ashaman2007

OK cool now you are arguing in bad faith. Nothing in my response was an attempt to hide the class conflict inherent in liberal democracy.

Ok, so we should ignore that he is currently advertising that he will go even further right. I do not agree with people who dismiss Trump’s promises as if they cannot happen. He is a fucking idiot, but his campaign (and the Republican Party) are not.

OK, I watched the video. You asked me to humble myself and engage with your point of view. I did. Hopefully you can do the same with mine.

1. I don’t expect reforms of liberal democracy will bring us toward a democratic ideal. They are temporary harm reduction.
2. yes I agree the US is a class dictatorship. How does one start to break that in the short term? Labor organization. Which I am fully in support of. Long term? I don’t pretend to know, but at least if we are organized as a labor force maybe we can start to see a path through.
3. I’m not unaware that my vote is not always effective depending on which policies the capital holding class supports. However in my over a decade of voting I have also seen GOOD regulations pass despite corporate interests and capital investment in lobbying. So no, voting is not PURELY to pacify my guilt at being a citizen of the evil empire. I vote for what I believe in and if it reduces harm that’s great. If not, that’s OK, voting is not preventing anybody from doing more to oppose shit policies.
4. One oversimplification in this video is that it implies any and all leaders in a liberal democracy are always going to do the same level of violence when repressing civil disobedience. You can look at the civil rights movement to see how there were key differences in how the movement was able to develop in the south (where segregation was law) and in the north, where it was not. https://academic-oup-com.proxy.library.nyu.edu/book/45643/chapter/396344580 (link to full text of this chapter: https://file.io/xsfTsCUAIfFE) The point is, that if I have a choice between Harris and Trump, I’m going to pick the one least likely to call in the National Guard to the protest…and if I don’t show up to vote, I didn’t even try to do that. https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-barr-used-loophole-deploy-national-guard-u-s-cities-ncna1236034
5. As was suggested elsewhere in this thread, apparently the only way to create a just society is through “revolution”. Of course, nobody cares to define what that looks like. Why? Because it is an absolutely enormous task, and one that you could (probably rightfully) debate for years in order to try to do it “the right way” and avoid an utter disaster (a shooting civil war). Part of the issue is that currently, millions are dependent on the systems in our liberal democracy. From healthcare to food, there is a massive void that must be filled before just the masses can just say “I don’t recognize this govt as legitimate”. Time and time again I hear anarchists online repeat “we just need a revolution”, and apparently this understanding makes them better than me despite the complete and total lack of any coherent path to the endgame besides “fuck some shit up”. Given the amount of failed revolutions strewn throughout history (and the death and destruction they left in their wake), I would suggest that people stop throwing out that word as if it means something specific.

How is “increased border protection” to the right of mass deportation…

Nice one lol

Functionally, doing nothing is also a choice. And in this case it does more harm than good to let MAGA get the backing of the Federal govt. I am familiar with the theory of democracy not being possible under capitalism, and agree. But what does it do for me? I can’t snap my fingers and transition from a full on capitalist system to anarcho-socialism in a fucking day. So yeah, I’m gonna participate and try to stop the harm to my country that would result from me not participating.

OK, not voting and trying to further the already existing movement to divest from Israel. In which case Donald Trump and the Republican party down-ballot wins (historically, lower turnout means Republican victory), and now you have a genocide occurring in Palestine AND America when Trump haphazardly tries to deport hundreds of thousands of Latin American immigrants en masse. I don’t think people understand that Donald Trump actually does have a record of doing what he promises… he did actually build the wall. Is it shit? Yeah, but he built it. Did he actually install people in federal agencies who worked to make them ineffective? Absolutely. MAGA with the backing of the US govt is terrifying; without that, much less so. Keeping MAGA away from power and confined to their corners of the internet is important. That is literally the ONLY reason why I feel the need to participate in this fucked up system.

https://theintercept.com/2024/09/11/harris-trump-debate-gaza-israel-saudi/ So, what is the right choice then?

Invidious, one good instance is https://iv.nowhere.moe/

I wonder how this calculus changes with the dawn of AI built into the OS… will a Linux system that avoids all that nonsense end up being more energy efficient?