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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 3 of 3. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by alexandra_k on June 14, 2020, at 13:09:45
i guess i am often drawn to unpopular views.
maybe in the sense / spirit of advancing the dialogue.
i don't mean to tear things down (no but) i mean to encourage things to develop and advance (because of concerns or criticims or whatever that spur further or future growth).
but it's perhaps also a psychological thing that i have.
to have a sort of a startle reflex to others.
to respond agily with a pivot or change in direction.
sometimes people think i am oppositional -- but i don't mean to be undermining.
i think people find it hard not to find a mirror, sometimes.
it can be experienced as invalidating.
but it can be hard for me to feel like i never get to say what's on my mind.
i am allowed only to regurgitate the party line unthinking only...i feel sad for Trump that people seem to hate him / that he isn't allowed to do anything right.
no matter what he does people jump all over it that it's the wrong thing.
it seems that he can't win...but he's the president of the united states of america. and gee, given that, how many other things does it get to win? that don't seem hardly fair...
but Obama was much beloved. i mean, generally or mostly. or... perhaps from the majority of people who i sort of identified with, myself. i'm not sure... but obama was (it seems to me) much beloved.
and Trump is about as much reviled as obama was beloved. and i am not sure i understand why.
Trump said something about looking at the effects. people loved obama. he seemed to be a genuinely nice guy. the things he said seemed good and nice. obama-care... people were worried that they wouldn't have care they needed (because he would run things broke). people thought they may obtain the care they needed. but for all the kerfuffle... what changed? what practical difference did the introduction of obama-care mean or make to anybodies life???
what did obama dooooooooo exactly with respect to helping America improve on the world stage and domestically???
of course i don't know stuff all about it... but i am concerned that the answer is surprisingly little. ineffectual...
I don't think anybody wanted to think that Trump was hiding in a bunker in the whitehouse while... the kkk??? terrorised America. He heard that a church had been burned / damaged by fire. a church as old as / as symbolic as the whitehouse. He took a walk to there (I am not afraid) and held up the book of law.
if that wasn't a display of solidarity with the american people -- what would have been?
it seems, often, that people simply will not admit to him doing anything right. that he is only to be interpreted as doing the wrong thing. constantly.
i don't quite get why he is so poorly presented / portrayed.
he said he did more for black people than lincoln.
i wondered what he meant...
laws changed under lincoln. I think. Slaves were freed.
but they were not empowered on lincolns watch.
but empowerment can't be given by trump or the government or anybody else.
empowerment has to be in spite of or despite all of that.
perhaps that's what he means.
it's possible i am too charitable in my interpretation of him.
likely because i think others err in the other directions.
i suspect the truth probably lies someplace in the middle...
Posted by alexandra_k on June 18, 2020, at 22:52:43
In reply to unpopular view, posted by alexandra_k on June 14, 2020, at 13:09:45
Biden seems okay as well. From the one thing I saw of him. He was asking some good questions. Which is his job as leader of the opposition now, I suppose.
It is interesting how... Well... If you think of Trump as having a line... Then there is a challenge to it from Biden. And the challenge could come (figuratively or metaphorically) from the left or from the right. But what position or grounds or angle the challenge comes from has the effect, really, of moderating or drawing things into more of a compromise or approximation of that position.
I mean...
Biden could have criticised Trump for closing down the borders too early. But he didn't. He critisised Trump for closing down the borders too late.
Etc.
Posted by alexandra_k on June 18, 2020, at 22:56:51
In reply to Re: unpopular view, posted by alexandra_k on June 18, 2020, at 22:52:43
It has been interesting to me, over the last year or so, to feel like I am following, in some sense. Understanding, in some sense, things that are going on, politically, around the world.
I remember previously feeling like foreign politics was a totally foreign language to me. I still feel like that about some issues... The stuff about the Russian Spy and... Impeachment... I wasn't following any of that...
But trying to understand what was going on in Hong Kong with the protests.. Trying to understand enough to make up my own mind what I thought about things...
ANd I have been feeling like I am able to follow along a bit with the politics thing.
Which is good, I think.
I was going to say it is about Covid sort of providing a theme or whatever to make politics more understandable.
Perhaps that is true. But it has also been the case that I have invested more time and effort into trying to understand and researching various things so I could understand more / better. Reading a variety of news sources etc.
So it is likely a bit of both.
I didn't know where HOng Kong was on the map of the world, previously. Taiwan. Beijing. Wuhan (maybe still not sure... 2hrs from HOng Kong on the train, they reckon...)
Yeah.
This is the end of the thread.
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