#guillotine oil lobbyists

[mbrainspaz]

your average american really does not comprehend what they are missing with functional public transit. I just started googling a trip back to Germany and found out I can get pretty much everywhere I want to go (in and out of the big city) in a week for about 30 dollars total without ever getting in a car. Can you imagine??? I can't even drive myself in to Houston from the suburbs for less than $20 (+$10 for parking), and it's death-defying stunt traffic all the way. OR in the same amount of time that that takes I could take a train (A TRAIN!!!) directly from a hostel in munich to my home village in rural bavaria--for 15 buckaroos.

[vintageseawitch]

i only recently learned about Ernst Thalmann & as a result i had a light bulb moment: i don't want to alienate liberals & centrists anymore. when i say i don't want to repeat the bad things in history despite it happening anyways i don't want to participate in the other nuanced ways it could repeat. i agree with so many things other leftists want to do: billionaires &/or landlords shouldn't exist, workers should own the means of production, food, clean water, accessible heslthcare, & a home are basic human rights, abortion is healthcare, the patriarchy is vile & needs to be uprooted, politicians need to face actual consequences & be servants of their country's citizens instead of becoming simps to lobbyists, the environment needs to be protected, big oil needs to go, the list goes on & on. so, we agree on these & more but they also want to punish people for not being leftist enough & they're claiming they're doing things in protest like not voting. HOW EXACTLY IS THIS HELPING ANYONE TO HAVE YOUR RIGHTS STRIPPED AWAY. you not voting won't help you but the alt-reich will certainly love how you allowed them to be in power since you hate biden so much. 6 months is not enough time to overthrow how the government does anything. the alt-reich have had DECADES of a united, hateful, evil front & they're so close to making this place a living hell. we can't let them!!! you make fun of people wanting to convince their senators to represent them? how about YOU start a revolution then. get that guillotine out & start chopping down to business. Project 2025 will literally not go into effect if Republicans don't hold office. IT MEANS SOMETHING. liberals & centrists could be that number in helping because they don't want fascists to win either. we're all on the same page just at different points. not everyone is radical. i wish they were but you won't convince anyone by calling them stupid or something. DON'T BE LIKE ERNST THALMANN. he didn't deserve that happened to him but he didn't help himself either by being such a gatekeeper. we need everyone in this fight. they're coming for all of our rights, making aurr we truly are cogs in the wheel of late-stage capitalism. oh, & they'll fuck over national parks & other natural protected areas & to them climate change isn't real so do with that what you will. WE CAN'T LET THEM WIN. they all need to fuck off 😡 get out there, learning about Project 2025, know that it's real, be alarmed & angry, & fucking VOTE. the overturning of Roe V Wade was just beginning & now they're coming for contraception. NO ONE IS SAFE

[dirtyrottensocialist]

America Has A Compromise Problem

Compromising is important, especially if you want to get anything done. Like any give and take situation, the deal has to be appealing to both sides. This can be difficult enough when the two sides are somewhat close together already, but what if they aren’t? What if one side wants something that is indisputably harmful to the other side? America’s compromises as of late aren’t really compromises at all.

I’m going to talk for a moment about the Overton window. From Wikipedia: “The Overton window is the range of policies politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time. It is also known as the window of discourse.” America’s current Overton window, at least when you watch any kind of news or professionally published widespread media, is somewhere between Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. That’s what the media covers, it’s what is discussed as acceptable in many circles, and it is vastly different from most other developed countries.

The idea that universal healthcare is a “far left” idea is absolutely laughable in places like Denmark or Germany or New Zealand. It’s even laughable for many members of America’s younger generations. America’s hyper-capitalistic ideals have pushed the Overton window so far right that it’s considered “centrist” to think that antifa (the position of being against fascism - you know, the thing that Nazis did) is just as bad as being a Nazi. Basically someone is saying “we should kill all the Jews,” someone else is saying, “actually we should not kill any Jews” and the centrist says “wait, wait, wait, what if we compromise and only kill some of the Jews?” as if that’s an acceptable answer.

Media in America is largely owned by corporations. As such, the owners of most of these media outlets are actively invested in making sure the Overton window in America never skews far enough left so that they will lose profits. The ultra rich control the narrative, not allowing for anything on the actual left to see the light of day for discussion. 

The reality is that there is a large portion of Americans, particularly in the Millennial and Gen Z ages, that are considerably to the left of the Overton window. You can see it in the protests that are happening all over America (and yes, they ARE still happening). These protests are largely led by young people who are tired of being dealt a bad hand by the economy, racism, climate change, exploitative healthcare, and many other systemic problems. Media has softened the demands to defund the police by saying, “no one actually wants to abolish police” even though that’s exactly what many people on the left want. There are real leftists living in your communities. Socialists. Anarchists. Communists. People who believe that the workers should own the means of production (no private companies). People who believe in all housing being free (eliminating landlords). People who believe money as a concept should not exist because it leads to haves and have-nots (only resource-based economy). People who believe there should be no president, no nations, completely open borders (as much as centrists will tell you that no one believes this, there are real people who whole-heartedly do believe in open borders). The growing left movement in America has grown very tired of agreeing to compromises that don’t actually do anything for their agendas or beliefs.

So now it comes to election season and we are faced with some serious choices. Decades of voting for the lesser evil has gotten us to this point. Skyrocketing unemployment, billionaires increasing their wealth by 50% profiting off of a pandemic, price gauging life saving drugs, a minimum wage that has been stagnant for more than a decade, college and housing costs pricing more and more people out of homes and education, not to mention a pandemic that threatens to be the deadliest disease we have ever seen because people are more concerned with making sure billionaires don’t lose money than making sure that everyone survives. America is a pit of despair right now. There are popular jokes about 2020 apocalypse bingo cards because of the increasing absurdity of circumstances in every passing month. 

But here we are. Election season. It’s shaping up to be a showdown between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. The Overton window tells us that Joe Biden is the obvious compromise candidate, somewhere between Sanders and Trump. But that alienates an entire large group of people and potential voters, mostly those under 40. Joe Biden, the man who crafted the 1994 crime bill is not an appealing compromise for those who want to abolish police. Joe Biden, the man who has been credibly accused of rape, is not an appealing compromise for those who have experienced sexual assault and become physically sick at the thought of another abuser (see Brett Kavanaugh) being put in a high position of power. Joe Biden, the man who has said he would veto Medicare for All if it came across his desk, is not an appealing compromise for those who have been rationing insulin trying to pay the bills, eat, and also afford life giving medicine. Joe Biden is not an appealing compromise for those of us for whom Bernie Sanders WAS the compromise.

For many people my age, the only America we have known is the America that does nothing but benefit the most wealthy. We have seen countless black Americans murdered by a violent state. We have seen thousands upon thousands of people declare bankruptcy due to medical bills, and many more die because they could not afford care. We have seen our country refuse to do anything meaningful about climate change because the government is essentially owned by oil companies and their lobbyists. We have seen and experienced a massive student debt crisis that is making it almost impossible to get ahead. We’ve attempted to mitigate these travesties by voting “blue,” for the lesser evil, for the person with slightly less terrible policies. We’re tired of compromises that don’t concede anything to us at all. We’re tired of electoral politics that force us to choose between Voldemort and Darth Sidious. For many leftists, Bernie Sanders was our last hope for electoral politics.

One of my favorite Democrats once said: “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” I would advise the DNC to consider this heavily when selecting their platform this year. It’s time to try a compromise that’s actually in the middle of the electorate for a change. If we are unable to do this, the guillotine jokes may end up not being jokes anymore.