• themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Because Ronald Reagan convinced America that knowing things isn’t important, and that any opinion is valid regardless of how much of a dipshit you are.

        • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Conservatives have always been conservatives. Reagan just made the abject narcissism palatable for the masses. He told us it’s OK if you’re uninformed and selfish, because you’re too important to care about other people or things. Family, and business, and American Exceptionalism, those things are more important than human rights, equitable working compensation, humanitarian aid, or the survival of the species. Things should make sense at the kitchen table, regardless of how complex the problems might be. You can trust Reagan, because he’s an actor, so you know he’s always being his genuine, likeable self.

    • betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      There’s a secret competition between government officials to see who can set up the most difficult material for a game of “Real news or Onion story?” that’s really getting out of hand. Southern states have comfortably secured their continuing dominance of the leaderboard and are mostly fighting among themselves for the coveted #1 spot.

      • MiddleWeigh@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It seems like they push this kind of stuff to normalize it, so when they do less overt fucked up shit, no one bats an eye.

        Among the malicious actors, there’s “regular” people caught up in this, and this sort of behavior is all they know, and anything else is shunned, woke, liberal crap… That’s sad to me, how much of a product of environment we can be, and how that trait of ours is abused by POS people like the ones in power. I guess it’s self fulfilling. Can’t fight something(racism bigotry etc) when it’s all you know.

        It’s surreal that this kind of stuff is happening, and becoming more obviously malicious.

    • Move to lemm.ee@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Because despite appearances that are put on, the main bulk of republicans and democrats are really not very far apart. A show is created around culture war which is really not particularly cared about by either of them while the core interests that they both share - exploiting the people and maintaining the class war in favour of the bankers, hedgefunds and financial elite - are ultimately kept secure.

      Until the well-meaning liberals that continually give the benefit of the doubt to democrats wise up to this and radicalise into something further left the lack of opposition to the right will continue. Meanwhile the few dedicated and ideologically motivated actual-fascists that do get power, such as in Florida, will get to wield that power however the fuck they want as long as it isn’t affecting the economic interests of the previously mentioned groups belonging to the wealthy ruling class.

      An enormous amount of power exists to prevent or oppose all the things that have been happening lately. The issue is ultimately an unwillingness to do it.

      • Tumnus@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        This is nonsense. There’s a massive difference between Republicans and Democrats.

        The main issue is that Republicans are, more often than not, pieces of shit who never argue in good faith, while Democrats try to act with the higher morale ground, when they really should be pushing harder against the Republican bullshit.

        Just look at their goals and agendas. What do Republicans even stand for besides bending over for money and being against “woke” culture? Sure, there are Democrats who are money whores too, but compare the two groups overall.

        • sebinspace@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          As someone that votes left, your comment still reads like someone that has faith in their representatives.

          Are republicans trash? Yes.

          But don’t, for a second, believe democrats are “of a higher moral ground”. They are human, and they are therefore just as capable of being shitbags as anyone else.

          Not trying to be pessimistic, just realistic: 99% of these people are monsters that don’t give a shit if you live or die.

        • hark@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          The main issue is that Republicans are, more often than not, pieces of shit who never argue in good faith, while Democrats try to act with the higher morale ground, when they really should be pushing harder against the Republican bullshit.

          This right here is the problem. Democrats let republicans do their thing. In other words, they’re complicit. That’s why people point out they’re really not all that different. Yes, there are differences and 10 times out of 10 I will vote for them over republicans, but I won’t fool myself into thinking it’ll actually make a significant change. At best I can expect a pause in the republican freight train of bullshit.

      • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 year ago

        I’d have chimed in myself, but you said it better than I would have.

        Stupid culture war bullshit is, in its entirety, a distraction to keep those getting fucked the hardest from checking to see who’s doing the fucking. The fucking is indeed done by both parties on behalf of the wealthy.

        • Move to lemm.ee@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          It would be fine if they were actually waging a real conflict, but neither want to do anything more than a performance as security for their economic interests.

          This has allowed actual fascists to come in and wage one properly and the result is that they get everything they want. And it’s the marginalised who are paying for it, trans people the most.

          I’m not saying that culture war shouldn’t be waged, ultimately what I’m saying is that it’s only being waged by the fascists. Everyone else(with power) is doing absolutely fuck all. This has caused some significant problems within leftist circles as well, as some people have taken to completely opposing any “id politics” entirely because they see it as a distraction. Lenin also opposed this, stating that all issues should be fought, not purely the economic issue:

          Is it true that, in general,[3] the economic struggle “is the most widely applicable means” of drawing the masses into the political struggle? It is entirely untrue. Any and every manifestation of police tyranny and autocratic outrage, not only in connection with the economic struggle, is not one whit less “widely applicable” as a means of “drawing in” the masses. The rural superintendents and the flogging of peasants, the corruption of the officials and the police treatment of the “common people” in the cities, the fight against the famine-stricken and the suppression of the popular striving towards enlightenment and knowledge, the extortion of taxes and the persecution of the religious sects, the humiliating treatment of soldiers and the barrack methods in the treatment of the students and liberal intellectuals — do all these and a thousand other similar manifestations of tyranny, though not directly connected with the “economic” struggle, represent, in general, less “widely applicable” means and occasions for political agitation and for drawing the masses into the political struggle? The very opposite is true. Of the sum total of cases in which the workers suffer (either on their own account or on account of those closely connected with them) from tyranny, violence, and the lack of rights, undoubtedly only a small minority represent cases of police tyranny in the trade union struggle as such. Why then should we, beforehand, restrict the scope of political agitation by declaring only one of the means to be “the most widely applicable”, when Social-Democrats must have, in addition, other, generally speaking, no less “widely applicable” means? -Lenin | What is to be Done?

          The problem of course is that liberals do jack shit to actually genuinely fight these other issues. The only real opposition to the fascists genuinely waging this war is coming from those waving the red flag or the black flag.