The discourse on American politics sometimes devolves to “Leftists who won’t vote” & “MAGA Republicans” teaming up to “getting revenge on liberals”.

  • zbyte64@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
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    8 months ago

    Gather around for a personal story.

    The year was 2015 and a friend who lives in a school bus visited town. We were all smoking weed in his bus and he said “Oh please let Clinton loose”. I asked WTF are you thinking? And he responded that he spent lots of time protesting and that it didn’t work because people weren’t listening. It seems no matter how many terrible fascists get elected, liberals still won’t listen to him.

    • knightly the Sneptaur@pawb.social
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      8 months ago

      Liberals never pay attention to popular protests unless the talking heads on TV tell them to.

      I lost my faith in American “Democracy” during Occupy Wall Street, when the national media completely shut out any of the actual demands being made in favor of a “they don’t even have any goals” narrative.

      • orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts
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        8 months ago

        I still remember how well that propaganda worked on people. It became commonplace for liberals to complain that the OWS protests were aimless and lacked message.

      • zbyte64@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
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        8 months ago

        Even when liberals are shown protests on TV, they often walk away with the wrong message. It seems the only time it doesn’t happen is when the state uses violence in a way that is indefensible.

      • SpaceCowboy
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        8 months ago

        Well that’s on you for thinking of democracy like it’s a holy religious institution that can make a decree to give you what you want. That’s not what democracy is.

        Democracy is a grind. You have to vote in every election and over time things improve. If you aren’t willing to do that because “you lost faith” it shows you aren’t really dedicated to these causes. You are conceding decisions to others who are dedicated enough to what they believe in to vote in every election no matter how long it takes to get what they want.

        And that’s not really a bad thing is it? You went to a protest and then gave up. Why should you get what you want as opposed to someone who will vote in every election, volunteer to help the political party that’s closest to their beliefs, phone bank, go door to door, get that party elected, then call their representative explaining what they want. Why shouldn’t they value what people with that level of dedication want over the wants of the people that give up when they encounter a single obstacle?

        • knightly the Sneptaur@pawb.social
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          8 months ago

          Democracy is bullshit when public opinion is managed by three multimedia conglomerates. It doesn’t matter how many hours you spend trying to push the envelope when the range of acceptable political opinions is already constrained to what the billionaires who own this country find acceptable.

          I mean, fuck! They’re going to ban TikTok nationally just because AIPAC doesn’t like the kids being so pro-Palestine! The media landscape is 10x worse than it was even just 12 years ago.

          • SpaceCowboy
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            8 months ago

            You’re simultaneously complaining about corporations influencing other people while also not even considering that TikTok is a corporation that’s influencing you?

            You ever consider the possibility that people reading the news from mainstream organizations are not mindless idiots that can’t think for themselves?

            You’re someone that’s been consuming propaganda from an authoritarian regime being spread by a corporation that’s beholden to another authoritarian regime and you believe in antisemitic conspiracy theories. Some people may indeed just go along with whatever a corporation tells them to think, but consider the possibility that you might be one of those people.

    • orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts
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      8 months ago

      I protested at the DNC years ago with an anti-war group. Liberals won’t listen to anything that even remotely pushes them out of their comfort zone. They’d rather keep voting until something magically changes (it won’t), or they waste the rest of their time criticizing you for “allowing the right to win.”

      I have to say, it’s pretty fucking annoying to be scolded by liberals that do nothing but fill in a circle, while you’re doing things like marching to protest war, writing articles, participating in things like Food Not Bombs… meanwhile, they are in a state of malfunction because you refuse to vote for one of the two right-wing candidates propped up in front of us by the ruling class so we can do the same old song and dance again while thinking something will be different this time.

      • zbyte64@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
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        8 months ago

        He doesn’t protest anymore, but I get your point. As noted elsewhere, the protests got more attention because the responses were more violent. Is that good? Considering how the police have even more money than before I am not so sure…

    • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      yeah turns out that pesky international policy liberals barely pay attention to? fucking us over big time. and by us i mean almost the entirety of the not-western world.

      and it really doesnt matter how much you try to talk to them, i guess they will not care (or just pretend to) until its too late for they themselves.