• 420blazeit69 [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    2·
    3 days ago

    I’m not saying anything close to that. “Democrats will piss and moan and then go right along with the worst shit Republicans do” is basically the opposite.

    Sticking to the actual facts – Democrats are immediately going along with this horrible thing Republicans did – does not mean pulling punches, or watering down how shitty Democrats are.

    • TheKanzler [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
      12·
      3 days ago

      Sticking to the actual facts, both Republicans and Democrats are doing fucked up shit. It’s not “Republicans do bad thing” followed by “Democrats follow along”

      You don’t go “whoops, guess I’ll criminalize homelessness now that it’s an option”

      You don’t dilute the bastards’ crimes even by 1%, or the liberals will go “see, we may not be perfect, but it was the Republicans who started this! It’s not our fault”

      • 420blazeit69 [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
        1·
        3 days ago

        Sticking to the actual facts, both Republicans and Democrats are doing fucked up shit.

        You’re right, and you’re right that we should point that out, too.

        What I’m saying is that we should stick to the bad things Democrats actually do, not exaggerate. There is no need to exaggerate because Dems do plenty of horrible shit already, and exaggeration doesn’t persuade people who don’t already agree with you.

        • TheKanzler [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
          11·
          3 days ago

          Calling things out for what they are isn’t “exaggeration.”

          Letting liberals dictate the tone in which things are discussed, a tone which has normalized material and political support for genocide in Palestine, is a losing strategy.

        • Assian_Candor [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
          11·
          3 days ago

          Do you not equate imprisonment in the US with enslavement? Like the thing they are being accused of doing is in fact what they are going to be doing. There’s no exaggeration here. This is what I’m struggling with.

          • 420blazeit69 [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
            1·
            3 days ago

            Say you’re right, and there is no difference between going to jail in 2024 and being enslaved on a plantation in 1824 (what “slavery” means to people in the U.S.). Simply saying that does not work.

            Our comrades must understand that ideological remolding involves long-term, patient and painstaking work, and they must not attempt to change people’s ideology, which has been shaped over decades of life, by giving a few lectures or by holding a few meetings. Persuasion, not compulsion, is the only way to convince them. Compulsion will never result in convincing them. To try to convince them by force simply won’t work. This kind of method is permissible in dealing with the enemy, but absolutely impermissible in dealing with comrades or friends.

            Here, we aren’t even trying “a few lectures or meetings” and then giving up on people, we’re shouting a hot take at them and then telling them to fuck off (or worse) if they don’t immediately abandon their long-held beliefs. What is the point of reading all this leftist theory if we just ignore it?

            But yes, I think there are some significant differences between modern incarceration and the U.S. conception of slavery (antebellum south chattel slavery). That doesn’t mean prison conditions are fine, or that it’s OK to coerce prisoners into virtually unpaid labor, or anything like that.