#and that this is bigger than voting in a fucking election. do better. be more. because you will not stop fascism with voting.

[coyoxxtl]

ngl if you’re looking at what biden and his administration is doing to palestine and all you can say is “well trump would’ve been worse!” i deeply and truly want you to shit your pants to death

[traegorn]

do you really think voting for the dems is going to make a difference?? this is a genuine question.

Absolutely.

Because historically, that's how you get them to move left.

Now, and let me be clear, this is not the only part. Because once we elect them, we have to keep fighting them. It may seem counterintuitive, but in a two party system it is far more advantageous to have someone in power who you can fight and push on issues than to let them lose.

When Democrats lose, they don't go looking to resell the left on them -- they tend to move center, because folks in the center are still voting, and they think they can win those voters over. They don't think about the part of the pie that's missing, just what they can get out of what's remaining.

Now, long term, we need to think bigger. We need to be pushing progressive candidates on the state and local levels. This is because that's where the real battlegrounds are right now. All of our issues with trans rights in the last few years? Largely state based actions. Be active with your school boards and city councils. They have a lot more of an effect on your daily life than the folks in Washington.

This will also help build our "farm team" (to use a baseball metaphor). It's what Republicans spent the seventies doing, and it's part of how they ended up getting so much power.

The Presidency gets all the focus, but in truth we just need someone progressive enough to sign the legislation we want passed. Presidents fuck us over really easily, but rarely have the power to make our lives better. We have to keep that in mind.

We vote for Biden as a stop gap -- the finger in the dam. We then go and build the future on our own.

[tanadrin]

Do you think the democrat could rebound if they lose this election? I don't know the data of the general public (and I'm aware of how different the opinions on the internet can be from them), but I feel like if they lose the second most winnable election ever, they'll shatter every bit of credibility they have left

I don't think the Democratic party is on the verge of collapse, if that's what you're asking. As an organization right now it's probably more stable and in better financial shape than the Republican party (not that I think the Republican party is on the brink of collapse, either). The U.S. has an unusually strong two-party system, and the Democratic party is old, large, and well-organized, so by default any electoral opposition to the Republican party is going to coalesce around the Democratic party. Which, as the Republicans drift further right, is not going away soon; there's no scenario where Trump wins 500 EVs and 60% of the vote. He's just not very popular.

I think sentences like "I feel like if they lose the second most winnable election ever, they'll shatter every bit of credibility they have left" sort of betrays the fact that you belong to a very particular constituency, and one which is not representative of the majority of the Democratic coalition, which is pretty diverse. There are plenty of moderates and centrist-maybe-slightly-left types who probably don't think the Democratic party has *any* kind of "credibility" problem. Progressives are not the whole of their base (and not all progressives are so bearish on the party).

(I'm not saying you have to love the Democrats, just remember that if you vote for a political party, no matter who you are, people just like you are probably not the entirety of their constituency, and people just like you probably aren't enough to win elections on.)

The bigger worry for the Democrats would be a Republican-dominated SCOTUS and Republican trifecta fucking with the electoral system even further, like endorsing the Independent State Legislature doctrine or something. Considering every absurd nightmare legal scenario from SCOTUS people can think of seems to be coming true lately, I worry about that more than I do about some kind of purely internal, institutional collapse of the Democratic party, or major constituencies deserting it en masse.

[aristotels]

croatian political opinions are so funny to me, there is no bipolar nation like this one. you can literally pick a man from the street and he will hold all these opinions simultaneously as true: fuck putin and russia, but also the usa is the worst nation on the earth and should be destroyed, and also its actually good that putin is standing up to them because someone should. usa should get out of middle east but also its good to have a world policeman but also who the hell are they to think they should be a world policeman, why do they think the world is their playground. west is so developed and we should all emigrate there because we can get jobs as plumbers but imigrants shouldnt come here because theyre taking jobs. at the same time west is terrible, but we should be a western country. things were better in yugoslavia but also it was a criminal state and we should kill all communists, but also the government should pay for everything and its ridiculous that it wont. socialism is a travesty but we should all get jobs in the govt offices and we should have more of those jobs, and there is so much bureaucracy but he hired a cousin in the city administration. capitalism is even worse than socialism though and it has ruined our lives, but the solution to it isnt socialism, but we should have a socialist state just not call it that way. in yugoslavia you couldnt vote for a new president but we should end all the elections because they waste money and nobody ever does anything, why are we paying for them. eu is terrible but also we are better than serbs because we are in the eu but also why is eu opressing us and why are we a part of it and why dont we get out, also if you want money you should apply for eu funds. we should all be paid in euros but it shouldnt be a national currency. he loves milanović and votes for hdz at the same time and hates the hdz prime minister because he is a dictator and should be removed, but also he will vote for hdz on the next elections because he wants a job in the city administration. he thinks that this is a third world country but if someone else says that, its not. immigrants should get out, except for his buddy who immigrated into croatia because he is an exception and is a cool guy so thats different. doctors shouldnt get bigger salaries but they should also stop being traitors and emigrating, but half of his family has emigrated to ireland. also ukrainian immigrants should get out of the country, however half of his family left for canada during 90es. we should bring back the mandatory military service, he avoided it because he had anemia. the prices here are too high to survive but we should increase them when tourist season comes and why are people complaining about the restaurant prices, if they cant afford them they shouldnt eat there, also he hasnt been to a restaurant in 10 years. look how developed slovenia is, theyre doing it right, but also we hate them, why do they think theyre better than us.

insane nation

[fruitbasket-gossip]

liechi's platform announcement thing

hiii yall. its ya boy. your fave. the one and only. mod liechi. just sayin hi before we get to the actual platform thing. k bye

-

Hi Rotumblr, it's me Liechi. As you may or may not know, I'm running for StuCo Secretary so I'm just taking the moment to talk about what I wanna do if/when I'm elected.

My first priority is always gonna be the students of BBA. While we're already a student-run school and we do a great job with that, at least compared to other schools, there's always room for improvement and we can always be better! That's why I'd love to hear from YOU about what big changes you want to see in the next school year.

Next! One thing I've noticed over the past year is that our clubs need to be more interconnected! Sure, you can always donate BP to other clubs in exchange for learning new throwing styles or getting decor for your club room, but what if we took it another step further? What if League Club and Baseball Club came together to host a seminar about sports involving Pokémon? What if Art Club and Science Club offered sessions to learn about how certain art supplies are made or pigments being synthesized in labs? The possibilities are ENDLESS! Plus, this would also help for StuCo to be more involved which ultimately means more of your issues can be tackled.

The last big issue I really wanna talk about is. Well, the Copperajah in the room.

Blueberry Academy has a massive fucking problem with bullying. Especially on this website. And while so many of us have attempted to stop this kind of behavior on our own terms, that clearly doesn't work as well as we wish it might did. BBA is an amazing school that's given me SO MANY opportunities but at the same time. I want it to be a place I can be proud of. That isn't what this school is right now and we can all agree on that. While yes, it'll never TRULY be solvable, if I'm elected as secretary I'm gonna do everything I possibly can to make sure this problem gets the attention it deserves and that we have bigger solutions than just individual users making text posts.

Oh, and don't forget!!

Don't vote in a rotten candidate, and boost your ATK with Liechi !!

[anarcho-catboyism]

Begging liberals to understand that leftists are not at all the base voting block for democrats and if the democrats aren't connecting with their actual base voting block (liberals, progressives, registered democrats, and conservatives who like their tax policies even if they don't like their views) that's the Democrats failing to connect with their block and not the fault of the scary leftists

Radicals are not the base voting block for either party. Neonazis aren't the base for Republicans and leftists aren't the base for democrats. In fact, appealing to the radical side can be considered political suicide.

Just because your FYP on tiktok shows more democratic Socialists than bog standard liberals doesn't mean there's more leftists than liberals or registered democrats.

Democrats aren't losing because the niche leftist block criticizes them, they're losing because they continue to fail to appealing to the interests of their base, leading people who once considered themselves democrats, even conservatively, to now register and vote republican.

Appealing to your base is the job of Politicians, and if they can't appeal they lose. That's how fucking democratic politics work, if you can't get people on your case then the blame isn't on people for not agreeing with you, it's on you for not doing your job as a politician to campaign your case effectively.

Honestly, taking this post into account, Kamala is appealing to the base and it's why she's going to probably win this election, which is a good sign as that shows she's a Democratic politician who understands the base now and is trying to appeal to it to garner support.

A big reason why leftists are loud is because her base, and the democrats base, is now leaning even more right wing than a usual Democrat is. Kamala is doing her job and appealing to the base, but the base is too right wing and it sets a dangerous idea for the future of progressive party politics. If we want the Democrats to, at the bare minimum, begin to advocate for more progressive and more pro-middle to lower class policies, we need to get the base to agree to different standards too. Once again - this is how politics work.

If you want to elect Kamala and bring her left, you have to openly criticize her to get your criticisms heard by the base, because as the base changes position so should the politician, and considering we just established that Kamala is a Democrat who is actually appealing to her base, this is 100% something achievable. Since Kamala appeals to her base if her base shifts back to more center, she will shift her policies accordingly.

Whether you like it or not if you believe in the current democratic process and you want things to change for the better, it means shifting the base, which means open criticism of politicians that could help your cause.

This isn't a new strategy, this strat is why the Republicans can pull support and build a bigger base, because they consistently appeal to their base. When their base is tame they use right wing euphemisms, and when their base is more extreme they drop the euphemisms entirely. Republicans continue to shift their talking points to appeal to their base, Democrats need to do the same, and since Kamala is doing that right now we have a chance to get a Democrat into office that could actually push progressive ideas but only if we can push the base out of the right wing sphere it's getting itself into.

If you continue to vote blue uncritically the base will continue a right wing shift, because politicians will follow the base. If the base reached a more central point (not even left wing- a central base that is still pro capitalist and pro American !) The democrats would have to follow in both word and policy which would lead to more progressive policies.

And of course you can't just vote in Kamala, this base shift needs to be applied to local elections and the rest of the branches of government too. The base shifting means all democratic and progressive politicians would need to shift with it, which means better local democrats which can support better policies supported and supporting a democratic president which follows her base. It's a net fucking good.

[anthonycrowley]

sorry i cannot believe the fucking nyt is wasting space on this

i’m not advocating for voting third party. vote how you want. if anything, i think in most cases it is useless to vote third party and doing so basically kisses your preferred candidate’s victory goodbye due to math.

however. first of all there are potentially good reasons to vote third party. i have discussed it in the past but i will elaborate. yes - if you live anywhere that’s considered even slightly a swing state it’s probably a bad idea. small margins mean that a candidate that doesn’t really have a snowball’s chance in hell could lose the candidate precious delegates and get the candidate you don’t agree with at all in. that would be bad and is what happened in 2016. that’s one thing the article and i agree with - that would be bad to repeat. but there are also many states that aren’t swing states! i live in one of them. massachusetts is one of the most solidly blue states in the country. i mean…that could change, but if it did, basically i think harris and the democratic party in general have much bigger problems with the country in general. but like, if harris won a smaller margin in this state without losing it? that could send a message. that could send a message in california where democrats also won by a wide margin for the last several elections and where harris is from. like, if you actually like her policies and stances, vote for her. but if you don’t, and you’re pretty sure she’s gonna win, it’s not inherently stupid to vote more strategically imo. i know i’m gonna be labelled as a fucking bot or something, but i really do think it’s pretty milquetoast middle of the road to say ‘i think there are places where voting third party doesn’t actually hurt the top candidate and in those places you can probably protest vote.’

and i mean second and imo more importantly i fucking hate the let’s blame jill stein/third party candidates for the fact hilary lost sentiment that still persists. yeah, the opinion is right that she lost by narrow margins in certain states that she needed to win and in most of those states, if stein’s votes went to her, she would have won. true! yes! but those were clinton’s votes to lose. no one wants to say this! they were her’s to fucking lose! i don’t know why people voted for stein over her. maybe they were sexist. maybe they didn’t like her policies. maybe they didn’t like something she said. but it’s ridiculous to say that voters would rather give their vote to someone who has no chance of winning over clinton and then blame the other candidate when she lost. i just hate the idea that oh well if the third party candidates just made way for the real candidates the real candidates would have a better chance at winning.

like i know politicians think voters are stupid but most of us do actually have a memory span longer than a baby. i’m not happy with harris’ behavior on certain things and i live in a state she will probably win so i am considering not voting for her. if stein were on the ballot, i might vote for her - not because i want her to be president, i absolutely don’t. but she, unlike harris, doesn’t actually have a chance at being president, but a margin here tells harris that left leaning people in massachusetts are not happy with her. if stein isn’t on the ballot? it’s still not automatically going to harris. it might. i might go third party. i might do write in. i might not vote.

idk. i’m just so sick of the you gotta vote how we want 🔪 or else 🔪🔪🔪 sentiment from the dems. i was over it with biden and we as a society have got to get over 2016. she lost. stop trying to lose this one too.

[olderthannetfic]

One thing that's been bugging me about EOTWR ist that one of their bigger supporters has a post up with over 6k reblogs, where they claim that AO3's elections are rigged and that people should stop voting in them and instead "get angry" and give them "noisy, angry hell on every single fucking platform you can find.", which is pretty much a HUGE red flag. Why? For one, they present zero evidence on OTW's elections "being rigged" and that's an incredibly serious allegation to make. And as we can see with Trump and the GOP, it's an allegation that can be very well used to undermine liberal, democratic institutions and processes, so it should never be used without having serious evidence or at least a solid argument to support it. Nevermind that "don't vote" because "voting doesn't achieve anything" has been a hugely popular propaganda tactic and narrative that neo-fascist, authoritarian governments like Russia have spread via troll-farms in an attempt to sabotage western democracies and as a means of hybrid warfare, so I'm going to give anybody a major side-eye who replicates that kind of narrative, even in a different context. Also, this whole appeal to "get angry and give people hell" appeal? All withouth any kind of recourse to...you know....TALKING with each other and finding a way forward together? That's not something that shows interest in building better policies, that's instigating a harassment campaign against anybody who doesn't fall into line and agrees 100% with you. Which, given the diversity of the fandom community, with a wealth of people from different countries, different cultures, faiths and personal experiences? Also NOT a good idea. So overall....would be more anti-racist action a good thing? Yes. For now though, EOTWR looks to be a poster-child for "the way to hell is paved with good intentions" and has a higher probability of doing harm to fandom rather than good.

--

It's foolish to think OTW elections are rigged when everything about them is entirely predictable from basic popularity contest dynamics that afflict literally all parts of human existence.

Also, it's hard to even get anyone to run, and most candidates are functionally identical to an outside observer in most election cycles. What the hell is the rigging supposed to have done?

[mohabbaat]

i have said it irl and I'll say it here; the construction of the ram mandir was thier duty. ppl voted for bjp to get it built. once it was done, ppl had nothing else to look forward to in their manifesto, and no other developments were made in up, so ppl didn't vote for them again. compare it to working a 9-5. if you complete a difficult task, you're gonna get praise, maybe your name will be in for a promotion, but if you keep being consistent with your work, ppl will applaud you. If you just do the difficult task and nothing else, ppl will praise you, but you won't get a promotion

the ram mandir argument doesn't make much sense anyway. for one, ram mandir is in ayodhya but ayodhya itself is not a lok sabha constituency. the constituency is faizabad which is much bigger than ayodhya and have multiple other cities too. by all accounts, while work has been done to "better" ayodhya (which itself is debatable), the other cities have been ignored with no development for the past decade. so, the "hindus betrayed bjp" and "hindus betrayed hinduism and ram" argument would make a little bit more sense during the up elections when ayodhya is its own assembly constituency. and even then, it would be very weak cause who the fuck are you to decide how people follow their own religion? why do you think you know better than the people living there? you see the temple as the restoration of your faith, but the people who live there have lost their homes and their livelihoods so that the temple can be constructed. i highly doubt they love the temple or see it as god's kingdom when it came with that steep a price. also, in the words of certain people, the temple is about faith and religion. so why should people make a political decision based on its construction? religion and politics shouldn't go hand in hand. although most right wing people often forget this simple fact.

[andarthas-web]

The way to hell....

[EOTWR edition]

One thing that's been bugging me about EOTWR ist that one of their bigger supporters has a post up with over 6k reblogs, where they claim that AO3's elections are rigged and that people should stop voting in them and instead "get angry" and give them "noisy, angry hell on every single fucking platform you can find.", which is pretty much a HUGE red flag. Why? For one, they present zero evidence on OTW's elections "being rigged" and that's an incredibly serious allegation to make. And as we can see with Trump and the GOP, it's an allegation that can be very well used to undermine liberal, democratic institutions and processes, so it should never be used without having serious evidence or at least a solid argument to support it. Nevermind that "don't vote" because "voting doesn't achieve anything" has been a hugely popular propaganda tactic and narrative that neo-fascist, authoritarian governments like Russia have spread via troll-farms in an attempt to sabotage western democracies and as a means of hybrid warfare, so I'm going to give anybody a major side-eye who replicates that kind of narrative, even in a different context. Also, this whole appeal to "get angry and give people hell" appeal? All without any kind of recourse to...you know....TALKING with each other and finding a way forward together? In a “my way or the highway” kind of sense? That's not something that shows interest in building better policies, that's instigating a harassment campaign against anybody who doesn't fall into line and agrees 100% with you. Which, given the diversity of the fandom community, with a wealth of people from different countries, different cultures, faiths and personal experiences? Also NOT a good idea. So overall....would be more anti-racist action a good thing? Yes. For now though, EOTWR looks to be a poster-child for "the way to hell is paved with good intentions" and has a higher probability of doing harm to fandom rather than good in a very orwellian sense.

[salarta]

This is a post about Polaris/Lorna Dane from X-Men. It's also a post about the 2024 election. It's about both, and a post about personal feelings on both. I'm giving that heads up in case anyone doesn't want to deal with election talk, or is looking for election stuff and this is irrelevant to them.

It's also sad and bleak thoughts. So don't read if you're not in the right place mentally and emotionally for that.

I've said many times how I learned about Lorna. I found out the character existed back in 2009. I immediately resonated with the character's trauma struggles, and became more upset over time with the impact of sexism on the character across decades. How sexism destroyed the character to make her nothing more than Havok's supporting character damsel in distress girlfriend who served as a punching bag for everyone else.

The character deserved, and deserves, better. She offers way more than she's ever been given a fair shot at.

The main culprit, in my eyes until now, was nostalgia for sexism. People who look back at poor treatment of Polaris, get the warm fuzzies about that time period, not caring how sexist treatment of her was at the time and not wanting to do better or fix damage done.

I thought we were also seeing strides on the fan side toward getting this fixed, that I thought were making real headway, in the past half decade. Between Gifted, and Lorna winning the X-Men fan vote, and Marvel starting to let the Magnus family interact more, and so many other things.

So when the nostalgia train came in, and we started seeing Brevoort push the nostalgia for sexism on X-Factor while Beau DeMayo ripped Lorna's experience of the Genoshan genocide clean out of her to let other characters do it all, I was ready to fight back. I thought, with all that's going on in the world, with all the work done in the past decade and the improvement we've seen for her in that time, it's possible to push back enough to set things right.

At the same time, over the past few months, I've sadly seen people hype up 90s X-Factor. Not as in "it was good for its time" or "we can keep the good elements while fixing the bad." Just flat out insisting that Lorna should be pulled back into that nostalgia territory wholesale, that 90s X-Factor is the absolutely best she's ever been and could ever be. No care that she should be recognized as second woman to join the X-Men, that she should be playing a much bigger role in larger X-Men events given her history, that the Genoshan genocide actually matters for her, none of that.

For the past few months, any time I've seen people say that's the right way to go, or worse in one case that they thought treatment of her on the CURRENT X-Factor was good and worth liking and sharing, it irked me. But I could tell myself that they're a minority view, or perhaps they don't even understand.

I've also complained about the "got mine fuck you" attitude I've seen in several cases. Like people thinking sexist treatment of Lorna is no big deal, but then getting loudly mad as soon as Pyro doesn't know how fire works in space, or similar problems with their own favorites. They'll excuse the sexism but draw the line at their personal faves getting disadvantaged. Or in some cases, they want things ripped away from Polaris to give them to their fave.

Maybe my feelings will change with more time and processing. Maybe this is a low dispirited point for me before I feel like coming back.

But right now?

I feel like I'm living in a moment in time where maybe I was wrong. And it's because of how the election outcome looks as I write this.

Everyone KNOWS how awful Trump is, and that Harris was the best chance at moving toward a brighter future. Republicans want to destroy everything about America for personal gain, and Trump is especially misogynistic, racist, hates trans people, dangerously narcissistic, so many other things that can't all be listed. Everyone saw firsthand how awful he was with the first term he had. We know the Project 2025 plans. And unlike last time, Trump has unchecked power because the corrupt SCOTUS ruled in favor of him having it.

Eligible voters voted for the man who doesn't just hate women, but actively wants to hurt and abuse them while pretending otherwise. I know a fuckton of people are voter suppressed, but even with the voter suppression, this should have been in the bag for Harris.

Trump winning tells me we have a country chock full of people who love hurting and controlling women. It includes no small number of women who are perfectly fine with that treatment as long as they think it won't hurt them personally, or who prize hurting others above all else. They can excuse the misogyny as long as they think it'll benefit them.

So I'm just sitting here. Going through my thoughts, and among them is this.

Maybe X-Men comics fandom, or even comic book fandom as a whole, really is just that hopelessly sexist.

Maybe it's not really a matter of nostalgia making them ignorant of problems. Maybe it's not just a minority view that's excusing all the sexism and puffing it up.

Maybe this is just what the fandom is. Sexist. Eager to tear characters like Polaris down and keep her down because it allows them to fulfill their fantasies of being able to control and undermine formerly powerful women. Reduce them from independent people with thoughts and feelings and aspirations of their own to make them nothing more than Havok's woman.

I've wanted Polaris to be the powerhouse she should be. I've wanted her character and her core to get respected and built upon. Every time even a little headway is made, it gets slapped back down by forces who love their nostalgia for sexism, and gets permitted and forgiven by an X-Men comic book fandom that gives it a pass if not full-throated support.

Rarely will these people say they love sexism. Many even think they're not sexist, in the same way many Republicans who voted will insist they're not sexist after voting in a serial sexual abuser and rapist. They'll point to other, more popular female characters like Jean or Storm or Emma, characters who got where they are today because a spotlight put on them in the past made open sexism harder to get away with. Then they'll say "I can't be sexist, I'm a fan of this other female character and I would oppose this other character being treated poorly, I'm fine." Much like a Republican voting for Trump, and then pointing to Sarah Huckabee Sanders or Kristi Noem or Lauren Boebert and saying they can't be sexist cause they support these female Republicans.

I know some X-Men and Marvel comics fans will see what I'm saying here and protest and get upset and all. But honestly? It's exactly how I feel tonight, 100% honest, and I have absolutely nothing to lose anymore.

Tonight, I saw the attitude of people who comprise voters in America. I saw how eager they are to put the worst possible people into office. I saw why they did it, and I see the direct parallels between that and what I've been seeing in attitudes toward Polaris out of X-Men comic fans.

I looked at all of that. And right now, I very much feel like Polaris breaking out of the rampant nostalgia for sexism is a losing battle. Too many people want the sexism. Just like how too many people want fascism. I feel like the fight to get Polaris where she should be, the fight against sexism and decades-old impacts of it, was much more possible in a world where Republicans lose power and we were trending toward progress.

But when the entire fucking culture is sexism, and racism, and all the horrible isms, I just don't see how Lorna can get where she should be. It's clear this is what a majority of X-Men comic fans want. They want sexism. Lots of it. Wherever they can get it without it being obvious enough to cause problems for them.

Right now, I feel like I'm just done trying anymore. I live in a world of people who love sexism, and X-Men comic fans wanting to keep Lorna trapped in the bowels of sexism isn't a matter of misunderstanding and bad priorities that can be fixed. Sexism against Polaris is what they want.

Feel free to complain, it doesn't matter anymore. I have no illusions that there's a path forward for Lorna in this environment anymore. Enjoy the rampant sexism.

[presidentalpaca]

the trend of people, all along the range of establishment dems to leftists, to call for trump to be replaced are so bizarre to me. like, yeah, i get the sentiment. we hate trump. he's a fascist and a liar and dangerous to democracy and yes, yes, yes agreed. but he is a WEAK candidate for the republican party.

up until this point we've had essentially a race to the bottom. biden should've sweeped trump, as an incumbent who did have some decent policies in motion, but he's a corpse who stans isnotreal and has an increasingly reactionary approach to immigration (this is something we NEED to push kamala on, btw). he also has historically low approval ratings, which has never rlly spelled out good news for incumbents.

well, okay, biden sucks, so trump should we sweeping him. well... sort of. trump, unlike biden, has a strong base of support. he has people who will only vote for him, while biden supporters are essentially just dem party supporters. the thing is though - much of his supporter base historically does not vote consistently. many of them don't believe in organized goverment at all, so they may not vote based on that.

but aside from that element, the bigger focus is the moderates. the people like my personal grandparents. white, wealthy, from the suburbs, lutheran, stans ronald reagan (named their boxer reagan). and trump freaks them out! they want normalcy. they want order. they're plenty racist, but they don't want an insurrection.

moderate voters are the ones you absolutely need to bag, regardless of party, and at the moment the dems (depending on how they move forward) could have a major advantage now that biden's out. they have a cop vs a criminal; a goofy laughbox vs a violent menace; a woman who connects with her stepchildren and seems happy with her husband vs the guy who called his own daughter hot and had the rnc commentators gossiping about his marriage. this is not a reflection of what matters to me personally, but rather of what generally matters to american voters. this dynamic is flimsy, because it takes work to push a narrative, and the dems have roughly a month til their convention, three til election day. they can push kamala and promote enticing policies, as long as they actually push kamala and promote enticing policies.

in addition, trump weirdly had a terrible pick for vp. jd vance is supposed to help trump's ticket appear less establishment, more in connection with the rust belt, but vance has been sucking up to the dems and pushing down his appalachian community for years.

and trump has maxed out on name recognition. it's pretty difficult for someone to not have a decently solid opinion on someone who has already been president for four years. red voters who know they don't like him - primarily moderates - can't really be all that psyched to vote him back into office.

now why, WHY, would we encourage the republican party to swap the trump-vance ticket for someone more competent, not so unruly and impolite? someone who can feign common decency, who can more effectively pretend to be better than they are?

please don't get sucked up in the "no you!" push, because (imo) that's all it is. it's just seeing the dems fuck up, be called out, then seeing the reps do the same thing, and wanting to call it out to get even. i don't think that's the move right now.

i think the move is to take the coconut pill for few months or so, pretend to get along, hope the dems do their part for once, and come jan 21st, we can go full throttle pushing kamala to fix everything.

oh, and vote august 6th!! multiple progressive state reps are up for re-election (shout out cori bush), as well as local reps and ballot measures. november 5th matters, but the next big one is only 2 weeks from today!

[fatfemmefreaquency]

if you’re demonizing people who didn’t vote for the democrats i’m probably going to unfollow/ soft block you in the next bit

(that’s the closest i’ll come to my version of and a response to the “if you didn’t vote for Harris unfollow me RIGHT NOW” crowd)

I only have time for compassion & willingness to connect with others and try to understand & have dialogue in order to move towards solidarity, change, and justice

I don’t want to be harsh and I don’t want to be angry—this isn’t a hard boundary of the “unfollow me now” variety

but at the same time what the FUCK y’all

rather than building walls and being spiteful and angry maybe it’s time to build a better coalition & more solidarity

we need to reach out to people who you disagree with and genuinely connect around what their priorities and needs are. to make community. to take care of each other

if you’re saying fascist shit like “I’m glad that people who didn’t vote democrat are fucking around and finding out” maybe assess why you’re “glad arabs and latinos who didn’t vote democrat are going to be deported”

if you’re talking like that: where’s your head at? fucking take just a MOMENT to really think about your reaction, because it’s not an acceptable one

if you’re saying shit like “well trans people who didn’t vote for Harris deserve to suffer the consequences” THINK AGAIN

seriously: rethink. take a step back and process because the processing you’re doing right now is irrational, vindictive, violent and, yes, FASCIST

you don’t get to punish your own notion of an “enemy within” in the Left just because you don’t understand, or agree with their personal choices

if you’re out here screaming & yelling at and cyberbullying people who couldn’t bring themselves to vote for genocide, vote for a party & a candidate that courted the endorsements of war criminals, a law & order candidate (and a law and order establishment party in general), for pro-cop, pro-prison politics and at BEST weak and poorly outlined platforms around healthcare, the economy, and environmentalism:

it’s time to consider that maybe your vitriol and inability to engage compassionately (along with the same failings in the Democratic establishment) is the real thing that cost the Dems & Harris the election

it isn’t leftists & idealists that failed to make the Democratic platform tolerable for the people the Democrats are actively killing & committing genocide against (Latinos, Black americans, people in US occupied territories, Palestinians, trans people, and more)

it’s the shift of the Democratic party’s leadership that is becoming more fascist that has people refusing to vote for them

its the shift of some of the “vote blue no matter who” crowd towards fascism that is the issue, too. is some goddamn solidarity too much to ask for?

at the very least can you be generous? can you listen? stop making this about you if you’re not a direct target of the genocide & other violence that the Democrats perpetrate as part of the US empire

It cannot be said enough that your inability as liberal or as a so called “progressive” or “leftist” or “queer” to recognize that you need to build empathetic, compassionate, and genuine solidarity is a much bigger issue than people who didn’t “vote blue no matter who (even if they’re committing genocide)”

it’s on us to shift the needle by being tolerant and choosing to listen and respond to the victims of genocide with true care & compassion. we will only make change by building solidarity

It is not on the most vulnerable, marginal, and subaltern people living under the weight of US imperial & capitalist violence to hold their nose and vote for the slightly less violent and the more covertly fascist party

it is not the responsibility of a lamb to vote for the shepherd who will beat them into submission & a life of oppression rather than the wolf that devours

it’s on the safest & more privileged people to fight against all tyranny and to shelter, protect, and have solidarity with the most vulnerable among us

if your response is to say “maybe those lambs deserve to get eaten & beaten because they wouldn’t endorse one of their two oppressors” it’s time to sit with your thoughts & find a new way to be

i’ll be here to build a better future with you when you get there

or if you want to chat (genuinely) and work through your frustration & move towards solidarity: I’m here right now. let’s talk. i truly wish you the best. i wish the best for all of us

[compacflt]

okay "normie median Biden voter ice" got me. That's funny. But also so true! It prob took him a bit to vote dem too (though I believe that Ice would have never voted for Trump). Would love to hear more thoughts on Ice and Mav's politics. Also the list of who they would have voted for if you're willing to share.

i do worry that posting my extremely in-depth headcanons about some of this stuff will have the JKR “wizard shit” effect on my writing and ruin it a little, but ask and ye shall receive

copy-pasted straight from my list of “unhinged compacflt!top gun headcanons” that ive been keeping since september: on ice & mav's politics

16. Since their friendship began, Ice has always told Maverick who to vote for, since Maverick doesn't care enough to pay attention to national politics. They are begrudging ConservaDems (conservative political views, would vote conservative every election if Republicans weren’t actively sending them to war/actively promoting fascism). Ice’s voting record (and after 1988, Mav’s too) 1980-2020—note that he has always considered himself an “educated moderate”: 1980: Reagan. 1984: Reagan. 1988: Bush. 1992: Bush. 1996: Clinton (reaction to aftermath of PGW. Doesn’t care that Clinton enacted DADT because “I’m not [redacted], so it doesn’t apply to me”). 2000: Gore (refusal to vote for another Bush). 2004: Kerry (Mav votes Bush this year out of spite as he and Ice are going through their break-up). 2008: McCain (Navy loyalty). 2012: Obama (liked him as a person/worked closely with him, didn’t like his policies so much). 2016: Clinton (no other alternative). 2020: Biden (actually liked/previously worked with Biden, and now actively married to another man and therefore had to make some liberal concessions). 2024-onwards they will vote for any Democrat as long as they aren’t a “socialist.”

17. Also, Maverick didn’t vote in 2016. Partially because in my universe the TGM mission takes place that November, very near the election, and he has bigger fish to fry (something Ice will later take him to task for), and partially because I genuinely think he wouldn’t be able to stomach either mainstream candidate and probably would’ve voted for Libertarian Gary Johnson, which might have torn his relationship with Ice to shreds a few days before schedule. “Are you fucking kidding me? Johnson? Pete, this moron’s moronic party wants to abolish the driver’s license—” / “—Yeah, and then I could ride your sweet wheels with no problem whatsoever—maybe he’ll abolish pilots’ licenses, too, I’d like to see that—” / “If you vote for Gary fucking Johnson, I will very happily stop footing the bill for your piece-of-shit airplane, and you can see how useful your pilot’s license is then—” / So Mav didn’t vote in 2016. 

35. In terms of what he Tweets: I do foresee, post-retirement, Ice basically becoming a neoliberal military intellectual type on Twitter a la Mark Hertling (look him up on Twitter). Bio: “Retired @SECNAV. Advisor @WhiteHouse and @VoteVets. Contributing writer @TheAtlantic. Interested in geopolitics & modern warfare. Aviator, husband, Padres fan. [American flag emoji]” Only posts pictures of himself and Maverick at three specific annual events: 1. their wedding anniversary (“36 years with this fool and he’s still surprised to find out that I like the F-5 better than the A-4 #happyanniversary”), 2. every EAA Airventure (huge airplane convention), 3. San Francisco’s Fleet Week (which of course they MUST attend, they even headline it in 2018). Informative, analytical, highly-respected. Maybe goes on CNN or NBC all the time to talk about civil-military relations shit (aversion to FOX since the start of the Iraq War). Gonna say he had like four really viral threads about Russia and Ukraine in April or May and so has 300k followers or something like that. He has a personal website that links back to his Twitter and every essay he writes for international publications, with a pretty braggadocious bio (something along the lines of “Tom Kazansky has directly almost started global nuclear war twice in his life, and in the thirty-year gap in between, sold the Swiss half their entire goddamn Air Force and directed an entire Fleet during the Iraq War”). Lots of tweets like “Military aviation hot take: Compared to the F-22, the F-35 is a waste of money. Source: husband with 400+ hours of F-35 experience.” / “[Quote tweet of Russian Foreign Minister boasting about Su-57 production lines] Oh, so you guys finally figured out how to make more than one every other year?” / “Analysis of the failure of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine, from an ex-US Pacific Fleet Commander’s perspective: a short [thread emoji] [This thread gets 26k likes and 4k retweets]” / “This weekend my husband & I flew in to @EAA Oshkosh #OSH19 & took home first place for best P-51. Not to brag, but.” (A reply to this tweet: “Sir, you really know how to bury the lede that your husband is Adm. Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell. I had to look it up on Wikipedia.” / @TKazansky: “What, was it not obvious? Who else could it have been?”) Also, I see him writing a whole bunch of op-eds for international political magazines a la Tom Nichols (look him up on Twitter too). Writing analyses of recent geopolitical/military events for the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Bulwark, the Navy Times, the Atlantic, Bellingcat, etc. Not so much focused on domestic issues (but VoteVets [socially progressive vets’ group] board member, and ardently pro-democracy, yay!). He’s a smart guy.

37. This is not a headcanon, just kind of a… a real-life implication. My Ice was Deputy Commander of Third Fleet in 2003, meaning he’d have been there in command of the USS Abraham Lincoln when President Bush gave his “Mission Accomplished” speech aboard that ship in May less than 2 months after the initial American invasion of Iraq. Very premature & embarrassing. Ice would’ve been in direct contact with Bush/Cheney/NSC bureaucrats many, many times during the war. I genuinely believe this is what pushed him over the edge into firm liberal territory.

[thatstormygeek]

"People don't understand how different things would have been if Hillary had won!"

This is true. Things would have been very different. Ideally we'd have fewer Trump clones running for office now. But Trump didn't make the GOP what it is. It's been like this. Forever.

Why are our choices Biden or (presumably) Trump? Liberals love to point the finger at the Republicans (while using the other hand to indicate the left is pretty close to just as much at fault, really), absolving their own party of all responsibility.

"It's this or fascism!" Okay, but why now? What have the fucking Democrats been doing while in office that it's gotten to this? Hmm? Feel like taking a look at Bill Clinton's presidency? And then maybe truly ask yourself why exactly his fucking wife thought we'd want her to be running the country.

I voted for Hillary (because what choice did I have), but the woman couldn't even pretend to support indigenous people protesting a pipeline on their land. People keep acting like she was this great progressive hero and she's not. She was not. And still, we fucking voted for her.

And liberals re-litigated the 2016 election constantly over the following four years, until Biden was elected. Then not a peep. They were content. Until 2022 midterms. And until now. Because now it's time to remind all of us to fall in line again, and they're so tired because they have to come out here again and lecture all of us leftists about our responsibilities to vote for their guy because we are all just too incapable of complex thought processes to understand the value of compromise and lesser evils and all that.

It's almost like the only activism y'all think is worth doing is beating leftists over the head with your "Vote Blue No Matter Who" stick. Which, fine. Just stop pretending you actually give a shit about anything else. Because we see you. And we see what you're not talking about. And when.

If the height of feminism to you was filling in the circle next to Hillary Clinton's name, here are some better targets for your messaging:

It's so fucking frustrating because it's clear y'all aren't listening to what folks on the left (people way smarter and with way bigger reach than me) are saying. And it reveals a lot of what the "Just Vote" bluster tries to conceal:

We're not real to you. We're not people whose needs and desires matter. We're there to be numbers to prop up your bulwark against fascism and a convenient scapegoat when you inevitably lose elections (because you will not win every time). But you don't want to make those defenses too strong because if the Other Guys aren't a constant threat, you might have to grapple with the ideas you've considered beneath you forever.

I'm going to vote. I've been voting for years. I'll continue voting. Never in my life have I told someone not to bother to vote. But I'm not doing it because of y'all. I'm doing it in spite of your messaging.

The chart that should scare Dems is this one

The votes of that 49%? They do not belong to you. You are not automatically owed them. And yes, maybe voting for Dems is in the best interest of that 49%, but there's nothing saying they will do so. People do shit against their own best interests all the time. And they sure as shit do things against the best interests of people in general.

Which means y'all have to convince them to want to vote for you. If you're the type of person whose mom said "Clean your room" and you immediately jumped to do so after thanking her for the reminder, I can see why the Democratic party's messaging is working out for you. I am not that person and I don't know a lot of people who are. So y'all are going to have to offer more than the constant demand if you're going to pick those folks up.

Not to be a doomer, but I think y'all are a lost cause at this point. You've been told the same thing over and over and refuse to adapt, so I have to assume you prefer things the way they are. Which means it's only a matter of time--and probably not a lot of time, really. You can't win every election forever and if that's the only plan, well...it sucks.

I'll tell you what, though: nothing would make me happier than the Dems proving me wrong here.

[hero-israel]

I realize this isn’t exactly the bailiwick of this blog, but I go a little bit crazy every time I hear a defender of the Israeli judicial overhaul going “the protestors just don’t like that we won a majority!!!!l when….they didn’t? If you add up the percentages of the winning coalition they got 48.38% of the vote, they won because the opposition was too divided and Meretz and Balad fell below the cutoff. And that’s not even getting into people who voted for the coalition but oppose the judicial overhaul, who definitely exist.

It’s just kind of infuriating how they’re allowed to get away with lying like that.

They are completely lying. It's not quite as bad as the people who say "Trump had a mandate, look at how much bigger the red space is than the blue space," but it's close. Part of the reason why that lie is even possible - why the anti-Bibi coalition didn't work this time - was that Yair Lapid is simply less experienced at building governments and keeping them together.

The main infuriating lie from judicial reform supporters is to constantly, robotically lecture people about "the secular Ashkenazi elite," like there hadn't been right-wing governments in Israel before, like the Mizrahi political dominance hadn't been around for a half-century, like doing things that even Netanyahu and Likud would never have considered doing a mere two years ago is now just normal and the causes aren't at all related to the gutter trash in power but instead let's talk about 1972 some more.

I must point out that there is an infuriating lie on our side, though. It's all over the news coverage of this issue. That lie is the notion that liberal preferences are just owed a victory no matter who wins. One newspaper after another says "Israelis want to keep the high court as it is because it is the last stronghold of liberal power" - I'd really like to never see that in print again. It's fucking embarrassing. Elections have consequences and people need to be able to cope. The problem is not some abstract loyalty to liberalism. The court system was working just fine under one right-wing government after another. This is indicted or even convicted criminals trying to subvert their own prosecutions - and opposing that is not a "liberal" thing!

Something I regularly struggle with when I think of political "what-if's?" is that part of the job of being president or prime minister is to win in the first place. They need to be able to run campaigns, manage the bureaucracy and the egos, respond to lies and threats and sabotage. If Bernie Sanders were to be miracled into the presidency, maybe it would be good to have someone with his temperament and stances in charge... but he'd have to be miracled into it because he'd be crushed in a general election, and if he's never been tested like that, how would he actually deal with the stress of the job? The "goodguys" are not owed a victory, they have to do the dirty work and they have to do it right at every step. It won't get EASIER after the campaign. It is Yair Lapid's job to anticipate what his allies, his enemies, and the undecided will do; to steer things towards himself winning; and to keep his team together and not have them defect. I hope he does better the next time - and soon.