necessary read

you can't expect perfect results....

I'd take getting rid of Trump and his supporters. It WOULD fix the problems with the country right now

There is a wide chasm between “suck” and “fascist”.

I do not understand how "vote for the better option" could possibly not be the correct move. If you want to change the candidates we have in the general election, no strategy for voting within the general election will change that; you would need to vote in the primaries to get the legitimately good candidates into the general. This is once again voting for the best option. If you have another theory I would love to hear how you expect it to work.

John Quincy Adams was pretty decent, as far as I'm aware.

You were correct in the first half then you fell right off.

I was going to comment that as well. They've identified the problem correctly, but rather than trying to fix it they decide to cement it in. We want people to be able to accept they were wrong and think (and vote) differently going forward. That sort of growth is how things get better. This vindictiveness just makes people defensive and want to double down on mistakes when doubt and regret could have lead to character development.

By all means, hold people accountable, but if you don't allow them to change you are giving up hope entirely.

Even authoritarian governments can be swayed when money is on the line, imo. If countries enforce standards via an international trade deal, anyone that doesn’t play ball by the rules could be incentivized to change if they want a cut of the pie.

Take non-ethical working conditions for example. If every country said they will not do business with a country that doesn’t implement ethical working standards then that country could be incentivized to change. If there was a requirement for third party auditors to be able to regularly verify that those standards are being upheld then that could help ensure that those basic standards are being met even in authoritarian countries.

It means let the fuckers know they can retreat from their extreme or misguided political stance and come back to a more reasonable point of view without consequences. It's a variation of Sun Tzu's "Build your opponent a golden bridge to retreat across”: if you don't, they'll fight you to the death because they have no other option.

My problem is, however reasonably the idea, that's a bit too rich for me to apply to imbeciles who turn their country into a fascist hellhole.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burmese_Days

Set in British Burma during the waning days of empire, when Burma was ruled from Delhi as part of British India, the novel serves as "a portrait of the dark side of the British Raj." At the centre of the novel is John Flory, "the lone and lacking individual trapped within a bigger system that is undermining the better side of human nature."[1] The novel describes "both indigenous corruption and imperial bigotry" in a society where, "after all, natives were natives—interesting, no doubt, but finally...an inferior people".[2]

To be clear, that last bit of that last sentence is meant to be read as hideously haughty and privileged... it is dripping with irony, a self-cariacature, as the novel showcases the craven nature of characters in all kinds of social positions, from all kinds of ethnic backgrounds.

The whole thing is meant as an unflinching critique of how colonialism ruins everyone involved.

I guess we could also maybe ask Orwell what he was doing in Spain in the 1930s, but at the time, he would again have difficulty telling you.

Turns out that when you join an internationalist anti fascist militia to go personally shoot fascists yourself, well, sometimes they shoot back, and sometimes they hit you in the neck.

... thankfully, writing exists.

I find it absolutely incredible that George Orwell, a man who has likely personally shot more fascists than probably anyone you'll find on the internet... somehow doesn't clear the ideological purity test these days.

And that is because Orwell, while literally shooting at fascists in Spain, also found himself as the target of a pro-Soviet, pro-Stalin smear campaign, which tried to paint him and his outfit as Trotskyists and also as fascists.

Apparently, this smear campaign remains quite influential, to this day.

He certainly wrote a version of it.

I didn't mean to insinuate that anybody should not be held accountable for their actions. Just the opposite is how I feel, really. But I also believe that many of them can do and learn better if provided with the right care and resources. That's not to say I know how to make that work, but that there is always, always, always a better path forward if enough qualified and caring people put their heads together and make it happen.

Very few of us are truly and entirely irredeemable. Some just take a lot more resources and time to be redeemed than others, is how I see it. I believe it is worth it, for the sake of all of our futures as well as those of people yet to be born, to try and see to it that paths like this are taken and doubled down on as soon as is possible.

Despite being a fan of Orwell's and, more often than not, in agreement with the views he shared, I took his wording to be a bit too absolutist for my tastes on this quote. Understandably, given what we know of his lived experience, but still. There is always a better way as long as there are still people trying to find it. I don't believe in all of us, but I do believe in the capital 'u' Us, you know?

And I'm not familiar with the term "catspaws". Feel like teaching a stranger something new?

Hilary [...] considered distinctly weak

Not by the same proto blumaga libs who insisted Biden and Harris were strong candidates. If you pointed out people were suffering and her policies and messaging was "get a high paying job lmao", you got bombarded with "sHE iS ThE mOsT qUaLiFiEd cAnDiDAtE iN hIsToRy".

I wouldn’t say Americans are tricked, but a vote for positive change tends to be met with a vote for ‘changing nothing’ by someone on the other side of the aisle.

People’s best bets is really to focus on making their own states more progressive and pass those progressive programs at the state level. Banking on having the federal government pass the progressive programs people want is not going to work

People living in Purple and Red states are going to need to see Blue states thriving from progressive policies if they’re going to be convinced to change their voting habits. People living in Blue states should no longer be banking on doing the more caring option of passing progressive programs federally, instead Blue States should be willing to go into debt to fund these progressive programs.

The non-corrupt ones are a tiny minority and get drowned out by well-funded opposition. If the tide even hints at turning then the billionaires turn to straight-up fascism, as we're seeing now.

Hahaha, I was not able to read it 🤪

Sadly, it is the cowards who invent nightmares and conjure them into reality, and who also have little hesitation toward cruelty and violence when they lash out at those they project their inner demons onto.

Thus, all that is necesarry for the triumph of evil is for the good to do nothing.

History clearly shows that no rights simply exist; no status quo can simply be assumed, no priveleges or standards cannot be corroded... they must always be actively fought for, deliberated over, studied in detail.

Apathy, complancency, incuriousness... that is the first step toward regress, toward barbarism.

The better future is a concept that must continuously be actively struggled for... it is not a definable state of permanent victory, no, it is a constant fury against injustice that must be wielded with control and discipline.. but never extinguished.

I bet that's also roughly the time that some higher ups in that party realized it must never be allowed to happen.

It's not a meme, joke, banter, dumb comment or light-hearted observation. What's your idea of shitposting?

Rebellion in organized fashion

The fashion:

My vote is sock em boppers

No. Total War against the previous government.

Ok go ahead

And replace them with what? What's the enemy here exactly?

Nope.