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→ The Rock abandons Joe Biden
Joe Biden has finally lost the political kingmaker of the professional wrestling world.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who endorsed Biden in 2020, has told Fox News that he’s unhappy with the state of the country and will not be endorsing the President again this year.
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson says he regrets endorsing Joe Biden in 2020 and will not endorse him in 2024.
— Graham Allen (@GrahamAllen_1) April 5, 2024
Celebrities across the board have been cooling on Biden: top-billing endorsements from the likes of Taylor Swift and Beyoncé have yet to materialise despite their 2020 support for the President, while Ice Cube and Kanye West have thrown their support behind Donald Trump. Nearly four years in, the 81-year-old incumbent may finally be losing his cool factor. Will The Rock join the Trump Train?
→ Meet the ‘homo-nativists’
Who says politics is neat? Liberal attitudes on social issues and hardline stances on borders can coexist in one person, a point backed up by a new report which introduces a striking new coinage: homo-nativists. The LSE British Politics and Policy unit argues that an emerging portion of the electorate — 31%, to be exact — has progressive views on homosexuality and is sceptical of immigration.
Very interesting study. 31% of the UK electorate are "homo-nativists":
Positive on homosexuality, negative on immigration
Something that is increasingly apparent in many nationalist parties in Europe (France and the Netherlands especially)https://t.co/9txuvH1yzw
— François Valentin (@Valen10Francois) April 4, 2024
These positions shouldn’t be incompatible: there have been plenty of notable gay Right-wingers in European politics in recent years, such as the former vice president of France’s Rassemblement National, Florian Philippot. What is more revealing is how widely accepted homosexuality has become, including on the Right. Where over half of Britons considered being gay to always be wrong as recently as 1992, the figure is now below 10%. Amid this liberalisation, British attitudes against immigration have largely increased in the last five years.
At 31%, these homo-nativists form a larger constituency than Britons who are in favour of both homosexuality and more immigration, and those who are sceptical of both. Should we watch out for another breakaway party?
→ Is Ben Shapiro sniping at Tucker Carlson?
Ben Shapiro has said that certain conspiracy-minded commentators around the age of 50 are “full of shit”, in comments widely suspected to be referring to Tucker Carlson.
“I don’t think you’re ‘just asking questions’. I think that your level of curiosity is actually quite low,” he said. “I think that the vast majority of people who are in the ‘just asking questions’ business have an answer that they want to suggest, but they know there’s no evidence for it. So, instead, they hide behind ‘just asking questions’.”
Every conservative “influencer” should have to watch this on repeat pic.twitter.com/anpoUBKFsL
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) April 5, 2024
It’s the latest in conservative media’s internal war over Israel, following Candace Owens’s very public exit from the Daily Wire last month and online flame wars over Judaism, Christianity and the war in Gaza. Carlson has previously said he despises Shapiro, who he accused of wanting to send his children to war. Facts don’t care about your conspiracy theories…
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SubscribeIt has always been ridiculous to assume a homosexual person has any truck with a particular position just because of their sexuality.
Just because you’re daft enough to think you live in some woo-woo-world where all the ‘oppressions’ can & should be allied, does not mean you should assume that anyone else is stupid enough to think the way you do.
Ya. Thought that was pretty cringeworthy as well. Basically takiing down to an entire segment of society
Sure, but I would assume most homosexuals would have little tolerance for newcomers that believe they should be thrown off from rooftops as part of their faith.
I would suggest the overwhelming majority of gay people do not support Hamas.
They’re not newcomers. Hamas merely hold to a variant of a stock-standard Islamic stance, and even their variant has existed for a century at least.
What they are saying is not about gay people and their political views. They are saying that 31% of British voters approve of homosexuality (not that they are gay themselves) yet disapprove of immigration. They combine a left wing and right wing position That is more than the percentage of voters who approve of both homosexuality and immigration, and more than the percentage who disapprove of both.
The number of British voters who think homosexuality is always wrong is down to 10%. That means most conservatives do not — a big change. Opposition to immigration, on the other hand, has increased.
Thanks
How is support of homosexuality either right or left wing?
One of the problems with Identity Politics is that the Identity part need not line up with the Politics part. So Politicians are surprised by strange alliances and Identity activists feel betrayed by people they thought they knew.
It seems that pundits everywhere are baffled by the fact that Cultural Conservative or Liberal beliefs often do not align with Economic Conservative or Liberal philosophy. Prime example being American Black culture which tends to be socially conservative but economically liberal.
The concept of “Left” vs “Right” is woefully undescriptive. Lately I’m finding find Authoritarian vs Anti Authoritarian more and more useful unfortunately. Technocracy vs Populism also…sigh.