• UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago
    • Leftists are abandoning Joe Biden and this will ensure Donald Trump’s victory

    • Actually, Joe Biden is very popular and he’s going to win in a landslide. Anyone who says otherwise is a Russian shill.

    Rolling these two ideas in my brain like a pair of baoding balls

    • makyo@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Where have you heard the second one? I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say that.

      • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
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        6 months ago

        It’s kind of implied by memes like this one. If you suspect any criticism of Biden is coming from Russian disinfo mills, it follows that there is little/no organic/genuine criticism of Biden.

        • capital@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          I don’t get that at all.

          Those of us trying to get those saying the things in the meme know we need all the votes we can get.

          If we knew Biden would win in a landslide, why waste keystrokes?

        • Zink@programming.dev
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          6 months ago

          Is it really the criticism of Biden that gets the cries of disinformation, or is it the conclusion that you shouldn’t vote for him that does it?

          Those are very different things, and they keep getting mixed together.

          • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
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            6 months ago

            I mean, either way? How is it disinformation if I say I’m not going to vote for Biden? If you think everyone who says they aren’t voting for Biden is doing disinfo you are deluding yourself. You don’t have to like it and you are certainly free to argue with people, but don’t pretend that real people haven’t come to their own positions honestly.

            • Zink@programming.dev
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              6 months ago

              Seems like a bit of a straw man, because I wasn’t talking about you or others sharing who they plan to vote for.

              I’m talking about all the rhetoric about not voting for Biden because X, but which doesn’t mention that the alternative to Biden’s X is X^2 from the other side. There often isn’t any compare and contrast of the actual choices, just FUD about the one choice while leaving out how much worse the other choice is on the exact same issue.

              • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
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                6 months ago

                This whole discussion is about people criticizing Biden. It isn’t “rhetoric” to criticize a sitting president who is actively supporting a genocide. I understand your anxiety about Trump, but I think it is blinding you to the current reality. I know what a piece of shit Trump is, but he isn’t the guy that right now can do something to end this genocide. When I say “fuck Biden for this genocide” and you say “Trump would be worse!” I feel like you’re missing my point completely. I feel like you are just accepting an ongoing genocide because you don’t want to hurt Biden’s electoral chances. He’s the politician, let him figure out how to get elected. He’s got 5 months.

                • Zink@programming.dev
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                  6 months ago

                  Current politicians can and should be criticized, all of them. Biden most of all, being the President. When American weapons are used to kill innocents, even moreso.

                  My criticism is how on much of Lemmy this has been extended to “vote for Biden = personally and enthusiastically approve genocide.” You even managed to reach this conclusion in your reply. And that’s how it tends to come up in discussions. People reaching pragmatic conclusions about how best to direct this country with our little meager votes, including reducing genocide and other harm, get met with cries of genocide support. It’s not productive and it shuts down reasonable discussion. And it’s always cries of genocide, not genocide mixed in with another hundred issues. I hope you can see how that makes it seem like a disingenuous talking point. It reminds me of “think of the children” how it uses a very obvious moral stance (genocide bad, or children good) to steamroll any nuance or complexity in the situation.

                  I agree with the rest of your points though. Like I said, of course he should be criticized. He’s probably the most criticized person on earth, and that’s what he signed up for.

                  • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
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                    6 months ago

                    I didn’t say you enthusiastically support genocide, but I did say I feel like you are accepting it. Or rather that the argument that I see constantly on Lemmy “do you think Trump would be better on genocide?” contains in itself an acceptance of genocide. To be clear, I haven’t (and won’t) tell anyone how/whether to vote. I will absolutely represent my own point of view and convictions, including commenting when I see stupid memes like this one.

            • Platypus@sh.itjust.works
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              6 months ago

              Because the stakes of this election are so very, very high. Trump genuinely and explicitly wants to create a fascist state; it’s borderline incomprehensible that somebody would choose to sit out and let that happen just because they don’t like Biden.

                • Platypus@sh.itjust.works
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                  6 months ago

                  Just to be entirely clear–are you taking the position that given the choice between (a) the world where you don’t vote and Trump wins and (b) the world where you vote Biden and Trump loses, you would take (a)?

                  • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
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                    6 months ago

                    Just to be entirely clear-- real people are dying right now because of things Biden could directly control. Trump has nothing to do with that. Biden has a crackerjack team of experts that are obviously doing political calculations that currently don’t require my vote for him to win. I wouldn’t stress about it if I were you.

        • DriftinGrifter
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          6 months ago

          not really external propaganda and delusional nonvoters go hand in hand

      • crusa187@lemmy.ml
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        6 months ago

        This opinion is all over cable news in the US.

        Even the Biden campaign claims that “polling is wrong” and he will win comfortably. The hubris is astounding.

        However, to those who would post memes like this, pointing out these types of delusion is tantamount to supporting Trump. It’s an incredibly unhealthy alternative universe to exist in, and the only outcome of doing so will be a crushing Dem defeat come November. I’m not even talking about swing states here - even in New York Biden is only up by 9% now because of his unwavering support of genocide and refusal to improve the path for immigration, among many other shortcomings.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      It’s legitimately possible the left abandons him and he picks up enough conservatives to win anyways.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Neither of them are popular candidates. But they are in a statistical tie in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Although it’s going to be really awkward when Arizona sends a democratic senator while voting for Trump. (And Gallego is not a conservative.)

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            Neither of them are popular candidates

            They’ve each got a hard base of unshakable supporters who are incredibly annoying and deliberately obtuse about the most obvious shit.

            Although it’s going to be really awkward when Arizona sends a democratic senator while voting for Trump.

            One thing Democrats have managed to do in hotly contested Senate races is to find people who aren’t hateful assholes.

            Shame they couldn’t have run Mark Kelly for president.

            • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              Yeah. That they do. I don’t think Mark Kelly is interested in the presidency though. And until Arizona Democrats get a replacement lined up we need him where he is.

    • AVincentInSpace@pawb.social
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      6 months ago

      Never seen anyone but the “Biden needs to earn my getting off my couch on election night” leftists say the second one