US Politics Mega-thread - Page 4752

On February 06 2025 00:32 Magic Powers wrote:
Here's a fact checking article about BLM violence after George Floyd's death.
Noteworthy is the language used: "started with violence". That doesn't mean all of the protesters were initially violent. What it means is that a level of violence was observed among each of the BLM protests early on. Later that violence subsided. But right-wing media painted that as the protests being entirely violent, and they of course inflated the damage caused and the harm done. That same right-wing media also didn't make a distinction between BLM and unrelated protest groups, and failed to distinguish between the instigating side (which is difficult to prove). They also failed to acknowledge that right-wing counter-protesters likewise took part in that violence.

https://eu.statesman.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/08/10/fact-checking-claim-about-deaths-damage-from-black-lives-matter-protests/113878088/

None of this biased reporting is accidental. They want to undermine BLM not because BLM is violent but simply because they don't like to hear what BLM is saying.

On February 06 2025 00:55 ZerOCoolSC2 wrote:

I am completely baffled by what you're trying to prove or expose here. trump is a narcissistic assbooger. He craves the attention. His dumbfuckery is more important than him being in front of cameras. Biden and Harris had shit to do and was working on getting it done. Literally everything he's done that's fuckin the world is being drafter by someone else and he's just signing it. He's a fuckin puppet and you're...praising him?

On February 06 2025 01:05 Velr wrote:
As a true tankie he likes strong authoritarian leaders that just do stuff, no matter if they are actually lawfull, beneficial or sane.



Why be surprised?

On February 06 2025 01:40 ZerOCoolSC2 wrote:

But didn't the minimum wage in almost every state go up? Federal minimum wage should have been increased, I'll agree, to match inflation or come close.

I think the issue is that Biden and Harris were trying to do everything with the assumption that no matter what they do, it'll be challenged, so make it as legal as possible (student loans etc). trump and co are just doing it and everything is being challenged in court. Only issue is that the Rs are sitting silent (and a large portion of Ds as well) about the hacksawing of the federal agencies. Wouldn't be surprised if Musk paid a large sum to a lot of Rs to be quiet and let him do his thing.

The will to do something illegal and the will to do something legal is different. Very different. trump is a crook. We know he's a crook. He's doing crook things. Holding Ds to the same standard or comparison isn't a fair assessment, imo.

On February 06 2025 02:55 Legan wrote:
How do people feel about the current protest in Serbia, last year's protest in Georgia, Euromaidan, and similar protests? What keeps these from being evil riots organized by terrorists who are trying to undermine democracy, peace, and government? Should these kinds of protests be denounced if they happened in the USA and were organized by Democrats or some grassroots movement?

On February 06 2025 01:54 GreenHorizons wrote:
EDIT: Harris is still ostensibly the leading Democrat candidate for 2028 and she's nowhere to be found. That's not good.

On February 06 2025 02:58 KwarK wrote:

GH never saw a pro democracy protest in the former eastern bloc that he liked.

On February 06 2025 03:05 ZerOCoolSC2 wrote:

+ Show Spoiler + The current need is for the Ds to get Bernie Sanders in a strategic appointment in the next administration or AOC and push them as the future of the DNC and make sure they get all the airtime they need. They need to find a cohesive statement and hammer it home. Town halls once a month.Hit all available media saying exactly what their goal is and how they can promise that at mid-terms.

Other than that, if they don't get a message formed and out there within the year, it'll be another bloodbath and the country just crumbles.

(Incidentally I was thinking of the monologue from the news host in V for Vendetta. Eerily similar)

On February 06 2025 03:28 GreenHorizons wrote:


AOC and Bernie lost a lot of their credibility/gravitas by conceding their positions and falling in line in 2016, and again in 2020, and again in 2024. Despite that obsequiousness to the party, the party apparatus isn't turning toward them in this moment when they obviously need them. They are turning to consultants that sound like Sadist feeding shit advice about slogans, or Kwark that are telling them to be more bigoted, or Schumer telling people to just watch and wait.

AOC, Bernie, hell maybe even Murphy (I doubt it though), and people that prefer them over Clinton/Biden/Harris need to bail and make a workers party that Democrats either join or cease to be politically relevant.

On February 06 2025 02:33 Sadist wrote:
I think the left side of the aisle has had bad slogans for a while when you take into account the average american audience.

Black Lives Matter is not too bad but you have to know who you are speaking too. Black Lives Matter can be interpreted multiple ways , generally by bad faith actors, but it leaves you open to criticism. As mentioned before Black Lives Matter Too addresses nearly all of the bad faith criticism and shows that there is a presumption already that all lives matter, just that black folks deserve equal rights and treatment as human beings.

A terrible slogan was Defund the Police. This is not because the actual ideas behind it were bad but because the average american isnt going to read up on them and "Defund" had already been branded before with Defund Planned Parenthood years prior. Defund Planned Parenthood to the average person meant get rid of it. The distinction between eliminating federal funding or eliminating it all together was irrelevant. People who wanted to end federal funding and those who wanted it gone entirely could align under one tent. It could mean whatever you want it to mean
Defund the Police was very easily assumed to mean "get rid of the police" by the average person which sounds like a dumb idea. Of course we need police. Sadly the Defund the Police people didnt want to get rid of them, just reallocate some resources to different departments for different types of calls who were better equipped to handle them but the average american doesnt know this. A better slogan would have been "Reform the Police" because it can mean whatever anyone wants it to mean and then if you win your election you can still do what you want.


Its why Make America Great Again has been such a powerful slogan for people on the right and unengaged voters. It can mean whatever they want it to mean. Of course to people in the know the actual origin of America First or the policy implications behind it are horrifying but to the average american they wont know that. Who doesnt want America to be great? Whatever someone believes makes America great they can attribute to the slogan since it doesnt say anything. Why do you think there are people with shocked Pikachu faces when their friends and family get deported? "I thought you were talking about the other illegals! You know the bad ones!"

We gotta get better at Slogans on the left.

On February 06 2025 05:39 BlackJack wrote:


The problem is not that defund the police gets conflated with "get rid of the police." The problem is they don't want to defund the police either. Only 19% of black people want less police presence in their area. You're unfairly blaming the slogan instead of the idea itself.

On February 06 2025 03:33 KwarK wrote:
I’m saying that if they want to win the popular support of Americans then there is a minimum threshold of evil that they have to promise to do. Below that Americans simply won’t turn out to vote for them. If you’re not promising vengeance on your enemies, police brutality, war crimes etc. then it’s just not clear whether you even love America. Anyone who loves America would cheer for that stuff.

I don’t like that this is the case but I can’t see how it’s not the case. American voters turned out in record numbers for Trump. He tapped into America’s soul in a way that other politicians haven’t. It’s a pity Bill Clinton can’t run again because as a perjurer, criminal, and likely rapist he’d be a dominant force today.