“They want 1939 Germany but they're going to get 1789 France if they keep fucking around.”
Its not going to end wel nor normally…
i remind myself of #fascist #spain under #franco and look at spain today
doesn't mean spain is utopia today
doesn't mean "it's going to be ok, relax"
it means getting better is real
but:
1. we have a lot fucking work to do
2. there is a lot of fucking suffering ahead of us
3. do not accept #pessimism #cynicism nor #capitulation
as long as we *fight* we can right this rotten ship
biggest ally of #maga:
lazy indifference
get off your fucking asses and fight
i know what it's going to take
it's been really fucking easy since fucking gore v bush in 2000:
you stupid fucking lazy ass moronic americans:
YOU. NEED. TO. FUCKING. #VOTE.
if it comes to molotov cocktails then i'm throwing molotov cocktails
but that's a failure
some airhead fuckwits romanticize that bullshit
it's massive suffering!
narcissistic college sophomores cosplaying revolutionary thinking they're in a fucking movie: deeply cringe
just fucking vote shitheads
@otownKim @benroyce @jm101 @xs4me2 With respect (because I'm a poll worker and take this stuff seriously): I wish fewer people would joke about this stuff.
Elmo didn't do shit. I sat behind the table and looked at people coming in, then saw the returns that night. Even with anonymous votes, at the level of an individual polling station you can gauge the vibe of the room by the familiar faces you see and the familiar faces you don't.
People just didn't show up to vote for Harris. Period. I thought lefties had learned their lesson in 2016, but apparently I gave them too much credit and they needed to be told twice.
@mark
> People just didn't show up to vote for Harris. Period. I thought lefties had learned their lesson in 2016, but apparently I gave them too much credit and they needed to be told twice
Funny, I was thinking exactly the same thing about the Democrat leadership and their candidates choices. The left didn't turn up, because they didn't have a candidate on the ballot. Period.
@strypey @roknrol @otownKim @benroyce @jm101 @xs4me2 It'd be cool if the left lived in a country that reflected what they wanted.
Since they don't, there's a harm-reduction choice and a harm choice, and I thought that after living the harm-choice from 2016 to 2020 the left got that when they voted for Biden and then we had four relatively-peaceful years.
But I guess not.
@benroyce@mastodon.social@mark @strypey @roknrol @otownKim @jm101 @xs4me2
it's a reason v emotion thing
you would hope people would understand cold strategy: you vote for better and you iterate
that works
but unfortunately people are an emotional mob
we can't depend upon their brains, there's not enough brains out there
we need to feed their hearts
so what we need is a real leftist candidate
more milquetoast centrist dems is the path to more maga
lazy assholes better fucking show up to the #primaries2026
@benroyce @mark @strypey @roknrol @otownKim @jm101 @xs4me2
Tax the rich and shut down Citizens United.
Take care of our vets, children, seniors and disabled.
Expand Social Security.
Save our National Parks and the Post Office.
Stop demonizing entire groups of people.
Codify an enforceable codes of ethics, for all branches.
No felons on Capitol Hill.
Stop weaponizing government departments.
Bring back Civics in school.
Be honest.
It's a simple platform.
@benroyce
> plutocrat controlled media: "sounds like woke communism"
Let's not pretend the whole mediasphere is on Orange Stalin's side. That's what his mob do ("liberal media"), they're equally wrong.
You're right that media is a key battleground though. We have tools now for parties to build their own media and communicate directly with members and supporters, yet they're still doing it via platforms that have a dog in the race. Why?
@strypey @Darkphoenix @mark @roknrol @otownKim @jm101 @xs4me2
100% false
traditional media is dying. so plutocrats move in via vulture capital and take over the managing editor positions
all top legacy tv and newspapers are now outright maga or controlled opposition going "well gee trump has some good points, and the left needs to calm down", etc
and of course social media is edgelord bigots and tech bro algorithms
are you in new zealand?
you really have no clue how bad it is over here
@Darkphoenix
> I read those same oligarchs are buying up Canadian media
They're trying to do the same here in Aotearoa, presumably in preparation for next year's election. See the recent news about NZME, one of our biggest media companies;
@benroyce
> all top legacy tv and newspapers are now outright maga or controlled opposition
Maybe now. But not the case before the election.
> are you in new zealand?
Yes.
> you really have no clue how bad it is over here
Maybe not. But given that NZ has basically been a vassal state of the US since Britain got smashed by WW2, I don't think the differences between there and here are as great as you imagine.
@strypey @Darkphoenix @mark @roknrol @otownKim @jm101 @xs4me2
"Maybe now. But not the case before the election"
you have no fucking clue what you are talking about
"> are you in new zealand?
Yes."
great! so stop thinking you have the right to lecture americans on america
i didn't read anymore
we're done
i'm ignoring you now
you don't know shit
and you open your ignorant mouth
only cringely demonstrating you don't know shit
shall i start spouting dumb lies about new zealand to you?
@Darkphoenix @benroyce @mark @strypey @roknrol @otownKim @jm101 @xs4me2
We know these are good things. What we don’t seem to know is how to get them implemented.
I had what I thought was a decent idea for getting some of these, but not enough people wanted to do my idea so it didn’t work. This was back in November.
We have to try again now. It’s worth the effort.
@CStamp
> Folk could've voted for that in Nov
You're kidding yourself. Harris had no intention of taxing her rich SillyCon
Valley mates, and had no plan for overturning Citizens United and ending decades of structural corruption benefiting individuals on both sides of the aisle, at the expense of the public good. I'm not sure she could have delivered anything in that policy shopping list, even if she wanted to.
@Darkphoenix @benroyce @mark @roknrol @otownKim @jm101 @xs4me2
@benroyce
> well harris isn't perfect, so don't vote
Please point me to the post where I argued this. If you bothered to check, I actively encouraged voting for Harris once she was confirmed as the candidate. By talking about the ways Orange Stalin would can the few good things the Biden administration had done for internet and media regulation.
But they didn't, and unlike some, I'm not deluding myself as to why.
@CStamp @Darkphoenix @mark @roknrol @otownKim @jm101 @xs4me2
@strypey
If you are interested in structural corruption, consider if, instead of exhausting everybody's attention by wrecking the stuff that sometimes used to work, they could have followed up on this, which was actually on the Democrats agenda to do: https://iaccseries.org/the-21st-iacc-vilnius-declaration-confronting-global-threats-standing-up-for-integrity/
@CStamp @Darkphoenix @benroyce @mark @roknrol @otownKim @jm101 @xs4me2
@hakona @strypey @CStamp @benroyce @mark @roknrol @otownKim @jm101 @xs4me2
A lot of GQP are going to be aging out, and the younger ones are a bunch of sloppy, ignorant bullies, who, for the most part, rode in on the 
coattails, and have no idea how to work within the system, are completely unwilling to actually do the job they were elected to do, and have absolutely no international reputation for anything except unreliability.
Without the , most would never have been elected.
@hakona
> instead of exhausting everybody's attention by wrecking the stuff that sometimes used to work
I'm lost. Who on the left is doing this?
> they could have followed up on this
What exactly were the action points related to this on the Democrats agenda, and why didn't we hear about them during the election campaign?
@CStamp @Darkphoenix @mark @roknrol @otownKim @jm101 @xs4me2
@Darkphoenix @benroyce @mark @strypey @roknrol @otownKim @jm101 @xs4me2 I have to admit being shocked by the election results. I have an ex-American friend who was really worried and I kept reassuring him that folk wouldn't actually vote for a doddering, rambling old felon and sex offender who talked about sharks, electric boats, and Hannibal Lecter and retribution.
So much empathy for those of you who did fight for what's right.
@benroyce @mark @strypey @roknrol @otownKim @jm101 @xs4me2
I forgot one really big one.
Honor our treaties and obligations, regardless of who signed it, to our allies, our friends and our Indigenous peoples. And treat them with respect.
Ukraine gave up their nukes because WE swore that WE would protect them. It doesn't matter whether others break their word, OUR word should, and one time did, mean something.
@benroyce
> so people need to show up in the primaries in 2026
... and the Dem leadership need to be restrained from interfering in the primary process if it doesn't look to be producing the results they want. The Democratic party needs constitutional reform, just as much as the country and the GoP do.
@benroyce
> then you argue against what you most do to get that power: vote!
Is this really the limit of your political imagination. When I lived in China I observed the elections they hold there every year. Would you tell dissidents there that the way to achieve democracy begins and ends with voting? In order for voting to make any difference whatsoever, there needs to be a policy platform worth voting for.
@mark
> If you're going to make serious comparisons between the US and Chinese party or electoral process
My point is that voting is only significant when there are candidates you want to support. As I said to Ben, before he threw his toys out of the cot and blocked me, I argued for a strategic vote for Harris. You can literally go back to my late 2024 timeline and see for yourself. But she wasn't a candidate the US left wanted to support 
@strypey @roknrol @otownKim @jm101 @xs4me2
My point is that voting is only significant when there are candidates you want to support
Yes, it is. And my point is that's not how it works in a two-party system, never has been, and if American leftists keep pretending it is in spite of all evidence to the contrary, they will lose their rights in their own country.
Do you think fundamentalist Christians actually love billionaire hedonists? They don't. Somehow, they found enough common cause to build consensus in a party. But the Left is so good at finding reasons not to work together that they are, right now, likely to lose everything they want to hold dear.
It's a shame, really.
@mark
@strypey @roknrol @otownKim @jm101 @xs4me2
What I find so depressing about discussions like this is mainly two things:
1. Putting the blame on political parties while avoiding to "get inside" and get one's own hands dirty for changing them. Parties are no super powers from Mars and totally unreachable for human beings.
2. Knowing 1. still
insisting to get exactly what you want ( you did not 'pay' !) instead of being at least smart enough to make a choice that means least trouble.
Why?
What I see these days where the world has more opinions than pairs of shoes there is the tendency demand to get 100% what one wants. There is only one who can lobby for that: you, speaking in a party or movement!
How many people do that? < 0.1% I guess.
I HAD to vote just a couple of weeks ago @mark @strypey @roknrol @otownKim @jm101 @xs4me2
and it cost me a LOT of EFFORT to come to a conclusion. And no: I am not a member of any party. I reached out, got answers that did not satisfy me.
I am not happy with my vote, but THIS I KNOW: it would be WORSE if I had not voted at all or given my vote to some folks who want to sell me to Russia or China or both and finally have a situation where I would curse myself each day for electing some hatefilled assholes.
I'd rather vote for an @mark @strypey @roknrol @otownKim @jm101 @xs4me2
incompetent fool than for someone who is on a mission to destroy democracy and eventually jail or kill me. For the fool I may still educate, while the other one won't even listen.
So let it sink:
Democracy is the worst form of government ( Churchill )
In democracy you don't elect the best of the best, but the least bad from the worst - unless you stand up yourself @mark @strypey @roknrol @otownKim @jm101 @xs4me2