beyond right and wrong, self-interest alone justifies fighting #nazis
people need to understand what #fascism is
it doesn't create anything
it only consumes
it constantly makes new enemies because if it stops consuming, it dies
fascism must always be on the move like a shark or it perishes
so new outgroups to persecute are contrived and eventually you will be in one of them
simple self-preservation:
you must stop fascism now before it gets to you
"doesn't affect me"
oh it will
any student of history sees the pattern of how #fascism operates
what is happening in the #usa now is simple #ignorance of the nature of the new #nazis. we have collectively forgotten
it's #MAGA who support it but will also become its victims
and it's entitled complacent morons who don't #vote
the generation that saw #wwii understands, but they are dying off. in their place are legions of idiots who don't understand what the big deal is
they will learn the hard way
@benroyce voting alone will not solve the problem, it will merely reset the clock.
there needs to be a more profound shift away from a model that promotes the tendencies that lead to fascism as good, from the myth of the rugged individual, to neoliberalism.
@thegarbagebird @alanthecampbell @lzg
oh absolutely
no one thinks you vote, then unicorns and rainbows appear and everyone lives happily ever after
it's just that voting is one of those things you have to do, in a whole toolset of actions, in a much larger struggle
meanwhile, not voting simply because it isn't unicorns and rainbows magic bullet solution is stupid. no one serious thinks it is. it's simply someone's own cognitive failure to not vote based on this false assertion
@benroyce @thegarbagebird @alanthecampbell One votes for the same reason one extends a middle finger. It is a rude gesture towards the losing party.
Would you drive past the Nestlé factory without throwing up the impudent finger? Would you allow a cybertruck to drive past without a monodigit salute? Would you let Trump appear on your television without presenting the central phalanges? No. This is why we vote for the least shitty of 2 turdic candidates. Because fuck that other 1.
@log @thegarbagebird @alanthecampbell @lzg
you always vote, even if just sabotage/ vandalism
nobody thinks voting is some romantic notion of perfection, except complete fucking morons
@benroyce @log @thegarbagebird @[email protected] @lzg
Holding your nose to vote for the least of two "turds" seems to undermine your argument. How do I vote to put better candidates on the ballot in the first place? It really does seem that we're scraping the bottom of the barrel now, but I've been around long enough to know that they can always get worse.
@japipes @benroyce @log @thegarbagebird @lzg
How do I vote to put better candidates on the ballot in the first place?
The primaries. Disquietingly few people still, after everything that has happened, actually show up to vote in the primaries, still.
@trabex @mark @japipes @benroyce @log @thegarbagebird @lzg
Their primaries are rigged by design. DNC officials have testified in court that they have a right to do so. The court agreed. Because it's an internal party process it's not bound by the typical federal election regulations and it doesn't have to be fair. The corrupt officials will always have an advantage if you're trying to fight them in their own home.
And if you do manage to win? Congrats, you get to be part of the org that goes to war against the idea of taxing billionaires but has no problem welcoming a Nazi who is campaigning to bring back Auschwitz. Compare all their screeching about Mamdani to the complete and utter silence on Langford. THOSE are your allies? Really??
@admin @trabex @japipes @benroyce @log @thegarbagebird Okay. So you previously made the case that the DNC rigs the primary, but you've now provided an example of someone who is extremely undesirable as a democrat but... He'll be on the ballot anyway because he followed the party policy for getting on the ballot and their own rules don't keep him off the ballot? Because AFAICT no Democrats are encouraging him to run on their ticket; he's jumping ship because he doesn't think he can win a Repub primary.
I'm having a hard time following your argument. The DNC puts their thumb on the scale so hard that they... Can't even keep a Nazi apologist off the ticket has real "The enemy is strong execpt that they're weak" vibes.
@mark @trabex @japipes @benroyce @log @thegarbagebird
Rigging the primaries affects who wins, not who runs.
My point about Langford is that even if you overcome the rigged primary you're *still* tied to a party that's more aligned with Nazis than working class Americans. When Mamdani was running in the primaries the Dems were happy to attack him for being mean to their billionaires. But when Langford runs in their primary none of them care. They have endless hate for progressives, but none for the Nazis. Why do you want to fight like hell to overwhelm their rigged primary just to end up allied with people who will happily betray you and betray their party to protect Nazis and billionaires?
@admin @mark @trabex @japipes @log @thegarbagebird
bad people run for election, yes
and?
they win when we don't vote
you vote
that's the point
you're constructing elaborate complaints about how much things suck
yes, they suck
precisely because not enough vote
so vote
if enough do, all the shit gets washed away
if they don't, sometimes due to extended feelings of despair over how bad things are, then things stay sucking
stop constructing dungeons in your head. just fucking vote
@admin there's things you can do about that, too. state-level solutions that can force change upwards with enough adoption.
people in oregon were working on a ballot proposal to go from first preference plurality to a proportional ranked-choice system, which would help break the dnc stranglehold, as well as giving third party candidates a decisive role in the electoral process.
or if electoralism isn't your thing, there's always community engagement. work towards a dual power system less reliant on the state, that can help fash-proofing too.
@thegarbagebird @mark @japipes @benroyce @log Yep, getting other parties into the race is exactly what I am working on locally. That's my whole point here. We need a party that actually represents something, that has a platform and principles that their candidates have to actually support. A party whose leadership is elected democratically by working class voters instead of select party elites.
And I think fighting against the established Democrats to try to turn the Democratic party into that is gonna be a lot more work than just building it directly. You can't reform the Dems one state at a time, that's been tried (Nevada, 2021), the outgoing leadership will demolish everything they can on the way out the door and leave you rebuilding everything from scratch anyway -- all while your national org is fighting against you.
There are places where working with them might still make sense strategically, as a way to stall mostly, but if we want real progress we need an alternative, and we need it yesterday. So we better figure out where we can make that happen instead of telling everyone it's impossible. Establishment Dems don't think it's impossible; they have no problem running independent campaigns against Democrats!
@admin @thegarbagebird @mark @japipes @log
Mamdani shows you can do it
Another party just means you split the left vote and hand MAGA wins
We have a really shitty FPTP voting system and until we get ranked choice voting we have to do it the Mamdani way
@admin @thegarbagebird @mark @japipes @log
Sure but this is some niche thing it's nothing about beating MAGA. Beating MAGA is job number one. It doesn't matter how great your third party did when you're being machine gunned
@admin @thegarbagebird @mark @japipes @log
No it's because assholes dont vote
If someone doesn't vote in the primaries they are the problrm
@admin @thegarbagebird @japipes @benroyce @log Your energy is good but you will be better served co-opting one of the two parties then trying to stand up a third if you want to influence Federal election outcomes.
Law of large numbers and a first pass the post voting system. There's basically no chance of replacing one of the two entrenched parties with a new party. The closest you can get is hollowing out an entrenched party and changing it into something else, which is what the Tea Party did to turn the fiscally conservative GOP into the fascist GOP.
@thegarbagebird @mark @admin @japipes @log
the issue is solved: ranked choice voting
with rcv you can have as many stable viable third parties as you want, and you can vote your conscience free and clear of dreary strategy
unfortunately, ranked choice voting is only creeping in slowly. we need more adoption, and recently the republicans declared themselves hostile to rcv
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
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the gripe ibis
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Winter Trabex
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