Yeah, it was too much voting by the young and lefties in 2016 that put Trump in power, don’t you remember?
Two days old and the memes already aging well as Bidens campaign says they don’t want to reform the Supreme Court.
Oof.
Put a sword in my hand and I’ll fight. Don’t give me a rusty metal stick.
Hmmm I wonder why they don’t do anything about? 🤔
Oh well I’m sure all those millionaires, billionaires, and their lackeys in both parties will want to stop it.
Well on the plus side I’m sure once they get rid of that whole separation of powers thing it’ll be a lot easier to do stuff.
You notice that you said vote singular there? That’s why. You vote once and then you act surprised that everything doesn’t change immediately. You want change? You got to keep winning. That’s how change happens. That’s the only way it happens. You think the Civil Rights Act happens without almost 30 straight years of democratic victories?
A significant portion of the right believe in a Unitary Executive and that is what they’ve been working towards for decades. They believe the president has the power to control the entire federal executive branch. They’ve captured the judiciary branch and gotten the rulings they want.
Our current situation really is the culmination of almost 70 years of rightwing efforts. They turn out to school board meeting and ban books. Their base is extremely mobilized and there are dozens of grassroots movements with varying interests. At the end of the day they all show up to vote for their guy(s) to push their party the direction they want, it’s worked and that party has mainstreamed extremism.
I tell people as often as I can, especially my trans and bipoc friends; now is the time. Get a couple guns (a long one and a short one) and learn how to use them. Learn some basic first aid, you really just need to know how to stabilize someone. Start networking with like-minded people in your communities. The police will not protect us, they’ve proven they’ll happily club senior citizens to the ground and shoot any protesters in the face with rubber bullets while escorting a rightwing murderer to safety.
Iran was a secular, liberal state until almost 1980 when they (mostly legitimately) elected an Islamist theocracy; it could happen here
To my American friends: Please don’t give up hope yet! As the GOP is very closely communicating with Fidesz, they’re banking on activist burnout. They want to break you, so you not only won’t do anymore activism, but to maybe even join them finally in the hopes of getting something from them finally. After the next Trump victory, they’ll likely also copy one another thing from Hungary, namely the firing of leftists, to force them to convert to conservatism.
Doesn’t that say more about democracy
Everyone has an equal vote in the US (of course I’m not talking about felons, etc. who lost their vote). Everyone is just so scared “of the other guy winning” they don’t elect the person who should win. There isn’t a candidate even bothering with a “crawl back to democracy” plan with the end of gerrymandering, federal protection for absentee ballots, better healthcare laws to allow better movement between jobs (why not do Medicare For All which takes out the middleman?), etc. The people still have the power, they are too scared they will lose what position they have in society if they attempt to use it.
Democracy isn’t failing, propaganda is just winning.
edit: Why should there be a candidate who wants to make things better? Why put resources into that kind of work when it’s not even needed to secure votes.
Everyone has an equal vote in the US
False. Someone in North Dakota has a lot more power in their vote than someone in California.
That’s more of an issue of gerrymandering and Electoral College, which unfortunately are not even issues in the news lately. The gerrymandering is proof we elect horrible people repeatedly.
That’s a bit of a selection bias. It’s hard enough finding one lawyer that won’t work in their own best interests…finding 535 selfless lawyers is downright impossible.
How can you not love democracy? You have the power to choose the one that you definitely don’t want to win but you never vote for whoever represents you. Working as intended.
Honestly the longer this left infighting goes on the more hopeless I get. This isn’t going to work. The corpse of genocide Joe is just as bad a candidate as Hillary Clinton was in 2016. And I hate to say it but that means the fascist is probably going to win.
So when Trump beats Biden in November what country should I move to to be safe? Australia seems like a decent pick so does New Zealand. I kind of think Vietnam might be fun. What are y’all’s thoughts.
Pick a country that doesn’t depend on NATO or Western influence to survive. One that won’t soon be swallowed by the sea, isn’t under China’s boot, and doesn’t cost a fortune to live in.
New Zealand tops the list. Though maybe don’t buy beach front property.
New Zealand definitely has western influence, but at least we have MMP voting instead of First Past the Post, so we don’t have as strong of a two-party system. We also have a cost of living crisis but so does every western country. Our generally reasonable politics is one of the reasons why I’m not interested in moving to another country when so many of my friends are moving to Australia or the UK for higher salaries
Honestly, I might rather be under China’s booth than America’s at this point. Least their standard of living is rising and the prison population’s lower.
I think you’re right. New Zealand is the best. Don’t have to avoid beachfront property if you can’t afford it though lmao 🤣
Democrats say “vote!” -> not enough people actually vote
Actually, the recent record turnouts should really be getting you to pay attention to how the elections are structured. It turns out, the way districts and the electoral college are organized means that where you get out the vote matters. Telling people to vote harder doesn’t make those systemic obstacles go away.
This is on purpose, too. The farthest-right states also just so happen to have the lowest educations, incomes, healthcare, etc. They make it miserable for people who live there to organize AND so people from cities don’t want to move there.
Which is also why they wind up filled with “small business owners” who seem to all be about making money off land they own.
The thing is, the record turnouts are still pretty bad. Something like 60% of eligible voters, I think? You’re right that there are systemic reasons why it’s not feasible for some people to vote. But if everyone who didn’t have a systemic reason to not vote did, the turnout would still be much higher.
Overall, 70% of U.S. adult citizens who were eligible to participate in all three elections between 2018 and 2022 voted in at least one of them, with about half that share (37%) voting in all three.
-Pew Research Poll on Voter Turnout
And it looks like a significant portion of the 30% who don’t vote are white adults without a college degree who lean Republican.
70% of eligible voters participating in at least 1 of 3 elections is abysmal. That only 37% voted in all 3 demonstrates this.
I’m not sure how intense your off year elections are, but one of mine had only a single uncontested race, so I’m not sure I’d jump to considering missing some of the offyears “abysmal”.
66% voted in the 2020 presidential election. That number sucks considering how high the stakes were.
Yeah should be -> not enough people actually vote -> fascists retain enough power to evade consequences -> fascists seize more power
Democrats say “vote!” -> not enough people actually vote
If it’s known that voting isn’t effective for whatever reason (including turnout) then suggesting it in the first place is a marker that one is unserious about realistic solutions and should be ignored.
I promise you that the Republican Party would undergo serious reform even if they were kept out of the presidency for 3 terms. I’d bet on a complete collapse if they find themselves a significant minority in Congress for only a couple terms. We’re not talking about a crazy unrealistic amount of time here.
Um, yeah, voting isn’t effective if you don’t fucking do it.
Why would liberals lift a finger against the very people that will protect their precious status quo for them?
I’m actually tired of being blackmailed with fascism.
In my country we had maybe five elections in a row where the premise was “it is us or fascism”. And yes, fascism is there but… COULD YOU ACTUALLY MAKE THINGS GOOD AND WORK FOR IMPROVING YOUR PEOPLE LIVES!!? I don’t want my choice to be die shot down or slowly being impoverished until life is no longer any good. I want to actually have a good life, and enabling “just not fascism ™” is not doing it.
If people win on that type of rhetoric, it means the fascists are part of the electoral strategy, meaning it’s not in their interests for the fascists to go away, because how will they win votes then?
voting is pointless, just reinforces ruling class, you are not subject of social change but an object to manipulate with and blackmail with every mean possible
I have some bad news for you if you think the ruling class gives one wet fart whether or not people vote.
“Not voting” doesn’t matter to a corrupt politician, they don’t care if you stay home. There will never be a voter turnout so low that the ruling class will go “oh shucks, they all stopped voting I guess we have to give up our wealth and power now.”
Voting is not the solution to the problems that plague our society, but just like how putting out a wildfire doesn’t solve climate change, you still put the fire out before it burns a bunch of shit down.
You don’t put the fire out by voting, you put the fire out with guillotines.
Go far left enough you get your guns back. Arm up, comrades.
Remake this meme for tankies where instead of vote, it just says, “Tankies say ‘get gunz!’”
Bro, I hate tanks, wtf?
Voting will not solve our problems, but it can buy us time allowing us to work to change things outside electoral politics.
Except nothing is changing (positively anyways).
As it stands now voting is nothing more than a placebo for the masses.
The disease is still killing us.
But we’re voting for the lesser of two evils in the meantime - and then doing jack shit to fix the broken system.
It’s also bullshit, but you know that already.
They could have gotten rid of the filibuster. But nope. Just the usual non partisan corporate welfare bills.
maybe because neoliberalism is not the right tool to fight back against fascism
But without neoliberalism, who will protect us from the Far-Left Authoritarian Tankies?
Wierdos on lemmy not bringing up tankies in conversations that have nothing to do with them challenge level impossible.
Any anti-authoritarian ideology, especially some of the other far-left ones like libertarian communism, anarchism, etc. It’s not a world with only fascists, tankies, and neoliberals.
libertarian communism, anarchism, etc
Famous for their large, robust, and enduring governing institutions.
libertarian communism, anarchism, etc
famous for their large, robust, and enduring governing institutions.
Do you know what these words mean? It seems like you don’t, and you have resorted to speaking out of your ass.
Anarchism is a political philosophy against all unjust hierarchies, including the state and capitalism. It exists directly in opposition to what you are claiming.
Libertarian communism, even though it has the word that is probably scaring you, is usually pretty anti-government and strives for a minimal state, and self-government. A lot of the more marxist bookchinites I’ve met consider themselves libertarian communists.
Anarchism is a political philosophy against all unjust hierarchies, including the state and capitalism.
Unfortunately, its been tightly aligned with capitalism over the last half century. The whole Network State movement in California is a capitalist wet dream. Nevermind the various failed projects in Liberland or the Republic of Minerva, which ended up as little more than failed colonial projects.
Then you’ve got Anarchist figurehead Milei out in Argentina absolutely shredding civil liberties and public services for his own personal profit.
Fucking reprehensible.
Libertarian communism, even though it has the word that is probably scaring you, is usually pretty anti-government and strives for a minimal state, and self-government.
Name one actual libertarian commune.
This is the single most ridiculous post I’ve read on the Internet today.
“Anarchist figurehead Milei”. What are you smoking? It sounds like you think “anarchist” is synonymous with right wing “libertarian” or you think “anarcho-capitalists” are somehow anarchists, even though it’s an oxymoron.
Please 🙏🏻 I implore you, read any basic anarchist literature like Mutual Aid: A factor in evolution, the conquest of bread, Anarchy by Malatesta, Are you an anarchist? by Graeber, Anarchy Works by Gelderloos.
You are severely misguided.
What are you smoking?
you think “anarcho-capitalists” are somehow anarchists
The AnCaps bill themselves as Anarchists, adopt anarchist rhetoric and policy as it suits them, and fill mass media with their propaganda. They’re the only anarchists Western countries actually recognize.
read any basic anarchist literature like Mutual Aid: A factor in evolution, the conquest of bread, Anarchy by Malatesta, Are you an anarchist? by Graeber, Anarchy Works by Gelderloos.
I physically can’t find them under the waterfall of Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard, and Peter Theil books crowding out the shelf space in my local book store.
unfortunately its been tightly aligned with capitalism over the last half century.
Clearly you know nothing about anarchism. Stop speaking about it like you know what you are talking about.
That’s simply not anarchism. Over the last half century, there has been an effort to co-opt it by the right. Libertarianism is literally a left wing philosophy in most other parts of the world, but some dunce-muppet named Murray Rothbard stole it as his own (p83) and on this page he even admits that it was a word used by anarchists, which he distances himself from. One of the foundational anarchist thinkers, Proudhon, literally says “Property is theft,” a complete rejection of fundamental property rights needed for an “an”cap society.
Stealing words from the lefties isn’t anything new, the Nazi party did with their “National Socialism” (granted there’s some interesting history with it. Even though all of the nominally economically left wing nazis were killed in the night of long knives, they kept the socialist bit). But to say Nazism was ever socialist would be parroting a pathetic right wing talking point that should have died a long time ago.
If you ignore the entirety of anarchist though, throughout well over 180 years of development and practice, where hundreds of thousands of people fought against authoritarianism, fascism, and capitalism, you could only lie through your teeth when saying shit that wack. Or, you would have to not know anything that you are talking about.
To say that failed “anarcho”-capitalist projects are the fault of anarchism, an ideology that rose in opposition to capitalism is ignorant.
And to consider Milei an anarchist, someone who is weilding the power of the state in service of right wing ultra-neoliberalism, you would have to be insane. If you don’t take my word that as anarchists we hate Milei, how about you check out this Crimethinc. article on Milei covering the topic from the perspective of an argentine anarchist.
I’m not a libertarian communist so my knowledge of this stuff is lacking, but I do know that Rojava, a radically feminist experiment inspired by Bookchin’s later works. It is based in NE Syria has been doing decently well. Especially considering it is under constant attack from the Turkish government, the second largest NATO military. They even managed to push out ISIS, which is an impressive feat for a new government. While they haven’t gotten rid of capitalism, they aren’t fully capitalist.
If you paid attention to the news during the trump years you might know of trump betraying the Kurds, which is usually how the media refered to Rojava.
Clearly you know nothing about anarchism.
This is the Anarchism At Home. If you want 19th century European anarchism, you’re going to need a boat and a time machine.
Rojava, a radically feminist experiment inspired by Bookchin’s later works. It is based in NE Syria has been doing decently well.
It’s a heavily armed Kurdish cut out that exists primary to fight proxy wars with Turkyie and the remnants of the Iraqi military. It has some excellent press around it, thanks to US/UK media needing a progressive champion in a region where everyone hates us. But there’s a word for a minority militant left wing proxy force.
Tankies.
But without neoliberalism, who will protect us from
the Far-Left Authoritarian Tankies?being able to live happily on a single income!!Having to work 3 jobs to scrape by is a small price to pay for corporations to further consolidate our economy into the pockets of like 10-20 people.
Anything less is tankie, now shut up and go find a 4th job commie!
Are these “tankies” in the room with you now?
This is Lemmy, so, yeah, pretty much all over.
The leftist fifth columnist menace is the single greatest threat to American freedom and liberty.
The leftist fifth columnist menace is the single greatest threat to American freedom and liberty.
Sure grandpa, sure. Let’s get you to bed!
Not before I’ve finished posting to Facebook!
“There’s no such thing as tankies” is the weirdest doublethink propaganda I’ve seen in a while.
“There’s no such thing as tankies” is the weirdest doublethink propaganda I’ve seen in a while.
Is that what you think I said? Interesting.
Doubling down, too. Fascinating.
Doubling down, too. Fascinating.
Doubling down on what tho?
What do you think you said? Because I took that as questioning their existence as well.
What do you think you said? Because I took that as questioning their existence as well.
What I didn’t say was “there is no such thing as tankies”. And what I implied, albeit subtlety, was that people bandy about this term so freely that it can really only be taken as “people I disagree with who might be leftist-ish”. The use of the term has morphed so much over many decades that it means essentially nothing… or, “whatever I say it means”.
It means: “Leftist” Who defends/supports regimes like Russia and China, and their use of Tanks to suppress thier opposition, hence the term.
It gets bandied about on Lemmy like crazy because theres a crazy amount of Tankies on Lemmy
