#Tennessee removes its #black #US House district in #Memphis
#MAGA goons celebrate
"It's rigged why vote"
On the contrary people not #voting got us here as much as MAGA
Getting out of this means many things. But voting is a small effort compared to the other efforts so voices against voting are inauthentic or #troll #psyop
#Hungary had as bad or worse manipulations against #democracy, and look what Hungarians delivered
Are you angry? Do you want to fix this?
if our vote didn't matter, why are they taking it away?
i admit i'm terrified
i live in Louisiana, it's clear the minority that hates is in total control & does not want all people to ever, ever, ever have equal access to representation
@benroyce @peachfront entitlement sums it up. it's the mindset of Americans who want all the privileges of living in a global superpower but none of the responsibility.
this is at the heart of choosing to be powerless, i.e. refusing to vote: power comes with responsibility, and these people think that by renouncing power they wash their hands of responsibility too. but power doesn't work that way: you have it whether you disavow it or not. refusing to act on a moral imperative doesn't negate either power or responsibility. it means that they used their power for ill.
well said
and there is no such thing as morality without action. sitting in an ivory tower and judging the world for being insufficient isn't morality. it's just ego masturbation
morality requires action. and all action is imperfect
it's messy in reality. it's always messy
but these toxic idealist idiots won't act until it's perfect?
meaning they are just making excuses to themselves to never act at all, and imagining themselves as moral
they have no morality
@benroyce @peachfront Keep in mind that in obliterating blue districts... red districts have to be diluted with blue voters.
And the more hard-core the right gets, the more of their own voters get turned off.
I have faint, but persistent, hope that at least some of this redistricting will backfire as voters of all types get more angry with the status quo.
One of the most defining of B Franklin's quotes Is "We are giving you a democracy, If you can keep it"!
The Revolutionary War lasted 8 years of some of the most horrifying combat anyone can imagine. Single shot rifles & bayonets, starvation, rape, frostbite, disease & they did it for a budding democracy. Today fully 1/3rd of eligible voters don't? We can't take a few hours every couple of years.
@A_Minion @benroyce @peachfront "A republic, if you can keep it."
And yes, there was a difference. They saw democracy as mob rule, the French Revolution, the guillotine, and all that fun stuff.
The USA was designed with features to restrain democracy. Some of them have been removed over the years, like state legislatures choosing Senators.
Since ancient times, democracy was seen as a failure mode of a republic, just before its collapse into dictatorship.
Are we sure they were wrong?
there was no democracy in ancient times, so how TF would they know anything about it? their idea of democracy was for a few elite men to declare themselves equal to the dictator, king, emperor, whoever but still keep women & virtually all other men as slaves -- in other words, it's no different than the hateful fascism we see from the GOP today
why don't we end voter suppression in the US before we say democracy has failed, it hasn't even been given half a chance
@mike805 @A_Minion @benroyce @peachfront
That's anachronistic: the French Revolution (started July 1789) happened after the US Constitution was promulgated in March 1789, the Bill of Rights in September. The Reign of Terror was in 1792–94.
The real reason why the feared democracy was they were all rich men who feared taxation. Madison is crystal-clear:
> In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people, the property of landed proprietors would be insecure. An agrarian law would soon take place. If these observations be just, our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation. Landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests, and to balance and check the other. They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority. The senate, therefore, ought to be this body; and to answer these purposes, they ought to have permanency and stability.
@fazalmajid @mike805 @benroyce @peachfront
& throughout it is the landed gentry who were to get the vote. Most excluded.
Fortunately it has changed to (when practiced correctly as democracy/republic) an ideal that lets all to have access & a say. Those who fought for it in 1700's always struck me as those who saw themselves as "we the people". A great many people had land who'd never had the chance in UK.
Interesting that it was Madison who was one of the driver's of the Bill of Rights.
@fazalmajid @mike805 @benroyce @peachfront
Almost sounds like the mega-rich of today. I was thinking of Musk as I wrote my check to the IRS. I've see our democracy work far better than what we have today. I was fortunate to be in a time & place to get the benefits of the WWII - 1970. Then to watch folks vote much of it out. It wasn't great by any means & many were left out but in comparison even with the draft . . . 8*)
Peace
@fazalmajid @mike805 @A_Minion @benroyce
thank you
"securing the country against innovation" has done lasting harm to the people of the United States who don't happen to be rich white men...
@peachfront @fazalmajid @mike805 @benroyce
I'm out of he 50's, I remember when we had a decent chance to get a good education, inexpensive college. minimum wage a living wage.
Then get to watch as nixon reagan bush now trump dismantle all that we had for some idiots for profit & to destroy our chance for simple existence.
To scream in the darkness of ignorance while people vote/fight for their own impoverishment.
@A_Minion @benroyce @peachfront As for the Revolutionary War, it was not a very big war. There were single battles in the Civil War with more casualties than the entire Revolution.
Sure it was horrible for the people involved; wars usually are. But the British were actually reasonably civilized. They could have gone scorched earth on the civilian population, and did not.
They also had at least one chance to shoot Washington in the back, and didn't do it. Maybe too civilized for their own good.
@mike805 @benroyce @peachfront
Who defined it as mob rule, or the British army who just couldn't believe that a bunch of ignorant farmers could kick their ass.
IIRC it was the aristocracy who through of it as mob rule, folks just wanted their say no matter what you call that form of government.
Before we got all fancy & formal & uppity the leaders listened to their tribe members. Maybe that is just a genetic memory we all have, to be heard & respected.
Read up on Greek democracy 8*)
Peace
@mike805 @benroyce @peachfront
Does size really matter? Dead is Dead.
I've seen conflicts where a small makeshift group kicked US army's ass.
& not learning we are loosing one as we speak.
War, any war, is a matter of strategy & luck.
He wore his cape cuz he's not allowed to wear his hood. 🔼
If we can we'll do it by vote, if not we'll have to do it in the streets. At that point it won't be peaceful protests, It'll be far more violent than what we've see so far. Be Prepared.
nothing will happen in the streets without the vote
if the will of the people is clearly expressed and ignored, that's enough popular anger to do something
if no one votes, no one cares. if no one cares, a few will start something, and be quickly defeated. we might not even know what they were fighting for
there is no revolution without the vote first
false
in this world you get a choice between better or worse
that's it
that's your best deal. ever. anywhere
even in revolution, nevermind democracy. is revolution vanguards of ideological purity crushing all opposition? 😂 no. it's the same shit, just more blood
what you do is you pick better. you sustain. you iterate
eventually, you get good
if you never even try because perfect isn't on the table, by your absence, aggregate with other toxic idealists like you, malice wins
The Who got that way back in 1971 with Won't Get Fooled Again.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
i'm sure posting that made you feel powerful
thanks for lying about who i am, asshole
i'm on your side, and you reject me
you self-select for isolation
you *seek* irrelevancy and alienation
you see people playing the game called reality, and you hate it
regardless of if they represent better or worse?
ok
get that outrage flowing
enjoy yourself
but don't lie to yourself that your way will ever work for anything except tweaking your ego
someday, try to be *effective*
unc has a nice job. and no matter what he thinks he can't do much here. i don't hold it against him. hopefully the direct experience means unc's stomach turns enough that he'll do what he can elsewhere, at other times. and keep his job. inside men, and women, are good assets for any movement. information. to be deployed when the time is right, with a good plan
Vehicles to boycott.
Blue Oval City - Electric Ford vehicles
Nissan Smyrna Assembly Plant
- Nissan Pathfinder (2005–present)
- Infiniti QX60 (2014–present)
- Infiniti QX65 (2026–present)
- Nissan Rogue (2014–present)
- Nissan Murano (2020–present)
Spring Hill Manufacturing
- Cadillac XT5 (2017–present)
- Cadillac Lyriq (2023–present)
- Cadillac Vistiq (2025–present)
Toyota Motor Manufacturing Tennessee
-engine castings and hybrid axle assemblies
Volkswagen Chattanooga Assembly Plant
- Volkswagen Atlas (2017–present)
- Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport (2020–present)
And so, Tennessee joins the club of states I do not allow one cent of my money to go to, (if I can help it), with Texas and Florida.
I know there are a whole lot of good people in those states, but the ones in power need to feel the squeeze.
I'm looking at you too, Utah.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Will 🇯🇵
Gail Parenti
peachfront
ProScience 🇪🇺
ig 🏳️🌈
Solitha
Fazal Majid
Rosey
Puncha Not See
João Tiago Rebelo (NAFO J-121)
Sailor Anarres
Roger Ap Gwillian
Joe
MeaningfulBits
Sir Osis of Liver 🇨🇦 🇲🇽