Lots of genuinely interesting posts ITT, despite the OP.

this is pretty good. esp the inevitable, "but actually...Im libertarian" backpedal.

the only thing is that it makes it seem like all this hatred and oppression started with the Trump GOP when its been there forever.

Something I've noticed about libertarians: they're mostly white and male. Does anyone know why that might be?

I've barley skimmed the thread, but think the op is basically accurate. Poker is an unfortunate activity and playing it probably makes you a worse person. It is also a largely humorless, boring and unproductive way to exert yourself. There are worse things to do with your time, I guess, but you should probably quit playing.

I've barley skimmed the thread, but think the op basically needs to get laid.

This. I tried to be serious but this is so much more accurate lol.

Trolly is right, but more importantly:

In today’s America being a conservative is equivalent to being the Joker from The Dark Knight; I think by default that skews anyone not delusional to become liberal.

I thought it was because they are the main group that longs for the 50's before the civil rights laws were passed...

OP said he was a libertarian so chessmate libtards.

Sure, quit playing poker because some people make bad choices and are hurt by it. You should probably stop using straws too, they **** up the environment disproportionately to their utility. This only applies to the olds, but you shouldn't be watching CBS either, the money their advertisers gives them is used to pay off horrible people, I don't care how much you like Bull, you can't watch it anymore. Where are you buying your clothes from friend? Are they members of a union and paid a living wage?

There are traps everywhere if you're trying to live a virtuous life, poker is no where near the top of the list of things to worry about...

And LMAO at "social liberal, fiscal conservative," I want people to be free but only if they are rich enough to afford it on their own.

There is no cognitive dissonance.

You can clean someone's bankroll, and at the same time pay taxes on it to help fund their medicare or welfare payments.

Nothing wrong with that.

i once stole a candy bar as a child from Rite Aide so who am I to complain about billionaires not paying taxes?

Not really. People are going to do what makes them feel good. In some cases that means doing nice things for others. But in most of those cases those people are only willing to go so far whether they realize it or not. For instance 90% of Americans who profess to to favor income redistribution would change their tune quickly if it meant worldwide redistribution. People may lie to themselves but unless you are a physician for Doctor's Without Borders or microbet, All The Cheese, cuserounder, or einbert, and maybe a few others (but NOT Chris Matthews, Nancy Pelosi, Robert DeNiro or maybe even Rachel Maddow) your protestations of major empathy have to be taken with a grain of salt.

Another great joke by David!

Interesting fact: If the world's wealth was distributed equally more than 50% of Americans would end up with more wealth than before the redistribution.

(and yes I'm aware wealth != income, but these were the numbers I found on a quick search and I'm pretty sure it's way more common for people to support wealth redistribution than income redistribution anyway)

A global redistribution that took purchasing power parity into account wouldn't change as much as you probably think.

https://www.amazon.com/Factfulness-R...ds=factfulness

Now think about WHY it's important to David to keep hammering this point home.

Actually in poker the winners are taxed in order to pay for the dealer/floorman/casino etc.

Other than that your post is...well...still pretty dumb actually.

What liberals claim is systemic and structural racism, inequality, and persecution. And you use a completely anti-racist, egalitarian game successfully played by people of sociologically diverse backgrounds to illustrate hypocrisy? Congrats bro.

Evil corporations aren't skilled players taking money from the less skilled. It's mostly cases of collusion, cheating, angle-shooting, and bots.

Because capitalism and the inability to avoid capitalism.

This Christmas we'll have a family home game where we play microstakes crazy mixed games poker, drink, eat snacks, and just generally have a blast. Its kind of hard to really view that as "brutal hypocrisy".

TBH though, I am somewhat conflicted about being a poker pro long term. It is somewhat of a liberal ideal that healthy adults should be adding value to society via actual work and not merely playing financial games that manipulates money in their favor. The same idea applies to day trading and other Wall Street type jobs. I tell myself that fairly paying taxes and donating a little to charity constitutes fair contribution but there's a bit of difficulty in coming up with what the numbers should be.

In any case, being a bit of hypocrite is of course way better than just turning conservative and just abandoning all morality.

By the way this is succinct and close to perfect description of me too and my views. A+ sir

I'd assume David, like most people, severely overestimates how wealthy the median american is and underestimates just how ****ty life can be if you're not in the top fifteen or so percent.

I play in the Chicago area, at GVC mostly, which is in the northwest suburbs of the city which is far from a "red" area and no one in that room is liberal or at least mentions it.

You see players with "Hillary for Prison" T-shirts worn and guys high-five em across the table for it. (no, I don't have that t-shirt, nor a MAGA hat) the talk is always about how Illinois is going to be bankrupt due to the extremely high level of taxes and the corrupt one-party dominance of the state. (didja read about the 19 year old DePaul student who is challenging a Chicago alderman? He got 1800 signatures to get on the ballot, and then his opponent's team went door-to-door and got 2300 people to sign a revocation that that said they didn't meant to sign the 19 year old's petition . . . doh! he got more revocations than people who signed the original petition! They had a form filled out for his best friend supposedly revoking his signature! The friend is like, "I never did that, I have no idea how this happened" Only Chicago Dems could pull off something that bad and corrupt)

It's tough to not have at least 2 veterans at each table and they are not exactly liberal-minded when it comes to politics

Most all of the guys 30 and over who play at GVC, own their own businesses or are extremely successful in other areas (lawyers, traders, doctors) and need another competitive fix/outlet. (if you don't believe this is true, then don't bother responding, I've played there for years and that is what the player pool is like, my income pales in comparison to theirs, one day I sat between two dudes discussing their sales of their Florida summer homes and they're tossing out things like, "I was asking 1.5, but accepted 1.4" and I realized 2-5 was walking around money for them at best, no wonder they played so loose)

GVC is located in Elgin which is a poorer suburb and the surrounding ones can at best be considered middle-class. So it's not in the middle of the north shore upper-crust. (though apparently some players come from there based on the Florida homes thing)

So, when I saw there was a section labeled "politics" here, I took a peek last night and was shocked to find out it was almost all left-leaning. This board and the high-profile players are the only liberal poker players I've ever known about. Honest. Maybe it's just the liberal players speak out the most online? That would help tie this together.

Poker is such a "everyone out for themselves" and "the strong eat the weak" style game it would seem to naturally be diametrically opposed to the liberal mindset of cooperation and collectiveness and support nets. It just seems a much more independent, survival of the fittest type game and would appeal to those types of people.

I had no idea I'd be slaughtered for pointing that out and asking for some to debate/discuss/critique. PERHAPS, I could have done it in a much softer way?

I've read DemocraticUnderground since 2002 when LIHOP vs MIHOP was all that was debated and the political threads here feel like they could have been posted there, with the exception of dissenting voices being allowed to post.

Call me all the names you want, I believe in tolerance and acceptance but I also don't believe in saving people from themselves. I believe in consequences. If you choose badly, you should suffer the consequences no matter how hard they are. How else will others be motivated to take care of themselves if they know that no matter how much they screw up it'll all be okay and their government will send them a check and some food? (standard caveats apply to those who are physically or mentally unable to).

Nah, you hate "SJWs" because you don't believe in social justice