This fact doesn’t really invalidate the initial statement though.

We would not be experiencing what we are currently experiencing presently if the Dems won. This isn’t an endorsement of the Dems, just reality

I view voting as a means to steer us to possibilities. Revolution and change won’t come through the ballot box but who gets voted in can influence that one way or another.

I find irony that they disregard expert opinions on the things they are experts for (climate scientists for example) but will accept an entire worldview of opinions based on someone being “smart” like the opinion of a software engineer has on philosophy or politics.

Reject the expert on the subject they’re an expert on because that makes them “elite” and they were trained to think that was bad, but accept an unfounded opinion of someone who may be smart in an unrelated field because the opinion is “different” so it must be “smart”

I think this is the trap all self assigned internet intellectuals fall into. They parrot opinions and vibes from echo chambers that discredit real science or real reporting and call it enlightenment. This in itself is stupid, but then even more stupid people are drawn in and suddenly we have a big club of geniuses

This man has a bunker and everything. He’s scared shitless and he is ready to hide. Their assets need to be seized and accounts drained

Small business people are every bit as insufferable as big business people

Genuinely curious, why are there rich people in China? Or why are the rich allowed to exist?

I still think the distinction matters, fascism is the empire turned inwards.

America exerting fascism on other populations is just textbook liberalism. The facade of democracy and relative peace at home is different than fascism. Fascism demands obedience of the local population and is a full merger of corporation and state. Laws don’t matter, only the head of states will matters.

They’re both bad, but I think it’s disingenuous to tell people who are about to live under fascism that the liberal government they just had was also fascism because they oppressed populations around the globe.

Basically the time for lectures was when we were living under fake “fascism” and the time for gun and survival training is now

I don’t disagree that liberal democracies are capable and have been brutal to their populations, but to say they are just as brutal as fascism is just disingenuous. Contrary to popular belief, the average American does not live day to day in fear that they are about to get fucked by the state for no reason at all, and that’s even acknowledging the measures the state goes to criminalize and punish the most desperate in us society. We don’t fear state repression and death for the wrong opinion, looking a certain way.

It’s even more absurd to conflate fascism with European western democracies with their myriad of safety nets. I think painting things in this light doesn’t make socialism more appealing, just makes fascism look more acceptable and less dangerous.

I agree with critiques on us imperialism and the need for socialism, I just think it’s strange to treat fascism with kids gloves

I think this is the critique I share. A lot of leftists who seem to be from outside the US are putting on their theory and history caps and pointing out how bad the US is as an imperial power, ignoring that right now Americans who see what is happening would do anything to revert things to the way they were even if that was the neo liberal status quo. Sure could have used this analysis in more peaceful times when the Jakarta method wasn’t a real possibility facing socialist discourse. When facing fascism at home the last thing you care about is exactly the precise and correct way history should play out. In this sense I feel like the left absolutely fails constantly, for all the talk of international solidarity there sure is a lack of organizing. Can’t organize with anyone who isn’t a Marxist, I guess?

I also feel like saying the US was always fascist is skewing the definition of fascism and defanging it. “America was always fascist” makes it seem like the real fascism we are facing should be business as usual. Fascism is a distinct and brutal form of capitalism. Marxists have known about this, and I feel conflating with neo liberalism is revisionist.

The analysis is correct, in that America was always a force of oppression across the globe, but that doesn’t change the fact the local population enjoyed some sort of stability and predictability. Economically suppressed with a corporate two party system? Of course. Arbitrary overt censorship and rounding up of civilians? Not necessarily, and that is where we are going. Is it hypocritical to turn a blind eye to the suffering of people around the world? Sure, but most people are not aware of this, and doesn’t change the sheer terror you begin to feel when the oppression comes home.

Plumbers party