TheDemonBuer

American exceptionalism created Donald Trump. When you create a culture around the idea that "we are inherently superior to all other groups," you get people like Trump.

Good, it needs to end. Supremacist thinking is dangerous.

The big problem is decades of attacks on education.

A lot of Americans have been voting to attack education, too.

I consider myself a staunch democrat (notice the lower case "d," I am not a liberal), in that I am a strong advocate for democracy. But, maybe I, and others, need to rethink our positions on democracy. It doesn't seem like a very good idea to have people who are generally ignorant of climate science, or science in general, deciding what US climate policy should be. We shouldn't put questions like, "is climate change real," to a vote. We have the scientific method for determining that, and It works so much better than popular opinion.

My defense of democracy generally comes down to: "yes, there are some ignorant people out there, but most people are well enough informed and reasonable enough." Maybe that's not always true.

But Russia and China are both capitalist countries.

They're certainly not ideologically liberal, even if they have embraced some liberal economic principles, albeit under significant state control and direction.

Of course, I should have said the Western liberals are defending their position atop the global hegemonic order, and the MLs are trying to unseat them.

I was just trying to think of models that are eligible for the maximum $7,500 tax credit, and that are relatively affordable. There are lots of great EVs out there from several different manufacturers.

Edit: I will mention, though, the Equinox EV looks like it's a pretty good car, for the price. Car and Driver rated it 8.5/10.

...Tesla - by far the nation's biggest EV maker - have told a Trump-transition committee they support ending the subsidy...Elon Musk, one of Trump's biggest backers and the world's richest person, said in July that killing the subsidy might slightly hurt Tesla sales but would be "devastating" to its U.S. EV competitors, which include legacy automakers such as General Motors.

Jesus. So much for the idea that Tesla is working to accelerate the transition from ICE vehicles to EVs.

I will never buy a fucking Tesla. Ever. I would buy a Chevrolet Equinox EV, and I encourage anyone who is in the market for a new vehicle to buy one before the tax credit goes away.

Edit: I would also get the Honda Prologue. It's also eligible for the $7,500 tax credit. So is the Volkswagen ID.4.

Marxist-Leninists support Soviet and Chinese imperialism for the same reason liberals support Western imperialism: they're both ideologues who want their people and ideals at the top of the global hegemonic order. They're in a war for global ideological (and possibly ethnic) supremacy, with the winner getting to rule the world.

Maybe you're right. Maybe group autonomy and independence must be sacrificed for economic and material stability. Maybe strong, centralized technocratic states are better for the broad base of people than allowing each group to have their own autonomy and self governance. If that's true, then I guess the US needs to become more like China. How do we go about doing that?

Well, I'm not a bolshevik, or Marxist-Leninist/Maoist, whatever, so that's not what I want. I realize that MLs don't really give a shit what people want, though. Still, I think the US getting taken over by MLs is pretty unlikely.

Isn't more division inevitable, though? I know a lot of people want to believe that Americans are more unified than not, and that we only disagree on some details, but agree on the core principles, but is that actually true? I think most Americans generally believe in broadly liberal ideals, like individual rights and freedoms, but disagree pretty strongly on which rights and freedoms should be prioritized (or recognized/enforced at all), and for whom. And that makes a pretty big difference. Those differences are more fundamental than a lot of people would like to acknowledge. Plus, there are, I think, a not insignificant number of Americans who aren't guided by liberal principles at all. I'm one of those people, and, look, I understand that people like me are a small minority, but we exist. And I'm kind of sick of not having any representation at all.