He’s had yet another horrible week. The old tricks aren’t working. Kamala Harris does not fear him. And it’s showing in the numbers.
He’s had yet another horrible week. The old tricks aren’t working. Kamala Harris does not fear him. And it’s showing in the numbers.
I am complaining about the people who are trying to make the Democrats lose the general election, with no particular plan to translate that into good action from the Democrats on Gaza, all the while congratulating themselves about what a great and noble thing they’re doing. I can cite many of them on Lemmy. I assume that they exist in the real world also, and that a bunch of them will show up this week at the convention.
I am not complaining about the people who are trying to get better outcomes for Gaza, which does in fact include getting concessions from the Democrats including withholding support. Sounds great.
If it’s done strategically with the aim of better outcomes for Gaza, then fuckin fantastic. If it’s done with a strategy which sort of seems accidentally like maybe it may produce mostly bad electoral outcomes for the Democrats, and not much in the way of good outcomes for Palestinians, then I don’t like it.
It’s fair that you asked the question you asked. Now that I’ve explained a little, though, does that make sense? I can’t see how it can be a confusing point of view or anything you want to say literally anything to aside from “yes I can agree with that.”
Here’s Nader talking about good ways to do it. Fuckin fantastic.
Somewhere in my history is (supposedly; it’s impossible to know for sure) a Palestinian laying out in extremely passionate detail how disgusted he is with people who are using his dying countrymen to make a bad-faith political argument to try to get the guy elected who will endanger, not just his family still back home, but also his friends and family here, in the US, here and now. I looked for it a little bit but couldn’t find it. If you want to hear, I’m happy to dig it up.
There is no form of activism that does not harm the reputation of those who are being protested. And since it seems we’re choosing to be vague about who it is who is supposedly crossing this imaginary boundary between good and bad faith protest, I’m going to assume it’s arbitrary, based on what you personally find uncomfortable.
I would argue that a lot of the right kind of activism against the genocide in Gaza will in the long run actually help the reputation of the Democrats, because it’ll involve educating the public about what is actually going on, at which point the Democrats supporting it will be unpopular, at which point they’ll (hopefully 😐) stop doing it and lose this persistent stench of death about them that they currently have to a certain activist population that actually knows what’s going on.
I mean I do get your point. My counter-point would be that not everything that harms the reputation of the people being protested is productive activism. It seems like you’re persistently not grasping the point that I’m making here.
return2ozma, Linkerbaan, and jimmydoreisalefty I think are crossing this imaginary boundary, because they’re not helping the situation or trying to educate anyone about what’s going on, just persistently trying to damage the reputation of the people in the best position to do something positive, using attacks both true and false. Ralph Nader and the “uncommitted” voters in Michigan are examples of people who are not crossing the boundary; they are trying to help the Palestinians by putting pressure on the Democrats in ways that are specifically goal oriented and productive. I’m not real concerned about their actions “hurting” the Democrats, or not severely enough concerned to oppose it, because as you said, protesting against someone does (I would add sometimes) harm their reputation, and them’s the breaks. Does that help make it more concrete?
IDK why you’re saying I’m being vague. I’m being very specific about what behavior I do and don’t support. If you want me to pick out particular people or explain what of their behavior I do and don’t support, if that’s helpful, I’m fine doing that too.
I’m not getting into another effort posting disagreement with you.
You’re entitled to your perspective on what you view as ‘crossing the line’, but you’d be well advised to acknowledge that there isn’t any objective standard for it.
I understand the point you’re trying to make, I just don’t think it has any basis outside your personal feelings on the matter.
The democrats should be confronted by as many people as possible in support of a Gaza ceasefire. That includes convincing others that the issue requires action from them, too.
My objective standard is, what is going to help the Palestinians? And what is masquerading as that but (in large part) not going to help them but just going to risk a catastrophe for them that is continuation and widening of what’s already their hell on earth?
That’s not my personal feelings. I’m sure we disagree on what the outcome of different courses of action are, and that’s fine, but that’s why I am saying this and what my goals are in saying this. If what you’re doing is the first thing then all good and I have no complaints about it.
Fair enough. You started talking to me, man. I was just talking about the convention. I’m gonna be giving criticism to people I think are making a mistake, just like you would give criticism to the Democrats or to me, if you think there’s a mistake happening. All good from my side.
I mean, they’re already “supporting” a ceasefire. They’ve been doing that. That’s the issue, is Netanyahu is laughing their faces and telling them fuck your ceasefire, and they’re not then escalating with him. But I don’t think the issue blocking progress is just that they need to want a ceasefire very badly, and then that will solve the issue.
At the risk of repeating myself: there’s no objective measure for this. Creating pressure for action always involves risking some damage, that’s what activism is. Your standard doesn’t mean anything for determining what level of pressure is acceptable because all of it risks damaging electiral odds to some degree. If anything, your standard would seem to suggest that the only form of protest is that which doesn’t risk anything, at which point it becomes purely aesthetic.
You mean like sharing reporting on the matter? How does this exclude people like r2o and linkerbann?
So back when I was saying “I’m not real concerned about their actions ‘hurting’ the Democrats…”. What do you think I meant with that whole explanation / that whole paragraph?
I think you’re personally confused, because that statement is in direct contradiction to this other statement of yours:
You say that you’re fine with hurting the reputation of democrats, but your material concern over some forms of protest/activism is that it’s going to “damage the reputation of people in the best position to do something positive”.
The war in Gaza must end. Israeli occupation must end. Israel must face consequences for their war crimes. Until those conditions are met, I think all forms of protest are fair game. Comparing the defense of those protests as “abuser logic” is a crazy weird way of assigning blame to people holding the US and Israel to account for the war crimes they are currently and continually complicit in, especially when you notionally agree with the subject of those protests.
edit: just to illustrate the absurdity of that comparison -
The US and the pro-zionist democrats are materially supporting the actual abuse and genocide of Palestinians, and you’re suggesting the people pushing for an end to the abuse are the ones abusing the abuser.
Incorrect. My prime material concern is that these forms of protest/activism are much more likely to hurt Palestinians than to help them. I can’t believe that I need to explain this this many times.
If you persist in telling me that my own argument is something different than what it is, I am going to report you for strawmanning. Either start dealing with my argument as it actually is, or stop talking to me.