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  • emizeko [they/them]
    hexbear
    83
    28 days ago

    it does matter who wins, but they won't let anyone win who matters

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    • CarbonScored [any]
      hexbear
      45
      edit-2
      28 days ago

      Event as a then leftist, I used to be skeptical of this rhetoric until I saw every single establishment come out the woodwork to smear Jeremy Cromblin for being the minorest of threats to bourgeois power.

      Major newspapers with front page news 100% seriously accusing him of being a soviet sleeper agent, the head of the armed forces (who is legally obliged to be impartial) went on the BBC news to specifically criticise Corbyn and talk about how he'll let everyone die to nukes, the notorious BBC moment of portraying him outside the Kremlin in a Ushanka like he's V fucking Lenin himself, not a single major media outlet accurately reported on how the antisemitism report entirely cleared Corbyn, or how the chief UK rabbi fueling the smears is literally a childhood friend of bojo .

      I dunno, I could go on forever with examples - But that year I truly lost all hope in electoralism, and truly appreciated the bourgeois hold on fucking everything. I saw the machine come out in full force and it was scary. bear-despair

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      • emizeko [they/them]
        hexbear
        39
        edit-2
        28 days ago

        similar experience here with Bernie, if a youtuber has made a ten part, sixty-two hour series on all the ratfucking and the establishment shredding its own institutions to stop him at all costs I'd watch it

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      • ta00000 [none/use name]
        hexbear
        20
        28 days ago

        https://www.ajiunit.com/investigation/the-labour-files/

        It's pretty impressive how much they got away with.

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        • CarbonScored [any]
          hexbear
          6
          27 days ago

          Interesting! I may give these a watch / listen. Not that I'm not already largely aware of the shit, but good to know more details.

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    • Beaver [he/him]
      hexbear
      31
      edit-2
      28 days ago

      As a youth, I remember media talking heads using the term managed democracy being used to describe the various "regimes" that had free elections, but which in no sense did citizens democratically determine the direction of the country's government. It didn't take much introspection to apply that logic to the USA, but apparently introspection is a rare trait.

      As Nyerere said, the United States is also a one-party state but, with typical American extravagance, they have two of them. We get to have free elections where the only thing we decide is to what degree of depravity the government will treat marginalized people.

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      • iridaniotter [she/her, they/them]
        hexbear
        15
        28 days ago

        Reverse polisci is just too good. The American two-party regime is a managed democracy that exhibits fragmented authoritarianism via rule by law due to its federalist structure.

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      • RyanGosling [none/use name]
        hexbear
        2
        27 days ago

        As Nyerere said, the United States is also a one-party state but, with typical American extravagance, they have two of them.

        I thought Mark Twain said that. Or did I fall for a Facebook quote meme

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        • Beaver [he/him]
          hexbear
          4
          27 days ago

          It's attributed to Julius Nyerere, but is possibly apocryphal.

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  • Washburn [she/her]
    hexbear
    67
    28 days ago

    That was a Biden campaign promise in 2020- that nothing would fundamentally change. Why shouldn't we believe that? It's the only campaign promise that he's delivered on.

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      • Black_Mald_Futures [any]
        hexbear
        17
        28 days ago

        Idk if it's really fundamentally worse, like yeah they're cranking the dials on the misery machine but it's still the same machine we've been strapped into

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            • EelBolshevikism [none/use name]
              hexbear
              8
              27 days ago

              once the dial starts enabling additional genocides I think that involves fundamental modification to the machine

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              • Black_Mald_Futures [any]
                hexbear
                7
                27 days ago

                I would say that what's going on in Gaza today is an intensification of what's already been going on. It's not like October 7th happened and Israel hit the genocide button, October 7th happened as a result of the Palestinians being pushed closer and closer to the brink in a process that I would say has been genocide the entire time. It's not a new knob, it's the same ol' genocide dial getting cranked up to 11, but they've been crankin' the dial this whole time

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                • EelBolshevikism [none/use name]
                  hexbear
                  4
                  27 days ago

                  not the genocide im talking about (god thats horrific to say), talking about trans people getting absolutely fucked under Biden

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        • Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]
          hexbear
          11
          28 days ago

          Depends on how fundamental I guess. The war in Ukraine feels pretty big, if nothing else.

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        • Adkml [he/him]
          hexbear
          8
          27 days ago

          The number of explicit genocides were enabling has gone up by one, that's pretty shitty.

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  • Frank [he/him, he/him]
    hexbear
    57
    edit-2
    28 days ago

    In bad country the people don't believe in their rigged elections because they know nothing will fundamentally change.

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  • TerminalEncounter [she/her]
    hexbear
    46
    28 days ago

    If you're under 30, you've voted before when has voting changed anything except for making things worse, yknow. They didn't even get the weird euphoria of Obama in 2008 (except culturally, obviously, they couldn't have voted yet).

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    • PKMKII [none/use name]
      hexbear
      46
      28 days ago

      The failure of the transformative, Hope and Change promises of the Obama campaign/administration to materialize is a big reason why younger Americans are more cynical of electoralism and more left-leaning.

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      • Frank [he/him, he/him]
        hexbear
        46
        28 days ago

        Democrats: "Let's run a candidate who completely embodies all the qualities that we've taught a generation of children to look for in elected leaders if they want to see positive change that reflects their values"

        obama-drone "Uh, let me be clear; Everything is going to get worse forever, fuck you."

        Democrats: "Wait why are they turning on us?!"

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        • Adkml [he/him]
          hexbear
          11
          27 days ago

          Saying on day three of his presidency that whole "codifying Roe" thing was just a campaign strategy and they don't actually give a shit should have really told everybody everything they needed to know

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          • peeonyou [he/him]
            hexbear
            11
            27 days ago

            that and "let's not look back, let's move forward" when it came to going after Bush's war criminal ass

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    • @theposterformerlyknownasgood
      hexbear
      23
      28 days ago

      That's probably the people whose careers or the careers of their family or friends depend on political patronage

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    • marxisthayaca [he/him,they/them]
      hexbear
      17
      28 days ago

      I was in high school in 2004-8 and in my senior year english lit, there were classmates that still thought Iraq had WMDs.

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      • Leon_Frotsky [she/her, undecided]
        hexbear
        8
        27 days ago

        i know a guy who thought it was the iran war until about a year ago and said it was justified because iran had wmds

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        • RyanGosling [none/use name]
          hexbear
          3
          27 days ago

          Saddam Hussein has the oil. We have decided to help the people of Israel to give our oil back to us by defeating Saddam Hussein. It's freedom, Charlie.

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        • Grandpa_garbagio [he/him]
          hexbear
          12
          edit-2
          27 days ago

          I'd be surprised if the majority of the US, hell even the west in general, didnt believe that lol

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          • RyanGosling [none/use name]
            hexbear
            2
            27 days ago

            You can probably convince many Americans that the Japanese holdouts in the mountains were training with some secret, ancient samurai tactics that were so effective that the US had to nuke the country

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            • Grandpa_garbagio [he/him]
              hexbear
              5
              27 days ago

              Most here literally think the bombs were dropped to end the war and limit casualties.

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              • sir_this_is_a_wendys [he/him]
                hexbear
                3
                27 days ago

                My dad watches those terrible 'History' shows and they were literally saying this in an episode I saw last week.

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              • @theposterformerlyknownasgood
                hexbear
                3
                27 days ago

                Douglas MacArthur: Dropping the bomb was not justified

                Nimitz: Dropping the bomb was not justified

                US strategic bombing survey: Dropping the bomb was not justified

                Literally every American: No other way to do it :(

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  • SorosFootSoldier [he/him, they/them]
    hexbear
    35
    28 days ago

    My first real welcome to the machine moment with voting was Obama. I voted for him. I believed the hype and I was off on the hope and change.

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    • Grandpa_garbagio [he/him]
      hexbear
      18
      27 days ago

      It's a bit crazy how they gave up on even that after Trump. They're promising less than ever, despite them never following through in the past

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    • sir_this_is_a_wendys [he/him]
      hexbear
      13
      27 days ago

      My first was John Kerry (🤢), but I legitimately believed in Obama. I still am very bitter about that, but looking back he never really promised to do much more than he did.

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    • peeonyou [he/him]
      hexbear
      12
      27 days ago

      I couldn't buy into the Obama hype. I tried but I couldn't. Then he got elected and set up his cabinet and I knew I was right not to buy it.

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      • GrouchyGrouse [he/him]
        hexbear
        9
        27 days ago

        The election felt like it was going to be a referendum on the banks for the sub-prime mortgage crisis and then those finance jackals that directly contributed to the problem were brought in to oversee the bailout. It was such a transparent "fuck you" to everyone else.

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          • GrouchyGrouse [he/him]
            hexbear
            8
            edit-2
            27 days ago

            That's the funniest/most depressing part! White America lost its shit over a black president and then obama-medal did more to fuck up black America's generational wealth than their wildest dreams. But this country is so fucking racist they still hated him anyway for being a "Kenyan-born sharia sleeper agent" (their code for "not white as corn starch.")

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  • infuziSporg [e/em/eir]
    hexbear
    35
    28 days ago

    It doesn't matter what the respondents chose, the article about them will be patronizing anyway.

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  • AOCapitulator [they/them]
    hexbear
    10
    edit-2
    27 days ago

    where are you getting 26% from?

    Oh they disagree that voting DOESN'T matter, Im dumb I should read more carefully

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