• Matty Roses@lemmy.today
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    3 days ago

    I don’t think anyone is listening to your protest vote

    Schroedengir’s leftist - apparently we spoil ever election by not giving the centrist Dems our votes that were promised to them 3,000 years ago. But we’re simultaneously not important enough to actually try to win votes from.

    You can support whatever you like - but unless you make your vote conditional upon it, the party isn’t going to listen to you. Why should it? You’re giving them everything you have already - and so they can ignore you to court the (mythical) moderate Republican voter instead.

    ‘Get out or get guns’ is a reaction, not a plan.

    No, it’s literally a plan, just one you don’t like.

    • korazail@eviltoast.org
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      3 days ago

      I’ve tried to explain my rationale and get yours. I’ve asked for your plans, solutions, goals. All I get are snippets that you can take and respond to with a quip.

      'Get out or get guns" is not a plan I like. I don’t think it will work. When the US implodes because every sane person fled, the world will not be better.

      • Matty Roses@lemmy.today
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        2 days ago

        'Get out or get guns" is not a plan I like

        Yes, we’ve established that. So, since you don’t like that, your plan is to keep trying the same “vote for lesser evil” plan that’s been failing for decades.

        In the face of an dying empire (dying much faster now due to the Iran War), climate change, and the rest.

        In my opinion . . .

        When the US implodes because every sane person fled, the world will not be better.

        Meh, as we’ve seen for a while, the US is a dangerous force against peace. So maybe the chaos being directed inwards instead of outwards for once will be better for the rest of us.

        • korazail@eviltoast.org
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          2 days ago

          Neat. Your plan? Run from the responsibility vs violence? Still haven’t heard it beyond those two options. “Get out or get guns” is defeatist and surrenders the initiative to the chaos.

          The US is a dangerous force against peace

          When I was growing up, Russia was the global boogie man. I’d like to prevent the US from being the next one. Am I making things worse by trying to reverse our destruction? I don’t think I am.

          Putting words in your mouth, you’re saying “it’s too late” and I should just run? What happens when the US is 100% “republican”? I don’t think that will help on the global stage and I think it will be worse for everyone when things fail here, so I’m trying to prevent that. I think we get an imperialist nation with crumbling infrastructure that needs to take what it can’t produce and will do so with force. We’re like mostly there - see Iran.

          I guess one last try. Attack my position again without a solution and I’ll give up.

          With some detail, and not in a one-liner, how do we make this better?

          • Matty Roses@lemmy.today
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            2 days ago

            When I was growing up, Russia was the global boogie man

            According to who? Americans?

            The Soviets had lots of things bad with them. That said, the US was killing millions in Vietnam and Latin America. It just doesn’t compare.

            What happens when the US is 100% “republican”?

            The same as now? The exact problem is your supposed “lesser evil” strategy has wound up with them controlling all parts of the US government.

            We’re like mostly there

            Yes, you are.

            how do we make this better

            You overthrow your government and seize the funds of the rich? At this point, how do you actually think this gets better absent that? You’ve got wealth inequality worse than any other society ever measured, you’re the current leading cause of climate change per capita (maybe 2nd to Canada), you’re in so many wars I doubt you can even name every country you’ve bombed this year . . . .and it’s about to get far, far worse.

            if you want my recommendation for what to do personally - yes, get armed, and get ready. Also create dual power systems. Organize, but not just in the failed political realm of the Democratic party. As you’ve seen, they will not do anything even if they have power.

            • korazail@eviltoast.org
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              1 day ago

              You overthrow your government and seize the funds of the rich? At this point, how do you actually think this gets better absent that

              I think I’m done. It’s been an interesting and introspective week. And for that, I thank you.

              Your ‘solution’ is violence - and I get that. There’s a bunch of people with your opinion. I don’t have it. I think if we have to get to ‘overthrow’, then we make things really bad for a long time for a lot of people; whereas we can use the system to put better people in the places of power and make things more better-er in a shorter timeframe. It might also make things bad for different people for longer time. I can’t tell from where I sit. I happen to be one dude in a country of 350 million.

              In all honesty, I’ve got a foot in both sides. When shit goes down, I’m in; but I’m not going to start it. I’ll leave that up to people braver than me. I will block you if you fight me on this stance.

              You imply I’m stopping at the ‘lesser evil’ strategy and I can’t stress enough how much that’s a stepping stone and not, or even a significant part of, my whole solution or even what I advocate for (My old instance is shutting down, you can see my older comments as korazail@lemmy.myserv.one and there are many versions of ‘join your local org’). I vote for lesser evil right now while actively trying to make better options later so I don’t have to and encouraging others to be part of the process.

              I think we differ on whether that could actually work; which is a whole conversation on it’s own since, if it can’t, can democracy work at all? Do we all just shoot each other? And which side does that best serve?

              My actually trying to make things better is done by being engaged with the processes that make decisions and tell others they can be engaged too. Back to the original original point. The ‘both sides’ one-liners reduce engagement. We should stop making them.

              Don’t pick a phrase from above to reply to. Respond to this: Should the average person attempt to be more or less engaged with their political systems?

              • Matty Roses@lemmy.today
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                1 day ago

                and I can’t stress enough how much that’s a stepping stone and not, or even a significant part of, my whole solution or even what I advocate for

                It will NEVER progress is exactly my point. You’ve chosen to always move to the right. The logic of why is not hard to understand.

                Should the average person attempt to be more or less engaged with their political systems?

                Of course. And that engagement should, in the US, primarily take the form of challenging the Democratic Party leadership as effectively as possible. They’re the largest obstacle to the left currently.

                • korazail@eviltoast.org
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                  1 day ago

                  <comedian slow delivery> Ok, now, hear me out, wait, gimmie a minute

                  primarily take the form of challenging the Democratic Party leadership as effectively as possible

                  What do you think I’ve been trying to say?

                  I’m one dude. My next more effective way of challenging the leadership will get me locked up and then I can’t challenge it again for like 10-20 years.

                  And you’re still sidestepping the point I was trying to make that was: engagement is helpful and discouraging it is not helpful.

                  Edit: and just to clarify, “both sides” kinds of comments are discouraging. – we can continue to argue about how to engage forever, I think, but this whole thread started with ‘stop saying both sides’.

                  • Matty Roses@lemmy.today
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                    1 day ago

                    This is nonsense. You’re claiming that saying, accurately, that Democrats support almost all the same evil positions Republicans do is “discouraging”?

                    Cool. Vote out the party leadership then.

                    You seem, like most Democratic loyalists, to think that if you wish really hard, THIS time your lesser evil strategy is going to work. Once again, you’ve been trying it for decades, and THIS is where it has brought you to. The GOP firmly in control of the government, while you continue to lose to an insane game show host.

                    I’ve told you how you can STOP doing that - and it STARTS with cleaning out the Democratic Party, and you ONLY do that by abandoning your lesser evil nonsense.

                    We’re done here.