Post AxIxj0rHz7HAOOEFFI by futurebird@sauropods.win
(DIR) More posts by futurebird@sauropods.win
(DIR) Post #AxIIFDMwoH0mNwi26a by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-18T12:25:54Z
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... tax returns. Donald Trump never released his tax returns for the years leading up to him entering office. Democrats tried to make an issue of this, but since there isn't any *law* that forces transparency we have people like Pelosi doing the soft corruption of stock deals and we know all about it, but we know much less about Trump and others. I still want to see those tax returns because I think they may be connected to another set of famous files not exposed.
(DIR) Post #AxIKwUhmQkwUVpDbvs by OrdRadical@beige.party
2025-08-18T12:56:05Z
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@futurebird Probably wrote off the trips as business expense. Meals and entertainment.🤢
(DIR) Post #AxIOx0b8FmmxF6brjk by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-18T13:41:03Z
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Remember when pressuring Trump to release his tax returns was the biggest scandal that many of us thought would make him unfit for office?There was a lesson in how that played out. The people asked him to follow some of the same rules that apply to all of us and he told us "No. I am exceptional." And I think this impressed some people, because to them the voices prattling on about "show us your tax returns" were elitist snobs on MSNBC.
(DIR) Post #AxIPGbl4JhfVzlbSPQ by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-18T13:44:36Z
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But, this was the start of a pattern of breaking boundaries. Violations. And it helped him grow popular with some people because to them it was the self-important news hosts liberal politicians who were being put in their place. "He told the elites no! And they couldn't stop him!" But, it still meant that none of us got to see those tax returns. None of us know his conflicts of interest. But it's just taxes, right? They all cheat anyway, don't they?
(DIR) Post #AxIPXXaP571rykglYu by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-18T13:47:39Z
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With the Epstein files Trump gave some of his base the experience we've all been having for a long time. He told them "No." And then he went on to coddle Maxwell, basically saying "You don't get to know this about me. You have no power over me."And it's not just taxes this time that's being hidden. It's the identities of many powerful people. Because he's always been on the side of the powerful (as long as they were on his side.)
(DIR) Post #AxIPoPqB8HA8sa78N6 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-18T13:50:42Z
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When asked about who he might pardon our president is remarkably transactional. The first thing he wonders about out loud in interviews on the subject is simply "Is that person loyal to me? What have they done for me?"Trump supporters hear "Is that person loyal to US?" The rule of law be dammed. He sat there considering if Diddy should get a pardon and never said anything about if he was guilty or if the trial was fair. The only question: "Is he one of the good ones?"
(DIR) Post #AxIQOYuaspG1REPnsm by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-08-18T13:57:09Z
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@futurebird All leaders think this way. Trump is more honest about it and that offends people who want to preserve their unfounded ideas that imperial leaders are good people.
(DIR) Post #AxIQULdf941e0gFqpk by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-18T13:58:17Z
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Being "one of the good ones" is no way to live. Pardons should be about correcting the course of the justice system. The president shouldn't hawk selling perfume and cryptocurrencies. Everyone isn't in on the fix, or skimming off the top. I don't know how we claw our way back from this pit of cynicism.
(DIR) Post #AxIQYwSADBAZLY4Byi by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-18T13:59:04Z
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@richpuchalsky "All leaders think this way."All? Always?
(DIR) Post #AxIQzPeIHkvTQNMYDI by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-08-18T14:03:52Z
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@futurebird All leaders of an imperial state do, yes. They just don't tell people about it.
(DIR) Post #AxIRXTQ8liWAy4z4N6 by clarablackink@writing.exchange
2025-08-18T14:10:00Z
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@futurebird The offers no answers but...The CEO god king figureheads like Trump are useful to their various courts and middle managers who cover for them because folks like him and Elon do a good job distracting from the crimes of those right under them (until things fall apart obviously).So much money goes to those covering for him. That's why they like this system, they reside in the castle behind stubborn boundaries that Trump sets.
(DIR) Post #AxIRp72YiVgslkMgV6 by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-08-18T14:13:14Z
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@futurebird I remember Marc Rich and i remember how much Democratic Party people excused everyone involved
(DIR) Post #AxIS2Tth2wAzQJaoHA by mls14@social.vivaldi.net
2025-08-18T14:15:32Z
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@futurebird Tens of millions of people LOVE the idea that “their guy” is immune to the law.Bullying others and asking ”what are you gonna do about it?” is seen as the peak of power for these bratty kids in adult bodies.We need to realize that a LOT of people in America don’t want Democracy or freedom. They Nazism. The “in” group can do ANYTHING they want to the outsiders.
(DIR) Post #AxITCK1UiGuBeJUvo0 by mls14@social.vivaldi.net
2025-08-18T14:17:20Z
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@richpuchalsky @futurebird Dear god I am beyond sick of both-sides BS when it comes to our current president. Holier-than-thou nonsense.This is the EXACT same argument that MAGA supporters use. “All the other politicians do the same stuff, but Trump is the only one honest about it!”Just wanted to make you aware that you are literally parroting the MAGA talking point.
(DIR) Post #AxITCLJbuOzTemyugK by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-18T14:28:35Z
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@mls14 @richpuchalsky I don't view "openness about corruption" as positive. But we can agree that this is part of what is going on, right? I hear Trump talking about pardons like a mob boss "what has he done for me lately?" is the only thing he cares about and I'm disgusted.I'm disgusted that it is happening, that it is out in the open and that a segment of people seem to have no higher expectations.
(DIR) Post #AxITU7mmwv7SuP6m9o by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-08-18T14:31:50Z
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@futurebird Yes, he talks like a mob boss. As an anarchist, I oppose all US leaders. The people who defend mob bosses who talk more politely while doing the same things caused the same cynicism that they now decry.
(DIR) Post #AxITyO2b4uS20gvtFg by gleick@mas.to
2025-08-18T14:37:16Z
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@futurebird I’ve always thought most people missed the point about the tax returns. Some thought he could be embarrassed by the revelation that he pays so little. In fact, the full tax returns — including those for the many interlocking entities in his shifting web of shell companies — would enable journalists and other sleuths to trace decades of immense tax fraud that the IRS has been unable or unwilling to unravel.
(DIR) Post #AxIUKM9mlPTgXOlrY8 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-18T14:41:17Z
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@richpuchalsky When these things happen with no shame there isn't any material recourse to redress the harm. THAT is the problem.And when it becomes clear to people inclined to exploit others that there are no social consequences if they kiss the right rings (or something else) more leaches and bottom feeders will exploit vulnerable people. More people will be harmed.
(DIR) Post #AxIUVFwMDWP6RVggTI by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-18T14:43:16Z
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@gleick I think since there are other less high profile people who benefit from this ... like the Epstein files, it has been allowed to slip away.
(DIR) Post #AxIV9tJVFOfE8ktEm0 by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-08-18T14:50:34Z
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@futurebird The idea that shame equates to "material recourse to redress the harm" is a really bad one. For instance, Bill Clinton, a narcissist like Trump, pardoned Mark Rich and then said "Oops, I'm ashamed". It didn't change anything, he still got the money and Marc Rich got the pardon. No one changed the ability of future Presidents to pardon people in exchange for bribes, because Clinton said "Oops I'm ashamed."Him saying that was bad.
(DIR) Post #AxIVC2htIICLquK5ke by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-08-18T14:37:11Z
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@DavidM_yeg Blue MAGA in the US tells itself these fairy stories after they voted for and supported genocide. If the only choices are between the guy who supports genocide and says some kind of mealy mouthed deflection about it and the guy who supports genocide who is honest about it so that everyone can agree to hate them, the second guy is less damaging.@futurebird
(DIR) Post #AxIVC3qR40cxNhKQi0 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-18T14:50:59Z
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@richpuchalsky @DavidM_yeg Is everyone who voted for Harris "Blue MAGA" ?I'm sincerely torn on this. I can't bring myself to be angry at people who didn't vote for Harris over Gaza. I don't even think they were "under-informed" ... they just didn't care about other issues where the difference is much greater as much as I do. (If they voted for Trump I think it's incredibly simple minded)
(DIR) Post #AxIVTcPTnv87VS5mNs by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-18T14:54:10Z
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@richpuchalsky @DavidM_yeg LGBTQ people I care about are being harmed, science is experiencing a huge disruption, racism and sexism are resurgent. This makes it harder for me to be a helpful ally as I'm suddenly very busy. At the same time there is a rot, that's being expelled from the Democratic party and that could be a good thing. But how many people will be dead of polio before that happens?Will the world pull the breaks on the genocide in time?
(DIR) Post #AxIVYEblj4td8O2dFI by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-08-18T14:54:59Z
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@futurebird "Blue MAGA" refers to a certain subset of Democratic voters like the one guy in this thread who I already blocked -- raised on MSNBC instead of Fox News, fully bought in to US culture war, their people are wonderful etc.Not all Democratic voters are Blue MAGA. All Democratic voters did, however, vote for and support genocide. They aren't ashamed: why should Trump be?@DavidM_yeg
(DIR) Post #AxIWDZeCPKjKG7tGMq by Moss@beige.party
2025-08-18T15:02:26Z
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@futurebird @gleick Remember the Panama Papers? Trump was mentioned in them “thousands” of times (Wikipedia) but whiff, there it went, a fart in the breeze.
(DIR) Post #AxIWcZXNxAGL9qchwO by amalia22@mastodon.social
2025-08-18T15:06:56Z
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@futurebird @mls14 @richpuchalsky Stop the extortion. Release the Epstein Files.
(DIR) Post #AxIbh9IBSX2QyjVy52 by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-08-18T15:19:49Z
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@DavidM_yeg It's a really common Blue MAGA trope to say that people who didn't vote for genocide have to "accept responsibility for the people who are being specifically harmed under this administration". It's a joke and it means that you are not serious or mature in any way. People can see through this bullshit.@futurebird
(DIR) Post #AxIbhAs1alIlsBI6aG by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-18T16:03:48Z
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@richpuchalsky @DavidM_yeg Why does this apply to the genocide but not the other harm?Some people had the opportunity to have a small amount of influence in a choice between bad options. The camps on my doorstep, the calls for "mass deportation now" seemed worse to me than a likely similar foreign policy and NOT having that operation in our country with the goal. It's not an easy choice. It's not glamorous. I don't even know if I am doing the best thing.
(DIR) Post #AxIc4QNk5PtEdqDHaC by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-08-18T16:08:02Z
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@futurebird Genocide is not a lesser evil. It is the greatest evil. People will quote something like the Terry Pratchett bit about not treating people like things and then go on to "Well I knew I was voting for genocide but I gamed out other probable consequences and" etc.Just as most Democrats since then have betrayed trans people by saying it's better to give up on them "for the greater good". Once you start, why stop?
(DIR) Post #AxIsV2eM1oBC7hhIRs by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-08-18T18:16:15Z
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@DavidM_yeg "I am directly saying that reducing these choices [about whether to commit genocide] to a black and white, “good” vs “bad” is profoundly distorting."Yeah, no.As for what "Trans people and migrants" are saying, they are not tokens. Some trans people and migrants are anarchists. Some are not but still understand that an anarchist doing mutual aid or community defense is still helping them more someone who voted Blue one time.@futurebird
(DIR) Post #AxIsV3r9Xi0lrgh22K by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-18T19:12:06Z
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@richpuchalsky Of course mutual aid helps more. I feel like you are saying anyone who talks about elections is doing it instead of more direct work. Having better leadership would make it easier to do the mutual aid. I WAS helping students get recommendation letters and discussing what they wanted to study. Now I'm also helping them find more people to help with immigration and having nightmares about them getting beat up by ICE. This is worse. It's not good. :(
(DIR) Post #AxIsoBncEdsm0A9xBI by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-08-18T19:15:34Z
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@futurebird I mentioned mutual aid and community defense in response to a "purity politics" guy who was saying it's all about elections.I didn't say that people who voted Democratic or GOP in the last election can't also do good things. They are all genocide supporters, though. They aren't people who I look to for advice on moral decisions.
(DIR) Post #AxItQLaeHVLVN6I0S8 by johnzajac@dice.camp
2025-08-18T19:20:56Z
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@richpuchalsky @futurebird I don't even think it's transparent that trans people or immigrants would have it better under a Harris administration. After all, the Democrats voted mostly en masse for Laken Riley, which as a law is pretty much a nuke dropped on due process and oversight of law enforcement, and their attitude toward trans people has been indistinguishable from their attitude toward queer people in the 90s: ew, but I guess I'll let you vote for me.
(DIR) Post #AxItQN7eaHLC7kjsXI by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-18T19:22:28Z
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@johnzajac @richpuchalsky IDK run down the list. It's bad.
(DIR) Post #AxItcbtjTWBpQN3yiG by johnzajac@dice.camp
2025-08-18T19:24:42Z
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@futurebird @richpuchalsky I guess at this point when I encounter "lesser evil" advocates, I'm torn between sharing what Hannah Arendt thought of lesser evil, and showing that the "lesser" is so minuscule that it's hard to find, if it exists at all. In modern US politics, we confuse aesthetics with substance so frequently that it's no wonder there are still people who think "lesser evil/harm reduction voting" is an effective or even necessary way to run anything
(DIR) Post #AxIxXOFpArUpThA9tA by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-18T20:08:35Z
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@apophis @richpuchalsky @DavidM_yeg "Blue MAGA" is very loud and has more access to the press. Also the press likes them a bit better because they don't really care about "contentious" issues, they will play ball with the culture war stuff which is wonderful for ratings. They do not want to hear from a teacher who wants to raise their taxes. For example. A mild one.
(DIR) Post #AxIxj0rHz7HAOOEFFI by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-18T20:10:41Z
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@apophis @johnzajac @richpuchalsky Protests do work. But just like "voting blue" it's not a total solution. Really I think that being informed comes first, educating others next, then direct mutual aid using your skills and money to help people directly. After that I put protest and voting in a tie. If you want to help do the ones that you can!
(DIR) Post #AxIxwFR761A5MxIQvg by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-18T20:13:06Z
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@apophis @johnzajac @richpuchalsky Oh! I forgot the biggest one!Do not be a part of the system of oppression. Do not write code for them, do not make dinner for them. Do not work for them. Do not join a police force or army.
(DIR) Post #AxIyBNCKWMgBmjas76 by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-08-18T20:15:48Z
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@futurebird By telling people to vote, you are supporting the system that tells people that there is no choice except to commit genocide. You are part of the system of oppression. Less than the cop, but more than the person who makes dinner.@apophis @johnzajac
(DIR) Post #AxJ6FXcQW99ateIa3c by johnzajac@dice.camp
2025-08-18T19:26:16Z
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@futurebird @richpuchalsky Biden, for example, killed 3x more people than Trump re: the pandemic. But people are like "he said the right stuff! he got the scientists to say stuff! wheeee" and the numbers just don't register in their heads.Biden started the logging of protected lands. Biden started leasing protected land to oil companies. Biden deported and denied asylum to more people than any previous President. Biden committed crimes to send weapons to Israel.
(DIR) Post #AxJ6FYos3MhacX825o by johnzajac@dice.camp
2025-08-18T19:29:02Z
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@futurebird @richpuchalsky He broke strikes, ignored environmental disasters, and let his FDA run off the handle. His "signature legislation" was classic tax policy BS that passes for "regulation" under DemocratsNow, was he nominally "better" than Trump? Sure. Why not. At a certain point though, does it matter if you only sniped the toddler in the head, not the head and heart? One is less than the other, but you'd have to be a little deranged to think they're different
(DIR) Post #AxJ6FZXBOc9CpxrQA4 by johnzajac@dice.camp
2025-08-18T19:31:00Z
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@futurebird @richpuchalsky At some point, folks like me who voted lesser evil despite knowing better had to reckon with the fact that despite voting for lesser evil - or maybe *because of it* - greater evil won. And when you had that moment of reckoning probably determines whether or not you voted for Harris.Now it's other "lesser evil" folks turn: you've gotta realize that your actions are 100% not effective at preventing harm, because Trump *is still free*.
(DIR) Post #AxJ6FaDMrltKwnb6um by johnzajac@dice.camp
2025-08-18T19:31:38Z
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@futurebird @richpuchalsky Set aside moral considerations.Is voting for lesser evil *effective*, is the question you should be asking yourself.If you've been paying attention, the answer is obvious.Just in case (sigh) it's NO.
(DIR) Post #AxJ6FaiD16YsUS1jzE by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-18T21:46:06Z
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@johnzajac @richpuchalsky > Is voting for lesser evil *effective*, is the question you> should be asking yourself.Look at the history of Black people in this country. First of all we have a vision of the USA as a multicultural nation. Not just with white and black Christians but people of all religions or none. And not just black and white either. Some of the progress has been political and through the system some had to be outside of it.
(DIR) Post #AxJ6FiMAavgaCPmFkG by johnzajac@dice.camp
2025-08-18T19:50:05Z
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@futurebird @richpuchalsky One last thing:"Lesser evil" also seems to accept that the government should be unaccountable, and that the powers of the State should be easily turned against its people, and predicates its utility on the idea that *THEY* won't do that (much).Like, just holding that opinion seems pretty disqualifying to me, but maybe I'm just distrustful of all-powerful States with no controls, no matter how "less evil" the people controlling it are.
(DIR) Post #AxJ6OR95xBgDQWowyW by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-18T21:47:50Z
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@johnzajac @richpuchalsky There have always been people who wanted us purged, or sent of to "somewhere else" and some of them are still at it. I don't see the value in not using all of the available tools just because liberal moderates can be lulled into thinking that all they need to do is vote and everything will work out. It seems like an over correction for no good reason.
(DIR) Post #AxJ8pwHiUGjTjK5xzM by johnzajac@dice.camp
2025-08-18T22:15:09Z
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@futurebird @richpuchalsky Was the political progress sui generis, or was it driven by the outside efforts? We live during a time when the value of a vote is near to nothing, if only because politicians don't actually care what the people want; they have their own constituents, and they are not *us*.No politician will change substantively unless they believe their power is on the line. Default voting in a duopoly is just us giving our power away.
(DIR) Post #AxJAvTu17mFVLkmSAa by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-18T22:38:37Z
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@johnzajac Getting the vote and applying it, insisting on "following the rules" has often been and excellent tool in making progress. Other times? Call Mr. Nat Turner I guess. I don't know I look at the various ways that things can work out for "minority" cultures in larger countries. You can be adsorbed and vanish, you can be erased from the earth, or you can insist on sitting at the table and being a part of *everything*
(DIR) Post #AxJCuRAa01x0Uc9op6 by johnzajac@dice.camp
2025-08-18T23:00:48Z
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@futurebird I guess the eternal modern USian argument in politics is: if you vote for Democrats, do you get a seat at the table?In my experience, the answer is 'no', at least for leftists, queer people, poor people, and trans people, most of the time.I still vote because it takes minimal effort and I no longer value it as a measure of anyone's affirmative intent.
(DIR) Post #AxJJ0WrIMPLpbDQQKW by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-19T00:09:10Z
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@johnzajac "if you vote for Democrats, do you get a seat at the table?"There isn't just one table. I was speaking more of simply voting at all. Running for office. Talking about the candidates, publishing newspapers, making media, participating in universities, hospitals, churches and sports. Being a part of society. This isn't really about Democrats at all?
(DIR) Post #AxJShbvQIX3JLuyRDk by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-08-19T01:57:47Z
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@futurebird "Being a part of society. "a) people are part of society even if they don't do any of the approved politics things, as I'm sure you'd admit very quickly in some contextb) This society is bad. It should end. Doing all of that to prop it up and make sure that the genocides continue is a bad thing, whether or not the Democrats are also playing you for a sucker or not (they are)@johnzajac
(DIR) Post #AxJiCwutngh0kK87sG by johnzajac@dice.camp
2025-08-19T04:51:28Z
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@futurebird No, it's about a captured political system and how we free it from the two parties responsible for the state of play.If everyone voted for who they actually wanted in office, Democrats would have maybe 50% of their currently electeds.Trump isn't how I wanted it to happen, but he's absolutely bringing all of this to a head. I do not doubt that the US political scene will be unrecognizable in 20 years because of Donald J Trump, maybe sooner.
(DIR) Post #AxJryxC0yb0b5d6Jqy by burnitdown@beige.party
2025-08-19T06:41:01Z
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@futurebird @richpuchalsky@mastodon.social what does "having better leadership" mean? the way i see it talked about, it means "isn't a nasty meanie in public and won't make me feel complicit so i can go back to brunch". no politician exists to make mutual aid easier. they operate entirely on reputation laundering and respectability. respectability politics will kill us all. they're the same politics that say "ignore the massacres, back to the business-as-usual nonsense 'two-state solution' and putting the blame for the destruction of Palestinian life at the feet of Palestinians".if they don't care about Palestinians, they definitely don't care about you either.
(DIR) Post #AxJsrRB5hzPziyeHOi by burnitdown@beige.party
2025-08-19T06:50:52Z
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@futurebird @johnzajac @richpuchalsky@mastodon.social voting is not a tool we have. there is no power in a ballot box. there is dashed hope and disappointment, compromise for the worst, wasted time and energy, and willful ignorance of what is effective by thought terminating nonsense like "it only takes five minutes".
(DIR) Post #AxJtZE120TZpdzp59c by burnitdown@beige.party
2025-08-19T06:58:48Z
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@futurebird @johnzajac "running for office" has no social benefit. no one needs politicians, and we owe them nothing. their job is to maintain the legality of the violence of private property and the wage system. their class' entire existence balances on exploitation and mass murder. why do you think the IWW bars not just cops, bosses, and landlords from membership, but also *specifically* politicians running for or holding any political office?