What really gets me is I’ve had people on the Right tell me about the illegal immigrant problem and about how they do all these crimes. Then when I trap them with the obvious, “Trump is felon though” argument I always get, “Oh he’s different.” alongside the usual conspiracy theories. These are just the bad actors.
So thinking about it, what’s even worse are the people who are supporting Trump as reactionary supporters. All they know is they’re angry and the Democrats are the ones who always talk about change. So time to vote for not them for reasons they can never explain.
“That’s different because it’s lawfare”
Because the two candidtaes are competing for shittiest candidate (to their constituency, not in absolute terms) and canceling each other’s shittiness.
Because the conditions required for fascism to take root have been incubating for decades.
Massive wealth inequality, insecure employment, non-existent labor laws and worker’s rights, hollowed-out education, healthcare and social services, large corporations getting to write their own laws verbatim, political parties sucking dick for their donors, endless war ensuring unlimited money for the military-industrial complex, demonization of brown-people-of-the-week, fetishization of ‘the troops’ and ongoing acceptance of brutality.
People are poor, desperate, ignorant, exploited and forgotten, they’re shown every day that killing the shit out of outsiders is the solution to all the country’s problems, anyone pushing actual progressive ideals is shut down and demonized as a threat to the profits of the 0.1%, giving people a choice between rightwing bastardry and neoliberal bastardry as their only lens through which to see the world.
Give that the opportunity to flare up and of course it’s fucking going to. The republicans want it, the dems do nothing to prevent it.
It’s like watching a party get the wrong kind of rowdy all night, you keep supplying drinks regardless, then you wonder why it turns into a fight, oh no how could this ever happen?
This is the correct answer.
I’m starting to feel like fascism is almost just like the default end-state of humanity, and we are evolutionarily bound to end up there.
Once a group gets big enough you’re not able to get everybody to agree. So you do things some people want and use force against the opposition. Combine this with larger groups fighting over limited resources and you’ve got a recipe for authoritarianism.
Agriculture was a trap.
I heard an interesting comparison lately saying basically that blaming the development of agriculture for late stage capitalism is like blaming calculus for the development of the atom bomb, and I would tend to agree.
It’s looking like agriculture was probably used originally to keep us longer in community at sites like Gobekli Tepe, and probably was absolutely life saving for us at that time.
The real issue arose from not persecuting those who would horde various types of wealth more severely (or at all).
I disagree with that last part. It wasn’t that we didn’t persecute the hoarders. It’s that we got into groups too large to achieve consensus and we forgot how to live without agriculture so we couldn’t leave. That’s why it was a trap: Suddenly we had to do it and couldn’t stop. Nobody has to be hoarding things if we’re all reliant on farming. We have to stick around.
What we did from there was just kludgy attempts to get a nomadic primate that lives in small groups to live in sedentary large groups. If we can’t fathom the cosmos because the notion of “one million” is too large for the human brain to comprehend, how are we supposed to make sense of a planet with eight billion humans? If we can only remember about 150 names and faces, how are we supposed to feel belonging in a community of thousands, let alone millions?
Also, I didn’t blame agriculture for late-stage capitalism. I blamed it for authoritarianism. Once you start having to enforce the will of the majority on the minority things start to suck fast.
it’s an effective meta for rich people.
It’s an extension of Capitalism, both serve capital interests, but neither capitalism nor fascism are inherent to people
It’s close because Trump is not a disciplined candidate and he keeps doubling down on young men instead of trying to build his appeal to new areas.
Most of the time if inflation hits 9% and wages lag behind inflation (as they always do) the incumbent party loses. Nikki Haley would be winning 60/40 right now.
Inflation peaked at 7% in 2021, declined every year since. Your comment is a great example of how easily mislead the masses are with simple misinformation.
CPI year-over-year, the common meaning of “inflation,” was 9.1% in June of 2022.
https://www.bls.gov/charts/consumer-price-index/consumer-price-index-by-category-line-chart.htm
I assume you’re using some other metric but what a bad look jumping to misinformation.
Annual rates for the fiscal year, the chart you shared goes by YoY every month so it’s more detailed, ty for that.
Still, the inflation clearly peaked at the very start of the Biden Admin and went down. Thats why it’s misinformation. The current administration being held responsible is a ridiculous notion to its very core.
I mean I’ll do you one better, Moodys did inflation research in 2022 and found that laws signed by Biden contributed 0.1% of the then 8.5% inflation. Basically nothing, it was all Covid supply chains and a Russian oil shock.
But, that’s still the explanation for why incumbents around the world are unpopular right now.
And a total scam by corporations to just raise prices for no reason.
Who?
Has any incumbent government coming out of covid/inflation survived? It’s not an excuse but people tend to focus on that which affects them personally, otherwise sweatshop clothes wouldn’t exist.
And the Left wing media ecosystem has spent the last decade decrying sp much as sexist, racist or fascist that independents etc have largely tuned it out.
Breaks my heart but that’s where we are.
*Easy answers *Lack of self-reflection (“are we the badies?”) *reflexive reactionary impulse (“I say throw the bums out!”) when external pressures make life tough
I’ve got many people in my life who would fit one or more of these generalizations. I’m sure it’s a vast tapestry.
My mom got hissing mad when one of her friends told her that WalMart wasn’t a good place to be shopping. That was 20 years ago.
And the Left wing media ecosystem has spent the last decade decrying sp much as sexist, racist or fascist
I dunno about that. What I’ve found, being online, is a lot of people being sexist, racist or fascist.
I think if you’ve found the majority of people being fascist, that’s a you conflating disagreement or supporting trump with fascism.
Which is easy, fun but intellectually lazy and kinda how we got to where we are.
It’s remarkable to see people still denying that Trump is a fascist. He tried to use violence to overthrow the government. He’s a fascist.
I think if you’ve found the majority
That’s not what ‘a lot’ means, unless you’re reading a different dictionary to me?
If it’s not the majority or close to it, then it’s probably not why the election is close (which is, if you’ll remember, the question of the original post.)
You’re not very good at holding a conversation. I’ll leave you to complaining about the media inventing sexism, racism and fascism. Maybe you will be excited to find out how fascist Americans can be when Trump fans harass voters as this election comes to a close. Or maybe you will start talking about how the media is inventing it.
I’ll leave you to complaining about the media inventing sexism, racism and fascism.
No one said this but I’m cool ending this interaction.
As a self growth thing though, I do strongly suggest trying to make a friend who votes differently. It can be frustrating but it helps you understand that there are in fact people who disgagree with you and gasp aren’t racist/sexist/fascist.
(“But they’re voting for one!” "And your sweatshop clothes are the physical embodiement of sexism/racism/colonialism, are you also a write off as a person?)
Cheers.
Well it’s like a friend once said to me when I was about six. If assholes could fly this place would be an airport.
Fox News primarily.
Because there are far more idiot bigots in this country than anyone wanted to admit.
Roy is great. He’s no Moss, but he’s great.
Roy and Moss together are far greater than Roy and Moss separately. I would watch another 50 seasons of that show even with the audience background laughter.
Sad Richmond noises
Aren’t all his noises kind of sad?
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I’ve always said one of my strangest personalities “quirks” is that I’m a misanthrope that loves to help and to make people laugh.
…I still hate people though. Sooooooooo many people seriously fucking suck…
Not you folks of course, you’re cool :P
Humanity is like that racist analogy of a bowl of M&Ms but a few are poisoned.
Except that almost all of them are candy covered shit and there’s like one or two in the bowl that are chocolate.
Oh, and if you don’t try every one there’s something wrong with you.
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https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/why-is-this-election-close
Does anyone know if “already voted” people are included in prospective voter polls? If they are excluded, we might be seeing a shift in polling towards Trump because his supporters vote day-of more than Harris voters.
Now you are trying to make people cry.
Maybe the fact that every time Kamala says she wants to appoint Republicans to her cabinet and sign Republican immigration policies into law she slides in the polls a bit should tell us something
Biden tried the working with Republican thing. They hated him and demonised him.
Why even try?
Why try to negotiate with a party who base their entire personalities on obstruction and destroying the government?
Because Dems can’t accept that Republicans are a lost cause and they just need to motivate their base instead of trying to appeal to the worst half of the voting populace.
They do it because you need all 3 houses to pass anything, and they basically never have that. I bet they don’t like playing friend, but they have to.
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Dems are conservstive, as in what the term originally meant, not right wing.
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Because the democrats and their supporters refuse to face the reality that the last four years didn’t bring much of any material improvements for the vast majority of people. Everything costs more and no one is making anywhere near close to what they need to keep up, let alone thrive.
Which Democrat policies are saying that?
You know, I’m extremely tired of hearing people piss and moan about the Democrats not accomplishing legislative miracles with the barest of majorities. The GOP is almost gleeful in being a bulwark against anything and everything that might possibly be seen as a Democratic win. We can’t have nice things because 49% of Congress just wants to watch the other party suffer and cling to power by calling them ineffective.
What the fuck have the Republicans done that have helped the average working class American in the last twenty goddamn years?
They’re nothing but rhetoric and religious fundamentalism. They had full control of both houses and the presidency and assured us we would have some great replacement to the ACA and literally nothing ever came of that. The Republicans don’t want to help Americans, they just want to be in power. Why isn’t that relevant? The Democrats can’t pass sweeping legislation because of obstruction and that’s the end of the world, but the Republicans have literally no ideas beyond removing rights from whatever flavor of “other” they’re targeting this season and they get a pass.
Our country is fundamentally broken. One party’s politicians say they want to represent all Americans and the other wants to use the military against their political rivals. And somehow the election is still close? Yeah. This whole country is fucked.
Then don’t vote in a perfectly split Senate. Yes its hard to govern when half the government doesn’t believe in government
BUT, BUT, BUT, WHAT ABOUT THE STOCK MARKET!?!?!?! 🙄🙄🙄
I’m fucking ashamed to be a veteran of this shithole of a country.
It may not be. Polling has been off lately, especially “polling without a specific name attached”.
OTOH, lots of people vote for party not the person.
because fascism already has a tight grip, regardless of election outcomes
