#polisci

bald

wears a uni khaki cap

goes to Costco

has a stupidly large umbrella from Costco

likes matcha

Colorado

brought two catering trays of donuts to lecture once bc the group he volunteers for didn’t need them

is the youngest in his volunteer group

made his wife cry when he said her vote didn’t matter in presidential election in a blue state

supported my mamdani obsession

“Alright, let’s gets started…”

drinks Kirkland sparking water

has a little Bernie sanders in his office

when I remembered one of the first things my career development (freshman year) -> comparative politics/latin american studies (for sophomore year) prof told the lecture hall on the first day of class.

I only have the beginning of the quote word for word from my notes that day, but the shock of his statement made the entire hall laugh. something roughly along the lines of this, because he wanted to egg on engineering students and their degrees:

“Fact: Most suicide bombers are engineers. It’s a little joke I like to start out these classes with, because the majority of political scientists don’t know how to make one, including me, so I think we’re a little bit more ethical because of that. Please don’t commit terrorism, though.”

I've heard that there's a pretty big difference between the way most Americans use terms like "leftist," "liberal," and "progressive" compared to the rest of the world. Specifically, that Americans tend to use them interchangably (especially the first two) to mean anything that is left of center of the American Overton window, which is already pretty right of the rest of the world. So an American would probably lump "neoliberals, "liberals," "progressives," "leftists," and really anyone who is not conservative by American standards under the umbrella of "leftist" or "liberal."

From my own cursory research into the subject (via Internet search, my academic wheelhouse is anthropology not polisci) and my own anecdotal experience of hearing how people in my life have used the terms, this does seem to be the case.

My question then is "Is there a better umbrella term that Americans could use to convey the same meaning of "anyone left of center of our Overton window" instead of co-opting an existing term with a more specific meaning? And if there's not an existing term with the same meaning, what would you suggest to fill the role?

According to these scholars, politics and racism are so deeply intertwined that they cannot be fully separated when analyzing how power and resources are distributed.

1. The Core Argument: "Race is a Political Construct"

Race studies professors, such as Michael Omi and Howard Winant (authors of Racial Formation in the United States), argue that "race" itself is not a biological fact but a political tool.

* The Theory: Race was created by political and legal systems to justify who gets rights (citizenship, voting, property) and who does not.

* The Conclusion: Because race was invented to serve a political purpose, all politics that involve the distribution of resources (like housing, healthcare, or education) inevitably have a racial component.

2. Systemic vs. Individual Racism

A key distinction made in ethnic studies is that politics doesn't have to involve "hateful" people to be racist. This is often called Institutional or Systemic Racism.

* Neutral Policies, Unequal Outcomes: Professors point to "facially neutral" laws—laws that don't mention race—that still produce racialized results.

* Example: Property tax-funded schooling. Because of the history of redlining (political/legal segregation), Black and Latino families often live in areas with lower property values. Using property taxes to fund schools is a "political" choice that results in what scholars call "educational racism," regardless of the intent of the voters.

3. Key Statistics Cited by Scholars

To support the idea that the political system functions in a racially biased way, scholars often point to disparities in the outcomes of political "neutral" systems:

| System | Metric of Disparity |

|---|---|

| Justice System | Black Americans are incarcerated at nearly 5x the rate of white Americans. |

| Wealth Gap | The median white household has roughly 6-8x the wealth of the median Black or Latino household, often attributed to 20th-century housing policies (like the GI Bill and FHA loans). |

or: what do you mean clean water isn’t a human right?  thoughts from a food science/polisci student in the year 2025.

I imagine Candace knows that she'd be insanely out matched and wouldn't dare. Then again she's incredibly stupid.

Have you seen Jasmine's appearances on Have I Got News For You? I love her, she's so damn intelligent and charming, especially with Amber and Roy.

That said, there's no point in debating right-wingers, they're liars, they're disingenuous and all that happens is you end up giving them a platform.