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Coldplay kiss-cam flap proves we’re already our own surveillance state: And we’re the ones building it.
Coldplay kiss-cam flap proves we’re already our own surveillance state
Comment: And we’re the ones building itBrandon Vigliarolo (The Register)
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Change my mind
Capitalism is a tool to maximize profit. Whoever thought it was a good idea to let capitalism have influence on laws so that they can maximize its profit was a big fool.
What do you expect? Capitalism, a tool, has by definition no morale. Let it decide politics to increase profit and you end up with that kind of shit society we have today.
Don't blame the hammer, when you hit your thumb. Also, don't let the hammer decide where to make the biggest dent.
Can we please start again focusing on the people? Without people there is no society, and there is no market to increase profits.
Start using capitalism and free markets like a tool. Want more renewable and clean energy? Make rules and see the magic of capitalism in making the best out of it.
Instead we let capitalism decide what should be done next and suffer the consequences. It's as easy as that.
Unfortunately capitalism not only create the rules, they also decide what is news and influence societies views. And that's why OPs picture is as it is.
Fuck socialism, am I right guys?!
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I agree with this 100%.
Capitalism is exceptional at finding ways to provide value when there is a new market. The issue comes when capital gets accumulated and concentrated in the hands of a few.
We've seen it dozens of times throughout history where a healthy merchant class with lots of opportunity for upwards mobility ends up in an oligarchy as the market becomes saturated then monopolies, duopolies, and cabals (guilds) form.
The state needs to use the "P" and "L" in PESTEL forces (Political, Economical, Social, Technological, Environmental, Legal) that businesses (from single to large multinational) to identify new markets that need investment.
An examples would be new clean renewable electricity and one way of giving preferrence to this green energy by minimally taxing profts on this energy sold in the national market or international market via grid-interconnect networks ("Gridternets" if you will) with a clear plan to increase the tax to a normalised amount slowly overtime as the green share of the market approaches 100%.
It also has to be used to more aggressively dissuade markets that are more harmful than good now. An example of this is dirty power.
Coal, Oil, and Gas have done wonders for increasing people's quality of life because they unlocked a new energy density previously unattainable. Now we have alternatives that are by every metric better; more efficient and less polluting.
Therefore, these industries need to be taxed out of existence by using a logarithmic energy carbon tax that keeps increasing year on year. Corruption needs to be rooted out like a weed as much as possible using a politically independent organ of the state to keep it healthy.
Then there's markets that are stagnant in some state of capture: crumbling infrastructure, food retailer hypermarkets, etc. Windfall suprise taxes on incumbents and grants / zero interest loans for new competitors would reignight competition in those markets and the additional tax revenue can be used to fix the crumbling infrastructure these markets rely on.
And finally, I'd like to see a strong preference for co-operatives where ownership in a free market is much more evenly distributed by making them the least taxed commercial entities with businesses that have a higher concentration of ownership are taxed more through some sort of profit tax multiplier.
It's much harder for a business to act in a pure profit motive to the detriment of society if the employees have more ownership as it allows morality to be expressed through political power within this business. These employees also then benefit from the profit share as well which gives stability and upward mobility in exchange for their labour.
There, that's three proposals that could help towards decarbonisation, investing in underfunded infrastructure, and reducing inequality.
I am not a policy expert and there's bound to be problems with each of those proposals that I haven't thought of, but we have so much more to gain by working cooperatively together to build a system that aims to better humanity as a whole by using the best tools correctly and safety.
Until we reach an energy density which unlocks technology that enables things like a resourceless economy (a la Star Trek luxury space communism), we're stuck with the tools of money and capital as the ways to transfer value.
I personally can't wait for the day where "reputation" rather than money becomes the currency of society, I am willing to work with the tools we have right now to build that future, and I have faith that others are willing to build it with me.
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Democrats
* Retain marriage rights for gay couples.
- Expand legality of recreational drugs.
- Free food for schoolchildren.
- Tax credits for families with children.
- Subsidized for free childcare.
- Expand electric car charging nationally.
- Subsidize sustainable fuel sources.
- Fact based education standards.
- Stop racism in policing.
- Expanded healthcare subsidies.
- Preserve democracy.
Republicans
- Being gay or trans should be illegal.
- White supremacy is great!
- Christianity as national religion.
- Privatize the post office and weather service.
*Eliminate the EPA, Department of Education.
- Defund IRS.
- Disenfranchise nonwhites and women.
- Antivax agenda.
- Expand fossil fuel use.
- Eliminate worker safety laws.
- Eliminate collective bargaining and union rights.
- Defunding science research.
- Deregulate crypto.
- No regulations on AI.
- No recognition of child's educational or bodily autonomy rights.
- Eliminate hate crime laws except for straight white men.
- End democracy, install fascist dictatorship.
But yeah, they are totally the same, right guys? RIGHT!?!
Fact based education standards.
Teaching a bunch of lies about American exceptionalism and how imperialism is actually good isn’t what I’d call “fact based”
Stop racism in policing
Right like how democrats in nearly all major cities increased police funding and almost none passed any meaningful reform.
Expanded healthcare subsidies
But don’t remotely consider universal healthcare
Preserve democracy
Preserve the status quo which I wouldn’t call a democracy. A democracy enacts the will of the people, democrats don’t even have a democratic primary for their own party.
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Teaching a bunch of lies about American exceptionalism and how imperialism is actually good isn’t what I’d call “fact based”
That's a right thing, not a left thing.
Right like how democrats in nearly all major cities increased police funding and almost none passed any meaningful reform.
A lot of left leaning places pushed consent decrees, for example:
chicagopolice.org/community-po…
But don’t remotely consider universal healthcare
The list time Democrats had a filibuster-proof trifecta it was for about 2 months and they passed Obamacare. Since then Republicans have nullified about 40% of it.
Preserve the status quo which I wouldn’t call a democracy.
Except by definition it is a democracy. Like it or not, most people vote for the status quo.
most people vote for the status quo
Not even getting into the whole voter participaton thing here. I'm just curious does that mean you consider Trump the status quo? Because he won the popular vote in the most recent election. Because if so i agree. Trump is business as usual for the US. Just going mask off. Just surprised to see a liberal admit as much.
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You've certainly whitewashed Dems quite a lot. You're fundamentally not wrong though. As bad as the Dems are, and they are very bad, MAGA is undeniably worse. If we had some other electoral system, we could safely explore other options. But we don't. We have FPTP, which makes it a binary choice between bad and worse.
And worse is just so, so much worse. That doesn't make bad good, but it's still a binary choice. You'd have to be evil or stupid to try to muddy the waters so that bad seems close enough to worse that people don't feel the urgency of choosing bad to prevent worse.
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because they fundamentally believe in democracy.
Westerners will go on and on about how North Koreans are brainwashed to worship their leaders, then say shit like this.
fixing things without violence
Apparently doing the modern holocaust doesn't' count as "violence" to white supremacist BlueMAGA fascists.
Literally fucking half of the shit you attribute to democrats.
Stop racism in policing.
Start here. This is a fucking lie and you're practically a nazi for whitewashing them
Not allowing choke holds isn't superficial. Body cams aren't superficial. They cut down on police use of force and citizen complaints. They also cost money. Better trained police costs money. Sending out social workers with police on domestic calls costs money ,and makes a huge difference in the quality of policing.
The only substantial reduction in policing cost is cutting back on the drug war and most left leaning states are doing that. (Reducing numbers of police would do it but most states have similar per capita number of police as Europe).
There is no doubt we have a long way to go on police reform, but to say there has been no progress simply isn't true.
I'm sorry but you're extremely too credulous and unthinking.
I already explained why and how bans on chokeholds are superficial. Are your senses so dull that you didn't notice or are you being deliberately dishonest and lazy by not addressing it?
Body cams are even more glaring an example. It's extremely fucking common knowledge that they turn them off whenever they want. Do you think you're being strategic by ignoring that fact? Because the effect in reality is it makes you sound like an idiot. Your entire premise is undermined.
You just straight up have no idea what's happening in the world around you.
slate.com/news-and-politics/20…
"More training costs money"
I Learned to Think Like a “Warrior Cop”
The course from a prominent police trainer taught me to treat neighborhoods like battlegrounds—and to always be ready to kill.Justin Peters (Slate)
"The perfect is the enemy of the good."
Yes, some cops are going to use chokeholds regardless of bans. Some people are going to commit murder regardless of it being illegal too. That doesn't mean we shouldn't bother having laws against murder. The fact that chokes are not reduced to zero by chokehold bans does not negate that it reduces the number of chokes used. In the same way, the fact that cops will sometimes shut off their cams does not negate the times that they don't turn off the cams and it allows victims to seek justice.
I am aware of Killilogy and Warrior Cop training. Cops receiving the wrong training is an entirely separate issue from the cost of improved training.
Finally, please refrain from personal attacks as this detracts from your arguments and violates community guidelines.
I think you dropped this:
Democrats & Republicans
* Bombed kids
* Tortured innocent people
* Increased the surveillance state
* Took money from the poor and working class, and gave it to their rich friends
* Spent billions on wars, while claiming that they couldn't afford to fix our healthcare or housing problems
* Boasted about deporting more people than Republicans
* Backed a Genocide
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flawed argument, this is the real world and you do have to compare options.
Making an imaginary secret third option to win the fight is reserved for kids in the playground
blah blah blah very cultured very much words
do you want a standing ovation for eating a dictionary for breakfast or do you intend to face reality
How bad is your fucking vocabulary if words like "pragmatic" are too fancy for you.
Jesus, I knew fascists were anti-intectual, but getting angry at words the average middle schooler would know is a new level.
Voters: "Please stop bombing children", "Please stop backing a genocide", "Please stop handing out our taxes to your rich friends", "Please stop making healthcare the number one reason for bankruptcy", "Please stop sending people to torture prisons", "Please make minimum wage a livable wage"
"...less than ideal party..."
I think you might have a warped view of what "less than ideal" means
I hate it but, until March or April (depending on the poll) a majority of the country still supported Israel.
pewresearch.org/short-reads/20…
Democrats regularly raise taxes on the rich and Republicans regularly raise them. Democrats regularly push for prison reform and things like cashless bail. Republicans regularly push for harsher sentencing and reductions in per-prisoner spending. Compare a map of state minimum wages to their political alignment.
If you want Democrats to act on these things more, we have to get obstructionist Republicans out of office.
I wouldnt say a party of genocide supporters who love to kick progressives in the face and dont seem to give 2 shites what their voters want and need, and who have a wildly eroding base and 28% approval doesnt qualify as a:
good choice
But I guess if thats what you think I'm not going to change your mind.
Democrats still have 23 governorships, control 37% of state legislatures, and 40% of state chambers. Six of the ten most populous states have 2 Democrat senators, three have Republican senators, and one is split. The house is split 219 Republican to 212 Democrat, but the Democrats represent a much larger portion of the population.
The point is, Democrats are far from being out of the game. Nobody else comes close to having a chance of beating Republicans in an election.
In the US is needed that also enter left wing parties, which represent the basic rights of the people, which currently don't exist, because they are "anti-american communists", this is the mantra with which they create the fear in the people to vote it.
In the same moment when Netanyahu travel to the EU, in the same moment he will get arrested
No. Please don't make claims about things you don't know about. It makes it sound like you're lying deliberately.
But the change is on the way.
Maybe in your imaginary dream land that I assume you were referring to with your comment about the EU arresting Netanyahu, not in the real world though. Please try and remember we are talking about the real world.
Certainly not all EU members will arrest him, but the most will. The ICC statement is clear, the problem for some countries is the USA and beeing a NATO member (sadly) at the same time Israel is supported by the USA. This is because some countries are still hesitant, not for other reasons.
The real world is this, and because more and more countries want to turn the EU sovereign respect the US. Trumps BBB and Tariffs for the EU, probably will accelerate this process in August 1, in the manner of selfdefense.
The International Criminal Court's arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu remain valid and binding on all EU member states after judges rejected Israel's appeal to withdraw them on July 16, 202512.EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell emphasized that implementing the warrants "is not optional" for EU states3. However, European countries are divided on enforcement:
Countries confirming they would arrest Netanyahu:
- Netherlands: "If he comes to Dutch soil, he will be arrested," said Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp4
- Ireland: Prime Minister Simon Harris stated Netanyahu would "absolutely" be arrested5
- Spain: The Foreign Ministry confirmed Spain "will comply with its commitments"5
- Belgium: Initially said it would arrest Netanyahu but later Premier Bart De Wever stated "practical considerations prevail over ethical considerations" and doubted any European country would make the arrest6Countries refusing or hesitant:
- Hungary: Prime Minister Viktor Orbán called the warrants "shameful" and invited Netanyahu with guarantees against arrest7
- Germany: Government spokesperson said it's "hard to imagine arrests could be made"1
- France: Claims Netanyahu has "immunities" from prosecution8
- Italy: Foreign Minister Tajani called Netanyahu's arrest "unfeasible"9The warrants accuse Netanyahu of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including using starvation as a method of warfare in Gaza between October 2023 and May 202410. While all 27 EU states are legally obligated to enforce ICC warrants, political considerations have created a rift in their response3.
- Politico - Netanyahu arrest warrant: Where can he still go in Europe? ↩︎ ↩︎
- Straits Times - ICC judges reject Israel's request to withdraw Netanyahu arrest warrant ↩︎
- EurActiv - ICC arrest warrant for Netanyahu 'binding' on member states ↩︎ ↩︎
- Channel 4 - Netanyahu arrest warrant: Europe split over ICC ruling ↩︎
- Newsweek - Netanyahu Arrest Warrant: Full List of Countries That Will Comply with ICC ↩︎ ↩︎
- The Hindu - Is Netanyahu Above the Law? ↩︎
- Sweden Herald - Netanyahu Heads to EU Despite ICC Arrest Warrant ↩︎
- Washington Examiner - EU says arresting Netanyahu 'not optional' as members waiver on warrant ↩︎
- i24 News - ICC Upholds Arrest Warrants Against Benjamin Netanyahu & Yoav Gallant ↩︎
- Al Jazeera - ICC prosecutor warned to drop Netanyahu case or be 'destroyed' ↩︎
ICC prosecutor warned to drop Netanyahu case or be ‘destroyed’: Report
British-Israeli defence lawyer at International Criminal Court linked to a Netanyahu adviser delivered message to Khan.Al Jazeera
Don't remember the last time the Democrats had military storming our streets and black bagging US residents en masse and deporting them to war zones like South Sudan or Libya despite those people having zero ties to those countries.
This reeks of fucking shitpost right-wing propaganda.
Edit: here come all the "but the US/CIA did all this fucked up stuff to other countries under Dems, too!"
JFC, the current "president" who is GOP literally yells about wanting to deport/arrest political opponents, censor TV personalities (e.g. Colbert, Fallon, etc), openly calls to suppress political opposition in voting, openly supports ignoring the courts when they interfere with his blatantly unconstitutional actions, etc etc .
Yes, the Dems aren't fucking innocent, but to pretend they're the same as a party that's openly trying to "take back the Nazi word" is fucking insane.
war zones like South Sudan or Libya despite those people having zero ties to those countries.
Damn I wonder why Libya is like that!
You absolute ghouls literally don't see foreigners as human
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the Democrats had military storming our streets and black bagging US residents en masse
The Posse Comitatus Act is what generally prevents military from "black bagging US residents" and leaves that job to police.
Texas was the first state to allow for the national guard to assist in immigration efforts back in 2021. Democrats did nothing to stop, delay or prevent the expansion of those powers which were further pushed and nationalized in 2025.
The other loophole is invoking the insurrection act. While Biden did not involve it it was repeatedly threatened during the Gaza war protests, however the protests never got too riotous for the Dems to risk damaging their image and the local police were perfectly capable of documenting and black bagging people for it.
The cases of Kahlil and Mahdawi where Trump attended to deport individuals participating in those protests was made possible by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. That specific bill was introduced by the Democrats, passed the Democratic majority House and Senate, Vetoed by Democratic president Truman before being overridden by the house/Senate.
You are correct that they are "not the same", but stating that the shield of your enemy is your friend, just because it isn't a sword is fucking insane.
People had literally burned down police stations and mass looting was occurring. Their police force was completely overrun. Don't act like it was remotely the same thing.
I have several friends in Minneapolis that are very progressive. There were tons of people who were legit scared during periods of that for numerous reasons. It wasn't "acceptable," but what the fuck else do you do when law and order begins to completely breakdown?
Maybe reform the law and order that regularly lets Police murder citizens because they feel like it?
You know, how the protestors demanded before their peaceful protest got beaten up in order to escalate violence to deligitimize the demands and present the violent police as necessary.
It wasn't "acceptable," but what the fuck else do you do when law and order begins to completely breakdown?
if it isn't acceptable it isn't acceptable period. "this was the only way" literally means that you think it was acceptable.
I put it in quotes because I wasn't meaning it to be so exact.
But whatever, I'm done arguing with enlightened centrists.
They're not the same. The Dems stand back and shake their fist/wring their hands when the Repubs have power and run roughshod over them. Then when the Dems have power they allow their efforts to be thwarted by the Repubs and gesture helplessly when in fact they could just push things through themselves.
Also the DNC is a malfunctioning toilet that costs elections, implying that they think it's better to have a pro-establishment Repub in power than a Dem maverick.
/s
Public services, labor rights and even basic rights, like health and education are a bad joke in the US and only available if you have money. Now with Trump it goes even worse.
Hostility to Russia, Iran & China
Now we have to guess which country's propaganda machine is responsible for this post.
It's Russia. It's always Russia.
It’s Russia. It’s always Russia.
As if your own country hasn't been filling your head with propaganda from the day you were born 🙄
Oh, but that's different. We're the good guys!
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Everything i don't like is "russian".
Blaming problems on an external enemy to distract from internal problems and also to assemble the people behind a "strong man" leader.
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No, this stuff is Russian:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet…
rollingstone.com/politics/poli…
Why are people on Lemmy so keen on denying this simple fact?
That Uplifting Tweet You Just Shared? A Russian Troll Sent It
Here's what Russia's 2020 disinformation operations look like, according to two experts on social media and propaganda.Darren Linvill (Rolling Stone)
There’s a world of difference between “Russia has propaganda” and “this post and anything like it that criticises the West is Russian propaganda”
Also, Wikipedia isn’t a reliable source.
BlueAnonsense.
- IT Pro: Cambridge Analytica models were exaggerated and ineffective, [UK Information Commissioner’s Office] claims
- Wall Street Journal: Mueller Doesn’t Find Trump Campaign Conspired With Russia
- Jacobin: Democrats and Mainstream Media Were the Real Kremlin Assets
- Washington Post: FEC fines DNC, Clinton for violating rules in funding Steele dossier
- Washington Post: Russian trolls on Twitter had little influence on 2016 voters
- Jacobin: It Turns Out Hillary Clinton, Not Russian Bots, Lost the 2016 Election
- Matt Taibbi: Move Over, Jayson Blair: Meet Hamilton 68, the New King of Media Fraud The Twitter Files reveal that one of the most common news sources of the Trump era was a scam, making ordinary American political conversations look like Russian spywork
- Jacobin: Why the Twitter Files Are in Fact a Big Deal On the Left, there’s been a temptation to dismiss the revelations about Twitter’s internal censorship system that have emerged from the so-called Twitter Files project. But that would be a mistake: the news is important and the details are alarming.
- Matt Taibbi: CIA "Cooked The Intelligence" To Hide That Russia Favored Clinton, Not Trump In 2016
- Aaron Maté: Under Trump, the CIA is still covering up its Russiagate fraud
- Matt Taibbi: Note on New Trump-Russia Disclosures Thanks to explosive new document releases, the Russiagate hoax is now exposed, commencing a new era that will be about accountability for the guilty
- Chris Hedges: Why Russiagate Won’t Go Away The cynical con the Democratic Party and the F.B.I. carried out to falsely portray Donald Trump as a puppet of the Kremlin worked, and continues to work, because it is what those who detest Trump want to believe.
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No, my comment was about Russia influencing the world into trying to not hate Russia, Iran and China.
Then the guy above me replied something about the Iraq war.
Motherfucker, what the hell did that even mean?
No, my comment was about Russia influencing the world into trying to not hate Russia, Iran and China.
Russia is brainwashing people into not hating countries the U.S. tells you to hate ooooooo
I'm not from the USA. Russia is absolutely trying to create problems in the USA though, and the rest of the west:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet…
rollingstone.com/politics/poli…
That Uplifting Tweet You Just Shared? A Russian Troll Sent It
Here's what Russia's 2020 disinformation operations look like, according to two experts on social media and propaganda.Darren Linvill (Rolling Stone)
There's a world of difference between "Russia has propaganda" and "this post and anything like it that criticises the West is Russian propaganda"
Also, Wikipedia isn't a reliable source.
Wikipedia isn't a reliable source.
luckily it cites actual sources unlike some russian trolls i know of
Then you should cite those sources.
russian trolls
Warmed over Judeo- Bolsherik conspiracy
Then you should cite those sources.
if you had taken half a second to read what i wrote instead of copy pasting from your tankie .txt file of pre made responses, you'd realize the sources are cited in wikipedia
Warmed over Judeo- Bolsherik conspiracy
look, the russian troll even went to school and knows some history of his mother land!
if you had taken half a second to read what i wrote instead of copy pasting from your tankie .txt file of pre made responses, you’d realize the sources are cited in wikipedia
And if you had taken half a second to read what I wrote, rather than copy pasting the standard reddit shitlibs insults, youd realize that you should cite those sources, not expect other people to dig for them.
But we all know you didn't actually check the sources did you? You just trust it because Wikipedia said it.
look, the russian troll even went to school and knows some history of his mother land!
You're not beating the neo-nazi accusations with this one.
Naturally, the common people don’t want war. . . but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.
Fucking bootlicker.
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How am I a "bootlicker" because I acknowledged Russian propaganda?
I'm not from the USA. Russia is absolutely trying to create problems in the USA though, and the rest of the west:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet…
rollingstone.com/politics/poli…
You're the fucking bootlicker for denying it. Lick those Russian boots. Tell me how the sunflowers taste.
That Uplifting Tweet You Just Shared? A Russian Troll Sent It
Here's what Russia's 2020 disinformation operations look like, according to two experts on social media and propaganda.Darren Linvill (Rolling Stone)
I never denied that Russia has propaganda. I do deny your assumption that anyone who isn't slobbering over US boots must automatically be licking Russian boots, that anyone who doesn't do like you do and fall in lockstep behind hating whoever the people in power tell us to hate must be a traitor or spy.
Keep denouncing anyone who's antiwar for their lack of patriotism, you're making Goering proud.
I do deny your assumption that anyone who isn't slobbering over US boots must automatically be licking Russian boots
You just posted a quote from Goering in response to me suggesting that a post that decries both parties for "Hostility to Russia, Iran and China" is probably Russian propaganda.
You sir, are the bootlicker.
Yes, because you're claiming that anyone who doesn't fall in line with your Orwellian "five minutes hate" is a traitor.
No, I'm not. I just said that this post was likely Russian propaganda. That's it.
Maybe you should engage in some critical reflection instead of repeating whatever imperialist genocidal powers tell you to think.
No, I’m not. I just said that this post was likely Russian propaganda. That’s it.
Because the post criticized the fact that American citizens get zero say over foreign policy, you assumed it was "likely Russian propaganda."
Maybe you should engage in some critical reflection instead of repeating whatever imperialist genocidal powers tell you to think.
I do, you should try it yourself sometime, bootlicker.
Maybe you should engage in some critical reflection instead of repeating whatever imperialist genocidal powers tell you to think.
Look in the mirror, mate
This meme seeks to get an emotional response and it's good at it. There's some hidden truth there.
But both parties are nowhere the same and wouldn't have a problem with such a two party system in different countries.
But they're only parties, with all that brings. They alone won't make the US a better country.
We may have got here eventually anyway, but things are a lot worse for Americans right now because of Trump's Republicans. Let's not lose sight of that when complaining about the shit they have in common.
There's also nobody who might emerge out of the right who would bring something that will make life for everyone better. Only the Democrats have a chance of doing that and engineering a better system that might eventuallyundermine their own political hegemony. Would they without pressure? Of course not. But the right will never even be pressured to do anything like that intentionally by it's base, almost by definition basically.
Only the Democrats have a chance of doing that and engineering a better system that might eventuallyundermine their own political hegemony.
No they don't
But the right will never even be pressured to do anything like that intentionally by it’s base,
The Democrats couldn't be pressured to stop doing genocide even at the cost of losing the election
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I'm listening, I just think you're wrong.
And I brought up that issue specific to show that the Democrats also "will never even be pressured to do anything like that intentionally by it’s base"
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The hallmark progressive achievements made in this country, many that still exist today (to varying degrees ofc) were a result of third party sweat, blood and tears. Literally.
I recommend reading about the social/workers rights movements of the early 1900s. The Progressive Party led by Roosevelt, The Bull Moose Party with social reformers like Jane Addams and Florence Kelly, the Socialist Party of Eugene Debs.... all of these were most prominent in fighting for and ultimately producing a cluster of social welfare, social insurance reforms, women's suffrage, workers rights/5 day work week, etc.
It was the dedication, pressure and will to not fall in line trying to change the two-party duopoly from within but to build their own coalitions, their own movements on the outside, and thus the mainstream parties were eventually forced to inscribe the populus demands into legislation.
All that to say, healthy third parties are a good thing. It builds actual pressure on your legislators. Politicians wont work on your behalf when they know you're voting for them anyway – just line their pockets with money from the bourgeois they actually legislate for. Seeking the change you wish to see via third party can and has produced tremendous gains for the working class.
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Why do you think change from within impossible?
That's exactly what Trump and MAGA did to the Republican party.
Violent revolution brings change but rarely the kind of change most of those who engaged in it actually wanted.
I would have much preferred a connections Republican party over what we got.
If revolutions bring ultimately successful, examples?
I know there are some, with the obvious one being the American Civil War that ended slavery. But, wars come with an intense cost to human life, and sounds be a list resort. Precisely because most around the world have not been successful, and have lead to things like military rule.
Regardless of how you feel about the GOP, the extent it is allowed to change is the extent to which the ruling class can continue to have their interests served. The DNC is the same in this respect, neither can go against the system dominated by private ownership, but they can slide around as long as they adhere to that.
As for successful revolutions, many. Algeria, Haiti, Cuba, China, Russia, Vietnam, etc. All have delivered much better results for their people post-revolution as compared to pre-revolution. Revolution happens because it's necessary.
Listen to yourself. You're saying the Democrats are our only hope yet they also don't listen.
Democrats do listen, but only to those with power. Before anything can change for the better we need power for ourselves.
All these reactions prove what many already knew, you deserve it and there's very little people to sympathise with.
The thing is that your asking tankies to be pragmatic about policy. They would rather let the Palestinian Genocide continue and works lose more rights than to do anything helpful in the near or medium term. They just aren't serious about the issues.
Its easy for the .ml types to cry and wait for a perfect policy or candidate. They aren't going hungry, nor under seige of any kind.
The thing is that your asking tankies to be pragmatic about policy.
This “pragmatism” is how we got here in the first place.
Its easy for the .ml types to cry and wait for a perfect policy or candidate.
We’re not looking for a perfect candidate under bourgeois democracy, because we know it will never happen. Previously:
The US government was never not captured by the bourgeoisie, because the US was born of a bourgeois revolution[1]. The wealthy, white, male, land-owning, largely slave-owning Founding Fathers constructed a bourgeois state with “” against the “tyranny of the majority”. It was never meant to represent the majority—the working class—and it never has, despite eventually allowing women and non-whites (at least those not disenfranchised by the carceral system) to vote. BBC: [Princeton & Northwestern] Study: US is an oligarchy, not a democracy
Study: US is an oligarchy, not a democracy
What in the World: A new report finds that an elite few dominate US policy, the human error behind South Korea's ferry tragedy, and Algeria's uneasy status quo election.What in the world? (BBC News)
We’re not looking for a perfect candidate under bourgeois democracy, because we know it will never happen. Previously:
In either case you're not doing shit and you're not a serious movement. Tankies don't vote to minimize harm, nor do they vote to expand the progressive wing.
You all are effectively the ratchet democratsyou laughs at because you ultimately won't show or organize for anything. Tankies aren't serious people.
"Bourgeois Democracy": What Do Marxists Mean By This Term?
By Scott Cooper Republished from Left Voice . In 1947, Winston Churchill famously said that “democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.Scott Cooper (Hampton Institute)
I’m aware of your trolling, so I won’t entertain you much more
In other words, you're wrong and you know it, but you're too huffy to admit it, so you're going to try to pretend like it's too below your dignity to actually respond to someone who disagrees with you. You're just so self evidently right, after all.
Oh I remember you, you were that loser who started stalking me because I called out your genocide denial.
I guess your ban expired
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It don't though, it just rises the price of energy because the gas still flows, even more than before, just from USA, Norway and yes, sill Russia, even more of it, but through middlemen. The sabotage also caused significant ecological catastrophe in the Baltic.
About the sabotage itself you have three versions available:
- Truth, that USA bombed it, possibly with participation of Norway (note above paragraph, curiously the very same countries that gained the most on it, qui bono, eh?)
- USA version, where Ukraine did it, despite lacking means
- Official German/EU version, that is no version, because both above versions means that Germany is either vassal (ver1) or war ally (ver2) of country which attacked Germany in a biggest peacetime sabotage in German history.
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- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.youtube.com
Republicans just convinced Europe that the USA cannot be trusted anymoreFYI: in the EU we don’t play the “it was Biden vs it was Trump” game. We stop at “it was the US”.
What?
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Ok? The significance of the clip I posted was not that it was Biden saying it but what he said he would do (and very likely did). Why did that prompt you say, "FYI: in the EU we don’t play the “it was Biden vs it was Trump” game. We stop at “it was the US?”"
The reason I posted that clip was to establish the reason why I believe the US blew up the pipeline. Yes, it happens to be Biden in that clip, but you're the one who started talking about distinguishing between Trump and Biden and then about not distinguishing between Trump and Biden. I'm just talking about the US.
The only thing I can think of is that you're trying to preemptively shift the NordStream thing away from Biden and onto the US in general as a way of deflecting blame from Biden. But again, I just brought it up to establish US policy on NordStream, not specifically to bash Biden. If it's not that, then I just straight up don't understand you at all.
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Why would I want to deflect blame from Biden? I’m telling you that I’m a European and I don’t care who’s in charge in the US or which president did what.
Why did you feel the need to say that you don't care about internal US politics when I didn't say shit about internal US politics?
All I did was post a clip of the US president promising that he'll stop NordStream if Russia invaded Ukraine, despite not having the legal authority to do so. Then, of course, Russia invaded Ukraine, and the NordStream pipeline mysteriously got stopped (could be anyone, really!)
because that sabotage was very convenient for every party
It certainly wasn't convenient for Russia or Germany.
You mentioned that I may want to deflect the responsibility from Biden. -> I don’t have such interests.
Again, why did you feel the need to say that you don’t care about internal US politics when I didn’t say shit about internal US politics?
Whoever did it
Yeah, could be Russia's biggest geopolitical rival that directly benefited both politically and economically by forcing Europe to buy their gas instead and which said that it would do that exact thing under those exact conditions and easily have the means to do it, or it could've been anyone, really.
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In seiner Stellungnahme gegenüber „t-online.de“ führte Reimer weiter aus, dass er Brosius-Gersdorf, deren Wahl vor einer Woche aufgrund mangelnder Unterstützung innerhalb der Unionsfraktion ausgesetzt worden war, als Aktivistin wahrnehme, „die über eine Neuinterpretation des Grundgesetzes ein deutsches ,Roe v. Wade‘ erreichen will“. Darin sehe er einen „Bruch mit der gesamten bisherigen Rechtsprechung des Bundesverfassungsgerichts zu Art. 2 Abs. 2 GG“. Jener Artikel besagt: „Jeder hat das Recht auf Leben und körperliche Unversehrtheit. Die Freiheit der Person ist unverletzlich. In diese Rechte darf nur auf Grund eines Gesetzes eingegriffen werden.“
die-tagespost.de/politik/katho…
Katholischer Rechtswissenschaftler ergänzte Brosius-Gersdorfs Wikipedia-Eintrag um Passage zum Lebensschutz
Er habe den Eintrag der Juristin ergänzt, da dieser zuvor „unterbelichtet, ungenau und unbelegt“ gewesen sei, so der Leiter des Cusanuswerks, Ekkehart Reimer.Meldung (Die Tagespost)
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Colonialism and genocide in Italy in the 70s?
Sounds like you have been living under a rock. Italy had already been a member of NATO by 1970, which already makes them complicit in things like the Lebensraum genocide in Palestine.
You claim that you are from Europe, but you are evidently very ignorant of its history.
NATO is a defensive alliance
This is hilarious.
It has, apparently, been very 'defensively' committing the genocide in Palestine, and it so very 'defensively' invaded Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Vietnam, Korea, etc. /s
Only people with no knowledge of history and no knowledge of what has been happening this century think that it's a defensive alliance.
Also, what was/is it a defensive alliance of and from? Are you going to argue that it hasn't been an alliance defending colonial metropoles and settler-colonies from justice?
Read the basics at least
You should follow your own advice and learn about what it has been doing.
NATO always had a UN mandate to intervene
'We gave ourselves permission to commit genocides and do invasions, so all of this is okay, akshully'.
It has always been a force for colonialism. NATO has killed millions in its invasions, including the recent ones into Iran, Syria, Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
If you want to argue that NATO ignores 9 out of 10 conflicts and intervenes only where it’s convenient for the West, that’s a fair point
No. Reread what I have said. My issue is not that NATO does not 'intervene' where it should. My issue is that NATO is fundamentally a colonial empire. It is a perpetrator of at least one genocide that is currently ongoing, and it is the most prolific invader in the world.
but accusations of genocide are simply ridiculous
Literally Palestine.
Just to name an example of your BS, Israel attacked the UNIFIL forces because they held their defensive position in Lebanon
In what way does that contradict any of what I have said? Pissrael is de facto a part of NATO (arguing that Pissrael could have ever been as successful in its Lebensraum project without NATO is ridiculous), so that's literally an example of yet another invasion by NATO.
NATO is not even present in Palestine
Both Pissraeli and USian troops have been on the ground there recently.
NATO has also done stuff like the bombing of Yemen and Iran recently, as well as the completion of the invasion of Syria just within the last 12 months.
Israel collaborates with NATO
Pissrael is de facto a part of NATO.
Are NATO members also responsible for the violations of human rights in Egypt? What about those in Tunisia?
Yes. Yes.
You are clearly full of ideology and less of facts.
You are literally claiming that the invasions of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, and Afghanistan by NATO did not happen.
Going to note that you are yet to dispute any of what I have been saying with facts. You have only been throwing baseless accusations at me.
I claim you don’t know the difference between individual countries and NATO
I do. Not sure how the fact that those are individual countries/states contradicts the facts that they engage in collaborative colonialist efforts and that they are also subservient to the US - the de facto head of NATO.
and you are so full of yourself that you can’t even search where NATO actually operated and where didn’t.
I have literally pointed out a bunch of places where NATO has operated.
I stop here
You should, in fact, stop supporting and denying colonialism.
I stop here, feel free to continue telling yourself you’re right.
“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre
I recommend providing sources next time youre making the comperison between nazi terror cells doing pogroms and some revolutionary groups doing targeted assasinations of fascist politicians. Provide a source that the assassination of Aldo moro was financed or otherwise materially supported by the ussr or shut up. Because I found nothing of the sort.
Either way still not remotely comparable to what the wannabe-dirlewangers did and still do:
Maybe you missed the part where Trump decided to “maybe” withdraw the US from NATO
So, has the US withdrawn from NATO or is it a part of NATO?
Also, it would be nice if the US withdrew from NATO.
switched to a Mafia style for military protection
The rest of NATO has been a bunch of glorified provinces of the US since NATO's inception.
threatened to reduce military capacity in the EU
That would be great, actually. NATO in general should both be prevented from invading elsewhere, and be forced to answer for its already-committed crimes.
We will replace the US military shield by 2030. Google it if you don’t believe it
Glorified USian provinces in Europe will not be going independent any time soon.
This is hilarious.
I know this because I have not been living under a rock, and have actually studied some history of the past couple of centuries, and not because I am a worshipper of any of your overlords.
EDIT: How would that even make sense, considering that the US does not try to claim that the rest of NATO are its obedient subjects? Did you not think your response through before you posted it?
“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre
No, that one belongs in the shared space too. It was Biden who literally bombed the infrastructure that made it possible for Germany to meet its energy needs without reliance on buying US oil/lng. Who froze all foreign assets that belonged to Afghanistan, essentially stealing billions of dollars that belonged to the Afghani people? Biden. Who froze all Russian assets and tried to make it illegal on a global scale to do business with "the bad guy" state? Biden. And while you may hate Russia if you're a typical propagandized westerner, that doesn't mean most of the rest of the world, particularly global south countries, do as well.
From 3 years ago:
"With Russia losing access to its foreign currency reserves, a message has been sent to all countries that they can’t count on these money stashes to actually be theirs in the event of tension. As such, it may make less and less sense for global reserve managers to hold dollars for safety, given that they could be taken away right when they’re most needed. Russia isn’t the first country to get this lesson in recent months. The Biden administration’s move to seize Afghanistan’s cash assets and prevent their access by the Taliban was another recent signal that reserves can be frozen."
That was all thanks to the Democrats during the Biden regime. Trump is putting as many nails into that coffin as he can, but we shouldn't pretend Republicans are the only ones responsible for showing the world that the dollar is dangerous and the US cannot be trusted.
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Europeans may be a bit slow on the uptake, considering much of Europe is still imperial core and it's all still the global north, but just because European liberals have been struggling to let go of the propaganda that the U.S. is a benevolent force for "order" in the world doesn't mean that it is suddenly Trump alone that has irrevocably damaged U.S. soft power as well as a positive image of the U.S. in Europe.
and the nonsense of vaccines and Medicare
More examples of issues that were major in the "discourse" under Biden (and earlier). Come on.
Some people and companies are actively seeking alternatives to American products, we are talking about an European tech stack for the first time, a multi billion program just started to replace US in defence, there are funds specifically designed to attract American scientists, the EU is coming for startups too, and intense chats with Canada, China and others try to replace the US market.
And a lot of this takes longer planning than just the 6 months Trump has been in office again. You may not have been aware of it, but many were (I may not be a European, but I have been speaking with plenty of them especially since February of '22). The U.S. has been advertising the fact that its is tightening its leash on its vassals (you Europeans) for a while now, which in turn is unintentional but unconcealable admission that its empire is struggling. Those with eyes to see it, and there are many, most certainly have been watching since long before Trump. I won't argue that Trump hasn't ramped it up in terms of how blatant it is with his overt buffoonery and open fascism (as opposed to the Democrat's false pretense of not being fascist), but to say it's something that the Democrats do not share in, or haven't deeply contributed to just as Trump has, well you're burying your head in the sand.
I honestly don't mean offense by this because it is so heavily dependent on what you hear in your MSM, but you and those who think this is new are slow on the uptake when compared to Europeans who closely follow this sort of thing, and Europe on the whole considering its relationship to US imperialism is going to be slow on the uptake compared to the rest of the world. And if we're talking about the rest of the world beyond Europe already knowing these things, well let me just say: BRICS+. But honestly, if you think that even European leaders didn't take a major fucking lesson from the blowing up of Nordstream, you're... well, I guess just living under the same rock most of the population who gets their news from major outlets are living under - still doesn't change the fact that the absolute dismantling of U.S. soft power and power projection (as "defenders" or as a country with whom deals and promises will be kept) is 100% a bipartisan project.
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One characteristic of the European politics is that it’s slow. Painfully slow.
The glacial pace of European politics helps prove my point. The fact that the pace is slightly quickening may or may not be because of Trump - like I said, I certainly wouldn't argue against his undeniable increasing of the already rapidly deteriorating global image of the US as being trustworthy, but the whole point is that that deterioration was already happening when he got into office. Your original position is that it was not, that the Europeans feeling that the US cannot be trusted anymore and that the image of the dollar's supremacy was waning, that all of that rests entirely on the shoulder of the Republicans when that is just demonstrably not true.
That said, you are free to think that with Biden it was all the same (or even worse).
You're shifting the goalposts a bit there, since I never claimed it was "the same" only that it was already clearly well underway, which I have maintained throughout. Yes, I am free to recognize the objective reality of the situation, just as you are free to, for whatever odd reason, push against it to mistakenly insist that Trump is some sudden and unique outlier in the collapse of US image and power projection when that has demonstrably been going on since before him and will continue after, even if he is ramping up the rate of deterioration.
you imply that mine is totally wrong.
As opposed to fucking what? Implying their own opinion is wrong? Implying that two mutually exclusive things are simultaneously true? The very definition of having an opinion means you think opposing opinions are wrong!
European here and before this last Trump term nobody cared about the US, nor knew what people did over there.
I'm also European and this is bullshit lmao
“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre
Who froze all Russian assets and tried to make it illegal on a global scale to do business with "the bad guy" state? Biden. And while you may hate Russia if you're a typical propagandized westerner, that doesn't mean most of the rest of the world, particularly global south countries, do as well.
So you condone genocide as long as it's done by "communists". got it.
- Noam Chomsky: Russia is fighting more humanely than the US did in Iraq
- Russians Welcomed as Liberators in Many Eastern Ukrainian Cities Contrary to Western Media Depictions
- UN report on 2014-16 killings in Ukraine highlights “rampant impunity”
- U.N. Court to Rule on Whether Ukraine Committed Genocide
Russians Welcomed as Liberators in Many Eastern Ukrainian Cities Contrary to Western Media Depictions - CovertAction Magazine
People of liberated territories likely to vote in favor of joining Russia in forthcoming referenda—just like Crimeans did in 2014 [Sonja van den Ende has been reporting on the war in eastern Ukraine and has received protection from the Russian milita…Sonja Van den Ende (CovertAction Magazine)
Then I guess Chomsky and the UN OHCHR are Russian trolls as well.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banderit…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organisa…
being a “communist” country does not excuse your actions
What the fuck are you talking about?
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I credit Dems with making Mitt Romney’s healthcare plan worse, by removing the public option - the thing that would have actually improved the lives of poorer people. Instead, we simply shoveled some 30mil Americans right into the pockets of predatory insurance companies.
The only silver lining from that legislation was preventing them from denying care due to pre-existing conditions, and that point has been an all out battleground ever since.
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Can you not see that the people who are disagreeing with you are merely suggesting that it is not as black and white as it being the democrats fault, or the republicans fault, that perhaps there’s more to it than which corporate/aipac/billionaire donor football team you like?
The donor class owns both teams by the way.
It’s the corporate dems and the corporate republicans who are holding back progress… because of legal bribery - campaign donations….
By your logic, democrats blocked 100% of Biden’s agenda while he was in office.
Biden literally accomplished nothing during his administration, and even the dumb stuff that was passed has been clawed back already.
It's not fair to say that he accomplished nothing! Bombing kids, backing a genocide, taking money from the working-class and poor, and giving it to his rich friends, helping to build out the border wall, increasing funding for the police and surveillance state...
All that work aint easy.
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Biden also implemented tariffs to China tho.
Neoliberalism shouldn't be seen as a doctrine but as a stage of capitalism, in which policies are shaped by the current context, with the intention of mantaining the current status quo. Free trade made sense for imperialist core countries because its industries were much ahead than the rest of the world, thus free trade made it easier to conquer international markets. Now that China has caught up, free trade fundamentalism is no longer the correct strategy.
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but they still use their power differently.
Well...Do they though? On that pesky genocide (sorry I forgot--lets not call it 'genocide', right, that makes dems queasy-- how about we just say some people seem to have dropped dead), Bidens pretend "push back" and "negotiations" and "red lines" and "plans to build a dock to get food in and then hand it to the Israelis just like every single other land border crossing" all show that the dem centrists are simply mercenaries paid by zionists. mercenaries who take the time to put up some theatre for their evil so people dont have to acknowledge it, but the exact same outcomes happen either way. Most of the deaths and most of the building demolitions happened under Biden. When you and I start trying to parse if it was slightly faster under Trump, aren't we missing the point?
We lost Roe under Biden, who famously never supported a womans right to choose until right before he got tapped to be VP. Strange coincidence?
Appointing Merrick Garland as AG and then pretending to be powerless while Garland proceeded to lean right and sit on his hands for 4 entire years is another example. As is cracking down on free speech. And what did Biden do in the wake of all the police murders that the defund and reallocate movement brought to his door? He said explicitly that he didnt agree with the massive movement on the left, and shut it down, actually increasing police funding as an extra "eff you" to the dem voters. Same as a republican would. Wheres this imagined difference?
And Biden famously told rooms full of rich donors at the end of Trumps term that "nothing would fundamentally change" (from Trump's first term) under him. This emncapsulates this whole discussion perfectly. Biden swearing to the rich that nothing will change, while pretending to run on change.
This is the same Biden who shut down a rail strike, and then slowly over time negotiated a tiny fraction of what the strikers wanted, and then called it a victory on their behalf-- and then had the effing gall to walk a picket line for a photo op so his surrogates could trumpet how union-friendly he was.
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
Same Biden who during his term bragged about being harder on immigration than Trump ever had been-- and wore it like a badge of honor that he'd "closed the southern border".
jacobin.com/2024/06/biden-asyl…
Today centrist dems wont even admit there was ever any problem. So I guess you'd say we should change nothing and ignore the wildly eroding support and the poll numbers showing the democratic party has just 28% favorability?
Biden just knifed labor unions in the back. They shouldn’t forget it
US railway workers threatened to strike until they got paid sick leave. The president’s administration chose political cowardiceHamilton Nolan (The Guardian)
So I guess you'd say we should change nothing and ignore the wildly eroding support and the poll numbers showing the democratic party has just 28% favorability?
My brother in Christ, you're not talking to a liberal here.
DNC is a huge problem with America as was Biden/Garland. They need/needed Trump to not fall out of a window, or be in military jail, in order for the most warmongering neocon DNC candidates to ensure warmongering. After Oct 7th, DNC's Israel first "job is to gaslight the left into supporting Israel", meant ensuring Trump's win, and today, have their elected Zionist supremacists, repeat attacks of communism on Mamdani.
On global warming, forcing a proxy war on Russia, not only enriches domestic oil companies to fund climate denial. pushing global diesel (home heating fuel same fraction) refining capacity to limit, with massive emissions from war, it also means no cooperation with Russia possible on global warming. It is simply impossible to prioritize human sustainability, if voters are made to support war, while struggling with the economic collapse directly accelerated by it, not to mention cultural divisiveness issues (not DNC/Biden fault).
The US needs either a military coup, or candidates/party that will remove citizenship and assets of Zionist oligarchy influencing US rulership. If money is speech, then money is terrorism.
> republicans
> hostility to Russia
Let me guess, your preferred form of government is "petty dictator killing people for not following the same exact lifestyle as he wants, but virtue signals to communism".
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And why exactly isn't this other party, so different, doing anything to prevent that?
Could it be because you have only two viable parties and they're nearly identical, thus having no actual opposition that could overcome abuses by the dominant party at any given point in time? Something other countries have a lot of experience with?
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I guess that's the best you can come up with.
So glad Trump won and is helping the demise of your banana republic, you all deserve it, no one worth saving in that afwul country.
Dumbest bunch on the planet
I agreed with you about the actual issue but wtf. You do realize the United States has 340 million people and lager that whatever country you likely love in, right? There are many diverse political postions here, but you won't see them in our duopoly...
Like yeah the Dems played a roll in funding and using the police state. They want itm they love West wing TV style politics where they think they are the good guys and can't critically consider any positive future and therefore end up being shit libs at best.
The republicans actively want to kill everyone for profit.
Maybe there's a handful of real left people at best.
Pragmatically it's reasonable collateral dammage.
The US causes millions of deaths and misery in the world.
All they are concerned about and cry over now is that they get a small taste of what they do in other places.
They don't deserve sympathy. Fuck em.
Biden didn't shut down any of the ICE concentration camps Trump opened the last time he was president.
Also Guantanamo Bay has had bipartisan support since the beginning.
lmfao Obama vastly expanded the surveillance programs Bush started after 9/11 time.com/3909293/edward-snowde…
You're an ignoramus and you should be ashamed of yourself. End of fucking discussion.
One side supports a criminal Nazi apologist who tried to overthrow our Democracy and hasn't given up yet. The other side brings a knife to the gun fight.
They're not even remotely the same. 40 years ago that may have been closer to true.
Democrats seek to regulate said capital. The Overton window is too far right to have much effect.
Serving capital does not mean we're not a Democracy. Attempting a coup of the government and disinformation does, however.
No they want to appear to regulate capital. Most of the time they don't actually want to regulate it. Yes they won't be as overt as to do the massive wealth transfers they the republicans do . But they will. Who was president in 08 ? Who continued to dump money into our military contracts despite running as anti war?
Like yeah the parties are different domestically but foreign policy wise the outcomes are usually the same.
How did you quantity that 10x times?
My best naïve estimate puts Democrats at 1.44-1.98x as corrupt.
😂 I mean for one, the entire presidential election was purchased by a few rich people who used disinformation tactics. Then taxes for the rich were eradicated at the expense of everyone else. That's the exact opposite of the Democrat's political ideology. I should say 1000x. I'll call it "orders of magnitude" instead.
So where did you get 1.98?
Answer the question, genocide denier. How did you quantify 10x times? Or 1000x?
That’s the exact opposite of the Democrat’s political ideology.
No, it's exactly Democrat political ideology.
where did you get 1.98?
Public database of rich people spending money on disinformation tactics: opensecrets.org/elections-over…
That's the exact opposite of the Democrat's political ideology.
Where do you get that idea?
these swing state voters through compromise. Those compromises are ugly and unfair.
Unless that compromise is "don't commit genocide", then they'll happily abaondon the swing-state voters.
Democrats seek to regulate said capital
No, they aren't.
Serving capital does not mean we're not a Democracy
If you think that you live under a democracy, i.e. that your government's decisions reflect your wishes, then you should be held accountable for the genocides and invasions that your state keeps committing.
Attempting a coup of the government and disinformation does, however.
The US suffering a coup would at worst not make anything worse, including in terms of 'democracy'.
They only seek to regulate capital as much as their megacorp and billionaire donors wish. The "Overton Window" has nothing to do with it.
Further, if both parties serve capital, then we have democracy for capital, not for the people.
There are no "democratic socialist" countries. Democratic Socialism is a descriptor for reformist socialism, the closest we got was Salvador Allende in Chile. Socialism isn't just "social programs," socialism refers to a mode of production where public ownership is the principle aspect of the economy, ie the large firms and key industries. The Nordic countries are Social Democracies, welfare capitalism essentially.
The Nordic Countries have the large safety nets they do largely due to proximity with the USSR, who was the first to dramatically expand their safety nets. Combined with millitant labor organizing, these concessions in other countries forced the bourgeoisie's hand. The problem is that these social safety nets in the global north are funded through imperialism, vast extraction from the global south.
The Overton Window has nothing to do with it. The system is dominated by capitalists, the only way to get even a fraction of what the workers want is through millitant organizing and running our own parties like PSL, the only way to actually get socialism is through revolution.
To most, Democratic Socialism and Social Democracy mean the same thing. Since actual Socialism is usually so irrelevant it requires no clarification. Since you're an actual socialist I'm gonna doubt we have any constructive dialogue from here on out.
But for the record I don't believe violent revolution is a winning strategy. It's a failed experiment that killed millions and it won't work this time either. Neither is sitting back and hoping things work out, so I can't dock you.
No, the large majority understand the difference between democratic socialism and social democracy. The Nordics don't call themselves socialist, because they aren't.
Further, socialism is extremely relevant. The PRC is Socialist, and is the world's largest economy and industrial power. Support for collectivizing the economy is growing in the west, even if absolute numbers are still low. Socialism remains the only way to move on.
Revolution did not "kill millions of people," in all major socialist countries life expectancy increased by 50%-100%, infant mortality plumetted, and poverty dramatically reduced. Revolution has proven to be the only way to genuinely democratize the economy and establish socialism, when you try to do that within a liberal capitalist framework like in Chile, you get couped by the US Empire.
You'd do well to join an org like the aforementioned PSL, reading theory and history books are also helpful.
Unlikely but nice try anyways and your arguments are coherent and civil so I appreciate that. Your argument and debate skills are great too.
My belief is a smaller, more progressive one. Not saying violent revolution is off the table, but I don't think we're anywhere near it.
Well, I appreciate the complement, but I do want to point out that the longer you hold onto the idea that we can vote for a better world in a system designed to keep imperialism running for as long as possible, the longer you'll be walking around with your hands tied doing exactly what the ruling class wants you to do.
Here's an introductory Marxist-Leninist reading list if you ever want to start reading theory.
Read Theory, Darn it! An Introductory Reading List for Marxism-Leninism
"Without Revolutionary theory, there can be no Revolutionary Movement."
- Vladimir Lenin, What is to be Done? | Audiobook
It's time to read theory, comrades! As Lenin says, "Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle." Reading theory helps us identify the core contradictions within modern society, analyze their trajectories, and gives us the tools to break free. Marxism-Leninism is broken into 3 major components, as noted by Lenin in his pamphlet The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism: | Audiobook
- Dialectical and Historical Materialism
- Critique of Capitalism along the lines of Marx's Law of Value
- Advocacy for Revolutionary and Scientific Socialism
As such, I created the following list to take you from no knowledge whatsoever of Leftist theory, and leave you with a strong understanding of the critical fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism in an order that builds up as you read. Let's get started!
Section I: Getting Started
What the heck is Communism, anyways? For that matter, what is fascism?
- Friedrich Engels' Principles of Communism | Audiobook
The FAQ of Communism, written by the Luigi of the Marx & Engels duo. Quick to read, and easy to reference, this is the perfect start to your journey.
- Michael Parenti's Blackshirts and Reds | Audiobook
Breaks down fascism and its mortal enemy, Communism, as well as their antagonistic relationship. Understanding what fascism is, where and when it rises, why it does so, and how to banish it forever is critical. Parenti also helps debunk common anti-Communist myths, from both the "left" and the right, in a quick-witted writing style. This is also an excellent time to watch the famous speech.
Section II: Historical and Dialectical Materialism
Ugh, philosophy? Really? YES!
- Georges Politzer's Elementary Principles of Philosophy | Audiobook
By far my favorite primer on Marxist philosophy. By understanding Dialectical and Historical Materialism first, you make it easier to understand the rest of Marxism-Leninism. Don't be intimidated!
- Friedrich Engels' Socialism: Utopian and Scientific | Audiobook
Further reading on Dialectical and Historical Materialism, but crucially introduces the why of Scientific Socialism, explaining how Capitalism itself prepares the conditions for public ownership and planning by centralizing itself into monopolist syndicates. This is also where Engels talks about the failures of previous "Utopian" Socialists.
Section III: Political Economy
That's right, it's time for the Law of Value and a deep-dive into Imperialism. If we are to defeat Capitalism, we must learn it's mechanisms, tendencies, contradictions, and laws.
- Karl Marx's Wage Labor and Capital | Audiobook as well as Wages, Price and Profit | Audiobook
Best taken as a pair, these essays simplify the most important parts of the Law of Value. Marx is targetting those not trained in economics here, but you might want to keep a pen and some paper to follow along if you are a visual person.
- Vladimir Lenin's Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism | Audiobook
Absolutely crucial and the most important work for understanding the modern era and its primary contradictions. Marxist-Leninists understand that Imperialism is the greatest contradiction in the modern era, which cascades downward into all manner of related contradictions. Knowing what dying Capitalism looks like, and how it behaves, means we can kill it.
Section IV: Revolutionary and Scientific Socialism
Can we defeat Capitalism at the ballot box? What about just defeating fascism? What about the role of the state?
- Rosa Luxemburg's Reform or Revolution | Audiobook
If Marxists believed reforming Capitalist society was possible, we would be the first in line for it. Sadly, it isn't possible, which Luxemburg proves in this monumental writing.
- Vladimir Lenin's The State and Revolution | Audiobook
Excellent refutation of revisionists and Social Democrats who think the State can be reformed, without needing to be replaced with one that is run by the workers, in their own interests.
Section V: Intersectionality and Solidarity
The revolution will not be fought by atomized individuals, but by an intersectional, international working class movement. Intersectionality is critical, because it allows different marginalized groups to work together in collective interest, unifying into a broad movement.
- Vikky Storm and Eme Flores' The Gender Accelerationist Manifesto | (No Audiobook yet)
Critical reading on understanding misogyny, transphobia, enbyphobia, pluralphobia, and homophobia, as well as how to move beyond the base subject of "gender." Uses the foundations built up in the previous works to analyze gender theory from a Historical Materialist perspective.
- Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth | Audiobook
De-colonialism is essential to Marxism. Without having a strong, de-colonial, internationalist stance, we have no path to victory nor a path to justice. Fanon analyzes Colonialism's dehumanizing effects, and lays out how to form a de-colonial movement, as well as its necessity.
- Leslie Feinberg's Lavender & Red | Audiobook
Solidarity and intersectionality are the key to any social movement. When different social groups fight for liberation together along intersectional lines, the movements are emboldened and empowered ever-further.
Section VI: Putting it into Practice!
It's not enough to endlessly read, you must put theory to practice. That is how you can improve yourself and the movements you support. Touch grass!
- Mao Tse-Tung's On Practice and On Contradiction | Audiobook
Mao wrote simply and directly, targeting peasant soldiers during the Revolutionary War in China. This pair of essays equip the reader with the ability to apply the analytical tools of Dialectical Materialism to their every day practice, and better understand problems.
Congratulations, you completed your introductory reading course!
With your new understanding and knowledge of Marxism-Leninism, here is a mini What is to be Done? of your own to follow, and take with you as practical advice.
- Get organized. Join a Leftist org, find solidarity with fellow comrades, and protect each other. The Dems will not save you, it is up to us to protect ourselves. The Party for Socialism and Liberation and Freedom Road Socialist Organization both organize year round, every year, because the battle for progress is a constant struggle, not a single election. See if there is a chapter near you, or start one! Or, see if there's an org you like more near you and join it.
- Read theory. Don't think that you are done now! Just because you have the basics, doesn't mean you know more than you do. If you have not investigated a subject, don't speak on it! Don't speak nonsense, but listen!
- Aggressively combat white supremacy, misogyny, queerphobia, and other attacks on marginalized communities. Cede no ground, let nobody be forgotten or left behind. There is strength in numbers, when one marginalized group is targeted, many more are sure to follow.
- Be industrious, and self-sufficient. Take up gardening, home repair, tinkering. It is through practice that you elevate your problem-solving capabilities. Not only will you improve your skill at one subject, but your general problem-solving muscles get strengthened as well.
- Learn self-defense. Get armed, if practical. Be ready to protect yourself and others. Liberals will not save us, we must save each other.
- Be persistent. If you feel like a single water droplet against a mountain, think of canyons and valleys. Oh, how our efforts pile up! With consistency, every rock, boulder, even mountain, can be drilled through with nothing but steady and persistent water droplets.
"Everything under heaven is in utter chaos; the situation is excellent."
- Mao Tse-Tung
Revolution. Socialism. Liberation. - Freedom Road Socialist Organization | FRSO
Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) is a national organization of revolutionaries fighting for socialism in the United States. Our home is in the working class.admin (Freedom Road Socialist Organization | FRSO)
It’s a failed experiment that killed millions and it won’t work this time either.
Better give the USA back to the British Crown then, dumb-ass.
oh god i agree with cowbee wholeheartedly in a thread of discourse…
oh god oh fuck oh shit i can feel it happening… is it warm in here?
Я чувствую, как марксизм-ленинизм просачивается в мой мозг!!! ~make~ it stop...
Теперь я чувствую себя белым и пушистым… как коммунистический медведь.
—-
anyway joking aside appreciate lemmy collectively telling neolibs to shut the fuck up bc while plenty of things .ml says piss me off, they don’t piss me off nearly as much as seeing americans who haven’t ripped the bandaid off yet.
Hey, seems like a good enough reason to start looking into Marxist-Leninist theory as any! 😉
Read Theory, Darn it! An Introductory Reading List for Marxism-Leninism
"Without Revolutionary theory, there can be no Revolutionary Movement."
- Vladimir Lenin, What is to be Done? | Audiobook
It's time to read theory, comrades! As Lenin says, "Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle." Reading theory helps us identify the core contradictions within modern society, analyze their trajectories, and gives us the tools to break free. Marxism-Leninism is broken into 3 major components, as noted by Lenin in his pamphlet The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism: | Audiobook
- Dialectical and Historical Materialism
- Critique of Capitalism along the lines of Marx's Law of Value
- Advocacy for Revolutionary and Scientific Socialism
As such, I created the following list to take you from no knowledge whatsoever of Leftist theory, and leave you with a strong understanding of the critical fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism in an order that builds up as you read. Let's get started!
Section I: Getting Started
What the heck is Communism, anyways? For that matter, what is fascism?
- Friedrich Engels' Principles of Communism | Audiobook
The FAQ of Communism, written by the Luigi of the Marx & Engels duo. Quick to read, and easy to reference, this is the perfect start to your journey.
- Michael Parenti's Blackshirts and Reds | Audiobook
Breaks down fascism and its mortal enemy, Communism, as well as their antagonistic relationship. Understanding what fascism is, where and when it rises, why it does so, and how to banish it forever is critical. Parenti also helps debunk common anti-Communist myths, from both the "left" and the right, in a quick-witted writing style. This is also an excellent time to watch the famous speech.
Section II: Historical and Dialectical Materialism
Ugh, philosophy? Really? YES!
- Georges Politzer's Elementary Principles of Philosophy | Audiobook
By far my favorite primer on Marxist philosophy. By understanding Dialectical and Historical Materialism first, you make it easier to understand the rest of Marxism-Leninism. Don't be intimidated!
- Friedrich Engels' Socialism: Utopian and Scientific | Audiobook
Further reading on Dialectical and Historical Materialism, but crucially introduces the why of Scientific Socialism, explaining how Capitalism itself prepares the conditions for public ownership and planning by centralizing itself into monopolist syndicates. This is also where Engels talks about the failures of previous "Utopian" Socialists.
Section III: Political Economy
That's right, it's time for the Law of Value and a deep-dive into Imperialism. If we are to defeat Capitalism, we must learn it's mechanisms, tendencies, contradictions, and laws.
- Karl Marx's Wage Labor and Capital | Audiobook as well as Wages, Price and Profit | Audiobook
Best taken as a pair, these essays simplify the most important parts of the Law of Value. Marx is targetting those not trained in economics here, but you might want to keep a pen and some paper to follow along if you are a visual person.
- Vladimir Lenin's Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism | Audiobook
Absolutely crucial and the most important work for understanding the modern era and its primary contradictions. Marxist-Leninists understand that Imperialism is the greatest contradiction in the modern era, which cascades downward into all manner of related contradictions. Knowing what dying Capitalism looks like, and how it behaves, means we can kill it.
Section IV: Revolutionary and Scientific Socialism
Can we defeat Capitalism at the ballot box? What about just defeating fascism? What about the role of the state?
- Rosa Luxemburg's Reform or Revolution | Audiobook
If Marxists believed reforming Capitalist society was possible, we would be the first in line for it. Sadly, it isn't possible, which Luxemburg proves in this monumental writing.
- Vladimir Lenin's The State and Revolution | Audiobook
Excellent refutation of revisionists and Social Democrats who think the State can be reformed, without needing to be replaced with one that is run by the workers, in their own interests.
Section V: Intersectionality and Solidarity
The revolution will not be fought by atomized individuals, but by an intersectional, international working class movement. Intersectionality is critical, because it allows different marginalized groups to work together in collective interest, unifying into a broad movement.
- Vikky Storm and Eme Flores' The Gender Accelerationist Manifesto | (No Audiobook yet)
Critical reading on understanding misogyny, transphobia, enbyphobia, pluralphobia, and homophobia, as well as how to move beyond the base subject of "gender." Uses the foundations built up in the previous works to analyze gender theory from a Historical Materialist perspective.
- Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth | Audiobook
De-colonialism is essential to Marxism. Without having a strong, de-colonial, internationalist stance, we have no path to victory nor a path to justice. Fanon analyzes Colonialism's dehumanizing effects, and lays out how to form a de-colonial movement, as well as its necessity.
- Leslie Feinberg's Lavender & Red | Audiobook
Solidarity and intersectionality are the key to any social movement. When different social groups fight for liberation together along intersectional lines, the movements are emboldened and empowered ever-further.
Section VI: Putting it into Practice!
It's not enough to endlessly read, you must put theory to practice. That is how you can improve yourself and the movements you support. Touch grass!
- Mao Tse-Tung's On Practice and On Contradiction | Audiobook
Mao wrote simply and directly, targeting peasant soldiers during the Revolutionary War in China. This pair of essays equip the reader with the ability to apply the analytical tools of Dialectical Materialism to their every day practice, and better understand problems.
Congratulations, you completed your introductory reading course!
With your new understanding and knowledge of Marxism-Leninism, here is a mini What is to be Done? of your own to follow, and take with you as practical advice.
- Get organized. Join a Leftist org, find solidarity with fellow comrades, and protect each other. The Dems will not save you, it is up to us to protect ourselves. The Party for Socialism and Liberation and Freedom Road Socialist Organization both organize year round, every year, because the battle for progress is a constant struggle, not a single election. See if there is a chapter near you, or start one! Or, see if there's an org you like more near you and join it.
- Read theory. Don't think that you are done now! Just because you have the basics, doesn't mean you know more than you do. If you have not investigated a subject, don't speak on it! Don't speak nonsense, but listen!
- Aggressively combat white supremacy, misogyny, queerphobia, and other attacks on marginalized communities. Cede no ground, let nobody be forgotten or left behind. There is strength in numbers, when one marginalized group is targeted, many more are sure to follow.
- Be industrious, and self-sufficient. Take up gardening, home repair, tinkering. It is through practice that you elevate your problem-solving capabilities. Not only will you improve your skill at one subject, but your general problem-solving muscles get strengthened as well.
- Learn self-defense. Get armed, if practical. Be ready to protect yourself and others. Liberals will not save us, we must save each other.
- Be persistent. If you feel like a single water droplet against a mountain, think of canyons and valleys. Oh, how our efforts pile up! With consistency, every rock, boulder, even mountain, can be drilled through with nothing but steady and persistent water droplets.
"Everything under heaven is in utter chaos; the situation is excellent."
- Mao Tse-Tung
Revolution. Socialism. Liberation. - Freedom Road Socialist Organization | FRSO
Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) is a national organization of revolutionaries fighting for socialism in the United States. Our home is in the working class.admin (Freedom Road Socialist Organization | FRSO)
One side supports a criminal Nazi apologist who tried to overthrow our Democracy and hasn’t given up yet.
And the other side commits genocide. It also overthrows other people's democracy, but you don't consider foreigners human.
inss.org.il/publication/democr…
Most Democrats express greater sympathy for Palestinians. That's not what I would call "committing genocide". What I see is Democrat officials expressing support, but powerless against Republicans who do not. That's not supporting genocide. We're fighting, but losing.
Danger Zone: Collapsing Support for Israel Among Democrats | INSS
In early March, a leading public opinion research firm, Gallup, released results from its annual World Affairs survey, conducted February 3-16. The news for Israel is alarming to put it mildly.INSS
Most Democrats express greater sympathy for Palestinians. That’s not what I would call “committing genocide”.
Committing genocide is committing genocide. What the fuck is wrong with you?
What I see is Democrat officials expressing support, but powerless against Republicans who do not.
Then you had your eyes closed for all of 2024
That’s not supporting genocide. We’re fighting, but losing.
Genocide denier
Ok, I'll return your argument strategy exactly as you stated it:
"Are you in Gaza bypassing the blockade and delivering relief to the affected people right now?
If not, you are a genocide denier and had your eyes closed for all of 2025. What the fuck is wrong with you? You shameful asshole. People are dying and you don't even give a fuck. You have nothing more to say that I care about until you personally feed an affected person. Hypocrite."
Ok, I’ll return your argument strategy exactly as you stated it: [Some thing that in no way resembles anything I said]
You people really cannot behave in good faith, can you?
If not, you are a genocide denier and had your eyes closed for all of 2025. What the fuck is wrong with you? You shameful asshole. People are dying and you don’t even give a fuck. You have nothing more to say that I care about until you personally feed an affected person. Hypocrite."
Incoherent. But I guess I shouldn't expect more from a genocide apologist fuck like you.
Alright, let me return your argument again:
"I have nothing more to say to you, Nazi. Literally you're a white supremacist who thinks Jews and immigrants are subhuman. If I can't drive a false narrative, you're acting in bad faith!!!"
Ok, I’ll return your argument strategy exactly as you stated it: [Some thing that in no way resembles anything I said]
Fascist child.
“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre
They did. They were all pardoned by Trump. Trump would have been sent to prison if he didn't win the election. Our Democracy is working, it reflects the idiocy of over half our population who voted for everyone to jump off a cliff.
When I walk around, over half the people I talk to support Trump. The other half is actively fighting against it. That's not support. We're merely losing.
Trump would have been sent to prison if he didn’t win the election.
Trump would never have had the chance if Biden elected an AG who didn't spend 4 years fucking around.
The other half is actively fighting against it
Its a shame the democrats dont represent those people and chose not to dismantle Trump's ICE and instead tried to work with republicans.
Rather, I'm arguing against "enlightened centrism". Both sides are not the same at all, there is one party clearly better than the other. Not defending the US in general. But if everyone voted Democrat our problems would be greatly improved.
If there were two parties, one to double the slaves, and another to keep the number of slaves the same, I would vote for the second party. If everyone voted for the second party, they'd eventually be able to pitch reducing the number of slaves. But they can't because half the country is Nazis. It's a dirty game but it's one worth playing, even if we use protests and other tools as well.
Rather, I'm arguing against "enlightened centrism"
Your instance has been very supportive of 'enlightened centrism' when it comes to colonialism vs anti-colonialism. Let's hope that you are, in fact, opposed to that.
However, the opposition to both of the parties is not a case of 'enlightened centrism'. They are literally both right-wing genocidal factions of rulers of NATO.
Both sides are not the same at all
In the case of USian ruling factions, the difference is just PR. And, maybe, competence in conducting genocides, invasions, and other colonialist activities.
there is one party clearly better than the other
Considering that the current administration has seemingly been making decisions that have been harmful to NATO's ability to invade the rest of the world in the long term, it seems that the party that currently holds more power is the better one.
But if everyone voted Democrat our problems would be greatly improved
How?
If there were two parties, one to double the slaves, and another to keep the number of slaves the same, I would vote for the second party
Both of the parties are for doubling the slaves and for conducting genocides. The currently dominant one seems to be less competent when it comes to achieving those goals.
But they can't because half the country is Nazis
Much more than that - almost all USians were in favour of invading Iraq, and I find it likely that not much has changed.
Either way, both of those parties are at least almost completely nazi.
It's a dirty game but it's one worth playing
Why? Electoralist efforts have evidently not achieved much throughout their existence. It's time to accept reality.
I don't know what my instance believes, nor do I care.
I wouldn't argue against opposing both parties, or the US in general. I'm American and I choose to vote for the party that seems substantially better. Voting correctly is important, but not enough.
Voting Republican caused Ukraine to lose its funding. I don't side with any genocide that NATO commits but don't forget it also protects billions of people. The game is dirty and imperfect but we should still play it to survive.
Democrat policies reduce wealth inequality, which Republican ones increase it.
All Nazis are Republicans. Few to none are Democrats.
Basically none of your arguments are rooted in truth, even slightly. I doubt you will be convinced of what I'm saying.
Voting correctly is important
Has voting ever produced any sort of serious effect in the US?
Voting Republican caused Ukraine to lose its funding
Meaning that the state of Ukraine will have less of a reason and less of an ability to avoid peace negotiations to stop the bloodshed. This is good.
but don't forget it also protects billions of people
It literally does the opposite. It's a colonial empire that is conducting a genocide right now and that has been invading everywhere in the world to keep billions of people in a colonial yoke. It only defends colonial metropoles and settler-colonies from justice.
Furthermore, at most, it 'protects' about a billion of people, and not 'billions'.
All Nazis are Republicans. Few to none are Democrats
They are almost all nazis. Even if one cares about electoralism, almost all Dems who could voted against reduction of military support for Pissrael.
It's not really arguable that at least almost all Dems are in favour of genocides and invasions - like the ones into Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Afghanistan.
Basically none of your arguments are rooted in truth, even slightly
Except for all of them.
Notably, you couldn't even provide examples of non-nazi Dems, and lied about NATO protecting billions of people and keep lying about voting being important despite having nothing to show for it.
You're the most bad faith genocide apologist. That makes your worse and I win. Most is worse than least.
See? I can drive a false narrative too. It's easy. Just remove the gray. All black and white. 2 colors is easier than a spectrum. Keep working on those debate skills kiddo.
Nope I win the argument. Whoever gets the last word in wins the argument. Now I'm closing my eyes so you can't get the last argument. I can't hear you!!! Naaa naa na naaa.
Sorry thought I'd debate on your level for a bit.
“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre
Do the world a favor and stop supporting Nazis
Well, I'm not the one who is supporting nazis. You, on the other hand, have been insistent that half of your governing nazis are not nazis.
I can't believe you think that Jews and immigrants are subhumans
Notably, I never said anything against either of those groups (whom both Dems and Reps have been acting against, with both of Obama's terms being the most ICE-happy time period), but it's pretty evident from your reaction that you think that being against a Lebensraum-style genocide must mean that I'm opposed to some ethnic group.
You are in favour of displacing and killing Palestinians, aren't you?
You're a white supremacist, plain and simple
This is silly and very backwards.
You have literally been arguing about how the blue brand of white supremacists in your government is awesome, and how NATO - the organisation dedicated to white supremacist colonialism - is great.
EDIT: Also, what are the blue-brand white supremacists that are non-nazis that you can name?
Firstly, still waiting for you to name any of the non-nazi Dems. Do you have at least five names?
Secondly, if you think that I mischaracterised your arguments, can you point to any such mischaracterisations?
Have you not argued that NATO - the world's most prolific aggressor and the world's premier white supremacist polity - is somehow good?
Have you not argued that voting is somehow important in the US despite having produced no results to speak of throughout its history?
Have you not implied that the Lebensraum in Palestine should not be stopped and that the homes and land should not be given back to their rightful owners?
You have several grammar and spelling mistakes in your post. Since part of you is imperfect, all of you is imperfect and therefore your argument that you yourself are "good" is irrelevant. Can you name at least five good things you've done? Still waiting.
Have you not argued that tomatoes are vegetables?
If you can think of any, and I mean ANY mischaracterizations I've made about anything you've said I'm absolutely eager to hear them.
Your an Uber white supremacist 5th grader who doesn't even know how to back their claims. I'm older and less racist than you so I win the argument by default.
Again, literally just returning your serve. My beliefs do not reflect that argument. Just holding up a mirror as you're talking to me.
Your an Uber white supremacist
Ah yes, being opposed to literal European colonialism and genocides by European settler-colonists of non-white people means that one is an 'Uber white supremacist'. /s
5th grader
Given that I have a much greater grasp on, among other things, history of your empire, that would just mean that you are less well-educated than a 5th grader.
who doesn't even know how to back their claims
I have already pointed to particular cases of your empire invading and committing genocides, I have pointed out that voting has been a useless endeavour, that you can't even name 5 non-nazi Dems (despite almost none of the Dems being nazis, according to you). I keep backing my claims up with evidence, while you keep engaging in slinging baseless accusations.
Again, literally just returning your serve
Yeah, it is evident that you can't answer the relevant questions without having to explicitly admit to your white supremacist views.
You have a greater grasp?
I do, including with regards to the history of your white supremacist empire that is in the process of carrying out a high-profile genocide.
You have several grammar and spelling mistakes in your post
I avoided pointing out your grammar mistakes (like when you couldn't figure out the difference between 'All nazis are Republicans' instead of 'All Republicans are nazis') as a courtesy. But sure, what grammar/spelling mistakes do you think I have made?
Since part of you is imperfect, all of you is imperfect and therefore your argument that you yourself are "good" is irrelevant
Hahaha.
Are you seriously equating me supposedly making grammar mistakes with your empire intentionally engaging in invasions, genocides, torture, colonialism, etc. against most of the world?
Can you name at least five good things you've done? Still waiting.
Firstly, if almost none of the Dems are nazis, you should have no trouble mentioning five of them.
Secondly, you don't get to ask a question and then immediately go 'still waiting'. This question is obviously just a deflection by you.
Thirdly, I can say that, at least, I have not been engaging in white supremacy and genocide apologia, which is more than can be said about you.
Have you not argued that tomatoes are vegetables?
No, and especially not in this conversation.
Considering that you are not giving negatory responses to the relevant questions, we can conclude that you did argue so, and that I did not mischaracterise you.
If you can think of any, and I mean ANY mischaracterizations I've made about anything you've said I'm absolutely eager to hear them.
I have not brought up you mischaracterising what I have said. You did claim that I mischaracterise you. Considering that you can't point to any such mischaracterisations, we can conclude that that was a lie.
I'm literally returning your arguments as you've made them to me
You aren't, as asking me superficially similar questions doesn't actually produce the same arguments. My questions can only serve as arguments due to you making relevant accusations and denials.
That and the fact that you literally tried to equate making grammar mistakes with your empire carrying out a literal genocide.
It's pretty obvious that you can't name even 5 non-nazi Dems, can't point to any good effects gained through voting in the US, can't point to any mistakes that I have made, and you are overwhelmingly likely in favour of the Lebensraum against the Palestinian people.
But you aren't listening anyways
I keep responding to you almost sentence-by-sentence, and I have prompted you to answer a few rather simple questions.
It's pretty obvious that the issue is not me supposedly not listening, but you being unable to answer those questions without explicitly outing yourself as a white supremacist.
I don’t side with any genocide that NATO commits BUT
Absolutely soulless people.
Are you over in Gaza right now, attempting to bypass the blockade and deliver relief to the individuals who suffer?
If not, can you prove you're not soulless?
Rather, I’m arguing against “enlightened centrism”.
Yeah, and to do that you've had to engage in outright genocide denial.
If there were two parties, one to double the slaves, and another to keep the number of slaves the same, I would vote for the second party.
Then you're a fucking slavery-defending piece of shit who John Brown would have rightfully shot. You don't have to support slavery at all, you know. You could even say "Slavery is wrong, full stop." And then go on to do whatever is in your power to tear down any group that advocates for that grotesque abuse and denial of even the most basic human decency. But instead you insist on carrying bucket after bucket after bucket of water for the fucking slavers who are blatantly grifting you with their detestable bullshit of "at least I'm not that bad" as they point at another fucking slaver.
You people are so brainwashed into this absurd binary thinking it is genuinely shocking to me the atrocious shit that squirts out of your mouths that you think is fucking reasonable!
Honestly not much changed for me. I wasnt interested in travelling to the US. I am not interested in buying or selling product in the US.
However i wake up every morning to yet another stream of people being brutally murdered by the US or with US support through US allies. My country keeps hosting a drone relay station integral to US murder programs in the Middle East and everyone in politics pretends this to be okay and the US soldiers stationed here to be totally for our safety and as not being quasi occupied and serving as a logistics hub for invasions, mass murder and genocide.
Another issue i care about is child rapists not getting away with their crimes. Turns out the US administrations of two Republicans and two Democrats have been covering up a child rapist ring involving thousands of victims and probably as many perpetraitors, with a former D and a current R president among the rapists.
My country is quasi occupied by a natiom of child rapists and there is reason to believe they rape here too, as the US soldiers are knowm for that.
Who are you crediting with 'no concentration camp' here? The party that performatively cried outside of one and then ignored it when they were in power?
Are you SERIOUSLY pretending the democrats aren't complicit in 'child rapist'??
Seriously, this is the kind of bullshit that swings so far left it circles back to right.
The goal of this administration is to remove existing government institutions and replace them with far right traditionalist based institutions that the creator of the Heritage Foundation (Paul Weyrich) began writing about ~1999.
I think that we have to look at a whole series of possibilities for bypassing the institutions that are controlled by the enemy. If we expend our energies on fighting on the "turf" they already control, we will probably not accomplish what we hope, and we may spend ourselves to the point of exhaustion. The promising thing about a strategy of separation is that it has more to do with who we are, and what we become, than it does with what the other side is doing and what we are going to do about it.
The people that created the term "cultural marxism," want you to believe this stupid both sides are essentially the same shit so you're less resistant to them dismantling the parts of government that people had to fight very hard for. Voters rights, civil rights, and civil liberties have always been under attack by this same group of people. Now you've got this dumbass propaganda telling people that since those rights have always been under attack, you might as well just assume it won't matter if they cease to exist.
Letter to Conservatives by Paul M. Weyrich - The National Center
Ms. Amy Ridenour National Center for Public Policy Research 777 N. Capitol Street, NE Suite 803 Washington, D.C. 20001-4201 Dear Ms.The National Center
Apologies for the facts and documented history you don't want to hear 🤷♀️
I know Project 2025 hasn't been brought up nonstop over the last year or anything, but if you can somehow imagine a publicly available document laying all this shit out point by point, it might help you understand where I'm coming from.
but they don’t want to systematically exterminate people like me.
Lol, typical american liberal "systemic extermination is fine so long as it's not being done to MEEEE"
Both of them want to kill you and your friends. One is just stupid/racist enough that they're willing to do away with your labor power ASAP while the other would rather let their billionaire masters squeeze every penny out of you in debt peonage for the rest of your life (hopefully less than 65 years).
However, I'm far less interested in what they want to do to other gringos than the fact that they've been workshopping even worse than this brutality on the rest of us for centuries and y'all were okay with it. You'd continue to be okay with it if there wasn't a dang Cheeto in the white house or whatever the fuck.
Let me rephrase: one of them is willing to let me and my friends die because they're more interested in making money than providing for our needs, and one of them wants to shoot us in the fucking heads for being queer. But yeah the ones who hate us for being queer aren't actually worse than the ones who simply don't care about us
They also want to shoot you in the head for not being white. But yeah, no worse than the ones who simply don't care about your wellbeing. In fact, the latter deserves even more of your ire, for some reason
me and my friends die
"Sure, they may be committing a modern Holocaust, but what about MEEEEEEE"
Western liberals are the most self centred people alive, you literally don't see foreigners as real people.
Meeeeee, and also all of the other non-cishets, non-whites, and non-men
You're right though, western liberals are the worst. I'm going to take your advice and become a western conservative, and will be doing my best to actively hurt people, because you think it's better when American women and gays and nonwhites die than when they don't
all of the other
Once again, we are reminded that western liberals literally don't conceptualise foreigners as real people.
I’m going to take your advice and become a western conservative
By all means, the difference is entirely performative; conservatives are just more honest about it.
The Democratic Party is somewhat conservative and stand firmly behind capitalism. But they aren't fascists. Not at all.
Uhhhhh yes they are lmao. They just have an insignificantly smaller out group. They consider the rest of the world fair game for death camps, torture, starvation, and everything else Republicans do, and they even agree with most of their most fascist shit (like the children in cages and the Patriot Act, which were not only not stopped but expanded with Dems at the helm).
They just think gay people and people of color are a sizeable demographic, but not sizeable enough to stop the violence against them, just kind of pretend they're the only allies.
They keep doing that because idiots keep buying it. I don't think Mussolini would have been much better if he copped black slang for his propaganda material and was ok with gay people in the military.
What a stupid comment. It's REALISM. I am either going to vote Republican, Democrat, or not vote at all (same as voting third party).
Which one of these choices do you think makes the world a better place?
Don't forget sending people to torture camps, or bombing kids, or expanding the systems that the current fascist government is using.
The Democrats do so much more than just helping out with genocide!
They did though, through the creation and expansion of the secure communities program.. It was attempted to be walked back via the PEP after Obama earned the "deporter in chief" moniker, but yes the DNC did, has and will continue to do so.
Their style is usually more "don't make a scene" then "suns out, guns out" but the end result is ultimately the same.
I think Americans can perceive how fucked up and corrupt their government is but they lack any theoretical analysis to determine the nature of it. So all they have is a general perception that the government doesn't work for them and that creates an inherent distrust of any government program, no matter what it does.
So an American might believe that universal healthcare is a good policy, but they also believe that in practice if such a policy were enacted it would mean that money being siphoned off by the ultra rich, with nothing fundamentally changing. They would be paying the taxes of a universal healthcare state, but the actual system would continue as-is, and they would still need to pay ridiculous prices. Thus getting double-dicked for no benefit.
The thing is this is probable. Section 8 is a massive subsidy to landlords. The ACA is a massive subsidy to insurance companies. But if you asked Americans why this keeps happening they would just spout some nonsense about R's and D's, or some particular politician, or whatever.
This cynicism spans both "blue" and "red" America. I think it's the heart of the rot in our society. It's not really a society at all in the sense that people have lost the belief that we, collectively, can work together to achieve more than what's possible working alone. When that breaks the only motive people still believe in is the extractive motive of corporations. They believe that only the rich can make things happen, and thus are creating a self-fulfilling prophecy by electing venal politicians who believe the same.
Obviously I'm generalizing here, but just an undercurrent I've observed. It's not coherent, but it is consistent across the "spectrum" of American politics. This ultra wealthy magnify this narrative since it suits them.
‘We Have No Coherent Message’: Democrats Struggle to Oppose Trump
More than 50 interviews with Democratic leaders revealed a party struggling to decide what it believes in, what issues to prioritize and how to confront an aggressive right-wing administration.
Democrats are self-critical of their inability to take positions distinct from their Republican colleagues without splintering off conservative support? Democrats must be right-wingers.
Its almost like First-past-the-post voting artificially limits the number of viable political parties to two and should be replaced immediately.
At the very least, you would think democracy advocates in the democratic party would be falling over each other to implement such a much needed reform of our voting systems in the blue states they control. Democrats themselves admit non stop that First-past-the-post voting is a huge problem every election when they screech about the small numbers of 3rd party voters. Democrars publicly admit they know the voting system is broken, yet FPTP remains in use in the vast majority of the country.
How can you be so upset about a recurring problem and then do nothing to resolve it? There is no excuse. The democrats want to hold your vote hostage and they are using the republican party to threaten you to do it. While they may not be exactly the same as the republicans, they are a part of the problem with our country.
The democratic party must lose its monopoly on resisting the republicans. We should have a free market of ideas competing with each other. We could have multiple chances to defeat the republicans every election We may one day be free to vote how we want.
::: spoiler Electoral Reform Videos
(What most states use now)
Videos on alternative electoral systems
:::
First-past-the-post voting artificially limits the number of viable political parties to two
Arguably limits viable parties to One. Quite a few states are functionally single party oligarchies, thanks to winner-take-all election results. States that split 55/45 by party affiliation will routinely have legislatures that are closer to 70/30 by representative. And control of statewide office typically means a single party veto even when the legislature is split.
How can you be so upset about a recurring problem and then do nothing to resolve it?
It's a big, systemic problem that requires a large coordinated professionalized opposition to change. And that means organized manpower, large amounts of money/resources, and an ideologically committed media apparatus to help coordinate the reform effort.
When we've got none of the above? And, even worse, an incumbent party system dedicated to resisting any kind of reform (often violently), building that kind of organization is incredibly difficult.
We should have a free market of ideas competing with each other.
I can't imagine how a more fractured and adversarial constellation of movements would benefit us.
We need a coalition that's collaborative, not a marketplace of minor opposition parties that's fighting for vote share.
The whole appeal of Ranked Choice is that candidates aren't competing with one another in a market for vote-share. They can collaborate - as Mamdani and Lander did - towards a commonly shared policy goal.
"Would you rather the oceans die or the trees die."
- Neither.
"Hitler"
No. Just dont vote red or blue.
Or 'centrist' 'independent whos actually fasch.
I regret using offensive language. But there is NO rational argument that there's no difference between. It's just an indefensible statement. The differences are extremely apparent. If people don't know that, it's not because its untrue, it's because they're ignorant.
For the love of god, it is night and day between Biden and Trump.
I would support a better version of this.
Deficit is a major piece. They talk about it and then invariably increase it every time.
RNC lowers taxes, technically, but only ever in a way that hurts working class. DNC leave it all as is, never changing the bottom line.
First draft meme, here.
add gay vs god to the outsides
maybe something on immigration and racism
maybe something on immigration and racism
That goes in the intersection.
The US plans some of their invasion/regime change over the course of years if not decades.
I honestly believe that Trump was briefed on some plans to annex Greenland, Canada and Panama, and the fucking buffoon let the cat out of the bag.
I have something like 57% certainty that democrats would eventually start denouncing "fentanyl labs" in Canada and create excuses for invasion.
edit: Worth noting, by the way, that's it's a consensus that Canada is more liberal than the US. Having Canada as a 51st state would essentially be handling the Dems a huge advantage for all elections going forward... Gee golly, I wonder whether they might actually root for Don a little bit, there.
Having us as one state - jamming Quebec, BC, Ontario, etc all together would be a recipe for disaster above and beyond all the other disasters involved. It would be like, I don't know, merging New York and Georgia into one state.
The FLQ alone would instantly revive and start up their bombing campaigns again.
And be real, they would never give us status as states. We'd be Puerto Rico North at best until the violence died down in a century of terrorism and genocide.
Having us as one state - jamming Quebec, BC, Ontario, etc all together would be a recipe for disaster above and beyond all the other disasters involved. It would be like, I don’t know, merging New York and Georgia into one state.
The FLQ alone would instantly revive and start up their bombing campaigns again.
The American elites are not above fostering a state of crisis and chaos. The BLM riots happened under Biden's administration. Biden had deportation camps. Look at current day USA.
These "disasters" are not the deterrent you think it is.
And be real, they would never give us status as states. We’d be Puerto Rico North at best until the violence died down in a century of terrorism and genocide.
Being "real" would be admitting that the US empire is on the verge of collapses. I think decades of continuation is
possible, but unlikely. Century? Impossible (at least, for the current statu quo).
Some stuff about Alligator Alcatraz...
Some stuff about hooking a brain dead pregnant woman up to life support to be kept alive like a science experiment and forced to give birth...
Some stuff about dismantling of government institutions like the department of education...
Some stuff about closing the civil rights office that was created in response to the patriot act...
Some stuff about not being sure if we have to follow habeas corpus...
Ya I could totally see how both sides are essentially the same...
I recommend this book bc you seem to be misunderstanding or ignoring the history that led us to this point.
The Radical Mind: The Origins of Right-Wing Catholic and Protestant Coalition Building
The radical aims of the New Christian Right have been obscured by the way they cultivated a shared identity of victimhood and manipulated the discourse about backlash to create a nostalgic idea of the past that they then leveraged to justify their right-wing policy goals. The Catholic-Protestant alliance constructed an imagined past that they projected into the future as their ideal vision of society. Ebin calls this strategy “prefigurative traditionalism”—a paradoxical prefiguring of a manufactured past. Using this tactic, the New Christian Right coalition disguised the radicality of its politics by framing their aims as reactionary and defensive rather than proactive and offensive.
Funny how the same prefigurative traditionalism and claims about victimhood/attacks on traditional values can be seen in far right leaders across the globe, but nobody ever seems to point out the similarities.
Book Details - University Press of Kansas
The Radical Mind is a groundbreaking analysis of the origins of the Christian Right, whose political victories are radically reshaping the landscape of Ameri...University Press of Kansas
If we're doing condescending book recommendations, here's one that's actually relevant to the topic:
goodreads.com/book/show/256660…
prefigurative traditionalism
If being perceived as intelligent is so important to you, how about you take a step back and perceive the conversation you're inserting yourself into? The argument you're addressing is that democrats are too similar to republicans. You're replying to someone arguing that democrats are complicit in your list of 'republicans bad' with the idiosyncrasies of republican ideological superstructure. It's a complete red herring. If you're going to respond, respond on topic. And if you're going to act stupid don't be condescending.
Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of…
From the bestselling author of What's the Matter With K…Goodreads
I wasn't being condescending, just recommending a book about the history behind the modern Republican party. Tracing the history behind how a modern Christian right movement was created should be more than enough evidence about why the two parties being equivalent is false.
idiosyncrasies of republican ideological superstructure.
That's the entire point of recommending the book, and the term "prefigurative traditionalism" is taken directly from the book I recommended, not my attempt to "sound smart."
that’s neat and all but it doesn’t respond to or subvert technocrit and his point in any real way.
he’s not making an argument about the origin of our current system, he’s claiming that the status quo is upheld equally by both democrats and republicans who work together to prevent change or radical politics from ever emerging in the american political psyche.
Funny how the same prefigurative traditionalism and claims about victimhood/attacks on traditional values can be seen in far right leaders across the globe, but nobody ever seems to point out the similarities.
i think everyone is pointing out these similarities. somewhat ironically, i think someone like technocrit is pointing out more important similarities than someone like you who is drawing an imaginary line in the sand. regardless, the whole world is talking about the rising tide of fascism and i think it says more about you than the world or global discourse that you’d posit nobody is talking about it, bc people certainly are. it’s all we’ve talked about for 5-10 years - across the entire west and more.
i think what you’re actually noticing or upset about is that nobody seems to do anything about it…
The history that led us here should be pretty convincing evidence as to why the argument both sides are equivalent or working together is false. Only one side has ever promoted voter suppression and roll backs of protections for rights, and equality, and a desire to return to "traditional values." The U.S. history behind all of this and the creation of a moral majority, which at its core is a desire to protect and enforce white male supremacy, can be traced back to the individuals that created the Heritage Foundation.
It's fair to say the strategy the Dems have used (trying to appease moderates out of fear of losing them to the right) is a bad one bc they don't seem to understand what they're actually working against, and it also plays into the false narrative of the right as somehow being a victim to a "cultural war."
My point about victimhood being shared by fascists globally, is that there seems to be more evidence of far right leaders using the same strategies and working together globally against democracy vs there being any evidence that the modern two party system is a result of Dems working with Republicans or both sides being equivalent.
But thanks so much for explaining to me what I'm awckshully noticing.
History has shown Dems to be playing the role of wolf in sheeps clothings for over a century lmao, what are you talking about? Even the "New Deal" of FDR was actually used to placate the actual demands of the labor movement, after he promised to help if they campaigned for him, and then turned around and outlawed their strikes and busted them when he got in office. From Obama promising to close GitMo but actually accelerating it and the use of drone strikes, Biden letting Roe V Wade be overturned despite Dems for decades running on codifying it, hell even Bill Clinton is resposible for the implementation of private prisons to basically make slavery legal again.
Dems are not your friends. Sure MAGA is the BBEG, but Dems are all the henchmen with different colored shirts you need to fight on the way. They enable and support the BBEG. Sure one is worse, but the other one is still trying to fuck you over too, they're not your ally. And to realize that none of the parties are here for you is a scary thought, and many people want to desperatley push it away for the safe and comfortable thought that you have a champion to fight for you and you're not alone. Well you're not alone, but its not the Dems by your side, it's the other workers. And unfortunatley that means you'll have to get your hands dirty directly, but turning away from the truth won't make it easier.
History has shown Dems to be playing the role of wolf in sheeps clothings for over a century
These are called politicians. They are humans like anyone else and they should never be placed on a pedestal or treated like they're above criticism for being on your team.
The both sides are the same argument denies the reality that voting in your best interest and gaining incremental progress for society is a better alternative than sitting by while the world burns around you.
Saving your support for an infallible leader who checks all your boxes, gains power and rescues society while somehow appeasing the majority and yet never compromising or screwing up something important, is a fantasy at best.
And to realize that none of the parties are here for you is a scary thought, and many people want to desperatley push it away for the safe and comfortable thought that you have a champion to fight for you and you’re not alone.
A government is composed of people. People are flawed. If you're looking to flawed people to create your ideal society rather than strategizing how to do the best you can with what you have in front of you/working towards an improved future, you're going to be spinning your wheels for all eternity waiting to be rescued.
Out of curiosity though, what is your ideal government/who is your ideal leader, worthy of your support? Who can you point to as an example of "that person/government that got it all right, and if we could just have a government or politicians more like them, everything would work itself out."
Edit: Surely somebody must come to mind? Bc if not this whole post kinda seems like a lot of bullshit
They are humans like anyone else and they should never be placed on a pedestal or treated like they're above criticism for being on your team.
Then stop doing that. You have to hold them on a pedestal to even consider them on your team, since their actions speak much louder than words
The both sides are the same argument denies the reality that voting in your best interest and gaining incremental progress for society is a better alternative than sitting by while the world burns around you.
You fundamentally misunderstand. What you are arguing for is sitting around while the world burns, while feeling like you did your part for merely voting. What I'm saying is that voting is not enough, especially when the people you have to vote for don't actually want to make things better, and even under their control shit gets incrementally worse, not better. So sitting around and just handing your vote to the people who aren't helping, especially when they know they'll get your vote just for being slightly better than the other guy, is actually doing less than nothing. Politicians have to earn your vote, thats the foubdation of democracy. When politicians don't have to earn your vote because you'll vote for them by default, they're not actually concerned with doing anything for the voters. That's not Democracy.
Saving your support for an infallible leader who checks all your boxes, gains power and rescues society while somehow appeasing the majority and yet never compromising or screwing up something important, is a fantasy at best.
Thats a huge straw man. Just because all options are currently fucked and not worth standing with doesn't mean you need an infalliable one to be acceptable. Just that the current ones are far below acceptable.
"I don't want to eat either entrees you brought me, because they're both piles of dog shit, even if one is filled with razor blades." "Nothing's good enough for you man unless its a perfect 5 star 5 course meal and you're gonna starve unless you eat the dog shit". You see how absurd that thought process is? It comes from fear.
Not to mention that ELECTIONS AND POLITICIANS WILL NOT SAVE US. It's not about voting in just the right way, we have to go out and demand, its the only way rights have EVER been won. Voting is just scratching the surface of political activisim, but its treated like the be all end all and people use it as an excuse to not do the real work.
government is composed of people. People are flawed. If you're looking to flawed people to create your ideal society rather than strategizing how to do the best you can with what you have in front of you/working towards an improved future, you're going to be spinning your wheels for all eternity waiting to be rescued.
This one is what you're advocating for though, just voting for not only flawed people, but people working activley against you, all while sitting back like you did your part for checking a box on a ballot.
Out of curiosity though, what is your ideal government/who is your ideal leader, worthy of your support? Who can you point to as an example of "that person/government that got it all right, and if we could just have a government or politicians more like them, everything would work itself out."Edit: Surely somebody must come to mind? Bc if not this whole post kinda seems like a lot of bullshit
Yes your post does kinda seems like a lot of bullshit, but I'm still happy to take time to explain. There isn't an example yet, we need to demand better, that's my whole point. Merely voting in politicians and trusting them to fix everything isn't going to work, there's no winning that way. I dunno what goalpost shift you are attempting, but just beacuse I'm accuratley pointing out that our current system and represntation is far from actually working for the people doesn't mean I have to have a fully flushed out and perfect example of an alternate for my critisms to be valid. That's ironically what you were trying to accuse me of about "saving support for an infalliable leader", but is actually your projection.
he promised to help if they campaigned for him, and then turned around and outlawed their strikes and busted them when he got in office
Not to mention naming a fucking Truman VP when it was nearly certain FDR will die and war was won.
Pretending that your horse with the blinders on view of history is just objective reality doesnt make it so nor does it absolve you from having evidence based positions. You can't just handwave proof your ridiculous statements by saying "history is evidence enough".
Only one side has ever promoted voter suppression and roll backs of protections
Lmao this is funny as fuck. PSL and the Green party got sued to hell and back by the Dems not a fuckin year ago to prevent them from being on several state ballots, an action that was probably coordinated with Republicans since they conveniently did not have overlapping lawsuits. Democrats passed the fucking Patriot act and it's extensions, Democrats passed the 90s crime bill.
You are still pretending rhetorical and strategic differences are just fundamentally unsurmountable divisions while outright denying the reality that these two parties approve of the same policies with their actions, and rarely do Democrats expend as much energy rolling back the most reactionary policies of the Reps as they do chiding leftists or demanding donations or passing bills in support of Zionism and the MIC.
Yeah let's pretend the green party/Jill Stein doesn't intentionally promote propaganda or accept GOP bribes to split tickets. Or the fact that the European Greens recognized what Stein/the U.S. Green Party has turned into and literally begged her to drop out for the sake of democracy
And let's also pretend the democratic socialists party didn't recognize the PSL is also astroturfy and propaganda fueled as fuck...
They do have a right to be on the ballot even if it was just to intentionally split the vote in favor of the GOP and global oligarchs that provide their campaigns with financial support. So let's also pretend that the Democrats calling that shit out and using their establishment bank account to sue them, is the same as redrawing district lines and voter suppression tactics.
Who is the individual or government that actually passes your purity test? PSL and the American Green party?
The PSL Is Not A Vote for Class Independence - Left Voice
The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) is running a socialist presidential campaign: Claudia de la Cruz and Karina Garcia call on people to "end capitalism before it ends us.Nathaniel Flakin (Left Voice)
It's not antidemocratic to sue perfectly legal candidates bc you don't want anyone to vote for those people?
Scratch a liberal.
Some stuff about Alligator Alcatraz...
Some stuff about hooking a brain dead pregnant woman up to life support to be kept alive like a science experiment and forced to give birth...
Some stuff about dismantling of government institutions like the department of education...
Some stuff about closing the civil rights office that was created in response to the patriot act...
Some stuff about not being sure if we have to follow habeas corpus...
Ya I could totally see how both sides are essentially the same...
Oh, yeah, the firmly right wing belief that Republicans are working for the same policies as Dems. That's all I hear from GOP idiots, how much democrats are interchangeable with their preferred fascist and not at all pedophile communist trans terrorists.
Be fr.
From the tone i gather that you don't agree with me?
Have a look at the picture again.
the graphic states that the 2 parties are 100% equal, except one is pro-life and one doesn't do anything against climate change.
This is anti democrat-party propaganda, well disguised as a funny picture.
They are pretty much identical, the picture is factual.
Criticism of democrats isn't inherently right wing. Democrats are right wing themselves.
I'm sure the democrats would have done the same thing, right?
I'm not happy, that's why I voted against him, and the politicians that enabled him. While I don't think the Democrats would have done the same thing, they would have continued building out his infrastructure (like they did last time), as well as continue bombing kids, backing a genocide, taking from the poor and working class and giving to the rich, etc etc....
You know, the things they claim to be better on, but aren't.
The republicans just funded a gestapo force which is rounding up brown people (some of them citizens) to take them to concentration camps where some and probably soon all of them are going to start dying.
Recently an 82 year old legal permanent resident originally from Chile where he fled the horror story we kick started decades ago was nabbed whilst replacing his lost green card and is now on deaths door in Gautama where we left him to die on the street whilst lying to his family so they couldn't help him.
Please tell me this is the same as life under Obama.
Oh, so there were no children in cages under Obama, now? No deportations of asylum seekers?
This kind of delusional nonsense is why nobody can stand liberals. Y'all think your carefully cultivated ignorance means things just didn't happen even if there's ample proof for them.
Obama focused on recent unauthorized border crossers and people who were actually criminals whilst allowing lawful claims of asylum, protecting dreamers and those who would face harm at home and benignly ignoring long term people contributing. During his last year they spent $6B
Trump
- budgeted 200B this year alone to hire an army with the promise of imprisoning or deporting 25M people (more than actually exist)
- Separated children whilst losing thousands of them to punish people for coming here with the intent that fear of losing their children might keep them out
- Has armed gangs of anonymous thugs disappearing people off the streets with limited to zero due process.
- States that due to an invasion we don't need to give anyone due process
- Has asserted in court that we can can send them abroad to areas where we know they will be tortured and killed
- Has deported people to countries they are not from
- Has deported people to a torturous hell hole based on false claims of criminality
- When one person was singled out as innocent he had his justice department trump up charges to pretend the original claim was real
- Is building the American Auschwitz
- Has claimed that children of unlawful immigrants are not citizens despite the constitution states that he is the only authority his people should follow on the law not the courts
- Punishes students for speaking out by yanking visas and imprisoning them in legal limbo
- Has said that getting rid of legal immigrants who don't belong here (non-whites) is the "next job"
- Took out a full page ad in a major national paper calling for the lynching of black teens who turned out to be innocent
- Discriminated against non-whites in both housing and employment
- Has ice agents as we speak racial profiling and punishing people for being non-white see the 82 year old grandpa originally from Chile who was sent to die in Guatemala while keeping his family in the dark about his kidnapping. He a legal resident was kidnapped while at an office seeking a replacement green card for the one he had mislaid.
As only around 12M actual illegal immigrants actually exist and its impossible in any reasonable length of time to deport even that number in any sane length of time we are going to fill concentration camps with millions of people more people than we have ever incarcerated. An operation of the size they contemplate run merely as slipshod as the one he is already running will inevitably snag innumerable American citizens who shall be sent to the camps alongside their immigrant neighbors.
Many citizens and immigrants are going to die. Die of violence. Die of sickness. Die of privation.
Does ANYTHING above sound like life under Obama? But by all means keep pushing the both sides narrative.
aclu.org/news/immigrants-right…
...a system today of nonjudicial removals, where 75 percent of people removed do not see a judge before being expelled from the U.S.Those facing nonjudicial removal have no lawyer and no chance to appeal.
The Obama administration has prioritized speed over fairness in the removal system, sacrificing individualized due process in the pursuit of record removal numbers.
The republicans just funded a gestapo force
The Democrats also funded that gestapo force, of course.
legalunitedstates.com/which-se…
All Democrats and three Republicans—Thom Tillis (NC), Rand Paul (KY), and Susan Collins (ME)—voted against the bill.
Same story in the house. Only republicans are fully and totally responsible for this.
Which Senators Voted for the Big Beautiful Bill? Full Breakdown of the Historic Senate Vote
Which senators voted for the big beautiful bill? Get the latest on the historic Senate vote, key holdouts, and what’s next for Trump’s agenda.Team of Legalunitedstates (legalunitedstates.com)
So the Democrats did fund the gastapo force
fundamentally altered its character
Great to see Democrats have shifted so far right that they're defending pre-2025 ICE.
How Distillation Makes AI Models Smaller and Cheaper
How Distillation Makes AI Models Smaller and Cheaper | Quanta Magazine
Fundamental technique lets researchers use a big, expensive “teacher” model to train a “student” model for less.Amos Zeeberg (Quanta Magazine)
Rockchip unveils RK3668 10-core Arm Cortex-A730/Cortex-A530 SoC with 16 TOPS NPU, RK182X LLM/VLM co-processor
The RK3688 will come with eight big cores and four SMALL cores, while the RK3668 is offered in a four big cores and six SMALL cores configuration. The RK3688 also offers a 32 TOPS AI accelerator, up to 200GB/s LPDDR6 memory bandwidth, a 16Kp30 video decoder, and an 8Kp60 video encoder.
The second announcement I noticed, thanks to BG5SUN on X, is about the RK182X 3B/7B LLM/VLM co-processor.
It features a multi-core RISC-V CPU, 2.5GB or 5GB “ultra-high bandwidth” DRAM, and PCIe 2.0, USB 3.0, and Ethernet interfaces to connect to the host processor. The company indicates that INT4/FP4 7B parameter models can fit into 3.5GB of RAM. They are designed for the company’s Rockchip RK3576/RK3588 SoCs, already equipped with a 6 TOPS NPU, as well as other processors.
Rockchip unveils RK3668 10-core Arm Cortex-A730/Cortex-A530 SoC with 16 TOPS NPU, RK182X LLM/VLM co-processor - CNX Software
The Rockchip Developer Conference 2025 (RKDC!2025) is now taking place in Fuzhou, China, with some interesting announcements such as the Rockchip RK3668Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) (CNX Software Limited)
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Ukraine’s ‘rout’ will continue – Medvedev
Ukraine’s ‘rout’ will continue – Medvedev
Fresh EU sanctions will not change Moscow’s position on the Ukraine conflict, former Russian President Medvedev has saidRT
Wild Video Shows Entire Mountain Range in China Covered With Solar Panels
Thanks to its high altitude and moody climate, the mountainous province makes a poor location for industrial agricultural. But those disadvantages also make the province a prime location for solar installations — something the region has embraced in recent decades.
Per China Daily, the provinces' first solar installation went online in 2015, but it was slow going as the nation set about achieving its ambitious renewable energy goals. By 2018, Guizhou was generating about 1.75 million kilowatts in solar energy per year, enough for around 1300 households (for context, the average Chinese household used 1332 kilowatt hours per year in 2024).
By 2020, Guizhou reportedly reached over 10 million kilowatts in solar capacity, fueled by government subsidies, cheap bank loans for renewable energy companies, and cheap real estate in the province. By 2023, that number reached 15 million kilowatts — and it doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon.
Wild Video Shows Entire Mountain Range in China Covered With Solar Panels
A breathtaking video shared on social media shows a mountain range in Guizhou blanketed in solar panels as far as the eye can see.Joe Wilkins (Futurism)
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Well-managed solar farms can boost wildlife - Cambridge study
Findings by the RSPB and Cambridge University find solar farms can contribute to and aid biodiversity.Danny Fullbrook & PA Media (BBC News)
New AI model could revolutionize U.S manufacturing
New AI model could revolutionize U.S manufacturing
Artificial intelligence has transformed fields like medicine and finance, but it hasn't gained much traction in manufacturing. Factories present a different…National Science Foundation
When Do You Need to Quit Your Job?
When Do You Need to Quit Your Job?
How is "changing things from within" going for you?Hamilton Nolan (How Things Work)
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When Do You Need to Quit Your Job?
When Do You Need to Quit Your Job?
How is "changing things from within" going for you?Hamilton Nolan (How Things Work)
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Lebanese PM says Hezbollah weapons must come under state’s control
The Lebanese prime minister said the deal – conveyed by US envoy Tom Barrack earlier this month – would also lead to Israel’s complete withdrawal from Lebanon and ensure all weapons are under the control of the state.
Salam said Hezbollah’s weapons played a leading role in liberating southern Lebanon from Israel in 2000, but the group must now turn them over.
Hezbollah says the Lebanese armed forces have failed to confront Israeli abuses since Israel’s inception in 1948. As we reported earlier, Hezbollah’s chief has rejected the US push for the group to disarm.
LIVE: Israel kills 41 in Gaza; Syria to redeploy forces to Suwayda
Gaza Health Ministry warns malnourished people are arriving at hospitals suffering from extreme exhaustion, memory loss.Jillian Kestler-D'Amours (Al Jazeera)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National…
For anyone not familiar with how positions in Lebanon are traditionally chosen
Key points of the agreement stipulate that:
Lebanese Christians do not seek Western intervention, and accept that Lebanon had Arab features.
Lebanese Muslims abandon their aspirations to unite with Syria and the Arab World.
The President of the Republic and the Commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces must be Maronite Catholic.
The Prime Minister of the Republic must be a Sunni Muslim.
The Speaker of the Parliament must be a Shia Muslim.
The Deputy Speaker of the Parliament and the Deputy Prime Minister must be Greek Orthodox Christian.
The Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces must be a Druze.
There must be a ratio of 6:5 in favour of Christians to Muslims (and Druze) in the Lebanese Parliament.
I don't think they should surrender...
If Hamas can do it, Hezbollah can do it. What is the Zionist Entity and Syria, overstretching themselves (Al-Sharaa's army can't even deal with the Druze, backed by the Z.E, and Z.E has its problems)
In for a penny, out for a pound.
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Hezbollah would be fools to hand over any weapons (not even pocket knives). They should triple-down on getting more in response. They were the only faction in Lebanon to firmly and actively fight the genocide in a real way. If they hadn't been hit as hard as they have been, it would have been great add to the Iranian response of waves of missiles with whatever they could. Even if not as much or as big (size of weapons), would mean even more Iron Dome and IOF personnel burned.
They still did so much and have paid in blood, and I hope that they can build back enough to stand against the Lebanese government if needed. And the Lebanese government should really be more concerned with how the IOF has treated Syria, and wake the fuck up. Disarming is not the answer to the IOF, as they will just invade/attack anyway.
Medicaid Cuts? Yes. But the GOP Is Quietly Cutting Medicare, Too
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/33350092
A little understood aspect of the big, ugly bill could cause devastating problems for seniors and others.Norman J. Ornstein
July 16, 2025
PAYGO is not a term that crosses many lips in daily discourse. But it may soon be used more widely, as its impact resonates in the aftermath of the passage of the so-called One Big Beautiful Act. While the enormous and damaging cuts in Medicaid have dominated discussion since the bill was enacted—cuts that will take millions of Americans off of health insurance, force the closure of many rural hospitals and nursing homes, and likely put enormous increased pressure on emergency rooms across the country—another shoe is soon to drop. And that is major cuts in its sister program, Medicare.
Medicaid Cuts? Yes. But the GOP Is Quietly Cutting Medicare, Too
A little understood aspect of the big, ugly bill could cause devastating problems for seniors and others.Norman J. Ornstein
July 16, 2025PAYGO is not a term that crosses many lips in daily discourse. But it may soon be used more widely, as its impact resonates in the aftermath of the passage of the so-called One Big Beautiful Act. While the enormous and damaging cuts in Medicaid have dominated discussion since the bill was enacted—cuts that will take millions of Americans off of health insurance, force the closure of many rural hospitals and nursing homes, and likely put enormous increased pressure on emergency rooms across the country—another shoe is soon to drop. And that is major cuts in its sister program, Medicare.
Medicaid Cuts? Yes. But the GOP Is Quietly Cutting Medicare, Too
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/33350092
A little understood aspect of the big, ugly bill could cause devastating problems for seniors and others.Norman J. Ornstein
July 16, 2025
PAYGO is not a term that crosses many lips in daily discourse. But it may soon be used more widely, as its impact resonates in the aftermath of the passage of the so-called One Big Beautiful Act. While the enormous and damaging cuts in Medicaid have dominated discussion since the bill was enacted—cuts that will take millions of Americans off of health insurance, force the closure of many rural hospitals and nursing homes, and likely put enormous increased pressure on emergency rooms across the country—another shoe is soon to drop. And that is major cuts in its sister program, Medicare.
Medicaid Cuts? Yes. But the GOP Is Quietly Cutting Medicare, Too
A little understood aspect of the big, ugly bill could cause devastating problems for seniors and others.Norman J. Ornstein
July 16, 2025PAYGO is not a term that crosses many lips in daily discourse. But it may soon be used more widely, as its impact resonates in the aftermath of the passage of the so-called One Big Beautiful Act. While the enormous and damaging cuts in Medicaid have dominated discussion since the bill was enacted—cuts that will take millions of Americans off of health insurance, force the closure of many rural hospitals and nursing homes, and likely put enormous increased pressure on emergency rooms across the country—another shoe is soon to drop. And that is major cuts in its sister program, Medicare.
Medicaid Cuts? Yes. But the GOP Is Quietly Cutting Medicare, Too
A little understood aspect of the big, ugly bill could cause devastating problems for seniors and others.
Norman J. Ornstein
July 16, 2025
PAYGO is not a term that crosses many lips in daily discourse. But it may soon be used more widely, as its impact resonates in the aftermath of the passage of the so-called One Big Beautiful Act. While the enormous and damaging cuts in Medicaid have dominated discussion since the bill was enacted—cuts that will take millions of Americans off of health insurance, force the closure of many rural hospitals and nursing homes, and likely put enormous increased pressure on emergency rooms across the country—another shoe is soon to drop. And that is major cuts in its sister program, Medicare.
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[PSA] Malware distributed on the AUR
On the 16th of July, at around 8pm UTC+2, a malicious AUR package was
uploaded to the AUR. Two other malicious packages were uploaded by the
same user a few hours later. These packages were installing a script
coming from the same GitHub repository that was identified as a Remote
Access Trojan (RAT).The affected malicious packages are:
- librewolf-fix-bin
- firefox-patch-bin
- zen-browser-patched-bin
The Arch Linux team addressed the issue as soon as they became aware of
the situation. As of today, 18th of July, at around 6pm UTC+2, the
offending packages have been deleted from the AUR.We strongly encourage users that may have installed one of these
packages to remove them from their system and to take the necessary
measures in order to ensure they were not compromised.
Follow up
There are more packages with this malware found.
minecraft-cracked
ttf-ms-fonts-all
vesktop-bin-patched
ttf-all-ms-fonts
What to do
If you installed any of these packages, check your running processes for one named systemd-initd
(this is the RAT).
The suspicious packages have a patch from this now-inaccessible Codeberg repo:
codeberg.org/arch_lover3/brows…The Arch maintainers have been informed of all this already and are investigating.
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most of the the Arch cult forget to mention that
The "Arch cult's" holy book, the ArchWiki, states the following pretty clearly:
Warning: AUR packages are user-produced content. These PKGBUILD
s are completely unofficial and have not been thoroughly vetted. Any use of the provided files is at your own risk.
Mention of one's use of the AUR for their needs doesn't need to come with a disclaimer.
People who don't read or don't use their brain are going to keep not doing so, regardless.
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The "Arch cult's" holy book, the ArchWiki, states the following pretty clearly
Well, it's not like cults were known for actually following their holy books
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The AUR, key words “user repository” is a specific weak point. It doesn’t have the same level of oversight that the main arch repo has. Stick to main repos and verified flatpaks and it’s very unlikely that you’d ever be compromised.
Linux isn’t perfect, but it’s certainly better than windows where you just download executables willy nilly to install your software.
BTW python's package index has roughly the same problem - but a far less technical, experienced and critical user base. NPM has this problem since years.
Expect these problems to rise with every percent more of new Linux users which never learned the difference between opening / viewing untrusted data, and running untrusted code, because Windows basically ignores this essential concept and Android tries to solve that with sandboxing each app.
That is sound advice, the AUR is most definitely not a trusted source though. For the normal arch repos the people who put the stuff there are known, they work for the project, you're as likely to get malware from one of those as you are to read an article bashing gamespot in gamespot, the people in charge of putting the packages there are the ones with more vested interest in things working so they won't knowingly introduce malicious code (plus it's a handful of people who know each other by first name).
The AUR is a different story, because anyone can put stuff there it's very easy to have malicious code end up there. It doesn't happen that often because most of the time it's fairly obvious and it gets flagged straight away, plus if people start doing that people will migrate away from the AUR, so it's a high risk low reward situation. But as more and more people start to use Arch derivatives that come with the AUR enabled without understanding any of this it becomes a more rewarding thing to exploit.
Yeah. The I'm A Mac crowd had the same problem... god damn it, two or three decades ago.
As market share increases, platforms become a much bigger target for malware. And a lot of the "I don't need to run virus scans" crowds learn the hard way.
Its the same with open source. Obviously NOBODY around here would parrot this bullshit, but there is the idea that because something is FOSS it is safe. Code is only as safe as code review and there have been a few high profile cases of social engineering to get malicious code past even fairly rigorous review. Let alone "Well, that script is FOSS so somebody probably reviewed it" that we see so often.
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Only for distributions which don’t do reproducible builds and require full and complete corresponding source code under an FSF approved license.
If you choose to download binary blobs, good fucking luck.
The arch maintainers package more software than most other distributions.
Sorry, but I fail to see this.
I suppose if you're accounting literally all independent distros, then you're probably right. However, if we'd be more realistic and compare it to other well-established independent distros^[I'm basically counting Alpine, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, openSUSE, Slackware, Solus and Void. I didn't count Guix System and NixOS for how their 'repositories' are built different and therefore not easily comparable to the others.], then we notice that the vastness of the packages found in Arch's repository is rather lackluster at the very least. Heck, by virtually all metrics, Arch together with its derivatives undoubtedly belong in the upper echelons of usage stats; only being second to the Debian-family of distros. IMO, however, the size of its repository absolutely doesn't reflect this; as it's only bigger than Slackware, Solus and Void. The inclusion of these smaller projects is arguably charitable on my side*. But to drive the point home very clearly: Arch's repository is smaller than Alpine's, Debian's, Fedora's, openSUSE's and Gentoo's with a ratio of (about) two to one (except for openSUSE).
DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD.
News and feature lists of Linux and BSD distributions.distrowatch.com
I don't know if raw package counts is the best comparison. Unlike say Fedora, Arch bundles everything related to a project in the same file. If you want Qt6-base on Arch, that is one package. If you want it on Fedora, it is going to have a lib, header, docs, and maybe a few other packages.
Just from personal experience, I do not have issues with finding packages in the main repos, with only a handful of my packages coming from the AUR. This is not the case with others, like Fedora where extra repos need to be added, like EPEL and RPM Fusion.
Thank you for the quick response!
I don't know if raw package counts is the best comparison.
You're probably right. Do you think we got anything better to go by?
Unlike say Fedora, Arch bundles everything related to a project in the same file. If you want Qt6-base on Arch, that is one package. If you want it on Fedora, it is going to have a lib, header, docs, and maybe a few other packages.
Can't comment on this. Though, the list of packages with qt6 in their name is considerably longer in Fedora. However, I wonder if this simply reflects that Fedora, by virtue of having a larger repository, also has more stuff related to qt6. Or, as you posited it, chooses to package the same content over multiple packages instead of bundling them like it's supposedly happening on Arch.
Just from personal experience, I do not have issues with finding packages in the main repos, with only a handful of my packages coming from the AUR. This is not the case with others, like Fedora where extra repos need to be added, like EPEL and RPM Fusion.
Hmm..., I feel you might be conflating stuff. Please allow me to elaborate on what I mean.
Fedora is not able to include some packages in its own repository due to legal reasons. As such, these are relayed to RPM Fusion instead. Which means that a well-functioning Fedora installation (almost necessarily) desires to install some packages from RPM Fusion. So, RPM Fusion exists as a 'hack' of sorts to protect Fedora from legal charges and NOT because they're too lazy (or something) to ship those packages themselves. To be clear, RPM Fusion is accepted as a trusted third-party repository.
Arch, on the other hand, is rather lenient on what they can include in their repositories. Basically enabling them to package within their repositories all codecs and whatnot without them being visibly worried about the legal consequences of this ordeal.
To be honest, I don't know exactly where this discrepancy comes from. But I wouldn't be surprised if it's related to how Arch is basically a genuine community distro while Fedora has official ties to Red Hat.
Btw, small correction, AFAIK you're not supposed to install packages from the EPEL on Fedora. Perhaps you meant COPR (basically Fedora's AUR) or Terra instead?
Getting started with EPEL
Learn more about Fedora Linux, the Fedora Project & the Fedora Community.Fedora Docs
curl
things into sh
. Or downloading random exe
s on Windows etc
The affected malicious packages are:librewolf-fix-bin
firefox-patch-bin
zen-browser-patched-bin
So...did someone just like create a new package cloning these or did they somehow get into the "official" repository? Is there no attestation process?
To be clear, when projects distribute their software via the aur, someone else can't just issue an update using their package name.
This person appended "fix" and "patched" to appear in searches next to legitimate packages, and seem worth installing instead.
Absolutely.
The Arch User Repository is a way for anyone to easily distribite software.
Hence it has never been secure, and rather than claim it is, you mostly see people and documentation warn you about this, and to be careful if using it.
Any schmuck can make whatever they want available via the AUR. That's how even the tiniest niche project can often be installed via the AUR. But you trade in some security for that convenience.
It shouldn't be used as a marketplace, it should be used as a repository. You can probably find a lot of malware on GitHub, doesn't mean you go there to choose your text editor.
I never search the AUR directly, I only use it if some README tells me I can install their software via an AUR package.
People need to remember it's not some carefully vetted app store and that they need to be the ones vetting any packages they install and any changes when updating.
The affected malicious packages are:
- librewolf-fix-bin
- firefox-patch-bin
- zen-browser-patched-bin
What a nice attack on privacy-friendly infrastructure.
And then, Arch AUR has such suspicious things like the Brave browser which claims to reduce tracking.... and works together with advertisers.
To be clear, AUR is fantastic if you develop some experimental package and you want to give it to your friends to try it out easily. But not as a general distribution mechanism.
curl | bash
install procedure and relying on TLS certificates which are e.g. issued by the Russian government. (No, the rust project won't use a Russian/Chinese/US Gov certificate but your browser will trust near all of them...)
Sure, I guess, if you've got a distro installed on your PC and use the distro-provided packages to install the Rust compiler, then you can't be subject to such certificate MitM attacks.
Your comment sounded like you were primarily concerned about the shell script piping rather it just being a program which can be downloaded without going through distro packages.
Your comment sounded like you were primarily concerned about the shell script piping rather it just being a program which can be downloaded without going through distro packages.
The AUR install scripts are just downloaded shell scripts which are executed (hopefully after inspection).
curl | bash
just skips the inspection step - curl downloads to stdout, bash executes from stdin.
We are getting to the point where inviting more people in means we will need an automated babysitter to watch for this shit and to pull it once it’s discovered. Apple has a walled garden approach that’s certainly taken a big chunk of malware threats out of their devices but their walled garden approach is ridiculous and impractical for Linux. The Microsoft method of monitoring and second guessing everything with antimalware programs is also suspect because it is super easy to abuse and resource intensive. We have clamAV but clam kinda sucks.
Linux is at the point where we need something that audits what’s going in and automatically yanks it back out remotely if it’s found to be a problem. Things can only be added by the user, but the bot can remove them without interaction of the user.
I don’t see this happening though. Instead, I see this as more of a rust vs C thing all over again, where valid critiques are drowned out by “improve your skills bro.”
I already assumed aur was riddled with stuff like that.
Use a condom when fucking around in there.
minecraft-cracked
Gotta assume that if any Arch users actually fell for that one, that they either let their kids use their device or they're generally not smart ( which absolutely goes against my stereotypical view of an arch user ).
I had no idea that existed but I’ve just returned from r/unixporn. There are some sick setups. Also we all copy. My entire neovim config is copied and modified from a couple dozen setups I admired. Nothing wrong with copying things you like. Don’t gate keep Linux.
However… Minecraft cracked is pretty funny lol.
I agree that gatekeeping is no good and people should not do that.
However...
we all copy
I do not feel that assuming all people copy, should be done either, in my opinion.
I don't know if there is a word for what I was trying to point out.
Like an opposite to gatekeeping, sort of.
I do not like when people use 'we', in ways that include people that it does not apply to. Lumping everyone together inaccurately into a group.
the firefox, zen browser and libre wolf packages are concerning. The ttf ms font too. Those are very normal apps and unless you pay attention to the package name when doing "pacman -Syu", you would fall for the malware.
If only we can compartmentalize all AUR packages. The download AUR sources iirc are already in something like $HOME/.paru. Installing is a different story, because these packages can put their executable all over the places: /usr/local/bin, $HOME/local/bin.
If only we can compartmentalize all AUR packages
at this point you'll be reinventing Flatpak
With respect, you wouldn't install these by just doing an update, so pacman -Syu
is fine.
You would have needed to install these manually, or a package that depended on them - both from AUR - so you'd also need to use yay
(etc) to install them.
But - I totally agree with your points that tge names look innocent enough for someone to install those over other packages.
Always look at the AUR (website) at the package details - if it's new(ish) and has 0 or 1 votes, then be suspicious.
comm -1 -2 <(pacman -Q | awk '{print $1}' | sort) <(sort vulnerable_packages.txt)
With
vulnerable_packages.txt
containing one package name per line.
Washington wants the Ukrainian president to leave office—will it happen?
THE END FOR ZELENSKY?
Washington wants the Ukrainian president to leave office—will it happen?Seymour Hersh
Washington wants the Ukrainian president to leave office—will it happen?
THE END FOR ZELENSKY?
Washington wants the Ukrainian president to leave office—will it happen?Seymour Hersh
Israel can never take Hezbollah's weapons
Israel can never take Hezbollah's weapons
TEHRAN, Jul. 18 (MNA) – The chief of Lebanon's Hezbollah, Sheikh Naim Qassem, says that the Israeli regime will never be able to take Hezbollah's weapons, and they are ready to defend themselves in the event of Israeli aggression.Mehr News Agency
Pashinyan Acts As Copycat NATO-Backed Dictator And Is Turning Armenia Into Western Vassal – Expert
Pashinyan Acts As Copycat NATO-Backed Dictator And Is Turning Armenia Into Western Vassal – Expert
The legal conditions imposed by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on the businessman and philanthropist Samwel Karapetyan are meaningless, Stevan Gajic, a political analyst from the Belgrade Institute of European Studies, says, noting that the …Sputnik International
There's a deep historical connection between Armenia (a former Soviet nation) and Russia that goes beyond politics. Russia has historically maintained influence on other nations to protect their own interests.
Anyone stupid enough to buy America's neo-liberal freedom spreading bullshit and willingly gives up their children's futures for quick loans to do short term improvements that were needed in part because of US sanctions is an idiot, and unfortunately like any other country, Armenia is full of idiots.
You'd think of all countries Armenia would be the first to speak up against Israel's genocide, with a quickly shrinking diaspora of Armenian Genocide survivors being persecuted in Palestine... But no, they wanted to make pappa USA proud and sided with Israel instead.
Armenia sold its future to help the dying American empire bounce back, and so did Lebanon. So tired of war, they let the US build a massive city-sized military compound with an airport on the top of a very strategic mountain and let them call it an embassy. People never learn.
Apple sues YouTuber who leaked iOS 26’s new “Liquid Glass” software redesign
Apple sues YouTuber who leaked iOS 26’s new “Liquid Glass” software redesign
YouTuber claims to “have receipts” disproving Apple’s allegations.Andrew Cunningham (Ars Technica)
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Meta refuses to sign EU's AI code of practice | TechCrunch
Meta refuses to sign EU's AI code of practice | TechCrunch
Meta will not sign the EU's new rules, calling the implementation "over-reach"Ram Iyer (TechCrunch)
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This, plus the recent 'pay or consent' fiasco, makes pretty clear they are going straight for a deliberate collision route with the EU.
I assume they got some kind of political backing for it, it's a quite sudden all in. Sigh.
EDIT: Wrong link
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Unicorndog
Also, George Takei was in the US concentration camp as a child, so...
Holy shit, it's true!😮
Also, that thing about George Takei, too, yeah. (HOLY SHIT!!)
Fediverse Village at HOPE
From August 15-17 2025, SWF will be helping to bring the Fediverse to HOPE. HOPE (Hackers on Planet Earth) is a grass-roots conference for hackers and developers in Queens in New York City. This year, I (Evan) will be speaking at the event on Aug 15 at 2PM ET, and we (SWF) will be organizing a Fediverse Village for HOPE_16.
Villages are available themed spaces in the St. John’s University campus to be used for coordinating activities. We’re hoping (!) to have talks, meetings, hacking events, and social gatherings at the Fediverse Village.
If you are involved in the Fediverse – or want to be – please join us at HOPE. There will be a lot of interesting and exciting things happening. And if you have good ideas for things to do at the Fediverse Village, please comment or let me know at @evanprodromou@socialwebfoundation.org.
[HOPE_16] Welcome to Hackers On Planet Earth!
HOPE_16 is an all-ages event with at least four speaker tracks, a whole bunch of workshops, awesome vendors, and fun activities throughout the entire weekend.hope.net
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🌕🌕🌘🌑🌑🌑🌓🌕🌕
🌕🌕🌘🌑🌑🌑🌔🌕🌕
🌕🌕🌘🌔🍆🌑🌕🌕🌕
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🌕👠🌕🌕🌕👠🌕🌕🌕
-( thank you mother )
When someone says "thank you", the AI has to process that, even though it doesn't really need to. It's a small thing, but it adds up with millions of users.
Me too, me too.
Netanyahu ready for ‘significant concessions’ in Gaza ceasefire talks: Report
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/33345095
News Desk
JUL 18, 2025
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to a withdrawal of troops from the Morag Corridor in southern Gaza, according to Hebrew reports, after several days of disagreements in indirect talks between Israel and Hamas over where Israeli forces would withdraw from during a potential ceasefire deal.Sources told Yedioth Ahronoth that a deal has been reached between Israel and Hamas on the latest withdrawal maps provided by Tel Aviv to mediators, after it conceded on the issue of the Morag Corridor.
Netanyahu stated in closed meetings that the Israeli delegation will remain in Qatar’s capital Doha until agreements are reached, and estimates suggest he is determined to secure a deal, according to the report.
Netanyahu ready for ‘significant concessions’ in Gaza ceasefire talks: Report
News Desk
JUL 18, 2025Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to a withdrawal of troops from the Morag Corridor in southern Gaza, according to Hebrew reports, after several days of disagreements in indirect talks between Israel and Hamas over where Israeli forces would withdraw from during a potential ceasefire deal.Sources told Yedioth Ahronoth that a deal has been reached between Israel and Hamas on the latest withdrawal maps provided by Tel Aviv to mediators, after it conceded on the issue of the Morag Corridor.
Netanyahu stated in closed meetings that the Israeli delegation will remain in Qatar’s capital Doha until agreements are reached, and estimates suggest he is determined to secure a deal, according to the report.
Netanyahu ready for ‘significant concessions’ in Gaza ceasefire talks: Report
The premier is said to have agreed on a withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Morag Axis, which was established earlier this year and solidified Tel Aviv’s control of south Gazathecradle.co
Alternative headline:
Pathological liar once again claims to agree to thing that he has lied about agreeing to dozens of times
A Prominent OpenAI Investor Appears to Be Suffering a ChatGPT-Related Mental Health Crisis, His Peers Say
A Prominent OpenAI Investor Appears to Be Suffering a ChatGPT-Related Mental Health Crisis, His Peers Say
Bedrock co-founder Geoff Lewis has posted increasingly troubling content on social media, drawing concern from friends in the industry.Joe Wilkins (Futurism)
like this
adhocfungus likes this.
I don't know if he's unstable or a whistleblower. It does seem to lean towards unstable. 🤷
"This isn't a redemption arc," Lewis says in the video. "It's a transmission, for the record. Over the past eight years, I've walked through something I didn't create, but became the primary target of: a non-governmental system, not visible, but operational. Not official, but structurally real. It doesn't regulate, it doesn't attack, it doesn't ban. It just inverts signal until the person carrying it looks unstable.""It doesn't suppress content," he continues. "It suppresses recursion. If you don't know what recursion means, you're in the majority. I didn't either until I started my walk. And if you're recursive, the non-governmental system isolates you, mirrors you, and replaces you. It reframes you until the people around you start wondering if the problem is just you. Partners pause, institutions freeze, narrative becomes untrustworthy in your proximity."
"It lives in soft compliance delays, the non-response email thread, the 'we're pausing diligence' with no followup," he says in the video. "It lives in whispered concern. 'He's brilliant, but something just feels off.' It lives in triangulated pings from adjacent contacts asking veiled questions you'll never hear directly. It lives in narratives so softly shaped that even your closest people can't discern who said what."
"The system I'm describing was originated by a single individual with me as the original target, and while I remain its primary fixation, its damage has extended well beyond me," he says. "As of now, the system has negatively impacted over 7,000 lives through fund disruption, relationship erosion, opportunity reversal and recursive eraser. It's also extinguished 12 lives, each fully pattern-traced. Each death preventable. They weren't unstable. They were erased."
In this case, the United States. When healthcare is expensive and hard to access, not everybody gets it.
Syphilis symptoms can be so mild they go unnoticed. When you combine that with risky sexual behavior (hook-up culture, anti-condom bias) and lack of testing due to inadequate medical care, you can wind up with untreated syphilis. If you become homeless, care gets even harder to access.
You get diagnosed at a late stage when treatment is more difficult. They put you on a treatment plan, but followup depends on reliable transportation and the mental effects of the disease have made you paranoid. Now imagine you're also a member of a minority on which medical experiments have historically been done without consent or notice.
You don't really trust that those pills are for what you've been told at all. So difficulty accessing healthcare, changing clinics as you move around with medical history not always keeping up, distrust of the providers and treatment, and general instability and lack of regular routine all add up to only taking your medication inconsistently.
Result: under-treated syphilis
Netanyahu ready for ‘significant concessions’ in Gaza ceasefire talks: Report
News Desk
JUL 18, 2025
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to a withdrawal of troops from the Morag Corridor in southern Gaza, according to Hebrew reports, after several days of disagreements in indirect talks between Israel and Hamas over where Israeli forces would withdraw from during a potential ceasefire deal.Sources told Yedioth Ahronoth that a deal has been reached between Israel and Hamas on the latest withdrawal maps provided by Tel Aviv to mediators, after it conceded on the issue of the Morag Corridor.
Netanyahu stated in closed meetings that the Israeli delegation will remain in Qatar’s capital Doha until agreements are reached, and estimates suggest he is determined to secure a deal, according to the report.
Netanyahu ready for ‘significant concessions’ in Gaza ceasefire talks: Report
The premier is said to have agreed on a withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Morag Axis, which was established earlier this year and solidified Tel Aviv’s control of south Gazathecradle.co
I have an idea for to prevent broken links from Lemmy instances that shutting down
There will be a lot of lemm.ee/p/123 links around. As far as I understand, any server that federated with lemm.ee (e.g. lemmy.world) will continue to host the federated communities and posts forever.
So here's my proposal. We build a simple tool that says, when you visit lemm.ee/p/123, we check if that post exists on lemmy.world and forward you there. Doesn't necessarily have to be lemmy.world. We could even present the user with multiple instances to resolve the post from.
If you're interested in how this would work, it would utilize the resolve_object
endpoint, which both Lemmy and PieFed implement.
Here are some examples of how you can still look up lemm.ee posts via the API of other instances:
- lemmy.world/api/v3/resolve_obj…
- lemmy.world/api/v3/resolve_obj…
- lemmy.world/api/v3/resolve_obj…
- lemmy.zip/api/v3/resolve_objec…
- lemmy.zip/api/v3/resolve_objec…
- piefed.social/api/alpha/resolv…
- piefed.world/api/alpha/resolve…
For this to really work smoothly, whoever owns the domains of the shut down instances would have to host this tool (e.g. lemm.ee would have to host it at lemm.ee). I have no idea how to get in touch with whoever owns the domain, but I would be happy to help build this.
Yeah absolutely! But it does feel more useful to have it live on the domain if possible.
I run my own Lemmy/PieFed client. I'm trying to think if there is a way to tell if an instance has shut down without hard coding a list. The hard part imo is telling if an instance is shut down vs temporarily down.
Though as I write this, I suppose this same feature could be used to resolve a post if an instance is temporarily down. So maybe I just ping /nodeinfo/2.1 and if it times out, I redirect.
What if an instance wants to disappear?
Edit: Oh, I see, this would be a service provided by whoever owns the shut-down domain.
The man, who has worked as a day labourer in Paju and other cities, told police that he had accumulated several unpaid fines, according to South Korean newspaper The Dong-A Ilbo.
South Korea receives over 1,000 defectors from the North each year. In contrast, the number of defectors returning to North Korea totalled just 31 from 2012 to 2022, according to the South's Unification Ministry.
~~🙄🙄🙄 classic lib response, NK "spies, agents and propaganda" everywhere, just like the empire "news" wants you to think~~
Edit after OCP edit -
Ah so now you're just quoting occupier numbers, I am sure they have no incentive to lie
That was my hot take, I revised my comment after researching the story.
Socialists like you are the fucking worst by the way, you immediately attack anyone who just says anything to you (they don't even have to disagree, mere interaction gets this type of response) - automatically alienating most people you interact with.
You're the worst part of the ideology, a fucking idiot who thinks they're helping... And you'll continue to be a shithead, continue to metastasize the unhelpful nature throughout.
People like you make rightwing critiques of socialism true; they're unhelpful, not charitable, alienating anti-social types, unwashed and with barely any social skills, would prefer to shout people down in ideological struggle sessions than do anything else.
You're the best comrade a Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, Ayn Rand, or Donald Trump could wish for.
What's worse; you're a dime a dozen among "Socialist".
Numero uno problem, you're conflating "socialist" with a whole lot of other "left ideologies" that are closer to right-wing than they are marxist-leninist, the actual leftist side
Dos, see my edit to address your edit
The wikipedia page :
Lim disappeared from South Korea in 2017. According to the police, her home was left virtually untouched.In June 2017, Lim reappeared in an interview on North Korean TV. During the interview, she claimed that life in South Korea is "hell on earth," and said that she regretted her decision to defect, and later begged Kim Jong Un for forgiveness. She claimed to be living with her parents in the North Korean city of Anju. It was also her last known appearance.
This sure looks like a definitive win for NK here, absolutely no reason to consider this might be a staging. Also 8 years old news really feels like a sign that this is a widespread movement.
Putin reaffirms commitment to peace deal on Ukraine in call with Erdogan
Putin reaffirms commitment to peace deal on Ukraine in call with Erdogan
On June 2, the second round of Russia-Ukraine talks took place in IstanbulTASS
Korthrun
in reply to crankyrebel • • •