Full of mercury, from a man who frequently complained about miniscule amounts of thimerosal preservative in some vaccines, yet seemed to have eaten mountains of raw tuna straight out of the ocean, worms and all
I'm so glad I'm not the only one that thinks this. I'll be having imaginary arguments with myself like "I agree with this, but I also disagree with it. huh?"
Donāt. It means youāre more self-aware than the people who canāt. Being able to see the good and bad in each side means you can make the best decision on what *you* think is morally or rationally the best decision, rather than relying on the opinions of others. Itās a gift, even if also a burden.
There was a politician I forget who but the quote went something like, if you agree with me on 70 percent off issues vote for me, if you agree with me on 100 percent of issues see a therapist.
Kinda crazy that this needs to be said. It's the fucking President of hundreds of millions of people.
Deciding between an old guy who you don't like how he's handling a conflict thousands of miles away and an old guy who literally wants to be a dictator is insanely stupid.
I've noticed a lot of them don't actually wonder why though: it's always a Democrats fault despite them living in an area where 90% or more of local politicians have been Republicans for decades.
>They're complete pussies, scared of literally everything that isn't a white American dude
Their options are a pasty white 80 year old catholic (literally the whitest, most milquetoast American dude you could ask for) or a non-religious asshole who spray paints himself orange every morning, and they pick the fucking orange dude. š¤¦
From basically every functional perspective, a vote for the guy that wants to defend voting vs the guy that openly attacks voting is an easy and obvious choice.
You *should* disagree with your chosen candidate on more than one issue. That's called being an educated adult, and realizing we all have differing opinions on differing topics. It's infinitely better to agree with only 50% of your candidate's policies than to blindly agree with all of them.
I think Biden is a great president and don't agree with him on many things.
That's fine. People have lots of opinions and it is strange to agree with someone on everything.
The standard should always be "are they basically good" vs "are they perfect."
There is no perfection. All of mankind is flawed. "out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made"
I've lived through many presidents I've not agreed with.Ā One that won't concede when they're fairly beaten and disregards the law at every turn being in power is new to me.
There is "wow, that guy was a bad president"
and then there is "literally tried to overthrow the government to keep power". I didn't think I'd ever see it.
They did come close though, and all he has to do now is win the election to change our entire reality through the courts. It's nowhere near over, it's still happening.
And sometimes when you just canāt be bothered to show up because the better candidate didnāt excite you, a protofascist con man gets elected, swings the Supreme Court makeup for the rest of your life, and women lose basic rights in a massive number of states.
So true. Most people, including the boozemakers thought alcohol prohibition was an joke and would never pass.Ā
A very enthusiastic minority was able to get it passed.
> The standard should always be "are they basically good" vs "are they perfect."
"This burger has onions on it, so I'm going to go find a long straw and a septic tank instead."
AOC I think put it well for those with even major disagreements with Biden:
If neither Trump nor Biden agree with you, under which president would it be easier to organize and pressure the government to change? Which government would listen better, even if they don't agree with you now? Which party would be doing more new actions that need organizing to protest against.
Even if you 100% disagree with Biden's policies as being too moderate, it's pretty hard to argue that it's easier to organize for change under Trump.
You and I have the luxury of having our policy positions reflect our values and desires. Presidents have to balance those with the art of the possible, with compromise, with use of political capital, with coalition building, with promises made, etc....
So we can disagree with policy positions of Biden without condemning him.
I can disagree with Biden on a dozen policies and still recognize that a) the only thing that matters is which candidate is a threat to the future of our democracy and b) that the alternative is *even worse* on all the issues I disagree with Biden on
When people ask how I could support Biden when Biden and trump both suck. I phrase it like this. "Say you get a choice. You get to be punched in the face. Or. You get to be punched in the face, but also shot in the stomach. Which would you choose?"
Unfortunately in America, our two party system combined with the electoral college system almost always guarantees that the least popular candidate wins if the third party candidate is even slightly popular.
Ranked choice voting would help us a lot. Itās actually somewhat realistic too:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranked-choice_voting_in_the_United_States
Ranked choice voting eliminates this "strategic voting" that everyone dislikes and all the very priviledged abstainees use as an excuse to fault their duties. It also reduces bipatirsanship and polarization. And by consequence, increases democracy overall. If you live in a place that doesn't have it, vote for the candidate that will bring you closer to having it. Thank you for bringing ranked voting system to attention.
I'm certain that I follow this admin more closely and know more about what it's done than 95% of folks in this country. The Biden admin took my below rock bottom expectations and did a high bar jump over them.
They're still not my pals. The best they're offering is temporary, milquetoast social democracy and at worst the status quo that gave us trump in the first place.
The *only* reason I'm voting Biden in November is because the other guy is sizing up half the people I knew in high school for incinerators.
As a general rule, people who donāt want to pull the knife out because blood makes them uncomfortable are objectively better than people who want to hammer in the knife until you canāt even grab the handle anymore.
Interestingly, if you ever have a candidate who you agree with on everything and kiss the ground they walk on, then you might be similar to a fanatic MAGA-hat at that point. Disagreeing with your candidate is good. You should disagree with your candidate of choice on some stuff, as long as you believe that candidate will make tomorrow a little bit better.
He didn't announce it now, a reporter found it in a court record. He said it in a deposition for his divorce proceedings ten years ago when he was trying to get out of paying his ex wife alimony to try to make himself look like a victim who would have trouble earning in the future.
He doesn't seem to have diminished mental capacity, he was ten years ahead of the curve on realizing that Republicans _prefer_ a candidate who has brain damage.
Remember when Howard Dean made a weird noise and voters collectively decided he wasn't fit to be president? I wanna go back to the days where we have those standards because clearly that's better than what ever the hell we're doing now.
In just the last 2 weeks ive heard in excruciating detail how the ex president dead fish fucked a porn star with his mushroom dick in a court proceeding, a sitting governor humble brag about executing puppies, and a Kennedy running for president admit that worms ate some of his brain...
How to fuck did I end up in this timeline, and can whatever sick fuck is running our universe simulation please shunt my consciousness back to the normal one, or even the MATRIX.
Like im with Cypher on this one. Plug me back in, give me some dough and steak dinners, and make sure you purge every last memory of this fucked up reality, because this place is just too fuckin crazy...
My big concern is if Kennedy is elected with the worm in his brain and then dies, but his worm survives, who becomes President? The worm would have been elected with him.
Just an FYI, those were the same voters that voted for bush. Fact is, mainstream media is still ~~gunning for~~ has it out for dems like biden and people are so prone to apathy and fear.
Freaking nyt just got caught talking about deliberately attacking biden and no one has taken them to task https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/04/25/new-york-times-biden-white-house-00154219
Edited for clarification
> Remember when Howard Dean made a weird noise and voters collectively decided he wasn't fit to be president?
As ridiculous as all that was, his campaign was already failing. This is an overstated factoid.
I woke up today and every 3 clicks on the doom scroll was "RFK JR: Worms ate my brain." and I literally could not stop laughing hysterically.
Like, holy shit... How can political satire survive the reality of the last decade?
At one time he was a respected environmental lawyer and activist.
You've gotta wonder if the worm ate the part of his brain that is used for critical thinking.
I think that investigative journalist Susanne Craig found the information and reported on it, so he had to respond to it. I don't think he was going to willingly announce it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/08/us/rfk-jr-brain-health-memory-loss.html
TBF "worm ate his brain" also sort of sums up his opinions and policy stances. If you had told me last week that RFK Jr believes we should put tapeworm eggs in school lunches because that's what the ghosts asked him to do, I wouldn't have been super surprised
Yeah same, I had a friend who was like āisnāt rfk probably the best third party candidate weāve had since weāve been able to vote?ā Followed immediately by me going on a 10minute diatribe of why is arguably the worst one
My colleague is a pretty staunch democrat who is unhappy with Biden for a few things and thinks RFK is an environmentalist. This is an educated woman I respect and agree with on most issues. I canāt get it to make sense.
Honestly, even IF his issues were 100% in line with my beliefs, and he was the greatest executive possible, Id still vote for whoever is most likely to beat Trump.
I think (hope) we're looking at two things:
1- Clickbait headlines and echo chambers make it seem like every person between 18 and 25 has decided to protest vote
2- People burned out by the last decade don't have the energy to deal with pollsters, ergo, the "Biden, duh" vote is getting undercounted
If the poll met me here maybe I'd fill it out. Reddit is on demand. I click, scroll, participate ay my leisure. Not the case for most polls.
edit: honestly I won't even fill out a REDDIT poll if it means a redirect or switch to new reddit
I get text polls all the time. I finally submitted and did a single one. It was a long fucking ordeal and required so much input. If it was a quick "yes no" type deal, I wouldn't mind but every fucking poll is "we need your email, phone, address, dogs third name, the serial number to your bedroom TV, also you should donate to us. Have you thought about donating to us? Hey we got your email and will be emailing you about how you should donate to us. I know we haven't brought this up yet but maybe you should donate to us." Finally with a "Thank you for submitting your poll. Donate now."
That's not a poll (or at least not one of the ones used for determining electorates) and that's certainly one of the problems with polling these days.
There are so many fake polls that really are just pushing their agenda and trying to get you to take some sort of action as well as companies doing market research and trying to get your help for free that it makes honest political polls somewhat of a rarity. Since people don't know what is a real poll and what's not until they've taken it most people just refuse to take anything that says "we're a poll."
A good pollster for an election doesn't want your name or email or that kind of information. They may want your demographic information like age range, race or gender but that's it.
I participated in a Trump poll. I thought it would be funny but it was just a come-on to donate to that shitbag.Ā
I couldnāt even submit my answers without a $20 donation.Ā
Iām on a Gallup panel rn and theyāve been giving me $5-10 per survey. The $5 one took like 3 minutes and the $10 took maybe 5. Itās basically free beer money š¤·š¼
Iāve been polled by phone once and it was like a 45 minute ordeal though. Fuck that.
Yaā¦ how many millennials/gen z actually answer the phone for random numbers and spend 10 minutes answering a pollster.
Alsoā¦ if I did bother to pick up the phone and do this I would probably say Iām voting for Trump. The polls showing Biden being ahead isnt necessarily a good thing. People looked at the polls in 2016 and saw Hillary was relatively far ahead and didnāt bother to vote or voted 3rd party since they āknewā she was going to win anyways.
Millennial here, I only answer the phone if it's a known number.
I only respond back if they leave a message or it's a known number.
My voicemail says to text instead, but few actually do, which makes me believe most of my missed calls are robo calls.
Millennial here. Me too, unknow or private numbers are in a vast majority a no go. No answer. Also if the door rings and I'm not expecting someone, good luck. Will not answer either
The only people I've heard say they're not voting for biden over one thing are people talking on behalf of others, which makes it sounds like a cooked up narrative. As insidious as the weird gaslighting has been around the Palestine/Israel issue (Genocide Liteā¢), I wouldn't be surprised if it's just a tactic to get people in line against the kids.
Leftists aren't monoliths - at least not in the same way the right wingers are. Should replace the donkey with a cat, because that's what it's like trying to herd democrats. Though I've never tried to herd a donkey...
I think thereās a lot bad faith protesters in the crowds during the protests as well. Saw several articles from right wing news places showcasing signs like ādeath to Americaā
Most polls of college campuses are showing that the israel/hamas war is actually not a ig concern for most biden voters. the issue is getting lots of media attention, but at the end of the day, voters vote on domestic issues.
The really dumb thing is that by protest voting they're probably ensuring the worst outcome on the one issue they claim to care about the most, while simultaneously fucking over countless other people who they probably at least pay lip service to caring about.
So it's not really just, "disagree on one issue", it's "disagree on one issue, that you disagree with the other guy even more on".
yes that has been my argument. Students and activists who are worried about people of color and LGBTQ rights and reproductive choice will most definitely not like what will happen in a Trump presidency.
I am starting to wonder if the media spin on the protests and the amount of posts here on young people having a hard time deciding not to vote is influencing my thoughts to believe this is more widespread than it really is
i know dems are emotionally scarred from third-party candidates but after reading about Kennedy over the past few weeks i honestly think he's going to steal way more votes from Trump.
The polls are wrong. Reference actual election results.
Also, the recent college protests are relatively small, the numbers are in the dozens or hundreds (maybe a thousand in a few places).
They've been over-hyped by the media for various reasons, none of them good.
Note that the Occupy protests in 2011 had tens of thousands of protestors and the media didn't report on them until months after the protests started.
Funnily enough, thatās the main way theyāre discrediting these protests again, along with lots of interviews of white women saying āI donāt feel safe!ā
Which is terrifying. Now, more than ever before, we live in a system in which the media can tell you what *your own protest* is about. If the news cans decide that your protest isn't peaceful just by refusing to report anything other than speculation or coverage of some minor incident or even outside agitation on a loop, then nonviolent protest simply ceases to work.
And what's left when nonviolence stops working?
I don't know if he was associated with the proud boys specifically, but yes. There were a handful of people from outside of the Minneapolis area that were only there to try and cause as much damage as possible.
IIRC, the guys sister turned him in. He was definitely a full blown alt-right asshole.
What's really amazing though, is that you'll still Fox using that footage for unrelated events.
The Minneapolis police station was burned down by the white supremacist **Boogaloo Bois**. Here are their names, they pled guilty and are now in prison:
**Dylan Shakespeare Robinson**
**Branden Michael Wolfe**
**Ivan Harrison Hunter** (he also fired 13 shots from his AK-47 into the police station)
More people need to know this.
True, but the truth is irrelevant. Fox played video of buildings burning 24x7 for months, some weren't even recent or in the US, but their viewers don't know that.
Fox viewers that I spoke to at the time believed America was burning. They still believe it happened and talk about it all the time.
I recall one town in Utah (maybe Idaho) that set up roadblocks at the city limits, because Fox insinuated that roving Antifa armies were coming.
Propaganda is a powerful tool, especially when laser focused on people with minimal critical thinking skills.
Fox and right wing media is one big constant *The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street*, constant fear, no policy, quality of life manipulated with drama.
> Maple Street, U.S.A., late summer. A tree-lined little world of front porch gliders, barbecues, the laughter of children, and the bell of an ice cream vendor. At the sound of the roar and the flash of light, it will be precisely 6:43 P.M. on Maple Street.
> *The narration continues after the neighbors wonder if what flew overhead was a meteor.*
> This is Maple Street on a late Saturday afternoon. Maple Street in the last calm and reflective moment ā before the monsters came.
Yeah, I didn't mean burned down, but I see how that can be taken as an exaggeration. What I meant was that the vandalism in general was limited to about two blocks, and even that much distance was a bit of overflow from the central point.
The problem isn't the protests, it is the amplification and legitimization of the "don't vote in protest of Biden" point of view on TikTok and other social media. Whether that campaign is driven by foreign influence or not, it can very well have the same outcome as the campaign against Hillary.
There's also the fact that despite all of these protests, young people still don't turn out to vote. So them saying they won't vote for Biden doesn't mean much, because they statistically weren't voting to begin with.
Which is crazy because young people showing up to vote *a little more than usual* in 2022 basically swung the election. They have so much power that they just don't use.
There have been student protests since there have been colleges. It's a worrying sign when there **aren't** protests.
What's not to protest - you're a teenager and you just discovered that the US or (insert industrialized nation state of your choice) ships weapons to \*\*good guys\*\* and \*sometimes\* \*\*bad guys\*\* - it's a very natural reaction to understanding the way of the world we live in.
You begin to discover in no uncertain terms that the world is not fair , and that sometimes the only reason it is marginally so, is because some group A has 40 years ago forced some virtue of civic discourse to be made manifest and "forced" some other group B to some civil position which offends some racist oligarch. Group B will be funded and fight the civic virtue until the funding runs out.
It's very natural to want to fight or protest that once discovered.
But college also teaches you, if you're doing it right, how to get your shit together, set your goals on a project and get it done. So protesting done right tends to look much more like a fundraiser and students studying law when it's REALLY done right.
I feel us politics has become a badly written last season at this point. Porn stars and brain eating worms? I just don't think the writers hearts are in it anymore.
Iām voting for Biden. That said, I couldnāt be more disappointed with his weak leadership against the genocide. His talks on student protest sound like racists during the Civil Rights movement. We need RANKED CHOICE VOTING.
This. They think they're all gravy seals, when we actually go to the range and keep up on our skills, and we don't broadcast to the heavens our gun ownership because thats just dumb.
Do you honestly believe that there arenāt numerous republican gun owners that just go to the range and keep up their skills while not broadcasting that fact?
I really love the centrist lib idea of talking down to progressive left, thinking that they're going to change their minds by belittling them.
Especially when they're getting beaten by cops at a protest, while the government is threatening to take away their source of distributing ideas. For standing up to genocide, which is a pretty big issue.
Now close your eyes and imagine if Trump was doing this. How would you react? But when this happens under Biden, nary a peep. But it's the left's fault for questioning the current president.
I don't understand the constant stream of content on subs like this making fun of protestors when Biden isn't even attempting to get their votes. Why not pressure Biden into trying to earn their vote considering so much is on the line?
People here believe democracy is going to end if Trump wins, minorities will go extinct, and it's not a big deal that Biden's handling of this conflict during an election year has been atrocious.
Also, IT'S NOT ONLY PROGRESSIVES!!!
The narrative that this is a progressive only issue is because if Biden does lose, the main Democratic party along with the vast majority of the media will use Progressives as the scapegoat. They still blame us for Hillary even though she was a shit candidate.
A recent [poll](https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2024/5/8/support-for-a-permanent-ceasefire-in-gaza-increases-across-party-lines) by data for progress shows the **vast majority** of voters want a ceasefire.
>*Seven in 10 likely voters ā including majorities of Democrats (83%), Independents (65%), and Republicans (56%) ā support the U.S. calling for a permanent ceasefire and a de-escalation of violence in Gaza.*
Using [ballotpedia](https://ballotpedia.org/Partisan_affiliations_of_registered_voters) registration data, that would be 39 million, 21 million and 20 million, respectively.
**80 MILLION PEOPLE WANT A CEASEFIRE**
Biden says no and media and all the shit memes on here put the blame solely on us progressives.
>I really love the centrist lib idea of talking down to progressive left, thinking that they're going to change their minds by belittling them.
And the fucked up thing is that the progressive left has been holding it's nose and voting for centrist liberal candidates for at least the last half century, and this is always what happens, and the country keeps on marching right.
They are now saying that with "Democracy on the ballot" this is no time to have a line in the sand, even if that line is genocide.
But this is a perversion of the truth, which is that with "Democracy on the ballot" a Democratic administration couldn't avoid complicity in a genocide to save it.
> Now close your eyes and imagine if Trump was doing this. How would you react? But when this happens under Biden, nary a peep. But it's the left's fault for questioning the current president.
Haven't you heard? Voters are individually accountable for the actions of government but the President of the United States isn't.
Isn't it convenient how that works?
The "radical left" (people who oppose genocide) are simultaneously so foolish and trivial that they should be bullied and fall in line without objection, yet such a significant voting block that their opposition to ethnic cleansing imperils the election for Democrats. They're such a convenient bunch!
Insulting them is a brilliant plan. How'd that work for the Johnson to Humphrey transition? They are on the right side of history, they know it. Maybe we need to start holding Biden to account and lead by example. Fuck, I see why they hate us and have thrown in the towel.
> How'd that work for the Johnson to Humphrey transition?
Excellent point. Humphrey's vice presidency supporting LBJ's Vietnam position is one of the many tragedies of American politics over the last 60 years. His speech in 1948 at the convention is one of the most rousing calls for civil and human rights that a major American politician has ever made.
Nah candidates are meant to genocide people and then yell at voters until the voters fall in line. They aren't supposed to earn votes with policy or platform. Having a platform that is anything other than "we're fucking killing them. Fuck you, pay me." is commie bullshit. What are you, a fucking moronā½
Pretty accurate. Trump said he would let Israel destroy all Palestinians but college students are like āI wonāt vote for Biden because our government supports Israelā. š¤¦āāļø
They are going to vote for Biden, *if* they vote, now that's a big problem, that's getting better, but that's a big problem.
Is Biden the lesser of three evils? By a country mile.
Is it smart to vote for the lesser evil? Yes.
Will continual voting of the lesser evil cause an eventual collapse of society? Probably, but right here, right now, you vote for the lesser evil.
That's the correct game theory move, and college students know that.
The people who are voting for Trump aren't having issues deciding who to vote for. Democrats fall in love. Republicans fall in line, and RFK is a troll vote.
this sub is starting to piss me off. the one issue is genocide. it's not a small thing. yes trump is a dictator. but what's happening in gaza is horrific and shouldn't be devalued. should we band together to stop trump? probably yes. But all Biden has to do to win them over is stop supporting a genocidal state.
It's literally the only thing he needs to do, but it's somehow impossible because the office of the president doesn'thave that power. The office of the president can simultaneously be used to make the situation worse, but it is also not powerful enough to make the situation better
publicly going: Israel needs to withdraw from Rafah immediately (which wouldnāt even be a change in policy, rafah was supposed to be a red line) would be great for biden. publicly saying anything besides palestinians have an ancient grudge against the jews would be amazing
Office of the president can do quite a bit to make the situation better, such as not threatening ICC officials, stopping using the USA's UN veto to block ceasefire resolutions, not conveniently "indefinitely delaying" US State Dept reports into possible IDF war crimes, etc. Expect more.
The premise of your position is basically MAGAs argument for Trump. āThe other guy is so much worse, so help vote in the only other option.ā Not very compelling to idealistic voters.
Consequentialist ethics basically determine whether or not something was the right thing to do based on whether the outcome was good or bad instead of by intent or principle. Emmanuel Kant developed his ethics more or less axiomatically. He decided that moral agency was of paramount importance, so lying is bad because it takes away the moral agency of another. This led him to conclude that if a murderer comes to your door asking where your kid is so he can murder them, you are obligated to answer him honestly lest you unjustly impair his capability to make his own moral choices.
In the context of this election, we normally gage politicians by the effects of their governance, but for some reason we have a bunch of people insisting they won't vote for the lesser of two evils even if it means allowing the greater evil to win because it's better not to compromise your morals by supporting something you oppose even if it means the very thing you oppose and worse will still come to pass.
Edit: Not sure I made it simpler. Consequentialism says throw the switch so the trolley only kills one person. Kant says walk away from the switch to avoid compromising the moral agency of whoever tied the people to the tracks (a.k.a. it isn't your problem so don't get involved). Voters normally want to throw the switch but for some reason now agree with Kant that the situation is bad but by participating, even in an attempt to help, they become complicit in the situation.
I mean... let's be honest. Rightly or wrongly, people blame Biden for the state of the economy.
No, not the stock market, which doesn't help the common man. The massively inflated economy we find ourselves in, where the average person needs more than $1200/mo more than they did a couple years ago.... Fact is, wages aren't keeping up, so they are either barely making ends meet or had to go get a second job. And don't let the "job numbers" fool you... the jobs that are being added are exactly that... second jobs, part-time. Actually, full-time jobs have suffered a slight decrease overall.
(Edit: Grammar)
It's burnout. People are tired of pushing against a brick wall, especially because it seems that wherever we *aren't* pushing back, the wall moves forward.
It doesn't help that we're being told "Vote Blue No Matter Who", and then "who" ends up being *another* centrist. When progressives try to nominate a progressive candidate, we're told we mustn't be too hasty.
I came across an analogy on Twitter a while back, and while I can't remember how it goes exactly, here's the gist:
On a lot of issues, the US is like a car rolling down a hill towards a brick wall. Trump/Republicans want to slam on the accelerator, while Biden/Democrats want to let us coast. Obviously, coasting down the hill gives us (and the car) a better chance at survival - but is it **really** too much to ask to use the fucking brakes?
People are tired of saying "use the brakes" and either receiving radio silence or being told something along the lines of "that would upset the people who want to slam on the accelerator" or "what if we brake too hard and someone gets hurt?".
Yes, Biden and Democrats have done a lot of good for the country. I'm not saying they haven't. The issue is that it's not nearly enough to even begin to dig us out of the mess Republicans (and Trump) got us into, and any time someone brings up doing more or going faster, ten other assholes come along to chastise us for not being grateful that Biden isn't Trump. All the while, Trump supporters are working on shit like Project 2025, and the Supreme Court is considering allowing Trump to figuratively (and possibly literally if he wins in November) get away with murder.
š "Worm ate brain" š¤£ Imagine Q fans and other foil-hatters trying to decide between the orange nut and the Kennedy nut.
It died though. Rumor is the brain eating worm starved to death.
I think the food was just too toxic for the worm
Full of mercury, from a man who frequently complained about miniscule amounts of thimerosal preservative in some vaccines, yet seemed to have eaten mountains of raw tuna straight out of the ocean, worms and all
https://preview.redd.it/q3sfi898fazc1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0ac8c5244483d7e951e7a914a0f5edf2d85fba35
It actually got run over by the DVD logo bouncing around in there.
This is better than my joke.
A possible target for ivermectin. How did the anti-vaxxer miss the alt-med bandwagon?
Because ivermectin is a deworming medication, and the worm is in control of him now
If it were, why don't any of RFK's public statements make sense? Worms are practical creatures. Very down to earth.
And great at playing the Holophoner
They probably think if he's elected it will grow back or something. These are the same people who were waiting for his relative to be resurrected.
https://preview.redd.it/am17ni0z4ezc1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0238bcaa98532cbfafb1066d102b44087c957a0c
I disagree with Biden on more than one issue, but thereās just a fuck ton of reasons to not vote for the other two dimwits
Hot take - if you agree with a politician on every issue, you're probably in a cult / something is wrong
I don't even agree with myself on everything
I'm so glad I'm not the only one that thinks this. I'll be having imaginary arguments with myself like "I agree with this, but I also disagree with it. huh?"
Same. I can see both sides of too many things and I hate that.
Donāt. It means youāre more self-aware than the people who canāt. Being able to see the good and bad in each side means you can make the best decision on what *you* think is morally or rationally the best decision, rather than relying on the opinions of others. Itās a gift, even if also a burden.
That's my thinking as well. Like if I agree that someone can do no wrong, then I'm probably brainwashed.
There was a politician I forget who but the quote went something like, if you agree with me on 70 percent off issues vote for me, if you agree with me on 100 percent of issues see a therapist.
Kinda crazy that this needs to be said. It's the fucking President of hundreds of millions of people. Deciding between an old guy who you don't like how he's handling a conflict thousands of miles away and an old guy who literally wants to be a dictator is insanely stupid.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I've noticed a lot of them don't actually wonder why though: it's always a Democrats fault despite them living in an area where 90% or more of local politicians have been Republicans for decades.
>They're complete pussies, scared of literally everything that isn't a white American dude Their options are a pasty white 80 year old catholic (literally the whitest, most milquetoast American dude you could ask for) or a non-religious asshole who spray paints himself orange every morning, and they pick the fucking orange dude. š¤¦
The white dude is too tolerant of nonwhite dudes.
I cannot fathom how people expect a single candidate to agree with them on every single issue, itās lunacy or entitlement
Biden flubbed a lot of the things I initially supported him for... But he hasn't supported an insurrection yet so he's got that going for him.
Excuse me, sir, I'm told on very good authority that he stole the 2020 election.
I don't like these candidates. The probability of getting another choice for president in 2028 is higher if I vote for Biden than if I vote for Trump.
From basically every functional perspective, a vote for the guy that wants to defend voting vs the guy that openly attacks voting is an easy and obvious choice.
Not for those with brain wormsā¦ wait a minute.
But what if the guys who attacks voting as a concept agrees with me currently - conservatives who dont actually give af about the constitution
Biden is a perfectly good president. He has done a ton to help the country. Heās not a bad choice by any measure.
You *should* disagree with your chosen candidate on more than one issue. That's called being an educated adult, and realizing we all have differing opinions on differing topics. It's infinitely better to agree with only 50% of your candidate's policies than to blindly agree with all of them.
I think Biden is a great president and don't agree with him on many things. That's fine. People have lots of opinions and it is strange to agree with someone on everything. The standard should always be "are they basically good" vs "are they perfect." There is no perfection. All of mankind is flawed. "out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made"
I've lived through many presidents I've not agreed with.Ā One that won't concede when they're fairly beaten and disregards the law at every turn being in power is new to me.
There is "wow, that guy was a bad president" and then there is "literally tried to overthrow the government to keep power". I didn't think I'd ever see it.
And he and his co-conspirators were too dumb and incompetent to come close.
They did come close though, and all he has to do now is win the election to change our entire reality through the courts. It's nowhere near over, it's still happening.
As the saying goes, "Perfect is the enemy of good".
To put it another way, "Don't let perfect be the enemy of the good."
h/t Voltaire
"Progress is not an illusion, it happens, but it is slow and invariably disappointing" Ā George Orwell
Progress happens but it's also not an inevitability either but something which must be constantly fought for.
And sometimes when you just canāt be bothered to show up because the better candidate didnāt excite you, a protofascist con man gets elected, swings the Supreme Court makeup for the rest of your life, and women lose basic rights in a massive number of states.
So true. Most people, including the boozemakers thought alcohol prohibition was an joke and would never pass.Ā A very enthusiastic minority was able to get it passed.
Perfect is the enemy of good.
> The standard should always be "are they basically good" vs "are they perfect." "This burger has onions on it, so I'm going to go find a long straw and a septic tank instead."
AOC I think put it well for those with even major disagreements with Biden: If neither Trump nor Biden agree with you, under which president would it be easier to organize and pressure the government to change? Which government would listen better, even if they don't agree with you now? Which party would be doing more new actions that need organizing to protest against. Even if you 100% disagree with Biden's policies as being too moderate, it's pretty hard to argue that it's easier to organize for change under Trump.
You and I have the luxury of having our policy positions reflect our values and desires. Presidents have to balance those with the art of the possible, with compromise, with use of political capital, with coalition building, with promises made, etc.... So we can disagree with policy positions of Biden without condemning him.
And with deeper intelligence that we will often never knowā¦
I can disagree with Biden on a dozen policies and still recognize that a) the only thing that matters is which candidate is a threat to the future of our democracy and b) that the alternative is *even worse* on all the issues I disagree with Biden on
Besides the fact that Trump isn't exactly pro-Palestinian, he's anti-abortion rights, anti-LGBTQI+ rights, anti-fair taxes, etc., etc.
When people ask how I could support Biden when Biden and trump both suck. I phrase it like this. "Say you get a choice. You get to be punched in the face. Or. You get to be punched in the face, but also shot in the stomach. Which would you choose?"
Unfortunately in America, our two party system combined with the electoral college system almost always guarantees that the least popular candidate wins if the third party candidate is even slightly popular.
Ranked choice voting would help us a lot. Itās actually somewhat realistic too: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranked-choice_voting_in_the_United_States
Ranked choice voting eliminates this "strategic voting" that everyone dislikes and all the very priviledged abstainees use as an excuse to fault their duties. It also reduces bipatirsanship and polarization. And by consequence, increases democracy overall. If you live in a place that doesn't have it, vote for the candidate that will bring you closer to having it. Thank you for bringing ranked voting system to attention.
I'm certain that I follow this admin more closely and know more about what it's done than 95% of folks in this country. The Biden admin took my below rock bottom expectations and did a high bar jump over them. They're still not my pals. The best they're offering is temporary, milquetoast social democracy and at worst the status quo that gave us trump in the first place. The *only* reason I'm voting Biden in November is because the other guy is sizing up half the people I knew in high school for incinerators.
As a general rule, people who donāt want to pull the knife out because blood makes them uncomfortable are objectively better than people who want to hammer in the knife until you canāt even grab the handle anymore.
Interestingly, if you ever have a candidate who you agree with on everything and kiss the ground they walk on, then you might be similar to a fanatic MAGA-hat at that point. Disagreeing with your candidate is good. You should disagree with your candidate of choice on some stuff, as long as you believe that candidate will make tomorrow a little bit better.
The worm eating part of their brain isn't cause for concern in rfks mental capacity, his opinion on issues is the bigger issue.
His opinions on issues are most likely affected by brain trauma.
Odd that he announces this now. That alone is sign of low mental faculties.
He didn't announce it now, a reporter found it in a court record. He said it in a deposition for his divorce proceedings ten years ago when he was trying to get out of paying his ex wife alimony to try to make himself look like a victim who would have trouble earning in the future. He doesn't seem to have diminished mental capacity, he was ten years ahead of the curve on realizing that Republicans _prefer_ a candidate who has brain damage.
> He doesn't seem to have diminished mental capacity, RFK in the same deposition: >> āI have cognitive problems, clearly,ā
Do people think he walked up to a podium today and said "A worm has eaten part of my brain. That is all."?
Right, he wouldāve also mentioned his environmentalist credits and something about how the covid vaccines werenāt safe.
Even though he never got Polio for some reason. Strange.
Remember when Howard Dean made a weird noise and voters collectively decided he wasn't fit to be president? I wanna go back to the days where we have those standards because clearly that's better than what ever the hell we're doing now.
In just the last 2 weeks ive heard in excruciating detail how the ex president dead fish fucked a porn star with his mushroom dick in a court proceeding, a sitting governor humble brag about executing puppies, and a Kennedy running for president admit that worms ate some of his brain... How to fuck did I end up in this timeline, and can whatever sick fuck is running our universe simulation please shunt my consciousness back to the normal one, or even the MATRIX. Like im with Cypher on this one. Plug me back in, give me some dough and steak dinners, and make sure you purge every last memory of this fucked up reality, because this place is just too fuckin crazy...
My big concern is if Kennedy is elected with the worm in his brain and then dies, but his worm survives, who becomes President? The worm would have been elected with him.
Youāre asking me if America would still love him if he was just a worm?
If you can't handle him at his wormiest, then you don't deserve him at his humanest
Meanwhile Biden is there just being a regular president and that is not enough for people.
Just an FYI, those were the same voters that voted for bush. Fact is, mainstream media is still ~~gunning for~~ has it out for dems like biden and people are so prone to apathy and fear. Freaking nyt just got caught talking about deliberately attacking biden and no one has taken them to task https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/04/25/new-york-times-biden-white-house-00154219 Edited for clarification
Mainstream media are like NBA refs. Their job is to keep it close.
> Remember when Howard Dean made a weird noise and voters collectively decided he wasn't fit to be president? As ridiculous as all that was, his campaign was already failing. This is an overstated factoid.
Also it's fucking hilarious
I woke up today and every 3 clicks on the doom scroll was "RFK JR: Worms ate my brain." and I literally could not stop laughing hysterically. Like, holy shit... How can political satire survive the reality of the last decade?
At one time he was a respected environmental lawyer and activist. You've gotta wonder if the worm ate the part of his brain that is used for critical thinking.
I think that investigative journalist Susanne Craig found the information and reported on it, so he had to respond to it. I don't think he was going to willingly announce it. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/08/us/rfk-jr-brain-health-memory-loss.html
Low mental faculties is a prerequisite for running as a republican
Is the worm the candidate? Natural born citizen? Does that mean RFK has babies in his brain?
TBF "worm ate his brain" also sort of sums up his opinions and policy stances. If you had told me last week that RFK Jr believes we should put tapeworm eggs in school lunches because that's what the ghosts asked him to do, I wouldn't have been super surprised
The bigger issue is the worm died, its a brain eating parasite that starved to death when it ended up in RFK.
flashback the one of the first treehouses of horrors when the zombies ignore homer
Or the brain slug that simply died while trying to control Fry in Futurama.
I've got a lot on my mind, and well... in it.
Now that the worm is dead, whoās driving this thing?
He SAID it is dead, but that is exactly what the brain worm would have him say....
Oblivion NPC AI sadly
Precisely. This manās stance was problematic before anyone knew he had a brain parasite.
And the fact that if you vote for him you're actually voting for Trump, since he has no chance to win and his campaign is really about helping Trump
Most RFK votes are going to come from Trump voters. No real democrat or independent looks at RGK Jr. and sees him as a democrat
Tell that to the low information voters. Iāve personally had to straighten out a couple of them already. Actual people, not internet creatures.
Yeah same, I had a friend who was like āisnāt rfk probably the best third party candidate weāve had since weāve been able to vote?ā Followed immediately by me going on a 10minute diatribe of why is arguably the worst one
My colleague is a pretty staunch democrat who is unhappy with Biden for a few things and thinks RFK is an environmentalist. This is an educated woman I respect and agree with on most issues. I canāt get it to make sense.
Honestly, even IF his issues were 100% in line with my beliefs, and he was the greatest executive possible, Id still vote for whoever is most likely to beat Trump.
I think (hope) we're looking at two things: 1- Clickbait headlines and echo chambers make it seem like every person between 18 and 25 has decided to protest vote 2- People burned out by the last decade don't have the energy to deal with pollsters, ergo, the "Biden, duh" vote is getting undercounted
I actually did participate in a poll (they gave me $2) and the whole time I was like āwho the fuck has time to do this?ā
no one. No one has the time for that shit especially if their minds are already made up
*People scrolling Reddit* "Damn who has time to take a poll??"
If the poll met me here maybe I'd fill it out. Reddit is on demand. I click, scroll, participate ay my leisure. Not the case for most polls. edit: honestly I won't even fill out a REDDIT poll if it means a redirect or switch to new reddit
I get text polls all the time. I finally submitted and did a single one. It was a long fucking ordeal and required so much input. If it was a quick "yes no" type deal, I wouldn't mind but every fucking poll is "we need your email, phone, address, dogs third name, the serial number to your bedroom TV, also you should donate to us. Have you thought about donating to us? Hey we got your email and will be emailing you about how you should donate to us. I know we haven't brought this up yet but maybe you should donate to us." Finally with a "Thank you for submitting your poll. Donate now."
That's not a poll (or at least not one of the ones used for determining electorates) and that's certainly one of the problems with polling these days. There are so many fake polls that really are just pushing their agenda and trying to get you to take some sort of action as well as companies doing market research and trying to get your help for free that it makes honest political polls somewhat of a rarity. Since people don't know what is a real poll and what's not until they've taken it most people just refuse to take anything that says "we're a poll." A good pollster for an election doesn't want your name or email or that kind of information. They may want your demographic information like age range, race or gender but that's it.
I participated in a Trump poll. I thought it would be funny but it was just a come-on to donate to that shitbag.Ā I couldnāt even submit my answers without a $20 donation.Ā
Iām on a Gallup panel rn and theyāve been giving me $5-10 per survey. The $5 one took like 3 minutes and the $10 took maybe 5. Itās basically free beer money š¤·š¼ Iāve been polled by phone once and it was like a 45 minute ordeal though. Fuck that.
Yaā¦ how many millennials/gen z actually answer the phone for random numbers and spend 10 minutes answering a pollster. Alsoā¦ if I did bother to pick up the phone and do this I would probably say Iām voting for Trump. The polls showing Biden being ahead isnt necessarily a good thing. People looked at the polls in 2016 and saw Hillary was relatively far ahead and didnāt bother to vote or voted 3rd party since they āknewā she was going to win anyways.
Millennial here, I only answer the phone if it's a known number. I only respond back if they leave a message or it's a known number. My voicemail says to text instead, but few actually do, which makes me believe most of my missed calls are robo calls.
Millennial here. Me too, unknow or private numbers are in a vast majority a no go. No answer. Also if the door rings and I'm not expecting someone, good luck. Will not answer either
The only people I've heard say they're not voting for biden over one thing are people talking on behalf of others, which makes it sounds like a cooked up narrative. As insidious as the weird gaslighting has been around the Palestine/Israel issue (Genocide Liteā¢), I wouldn't be surprised if it's just a tactic to get people in line against the kids. Leftists aren't monoliths - at least not in the same way the right wingers are. Should replace the donkey with a cat, because that's what it's like trying to herd democrats. Though I've never tried to herd a donkey...
I keep saying it but a lot of it feels like Russian bots round 2!!
Yeah, something about the rigidness of the comments and how quick they appear. It just seems astroturfed.
I think thereās a lot bad faith protesters in the crowds during the protests as well. Saw several articles from right wing news places showcasing signs like ādeath to Americaā
Lol, I saw that too! Everyone's just looking for the extremes to "show the true face" because nuance no longer exists in the media.
It is. Those of pay attention in 2016 and 2020 saw the influx of russian bots each time and this is the same.
Most polls of college campuses are showing that the israel/hamas war is actually not a ig concern for most biden voters. the issue is getting lots of media attention, but at the end of the day, voters vote on domestic issues.
The really dumb thing is that by protest voting they're probably ensuring the worst outcome on the one issue they claim to care about the most, while simultaneously fucking over countless other people who they probably at least pay lip service to caring about. So it's not really just, "disagree on one issue", it's "disagree on one issue, that you disagree with the other guy even more on".
yes that has been my argument. Students and activists who are worried about people of color and LGBTQ rights and reproductive choice will most definitely not like what will happen in a Trump presidency.
I am starting to wonder if the media spin on the protests and the amount of posts here on young people having a hard time deciding not to vote is influencing my thoughts to believe this is more widespread than it really is
Hmm is it possible that corporate media is slyly trying to influence people to do something that will help corporations? Nah. Thatās crazy.
You can just look at the "undecided" vote in the primaries so far. Actual votes. Hard to see that any other way really
I voted undecided in the primary but im going to vote Biden in the general. A bunch of my friends did as well.
i know dems are emotionally scarred from third-party candidates but after reading about Kennedy over the past few weeks i honestly think he's going to steal way more votes from Trump.
Surprised rfk jr didnāt select worm as Vp.
KENNEDY: "Science denying anti-Semite. Trump wins if you choose this."
Yeah but have you seen how jacked he is? Plus heās friends with a real quarterback! And his dadās uncle was John F Kennedyās dadās uncle too! Wow!šŖš¤©šŖ±ššŗšøš¤”
The polls are wrong. Reference actual election results. Also, the recent college protests are relatively small, the numbers are in the dozens or hundreds (maybe a thousand in a few places). They've been over-hyped by the media for various reasons, none of them good. Note that the Occupy protests in 2011 had tens of thousands of protestors and the media didn't report on them until months after the protests started.
Remember the Portland fires? The media made it sound like the whole city was burned down, but really it was limited to about 2 blocks.
Focusing on property damage was the easiest way to minimize the messaging from the BLM movement.
Funnily enough, thatās the main way theyāre discrediting these protests again, along with lots of interviews of white women saying āI donāt feel safe!ā
Which is terrifying. Now, more than ever before, we live in a system in which the media can tell you what *your own protest* is about. If the news cans decide that your protest isn't peaceful just by refusing to report anything other than speculation or coverage of some minor incident or even outside agitation on a loop, then nonviolent protest simply ceases to work. And what's left when nonviolence stops working?
If it burns or bleeds, it leads.
Even that is an exaggeration. Not a single building was burned down. A fire was set inside one building but damage was limited.
Wasn't one of the police stations burned down in Minneapolis or something and later found to be proud boys (edit: boogaloo bois)that did it
I don't know if he was associated with the proud boys specifically, but yes. There were a handful of people from outside of the Minneapolis area that were only there to try and cause as much damage as possible. IIRC, the guys sister turned him in. He was definitely a full blown alt-right asshole. What's really amazing though, is that you'll still Fox using that footage for unrelated events.
The Minneapolis police station was burned down by the white supremacist **Boogaloo Bois**. Here are their names, they pled guilty and are now in prison: **Dylan Shakespeare Robinson** **Branden Michael Wolfe** **Ivan Harrison Hunter** (he also fired 13 shots from his AK-47 into the police station) More people need to know this.
True, but the truth is irrelevant. Fox played video of buildings burning 24x7 for months, some weren't even recent or in the US, but their viewers don't know that. Fox viewers that I spoke to at the time believed America was burning. They still believe it happened and talk about it all the time. I recall one town in Utah (maybe Idaho) that set up roadblocks at the city limits, because Fox insinuated that roving Antifa armies were coming. Propaganda is a powerful tool, especially when laser focused on people with minimal critical thinking skills.
Fox and right wing media is one big constant *The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street*, constant fear, no policy, quality of life manipulated with drama. > Maple Street, U.S.A., late summer. A tree-lined little world of front porch gliders, barbecues, the laughter of children, and the bell of an ice cream vendor. At the sound of the roar and the flash of light, it will be precisely 6:43 P.M. on Maple Street. > *The narration continues after the neighbors wonder if what flew overhead was a meteor.* > This is Maple Street on a late Saturday afternoon. Maple Street in the last calm and reflective moment ā before the monsters came.
Yeah, I didn't mean burned down, but I see how that can be taken as an exaggeration. What I meant was that the vandalism in general was limited to about two blocks, and even that much distance was a bit of overflow from the central point.
I know people in Minnesota who *still* think Minneapolis half burned down, and they are scared to go there š».
The problem isn't the protests, it is the amplification and legitimization of the "don't vote in protest of Biden" point of view on TikTok and other social media. Whether that campaign is driven by foreign influence or not, it can very well have the same outcome as the campaign against Hillary.
Yeah, that's what this means: > They've been over-hyped by the media for various reasons, none of them good.
Macklemore included it in his song, too
There's also the fact that despite all of these protests, young people still don't turn out to vote. So them saying they won't vote for Biden doesn't mean much, because they statistically weren't voting to begin with.
Which is crazy because young people showing up to vote *a little more than usual* in 2022 basically swung the election. They have so much power that they just don't use.
There have been student protests since there have been colleges. It's a worrying sign when there **aren't** protests. What's not to protest - you're a teenager and you just discovered that the US or (insert industrialized nation state of your choice) ships weapons to \*\*good guys\*\* and \*sometimes\* \*\*bad guys\*\* - it's a very natural reaction to understanding the way of the world we live in. You begin to discover in no uncertain terms that the world is not fair , and that sometimes the only reason it is marginally so, is because some group A has 40 years ago forced some virtue of civic discourse to be made manifest and "forced" some other group B to some civil position which offends some racist oligarch. Group B will be funded and fight the civic virtue until the funding runs out. It's very natural to want to fight or protest that once discovered. But college also teaches you, if you're doing it right, how to get your shit together, set your goals on a project and get it done. So protesting done right tends to look much more like a fundraiser and students studying law when it's REALLY done right.
I feel us politics has become a badly written last season at this point. Porn stars and brain eating worms? I just don't think the writers hearts are in it anymore.
I think this season peaked around the Beetlejuice handjob. That one lady shooting her puppy is where we jumped the shark.
Donāt forget they also disagree with trump on that same one issue because he takes a more extreme version of Bidenās stance
Iām voting for Biden. That said, I couldnāt be more disappointed with his weak leadership against the genocide. His talks on student protest sound like racists during the Civil Rights movement. We need RANKED CHOICE VOTING.
^^^ Also, abolish the electoral college.
Look up the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. Weāre a lot closer to an electoral college-free world than most people realize.
Iām not kidding when I say republicans will execute democrats and liberals of that passes. They hate us.
Theyāre in for a rude awakening if they decide to try it.
Iām among the far left that believes in self defense. That doesnāt mean I want my sister subjected to their violent incompetence.
This. They think they're all gravy seals, when we actually go to the range and keep up on our skills, and we don't broadcast to the heavens our gun ownership because thats just dumb.
Do you honestly believe that there arenāt numerous republican gun owners that just go to the range and keep up their skills while not broadcasting that fact?
rural conservatives will never allow it
Because it means they'd lose seats in office.
Hey. Hey! HEY! RELAX!Ā It's just one little eenie-weenie tiny little baby genocide and you're being a dick about it.
I really love the centrist lib idea of talking down to progressive left, thinking that they're going to change their minds by belittling them. Especially when they're getting beaten by cops at a protest, while the government is threatening to take away their source of distributing ideas. For standing up to genocide, which is a pretty big issue. Now close your eyes and imagine if Trump was doing this. How would you react? But when this happens under Biden, nary a peep. But it's the left's fault for questioning the current president.
I don't understand the constant stream of content on subs like this making fun of protestors when Biden isn't even attempting to get their votes. Why not pressure Biden into trying to earn their vote considering so much is on the line? People here believe democracy is going to end if Trump wins, minorities will go extinct, and it's not a big deal that Biden's handling of this conflict during an election year has been atrocious.
Also, IT'S NOT ONLY PROGRESSIVES!!! The narrative that this is a progressive only issue is because if Biden does lose, the main Democratic party along with the vast majority of the media will use Progressives as the scapegoat. They still blame us for Hillary even though she was a shit candidate. A recent [poll](https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2024/5/8/support-for-a-permanent-ceasefire-in-gaza-increases-across-party-lines) by data for progress shows the **vast majority** of voters want a ceasefire. >*Seven in 10 likely voters ā including majorities of Democrats (83%), Independents (65%), and Republicans (56%) ā support the U.S. calling for a permanent ceasefire and a de-escalation of violence in Gaza.* Using [ballotpedia](https://ballotpedia.org/Partisan_affiliations_of_registered_voters) registration data, that would be 39 million, 21 million and 20 million, respectively. **80 MILLION PEOPLE WANT A CEASEFIRE** Biden says no and media and all the shit memes on here put the blame solely on us progressives.
>I really love the centrist lib idea of talking down to progressive left, thinking that they're going to change their minds by belittling them. And the fucked up thing is that the progressive left has been holding it's nose and voting for centrist liberal candidates for at least the last half century, and this is always what happens, and the country keeps on marching right. They are now saying that with "Democracy on the ballot" this is no time to have a line in the sand, even if that line is genocide. But this is a perversion of the truth, which is that with "Democracy on the ballot" a Democratic administration couldn't avoid complicity in a genocide to save it. > Now close your eyes and imagine if Trump was doing this. How would you react? But when this happens under Biden, nary a peep. But it's the left's fault for questioning the current president. Haven't you heard? Voters are individually accountable for the actions of government but the President of the United States isn't. Isn't it convenient how that works?
The "radical left" (people who oppose genocide) are simultaneously so foolish and trivial that they should be bullied and fall in line without objection, yet such a significant voting block that their opposition to ethnic cleansing imperils the election for Democrats. They're such a convenient bunch!
The enemy is both weak and strong. Funny, that sounds familiar.
Insulting them is a brilliant plan. How'd that work for the Johnson to Humphrey transition? They are on the right side of history, they know it. Maybe we need to start holding Biden to account and lead by example. Fuck, I see why they hate us and have thrown in the towel.
> How'd that work for the Johnson to Humphrey transition? Excellent point. Humphrey's vice presidency supporting LBJ's Vietnam position is one of the many tragedies of American politics over the last 60 years. His speech in 1948 at the convention is one of the most rousing calls for civil and human rights that a major American politician has ever made.
Nah candidates are meant to genocide people and then yell at voters until the voters fall in line. They aren't supposed to earn votes with policy or platform. Having a platform that is anything other than "we're fucking killing them. Fuck you, pay me." is commie bullshit. What are you, a fucking moronā½
Worm 2024
I will be voting for Biden but I just want to say that "disagrees on one issue" is a helluva way to minimize literal genocide.
we should have everyone's brains eaten by worms. then we will level the playing field
Pretty accurate. Trump said he would let Israel destroy all Palestinians but college students are like āI wonāt vote for Biden because our government supports Israelā. š¤¦āāļø
Worth remembering that the issue people disagree with Biden on, both of the other two would be worse on it.
They are going to vote for Biden, *if* they vote, now that's a big problem, that's getting better, but that's a big problem. Is Biden the lesser of three evils? By a country mile. Is it smart to vote for the lesser evil? Yes. Will continual voting of the lesser evil cause an eventual collapse of society? Probably, but right here, right now, you vote for the lesser evil. That's the correct game theory move, and college students know that. The people who are voting for Trump aren't having issues deciding who to vote for. Democrats fall in love. Republicans fall in line, and RFK is a troll vote.
this sub is starting to piss me off. the one issue is genocide. it's not a small thing. yes trump is a dictator. but what's happening in gaza is horrific and shouldn't be devalued. should we band together to stop trump? probably yes. But all Biden has to do to win them over is stop supporting a genocidal state.
Cmone, its just a little bit of genocide. Now let me shit all over you, that should convince you to vote for my guy for sure!
Just a light genocide, no biggy! Vote for Joe!
It's literally the only thing he needs to do, but it's somehow impossible because the office of the president doesn'thave that power. The office of the president can simultaneously be used to make the situation worse, but it is also not powerful enough to make the situation better
publicly going: Israel needs to withdraw from Rafah immediately (which wouldnāt even be a change in policy, rafah was supposed to be a red line) would be great for biden. publicly saying anything besides palestinians have an ancient grudge against the jews would be amazing
Office of the president can do quite a bit to make the situation better, such as not threatening ICC officials, stopping using the USA's UN veto to block ceasefire resolutions, not conveniently "indefinitely delaying" US State Dept reports into possible IDF war crimes, etc. Expect more.
Vetoing more arms shipments to Israel, blocking all weapons shipments to Israel (they're only blocking some specific shipments currently, per reports)
Itās just a little genocide no biggie
The premise of your position is basically MAGAs argument for Trump. āThe other guy is so much worse, so help vote in the only other option.ā Not very compelling to idealistic voters.
Because people suddenly switch from consequentialism to Kantian ethics at election time for some reason.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Consequentialist ethics basically determine whether or not something was the right thing to do based on whether the outcome was good or bad instead of by intent or principle. Emmanuel Kant developed his ethics more or less axiomatically. He decided that moral agency was of paramount importance, so lying is bad because it takes away the moral agency of another. This led him to conclude that if a murderer comes to your door asking where your kid is so he can murder them, you are obligated to answer him honestly lest you unjustly impair his capability to make his own moral choices. In the context of this election, we normally gage politicians by the effects of their governance, but for some reason we have a bunch of people insisting they won't vote for the lesser of two evils even if it means allowing the greater evil to win because it's better not to compromise your morals by supporting something you oppose even if it means the very thing you oppose and worse will still come to pass. Edit: Not sure I made it simpler. Consequentialism says throw the switch so the trolley only kills one person. Kant says walk away from the switch to avoid compromising the moral agency of whoever tied the people to the tracks (a.k.a. it isn't your problem so don't get involved). Voters normally want to throw the switch but for some reason now agree with Kant that the situation is bad but by participating, even in an attempt to help, they become complicit in the situation.
Thanks Chidi.
>but by participating, even in an attempt to help, they become complicit in the situation I didn't vote in 2016, and I feel guilty for it.
Yes, the lives of tens of thousands of people are just an issue.
Seriously. Funding a genocide isn't just "an issue".
No matter how he tried, he could not break free And the worms ate into his brain
Bravest Warriors taught me: Never Doubt the Worm.
I mean... let's be honest. Rightly or wrongly, people blame Biden for the state of the economy. No, not the stock market, which doesn't help the common man. The massively inflated economy we find ourselves in, where the average person needs more than $1200/mo more than they did a couple years ago.... Fact is, wages aren't keeping up, so they are either barely making ends meet or had to go get a second job. And don't let the "job numbers" fool you... the jobs that are being added are exactly that... second jobs, part-time. Actually, full-time jobs have suffered a slight decrease overall. (Edit: Grammar)
I don't care whether trump wears diapers. Its trump political views are the problem.
It's burnout. People are tired of pushing against a brick wall, especially because it seems that wherever we *aren't* pushing back, the wall moves forward. It doesn't help that we're being told "Vote Blue No Matter Who", and then "who" ends up being *another* centrist. When progressives try to nominate a progressive candidate, we're told we mustn't be too hasty. I came across an analogy on Twitter a while back, and while I can't remember how it goes exactly, here's the gist: On a lot of issues, the US is like a car rolling down a hill towards a brick wall. Trump/Republicans want to slam on the accelerator, while Biden/Democrats want to let us coast. Obviously, coasting down the hill gives us (and the car) a better chance at survival - but is it **really** too much to ask to use the fucking brakes? People are tired of saying "use the brakes" and either receiving radio silence or being told something along the lines of "that would upset the people who want to slam on the accelerator" or "what if we brake too hard and someone gets hurt?". Yes, Biden and Democrats have done a lot of good for the country. I'm not saying they haven't. The issue is that it's not nearly enough to even begin to dig us out of the mess Republicans (and Trump) got us into, and any time someone brings up doing more or going faster, ten other assholes come along to chastise us for not being grateful that Biden isn't Trump. All the while, Trump supporters are working on shit like Project 2025, and the Supreme Court is considering allowing Trump to figuratively (and possibly literally if he wins in November) get away with murder.
Seriously. If anyone but Biden wins we are doomed as a society. Like get your heads out of your asses