As I said: on abortion, Democrats failed to buy a smoke detector and that's what allowed Republicans to burn the house down.
We agree these are both bad things and both parties are at fault. I'm saying the one that actively goes and does bad things is worse, and I really don't understand how there's an argument on that point. It's just contrarianism. Libs say "hey at least we aren't Republicans," so leftists get tempted to reply "you know what, actually you're worse."
That doesn't make sense either, though. Someone who goes out and burns a building down is a lot worse than someone who was too complacent to install a smoke detector. Doing bad things is worse than being too lazy/cheap/disinterested to do good things.
It's just not. There's a real difference between people who go out of their way to harm others and some feckless lib who's bought into the idea that they can't really do anything absent a supermajority.
Flattening 95% of politically active people in the country to "eh basically the same" is counterproductive in the extreme.
Where do politicians come from, though? Many start off as local activists. Tons of state and local politicians aren't even full-time politicians.
And relentlessly attacking the party inevitably bleeds over into attacking the voters. The left certainly doesn't make this distinction clear, with some openly arguing there's no distinction to begin with. It's just misguided right from the jump and only gets worse from there.
Making that institution the focus of your activism is a misunderstanding.
That's not what I'm suggesting.
You are not going to get me to defend Joe Biden
Also not what I'm suggesting.
All I'm saying is we should recognize the reality that while both parties are bad, Republicans are obviously worse. We're not getting anywhere unless we turn a bunch of libs into leftists, and libs will correctly brush us off if we keep at ridiculous ideas like "Democrats are just as bad as Republicans (and maybe worse!)."
Something that worked for you won't necessarily work for everyone. Yeah, you have to challenge people's ideology, but you you also have to maintain credibility with them. If someone challenges your ideology but lacks credibility you write them off as a crank.
We're talking to people who are skeptical to oppositional. With those people, you can't give them an inch to argue or they'll pounce on it so they can avoid the harder issues you present to them. You want to talk about things where there is as little room for debate as possible, even among libs.
As I said: on abortion, Democrats failed to buy a smoke detector and that's what allowed Republicans to burn the house down.
We agree these are both bad things and both parties are at fault. I'm saying the one that actively goes and does bad things is worse, and I really don't understand how there's an argument on that point. It's just contrarianism. Libs say "hey at least we aren't Republicans," so leftists get tempted to reply "you know what, actually you're worse."
deleted by creator
That doesn't make sense either, though. Someone who goes out and burns a building down is a lot worse than someone who was too complacent to install a smoke detector. Doing bad things is worse than being too lazy/cheap/disinterested to do good things.
deleted by creator
It's just not. There's a real difference between people who go out of their way to harm others and some feckless lib who's bought into the idea that they can't really do anything absent a supermajority.
Flattening 95% of politically active people in the country to "eh basically the same" is counterproductive in the extreme.
deleted by creator
How do you expect to build a mass leftist movement if you write off basically everyone who's politically active right from the jump?
deleted by creator
Where do politicians come from, though? Many start off as local activists. Tons of state and local politicians aren't even full-time politicians.
And relentlessly attacking the party inevitably bleeds over into attacking the voters. The left certainly doesn't make this distinction clear, with some openly arguing there's no distinction to begin with. It's just misguided right from the jump and only gets worse from there.
deleted by creator
That's not what I'm suggesting.
Also not what I'm suggesting.
All I'm saying is we should recognize the reality that while both parties are bad, Republicans are obviously worse. We're not getting anywhere unless we turn a bunch of libs into leftists, and libs will correctly brush us off if we keep at ridiculous ideas like "Democrats are just as bad as Republicans (and maybe worse!)."
deleted by creator
Something that worked for you won't necessarily work for everyone. Yeah, you have to challenge people's ideology, but you you also have to maintain credibility with them. If someone challenges your ideology but lacks credibility you write them off as a crank.
We're talking to people who are skeptical to oppositional. With those people, you can't give them an inch to argue or they'll pounce on it so they can avoid the harder issues you present to them. You want to talk about things where there is as little room for debate as possible, even among libs.