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Progressives on the West Coast

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MillCreek:
https://archive.ph/20240615153536/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/15/opinion/progressives-california-portland.html

An interesting article that rings true to me up in Seattle. I was in downtown Seattle yesterday giving a keynote lecture at a risk management meeting.  Sad to see the number of people downtown who were openly smoking Fentanyl or were obviously under the influence.

Ben:
It really says a lot when even sources like the NYT report on this stuff as being crazy. It's positive that at least some maninstream progressives are waking up to it.

I'm pretty sure a lot of them are lamenting the "abortion celebrations" and "abortion through birth" social media movements that likely are what torpedoed the previous "don't ask, don't tell" culture on abortion, and that RvW would likely still be in place right now if the whackos didn't go disgustingly overboard. One could say the same about the whole transgender thing and LGBT (no xyz+_#$). The mainstream gays seem to be pushing back against that as well as hurting, not helping acceptance.

Referencing the article, it has been interesting to me to watch Oregon's backpedal on their "hard drugs for everybody" laws. My immediate Oregonian neighbors to the East have always despised it, but it seems this is also a law with unintended consequences that "average" liberals in Oregon are recognizing as a mistake and trying to fix, while Portlandians are still shouting that it's nazi to repeal it. Regardless that Portland is probably ground zero for the negative consequences of that law.

JTHunter:
It is always fun to see people who supported and wanted these laws come to the realization that these laws have royally backfired and made life worse.  >:D  :rofl:

Perd Hapley:

--- Quote from: Ben on June 15, 2024, 12:53:42 PM ---RvW would likely still be in place right now if the whackos didn't go disgustingly overboard.

--- End quote ---

I don't think so. That was decades in the making, and the decision was made by the Supreme Court; not by people turning out to vote against it. You could argue that the things you're describing pushed voter turnout in 2016, or pushed Senate Republicans to vote in favor of more strongly anti-abortion justices. But then you'd have to demonstrate it was abortion, rather than Chevron deference, or gun control that was the main driver.

Also, I have to point out that abortion is pretty much all extremism, anyway. Even the "compromise" positions that "only" allow abortion in early-term cases, or just for rape or incest are a brutally extreme approach to the problem of unwanted children.

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