• andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    I’m jealous of their chairs. My botfarm doesn’t have anything like it in the contract. On the other hand, it doesn’t insist on shaving yourself like a butt, so there’re some upsides to it too.

  • Nakoichi [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    1 month ago

    Baby brain liberal bullshit.

    No matter how many times you post these shitty reddit lib memes we are not casting a vote for a genocidal piece of shit.

    • galoisghost@aussie.zone
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      1 month ago

      “we are not casting a vote for a genocidal piece of shit.”

      That’d be a great sentiment if not voting was going to actually help stop the genocide.

      • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        Most leftists are advocating to vote for Claudia De La Cruz. The “non-voter” narrative is largely born from leftists saying the federal election largely will not change much, and instead actual organization on the ground is what matters.

    • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      That’s right folks, you heard it from this anonymous Lemmy account yourself: Russian Propaganda doesn’t exist.

    • Tetsuo@jlai.lu
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      1 month ago

      I’m starting to think Lemmy’s federation system is amazing at fostering communautarism and even extremism.

      What are you bringing to this topic apart from a fairly toxic même that just creates more rift between people ? Is it much better than an actual Russian bot ?

        • Tetsuo@jlai.lu
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          1 month ago

          But discrediting someone’s opinion by just posting this meme is NOT toxic ?

          So it’s toxic to assume someone might be a Russian bot but it is not toxic to disregard the opinion of everybody that said that ? You know there are bots online. Maybe not much here but there was definitely many on Reddit. So bots are real but someone that points out a bot must be wrong.

          This is weird.

      • MaeBorowski [she/her]@hexbear.net
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        1 month ago

        The image in OP is what is toxic. Fostering a kind of echo chamber where the people who disagree with the prevailing narrative and bring reasoned arguments that contradict it get written off as “foreign agents” is extremely toxic, also nationalistic, and often borderline racist. It’s also childish. Pointing out how childish it is to tell someone “you’re just a RuSsIaN bOt!” because you don’t like what they have to say is definitely not toxic, quite the opposite.

    • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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      1 month ago

      Doesn’t change the fact that the Russian propaganda machine is in full swing since they started the war in the sovereign nation of Ukraine.

      We encounter them daily here, mostly from tankie instances like your hexbear.

  • Sem@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    If you realize a level of corruption in russia it simplify the picture. All these bot factories story is just about that greedy people in russia convinced putin (a man, who “do not use internet” from his own words) that they can “control” the voting in US. But the actual goal is not to control anything but just putting money from russian state budget to a private pocket imo.

    • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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      1 month ago

      Yeah, Putin has never lied. No sir, not a once.

      Kicks all the mentions of the war being a military operation and they wouldn’t invade Ukraine under the couch.

    • WldFyre@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      So if you’re anti-NATO and critically support Russia, then you’d prefer Biden too?

    • Tetsuo@jlai.lu
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      1 month ago

      So yeah, it appears we shouldn’t trust what Putin says publicly.

      Obviously, he could say he prefers Biden and then pull every trolling ressources available to make Trump wins.

      This statement from Putin doesn’t have any value whatsoever.

      He would say openly the opposite it would still be extremely unreliable information.

      • TankieTanuki [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        1 month ago

        That’s all true; I’m just trolling.

        I actually don’t think Putin is that concerned with the American election, because Trump was quite hawkish towards Russia despite what Democrats say.

        I also don’t care what Putin wants. I just want the war to end ASAP.

  • frippa@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    The liberal veneer of civility goes away in the moment you criticize their idols.they cant fathom somebody that doesn’t like mr joe “saviour of the world” biden or mrs kamala “sent here by god himself” harris since they live in political ecochambers, so the only possibile explanation is that Russia pays a bunch of people to post normal people’s opinions online (most people are not hardliner diehard democrats)

    • NoiseColor@startrek.website
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      1 month ago

      The very simple fact is : if you find yourself on the same side as Russian bots and don’t find it so disturbing that you immediately change your position, you can’t claim any high moral ground use that to lecture other people. You are effectively a Russian bot.

      • jonne@infosec.pub
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        1 month ago

        Except the Russian misinformation strategy is literally to take both sides on all issues, it’s just about amplifying existing misinformation/discontent/division, which is more effective than only pushing one angle.

      • PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S [he/him]@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 month ago

        if you find yourself on the same side as Russian bots and don’t find it so disturbing that you immediately change your position

        As mentioned by another commenter, the actual strategy of the real Russian government is to sow division by advocating a bunch of positions, so a particular position being presented by Russian trolls absolutely does not warrant immediately changing my position. Your position is not special in that regard.

        But more generally, I’m not going to change my position on anything solely because someone awful agrees with it.

        And even more generally, I don’t care about unifying people under the political agenda of any existing government or political party. I want to see people unified about organizing themselves. To that end, letting one of the existing political parties, including yours, dictate our political will to us goes against the goal of people organizing themselves.

        you can’t claim any high moral ground use that to lecture other people.

        I do not claim nor need the moral high ground to present my opinions. Same goes for everyone else.

          • PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S [he/him]@lemmy.sdf.org
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            1 month ago

            Russian bots aren’t all that bad

            Yes, in two senses:

            1. I don’t lose sleep at night knowing that these bots exist (or those of any other government). They shouldn’t exist for the simple reason that public institutions shouldn’t be in the business of deceiving people, but unfortunately, deceiving the public is a bunch of what the State actually fucking does “for” “us”. I especially don’t think the Russian government cares to run bots/trolls on our little corner of the internet when bigger targets exist.
            2. Vacuously, I don’t disagree with literally everything that the Russian bots say because they can be found saying just about anything.

            I cannot stress enough that I do NOT approve of state-sponsored botting or trolling of public spaces in general. However, when you see Pro-Russian or Pro-whatever opinions on the Internet, you are probably reading the words of a “useful idiot” or non-State troll.

            This reality is a lot scarier than if the opinions were all just from some Russian troll farm, because now we have to interrogate the reality that these people have different and complex reasons for why they ended up with those opinions. It means that the task of persuasion is a lot more complicated than just shielding people from bots and trolls.

            • NoiseColor@startrek.website
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              1 month ago

              You wrote down a reason why Russian bots are bad and one that is not really true. Russian bots aren’t saying just about anything. Not to mention most people wouldn’t mind if a self proclaimed Russian bot started to push for vanilla ice cream over chocolate agenda. They would “not lose sleep” over it, but then some still go out and buy some vanilla. Even if they don’t believe in marketing.

              It doesn’t really matter if they are a bot or a useful idiot if they are doing the same job.

    • Ephera@lemmy.ml
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      1 month ago

      I don’t think most people even consider that an opinion, to not vote…

  • OprahsedCreature@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    I agree so much because as we all know you owe the Democrat Party your vote no matter what they do or how many children they murder through their Israeli proxies in Gaza

    Also, Democrats can never fail, they can only be failed

    • ElHexo [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      1 month ago

      we have to vote for Biden to save democracy

      the point of voting is to choose the lesser evil, not have political parties win your vote by championing policies you support

      Doesn’t seem like much to be saved there

    • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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      1 month ago

      You know, you would get killed in Russia for being pro-LGBTQ+.

      Why are you still shilling for them?

    • ZephrC@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      I mean, if you don’t care about trans people, or gay people, or women, or unions, or having the possibility of making better choices in the future without having to resort to large scale violence then sure, they both have similar economic policies, I guess. It must be nice to not care about horrible things happening to most people. It makes it so much easier when you don’t care about people, right?

      • WittyProfileName2 [she/her]@hexbear.net
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        1 month ago

        Not an American, so no real stake in this but, could you tell me what the Democrats have done in the past four years to protect trans rights? Since you’re all so clearly concerned about them an’ all.

        • ZephrC@lemm.ee
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          1 month ago

          Mostly just trying to stop the Republicans from making things even worse, which isn’t enough, but it still beats the alternative by a country mile.

          • WittyProfileName2 [she/her]@hexbear.net
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            1 month ago

            Okay, can you be more specific about what they did to minimise damage? Like, did they make trans people a protected class, or relieve the bureaucracy around transitioning, or what?

            • ZephrC@lemm.ee
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              1 month ago

              I didn’t say that at all. I said they voted against bills by Republicans to make things worse. Things like bathroom bills or outlawing transitioning. I don’t think what they’re doing is enough. I want them to actually make things better, and I try to support people in the primaries who I think are actually willing to fight for those causes, but mainstream Democrats aren’t there yet. At least they aren’t making things worse though, which is absolutely what will happen if the Republicans gain power.

              • WittyProfileName2 [she/her]@hexbear.net
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                1 month ago

                I guess there’s some small comfort that they’ll at least pay lip service to trans rights then.

                The labour party won an election over here and one of the first things they did was stop access to puberty blockers. During the election I was told by a lot of liberals preaching harm reduction that, as a trans woman, that I had to vote for them 'cos the Tories would be worse.

                I’m worried about trans people over on your side of the ocean being in a similar position where the elections are between trans exterminationist and transphobe.

                • ZephrC@lemm.ee
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                  1 month ago

                  Fair. It’s not quite that bad here… sort of. Republicans are pretty similar to the Tories on trans rights, but the Democrats are just too cowardly to take a stand. They’re not transphobic, they’re just really shitty allies. They at least won’t make things worse though.

        • ZephrC@lemm.ee
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          1 month ago

          Do you seriously believe that the entire population of Rafah wouldn’t already be dead if it were up to Trump? Just because I’m being realistic about the choice in front of me doesn’t mean I’m happy about it. It will absolutely be worse for Palestine if Trump wins, and that matters to me. Does it matter to you?

            • ZephrC@lemm.ee
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              1 month ago

              Pfft. Now you’re just spouting edgelord poetry at me.

              You don’t actually care about Palestinians at all, do you?

                • ZephrC@lemm.ee
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                  1 month ago

                  None. Zero. I am not okay with any of this. I’m just not stupid enough to think it can’t get worse.

      • autismdragon [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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        1 month ago

        I think the thing that most impresses me about this post is how you just completely neglected to mention forgein policy in your list of things like at all. The Democrats and Republicans being the same regarding supporting the US Empire (besides one side or the other pretending to be anti-war while being in the opposition sometimes, but not following through on that once in power) is a huge factor here lol. Really shows your priorities and that you just do not give a single shit about the global south.

        • ZephrC@lemm.ee
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          1 month ago

          Why don’t you care about any of the people in America? If you think the parties are the same on foreign policy but the Democrats are better on all the thing I mentioned, doesn’t that still mean the Democrats are less terrible? I agree that they’re terrible on foreign policy and bad for the global south, and I would very much like to have an option that wasn’t, but I don’t, do I? I have to chose between the options given, and as bad as they are they’re clearly the less bad option.

          • autismdragon [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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            1 month ago

            Why don’t you care about any of the people in America?

            As a disabled person living off federal benefits, with a transgender girlfriend living in a red state, I’m literally got skin in the game personally, so don’t tell me that I don’t care about people living in America. The problem is there is an active genocide going on and the Biden adminstration, including Kamala, are supporting it.

            If you think the parties are the same on foreign policy but the Democrats are better on all the thing I mentioned, doesn’t that still mean the Democrats are less terrible?

            I dont think they are materially better on the things you mentioned on the federal level as I mentioned in another post. The best they’ve done is nice sounding words. Another thing you forgot to mention btw is immigration, on which Biden has somehow managed to be materailly worse than Trump lmao. So theres that too.

            and I would very much like to have an option that wasn’t, but I don’t, do I? I have to chose between the options given, and as bad as they are they’re clearly the less bad option.

            You have options that aren’t that and they all involve doing literally any political thing other than voting. I literally don’t care if you decide to vote for Kamala, especially if you live in a swing state. Just please, god, take your eye off electorialism because it won’t save us.

            • ZephrC@lemm.ee
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              1 month ago

              Doing other things than voting doesn’t stop you from voting. It takes 5 minutes every couple years. It is literally the least you can do. It doesn’t magically prevent all other action though. And serious, how can you not understand even after RvW that doing nothing is still better for you than what the Republicans will do. You’re right, at the national level if the Democrats gain power they won’t do anything at all, and that is massively better than the alternative. It’s not rocket science.

              • MaeBorowski [she/her]@hexbear.net
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                1 month ago

                And serious, how can you not understand even after RvW that doing nothing is still better for you than what the Republicans will do.

                The republicans do it anyway!! The republicans do what they want, the democrats allow them to while raking in donations by telling everyone how mean the republicans are! It’s not that the democrats are better because they don’t do bad things but republicans do, it’s that they are both parts of the same machine that does these things, playing their respective roles! How can you be so fucking blind as not see the blatant “good cop/bad cop” routine for what it is?? And yet you are calling other people morons (ableist language by the way, asshole) for trying to get this very obvious reality through to you!

                • ZephrC@lemm.ee
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                  1 month ago

                  It is correct that the Democrats raking in the money for doing nothing by pointing out what the Republicans would do if they gained power. They’re not wrong though. Republicans would do those things, and as long as we don’t let anyone who is actively threatening to do them win an election they won’t happen. If it happens for long enough eventually the Republicans will either get sick of losing and give up on those things or fade into irrelevance and the Democrats will split. They don’t care what we want, but they do care about power, so making the things they want incompatible with gaining power is the only way to defeat them. Don’t feed me defeatist do nothing bullshit and call it activism.

              • MaeBorowski [she/her]@hexbear.net
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                1 month ago

                Doing other things than voting doesn’t stop you from voting. It takes 5 minutes every couple years. It is literally the least you can do

                Voting for someone abetting a genocide (Biden, Harris) is endorsing that genocide. If the democrats win an election after funding a genocide, what kind of mesage is that sending all politicians, whether you like them or not? It’s telling them that they can commit genocide without repercussion, they can commit genocide and still have the support of the voting public. Voting for genocidaires (let alone defending them and trying to get others to do the same) makes you complicit in the current genocide as well as the ones that are sure to follow due to green light given to those who perpetrate them. You’re telling Democrats and any other politicians “as long as you give lip service to the things I care about - no need to follow through on them btw - then you can go ahead and murder entire nationalities and ethnic groups the world over, it’s ok, I’ll still vote for you.” Fucking disgusting.

                • ZephrC@lemm.ee
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                  1 month ago

                  What a stupid take. Do you think politicians give a shit what I think? Trust me, I’m so far outside the Overton window that I may as well be random noise to them, but I’m not so far up my own ass that I don’t care about the consequences of my actions. More people will die if Trump wins, and that is all that matter to me. If you think that’s supporting genocide then you can take you sick bizarro logic and shove it up your ass.

          • Nakoichi [they/them]@hexbear.net
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            1 month ago

            You could just choose to shut up do whatever you want. I have been doing actual political work and mutual aid work and defending my local comrades from pigs and liberals as well as fascists for over 20 years so kindly just quit this smarmy self important crusade you are on nobody gives a shit what you think.

            • ZephrC@lemm.ee
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              1 month ago

              What’ll you do when the fascists come for your comrades in full force? Are you really so delusional that you think you stand a chance?

              • Nakoichi [they/them]@hexbear.net
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                1 month ago

                They already are. Under Biden. They did under Obama too. When are you liberals going to get over your great man theory and learn that it’s not Trump and it isn’t just Netenyahu. The US and Israel will be the same regardless of which party is at the helm.

                You don’t give a shit about any of the things you mentioned because Democrats don’t either.

                • ZephrC@lemm.ee
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                  Oh for fucks sake I can think fascists are bad and want to defeat fascist leaders at every opportunity with believing great man theory. There will be more after Trump and Netanyahu, and I will fight them as well. I will fight every fascist at every opportunity every time. Why won’t you?

      • Nakoichi [they/them]@hexbear.net
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        Don’t you fucking dare use Trans people as a shield when dems don’t give a single fuck for the safety of Trans and queen spaces. This sort of behavior is not going to ingratiate you to anyone facing oppression right now under Biden or potentially Kopmala.

        For fuck sake she literally forced Trans women to be jailed with men and deliberately kept people jailed for cannabis charges after it was decriminalized. For the sake of civility fuck your smug bullshit. I would say hell of a lot meaner shit to you on hexbear.

        • ZephrC@lemm.ee
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          1 month ago

          Oh fuck you. If you think Republicans won’t be even worse your a fucking moron. More likely you’re just a liar trying to make excuses for you do nothing bullshit.

          • ElHexo [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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            1 month ago

            do nothing bullshit

            advocating for voting

            Like 80 percent of Americans don’t even live in a competitive state, stop wasting your time cheerleading for a sham democracy

            • ZephrC@lemm.ee
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              What’s your plan to save as many innocent people as possible over the next 4 years then, genius? Oh, that’s right, you don’t give a shit about people. You just pretend that when everything fails and everyone is dying your grand I told you so will magically make everyone agree with you suddenly.

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                will magically make everyone agree with you suddenly

                The true feelings of a liberal - it’s better for people to agree with you than being right.

                when everything fails and everyone is dying

                Everyone is dying in Gaza, that’s the whole discussion here. I know libs have memory issues (every next election is the most important ever) but that’s pretty poor mate.

                • ZephrC@lemm.ee
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                  You can be right all you want, but if you can’t convince anyone, everything you believe in will die in obscurity for nothing. I care about people believing me because I want the world to be a better place, not to be a smug asshole on the internet. Although to be fair I am also pretty good at that.

                  Way, way, WAY too many people are dying in Gaza, but it’s not everyone. Yet. Trump could fix that though.

          • Kieselguhr [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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            1 month ago

            YOU don’t do nothing! You’d unconditionally vote for the party committing genocide RIGHT NOW, their new candidate is not even a pivot, she’s the current VP of the administration supporting genocide!
            You just float along the shit river… whatever the Democrats do, you’re there supporting them.
            This is exactly why everything is getting more right wing.

            • ZephrC@lemm.ee
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              Hah! You know a lot about me for someone on the internet who knows nothing about me. You’re just making bullshit because I’m willing to participate in harm reduction so you can feel morally superior about letting people die for no other reason than that it won’t save everyone.

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                1 month ago

                so you can feel morally superior about letting people die

                THEY ARE SUPPORTING GENOCIDE IN GAZA AND THEY KEEP THE UKRAINE MEAT GRINDER GOING

                You are literally describing yourself, fuck your harm reduction

                I’m not American, but US policies have a material effect on me, and I hate liberals

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                  You think letting the guy who said Netanyahu should “Finish the Job” win will make things better? At least Biden pressured him into avoiding a full scale invasion of Rafah. They’d all be dead now if Trump were in charge. But you don’t really care about Palestinians either, do you?

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        1 month ago

        It must be nice to not care about horrible things happening to most people. It makes it so much easier when you don’t care about people, right?

        Sadly a question you can ask Kopmala and Biden themselves about why they’re not trying to earn back the people whose votes they lost given what Trump’s going to do, but I guess expecting two people to change course is probably infinitely harder than the many, many people who’ve decided not to bother voting.

        But I guess those two must be kept safe from critical questions, seeing as no one’s even trying to pressure them into changing course (except of course for the protesters who most likely count among those who won’t be voting). Then again Biden himself isn’t all that concerned about whether or not Trump wins if we’re being honest.

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          Sure, I totally buy that Biden and Kamala want to outlaw trans people, abortion, birth control, end unions, end democracy, and otherwise just be totally as bad as Republicans. The fact that they do bad things mean that there cannot possibly be any distinction and therefore there will be no consequences whatsoever to letting the fascists win. Roe v. Wade certainly would have still been overturned if the election in 2016 had gone the other way, too, right?

          • autismdragon [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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            1 month ago

            outlaw trans people

            What, materially, other than nice sounding words, has Biden and federal-level Democrats in general done to counteract what is happening to trans people in red states right now? What indication is there that Democrats care to do anything for trans people on a federal level? On the state level, sure, there’s been some action to make blue states sanctuary states and such, but federally?

            abortion, birth control,

            Again, what have Biden and the federal level Democrats done about this? Did they codify Roe while they had the chance? Did they pack the courts so Roe couldn’t be overturned? Did they build abortion clinics on Federal land? Or did they just, yet again, say nice words?

            end unions

            Biden literally broke a strike lmao. Personally, by his own hands. One of the few proactive things he has done in his whole presidency is to actively break a strike.

            end democracy

            We already don’t live in a democracy. Youre choice is between outright facism and pretty damn close to fascism, and in most places in the country you dont even get to contribute to that choice.

            and otherwise just be totally as bad as Republicans

            On forgein policy and economics? Yeah pretty much. On social issues? Democrats will say nice words but, again at least federally, not materially do anything.

            Roe v. Wade certainly would have still been overturned if the election in 2016 had gone the other way, too, right?

            2016 is in the past and you learned the wrong lesson from it. 2016 taught us that running a shitty milquetoast war criminal neoliberal candidate that noone other than wine moms likes against fascism (and pied pipering him as the nominee because you think you can beat him in the process btw!!!) doesn’t work. And again, both Obama and Biden could have codified Roe and didn’t. And Biden could have packed the courts to prevent the overturn.

            All in all, electorialism won’t save us. And the violent solutions you wanted to avoid in your first post are actually our only way out of this mess. But they need to be organized.

            • ZephrC@lemm.ee
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              1 month ago

              Oh, also, like holy shit I can’t believe I forgot this part, but are you seriously so delusional that you think you can defeat the US army with less resources, manpower, and popular support than it would take to win an election? That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard in my life.

              • Sodium_nitride@lemmygrad.ml
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                1 month ago

                It’s not about defeating the us army lmao. It’s about striking and civil disobedience, even when illegal. That is the basic strategy to win concessions. On a long term basis, there needs to be more pressure on Democrats to maintain standards instead of just electing garbage candidates.

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                  1 month ago

                  That’s not what I was talking about. I think all of that is great. It won’t be enough if Trump ends democracy though, which he just publicly promised to do yesterday, in case you missed the news.

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              First, after Biden broke that strike he spent the next year getting the Railroad union everything they asked for. It wasn’t as edgy or exciting, so it didn’t make the news, but he still did it.

              As for the rest of it, Jesus Christ how hard is this to understand. The Democrats are fundamentally conservative. They want to keep things the same. The Republicans are actively fighting to make things worse. I don’t want to let the people trying to make things worse win. In what fucking world is that a controversial take? Seriously.

              And really, your argument about 2016 is that I’m right and you don’t care because it isn’t perfect? Because that’s what I got from what you wrote. I don’t like Hilary Clinton. At all. I voted for Jill Stein in that election, and I still regret it even though she won my state anyway. I don’t believe electorialism will make the world a better place. I believe it takes 5 minutes every couple years and can stop things from getting worse while we try to solve problems in more practical ways.

      • Kieselguhr [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        1 month ago

        or having the possibility of making better choices in the future

        How’s that working out for you if you look at the past few elections? Did you manage to push Biden left? Have they prosecuted the American war criminals? How far is Genocide Joe from your ideal? Is Copmala gonna be better, improving material circumstances?
        Can’t you see that neoliberalism had literally the opposite effect - pushed everything even more right and extreme?

        Americans have this weird view of Russians and Putinists and liberals think that the Chinese are a brainwashed hivemind— but you look crazy from the outside when you argue for voting Mussolini against Hitler.
        Democrats supported genocide and their brinkmanship with Russia got us closer to Nuclear Armageddon, fuck y’all

        • ZephrC@lemm.ee
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          Oh yeah, how’s being a douchebag on the Internet working out for you as a replacement for democracy. It’s easy to criticize the flaws. It’s a lot harder to come up with something better. I never said it was working well, for the record. I said I’d like to keep the possiblity of it working open for the future, because let’s be real, if you have the resources to remake America, you have the resources to win an election. The fundamental problem with leftists is that we’re mostly smug assholes who refuse to work with anyone we disagree with, and until that changes we will remain completely irrelevant.

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            It’s a lot harder to come up with something better.

            We had better options many times in history. They all got shafted by the dems or republicans.

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              Uh huh. I notice you didn’t actually bother to name any. There are certainly lots of ways that democracy could be reformed for the better that have been shafted by the Democrats and Republicans, and I would love to see any of them get implemented, but it’s not going to happen in the next 3 months. We’d actually have to get more of us to keep pushing for it between elections and start at smaller scales than national elections for it to ever make any progress. As for options for something that isn’t democratic at all, every alternative I’ve heard is just even worse.

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                There were plenty of mildly progressive candidates that could have done things in power were modern America not a neoliberal hellhole. Beanie, AOC, the squad, Jill stien, Claudia de la cuz. Those are the current ones. Going further back, people like gore or nader could have played the role. But all of these people either got shafted through institutional factors or got cooped and forced to water down even their milquetoast radicalism. Many of these people were neutered by the Democrats.

                On the movement level, the Democrats coopted, neutered then mutilated the corpse of the BLM social unrest in 2020, which could have been used to otherwise fuel a lot of progressive changes. Instead, the dems not only killed it, but poured salt on the wounds by increasing police budgets nationwide and even helping to build cop cities and expanding surveillance now!

                The fact that the Democrats are less rabid than the Republicans does not make them easier enemies to deal with, but more dangerous. They have more patience and play the long game.

          • Kieselguhr [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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            1 month ago

            The fundamental problem with leftists is that we’re mostly smug assholes who refuse to work with anyone we disagree with,

            I’m not American - I’m saying you are worse than what liberals say Russian and Chinese are

            anyone we disagree with,

            • Economically they are neoliberals - leftists are opposed to neoliberalism
            • Their foreign policy is brinkmanship, genocide and bombing allied infrastructure

            This is 0/2- how are they not enemies rather than “someone I disagree with”?

            until that changes we will remain completely irrelevant.

            You will remain irrelevant because you’d vote D whatever they do. It seems like you represent the Dems as a project whatever they do, rather than they represent the voter base, earning votes.
            Which is ass backwards.

            • ZephrC@lemm.ee
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              Who said anything about supporting them. I’m willing to take on my enemies one at a time starting with the worst of the lot.

              By the way, I already gave a list of things that I think the Democrats are better than Republicans on at the very start of this whole conversion chain, but I guess you can’t remember that long ago when it doesn’t suit your narrative.

              • Kieselguhr [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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                Who said anything about supporting them

                Yes, I vote for them unconditionally, and I also argue publicly to vote for them unconditionally

                Who said anything about supporting them

                • ZephrC@lemm.ee
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                  Who said anything about unconditionally? You’re just making shit up. They are clearly, objectively least terrible viable option right now in 2024. If that changes I will be glad to dump them, but for now I have to live in the real world. I hope some day you can join me here.