far shown that it does not in fact care what the vast majority of Americans want—a real ceasefire—but Nixon and the others mentioned are pretty clear about why they're doing it.

"For his part, Mamdani — who will be on hunger strike for five days — explained to Time that the hunger strike’s goal is “to show President Biden the consequences of his actions. This is what he’s doing to Palestinians. It is time that he sees at his doorstep, what it means to support policies such as these… The United States is not simply a witness to this genocide. It’s an actor in this genocide.”"
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I mean, it doesn’t. Wealthy people
Not eating for a few days is not the same as children starving. It all reeks of Jane Lynch’s character on Mrs Maisel with her hand to her forehead talking about how she is suffering.
 
Lee Newman said:
I mean, it doesn’t. Wealthy people
Not eating for a few days is not the same as children starving. It all reeks of Jane Lynch’s character on Mrs Maisel with her hand to her forehead talking about how she is suffering.
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But then equally it’s embarrassing and it draws a focus onto the issue. Governments don’t like bad PR and they like issues like this grey and obfuscated. It’s not necessarily like “who cares about what the celebrity is doing” and much as that it’s them using their celebrity to draw attention and focus on to the issue
 
Joe Mac said:
But then equally it’s embarrassing and it draws a focus onto the issue. Governments don’t like bad PR and they like issues like this grey and obfuscated. It’s not necessarily like “who cares about what the celebrity is doing” and much as that it’s them using their celebrity to draw attention and focus on to the issue
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I think Trump, Johnson, et al. proved that this is not the case anymore. Trump was absolutely an embarrassment to our government yet he is somehow still leading the conversation and climate here.
 
Lee Newman said:
I think Trump, Johnson, et al. proved that this is not the case anymore. Trump was absolutely an embarrassment to our government yet he is somehow still leading the conversation and climate here.
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And yet during covid under a Johnson administration a young English footballer caused a complete u turn in government policy and an extension of food vouchers to the families of kids who would normally qualify for free school lunches but couldn’t access them because the schools were shut.

Highlighting issues when you have a platform is never in vain, especially with publicity hungry demagogs.
 
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Joe Mac said:
And yet during covid under a Johnson administration a young English footballer caused a complete u turn in government policy and an extension of food vouchers to the families of kids who would normally qualify for free school lunches but couldn’t access them because the schools were shut.

Highlighting issues when you have a platform is never in vain, especially with publicity hungry demagogs.
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My question to you is what did the footballer do? And I’m kind of sure this Footbalk player is a bigger deal then an actress who made a name for herself over a decade ago and is now trying to be a politician.

I’m not questioning using your platform. I’m just saying this barely seems like a gesture.
 
Lee Newman said:
My question to you is what did the footballer do? And I’m kind of sure this Footbalk player is a bigger deal then an actress who made a name for herself over a decade ago and is now trying to be a politician.

I’m not questioning using your platform. I’m just saying this barely seems like a gesture.
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So, instead of using your celebrity to bring more attention to the issue, it's better to do nothing? Really unclear what your position is here.
 
Lee Newman said:
My question to you is what did the footballer do? And I’m kind of sure this Footbalk player is a bigger deal then an actress who made a name for herself over a decade ago and is now trying to be a politician.

I’m not questioning using your platform. I’m just saying this barely seems like a gesture.
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Had a strong and consistent message based on his own background and refused to stop saying it when abused or to compromise it when approached directly. Nothing revolutionary, using his platform and retaining his principles.
 
BjorgenFjorgen said:
So, instead of using your celebrity to bring more attention to the issue, it's better to do nothing? Really unclear what your position is here.
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I’m just saying do something that makes an impact or more sense:”. This just rings like a bit of publicity stunt to me more than an actual protest. If the protest is weak why is it going to convince people to join with your cause?
 
Joe Mac said:
Had a strong and consistent message based on his own background and refused to stop saying it when abused or to compromise it when approached directly. Nothing revolutionary, using his platform and retaining his principles.
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So… it depends on what this group does next when this stunt fails, which it will. It’s not exactly lighting up news. It got reported in consequence because slow news day and television.
 
Joe Mac said:
I’m confused as to why you are so caught up about semantics rather than the issues?
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I mean I guess it is semantics, but the idea is to draw attention to the issue and get people to join you in voicing their concern to get the government to change its direction?

I don’t see how a few future dances with the stars contestants not eating for a couple of days and calling it a hunger strike are going to meet those objectives.
 
Lee Newman said:
I mean I guess it is semantics, but the idea is to draw attention to the issue and get people to join you in voicing their concern to get the government to change its direction?

I don’t see how a few future dances with the stars contestants not eating for a couple of days and calling it a hunger strike are going to meet those objectives.
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When you are talking about marginalised voiceless people every bit of publicity is welcome.

Does every protest have to result in immediate policy change to be a success? Or is it about highlighting issues and looking change the minds of people who can change other peoples minds? Fighting for a good cause is never in vain.
 
Lee Newman said:
I mean I guess it is semantics, but the idea is to draw attention to the issue and get people to join you in voicing their concern to get the government to change its direction?

I don’t see how a few future dances with the stars contestants not eating for a couple of days and calling it a hunger strike are going to meet those objectives.
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I think you're being wilfully obtuse. No one protest is likely to affect the government policy that so far has been to underwrite and encourage genocide and ethnic cleansing. Unfortunately protesting is the only tool people have in a system that has long abandoned any semblance of democratic legitimacy.
 
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