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| Silverfiddle Rant! |
Polling from reputable organizations can serve as a barometer, but I don't put too much stock in them, since they usually reflect the panic of the moment. Here in the US tribal territories, most people herd up around the loudest ideological tastemakers they agree with, and most polling is a reflection of that.
Rasmussen has taken the temperature of the populace to determine what we believe are the greatest threats to our nation. Here are some results...
Fifty-seven percent (57%) of Democratic voters believe supporters of Donald Trump are a serious threat to the nation.56% of those in President Biden’s party also consider the unvaccinated a serious threat. That’s a higher level of concern than Democrats express about the Taliban (44% see it as a serious threat); China (44%), or Russia (37%).For Republicans, the top concerns are the Taliban (66%), Defund the Police Activists (62%), and China (58%).The top three concerns for Independents are the same as the GOP (though in a different order). The Taliban is the biggest concern for independent voters (46%) followed by China (45%) and Defund the Police Activists (36%).
I disagree with all of them (with one exception). Here is my list of biggest threats to America:
The lying, wasteful, war-making political establishment that serially fails to square up on our nation's most pressing issues and instead traffics in trivialities, propaganda, and political porn designed only to continually inflame their base and extract donations from them.
The Big Education establishment that rent-seeks off taxpayer money and fails to teach the fundamentals of a classical education that are critical to our liberal democracy: Logic, Reason, Critical Thinking, and Toleration of differing beliefs.
China. Their government is much smarter and much more serious than ours
Our government's failure to foster economic cooperation among friendly nations that lead to robust, trusted supply chains.
Infrastructure security against hacking, EMP bursts and solar activity
The near-failed states to our south
The ever-expanding national debt
Corporate ownership of the public square and the neo-censorship that goes with it.
Loss of habitat
Our nation's water supply
What Say You?
All are grave threats. Though I would elevate attacks on, or natural, massive disruption of our infrastructure to the top of that list.
ReplyDeleteWe've become so dependent on the fragile tendrils of digitization, just-in-time-logistics, and the whole-of-society shift from self-sufficiency.....that such an event would not only halt sustainment on almost every level....but would then spawn a Pandora's Box of second and third order calamities of social and health themes.
I would add Twitter to the list. Interesting that it is based on the word "Twit." It has taught several generation to limit thinking to what can be contained in sound bites. You cannot have meaningful discussion limited to 140 characters, and so the "Twitter generation" has done away with any meaningful exchange of ideas.
ReplyDeleteBiggest threat? The hubris of our Deep State Administrators.
ReplyDelete2nd biggest? The hubris of our corporate "managerial" classes.
The biggest threat? That would be the all out assault on our democracy for political power.
ReplyDeleteThe 2nd? The well funded political machine, abetting right wing media, and silent nodding so-called conservative leadership endorsing this movement based on a big lie.
Honorable mention, or 'Lifetime Achievement Award' for threat to our nation: the two-party system.
ReplyDelete++
DeleteMan... I don't know where it'd rank, but I'm surprised no one mentioned the creeping power of the unitary executive.
ReplyDeleteCertainly Silver, here in the west, water is a huge issue. Perhaps a leftie like myself would site that in a climate change category.
Massive money funneled into political campaigns? But that may fit into the inability of Congress to do anything.
Then I'd probably cite lack of serious people and politicians. Scoring points is easy, doing the work to understand and look for solutions to complex problems is another matter.
I've come to detest money in politics, too, but I don't know how to solve it. In the realm of political speech, yes, money is speech.
DeleteThe poll results for Republicans amuse me. Nobody empowered the Taliban and China more than Donald Trump.
ReplyDeleteDo you believe that China is moving back toward socialism in order to counter the huge wealth discrepancy that exists ther?
DeleteWe are clearly unable to counter it seriously.
Have laogai prisoners received a raise or are they still making 45 cents a month?
DeleteClimate change and the refusal to take it seriously.
ReplyDelete"Climate Change," like all other issues, has become politicized, so propaganda shouting from both sides obscures facts and other empirical observations and prevents us from seeing the issue and its ramifications clearly.
DeleteThe earth warms, the earth cools. The global climate and climates have never been static.
1850-1875 is a convenient baseline, since the world was emerging from a "Little Ice Age."
We need more honesty and less huckstering from all sides.
Fake it till you make it, ducky.
DeleteThe current CO2 levels are "off the chart"! ;)
DeleteSF, are you seriously suggesting that both political parties share equal blame for our inability to reasonably address and tackle the realities of climate change?
DeleteThat’s an indeed remarkable response.
DeleteThank you, but upon further reflection, Democrats are more to blame than the Republicans.
DeleteBonus question for you, Ronald:
Are US carbon emission going up or down?
Does CO2 promote plant life?
Finally, I'll leave you with this, which observes that based on geological records, temperature increases preceded CO2 increases.
http://climatecat.eu/ufaqs/5-why-does-co2-lag-temperature/
1. Are you including emissions from production of imported goods?
Delete2. Yes, so does water, I still don't want you to flood my town.
3. Yep, the AGW hypothesis is indeed that the current warming episode is different from prehistoric episodes.
Xkcd has lots of illustrations of scale. In this example it provides historical context for global warming https://xkcd.com/1732/
I'd say you pretty much have it with your list.
ReplyDeleteRonald J. Ward:
ReplyDeleteIf you can't tell us what is wrong with the following statement, you are part of the problem:
Why Don’t Conservatives Believe in Climate Change?
https://medium.com/bigpicturenews/why-dont-conservatives-believe-in-climate-change-157299cd6f1e
Great read Silver... he included this paragraph.
Delete"To reach a bipartisan agreement, dogmatism must be abandoned. We will need to compromise. Conservatives will need to open their minds, but liberals can help by framing the debate around conservative values."
I would say it's going to be nigh impossible to get people to abandon dogmatism. Because when we do, when we try to even argue a nuanced or more centrist views, the ppl on the edges call folks squishy, unprincipled or just trying to please ppl.
Dave, I agree with you on all points.
DeleteThinking is hard. Feeling is easy.