Hannity tells probe witnesses to "delete your emails" and "acid wash your HDD". - Polidicks

i don't want to turn this into an sgman thread (but maybe we should have PM's sorted by now so) but tbh fam I'd say the forums didn't change, you did.

Remember the mod protection Tudd had and see if you wanna revisit that statement.

I am so glad Conscript never came to newpunch because that guy was an even worse version of this.

I have some bad news for you.

Yeah I think he just changed his name, he's still around

sgman91 and FP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSdfiVzmz50

Case in point: Not long before he started turning into an atrocious poster I actually considered him one of the better conservative posters along with Grenadiac and a handful of others. After that though he just started going downhill.

Grenadiac is a cool dude even if we probably don't agree on most things

Speaking as a conservative, the thing I've seen with a number of other conservatives is how they have spiraled off into the abyss with this administration. It's concerned me quite a bit watching otherwise rational conservatives go along with some of the shit this administration's done, and then have the gall to say that this is a good conservative administration. No, it isn't. They don't even practice conservative economic theory properly, and on top of that they're massive shitsticks to decent folks just because. They're only interested in getting some half-baked zinger they can repeat for 10 years on end (see: "nothing burger") and still find funny rather than doing anything to help this country.

Sgman I really liked you as a poster on theology, you can occasionally bring up important flaws in an article and debate semantics in certain situations appropriately. While I can't deny that the forum has changed, I also feel that you have changed too. I still think you are a decent poster even though I disagree a lot of the time. That being said though I think maybe taking a break would be a good idea. I mean it in the nicest way possible.

You're unfortunately part of a dying breed. Your party has been hijacked by Russians and trolls.

I think lots of people different countries (referring to US and UK mainly) suffer from the issue of their party not representing them. Democrats with the democratic socialists vs establishment donor peons vs progressives vs identity politics peeps Republicans with the old school repubs (like arney) vs new republicans (idiots) vs libertarians Conservatives in UK with the libertarian free market types vs the traditional conservative government power peeps Labour in the UK with the (somewhat) revolutionary corbynists vs blairite neolibs vs the more traditional socially conservative economically socialist working class voters/trade union peeps I think the issue is the "2 party system". People are forced to vote for the party which closest represents them, not because they like it, but because its the only way to stop "the other party". I pity conservatives and republicans who are currently represented by Dimwits, like Trump, Boris Johnson etc. There was a poster who used to post on old punch called flashmarsh. He sent me this article. https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/coming-conservative-dark-age/ it laments the fact that the sane and reasonable voices on the right wing of politics are drowned out by racists, sexists and other misanthropes. I didn't agree with flashmarsh much but he was right in this regard (and a few others). It was good talking to him, honestly I'd trade almost any of the current right wing posters to have him back. I'm fairly left wing and socially liberal, but with the right wing parties winning as they are I'd prefer them to rational, compassionate conservatives rather than the grab bag of misleading, self interested pieces of shit who currently occupy the UK and US governments. I feel like politics lately has grown so absurd that it's a competition; whoever is loudest and most obtuse wins, even if they fuck people over and don't keep promises. Yesterday I saw a thing on the sunday politics criticising T May for not watching love island - I don't like May at all but if thats the standard by which we judge politicians (if or not they watch trashy reality tv) then hope might just be lost. We're being lead by buffoons right now.

I dunno, it's hard for me to see trump as just saying the things that conservatives normally say quietly very loudly. That's the only explanation for why people like McCain and Flake denounce him yet vote with trump the vast majority of the time. also Mitch McConnell said this recently https://twitter.com/politico/status/1005187206850449408 I dunno! I don't think being a nice person makes garbage policy any better. I don't know if you're a bad person. (you seem alright?) But the rot in the republican party seems to run throughout the party, not just the head.

I suppose that depends entirely on how you define conservative policy, and whether you're referring to economic or social policy. Personally, when I think of conservative policy, I'm thinking economic. And when I thi k of conservative economic policy, I think of the simple principle of "spend less than you make". Is there elected official in the Republican party who currently adheres to that? Does Trump adhere to that? No, they don't. That's why I don't view them as true conservatives, because they eschew that basic principle. A vonservative is supposed to, as the name implies, conserve things. Resources, finances, etc... The Republicans are very wasteful, and then have the gall to say they're the party of fiscal responsibility.

I think if you divorce conservative economic policy from social policy you just get libertarians.

I personally put a bit of a line between libertarians and economic conservatives simply because economic conservatives might not adhere to the belief of isolationism as much as libertarians tend to, and I'm not an isolationist. I'm personally not a big fan of putting labels on others though, because you lose out on a lot of the intricacies of someone's beliefs if you simply say "they're a liberal" or "they're a conservative" or "they're a libertarian".

I dunno, I consider Bill Maher to be a bit of libertarian, he just leans a little more left than people you commonly hear the label applied to. Though conservatism seems to be bringing back isolation in full force.

Donald Trump is one of, if not the most popular republican politician alive today. If you're a lifelong republican, what do you think that says about your party? What do you think that says about conservative media? What do you think that says about the people you've supported and defended in the past? I understand where sgman is coming from. In fact, I'll even say he's right. Sean Hannity is joking. He isn't saying "go destroy the evidence of your crimes". He's doing something much, much worse. He's saying "the democrats can get away with anything, so we should be able to do whatever we want". The Republican party didn't become what it is now overnight. This has been happening for decades. If you're a republican, and you truly don't believe that Donald Trump doesn't represent you, maybe now is a good time to look back on all the "jokes" and the "statements taken out of context" and ask yourself if maybe, just maybe, you were just making excuses. Maybe you were just doing what people are doing for Donald Trump. Maybe the people you disagreed with were closer to the truth than you were.

That's a trend I've definitely noticed with Republicans, is they find a list of things they don't like about the Democrats and then say "well, if they can do it, we should be allowed to do it" exactly as you said. This creeping cancer is something I've definitely noticed with the Republican party, which is why I've been stepping away from it over the past years.