Yeah, don’t mistake my criticism of armchair leftists for all leftists. I certainly fall pretty far on the communist/socialist spectrum compared to what passes for the American left. But at this point, I have more respect for normie liberals who are just getting radicalized enough to take action, even if the action is just supporting a more progressive primary candidate, over online leftists who just mock them and argue theory.
I agree that you shouldn’t rely on elections alone, and mutual aid/community organizing are a huge part of any resistance to authoritarianism. I’m mostly criticizing leftists who claim (or at least imply) that violence is the only possible resistance to a authoritarians.
I really believe that we are capable of turning back the tide of authoritarianism through the levers of democracy. When South Korean politicians scaled the fence around Parliament to vote down martial law, I fully expected the President and military to ignore them, but it worked for them, and it could work for us. If we continue to excise weak-willed centrists from the Democratic party and show Republicans that authoritarian rule will not be tolerated (as the people of Minnesota did), I really believe we can dismantle American fascism with our current institutions. (Dismantling the oligarchy and strengthening those institutions will be a longer, harder battle, but I think clearing out the current fascist regime is well within our immediate grasp.)
Agreed. Until there is an open Civil War, voting will be important, as well as protests and general strikes.
Well, first of all, no I’m not just talking about America. There are tons of leftists on here who argue that voting is hopeless any time an authoritarian rises to power, and seem to believe the only solution is a violent revolution that they are not planning (not that I’m trying to bait anyone or fed-posting, but I doubt the people spending 16 hours a day debating Neo-Marxism versus Anarchist Communism are also forming a militia).
Second of all, you’re saying that the American system is set up to prevent voting out fascism, but what you’re describing is learned helplessness, not institutional restrictions. Learned helplessness is powerful, but I’m rapidly seeing it being unlearned since Trump took office. Republicans who’ve been ignoring economic issues for identity politics suddenly seem sick of hearing about wokeness. Liberal wine moms who held up, “But her emails,” signs in 2017 want Chuck Schumer’s blood. The other day I saw the fucking Mueller She Wrote account slamming Dick Durbin for saying, “reform,” ICE instead, “abolish.”
In terms of the institutions, there are a lot of measures against direct democracy that make reforms more difficult, but the structure of our elections have huge advantages. The constitution gives power of our federal elections squarely with the states, which is why Trump is having so much trouble rigging the elections. His current plan seems to be, “send ICE to intimidate voters,” and based on Minneapolis, that’s not an effective strategy.
Even the bigger obstacles are mostly imaginary. Congressional gridlock can easily be overcome by leadership willing to abolish the filibuster. Supreme Court members can be impeached, and the Court can be expanded by Congress. There are institutional, Democratic solutions to this, we just have to stop pretending they’re too difficult.
True, and I don’t mean to imply that Hungary will magically be transformed into a thriving democracy as soon as Orbàn is out. It’s gonna take years to rebuild the judiciary alone, and we’ll see how committed Maygar is to restoring inconvenient aspects of democracy like press freedom and fair elections. Still, Hungary took the first step towards reestablishing democracy by voting, and I’m getting tired of hearing how voting doesn’t work from people who’s only political activities are sharing the, “You’re Finished,” meme and telling people to read theory.
Agreed, but I see a lot of supposed leftists that seem like they just want to do the first one.
Been thinking a lot about the, “you can’t vote your way out if this,” doomer leftists today.
I don’t remember what being 6 months old was like either, but I’m told I screamed and shit myself the entire time, so maybe the experience actually wasn’t great.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot, but the problem is that the President can only pardon federal crimes, so if a mob drags Steven Miller from his house in California and kills him, the President can’t do anything to intervene. However, I’m pretty sure that the President could pardon crimes committed in D.C., and the Supreme Court has basically said the President can’t be held accountable for crimes committed in office, so in theory, a future President could order agents to take Miller into custody, bring him to D.C., and execute him. He could then pardon everyone involved and no one could be held accountable.
Damn, it’s crazy that we let one guy decide these things. Seems like the kind of thing that should be determined by a large legislative body that holds the power over our nation’s budget and the ability to write laws. Weird we don’t have one of those.
The response to this needs to be a resounding, “LOL, no,” from whatever administration comes next. The constitution gives the President the power of the pardon? Well, if gives Congress power of the purse, but we let him ignore that. The Supreme Court will intercede? One of them is married to a J6er, another one is openly taking bribes, and ar least three of them committed perjury when they told Congress said they wouldn’t overturn precedent. Our country can’t continue without accountability.
Yes. Even if you don’t think the goals of space exploration are important, we’ve made huge developments in medicine, engineering, solar panels, telecommunications, and road safety based on NASA technology. You’re probably reading this on a phone that wouldn’t exist with space exploration research. Scientific research is never a linear set of goals or inventions, and the ancillary benefits of our pursuit of space have already changed the world.
A reminder that Biden’s Justice Department moved too slowly to prosecute Trump because they were more concerned with optics than election interference. And that Schumer and Jefferies slow-walked the war powers resolution that would have prevented the Iran war. And that Schumer let Senate Democrats end the shutdown fight, even though public opinion was in their side.
In my opinion, one too many Eevees. Vaporeon, Jolteon, Umbreon, and Espeon are solid choices, but you don’t need two fire types, and Flareon sucks ass. Not worth wasting your one fire stone on him.
I take her point, but man, way to ruin a solid one-liner with moralizing.
Who knew that taking funding for scientific research away from government institutes and universities and giving it to ketamine-addicted con men would have negative consequences.
It feels more like a 20% chance when you’re using it, and a 95% chance when you’re trying to get through Mount Moon.
They’re using Supersonic, which has a 55% accuracy rate. They learn Confuse Ray later on, which has a 100% accuracy rate.
People are downvoting real hard for this, but there are 3 different interpretations of this comic in this thread, so you definitely have a point.
Blond Jesus has a way more toxic following than Historically Accurate Jesus.