There was one post that struck me real hard on the old sub before it got nuked, and it was to the effect of:
"There will come a day when they will beg on their hands and knees for a moderate like Bernie"
And we are just starting to see the first sparks of that sentiment now
I wish, but no, they will go full fascism and snuff even a big chunk of GenZ if necessary in order to prevent any improvement in the material condition of workers. Like, no kidding, the secret police abducting people wont stop even for a second after Biden's inaguration, hell whoever wins the secret police will "work" faster and harder.
Also, if you can read spanish, I recommend you "Nunca Más".
At this point, the scope of revolution is dead. The military heavily outweighs anything protestors can ever do.
Back in the day it was a soldiers rifle vs a prole's pistol or refurbished farm tool. Now its $15k dollars of equipment vs a rifle at max.
The age of revolutions is over. All we have now is protesting day in and day out in the hopes that the capital class throws us scraps. Sorry for the doomposting.
LMAO how can you say "the age of revolutions is over" when the US is empire falling apart? The age of revolutions has just begun.
I'm all up for a revolution my dude, just kinda feel down rn, that's all.
Well just remember that the world is bigger than this failing country. Also, regarding our chances domestically, people with fewer resources have faced higher odds and won, but giving up guarantees defeat. Myself, I've got absolutely nothing else to live for.
The NLF (Viet Cong) and the Taliban would like a word with you. You don't go toe to toe with the US military, you bleed them dry in a people's protracted war if necessary. In such a situation time is on the side of the guerillas, as their very existence is a continuous threat to the government's legitimatcy and a humiliation. Each flight of a jet plane or drone, every laser guided missile, every day a ground force has to remain mobilized costs millions of not billions of dollars.
For example, the Taliban would pay some villager $3 to go on top of hill by a military base, unload a mag from a AK47 in the general direction of the base and then immediately leave. The base would then be placed on high alert, search and response teams would have to be mobilized, maybe they'd fly up a helicopter to look around. Of course they'd always find nothing, as the villager had already went home and had dinner while the American soldiers were trampling through the mountains looking for a Taliban strike team that didn't exist. The Americans would then return back to base tired and demoralized.
Once the base had been declared safe again and all the soldiers had settled in to rest, another villager would come and shoot off another mag at them, forcing them to go through the whole process over again because if it was a strike team they'd be fucked if they ignored it. And they'd do this everyday, week after week, month after month, year after year. Cost for the Taliban? $20 and some 50 year old Soviet military surplus. Cost for the Americans? Hundreds of gallons of fuel, the soldier's morale, disruption to the base's function, national pride. Hell if the locals were feeling ambitious maybe they'd leave a few IEDs around a blow up a truck or a guys right leg. That's another news story back in the states, another asset lost to the quagmire with nothing to show for it. And if some fustrated "operator" decides to take it out on a local Afghan?? Well he's just made all their male relatives and friends Taliban sympathizers if not fighters. That's asymmetric warfare in a nutshell right there, done by the best in the business.
Now look at the state of Afghanistan. The Taliban control like 75% of the country, the president has been basically reduced to being the mayor of Kabul, despite the US dumping trillions of dollars and thousands of troops into this conflict. Just in February the American Empire was forced to the negotiation table with the Taliban and is straight up about to run away with it's tail between its legs.
Nah, look: those DHS goons, for instance, are fully decked out in better kit than the stormtroopers that get sent out to terrorize the middle east but they're still human. They scream, they bleed, they die. A rifle, and enough people to use them is all you need. The paramilitaries are a bunch of big babies and cowards at heart. All that kit is for intimidation. They have no stomach for a sustained fight, because they've never been in one, and never will. The day people fight back for real is the day a good number of them will turn in their badges because dying ain't worth it: they've got mortgages on their identical cookiecutter surburban hellscape mansion and paying off the 6 year lease on their $80k Chevy to take care of. They're not gonna actually put their ass on the line because they have far too much to lose for real.
They thrive on their myth of bravery, sacrifice, and working the most dangerous job in the world. But when it will become time for them to actually be put in danger, they will fold.
A rifle, and enough people to use them is all you need.
Until you get strafed by a gunship and have no response
I got a smile reading this, thanks for the positive vibes comrade.
Listen, these days I'm more tankie than not, but I'm still so fucking pissed how they did my boy dirty
I will never not be angry about the whole super Tuesday bullshit. It made me depressed enough to consider not voting for the first time. Just utterly fuck everything about this election cycle. I think the bigger "fuck you," to me, was the platform NOT supporting Medicare 4 All, in a the middle of a pandemic and pretty overwhelming support for the policy among voters.
I know the Dems have always been "compromised" by corporate interests, but that was the real mask-off moment of me going "Yeah, I can't even vote down-ballot for these assholes" for me.
Really, the one time the Dems demonstrated ruthless competence being against Sanders was a shocking moment. Who knew they had it in them? Their fecklessness against Republicans turns out to just be an act. I'd been assuming they were just totally incompetent this whole time, when instead they were pulling the ol' Reagan act.
As much as I want Ranked Choice: I doubt it's ever gonna happen in the US.
If I vote, I'm doing write-in for the presidential (Bernie/Matt, for the record). Down-ballot, I'll probably vote third party if any are on the ballot otherwise I'll leave those blank. I can not in good faith vote for an R or D this election cycle (or probably ever again) given how often they want to screw me, someone that needs insurance to cover a lot of costs but won't because it's not "medically necessary" for a disability, repeatedly.
But I'm leaning hard into "don't even bother, it's pointless" doomerism because... it kind of is... after so long of seeing shit not change for the hard-up/poorer working class.
As much as I want Ranked Choice: I doubt it’s ever gonna happen in the US.
Never ever say never ever
https://legislature.maine.gov/lawlibrary/ranked-choice-voting-in-maine/9509
Keep in mind that they won't be able to pull that off every time. Shit, look at Republicans in 2016 for an example of a major party unable to coalesce around an establishment candidate in time to head off an outsider.
You can thank the corporate media for Trump winning and Bernie getting screwed tho. The ability to saturate the airwaves or exclude someone from them is a powerful tool.
I think it's revealing that Bernie got as far as he did even despite that. At the end of the day what killed him was Obama calling up all the other candidates (except Warren, for some odd reason...) and getting them to drop out and endorse Biden on the eve of Super Tuesday. The media magnified that, sure, but that kind of political maneuvering would have a major impact on an election even with some platonic ideal of unbiased media.
And that isn't something a party can always pull off. The only reason the nominee was Biden (as opposed to someone who can draw a clock) is because no one else could attract any reliable block of voters. In a year there's no candidate like Biden, or a year where the Tara Reade story comes out a month earlier, or a year where a popular ex-president doesn't exist to get the other candidates in line, Bernie plows through Super Tuesday and wins. Establishment Democrats were able to pull it off this time, but that doesn't mean they'll be able to pull it off every time.
I think it’s revealing that Bernie got as far as he did even despite that. At the end of the day what killed him was Obama calling up all the other candidates (except Warren, for some odd reason…) and getting them to drop out and endorse Biden on the eve of Super Tuesday. The media magnified that, sure, but that kind of political maneuvering would have a major impact on an election even with some platonic ideal of unbiased media.
Totally agree. Those fundraising maps where Bernie took like 90% of the country were amazing. :smiling face with heart-eyes: That he was able to stay 2nd and third in the polls while being totally blacked out was a testament to how his message resonated with people... but also to how much he embodied that message, his history, etc.
And that isn’t something a party can always pull off. The only reason the nominee was Biden (as opposed to someone who can draw a clock) is because no one else could attract any reliable block of voters. In a year there’s no candidate like Biden, or a year where the Tara Reade story comes out a month earlier, or a year where a popular ex-president doesn’t exist to get the other candidates in line, Bernie plows through Super Tuesday and wins. Establishment Democrats were able to pull it off this time, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be able to pull it off every time.
Maybe, but I've got serious doubts... It's their party and regardless of whether or not we've got a candidate of Bernie's caliber they're always going to be the ones pulling the strings and making the rules. Bernie still had to walk into that convention with a majority of delegates to keep the super delegates at bay and they still could have performed untold fuckery behind the scenes. As demonstrated at the 2016 convention, the media is on their side against a leftist challenger and most of the Democratic Party voters had no clue of the shenanigans going on behind the scenes because corporate media was willing to look the other way.
I think it's also important to remember that we may very well be fucked for 12 years if Biden wins and lets his VP run after his first term. That's 12 years of us being kicked in the teeth and them massaging the system to smooth out any footholds we may have used to gain traction with Bernie. All the while, our ability to fundraise dropping as our piece of the pie continues to shrink.
And totally not to harp on you, but as if all that's not enough, just a reminder that CNN literally ignored and refused to acknowledge the Tara Reade story until the day Bernie dropped out. I think that's really the solid reminder that they're not helping the dems because they have a preference for them; It's that any candidate looking to introduce reformism or leftism into the world is the enemy of their bosses, their jobs, and their lifestyle.
God damn this shit is depressing.:grinning face with sweat:
This is what happens when you think Trump is the problem and not indicative of bigger underlying issues. Biden will continue with the same neoliberal policies that will just continue to grind up workers. By 2024 people will be even more angry and disaffected and will be looking to blame the Democrats. And you can bet the GOP will have a real ringer run for president then - Trump caught the capitalist class off guard in 2016 but now they'll be able to direct the Republican voters to someone who will be a legit fascist but competent this time. And that person will absolutely destroy Biden.
Try explaining this libs and all you hear back is "bUt MuH SuPrEmE coUrT!!!"
They'll insist things are getting better.
We already have a clear idea of how the economic question is shaped by partisan bias
We saw this back in '08/'09, when options on the economy flipped with the President. And again in '16/'17.
As soon as Biden is sworn in, suggesting that we're in a recession will mark you out as a Russian Bot.
Try explaining this libs and all you hear back is “bUt MuH SuPrEmE coUrT!!!”
or "BuT mUh ChIlDrEn In CaGeZzZzZzZzZzZzZz"
I had a lib tell me I'm racist because I give a shit about people in the country right now over people not in the country right now.
"Yeah, those children in cages suck. HOWEVER: People are literally dying in their cars because they can't make ends meet. Do you really want those children and their families to come into our country and face this same thing?" "OMG WHY DON'T YOU CARE ABOUT THE KIDS IN THE CAGES!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!? WHY ARE YOU RACIST!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!!"
Shitlibs are the stumbling block of progress.
Not to mention how bad Biden will be for people not living in America, because Biden and the Democrats, unlike Trump, are actually competent at carrying out global imperialism.
Exactly, and it won't even be Biden doing it really. He'll just sign off orders and make bad speeches whilst Kamala Harris or whoever plays the Dick Cheney role and destabilizes some third world country.
Then they call you a Trumper because they think Trump made that up. They think Trump just started that whole policy rather than escalating it
So a repeat of the last four years of Republicans blaming Obama. Is this the tragedy or farce run through of history?
ive been arguing this shit for years, like "hey guys do you realize this has been going on for literally our whole lives? literally every time? for the entire time we've been alive?"
Hunter S Thompson wrote about that dynamic in Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72.
That’s the real issue this time,” he said. “Beating Nixon. It’s hard to even guess how much damage those bastards will do if they get in for another four years.”
The argument was familiar, I had even made it myself, here and there, but I was beginning to sense something very depressing about it. How many more of these goddamn elections are we going to have to write off as lame, but “regrettably necessary” holding actions? And how many more of these stinking double-downer sideshows will we have to go through before we can get ourselves straight enough to put together some kind of national election that will give me and the at least 20 million people I tend to agree with a chance to vote for something, instead of always being faced with that old familiar choice between the lesser of two evils?
Now with another one of these big bogus showdowns looming down on us, I can already pick up the stench of another bummer. I understand, along with a lot of other people, that the big thing this year is Beating Nixon. But that was also the big thing, as I recall, twelve years ago in 1960 – and as far as I can tell, we’ve gone from bad to worse to rotten since then, and the outlook is for more of the same.
fuck. so at least since 1960; im not sure my parents were born yet.
Can’t wait for people to pat themselves on the back when we get rid of mean Trump and ignore it when Biden invades Bolivia, Venezuela, and Xinjiang.
Biden will be the first President to lose an aircraft carrier in action. Then the Democrats will go full hawk and the GOP will run on getting rid of those Chinese fifth columnists.
honestly? if the prc and american empire butcher each other, I'll be a very happy entity.
Honestly I take no joy in it, because it means that a whole hell of a lot more people are suffering because of it
hard agree. people are putting too much stock into polls that are glorified weather forecasts at best and astrology at worst.
