• 1 Post
  • 317 Comments
Joined 6 months ago
cake
Cake day: May 3rd, 2024

help-circle




  • This is illustrative of why I have no faith in Israel to actually behave as a liberal democracy the way its allies pretend it is.

    It’s not just that they temporarily have a far-right administration as part of some cycle between liberalism and conservativism, the population itself is overwhelmingly far right and supports apartheid. The only thing that upsets them about what’s happening in Gaza is that the Israeli government clearly doesn’t care about getting the hostages back. The wholesale slaughter of innocent people does not bother most Israelis in the least, many of them see it as a positive.

    There is no internal opposition to the far right in Israel, and the country should be geopolitically categorized the same as we categorize Russia, China or any other hardcore authoritarian state. It’s not a democracy.


  • The contexts are really different. Boris played up his “harmless eccentric” facade, but Trump isn’t going to benefit from looking whimsical or whatever, no one would buy that from him. No one sees him as some mad genius.

    Reality is people are pretty tired of weird in their politics, which is why in this context I think it’s potentially a good approach.

    My sense of the general sentiment is that people don’t have time for weirdos at this point, we’ve had 8 years of weird and now we’ve got real problems facing the nation and the world and can’t be mucking around with a bunch of troglodytes like Vance who think only married people who own property should be citizens or whatever bizzarre Gilead type ideas conservatives have for the country.



  • Some talking heads on NPR were discussing the economy and how this was “the first time Millenials were seeing inflation” and how the economy is just waiting for consumers to “adjust”. This in the context of them also basically saying there needs to be more unemployment so wages don’t get higher.

    It’s like victim blaming or something, corporations went on a price gouging spree during the pandemic and now we all have to learn to deal with it so Wallstreet can go back to business as usual, and they’re getting all pissy that people’s response is simply finding ways to spend less, instead of giving up their last nickle.

    Funny how they never talk about corporations needing to tighten their belt or “adjust their expectations” to paying higher wages.






  • I think what Trump’s following kind of reveals is a sad truth about humans generally; about a quarter of people are very stupid and very susceptible to cult-think. It doesn’t always manifest as support for a politician, it could be anti-vax beliefs, or racism, zionism etc.

    Wherever you are, about 25-30% of people are simply not equipped to think critically, and that stupidity is activated or weaponized under various conditions, most often during times of economic stress or social chaos. People who can’t understand the complex causes of a problem are easy to manipulate – you give them a simplistic answer.

    “It’s the jews” or “trans people are the root of your problems” etc.

    It can happen anywhere because a certain demographic of people are just dumb, and there’s no way around it other than trying to reduce human suffering across the board and making it less likely that anyone is struggling.





  • Did he not win both terms?

    Dems don’t lose the next election because the right-wing is racist, they lose when they fail to listen to their base and try to gaslight their constituents. The energy created when young voters, progressives and independents are given a reason to go out and vote smashes any kind of advantage the GOP tries to glean from playing the bigotry cards. Clinton was not that reason.

    People need to let go of this idea that Democrats’ job is to appeal to the right and be conciliatory. Conservatives don’t vote democrat, regardless of how far to the right the Dems go. They only play up the swing voter fantasy to weaken democrats and get neoliberals going off on a wild goose chase for votes they’ll never secure while at the same time neglecting and demoralizing their own base.


  • I think there is a real issue with Americans that want the moon and if they don’t get it they throw a tantrum.

    Wanting someone who treats climate change with the seriousness and urgency it deserves is not asking for the moon. Wanting a functioning healthcare system is not asking for the moon. Wanting bodily autonomy is not asking for the moon. Wanting your politicians to aggressively pursue a policy that was already implemented and proven to halve child poverty is not asking for the moon.

    The narrative needs to stop that progressives are demanding “perfect”. Basic center-left policy should not categorized as excess. That narrative is what brought us to this crisis we’re in, all the compromises on the most basic left wing positions. The “asking too much” narrative needs to end, people need to keep demanding and making themselves a thorn in the sides of neoliberals every time they try to drag the overton window to the right.

    I’m voting for Harris, that’s my compromise as a progressive, I’m not going to stop criticizing the democratic right-wing or stop demanding better policy though, that’s not part of the deal.