• givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    20 days ago

    Dr King said it best 60+ years ago

    First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

    https://letterfromjail.com/

    • WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world
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      19 days ago

      The typical leftist sitting on their ass and whining online while they wait for a Glorious Revolution to usher in a golden age. If you want things to be better, you do what you can with what you have.

      • WizardofFrobozz@lemmy.ca
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        19 days ago

        Bullshit. You take what you’re owed.

        “The typical liberal sitting on their ass and waiting for ‘the next election’ to usher in Bush-era America (AT BEST).”

    • GreenShimada@lemmy.world
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      19 days ago

      Oooh, no. You see the same thing from conservatives and especially conspiracy theory people. It’s fundamental to their worldview.

      “They” somehow have complete and total control over their lives. “They” make them make bad decisions, eat poorly, drink and drive, make them vote for dickbags - you name it. It’s an emotional crutch used to negate accepting responsibility for actions, the need for critical thought and planning, or one’s own agency as a human to do anything to change their situation.

      Back around 2010 when my family would say “They” were going to take their guns away or put them in FEMA camps, I asked who “They” were. Did this for a few years and it eventually stopped being a Boogey man because it forces putting a name to the evil, which most folks like that can’t do.

  • halvar@lemy.lol
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    19 days ago

    Well on one side dismissing obvious ways to make something better is not very bright. On the other side the “obvious way to make something better” could itself not be very bright either.

    • ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works
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      20 days ago

      I am very wary of explanations of the world which emphasize “the people who disagree with this are evil” or “the people who disagree with this are stupid”. If only people weren’t deliberately trying to do harm or remain ignorant, they would of course agree with the speaker. This leaves no room for different (but reasonable) priorities, different tolerances for risk, different trusted authorities, etc. Plus, when evil and stupid do exist, they always think that their opponents are actually the evil, stupid ones. So an individual ought to remain humble: if he’s sure that he’s on the side of God fighting a clear battle against evil, that itself is evidence that he isn’t.

    • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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      20 days ago

      On the other side the “obvious way to make somrthing better” could itself not be very bright either.

      One way to make something better could be not very bright, but are all ways to make something better not very bright? When someone keeps rejecting everything and offering nothing workable, good chance they just don’t want progress.

      • halvar@lemy.lol
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        19 days ago

        Yes I agree. What I meant was not all revolutionary ideas being discarded by someone mean that person is a reactionary. That idea may just simply be bad. That doesn’t mean we should reject good ideas, it just means that someone rejecting an idea literally doesn’t mean anything by itself.

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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    19 days ago

    The “there is no perfect solution so therefore there is no solution good enough” crowd. Usually a republican mantra when it comes to any social program.

    • Soup@lemmy.world
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      19 days ago

      Also when there needs to be a choice made and they rabidly choose the obviously bad one: “It’s a just a pick your poison thing, ya know?”

      If I were to pick between two poisons I would certainly not choose the one labeled “100% for sure death” that was surrounded by an aura of death and decay but they just can’t stop themselves slurping that shit down like it’s juice.

  • pelespirit@sh.itjust.works
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    20 days ago

    Do not split and no cracks. You don’t have to agree with how they are fighting the system, but keep your thoughts private and instead, explain how your system is awesome.

    But what is happening in Hong Kong is they come up with a slogan, which is translated as Do Not Split, which is, we know that some people are willing to be confrontational with riot police.

    And when they are, that’s going to cost the state in terms of not only resources, but it’s going to cost the state in terms of political capital and support. And we know that there are some people who are not willing to do that. And we are going to abide by the protocol of Do Not Split, which means that we’re not going to criticize them openly, and they’re not going to criticize us openly.

    If we’re the pacifists, we’re not going to have them criticize us for being sort of like, I don’t know, limpid or flaccid or not courageous or whatever. And we’re not going to criticize them for being more confrontational. And the thing is that the support is also tacit.

    https://sh.itjust.works/post/42969194

    • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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      20 days ago

      You don’t have to agree with how they are fighting the system,

      This only applies if they’re fighting the system in the first place.

        • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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          20 days ago

          I mean, my country of origin is a military dictatorship so I’ll answer with the way I’d like to fight the system if I had something resembling political rights: worker organization and dual power. The problem with the modern Western left is that it’s forgotten its more militant (and, uncoincidentally, more effective) roots; even if you only want to reform the system, in any negotiation you need leverage, and leverage is how you can help the other party if they accept and how you can hurt them if they refuse. Both the carrot and stick are necessary to turn leftwing ideas into leftwing policy. For example, would ICE be running amok like this if a significant number of Americans had went on strike and shut the country down back in April or even June? I sincerely doubt it. What’s great about my preferred way of fighting the system is that there’s a clear and realistic path from idea to action to victory (however you define that) with real precedent. Aside from being a good thing on its own, this means it’ll be much easier to get people on board who are dissatisfied with and hurt by the system but don’t see anybody fighting for them.

          That aside, though, I’m not saying it’s my way or the highway; there are plenty of possible ways to fight the system, but liberals (as in establishment Democratic leaders and pro-establishment Democratic rank and file) aren’t doing any of them. Liberals only sabotage the people who are actually fighting the system while doing no fighting of their own. I mean is Schumer fighting the system? Is Jefferies? These people have only ever perpetuated the same system we want to fight and sabotaged or destroyed opposition to it. Unity with your allies is good strategy; unity with your enemies is folly.

          • pelespirit@sh.itjust.works
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            20 days ago

            Can we not?

            The problem with the modern Western left is that it’s forgotten its more militant (and, uncoincidentally, more effective) roots; even if you only want to reform the system, in any negotiation you need leverage, and leverage is how you can help the other party if they accept and how you can hurt them if they refuse.

            Both the carrot and stick are necessary to turn leftwing ideas into leftwing policy. For example, would ICE be running amok like this if a significant number of Americans had went on strike and shut the country down back in April or even June? I sincerely doubt it. What’s great about my preferred way of fighting the system is that there’s a clear and realistic path from idea to action to victory (however you define that) with real precedent. Aside from being a good thing on its own, this means it’ll be much easier to get people on board who are dissatisfied with and hurt by the system but don’t see anybody fighting for them.

            I think you hit the nail on the head with the bolded part. I think the “No Kings” protest was extremely successful. It was huge and peaceful. Trump was itching to send the national guard to LA to take over the city and kill people. The peacefulness of the protest was what kept a lot of people alive.

            Also, I strongly believe in the 3.5% rule

            Liberals only sabotage the people who are actually fighting the system while doing no fighting of their own.

            Yes, stop doing that by shitting on everyone.

            • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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              20 days ago

              Did you… did you just ask me to explain my ideas only to completely ignore them? Like do you think that’s a funny thing to do?

              • pelespirit@sh.itjust.works
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                20 days ago

                I didn’t ignore them at all, I spoke to them. I crossed out any complaining and I thought the bolded part was amazing. I don’t agree with a lot of them, so I’m taking my own advice.

  • Godric@lemmy.world
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    19 days ago

    Antivoters slowly dying, somehow voting never works except when gestures about

  • mlg@lemmy.world
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    19 days ago

    If I had a nickel for every time people on lemmy discredited voting 3rd party or progressive candidates under the excuse of “muh RCV” or “vote blue no matter who”, I’d have enough money to bribe the DNC into splitting into multiple parties.

    • WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world
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      19 days ago

      If you actually want to make things better then you have to use methods that have a chance of actually working. We have overwhelming historical evidence showing that voting third-party doesn’t.

      • howrar@lemmy.ca
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        19 days ago

        It can work, but the most important part in making it work is building the movement so that everyone votes for the third party in the same election. There’s no point in just voting third party and complaining that no one else is doing it.

        • WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world
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          19 days ago

          That would take a monumental amount of effort. Much more than it would take to un-fuck one of the existing parties.

          • howrar@lemmy.ca
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            19 days ago

            I don’t think it’s a question of amount of effort. Both undertakings would be monumental. It’s more so a question of what skillsets you have and what you’re more capable of doing.

            In Canada, we had a third party nearly come into power a while back until we lost the leader to cancer.

            • WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world
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              19 days ago

              In Canada, we had a third party nearly come into power catapult a far-right government into power for nearly a decade a while back until we lost the leader to cancer.

          • zarkanian@sh.itjust.works
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            19 days ago

            Are you sure about that? We’ve been trying to unfuck the Democrats for decades, and look what it’s gotten us.

      • mlg@lemmy.world
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        19 days ago

        No, Pakistan does not have RCV. Hell they don’t even have a qualified election system with the amount of falsified ballots, yet the third party still defeated that system.

        • WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world
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          19 days ago

          Except for Perot, Nader, Stein, etc, etc, etc. You’re right! If you ignore all the times it’s been tried, then it’s never been tried!

          • zarkanian@sh.itjust.works
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            18 days ago

            You said that “voting third party doesn’t work”. The vast majority of voters do not vote for alternative parties or candidates, so no, it hasn’t been tried.

            Did you mean to say “Running third party doesn’t work”?

    • zarkanian@sh.itjust.works
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      19 days ago

      It’s so insane. They’ll yell about the genocide all day but then vote for the candidates supporting the genocide.

      Who do they hate the most? Jill Stein, the candidate who opposes the genocide! Make it make sense.