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4·2 days agoI would like to see this poll again with “no one” as an option. No one won anything at this debate. Anyone pleased by Trump’s performance would have been pleased no matter what, and everyone else is horrified.
This could be this decade’s Citizen’s United. Neo-liberalism especially among the court has been whittling away at the economy of regular people and the ability of the government to regulate business since at least the 70’s. Privatization never stopped or even abated, regulatory capture has been common, and businesses themselves write the bills for the congresspeople whose campaign they bankrolled to pass quid pro quo. We already have a severe lack of regulation and now we’re going to have no regulation. We just handed the entire country over to a class of gangsters whose morals are exactly the same as Donald Trump’s but wield a much greater degree of violence domestically and worldwide.
The GDP is completely irrelevant to the vast majority of people. The difference between perception of economic barometers like this one is that people used to have more faith in capitalism and it has become so painfully clear that this faith is unwarranted. In the past, people in desperate financial situations could easily delude themselves that they were temporarily embarassed while everyone else in the same situation was probably just lazy. Now people are starting to realize the system is causing it and are much less willing to eat the table scraps thrown to them during times of “economic prosperity.”
In 2016 Hillary Clinton funded the Donald Trump campaign in hopes to bolster elements of the Republican Party so dangerous that voters would be forced to vote for Democrats under duress. This is the culmination of the DNC strategy since now under duress we must materially support genocide to prevent immediate physical danger from a lawless rogue government who would also continue that genocide.
In 2010 the ability for the United States to exist democratically was ended through the Citizen’s United Supreme Court decision. Democracy can’t withstand the full unimpeded force of capital determining the potential candidates for the people to vote for and writing the bills those candidates vote on. This is aside from the fact that the better funded congressional candidate wins election over 90% of the time, and while this correlation does not prove causation, a different correlation is that congressional voting behavior strongly correlates with the desires of campaign funders and correlates not at all with the polling of their constituents.
Voting for Biden under duress at this time is probably necessary (at this point it seems clear losing the election to Trump is not their greatest fear), but unfortunately if we hope to salvage this system more is required of people than voting. I’m not sure if actual non-fictional human beings are capable of what is required right now, so hopefully whatever this system turns into can eventually be overcome and not replaced by something even worse.
All this to say Trump being a king bastard doesn’t negate Biden also being a king bastard who has probably done more damage to peoples’ lives and the health of our society just with the Crime Bill than anything Trump did. Trump has promised to do worse than any president of the last few decades has done and since the ever increasing stress levels in our culture are causing more of us to lose our minds, explicit fascism (Christian Nationalism is our openly fascist movement) is now a possibility in addition to our existing issues of racism and capitalism. Preventing the worse case is not saving anything and also won’t prevent the possibility of a worse worse case in the future. Everyone voting for Biden is doing so against their will. Trump, having cult charisma, has a number of delusional sociopaths who support him. Winning this election means winning the prize of more of our humanity being commodified and a continuation of old fashioned school of “do it or I’ll kill you” in international relations with countries with a non-white majority. With the internet, information is freer than ever and that appears to be having some effect, so if I have any hope it’s that we will hit a tipping point which causes the majority of us to peacefully transition into a system less vulnerable to corruption.
The only thing crazier than this idiot inventing a master race of republican-aligned tech bros whose destiny is to conquer Silicon Valley through police banquets is that an entire audience of people took it seriously. The article promised a crackpot’s raving and Balaji sure delivered.
This is a living nightmare. There’s not much more I can say about this.
The majority of Zionists are not Jewish, and the majority of Jewish people aren’t Zionists. These protestors are the latest in a long tradition of Jewish activists opposing oppression and genocide. To take police action against Jewish people protesting genocide, something Jewish people tend to know something about, exposes this imperialist fascist-aligned grift for what it is: anti-semitism.
Are you unaware of the leap of logic you’re making here or is this an attempt at trolling? If it’s the latter, 6/10. If it’s the former. I’m sorry.
What you described is a prejudice which is not great. This prejudice, like all prejudices, can be mitigated through exposure. Because of the stigmitization which you described this exposure has additional barriers than just population size. You’re right that this is enough of a problem.
What I’m talking about is weaponizing this prejudice through politics. There has been a major push to pin “the fall of western society” on “trans ideology.” Idiots may repeat these moronic talking points to one another, but they are not the ones who wrote those talking points for them to parrot mindlessly. In fact, these talking points are derived from a movement which has existed for just over a century.
One of the reasons fascism is so attractive to many people is that it unites the “proper” people against the enemy which is simulaneously corrupt and foolish but also masterminds who will undermine and destroy the culture unless they are stopped. Because these foes exist, the state must exercise greater social control and violence to manage the “menace.” Because this population is small and stigmatized (by coincidence, relatively about the size of the Jewish population in 30’s germany), the state can establish the apparatuses for social control and violence. Because these mechanisms are ostensibly to use against just trans people, idiotic bigots support them and a far greater number of people simply don’t care. The thing is though, that from a fascist politician’s point of view the excuse for creating these authoritarian devices is not important really. The point is to establish an authoritarian fascist government. Any defenseless group can be demonized and persecucted, they just have to pick a group that the population will let them persecute. As long as the greater population doesn’t mind what they do to the scapegoat they can build up a system which can eventually be deployed against any threat to fascist power.
Trans should be mundane because it really is but unfortunately since they are such a small part of the total population by the nature of being trans they are an extremely convenient scapegoat. As long at they’re on the chopping block like they are in Texas and Florida, there is a chopping block, and that’s everyone’s business. Only the delusional believe that it could never be their turn if these kinds of politics proliferate or become mainstream.
What is sad is that the people most capable of redirecting the party are also the least vulnerable to the consequences of losing elections to Republicans. They’ll be fine. If they happen to get voted out, they can get a consultant job the next day and live a far easier lifestyle. No skin off their nose.
The fact that this view is taken for granted across most of the American political spectrum has weirded me out since my first “economics” course in highschool which was well into the Clinton-Reagan neoliberal consensus era.
The classic argument for privatization is that competition benefits the consumer which while intuitive is simplistic. For “natural monopolies” such as utilities and road infrastructure this argument clearly doesn’t apply. Since there isn’t even a plausible explanation for why this kind of deregulation is good, lobbyists and businesses have simply adopted the strategy of repeating that “deregulation is always good” so often that it becomes “common sense.” Our Overton Window is a complete joke.
Another victory for humanity.
There’s definitely a problem when I compare this unfavorably to how much harsher and effective Ronald Reagan was when dealing with the Likuds’ wanton violence. Ronald Reagan. The guy who wasn’t even principally opposed to some wanton violence thought Israel was crossing the line and stopped them more than once.
This is some pretty effective satire, and the fact that I can’t tell if you’re serious makes the satire even better. You’d be a hit on 4chan.
I’m sorry but this is literally the opposite of what is true. Here is a pdf of the ICJ order finding that the charge of genocide is plausible and Israel is ordered to take measures to prevent genocide. In no way did the ICJ rule that there was not a genocide. Israel is now officially on trial for genocide.
“Unfortunately, what we hear in mainstream media; this so-called ‘discourse’ or this so-called ‘debate’ between the right and the left is about that. It’s about ‘do we want a large Israel which is arab free or do we want a small Israel which is arab free?’ This is the debate that’s taking place.”
-Ronnie Barkan, Israeli Human Rights Activist, 2017
The Supreme Court members who made this decision are in official act range right now at this moment. Donald Trump is in official act range at this moment as well. Not to draw conclusions but I’m not sure how serious the Democrats are about staying in power.