• InevitableSwing [none/use name]
    hexagon
    hexbear
    18
    4 months ago

    It's crazy how mainstream dems see AOC is some kind of radical firebrand but she can't even use the word "must".

      • InevitableSwing [none/use name]
        hexagon
        hexbear
        6
        4 months ago

        AOC is trying to sneak back to her office via a roundabout path and a side entrance. When she's just about 20 feet from her office door she realizes she's been caught by an enterprising reporter. It's about 20 years in the future.

        "Madam Speaker! Madam Speaker! Is it true your legislation takes an axe to Social Security."

        "Of course not. No one is 'taking an axe to Social Security'. Now if you'll excuse me..."

        The reporter is yelling and trying to ask more questions. But she's stopped dead in her tracks. The speaker's ever-present, enormous and overly muscled body guards block her. A few days later the speaker issues a public statement saying "hard choices must be made to help the American people". In reality the dems are trying to out-right the GOP and his horrible bill is a pointless Hail Mary to try to take the senate and win the presidency.

        Hours after that a draft of the bill is leaked. It fully capitulates to GOP demands. It takes an axe to Social Security and it raises the retirement age by 15 years which is 5 more than the GOP were asking for. The speaker hopes passage for the bill will help her get to the White House.

    • EmmaGoldman [she/her, comrade/them]M
      hexbear
      6
      4 months ago

      "Must" is equally toothless when used in political statements. Look at any Common Dreams headline as an example.

      They must, but they won't.

      • InevitableSwing [none/use name]
        hexagon
        hexbear
        6
        4 months ago

        Any verbiage is pointless if action isn't seriously being considered. But dem pols rarely if ever use "must" because it implies action.

    • InevitableSwing [none/use name]
      hexagon
      hexbear
      7
      edit-2
      4 months ago

      I wish people translated political speech into everyday speech. If a parent asks their recalcitrant teenager to clean their room and the kid says "I should," - their parent will get mad. But pols and pundits use "should" in empty statements and the public doesn't even notice. "Should" is often pure bullshit.