So in the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk assassination I sat while one of my very liberal siblings and my conservative father debated this topic. I am conflicted about it. My sibling compared current happenings in the USA to Benito Mussolini's rule in Italy. She mentioned the forced deportations of the Libyans into concentration camps and how it seemed similar to her to the forced deportation of "illegal immigrants." She mentioned the destruction of culture and compared it to how the USA has historically done it to Hawaiian indigenous peoples. She also mentioned the stripping of citizenship that Benito Mussolini did to Italian Jews and compared it to current events like Kilmar Abrego Garcia. I am unsure if these were sound points and or not and I wanted to get other people's opinions, please. My father's argument was that it is all liberal propaganda pushed by the left and said that "fascism" is a buzzword for Democrats to use. I don't know what to believe. Maybe someone more educated here can help. Thank you in advance.

I’m currently engaged to a guy who says he doesn’t care about politics but then gets so bent out of shape when I tell him anything that’s remotely bad about trump. I asked what benefits did trump give and he said pricing so I told him that the first thing trump did was cut taxes for the rich and he got upset and now he doesn’t wanna talk about it anymore. People today will shit on Regan but when trump does the same they find any excuses or don’t want to listen. Someone explain this mindset

UPDATEEEE:

This comment section is funny. Thank you guys for the responses. As for my engagement, he’s actually an incredible guy. He’s not necessarily “ stuck in his ways” but he has been through his entire life with people saying his wants , needs , or opinions aren’t a priority so sometimes he does tend to go harder on certain things. For example I did show him a few comments from this post. He just got upset with himself for believing what he did before.

As for the republicans vs democrats question we all should be able to have civil conversations. Elections use to be actual conversations and actual debates. As for who or what changed that cough. Y’all can figure that out lol.

Edit: I just discovered this subreddit, and it’s one of the best I’ve ever seen, requiring actually substantiating backup. It must be exhausting for the mods to keep up, but I really appreciate the effort put into both moderating and researching top level posts.

Thanks!

Why is it whenever people want to bring up the topic of finding ways to reduce pedophilia people start getting weird about it?

I think it's a very important topic because child abuse is one of the worst tragedies I can think of, but any effort trying to build my understanding through conversations with others is meet with aggression.

Why can people have non aggressive talks about other important topics but treat this one like it's off limits.

I believe silence is violence and the lives of innocent kids and mentally ill people is at risk by turning a blind eye by not wanting to talk about this topic openly in society.

Edit: getting down voted for this, case in point. I try to raise awareness around this issue and people stand opposed to it without reason.

Why is talking about wanting to reduce pedophilia a taboo subject? Keep down voting but silence is violence, and innocent kids don't have a voice, so I'm their voice.

Yes I've been accused of being "obsessed" and people who say it isn't taboo then how often do you seen genuine conversations other than "the only cure for them is a bullet" that's not a realistic solution. I'm talking about genuine conversations

My wife's grandfather is a staunch Republican and has no issue being part of a police union and/or receiving a pension. He (and many like him) vehemently oppose the teacher's unions or almost all unions. What is the thought process behind this?

I've noticed there are many conservative old people like this (including my grandparents). What is the thought process behind this?

This is not to instigate a flame war, I’m very curious to know why not just the United States, but even other countries like Britain and Germany are having red waves. When can we pin point the start of this, and are there multiple reasons?

I keep seeing this claim everywhere — that if a government provides free rations, subsidies, or social welfare programs, people (especially poor) will stop working and just rely on the state forever.

Is this actually true? Or is it just a stereotype that gets repeated without evidence?

Does research actually show that welfare reduces people’s willingness to work? Or even having a "job' is our end goal?

Have there been any studies into a correlation of power and paedophilia? There are countless cases of people in power abusing children. I would even say that perhaps the likelihood of a person abusing a child goes up the more powerful they get. I say this with no fact to back up my assumption, but it just seems to me that power is almost a gateway for peadophillia and sexual abuse.

It takes a 2 second google search to see that white women benefit the most from DEI. The far right keeps trying to convince people it’s reverse racism but they benefit. Why?

In 1940, black Americans could not vote, often lived in cities with prohibitive redlining policies, rarely attended college, and otherwise faced systematic and formalized discrimination.

Currently, while systematic discrimination still exists, the other items no longer exist. The are more opportunities for black Americans than ever before.

Yet the rate of child born to single mothers has increased by 500%.

What happened that improved the opportunities for black Americans yet at the same time made this statistic skyrocket?

Regardless of the time period, regardless of how patriarchal the society is, regardless of the population size men seem to commit the overwhelming majority of both "permitted" and "unpermitted" violence.

In every society that we know of men commit the vast majority of violence in war, murder, interpersonal violence, violent rape, etc. We even have evidence of this trend existing before recorded history and agiculture. In pretty much every modern day society this trend holds true with the overwhelming majority of violent crime in most countries being committed by men.

We know that men commit violence in different rates depending on the society and we know that in many societies most men are peaceful. Why do men have this consistency of the monopoly on violence? Why is this almost a universal human trend as far as we know? Out of the unimaginable amount of human groups why can't we find one where women commit the same or greater amount of violence?

Is it a case of "Our efforts were too successful and now no one remembers what it's like to suffer"?

Or is there something more going on that is pushing people to be more conservative, or at least more vocal about it?

I recently observed individuals commenting on the unnecessary nature of having a DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) office at a school. They criticized the institution for being “too liberal” and even shamed it. This took place in a context where diversity and inclusion were promoted across various areas, not just within the DEI office.

As they walked by, they seemed comfortable making these remarks until they noticed me. Some appeared embarrassed, while others continued their rhetoric without hesitation. I found their comments distasteful and couldn’t help but wonder:

Why do people oppose DEI so strongly?

I would especially like to hear from people of color or allies of nonwhite communities who oppose DEI. If you disagree with DEI, what are your reasons? Have you encountered thoughtful critiques that go beyond political polarization? I’m not concerned with the opinions of those who hold racist views; I simply want to understand.

I’m trying to use the best wording as possible here, because this is just an observation not the truth. I have worked many service jobs, in restaurants and stores and unfortunately one of the biggest observations I’ve seen with difficult costumers is theyre almost always older women. I don’t even want to admit it but it’s so obvious. Of course there are difficult male costumers but when there are it’s usually not often and they often just kind of let it go. I bring this up because Mother’s Day at my job was horrendous, I mean noticeably older female crowd and the worst treatment of my life along with my co workers. I would like to preface though that also the nicest costumers have been women, just why so significantly the bad interactions?

In the U.S. 2024 election, voters who made less than $30,000 a year and voters who made more than $100,000 a year both voted for Kamala Harris. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/exit-polls-2024-presidential-election/ So what do these 2 groups have in common that made them both vote for Kamala Harris?

There is a stereotype that Millennial were the most progressive generation though now Gen Z are supposedly more conservative than them.

Is there any truth to that?

It seemed to come out of nowhere in 2016. One day he was a rich guy from New York that most people knew about but almost nobody cared about, then he was the messiah for millions of people. What happened?

He’s not especially eloquent, he’s not handsome, he’s not even conservative, but he completely took over the American conservative movement seemingly overnight. How? Why? Was this a master plan or did it just happen? What about him generated such intense devotion from so many people?

It feels like around the world, more and more far right parties are winning. How is this similar or different to the right wing movements in the past? What are some root cause of this current issue, and looking at historical trends, is it even possible to stop it?

First, I want to clarify that I know peoples' biological ethnicity has no impact on how they treat their spouses.

The role of gender in interracial divorce dynamics, found in social studies by Jenifer L. Bratter and Rosalind B. King, was highlighted when examining marital instability among Black/White unions. White wife/Black husband marriages show twice the divorce rate of White wife/White husband couples by the 10th year of marriage, whereas Black wife/White husband marriages are 44% less likely to end in divorce than White wife/White husband couples over the same period. In addition, according to Census Bureau data Black wife/White husband marriages have the lowest rates of divorce.

Why?

On average, Republican presidents grow the economy less than Democrat presidents. However, the US public perceives Republicans as being better for the economy, which has been found in multiple polls.

Why is this?

It is said that the mentality in America where most people hate the homeless is political and that very few denominations teach prosperity gospel.

The way the term is described is as if it was just some televangelist thing

https://www.vox.com/first-person/2018/3/12/17109306/prosperity-gospel-good-evil-cancer-fate-theology-theodicy

This is because they think that prosperity gospel means give money to the pastor to become rich or whatever. In the article they also point to getting certain other material benefits.

But it is not that hard of a leap of logic to think that if you think that being rich means being blessed by God in a Calvinist framework, then if you are poor it is because God hates you for being lazy.

I do think that many people think like that and lo and behold if you ask Reformed denominations they will call it prosperity gospel.

I don't know if it is shame or something, but it is very clear to me that conservative denominations (especially ones that are historically descended from protestant movements) do seem to condemn homeless people as being lazy and deserving of poverty.

So do we have a map or list of what denominations believe something along those Protest Work Ethic lines, even if they deny it? Or they don't call it work ethic, or prosperity or whatever?

Granted, even today women often endure hostility and closed-mindedness when entering male-dominated fields and industries, but overall females in male-dominated careers are more respected than males in female-dominated careers, who are often ridiculed and looked down on.

Not only do women have more gender-bending freedom than men in career fields and job positions, but also with clothing, hobbies, and activities. My sister was a cheerleader in high school, and they briefly had a boy cheerleader who ended up quitting because everyone made a big deal out of it. Around the same time, there was a girl who played football (IIRC she also made captain on the football team). In contrast to the boy cheerleader, this girl football player was popular and highly respected.