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11 mo. ago

  • "Steve Bannon, another top Trump ally, told The Atlantic that the deranged persona Miller adopts in front of the cameras is just an act. “He plays the character well, knowing he always wants to have the libs’—the progressives’—heads blow up,” Bannon said."

    The fact that this mentality or narrative was ever bought by anyone is a much larger part of the problem than most people recognize. "It's just a prank bro" but on a national scale. I love ironic humor/memes/etc. but this type of stuff does make me understand where people are coming from when they say irony has poisoned our culture and we need a return of sincerity.

  • I hope you're right, but from my perspective all the important and bad parts of the movement existed well before Trump. Trump assumed the position at the head of the movement after the fact. All this evil was festering in the country even back when Trump still called himself a Democrat and wasn't involved in politics at all. His death will certainly be a blow and destabilize them for a bit, but the fact is that about 30% of the country is extremely xenophobic, extremely racist, extremely uneducated, very bigoted, very religious fundamentalist - And they do a lot better job of getting along with each other than everyone else. All you need to hang with that club is to say something like "fucking mexicans, right?" or even just wear your church hoodie. Trump is a good vessel to channel their energy, but they were doing a pretty good job actionably directing their energy themselves long ago. They have like 8 different options for figures to rally around next. The left has maybe Bernie, AoC, Mamdani, but can't even agree on that. The left has no beloved podcasters, no beloved billionaires, no beloved news agencies. It's an asymmetric battle because the right is intrinsically the establishment. Only real underdogs need rallying figures, but the right is only ever a faux underdog.

  • They do matter. Because the fact that nobody took those critiques seriously is what caused people not to vote for her. The fact that nobody took those critiques seriously 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30, even 40 years ago - is how the United States entered the situation that it is now. Half a century of "barely good enough" on the "representatives" of the left and we wonder why America is the way it is.

    And ultimately, she lost, because people didn't vote. And those people clearly stated why. In advance. For years. Yet the Democrats still insisted that everyone do as they're told.

    Think about it, if the line had been drawn 40 years ago, and voters said "No, we won't vote for someone who is merely not as bad as the other guy. We only will vote for someone we actually WANT to vote for". Then maybe that election we would have got some shitty right winger due to low dem turnout. But the next election, the Democrats might have run someone who was actually more left leaning. But voters didn't do that, and instead they get shitty half-left democrats, and this moves the window to the right. One day that window is far enough to the right to make room for Trump. That's not only the responsibility of the Republicans dragging the window the right, that's the responsibility of Democrats refusing to ever drag the window back to the left. And that's a direct result of Democrat voters repeatedly sucking it up and voting for someone they don't really like.

    I truly believe that if Kamala had been elected, the same process would repeat, the window would move further right, and the next time a Republican won it would a Trump 3.0 type figure as a result. So as bad as it is that Trump is president, given that our option was lancing the infected boil now or letting it balloon some more and get even more infected, only to be lanced in a more disastrous way later. This was the decision in the minds of those who did not support Harris - even if you think they had the wrong idea, can you at least respect their reasoning and see how it is not the sort of petty revenge that you mistakenly imagine it to be?

  • Realize that electing Harris would only have prolonged the inevitable. The movement Trump fostered was and is growing and will continue growing after he dies. There is a deep systemic problem of which Trump is a symptom, not a cause. Remember when Biden got elected? And what good has that done us now? Kamala would have simply been another delay of the reckoning that is occurring now. She would not have made actual PROGRESS in defusing the time bomb. You can say it's still better to have delayed it, but why? No lives would be saved, it would just be different lives impacted.

    Try to at least engage with people who are also on the left, mind you, in an honest way rather than making strawman jokes about them. I understand why you think people should have voted for Harris, and although I disagree with your reasoning, I'm not posting thought-terminating jokes about your view, but instead trying to express a nuanced reason for why people think slightly differently. This is the kind of unity that the left must exhibit if we want any positive change to happen. I understand you're mad at people for making what you see as a bad decision, but what good comes from making fun of them for it now? It only creates division.

  • It's simple.

    AI is bad, so all lines of reasoning that conclude with AI being bad must be correct lines of reasoning.

  • This is OUR biome

  • Hmmm yeah I wasn't thinking about a dual boot default. That could maybe work 🤔

  • Truly incredible spin.

    Like, Bob Blue of Blue Team deploys a cheat in an online game that hasn't been used in decades. Then Steve Blue of Purple Media writes shit like:

    "Red Team Cheaters likely inspired by Blue Team's mistaken decisions"

    Meanwhile Red Team has deployed no such cheat. Only Blue Team is doing that. Yet you spin it as if such things are in Red Team's nature, and actually THAT'S the worst part about this event - it opens the door for Red Team.

    Like no, the problem is that YOU opened the door AND actually already did the bad thing. The utter insanity.

    I'm gonna try this at work.

    "Yeah sorry boss, I know I burned the food. But have you considered how the real problem here is Joe, that evil bastard, who will probably now think it's okay to start burning food too?"

  • I feel like this may backfire, because people may accidentally replace their OS, get really pissed off, and start talking about how installing Linux is really dangerous and might wipe all your data, etc.

  • No I'd be celebrating the blocked road

  • The bribing without consequences is what might give someone with as much implicit access to wealth as Maduro a chance lol

  • Tbh any doubt I had in his legitimacy is lessened by the U.S abducting him. That demonstrates he's a legitimate problem for the U.S, which makes it more likely he's a legitimate boon for the people of his own country (doesn't confirm it, mind you)

  • We all know that is Grok's entire selling point

  • Shit like this is why it's hard to me to believe in a "comeback" for the U.S anytime in the next 50 years. This is a major victory for the right, for corporations, for anyone who hates education, etc. the people involved are gonna find new jobs, move on. Even if the next president reinstates funding for this type of stuff, it'll be a decade before it has time to matter at least. And let's be honest, most likely the next president, whoever it is, will not be reinstating this funding.

  • He gets a lot of shit for this and I do think he's a pretty annoying guy, but I just now developed a head canon for this where he does it on purpose whenever someone he personally knows is being a narcissist. And so it's like a super petty passive aggressive way to piss them off. I could get behind that tbh. Can you imagine? Every time your annoying brother calls and asks to borrow more money, you post some quote about greed to your huge social media following. Lol.

  • Lemmy: So true!!!

    Also Lemmy: TANKIE TANKIE TANKIE TANKIE

  • It makes me so sad to imagine that this worked that I have instead decided you must be a bot. Sorry

  • I must not try to change the morons.

    Changing the morons is the time-killer.

    Changing the morons is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

    I will face the stupidity of the morons.

    I will permit it to pass over me and through me.

    And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path.

    Where the morons have gone there will be nothing.

    Only I will remain.

  • Well, I suppose if I take you literally then, sure. But of course your implication in that comparison is that economists are not a variety of scientist that should be listened to/taken seriously/respected etc. Especially since you used "priest" as an epithet, which would imply that you either think economics is pointless to think scientifically about, or that it is possible to think scientifically about economics but economists are doing it incorrectly, i.e in a priest-like way. Or some third thing I haven't considered. This is what I'm curious to hear more about your reasoning for. But I understand I'm just an internet stranger and it may be a lot to write out.

  • What makes someone a scientist to you? And why don't economists fit that? It's such an interesting take, especially since (given we're on Lemmy lol) I assume you're coming from either a communist or socialist standpoint, both of which are economic theories with many economists backing them. So it's not like all economists are playing on the team against you - although maybe you have a much more interesting take on all this than I'm imagining.