crosswind [they/them]
the instant hostility and grudgekeeping
The thing that got me was that he absolutely kept grudges, but because he was such a prolific powerposter there was no way he could actually keep track of everyone he’d argued with, so sometimes he would haphazardly lump people into grudge groups, and act like they were all the same person. Especially right after federation, it was funny to see some lemmy person wander in and voice an opinion about a tv show or video game and have him go off on them, but it was pretty offputting when he would start referencing the whole history of beef that they supposedly had together, and the other person would be completely baffled.
Biden, and the democratic party more broadly have two roles to play (outside of maintaining capitalism).
- Oppose Trump and the republican party
- Crush, discredit, or co-opt any other organizations that could threaten their monopoly on opposition to the republican party.
When it’s time to fulfill role 1. the party always hedges, because they fear that taking any strong actions will alienate centrist voters, or more importantly donors. This means that on many issues, any progress made is not enough to undo the damage done under a republican government. On other issues the situation declines under either party. There are very few significant issues where the democrats are actually able to overcome the republicans long term.
All of this is very disappointing, but on its own it would still be preferable to republicans ruling completely unopposed.
The problem is when you factor in role 2. The republicans are not an unstoppable force of highly competent and well liked people. A party that was dedicated to taking serious actions to improve the lives of the average voter could easily beat the republicans electorally, if they wouldn’t also have to take on the democratic party and all of their media influence. When the democrats pursue role 2. they have no reason to hold back. Their continued existence relies on giving it their full effort. They will try to prevent any organization from accumulating enough power to push them left, while actively pushing the republicans to the far right to strengthen their own position.
Having to choose between two terrible candidates isn’t something that’s happened on accident. It’s the result of the ongoing actions of the democratic party.
At this point, with the ticking clocks of climate change and rising fascism, a democrat in the white house is not remotely adequate to make a difference. We’re headed to multiple simultaneous catastrophes either way. The only thing voting for Biden accomplishes is supporting the party that brought us here in clinging to power until their last breath.
Right now there is no ‘realistic’ alternative outside of the two party electoral system. I don’t know if there will be one in the future, but there’s certainly no hope in helping to reinforce it.
And it turns out you’re not Show more
I thought I was Show more
Exactly. Sometimes people will defend it with some supposed high-minded origin, like “it’s not saying being gay is wrong, it’s using trump’s homophobia and insecurity against him and turning it into a vulnerability that we’re using to trigger him”. And maybe some of the people repeating it actually believe that, but the images don’t come with a paragraph explaining the nuance. They’re just supposed to be an easy shot at trump, you’re supposed to laugh and keep scrolling. Most people liking or sharing them aren’t thinking about it any more than “haha, he’s owned cause he’s gay”.
You can spend all day convincing yourself that your specific way of thinking about it isn’t racist/homophobic, but when you share this shit online all that stuff stays in your head, and you’re just spreading bigotry.
“Bombing civilians is acceptable because Hamas is using them as human shields!”
“Bombing civilians is acceptable because Hamas is cruelly excluding them from their military areas!”
People criticized Obama for performatively pretending to drink water, and now here’s Biden actually drinking water. Sometimes we just need to maturely accept incremental progress and not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
The most aggravating thing about these is that they keep implying hexbear is a straight site that made the decision to let us be here. When they make detached from reality insults like hexchan or israel it’s easy to say ‘lol, no’. But I hate that they’re also trying to smuggle in the idea that of course it’s the straight people that are in charge of this website. Probably without even realizing it.
Personally I prefer the ones where they just call us fake queers.