Puebla City.

"Spanfeller is a twat" (theaspiringengineer) 04/18/2019 at 12:15 • Filed to: None

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We, the Capitalinos, call other states “provincia” it isn’t in reference to Canada... It’s reference to the old, antiquated times. But they aren’t having any of it anymore.

Mexico City is losing it’s edge, crime, pollution, expense... As a consequence of that hundreds of thousands of us left to the lesser provinces and modeled them after our own image. They built the elevated ring roads in Guadalajara , they finally approved the sky scrapers in Puebla , and maybe one day... They’ll see the light about gay marriage in Queretaro .

Or maybe we’re gonna force that one down their evangelical throats...

Anyway, Puebla is having a really tough time of late: all the change around, it’s not easy on anyone seeing their state change so quickly.

It’s not helped by the death of their governor back in December. The special election in a few months is in the eyes of the nation, and the front runner is facing internal pressure to let go.

Yes, once unstoppable Miguel Barbosa was served up a fine yesterday, for campaign law violations, together with members of his own party, Morena, publicly against him he’ll still be the front runner in the race, but it’ll becoming increasingly harder for him to win it.

It’s not helping that the Conservative Party is running one of Morena’s own men, in the form of Enrique Cardenas Sanchez, who was supposed to take Barbosa’s spot ten months ago in the regular elections. But here I can’t really tell.

It’s quiet, it’s early in the workday, and stuff seems to work. Of course, Puebla changed hands: a year ago this provincia elected mayors and legislators in a manner that gives Morena -the liberals- the biggest voice in the congress, the most state and local resources, and even the mayoral seat of the capital city herself.

But it’s quiet. Maybe they don’t like loud stuff, not after the horrible election they had. They’re still reeling.... they want to let go but fate went against them. And an incident left them without a governor. So they can’t let go... Not after having more than a year’s worth of campaign ads bursting through the speakers of countless TVs and radios, and images of smiling men plastered across hundreds of billboards around the city .

It’s strange, because despite the sky scrapers, and the fancy BRTs, and the liberal mayors, Puebla is still antiquated... They had to hold on to the 2018 elections, even if it was against their will, and even if everyone else has moved on from them. Because despite the quiet I can feel the way this college student is looking at me when she hands over my drink. I know she knows I’m not from Puebla, maybe she saw my pink license when I took money out of my wallet. She knows I don’t have to deal with this bullshit, and the envy shows.

“Do you like Mexico City?” she asks.

“Not always, do you like Puebla?” I answer back.

“I love d it.” she concludes.

Elections are hard to deal with, specially when there’s ballot stuffing, murder, and ransom linked to them. Puebla went through hell in the last cycle... In many ways I’m surprised there wasn’t talk of divisionism...The strain of putting them in the position to vote again while trying to heal last year’s open wound, it’s going to hurt them.

To the extent that they can’t even keep quiet about it.

Ash78, voting early and often > Spanfeller is a twat 04/18/2019 at 12:35

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I can’t speak to the specific politics, but when I was a young man living in a college town, I had an inherent sense of paternalistic condescension towards people in small towns or rural areas. My mind was biased to believe they all wanted “progress” the way I defined it, or that one day, just maybe, they would all be enlightened enough to see things my way.

It’s the most pervasive bias in society, but we don’t really talk about it because it doesn’t affect most people’s civil rights or protections, so it doesn’t make the news.

VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely > Ash78, voting early and often 04/18/2019 at 13:34

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Eh - I was going to go into a long winded semi-rant-explanation about what you are seeing, but I figured no one was going to read it and just get mad about it. This is the short version.

The condescension exists, I don’t think it’s the most pervasive bias ever, the kneejerk reaction from that bias also exists, and the emotional fallout that results from the disconnect makes any real discourse nearly fucking impossible. I can’t even write it here without someone shitting on some misinterpretation or taking 2-3 hours to type out all the various properties in a neutral way to not hurt anyones feelings, as if hurting feelings or trolling is all I want to accomplish with my words !

I could point out all the various logical fallacies that happen, why some things are not debatable due to the knowledge base involved, and why it makes people seem like they’re not being listened to, but overall people are so bad at being rational, reading, writing, and communicating that it’s almost worthless to even attempt it as a result. It’s just that we have no choice if we want to continue living and existing next to each other.

Ash78, voting early and often > VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely 04/18/2019 at 14:07

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The internet is one big enabler. Even people (non-politicians/protesters) who are diametrically opposed on most issues — when placed together in the same room — are pretty civil to each other, from all I’ve seen. We genuinely take interest in each other and strive to find common ground.

Those who strive to find differences are truly small-minded and should be treated as mentally ill. That’s contrary to all pack behavior, both in the animal and human world. Sociopathy, IMO.

Spanfeller is a twat > Ash78, voting early and often 04/18/2019 at 14:08

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You can’t come in and tell people how to clean their own home... I agree. 

VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely > Ash78, voting early and often 04/18/2019 at 15:13

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E veryone who shows up for pie and punch will nod politely and agree on things and shake hands and then go back to their houses and forget/ignore everything that was discussed and go right back to whatever shitstorm they’re generating . It never ends. It’s really easy to pretend to be a saint for a few hours, w hich is why living with someone always uncovers surprises, both pleasant and unpleasant. It changes nothing. Actually debating and coming to common ground is way harder, completely unglamourous, and too much effort for the average person.

The problem is way more systemic than most people realize.

Ash78, voting early and often > VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely 04/18/2019 at 15:23

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I don’t mean pretending, I’m just talking about simply humanizing “The Other” (not necessarily taking their side or advocating for them). People have gotten so increasingly tribal about everything, and a big part of that is what I call “anonymous globalization” — we get random, shallow exposure to the entire world and all of its culture (mostly negative stuff) and formulate opinions based on very little information and zero interpersonal contact.

Definitely too much effort for the average person to dig any deeper than what is neatly packaged for them by the media. And as much as it sounds like I’m attacking Trump’s ignorant base, this is a much more widespread issue on the left, IMO. Find a cause and stand up for it...as long as I don’t have to actually, you know, stand up. #slacktivism

VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely > Ash78, voting early and often 04/18/2019 at 15:41

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I don’t mean pretending, I’m just talking about simply humanizing “The Other”

Yeah. I suspect that the tribalism was always there, but the internet as a whole sure has made it easier to fall into those niches. They all play on a human’s instinctive desire to belong which inherently involves at least some exclusion , but let us not forget that demand generates supply...

Find a cause and stand up for it...as long as I don’t have to actually, you know, stand up. #slacktivism

You’re not kidding. Explicit fraud aside, m ost of the Democrats ’ practical objectives revolve around just having left leaning people to show up to the voting polls.

That being said, while it’s very easy to dismiss both major sides (and there’s nothing wrong to hold a bipartisan-exclusionary political viewpoint ) o ne side at least will give lip service to like, allowing gay people to do stuff legally. Going over the voting records for various bills indicates that one party has a better voting record trend than the other.  Not perfect, just better. 

It’s that random, shallow exposure that you reference yourself that allows people to brush off everything said and done on both sizes with zero granularity, when clearly it’s going to take some scrutiny. 

DipodomysDeserti > Ash78, voting early and often 04/18/2019 at 18:02

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“ Those who strive to find differences are truly small-minded and should be treated as mentally ill. That’s contrary to all pack behavior”

Eh, not really (as far as pack behavior is concerned). Tribalism is a big part of having a pack mentality , in both animal and human populations. The whole reason you have packs is because people recognize both the similarities between themselves and the differences of others. They don’t just recognize similarities. If that were the case you wouldn’t have packs, just The Pack. One pack does not try to understand what common ground they share with another.

Where the issue arises  is when you try to change 300k years of human psychological evolution within a few centuries. Shit causes problems.