lemonaz

What’s this? Ranking Linux number 2? Heresy! /s

Some. But there’s still a long ways to go, sadly.

That is absolutely golden. Thanks!

I’m curious: was there a specific episode about this that got you thinking, or was it more the exposure to the whole of the show which kept joking in that particular direction?

They care to a point. Most people want a populist anti-elite approach to politics and messaging but that’s off limits. In reality, what you see is the following dynamic:

• Republicans get their cues by testing various talking points on their base to see what sticks. They respond to the response of their base and double and triple down on the most popular. So in a sense get their policy cues from their base, but I left out one crucial thing: they’re extremely disingenuous about it because the talking points are mostly just culture war tabloid style outrage bait — moral panics filled with lies and half-truths. Still, to the common Republican voter, this seems like a dialogue.
• Democrats could do the same thing but with real stuff. Even appeals to emotion are fine as long as you’re being truthful, because a lot of the time you need to meet people where they are. But Democrats do not talk to their voters at all, they despise them and feel entitled to their vote because hey, look how bad the Republicans are. But then where do they get the policy if they don’t talk to voters? Oh, why, the Republicans of course! They triangulate a “common sense” position between their ivory tower ideas (mostly just “civility”), the Republicans and the (pre-programmed) Republican base. Except for the populism, you see, because that’s “going low” and they’re going to be the adults in the room who “go high”.

I hate this worthless octogenarian club of a party, sometimes more than the Republicans.

(I apologize that this turned into a rant. I do want Dems to win, I just want them to stop being, you know, them.)

I don’t mean break things so much as push things and not back down the instant some parliamentarian disagrees. I want them to put goals above process, if that makes sense. And obviously to have actual good goals.

Makes sense, but I have a question though. Wouldn’t the tribalism work in the favor of the “fuck it” approach? Since it would be targeted at Trump and his cronies. Dem voters tend to be all in on locking up Trump. And also, thinking towards more radical things Biden did, like pulling out of Afghanistan and strengthening the NLRB — those would technically be outside the typical Dem comfort zone, but I haven’t seen many Dem voters take issue with that.

Where I’m going with this: I don’t think voters really want this visionless triangulation approach Dems keep doing. I think the DNC wants that. The consultant class, the “it’s his/her/their turn” types. Jim Carville types and other Clinton era fossils who are afraid to call Republicans weird because they value bipartisanship above all else. Not to mention literal controlled opposition rotating villain types like “Manchinema” and now Fetterman. Those guys want compromise, but I actually think voters want a fight. I think they can see plainly that Republicans are going low and don’t actually want Dems to go high like Michelle Obama famously said — they want Dems to go lower and beat the GOP at their own game.

Again, all the tribalism and spite and brianrot, those are very conducive to a more aggressive approach rather than this “let them discredit themselves” crap. The latest polls favoring AOC, the Fight Oligarchy crowd sizes, the dismal disapproval of the Democratic Party as a whole, all these show that people are aware that the “adult jn the room” days are over and it’s a fight for survival. I’ll give you that once things hopefully get back to normal, they’ll start their finger wagging again, but right now? I kinda doubt it. If anything, the less vocal hashtag resistance is more a sign of people being tired, disappointed, and resigning themselves to the idea that nobody is fighting for them anymore and they just have to make do and keep their heads low because that’s how you survive fascism.

Disclaimer: not American, I’m from across the pond but I follow US politics closely because it affects us as well.

I agree, though I’m starting to think that we’re being and limited by our own minds here a little. Look at how much raw power Republicans are exerting now, to much more evil ends, and they’re fine doing it. I think if Dems actually grew a spine, many would follow. A reactionary electorate can go both ways, since it’s mainly acting on vibes/spite/etc. Most believe nothing ever happens anyway, which is why they tell you to relax when the MAGA breaks key institutions. So I think some direct presidential action in a good direction would be good. Let the pundits scream all they want, they’ll call him a communist baby eater anyway.

PS: I hope that was coherent, I didn’t proof read it and I haven’t had my coffee yet.

This is a great idea. You’re totally right. I’m a little jealous I didn’t think of it before, ngl.

Yeah it does! I tried it on an Oppo Watch from like 5 years ago (the square ones) and it was golden.

Amazing. Yeah, I heard good things about the Palm Pre.

To be fair

Well there’s your problem. Never hand it to fascists (or grifters, or cult leaders, etc. — basically any kind of bad faith actors).

Believe it or not, Windows Phone 7 had that in 2010-2011, right into the OS itself. They integrated it on a per-contact level too, you just clicked on say Craig and had a drop-down to switch which service to message Craig on, but it was a single message history that integrated all the services. It was a damn good mobile OS, way ahead of the curve, easy on resources, slick animations, had UI/UX consistency, accessibility like putting all menus at the bottom of the screen so you can reach them with your thumb, including the damn browser address bar (which only now made it to Edge). But of course, being Microsoft, they fudged it horribly and it died a slow painful death while the head of Windows Phone kept denying it was dead like a damn cult leader.

One more for potholer54. He’s one of the oldies, right up there with DarkMatter2525.(probably my favorite), Professor Dave Explains, Myles Power and Martymer 81. Oh, and in this vein there’s a (relatively) new kid on the block: Forrest Valkai aka Renegade Science Teacher.

Feels warranted to also drop a mention of Physics Girl.

She’s been going through hell for the past couple of years but she finally seems to be getting better.

One of the greats! Also, if you like Folding Ideas, you’ll love Benn Jordan. The style is very similar. Also, Technology Connections.

Yeah, don’t get me wrong — it’s not that Obama/Pete types don’t do anything. Generally they do things, and those things are good. (I’m simplifying for the sake of argument, since there are also bad policies that liberals engage in, obviously.)

The problem is that the good things don’t go far enough — even ACA was based on the Mitt Romney plan drew up by the goddamn Heritage Foundation! It was a compromise of a compromise. All other developed countries have some version of universal healthcare, while the US has preventable deaths and medical bankruptcies and Blackrock suing United Healthcare for breaking fiduciary duty by not refusing enough clients, a thing it did so often that its CEO got merced for it.

Or, take education: as someone from an EU country, I have a master’s degree and zero debt — it was all free although I did have to pass an exam ahead of a hundred others, but if I needed to pay, it would have been like 1-2k USD per year, with a chance each year to get into the free tier next year if I got good grades.

Anyway, my point is that when people get too many small compromises for a long time, they start to feel duped, they get uneasy, then frustrated, then angry (disinformation contributes a lot to this process), so next thing you know they begin to reject “not enough” in favor of “burn it down”. People yearn for fundamental changes, this is why they’re voting Trump types all around the world: they promise big change, they promise to move fast and break things. People feel like nothing ever happens, so the promise of any change gives them hope. Ironically, the fascist appeal is just a bizarro version of “hope and change”.

And here’s the darkest part: despite the differences I outlined above about healthcare and education, EU countries still have the same systemic problems. People still feel duped. People are still frustrated. People still choose fascists here. Because the problems are very deep: inequality, alienation, disinformation. And neoliberalism doesn’t have an answer to any of them: you need a democratic socialist for that, i.e. someone who’s willing to reject capital to put people’s needs first.

Pete would be a kind of Obama. But remember that Obama created the conditions for Trump. Honestly, people like them are worse because they get people’s hopes up and then crush them with their (in)actions.

The only way to escape the cycle of neoliberalism (sham democracy, fascism, sham democracy, fascism, etc.) is to elect someone who is not a neoliberal. Someone who has a socialist mindset and can put democracy above capital. Someone who can acknowledge and attempt to fix real systemic issues which keep people down. Someone who is willing to tackle wealth inequality head-on through unapologetic redistribution. And maybe this should be first: someone who actually cares about workers’ rights and wants to make it so that all the technological advancement benefits them too, through shorter workweeks and shorter workdays. We need a kind of person similar to people in the past generation who never stopped until they got the weekend and 8h workweek, that kind of character, someone who dreams big and fights for like a 3-day workweek of 4 hours each, and mandatory shares for each employee same as minimum wage, which btw should be like triple what it is now. And someone who believes that billionaires should not exist, i.e. can tax them to sub-billion wealth. (I know, craaazy.)

And of course to actually apply the law and prosecute the fascists and their propaganda machine (media, think tanks, billionaire donors) the way it always should have from the beginning since they’ve been conspiring and committing treason for decades. Sedition I think is the word. (And if this sounds like an exaggeration in the style of MAGA pundits, that’s because every accusation is a confession with them. They preemptively accuse their enemy of doing the same thing they’re doing so that it sounds crazy or at least unoriginal when they get accused of it later.)

Without very bold changes like the above, we are doomed. Mayor Pete cannot do that. He’s a neoliberal with maybe one good idea, like abolishing the Electoral College or something. But it’s not enough. The US needs Reconstruction.

That’s true, I was just pointing out that the Schumer types at the DNC really don’t understand that their Republican “colleagues” are taking active steps to throw them in jail or worse. In this sense it feels weird to call it a duopoly given that the only ones giving any direction the whole time were the GOP, while the establishment Dems were their useful idiots, always following their lead and trying to triangulate their policy and rhetoric between status quo and fascism, you know, to appeal to the “middle” and the “moderate Republican”. It’s absolute madness! And you might say they know what they’re doing, that they planned this like a good/bad cop routine, but honestly… I find it much easier to see them as old stupid out of touch aristocrats with big piles of money going blindly wherever capital leads them, than as scheming double agents, because the latter would imply some actual awareness of their surroundings, which they don’t have! They’re totally blind to the fact that the only logical conclusion to their triangulation strategy with fascists is them in a gulag. It’s plain as day, it’s happening right now under their very eyes, but their priorities are… fighting David Hogg??

I’m referring to the politicians here btw, not the voters. I think the voters are really mad at Schumer and the DNC right now, and I think they’re looking for new leadership. In that sense, AOC has risen in popularity recently because she’s been engaging with people directly both IRL and on social media, but I’m not getting my hopes up until I see something real actually happen, and I mean nothing short of seeing the establishment Dems gone. Because even now as the world burns, the DNC is fighting tooth and nail against anyone challenging them from the left. And honestly, it may already be too late as it is, like for the whole country. I hope not, but I don’t have much hope left tbh.

I’m not having this conversation. Good luck.