George Takei  🏳️‍🌈🖖🏽Sep 27, 2023

Whenever the media want to talk about Biden’s age, remember that I am more than six years older than that kid, and both of us could run circles around the Orange Guy.

Oh, and Biden’s never been charged with a felony, let alone 91 of them. Just saying.

Show threadfluffy 💜Sep 27, 2023
@georgetakei i’d still rather see someone who has to live with the consequences of their decisions making those decisions
Show threadTexty the BardSep 27, 2023

@fluffy @georgetakei At some point, yes. Harris is relatively young and she's probably going to take the mantle when Biden's next term is up.

That said, a good person cares about what's going to happen to future generations, and does what they can to make things better. Age is less of an issue than simply caring.

Show threadfluffy 💜Sep 27, 2023
@textualdeviance @georgetakei Sure, and I mean Biden is way better than most of the alternatives right now. It's just that the system hasn't given us many choices here. I feel like a vegetarian in a steakhouse, and Biden is the macaroni and cheese.
Show threadTexty the BardSep 27, 2023
@fluffy @georgetakei In order for someone to acquire the experience necessary to actually do the job of POTUS, they have to put in the time in smaller-scale offices. If you want younger candidates for top offices, then people have to start running for city and county-level seats as soon as they're out of college. Those don't actually require anywhere near the financial resources to run for, either. But too many people don't want to do that work.
Show threadfluffy 💜Sep 28, 2023
@textualdeviance I'll get right on that @georgetakei
Show threadTexty the BardSep 28, 2023
@fluffy @georgetakei I hope you do. Seriously. I love seeing young people run for office.
Show threadfluffy 💜Sep 28, 2023
@textualdeviance @georgetakei I was being sarcastic. I am neither young nor a politician.
Show threadTexty the BardSep 29, 2023
@fluffy @georgetakei What do you think "a politician" is?
Show threadfluffy 💜Sep 29, 2023
@textualdeviance @georgetakei Someone who has opted to go into politics as their career.
Show threadTexty the BardSep 29, 2023
@fluffy And what about people who have chosen public service, in the form of elected office? Or is it harder for you to dismiss when it's put like that?
Show threadfluffy 💜Sep 29, 2023
@textualdeviance that fits my definition yes. I don’t see why you think I’m dismissing any of that and anyway this entire conversation is pretty tedious. Did I personally offend you by wishing we had more diversity in our political system? Because that’s all I’m wishing for here, regardless of how much you’re trying to interpret me as saying whatever it is you think I’m saying.
Show threadTexty the BardSep 29, 2023
@fluffy I just find that a lot of people who complain that current elected officials aren't doing enough or aren't good enough, etc. don't do all that much to change things. It's tiresome to hear people whining about "old" Congressfolk when a lot of them can't even be bothered to vote, much less volunteer or run for office themselves. It's a put up or shut up thing, IMHO.
Show threadfluffy 💜

@textualdeviance wow you’re assuming a lot about me and also reading a lot into my tiny milquetoast criticism of the state of the presidential election

If someone wanted to support me making a run for politics, sure, that’d be great. They’d be trying to elect a socialist disabled neurodivergent trans nonbinary furry. Good luck with that.

Sep 29, 2023 at 10:01pmWeb
Show threadfluffy 💜Sep 29, 2023
@textualdeviance I happily support whatever candidates show up and vote in every single election. I even agonize over every little decision at the local level including things like the school board. I am politically involved and very deeply impacted by the politics. You don’t get to tell me I don’t care enough just because I’m slightly critical of the state of affairs. I’m not even critical of Biden! Just the system that put him in place.
Show threadfluffy 💜Sep 29, 2023
@textualdeviance my political alignment is somewhere between Kshama Sawant and Bernie Sanders. Closer on the Sawant side. I would love to see her make it further up in politics. That doesn’t seem bloody likely.
Show threadTexty the BardSep 30, 2023
@fluffy That's because most voters aren't interested in far-left policies, not because of some shadowy "system" getting in the way. If you want those candidates to win, then they have to appeal to voters.
Show threadTexty the BardSep 30, 2023
@fluffy And forgive me, but I've heard so many people with the same complaints assume that there's some DNC conspiracy or other nonsense behind this, instead of just the reality. If that's not your thing, fair.
Show threadfluffy 💜Sep 30, 2023

@textualdeviance you say there’s no “system,” right after describing exactly what the system is. It’s not a conspiracy, it’s a maintenance of the status quo. It’s a system in the greater sense of how politics operates. Emergent properties, not specific actions taken by individuals.

Whenever people refer to a system, that’s usually what they mean. The entire environment in which things take place.

Show threadfluffy 💜Sep 30, 2023

@textualdeviance like compare it to the term “systemic racism.” It’s not that people specifically go out of their way to be racist, it’s that there are emergent and established structures in place that maintain racism at a societal level.

It is in that way that people talk about the political system.

Show threadNeia masksSep 30, 2023
@textualdeviance @fluffy

The New York State legislature got six socialists elected in the 1920s. The rest of the legislature immediately stripped them of their positions, unanimously. That was the system.

The Red Scare made it illegal to have socialist leanings or teach honestly about socialism. That was the system.

Today, how educated are voters on leftist politics? How misinformed are they? That's a deliberate choice by everyone who owns a media company, everyone who makes and sells textbooks, and all politicians to the right of Bernie Sanders.

That's the system.

You can't support something if you don't know what it is.
Show threadPsy Chuan Oct 2, 2023

@textualdeviance @fluffy so this whole thread has been going "oh you can change things by getting into politics! join up and be the change you want to see!" and when someone explicitly tells you WHAT they want to see, you tell them "no not that."

god liberals are pathetic.

Show threadPsy Chuan Oct 2, 2023
@textualdeviance @fluffy do you see why, perhaps, people are disillusioned with your system? your candidates? you're actually hearing, directly, from someone at the intersection of MULTIPLE political issues, they are TELLING YOU what would make them feel like you had anything to offer, and you're telling them "well i'm not going to do that because, even though part of being a politician is INFLUENCING ideas, 'the american public' don't want that." pathetic.