• IsThisLoss [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    The 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024 election is the most important election of our lives. Democracy is at stake and we need to hold our noses and vote for the lesser evil.

      • WolfLink@lemmy.ml
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        7 months ago

        Isn’t it a bit different when one candidate/party has outright said they plan to take steps to end democracy, and has previously participated in an attempted coup?

    • MikuNPC@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Pretending like our elections are currently normal as usual is absurd, we literally had a coup attempt for the 2020 election.

      Yes, the 2024 election has democracy on the ballot and it isn’t even a controversial statement to say so.

        • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          also American elections are rigged anyway. Neither group of politicians really bothers campaigning outside their base they just both compete to rig the election so their base’s votes count more

        • MikuNPC@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          2000 - Gore decides to concede during a close recount

          2020 - The big lie, an attack on our Capitol, fake elector plot, phone call to Georgia pressuring it to flip, dominion lawsuit, and more.

          They do not compare, simple as that.

            • MikuNPC@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              I’m aware of what happened in 2000, don’t get me wrong. But my point is recent events have been far more egregious, dangerous and unprecedented.

              Trying to compare the 2 is uninformed at best, bad faith at worst.

              • ProfessorOwl_PhD [any]@hexbear.net
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                1 year ago

                Wow, fuck you very much. Trump’s FAILED coup is more dangerous and egregious that Bush’s SUCCESSFUL coup? Trump’s complete lack of power is more dangerous than Bush redestroying the middle east on false pretences of chemical and nuclear weapons, mobilising terrorist attacks and organisations worldwide?

                The only excuse for such a pathetically stupid statement is that you’re a little baby who wasn’t around for any of the last 2 decades and are just making things up based on vibes. “wah wah wah, I can’t remember bush so nothing must have happened”. You are an embarrassment. Delete your account and jump in the ocean.

              • AlpineSteakHouse [any]@hexbear.net
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                1 year ago

                Your metrics are just vibe-based then.

                2000 was absolutely more of a coup than Jan 6th by almost every functional metric. Your main criticism of Jan 6th and Trump are based more on civility than actual policy. Nothing about Trump was uniquely terrible for a Republican president policy wise, he just said the quiet part out loud.

              • HornyOnMain@hexbear.net
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                1 year ago

                Several hundred bored far right small business owners and boomer QAnon weirdos walking around the capitol for a few hours, stealing a few things and then one of them dying from tasering himself in the balls with absolutely no actual change in power is not a coup.

                • mar_k [he/him]@hexbear.net
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                  1 year ago

                  Lmao liberals will tell you we narrowly escaped the MAGA Reich because some incompetent losers broke a few windows and smeared human shit on the walls

          • Adkml [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            Thanks for another example of why voting for dema is a waste of time because they don’t even give a shit and will loose while claiming the moral high ground given the first possible opportunity.

        • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkin@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          About as long as it takes for you and your priv ilk to finally get that this is serious and stop having to be dragged kicking and screaming to the polling stations.

      • ShimmeringKoi [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        How many more of these stinking, double-downer sideshows will we have to go through before we can get ourselves straight enough to put together some kind of national election that will give me and the at least 20 million people I tend to agree with a chance to vote FOR something, instead of always being faced with that old familiar choice between the lesser of two evils?

        -Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72

      • blakeus12 [they/them, he/him]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        not a single election in U.S. history has EVER had “democracy on the ballot.” We don’t have a fucking democracy. When’s the last time anyone has picked a candidate? Year after year, everyone I talk to irl and online despises both candidates. Try to tell someone making minimum wage to go wait in line at the polls to vote, missing those work hours would be literally detrimental. Even if all of those things were disregarded, the popular vote has been fucking ignored in several elections for a convoluted system that was founded by fucking slave owners. even if donald shart “removed democracy” what would change? because Trump’s policy is slightly worse than joe brandons? both of them will uphold the status quo, fund the zionist settler colony, lock up latinx immigrants in concentration camps, build a border wall, prolong the proxy war, expand the military industrial complex, continue a fierce grip on the imperial periphery, i could fucking go on. the dems had a presidency and a majority in Congress when roe was overturned and what did they do to try and stop it? NOTHING. no matter who wins, democracy will never be at stake because THERE IS NO DEMOCRACY. so try and tell me democracy is on the ballot again. fucking do it.

        • Redcuban1959 [any]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          even if donald shart “removed democracy” what would change?

          Nothing really, the real reason why most liberals hate Trump is because he doesn’t hide the fact that the USA is not a real democracy and is a fascistic state. Usually the democrats try to hide it better than the republicans, so their voters can sleep well without thinking about all the people the US kills outside and inside their country.

        • MikuNPC@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Not sure why the lol, I totally agree with this. US democracy has flaws that should be addressed, big ones being gerrymandering, electoral college (which will eventually go away due to NPVIC), and our judicial system.

          Recent events have highlighted on a national stage weaknesses that must be fixed. Let’s get to work instead of throwing in the towel and allowing fascism to rise.

    • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkin@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Oh jeez it’s almost like the fuckers who want to end democracy don’t go away after losing at democracy one time.

      • TC_209 [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        While there are two dominant political parties in the United States, every presidential election I’ve participated in has had more than two candidates to choose from. I’d appreciate it if you’d expand upon your point.

        • Shiggles@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          Oh boy I’m sure this isn’t a question in bad faith asking how an extremely obvious and well documented flaw of first past the post works

        • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkin@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          The US is under FPTP, only two candidates matter and voting outside those two or refusing to vote is mathematically identical to a vote for the candidate least aligned with your own values.

        • WolfLink@lemmy.ml
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          7 months ago

          Face it: there are only two candidates who realistically have a chance at winning the general election. It’s been that way for every US election we’ve seen.

          If you vote for someone who doesn’t have a realistic chance of winning, that’s about the same as just not voting at all.

          So you really have 3 choices: candidate A, candidate B, or indifference.

          And there are two possible outcomes: candidate A or candidate B.

          If one of those outcomes is at all preferable to the other, (e.g. either A is “better” or B is “worse”), it’s strategically best to vote for the main candidate you prefer, since that increases the chance of getting your preference of the two outcomes.

        • Doug [he/him]
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          1 year ago

          How many presidential elections have you participated in where more than two parties received any electoral votes at all?

            • Doug [he/him]
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              1 year ago

              I assumed you understood how a presidential election worked in the US. Was I mistaken?

                • Doug [he/him]
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                  1 year ago

                  Because they’re an instrumental part of how the election process works for quite a while now. If a candidate is receiving 0 electoral votes they are functionally as electable as you or I.

                  You’ve more than proven yourself to be in bad faith here though, so you’ll have to pester someone else with future efforts.

          • Nakoichi [they/them]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            Which is anti-democratic and I am glad you mention it because it means my vote in california doesn’t even matter anyway lmao.

            Your democracy is a fucking joke.

          • Infamousblt [any]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            So you’re ashamed to support it? Honestly that’s even worse. I understand quietly doing it because you think you have to but going around telling everyone about it and trying to convince them to as well doesn’t seem like shame to me. Seems like you’re proud about it

        • Doug [he/him]
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          1 year ago

          No argument here. I’m not propping it up I’m just forced to live within it

    • Banzai51
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      1 year ago

      Enjoy the Trump presidency. You’ll never vote again.

        • Banzai51
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          1 year ago

          It almost did. Jan 6th was a coup attempt.
          On the campaign trail a day or two ago he literally said, “…we’ve been waging an all-out war on American democracy.”

          But go on and insist it is “both sides” to up your edgelord cred. You’re never going to find any politician that agrees with you on every issue. Unless you get off your ass and run, which we know is too much effort for you.

          • GarbageShoot [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            It almost did. Jan 6th was a coup attempt.

            There was no mechanism for it actually succeeding. It was an attempt the same way a child attempts to transform into a bird.

          • TheGamingLuddite [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            Browbeating people into voting for a satanic right wing warmonger was a losing strategy in 2016 and it’s a losing strategy now. There is a massive chance now that Biden will lose as a direct result of his actions in Gaza. This is directly Biden’s fault and no amount of fearmomgering about January 6th will change it, for the record most people don’t really even care.

            If you’re concerned about losing “our democracy”, blame the DNC. That they’re content with running a senile maniac who is actively facilitating a genocide should enrage you more than people online expressing their disgust with his criminal behavior.

            • Adkml [he/him]@hexbear.net
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              1 year ago

              Yea if democrats are so fucking concerned about democracy maybe they should, I don’t know, support one of the policies 80% of their base is loudly telling them matters to them.

              Like not having Biden be the nominee.

          • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            a half assed and unserious coup attempt. Trump wasn’t even directly involved it was less than a riot

            The issue I disagree with Biden on is whether there should be a genocide

            • Banzai51
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              1 year ago

              He’s being charged with it because he CAN be linked directly to it. Half ass or not, it was a coup attempt. Saying it was half assed or not serious is exactly what people said about the Beer Hall Putsch. Look what happened after.

              And you can’t blame Biden for what Hamas did.

              • Adkml [he/him]@hexbear.net
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                1 year ago

                Nobody’s blaming Biden for what hamas did they’re blaming him for the genocide Isreal been doing in response.

                By the way he just approved sending a bunch of bunker busters so Isreal can bomb even more hospitals indiscriminately.

              • axont [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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                1 year ago

                It was a coup attempt in the same way me screaming in my backyard is an attempt to become a super saiyan. Nothing happened. A bunch of meemaws and idiot conspiracy theorists milled about the house and Senate. They didn’t even have the gumption to take a shit on the podium.

                They had their true enemies within spitting distance and none of them threw a bomb or fired a shot. They took selfies. Absolute morons.

            • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkin@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              Bitch he literally tried to choke out his driver so he could go there himself to lead the insurrection in person.

              Nevermind, the palestinians here in the states who’ll tell you that as much as Biden sucks, Trump’s issue is that we’re not doing it here too.

            • Adkml [he/him]@hexbear.net
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              1 year ago

              Hey they had to shoot a gun exactly one time to get every single person to go home as soon as the concept of consequences metastasized in their brains.

              How are we supposed to stop them next time.

        • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkin@lemm.ee
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          And he literally tried to take over the capitol building to stop the transfer of power, not to mention how his supreme court has been steadily uprooting our democratic rights.

      • Alaskaball [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        You’ll never vote again.

        I’ve never voted for any president you baby-brained jackass. You might as well worship the ground I step on because me not voting apparently helped Biden and Obama win, by your twisted logic

      • Infamousblt [any]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        None of the people Biden killed through war profiteering, supporting genocide, and policy failure will vote again either.

        Glad to hear your proud to support all that death though. Good on you for owning up to supporting the atrocities

      • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        Well in 1/3 of US provisional elections in the 21st century, the candidate with the most votes has lost the election thanks to the electoral college. So even if they did go vote, there is a 1 in 3 chance that the candidate with the most votes loses the election.

        Which is really weird because the US brands itself as the bastion of freedom and democracy internationally, yet they do not follow two of the most important principles of democracy itself. Those being one man equals one vote, and the candidate with the most votes wins. Lots of people in the USA effectively do not have a vote for president with how the electoral college is structured.

      • Adkml [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        Thats literally what you useless dumb fucks said right before Hillary managed to lose the easiest election of a lifetime using the exact same strategy you’re using this time.

        Maybe Biden will exceed expectations and actually go to states he depends on to win.

  • Nakoichi [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    Lmao not voting for Genocide Joe no matter how much the maybe-later-kiddo 🥂 maybe-later-honey wine cave warriors will shame anyone. This sort of meme is fucking gross to all the people suffering from Biden continuing all Trumps worst policies and liberals doing zero to fight against more fascist policies and support for genocide in Palestine.

    They can earn our vote by literally doing ANYTHING that actually materially benefits marginalized people or workers. So far they have nothing.

    • Doug [he/him]
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      1 year ago

      They can earn our vote by literally doing ANYTHING that actually materially benefits marginalized people or workers.

      You mean like gun safety legislation (biggest in 30 years which unfortunately doesn’t say much), inflation reduction and infrastructure measures, repealing DOMA, or taking steps against systemic racism?

      I agree, none of it is enough, and honestly he probably does too. You can guess that based on other things he’s tried to do and been stopped, like student loan relief. That’s a great example because while it was blocked by Republicans, he’s been taking other avenues to get some out there at least. That demonstrates it’s not just demonstrative efforts, which is a popular argument when that kinda thing happens.

      But I get it. I’m no big fan of Biden myself. Then again, you didn’t say he’s not doing enough. You said “literally ANYTHING”. It’s right there in your comment and quoted at the top of this one.

      Now since we’ve demonstrated he’s done more than literally anything, were you uninformed and will now change your stance, or were you a liar? If you were a liar did you already know that he’d done those things, or are you just not willing to stick to the criteria you yourself established?

      • Nakoichi [they/them]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        Anything of material consequence this is the difference between liberals and communists. You think bourgeois politicians act in good faith or have your actual material interests at heart. You have a purely aesthetics understanding of politics.

        Even if he actually did any of that in the way you think he did and I somehow benefitted from those things, I still wouldn’t vote for him because you can’t buy my vote with all the material appeals in the world if it means being complicit with genocide in return for table scraps. Fuck you and everyone like you. Wake the fuck up.

          • Doug [he/him]
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            1 year ago

            My life doesn’t revolve around you or this site. I’ll respond to things when I see them. I’m sorry if this is all you have going for you.

            • Nakoichi [they/them]@hexbear.net
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              Neither does mine, I just can’t help but see people say shit like you and be disgusted by it and every now and then I will call one of you out and you all react the same way. You can’t actually tell me what your “good work fighting for Real Change I Can Affect ™” or in other words useless electoral politics once every four years, has accomplished MATERIALLY.

              And I am sure you are a good voter that makes Informed Decisions. Maybe you even vote in primaries. Great! If so I applaud you, you are on the path to learning how futile bourgeois electoralism is (which based on your response I doubt) or (and I feel this seems more likely based on the evidence available) you just don’t have any fuckin skin in the game and feel comfortable smugly trying to shame people into supporting someone that actively hates them and seeks to destroy their communities and movements through actions no matter his words.

              Biden wants us fucking dead, indigenous people, communists, LGBTQ people, immigrants, etc.

              The man is a sex pest, a segregationist, and a genocidal imperialist. If you can’t see how twisted it is to beg people to vote for that man instead of demanding better from the so-called “lesser evil” then you aren’t as morally superior as you think you are.

              You also listed the fact he increased funding for fascist police who protect the fascists attacking drag shows etc. So if you actually cared about vulnerable groups in the US you would be threatening to withhold your vote too, but as I said you have no skin in the game, your politics is purely vibes based and idealist.

              Demanding people that are actually laying their lives on the line to actually FIGHT for the things you profess to care about, vote for a man that would sooner have them dead than capitulate with our demands, you display a stunning amount of privilege and lack of ever having risked anything yourself for REAL change.

              Please tell my friends on the reservations, or my friends living in their cars, or the ones getting arrested for speaking out against US support for genocide, or being brutalized for protesting pipeline constructions, or protesting against bigger more robust training facilities to put down said movements, tell all those people how they have to vote for Joe Biden, go tell it to their face and come back to me.

              Wake up. People are dying RIGHT NOW WHILE BIDEN IS PRESIDENT.

              • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkin@lemm.ee
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                1 year ago

                Fuckin’ imagine comparing yourself to someone fighting and dying on the front lines of these issues when being asked to complete the barest minimum of standing in a line and ticking a box sends you off into this paragraphs long screed.

                You’re not one of the people who’s lives are in danger here in America, they all back Biden because they all know better than to expect that Trump will fix any of that shit or make the DNC align more with white communists who have to be dragged kicking and screaming to the polls even to support their own fucking guy in the primaries.

                What you are is a priv who sees fit to hand us to the fascists because you prefer us as martyrs for your cause as opposed to agents for our own.

                You are no moral agent, you’re a blood stained cynic who’ll watch every last one of us be marched to the camps just so you can ask whoever comes out after if they’re ready to let you be in charge of everything now.

              • Doug [he/him]
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                1 year ago

                Let’s take care of some housekeeping first, since I’m not going to goaded into continuing a variety of conversation chains. It is not my democracy. If you’re eligible to vote in California it is our democracy. I didn’t make it or choose it any more than you did. We live in the same country and are bound by the same government with the same system.

                Moving on to the comment this one replies to…

                I just can’t help but see people say shit like you and be disgusted by it and every now and then I will call one of you out and you all react the same way.

                Is it because you’re using the same arguments each time? There’s a common phrase about the definition of insanity you may want to look up if so.

                You can’t actually tell me what your “good work fighting for Real Change I Can Affect ™”

                Ah, a common tactic. You’re uncomfortable with the direction the conversation has been taking so you’re trying to shift focus to me. That’s one problem. See it wasn’t on me to tell you what that is, I asked you what ideas you had that would be feasible. You haven’t done that. This whole conversation isn’t about me or what I do. Realistically I doubt you would believe me if I told you as you seem to have presupposed a lot about me already.

                or in other words useless electoral politics once every four years, has accomplished MATERIALLY.

                I definitely can’t tell you a thing when you continue to refuse to define how you’re using a term, caps regardless. Materially has a few different definitions but at its core it’s generally “of value”. That’s the general idea I assumed in the first place and provided you things accordingly. You dismissed them and did not elaborate, only stressed words.

                And I am sure you are a good voter that makes Informed Decisions. Maybe you even vote in primaries. Great! If so I applaud you

                Thanks! I bet that was hard for you to say.

                you are on the path to learning how futile bourgeois electoralism is

                Ah, no, see I did that a long time ago. The thing is there’s not one path through any part of life. Just because you have dismissed a way of thinking you now attribute to me doesn’t mean that you’re ahead somehow.

                It’s also amusing you keep reusing the same big words, but I digress.

                (which based on your response I doubt) or (and I feel this seems more likely based on the evidence available) you just don’t have any fuckin skin in the game and feel comfortable smugly trying to shame people into supporting someone

                The only thing I tried to shame you for was being a liar. You said Biden could earn your vote and later said you’d never vote for him. You said an untrue thing, that makes you a liar.

                that actively hates them and seeks to destroy their communities and movements through actions no matter his words.

                Which actions?

                Biden wants us fucking dead, indigenous people, communists, LGBTQ people, immigrants, etc.

                The man is a sex pest, a segregationist, and a genocidal imperialist.

                You’re thinking of the other guy. It’s true Biden did some shitty things in his too long career in government but dollars to donuts you’re a different person today than you were 20 years ago. That doesn’t excuse shitty behavior, but it makes a lot more sense to judge someone based on their current action when they don’t agree with the ones of the past, wouldn’t you agree?

                And none of that is to indicate there’s no problems with Biden as that’s simply untrue. I get the impression you think I’m some kind of big Biden booster. That’s silly.

                If you can’t see how twisted it is to beg people to vote for that man

                Where did I beg anyone to vote for him? You said you’d vote for him under certain circumstances, I exposed that those circumstances exist under my understanding of your continually undefined terminology.

                instead of demanding better from the so-called “lesser evil”

                What have I done in my life to demand better? Do you know? Of course not! You’ve exchanged a couple messages with me. You have no idea what efforts I’ve made to demand better, or continue to make. Just because I don’t think taking my ball and going home instead of participating in whatever minimal way I have is one doesn’t mean I’ve done nothing.

                You also listed the fact he increased funding for fascist police who protect the fascists attacking drag shows etc.

                Nope. I may have listed a bill that included such things, but you can see my reasons for listing them in my comment. You are aware that political action in our broken, corrupt system often includes shit with important, useful things, right?

                So if you actually cared about vulnerable groups in the US you would be threatening to withhold your vote too

                Because if I think a thing, or feel a thing important the only possible action is the one you do? If your vote doesn’t matter what is withholding it going to do?

                but as I said you have no skin in the game

                You did, again without knowledge of me or what so called skin I may have in the proverbial game.

                your politics is purely vibes based and idealist.

                More assumptions about me.

                Demanding people that are actually laying their lives on the line to actually FIGHT for the things you profess to care about

                What demands have I made? What fights have I fought?

                vote for a man that would sooner have them dead than capitulate with our demands

                Based on what?

                you display a stunning amount of privilege and lack of ever having risked anything yourself for REAL change.

                I don’t know that the amount of privilege I have is “stunning”. Extant definitely but hardly stunning.

                And again you assume I’ve never risked anything for any real change. You assume this based on a few paragraphs of text.

                Please tell my friends on the reservations, or my friends living in their cars, or the ones getting arrested for speaking out against US support for genocide, or being brutalized for protesting pipeline constructions, or protesting against bigger more robust training facilities

                Fun fact, if I were your friend (and so far I think I’m pretty happy I’m not) I’d have been eligible to be on that list in the past. Hell, there was a time in my life that being in one of those categories would have been an improvement for me.

                But that probably doesn’t fit well with the image of me you’ve created for yourself. Maybe you’ll insist I’m lying.

                to put down said movements

                Why would I do that? Wait, do you think people who vote all just collectively dust off their hands and go “I did my part, time to get back to the business factory and ignore any other problems in the world”?

                tell all those people how they have to vote for Joe Biden, go tell it to their face and come back to me.

                Why? There’s probably a few of them that already did and may again. If you act with them the way you do here I definitely wouldn’t fault them for not telling you. If they don’t that’s their business. I think it’s a bit short sighted, but I’m not campaigning for the guy. You said some stupid shit and I called you out on it. The rest of this has just been absurdity.

                Wake up. People are dying RIGHT NOW WHILE BIDEN IS PRESIDENT.

                Italics and bold are right there, your caps are tiresome.

                Yes, people are dying right now. They will be dying next year and the year after. If we all installed your idea of the best possible option as a president they’d die under them too. Some of them would even be that person’s fault.

                This is part of why you get the same things back all the time. You have rhetoric full of youthful idealism. Maybe you’re youthful, maybe you’re not. That doesn’t really matter.

                The point is the world is a flawed, fucked up mess. It’s full of imperfect people, many of which more interested in their own advancement than the well being of others. This time next year either a Democrat or a Republican will be elected as the president for 2025-2029. If it’s a Democrat things will be somewhat less shitty for a lot the people you want to think I don’t care about. That’s demonstrable for quite a while. Back to Reagan at least.

                What you don’t seem to get is that I can help the ones I have access to, but have very little I can do for all the rest. What I can do is a mostly symbolic but in an unlikely but not impossible scenario incredibly useful effort to put a president that might do any amount of good for them.

                You’ve also got it twisted. By and large Democrats don’t care about a very large part of the population, sure, but they’re not actively seeking to kill them. That’s the Republicans. They die through inaction or blocked action.

                You, however, are playing right into the hands of the Republicans. Attacking those who would be your allies. It’s just like the people who complain that a higher minimum wage would mean unskilled laborers would make too close to what they make, not understanding they aren’t fairly paid either.

                Instead you try to drag me to a different post where you think you’ll have back up by putting words into my mouth and assigning me positions that I don’t hold. Even if you had followed your own instances rules and it hadn’t been taken down it wouldn’t have worked. I’m not interested in debating you or anyone “dunking” on anyone else. You made a statement and I called you on it. You were a liar and I pointed it out. If you don’t like it, don’t lie. Fuck, a “Maybe” at the front of a statement and this whole exchange may never have happened and I might not know you’re the kind of person to call someone a “fucking coward” because they went to sleep instead of hanging around to have a pointless conversation.

                And it has been pointless. I’m not going to continue after this as I’ve found nothing of value in it, and I sincerely doubt you have either.

                But you really should.

            • Adkml [he/him]@hexbear.net
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              Really because in the last day you’ve written 4 page long essays as responses arguing abaout literally everything except why you should be accountable for the consequences of the policies you support.

              • Doug [he/him]
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                Which policies do I support? You know which policies I’ve made reference to but not what I support.

                And none of this was about me

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          Anything of material consequence

          Which he’s done. Ask one of the people who were pardoned from their federal possession charges, or received student loan relief. If those aren’t material consequence you’ll need to more clearly define what you mean by the term.

          this is the difference between liberals and communists.

          So you understand neither term

          You think bourgeois politicians act in good faith or have your actual material interests at heart.

          Where did I say that? I said he has backed up his intent for student loan relief with action even when meeting resistance.

          You have a purely aesthetics understanding of politics.

          Says the guy who has one comment and knows my outlook on all political matters

          Even if he actually did any of that in the way you think he did and I somehow benefitted from those things, I still wouldn’t vote for him

          So you’re a liar. I had need of a lawyer once and he told me it was fine if I didn’t remember something and said so. It wasn’t ok if I said something happened one way and it didn’t because then I was a liar and he couldn’t help anymore. You devalue your own words. You’d do well to think on that beyond any assumptions about my feelings on our legal system.

          with all the material appeals in the world if it means being complicit with genocide in return for table scraps.

          Then don’t claim that it can be done. I’m also interested in what your viable suggestions for better with the tools we have are. That appears to be the difference between you and I. I’m interested in what change can actually happen to improve people’s lives. It looks a whole lot like you want to move immediately into “no bad things”. Letting perfect be the enemy of good.

          Fuck you and everyone like you

          And that’s a big reason you’ll get exactly nowhere. Name me a person who has enacted major change for their people without working with someone who they disagreed with and I’ll reconsider.

          Wake the fuck up.

          Likewise

            • Doug [he/him]
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              Why is it my problem that an uninvolved third party doesn’t value anything I had to say?

              Just self important, morally superior hexbear shit

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          So look, I’m all for a complete revamp of this trash electoral system and the shitty “government” it allegedly controls, but until we have a unified movement of hundreds of millions of people behind that, it isn’t happening without years of instability and many failed attempts.

          So yes, I’ll vote for the lesser of two evils.

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              You’ve never chosen the lesser of two evils because you didn’t have any other practical options?

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                  Yes, no duh, but I mean options that are practical for me to do until other people finally agree to organize/unionize and make everything better for each other

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                  Oh, in that case you’ve convinced me. Solid point, and well-articulated at that.

                  — _ —

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                You keep saying lesser of two evils.

                The only difference I’ve seen between Trump and Biden is now that Biden is president libs scream at progressives to stop complaining because it makes them look bad.

                Well that and when republican was president dems said tou had tonvote for them or else we’d lose abortion access, transgender people would lose rights, and covid would run rampant.

                So we all voted for Biden and now there’s no abortion protection, Trans people are loosing rights, we ignored the oandemic and cut all relief efforts, and now we’re supporting and funding the worst genocide in a generation.

                If you’re going to argue you’re the lesser of two evils you might want to try being less evil.

                When Trump was president Pelosi was dressing up in fucking African garments pretending to support those ideas.

                Bidens president and they’re all voting to establish that criticizing Isreal is antisemitism.

                Rank and file liberals are literally worse under a democratic president.

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                Biden and Trump are equally evil and either of them being president is a disaster for the world. They’re exactly the same in terms of political outcome and I’m never issuing support for either, both are imperialist and responsible for genocide. I’m never voting for either, even if it would simply be ceremonial.

                And don’t even come with me with I’ll be responsible for Trump then. I don’t care. I do not see any difference between the two. I live in Texas anyway so my presidential vote simply doesn’t matter.

          • GalaxyBrain [they/them]@hexbear.net
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            Not gonna get that by rolling over for the democrats as they continue to become more and more right wing. Your support is part of the problem. You wanna move a party left? Deny them power until they do or why would they bother? They already have your support even if you hate them. You’re their sub

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        I’m gonna spend about 3 hours researching the local positions where my vote counts and leave everything where my vote has already been decided for me blank. Then, I’ll use all the extra time I saved from not pouring my brain down the drain watching endless election coverage to instead do some mutual aid, which has already saved several lives this winter. Fuck Donald Trump and fuck Joe Biden.

      • Adkml [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        Nobody. Nothing by voting.

        Which is exactly the same as what you’re going to accomplish.

        Giving a homeless person a dollar does more to improve the lives of the vulnerable in this country than voting for a Democrat.

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    Don’t vote for a child smelling genocide endorsing rapist, maybe?

    If your system only allows you to choose between 2 of the worst people you’ve ever heard of, that’s a bad system you shouldn’t condone or blindly participate in?

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    The bickering in this thread is just the latest example of how broken American politics is. There are no good candidates, only least bad ones, and we are forced into these shitty choices every single time because the people in power value profits over human rights and dignity.

    I’m voting Biden, but I’m not happy about it.

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          They support Trump and Russia “ironically”, so far that it’s not even ironic anymore.

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      Wringing your hands won’t change the fact you’re supporting a genocidal ghoul.

      If Democrats get your support unconditionally, then that encourages them to completely ignore what you have to say because they already got your vote and that’s all you’re good for to them.

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      I find it fascinating how liberals here cannot conceive that Biden and Trump might as well be the same person. Their policies are identical because it doesn’t matter anymore. America is on rails. This is a country run by a profit algorithm.

      The only distinction between Biden and Trump to me is Trump is funnier.

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          I get where they’re coming from, the problem is there’s no exit strategy. By voting for the lesser evil election after election you still get to the worst shit imaginable, it just takes a while.

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    Gotta love the damned privs out here again to remind us all that white “leftists” have a collective memory of “as far back as I can go before I have to acknowledge that Republicans make things materially worse for the people I say I’m an ally to whenever they’re in power.”

    Hey you edgelord “genocide joe posters”, it’s me, an actual fucking palestinian here in america to tell you that the Republicans think the problem is that we’re not doing that shit here too.

    When Trump rides back into the whitehouse on the backs of your militant refusal of solidarity, it’ll be on you when some Trucknuts McGee bastard beats me in the streets, and tells me that my Sand N****r ass should be grateful that he didn’t bring a rope.

    It’ll be on you when Red States begin abolishing no fault divorce to trap women in abusive marriages because it made Steven Crowder big sad one time.

    It’ll be on you the next time a trans kid is faced with the choice to either run away or almost certainly die and absolutely be disowned.

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      It’s a year out from the election. “I won’t vote for Joe” only means trump wins if democrats refuse to run a better candidate.

      Where the hate for the democrats running an unelectable demon?

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        Unfortunately the Overton window moves with the voters. Leftists boycott every election like it’s some kind of flex, but all the Democrats do is move further right to capture more right wing voters. Because why bother catering to leftists.

        Where the hate for the democrats running an unelectable demon?

        Unelectable??

        The bitter truth is that when only the worst people in America come out to vote, only the worst candidates are electable. Being a demon is a plus for electability.

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          but all the Democrats do is move further right to capture more right wing voters.

          That’s exactly the issue, innit? The Democratic Party doesn’t care about the issues or the vulnerable groups enough to stick to their principles, or try to figure out how to pull voters to the left. They care more about staying in power, and if that means throwing constituencies under the bus and moving right, they move right.

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            You’re way too idealistic about what politics is or should be.

            The DNC isn’t good, or moral, and that’s not it’s job. It’s a business, it only exists to be in power as a representation of the voters.

            The voters influence the parties. The DNC shouldn’t be trying to pull voters left. Voters need to be pulling the DNC left. If the most progressive candidates keep winning, if the most conservative candidates keep losing, it forces the entire Overton window left.

            And that’s really the dream, choosing the most progressive of two progressive candidates, not the least regressive of two regressive candidates.

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              Well, I must disagree. Factions in the Republican Party have been engaged in a decades-long campaign to pull voters to the right, starting with Sen. Barry Goldwater’s conservative movement, leading into the Reagan Revolution, the Contract with America era, the founding of Fox News as a propaganda arm of the party, the (astroturfed) Tea Party, and on to today. The notion that a national party organization exists solely as the Platonic embodiment of the will of the voters strikes me as quite idealistic.

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                If the GOP ia trying to move people right it’s is a complete failure though, isn’t it? Women’s rights are popular, LGBT rights are popular, inclusiveness is popular, religious affiliation is decreasing. Being conservative is uncool and unpopular.

                What the GOP succeeds at is undermining democracy so it can seize power with a minority. In fact, undermining democracy is the GOP’s only option, precisely because it fails so hard at pulling voters right.

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                  That just doesn’t track history, though. Nixon did many things, like creating the EPA, that would be considered leftist today, not because he liked it, but because that was the political reality of the time. Then Reagan swept in on the Goldwaterite tide. Clinton overtly and explicitly moved right to steal conservative positions with his New Democrat movement.

                  Now we have a Democratic President breaking strikes as if he were ol’ Ronnie, and his supporters defending it because he got some minor concessions from the railroad for one of the unions involved. Even the signature achievement of Obama’s Presidency was a Heritage Foundation idea, pioneered as RomneyCare in Massachusetts.

                  We certainly have moved right in as a country in lots of ways, and somehow we’re on the verge of lots of people voting in a dictator.

      • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkin@lemm.ee
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        You mean the guy who’s been negotiating the release of palestinians being held hostage in Israeli prisons, or the one who secured Palestinians the right to access their own natural resources?

        You’re the one who isn’t doing anything to help us by insisting we deserve to die by trump’s hand if you don’t get your demands met.

        How fucking dare you negotiate over the voices of the people most in need,

        If you really have the privilege to turn your nose up, doing so is betrayal, especially from someone who marches and says all the pretty words of being an ally.

        Dr. King was talking about your lot in Birmingham, all the performance of agreement, none of the work of solidarity.

        The other party believes the issue is that we don’t have a similar policy of genocide here in the states and you really wanna ask where the hate’s at for the party that doesn’t do that shit here? I’ll tell ya where it’s at, it’s with all the shit privs who can’t see past themselves to fucking know better.

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          You mean the guy who’s been negotiating the release of palestinians being held hostage

          Lmao. The guy facilitating the sale of weapons to Israel?

          insisting we deserve to die by trump’s hand if you don’t get your demands met

          You seem to not understand what I’m saying. Demand better of the democratic party.

          [the hate for Dems is] with all the shit privs who can’t see past themselves to fucking know better.

          Hahaha Hahaha ok

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            Exactly how much influence over Israel’s actions do you think his administration would have if it took the kind of hard line you’re looking for?

            Israel has a far right xenophobic government and suffered a massive blow from Hamas. Short of invading Israel, there is nothing the US can do to prevent bloody retribution on Palestinians. By standing firm with Israel, we at least get a seat at the table to try and shape the response to reduce harm to civilians. We have actually had some success in that, though not as much as we would like.

            Meanwhile, we have this quote coming from Harris: “Under no circumstances will the United States permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, the besiegement of Gaza, or the redrawing of the borders of Gaza".

            That’s a damn strong signal to Israel that US support for Israel is being undermined by their actions. That is how you leverage a relationship towards a change in outcome. Biden actually has a seriously skilled foreign policy team that’s following the path most beneficial to Palestinians, not the one most aestheticly pleasing to Palestinian supporters.

            I’m a fierce critic of Biden, and I’m outraged that he decided to run again in 2024. Still, I think his administration has taken the right approach with Israel. I don’t think every step was handled perfectly, but the overall approach is correct, and he is doing it in the face of serious political backlash. That’s actually what leadership looks like.

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              That’s a ton of words that don’t answer the question: why is Biden running again when he polls worse than “unnamed democrat”? Does he want to lose?

              Daily I see memes “you must vote Biden” and never memes saying “Biden should not run”. I can’t tell who’s stupid and who’s paid for

              Exactly how much influence over Israel’s actions do you think his administration would have if it took the kind of hard line you’re looking for?

              But I can’t even begin to understand what you mean when you say actually it’s good they sell weapons to Israel.

              • Tinidril
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                That’s a ton of words that don’t answer the question: why is Biden running again when he polls worse than “unnamed democrat”?

                It also doesn’t answer a whole lot of other questions that weren’t asked.

                Does he want to lose?

                How should I know? Almost certainly not?

                But I can’t even begin to understand what you mean when you say actually it’s good they sell weapons to Israel.

                Do you think that if we refused then they wouldn’t just go buy them elsewhere? It’s notable that, for the first time, conditions have been imposed on how the weapons can be used. The conditions aren’t as restrictive as they might be, but that’s another signal that our “unconditional support” of Israel is in jeopardy.

                We have always sold weapons to Israel. Stopping now wouldn’t impact the war, but it would destroy any influence we do have over Israel’s actions.

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    I’m not sure how someone can look at the mask-off cryptofascism of the American political system at this point and convince themselves that voting blue over red makes the tiniest bit of difference. The mountains of corpses both parties routinely inflict on the world at large makes any tiny delineation in rhetoric (and it is just rhetoric, because anyone with eyes knows the national level Democrats aren’t doing shit about fuck even on culture war issues that they’ve fundraised off of for three decades, let alone any of the systemic evil and rot leaving billions in destitution) so fucking irrelevant that it’s honestly a joke someone could even bother to try and shame people into casting votes that statistically would never influence the outcome of an election even if it was a fair and democratic process.