Skip Navigation
United States | News & Politics @lemmy.ml ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆ @lemmy.ml

The state of US political discourse

277

You're viewing a single thread.

277 comments
  • All politicians seek to gain power and uphold the unjust, undemocratic, hierarchical power structures that constrain individual freedom -- power structures that are ultimately backed by the monopolization of violence through the police.

    It's just that one party also wants to use those structures to surveil women's bodies, ban books, delegitimize science, push religion, and extract capital from natural resources and workers without restriction.

    • Same policies, different PR approach. Democrats didn't codify Roe v. Wade, for example, because that would have taken away one of their main selling points. Best you can do is vote different in each election so they have it harder to form a coherent strategy.

    • If you can't even draw the line at enabling a genocide, there's no point having a discussion with you.

      • If everybody else is the else is the asshole, mb you should look in the mirror.

        • don't shame me for being willing to ignore a genocide is a hell of a take bud

          • Again, what do you want me to do? Obviously if I could choose someone who would impart a weapons embargo and trade sanctions against Israel, I would. But the choices I have in front of me are a person who, while publicly calling for a ceasefire, sends weapons to an apartheid state that is currently genociding the Palestinian people, and another who will not only certainly still send weapons to that state, but also strengthen ties with it, and urge them to "finish the job." Do you want me to stay home, and give the latter option a better chance of winning?

            edit: Like idk who's out here praising Kamala Harris and the rest of the Democratic party for their soft-as-shit stance on Israel, but I still gonna vote for her, because Trump and Republicans wouldn't only be worse for the Palestinian people, they'd be worse for the US

            • Go sign up for an org like PSL, organize your community. Educate people. Go read up on how the MAS movement in Bolivia started.

              • Dude, if this was your way to try to educate and get people to organize, you've gotta do way better. I'm sorry. You can't essentially accuse folks of supporting genocide and then turn around and try to convert them to Communism lol

                You gotta meet them where they are and introduce it softly to them. They're not going to understand your anger toward the state for all it's injustices, because they haven't seen them yet. You're fuckin scaring em off

                Besides, I'm not gonna join a political party that is ultimately going to be just another top down hierarchical structure. I'd prefer the decision making in my commune to be bottom-up.

                • The party you're voting for is committing a literal genocide in which many thousands of people have been massacred already. You have absolutely no shame. There is no educating people like you.

                  Besides, I’m not gonna join a political party that is ultimately going to be just another top down hierarchical structure. I’d prefer the decision making in my commune to be bottom-up.

                  What you're really saying there is that you prefer people who do genocide to continue to hold power while you fantasize about your utopia.

                  • What the fuck are you on about? What do you want me to do? Dissolve the state myself?

                    I'm fucking communist already, just not your hierarchical brand. But I'm still gonna vote, because the US can still swing further to the right.

                    How do you expect to get people on your side if you say shit like

                    You have absolutely no shame. There is no educating people like you.

                    Jesus.

                    • Nah, you're not a communist, you're a LARPer. There are no historical examples of this non hierarchical brand of communism actually achieving anything. Therefore, you don't actually want to do anything practical to address the problems, and you are content to let the system keep running as it is. The actual tangible action you take is to reinforce the system by giving your vote for the genocide.

                      • First of all, who are you to tell me what I believe? If I believe that living in a commune-style societal arrangement would be better than market or trade-style arrangement, who are you to tell me that I actually don't believe that? Perhaps I'm not a communist like yourself -- I'm guessing you want something that preserves some level of social stratification -- but to me that is equally unacceptable. If we believe that all people are equal, why are we always trying to establish these top-down decision making structures, in which one person has arbitrary power over another?

                        Second of all, there are actually numerous examples in the archaeological and anthropological records of communities that lived in just that for hundreds of years -- hierarchy-less societies that had little notion of private property. Two books on the subject are Debt: The First 5000 years by David Graeber and The Dawn of Everything, by Graeber and David Wengrow, both of which are backed by academic rigor. This isn't to say anarchist societies are impermeable to outside forces -- obviously those anarchistic societies no longer exist, so you could say that they "failed." But I'm sure you, yourself, would be a bit offended if I told you state communism has never been successful historically, when in fact one of the main reasons it hasn't is because the West has been at war with state communism as an ideology for the past century and a half. Still, these anthropological examples at the very least expand our understanding of what is politically possible, and you saying "it has never worked, so it will never work," is just as silly as you saying "capitalism won, and therefore it must be the correct form of societal and economic arrangement."

                        Third of all, and I repeat myself, who are you to say that I'm content with how things are, I'm not doing anything practical to address problems, and that I'm giving a vote for genocide? The only way to not vote for a genociding politician in the upcoming election is to not vote at all, which is doing less than I'm already doing, and likely only going to help the party even further right. Not to mention, you don't fucking know me, or know what levels of organization I have or haven't been a part of. And furthermore, why would I be propelled to further organize, when people like you are so unpleasant to discuss politics with? Why would I want to collaborate with you when you talk like this?

                        We're on the same side, but -- Jesus -- you're making me wish we weren't. Your entire demeanor in this thread is what prevents liberals from realizing what you, yourself, are trying to convince them -- that the American Democratic party are part of the problem.

                        For the sake of leftists, please do better.

                        edit: Oh and you're a mod of this page? For the love of god dude please improve your rhetorical skills. I understand your frustration, but American liberals are entrenched in a two party system that forces them to choose between two evils. Alienating them from the getgo is not a good strategy

You've viewed 277 comments.