this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2024
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The Last Days of Mankind: Today, each one of the assumptions that underpinned western policymaking and journalism for nearly three decades lie shattered (www.nplusonemag.com)
submitted 1 month ago by PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat to c/politics@beehaw.org
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[–] FlashMobOfOne@beehaw.org 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I remember people ridiculing Bernie because he pointed out that he'd been one of the few who voted against the Iraq War, despite the fact that it turned out he was right. There were no WMD's. The US spent trillions and all they did was destroy millions of lives and make a handful of rich people even richer, when they didn't need the money in the first place.

That's why these wars keep happening. They're wonderful for unaccountable wealth transfer. It's why we're involved in Ukraine. It's why we're helping Israel commit genocide. It's why we've helped Saudi Arabia brutalize Yemen for the last eight years.

If Harris wants my vote, tell me you're going to cut the military budget, not increase it.

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

There were no WMD's.

It's why we're helping Israel commit genocide.

It's why we're involved in Ukraine.

One of these sentences is not like the others.

If Harris wants my vote, tell me you're going to cut the military budget, not increase it.

Why is this tying back to refusing to vote for Harris? Am I crazy, or did that come completely out of nowhere at all?

If you care about genocide, destroying millions of lives, and making the rich richer, you should be phonebanking for Harris every day of the week. She may or may not be ideal but it hardly matters. Her opponent is 1,000% worse by any conceivable measurement.

And then, after the election is done: !rcv@ponder.cat to lay a foundation for better candidates beyond that in the future.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@beehaw.org 2 points 1 month ago (3 children)

It all ties back to Democrats, because they enthusiastically participate in war crimes, and that's a problem for me.

She may or may not be ideal

I can look back on the last 40 years of Democratic rule and come to a very objective point of view on this. She's Reagan with lipstick.

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

There is a very real possibility that a person will come to power in this election who will end elections in the United States, end the rule of law, end protest, end socialism, end third parties, end elections in the future, install his hand-picked generals into the military and then turn the inconceivable power of the United States military loose, not just on a handful of victims who have come into our crosshairs from time to time, but wholesale onto anyone and everyone anywhere in the world who it comes into his head to target.

Do you define sending weapons to Israel as "enthusiastically participate?" Wait until US troops are on the ground in Gaza and Lebanon. Wait until Putin gets a green light to invade anywhere in eastern Europe that strikes his fancy. Wait until the US military is directly attacking anyone inside the borders of the United States that dares oppose his rule, or the rule of the person who comes after him, in this or any future election.

Wait until millions of people of the wrong ethnicity inside the United States are dying in concentration camps. Wait until legal immigrants are being deported by federal troops.

Yes, the system in the United States is far from democracy. Making it ten times worse is not a good solution. Pursuing a solution is a good solution.

Like I say, I have no idea where this argument that it is okay if Trump wins the election came into the comments for this article, but it is wrong, wrong wrong. It is not okay if Trump wins this election. If you actually care about the values expressed in this article I posted, you hopefully can see that. Maybe not.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@beehaw.org 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

There is a very real possibility that a person will come to power in this election who will end elections in the United States

And yet, you expect me to believe that voting for the party that just wasted four years not fighting fascism nor strengthening elections is somehow going to prompt different behavior? I don't know how you've managed to convince yourself that voting Democrat changes anything meaningful at this point, as the evidence we have all points to the contrary.

Do you define sending weapons to Israel as “enthusiastically participate?”

Yes. I don't think that's unfair or inaccurate. Sending more WMD's to a genocidal regime is enthusiastic participation by defintion.

Wait until millions of people of the wrong ethnicity inside the United States are dying in concentration camps

It won't be my fault. It will be the fault of the 99% who always vote party regardless of the quality of the candidate. Heck, six weeks ago both parties were literally telling me I had to vote for an evidently cognitively-impaired candidate as a moral imperative.

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)

It won't be my fault.

Yes it will.

Come to !rcv@ponder.cat and make a better solution.

If you are waiting for either mainstream political party to suddenly become champions of the people on their own, and you're refusing to take certain actions even in the face of catastrophic threat until they do, then yes, it will be your fault if the catastrophe comes true.

That outcome may be fine for you, and you may feel virtuous about your participation in that outcome for your reasons. It's somewhat safe for you if you're wealthy and white and born in the US and not active in left-wing politics, and confident that that all of that will keep you safe from a second Trump presidency. Of course there's no way to be sure that it will. But regardless, a lot of people don't have that luxury.

[–] araneae@beehaw.org 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

My friend you are talking to a dork or possibly a bot. Lemmy is infested. Maybe its a paid troll or maybe they're just fucking strikingly stupid/accelerationists (but I repeat myself) but they're basically out here to drive you mad. Talk to your real world friends about this topic and try phonebanking.

If it were up to this individual Trump would have walked into office on Jan 20th 2021 right after attempting a fascist coup. Because then the matetial conditions for The Revolution would come or something. Every four years like clockwork the accelerationists backed by bots come out of the woodwork to try and make sure Donald Trump wins because WHOEVER he is running against must be worse, not by dint of actually being a worse person or statesman than DJT, but because they're not the FALGSC messiah. You're talking to a death cultist.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@beehaw.org 2 points 1 month ago

Yes it will.

No, it won't.

Forty-plus years of partisan voters incrementally deciding that nothing mattered more than team color has led inevitably to these circumstances. Unless you are a billionaire or willing to commit an act of terrorism (neither of which apply to me or you, most likely) you have no meaningful power whatsoever to change this.

[–] LukeZaz@beehaw.org 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Much as I plan to hold my nose and vote for Harris, I can't help but feel simultaneously bemused and saddened how every time you talk about her actually trying to earn your vote, you receive comment after comment tearing you down as though her terrible policy is fine and that only YOU can stop Trump. As though Harris herself were powerless to change her own platform to appeal more.

Party loyalty is so strong these days entirely too many people forget that candidates have agency. They'd rather shame people or call them bots than consider if it might be more effective for the candidate to actually listen to their own constituency.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@beehaw.org 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

It's been a weird summer.

It took Harris two months to do the very basic thing of putting a platform on her website, and in that two months, you heard absolutely nothing about policy. What you heard were two memes repeated ad infinatum: Joy and Weird. Then since the debate, they've added a two new memes: The Dogs and Crowd Size. The reality is that she can't talk about Biden's record because most of the country has to work harder for less money than they did in 2020.

Meanwhile I don't currently have a car because I've lent mine to my 80 year-old parents so they can drive for DoorDash every day, because if they can't, this government will let them become homeless. This is happening in a time when the Democrats had the presidency and Congress for two years, and from what I can tell, all they really cared to do was make the wealthy even richer and find ways to involve our country in more war.

How am I supposed to be joyful? If you're a wage earner, you're already living under fascism, because if you don't work that 60-80 hours a week, this country will let the monied destroy you.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

because they enthusiastically participate in war crimes

When someone says "begs the question", this is what they mean.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@beehaw.org 2 points 1 month ago

I don't think it's a matter of opinion that a country, voting explicitly to give more WMD's to a genocidal regime mid-genocide, is doing anything other than giving it a very clear stamp of approval.