Conservatives joke that progressives just blow with the wind from one controversy to the next. But I can’t help but notice the anti-Biden “left” shifted hard from Genocide Joe to Bad debate Performance without skipping a beat or looking back.

Almost like the people stoking these fires don’t really care about left issues at all.

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    695 days ago

    russian troll farms be out here like

    “no we’re innocent socialists!” “democrats aren’t progressive enough and therefore must be defeated” “you can’t accuse me of parroting russian disinformation talking points just because I’m using the same words and arguments”

    • @audiomodder
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      165 days ago

      I love how anyone who disagrees with you is a Russian troll. You go around insulting people and then try to claim the high ground. Grow up.

  • @PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee
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    595 days ago

    Accelerationism is a position that is literally only possible to hold from a position of privilege.

    I’m sure crashing through the decline into fascism looks like a great idea when you know you’re high enough on the kill list to avoid the actual consequences of fascism happening.

    The white left never saw us as allies, only as fodder.

    • @Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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      94 days ago

      Accelerationism is a position that is literally only possible to hold from a position of privilege.

      And boy do they get butthurt when you tell them that they’re privileged.

      I got one person really indignant with me when I called them privileged because they were pushing accelerationist bullshit about Palestinians being genocides because they didn’t have to deal with the results of their rhetoric.

      • @frezik@midwest.social
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        44 days ago

        I’ve seen the same in someone I know personally. He’s a pacifist, and being against funding Ukraine is at least consistent with that, if completely shortsighted and demonstrating how pacifism is an end goal, not praxis that we can do right now. He’s also smart enough to realize what a losing argument that is and focuses on Palestine instead.

      • @PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee
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        115 days ago

        White self proclaimed socialists and leftists who will theory their way all around why it’s everyone else’s job to praxis in even the bare minimum ways, and who see queer folks and PoC effectively as pawns to throw into the meat grinder of fascism until it eventually chews its teeth out.

        See also, when the french communists outed immigrant resistance leaders to the retreating Nazis to take all the credit with the dead unable to correct the record for themselves.

        • @Mobilityfuture@lemmy.world
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          55 days ago

          I understand your definition and can relate to this being a (privileged) element of left discourse. That being said I question if your attribution of this definition to a broader category of your own making… “the white left” is helpful to anyone. If you feel it is keep throwing it around I guess

      • @AnarchoSnowPlow@midwest.social
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        “Progressives” with enough privilege that they think that if it comes down to it, they can always bend the knee to avoid the wall.

        These people tend to be rabidly accelerationist, cause it’s not their lives and livelihoods on the line.

        This line of thinking allows you to be an ideological purist and denounce any incrementalism or harm reduction as antithetical to the cause, stirring up infighting.

        It also happens to be an excellent strategy outlined in the CIA’s saboteur handbook. (Literally, Google it, download the PDF from CIA.gov)

            • Victoria Antoinette
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              34 days ago

              harm reduction is recognizing the bad thing is going to happen, and helping people mitigate the consequences. it has a specific meaning, and voting is not harm reduction.

              • @frezik@midwest.social
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                The bad thing that will happen is Project 2025. We can mitigate that by voting for candidates that want nothing to do with Project 2025.

                • Victoria Antoinette
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                  your falling for (or perpetrating) an informal fallacy called “equivocation”. voting is not harm reduction.

    • @DAMunzy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      14 days ago

      Literally? As in figuratively? Or are you one of those “a vote for anyone other than Biden is literally a vote for Trump” people?

  • @rwhitisissle@lemmy.world
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    Now, remember kids: if an unpopular Democratic presidential candidate doesn’t win an election, who do we blame? That’s right: literally everyone to the left of us. That’s how you make progress in a country, after all: Demonizing the left in the same way conservatives do. And why do we do that? That’s right, it’s because we’re secretly conservative, too. We just tolerate gay people more, but don’t want actual social or economic progress. Repeat after me: “unfavorable political outcomes are everyone else’s fault but mine!”

  • @givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    Accelerationists would be encouraging people to plow ahead with Biden so trump wins…

    Not trying to maximize chances to beat trump while there’s still time before the candidate is named.

    trump is a huge threat to American democracy, and I dont see any other reason why so many people insist on a sub optimum candidate except they don’t care if trump wins.

    It might be different if Biden didn’t have a 37% approval rating or a 56% disapproval rating.

    But people just don’t like Biden, for various reasons he’s just not popular with voters. That’s why people bring up multiple reasons why Biden isn’t a good candidate, there’s just a lot of them. And added together they might let trump win like he did in 2016

      • NoneOfUrBusiness
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        95 days ago

        Because the seasons Biden is a bad candidate now are the same reasons he was a bad candidate a few months ago.

    • @LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
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      Aren’t you making the same mistake you criticize here?

      This issue is contentious because we’re all scared of Trump and we all know he has a real chance of winning. And the reality is we genuinely don’t know for sure which strategy can defeat him. People who don’t like Biden respond to this fear by calling for Biden to step down, because they genuinely think someone else would have a better shot. People who like Biden are doubling down because they’re afraid of a contentious replacement process or an untested candidate falling flat and they genuinely think Biden is the best option in this context.

      But I don’t think there’s any reason to believe any of this stems from a place other than genuine concern for American democracy. Assuming ill intent just creates pointless anger among the left coalition and doesn’t get us any closer to actually defeating Trump.

    • Accelerationists would be encouraging people to plow ahead with Biden so trump wins…

      Not trying to maximize chances to beat trump while there’s still time before the candidate is named.

      I think this kind of highlights why the term “accelerationist” is a political fabrication, not an actual movement. No one I’ve met self-applies that label or wants fascism. I’d guess it’s because that term was created as short-hand pejorative to suppress or dismiss those who are trying to create real pressure or who simply can’t vote for someone so unapologetically genocidal.

      I will not be voting for Biden ever again, but I will vote for nearly anyone else who might replace him because that would be enough of an indicator that Democrats can actually listen when pressed. They need to prove that if they want to win over voters who’ve been disillusioned by Biden’s genocide support.

      I think you kind of articulated something that was puzzling me about how uncompromising some people are being about the possibility of Biden stepping aside and how they refuse to even entertain what a boon that would be to democratic chances in November – it’s one thing to say people should vote Biden because you believe he’s the only choice, it’s an entirely different and more suspicious thing to try and pre-empt the possibility of someone else with less baggage replacing him.

      There’s signs of actual momentum in the party after the debate to try and find a way to convince Biden to step down (maybe by flattering his ego with his accomplishments or something and making him feel like he’ll have a legacy besides that of a mass murderer). I don’t see why anyone would dismiss that opportunity, given what we all know about Biden’s rock bottom approval.

          • @jumjummy@lemmy.world
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            Yeah? How so? Come November and the only viable choices are Biden and Trump, saying you’re never voting Biden means you’ll be helping Trump.

            Gnash teeth and stomp feet all you want, but that’s the reality. Want more progressive candidate? Start local and start early.

    • Genuine question. Why doesn’t Biden step down and let another Democrat run? Is there literally no other Democrat that could do better than Biden?

      • @jumjummy@lemmy.world
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        45 days ago

        Regardless of what this tiny slice of politics you see here on Lemmy, there’s no way another Democrat has a chance this close to the election. I mean, can you name anyone who you think would do better?

        • @frezik@midwest.social
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          24 days ago

          Part of the problem I see is a major progressive generation gap at the top levels of elected government. Not even proper leftists, mind you, just progressives. Bernie Sanders is even older than Biden. The next oldest prominent name is AOC, who is almost 50 years younger and is only barely constitutionally eligible this year (by less than a month, even). There’s probably someone political wonks can name in between those two, but they’re not household names and would be unlikely to be able to spin up a campaign this quickly.

          Decades of centrism have gutted the Democrats of anyone who could possibly stand up right now.

        • Maybe this is the difference between American and Canadian politics? In Canada, it isn’t unusual for a Prime Minister to step down and another person gets selected as Prime Minister. Not voted, selected, by the party in power. Biden would have been rotated with someone else by now.

          During Brexit, that happened 4 times in a row! David Cameron stepped down and Theresa May took his place. She stepped down and Boris Johnson took her place. He stepped down and Liz Truss took his place, she stepped down (after just 40 days settings the record for shortest time as prime minister) and Rishi Sunak took her place. The general public didn’t vote for these people to be Prime Minister. They were selected by the party in power.

          That’s why I’m sort of confused why Democrats don’t just pick someone else. In a parliamentary system it wouldn’t be a big deal. The general public are voting for a party, not a person.

      • @givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        35 days ago

        If Biden steps aside, he won’t be president…

        He’s not willing to do that to beat trump.

        Which is one of the reasons people don’t like Biden. He’s all talk, but won’t actually do what he can to fight fascism.

  • @audiomodder
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    265 days ago

    If you think leftists “just” shifted to hating Biden, I’ve got news for you. In fact, I don’t know anybody, I mean ANYbody on the left that has nothing but distain for Biden for the last several years. Did you ever consider that people are allowed different opinions from you without being paid operatives.

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      135 days ago

      So you’ll help destroy everything because biden bad to you?

      Cool.

      • @audiomodder
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        55 days ago

        Yup. Don’t make me post the Goofy meme.

        • @PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee
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          Tell me you’re white and straight without telling me you’re white and straight.

          You won’t be distinguished from any of the other collaborators who brought about the fall.

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          Well enjoy our new hell. You have a chance and you’re gonna piss it away. Brilliant. You probably can read and everything.

  • zkfcfbzr
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    215 days ago

    If Trump wins then all these “Genocide Joe” people are going to learn the real meaning of that term, that’s for sure.

    • @Catoblepas
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      165 days ago

      Are you suggesting that half a million people being intentionally starved somehow doesn’t constitute a genocide?

      • zkfcfbzr
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        75 days ago

        No, but I am suggesting that if Joe Biden isn’t still president this time next year, then there’s a good chance everyone in Gaza will be either dead or Israeli by then.

        • @Catoblepas
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          15 days ago

          Thanks for clarifying, the ‘real meaning’ part was something I’ve heard people use to minimize what’s currently happening. I agree that Trump is going to be worse if he’s elected, I just don’t think that should stop people from criticizing the current response to it.

        • @Catoblepas
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          75 days ago

          Not sure if you’re saying 10000x more or 10000x less people are starving, but that number seems off too. Half a million is the number I saw in an AP article from around a week ago.

          • NoneOfUrBusiness
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            I’m saying 4x. All of Gaza is being starved to death. You’re probably thinking of Northern Gaza, which is where the famine is at its worst, but that’s not because the rest of Gaza isn’t being starved. It’s just a matter of time.

            • @Catoblepas
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              Oh, I see what you mean now! A factor is 10x more, that’s why I was confused about what you were saying. (edit: ignore this; I am dumb) The figure I saw might have been for people in acute starvation vs severe food insecurity or something like that. I know the situation is fucking dire regardless.

                • @Catoblepas
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                  25 days ago

                  Shit, you’re right, I confused the two terms. Thank you for the correction!

    • @retrospectology@lemmy.world
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      115 days ago

      So, voting for the lesser of two evils doesn’t work. We’ve done that for 50 years, and all it’s achieved is a political duopoly that’s so far to the right that Democrats are now where Republicans were. How does your political strategy of voting for right-wingers change that?

      Is all you have to offer “slow the slide into fascism marginally until the general public acclimates to fascism”? Because that’s what the lesser of two evils gets us.

      • @paultimate14@lemmy.world
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        1. I don’t see that the US has tried voting for the lesser of two evils. The Democrats have only had full control of Congress and the presidency for… I think it ended up being like 11 months or so in modern history. The brief period of Obama’s term when the planets aligned and some intra-term weirdness happened in Congress that allowed the ACA to pass.

        2. I never proposed a strategy of voting for right-wingers.

        3. What do you propose and how will that help?

        • @retrospectology@lemmy.world
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          Yes, the ACA was born as a Republican bill, and this was after Obama promised abortion would be the first thing on his list when they got the super majority. Then he simply said it “wasn’t a priority any longer” when that chance came. It illustrates exactly why establishment Democrats are complicit in the loss of our fundemental rights, they are not willing or prepared to seize on opportunities to fight fascism the way fascists are prepared to seize opportunities to undermine our democracy.

          Dems don’t want to resolve issues like abortion, if they didn’t have that they’d have to start talking about campaign finance reform and election procedures (proving how we vote) etc. It’s much easier to just be locked in an unwinnable struggle with other corporate conservatives from the other team.

          I never proposed a strategy of voting for right-wingers.

          Joe Biden is a right-winger, having a D next to his name doesn’t change that. I’m talking about right-wing Democrats.

          What do you propose and how will that help?

          If you want the party to change, you stop rewarding them for propping up MAGA chuds to make their own right-wing candidates appear more palatable. You draw a line (maybe at something like genocide support) and don’t cross it until the Democrats are starved enough to stop their games. The politicians are suppose to work for us, not vice versa, and they simply will not listen until their power is seriously threatened.

          • @paultimate14@lemmy.world
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            Lol exactly you’re just spouting GOP talking points.

            Even the simplest question of “what do you propose we do” you a see with “stop supporting the only chance to stop the GOP right now”. 100% complaints with no actual solutions.

            • I think we’re trying to solve different problems, that’s what you’re confused about. You’re thinking in the immediate term, about what’s right in front of your face right now making you so scared. That’s how you get led around by the nose every election cycle, voting for Republican-lite, solving nothing, leading us further down the road to fascism with every wasted administration.

              I’m thinking in terms of solving the long term problem that has brought us to the point of fascism; the corruption and ineptitude of the Democratic party. The Democratic party represents the only potential avenue out of the fascist predicament that the GOP and right-wing Democrats have put us in, but they aren’t equipped or willing to actually fight, they need to be made so. The only way that happens is by twisting their arm and not giving into their extortion tactics, they need to be shown that it’s not politically viable.

              You see the American people as fragile, I do not. I think that’s the fundamental difference in our approaches here. You’re afraid of personal discomfort, sacrifice and conflict and that’s how you operate politically, trying to save your bubble of comfort at all costs. But there is no saving it, and many other Americans and people around the world have been living (and being killed) outside that bubble already for a long time.

              We don’t live in an era where we get to just be comfortable and pretend everything is fine, the Boomers got that. We live in an era where we have to face tyrants and our democratic institutions have been corrupted pretty much beyond function by the two parties.

              The starting point is reform of the Democratic party through whatever means necessary, the rest is secondary until we have politicians willing to fight. Filling political offices with empty suits and fascist-lite politicians is counter-productive. Don’t let the lesser of two evils be the enemy of good.

      • @fishos@lemmy.world
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        45 days ago

        Oh no, you don’t understand, if you’re not for Biden, you’re obviously a pro-Trump shill. There’s no room left for nuance.

        It’s why political discourse is all but dead. You see this same braindead take all over the place. Dems constantly saying how braindead Reps are, but then constantly throwing out bad faith arguments and strawmen. But if you point out the flaws, you’re just a shill who can be ignored.

        We’re doomed.

  • @HuntressHimbo@lemm.ee
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    145 days ago

    I don’t want trump, I’ve said before that I think that his complicity in Gaza isn’t only abhorrent but will lose him the election. Not exactly a stretch to then say “Oh and it turns out he is sunsetting too?” It sure seems like somebody else would be a better call to again not have trump. Give me Whitmer, Warren, Buttigieg, Duckworth, Ocasio-Cortez, Warnock, or Abrams and I’ll be happy.

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      85 days ago

      But it’s just not that simple. Israel is inextricable from a huge area of US power in the region - for better or the obvious worse that’s the case. We’ve been given what we’ve been given. If you think we should shut down all ties and delete the existing structure, say that. The ramifications may not be wonderful, particularly if one is unfamiliar with what those ramifications are.

      And. AGAIN. As we know Trump has suggested Israel nuke them, he’s 100% on board for complete displacement, and I’ll bet large dollars he’ll collect real estate in the ensuing debacle. Biden is THE option. Trump or Biden. Certain death or a good government.

      Every other conversation at this time is secondary at best, or in many cases deliberately inflammatory at worst.

      • @HuntressHimbo@lemm.ee
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        It could be as simple as Biden releasing a new report to update the one where they said “gee it looks, acts, and talks like a genocide, but we are still going to give Israel plausible deniability so we can keep sending them bombs” and firmly conclude its a genocide thus legally requiring the US to stop supplying arms.

        Like I said in my first comment, twice even, I don’t want trump. So I don’t give a shit what his policy would be. I know it would be horrific, that’s not even a question. I think replacing Biden is more likely to save us from Trump, so trying to convince me Biden is better than Trump about foreign policy fully doesn’t matter.

        You’re saying Biden is the option, but clearly myself and a significant portion of other voters in swing states would like another candidate more. Biden’s performance was awful, something that appears to be particularly relevant to swing state voters: https://puck.news/biden-plunges-in-swing-states-in-leaked-post-debate-poll/

        I think nominating a feeble old man in his twilight years is going to be our doom if we let it happen. There should have been a primary, Biden is unfit and his staff know it. You can plug your ears and march into fascism saying Biden is the only choice, but passing the nomination to someone who is still all there might actually turn things around.

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          45 days ago

          You’re saying Biden is the option, but clearly myself and a significant portion of other voters in swing states would like another candidate more.

          Hahaha. Oh man. You know how many times they’ve gone with the candidate I didn’t like as much? EVERY. TIME. EVERY! TIME! something like forty fucking years of “oh for fuck’s sake . . well, it’s better than Idi Amin the republicans are running”. Joe’s administration has done a lot of great things even Obama didn’t (okay, wait, i guess i lied - I did want Obama the first time. The second time it wasn’t a choice. But he was kinda the only one in my entire voting life)

          It comes down to: trump or not. You’re saying you’re gonna let trump win and it’s the democrats’ fault.

          You can plug your ears and march into fascism saying Biden is the only choice

          Unless he steps aside HE IS. THE ONLY CHOICE. Does it suck not having my preferred candidate? Yes!! Is it much better than trump? YES.

          I’m not putting a lot of stock in them replacing him, but you seem to think it’s likely for some reason. It just smells like one of those month-long (or god forbid, longer) news stories that doesn’t mean shit. Hey, if you wanna get in there and scrap with them to replace him, better get to it, time’s almost up.

          But if you’re the average reasonable literate person seeing this in the news and thinking “let me join the comments about how bad Biden is”, I don’t care. The Democrat Who Will Beat Trump is getting my vote. And that person is who the DNC picks. And one ill-conceived debate performance (i fucking said it would blow up in their faces and - here we fuckin’ are) does not mean let’s crack each other’s heads open and feast on the goo inside.

          Who’s on this just-about-to-happen DNC Presidential ticket change that you want to see? Who would get you to be 100% on board? Anyone? 90% on board?

          • @HuntressHimbo@lemm.ee
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            I literally gave you seven names in my first comment. I understand you’ve given up on ever making the world better, but try not to get in the way just because you’re so fucking bitter.

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              Give me Whitmer, Warren, Buttigieg, Duckworth, Ocasio-Cortez, Warnock, or Abrams

              AOC is too young atm, unfortunately. Warnock is . . inexperienced. Warren ran and lost a couple times already. Buttigieg still needs time and Whitmer will whip a stapler at your head. Abrams, like Stacey Abrams? You wanna put her in place of Biden when she just lost the governor’s race for the second time in a row? Hey, I love Stacey Abrams, I’d love her in office but you’re not going to win that. And that as a suggestion tells me you’re not familiar enough with backing failed campaigns. My bitterness is earned. I hope you don’t get any.

              • @HuntressHimbo@lemm.ee
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                AOC can run, she will be 35 before inauguration which is what counts.

                Biden ran and lost a couple times before he made it against Trump, Warren is more progressive than most of Congress and has already endured Trumps barrages of insults and came out of the wringer intact. Berners are going to struggle to accept her, but she is a compromise candidate between the center and the left.

                Buttigieg could do with some more time perhaps, but he’s aces in interviews and at least competent in debates. I’m not fond of his work history, but he’s better than Biden. Young is also a bonus when you’re shifting off of a candidate because they are ancient and can’t reasonably do the job anymore.

                Being from Michigan I think I like Whitmer less than most of the country, but she’s popular here and a recognized name in most States. I really doubt we would get Medicare for all with her, but she’s at least a continuation of Biden’s agenda on a way more marketable individual.

                As for Abrams she lost in a race where her opponent ‘oversaw’ the election. Personally I don’t know if Georgia will go Blue this election, but I think she is recognized in other States and has the kind of activism experience I wish more candidates came to the table with.

                Put that against Biden, who has been quietly helping a genocide along, whose single primary win was because he made deals with his opponents to get them to drop out, and who gave a debate performance that was so bad Trump’s deranged lying couldn’t even hold the news cycle.

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                  Put that against Biden, who has been quietly helping a genocide along

                  “quietly helping a genocide along”? C’mon man. He’s been as vocal as a responsible president can be to say Israel is way out of line and he’s pissed off about it. He’s blocked the arms sales the republiQans eventually forced him to make. He’s told Blinken to kick Bibi in the nuts repeatedly. Quietly helping. Please. Is there no one who understands what agreements are? What a treaty is? What foreign policy is FOR? The situation is dire and super fucked up - I don’t think Biden would disagree at all. Quietly helping. FFS. Like he’s all tee hee this will hurt Palestine for sure heh heh heh. Quietly helping.

                  whose single primary win was because he made deals with his opponents to get them to drop out,

                  Yeah it’s usually not done to run against a sitting President who has declared for re-election. For a number of reasons. Those people ran to make those deals. (And to stroke their egos) That’s not Biden buying people off that’s Biden understanding how politics works. Yes it’s gross. Duh.

                  and who gave a debate performance that was so bad Trump’s deranged lying couldn’t even hold the news cycle.

                  Well. You got me there. It’s true. Agreed on your assessments of the other politicians as well, with the exception of Abrams - she was absolutely cheated in her first run but in her second she had worked for four years to get her voters, who where highly motivated, together and still lost. She’d get my vote but I don’t think she’d come close (yet).

  • @masquenox@lemmy.world
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    Oh, is it an election year already?

    Must be… all the radlibs are starting to get all hysterical about the “accelerationists” (supposedly) hiding under their beds again.

  • @conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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    Not a tankie. I don’t want the US to collapse and burn, that’s going to end badly for a lot of people. I want us to reform and do better, though I’m now convinced that that’s not going to happen. I point this stuff out because I don’t think Biden can win. I didn’t think he could win last time, in all fairness, but he was and is a weak candidate, whose only shot lies in the democrats making the gamble that his opponent is weaker, which is kind of a stupid gamble to make imo. I don’t want Trump to win, I want the democrats to hit the republicans like a run away steam engine and smash this fascist bullshit into the dirt. I WANT NOTHING MORE THAN FOR RONALD REAGAN’S GRAVE TO BELCH BLACK SMOKE FOR A WEEK STRAIGHT THIS NOVEMBER. Instead we’re gambling if the guy who would have got sent home from being a Wal-Mart greeter with his debate performance can beat the guy who wants to hold military tribunals for political opposition. When Biden loses, I’m going to skullfuck the first Democrat who high-mindedly tells me this is really the fault of people not voting for their guy. No shit, do you want a gold star for that? Turns out when people don’t vote for candidates, they don’t win, whoda thunk it? Apparently not the goddamn DNC, since they keep seeing the ever-lowering RNC bar as an excuse to run correspondingly worse candidates each year instead of running a rock star that would shatter the Republicans. OH, what’s that, the republicans have opened a portal to Hell and are running just Hitler and Charlie Manson for their ticket? Oh boy, Joe Biden might be too far left to win against that, we better see if we can get the actual corpses of Milton Friedman and Henry Kissinger to run for us. Fuck off. Of course people aren’t excited to vote for a shitty candidate, because they’re a shitty candidate. Get someone who can speak in complete sentences for God’s sake.

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      145 days ago

      My friend, I hear ya. And I agree. But you need to know that the time for those discussions was both years ago and constant, just not now.

      We are 5 minutes to curtain.

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        No, you. I’ve been beating this drum since 2016 and “I get it, but now now” has always been the answer, and it was the answer in Obama II when we wanted codified gay marriage rights and more. If you’ve always just missed the boat, one starts to wonder if the boat was ever in the port to start with. And I think we both know the answer to that.

        No amount of dithering about the conditions of things just now is going to change the fact that the candidate fucking sucks and, realistically, has not great chances of beating the bastard that wants to start having military tribunals for his political opponents. Biden has been looking and sounding pretty rough for the last six ish months, at least, and that debate performance was just the most pitiful thing I’ve ever seen. I’ve been watching the debates since Bush/Kerry, including Biden’s previous performances, and I’ve never seen a candidate perform so badly. On average, Biden was barely intelligible, and at worst he rebooted on stage and beat medicare. And that was not his stutter, we have previous debate performances to reference that can show that well enough. He would get sent home from helping people pay for their car wash, he is not up to the fucking job and everyone knows it. The last ten years have been pretty fucking stupid, but this is taking it to a new level.

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          65 days ago

          No, you. I’ve been beating this drum since 2016 and “I get it, but now now” has always been the answer

          What the heck are you talking about? What drum have you been banging for eight years? not-Biden?

          You sound like maybe you don’t do a lot of work with political parties? It takes years for someone to get to a place to run for President. At least until trump, Putin, and Moscow Mitch all colluded to break everything for fascism.

          You’ve got roughly NINE WEEKS to change the DNC nominee, and you’re like “Ugh this always happens! I think this is rigged!” C’mon.

          Do you even have someone you want? Who?

          • @conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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            45 days ago

            Banging the drum of “why is the DNC throwing its full weight behind a garbage candidate and then shaming people for not being excited?” Or, more succinctly, “why, in the face of fascism, is the DNC sending us its worst candidates?” Hillary was wildly unpopular, everybody knew it, including the HRC campaign, which is why they worked with media organizations to promote Trump, because they figured they had their best chances against him. Biden didn’t exactly get anyone excited, especially when he showed up to the first primary debate looking half dead. Now we’ve got Biden again, who seems to put off the vibe that he’d struggle just with activities of daily living, much less running the country, and that’s the best the democrats can do to save us from straight up unironic fascism?! Are you fucking kidding me?

            How about Newsom? He’s no flaming radical, and while he does have baggage from California, he’s a competent and well-spoken politician who’s used to an executive office. AOC? I’d go for fighting fascism with a (at least for USPol) “flaming radical”. I’ll fucking take Al Gore at this point. I’ll fucking take Vermin Supreme, and he’s more progressive than Obama was on gay rights. More seriously, I know there was somebody that I read up on, liked, and voted for in the CA primary, but I don’t recall their name and I don’t think they’d be a good fit because they’d be a real nobody. I honestly think Newsom, AOC, or a (politically) resurrected Al Gore would be among the better candidates, if only for name recognition.

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              35 days ago

              I like Biden. He did very well, better than I think anyone expected. So don’t act like he’s shit-on-our-shoe. Yes, when he was on the tv box he didn’t throw a car or swing a magic hammer like we wanted, agreed it sucked, but this is becoming the new “Biden gEnOSiDE” carping point that means waaah we don’t participate in shit, and the people that do picked bad. Where the fuck were these people in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023? Possibly not of age to vote I guess, if so; fair enough.

              I think Newsom has too much baggage for a sixteen week Presidential run. We move fast but that’s probably going to be a wash as far as can he do better than Biden. I’d think worse, actually. AOC isn’t old enough. I’m voting for her when she is. Al Gore - man, I dunno. He fucking had 2000 in the bag and dropped it. Maybe. I think he’s qualified and capable but the Murdochian Sewer Gremlins will have a field day with him. Also not worth it, I think.

              No love for Deez Nutz? Okay, okay, going the traditional route with Vermin Supreme. Hey someone said Jon Stewart. I say hell yes. Let’s go pick him up and carry him to Washington and take care of business.

              • @conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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                25 days ago

                I’ve been voting reliably, including in midterms, since Obama I, so I don’t feel too bad about talking shit. Straight up, Biden surprised me positively quite a few times during his presidency. I’m a HUGE fan of what he and Pete have done to help revive rail infrastructure in the US. The genocide weighs, very, very heavily for me, such that I’d eagerly vote for a realistic alternative, but I recognize that Trump will make that situation far, far worse. All that said, my chief concern at this point is can Biden keep Trump out, and I have grave doubts about that.

                AOC would be old enough by the inauguration IIRC, and I don’t personally think Newsom has too much baggage. What, specifically, does Newsom have as baggage besides the high crime of being governor of CA? As for Gore… Yeah, I feel like his concession was the first time this fascist bullshit was heavily rewarded at the federal level, but in his defense, I don’t think anyone understood the gravity of the situation at the time, USPol still had an air of respectability. Sure, I’d go for Stewart, as long as he could answer effectively about his SIMA policies.

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                  4 days ago

                  What, specifically, does Newsom have as baggage besides the high crime of being governor of CA?

                  Nothing so much as he’s a magnet for right-wing media to shit on. That can’t be discounted because as we’ve seen every single time, the MAGAts love that crap, smear it around, and win elections wtih it.

                  (Edit: oh and being married to junior’s wife is going to be a thing)

                  Sure, I’d go for Stewart, as long as he could answer effectively about his SIMA policies.

                  I don’t know what SIMA is? Apparently either search is so befucked it can’t find somethign simple like SIMA or SIMA isn’t known to it. Is it Steel trade agreements? That’s the only thing I could see that was even remotely likely.

            • @PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee
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              15 days ago

              Yeah how dare people expect the self declared only ones who take the threat of fascism seriously in this country to fucking act like it then and recognize that letting the nation lose because you weren’t excited enough about the candidate is about as anti-fascist as calling the cops because you saw a black kid.

        • @Land_Strider@lemmy.world
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          45 days ago

          I think you are confusing showmanship with the ability to run a country in the state they come to the position and how much they can do from that point on.

          Yes, showmanship is ever more relevant in winning elections, if not has been the most relevant thing even before. So it makes sense to put forward a good entertainer to win an election.

          What you are wrong about is that most of the time, show people are just goddamn big liars and completely incompetent fools at ruling anything. It is fitting, tho, since all they do in their primary skill is to make people forget about problems by making them pay for a brief period of entertainment, nothing more.

          Biden is an old bastard with a foot in the grave. He shouldn’t be out there running a country, but the current alternative is Trump that just plays to the audience and has no experience or aptitude for directing.

          Yes, Biden should not have been running for president, and a balanced mix of showman and leader should have been out there instead, but who is that or who was that? A no-name in the political sense can’t be considered a showman, and we saw what other options could the left procure without stooping to Trump levels. They were not enough of a showman at all. So, why not go with the decently-competent decision maker instead of an unfunny showman?

          The blame for not producing a balanced showman and a decision maker falls on two groups: One is the political organization of the Democrats, the other is their voter base. The political organization is corrupt to an extent no matter what you do about it. People with power careers form pacts within pacts. A full education reform is needed for quite some generations to get rid of tribalism and corruption. The voter base is irresponsible. They have lots of other responsibilities and pursuits in life, but a core decision about these falls on taking on the political responsibility, maybe more than other decisions directly affecting the daily lives at this period of the world’s history. Voters should not isolate themselves from being a talking part of candidate production of the political organisation, even if they don’t actively take part in the local representation. Even just been keen about which names are being talked about in the political organization would give the voters years ahead of an election, and those years would decide if a candidate candidate is popular or not liked within the political organization. Voter dislike for a candidate months before the election, and when the campaign process has already started, will hardly make an impact on even bringing the topic to a discussion of a change of candidate, let aside producing a better one.

          On the contrary to asking for a change in candidate for a better one just months before an election is a complete show disunity, and such a lack of show of unity in voter base is even more damaging than a lack of show of showmanship in a candidate.

        • @PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee
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          15 days ago

          You keep hearing not now because you assholes are always picking this fight when it’s time for an election.

          You’re not making a well considered demand for action, you’re wielding your privilege to threaten everyone else with letting the nazis come back again if they don’t fall in line behind whatever single issue of the day you’ve decided to tell people is moving you.

          And the most infuriating part is that your lack of participation under those threats is exactly the goddamned problem. 30 million people participated in the 2016 primary, if y’all had spent as much of the energy turning out for it as ya did complaining about how everyone else did, Bernie would have won in a knockout. Double that for the general, green voters got to feel real high and mighty with their protest votes that would have flipped every single swing state and saved us from Trump in the first fucking place.

          • @conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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            5 days ago

            I have been voting, reliably, including in primaries and midterms, since Obama I. Somehow, mysteriously, we’ve arrived at this place where our last best hope of staving off full tilt Christian fascism for the next four years is probably too senile to be a night clerk at a gas station, which would tick me off a lot less if the democrats had been a little bit responsible and groomed Kamala as a successor or been a little more honest than letting people find out in the first presidential debate. I don’t want these assholes to win, pal. I’ll be fine, but lots of people won’t, and I’m not about that. For my part, I’m not comfortable sleepwalking into Christian Fascism because it offends mainstream Democrat sensibilities.

  • Useful idiots

    Liberals joke that leftists just blow with the wind from one controversy to the next. But I can’t help but notice the pro-Biden “left” shifted hard from “there is no genocide in Gaza” to “genocide is an acceptable side effect of democracy” without skipping a beat or looking back or acknowledging the complicity of the Democratic Party that allowed fascists to rise to power.

    Almost like the petit bourgeois liberals stoking these fires don’t really care about left issues at all.

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      85 days ago

      Liberals joke

      Do THEY? Them dang ol’ libruls tell you whut. That git j-just like them how they do the liberalism, like yis “Gorgh burr imma librl, gimme teh jenosides man” sure nuff like ‘at boy uh huh.

  • @StinkySocialist@lemmy.ml
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    85 days ago

    Leftists: you’re running a corpse that’s committing a genocide that tons of tons of younger voters are actually protesting against. Also no Democrats only when elections when voter turnout is high. We should run a more likable candidate so we don’t lose to the fascist?

    Liberals(the scratch a liberal a fascist bleeds kind): That’s accelerationism! you want Trump to win. This isn’t like 2016 all over again but also Running Hillary was the right decision. People just voted wrong. 🤡

    If Biden stays in and Trump wins, I just want you to know you’re the useful idiot fuck you.

    • @Entertainmeonly
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      65 days ago

      People didn’t vote wrong. Hillary won popular election. She lost because the electoral college voted against the peoples choice.

      • @StinkySocialist@lemmy.ml
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        45 days ago

        Oh I’m sorry. Do we have a popular vote to determine president now? I’m talking about the real world here. That kind of naive BS is what let trump win the first time

        • @Entertainmeonly
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          5 days ago

          No, you said people voted wrong. The only people that voted who’s vote counts is the electoral college… that’s the real world… what are you even on about at this point?

    • @PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee
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      35 days ago

      I love how leftists abjectly refuse to participate in the primary process and then proceed to get high and mighty about how it turned out the wrong candidate because everyone else was supposed to do the revolution without them having to lift a finger.

      Today’s young leftists think they’re all Robbespiere, but they’re all Marat, a festering diseased bitter instigator who spent his days wasting in a tub telling other people how they should be doing the revolution he was taking credit for while literally naked on his ass all day.

      • @StinkySocialist@lemmy.ml
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        14 days ago

        I did participate in the primary process. I voted in every primary and election since I turned 18. I’m also not young.

        I hate how liberals think that they know politics because they’re used to arguing with Republicans. Republicans are so dumb and separated from reality that you can say almost anything and be more correct than them. So liberals think that they’re smart. And they never bother to learn they’re only a little less ignorant than Republicans.

        Say what you will about marat. At least he participated in the French revolution and I for what he believed in. If you don’t see his writing his labor, I fear that’s because you’re too uneducated to know how hard writing that much can be. Makes total sense to me. You’d characterize him as lazy because he had chronic illness. Seems like you’re used to looking down on people less privileged than you.

  • OBJECTION!
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    45 days ago

    But I can’t help but notice the anti-Biden “left” shifted hard from Genocide Joe to Bad debate Performance without skipping a beat or looking back.

    How are people using this like it’s some kind of own? A person can be bad for two reasons lol, he’s still Genocide Joe and he’s also senile.

    Also accellerationism is dumb.