***Official Political Discussion Thread***

[rexanglorum]

As a resident of a State with a Democratic trifecta, I have seen that simply running off the GOP is not enough if you care about equality. Virginia, which also has a Democratic trifecta, is very hostile to workers and is using COVID-19 to keep it that way.

 

[gry60]

Can we have our PhD head of state too? Just one for four years? Is it too much to ask?

 

[gry60]

Why these protesters bothering with masks?

It's like being religious just in case hell and heaven really exist.

 

[gry60]

W

We byke smh

Without the ability to test masses of people and deliver results in a couple of days, this is just going to create an increase in cases.

 

[aepps20]

We byke smh

LET'S EXPLETIVE DELETED GOOOOOOOOOOOO. I TOLD YOU LIBS WE BYKE.

 

[rexanglorum]

Why these protesters bothering with masks?

When I say that many workers have a false consciousness, this is kind of what I'm talking about.

If you have the wherewithal to organize a protest in the State capitol, you should use it to demand that the State provide non wage income to workers and to small businesses to get through this medically necessary lock down.

Can we have our PhD head of state too? Just one for four years? Is it too much to ask?

I totally get where you're coming from but IMO the problems that we have arise mostly from power imbalances between capital and genuine human interests. I go with the "Wire" theory rather than the "Daily Show" or "Idiocracy" theory of dysfunction in America.

Even Merkel is a class enemy, she is Europe's high priestess of lethal austerity. While Germany and the rest of western Europe has seen some decline in labor power in recent decades, workers still have a lot of power compared to the US and as result, quarantined and laid off workers in Germany get the non wage income to carry them through until and only until it is medically acceptable to reopen. This stands in stark contrast to the US where industry calls the shots and large numbers of older, more conservative workers bray for other workers to be marched off to their deaths so they can start shopping at home depot again.

If Germans had the same non existent labor power and total lack of solidarity, Merkel would use her PhD level of understanding and manipulating statistics and her PMC credentials to send vulnerable German workers to their deaths, further enrich capital and make it all palatable to the professional-managerial class in her country and abroad. We don't even have to speculate, look what she did to Greek workers when she had the chance to dictate the terms of their economy.

 

[RustyShackleford]

As a resident of a State with a Democratic trifecta, I have seen that simply running off the GOP is not enough if you care about equality. Virginia, which also has a Democratic trifecta, is very hostile to workers and is using COVID-19 to keep it that way.

As someone that lived in the region I am very thankful at the direction the state is moving in, anyone that remembers the state of the Democratic Party in the state should also be thankfully of the improvements the party has made. A ton of Virginia's anti-worker policies were pushed through by ****** centrist Dems.

For obvious reason I don't like Northam, and this is ********. Even if you wanted to give businesses a break, you can do it in other ways beside it being on the backs of workers. Northam is right of the median Dem in Virginia, the median Dem in Congress, and right of Biden. Dude is at best passable best he holds the governors mansion. Hopefully VA Dems can get a more liberal governor and move the marginal vote over so more progressive policy will pass. Because lawd knows a ton of poor and middle class folk in the state need way more help.

But I love watching Krystal Ball though, seeing an affluent straight white woman downplay play other progressive issues as secondary concerns because they are "cultural", and "token". Maybe someone should build multiple monuments to passively aggressively troll her in the vilest way possible, and remind her of a violent legacy against people that look like her. Put them all over town, so she can never escape seeing them. Maybe someone should fire her and all the women in building and she will care more about diversity.

But of course, she rants about the PMC running things, and tacitly erase non-white working from the analysis.

So I just love how so called allies can't help sound privileged as **** even when they have a good point to make.

 

[junglejim]

I would like to vote for this man

 

[Sharpshoeter13]

We byke smh

we all really about to die

 

[aepps20]

we all really about to die

LIBS ARE DUN

 

[storm2006]

 

[RIP sleazyy]

But I love watching Krystal Ball though, seeing an affluent straight white woman downplay play other progressive issues as secondary concerns because they are "cultural", and "token". Maybe someone should build multiple monument to passively aggressively troll her and remind her of a violent legacy against people that happen to look just like her. Put them all over town, so can never escape seeing them. Maybe someone should fire her and all the women in building and she will care more about diversity.

But of course, rant about the PMC running things, and tacitly erase non-white working from the analysis.

So I just love how so called allies can't help sound privileged as **** even when they have a good point to

this is what annoys me about her. it is clear as day and has been since I’ve known who this woman is. I know very few people here who really pay attention to her and they are all well off to moderately well off liberal white women

her harping on Democrats seemingly preferring trump staying in office vs a Sanders presidency while pushing against the man literally running against trump is where it gets worse for me

I only see this from hyper liberal white people. Everyone knows Biden is a trash candidate but the alternative is the literal devil

We can focus on more than one thing but this issue is a little more pressing

plus side we got marijuana decriminalized effective July 1 we’re moving in the right direction here. that’s a systemic issue that needed to be addressed and finally has been.

 

[Sharpshoeter13]

dwalk31 people determined to get them kids some how some way

Fox really can't get anyone (ever) to speak about the 'Rona so they got this fraudulent *** dude to speak about the benefits of CHILD MORTALITY.

C H I L D M O R T A L I T Y

Go Keto somewhere else, you bum.

 

[rexanglorum]

As someone that lived in the region I am very thankful at the direction the state is moving in, anyone that remembers the state of the Democratic Party in the state should also be thankfully of the improvements the party has made. A ton of Virginia's anti-worker policies were pushed through by ****ty centrist Dems.

For obvious reason I don't like Northam, and this is bull****. Even if you wanted to give businesses a break, you can do it in other ways beside it being on the backs of workers. Northam is right of the median Dem in Virginia, the median Dem in Congress, and right of Biden. Dude is at best passable best he holds the governors mansion. Hopefully VA Dems can get a more liberal governor and move the marginal vote over so more progressive policy will pass. Because lawd knows a ton of poor and middle class folk in the state need way more help.

But I love watching Krystal Ball though, seeing an affluent straight white woman downplay play other progressive issues as secondary concerns because they are "cultural", and "token". Maybe someone should build multiple monument to passively aggressively troll her in the vilest way possible, and remind her of a violent legacy against people that look like her. Put them all over town, so she can never escape seeing them. Maybe someone should fire her and all the women in building and she will care more about diversity.

But of course, she rants about the PMC running things, and tacitly erase non-white working from the analysis.

So I just love how so called allies can't help sound privileged as **** even when they have a good point to make.

The implication from Ball is that because confederate monuments got taken down, labor' political position suffered as result.

Even though there are bourgeoisie feminists and anti-racists who want us talking about gender and race and never class and even though there are some NazBols and Strasserites who want us only talking about class and never race and gender, those schemes to limit the people's critical analysis to one are is doomed to fail.

When a person is radicalized in one area, it may not be inevitable but it is much more that they become radicalized in other areas. All other things being equal, a person who understands that economic outcomes are driven by systems and not by individuals' lack or abundance of personal virtue, is going to be more receptive to arguments that patriarchy and white supremacy are real and systemic. The same is true in the other direction as well.

A better way to critique Virginia's Democratic Party is to say that removing the confederate monuments is a great thing but don't let Virginia Democrats define success at just doing that. Hold politicians accountable and remind them and the general public that until everyone is liberated from oppressive systems, no one is free. Outside of the world of calculating politicians, be patient with "woke" neolibs and class-first bros, they are on the right track and so much of teaching is about reminding and repeating.

 

[rexanglorum]

this is what annoys me about her. it is clear as day and has been since I’ve known who this woman is. I know very few people here who really pay attention to her and they are all well off to moderately well off liberal white women

her harping on Democrats seemingly preferring trump staying in office vs a Sanders presidency while pushing against the man literally running against trump is where it gets worse for me

I only see this from hyper liberal white people. Everyone knows Biden is a trash candidate but the alternative is the literal devil

We can focus on more than one thing but this issue is a little more pressing

plus side we got marijuana decriminalized effective July 1 we’re moving in the right direction here. that’s a systemic issue that needed to be addressed and finally has been.

There are poor and/or non white and/or LGBT comrades who are also fed up with moderate Democrats using the trashiness of what ever Republican is on the ballot to discipline the left and downwardly revise expectations. Every election is an emergency, the GOP (not just Trump) is a death cult and if we spend every election cycle making mild reforms, at best, we will die from runaway economic and ecological crises, looming crises which demand radical changes and fairly soon.

While you and Rusty make a good argument that privilege can distort someone's analysis of what should be done, it feels like this is only applied to the left. It's not your guys' fault but I am amazed at how little the privilege of being a millionaire and its ability to distort political analysis is rarely applied to every member of Congress and every pundit who calls for moderation and incrementalism. That is a position born just as much of privilege as calls for revolution from well off white, socialist pundits.

And again, it's not your fault but almost all references to a leftist politicians' or commentators' person financial situation and educational background are in bad faith. Either you're going too be too rich and too educated to understand the plight of the common man or you're too poor and too uneducated to possibly understand the nuances and complexities of politics and why it is impossible to really give workers the basic socially democratic protection that are both doable and which they deserve.

 

[IATT]

 

[Belgium]

 

[RustyShackleford]

.

 

[RIP sleazyy]

There are poor and/or non white and/or LGBT comrades who are also fed up with moderate Democrats using the trashiness of what ever Republican is on the ballot to discipline the left and downwardly revise expectations. Every election is an emergency, the GOP (not just Trump) is a death cult and if we spend every election cycle making mild reforms, at best, we will die from runaway economic and ecological crises, looming crises which demand radical changes and fairly soon.

While you and Rusty make a good argument that privilege can distort someone's analysis of what should be done, it feels like this is only applied to the left. It's not your guys' fault but I am amazed at how little the privilege of being a millionaire and its ability to distort political analysis is rarely applied to every member of Congress and every pundit who calls for moderation and incrementalism. That is a position born just as much of privilege as calls for revolution from well off white, socialist pundits.

And again, it's not your fault but almost all references to a leftist politicians' or commentators' person financial situation and educational background are in bad faith. Either you're going too be too rich and too educated to understand the plight of the common man or you're too poor and too uneducated to possibly understand the nuances and complexities of politics and why it is impossible to really give workers the basic socially democratic protection that are both doable and which they deserve.

The issue is, while we all know these things to be true, many of us are not in a position to demand radical change immediately. It's not a realistic viewpoint to have for myself as a 31 year old black man in Virginia. When I see people here say "Bernie or bust" or demand radical change to match their ideology I feel it comes from a place of privilege. There are issues that are considered mild reform (marijuana decrim for example) that can literally mean life or death for someone like me, or that look like me. The truth is the majority of folks here are not in support of radical change in most cases because they aren't visibly seeing a major problem with their day to day life and experiences.

So this is where the disconnect comes from on analysis. I apply it to the left only because, again, black man in Virginia. I have never and will never have faith in the GOP, but I will gladly apply pressure to the ones who need my vote or who claim to be liberal and on my side but still lock their doors or clutch their purse because I have locs and a beard and wear a Steep Tech, or call the police on black children walking in "their" neighborhood.

I do not think it's in bad faith to say these people who likely wouldn't regularly associate with the people they support on TV and in media and on their Facebook statuses to their audience of people who look just like them don't really understand the complexities of being a minority or black person, or hell even a poor person in the US. And this is just generally speaking. When you give it time you start to see things that you really will only pick up on if you know what to look for.

I in no way think this of all white liberals and democrats. But just because we share similar political ideology does not inherently mean these people understand, or care about what is effecting me or people like me. Easiest examples I can give is the racism deep at the roots of feminism and gay rights movements. Even in movements based on rights for all people there is a clear slant for who gets the face time. It's easy to say "don't pick on the rich smart white lady" but honestly, these people rarely show that they're really on our side when we need them. We are hard working people here. We always have been, but it's like our voices are not heard until there's an image of a white family attached to the same issue. Look at the opioid "epidemic", where addiction went from a criminal problem to a public health issue.

We are not blind. The disconnect will always be there unless they start really treating this as "us". When we are welcome into the spaces they're able to occupy without having to elevate to another tax bracket, or they properly invest in and help out the poor of all races here in a hands on manner, I will give them the benefit of the doubt. But I will never forget the long road to get there. I can forgive eventually but I will never forget.

 

[IATT]

dwalk31 the L word

 

[IATT]

 

[IATT]

 

[rexanglorum]

I'm not going to defend liberal whites, they suck. I'm a marxist and I'll happily join you at throwing stones at the Karens and BBQ Beckeys who move into black neighborhoods then call the police of them for grilling and listening to music.

 

[RIP sleazyy]

I'm not going to defend liberal whites, they suck. I'm a marxist and I'll happily join you at throwing stones at the Karens and BBQ Beckeys who move into black neighborhoods then call the police of them for grilling and listening to music.

All I ask man

understand where we coming from. it’s gonna be a long road before we really embrace these folks. a lot of history there but I have hope for the best moving forward.

 

[IATT]

Anyone else but dwalk31 surprised?