• TotallynotJessica@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    13 hours ago

    Apparently all the people getting fired for being happy that a Nazi died didn’t matter to Democrats, but Kimmel is the red line for them. It’s less that they care about free speech and more that this is shatters their illusion of sensibility. They’re acting like this is the start of Trumps attacks when this is just the incident that actually woke them up. Companies and institutions have been bending the knee since the beginning and they didn’t say shit; these are now the normal rules of American business.

    I listened to an interview on the radio recently that was enlightening in how little it said. It was a geopolitics analyst giving the most lukewarm condemnation of Trump killing Venezuelan civilians. He eventually admitted that no legal experts actually believed Trump had the authority to do it, but only weakly claimed we should “ask Congress if this is the standard we want going forward.”

    Liberals have been so scared to even call Trump a fascist dictator, which I think is because they don’t want to accept how fucked the situation is. They don’t want to admit that their precious rule of law is dead and buried. They want to keep a semblance of normalcy alive, in part because it helps their financial backers, but mostly because accepting the horrors makes them feel responsible for actually doing something to fix it.

    Liberalism didn’t die with a bang, but with a whimper.

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      8 hours ago

      It’s less that they care about free speech and more that this is shatters their illusion of sensibility.

      Well said

    • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      11 hours ago

      The only thing that companies and politicians reacting the wrong way about Charlie did right was to finally show you who are the Nazis.

      Anyone defending Charlie is a Nazi. I don’t care how they did it.

      “Oh you shouldn’t kill people because of political differences.” Nazi because they didn’t say shit when liberals have been murdered.

      • FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        He openly advocated for the return of public executions, and making children watch. Anyone defending him is trying to walk you down the Nazi road and conveniently ignoring that in the end he practiced EXACTLY what he preached.

      • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        I have a friend whom is upset in our group chat due to memes and proceeded to claim charlie wasnt even the bad racist guy the left paint him to be. He said he has a hard time sharing a group chat with people who would speak so harshly about an actvist he agrees with politically (there is a black member in our chat). I shared some of charlies quotes including “You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person’s slot to be taken somewhat seriously” and he still tried to claim this wasn’t a racist statement.

        His actions and personality don’t always line up with his political beliefs but its getting harder to keep him around. He & his mom has relied on welfare and our socialized healthcare their whole life (Canadian). He is part of the queer community and believes post secondary schooling should be free. But votes and supports conservative and is a bit of a trumper. I genuinely don’t get it. Both him and his mom would be homeless or worse if it weren’t for the social safety nets conservatives want to remove.

        • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
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          2 hours ago

          Both him and his mom would be homeless or worse if it weren’t for the social safety nets conservatives want to remove.

          I think some of these people believe that the social safety net would be better if all the (insert group here) were deported/jailed/killed because then there’s the same amount of money to be assigned to fewer people

          Something they ignore is that fewer people working = less productivity = fewer resources/less money.

          It’s why conservatives need to paint immigrants as both job stealers and lazy welfare queens. In either narrative there’s “less for you”.

          • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
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            4 hours ago

            He’s been a good friend since high school and as much as he says he’s so conservative, many of his actions speak otherwise. He doesn’t have a lot of friends or exposure to the outside world right now. Leaving him behind would likely result in him becoming more extremist. If his actions start mirroring conservative values, then hes probably being left behind.

        • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          6 hours ago

          But votes and supports conservative and is a bit of a trumper.

          He wants to benefit from everything society gives him but doesn’t want to provide that same benefit to others.

          Because he thinks he deserves it while others are stealing it from him.

          “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”

          The main principle of conservatism is that they deserve everything while at the same time everyone else deserves nothing.

        • ElysianBladeRunner@piefed.social
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          9 hours ago

          This issue for them is they think something more is owed to them. That deep down, they shouldn’t have had to rely on that welfare. In a better version of their lives, they would have the easy job that pays well. But the Democrats are the cause of their current circumstance.

          Disillusioned people who refuse to compromise with poor critical thinking and too much pride got us here. That can’t be “fixed” in 4 years.

          • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
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            9 hours ago

            His biggest issue is he never passed highschool and has never had a job. He has no work ethic from a rough upbringing but isnt really able to put in the work he needs to. Now hes got a slew of mental illnesses which i think is in part having no purpose or meaning in life except video games in moms basement.

            My parents owned a small business, they needed a general laboror and they would have picked him up and dropped him off at home. He wouldn’t have even needed an interview but he kept saying he is “above physical labor”. He then claims me being able to buy a house recently is all luck and due to my wealthy parents (who didn’t pitch a dime) and not hard work.

            • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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              2 hours ago

              I see that issue sometimes and it always confuses me. Like, I personally believe all people are owed the basics of life, but nobody is above work that needs done unless the work they would otherwise be doing is more valuable. As an engineer I’ll do manual labor or work an assembly line if it’s so important it’s worth paying an engineer ro do it. But also like if you have no skills you’re gonna be stuck doing unskilled labor, that’s literally why a lot of us got skills

              • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
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                2 hours ago

                Starting with unskilled labor can be a path into skilled labor if you work as an apprentice in a trade. I’d say at least half of my current job relies on hands on experience from previous positions, the other half relies on my education. He is unfortunately lacking in both, and now that he’s nearly 30, its gonna be harder for him to build up those skills and get a good paying job. He is so adamant he won’t work for minimum wage which i get it, it sucks, but his expenses are quite low and he has to start somewhere. No one is offering a 100k position with benefits to a drop out with no experience and a 10 year gap in their resume.

            • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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              9 hours ago

              Having a rough upbringing is no excuse. I also had a rough upbringing, and im an engineer now. You choose to try to make your situation better, or you don’t. The world may deal you a shitty hand, and if the issues you face are systemic, I can see it holding you back. But, it sounds like this guy is a poor white kid. They love to give out scholarships to poor white kids, its literally what got me through school.

              It sounds like your friend is just not the brightest crayon in the box. Kind of hard to pull yourself out of a shitty situation when you don’t have a lot going on upstairs.

              • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
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                8 hours ago

                He can be smart when he applies himself. He just struggles to apply himself. 1 hour of effort in a day is a full days of hard work to him. I agree you can’t just blame your upbringing, at a certain point you have to take your own life into your own hands.

        • Hector@lemmy.world
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          9 hours ago

          I knew this Hispanic kid last year, may have been a citizen due to his partial Puerto Rican Ecuadorian heritage but maybe not, anyway, he was a Nazi. I tried to talk sense to him and he was like I love everybody man. Which really does not jive with being a Nazi but Nazis are popular right now.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
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      13 hours ago

      I mean, the only check on the president is impeachment, and they’ve tried they twice without success. There’s no legal or democratic options to stop him from doing anything at this stage unless he somehow manages to hand democrats a supermajority in the senate.

      • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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        9 hours ago

        Well, fuck your country for having a political structure once defiant of a King and in 225 years can’t come up with anything better than a President with absolute power who is above the law and can make anyone else above the law at will. So you have a leader with absolute power with support of large religions, that’s a Kingdom.

      • TotallynotJessica@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        12 hours ago

        And yet, they aren’t organizing to win such a supermajority like anything depends on it. They aren’t conveying the urgency, aren’t working to reunite the party, aren’t even trying to be compelling controlled opposition. I think deep down they know they hold no power and will hold no power, but they’ll do anything to keep other liberals or themselves from admitting it. Normalcy is the only thing they have left, so they’re keeping it alive even as our god emperor tears everything in the country apart.

        The only battleground that actually matters anymore is for local elections, and they’re doing everything they can to combat their arch enemy: the left.

        • Hector@lemmy.world
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          9 hours ago

          The reason for being of the democratic establishment is not beating the Republicans, it is maintaining control of the party win or lose. To keep it out of the hands of those populists that would excite the electorate with Promises of not getting ass fucked by the super rich without their consent. An irresponsible sentiment to The Establishment Democrats think as their reason for being is not undoing any of the privilege the rich have taken these last decades.

          Somehow we are still letting these guys run the opposition as well. Maybe they will all get indicted in 2027 for false election rigging charges at least. Silver lining.

        • overthere@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          11 hours ago

          I wouldn’t say that they aren’t doing anything. The number of letters we’ve received asking for donations to the party has sharply ticked up. They’re getting what they really want from the situation.

    • TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      They don’t want to admit that their precious rule of law is dead and buried. They want to keep a semblance of normalcy alive, in part because it helps their financial backers

      It’s because they’re nihilists. They don’t have a moral ethos. These are the same people who installed a ruthless dictator in Chile to protect liberalism from the Chilean people. They believe that the ends justify the means, the ends in that case being to bring neoliberalism to Chile. Remember what Friedrich Hayek, one of the architects of neoliberalism, said:

      At times it is necessary for a country to have, for a time, some form or other of dictatorial power. As you will understand, it is possible for a dictator to govern in a liberal way. And it is also possible for a democracy to govern with a total lack of liberalism. Personally I prefer a liberal dictator to democratic government lacking liberalism.

      • TotallynotJessica@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        9 hours ago

        I think that’s a lazy way to understand them. They really believe they’re the good guys, as do fascists and tankies and right wing libertarians. Very few people are actually that nihilistic, and even those that kinda are end up believing the shit they say anyways.

        • TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world
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          8 hours ago

          That’s just it, I don’t think they see themselves as “good guys” or “bad guys” because that implies some kind of moral dynamic, and they see themselves as above such things. They’re technocrats, I think they see themselves as scientists, in a way. I don’t think they care so much whether or not a course of action is “moral” only that it achieves the desired results.

          I think people misunderstand nihilism. It isn’t the total absence of belief, it’s a rejection of meaning and morality. It’s not that the liberals don’t believe in anything, they believe in free markets, they believe in the fully atomized, wholly self-interested, utility maximizing individual. They believe in those things, they just don’t care if that individual, or, god forbid, a group of people, hold any moral positions, unless or until those moral positions start interfering with the functioning of "free markets.’

          • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            8 hours ago

            I think people misunderstand nihilism. It isn’t the total absence of belief, it’s a rejection of meaning and morality.

            Nihilism does not, necessarily, reject morality.

            Moral nihilism does, but that’s just one sub category. Also, that’s specifically about the rejection of objective morality.

          • TotallynotJessica@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            8 hours ago

            And I’m telling you, as someone who grew up around and has paid a lot of attention to liberals, they believe their own bullshit. They’re not special; every such group is like this.

      • ElysianBladeRunner@piefed.social
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        9 hours ago

        I’d argue that for Democrats, this upcoming midterm is war. And sometimes, political campaigns should be put into motion only when opposition has the lowest chance of parrying attacks. Maximum effectiveness.

        Now, also waiting for “perfect timing” only to take no action in the end could be where we are headed. I hope not.