I mean since the Dems’ “big tent” includes Dick fucking Cheney I’m not surprised they’re also implementing Republican aesthetics

“Dude look at how stupid you look in this strawman I made of you!”

What your original comment suggested was not that you acknowledged the human capacity for violence, which nobody can deny and I am not debating.

The comment implied - and this is an assumption so ingrained in our western society that nobody could blame you for it - that the only thing separating humans from violent, animalistic, or selfish impulses is societal structure and policing.

our institutions are our attempt to crawl out of the jungle

That just isn’t demonstrable, as much as it may feel intuitive. It’s a Hobbian philosophy.

I’m not here to pretend I can convince you otherwise in one comment thread, took me a long time to change my mind on that and I’m not anthropological authority. That’s why I recommend the book, it’s quite eye-opening. At least it was for me.

I encourage you to read Humankind by Rutger Bregman. The notion that humans are inherently animalistic, greedy, and violent has not been supported by the bulk of anthropological study throughout modern history, and his book does a good job of breaking down why there’s such a divide between the perception of so-called “human nature” and the anthropological and sociological evidence.

TLDR: humans aren’t inherently greedy, we respond to our systems and environment more than anything.

“The answer is not to defund the police! It’s to fund them! Fund them!!” - Joe Biden

And then he proceeded to give them money to buy more tear gas canisters and armored vehicles and liberals are surprise Pikachu face-ing when statistics like this come out.

In 100 years (if the earth lasts that long) I hope people look back at police abolition the way we look back at the abolition of slavery: as an obvious step towards a more equitable society.

In fact, the Courts ruled they don’t actually have to protect you at all! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_v._District_of_Columbia

EDIT: District Court

Untrue. We both still disagree on whether threatening to withhold our votes from the democrats in order to get policy change is a strategy worth employing, no? Isn’t that the central point I’ve been making and you’ve been talking past this whole time? We’d still have an argument because you think my position is privileged and you think I “love all the genocide and want that to go faster in Gaza”, no?

You got me tho. I had assumed your comment was left in good faith and that we actually had some fundamental disagreement worth exploring. I started typing away thinking this was going to be productive. I’m a dumbass for that.

Every single administration - republican and democrat - this imperialist, neocolonial, warmongering country has had for my entire life has harmed me or people I love in some way shape or form, please do not assume what privileges I may or may not hold. It’s fine if you disagree with me, but don’t pretend to know me.

I’ve only ever voted dem, and seeing how this country is going I will probably be forced to continue to do so. But dear god stop letting the DNC move further and further right every 4 years and get away with it by just echoing ‘the other guy is worse’ calls. It doesn’t make you look like you actually have principles it makes it seem like you treat elections like team sports.

Policy is what matters, policy can be changed, and your vote is one cudgel you can use to get policy change made BEFORE the election. History has shown the Democrats have not gotten pushed towards better positions after being elected, no matter how much people in 2020 screamed to “push biden left” once he got in office. I mean FFS democrats are now cheering on asylum bans and a worsening of the treatment of immigrants at the border, and somehow immigrants like me are supposed to still vote for them with a smile on my face?

I really dislike how liberals handle criticism from the left. It’s too often some vague call for ‘pragmatism’ or ‘just shut up and vote blue or you want the other guy to win’. Or ‘damn you’re criticizing the dems? must be a russian bot or a secret trumpist’. Just… christ just at least admit the choices in front of us every election are ASS.

Uhhh… whatever helps you cope I guess?

I admit my comment might not have been the clearest but I do feel like you’re talking past my point.

To reiterate: If you decide to ‘vote blue no matter who’ you are granting the DNC your vote, which at the moment is one of the few points of leverage you have to get them to change policy positions, for nothing. But I admit, maybe getting them to change policy positions isn’t your aim. I don’t know for sure.

It is my aim, and the aim of the uncommitted movement and Palestinian liberation groups in the country as a whole. Using that leverage, by telling the DNC we will not simply grant them our vote unless they put forward policy positions which we favor, is good politics. It has little to do with whether Trump wants to do away with elections and declare himself God Emperor. You can still vote for the democrats come November, but refusing to use said leverage and/or running cover for the DNC by asking that criticisms are withheld until after the election is at best poor strategy or shows that you don’t care about the policy changing.

A secret third option where we use the leverage we have, withholding our votes, to pressure the administration and campaign to move its position from “Don’t like it, but we gotta do genocide 🤷🏼‍♂️” to “Ok we will stop giving the genociders weapons and pressure them to withdraw from Palestine”.

Y’know… Maybe before we lose that leverage and they inevitably take our votes for granted because we spent all our energy justifying why voting for the blue genociders was better than voting for the more enthusiastic red genociders.

Not all Kamala voters are pro genocide. But all Kamala voters decided that genocide wasn’t a deal breaker.

Man… the red scare really did a number on the American psyche…

This comment section better remember that you can’t even order from McDonalds anymore without creating an account online. Hell, as of a few weeks ago I can’t even update apps on my personally purchased smart TV without creating a fucking account and letting them link my email to data they already have from Experian (all US companies btw). Tiktok is just a fucking scapegoat so y’all wont push for actual privacy protection laws.

If Tiktok gets sold to a US company nothing will change about their practices the CCP will just buy the data from a 3rd party vendor owned by a US LLC.

Unless they get subpoenad by a district court and the C suite is willing to go to jail for not disclosing it.

Also the US govt already has asked for built-in backdoors to iPhones and the like. They even have highly complex de-anonymization algorithms for data that almost every American with a credit card is giving to their “private” bank so we can have FICO credit scores and venmo.

The private ownership isn’t doing shit for our data protections.

Leaving aside the actual political substance of your comment. Don’t you think it’s a bit… Head in the sand to assume anyone who disagrees with you is some “Russian troll”? I know we all exist in social media bubbles, myself included, but my social circles and my online circles all share “radical” concerns about the administration and country in general but it generally comes from a genuine desire for our politicians and therefore country to be and do better. We’re all Americans just like (I presume) you.

I joined lemmy.ml cause of the FOSS stuff but I’m learning it comes with a reputation I didn’t know about.

Do you have a link handy for further reading on this? I knew the heritage foundation has been terrible since inception but I didn’t realize how much sway they’ve had historically. I thought that influence was new