Most major #media and #socialMedia in the #USA is now right wing controlled
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Just a humble truth teller, guv.
Truth's it's own thing, we're mirror to reality, like. Mirrors can have some silvering missing, smeared glass but the light that bounced off things then hit their windward side, that was reality.
But things to do, places to be, so cheery-bye.
well said and adieu!
just the humble add:
accentuating the positive (not airhead optimism), dropping that sentiment when wise, is a form of truth
it's the truth called "how to win"
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i agree with your sentiment but please don't talk of genocide in terms of numbers killed. wrong is wrong. we win over those focused on the genocide in gaza with the harm reduction argument you make. we don't win anyone over with "yeah but it was just a small genocide." genocide is genocide
@benroyce @mistergibson That was why I marked it with a sarcasm content warning. No amount of that evil is acceptable. And we've got equivalent evil here - people in America being stuffed into concentration camps. Renee Good, Alex Pretti, and dozens of others murdered on the streets, and who knows how many more murdered or left to die from treatable illness in our concentration camps. Dark times.
The main thrust of my post was that a bunch of people didn't vote for Harris because of that one issue, including me. I called her campaign a number of times and said I wanted to vote for her, but the genocide was going to decide whether I could. I ended up voting for Stein again, because I like her platform, and she opposed the genocide in Gaza.
As further context, I didn't support Harris in 2020 despite her otherwise compelling platform because of her actions as a DA, when she sided with the Catholic Church against their childhood sexual assault victims. So for folks saying "you're only willing to vote for a perfect candidate" I was willing to overlook *that* to put her in office. She maintained the one stance that took my choice away from me, and now the DNC appears to have acknowledged that that was why she didn't win. (I don't believe the argument that people didn't vote for her because she was black and a woman. I'd be absolutely tickled pink to vote for Nina Turner. I really hoped we'd see a Sanders/Turner ticket a few years ago, with Sanders staying a term or two and then Turner running for President after having been VP for eight years.)
This all brings us to the question of, "What the Hell do we do, then?" I don't believe violent revolution will do ANYTHING good. What I think we need is to push ballot initiatives, which can sometimes sidestep the legislature, and force in ranked choice voting. And I think we can sell it to right-wingers, as it benefits everyone - you can rank your exact flavour of MAGA first if that's your thing, rather than being force-fed a candidate. If we can get more RCV everywhere - through ballot initiatives, since both red and blue say RCV burns like fire - then we'll see candidates start trying to appeal to the people, rather than appealing to the extremes. We'll have a better chance to get campaign finance reform rolling.
It's the best hope I see for getting out of this, and it won't be easy. It'll involve convincing our neighbors that this will be good for them, and frankly the evil puppets at the top - Trump, Hegseth, Pelosi, whatver - are not the main problem. Apathy and hopelessness and a lack of being offered palatable choices breeds cynicism and extremism, or makes people think their vote doesn't matter. We need to do the hard thing and engage all the voters. All of them. And we can't do it with "more of the same". Hard to do, but I don't see anything else helping long-term.
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@benroyce @mistergibson That was why I marked it with a sarcasm content warning. No amount of that evil is acceptable. And we've got equivalent evil here - people in America being stuffed into concentration camps. Renee Good, Alex Pretti, and dozens of others murdered on the streets, and who knows how many more murdered or left to die from treatable illness in our concentration camps. Dark times.
The main thrust of my post was that a bunch of people didn't vote for Harris because of that one issue, including me. I called her campaign a number of times and said I wanted to vote for her, but the genocide was going to decide whether I could. I ended up voting for Stein again, because I like her platform, and she opposed the genocide in Gaza.
As further context, I didn't support Harris in 2020 despite her otherwise compelling platform because of her actions as a DA, when she sided with the Catholic Church against their childhood sexual assault victims. So for folks saying "you're only willing to vote for a perfect candidate" I was willing to overlook *that* to put her in office. She maintained the one stance that took my choice away from me, and now the DNC appears to have acknowledged that that was why she didn't win. (I don't believe the argument that people didn't vote for her because she was black and a woman. I'd be absolutely tickled pink to vote for Nina Turner. I really hoped we'd see a Sanders/Turner ticket a few years ago, with Sanders staying a term or two and then Turner running for President after having been VP for eight years.)
This all brings us to the question of, "What the Hell do we do, then?" I don't believe violent revolution will do ANYTHING good. What I think we need is to push ballot initiatives, which can sometimes sidestep the legislature, and force in ranked choice voting. And I think we can sell it to right-wingers, as it benefits everyone - you can rank your exact flavour of MAGA first if that's your thing, rather than being force-fed a candidate. If we can get more RCV everywhere - through ballot initiatives, since both red and blue say RCV burns like fire - then we'll see candidates start trying to appeal to the people, rather than appealing to the extremes. We'll have a better chance to get campaign finance reform rolling.
It's the best hope I see for getting out of this, and it won't be easy. It'll involve convincing our neighbors that this will be good for them, and frankly the evil puppets at the top - Trump, Hegseth, Pelosi, whatver - are not the main problem. Apathy and hopelessness and a lack of being offered palatable choices breeds cynicism and extremism, or makes people think their vote doesn't matter. We need to do the hard thing and engage all the voters. All of them. And we can't do it with "more of the same". Hard to do, but I don't see anything else helping long-term.
i'm getting a sentiment from your posts and it seems to be in contradiction to this statement:
"a bunch of people didn't vote for Harris because of that one issue, including me. I called her campaign a number of times and said I wanted to vote for her, but the genocide was going to decide whether I could. I ended up voting for Stein again, because I like her platform, and she opposed the genocide in Gaza."
are you saying you were wrong in 2024?
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@benroyce
We should note that Péter Magyar is far from a Mr. Perfect. For one, he's a staunch conservative who embraces several of Orbán's ideas and program points. However, he's not corrupt, he's not pro-Russian, he's not an autocrat. The Hungarian people know you don't get from hell to heaven in a day and that the first step in getting away from hell is to vote AGAINST hell and FOR whoever is NOT hell. That's precisely what they did, and what America DIDN'T do in November 2024.
@mistergibson@Eetschrijver @benroyce @mistergibson
For one, he's a staunch conservative who embraces several of Orbán's ideas and program points. However, he's not corrupt, he's not pro-Russian, he's not an autocrat
... and the real question is "How long will he stay so?"
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@Eetschrijver @benroyce @mistergibson
For one, he's a staunch conservative who embraces several of Orbán's ideas and program points. However, he's not corrupt, he's not pro-Russian, he's not an autocrat
... and the real question is "How long will he stay so?"
@blotosmetek
Yes. We'll see about that. For the time being at least, Hungary and Europe are better off than they were a week ago.
@benroyce @mistergibson -
@Sassinake @Eetschrijver @aadeacon
revolution happens when people are hungry (the american revolution wasn't a revolution, it was a war of independence)
people can have their rights destroyed and be brutalized and still be fed (fascists are careful to do that now)
even if there was a revolution, who wins? revolutions are not magical cleansings of the land, they can result in worse
finally even after a good revolution some losers will still go "but i want perfect"
so that is the real problem
@benroyce @Sassinake @Eetschrijver @aadeacon All of this. And for the last part see the Whiskey Rebellion and how some(?) Libertarians in the US percieve that in relation to how they think the US should have gone.
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@benroyce @Sassinake @Eetschrijver @aadeacon the country wasn't ready for an intelligent black woman. They damn sure but ready for an intelligent black man whose also a bit crazy.
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@benroyce Hungary was THE MODEL for maga.
It's a great model for how the MAGA ends, too
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@benroyce @Sassinake @Eetschrijver @aadeacon no, they're not crazy, they're uneducated and dirty blooded. Big difference.
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@benroyce @Sassinake @Eetschrijver @aadeacon the country wasn't ready for an intelligent black woman. They damn sure but ready for an intelligent black man whose also a bit crazy.
@macacator
"Not ready for an intelligent black woman".
Man, that's so PATHETIC.
@benroyce @Sassinake @aadeacon -
@benroyce @Sassinake @Eetschrijver @aadeacon no, they're not crazy, they're uneducated and dirty blooded. Big difference.
@macacator @Sassinake @Eetschrijver @aadeacon
agreed
racist dementia uncle is not "just crazy"
but i will still assert that plastic and wooden is out of style
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@benroyce
Crazy is fine. Batshit crazy isn't. And a raving lunatic sitting on the nuclear launch codes is, well, worrysome.
@macacator @Sassinake @aadeacon -
i'm getting a sentiment from your posts and it seems to be in contradiction to this statement:
"a bunch of people didn't vote for Harris because of that one issue, including me. I called her campaign a number of times and said I wanted to vote for her, but the genocide was going to decide whether I could. I ended up voting for Stein again, because I like her platform, and she opposed the genocide in Gaza."
are you saying you were wrong in 2024?
@benroyce @mistergibson No, I couldn't vote for someone who was complicit in the genocide. Wasn't a question of being right or wrong - I didn't have a choice. I wasn't going to stay home and not vote. I know a lot of other people tried to get Harris to move on this, and none of us were successful. And it cost her the job.
It's a truism, but "if you vote for the lesser evil, you've still voted for evil."
The only vote I regret was when I voted in a Republican primary a few years ago, to vote against a really bad candidate by supporting a mildly-less-bad candidate. I felt dirty coming out of that polling station. Never voted in an R primary before, never will again.
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@benroyce @mistergibson No, I couldn't vote for someone who was complicit in the genocide. Wasn't a question of being right or wrong - I didn't have a choice. I wasn't going to stay home and not vote. I know a lot of other people tried to get Harris to move on this, and none of us were successful. And it cost her the job.
It's a truism, but "if you vote for the lesser evil, you've still voted for evil."
The only vote I regret was when I voted in a Republican primary a few years ago, to vote against a really bad candidate by supporting a mildly-less-bad candidate. I felt dirty coming out of that polling station. Never voted in an R primary before, never will again.
but every single vote is a vote for evil or the lesser evil
there is no such thing as evil v good
there is only evil v lesser evil
in all times past, now, and all times future
even in revolution that is the choice between the fighting groups
the hannah arendt quote refers to those living under nazism, their choices outside of democracy
hannah would tell us to just fucking vote
(and 3rd party, without ranked choice, just divides the left and helps MAGA)
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@macacator
"Not ready for an intelligent black woman".
Man, that's so PATHETIC.
@benroyce @Sassinake @aadeacon -
@wjmaggos @Eetschrijver @mistergibson
are you trying to sell the lie that people can't tell the difference between a conservative opinion and a bigot?
or are you trying to sell the lie that a lot of conservative opinions aren't outright bigotry?
@benroyce @Eetschrijver @mistergibson
I'm using the term cause you do but ime people here would most likely call it hateful. endless convos could and are had re what widely held conservative opinions are bigoted or hateful.
my argument is that while you may believe in compromise voting to make a country better, I don't understand how a prerequisite for that isn't being able to share a social network with such views. I support that. by not recognizing our situation here, you're against it.
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@macacator @Sassinake @Eetschrijver @aadeacon
agreed
racist dementia uncle is not "just crazy"
but i will still assert that plastic and wooden is out of style
@benroyce @Sassinake @Eetschrijver @aadeacon we need another Obama
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@macacator @Eetschrijver @Sassinake @aadeacon
GJ isn't saying your comment is pathetic
they are saying the misogynoir sentiment you are describing is pathetic
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@benroyce @Eetschrijver @mistergibson
I'm using the term cause you do but ime people here would most likely call it hateful. endless convos could and are had re what widely held conservative opinions are bigoted or hateful.
my argument is that while you may believe in compromise voting to make a country better, I don't understand how a prerequisite for that isn't being able to share a social network with such views. I support that. by not recognizing our situation here, you're against it.
@wjmaggos @Eetschrijver @mistergibson
because we don't want to waste our time arguing fruitlessly with bigoted morons
i want to make this quite clear to you: selling something as "just conservative opinions" when you know damn well support for trump is rooted in hate and prideful ignorance is a vile lie on your part
why don't you go to truth.social and say "trans people deserve their rights"
go
do it
when you get what you will obviously get, stop fucking lying william
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but every single vote is a vote for evil or the lesser evil
there is no such thing as evil v good
there is only evil v lesser evil
in all times past, now, and all times future
even in revolution that is the choice between the fighting groups
the hannah arendt quote refers to those living under nazism, their choices outside of democracy
hannah would tell us to just fucking vote
(and 3rd party, without ranked choice, just divides the left and helps MAGA)
@benroyce @mistergibson Well, that's the central motivation behind my drive for ranked choice voting. It gets rid of evil-vs-lesser-evil, and doing it with ballot initiatives lets the people flex their muscle in one of the most powerful ways we can.
In the 2024 election, genocide was on both big tickets, so it gets really hair-splitty to call one "lesser evil". That is *exactly* what I was speaking to (sarcastically) when I was talking about the number of dead in Gaza. You *can't* rank genocides by quantity. Thus, on that one very hard-to-escape point, both tickets were equally evil.
And that's what we have to ask. At what point do we start accepting genocide as the cost of doing business? I hope we get to the point where the answer is "freaking NEVER." The question of the 2024 elections was "do I accept genocide to otherwise get the lesser evil?" I don't think people should have stayed home, but with everyone shouting at them that a third-party vote is a vote for MAGA, can you blame them for staying home?
For my part, I vote third party and call out "a vote for Stein was a vote for Trump" as the bullshit it is. But that's what people had to choose between if they just couldn't accept that they had to vote for the genocide either way. I'd rather have my vote tallied so the DNC can work the numbers and realize what supporting an actual atrocity cost them. Staying home is giving up.
Human suffering and the extermination of a people are not an acceptable price for my comfort.
