It's refreshing, honestly, I'm so sick and tired of the constant gaslighting from the right and right wing media, it is not normal for us to be considering violating peoples charter rights because it's not going to do a damn thing to improve affordability or address the housing crisis.
It's not normal for stochastic terrorism to be so rampant, it's not normal for female politicians to be resigning at the rate they have during the last 10 years.
At some point we need to widely acknowledge the harassment campaign that is ongoing within this country, and how the CPC has weaponized mental illness by flooding our communities with misinformation paranoia and fear.
I don't think we want them doing their own research, they don't have the critical reading skills to do good research and will just end up pulled back down the rabbit hole of misinformation
Hey I’ve read lots of history books and I’ve been telling ignorant people to read them for years. They never listen because they think they’re more informed.
Yes, sure, but plenty of mentally ill people aren’t right wing.
Especially when there are other explanations like poor education and white supremacy/nationalism.
I would argue that the right isn’t weaponizing mental illness, they’re weaponizing angry straight white men (and their counterparts) who feel alienated in a society that caters less and less to them. That’s the whole premise of “anti-wokeness”
I explained poorly. I don’t at all think that all mentally ill people are right wing. I myself am a shining example of this.
I’m saying that fascists know that they can more easily recruit people with poor social ties to their cause, so they seek out those with mental illness, or those who are unemployed, or older and divorced, or what have you.
I think we agree more than we disagree. You’re right that fascists will prey on the vulnerable, the “useful idiots.”
I just take issue with “weaponizing mental illness” since most right wing people I’ve encountered don’t have mental illness.
Or maybe they do, narcissists, sociopaths, and psychopaths could arguably thrive in fascism.
But many right wingers view people with mental illness as less-than because they don’t add value to the machine.
Guess it’s a case of multiple things being true at the same time.
The far-right specifically targets the manosphere, law enforcement, the military, gamers, red pillers, etc, because they know that men who dislike feminism, whether it’s a group where this is evident, or an occupation that attracts hyper masculine men (men very attached to their “masculinity”).
Fearmongering about the supposed threat to masculinity from feminists, who are held responsible for everything from climate change policy to diversity and inclusion requirements, to transgender rights, high levels of immigration, etc.
Fascism is a reactionary movement against social progress that gains support during times of global instability. After WW1, 4 empires collapsed, there was mass poverty in many parts of Europe, and women were gaining the vote - perfect time for Mussolini to yap about Italian men needing to reboot their masculinity, for women to get make babies, and for intellectuals/communists to be squished, because a strong hierarchy is the bff of male dominance, and how can you oppress the “other,” without glorifying brutality and the feminine must be contained and must be viewed as inferior to the masculine, because a society that reveres qualities seen as feminine, like compassion and nurturing, is “weak.”
It’s why the rightwing calls the left “snowflakes.” Just not masculine enough.
Fascists weaponize people in society who deal with psychosis, anosognosia, and strong cognitive biases.
People who would otherwise rely on the community for support, but instead are turned against the community by conspiracies and misinformation.
Once isolated, it snowballs.
Posted the (translated) headline in quotes since it's not actually a statement of fact from the author, rather the piece calls out the right-wing gaslighting of the population with regards to what's currently happening.
[This](https://www-ledevoir-com.translate.goog/opinion/chroniques/815799/chronique-extreme-droite-existe-pas?_x_tr_sl=fr&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp) should work.
I just want to know if this is what the 1930's felt like around the world. You see it happening so many places and you're powerless to stop it for the most part.
I think it must be.
Good people can't do anything about it because they follow the rules. Everyone seems to be holding their breath and waiting for the first "punch" to be thrown. Who knows what that will look like, but I like to think that the response from non fascists will be the same as it was in the past.
We will fight like hell and they will eventually end up on the end of a rope after a trial at The Hague.
Fascists think good people will roll over, but they are very wrong.
That's one of the big force of fascism : using democracy against itself. They are acting like a parasite. At the end they take total control of their host.
This is why good people need to learn to recognize that breaking the rules like fascists do IS them throwing the first punch. We need to teach people that you don't have to treat them as if their actions are in good faith or deserve to be respected just because they haven't technically hit you. We have more than enough evidence of what they intend; they say CONSTANTLY they *literally want to kill us and put us in camps.*
The Nazis are *already here;* we need to ACT like it.
It must have felt that way because in 1940, Charlie Chaplin made a movie called The Great Dictator. In that film, he made [this](https://youtu.be/w8HdOHrc3OQ?si=FfUqyX8-Nk7TJnPo) speech. Listening to it today is surreal because what he was talking about is still happening today. This speech is as relevant as ever, and that's actually sad. It means we as a society haven't learned.
Probably not - societies weren't as interconnected as they are now. For most people, the only way you knew what was happening in another country was if you read about it in your country's newspaper.
Meanwhile, in reality, they're so close in age they could have attended high school together (81 vs 78).
Not that either of them are a good choice. Good luck, USA.
I wouldn't say that. There's a lot of things Biden could've done or can do now, especially since this new immunity ruling applies to him, to protect the US and the world from a Trump presidency.
The thing is that Biden won't do these things (because of "decorum" or some other bullshit reason) and acts like his hands are tied even though they aren't. The Democrats have ceded ground to Trumpist Republicans over and over and over again and will continue to do so, and their policy legacy (ie: neoliberalism) has helped create the material conditions for fascism to flourish.
Biden is the better option in that he's kicking the fascist can down the road four more years while continuing to allow it to gain power and influence and doing nothing to stop it. If that's not complicit, I don't really know what is.
If Biden wins, cool, you get Trump (or a newer, smarter, meaner Trump) in four years. It's really just Dictator now, or more-prepared Dictator in a few years. Biden and the Democratic party will continue to do nothing to halt the rise of fascism, continuing to only aid it's growth while pretending their hands are tied.
A vote for the current Democratic Party is a vote for a fascist in four years. There's no stopping the slide America started decades ago.
If you want to paint yourself into gloom and doom instead of paying attention to what’s been done in the last 4 years, which you clearly haven’t paid attention to any policy. You do you.
No, Biden is not exciting but he’s not just stalking fascism. Also, how Americans vote is what will stop fascism. If dems have an almost no seat majority moving forward, Americans are voting for the end of their democracy. You seem to want to egg that on for some reason.
I think anyone knows with a modicum of class consciousness knows, intuitively, that (Bill) Clinton, Obama et al fought to advance and protect ruling class interests at the expense of those of the working class. For decades, these politicians spoke out of both side of their mouths in a way that was transparent to everyone and helped create and sustain conditions that made Trump possible. I think most people, even those on the right, intuitively understand this and it's why people see politicians like Trudeau and Macron as being massive phonies.
I'm not saying that Trumpism is the product of working class anxiety but it does hijack this anxiety like far-right politics always does. Some people are susceptible to the far-right's tired and lazy scapegoats and easy answers when they experience a decline in their standard of living. The other piece of the puzzle is the political apathy that made people give up on electoralism and choose to not vote and this *is* purely the fault of neoliberal/right-wing Democrats like Biden, the Clintons and Obama. Biden started his term by saying "nothing will fundamentally change" when the vast majority of young people desperately *want* change.
Biden did concede to the working class a bit during his term with his pro-union policies and so forth, but it was far too little, far too late. I think the last chance to change course was with Sanders in 2016 but Sanders himself co-opted a lot of working class resentment and channeled it back into electoral politics, where it was run into the ground by corporate Democrats and the corporate media. Sanders is one of the only people in the US political establishment who actually puts working class interests ahead of the interests of ruling class donors.
Anyway, what's done is done and there's no going back. Fascism is capitalism in decay and neoliberalism was just the ideological manifestation of the decay this time around. It was the justification to claw back or undermine concessions given to the working class last century in the name of short term profits for billionaires, because that's the part of the cycle we're in. If you do this and completely sideline the left in the way the Democrats so deftly did, then you end up with a Trump or a DeSantis as your president, eventually.
Right, so unless you want to become the slave of king Trump, you vote for the milktoast candidate that’s surprisingly put out some pretty great pro worker policies in the last 3.5 years.
That seems like a much much much better choice than being slave to a king.
Thanks
There's only a limited number of times you can expect people to line up behind a lesser evil candidate to keep out a worse one. It was the case in 2016, 2020 and now it's the case again but with a lesser evil candidate who clearly has dementia or some other age related illness who refuses to step down. Not to mention the ongoing **genocide** he is largely responsible for (good luck convincing Muslims in Michigan to vote for Biden this time).
If Biden loses to Trump, it will be Biden's and the Democrats' fault. Not the voters.
Also I can't vote, I'm not American. Not that it would matter since the EC screws a lot of Americans out of their votes anyway.
>you vote for the milktoast candidate that’s surprisingly put out some pretty great pro worker policies in the last 3.5 years.
Far too little, far too late. Most working class people still saw their standard of living decline under Biden. Biden's policies needed to be a lot more radical than they were to change that trajectory. Someone like Bernie could've done it, not some decrepit neoliberal who is hated for the same reason establishment neoliberals are hated everywhere (look at France right now).
Also it's "milquetoast".
You mean somewhat less shitty. A candidate for the world's most powerful office who struggles to string together a sentence only looks good in comparison to the orange toddler because that goblin is such a poor choice.
He's not the best choice out of 330 million. He's the best choice of the 2 people running for the office right now. If you want better candidates get involved in the primaries for the next election after you elect Biden again. Biden has good people around and advising him. Trump has minions looking to pillage and enrich themselves at any cost. It's not even a contest between the two for which is the rational choice.
One isn’t gunning to be a king/dictator. Maybe that’s a pretty huge difference eh!
It’s a much much much much better option, unless you’re just really excited to be oppressed to the maximum.
You know Biden has a stutter, that not a knock on his mental acuity which you were salivating at knocking down. He’s fully capable of crushing a speech. Looks like much more than you ever could. So there’s that.
Huh? Did you read another thread and mix up username or something? Salivating? Really?
What's extra sad is that you and I are actually on the same side.
i mean, Biden wants to restrict trans healthcare for minors, keeps funding the genocide in palestine, refuses to reverse the insane decisions of the supreme court and also clearly has dementia
he's at best less bad, not "much much much much much better"
The best opportunity is when judges nominated by the opposing party or that doesn't vote the way you want to retires or dies in office. Trump got to swing the court with 3 nomination. Biden only got to replace one Democrat leaning judge.
The 2016 election was far more pivotal for the course of the us Supreme Court than the 2020 election. By 2020, the damage was already done.
He can't, I don't think the US have a mecanism similar to the notwithstanding clause, even if he did have congress.
Presidents can sway the court by nominating friendly judges like Trump did, but Biden hasn't even had the opportunity to replace a conservative judge.
Well, there are a couple major options. With a Democratic congress, they could create new law that overrules the courts interpretation of old law, making their decision obsolete. Right now, the Republicans control the house and effectively the senate since Manchin and Sinema became independents to caucus with the Republicans. The election could fix this.
Alternately, the founders decided on 5 Supreme Court Justices originally, representing the 5 original circuit courts, that was expanded to 7 when they added 2 circuit courts, to 9 when they expanded to 9, but it wasn't further expanded when the circuits increased to 11 and then 13. Theres nothing really stopping the potus from appointing 4 new judges right now. Biden is holding back because its a dangerous precedent, but Trump may even do that himself if reelected, to make even the moderate conservative justices obsolete.
SC should work in tandem with the legislative branch, like it does here. With yesterday's case, the SC said the president has implied immunity for official acts. The obvious solution is to codify what is "an official act" and not wait until the courts decide what that is. Now Biden doesn't have the House, so that's more difficult, but considering how controversial this is, he might be able to flip a few Republicans to help him. It might also be covered by his executive orders powers? I'm not sure. It's purpose is to clarify a SC decision so it might.
Biden is leagues better than Trump. Biden isn’t good- his legacy will 100% be the funding of a genocide, but Trump will not only do much worse on those same fronts but hurt even more people in other areas. It’s like comparing a city block burning down to a whole city burning down. Both suck. One is objectively worse.
There's a huge difference between a Liberal with bad policies and a literal fascist.
I know you commies think everyone to the right of you is the same, but your hyperbolic thinking is played out and silly.
Trump also clearly has dementia. Trump has said he’ll help Bibi genocide Palestinians. Trans rights won’t exist at all and will be actively prosecuted under Trump. The Supreme Court is also Trump and the republicans fault 100000%. So you’ve just illustrated my point for me. Biden is a much much much much better option.
They like losing. The democrats hate actually doing anything. And when they lose, they'll just blame their left Flank and maybe russia and not self interrogate their mistakes, same as 2016.
When they're out of power, they correctly decry how racist and cruel Trump's border policies are. Then, they implemented and continued the same policies themselves, even though they will get 0 votes for it.
And don't get me started about the DNC pushing out Bernie.
But the constant Rethugnican obstruction of everything positive he would have tried to do would have given him a fatal heart attack, I'm certain.
I agree. They can't squeeze any more out of the population, so the heavy hand comes to keep us in check while they get every last drop out of us.
People will fight back, they just won't fire the first bullet.
Propaganda is so powerful. We need to protest, and do peaceful demonstrations, and fight for the good things. Pro-equality protests. Pro-democracy demonstrations.
In the 60s and 70s, people fought for love. We need this type of movement. Hate is powerful, but love is more powerful still.
Social media, it's a hell of a drug. Bad actors, foreign and domestic, use it to cheaply and effectively launch massive disinformation campaigns, carefully targeted to enrage conservatives and to keep liberals away from the polls. And we won't do anything about it because of the 'but ma freedumbs!!' aholes and because those same bad actors launch 'censorship!!' campaigns the moment anyone suggests we make spreading bald-faced lies and hate accountable, immoral and unethical again.
They have been led there by Russia and China through social media fracturing our culture. It's not bizarre at all, it's fully planned.
Like why do you think China has its own version of TikTok, which is not simply censored like it's broader internet, but focused on building a unified cultural narrative.
Innuendo studios had a great video on this about four years ago where he talked about the onion theory of the Alt-Right, where something wouldn't be real - racism, nazism, white supremacy - it would just be a joke by perfectly normal people. It doesn't exist on its own, it's just there for a laugh, and everyone is making these jokes. Then after being flooded with "jokes" for a bit you start noticing that some people take it more seriously, and at that point you either reject it at which point it's just a joke, or you buy into it and suddenly it becomes a perfectly normal viewpoint, and you can tell is a perfectly normal viewpoint, because everyone around you is saying it.
That's how, to these people, extreme right views stop being extreme right. They're just regular conservatism, guys.
It raises the question, where is the left? There is a lot going on with social issues but where is the left in the overall picture of political power. A sad fact may be that the right is successfully silencing them. Terrorizing people into being afraid.
As left leaning politics grows older, the entrenchments deeper, it seems like there's hardly anyone new rising up in left wing politics. The Liberal and NDP parties are making the same mistakes the Democrats have. They should have line of succession in place right now. The Dems should have done it a decade ago so they wouldn't be running a man knocking on deaths door alongside the guy staying alive on pure hate at this point. The liberals wouldn't be stuck with Trudeau still as the cycle of voting people out continues. The NDP has been spinning their wheels with Jagmeet.
Where are the left?
Well, being involved in politics in a meaningful way - as a thought-leader, people-organizer, or propagandist - requires time and energy at minimum. It also often requires money.
That means, in the context of popular culture and the national conversation, the left relies on the voices of a smaller pool of folks. Kind-hearted trust fund kids, lawyers with a strong moral outlook, successful musicians/artists/actors, tenured humanities professors, the rare self-made man who understands survivorship bias. Those kinds of people.
And lately, those people are distracted, out of touch, and wholly unable to grasp the way the new media landscape works.
They’re distracted by identity issues. They saw that the boards they sit on, the proprietors of the establishments they frequent, and the people they employ were overwhelmingly white, and they have sought to rectify that. Which is noble, but it misses the fact that to the rest of us, class is the bigger barrier to equality. The advertising industry wonders why it’s so white, while predominantly hiring trust fund kids who can live in the city and spend the beginning of their career making no or very little money. An employer I know brought in a young muslim woman of colour to be “CEO for a day” as if they were opening doors for a kid from the projects, when as a student at Queen’s Commerce her odds of actually becoming a CEO were FAR higher than most.
They’re out of touch in that they don’t understand the modern working class struggle. When the poors are working in a dirty dangerous factory, living in company towns, being verbally or physically berated, with a gaggle of emaciated children at home, it’s easy to see the problems from afar. When the poors have smartphones, no kids, women have seemingly respected and well-compensated careers in healthcare and education, and loads of us are working from home sending emails, it’s hard to see the emotional devastation, the emptiness, the unfulfilled potential, and financial precarity. (I think this is why guys like Jagmeet are so focused on the very poor and offering means-tested solutions).
And the big one - they don’t understand how media works anymore. I’d argue nobody truly does, but the high-minded in particular struggle with it. Simple slogans, memes, rage-bait, leading questions, and vertical videos delivering those things are the only way you get through to the masses anymore. Your brain-rot nonsense needs to look like a Chad in comparison to the other side’s Virgin brain-rot.
So that’s where the left is… on the board of a charity that helps queer disabled refugees, wondering why seemingly non-disadvantaged people are so worked up about the cost of living, and thinking that well-reasoned academically-sourced arguments can beat billionaire funded nation-state engineered brain-rot being piped into the heads of everyone with eyes, a thumb, and a smartphone.
Labour isn't as unified as it once was so there's where half the left's gone, the other half is supporting the NDP or maybe the liberals doing their best in a country that blames everything on progressive actions.
It's refreshing, honestly, I'm so sick and tired of the constant gaslighting from the right and right wing media, it is not normal for us to be considering violating peoples charter rights because it's not going to do a damn thing to improve affordability or address the housing crisis. It's not normal for stochastic terrorism to be so rampant, it's not normal for female politicians to be resigning at the rate they have during the last 10 years. At some point we need to widely acknowledge the harassment campaign that is ongoing within this country, and how the CPC has weaponized mental illness by flooding our communities with misinformation paranoia and fear.
The ones screaming that people need to read a history book, are the ones who have never even seen one.
The ones telling you to "do your own research" are the ones who should.
I don't think we want them doing their own research, they don't have the critical reading skills to do good research and will just end up pulled back down the rabbit hole of misinformation
Their idea of research is to watch a video chock full of rightwing propaganda/conspiracy theory.
Hey I’ve read lots of history books and I’ve been telling ignorant people to read them for years. They never listen because they think they’re more informed.
Mentally ill person here, I wouldn’t chalk it up to mental illness. Fascism isn’t a mental illness.
They’ve weaponized ignorance then.
No, but fascists prey on the lonely and desperate, which frequently includes people with mental illnesses.
Yes, sure, but plenty of mentally ill people aren’t right wing. Especially when there are other explanations like poor education and white supremacy/nationalism. I would argue that the right isn’t weaponizing mental illness, they’re weaponizing angry straight white men (and their counterparts) who feel alienated in a society that caters less and less to them. That’s the whole premise of “anti-wokeness”
I explained poorly. I don’t at all think that all mentally ill people are right wing. I myself am a shining example of this. I’m saying that fascists know that they can more easily recruit people with poor social ties to their cause, so they seek out those with mental illness, or those who are unemployed, or older and divorced, or what have you.
I think we agree more than we disagree. You’re right that fascists will prey on the vulnerable, the “useful idiots.” I just take issue with “weaponizing mental illness” since most right wing people I’ve encountered don’t have mental illness. Or maybe they do, narcissists, sociopaths, and psychopaths could arguably thrive in fascism. But many right wingers view people with mental illness as less-than because they don’t add value to the machine. Guess it’s a case of multiple things being true at the same time.
The far-right specifically targets the manosphere, law enforcement, the military, gamers, red pillers, etc, because they know that men who dislike feminism, whether it’s a group where this is evident, or an occupation that attracts hyper masculine men (men very attached to their “masculinity”). Fearmongering about the supposed threat to masculinity from feminists, who are held responsible for everything from climate change policy to diversity and inclusion requirements, to transgender rights, high levels of immigration, etc. Fascism is a reactionary movement against social progress that gains support during times of global instability. After WW1, 4 empires collapsed, there was mass poverty in many parts of Europe, and women were gaining the vote - perfect time for Mussolini to yap about Italian men needing to reboot their masculinity, for women to get make babies, and for intellectuals/communists to be squished, because a strong hierarchy is the bff of male dominance, and how can you oppress the “other,” without glorifying brutality and the feminine must be contained and must be viewed as inferior to the masculine, because a society that reveres qualities seen as feminine, like compassion and nurturing, is “weak.” It’s why the rightwing calls the left “snowflakes.” Just not masculine enough.
Don't forget every unmedicated schizophrenic person, who they directly cater to with whackadoodle conspiracy theories.
They prey on misogynists and racists and homophobes. Some of them are lonely and desperate, many just feel their views have been legitimatized.
Fascists weaponize people in society who deal with psychosis, anosognosia, and strong cognitive biases. People who would otherwise rely on the community for support, but instead are turned against the community by conspiracies and misinformation. Once isolated, it snowballs.
Posted the (translated) headline in quotes since it's not actually a statement of fact from the author, rather the piece calls out the right-wing gaslighting of the population with regards to what's currently happening.
Is there a way to view the piece in English? On mobile and not getting any option to translate, etc.
[This](https://www-ledevoir-com.translate.goog/opinion/chroniques/815799/chronique-extreme-droite-existe-pas?_x_tr_sl=fr&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp) should work.
Thank you ❤️
Societies across the globe are in danger of sleepwalking straight into fascism. It's bizarre and terrifying.
I just want to know if this is what the 1930's felt like around the world. You see it happening so many places and you're powerless to stop it for the most part.
I think it must be. Good people can't do anything about it because they follow the rules. Everyone seems to be holding their breath and waiting for the first "punch" to be thrown. Who knows what that will look like, but I like to think that the response from non fascists will be the same as it was in the past. We will fight like hell and they will eventually end up on the end of a rope after a trial at The Hague. Fascists think good people will roll over, but they are very wrong.
That's one of the big force of fascism : using democracy against itself. They are acting like a parasite. At the end they take total control of their host.
This is why good people need to learn to recognize that breaking the rules like fascists do IS them throwing the first punch. We need to teach people that you don't have to treat them as if their actions are in good faith or deserve to be respected just because they haven't technically hit you. We have more than enough evidence of what they intend; they say CONSTANTLY they *literally want to kill us and put us in camps.* The Nazis are *already here;* we need to ACT like it.
It must have felt that way because in 1940, Charlie Chaplin made a movie called The Great Dictator. In that film, he made [this](https://youtu.be/w8HdOHrc3OQ?si=FfUqyX8-Nk7TJnPo) speech. Listening to it today is surreal because what he was talking about is still happening today. This speech is as relevant as ever, and that's actually sad. It means we as a society haven't learned.
Probably not - societies weren't as interconnected as they are now. For most people, the only way you knew what was happening in another country was if you read about it in your country's newspaper.
But you knew what was happening in your own country.
“in danger of” we’re already there
Yeah, the US Supreme Court yesterday just gave a literal thumbs-up green-light for a Trump dictatorship, specifically.
The US has a chance to avoid it but 'Biden is old so I'll vote for Trump ' will do it.
Meanwhile, in reality, they're so close in age they could have attended high school together (81 vs 78). Not that either of them are a good choice. Good luck, USA.
One is clearly a much much much much much much better choice than the other.
I wouldn't say that. There's a lot of things Biden could've done or can do now, especially since this new immunity ruling applies to him, to protect the US and the world from a Trump presidency. The thing is that Biden won't do these things (because of "decorum" or some other bullshit reason) and acts like his hands are tied even though they aren't. The Democrats have ceded ground to Trumpist Republicans over and over and over again and will continue to do so, and their policy legacy (ie: neoliberalism) has helped create the material conditions for fascism to flourish.
So Biden is still the much much much much better option? Unless you love being ruled by an orange dictator who will never secede power again.
Biden is the better option in that he's kicking the fascist can down the road four more years while continuing to allow it to gain power and influence and doing nothing to stop it. If that's not complicit, I don't really know what is. If Biden wins, cool, you get Trump (or a newer, smarter, meaner Trump) in four years. It's really just Dictator now, or more-prepared Dictator in a few years. Biden and the Democratic party will continue to do nothing to halt the rise of fascism, continuing to only aid it's growth while pretending their hands are tied. A vote for the current Democratic Party is a vote for a fascist in four years. There's no stopping the slide America started decades ago.
If you want to paint yourself into gloom and doom instead of paying attention to what’s been done in the last 4 years, which you clearly haven’t paid attention to any policy. You do you. No, Biden is not exciting but he’s not just stalking fascism. Also, how Americans vote is what will stop fascism. If dems have an almost no seat majority moving forward, Americans are voting for the end of their democracy. You seem to want to egg that on for some reason.
That's why I think fascism already won. They are just not taking their prize yet. It's just inevitable at this point.
I think anyone knows with a modicum of class consciousness knows, intuitively, that (Bill) Clinton, Obama et al fought to advance and protect ruling class interests at the expense of those of the working class. For decades, these politicians spoke out of both side of their mouths in a way that was transparent to everyone and helped create and sustain conditions that made Trump possible. I think most people, even those on the right, intuitively understand this and it's why people see politicians like Trudeau and Macron as being massive phonies. I'm not saying that Trumpism is the product of working class anxiety but it does hijack this anxiety like far-right politics always does. Some people are susceptible to the far-right's tired and lazy scapegoats and easy answers when they experience a decline in their standard of living. The other piece of the puzzle is the political apathy that made people give up on electoralism and choose to not vote and this *is* purely the fault of neoliberal/right-wing Democrats like Biden, the Clintons and Obama. Biden started his term by saying "nothing will fundamentally change" when the vast majority of young people desperately *want* change. Biden did concede to the working class a bit during his term with his pro-union policies and so forth, but it was far too little, far too late. I think the last chance to change course was with Sanders in 2016 but Sanders himself co-opted a lot of working class resentment and channeled it back into electoral politics, where it was run into the ground by corporate Democrats and the corporate media. Sanders is one of the only people in the US political establishment who actually puts working class interests ahead of the interests of ruling class donors. Anyway, what's done is done and there's no going back. Fascism is capitalism in decay and neoliberalism was just the ideological manifestation of the decay this time around. It was the justification to claw back or undermine concessions given to the working class last century in the name of short term profits for billionaires, because that's the part of the cycle we're in. If you do this and completely sideline the left in the way the Democrats so deftly did, then you end up with a Trump or a DeSantis as your president, eventually.
Right, so unless you want to become the slave of king Trump, you vote for the milktoast candidate that’s surprisingly put out some pretty great pro worker policies in the last 3.5 years. That seems like a much much much better choice than being slave to a king. Thanks
There's only a limited number of times you can expect people to line up behind a lesser evil candidate to keep out a worse one. It was the case in 2016, 2020 and now it's the case again but with a lesser evil candidate who clearly has dementia or some other age related illness who refuses to step down. Not to mention the ongoing **genocide** he is largely responsible for (good luck convincing Muslims in Michigan to vote for Biden this time). If Biden loses to Trump, it will be Biden's and the Democrats' fault. Not the voters. Also I can't vote, I'm not American. Not that it would matter since the EC screws a lot of Americans out of their votes anyway. >you vote for the milktoast candidate that’s surprisingly put out some pretty great pro worker policies in the last 3.5 years. Far too little, far too late. Most working class people still saw their standard of living decline under Biden. Biden's policies needed to be a lot more radical than they were to change that trajectory. Someone like Bernie could've done it, not some decrepit neoliberal who is hated for the same reason establishment neoliberals are hated everywhere (look at France right now). Also it's "milquetoast".
Yes, but comparatively better doesn’t mean “good”. It just means “less shit”.
It means you still get to live under a democracy instead of a monarchy of trumps. Pretty clear choice, like I said.
You mean somewhat less shitty. A candidate for the world's most powerful office who struggles to string together a sentence only looks good in comparison to the orange toddler because that goblin is such a poor choice.
He's In His 80s and also has had a stutter his entire life which a lot of people seem to forget when they rag on his tripping on his speech.
Fair point, but how can the best possible choice for president be an 80-year old man? Out of what, 330 million possible choices?
He's not the best choice out of 330 million. He's the best choice of the 2 people running for the office right now. If you want better candidates get involved in the primaries for the next election after you elect Biden again. Biden has good people around and advising him. Trump has minions looking to pillage and enrich themselves at any cost. It's not even a contest between the two for which is the rational choice.
I never said it was. In fact I thought I made my opinion pretty clear but here we are.
One isn’t gunning to be a king/dictator. Maybe that’s a pretty huge difference eh! It’s a much much much much better option, unless you’re just really excited to be oppressed to the maximum.
Notice how I said the orange goblin is such a poor choice. I fail to see how you could possibly get an endorsement for Trump out of that.
You know Biden has a stutter, that not a knock on his mental acuity which you were salivating at knocking down. He’s fully capable of crushing a speech. Looks like much more than you ever could. So there’s that.
Huh? Did you read another thread and mix up username or something? Salivating? Really? What's extra sad is that you and I are actually on the same side.
i mean, Biden wants to restrict trans healthcare for minors, keeps funding the genocide in palestine, refuses to reverse the insane decisions of the supreme court and also clearly has dementia he's at best less bad, not "much much much much much better"
How would Biden reverse the decisions of the Supreme Court?
The best opportunity is when judges nominated by the opposing party or that doesn't vote the way you want to retires or dies in office. Trump got to swing the court with 3 nomination. Biden only got to replace one Democrat leaning judge. The 2016 election was far more pivotal for the course of the us Supreme Court than the 2020 election. By 2020, the damage was already done.
But how does Biden reverse the court decisions? That was the criticism point I was responding to.
He can't, I don't think the US have a mecanism similar to the notwithstanding clause, even if he did have congress. Presidents can sway the court by nominating friendly judges like Trump did, but Biden hasn't even had the opportunity to replace a conservative judge.
Well, there are a couple major options. With a Democratic congress, they could create new law that overrules the courts interpretation of old law, making their decision obsolete. Right now, the Republicans control the house and effectively the senate since Manchin and Sinema became independents to caucus with the Republicans. The election could fix this. Alternately, the founders decided on 5 Supreme Court Justices originally, representing the 5 original circuit courts, that was expanded to 7 when they added 2 circuit courts, to 9 when they expanded to 9, but it wasn't further expanded when the circuits increased to 11 and then 13. Theres nothing really stopping the potus from appointing 4 new judges right now. Biden is holding back because its a dangerous precedent, but Trump may even do that himself if reelected, to make even the moderate conservative justices obsolete.
SC should work in tandem with the legislative branch, like it does here. With yesterday's case, the SC said the president has implied immunity for official acts. The obvious solution is to codify what is "an official act" and not wait until the courts decide what that is. Now Biden doesn't have the House, so that's more difficult, but considering how controversial this is, he might be able to flip a few Republicans to help him. It might also be covered by his executive orders powers? I'm not sure. It's purpose is to clarify a SC decision so it might.
Did you read the article? Your words play straight in to the hands of the fascist propaganda we read every day. Stop being their patsy.
Biden is leagues better than Trump. Biden isn’t good- his legacy will 100% be the funding of a genocide, but Trump will not only do much worse on those same fronts but hurt even more people in other areas. It’s like comparing a city block burning down to a whole city burning down. Both suck. One is objectively worse.
Still much much much much much better. The bar is that low.
There's a huge difference between a Liberal with bad policies and a literal fascist. I know you commies think everyone to the right of you is the same, but your hyperbolic thinking is played out and silly.
Trump also clearly has dementia. Trump has said he’ll help Bibi genocide Palestinians. Trans rights won’t exist at all and will be actively prosecuted under Trump. The Supreme Court is also Trump and the republicans fault 100000%. So you’ve just illustrated my point for me. Biden is a much much much much better option.
They like losing. The democrats hate actually doing anything. And when they lose, they'll just blame their left Flank and maybe russia and not self interrogate their mistakes, same as 2016. When they're out of power, they correctly decry how racist and cruel Trump's border policies are. Then, they implemented and continued the same policies themselves, even though they will get 0 votes for it.
And don't get me started about the DNC pushing out Bernie. But the constant Rethugnican obstruction of everything positive he would have tried to do would have given him a fatal heart attack, I'm certain.
It's because of capitalism's failure just like in the 1930s
I agree. They can't squeeze any more out of the population, so the heavy hand comes to keep us in check while they get every last drop out of us. People will fight back, they just won't fire the first bullet.
Capitalism must grow, it’s its imperative to function, but it can’t grow anymore.
sleepwalking? they're actively choosing it
Propaganda is so powerful. We need to protest, and do peaceful demonstrations, and fight for the good things. Pro-equality protests. Pro-democracy demonstrations. In the 60s and 70s, people fought for love. We need this type of movement. Hate is powerful, but love is more powerful still.
Social media, it's a hell of a drug. Bad actors, foreign and domestic, use it to cheaply and effectively launch massive disinformation campaigns, carefully targeted to enrage conservatives and to keep liberals away from the polls. And we won't do anything about it because of the 'but ma freedumbs!!' aholes and because those same bad actors launch 'censorship!!' campaigns the moment anyone suggests we make spreading bald-faced lies and hate accountable, immoral and unethical again.
They have been led there by Russia and China through social media fracturing our culture. It's not bizarre at all, it's fully planned. Like why do you think China has its own version of TikTok, which is not simply censored like it's broader internet, but focused on building a unified cultural narrative.
It's the [world's shittiest franchise](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Democracy_Union).
Innuendo studios had a great video on this about four years ago where he talked about the onion theory of the Alt-Right, where something wouldn't be real - racism, nazism, white supremacy - it would just be a joke by perfectly normal people. It doesn't exist on its own, it's just there for a laugh, and everyone is making these jokes. Then after being flooded with "jokes" for a bit you start noticing that some people take it more seriously, and at that point you either reject it at which point it's just a joke, or you buy into it and suddenly it becomes a perfectly normal viewpoint, and you can tell is a perfectly normal viewpoint, because everyone around you is saying it. That's how, to these people, extreme right views stop being extreme right. They're just regular conservatism, guys.
"We dont exist, because if you knew we did you wouldnt vote for us!"
It raises the question, where is the left? There is a lot going on with social issues but where is the left in the overall picture of political power. A sad fact may be that the right is successfully silencing them. Terrorizing people into being afraid. As left leaning politics grows older, the entrenchments deeper, it seems like there's hardly anyone new rising up in left wing politics. The Liberal and NDP parties are making the same mistakes the Democrats have. They should have line of succession in place right now. The Dems should have done it a decade ago so they wouldn't be running a man knocking on deaths door alongside the guy staying alive on pure hate at this point. The liberals wouldn't be stuck with Trudeau still as the cycle of voting people out continues. The NDP has been spinning their wheels with Jagmeet.
Where are the left? Well, being involved in politics in a meaningful way - as a thought-leader, people-organizer, or propagandist - requires time and energy at minimum. It also often requires money. That means, in the context of popular culture and the national conversation, the left relies on the voices of a smaller pool of folks. Kind-hearted trust fund kids, lawyers with a strong moral outlook, successful musicians/artists/actors, tenured humanities professors, the rare self-made man who understands survivorship bias. Those kinds of people. And lately, those people are distracted, out of touch, and wholly unable to grasp the way the new media landscape works. They’re distracted by identity issues. They saw that the boards they sit on, the proprietors of the establishments they frequent, and the people they employ were overwhelmingly white, and they have sought to rectify that. Which is noble, but it misses the fact that to the rest of us, class is the bigger barrier to equality. The advertising industry wonders why it’s so white, while predominantly hiring trust fund kids who can live in the city and spend the beginning of their career making no or very little money. An employer I know brought in a young muslim woman of colour to be “CEO for a day” as if they were opening doors for a kid from the projects, when as a student at Queen’s Commerce her odds of actually becoming a CEO were FAR higher than most. They’re out of touch in that they don’t understand the modern working class struggle. When the poors are working in a dirty dangerous factory, living in company towns, being verbally or physically berated, with a gaggle of emaciated children at home, it’s easy to see the problems from afar. When the poors have smartphones, no kids, women have seemingly respected and well-compensated careers in healthcare and education, and loads of us are working from home sending emails, it’s hard to see the emotional devastation, the emptiness, the unfulfilled potential, and financial precarity. (I think this is why guys like Jagmeet are so focused on the very poor and offering means-tested solutions). And the big one - they don’t understand how media works anymore. I’d argue nobody truly does, but the high-minded in particular struggle with it. Simple slogans, memes, rage-bait, leading questions, and vertical videos delivering those things are the only way you get through to the masses anymore. Your brain-rot nonsense needs to look like a Chad in comparison to the other side’s Virgin brain-rot. So that’s where the left is… on the board of a charity that helps queer disabled refugees, wondering why seemingly non-disadvantaged people are so worked up about the cost of living, and thinking that well-reasoned academically-sourced arguments can beat billionaire funded nation-state engineered brain-rot being piped into the heads of everyone with eyes, a thumb, and a smartphone.
Labour isn't as unified as it once was so there's where half the left's gone, the other half is supporting the NDP or maybe the liberals doing their best in a country that blames everything on progressive actions.