• opus86@lemmy.today
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    2 hours ago

    I’m very disappointed with Biden’s administration for not charging more people in Trump’s first term for the crimes they committed. They didn’t face any consequences the last time and will now be completely off the rails. Now we have a second Trump administration with most of the same people that now know they can get away with anything.

    • OhNoMoreLemmy@lemmy.ml
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      2 hours ago

      The problem is that US democracy consists of voting for either a conservative party (Democrats) or a fascist party (Republicans).

      When the conservatives are in power they care most about preserving the appearance of legitimacy of institutions and they don’t do anything like arresting politicians or stuffing the supreme court even though it would strengthen democracy.

      Then the fascists get in and destroy everything anyway.

  • Grizzlyboy@lemm.ee
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    2 hours ago

    Good thing they’ve got guns to stop terrorist organizations such as ICE. I’m curious when we’ll hear about them being shot at, or worse, though.

  • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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    17 hours ago

    No single thing alone will fix the world. Voting alone won’t fix it. Throwing a molotov alone won’t fix it.

    Voting (in many places, for many people) takes almost no effort. Go do it. But don’t call it a day and think you’ve done everything you can do. Refusing to vote just yields one of the many fronts in this conflict without a fight.

    • db0@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPM
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      17 hours ago

      Voting (in many places, for many people) takes almost no effort

      The voting apparatus takes immense effort in fact. It takes so much effort that it’s almost all consuming for most nations during the election period and wastes thousands of human-workhours.

      • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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        16 hours ago

        I meant the amount of effort it takes for the end user.

        If we’re going to talk about higher order levels of effort, then everything gets very expensive very quickly.

        • InversionOfControl@lemmy.world
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          2 hours ago

          When I lived in Little Rock, I stood in line to vote for 4.5 hours. There are a lot of places in the US where they make it as difficult as possible. I couldn’t even count how many people left the line to go back to work before they could vote.

        • db0@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPM
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          16 hours ago

          No, The point is that all that “higher order level” of effort is wasted on electoralism. It’s not wasted in direct action.

          • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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            16 hours ago

            I’m not sure I follow. I was talking about what individuals should do: direct action and also voting. Voting is often just a few minutes for the end user.

            I’m not talking about what the state should spend resources on.

            • db0@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPM
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              15 hours ago

              Voting is largely volunteer run. All that effort is wasted. Taking part in elections legitimizes that effort

              • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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                15 hours ago

                Most people follow election results and those people’s actions have real, discernable, effects. If you yield on this front, even if you think elections are flawed, you’re letting your opponents have this power uncontested. That’s a terrible strategy.

                • db0@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPM
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                  15 hours ago

                  No, it’s a terrible strategy to waste any effort on elections. If that effort was put in direct action for prefiguration instead, it would not matter what your opponents did.

          • LeninsOvaries@lemmy.cafe
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            16 hours ago

            Exactly, voting exists to the detriment of any state that implements it. It costs the government billions of dollars. Once we create a socialist paradise, the first thing we should do is abolish elections to save money.

              • LeninsOvaries@lemmy.cafe
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                15 hours ago

                Money, work-hours, whatever. The only efficient and responsible way to run a socialist economy is with the firm grasp of a centralised authority. Voting doesn’t stop fascism, heroic dictators stop fascism.

      • chaonaut@lemmy.4d2.org
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        13 hours ago

        Please keep in mind that “change the world” does not necessarily mean “for the better”, and I have no doubt these cretins are looking for their Reichstag.

      • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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        16 hours ago

        True, true. Saint Luigi inspired people. But that alone didn’t fix the world, and it’s a very chaotic move.

        • WuceBrillis@lemm.ee
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          16 hours ago

          There are so many murdering copy cats through history, who just wants to ride the coattails of some other psychos fame.

          Where are the Luigi copycats hiding? He got more love than any murderer through history, where are all the psychos who want to feel that?

    • Allonzee@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      Avarice and individualism got here.

      To the point many still consider both to be strengths and not the weaknesses they are.

  • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    You think the 90M people that couldn’t be bothered to vote against fascism are going to take to the streets and fight?

    • db0@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPM
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      21 hours ago

      Electoral voting is useless and built to disenfranchise and demotivate people participating from politics. Doing direct action immediately improves your life and builds mutual aid networks. So yes.

        • db0@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPM
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          21 hours ago

          You would get a fascist dictator regardless. That has always been the inevitable path of liberal electoral politics under capitalism.

          • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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            21 hours ago

            Ah, defeatism. It’s going to happen anyway, so why bother doing anything about it. Great outlook.

            • Fingolfinz@lemmy.world
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              16 hours ago

              They stated a fact, that not defeatism. WTF is with people getting mad at the messenger all the time

            • Libra00@lemmy.world
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              21 hours ago

              They aren’t saying do nothing, they’re saying do something more useful than voting.

              • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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                21 hours ago

                And I’m saying not voting is how we got fascism. There were 13M more people that did nothing, than all 77M people who voted for Trump. I don’t expect them to fight unless personally attacked.

                That leaves the ~78M people that collectively voted against Trump. Then remove the sick, disabled, elderly, government, military, and police. We’re not getting anywhere with force unless we can engage the 90M people who couldn’t be inconvenienced to put pen to paper to stop fascism.

                • Libra00@lemmy.world
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                  20 hours ago

                  Oh, are you under the impression that there’s a group of liberals (as in liberalism in general) out there that doesn’t coddle and appease and enable fascism that I could vote for? Because Democrats are putting up the most token of resistance at best, and meanwhile voting in support of the right’s shenanigans in congress. Schumer voted for the budget, 4 others voted just the other day for a bill that would effectively disenfranchise millions of women, etc.

                  If you walk into a voting booth and find someone holding a bomb who insists that your only choice for how to deal with it is to choose between a long fuse or a short one, the only sane thing to do is to say ‘Good luck with that’ and leave before you get caught in the blast radius. I voted blue for 30 years and it didn’t get me less fascism, why do you imagine it would suddenly start working today? The fascism is coming from inside the house.

            • db0@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPM
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              21 hours ago

              Don’t put words in my mouth. I suggest the opposite of “doing nothing”. Voting is doing nothing every 4 years and expecting things to improve in the face of 100 years of evidence to the contrary.

              • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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                21 hours ago

                I insist that you’re incorrect, based on the simple fact that 77M people voted for a fascist dictator and now we have a fascist dictator. Clearly voting does something, or we wouldn’t have a fascist dictator for president.

                • LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                  18 hours ago

                  Kinda ignores the reality that the past 3 election cycles have been fascist vs. a party that positions itself as progressive “not fascists.” You’d think that, you know. The “not fascists” would’ve done something to prevent the fascists from gaining power.

                  Instead, they endorsed international colonialism and genocide and spent 4 years fighting back against workers’ rights.

                  Electoral liberalism trends towards the right over time. As a rule. Because capitalist interests are always further to the right, and electoral liberalism is based on capitalism and the existence of a capitalist ruling class. Any ideology that permits the existence of capitalism must include very strong limits on capitalist enterprise and absolute bans on capital political power and influence. Or, by default, it becomes more fascist over time. Anti-capitalism is the only ideology congruent with antifascism.

    • SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      Can you point to a single US election where the half the country that never votes magically showed up to vote?

      If not maybe don’t rely on a group of people that will never participate.

  • Donkter@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    Everyone agitating for an overthrow of the system through memes is going to get out there and start doing it any day now just you wait…

    Aaaaaaaany day now…

    • db0@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPM
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      18 hours ago

      True. What works best is being a smug “nothing ever happens” lib online and doing one political action every 4 years.

      • Donkter@lemmy.world
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        17 hours ago

        I mean, that’s what this amounts to. So yeah, I agree.

        Edit: sorry, that’s to say I agree with sarcasm dripping from your reply.

    • Wilco@lemm.ee
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      21 hours ago

      People that have everything will not let it go without violence.

      PvP will be required … in Minecraft.