Occupy Wall Street showed this issue pretty well. While many moderate liberals quickly latched on to the movement, they just as quickly abandoned it and lapped up the narrative that the police were compelled to tear down encampments and beat people due to “unsanitary” conditions (despite them having sanitation crews) of the camps or because some people nearby broke a couple windows.
But when the cops break a couple (hundred) bones? That’s cool, I guess.
it’s mostly political
Oh I gotcha. Interesting. I don’t follow FSF or GNU or anything, do you know if they tend to be antagonistic toward nonfree devs who still try to be as free as possible? Honestly, I read the Stallman quote about FreeBSD in this thread, and a statement from GNU that acknowledges the impracticality of their philosophy, and I kinda agree with their ethical takes. Except, I also think people should be able to install nonfree software, because otherwise you have a pretty bad dilemma with the word “free.”
Ultimately, if they are actively antagonistic toward those who don’t share that philosophy, I think that’s not great. Sure, free software according to the GNU project may be the only ethical one, but we live in a culture that promotes the exact opposite idea, so why would I be surprised and upset when an otherwise ethically acting person doesn’t conform to my own ethical framework, and they go on and create nofree software. I’m still going to get a beer with that person because at the end of the day we probably have common values and how else am I going to sell them the idea free software
I’m afraid to ask this because I’m not a dev, but I have a fair amount of linux experience. Why is it that the ability to install Google Play Services on GrapheneOS makes it not FOSS/open source, while the ability to install Google Chrome (or any proprietary software, I guess) on Linux doesn’t make is non-FOSS/open source?
I’m not articulating that question very well, and I’m assuming I’m missing some key component, but they seem comparable to me, as a regular user. Is it something like the level of access that GPServices has to the kernel?
Yup, it’s “The Room” of music
Corey Feldman’s Angelic 2 the Core is without a doubt the worst album I’ve ever listened to. It is not just mediocre or underwhelming, it is not just a “miss,” it is actively and unforgettably horrible. Definitely worth checking out.
These right wing-ass fuckers ruin everything you love, and now they’ve come for LOTR.
All that text essentially is summarised as “you arguing that Democrats are the lesser evil is defending them, and makes you a liberal.”
If calling Democrats evil, while also saying you should vote for them, AND work outside the political system to create meaningful widespread change, makes me a liberal, then I guess I’m a liberal. You can think that means I support genocide if you want, but I won’t be organizing with you if that’s the case. Hope you have a great day.
My contributions to this thread have upheld a single liberal value and that’s voting, which I don’t even think has that much value when you look at the opinions of the majority of Americans on core domestic and international issues vs the actual policies that are implemented by those they vote in. The United States is not a democracy, and simply voting Democrats will not fix anything. Not once have I defended Democrats complicity in the genocide, or the so called free market, their role in maintaining American hegemony through force and the dollar, the immorality of rent and interest collection, etc – they perpetuate all of that! – unless you count my noting that the Republicans of the United States are more in support of Israel than Democrats, as they have nobody willing to call the genocide a genocide, whereas Democrats have few, and they (Republicans under Trumps presidency) would and have tried further legitimizing Israel’s actions against Palestinians – mainly by moving the US embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv and calling West Bank settlements, which are obviously illegal, legal.
Multiple times I’ve said, yes, Democrats are complicit in genocide, and overall they exist to perpetuate the power of the state, which itself is, at the end of the day, a monopolization of violence through the police. But at the very least, they are less likely to go full privatization, full state authority over women’s bodies, and more likely to do something about the genocide other than urge Israel to “get the job done,” as Trump has said himself.
So while, ultimately, the Democratic party (along with all other political parties) needs to dissolve in order for individuals in the US to have full political and personal freedom, in the near term that is not going to happen, and even though my vote will almost certainly mean nothing in terms of policy, at least I can do that and try things outside the political system. Whereas not voting is not only symbolically useless, as they’ll just see me as another person on the couch, at least voting has a small amount of practicality.
And regarding methods of converting liberals to leftists, I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree. Again, I’ll refer to the meaning associated with the terms socialism, communism, and anarchism in the US – they are demonized to the point where people simply dismiss you if you mention them, and then you’ve lost your opportunity.
Edit: Also, I appreciate your genuine response, but at the same time the gatekeeping of “well, what have you organized?” is pretty lame. The truth is, nothing. I’ve organized nothing. But I still believe that unjustified hierarchy is harmful and that at the end of the day what a state is is the ability to use force to uphold that hierarchy.
Alright dude, in that case don’t vote, give Trump a better chance, but don’t come whining to me when he comes out in support of a single-state solution, and that state is not Palestine. Dunno what else to tell you.
I could attend every Free Palestine protest, boycott every Israel-affiliated company, volunteer at human-rights organizations, raise money for Palestinian relief, write a book about the genocide of the Palestinian people at the hands of Israel, and cast a vote for Harris rather than Trump, and you would still say I support genocide.
While doing what you would probably rather me do, all those things except not cast a vote at all, would be actively helping the opposition, who not only wants Israel to “finish the job,” but also moved the American embassy to Jerusalem, officially recognized Israeli settlements one the West Bank as legal, and has said he wants to deport communists and Free Palestine protesters.
So at the end of the day, yeah I’m gonna vote for Harris. Am I happy with the Democratic party? Of fucking course not, but I don’t really have a choice in the matter.
Exactly. You joke, but you can’t bring someone to your side by immediately making an enemy of them.
edit: Not to mention in Western media, socialism is taboo, communism is literally the devil (Trump recently said at one of his rallies he would deport all the communists, lol) and anarchism is synonymous with chaos.
In order to win these people over, I’m not gonna go up to each one and say “oh hey, by the way, you are a citizen of the worlds largest terrorist organization. the flag you salute is synonymous with an authoritarian empire that even today works to prevent any non-capitalistic democratic movement from occurring. It is a feudal state that extracts tribute from the rest of the world in the form of mass imports and few exports, incurring meaningless debt because at the end of the day it can print more money, lend it to the banks, and not worry about repercussions, because the rest of the world’s currency is backed by theirs instead of gold, and if any country step out of line, they can employ violence from any one of the 700+ military bases they control worldwide. Your country controls what money is, inherently, and monopolizes violence, and therefore holds the rest of the world in a headlock, and you are part of the problem” Even though all of that is true.
No, I’m probably gonna say “isn’t it kinda wild Obama bailed out the banks in 2008? Like, bankers actually offer nothing of value to society,” or “its so terrible that the US has been supporting Israel for so long, as they have continually decimated and oppressed the Palestinian people,” and have an interesting (albeit, often terribly sad) discussion from there.
Listen dude. Im in pretty much full agreement with both of your comments in this thread. But if you’re trying to get people converted, especially moderate liberals, don’t start off combatively telling them they’re supporting a genocide or that they’re wasting their time voting. Its just gonna entrench them even more because it’s so outside their realm of political understanding.
I mean, I’m anarchosyndicalist. I’m aware of how fucked up the voting system is and how little power I have as an individual, and it pisses me off to be scolded at like that. Ive read People’s History, and the manifesto, and Kropotkin (not to mention, a fair amount of chomsky and a lot of David Graeber). Imagine how moderate liberals feel when you slam them with a wall of text? They are not fucking initiated yet.
Like I said to the OP, you gotta meet people where they are. You’re right that the left is disorganized, and that most Democrats aren’t really leftist but socially progressive capitalists, but if you’re gonna convert them you need to ease them into it, not immediately shock them with walls of text and accusations of supporting a genocide. Because they’ll just recoil into their somewhat cozy capitalist shell.
I’m definitely not voting RFK Jr’s antivax ass. I mean he’s a Kennedy. Still an elite in power.
Anyways, 3rd party candidates historically never have a chance. Ultimately if it were really my choice, the only parties we’d have are idk street parties. Because there’d be no government at all, or temporary governments when the need arises, or something more creative than the dumbass shit we have now.
Maybe they’re not from the US and don’t realize that we actually don’t have much of a choice? Or maybe they’re pro-Trump. Idk.
No offense dude, but I think you are pretty ignorant about American leftists. I mean, you’re completely right that we’re having to dismiss an atrocity and vote for a genocidist and that the system is fundamentally broken. But that’s common knowledge in the US lol, even across the aisle. Politicians are bought and sold, ask any semi-informed citizen in the US, right or left. It’s just that most people are too busy working to fucking LIVE to think there is anything we can about it, or they’ve been brainwashed to think that’s how it should be (top down something or other…)
Shit is fucked here. Nobody’s trying to hide it, like I didn’t just “say the quiet part out loud.” Obviously America is fucked, obviously the Democratic party is fucked. But I’m still gonna vote for Harris because America can still get worse and the Republican party isn’t just fucked, its absolutely fuckaroo’d.
Tell me what you want me to do. Should I not vote? Who is defending Kamala or the Democratic party here? Just because I’m relatively happy that Kamala gives the US a better chance at avoiding another Trump presidency, that doesn’t mean I’m happy with Kamala being the nominee. Or happy with her being genocidist. How does that make me an apologist for genocide when I have a binary choice in front of me between two people who are going to continue sending weapons to an apartheid state committing genocide? I mean fuck, the US is the worlds largest terror organization – are you going to accuse me of supporting them because they take money out of my paycheck? There isn’t really anything I can do about it besides try to vote in the direction that leans away from that.
We have a choice between one person publicly calling for a ceasefire and another who says Israel needs to finish the job.
I’m not sure what you want us to do here.
All politicians seek to gain power and uphold the unjust, undemocratic, hierarchical power structures that constrain individual freedom – power structures that are ultimately backed by the monopolization of violence through the police.
It’s just that one party also wants to use those structures to surveil women’s bodies, ban books, delegitimize science, push religion, and extract capital from natural resources and workers without restriction.
Actually, you’re not being clear, at all. The article you linked, yourself, notes that the 37 murdered political candidates were local government candidates murdered between September and May, not national candidates. Far cry from your insinuation that 37 of Claudia Sheinbaum’s political opponents were murdered so she could win by the hands of the cartels.
Holy, Holy by Geordie Greep. Insanely talented artist