root_beer

root_beer , 3 months ago to Lefty Memes in Expropiate wealth or capitalism will expropiate your health

“Queer people are more accepted thanks to capitalism!”

“Nah fam, it’s just another capitalist moneymaking scheme”

root_beer , 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago) to politics in Biden reacts to pro-Palestinian protesters: 'They have a point'

“We”, in a much larger sense than this community here. There is so much preaching to the choir here that one would think there’s a much larger movement than there really is, but what proportion of the electorate at large is properly informed even about Palestine, let alone everything else, beyond the processed shit they’re allowed to consume by the mainstream media [christ I’m so sick of that term] and social media? The public at large is ignorant as hell because they’re being lied to, progressive policy is popular and yet so many don’t even fucking know it.

This needs to go beyond voting, there needs to be actual outreach instead of this endless internet posturing, and it needs to be more than sanctimonious finger wagging, on both sides (not in the blue vs red sense, but referring to our own infighting). We need to dial back on both the “paving the way for the fascists to win” and the “you support genocide” rhetoric. I cannot seriously believe that anyone who argues in good faith wants any of this to happen, but we’re I, for one, am goddamned terrified and know full well that no matter who wins, we lose. It’s just that one route to fascism is the autobahn and the other is a backroad with a slightly reduced speed limit, by which nobody abides anyway.

Again, maybe I’m wrong. I hope to high hell that I’m wrong, both that everyone outside the terminally online is as distracted and ignorant as I think they are, and that the redhat ghouls will be less incompetent and succeed in turning this into an authoritarian dictatorship. My wife, who has been on the left but fairly hands-off as it relates to activism, is charged up as hell over this disaster, as are the vanishingly few people with whom we still actually socialize. The craven overreach on women’s rights is bringing more people into the fold, has actually made a small difference, and could continue to do so so long as everyone avoids becoming complacent. I desperately want to be wrong but I am a terminal pessimist and my hope was murdered a long, long time ago, as was my faith not only in our institutions but also in society as a whole. Nothing fucking matters anymore.

Mostly unrelated and entirely tangential, we could learn a few things from that fucking scumbag Trump, in that we (again, the larger population “we” and our useless nonrepresentative representatives) aren’t loud enough, we’re not nearly vicious enough, and we don’t brag about our victories enough. Enough of this “when they go low we go high”, Patagonia vest-wearing, tepid granola-in-oatmilk horseshit. I don’t believe that sewage golem has the charisma everyone says he does but [a] his fucking rubes are certainly in his thrall and [b] I’m a terrible judge of charisma anyway because I have absolutely none of it myself, otherwise I’d be running for something here. But we need someone like that, except not a murderous tinpot.

root_beer , 3 months ago to politics in Biden reacts to pro-Palestinian protesters: 'They have a point'

Ehh, I think it’s more that we have to be a better electorate and put better people in office in the first place, even (and especially) when there is a dem majority. Like I said, we have had the tendency to get complacent when that’s the case. It also doesn’t help that, for a long time, we didn’t have a cohesive message—when Occupy was happening, everyone’s demands were all over the damn place and just came off as diffuse and disorganized. But like I also said, it sounds like we’re getting better about it, though I don’t know whether that’s because this place really does lean heavily left, not reflecting the population at large. That may not be such a bad thing though, this place could be a good place for planning action.

I don’t disagree that the democrats are, at best, milquetoast, feckless do-nothings, but fighting everyone at once seems like it’s going to be an abject disaster with any victories being pyrrhic, if existent at all. I hope I’m wrong. I just don’t want my daughter, anyone’s daughter, to become a brood mare for the dominionist state.

root_beer , 3 months ago to politics in Biden reacts to pro-Palestinian protesters: 'They have a point'

Fine. Trump ‘24 then. Whatever, he’ll fix it.

root_beer , 3 months ago to Comic Strips in Cocoon of Self-Righteousness

Yes, exactly, capitalism is always the enemy, let’s point the blame where it actually belongs

[not /s, beeteedubs]

root_beer , 3 months ago to Microblog Memes in oldie but a goodie (relevant once again in light of him magically not having to pay the $450 million)

Fair, we all have

root_beer , 3 months ago to politics in Biden reacts to pro-Palestinian protesters: 'They have a point'

You say that as if Obamacare was what we actually wanted. They wrote what became Obamacare decades before the tea party threw their tantrums over it, their opposition to it was political theater and the chance to water it down even further

root_beer , 3 months ago to politics in Biden reacts to pro-Palestinian protesters: 'They have a point'

Orange man is going to crank it up to 11. Dems range from feckless to complicit, none of us disagree. The GOP would just straight-up take over for Israel if they can get away with it (they probably will) and they’ll sanction murder of people within our own borders.

Blue man is so not good enough for you that you’ll actively support escalating a genocide. Very enlightened, great job.

root_beer , 3 months ago to politics in Biden reacts to pro-Palestinian protesters: 'They have a point'

You don’t think that they had anything to do with the half-century-long backslide into dominionist authoritarianism? They have playing the long game, and it’s happened because they had the patience to make it happen at a frog-boiling pace, and we only paid attention when they said the quiet parts out loud.

Who the hell do you think developed the Reagan doctrine? They’ve had a heavy hand in tons of policy making, both domestic and foreign, for as long as I’ve been alive. All those other groups you’ve mentioned are just bolstering their influence, helping to get their bidding done.

root_beer , 3 months ago to politics in Biden reacts to pro-Palestinian protesters: 'They have a point'

I have been really annoyed with the protest vote arguments because our system is horseshit and we still have to play within it, but there is no disagreeing with this. I’ll be voting a lot of these useless assholes back in this time as a last-ditch effort, but a purge of the bad actors is long in order. I lost faith in our institutions with Trump in charge, but when it’s come down to punishing that hunk of offal, nothing the dems have done has brought that faith back.

To be honest though, even if things in that situation were going better, I’d still be unconvinced. Outside said institutions, I truly believe that we are not participating in a society, we haven’t been for decades, and that’s got nothing to do with the government.

root_beer , 3 months ago to Comic Strips in Cocoon of Self-Righteousness

Yeah, I get that part, it’s entirely too easy for shit to go wrong. But victim-blaming is tepid, wet garbage, and always points in the wrong direction. We need to get better, as a collective, at locking our data the fuck down, and slapping the shit out of the people who act maliciously with it.

root_beer , 3 months ago to politics in Biden reacts to pro-Palestinian protesters: 'They have a point'

What a charmed life you must lead. I wasn’t really affected by his policies either but have you noticed the way things have been turning for the people his goons have been targeting since the chuds became empowered?

It is imperative that we bury the GOP first. Then, we absolutely can and should go knives out on Team Blue™️. I don’t disagree that Biden needs to go, and that most of the Democrats are obstacles at best to truly repairing our long-dead society. Hell, don’t just vote, actually fucking run for office, start somewhere where you aren’t so completely outgunned by the moneyed interests but you also actually make a difference. But for now, we need to take down the more immediate threat.

Throw rocks at me for saying it, but the Dems’ fecklessness is our fault too, to an extent. The problem is complacency when the pendulum appears to have swung in our direction, like “yeah we got the job done!* Let’s have pizza and congratulate ourselves and go back home!” Fortunately, it may finally no longer be the case. But for christ’s sake, can we not throw the baby out with the bathwater? The upcoming, inevitable fight will be less harrowing if we can keep from actively making the battlefield more hazardous, which absolutely will happen with a Trump win.

*christ, I remember when Obama was elected and there was a false prospect of healthcare reform, Newsweek published a rather insulting cover saying, “we are all socialists now”, simultaneously feeding the right’s paranoia and patronizing the left in such an insulting way

root_beer , 3 months ago to Microblog Memes in oldie but a goodie (relevant once again in light of him magically not having to pay the $450 million)

Seven? The election cycle was in full swing in ‘15 and that guy has been screaming and flailing about Obama and anyone standing a centimeter to the left of Nixon for years before that

root_beer , 3 months ago to Comic Strips in Cocoon of Self-Righteousness

No, I think I see what you’re saying and I agree, we all need to do better. Even when we hold views opposing that dumb sexist crap, it’s not enough merely to have those views, we should act on them and teach others to do so. I fully agree with the notion that young men today have terrible role models right now and we need to do better.

root_beer , 3 months ago to Comic Strips in Cocoon of Self-Righteousness

This has been my take forever. Maybe women want to take nudes and send them to a sweetheart or maybe she’s just feeling hot and proud of herself. Good for her. Doesn’t mean they should be available for the world to see, nor should she be victim-blamed.

Same for the sub-hominids who say a woman was asking for it after being raped because she dressed provocatively. Yeah, she might have been dressing in a way to attract someone, that’s the goddamn point. It’s her prerogative, and guess what: she has the final say as to who can interact with her. Fuck outta here with this “she was asking to get raped” bullshit. Grow up and learn some goddamn self control, it’s insulting to insinuate that we, as men, are a monolith and do not have any.