2mo ago

Far left intellectualism

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This is extremely misleading. Fuck Trump 10000 times and kamala is the only sane choice, but stop trying to paint over reality to try and make her look like she's not just a lesser evil.
She didn't just "not promise to solve 1000 year conflict" (which the genocide has been going on for the last 75 years),
she did promise to continue funding genocide with American taxpayer dollars. (Of which the US has been giving and average of $5 billion in tax dollars and weapons to Isreal per year for the last 75 years, since they first invaded Palestine).
We are voting for her because she is the lesser evil. We don't have to be happy about it or stop criticizing her on her bad policies.
Basically: Vote for Harris, but also fuck her for vowing to continue funding genocide. Trump would also keep funding genocide, and he'd also destroy what's left of the west, on top of every other obvious reason he should never be in power again (and never should have been).
- OP consistently makes posts that only divide the Dem base.
  Considering they started out with AI posts lying about early voting, I guess it's an improvement?
  
  Again. I think sometimes the division is purposeful. Say some bullshit that's meant to infuriate the left pretending to be the Democrats because they don't even care to hide their bad takes anyways and split the base that can't be bothered to try to win even more.
  But that's probably giving to much credit and its just Democrats actually with bad takes hoping to stick to the center and blame everyone else for the center not actually being that popular.
- Right wing morons and shills can't exactly base their arguments on how much better Republicans are, so they come at it sideways with this bullshit.
  Well, jokes on them because "the left" isn't made up of complete morons like they have in the MAGA movement. Despite neoliberal whining to the contrary, the left has been consistently the most reliable voting demographic the Democrats have, and that's despite the fact that the establishment shits on us at every opportunity.
- vote third party IMHO
  fuck the two party regime that got us cornered here. vote for either party is providing genocide legitimacy.
  
  And voting third party is saying "I don't care whether we get a bit of genocide or a lot of genocide," which itself is legitimizing genocide.
  
  "Harm reduction" is not in the vocabulary of these internet addicted "intellectuals".
  
  Nor are things like "strategic voting." It's really unfortunate
  
  No people know what it means to pick the less disgusting turd out of the bowl. They're just tired of eating shit for "strategic reasons".
  
  Am I the only one who just realized that these people who are so tired are usually just kids who've voted in at most two elections and didn't even participate in the primaries or local elections?
  If y'all put half the energy into being consistent voters that ya did in removed about "having to" once in a blue moon when you're dragged by the hair to the polls first.
  
  I'm in my forties. I'm a millennial.
  This is just some more 'damn kids' boomer bullshit.
  
  I like how your big slam dunk is to admit that you've been on this bullshit for over 20 years now and haven't learned a damn thing if you think "stand aside and let Gaza be annexed outright" is a defensible position.
  Letting Trump Win is an action which furthers genocide and me pointing that out is not boomer shit, you're over a decade older than me and yet you're carrying yourself with the mental maturity of the inverse.
  
  I like how your big slam dunk is to admit that you’ve been on this bullshit for over 20 years now and haven’t learned a damn thing if you think “stand aside and let Gaza be annexed outright” is a defensible position.
  No, I've learned that when I give the Democratic party control of all three houses, they break their own promises and refuse to use the power they've been given in any meaningful way.
  I remember the murdered peace movement when Obama got into office and got the American Foreign Wars Count up from 2 to 16.
  I remember the dead promise to legislate a law protecting abortion when the Democratic party had all three branches of the government and absolutely could have passed legislation.
  I remember holding my nose and voting for Clinton as she then continued to run the worst campaign I've ever seen and then, as fucking always, blame it on the left.
  My gotcha is I've lived a life of watching the Democratic party attack its base for the worst causes and try to shame anyone with a memory longer than a goldfish into voting for them again.
  Letting Trump Win is an action which furthers genocide and me pointing that out is not boomer shit, you’re over a decade older than me and yet you’re carrying yourself with the mental maturity of the inverse.
  Genocide is Binary. Harris has made it clear (in so much as she has made any policy view that she holds clear) that she will follow Bidens current policy.
  Biden is currently committing genocide. And yes, giving weapons to the person doing it is the same as doing it. Especially if you could stop it with a single phone call.
  
  If the best battlecry the Democrats can muster is "think of the ~~children~~ Gazans", that's pretty sad. Trump is an incredibly low-quality candidate and if you can't put a winner up against that, that's on you. This guy shouldn't be hard to beat, but the Democrats are so committed to being the most milquetoast lip-service liberals that they can't even beat concentrated stupidity.
  
  Yeah how dare democrats put up the candidate that won the primaries instead of throwing out the results on behalf of the jackasses that have to be convinced to show up to the generals every 4 years, nevermind for locals and midterms!
  
  Genocide is binary.
  Anything that furthers genocide is not capable of being harm reduction.
  
  I agree, we should just not vote to stick it to the DNC. When red voters show up to the polls and blue voters don't and Trump wins, I'm sure all the transgender people in America whose lives are now in danger will sleep much better at night knowing that the blood of all those Palestinians who are still dying because Trump is funneling bombs to Israel faster than Biden was isn't on your hands, because you didn't help put him in office.
  
  So then where the fuck do you get off advocating for letting the guy who's already handed Israel East Jerusalem, West Bank, and The Golan Heights back into office to recognize Gaza as Rightful Israel Clay?
  You are claiming the moral high ground over us lowly votescolds while taking the course of action that would actually be what furthers genocide.
  
  So then where the fuck do you get off advocating for letting the guy who’s already handed Israel East Jerusalem, West Bank, and The Golan Heights back into office to recognize Gaza as Rightful Israel Clay?
  And did less damage through that then what is currently happening right now. Not defending Trump here, but you seem incapable of recognizing that the worst crime that can be committed is happening now. Under Biden.
  Again, Genocide is binary. It is happening now. You can try and ignore that, if it will make you feel better somehow, but you know exactly what you would have been doing in the Weimar Republic, or how you would have felt about John Brown before the civil war.
  There is absolutely no self-consistent moral framework that will support your current arguments. If your moral system is just "That feels wrong, that feels right" with no actual value system, then I'm sure that that is fine with you.
  
  Gotcha, better to not vote for a "genocider" so you can wash your hands of the unbridled rape and murder of Palestine when trump ends up president in 2025.
  
  Versus the unbridled rape and murder of Palestine now?
  
  Keep in mind that most of them (like OP) are right wing agitators trying to drive a wedge.
  
  While I agree this is definitely a big issue, most of my friends are various leftists. There is a clear line where the white, straight, cis, financially secure, and healthy ones are, or were, definitely of this mind. Though, in my case, few of them are still this way, after years of discourse with everyone else, who don't have the privilege of not having to vote DNC, lest our lives become quantifiably more dangerous.
  
  While I agree this is definitely a big issue
  Is it though? Your sampling is limited to friends who you say are no longer "this way". If your sample is sufficient evidence that it was a problem, then it's sufficient evidence that it's no longer a problem.
  In reality, polls have shown progressives to be the most reliable voters in the country. Beyond that, they are the most involved in volunteering their time for Democratic campaigns.
  There is nothing wrong with getting the message out that voting for Democrats is critical to everything the left might hope to achieve. However, framing the debate in a way that blames the left for the failings of liberal centrists is far more likely to push some people in the wrong direction. It's not just unfair and unproductive, it's anti-productive.
  There is a reason that when the Democratic establishment doesn't push this message that right wing trolls like OP do it for them.
  
  Bots spreading information? yes, it is a big issue.
  The point I was making is that the people I have seen that push this "punish them with no vote" philosophy tend to be people who are in a position where their life will not change significantly if the conservatives get their way.
  
  And you figure that memes like this might change their minds? Assuming this is actually the biggest problem facing Democrats in this election, shaming voters is not the right strategy.
  
  Memes do change peoples' mind. I have watched it happen, numerous times. Can they change anyone's? No, but I have literally watched meme shitposting, and socializing via image forums, and video games, just talking shit, and exchanging memes, change people's political alignments, and other aspects of their personalities. Misinformation, spread online, with bots involved, is why FEMA workers are scared for their lives ATM.
  I never said this was the biggest problem facing Democrats, nor did I say shaming works to change their minds. You made this up. I commented to someone doubting that people are actually like this, figuring it was just bots, with my anecdote, about people I personally know, who were, or still are, like that. There is no more to it. Your imagined narrative where I said this was the biggest concern for Democrats, or that shaming will change those people's minds, never happened.
  
  I wasn't taking about "memes" I was talking about this meme (and others like it). You are doing to me exactly what you claim I did to you.
  I didn't claim you said that your position was that this was Democrats biggest problem, or anything else you claim I said (or implied) that you said. That was a simple supposition to highlight that this is not a strategically intelligent way to address the problem, even if we presume it to be a massive problem.
  
  I think the gulf you are seeing between your position and people saying they will vote third party is because you seem to believe that Biden has been pushing back on Israel, and many of us do not beleive he's been doing anything but putting on a show for the rubes.
  You are framing it as a lot of genocide vs a little genocide, and thats position doesnt sound right given the actions we have seen in the past few days. American forces are about to directly enter the fight with Israel, and Biden seems to be setting up a mobilization the entirety of the US military when one of our THAAD operators inevitably gets killed. and congress has been bought off so no one is checking what the president is doing.
  Yes, Trump is a monster. But on this issue we dont know that Biden is any better-- and it sure does seem there has been a lot of lying going on.
  
  I don't think it's reasonable at all to say that Trump would somehow be less bad on Palestine than Harris., so I think we can say Trump will be at least as bad on that issue. For the sake of argument, I'll be willing to accept an "equally bad" framing on that one particular issue.
  But Harris isn't going to enable the genocide of LGBTQ+ Americans, the genocide of Ukrainians, the subjugation and killing (through medical neglect) of a huge number of women, etc. etc. etc.
  So even the strongest argument for "Harris is just as bad" that I can view as anywhere even remotely reasonable falls massively short. Trump is going to enable far more genocide than Harris, and I cannot see any reasonable argument that views it even as a trade-off of what bad things are going to happen, because as far as I can tell literally everything that's bad about Harris (and there is plenty), if Trump winds up back in office it'll be as bad or even worse. And there simply isn't a third option.
  
  Sounds reasonable. I think when people discuss this theres a lot of talking past each other. I think progressives see an opportunity to play chicken with supporting Harris until she gives us something for it. Some progressives will go all the way and not vote for any candidate, and some will cave at the last minute because of the dynamic you described. But just giving up now and voting for her while she is doing something we hate is a waste of a good crisis. I'd also like to see the DNC coem up short looking for votes from the middle, which seems inevitable to me. Good civil chat, thanks.
  
  As much as I want them to move, I cannot endorse wanting them to come up short because the alternative is so catastrophic. I do, however, truly believe that if we can marginalise the Republican party we can move Democrats somewhat to the left, which is my medium term electoral strategy while working towards a long term where we can actually get real leftists in power.
  It's not just that Harris is going to do things we hate. It's that Trump is going to do all those same things and more, and playing electoral chicken with the Democrats is quite literally risking the lives of many of my friends.
  
  I get that. Bu if you could just hold off on voting till election day, she might change her position out of desperation.
  
  Idk where you are, but where I am my vote gets put in a lockbox and only counted after polls close.
  But regardless, I have external reasons why I have to vote early and absentee this year.
  
  Genocide is binary.
  Trying to make it analog is just trying to justify the unjustifiable.
  
  I'm not trying to justify anything. I'm saying that more people dying is worse, so I'm choosing the path that has the least death.
  Pretending more people dying is somehow not worse, however, is attempting to justify the unjustifiable.
  
  Pretending that the current path doesn't have us give bombs to Israel that they then intentionally drop on hospitals full of children is the path you're choosing.
  I literally just watched a little girl hooked up to an IV burn to death from a bomb you paid for.
  That is the path you support.
  
  I don't support that path - I just recognise that the only alternative also includes all of that and the subjugation of American women, further endangerment of LGBT folks, etc.
  
  You do support that path.
  You are actively doing so right now.
  The point about genocide being binary is that someone is either willing to commit it, or they aren't.
  Biden and Harris(and Trump, presumably) are willing to commit genocide. The basis of that willingess is an underlying belief that some people matter more than other people. And some people don't matter at all.
  And you hope that by supporting the people that hold that belief that they won't add your group to the list of people that don't matter to them.
  There were lots of Germans that felt the same way. We have literal books of history and poems telling us that they were wrong. Fuck, I know you've heard at least one poem making this point.
  '''First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a socialist.
  undefined
  
  Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
  '''
  That's you. Doing everything you can to ignore the Democrats already signaling that they would be willing to throw trans people under the bus.
  You think my side are being morally condescending and use phrases like 'high horse' But that is just people who support the Democratic party trying to justify their own willingness to work with genociders. I'm not trying to pass moral judgement on you and your side.
  I'm trying to explain to you that the moral quandary is not new. It is old, and has happened many times before, and your strategy HAS NEVER WORKED BEFORE.
  Imagine you have two children, and someone kidnaps you and them and tells you to choose which one lives, and if you don't choose, they will kill both.
  If you don't pick, who is responsible for killing the children? You for not choosing or the person that pulled the trigger?
  EDIT: not sure why the poem is not formatting correctly.
  
  This has "I don't care about your principles, lick the boot bigot" energy.
  
  I don't like the choices I have either. But I'm not deluding myself into thinking I have a secret magic option that people just don't realise is out there.
  
  Kinda gave the game away by admitting you get called bigot enough to be seen as a generic NPC complaint to you
  
  I wouldn’t assume that when anti-Zionists are being called antisemites on the regular these days.
  
  Terminally online people throw words like that around like they mean nothing at all. I've been called a Nazi, a race traitor, a bigot, a wokie...
  I just want to see real lefty movement rather than this limp liberal energy you've got. I'm on a union board and frankly the "activism" I see every election season is fucking weak. "Eat the solid shit instead of the liquid shit or you're a tool of the establishment!" isn't terribly interesting or motivating for people who do IRL activism.
  
  More like "eat the bland slice of bread instead of letting it become legal to murder trans people for existing."
  But hey buddy, I'm sure you'll feel so morally superior as you stand on that pile of dead gay kids and watch as Gaza gets annexed outright thanks to the second Trump admin deciding that the exact location of Megiddo doesn't matter so long as they can stroke their death cultist backers to completion!
  I feel sorry for your union members if you're the best they could do for leadership.
  
  letting it become legal to murder trans people for existing
  See this shitty hyperbole that is clearly not true doesn't help your case at all.
  
  Genocide is happening either way. Only option for american peasant is to go into opposition to the two party regime.
  
  Voting 3rd party in this election isn’t the grand protest against the 2 party system you think it is.
  
  Organize. Build a coalition. Those are great things to do to oppose the regime.
  Voting third party or not voting aren't opposing the regime. They're telling the regime "I don't care whether you're a little bit evil or very evil." Harm reduction comes by voting for the lesser evil in the ballot box. Opposing the regime comes in actually building a coalition for less evil, not advocating for actions that'll make the more evil option more likely.
  
  Genocide and harm reduction do not belong in the same sentence.
  Genocide is binary.
  
  I'm not sure we're ever going to agree if you don't think that more people being murdered is worse.
  
  And I'm not sure I'll ever agree with someone that is willing to overlook their ally committing genocide in the forlorn hope that that ally won't target the group you identify with.
  You're not minimizing murder.
  You're just trying to placate the murderer.
  
  Someone who'd go as far as calling them the "American Peasant" probably doesn't know enough about their interests to be talking at them about what their interests as a class are.
  
  We know what we are: wage slaves. Other than being technically ahistorical, “peasant” is close enough to what we are: the oppressed class. I don’t see a problem.
  
  How do I just know you wrote this on a $3,000 rainbow-LED gaming rig you bought with your parent's engineer wages?
  
  You are no Sherlock 😂 I’ve been working as a software developer since the early ’90s and am more than old enough to join AARP.
  
  Someone who’d go as far as calling them the “American Peasant” probably doesn’t know enough about their interests to be talking at them about what their interests as a class are.
  What an amazingly privileged response.
  
  Calling out the inherent privilege carried by those who'd feel comfortable letting the republicans win to "teach the establishment a lesson" is not, in fact, a privileged response.
  
  Sounds good on paper or if not on battleground state. I remember people pissed at DNC in 2016 got us Trump the first time.
  
  Technically running the least popular candidate in history while simultaneously pied pipering the most dangerous candidate in history was not perpetrated by "people pissed at DNC".
  
  Blame the voters for consistently snatching defeat from the jaws of victory is a core tenet of Dem strategy, and of liberalism for that matter.
  
  I remember people pissed at DNC in 2016 got us Trump the first time.
  Other people would blame Clinton's campaign for refusing to move to the left to get more votes.
  They had a very "vote for me or fuck you" approach, much like OP's meme.
  But when looking at exit polling, progressives showed up and voted D like we always do. Clinton lost by slim margins in a couple of important battleground states she mostly ignored.
  And I'm not saying all that to bring up old wounds, it's because Hillary's people became Bidens people who became Kamala's.
  They're still the ones making these policy decisions that are wildly unpopular.
  They shouldn't be in charge still, but they are.
  
  ah yes, the tired old "poor defenseless hillary had no power to change her fate and did nothing wrong" theory.
  Blaming voters for her terrible campaign and DNC shenanigans is really insulting to women. Hillary had a million times the agency of every voter you try to slam for Hillary's own mistakes. Saying otherwise minimalizes her.
  She still blames everyone but herself for the loss. Thats not leadership.
  
  There are two choices in the United States 2024 election. No third party stands a ghost of a chance of winning. No, not even if the 30,000 people you can reach on Lemmy all vote for Timothy Greenparty.
  A Trump victory in 2024 would not only be just as bad if not worse for the citizens of Gaza than Harris would, but also pose an existential threat to a large number of vulnerable Americans (trans people, immigrants, women seeking abortions).
  Given the margins of victory in 2016 and 2020, Kamala might not win if leftists don't vote for her.
  Snoozing fascism for four years is better than inviting it through the door now, and buys us time to build our defenses for when it comes back.
  I'd like to focus my counterargument. Which of these statements do you disagree with?
  
  I don't care if either regime removed wins, either one is L for me.
  Y'all keep trying to do this left/right american politics bullshit, which inherently enablers the regime.
  
  They're both identical, right?
  
  They serve the same function within the regime. But sure one is funded by Exxon and another one microsoft, so they are different in that way.
  
  Can someone please remind me why I still use Lemmy?
  
  Nice way to tell us about your place of privilege that allows you to genuinely not have lived any difference.
  Now shut up and listen to the people for whom the difference is life and death.
  
  Voting 3rd party for progressivism is the biggest self own in history. We could have had Gore, but nooo.
  
  Behind every upset conservative victory, there was a progressive who insisted they shouldn't have to be voting for the lesser of two evils.
  
  Pass state level electoral reform and then vote 3rd party IMO. I would understand why you wouldn't vote for genocide, but be sure to not lose focus on what (potentially) will facilitate meaningful peaceful change in the USA.
  One day we will be free to vote how we wish, and to have our vote continue to count throughout the electoral process no matter how well our preference may do.
  Who would want to stand in the way of people being able to vote for who they want? Sounds like a republican thing right?
  Republicans are moving to protect First Past the Post voting in states they control
  Why do democrats want to use the voting system republicans prefer? Surely democrats can admit that republicans liking something is the world's biggest red flag right?
  
  Found stein's lemmy account

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