#democracy?

[nokingsonlyfooles]

“But dissent must never lead to disorder.”

I have too much on my plate right now. Of all the systemic failures that are eating my brain, among them deficiencies in healthcare; deficiencies in the language we use to talk about systemic racism, white privilege, and proximity to whiteness; lack of community, and all the other reasons people don't hear and respond to cries for help with actual help, this is the only one I can muster the energy to express, because it's so simple. I don't even know if it will make me feel better, but I want to SAY it.

This is not how dissent works. If you apply this rule to dissent, you are headed for a dictatorship with no brakes. If you already know that and don't need anyone to unpack it for you, you've identified the problem and you can stop reading right now. For your mental health purposes, please do.

This playbook is older than I am, and someone had a few things to say about in during the "disorder" caused by students agitating for Black rights and an end to the Vietnam War.

Internet Archive isn't exactly stable and I've had some issues getting it to load, but you should be able to find this somewhere for free. It's dated in a lot of places, but we knew. There's the evidence. We've known a long time. We decide the "disorder" was OK after the fact, as indeed we have about Vietnam and Civil Rights. But it sure wasn't OK when it was happening! We needed a Law And Order President to crack down and fix that!

We have such a person in office now, and, barring a total collapse, such a person will be in office after the election. Both candidates want to continue the genocide and both candidates want to silence the protests. Both candidates are subverting the democratic process to get into office, don't ignore the primary shenanigans and lack of choice the DNC is offering us. Both candidates are incompetent and I don't want either of them drooling on the nuclear button, but Biden has competent help, for the moment. He's actually in office, and he can actually do things. He has chosen to stake out a rhetorical middle-ground, while continuing the genocide and letting states tackle the student protests however they want - so far, that means arrests and injuries, and we'll have to wait and see if anyone gets shot.

Trump is SAYING he wants to crack down EVEN HARDER, on EVERYTHING, but your guess is as good as mine whether he'd actually pull it off. If we're caving to the idea that the protests must stop because they're too disorderly, though, that's fine. Why would that not be fine? We're just talking about the matter of degree and how much of a priority "restoring order" is. If the dissent continues (and if the genocide, and the horrors coming out of it continue, why wouldn't the dissent?), more and more people are going to be willing to throw in their lot with whoever they think will make it stop.

We're already killing lots of people for the sake or "order," at home and abroad. It's usually quieter, due to distance and method. Another trans child taking themself out of the equation is almost silent, and easily dismissed as some kind of unfixable personal problem, not a societal issue. And kids in Gaza? Well, we only see 'em in pictures. We don't hafta look. Gunning down college students on American soil is a lot scarier, that looks way more disorderly, that's harder for us to deal with. We prefer not to, but we're willing to do it. We have been and still are, that's part of our national identity, whether you want it or not. You dissent, we kill you for being "disorderly." And maybe we apologize later and give you a national holiday or something, way later. (Have a fun time admiring what's left of the Indigenous cultures that we're still trying to wipe out on this year's Indigenous People's Day!)

If dissent must never lead to disorder, we gotta give back BLM, right away. (And, conservatives, say bye-bye to January 6th and Charlottesville, and Ruby Ridge and whatever else you wanna call "patriotism" or "not as bad.") The Civil Rights movement goes back, too, with MLK and Malcom X together. And there goes Stonewall! Kent State? Justified! Armed Indigenous resistance to their own genocide? Inexcusable! (Same for Palestinian resistance and, indeed, the Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust. If you really wanted to be saved, you'd be better victims.) The Civil War? Well, the South isn't allowed to push back against the President, but neither is the North allowed to invade and infringe on states' rights. Call it a wash! And Dred Scott? Good call! You can't just be escaping from slavery all willy-nilly when it's the LAW. How 'bout that American Revolution? Oooh, yeah. Bad idea. Dredge the tea out of Boston Harbor and get right with King Charles, you freeloaders GOTTA pay your taxes, representation or no! Apologize and dissent better next time!

Ha-ha, of course, this is my autism talking. You don't mean that literally. You don't mean "never," Joe. I'm pickin up what you're layin down! You mean "not when it's inconvenient, and I get to pick."

And that's why we need to preserve the ability to dissent. (Even for the assholes who want to kill me - although I would like their ability to dissent to stop somewhat short of killing me, if we can manage that. I need to be alive to retain my ability to dissent!) If "disorder" is an arbitrary decision for the guys in charge to make, there is no check on their power. They crush what irritates them, and they may continue crushing it as long as they're able to stay on top.

Dictatorship is a fistful of M&Ms and Biden and Trump are two dogs sniffing around to see if they can snork some up when you're not looking. Biden is being a lot quieter about it, while Trump is howling and shitting and distracting. But we don't want either of them to eat the M&Ms! That's not good for them or for any of us!

Autocracy can look very, very orderly on the surface. And, in any case, it is very convenient for everyone not being crushed by it. They can just go on about their lives, knowing the tough decisions are being made for them and any voices trying to get them to think about that will be silenced. Some folks are up for it, as long as they're not the ones on the bottom. But for everyone else, dying for the convenience of others is disorderly AF.

Genocide is disorder. Saying "stop" is basic human decency. It's not stopping, so the message is going to get louder and more chaotic and more damaging, but that's not on the messengers. They can't fight fair. The people in power certainly aren't fighting fair, and they have a lot more weapons at their disposal. Don't give them more. Don't buy that everything's fine and you can quiet down and go on about your business. Don't simplify by designating a good guy and backing whatever he wants to do against the bad guy. When something is wrong, don't ask permission, SAY SO LIKE YOU MEAN IT. If you're going to wait for someone in power to tell you it's okay to push back... they never will.

[loneranger0369]

People are believing the Lies fed by Russia.

Some people are making Posts and spreading Russian Propaganda, that Putin is saving Children from Ukraine. When in Reality, Russia is forcefully deporting Children from Ukraine to Russia and other Countries controlled by Russia, to russify them.

Delusional people are spreading delusioning Propaganda and confusing more people.

THIS is how the Russian Propaganda works.

Then they say "educate yourself" , "think for yourself" , "do your research" and more. But, what they mean is "Only I know the truth" , "Don't go to other Sources" , "Every other Source is controlled and bought by the richest people already" and more....

Russia is a horrible Country. USSR was oppressive and inhuman. Those were few among the many Reasons for its Downfall. Now, Putin wants to create another USSR. And wants no more Countries to join NATO. He feels (I think), that it is a Breach of Understanding by the US, when US wants to take Ukraine into the NATO Group.

Seriously... USA is the reason of most Calamities on this Planet. The Government of USA does things. Civilians of USA remain silent and let everything happen. Soldiers of USA perform Atrocities themselves, when they are "serving" their Country. I don't understand how destroying Countries is the same as 'Serving your Country'....

Maybe that is what America stands for... Destroying other Countries.

Process : Find Country with Resources > Make Deals > War on Country if Deal is rejected > Make drugs in that Country while waging wars and import those Drugs back to home > destroy that Country.

Afghanistan.

Iraq.

Iran.

Syria.

Vietnam..?

Now... Ukraine is in rubble....

Just die America.

Really.

Civilians of America also need to pay for not fighting back against these continuous Wars... Is USA not a Democracy? The President of USA is not a King. Right?

Shameful....

I wish USA and Russia lied side by side on the Global Map. Then they could just kill each other and solve these Issues once and for all. Since a long time, Europe has been continuously suffering due to the "Cold War" between these two Nations controlled by Cavemen...

[beauty-funny-trippy]

[skittlebits]

Or earlier! Any red state can turn blue if enough voters turn out.

[fixing-bad-posts]

please fucking vote

[dangerouslyboring]

Why do I always seek to be playing this after a disappointing election result?

[judarud]

This is so fucking funny I cant even begin to describe it. Its a recreation of this painting.

Points for not just copying it and adding the new faces over it like a shit photoshop shitpost I guess. But its só fucking ugly and its hard to tell exactly what the painting is trying to say.

Especially since Alexandre is consistenly overstepping the legal extents of his judicial powers, acting as investigador and choosing what accusations will be included in the cases hes supposed to judge.

Hes at the forefront of the Tribunals Monocratic desicion crisis, where a single judge can make decisions that are supposed to made in conjunction.

This man is trying to get the STF to legislate from the fucking bench and hes presented as a fighter for independance.

Especially funny when you remember Dom Pedro declared himself Emperor. Hell, he was the son of the King of Portugal, he became the King of Portugal not even 10 years after this and left his 6 years old son in charge.

The picture makes it look like the onset of an Awesome battle for independance where a son turns against his father to free the people he came to love from tyranny, except he just bought the country from his dad.

After he went to the Ipiranga river and shouted "Independence or Death!!!!!" him and his entourage just turned arround and went back to their daily routine of... running the fucking country cause they did that already at this point and had been doing it for about 2 years or so at this point.

Then again I shouldnt belabor his time as regent since he actually ruled over a pretty tulmutuous time, what with the literal revolution occuring on his doorstep barely a year before.

He also was the one to adopt the separation of powers on the country, granted, he also established the 4th "moderating" power to rule over the other 3 so I guess thats not as impressive.

Then again Xandocas is also basically trying to reestablish the moderating power so I guess the comparison is not exactly innapropriate.

Still, the Semiotic is disastrous for anyone that pays the barest ammount of attention to whats going on.

Im guessing the magazine is trying tochedge its bets and claim whatever is the most accepted interpretation is the intended one from the start. The media has somewhat turned on the man recently after all, what with his... misdeeds, shall we say, being a lot harder to whitewash now.

[stopproject2025comic]

We've made a ton of comics explaining the deal with Project 2025, and why it's such a disaster. Here's one of them. Go read (and share) them all! https://stopproject2025comic.org/comic/anti-trans_discrimination/

[blasphemister]

Republicans can't win without threatening and committing violence. January 6th-like insurrections and election tampering will happen in states all across the country this time. Don't let her down!

[mapsontheweb]

How long each country has been a democracy?

by geoglobal_

[oneofthosecrazycatladies]

So you may or may not have heard, Biden is proposing a constitutional amendment that would reverse the Supreme Court’s immunity decision and create term limits for the Supreme Court. A constitutional amendment requires Congress to pass it. If you have thoughts on this and want to encourage your representative to vote a certain way then MAKE YOUR VOICE BE HEARD. CLICK HERE TO FIND AND CONTACT YOUR LOCAL REPRESENTATIVE AND SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS. Until Trump takes it away from us we’re still a democracy so LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD!

AND DON’T FORGET: we’re not just voting for president this year, there’s also a ton of Congress seats (both House and Senate) that are up for re-election so if your local representatives are people that wouldn’t vote for this, then VOTE THEM OUT!

Contact them and tell them you won’t vote for them if they don’t support this amendment. Congress is supposed to work for us so MAKE THEM WORK FOR US!

[whatareyoureallyafraidof]

[sibblank]

ppl are unironically saying kamala ran a "perfect campaign", it's almost comical how dedicated dems are to never learning a goddamned thing

[duchess-of-mandalore]

I’m so sorry we didn’t learn, George.

[writing-with-olive]

when you call your reps to ask them to pretty please stop taking away your rights, remember:

In deep red areas you're a republican who is thinking of voting for someone else if they don't vote what you want on this specific bill because it impacts your republican ideals so very much

In swing states you're an undecided voter who's gonna go blue if they don't vote how you like

remember to call because that way their phone is going off and their peers can hear it because their offices are close together (emails and letters don't work like that), so it can rattle them if they get high volumes. remember that you gotta make them feel like they're losing something.