Politics aside, I get irrationally angry whenever I see people wear masks in that manner. I immediately think they eat crayons in their past time. I know it is a judgemental thing, but holy shit was it a frustrating, daily sight during covid and it made Mr sometimes question why the fuck I even bothered doing things the right way.
The dumbasses didn’t want to wear them properly or at all because of politics, so it’s hard lo leace politics aside when talkimg about that
I mean, some people were definitely like that, but I also just saw a lot of people who clearly didn’t understand the concept of the mask. I can only speak for my own country of course, but over here the nay sayers were a very small, yet loud minority, while the vast majority of people did their best to wear the masks. Most of them just hadn’t recieved proper instructions on how to use it.
I was lucky that we have a family member who is a nurse, so in our household, we know how to use the masks correctly, and let me tell you - fucking nobody used the masks correctly. Not even the most vehement mask users who talked about the importance of masks did it correctly. I was shown how to do it by a professional and even I did it wrong multiple times because you just kinda forget when you’re busy, on the go or tired af after a long day, that you are under no circumstances supposed to touch the mask itself. The second you do, you have compromised the effect of the mask and you have contaminated your fingers.
Do you know how many times a day I saw people adjust their masks with their fingers, scratching their face underneath the mask, securing the mask over the nose, reusing the same mask over and over and not disinfect their hands at any point, but scratching and then pick items up at the store and put them down again?
I did it myself. A single mindless moment and you have compromised the effect of the mask. And don’t get me started on the well-meaning souls who decided to sow masks without a clue about filters or anything like that.
This is something I just couldn’t talk with people about during corona because everybody were fucking hysterical about covid. The smallest attempt to have a discussion was seen as suddenly I was an anti vaxxer and a conspiracy theorist, when all I ever said was that I didn’t think the masks worked as well as people thought they did. They definitely had a positive effect on stopping the spreading cobbled with the distancing and the washing of hands. All of that contributed positively to it. But my god. I couldn’t deal with people bearly wearing their masks properly (under the nose or even under the fucking chin, my dude) or reusing the same mask over and over. I knew most people didn’t do it on purpose, but it really grinded my friggin gears to see them whenever I was out shopping groceries. Especially early on when we still didn’t know how dangerous covid was and I was being super anal about using the masks correctly and super paranoid about catching it and passing it on to someone with a weak immune system. And then you walk past some old person with the mask under the nose one minute and a group of teens having the mask hanging around their chin for later use the next. I had colleagues who kept used masks in their pockets and pulled them out for a quick use whenever they had to run errands. Then back in the pocket it went.
But what can you do? People were just trying to live their lives and adjust to the changes and most of them did the best they could even if they completely missed the point of the masks. And I mean, you just can’t expect anyone to use the masks the way medical personal do. Especially not out in the wild where life is messy. So in that sense I kinda learned to let it go, but I still have this nam-like flashback everytime I see someone with a mask underneath their nose.
Haven’t seen that shit for so long and when I saw that picture I was back in the jungle, lol.
Damm that’s a lot of text, hope you don’t mind if I take a while to reply
Yeah I’m sorry. I always try to be short when I write and I always fail Dx you’re not obligated to read all that, my friend. It’s just me babbling about masks haha
That’s literally the opposite of irrational anger.
I mean, I want to give people the benefit of the doubt when I see them wear masks wrong, but instead I immediately get angry at them and think they are stupid, when that might not be the case. That’s what I mean about getting irrationally angry. Most people who wear masks wrong don’t do it out of malice, but out of ignorance, so me having an emotional reaction like that is irrational.
You always want to give people the benefit of the doubt. Some guy has a gun out in a bank, it would be nice and make you feel more safe to think he’s just putting it in a deposit box.
I’m sorry for laughing, but that is such a crazy example to anyone outside of the US xD I think if I saw anyone in my country casually carrying a gun anywhere I would at first assume it is a toy gun and if it is confirmed to be real, I would be very confused and scared because that shit doesn’t happen where I live and is extremely abnormal.
A mask off is equivalent to a real gun in this analogy.
Feeling safe is just ignoring reality sometimes.
Or when you asked them a question, and to hear better they pulled down their masks lol
If only the democrats actually listened to AOC and Sanders.
But they don’t.
Oh I’m sure they’ll listen to them right up until the point where they find another member of the Clinton family that hasn’t had their turn yet.
Chelsea Clinton’s available! :/
Chelsea/Hunter 2028. Might as well just build the gas chambers now.
Nah, they’re going to run another candidate who can finally appeal to Republicans, one who has bipartisan experience, having run in the past on both sides of the aisle. Say hello to 2028 Democratic presidential nominee David Duke!
Alternatively they’ll give Hilary another crack at it, with Chelsea has her running mate.
“Clinton-Clinton 2028: How badly do you want the Fascists out?”
“But what if we compromised with them and our donors, and then compromised with the Republicans, and then put on our shocked pikachu face when the Republicans don’t compromise with us in turn???”
Legit, the second half of the problem is related to our gerontocracy. These fucking dinosaurs are still acting like it’s the 1970s and 1980s, when they first came to power.
I’d argue that Nancy Pelosy is more representative of the dems than AOC.
Well, I’d argue Nancy is more representative of wealthy American neo-liberals, which most of us are not.
I’d even argue is Nancy even a dem at this point she’s more of a centrist parading around as a dem.
Nancy is more representative of wealthy American neo-liberals
Yes which is much closer to who the Dems are representing as a whole
That’s fair I’d agree with it.
No, based upon the popularity of policies, AOC is FAR closer to representing normal people than more conservative democrats like Pelosi are?
There is a reason people hate centrist corporate democrats, it is because they don’t even pretend to push policies people desperately need.
people hate centrist corporate democrats
Then why do we keep electing them in primaries?
she’s more of a centrist parading around as a dem.
And that perfectly represents the party as a whole.
While Nancy’s actual politics may be more centrists than dem, shes still one of the old guards that must go away for any actual change in the party.
Dems are centrists.
Dems are a far right party that only look centrist if you squint looking at them from inside fascist crazy town.
To basically anyone in the developed world, of which we are not, Luigi murdered a mass murderer, to any fascist or neoliberal here, we have to let murderers for profit let the free market decide who gets life saving healthcare, as just 1 of innumerable examples.
Neoliberals don’t squee like little girls at the hello kitty store when people suffer and die needlessly when it facilitates private profit as the Fascists do, but they don’t see it as the social fabric betrayal and atrocity it is either. “free market forces, mr dying homeless person, but I support your right to die in the gutter of hunger and exposure as any identity you choose!” Because it’s free to, but people need their basic survival met first, and that takes resources that go to them and not the robber barons that pay off both parties.
agreed. In context, they’re centrists for the States. Bernie is only barely left of center to the rest of the world but considered extreme here by corporate media and the other government clowns.
Bernie is only barely left of center to the rest of the world
When people say dumbass shit like this it makes me wonder what part of the world they are talking about.
All of Africa: right wing compared to America
Most of South America: right wing compared to America
Pretty much all of Asia: right wing compared to America
Middle East: lmao
Russia: lmao
Europe: about 70% right wing or similar to America with a handful of countries that might be considered left wing maybe but are sliding right as well.
The British Commonwealth: about the same as America except for the healthcare aspect.
Maybe you consider Antarctica left wing? Maybe the Oceans? Maybe the only part of the world that exists to these idiots are uber white Aryan nordic countries only? Or maybe you live in a fantasy dimension and are somehow communicating to us through a wormhole via Lemmy.
Europe is absolutely not as you describe. That’s what the media feeds you in North America.
I totally agree with you she must go, she’s part of the let’s maintain the status quo dems.
The Dems are centrists. They always have been.
Sounds like you don’t know what a Dem is
You know “centrist” is not a political party, right? Fuckin kids these days, what are they teaching you…
Literally nothing considering I’m an adult these days. But how’s being a smug ass hat been going for ya?
Better than not being one, I guess
That’s a funny take. The former speaker of the house who hand selected her replacement and was the leader of the Democratic caucus for more than a decade, and you’re basically calling them a DINO
MAGA regularly calls Mitch McConnell a RINO. Why should we handle Nancy any differently?
Right, lol. I guess the other user thought they had me in some sort of gotcha moment.
You guys are so right, maga does it, that means it’s correct
/S
It means that a true Democrat or Republican is one who represents the views of their constituents. Not who holds the reins of power in their respective parties. This is a valid definition.
I don’t believe that is a valid definition. A good politician is someone who represents the views of their constituents. A true Democrat (or whatever party) is someone who represents the views of the party. The views of the party may be influenced by party candidates on behalf of their constituents, but those views are decided upon by a group of people that aren’t elected by a public ballot and have no obligation to democratic voters. If you don’t like the platform of the party, you’re supposed to go join a different party (but we’re kinda fucked with that right now). If you’re talking about who represents the views of the democratic party, it’s difficult to find someone who represents them better than Pelosi.
The centers of both parties are functionally allies, the power structure of the Democratic party despises the kind of progressive politics AOC and Bernie do far more than the Republicans they claim to oppose even when those Republicans are literal out in the open fascists. Chuck Shumer is exhibit A and will become a historical touchstone for discussions about how neoliberalism always in the end sets up the conditions for fascism and then pathetically collapses in the crucial moment of resistance against fascism.
Fuck that, both parties need to go, how many times has the Democratic party laughed in the face of Bernie as they blatantly undermined him?
No, I treat Republicans as an existential threat, which means I also logically see the entrenched power structures of the Democrats that are happy to lose to Republicans rather than evolve, as an existential threat.
Pelosi is a Democrat through and through, AOC and Bernie are Democrats because they have no choice in the status quo.
The progressives need a build a new party before we destroy the existing ones.
Says who?
Common sense.
Weak response, provide evidence that trying to reform the Democratic party is a better strategy.
They will not change their strategy, the organization is structurally incapable of it, how much more proof do you need?
Maga fundamentally changed the Republican Party but you’re saying the progressives are unable to do the same?
Why wouldn’t they be able to?
Because they weren’t afraid of change before we are “ready for it” like you are, which is the only reason the tea party worked. They were willing to tear everything down if it wasn’t working, and that made the rest of the Republican party blink.
Your strategy is exactly the kind of political pushback people like Shumer and Pelosi prefer, because it is strategically ineffectual at threatening their power.
Anyone who wants to exist under a non-fascist government?
We are past that point already?
A fair point.
I would point, however, to that emphasizing the need to create a progressive party, rather than prioritizing the destruction of the now-castrated Dems.
The entrenched power structure is always going to narrativize a genuine alternative to the Democratic party as harsh toned leftists destroying things to destroy things, so if you are afraid of that in your rhetoric (even if you end up supporting more reform like policies in the end) you are already making it incredibly easy to be walked all over by people that resist all change.
No, the strategy is to go for the throat of the DNC and happily back off when they realize you aren’t messing around and give material concessions to the people they are supposed to represent. This is why the tea party was unfortunately successful, now is when the left does our version.
If that breaks the Democratic party in the process, that is their fault for building a house of cards indifferent to the suffering of people in the US.
So what? That does not negate the stated want.
The bi partisan police state and Military Industrial Complex existed before Trump ever took public office.
Weird how evolution takes time.
Actually one of the biggest arguments in geology/evolutionary biology is whether evolution tends to be a slow, continous steady process or whether it happens in explosive spurts seperated by periods of little evolution.
There is abundant evidence that both happens, so your metaphor is tenous at best.
Americans need to stop saying the Democrats want universal healthcare. They don’t and they’ve made that clear numerous times.
I totally agree, although to be fair in this particular instance, it’s a reference to AOC herself. The Democrats who want universal healthcare are the voters.
Like when?
Obamacare, the multiple times in 2016, 2020, and 2024 when they were deciding on a platform and universal healthcare never made the cut. They’ve had plenty of opportunities to push it and they never do.
That’s because you’re political system is broken by lobbying. Fix that and you might start to see both parties make decisions for the people instead of the corporation’s and billionaires that give them both insane amounts of money. Money they need to stay elected.
There’s the two sides of the Democratic party. AOC (pictured) supports fixing that. Yet the DNC keeps nominating moderates who refuse to give more power to the working class.
That’s right, except without lobby both parties disappear instantly. My guess is social media ‘heroes’ would quickly take their place, same way it’s already happening in central and south america.
Recently, you, Americans, made it crystal clear that campaigning on universal healthcare will not get you elected. Numerous times. Obamacare was the last time the word healthcare wasn’t a ticket to losertown. A bunch of progressives got this stupid idea that if you don’t vote, things will magically happen exactly as you want them to happen. Then they’re surprised that regressives vote their people in power and implement exactly what they want to implement.
I find that hard to believe. Universal healthcare is the most popular policy proposal in the US for the voters. 60+% of Americans support it.
Also, there has been numerous studies done in the last 15 years that show that voting doesn’t get popular policies passed. If the rich want something, it is more likely to get passed whereas if the average voters want something, it is unlikely to get passed.
It’s popular until the Republicans say you’re going to have to wait in line or it will somehow increase your taxes (or better yet: “this means your hard-earned dollars will go to the bottom surgery of an immigrant trans person who will participate in women’s sports and use the women’s bathroom!”).
Then everyone drops it like a hot potato.
You have to remember for Americans, they love being given free stuff, but the second they hear someone they don’t like is also getting the free stuff, they’d rather cut off their nose to spite their face. They voted for Trump not because they like him, but because they hate the left.
The way Americans vote doesn’t correlate with what they want. When the rich want something, they engage with the established systems to work towards their goal. When the people want something, they tend to ignore the systems that are made specifically to hear their voices, and do everything but use them. Then the system works as intended, and everyone’s surprised.
We can’t really blame an average American, they’re overworked, uneducated, solitary, angry, dumb, and confused. But it is what it is.
Obama ran on universal healthcare. He won by the biggest margin of any president in years, or since. The voters gave him supermajorities in the House and Senate. Then Democrats pissed it all away by passing a watered-down corporate giveaway of a bill. They didn’t even manage to get a public option through, thanks to Joe “I currently reside in literal Hell” Lieberman. Voters then understandably didn’t come out to support Democrats in 2010. They betrayed everyone that voted for them in 2008, and then were shocked when they lost big in 2010.
Lol you don’t even live here come talking bout my politics boyo! get yer own house clean and shut yer fool mouth
Your fucking politics permuates the whole world, you motherfuchers can’t do shit yourselves, you fuckers made it everyone else’s business. Fix your shit or quit whining.
Thought you might find this helpful in case you haven’t seen it before: https://democrats.org/where-we-stand/party-platform/
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You are awsome
Can we stop putting AOC and Sanders as Democrats please. At least these two are vocal.
Sanders is not even a member of the Democratic Party.
AOC is an official representing the democratic party, and Sanders is a regestered independent
Anyone that has to hear “the two parties are not the same” is too stupid to change their tiny little mind and recognize it.
Both parties are certainly not the same, however both parties have a lot of the same interests. The truth is establishment Democrats have very little personal reason to fight back against these insane right wing policies because they personally benefit from them; and that is the singular truth that makes our current political climate so dangerous.
While they don’t have any reason too fight back however, they also will not generally propose these policies. They just won’t block them, so the solution is simple, prevent these policies from being proposed.
However lots of people want to see the world in black and white and just want to conflate concepts like this with something that has no nuance to it like “both parties are the same” and blindly parrot that statement without stopping to analyze what it’s really talking about and that’s a huge issue since it disenfranchises more vulnerable people. I suspect blanket statements like this are likely a large contributor to the US’ low voter participation, and i wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of them originated from foreign influence.
I once got a death threat here on lemmy for suggesting that democrats were better than Republicans. That was interesting to say the least
You’re not wrong. Apparently the truth stung someone pretty hard.
They have to live with the fact they didn’t vote as the next Hitler takes hold, it’s also the only thing their stupid little minds can use to go on without acknowledging their conscience that wants them to yeet themselves out a window.
They have to live with the fact they didn’t vote as the next Hitler takes hold,
They think Thalmann did nothing wrong, so if anything, they celebrate that they didn’t vote as the next Hitler takes hold.
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Sure, one “party” is fascist and the other “party” is collaborators. Lots of differences to point out there.
Yawn.
Yet another goon who hasn’t bothered looking up both party’s voting history or criminal conviction history.
Do your homework.
He did do his homework. He’s not saying this shit out of ignorance but out of malice. He’s a Russian shill.
You begin to recognize the usernames.
Boost’ user tagging feature has made my Lemmy experience so much better. The tag pops out so it’s the first thing I notice before even reading the reply so I know to prepare myself and not take it seriously if it’s tagged as a troll or whatever. Easier than remembering who said what in previous posts.
🤮 this got me to try it out and there’s banner ads at the bottom of every post
Voyager has tagging too, and it’s ad-free!
Oh, that’s awesome! It didn’t when I switched from it to boost, otherwise I would’ve stuck with that.
Ah, dunno about that, sorry. Been using it for a few years, since it was also a reddit app and I just paid for the ad free version
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I’m guessing you’re not a native English speaker?
No, I just misread the first time. Fair enough.
POSIWID
I made a ven-diagram to help explain
Real good effort, but it’s missing a chunk of “what they actually do” that’s not part of “what they say they want”. And there’s too much overlap between “what the donors want” and “literally just opposing fascism”. Cuz at some point that would entail cooling it a bit with the neoliberal economics driving regular people into misery for slightly better profits.
At a certain point, fascism is bad for business, so I can imagine a small overlap there.
Yeah but the business heads always convince themselves they can still fly a little closer to the sun on that one.
True.
MTG is just there for the lols. She was rich before she got elected and gotten even richer since. She’a there to pass out the matches and watch the world burn
AOC is not a good representation of the democrats. Obama, Biden, Pelosi, and Gavin Newsom are better reps for the party. With the things AOC values, it feels she only identifies as Democrat in order to be on the Democrat ballot. AOC has been touring with Bernie. Bernie doesn’t even identify with the Democratic Party, but still came dangerously close (according to the Dems) to being the elect instead of Biden back in 2019-2020. The Democratic Party did not like that. The dems want to keep the working class down. The republicans want to squash the working class and more into submission.
I think the people that align with the Democratic Party were feeling a lot of this between late 2019 - mid 2020.
Obama, Biden, Pelosi, and Gavin Newsom
Obama being a proponent of universal healthcare back in 2008, Biden a supporter of the Green New Deal, and Newsom part of a push for universal healthcare in Cali?
I don’t mean to say that any of this is enough. I don’t mean to say that the Dems aren’t dragging their fucking feet and 10 years too late on every goddamn issue; I’m not saying that the system is working or that we don’t need a new system.
But anyone who says that the two parties are the same or indistinguishable in terms of results or ideals is selling a crock of fascist-flavored shit. Apathy and non-participation benefits conservatives.
You’re screaming into the void here on Lemmy. All we have are tankies and teenagers that want Amazon two-day shipping on their “RevolutionTM” and are throwing a crying temper tantrum that the majority of the American public don’t agree with them.
So they bitch about the Dems who are the only ones actually trying to solve the problem for not doing it fast enough while they themselves do literally nothing to solve any actual problems and giving the Republicans, the party that is actually causing all the problems, a complete free pass.
The tankies are the toddler throwing a tantrum on the floor of a toy store. The Dems are their mom who isn’t buying them the Xbox game they want and the Republicans are the store owners hiking up the price of the game to make it unaffordable to all but the extremely wealthy. Their little baby brains can only think to whine and cry and blame their mom because they have no understanding of the reality behind, well… anything really.
Thank you for your response. I don’t typically post comments on any social media because I feel it is not worth it. There is a movement growing in the USA rn, and most people on Social Media are not actively being a part of it. We can end the things that have happened. It will take time.
So they bitch about the Dems who are the only ones actually trying to solve the problem for not doing it fast enough while they themselves do literally nothing to solve any actual problems and giving the Republicans, the party that is actually causing all the problems, a complete free pass.
I’ve been starting to suspect that they give MAGA a free pass because MAGA is just too powerful and scary for them.
Take on the Democrats, you get tons of sweet internet clout. Take on MAGA, you might disappear and end up in a prison in El Salvador.
Why put all that risk into punching up, when you can punch horizontally and still pretend you’re a revolutionary.
This is very refreshing to read.
You’re trying to talk sense to people of an extremist ‘comply or die’ style ideology here. Proper leftists have empathy enough for the well-being of their fellow humans and the planet we live on to recognize that simply burning everything to the ground benefits nobody. What we have in this place for the most part are keyboard commandos who wouldn’t have the first clue what to do in the event of a full societical collapse.
AOC and Bernie should just start their own party and drive the establishment democrats out if business.
I’m pushing for this every day. It’s our only way out of this.
I agree. Both democrats and republicans pledge allegiance to capitalism above all else. This simply is not sustainable.
This is also why education and historical literacy is so important. If more people knew how that America is only successful because of (majority) socialist policies like the New Deal and Great Society then there will be more widespread support for a reinvigoration of them.
I think legacy media and centralized social media have dumbed down our populace to a point that they don’t even realize there is a way out. Everyone in the 99% stands to benefit from radical change.
What percentage of the American population are progressive? Please provide a reliable source for your information. And please don’t provide something nebulous and without meaning like “75% of Americans support random progressive policy”. Those polls show aggrement with a policy, not a desire to change current policy.
More than you’d think are progressive. But, I’m not claiming we need a progressive party - anything left of center is better than what the Democrats offer.
Ok
https://www.dataforprogress.org/polling-the-left-agenda
https://www.levyinstitute.org/publications/trump-wins-while-americans-vote-for-progressive-policies/
https://www.citizen.org/news/progressive-policies-are-popular-policies/
https://yipinstitute.org/article/analyzing-popularity-of-progressive-views
While several moderate Democrats accused and blamed progressives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for the loss of 12 seats in the House of Representatives and the Warnock/Ossoff ticket being the deciding factor for the fate of the Senate, all House Democratic candidates in swing districts who endorsed Medicare for All had won their races, with none of the incumbent Democrats who lost their reelection supporting it. In addition, only one of the 93 co-sponsors of the Green New Deal lost to their challenger. This brings up the question: Are progressive ideas actually popular? Did progressives actually win last year?
Throughout the campaigning process for the 2020 election, Republicans focused hard to smear and misrepresent their Democratic opponents using terminology like “socialism,” “radical,” and “defund the police” to define them. One would think that these more progressive policies only appeal to the younger generation of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren supporters. But, newer research conducted reveals surprising results.
An Ipsos poll showed that, in 2020, 46% of Republicans and 72% of Democrats would support a universal basic income of $1000 per month (some may remember this being a distinctive characteristic during Andrew Yang’s candidacy). A study by Pew Research Center indicated that a majority of Americans, and especially lower class Republicans, agree with raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour. Even in the battleground state of Florida, which went to Donald Trump in 2020, passed this same measure on their ballot with 61% of voter support. On Election Day, Fox News aired results of their voter analysis exit poll. One finding was that 72% of participants either somewhat or strongly favor a government-run health care plan, with 29% in opposition. Another 72% of viewers responded that they are somewhat to very concerned about climate change’s effects, having 28% disagreeing. Finally, 70% favor increasing spending toward renewable energy, with 31% against it. Results to other questions summarized that a majority of respondents want the government to do more, think racism is a serious problem in the U.S., support a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, and want the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v Wade to be left as is. A poll by Student Defense, the Defend Students Action Fund, and Data for Progress revealed that 67% of those who participated “support some form of widespread student loan forgiveness - whether it is universal, tied to income, or based on specific program eligibility,” with 58% of Republicans among that support (Forbes).
I don’t care how many people are progressive, at this point it’s the only thing i will vote for. I saw how the Democratic Party acted after losing, and i am talking about all of it, not just pathetic signs and admonishing people speaking truth to power. I will not vote for establishment again no matter what the options are.
I don’t care how many people are progressive, at this point it’s the only thing i will vote for.
Yeah, that’s about what I expect from Lemmy leftists.
This is the crux of it, American’s have shown us time and again they are centrist/center left at best. These folks are so trapped in their ideological bubbles that they cannot fathom their extreme outlier position, small wonder that there is so much accelerationist language of late.
Compromise is taboo and so any candidate that has agitated inside the system for change ends up verboten.
Yeah for sure AOC represent Democrats 😂😂😂. They are all behind her and sure will let her run for primary and win like they did with Bernie Sanders. LMAO
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How about repeatedly bringing up the flaws of First past the post voting every election cycle and then doing nothing to solve it in the blue states they control?
I can no longer believe it’s in good faith. These are people with law degrees who pretend to be unaware of why Bush won in 2000. If they don’t explicitly oppose FPTP by now, then they’re pissing on your leg and telling you it’s raining.
My city implemented ranked choice recently. Progress is being made. Just not as fast as you tankies want because you don’t seem to understand that moving something as large as the United States happens on the scale of decades not months.
Did Bernie not run in the primary? I remember him having his ass handed to him in my state.
I phone banked for him on his 2 most possible runs. He’s way too old. AOC is the only half decent insider option in all of DC now.
After a lifetime of voting for the lesser evil to make the ship sink a little slower, voting blue from Kerry to Harris in the general after primarying for the most leftwing candidate available, and feeling dirty every time, either they can give me a candidate that isn’t actively choking as they fellate oligarch dick, or I’ll watch it all burn from home.
I guess from my perspective you still realised they were still the lesser of two evils. You are right the system is fucked and the Democrats did not do enough to change the status quo particularly in terms of correcting the wealth disparity we see now.
Let’s hope the US actually have a chance at another fair election with a candidate you deserve because as it looks right now everyday the current fascist regime that is Trump administration moves towards a future where you may not get that chance.
Democrats simply have no levers to pull to make wholesale changes. I remember Hillary attempting to engage with healthcare reform during her time as First Lady and being pilloried for it. Obama’s administration couldn’t muster nearly enough votes to enact single-payer healthcare and had to opt for a market based solution that just eked through congress, only to be lambasted by the modern left for it.
Many around these parts act as if Democrats can just enact reforms by fiat and do not answer to a largely centrist, if not conservative, constituency. A cursory examination shows this has never been the case; the center/left has always had to govern via consensus.
Now “leftists” are eating their own to a degree that leaves me often suspecting that many are little more than poorly disguised MAGA adherents bleating accelerationist nonsense. This thread and any other like it is replete with these moans of surrender, and who can be surprised? Organizing takes much more effort than vomiting into a keyboard and these folks are by and large too lazy to suss out an understanding of recent history, instead choosing to repeat the same canards (see: the conspiracy theory of independent Bernie being cheated in lieu of not being able to come close to winning the Democratic primary.)
Does nobody remember Biden and Warren splitting the Bernie vote or
IMHO it was more Warren splitting Sanders’ vote even though she knew she would lose. The establishment dems wanted Biden.
Democrats are literally controlled-opposition
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Considering that Liberals are literally right wingers (Political Science 101) masquerading as leftists, yeah you are turds in every way.
We actually agree on something
AOC is progressive, not a neoliberal. Saying liberals want universal healthcare is a straight up LIE
Neoliberals are not typically liberals. You can be a progressive liberal
Source: am one
No shit. I am replying to the meme which implies democrats want universal healthcare - they dont.
I think the confusion is that it actually implies AOC, who is a Democrat, wants universal healthcare - she does.
You worded it strangely. Liberals and aoc want uhc
If liberals actually wanted uhc we’d have it by now. Instead they neutered Medicare/Medicaid because “if were nice to the republicans maybe they’ll be nice to us when theyre in power”. now look where we are.
Universal health care is antithetical to both market economies and economic freedom which are both core liberal principles. Liberals cannot actively support it without also confronting the inherent contradictions within liberal ideology.
Unless you’re using the term “liberal” in the US sense of ‘anybody “left” of fascism’ in which case you’re statistically correct, but mostly due to generalization.
Well how about this I DEFINATELY %100 do agree that capitalism has a fucking problem. I believe it makes more sense to regulate harshly and have a 50s style tax on the rich than to throw baby out with water. Im liberal in the sense that HUMAN RIGHTS must take precedent no matter what part of an economic shift we’re in
Liberals cannot actively support it without also confronting the inherent contradictions within liberal ideology.
Thank you, I couldn’t have asked for a better demonstration of this point. A healthcare system that is based on the free market but that is “regulat[ed] harshly and [with] a 50s style tax on the rich” is not universal healthcare!
If you can see the issues with healthcare and can understand why universal healthcare would be a necesarry improvement then how are you still advocating for a free market solution for anything?
That baby died a long time ago, and required required constant human rights violations to keep it alive in the first place. Getting rid of the bathwater won’t bring it back or make it require less cruelty to keep alive.
Based on social media I have no fucking clue what I am. But I do know I’d like universal Healthcare and the right for people not just to survive on their working wages. But to thrive. No one should have to struggle for basic necessities and a decent life.
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The democratic party doesnt want universal healthcare
Progressive just means a low ranking democrap.
MTG is far more welcome in her party than AOC is in hers.
The neoliberal DNC sees the Republicans as their esteemed opposition, as they are on the same take and have the same orders on Economic policy. They see spoilers like AOC, who are not on the corpo bribe train and for profound economic policy changes, as their enemy.
https://apnews.com/article/business-nancy-pelosi-congress-8685e82eb6d6e5b42413417f3d5d6775
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/04/15/nancy-pelosi-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-481704
The Democrats, almost all of them save a couple of spoilers, aren’t the fascists themselves, but they’ve spent the last half century enabling the fascists. The Democrats don’t care about entire industries of confidence schemes murdering Americans like our deathcare industry, they don’t care about poor kids getting a good education, and they dont care about millions of our most betrayed neighbors dying in the streets. As the bad cop Fascists brag about how much they love the schaudenfreude of the pain those people are in, the good cop neoliberals shrug “free market forces, sorry! But I do affirm your identity, homeless dying/lifesaving healthcare denied person!”
That’s why there really isn’t hope until we collapse, hopefully by our hands in revolution and not by oligarch made climate change in a couple decades. Best, best, best, best case scenario, we have a real election in 3. 5 years and the Neoliberals gain power, do NOTHING to reign in the oligarchs, income inequity, or our sociopathic, murderous capital markets as they’re gleefully paid not to do. Fascism is the takeover of the state to serve big capital’s need for ever moar, and so the table will remain set to go back on the fascist march in just another 4 years.
And yet when the legislature arrives to give us free Healthcare the Democrats don’t pass it despite having a majority.
Both sides aren’t the same, but their choices produce the same results.
And yet when the legislature arrives to give us free Healthcare the Democrats don’t pass it despite having a majority.
Obamacare saved my life and was the product of immense effort at a time when the Dems were more conservative than they are today. Blue Dogs were wiped out in 2010 and 2012 because of that (correct) rage against them.
You can say what the Dems managed to do was not enough - and it’s not. Millions of people are not as lucky as me (though I suppose poverty is a strange kind of luck - poverty in a blue state, perhaps, more appropriately) and still suffer immensely under our utterly fucked healthcare system. But it’s not the same result as doing nothing - or worse, handing control over to the GOP. Millions like me owe a greatly improved quality of life, or our very lives, to the reforms passed.
If you have a plan to destroy the Dems and replace them all with left-wing progressives, and put demo charges on the base of our utterly fucked rat’s nest of a government structure, I’m not here to tell you not to. But I am here to tell you that both sides are not the same for millions of disadvantaged demographics, even if the Dems are not enough for those selfsame demographics.
That’s really the one big thing I can think of that they did get through.
It got like 80mil people health insurance which was great.
It was still a huge compromise from the free universal healthcare that was the original goal.
It’s worth noting that Obama did this by going around party leadership. Once he was in power he did not obey the DNC like other candidates have.
It’s worth noting that Obama did this by going around party leadership. Once he was in power he did not obey the DNC like other candidates have.
I mean, the president is party leadership. And Biden, an ardent party loyalist, is the only Dem president in the past 50 years which has been in lockstep with the wider party.
When i say “the party” i mean the privately ran organization who is legally allowed to choose whoever their canidate is, and doesn’t have to legally hold a fair primary election or any election at all.
Sure the president gets a temporary seat at the table, but the other DNC leaders do not want them to be in control.
The fact that Obama tried to push free healthcare made the DNC leadership furious, because that isn’t what he told them before the primaries. But because they were stuck with him they instead had other loyalist dems try to help Republicans block his policies and then enjoyed the popularity Obama was bringing to the party.
Sure there was a silver lining of sorts, but the ACA transferred more power and wealth to medical insurance companies than there was before, hastening our approach to where we are now. I’m sorry if I don’t give much credit to the medicine we were given to dull the pain, because it didnt fix the problem. In fact, since so many think it did help so much, we have ignored the problem so we could argue about whether the medicine is nice or bad or rude or evil or etc.
Wow a government that taxes you into oblivion for the War Pigs Somehow squeezes out a success. Every once in a while a blind squirrel finds a nut. You don’t have a mental process that thinks in terms of like a program. It could be argued that the United States is not even a democracy, given all of the methods that the rich make it so that our candidates that have our best interest are never able to be chosen. And it’s a mixture of people not understanding or knowing history with a sprinkling of illiteracy. that we continue to march down the road, choosing the same two parties over and over again, and living in a vacuum. Stuck in time. Repeating the same mistakes. The Yankees in whole both Democrat and Republican are some variation of fascist and relative to the rest of the world the left and right paradigm is more varied. America is a imperialist empire that employs fascist as useful idiots to do the bidding of the business owners and the capitalist class. Democrats just give you the impression that you have a choice. It’s a form of pacification. They themselves can see themselves as powerful and still have faith in the institution. And they themselves can also be alright people, but the ROLE or FUNCTION that they play in all this is just controlled opposition. The more you go down the rabbit hole of world history and American history, you start to see patterns, and really nothing has changed. Like fascism and racism and all these isms are just character traits of societies. But they are symptoms of exponential processes inside of containers that can no longer withstand the flux. That’s how you can have Nazi Jews. Not all Jews are Nazis, but Israelis in general, as a collective, are fascistic in nature. And there shouldn’t be really a debate about this, but a lot of people are ignorant about what it’s like in Israel and how the laws are written. To be honest it’s almost like me. I live in Yankee land. I’m not a fascist. I think I am a minority in my opinions, but there is still a significant amount of people that believe as I do. I mean I can relate to a israeli., who chooses not to be a fascist. It’s such a fucking mess. And at the root of it all, is that people just don’t take interest really in current affairs, in a serious, responsible manner. As a collective, we are very misinformed Population. The Yankee likes to make fun of North Korea, but I think of us like North Korea. Like a mixture of Disneyland and North Korea. You put those two together and I think that’s what it’s like to live in America. But if you never left the country, you don’t realize the rest of the people around the world live better lives. And like, I wouldn’t stay here if I had a choice now that I know more about the world. Like vote Democrat. No thank you. Buy the plain ticket, leave the country forever and never look back. That’s where I’m at.
I’m not going to read that until you learn how to use paragraphs 🤷♂️
There’s always conveniently a cohort of Dems that vote against party lines. Every. Time. Then they can shrug and say “welp, we tried”.
Two sides of the same capitalist shit sandwich.
This is because of red state Democrats like Manchin. Because every state gets two senators, there are more senators from red states than blue states. So Democrats have to capture more of the center to hey the majority in the Senate.
Not the same results exactly, more that the dems enable the republicans by not pushing back, but both are far below the standard we should accept.
Both sides aren’t the same, but their choices produce the same results.
The last few weeks are clear evidence of the opposite.
Kids were still in cages during Biden. Prison slave population still highest history. Biden started the genocide and handed it over to trump. Biden deported more people than trump. Biden didn’t feel like codifing roe. No min wage discussions whatsoever. No universal healthcare. Harris wanted a stronger border than trump and bragged about it. Half of the US can’t even afford a 1 bedroom apartment under Biden and Trump alike.
The two parties exist to appease their corporate donors. Nothing they do is in your interests.
By the way, progressive measures passed in many states, even states that Trump won. People want progressive policy but neither party is willing to deliver. This is a feature, not a bug, of capitalism.
Oh no, I angered the tankies.
Both parties suck. The world would not be experiencing economic bipolarism, and we would not be spreading memes about American born citizens rotting in prisons in El Salvador just to cope had Trump lost the election. The two parties are not the same.
It really is a thought-terminating cliché. You guys were talking about the actual subject before each other.
Ohhhhh, the “T” word. Ez block for this uninformed and ignorant troll.
“That person has different opinions from me, such an obvious troll!”
Fair though, I would troll the shit out of tankies at every opportunity I have the energy for. Fucking .ml.
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Kids weren’t being forced back to labour in factories by the CEO of Amazon -see Florida.
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State Prison populations logarithmically dwarf federal prison populations, overwhelmingly Red States With Mississippi, Lousiana, Oklahoma, Idaho, Arizona, Texas, Georgia as the magnificent 7. All notoriously with a racial bias. No democrat president would have made the move or received the support necessary to dismantle private prisons at this point in history. What Trump is doing is not legal, you cannot rule by executive order, the judiciary are just all bought or neutered right now.
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Biden’s white house was about economic recovery because that was what was most important after Trump racked up the deficit. America enjoyed the lowest impact of inflation with the most economic regrowth of any country in the world after COVID. Things are significantly worse elsewhere. Inflation was going down under Biden, but social media gaslit the nation into believing it was way worse and once again that Trickle down economics would fix it.
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Crashing and burning the global economy was Big Tech’s goal, under Biden the judiciary ordered Alphabet to break up Google’s monopoly. It was just too late to happen at that point. No other government gave enough of a shit about our personal privacy and freedom to attempt to break the single largest corporate spy network in the history of existence. The democrats didn’t do everything we wanted them to, that doesn’t mean they didn’t make some very important and historically significant moves.
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There was no presidential immunity until the very end of Biden’s presidency at which point he was in noticeable mental decline and there was no supreme court stacked in his favour.
It’s not black and white, is all I’m saying. The constant self-criticism is what splits the Democratic party, reduces the turnout and allowed corporatism the opening to advantage themselves. We’re lucky Trump still has the energy to rule without having the mental faculties to let others call all the shots. Sometimes, better than literal fascists is enough.
I respect you for doing it, but the .ml at the end of their name really just means you’re wasting your effort.
None the less, good on you for fighting the good fight. I’m sick and tired of people pushing powerlessness and apathy under the guise of good will.
I don’t care to convince them. Every opportunity we have to counter the false narratives meant to divide the working class, is an opportunity for you, myself and everyone else provide our comrades who have not yet woken up to the programming the ability to:
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Recognise agents, bad actors and bots.
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Give them the tools to counter them and drive home the message of unity. We need to stop playing party politics and realise the struggle has always been up vs down, left vs right is just how the owners of our media push us against eachother.
Thank you for contributing to the wider conversation.
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Pushing powerlessness? What are you doing to stop this? I’m with DSA and fighting IRL to stop this. Have you organized any protests? Have you phone banked anybody? Have you distributed literature? Have you actually gone out and talked with real human beings about what struggles they are feeling?
Not American, and yes to most of that.
The “both sides” argument is a dishonest one aimed at making people feel powerless. It can fuck right off.
Have you run for local office? That’s the only thing you can do that will actually change anything.
lol no direct action is a thing
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