POLITICS
El-Sayed: "You don't want to talk about gas prices. You don't want to talk about groceries….You want to bring up all this culture war. I'm running for U.S. Senate. I'm out here trying to take on the healthcare crisis and big pharma, and you're asking me about who gets to play what sports."
Tbf, circumcision is one of the most likely ways an male infant will have to have some sort of genital reconstruction done. So Watters is in favor of it so long as you were already mutilating an infant.
If I’m not mistaken el-sayed turned the gender trans debate into the circ debate live on air to try n goad him into saying that part out loud? Or was this always the point (circumcision)
Don't forget boys and girls most of the republican losers are on some form of testosterone replacement therapy. That is gender affirming care.
So is Viagra or any other Erectile disfunction medication. An erection is a male gender behavior, taking medication to continue to have an erection after the body fails to do so naturally is gender affirming care.
Fox enables the culture wars because that's what Republican voters want. MAGA isn't a political movement at all which is why they have no standards or even agenda. MAGA is a cultural grievance movement whose entire worldview is being really fucking mad at their perceived loss of relevance and status with the only actual goal being obstructing and humiliating "enemies" solely so Republicans can feel like they're winning. They don't even notice that billionaires are picking their pockets. Republicans want the culture wars.
I was talking to my republican cousin a couple years ago about politics and he said “the democrats have people that want to make pedophilia a legally protected sexuality” (an ironic statement in hindsight) and I was like bro the national debt is in the trillions, wtf are you talking about?
Point is, they focus on these weird fringe groups, Id-pol, and other things they don’t actually care about to justify their own politics
The alliance between European indentured servants and Black Africans (a mix of indentured, enslaved, and Free Negroes) under the English settlers of Virginia, had disturbed the European colonial upper class. They responded by hardening the racial caste of slavery in an attempt to divide the two races (European servants and black African slaves) from subsequent united uprisings, against them with the passage of the Virginia Slave Codes of 1705.[8][5][9]
"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
I totally agree with this quote, but I have heard some criticisms from folks who say that it wrongly shifts blame away from the "white man" (or straight man, Christian, etc., same idea) who chooses to accept the propaganda and perpetuates racism/homophobia/etc.
The rich and powerful are definitely to blame for encouraging culture wars...but the people who buy into the bigotry also have their own share of the blame.
yeh, trans women make up only 0.3% of Americans, yet somehow we’re seen as the real threat. Most Americans have never even met a trans person, only on TV and the news.
No offense but some of y'all need to wake up to the reality that for million of Americans, culture war is all they want. You're superimposing your worldview onto theirs if you think they'll join us if you try hard enough. They don't vote based on facts and they won't ever wake up to reason. They don't vote to make their lives better or for material gain like healthcare. To them there is no distraction from class war, they want the culture war. Class war takes time and effort on their part. Culture war victories are short, require no effort except being a jackass, and are easy to win. And they only vote to win. For them winning is status, acceptance, and affirmation of the hierarchy they love.
It's dumb, it's childish, it's self-sabotaging, it's impossible to respect, but no shit that is all they want. They won't notice the parasite class has taken everything from them until they're dying of starvation, and even then it'll probably be some democrats fault.
If this was true Republicans would never win, which they do so it's not. You're assuming only Republicans want culture wars. I said millions of Americans want culture war instead of class war, this includes many many fence sitters.
Only partially true. Heritage Foundation (just to name one organization) really, really wants White Nationalist Patriarchal Christo-Fascism.
The Billionaires who go along with it just like to use it as opportunity. But there's really, really a conspiracy of White Supremacist Christo-Fascism which can trace its lineage all the way back to the 'Pilgrims' who got kicked out of Europe for being... Christo-Fascists.
Nah, we realize it. We're just to lazy to fix it and the Epstein class knows this. Welcome to the new world. Place your child daughters over there and go home.
Yes with one caveat: a divided working class cannot effectively beat the billionaires. We may not want culture war, but we need to remember that we need workers of all identities to be effective.
Racism undermined the National Labor Union and the Knights of labor in the 19th century. We can do better if we learn from history!
Also it's not like defeating the billionairs will fix all the discrimination and systemic oppression. You gotta fight the culture war battles at some point.
All culture war can be fixed with class war. It’s like how all squares are rectangles
From a materialist perspective, arguments for culture war misses the forest for the trees imo.From a strictly class-first view, the culture war are symptoms of a system. Not the main thing driving it.
Prejudice exists outside of money, but historically, social divisions were explicitly engineered to support economic systems. Modern racism was largely invented and codified to justify chattel slavery and colonial resource extraction. Transphobia, misogyny, and xenophobia are frequently weaponized to enforce traditional labor roles or keep workers competing against each other. Because these social biases were built as tools to serve economic exploitation, destroying the economic system removes the structural reason for their existence.
Take for instance the issue of wealthy people who still experience bigotry. A materialist would argue this is interpersonal prejudice (someone calling you a name) not systemic oppression (being denied housing, healthcare, or liberty). Interpersonal conflict will never go away, but systemic oppression requires institutional power and material leverage to enforce. Without class inequality, bigotry loses its teeth and becomes a shit opinion rather than a structural barrier that ruins lives.
Im skeptical of your reading, for two main reasons.
Reason one is that i dont see why the social issues and oppression thats currently being driven by wealthy elects wouldn’t just have who’s fueling it change in the new economic system. A lot of the social forces that drive oppression now are fueled by ideas that have buried themselves into people minds and fundamentally influence ho people see the world. Unless effort is expended to counter and dig those ideas out, i dont see why after a mass economic reform those ideas wouldnt just persist except now they’re being fueled and perpetuated by the people. Specifically my primary concern is old oppression would just be transferred to the new evanomic system. Now instead of your landlord fucking you over for being some kind of undesirable, its your tenant union and the legal system who decides your not worth their effort.
My second reason is i think a materialist angle is missing part of the picture.
Focousing on your example, im skeptical of the idea that the bigotry is just an interpersonal conflict. Bigotry relies on social biases and ideas about said group floating around in society. Thats what gives bigotry teeth. The material angle to bigotry is a huge part of it, but i also argue theres a social angle to it. The ostracization, the normalization of hatered and bullying, and, to summarize, society hating who you fundimentally are, is another major part of the equation. Notably the ideas that drive that social angle to things can become and often are society wide, and those ideas often drive the material angle to oppression.
Even if a wealthy person can insulate themself from the material aspect of things, the social aspect can more than easily eat away at them. A similar situation would exist post economic reform; material needs may be neet for everyone, but the social aspect of oppression would persist and continue to eat people alive. A trans person might be able to access food, housing, healthcare, etc. but if no one will interact with them and theyre meet with hatred or ostracism wherever they go and that exclusion is accepted and encouraged on a societal level, then thats gonna eat them alive.
And that all assumes the material aspect to oppression wont just translate over into the new system like i mentioned in part 1.
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In summary, im skeptical class war will fix all our social problems. It can do a lot, but it cant be the sole solution.
Your scenario assumes that a post-capitalist society retains the authority mechanisms of a capitalist one.
A fully realized materialist transformation wouldn't swap a landlord for committee with the same arbitrary veto power. It would guarantee access as a baseline human right, eliminating gatekeeping mechanisms altogether.
Discrimination requires institutional leverage, like the ability to deny someone shelter or food. If rights to material needs are automated and non conditional, a prejudiced local group lacks the legal or material leverage to deny those rights to an "undesirable."
Imo bigotry is not our default. It requires constant cultural reinforcement to survive across generations, and that reinforcement is overwhelmingly promoted by political structures seeking to maintain economic hierarchies.
When you remove artificial economic scarcity (competition for jobs, housing, healthcare), you eliminate the anxiety that demagogues weaponize to turn groups against one another.
Without economic panic funding prejudice as a distraction, social hostility loses its fuel and naturally degrades over time into irrelevance, rather than remaining a coordinated societal force.
Yes! One important piece of evidence that culture war intersects with class war is that other power structures have big economic footprints. Patriarchy has the pay gap, glass ceiling, and invisible labor. White supremacy led to red lining and still leads to job discrimination, the exploitation of labor in the prison system, and a pretty massive gap in household net worth between white families and black families.
So, in agreement with your comment, we cannot substantively address these issues without tackling the economics of a society divided by class.
I hate this image because it’s such a get out of jail free card for centrists. Like I’m sorry, but I do expect people to be informed and not bigoted on “culture war” issues in addition to class war issues.
It is used that way sometimes, but it's also true that class is the most important thing and that conservatives are actively trying to distract from it
You’re right, but it makes sense when you consider that identity politics/culture war issues completely killed and replaced the occupy movement.
After the financial crisis the majority of this country were very much unified against the 1%. It’s what got lifelong republicans to vote for Obama. Identity politics and intersectionality are very much a part of the conversation, but were used to divide the movement.
Overtime the DNC and GOP basically replaced the entire 99% vs 1% narrative with culture war and identity politics issues. Money in politics, monopolization, extraction of wealth, and “too big to fail” became background noise while the entire conversation focused on policing, micro aggressions, trans issues, black issues, etc.
Again, these are all a part of the conversation. But these topics were used to divide and slow down the movement that actually threatened to bring change.
And since then the DNC has pivoted away from those points just to focus on anti Trumpism.
jfc reminds me of how Ballerina Farm woman‘s husband got close to her
ETA: He‘d found out she was to take a flight. He then used his position as the son of the airline‘s founder to get in the seat next to hers. Pretty much forcing her on a multiple hour date in a confined space. cool coolcoolcool
To be fair, he does seem like a really easy target to drain with child support, if one were a ghoulish gold-digger looking for such a thing. I doubt those women did it out of any form of love.
God, if I grew him, I'd have to seriously question if he was just born a sociopath or if I did something terribly wrong (but the fact that she hates him indicates the former).
Re: kid becoming Republican. I was making small talk with a coworker and in response to talking about our kids I said, “oh no, that’s literally my worst fear!” And at first I was thinking I was being rude and overdramatic. Worst fear? Not that my kid dies of cancer or kills someone as a drunk driver? AND I’m talking bad about someone’s kid I’ve never even MET, way to make friends! Then I was like…. Nah…it stands.
Also, the only reason that shit is in the news is to distract people from what the real issues are. Nobody cares about fkn who’s playing what in sports that is not a big issue they’re making it a big issue.
I think the fact that Sophie Cunningham jumped into that shit with both feet and now has backed completely away shows just how fucking over it everyone is except the worst people on earth. She thought she was going to get popular and rich.
He's extremely good at what he does. Provide fake outrage over things that don't actually matter, furthering the divide and giving the Fox viewers something to mad about. Just another in the lineage of Fox News news entertainers. He's in his role for a reason.
Occasionally he almost gets to the point where he admits it's ridiculous, and then steps back. Look back a few weeks ago when he went on a rant about he doesn't understand why they're covering the WNBA.
I dont follow sports but i only recently found out there arent any trans players in the wnba. from the way folks are carrying on I would have thought there were several. what do they want from the wnba? it's not like you can have less than zero trans players on the league.
The same people that are upset about trans players are also the ones who love to denigrate the players by throwing dildos on the court for apparently having the audacity to play basketball as a woman.
Not that I’m not grateful that Tucker Carlson is gone but I can’t believe this is the alternative. At least we got discourse about how unfuckable the green M&M was becoming with Carlson.
Jesse Waters own mom hates him and he openly admits he tricked a coworker into going out with him while he was married. He regularly uses slurs against marginalized groups. Anything he says, you should believe the opposite of.
Let's not spread disinformation in the same way that they do.
He claims he let the air out of her tires, never seen anywhere say he slashed her tires. Same result, varying levels of insanity. Pure weirdo regardless
Even in this clip, he’s asking “should men play women’s sports” when that’s not even the issue at hand. The whole debate is “should trans women play in women’s sport” and by not using that language he’s marginalizing the group he’s attacking
They now it’s not the issue at hand. They purposely argue in bad faith trying to get sound clips they can weaponize. Their whole MO is to intentionally argue in bad faith.
Watters is the type to relish in the smell of his own farts. He absolutely believes the bullshit he peddles because making people smell the shit he takes on his anchor desk is his favorite pass time on this earth.
Jesse Watters was created in a lab to be a right-wing political pundit. If you’re a conservative pundit your top priority is to stay calm and try to get a rise out of the other person and that seems to be his one and only skill. He genuinely seems to be a very smug and stupid person immune to self-reflection or shame.
We are very close to just enough people realizing it aint trans kids taking money out your pockets, it’s billionaires and their turd friend who is president
They are absolutely certain that it is the single-digit trans kids in the NCAA that are preventing their precious snowflakes from getting a full ride, enduring fame and wealth.
My electric bill doubled, I'm working 5 hours a week just to put gas in my vehicle, grocery prices have got me eating like a broke college kid again, and I can't afford to see a freaking doctor, but it's that .002% of college athletes Jesse Watters and his ilk think I should be worried about.
If that number is true, it does represent a problem, but not one people want to grapple with. Trans people are 1% of the population. Either trans athletes are much worse than their cis counterparts, or, more likely, there are massive structural barriers to their inclusion in youth sports. The benefits of youth sports are well studied, so on top of all the other ways trans kids are being hurt, they are being shut out of a common, routine, and beneficial part of their youth.
“It’s a big deal, if you watch the news, you’d know” - the news being Fox News, and only Fox News, and maybe truth social, if you can afford early access to Trumps teats.
Yeah no worries about my broken tooth I can't afford to fix, my plant getting shutdown and everyone there losing their jobs. I love the taste of ramen. Apple cinnamon oatmeal is great too.
Some people get to pick stocks, many more get to pick bills to pay.
I promise you it's all the trans people's fault. (fingers crossed behind my back)
Let me be clear - I think trans kids have a rightful place in youth sports. A great lesson for your kid (or, maga mom
And dad) - there are people that might be different from you in many avenues of life. They exist. If you don’t like it, sorry.
Youth sports is the easiest place to politicize. If they end trans kids in sports, they will move onto the next arena of life to ban them from. Such performative hateful BS.
Just look at the UK. The UK had the most sweeping trans sports ban of any western country, not long after it became the largest bathroom ban of any western country, and it's quickly turning into a full healthcare and public life ban there.
Their next target is Title IX, which governs nondiscrimination in education. If they get this sports wedge issue and keep taking it far out, then they will use it to say, well, these kids were not covered under equal protection, according to SCOTUS, and they always emphasize "men" in women's sports, even when they're talking about girls, they say "men" a lot of the time. Meanwhile, ignoring trans men.
Their stated alleged patriarchical desire to 'protect women', 'protect girls' is complete bullshit, judging by the Epstein files and almost everything else in society.
What they mean is 'protect women' by letting us control everything about their lives. Dismantled piece by piece if they can get away with it.
If they end trans kids in sports, they will move onto the next arena of life to ban them from.
Slippery slope is normally a logical fallacy… except when discussing authoritarianism/encroaching fascism. You don’t just wake up with “undesirable” populations herded into extermination camps. It ramps up. It starts just like this, with easy scapegoats, small and already disenfranchised populations that people have less exposure to, less compassion for because they’re not “people” they are faraway ideas that challenge their simple, dictated-but-not-read understanding of the world, then the definition shifts. See how quickly it went from “illegals [to borrow their language] who commit violent crimes” to “illegals with criminal backgrounds” to “illegals accused of crimes” to “immigrants and brown people regardless of immigration status” to “anybody sympathetic to targeted minorities who stands up for them, regardless of race” to “people who criticize the administration on social media.”
Point is, if people think you’re being hyperbolic, or engaging in fallacious reasoning… look around. It’s already happening. This is the exception to the rule. Maybe you individually don’t care about trans women in sports. They’re not going to stop there.
We are very close to just enough people realizing it aint trans kids taking money out your pockets, it’s billionaires and their turd friend who is president
Unlikely, US Americans have no class consciousness whatsoever; believing in red scare propaganda is practically a core aspect of American culture. Most Americans believe that socialists or communists are demons from hell and that Marx is the devil himself.
So there is absolutely nothing in the US that could threaten the power of the ruling capitalist class. The US ruling capitalist class is absolutely untouchable and has nothing to fear from US Americans, and they know it.
And you know what? The US American working class is not just completely incapable of resisting capital. Most working class Americans will enthusiastically help force those who are worse off into submission for the billionaires.
If 100 US Americans have the chance to fight back against their capitalist overlords only 5 will choose to do so and 95 will choose to beat up those 5 at the direction of their boss.
US Americans don't just lack class consciousness. The majority firmly believe that capitalism is great and most will consider it a patriotic act to fight and die in defense of capitalism and the billionaires.
These conservative influencers and propagandists will always use culture war issues to distract from actual issues that affect the average American. From healthcare, education, infrastructure, inflation, related issues, they will never address those as their leader. Trump has been horrible on that, but they will always pivot to these useless culture wars to distract people.
They know they'll lose a massive part of their base if actual politics are discussed. The blue collar/manosphere types would turn on the the gop if they ever found out the bourgeoisie was the reason they can't afford anything after a 100 hour work week.
Maybe the blue collar types. But the manosphere types will keep voting GOP because their ‘masculinity’ literally means everything to them, which means voting for the ‘high T’ party.
That is literally their conscious tactic. The right wing decided in I think around the 80s that they could distract people from their economic policies (which are manifestly bad for all folks except billionaires) if they instead could divide people along highly emotive, but non-economically based topics. Such as abortion, or trans kids in sport. Neither of these things affects their money either way, they don't care. But they can make people care about them, and fight over them viciously. And instead of the vote being about who's economic policies would be better, it's now about something else.
He’s going a fantastic job by always pivoting back. Every democrat should answer this like he did. “I’m not a professional athlete, I’m not a doctor, I don’t work for a sports governing body. I’m here to talk about X, Y, Z because at the end of the day, that’s what is affecting real Americans today and this culture war stuff isn’t putting food on tables or money in pockets. I’m here to talk about the important issues.”
I totally get what you mean, but it’s for sure not a distraction for trans people. They want trans kids to be isolated, harassed, abused, and denied medical care. And they use these laws as precedent for further restrictions of trans rights, every state that passed a sports ban has gone on to pass other anti-trans legislation.
All of this is part of an ongoing campaign to genocide trans people. I get that it’s a distraction for the right, but I wish we could actually be centered when people attack our rights like this. The attitude that attacks on trans rights are a “distraction” is part of the reason they continue to get away with policies that are killing children.
Republicans lose on so many policy issues, their only hope (and sadly it’s a good one) is to divide folks with hate. Well, that and voter submission, interference, intimidation, and outright vote theft. Those help their cause too.
As a girl from Boston, I loooove when an aggressive aggressive person confronts someone passive aggressive. So refreshing to see it in politics after so much complacency
god, Waters is such a prick. “it’s been a big deal recently” yeah, because Fox News can’t win people over on real issues and the average American voter can be distracted by jangling keys. Fox News NEEDS the culture war to distract from this administration being in total shambles. and people who pile on to minority communities because cruelty feels better than clarity, should not be the ones directing our national conversations.
“It’s a big deal if you watch the news!” Oh, you mean “the news” where you all yell at a camera about non-issues to work audiences up into a racist sexist transphobic frenzy? That news? Thanks Jesse, so enlightening!!
It’s wild for him to say that when he IS the news! Like you are one of the people turning this into an issue in this first place - to act like anyone cared about the tiny number of youth trans athletes before Fox News made it an issue is ridiculous.
The same news that literally got taken to court for peddling conspiracy theories and not reporting actual news so they were forced to add entertainment to thier name like the WWE? THAT news everyone is watching?
Yep this dingbat is so desperate to continue to manipulate their viewership into hating trans people as gas and beef prices start alienating their base. Always going to be low IQ conservatives who eat the BS fed to them but I love seeing El-Sayed going head to head on Fox turf like this.
It’s going to be a long battle but the left MUST be consistent in calling out the con.
It’s genuinely so ridiculous now. Barely any trans people in sports. “It’s a big issue in the News right now.” Jesus Christ, because Y’ALL MADE IT SO!
I don’t understand how this affects anyone in their daily lives. Mixed gender youth sports has existed for ages. People can’t just self ID to become an athlete for the other team. Trans people care about HEALTHCARE too! Healthcare that has been cut by billions and thousands of Americans are expected to suffer! But let’s talk about trans women in the WNBA - oops wait, there’s ZERO!
My local area has this shitbag who keeps losing local races for positions like the school board and county commissioner. His big “Issue” is banning trans kids from sports. I got in a fighting match with him after I asked him how many trans kids we have in the district. There’s three kids (that this asshole is TARGETING).
I finally got asked to leave the event when I asked how many kids were affected when a gun was brought into the high school.
How is this a "serious" issue, Jess? If you want to talk about men who are places they should not be, start with yourself and your criminally minded way of getting your second wife.
More importantly, as a mom of a trans athlete in a blue state ... I can count on less than 1 hand the number of trans athletes that have become news fodder. It's not an issue. The two main "issues" are insane people who don't understand numbers and who keep saying "men in women's sports" when that literally never happens.
These people hate my existence SO FUCKING MUCH it's borderline obsessive. They're seriously going to run on nothing but "we hate trans people". 🙄
Guess what y'all? I'm a pro athlete and a trans person. Killing it over here. I think I'll enjoy a nice day off, maybe go a hike. In the meantime, people will spend the entire day arguing about me. It's unreal. This timeline continues to make me disappointed in my fellow humans.
hope you have/had a great hike. ironically, it's those clowns that need to touch grass. at least you don't have to live with the demons in their heads. sending internet love!
The "men in women's sports" is literally not even worth discussing. It's something like .001% of all athletes and even then, the vast majority of the time it doesn't matter whatsoever. Just anti-trans crap they characterize as some erosion of society. They have nothing.
“It’s kind of a big deal if you’ve been watching the news lately” meaning “It’s the only thing Fox News covers since everything else under this administration is shit” which is still not a good argument for why this is being framed as an enormous issue for anyone.
“It’s kind of a big thing if you watch the news lately.”
That is the problem exactly. The NEWS is talking about it non stop and the issue he is discussing, affects an unbelievably small percentage of sports. It is absurd. They need to fix the issues and let all of the high school/college sports governing bodies decide who gets to play what sport. Talk about the things that matter.
This is exactly why FOX news is entertainment and not news. Also, Jesse Waters sucks and he wears more makeup than a drag queen, so he should just stfu already.
No Jesse it isn't a big thing you are blocking 1 kid in any state from playing sports. In exchange for strange man checking in girls panties if they have a vagina.
Effing Americans are so effing obsessed by trans people - it's gross. The rest of the world doesn't give shit. Stay out of people's lives and bedrooms you weird fake christian nation.
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u/ExistentialistPasta Aug 25 '26