• FIash Mob #5678@beehaw.org
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      5 months ago

      It’s too late for that. You guys had Williamson in the primary, but I’m apparently the only one who voted for her.

        • millie@beehaw.org
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          5 months ago

          It’s unfortunate that we have to take the time these days to consider whether the constant drum of gloom and doom is actually genuine concern or straight up astroturfing. It certainly does seem like the people who constantly spout this stuff and ignore all evidence that they’re completely off base are being a bit disingenuous for some reason, though.

          • FIash Mob #5678@beehaw.org
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            5 months ago

            Sure, man.

            When your 80 year-old parents have to borrow your car to drive for DoorDash because if they don’t they’ll starve, then maybe you’ll understand why some of us, despite the fact that we’re progressives (NOT neoliberals) might actually like for Dems to use their power for good someday.

            Instead of making and breaking promises and then shoveling money into war and child genocide.

          • LukeZaz@beehaw.orgOP
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            5 months ago

            Worth remembering that many responses in politics are made impulsively due to frustration, and angry, impulsive arguments tend not to be well-researched. We’re all tense, here — it’s hard not to be, these days.

            • millie@beehaw.org
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              5 months ago

              Yeah, that could be. But it’s also worth remembering that disingenuousness is literally the conservative playbook right now. Sometimes a duck is actually Ed Gale in a costume being voiced by Chip Zien, but other times it’s just a duck.

          • derbis@beehaw.org
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            5 months ago

            Who is going to bother astroturfing beehaw, right before we switch platforms of all things

            • millie@beehaw.org
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              5 months ago

              If I were strategizing for the Trump campaign I would absolutely be trying to target smaller leftist-specific spaces to pull them away from the Democrats and inject talking points of benefit to the campaign. Beehaw has small numbers, but it has a very leftist and pretty vocal user-base. It’s a small pool that it wouldn’t be hard to change the narrative in by injecting the same opinions over and over again. Which is what we see.

              It makes way more sense to focus on small communities like Beehaw where a small number of messages can have a larger impact on the thinking of people who use it regularly, than exclusively on huge social media spaces like Facebook and Twitter where they’re shouting into the void.

              Get some talking points stuck in the minds of a small pool of people, get them to normalize it, and they’ll spread it for you.

        • LukeZaz@beehaw.orgOP
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          5 months ago

          I’m not who you were replying to, but:

          It’s not so much that Trump and Kamala are the same. They aren’t, obviously – and for the record, the video agrees – it’s more that the Democrats here don’t really fix anything the Republicans break. Sure, Kamala is pro-abortion, et cetera, but how certain can I be that she’ll actually act on the principles she espouses? If the Biden admin is anything to go by, I can expect the occasional half-measure at best. Meanwhile, there are solid odds that she will continue to fund or otherwise enable the genocide in Gaza, at least tacitly.

          I’m going to vote for her, but not because she’s going to help me or anyone I care about. I’m voting for her because it is harm reduction; Kamala may be a neoliberal pro-cop warmonger, but the alternative is neo-Hitler. As far as presidential tickets go, I don’t have much of a choice, here.

        • FIash Mob #5678@beehaw.org
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          5 months ago

          kamala and Trump are complete opposites

          Personality-wise, definitely.

          Politically, not as much as you’d think, judging by how we always end up being ruled by conservatives.

            • FIash Mob #5678@beehaw.org
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              5 months ago

              (like Obamacare)

              Obamacare isn’t universal health care. The access it promises only exists if a person can afford to be price-gouged for their health care, and the majority of this nation can’t.

              Abortion

              It doesn’t matter what your stance is if you’re content to just let the worst happen and then use it to raise money, which is what Democrats did. (The cost of our bodily autonomy was $80 million, in fact.)

              Corruption in the courts

              Again, it doesn’t matter what your view is if you have power and choose not to wield it. By default, Democrats have sided with corruption by doing nothing to stop it.

              Trump is the only world leader I know of who is a bully with a victim mentality. Kamala is not

              You must not be familiar with US foreign policy then.

                • LukeZaz@beehaw.orgOP
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                  5 months ago

                  I genuinely think now you’re a paid lobbyist. There is so much evidence

                  Look, I get you strongly disagree with them, but please don’t fall into the trap of thinking people who disagree strongly with you aren’t real.

                  Anti-capitalists have many, many issues with the Biden admin and Democrats generally, for a whole host of reasons. It doesn’t mean we want Trump to win, think he’s equally as bad, or want you to not vote. And it most certainly doesn’t make us paid shills. It just means we want better, and we are often frustrated at how “better” is never an option.

                  I can’t speak for what Flash Mob’s beliefs are directly, but I can absolutely say I’ve been in a similar position. It is beyond aggravating to have no options that actually represent your beliefs, but to nonetheless have so many people around you insist that you should be happy about one of the awful options because the candidate in question – who is doing the things you hate – sometimes pays lip service to what you actually wanted. Or because it’s a woman doing it, now. Or, most frequently, because the Republicans managed to dig to an even deeper circle of Hell this time.

                  Our options are terrible, and we’re pissed about it. But it doesn’t make us not real. All that accusations like that do is prevent people from being understood.

                • FIash Mob #5678@beehaw.org
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                  5 months ago

                  It seems we’re going around in circles.

                  Until the 49% that vote the party line every single election decide to vote Libertarian or Green, that is what we’re going to get.

                  It doesn’t matter that this time the conservative in sheep’s clothing is a woman and a person of color. The result will be the same.

                  • LukeZaz@beehaw.orgOP
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                    5 months ago

                    Unfortunately, I don’t think voting is going to be what changes any of this, sadly. At least, not on a federal level.

                    That, and I don’t think I want to see the Libertarians win either, if I’m honest.