• ToastedPlanet@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    ·
    1 year ago

    The fact they feel the phrase fuck tankies is acting as a barrier to their participation in 196 should be a wake up call for them to examine their political views.

    Unlike their use of the word liberal, which they use to refer to everyone to the right of them on the political spectrum, we are using the word tankie for a single specific group. Tankie means authoritarian communist. Please keep the sign.

    • brain_in_a_box [he/him]
      ·
      1 year ago

      I have been called a tankie for supporting Cuba, I have been called a tankie for saying the fall of Rhodesia was a good thing, I have been called a tankie for saying landlord isn't a legitimate profession, I have been called a tankie for saying Elon Musk doesn't deserve his wealth. "Tankie" is just "woke", but for centre left soc-dems

    • AcidSmiley [she/her]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Unlike their use of the word liberal, which they use to refer to everyone to the right of them on the political spectrum, we are using the word tankie for a single specific group

      Yes, for everybody to the left of you.

      • ToastedPlanet@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        ·
        1 year ago

        I am a social democrat. I think we should elect socialist politicians through our existing democracy. The socialist politicians will then vote on legislation to regulate the economy and ensure that corporations do not gain an outsized influence in the free market.

        • build_a_bear_group [he/him, comrade/them]
          ·
          1 year ago

          Looks at Allende, the Indonesian Genocide, ÖSDAP, and the US Civil War... I am sure, this time the ruling class will just say "aww shucks", and peacefully give up power, rather than fight to retain power like every previous time.

        • SoyViking [he/him]
          ·
          1 year ago

          This has been tried many times and history shows that it's a really effective way of getting yourself couped and get a brutal reactionary regime put in your place. The bourgeoisie is not burdened by any high-minded liberal ideals when it comes to preserving their wealth and power, they are going to do whatever it takes.

          • ToastedPlanet@lemmy.blahaj.zone
            ·
            1 year ago

            Here in the US, the people rule. Since socialist policies are in the interest of the people, they will want to vote for politicians who support socialist policies.

            • jack [he/him, comrade/them]
              ·
              1 year ago

              Here in the US, the people rule.

              This is literally objectively not true:

              https://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/princeton-experts-say-us-no-longer-democracy

              The US is not, and has never been, a democracy, because the people do not direct the actions of the government except on the margins. There is no democratic input on imperialism or capitalism. Those are invariate, and the system is designed to protect those from public influence.

                • wtypstanaccount04 [he/him]
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  We have always been a democracy

                  Including the time when white people could own black people as slaves? That democracy?

                  • SoyViking [he/him]
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    The US founding fathers were very explicit about how they intended to set up a constitutional order that would protect their class interest against democracy. The last thing they wanted was to enable the unwashed masses to vote away their wealth and privilege.

                • iie [they/them, he/him]
                  ·
                  1 year ago
                  • 70% of Americans want singlepayer healthcare
                  • 90% want universal background checks for firearm purchases
                  • 75% want Citizen's United repealed

                  and yet these and other popular policies remain politically impossible

                • Grimble [he/him,they/them]
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  1 year ago

                  Ok, you know things. Cool. So why are you being so dodgy about hyperspecific political tendencies? Why is such a precarious, controlled, center-left (by ur standard) system like the US worth balancing?

            • AcidSmiley [she/her]
              ·
              1 year ago

              come on this has to be satire. you can't be serious about this shit.

            • iie [they/them, he/him]
              ·
              1 year ago

              Study: Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens:

              From the abstract:

              Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.

              further down:

              In the United States, our findings indicate, the majority does not rule — at least not in the causal sense of actually determining policy outcomes. When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites and/or with organized interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the U.S. political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favor policy change, they generally do not get it.

              What is it, like, 70% of Americans want single payer healthcare?

            • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              The people rule so effectively in the USA that the candidate with less votes has won 1/3 of presidential elections in the 21st century.

              How can you be a "democracy" if the candidate with the most votes loses the election? I thought that was the number one rule of democracy, the person with the most votes wins.

            • KurtVonnegut [comrade/them]
              ·
              1 year ago

              Since socialist policies are in the interest of the people, they will want to vote for politicians who support socialist policies.

              Yes, you are right. People voted for Obama in 2008 because he promised nationalized healthcare. Obama also promised to shut down Guantanamo Bay prison. And people voted for Biden in 2020 because he promised student loan debt relief. Both presidents failed to deliver on their promises. Why? Because democracy in America is and always has been "bread and circuses." Voting every two/four years is a distraction. Capital controls America, because it controls the American economy. How many elections do you need to see before you realize that it's always going to be the same shit?

              And any actual socialist will be destroyed by the press. Jeremy Corbin -> anti-Semitic (he's not). Bernie Sanders -> misogynistic racist (he's not, and Biden and Trump both have dozens of sexual assault claims against them). Same shit, different year. Capital, the media, and special interest groups stop all progress from happening in American "democracy." No one has ever voted their way to a revolution.

            • Fuckass
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              deleted by creator

            • TillieNeuen [she/her]
              ·
              1 year ago

              Good gracious. And people say we're the ones living in a dream world.

        • Fuckass
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          deleted by creator

    • geikei [none/use name]
      ·
      1 year ago

      i"m not an anticommunist, i just hate and denounce like 95% of communists and communist parties worldwide rn and historicaly (they are and were some variation of leninist)

      Yeah you are against a very specific group, communists, no need to hide it

    • Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      ·
      1 year ago

      There is no one to the right of authoritarians who want to silence dissent and use violence to right the inequalities in society.