So, this US election cycle...

[Taco-Calamitous]

...it's pretty much awful, isn't it? I drew a comic about it:

I think it's pretty accurate.

[Clint]

I think there's one right outcome, and one wrong outcome. The wrong outcome is voting into office a racist warmonger that completely disregards the law, has no respect for women or women's rights, and will endanger the security of the nation as a whole. And the right outcome is electing Donald Trump.

[Heartless Angel]

I think there's one right outcome, and one wrong outcome. The wrong outcome is voting into office a racist warmonger that completely disregards the law, has no respect for women or women's rights, and will endanger the security of the nation as a whole. And the right outcome is electing Donald Trump.

Get this man a cigar, and a flamethrower to light it with.

[Taco-Calamitous]

So Trump and Assange are Russian spies? lolol. Sure, I'll believe the CIA over the FBI; the two sides of the same coin sure are at each others' throats, lately.

Our government is so fucked up. Obama wins a Nobel Peace Prize, then proceeds to kill nearly a thousand people with drone strikes. The warhawks want us to go to war with Russia next. Meanwhile, Trump's cabinet is very bad news for the environment and the middle east.

We are so screwed.

[Rocky]

In short, I think the two party system America has going on right now is quite flawed, but unfortunately I am unsure on how to make a better system.

[Taco-Calamitous]

Maybe people should vote 3rd party? lolol

[Alpha]

Man, the mistake was living somewhere with a presidential system. Parliamentary democracy for lyfe.

[Taco-Calamitous]

I think that would mean that Paul Ryan would be the Prime Minister of the US. Who would be our Head of State, though? We ain't part of the Commonwealth... No queen for us.

[Pete]

I'm perfectly content NOT calling everything from roads to government agencies the royal this or that.

[che]

I really don't get it. I don't understand why in 2016 we can't just be happy about people doing shit (gay marriage, smoking weed, BEING CATHOLIC), that DOESN'T AFFECT OTHER PEOPLE. Literally nothing will change if you let people have the freedoms they want. Seems like people are willing to fight to the fucking death to not let it happen. In the meantime, we have people who have been screwed time and time again by politicians. NEWSFLASH -- it's affecting people. And they voted Trump. Yet it turns out, once Trump gets in there, he's going to do nothing he said he would. Surprise, surprise. LOL. What a fucking shitshow. Forget about growing up in the 90s and being told we're the greatest nation and the McDonalds commericals saying "hey it could happen". Well, it happened. We're so far up our own asses. SCOFF - HMMPH NOT CHANGING MY VIEWS. SOMEONE ELSE DO IT. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. I read somewhere that things get worse before they get better. Maybe it's a start?

[Alpha]

I really don't get it. I don't understand why in 2016 we can't just be happy about people doing shit (gay marriage, smoking weed, BEING CATHOLIC), that DOESN'T AFFECT OTHER PEOPLE. Literally nothing will change if you let people have the freedoms they want. Seems like people are willing to fight to the fucking death to not let it happen. In the meantime, we have people who have been screwed time and time again by politicians. NEWSFLASH -- it's affecting people. And they voted Trump. Yet it turns out, once Trump gets in there, he's going to do nothing he said he would. Surprise, surprise. LOL. What a fucking shitshow. Forget about growing up in the 90s and being told we're the greatest nation and the McDonalds commericals saying "hey it could happen". Well, it happened. We're so far up our own asses. SCOFF - HMMPH NOT CHANGING MY VIEWS. SOMEONE ELSE DO IT. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. I read somewhere that things get worse before they get better. Maybe it's a start?

Is this like a rap? Che with the truth bombs.

[FinalxxSin]

I really don't get it. I don't understand why in 2016 we can't just be happy about people doing shit (gay marriage, smoking weed, BEING CATHOLIC), that DOESN'T AFFECT OTHER PEOPLE. Literally nothing will change if you let people have the freedoms they want. Seems like people are willing to fight to the fucking death to not let it happen. In the meantime, we have people who have been screwed time and time again by politicians. NEWSFLASH -- it's affecting people. And they voted Trump. Yet it turns out, once Trump gets in there, he's going to do nothing he said he would. Surprise, surprise. LOL. What a fucking shitshow. Forget about growing up in the 90s and being told we're the greatest nation and the McDonalds commericals saying "hey it could happen". Well, it happened. We're so far up our own asses. SCOFF - HMMPH NOT CHANGING MY VIEWS. SOMEONE ELSE DO IT. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. I read somewhere that things get worse before they get better. Maybe it's a start?

Because there are people that live to make other peoples' lives as miserable as possible. Call it a power trip if you would like. Also, we got people that are intolerant of differences. Those same people want conformity.

[Taco-Calamitous]

Before this turns into an echo chamber, which intolerant people are we talking about? Because there isn't just one set of such people. There are reasons beyond one side winning and the other side losing beyond "intolerance," and I'm not gonna sit here and watch one group get turned into the boogeyman. That line of thinking is how elections are lost.

[Pete]

I'm a straight, white male making more than the national average. I'm as good as a Nazi these days.

[FinalxxSin]

Before this turns into an echo chamber, which intolerant people are we talking about? Because there isn't just one set of such people. There are reasons beyond one side winning and the other side losing beyond "intolerance," and I'm not gonna sit here and watch one group get turned into the boogeyman. That line of thinking is how elections are lost.

Intolerance as in not being accepting of differences other people have that have no impact on any other person physically or mentally. I'm talking about the more moral intolerance than anything else. Far as this election goes, everybody took a L regardless of party choice. Your comic strip thing expressed that already.

[Taco-Calamitous]

Just checkin'. It's important to understand our differences, morally or otherwise, because we all still have to live with each other; to try to understand where someone's coming from, what their concerns are, etc. That's something many on both sides of the aisle in this country don't seem to be doing, lately. Doesn't do us any good to dismiss a large segment of the population as something or another, because they're multi-dimensional, and they still vote.

[Alpha]

I'm perfectly content NOT calling everything from roads to government agencies the royal this or that.

Not to labour the point, but parliamentary ≠ monarchical. I'm actually super republican (in the sense of the word that has nothing to do with the GOP). I am in principle a subject of the British Crown, which actually feels absurd and rather insulting to write. But I'd only be willing to trade it all for a system that is almost exactly the same except I get to cast a vote and thereby indirectly pick the constitutional figurehead at the top every few years.

[Rocky]

I'm a straight, white male making more than the national average. I'm as good as a Nazi these days.

As funny as this statement is, it's a fair point. I don't want to self hyperbolize but, it seems like being a white male that makes above average national salary, I get inadvertent looks of disdain at time because it's like I didn't "earn" it, or it was "handed to me" on a platter.

Yeah I get that I lived a fortunate life with clean water and a roof over my head provided by my single mom, but why are people so quick to discredit my accomplishments because I'm a white male?

The discrimination is swinging quite back in the opposite direction these days

[FinalxxSin]

..

Because white privilege still exists for some whites in the US. Without people knowing your background, some are going to assume you have this same privilege.

[LocoColt04]

I can't really deny that I've been granted benefits of white privilege before. Until this year, I've never had to interview for a job, and the one interview I had for a salaried promotion was a formality as the position was already determined to be mine (basically one of those "it's yours if you don't blow this conversation" things).

Did I ask for those things? Nope. Did they happen? Yep. Were the hiring/promoting managers all white? Yep. Did that have anything to do with that? I HAVE NO IDEA so I can't say yes and I can't say no, but I can't deny that it may have been likely.

[Pete]

I love that my "privilege" involved my dad working two jobs, my mom crying over financial aid forms (good job government, for not factoring in taxes paid) and me working 3 jobs to put myself through college, and still having 12 grand in student loans. I didn't get any scholarships simply because of my skin color.

Living in a one bedroom apartment so that my parents could afford to send me to a good school is not privilege. I'm the product of my parents putting my education first so that I can have a better life than they had. I got hit if I scored anything lower than an 85, rightfully so. They sacrificed a lot, I wasn't going to make it all for nothing.

Or was my white privilege being one of two white guys working in UPS factory unloading trucks, getting shot from the other guys about how I'm a dumbass white boy for working hard and doing my job. Was it white privilege when I got berated for making a bunch of lazy fucks look bad?

I've had to interview for every position I've had, never gave a secret white person handshake to ensure a job. Nor do I own any klan robes, imagine that

[FinalxxSin]

...

Sorry Pete, but the way you was brought up and have lived your life is not the reality of all whites. Or perhaps you're confusing "some" to be the same as "all". I am glad that you worked hard to get to where you're at though.

[Taco-Calamitous]

Here's the thing. You have to be able to convince someone who was brought up in a hard life that they have "white privilege;" how do you do that? You can't. You can't objectively tell them "my life was harder than your life/my struggles are more legitimate than your struggles." There are victims of the fall of the motor and coal industries in the rust belt states, selling scrap metal to China and huddling around garbage can fires at night, there's a guy driving a rusted out 84 Ford F150 to and from his trailer and minimum wage job, who are gonna laugh in your face when you tell them they have "white privilege." There are those who have grown up in a privileged life, and there are those who have grown up the way Pete has grown up. I count myself lucky for having parents willing to let me stay at their place, because I haven't been able to find consistent work. I joined the Air Force, was in for 3 and a half years, and now that I'm out, businesses STILL aren't giving me a call. I'm going to school on the GI Bill and I have a roof over my head, though; I probably have it better than poor families in the inner city. I also have it better than poor families in rural America; they have just as shitty of schools and housing. Suburban parents' money goes to suburban schools, not to the rural or urban schools. Suburban kids already have a leg up on everyone else by going to a school that isn't depressing and falling apart, and where the good teachers don't stay because staying starts to affect their psyche.

[FinalxxSin]

There may have been a lack of clarity in my prior comment, so I'll try again. Pete using himself as an example does not debunk the existence of white privilege. The person did from their example prove my wording of "some" earlier on in this thread to hold some truth however. I understand that there are a lot of whites that have it just as bad as I do. Some have it even worse. I have been alive long enough to be aware that there are times where a person's outer appearance, that can't be changed by natural means, can get short cuts in life. It's just the way things are.

[Taco-Calamitous]

And I'll say it again; tell it to the people in rust belt states huddled around garbage can fires that they have a short cut in life by looking a certain way.

[FinalxxSin]

Taco, the only people that would do something like that are the ones that over-generalize things.

[Pete]

I'm really starting to think that it's not really a thing for white people as it is a boogeyman that tumblr and the rest of the internet came up with.

Privilege has more to do with money than anything. Poor people have to work a lot harder to get out of their situations. If you're poor, you probably live in a poor area, with less economic opportunity and probably underserved schools. You'll have to work a hell of a lot harder to get anywhere than someone whose parents can just cut a check to a private college, or make a donation to have an admissions committee overlook blemishes.

[Taco-Calamitous]

Pretty much, Pete. If "white privilege" doesn't apply to all whites, then it can't be white privilege; it's gotta be "middle" or "upper-class" privilege. Who you know/are related to has a lot to do with where you end up.

[FinalxxSin]

I disagree Taco. Neither of you may have been exposed to it in any format, but that doesn't mean its non-existent. Taco, as you mentioned some of it can fall on who you know. Sadly, there are people that value some ethnics of people more than others in a negative manor. Perhaps one of you two are familiar with the stories of a female that moves up more quickly in a company than others, even though other people are more qualified and have worked harder and/or longer. Things like this happen in the world. Not every part of the US has the same type of environment, culture, and ethics as the ones either of you are a part of. Hell, there are some states I would never even consider moving too because I have a decent idea of how I'd be treated.

[Clint]

I always found it ironic when people like Michelle Obama bring up white privilege. She went to Princeton and Harvard, and married the most powerful man in the country. She's literally the most privileged person in the country, and she isn't white, which completely destroys her narrative.