The following is mostly a reply I gave in someone else's thread. I wanted to share it without risking the other threadfolk getting backlash.

Concerning whether or not US-Americans know and/or care that yesterday could easily have been the start of WWIII/a global nuclear event:

A lot of us care and are aware. Enough that we were checking the news every few mins yesterday & dreading the approach of 8pm EST.

Please don't paint all US-Americans with the same brush of dismissive judgment....

1/2

@Oldfartrant @courtcan

Indeed. Centrist Republicans are spineless. Centrist Democrats are spineless. Meanwhile MAGA is turbocharged and the American left is despondent and dissipated. Some of this is due to plutocracy: they pump money into MAGA and they control traditional media and social media. One response to this is cynicial defeatism. But I say the left should take over the Democrats. Job #1 for that is shut down these pathetic voices on the left that are useless whiny entitled cynics

@benroyce @Oldfartrant @courtcan only my party the #Greens are winning. The price of oil will be excessive until *at least* 2028. And that means, more solar and wind adoption. Less shipping and more local economic development! Weird, we didn't even get elected and the #uniparty $#!+ all over itself and gave us a victory ️. Have I said how much I love our #EV which is $10 to fully charge when using our house?

@stalbaum @Oldfartrant @courtcan

no

i want 3rd parties but to get 3rd parties we need ranked choice voting

rcv is creeping in, but until then we have to focus on taking over the democrats

in an FPTP voting system, we only have a choice between 2 parties

it's not corruption, it's just math

the left splintering into different parties is as fatal for us as leftists not voting

"you want us to support spineless democrats!"

no, i want us to show up in the fucking primaries and replace them

@benroyce @stalbaum @Oldfartrant @courtcan
I think the easiest way to explain it is, remember Ross Perot? That’s how the right wing lost to Bill Clinton, the independent difference was split. Then remember The Tea Party and MAGA? That’s how the right wing took over the GOP, they replaced all the individual candidates with their own in the primaries, and stuck with a 50 state, up and down the ticket strategy. Even school boards. Behind the scenes, billionaires funded and organized the whole thing.

@stalbaum @Oldfartrant @courtcan

no

i want 3rd parties but to get 3rd parties we need ranked choice voting

rcv is creeping in, but until then we have to focus on taking over the democrats

in an FPTP voting system, we only have a choice between 2 parties

it's not corruption, it's just math

the left splintering into different parties is as fatal for us as leftists not voting

"you want us to support spineless democrats!"

no, i want us to show up in the fucking primaries and replace them

@benroyce @Oldfartrant @courtcan only my party the #Greens are winning. The price of oil will be excessive until *at least* 2028. And that means, more solar and wind adoption. Less shipping and more local economic development! Weird, we didn't even get elected and the #uniparty $#!+ all over itself and gave us a victory ️. Have I said how much I love our #EV which is $10 to fully charge when using our house?

@benroyce @Oldfartrant @courtcan well, reality is what it is. I will take the ironic victory all the way. Planning a new solar install (my hobby) to charge our car with. Got our money out of federally chartered institutions. (Mostly...) Remember, the title to property is with your *county*, possibly the only safe paper ownership left standing. The feds can and will come for banking. I don't vote in your primary so I can't help you beyond, do what you can to protect the vulnerable, that is all.

@courtcan @JorisBohnsonPM
As a German, I am used to being called a Nazi abroad, despite the fact that my mother was born ten years after the end of WW2.
Hitler was not elected by a majority of Germans. He became chancellor through backroom deals and the support of conservative elites, even though the Nazi Party never won an outright majority on its own. There was resistance but the regime’s repressive structures, Gestapo surveillance, terror, and lack of unified opposition, made it increasingly difficult over time.
I hope you can turn this around and recover your reputation.

@benroyce @stalbaum @Oldfartrant @courtcan
I think the easiest way to explain it is, remember Ross Perot? That’s how the right wing lost to Bill Clinton, the independent difference was split. Then remember The Tea Party and MAGA? That’s how the right wing took over the GOP, they replaced all the individual candidates with their own in the primaries, and stuck with a 50 state, up and down the ticket strategy. Even school boards. Behind the scenes, billionaires funded and organized the whole thing.

@stalbaum @Oldfartrant @courtcan

no

i want 3rd parties but to get 3rd parties we need ranked choice voting

rcv is creeping in, but until then we have to focus on taking over the democrats

in an FPTP voting system, we only have a choice between 2 parties

it's not corruption, it's just math

the left splintering into different parties is as fatal for us as leftists not voting

"you want us to support spineless democrats!"

no, i want us to show up in the fucking primaries and replace them

@suzannealdrich
Perot is the perfect example of why 3rd parties are a.non-starter anywhere outside of county-level races without some form.of RCV. He won basically 19% of the national popular vote and not a single EC vote out of it all. Over 99% of state and federal legislative and executive seats are won by either the Democratic or Republican nominee and not one 3rd party was on the ballot in all 50 states in 2024.
@benroyce @stalbaum @Oldfartrant @courtcan

@benroyce @stalbaum @Oldfartrant @courtcan Hm. An alternative voting system is not pragmatic -- though we should keep that vision -- and work within the system we have, and change or work against the system when it makes sense.

However, the Uncommitted movement showed us that Democratic Party leadership are incapable of listening to the constituents they pretend to represent when they are in power. Instead, they demanded our votes, and prioritized inviting in anti-Trump Republicans. That gave Trump what he wanted: A competing party that is right of center. We tried working within the party and it didn't work. And the party denied us from an electoral process that would have allowed us to have hard conversations resulting in a rallying base.

Federation through fragmentation is the path forward. We both need to find our people AND get out of our bubbles. But it will ultimately be the conservative Democrats who struggle to retain power that mess it up.

@baronvonj @suzannealdrich @stalbaum @Oldfartrant @courtcan

thus, all 3rd party voices in the USA are working for Putin or MAGA. or are embarrassingly uneducated about how our stupid FPTP system works. deeply cringe because it's not hard to understand

i want 3rd parties

to get 3rd parties we need ranked choice voting

until we get rcv, which makes 3rd parties viable, anyone voting 3rd party now in the USA on the left is helping MAGA win by dividing the left vote

that's the cold hard truth

@benroyce @baronvonj @suzannealdrich @Oldfartrant @courtcan you can tell yourself that, it is a long time #democrat whine and we all hear you

@stalbaum @baronvonj @suzannealdrich @Oldfartrant @courtcan

tell myself what?

reality?

reality is merely a whine you say?

i despise centrist democrats

i am articulating how leftists can take over the dems

it's the only feasible way forward

you meanwhile have... feelings

your brain is AWOL

when you vote 3rd party, in our stupid FPTP system, you divide the left vote and hand MAGA a win

you are a MAGA supporter

not in thought, but in action, you are

stop being immature and fucking think