We beat Trump in 20 and went “well, good thing that’s over lmao” and didn’t do a goddamn thing to fix the underlying problem.

Do you remember the difficulty experienced in passing any legislation during the Biden years?

Man, Dems are insufficient, and insufficient in pushing back against the fascists. But that's not the same as "There was no appetite for reform amongst the Dems as long as they were in power."

I see at least one poor soldier still has not escaped the battle!

https://www.amusingplanet.com/2016/12/lycurgus-cup-piece-of-ancient-roman.html

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-administration-5000-baby-bonus-incentivize-public-children/story?id=121094707

Simone Collins and her husband, Malcolm Collins, are pro-natalists who have advocated actions to make it less difficult for families to have children and ultimately reverse declining birth and marriage rates. Simone Collins told ABC News that she and her husband have submitted several draft executive orders to the White House Domestic Policy Council, including bestowing a "National Medal of Motherhood" to mothers with six or more children.

I said 30 years!

Yes, hence why the 90s and 2000s were used as examples.

No, it was a rightward drift, as far right as it was then.

Jesus Christ.

It is weird after 30+ years of Democrats always being the Republicans of 4 years ago, that they don’t always get benefit of the doubt of being opposed to the worst of Republican evils.

It always upsets me to see people peddle bullshit like this. I guess the 90s and 2000s were actually super leftist and I just dreamed the leftward movement of the party since.

Jesus fucking Christ.

It is the voter’s duty to support the party, not the party’s job to appeal to voters or to oppose fascism.

It's the voter's duty to use the power they have, as a voter, in a way that results in the least immoral result of the elections they are empowered to participate in.

The least immoral realistic result by far was a Dem victory.

Instead, eligible voters who believed "Both Sides Are The Same!" decided to sit at home with their thumbs up their asses, and are now acting outraged that the clear fascist candidate, the only other realistic result possible from the 2024 election, is going to have a death toll that is already measured in hundreds-of-thousands, and will likely ultimately result in a death toll of millions.

That is, of course, not including the various other issues, such as mass deportations, the destruction of what democratic structures we do have, increased support for genocide, the stripping of basic rights from enemies of the regime, etc etc etc etc etc. Much less other possibilities - such as a literal and explicit genocide, reigniting nuclear proliferation, enabling imperialism in other countries, and, of course, the non-zero chance of directly starting some imperialist wars of our own.

If that happens, you have a moral obligation to look up Pompeian graffiti to write on them in sharpie

Not even 'empire' in the loose sense, like the Athenian Empire? 🥺

hongry

Are you kidding ??? What the **** are you talking about man ?

Adapted from the Dacians, these standards would make eerie whistling sounds from the wind passing through them while on the charge, which Roman cavalry would train their horses to become accustomed to, but enemy horses were often unnerved by.

Aztec Hegemony?

PROTIP: infodumping about your special interest is okay, but don't assume everyone else shares the interest, much less the recollection of minutiae.

Explanation: Diogenes was an Ancient Greek philosopher who lived in an empty wine barrel on the streets and passed along unconventional wisdom to passers-by, often unasked for. Such brilliance as "If only it were as easy to banish hunger by rubbing my belly!" when accosted for masturbating in public, and "Behold, a man!" whilst holding a plucked chicken, when Plato's Academy defined a man as a featherless biped.

Unironically, though, his iconoclasm, while eccentric, does show a well-considered and coherent value system, and for that reason, despite everything, was a major influence on later philosophers, especially the Cynic school. Alexander the Great famously said, "If I were not Alexander, I would want to be Diogenes." to which according to some accounts Diogenes replied, "If I were not Diogenes, I too would want to be Diogenes."

Yeah, Hexbear was correct to remove this one.

Oh damn, actually fact checked, RIP

Well they’re many things, but laws and procedures that will be useful in the sense you described need to be ones the regime either wants to stay in place or doesn’t care enough to notice. The bill in the article is neither.

That's not how government procedures in totalitarian states work.

The masses are already (to an extent) riled; what they need now is leadership so their energy can be spent on productive acts of resistance rather than a weekend protest every two weeks.

That you think the issue is a lack of leadership is... not realistic.

And there the question becomes: Who cares? Their office is now meaningless

Not even close. "The legislative branch won't save us from fascism" and "The legislative branch retains influence to hinder fascism" are not mutually exclusive positions.

No legislation for LGBT rights is gonna pass either way, so the timing for pushing it is a moot point.

Then why the fuck did you bring up the timing of pushing it?

Can I have that while defending the people currently being kidnapped and sent to God knows where (or to God directly)?

You can. But there might be symbolic legislative action being put forward while you do it, horror of horrors.

The basis for the basis should be defending the people being persecuted now, not drawing a line in the sand that the administration is going to sprint over. Challenge what the fascists are doing now rather than hppe you’ll be able to challenge them later. I hope I don’t need to quote the poem.

No, the basis for the basis is getting fucking organized. You may notice that there are people standing up and speaking, quite prominently. The issue is not that no one is speaking for the people who are being fucking disappeared by the secret police; the issue is that there is currently no serious power base or appetite for serious action in the general population with which to fucking stop them, in large part because left-purists decided to sign over all levers of government to the fascist regime without any fucking ground game to challenge it when it rolled into possession of one of the most powerful states in the fucking world.

Not much more than small arms fire, probably. Bit of an ad-hoc solution to Boer raiders and sharpshooters.