No, the rest of us live in the United States and know we'll find ourselves in an unmarked car headed for El Salvador if we get too candid.
I'd laugh, but it's not even funny.
But let me clarify -- I think we're saying kind of the same thing. I definitely didn't mean to come off 'I'm more lefty than anyone here.' That's why I specified more than I've seen -said- by anyone. I'm maybe a little tongue-in-cheek pointing out that I do think some, maybe not all, are holding back certain opinions. I'm with you guys, and I'm more comfortable saying it because I'm slightly safer.
Honestly, sometimes I wonder right now how the Canadian government would react if an arrest warrant was issued for me based on some of the shit I've said publicly. I know it's not going to happen and I'm 100% not that important. But it's wild that it's even become a thought that would cross my mind. I've openly advocated, for example on Old Fwoosh, in actual public settings, on Facebok, etc, for the jailing and even execution of traitorous scumbag right-wingers that have actively harmed the country and its citizens with evil policies. I think the entire Republican side of the aisle needs their own Nuremberg trials -- with a more satisfactory conclusion than the original ones. No re-integration; hang them all.
I also openly advocate for the execution of billionaires. Their empires are built on suffering and they have proven, time and again, that they do not care and will continue to cause suffering in order to remain the most wealthy people on earth.
But how long am I going to get away with saying this stuff as an American citizen. Even living abroad. It's not like Canada is a bastion of free speech and anarcho-communist thought either. Trudeau stepped down (and he sucked, to be clear), and now the PM position is being fought over by someone that would spend his entire life licking the underside of Trump's balls, or a full on right-wing banker masquerading as 'liberal.' Because, just like in the US, very few people on the 'Left' politically are actually leftists. They're all corporate centrists.
That MLK quote is unfortunate without the context of the rest of his beliefs. King always saw the good in people, but he also knew we were in a dogfight. On its own, it makes it seem like a just world is inevitable. It's not.
King believed in non-violent revolution.
And they shot him. And black people are still second-class citizens.
Nonviolence doesn't work and it never has.
I'm always cautious about this. I think the left can go overboard when criticizing Democrats. I'm not saying Chuck Schumer shouldn't be thrown out of leadership and replaced as soon as he can be primaried, but I don't like letting the perfect become the enemy of the good. I think demonizing all politicians leads to cynicism and defeatism, and that leads to reliable Democrats sitting out elections instead of voting.
I'm not saying Nancy "Insider Trading" Pelosi or Chuck "College Protesters Have Gone Too Far" Schumer are good enough, I just don't like equating them with Mitch McConnell, a man responsible for the death of the American republic.
I can't even begin to count the number of times I've seen someone say that Harris would be no different or only slightly better than Trump. I think everyone in this thread knows that's not true. It's exhausting.
Yeah, I think there's an overreaction by some. Or maybe some high level hyperbole. Harris obviously would have been FAR better than Trump. The question is - would Harris have changed things, or would Harris have just maintained the status quo to the point where we could still end up with Trump or someone exactly like him? That's the problem.
Biden was one of the best presidents of my lifetime, in terms of policy. That's not only fucking sad as fucking fuck - because he kind of sucked - but it literally ended with another Trump term and now the US is in worst shape than it has been in over 100 years. These non-Republican presidents and representatives spend years and years doing absolutely nothing. Yes, that's better than the massive harm caused by their Republican buddies. But it's still nothing. It still sets us up to fail later. They're stop-gap measures and nothing more. Points of peace between the years of suffering Republicans cause every time they have power.
And that's not enough. And I think that's what some people mean when they say Harris is no better than Trump. Because a Harris presidency doesn't protect us from a Trump presidency. It simply pushes it back by 4, or maybe 8 years. The fact that your George Ws and your Trumps can even come along and inflict the abject horror and misery that they have is proof positive that a Harris or a Biden presidency is functionally worthless. And, on some level, that does make it just as bad. Because it's not even LASTING harm reduction. It's false security and it allows people to remain complacent because they keep believing that if we just stick it out the system will 'rescue us,' without realizing that rescue is not a rescue - it's a temporary respite. It's a boat showing up to throw you a life preserver in the middle of the ocean and then motoring away. Great. I'm not going to die
today. Thanks, boat.
But it's also absolutely not wrong to say that Democrats, even the bad ones, inflict less harm than Republicans, even the good ones. I'm also not prepared to say there are NO truly good Democrats. Of course not. That would be ridiculous. In the system we have, anyone that actually truly wants to do good would need to register as a Dem. You'll never gain any political power as an independent and therefore will never affect any lasting change.
AOC is great. I love her. The entire 'girl squad' is great. Bernie is great. There's a few others. But these are pebbles on a beach. It's not enough. And many of their colleagues are fully in collusion with the Right. Hell, some of them ARE Republicans that ran as Democrats for any number of reasons (Sinema, Manchin both come to mind). And we have no systems in place to protect ourselves from the slow slide to the Right that the Democrats have fallen into. The system is rigged. And it's rigged because they all serve the same master. Hell, that's why we're seeing the Democratic leadership literally rigging the system against their OWN members to avoid people like AOC having any significant sway.
Anyway... fucking term limits, at least. Come on. The fact that it's been decades of asking for it and it still hasn't happened has proven that Democrats aren't interested in anything but their own power - as a group at least.
