• Maeve@kbin.earth
      0·
      5 months ago

      Eh, the body has been dead, this is just “giving up the ghost.” Don’t shoot the messenger. It is what it is.

      Now we have a choice: focus on identity issues, or do what is right for everyone. Good luck, world.

      • vzq@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        0·
        5 months ago

        Now we have a choice: focus on identity issues, or do what is right for everyone. Good luck, world.

        The trouble with that statement is that it’s always the people in power deciding what “benefits everyone” and what is “identity issues”.

        For example, you can make an extremely solid argument that a focus on disability rights benefits everyone, since most people are various kinds of disabled at various points in their lives and adaptations benefit everyone now (curb cut effect). Also, we are still experiencing a global health event that is leaving random people with serious long term health issues.

        However, the discourse around it in the media absolutely not that. Why? Because power, that’s why. The people that pull the strings want to spend the money in other ways, so disability rights are framed as extravagant luxuries that only benefit a minority. Meanwhile they keep systems in place that lock disabled people in government enforced poverty while the companies that pay them below minimum wage get tax breaks.

        • Maeve@kbin.earth
          0·
          5 months ago

          I know. As individuals, our scope is limited. Mutual aid, direct action is probably the best option, for the foreseeable future. In some areas, it’s herding cats.

      • bstix@feddit.dk
        0·
        5 months ago

        It’s almost as if the generation that taught us to “decide with your heart”, “do what you love”, “you can be everything you dream of”, etc.etc. has suddenly decided to focus and rule the world by irrelevant talking points instead of staying true to their own beliefs and teaching.

        I hope that whatever happens in the next decade at the dying breath of that generation will not set the precedent for following inhabitants of this planet. I, being gen-x, am doing as much as I can to enable people to younger than me to have better opportunities than I ever had. (Union stuff.)

        The difference being that I acknowledge that younger people are more capable. My parents generation never understood that. They still cling to the belief that age equals wisdom. Maybe their parents taught them that. There is some truth to it, but he cutting point is a lot lower than they believe. The peak of capability is probably closer to 25 than 80…

        Edit. Anyway. The world depends on the American election. Mostly because the world needs USA to be successful in order to maintain a stable balance in world politics. The last Trump period was basically what fucked it up in the first place and I have no expectations of it being any better at a second term, on the contrary.

        Please vote for Biden. Sure, he’s old (please attend to primaries next time…) and Hillary was too, but Trump is still the most senile of them all. I get it. It was funny to vote in some jackass to stir shit up, but that’s not really what happened. All he achieved was to play golf and let radical idiots run the place down…

        It’s not even about the talking points. He spits in every direction, so it doesn’t even matter. He will not fulfill any of the most modest expectations of any of the talking points whether or not you agree with them. He’s going to play golf and let random asslickers run the place, again. That’s not democracy.

        • Che Banana@beehaw.org
          0·
          5 months ago

          Yeah…our gen was sold a bag of dicks and were told to be grateful.

          You are spot on when it’s not just a US problem if the big ol orange baby wins: goodbye democracy, goodbye NATO, goodbye Ukraine and welcome to the new world where Putin will annex everything he can with impunity, the US is ruled by SCOTUS lifetime appointed theocratic, and the Dems just stood by and let it happen.

        • OmnipotentEntity@beehaw.org
          0·
          5 months ago

          (please attend to primaries next time…)

          So… should I have voted for Marianne Williamson or Dean Phillips, keeping in mind Dean Phillips formally withdrew from the race before my state’s primary, and Marianne Williamson couldn’t have won if she had sweeped every state after and including mine?

          I think the problem is mostly that the US system of elections is turbo mega fucked.

  • Droggelbecher@lemmy.world
    0·
    5 months ago

    I saw someone dip a chip in a tea cup at a bistro last week. The fact that I never found out what was in the tea cup haunts me.

  • AnIndefiniteArticle@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    5 months ago

    If he’s getting results cleaning up Trump’s mess, it’s because of his team. Showcase his team and all the work they’ve done. It’s his choice of cabinet members and Supreme Court nominations that we are voting for.

    That and the military is all the president really does. Our system of military alliances are a mess. Joe inherited that and young people are demonstrating that they want to see that changed.

    The moderate play is to showcase the people who a vote for Trump would fire. John Oliver’s piece on Schedule F hits on that well. This is an important core feature of why we want Joe.

    He also needs to do something to adapt our foreign policy (which is the President’s core power) to the people’s desire to change our role on the world stage to a less violent one.

    He needs both to win big for the dems. It doesn’t matter if he’s feeble and old if the election isn’t about him. It isn’t. This election is about the fundamental nature of what our country is. America has to confront its darkness and fix itself. Neutral isn’t an option when we’ve been going in reverse. Where are we going? Set a destination for what America should strive to be, and ask people to vote for that.

    The circus format makes people want the big strong man barking out at the debates. We need the man intensely feeling the moment he’s in with looks of pain as he tries to process his predecessor’s ranting. We need to show the people and system of civil rights/service/reparations that a vote for Uncle Joe represents.

    Trump 2 is the American Revolution finally ending with its version of a Napoleon moment. Hey: we held out a bit longer than the French!

    Biden 2 is four more years of life support. Educate us on the people and their roles, Joe. Open up for democracy and new ideas to build a new America. We need to know what’s there in order to collectively imagine what could be. We need to know who else we are voting for when we vote for Joe. He needs to set the stage for people to feel like they are voting to build and protect an America that they want to live in.

    Ultimately, we need some constitutional amendments to fix our broken government. Evolve past an enlightenment-era collapse pattern and into something that can last. Maybe run on a slate of amendments that a vote for Joe would endorse. Undo Citizens United, cement Roe, net neutrality, rank choice voting, etc. Make a list and have everyone agree that that is what we are voting for. If he wins with that pitch, he has a good argument for either congress or the states to ratify the amendments, or to call a convention if they don’t follow through. Let Trump write a list of amendments, too, and put it up to a vote. Joe’s Constitution vs Trump’s Constitution. Joe’s American vs Trump’s America. Actually, ending up with two constitutions up to a vote like that sounds like the start of civil war II: which states ratify which constitution to get behind which president. Maybe that’s just where we are headed, unless we can be convinced to use a civil way of negotiating for a new system. A civil way would be more responsive to nuance and less prone to bake-in of ideas due to backlash.

    We need that next revolution, but first we need to set up a system of civil resolution to make sure that it doesn’t destroy us.

      • AnIndefiniteArticle@sh.itjust.works
        0·
        5 months ago

        It’s a spew into the universe. It might even be bad advice. I’m processing the possibility of Trump winning and Biden somehow being our choice on the other side trying to hold off the big “you’re fired” to American democracy. Three people have read it enough to upvote it, and maybe it helps them process it, too.