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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 14th, 2023

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  • Differing treatment of nonprofits falls under “driving off the cliff at 95 vs. 100 mph.” The bare minimum approach to the climate crisis would be something on the scale of the Green New Deal. Better treatment of nonprofits is probably more than canceled out by approving more fracking permits, too.

    I’m also of the opinion that taking over the Democratic Party from within is a better strategy than trying to destroy it and start over, if only because of how large a task the latter is.

    without the Democrats even having a proper seat in office, how are they supposed to even pass any policy, no matter how leftward they go on the political spectrum?

    As we’re seeing with Trump, you can do a lot with executive power and declaring an emergency. Over time you can translate this into more legislative support if what you’re doing is actually good.

    if the left continues fracturing and refusing to vote for them because “both sides are the same,” then all that happens is they keep shifting more and more right

    Democrats chasing the right dates back to the 70s. It is what is causing the left wing of the party to stop voting for them, not the other way around. As Bernie showed, even a moderate social democrat can bring in those voters and then some. You also see lower-level candidates win by outflanking Democrats from the left, e.g., the whole progressive prosecutor movement.

    Besides, the only way to get a politician to move towards you is to threaten not to vote for them. They don’t chase voters they have in the bag; they chase voters who are on the fence. That’s part of why they’ve been moving right – they think they’ll pick up more voters from the center than they’ll lose from the left. The task is convincing them that unless they move left, they’ll lose.


  • I said you voted for genocide because you voted for a party doing genocide. That’s not the condescending shit you’re doing, that’s leveling a direct criticism.

    And if you agree Dems are useless… what the fuck are you even saying anymore? They’re useless, they’re doing a genocide, but you still have to vote for them, because if you voted for someone opposed to the genocide, guess what, you actually voted for genocide!

    Incoherent all the way down.


  • But if I’m going to do any kind of action to change that, I’m going to want the most favorable possible party in power.

    I also used to make this argument. And for a few decades after Democrats stopped routinely trying to do major things for their constituents (the 60s), it had some merit.

    But since the scientific community started really sounding the climate change alarm bells in the early 90s, we’ve had 20 years of Democrats in charge. They’ve failed to meaningfully address the issue, and failed to either keep Republicans out of office or implement policies strong enough to withstand Republican attacks. We tried it the way you’re suggesting and it hasn’t worked.

    We’re at the point where either Democrats need to be forced to radically change their platform, or the party needs to be destroyed so we can get at least one decent option. It doesn’t help that the last 30+ years of inaction means we can’t afford another 30 years of making small changes and hoping against hope that some new technology solves the problem for us.


  • I get the argument, I really do. I used to make it, too.

    But this guy:

    holding down the acceleration less, screaming about how he thinks we should go slower but isn’t taking his foot off the gas

    Was told 30+ years ago that we desperately need to hit the brakes. He has failed to do so because he’s wholly in the pocket of fossil fuel companies, and knows he’s among the most insulated from the worst effects of the crisis.

    The answer to “which would you rather convince” is that neither can be convinced. One just has to put up a bit of a facade because more of his voters take the issue (marginally) more seriously. If that guy hasn’t done it in a generation, why would he do it now?

    It’s also getting harder to justify the “accelerating less” part when Democrats do stuff like that article describes.


  • Are you denying that totalitarianism exists?

    Every country has at some point been called “totalitarian” by its detractors, and no country self-identifies as such. It’s so imprecise and vague it’s useless for serious discussion, especially when there are actual ideologies (that various governments claim, and that have some sort of useful definition) you can talk about instead.

    The only thing it is useful for – as others here have pointed out – is clumsily equating fascism and communism because both systems exercise state power.


  • It’s ok though, I understand you are struggling

    What do you think you are accomplishing by being such an insufferable ass?

    Democrats should be trying to win back voters like me – voters who have supported lots of Democrats in the past, but who will not support genocide. They (and you) are instead telling those voters to fuck off. They (and you) make a lot of noise about wanting to win elections, but have no strategy besides browbeating voters, a strategy that just failed.



  • You looked at a party committing genocide – the worst thing people can do to one another – and made the decision to co-sign that. I voted for someone who opposed genocide.

    No matter how desperately you want to water down the choice you made, it’s not the same as the one I made. You don’t actually have to shuffle along with genocide because Democrats lied about some half-assed loan forgiveness or something.