this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2023
410 points (96.8% liked)

politics

19072 readers
3809 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Republican strategists are exploring a shift away from “pro-life” messaging on abortion after consistent Election Day losses for the GOP when reproductive rights were on the ballot.

At a closed-door meeting of Senate Republicans this week, the head of a super PAC closely aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., presented poll results that suggested voters are reacting differently to commonly used terms like “pro-life” and “pro-choice” in the wake of last year’s Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, said several senators who were in the room.

The polling, which NBC News has not independently reviewed, was made available to senators Wednesday by former McConnell aide Steven Law and showed that “pro-life” no longer resonated with voters.

“What intrigued me the most about the results was that ‘pro-choice’ and ‘pro-life’ means something different now, that people see being pro-life as being against all abortions ... at all levels,” Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said in an interview Thursday.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said the polling made it clear to him that more specificity is needed in talking about abortion.

“Many voters think [‘pro-life’] means you’re for no exceptions in favor of abortion ever, ever, and ‘pro-choice’ now can mean any number of things. So the conversation was mostly oriented around how voters think of those labels, that they’ve shifted. So if you’re going to talk about the issue, you need to be specific,” Hawley said Thursday.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 87 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The first rule of pursuing abhorrent policies for performative reasons is, they need to stay performative. The GOP used to understand this, and carefully pursue anti-abortion policies while carefully not achieving them. But now there's too high a proportion of people who are such nutcases that they genuinely don't understand or don't care that this will lose them elections, and the strategic Republicans are struggling more and more to keep control of their party.

It used to be the same with "anti-immigration" policies that were surgically careful to preserve the vulnerable workforce while making the right type of performative gestures, until DeSantis came in being enough of a true believer that he's willing to damage Florida's economy pretty significantly as long as it lets him be cruel to spanish people.

The safeties are getting disabled, basically.

“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.” -Barry Goldwater

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It’s also an older American colloquialism to describe people from the Spanish-speaking world. They’re not wrong, just a little behind on linguistic changes. Just imagine “Hispanophone” when they say “Spanish”; that’s what is meant in most cases.

(To be clear, I’m not telling you not to be offended if you’re from the Spanish-speaking world. I’m simply explaining that it’s a colloquialism, not a mistake or an attempt at offense.)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Is this like the "female" thing?

So this is honestly the first time I've heard that using "spanish" for Hispanic people (as opposed to "Spanish" i.e. people from Spain) is in any way offensive. I can't remember hearing Hispanic people use it themselves, so maybe you're right on this and I am the wrong one.

By way of comparison, what's your stance on the offensiveness level of "Latinx"?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Spanish-speaking is better. Just "Spanish" is weird. Many folks from Mexico and South America don't have any Spanish ancestry, and some people or entire countries don't even speak Spanish as their main language. To reduce everyone who lives on one giant continent to the name of a conquering nation that tried to take them over is, yeah, a little offensive.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

To reduce everyone who lives on one giant continent to the name of a conquering nation that tried to take them over is, yeah, a little offensive.

Yeah, I get that. Point taken.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

Well, but you do know that there's a slang term "spanish" with the little s, which means Hispanic, right? It's the same as "black" people aren't colored #000000, "you up?" doesn't mean anything about your verticality, etc. The decision that certain slang terms are incorrect because you've frozen what the language means at a certain point and no one's permitted to apply something in a way that's different than that to accomplish the purpose of communication, is not to me a sensible endeavor.

Urban Dictionary seems to take issue with using "spanish" in this way, and like I say in my experience people of this ethnicity tend to identify with their particular country of origin, so maybe I am the wrong one. It honestly just never crossed my mind. I don't agree in general with "you're not allowed to use word X because we've decided that it's not allowed," and I definitely don't agree with avoiding slang simply because it's slang and slang's not allowed.

Last thoughts on the offensiveness front; I think "Latinx" is a perfect example of people coming up with weird rules and trying to get other people to follow them even though there's no productive purpose to it and all it does is irritate people (including the ethnic grouping that's supposedly being protected). I do think this happens, hence why I also bring up "female." I honestly don't know whether "spanish" falls into that category, or is not at all offensive and I'm just creating this whole issue from nothing, or is genuinely mildly offensive.