10 Worst/Most Overused Memes on Daily Kos

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Monday August 10, 2009 · 5:47 PM PDT

2009/08/10 · 17:47

Certain phrases and stereotyped explanations get repeated a lot because they're catchy, easy to remember, sound cool, or are good for shutting up an opponent in an argument. These are what some scientists called "memes" and liken to genes as successful propagators in some Darwinian information ecology. We have a bunch that show up in discussions on Daily Kos. Here are my picks for the 10 Worst, or most overused or least useful ones. Or at least the worst ones not found in troll accusations/counter-accusations, which are a whole other stew of language and logic abuse.

A theme that shows up in several of these is trusting a dubious authority when it says something that agrees with our preconceptions and simultaneously declaring it totally untrustworthy when it disagrees. The CIA is the CIA, the Federal Reserve is the Federal Reserve, the media are the media, the police are the police—their mission is in almost all cases to protect the establishment and spin stories to the benefit of the wealthy and powerful insiders. Whether what they say sounds congenial or not, whether they're acting like they're on "our" side or not, you have to take it with a grain of salt and parse all the meanings carefully.

glaser

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Monday June 29, 2009 · 8:02 AM PDT

2009/06/29 · 08:02

There's a continuing, if low level, debate going on here about if and when the economy will recover and pull out of the current recession. Although most of the participants tend to hedge their predictions, the people more optimistic that we will see a recovery of some kind fairly soon tend to scorn the pessimists as "doom-and-gloomers" and those who are more pessimistic tend to dismiss the optimists as "wishful thinkers". A lot of the debate revolves (I think) around whether the fundamentals of the economy are better, about the same, or worse, than in the previous recessions that we compare this one to in all the fancy graphs and charts.

I am interested in seeing what the consensus of feeling here is among both the people that participate in the back-and-forth economic diaries and those who normally skip reading them. So here is a poll that anyone who wants to can vote in.

Poll

46 votes Show Results

Will the US recover from this recession in the near future, and what are the prospects for the economy?

The economy still has many strengths, such as companies with solid balance sheets and a skilled workforce. With banks lending more freely, the recession will end in a few months, and Green Industry stimulus will jumpstart the next major upswing.

The worst of the financial crisis is over. Companies will slowly begin hiring and ramping up production over the next year, with the recession ending toward the middle of that range and expansion continuing at a moderate pace for several years.

There may be some narrow recovery from the recession based on economic measurements, and possibly a later dip back into recession next year, but basically we are looking at a long period of economic stagnation like what Japan experienced.

The economy may have up and down periods over the rest of Obama's first term, but the overall trend will be down, since too many consumers will resist going back into "borrow and spend" mode and government will be limited by its debt.

Forget recovery for working people, we're one crisis away from the economy falling off a cliff, thanks to a decades long deterioration of economic fundamentals. Likely outcome: stagflation, hyperinflation, or IMF-imposed "austerity" programs.

Other (explain in comments).

Who cares? Harping on the economy is unnecessary when Obama's team is hard at work on dealing with it. We have pressing issues, like the situation in Iran or the early maneuvering for the 2010 elections, that are far worthier of our attention.

46 votes Vote Now!

Will the US recover from this recession in the near future, and what are the prospects for the economy?

0 votes

9 votes

8 votes

2 votes

24 votes

Other (explain in comments).

1 vote

2 votes

How Different Would a Clinton/Biden/Dodd Presidency Be?

glaser

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Saturday February 07, 2009 · 12:45 PM PST

2009/02/07 · 12:45

It's too early to judge how effective President Obama's programs will be, but almost all of us have formed some opinion about the substance and style of his administration based on his Cabinet appointments, the economic stimulus bill that he is trying to get passed, his repudiation of some of the more extreme policies of the Bush Administration, and his attempts at trying to push for what some Democratic commentators describe as bipartisan or centrist solutions to the nation's problems.

Poll

145 votes Show Results

Would the candidate you supported have been different?

Supported Obama, no one else would have been as liberal/progressive

Supported Obama, no one else would have been as moderate/centrist

Supported Clinton, she would have been more liberal/progressive

Supported Clinton, she would have been more moderate/centrist

Supported Biden, he would have been more liberal/progressive

Supported Biden, he would have been more moderate/centrist

Supported Dodd, he would have been more liberal/progressive

Supported Dodd, he would have been more moderate/centrist

Supported Edwards, he would have been more liberal/progressive

Supported Edwards, he would have been more moderate/centrist

Supported Richardson, he would have been more liberal/progressive

Supported Richardson, he would have been more moderate/centrist

None of the candidates listed would have been all that different

145 votes Vote Now!

Would the candidate you supported have been different?

Supported Obama, no one else would have been as liberal/progressive

64 votes

Supported Obama, no one else would have been as moderate/centrist

8 votes

Supported Clinton, she would have been more liberal/progressive

16 votes

Supported Clinton, she would have been more moderate/centrist

4 votes

Supported Biden, he would have been more liberal/progressive

3 votes

Supported Biden, he would have been more moderate/centrist

0 votes

Supported Dodd, he would have been more liberal/progressive

1 vote

Supported Dodd, he would have been more moderate/centrist

0 votes

Supported Edwards, he would have been more liberal/progressive

20 votes

Supported Edwards, he would have been more moderate/centrist

1 vote

Supported Richardson, he would have been more liberal/progressive

0 votes

Supported Richardson, he would have been more moderate/centrist

1 vote

None of the candidates listed would have been all that different

27 votes

Voting Machine Use in Swing States

glaser

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Saturday October 04, 2008 · 2:31 PM PDT

2008/10/04 · 14:31

There has been a fair amount of discussion on DKos about voter suppression tricks used by Republicans: improper purging of registered voters from the voting rolls, onerous photo ID requirements, misinformation spread to poor people and college students about their rights and supposed legal liabilities, etc. Many of these tricks can be played by city and county officials, although it really helps to have a Republican Secretary of State or Elections Board Chair coordinating them.

However, if we wake up the morning after the election to hear that John McCain has won a stunning upset victory, another possible source of trickery to look for will be hacking of electronic voting machines. There has been a lot of examination of the security of electronic voting machines, especially paperless touchscreen systems (classified as Direct Recording Electronics or DREs), by computer scientists like Avi Rubin, David Dill, Rebecca Mercuri, et al. Generally what has been found is that there are many possible ways to hack most of these machines, especially (and this holds true for computers in general) when given physical access to the machine. Which makes the reports that election workers in many Ohio towns took machines home with them in the last days before the 2004 election all the more ominous.

glaser

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday August 01, 2008 · 12:55 PM PDT

2008/08/01 · 12:55

The Republicans have known for some time that their program only appeals to a minority of the voters. So one of their most effective tactics for continuing to squeeze out electoral victories had been to suppress and disenfranchise those voters deemed most likely to vote Democratic in an election. In the past this tactic has focused on racial minorities and the poor. Another demographic that seems to be breaking more reliably against the Republicans in recent years is the young. Can we help counter the Reoublicans' tactics by lowering the voting age by a significant account—say, to 15? And is it reasonable to think that people in that newly enfranchised age group would be mature enough to make responsible decisions when voting?

Poll

92 votes Show Results

At what age should people be allowed to vote?

92 votes Vote Now!

At what age should people be allowed to vote?

14 or younger

9 votes

4 votes

8 votes

5 votes

52 votes

5 votes

1 vote

3 votes

whatever age I am currently and no younger!

5 votes

"Those Stupid Voters"

glaser

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday June 21, 2008 · 8:29 AM PDT

2008/06/21 · 08:29

There's a special circle of Hell reserved, in the minds of liberal and moderate Democrats, for anyone who claims to oppose the crimes and delusions of the Republican Party who then ends up voting for a third party candidate, or who doesn't bother to vote, or who (worst of all) ends up voting for a Republican. The very mention of the name Ralph Nader sends these folks into verbal fits of frothing at the mouth and textual fits of ALL CAPS. The Green Party and the Libertarians can induce similar if not quite so violent seizures. And the targets of their wrath are generally to be found in those groups known as the independents, the "swing voters", the hopeless idealists, and the disaffected non-voters or infrequent voters.

glaser

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Wednesday June 11, 2008 · 10:28 AM PDT

2008/06/11 · 10:28

It's old news by now, but the latest repetition of a discouraging trend: huge majorities of Democratic and Republican Representatives voted last month to pass HR 4279, titled "Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2008". The effect of this expansion of the existing federal code on protection of "intellectual property" will be to create a federal Intellectual Property Enforcement office in the White House to help prioritize the prosecution of alleged IP "crimes" and explicitly include Internet file sharing violations in the list of "crimes" for which federal grants can be made to state and local law enforcement agencies. A quick scan of the text of the bill reveals that the concept of "fair use" is nowhere mentioned.

glaser

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday May 11, 2008 · 12:47 PM PDT

2008/05/11 · 12:47

It looked like it was going to be an exciting race on the Republican side in 2007-2008, with a crowded field and plenty of candidates with money (Romney), media adoration (Giuliani), dark horse potential (Huckabee) and wingnuttiness (Tancredo) piling on against the guy who had been waiting his turn (McCain). But then, suddenly, the race was over when it had barely gotten started, and one candidate was Inevitable. In a lot of ways it resembled the Democratic affair in 2004.

Now about the only excitement left on the Republican side is going to come from McCain's Vice Presidential pick. Is there anyone he could pick that would really help his chances, that would make you really worry?

Poll

330 votes Show Results

Which McCain VP choice causes you the most worry?

330 votes Vote Now!

Which McCain VP choice causes you the most worry?

Lamarr Alexander

2 votes

Susan Collins

20 votes

Rudi Giuliani

14 votes

Mike Huckabee

42 votes

Bobby Jindal

27 votes

Joe Liberman

36 votes

Tim Pawlenty

26 votes

David Petraeus

13 votes

Condoleezza Rice

27 votes

Tom Ridge

13 votes

Mark Sanford

2 votes

Arnold Schwarzenegger

18 votes

Other (explain in comments)

11 votes

None of them, we can beat McCain no matter who he picks

79 votes

Break Up the States?

glaser

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday January 26, 2008 · 3:31 PM PST

2008/01/26 · 15:31

In another diary I talked about the idea of physically breaking up the US Government so that it is not all centered in Washington, DC. For completely different reasons, another idea that is worth thinking about is whether we should break up the most heavily populated US states. Several people here have noted that Congressional districts for Representatives now cover far more than the original 30,000 people that the Constitution set down as a maximum size, and the disparities in the population size of districts (despite periodic redrawing) translates to certain voters being underrepresented compared to others, in terms of the dilution of their votes.

But an even more flagrant case of vote dilution exists in the US Senate, where the population inequalities of the original 13 states have ballooned to a point where states like California and Texas should probably be thinking about secession (or the threat of it) to get back some of the clout that their population numbers warrant.

glaser

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Sunday December 30, 2007 · 11:39 AM PST

2007/12/30 · 11:39

In some ways the measure of a leader's greatness is how radically they are able to change the conventional wisdom on politics and the state of the nation by virtue of their tenure in office. Just below are some examples of the conventional wisdom before and after 7 years of George W. Bush that highlight the great role his leadership will be assigned in future histories and discussions about the fate of our country.

glaser

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Tuesday September 11, 2007 · 10:14 PM PDT

2007/09/11 · 22:14

In a Huffington Post blog entry titled "J'Accuse", Gary Hart says just what the Democrats should all be saying about 9/11 and the Bush Administration. This is about as direct and no holds barred a critique of the myth Bush has constructed about Republicans and the War on Terror as I have ever read.

glaser

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday August 31, 2007 · 12:07 AM PDT

2007/08/31 · 00:07

Calling Mr. Albert Gore. Calling Mr. Wesley Clark. For all practical purposes, you now have less than two months to get into the Presidential race and probably less than one month to make the decision and start the serious planning. You two need to talk, soon.

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10 Worst/Most Overused Memes on Daily Kos

Economic Recovery, If and When? (Poll)

How Different Would a Clinton/Biden/Dodd Presidency Be?

Voting Machine Use in Swing States

Lower the Voting Age to 15?

"Those Stupid Voters"

Bipartisan Bow to the Corporate Masters - HR 4279

Which possible McCain VP worries you most?

Break Up the States?

The Conventional Wisdom, Before and After Bush

Gary Hart tells you all you need to know

Al, Wes--You Need to Talk, Soon