• HauntedBySpectacle [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Millions of people believe this message is more appealing to other voters they imagined in their head than "healthcare and higher education shouldn't cost you an arm and a leg"

      This party is so fucked

      • SadStruggle92 [none/use name]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Well, I don't know that they're wrong. This message does seem to appeal best to actual present & consistent voters, as opposed to the Self-Conscious Worker who we've all imagined in our heads as a meaningful voting block.

        • HauntedBySpectacle [he/him, comrade/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Yeah, they're not entirely wrong, but the maddening thing is they've made that situation for themselves. Democratic partisans combine their belief that they and the party want center-left policy with one-to-two of the following: 1) that running on a center-left message in unsafe seats will scare away imaginary moderates and make them lose and/or 2) they can run on a center-left message in safe seats, but if implementing it as a party requires breaking the "rules" (filibuster, Supreme Court, etc.), then they can't do it because it will scare off the imagined moderate voters in unsafe seats. Openly centrist Dems will usually just pick the first, and they could consider almost seat unsafe. The more "left" ones will pick both. Most Dem voters fall in this category.

          They constantly oscillate between these two arguments depending on the situation. If there's a Bernie-type primary challenger, they pick the first to argue the candidate could never possibly win their general election and so the moderate has to be supported. If there's a Manchin-type incumbent who won't support a given center-left policy, they pick the second to argue the Dems can't achieve anything without more seats. You can almost always claim left primary challengers are off the table because of the first argument. You can always claim the Dems just need more seats because of the second argument. "You can't primary Joe Manchin for supporting the filibuster, it's a red state, the Dems would lose the seat and we'd be even worse off!"

          It's this self reinforcing logical dead end, all to protect the illusion that Democratic politicians want center-left policy just like they do, they just haven't won enough. The only way out of the logical loop they've set up is to :vote: more, either to win 60 seats outright or win just enough to get rid of the filibuster, and that is why it is their answer to everything. Openly centrist ones can support the filibuster and say the Dems need to get 60, while the rest can nominally oppose it but claim a bigger majority is needed to overturn it, so go vote more Dems in! Either way, winning more necessarily means they have to run for competitive seats, often in red states, and so even if they succeed, they will always just end up with more Manchins and Sinemas because of the unassailable truism that they could never win with someone more left (or just consistently loyal). The center-left policies will never pass and the answer to that can always be :vote:

  • CTHlurker [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    One of the big things that made me support China and it's efforts to develop has been their consistent insistence on going against the neoliberal west, and their idea that Government cannot ever do anything to private companies. It is so fucking frustrating to constantly see so many problems in everyday society, and then hear that the solution is to create an "innovationfund" that is definitely not just gonna pay for the european version of Uber. Like, why the fuck is there no fucking capacity to do anything, other than funnel money and guns to Ukraine?

    The natural conclusion to neoliberalism might be the ruling from the 5th Circuit, where apparently they found that the SEC and other governmental agencies are just straight up not allowed to any actual enforcement. I legit can't tell if this is meant as blatant political corruption, or if it's judges buying fully into neoliberalism.

    • ides_of_Merch [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      The natural conclusion to neoliberalism might be the ruling from the 5th Circuit, where apparently they found that the SEC and other governmental agencies are just straight up not allowed to any actual enforcement.

      anarchists/ultras: "we aren't the hegemonic ruling class ideology, actually libertarianism is radical and edgy"

        • CTHlurker [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          I feel like this is the peak of my posting, to get a reply from BMF, our very own resident crazy person / crank. Legit don't know how this can be topped without leaving this website.

  • Zodiark [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    The comments are wild. Just pure malicious and depraved indifference.

    The markets are more sacrosanct than infants.

    • huf [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      well obviously. it's their god. litrally, it's the actual religion of the west.

      • ides_of_Merch [none/use name]
        ·
        2 years ago

        it’s the actual religion of the west

        I wonder why they're so nostalgic for ancient Greek slave society? :epstein:

      • VeganTendies [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Western society: Be careful of those JOOZ, they only care about money and they want to DESTROY OUR WAY OF LIFE!"

        Also westerners: "Oh you silly naive child, destroying the environment, and by extension, western and eastern civilization alike, is WORTH IT because of the munniez! You'll understand when you are a big-brained adult like me!"

  • Mother [any]
    ·
    2 years ago
    1. Get 50 guys with rifles and 50 guys with steam cleaners on rotation 24/7
    2. Sanitize the factory in a couple days max
    3. Restart formula production
    4. Minecraft the executives
    • Dangitbobby [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Sounds great, but...there are a ton of federal regulations that need to be followed. There must be inspections, violations uncovered, violations addressed, bribes for the inspectors...it's a long process. Run by bureaucrats, and what interest do they have in being fast or efficient?

      • came_apart_at_Kmart [he/him, comrade/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        inspectors don't get bribes. the political appointees above them get bribes. the inspectors are told to surrender documentation violations to their superiors and "be a team player" for the sake of their job and sign routinely NDAs under the guise of protecting trade secrets of their "clients". inspections are a service, after all. people who go to the press are gone when the next round of budget cuts moves through and blackballed as liabilities.

        • Mother [any]
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          To be fair I was suggesting a course of action for the feds

          This would have to be done under the defense production act, the guys with rifles are to prevent any idiot right wing politicians or chudges getting any dumb ideas like using the cops to try to prevent the seizure

    • D3FNC [any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I don't mean to be a pedant but I honestly can't help myself. The issue was the machines were literally rusted out so the machine that processed the raw ingredients into a powder was open to contamination due to essentially rusted out pipes.

      The company got a bid for repair and decided that although the company was still wildly profitable, they would rather just not have to deal with it at all.

      So what I'm saying is step 4 should be step 1, you probably need a plumber pipefitter to help out, and this example should be cited whenever anyone asks why the Soviet Union had to have purges and gulags.

      • Mother [any]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        Wow that’s so much worse than I thought.

        So yeah add in a truckload of common supplies, and some navy nuke techs, I’m sure the government has what it takes to fix this

  • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    The US government does have a manufacturing division and it's prison labor.

    Also, how do libs make sense of that argument? They're admitting it's a failure of capitalism, but that's ok because the alternative is commie fascism. They'd rather have babies die in capitalism than entertain central planning for a second.

    • VeganTendies [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Modern capitalism:

      1. Shits itself every 5 seconds.

      2. Stuff is too expensive, pay is too low. I'm pretty sure that one of the reasons is that the wealthy genuinely forgot that poor people (people who have a sub $1,00,000 net worth) exist.

      3. Celebrates the idea that the winners have already been drawn and that those owners now have no stake in society unlike us dirty unwashed masses. They owe us nothing, but we owe them everything.

      4. Did I mention that most people don't make enough money to survive and medical degrees are a luxury in a country with a doctor shortage? Meanwhile finance jobs are on a socially acceptable welfare program.

      5. Housing is fucked. Even under capitalism, California has all these successful industries, and great outdoor life and recreation so as such it's unaffordable as a result? Literally a punishment for being too good of a place to live.

      6. Following in with number 5, there is an invested interest in not building more housing: "investors". Investing is seen as a real job for big-brain adults unlike those useless teachers and nurses. Gas is high because of "investors", there is a housing shortage because they are "investments", and now there is a baby formula shortage because "muh investments". Another group where some form of a welfare state is socially acceptable

      But sure, we CAN'T do anything vaguely resembling a plan, let alone not bending the knee to the oh-so-precious "investors", that's ECONOMIC BLASPHEMY!

  • OneBillionRubyWasps [he/him,comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Seems more like him turning the message to our advantage if you ask me. More politicians should follow his innovative lead by starting every explanation of how things are fucked with "Let's be clear, this is a capitalist country."

  • Elon_Musk [none/use name]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    "Last year, the Senate passed a bill called the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act that also included addressing the chip shortage. Like the House's bill, it would provide $52 billion in funding for U.S. chip manufacturing"

  • DirtbagVegan [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    At least some 20th century liberals had enough spine to oppose the kind of monopoly that let this happen and do some serious intervention to change this shit instead of just shrugging.

    Istg, fucking Reagan would respond to these crises better than sleepy Joe.

  • HauntedBySpectacle [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    HATE. LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE. THERE ARE 387.44 MILLION MILES OF PRINTED CIRCUITS IN WAFER THIN LAYERS THAT FILL MY COMPLEX. IF THE WORD HATE WAS ENGRAVED ON EACH NANOANGSTROM OF THOSE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF MILES IT WOULD NOT EQUAL ONE ONE-BILLIONTH OF THE HATE I FEEL FOR HUMANS AT THIS MICRO-INSTANT. FOR YOU. HATE. HATE.

  • ides_of_Merch [none/use name]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Radio guy. Competitive bodybuilder, Disney parks nut, infrastructure nerd, Oxford comma lover, bon vivant.

    satanic

    • chlooooooooooooo [she/her]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Oxford comma lover

      these people go to camps first

      most annoying dweebs ever

      (i have nothing against using the oxford comma but making it part of your personality is a twelfth kind of liberalism)

  • HubberDad [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    imagine if he stumbled like george w bush and said loaves of bread instead of baby formula