a blog with things

Contrary to popular belief, while cutting government funding for PBS is a silly idea, it would not end Sesame Street or “kill Big Bird” and that is not what Romney wants to do

Really though, my day was pretty much

• Oversleep, missing out on normal morning study time
• Second day of work and first day of the lunch rush, meaning 15+ miles of biking with just a few really short breaks in 3 hours
• Tired and hungry; go to campus and sit down with tea and lunch to be immediately interrupted by someone from my community service group who needs me to do paperwork
• Immediately after lunch, bike to pick up chalk from someone (which I had planned to do a half hour ago), then bike home and back to get my own chalk because I forgot it in the morning (extra 4 miles of biking)
• Half hour to charge phone and write emails
• AWESOME NERDFIGHTASTIC PARTY

I am really, really glad to know all of you. DFTBA.

Just for the record my foray into Fox News only lasted five minutes before I was needed elsewhere, but it was not a good five minutes

I mean, I understand the need to expose myself to points of view that differ from mine, but I’d rather do that by reading this article for example, which gives side-by-side answers by Romney and Obama to the same questions and genuinely presents both sides equally (I recommend reading it by the way, Romney’s answers are really interesting whether you like Romney or not)

Whereas on Fox News, right after Sandra Fluke finished speaking they cut to a panel discussion and started going on about how much she exaggerated and how ridiculous her opinion of Romney was, how the Democrats generally had it wrong and how the convention was “weak”

They could have AT LEAST provided some facts, maybe a Romney quote, to give some context to Fluke’s speech but nope

That’s not good news coverage, it’s just blatantly biased crap and I have no reason to waste my time with it

fishingboatproceeds:

So asks Jack in my sometimes-still-broken ask box.

Responses:

1. Let’s take a wild guess and assume there are about 100,000 people who, if asked, would identify as a nerdfighter. About 30,000 of those people live outside of the United States, so they are probably neither Republicans nor Democrats. Of the remaining 70,000, I’d estimate that around 65% think of themselves as liberal or Democrats etc. That’s a sizable majority, but it also means that 35% consider themselves Republicans or conservative or whatever. That’s 24,500 people. Not the smallest club you’ll ever belong to. 

1a. So yes, you can be a nerdfighter and be a Republican. Many of us are. Ours is a big tent, and the entire definition of the word nerdfighter is “someone who thinks of themselves as a nerdfighter.” Nerdfighters invented the term, and nerdfighters define and redefine it over time. 

2. That said, I understand how Republican nerdfighters can feel excluded at times, because neither Hank nor I nor anyone else in this community should put aside their values merely to make everyone feel welcome. As an example, I believe same-sex marriage should be legal, and I’m not going to keep quiet about it just because it happens to be a controversial opinion at this historical moment. But I also believe lots of things that can make people on the Left feel excluded—like for instance, I support capitalist institutions like kiva.

Of course, I might be wrong. It’s possible that socialism addresses poverty better than access to capital markets does. It’s also possible that gay marriage would somehow damage the social order. I don’t think I’m wrong, obviously, but I understand that I might be. I’ve been wrong before.

3. A word about the term RINO: It can be difficult to keep extremists from taking a word away from you. Every time I identify as a Christian, people look at me funny, because they think being a Christian means opposing gay marriage, or thinking that atheists will burn in the fire of hell for eternity, or that human beings are not a product of evolution. In fact, Christianity is a big and diverse religious tradition and has never been a monolith. The same can be said of both major political parties in the U.S. The idea that we should all walk in lock-step with each other has hurt American political discourse and made it harder for either party to govern effectively. I’m not a fan of radicalization, and there is unfortunately much less ideological diversity in the Republican party than there used to be. I would encourage you not to cede the definition of Republican to the Tea Party.

4. On a personal note: I’m going to vote for President Obama in November, but I don’t think it’d be fair to call me a liberal. I believe that over-regulation of business limits growth and inhibits innovation. I favor market-based solutions to healthcare access like we see in the Affordable Care Act, which used to be a Republican idea. I favor a cap-and-trade system to control carbon emissions, which used to be a Republican idea. I favor a return to Reagan-era income tax levels, which used to be a Republican idea. Of course, there have always been places where I’ve disagreed with the Republican mainstream, but there have also always been places where I’ve disagreed with the Democratic mainstream. As the Republican party has drifted to the right in the past decade, though, I’ve personally felt increasingly distant from it.

I have friends and family who will vote for Romney in November. Generally, I think it’s both wrong and unproductive to dismiss those you disagree with as merely ignorant or cruel or evil or unAmerican or whatever. We are a nation born of compromise and complexity. Even our Revolution was, all things considered, quite moderate. Compromise may be out of fashion, but I still believe in it.

important stuff there

Wait, are we finally going to get t-shirts now?

*claps to self while alone in room*

THANKS THOMAS

I wish everybody knew that not reading John’s books, or not watching SciShow, or not watching the Swoodilypoopers or whatever does not make you any less of a nerdfighter

I keep seeing posts from people who feel guilty or ashamed because they think that, and it makes me sad

Because nobody should feel excluded from this community just because they happen not to like something