7 ms·

Countless lives over the next decades are going to be lost due to decisions being made by this administration. Deaths and illnesses that otherwise would have pr

Countless lives over the next decades are going to be lost due to decisions being made by this administration. Deaths and illnesses that otherwise would have prevented using existing frameworks and systems had they not been destroyed.

thrance 1y ago
This is a form of political violence.
the__alchemist 1y ago
I don't understand why the left puts up with it. They are too easily distracted by hot-button issues. These are some of the most important issues facing the present and future of our civilization and biosphere. I wish I had a solution, or knew the step to take. I suspect one of the root causes is the narrative, e.g. from news agencies, is being controlled by the propagators of the problem.
- Filligree 1y ago
  What do you propose they do?
  - the__alchemist 1y ago
    I would love to have an answer to your question! Edit: Here's a start: Be more critical of the news. Content a bit; the scope of topics that are discussed more importantly.
    - tombert 1y ago
      Being critical of the news is good, but I don't think we want the lefty equivalent of the "Do Your Own Research" conspiracy crowd. The problem with undermining trust in the news media is that people will just replace that with blind trust with something else, and we have no way of really knowing if that something else will be worse. This is what happened with conservatives and led to the rise of Infowars.
    - bee_rider 1y ago
      Left wing politicians and media figures try to impact the media narrative (just like all media figures and politicians). It is part of the skill set. Like yeah, it would always be better for an engineer to get better at quickly understanding large codebases. Better for a soccer player to get better at aiming the ball. But that’s the game they are all playing, they are doing it as well as they can (in the case of left wing politicians, either they are bad at it or they are at some systemic disadvantage).
  - deadbabe 1y ago
    We are soldiers in revolt for truth, And we have fought for our independence, When we spoke nobody listened to us, So we have taken the noise of gunpowder as our rhythm, And the sound of machine guns as our melody
  - purple_turtle 1y ago
    Drop counterproductive and unpopular Culture War issues and instead fight about very stupid ideas pushed by Trump et all. Part of problem is that the most unproductive and unpopular and poor ideas are the most loved ones among their elites.
    - alchemical_piss 1y ago
      [dead]
    - jkeel 1y ago
      I agree. I wish there was a more organized "left" but from what I've seen it's just many many random groups that are not on the "right". If there was an organized left, then they should focus only on improving the well being of the average US family through improving the economy and healthcare to work for everyone. The left let's itself get baited into these culture wars. If everyone's lives improved then I believe a lot of these culture war issues would improve as a byproduct of a happier populace who would be more forgiving to those around them.
      - purple_turtle 1y ago
        > The left let's itself get baited into these culture wars. Well, at least some of them left (or some part of it) started entirely on its own.
- hshdhdhj4444 1y ago
  The American left is one of the most impotent political entities. The only purpose they seem to serve is strengthening the far right by imposing counter productive purity tests and pushing people to vote for the far right options over more centrist ones.
  - otterdude 1y ago
    until people starting giving a shit to form alternatives, they're the only option that exists. Were not in a college classroom debating ideals, this is a real life triage situation
  - adrr 1y ago
    And what purity tests are those?
    - recursive 1y ago
      Probably the identity politics stuff if I had to guess.
      - flkiwi 1y ago
        Identity politics. Rejecting identity politics for economic justice. Rejecting economic justice for economic revolution. It goes on and on. There are so many overlapping and contradictory purity tests among the various branches of the left, that meaningful opposition from the left is more of a coincidence than anything one can plan for.
        adrr 1y ago
        Name a purity test. Stop dancing around the question.
        flkiwi 1y ago
        Name a meaningful victory of the American left's approach in the last 25 years. Stop dancing around the question.
- hypeatei 1y ago
  The left doesn't hold power in any branch of government right now. The most they can do before midterms is cause a government shutdown, but that can backfire unless messaging/demands are perfect.
  - actionfromafar 1y ago
    Messaging should probably be "follow the law". Until that happens, voting in the house is just charades.
- cluckindan 1y ago
  Again with the left vs. right. Are you really that easy to divide into two diametrically opposed groups?
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - the__alchemist 1y ago
    This is also a key part of it. People should explore the complexity instead of treating this as team sports. I think we have a genetic disposition to this sort of thinking, but can overcome it.
    - CaptArmchair 1y ago
      From the posted article: > EPA Seeks to Eliminate Critical PFAS Drinking Water Protections > The move continues to expose communities across the country to toxic forever chemicals in tap water If this really were a "team sport", one half of the team wouldn't be set on undermining the health of the other half of the team.
      - testaccount28 1y ago
        hi there! i'm not sure you read the comment you're replying to! i guess you reject their request to stop trying to defeat the other team. but you also object to the use of the word "team" to describe a political party? could you explain?
      - somenameforme 1y ago
        Rolling back PFAS protections would not simply affect "the other half of the team", it would affect everybody. If there isn't some context missing here, this is an action that would be ubiquitously unpopular, let alone when contrasted against the goals of MAHA.
        estearum 1y ago
        The beauty of gerrymandering is that the gerrymanderers don't need to be popular. Also the baseline GOP today exists in a different reality (e.g. where Trump won the 2020 election and Democrats did the COVID lockdowns)
- smt88 1y ago
  My friend pointed out yesterday that the left has lost its "evangelical spirit". It seems to have become political dogma that you can't persuade people to your side -- you can only turn them out to vote. But Charlie Kirk went to the most left places he could think of, debated people, and won some converts. Who on the left does that? Why doesn't anyone drive out to rural football games or country music concerts, have conversations, and put them on YouTube?
  - tombert 1y ago
    I don't like him anymore because I think he's a perverted creep, but in the streaming space Destiny was reasonably good at this. I haven't watched him in years, but I remember reading about a few people that he managed to talk out of the more radical conservatism.
  - BriggyDwiggs42 1y ago
    I’d add that the act of debate never convinces opponents, but serves as a performance which can make your ideas look good to an audience. Plenty of lefties do debates online, not to say that’s identical.
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
  - DrewADesign 1y ago
    > Who on the left does that? Sanders and AOC. Look at the stops on their Fighting Oligarchy Tour. It’s just that the DNC leadership will do everything in their power to fight actual progressives.
  - Jaygles 1y ago
    I think this is the core of the issue for the Democra)ts. Conservative groups are focused on figuring out what actions are effective in gaining power and executing on that. They don't shy away from unethical methods like spreading misinformation and gerrymandering. They've understood this for a very long time and have been planting seeds for decades, such as taking over AM radio to entrench a conservative mindset in rural populations. From my observations the liberal and progressive groups seem to take on strategies where they claim the moral high ground and treat anyone not following their way of thinking as opponents and not as potential allies/converts. So even in cases where they are technically or morally "correct" in their stance, they aren't effective in bringing outsiders to their side. One example was the "recognize your (white) privilege" thing. While it was arguably based on sound ideas, proclaiming an entire demographic is receiving more than they earn is never going to bring people over to your side. I don't have much confidence that the Democrats will be able to turn things around in short order. The Democratic leadership seem stuck in their ways with no long term vision
- tombert 1y ago
  Short of some January-6th style insurrection, I'm not entirely sure what "the left" [1] could actually "do" here. I am absolutely not advocating for a January-6th domestic terrorism event, I think that would be a very bad idea, but I also have no idea what we could actively do. It's easy to say "reject the news agencies", and sure that might be a good idea, but that carries the risk of "substituting bullshit with different, more dangerous bullshit". This has already been somewhat demonstrated; the conservatives spent decades undermining trust in news media and that led to the rise of assholes like Alex Jones and conspiracy theories becoming normalized by American conservatives. It's easy to say "well the left wouldn't do that", but you have no way of knowing that any better than I would. I don't want to be cynical or hopeless, but I genuinely have no idea what I could do to help fix any of the shit going on right now. [1] whatever that actually means, I've heard about a dozen definitions.
  - shagie 1y ago
    Normalize factual focused news that covers the topics that right (and center) news doesn't cover. This doesn't need to be biased and shouldn't be denigrating - I would like to believe that the liberal bias of reality is sufficient. Personally, I don't want to listen to angry people of any political bend. Name calling sounds childish. As to conspiracy theories on the left, they're there. Some of the anti-vax conspiracies came from people who would be considered on the (I'm going to apologize of this is seen as denigrating considering my earlier statement) granola side of the left. There's a fair bit of populist anti-corporate conspiracies and attribution of active malice rather a dispassionate corporate approach to trying to maximize profits. I would suggest instead considering that it isn't "left vs right" conspiracies (though they have their own spectrum) but rather that there exists a "prone to conspiracies demographic" that is swayed by the left or the right at a given time and those conspiracies that are most in line with the political ideology of the swaying are more likely to be normalized. Politicians agreeing with the conspiracies speeds up its normalization and helps sway the conspiracy minded demographic. I believe that the pro-science, pro-space, climate change is real, vaccines work of... lets put a range of 2008 to say... 2020 (its not that Biden abandoned it but rather that that congress was not advancing policies and the focus was more on "don't have it break more") significantly alienated the prone to conspiracy demographic from the Democratic Party. The Republican Party has embraced this demographic with the claims of a stolen election, supporting anti-vaccination positions, and openly accepting support of the various anti-{race} groups. It wouldn't take too much for anti-capitalism or anti-government conspiracies to be normalized and spoken openly by "the left" if that is one's target demographic. It's that left leaning and conspiracy leaning is a slim demographic to try to target. If the conspiracy demographic was decoupled from the current Republican Party, then I would expect to see more left leaning conspiracy theories be espoused openly.
- odie5533 1y ago
  The human brain can not handle social media. It has melted our brains and completely controls the Main Signal with its algorithms. The right is better at controlling the media in such a system, and is ascendant. We live in meme world now. Nothing is serious. It's all just memes.
  - cloverich 1y ago
    It does feel like this. I remember this moment clicking for me with my dads family who was typically more rational. "did you hear California is going to outlaw bacon now"; everyone laughs. I mention that sounds kind of click baity? look it up. California wants to impose more stringent minimum space standards for amimals bred to slaughter (prop 12). Seems maybe good, or at least worthy of a real discussion? But everyone had moved on by then, ironically to how much they care about animal rights (spending significant time volunteering in shelters and such). Its just too easy to dumb people down with memes.
  - estearum 1y ago
    Well, also our adversaries have a vested interest in tilting those systems toward MAGA in particular. Trump reneging on NATO, turning military attention toward (checks notes) Venezuela, and isolating ourselves in global trade is just an absolute dream come true for China and Russia.
  - tstrimple 1y ago
    There have always been shitty conservatives in the world. The US fought a civil war against them. Civilized people fought against them and won civil rights and women’s suffrage and the right for gay folk to get married. These assholes have always existed in society and unfortunately always will. This is not a problem of social media but of acceptable antisocial behavior and beliefs.
- spankalee 1y ago
  Our system is not set up to be able to resist things like this. Once one party has control over all three branches of the federal government, all we can do at the federal level is wait for elections. States can try to do some things in some cases, but the Supreme Court will get in the way and now the National Guard and Marines.
  - thomasmg 1y ago
    Right. My fear is that the rules of the elections will be significantly changed as well soon, by this party.
    - hackyhacky 1y ago
      Already happening. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Texas_redistricting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Texas_redistricting
  - clscott 1y ago
    The last time you voted in The United States of America may be the last time you get a vote in The United States of America. All three branches of The United States of America has been captured by a tyrannical government. Rights are being eroded for inhabitants of The United States of America, including its citizens. You have no right to: safe medicine, safe food, safe water, vote. The sooner the people recognize this and take action, the shorter it will be to reverse. Americans have a duty to act, and act quickly: what's already been taken will take generations to regain.
    - RoseRadecki 1y ago
      [dead]
- cogman10 1y ago
  > They are too easily distracted by hot-button issues. I disagree. The issue is there's about 1000 fires burning all with somewhat critical importance. But further, the left and the politicians ostensibly representing the left simply are not aligned (at least in the US). It's a rock and a hard place. Generally the politicians positions are better than the right, but far less than what the left actually wants. So they rely heavily on "what are you going to do, let the other guys win?". Meanwhile, the right has adopted nearly the opposite position. On most positions when the base says "jump" they say "how high?". A big reason for that is money in politics. What the rightwing base wants is generally pretty compatible with monied interests. It's no skin off the nose of a rightwing politician if they want to ban books, that doesn't ultimately harm Disney's bottom dollar. For the left, what they want in almost all ways will negatively impact monied interested. Better regulations makes rich polluters mad. Nationalized healthcare makes every business (except maybe small businesses) mad. That's why "left" politicians tend to only support initiatives which effectively do nothing like recognizing a MLK or saying it's ok to be gay. And even then, they are happy to ditch those positions to win more rightwing base support because, shocker, that rightwing base is likely to care less about their inaction on climate change. You are right, though, news is a big problem. And that's because mainstream media is corporate captured. That's why left policy positions no matter the channel are always framed in the absolute worst way possible. For example, whenever nationalized healthcare comes up I can guarantee you the framing will be "How will you pay for this very expensive program that will eliminate choice and cost a lot of money which might make everyone sad and probably will bankrupt everyone?"
- ThinkBeat 1y ago
  There is no left in America, in any historical or contemporary manner. If you look closely at the Ds they back Trumps policies, not that they come out and say so. Rather Bernie will come out and attack it. but Ds on so mnay fornts now remain silent and passive. “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
- supportengineer 1y ago
  If you were an elderly high ranking Democrat, would you risk it all? Your power, your status?
- cardamomo 1y ago
  I found this post useful in understanding this phenomenon: https://www.offmessage.net/p/how-liberalism-sabotages-itself https://www.offmessage.net/p/how-liberalism-sabotages-itself The basic gist is that the left is too generous in its understanding of others' intentions, assuming good intentions from all actors long past the point where that's rational.
  - mlinhares 1y ago
    They're also coopted by their donors and the thinking they can't be mean to their "colleagues", look at all the democrats saying they're "waiting for the republican party to come back". They want the same status quo they had in the past because it serves those already in power there, they can continue to collect donations and salaries if it all stays the same without doing much work. Look at how desperate they all were to leave DC and go on vacation, these people are not serious and they don't think there will be any consequence to them.
- UmGuys 1y ago
  Currently, if there were any resistance, they would swiftly be gunned down in the street. Hasn't the orange goon made that clear enough to you? The problem is we didn't enforce justice after the civil war or the coup on January 6. The cult of domestic terrorists has a monopoly on violence. Edit: Also, most of the politicians in both parties get money from the same interests (oil, Israel, tech). So the leadership of Democrats basically wants the same thing as GOP, so there's only voiced resistance.
- avidphantasm 1y ago
  The just-released MAHA report[1] mentions PFAS limits for drinking water to be enforced by EPA. Hopefully the unusually extreme contradictions in policy force a change. [1] https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/MAHA-Report-The-White-House.pdf https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/MAHA-R...
- kilroy123 1y ago
  It's called anacyclosis. A long cycle that has repeated throughout history. The US is the final step before the cycle repeats, Ochlocracy or "mob rule". It blows my mind that people refuse to accept modern countries and societies still don't go through this cycle. I truly think the US will have a Putin like dictator by 20230. (I don't think this is good or want that)
- softwaredoug 1y ago
  I think because “The Left” in the US - The Democratic Party - is actually a big tent, center-left party with a lot of different issues and stakeholders. They look more like a political party has historically in the US (big, messy, inconsistent)
PartiallyTyped 1y ago
It’s okay though, as some brilliant minds have said, the price of a few deaths is acceptable for less regulation!

thrance 1y ago

This is a form of political violence.

the__alchemist 1y ago

I don't understand why the left puts up with it. They are too easily distracted by hot-button issues. These are some of the most important issues facing the present and future of our civilization and biosphere. I wish I had a solution, or knew the step to take. I suspect one of the root causes is the narrative, e.g. from news agencies, is being controlled by the propagators of the problem.

Filligree 1y ago
What do you propose they do?
- the__alchemist 1y ago
  I would love to have an answer to your question! Edit: Here's a start: Be more critical of the news. Content a bit; the scope of topics that are discussed more importantly.
  - tombert 1y ago
    Being critical of the news is good, but I don't think we want the lefty equivalent of the "Do Your Own Research" conspiracy crowd. The problem with undermining trust in the news media is that people will just replace that with blind trust with something else, and we have no way of really knowing if that something else will be worse. This is what happened with conservatives and led to the rise of Infowars.
  - bee_rider 1y ago
    Left wing politicians and media figures try to impact the media narrative (just like all media figures and politicians). It is part of the skill set. Like yeah, it would always be better for an engineer to get better at quickly understanding large codebases. Better for a soccer player to get better at aiming the ball. But that’s the game they are all playing, they are doing it as well as they can (in the case of left wing politicians, either they are bad at it or they are at some systemic disadvantage).
- deadbabe 1y ago
  We are soldiers in revolt for truth, And we have fought for our independence, When we spoke nobody listened to us, So we have taken the noise of gunpowder as our rhythm, And the sound of machine guns as our melody
- purple_turtle 1y ago
  Drop counterproductive and unpopular Culture War issues and instead fight about very stupid ideas pushed by Trump et all. Part of problem is that the most unproductive and unpopular and poor ideas are the most loved ones among their elites.
  - alchemical_piss 1y ago
    [dead]
  - jkeel 1y ago
    I agree. I wish there was a more organized "left" but from what I've seen it's just many many random groups that are not on the "right". If there was an organized left, then they should focus only on improving the well being of the average US family through improving the economy and healthcare to work for everyone. The left let's itself get baited into these culture wars. If everyone's lives improved then I believe a lot of these culture war issues would improve as a byproduct of a happier populace who would be more forgiving to those around them.
    - purple_turtle 1y ago
      > The left let's itself get baited into these culture wars. Well, at least some of them left (or some part of it) started entirely on its own.
hshdhdhj4444 1y ago
The American left is one of the most impotent political entities. The only purpose they seem to serve is strengthening the far right by imposing counter productive purity tests and pushing people to vote for the far right options over more centrist ones.
- otterdude 1y ago
  until people starting giving a shit to form alternatives, they're the only option that exists. Were not in a college classroom debating ideals, this is a real life triage situation
- adrr 1y ago
  And what purity tests are those?
  - recursive 1y ago
    Probably the identity politics stuff if I had to guess.
    - flkiwi 1y ago
      Identity politics. Rejecting identity politics for economic justice. Rejecting economic justice for economic revolution. It goes on and on. There are so many overlapping and contradictory purity tests among the various branches of the left, that meaningful opposition from the left is more of a coincidence than anything one can plan for.
      - adrr 1y ago
        Name a purity test. Stop dancing around the question.
        flkiwi 1y ago
        Name a meaningful victory of the American left's approach in the last 25 years. Stop dancing around the question.
hypeatei 1y ago
The left doesn't hold power in any branch of government right now. The most they can do before midterms is cause a government shutdown, but that can backfire unless messaging/demands are perfect.
- actionfromafar 1y ago
  Messaging should probably be "follow the law". Until that happens, voting in the house is just charades.
cluckindan 1y ago
Again with the left vs. right. Are you really that easy to divide into two diametrically opposed groups?
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- the__alchemist 1y ago
  This is also a key part of it. People should explore the complexity instead of treating this as team sports. I think we have a genetic disposition to this sort of thinking, but can overcome it.
  - CaptArmchair 1y ago
    From the posted article: > EPA Seeks to Eliminate Critical PFAS Drinking Water Protections > The move continues to expose communities across the country to toxic forever chemicals in tap water If this really were a "team sport", one half of the team wouldn't be set on undermining the health of the other half of the team.
    - testaccount28 1y ago
      hi there! i'm not sure you read the comment you're replying to! i guess you reject their request to stop trying to defeat the other team. but you also object to the use of the word "team" to describe a political party? could you explain?
    - somenameforme 1y ago
      Rolling back PFAS protections would not simply affect "the other half of the team", it would affect everybody. If there isn't some context missing here, this is an action that would be ubiquitously unpopular, let alone when contrasted against the goals of MAHA.
      - estearum 1y ago
        The beauty of gerrymandering is that the gerrymanderers don't need to be popular. Also the baseline GOP today exists in a different reality (e.g. where Trump won the 2020 election and Democrats did the COVID lockdowns)
smt88 1y ago
My friend pointed out yesterday that the left has lost its "evangelical spirit". It seems to have become political dogma that you can't persuade people to your side -- you can only turn them out to vote. But Charlie Kirk went to the most left places he could think of, debated people, and won some converts. Who on the left does that? Why doesn't anyone drive out to rural football games or country music concerts, have conversations, and put them on YouTube?
- tombert 1y ago
  I don't like him anymore because I think he's a perverted creep, but in the streaming space Destiny was reasonably good at this. I haven't watched him in years, but I remember reading about a few people that he managed to talk out of the more radical conservatism.
- BriggyDwiggs42 1y ago
  I’d add that the act of debate never convinces opponents, but serves as a performance which can make your ideas look good to an audience. Plenty of lefties do debates online, not to say that’s identical.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
- DrewADesign 1y ago
  > Who on the left does that? Sanders and AOC. Look at the stops on their Fighting Oligarchy Tour. It’s just that the DNC leadership will do everything in their power to fight actual progressives.
- Jaygles 1y ago
  I think this is the core of the issue for the Democra)ts. Conservative groups are focused on figuring out what actions are effective in gaining power and executing on that. They don't shy away from unethical methods like spreading misinformation and gerrymandering. They've understood this for a very long time and have been planting seeds for decades, such as taking over AM radio to entrench a conservative mindset in rural populations. From my observations the liberal and progressive groups seem to take on strategies where they claim the moral high ground and treat anyone not following their way of thinking as opponents and not as potential allies/converts. So even in cases where they are technically or morally "correct" in their stance, they aren't effective in bringing outsiders to their side. One example was the "recognize your (white) privilege" thing. While it was arguably based on sound ideas, proclaiming an entire demographic is receiving more than they earn is never going to bring people over to your side. I don't have much confidence that the Democrats will be able to turn things around in short order. The Democratic leadership seem stuck in their ways with no long term vision
tombert 1y ago
Short of some January-6th style insurrection, I'm not entirely sure what "the left" [1] could actually "do" here. I am absolutely not advocating for a January-6th domestic terrorism event, I think that would be a very bad idea, but I also have no idea what we could actively do. It's easy to say "reject the news agencies", and sure that might be a good idea, but that carries the risk of "substituting bullshit with different, more dangerous bullshit". This has already been somewhat demonstrated; the conservatives spent decades undermining trust in news media and that led to the rise of assholes like Alex Jones and conspiracy theories becoming normalized by American conservatives. It's easy to say "well the left wouldn't do that", but you have no way of knowing that any better than I would. I don't want to be cynical or hopeless, but I genuinely have no idea what I could do to help fix any of the shit going on right now. [1] whatever that actually means, I've heard about a dozen definitions.
- shagie 1y ago
  Normalize factual focused news that covers the topics that right (and center) news doesn't cover. This doesn't need to be biased and shouldn't be denigrating - I would like to believe that the liberal bias of reality is sufficient. Personally, I don't want to listen to angry people of any political bend. Name calling sounds childish. As to conspiracy theories on the left, they're there. Some of the anti-vax conspiracies came from people who would be considered on the (I'm going to apologize of this is seen as denigrating considering my earlier statement) granola side of the left. There's a fair bit of populist anti-corporate conspiracies and attribution of active malice rather a dispassionate corporate approach to trying to maximize profits. I would suggest instead considering that it isn't "left vs right" conspiracies (though they have their own spectrum) but rather that there exists a "prone to conspiracies demographic" that is swayed by the left or the right at a given time and those conspiracies that are most in line with the political ideology of the swaying are more likely to be normalized. Politicians agreeing with the conspiracies speeds up its normalization and helps sway the conspiracy minded demographic. I believe that the pro-science, pro-space, climate change is real, vaccines work of... lets put a range of 2008 to say... 2020 (its not that Biden abandoned it but rather that that congress was not advancing policies and the focus was more on "don't have it break more") significantly alienated the prone to conspiracy demographic from the Democratic Party. The Republican Party has embraced this demographic with the claims of a stolen election, supporting anti-vaccination positions, and openly accepting support of the various anti-{race} groups. It wouldn't take too much for anti-capitalism or anti-government conspiracies to be normalized and spoken openly by "the left" if that is one's target demographic. It's that left leaning and conspiracy leaning is a slim demographic to try to target. If the conspiracy demographic was decoupled from the current Republican Party, then I would expect to see more left leaning conspiracy theories be espoused openly.
odie5533 1y ago
The human brain can not handle social media. It has melted our brains and completely controls the Main Signal with its algorithms. The right is better at controlling the media in such a system, and is ascendant. We live in meme world now. Nothing is serious. It's all just memes.
- cloverich 1y ago
  It does feel like this. I remember this moment clicking for me with my dads family who was typically more rational. "did you hear California is going to outlaw bacon now"; everyone laughs. I mention that sounds kind of click baity? look it up. California wants to impose more stringent minimum space standards for amimals bred to slaughter (prop 12). Seems maybe good, or at least worthy of a real discussion? But everyone had moved on by then, ironically to how much they care about animal rights (spending significant time volunteering in shelters and such). Its just too easy to dumb people down with memes.
- estearum 1y ago
  Well, also our adversaries have a vested interest in tilting those systems toward MAGA in particular. Trump reneging on NATO, turning military attention toward (checks notes) Venezuela, and isolating ourselves in global trade is just an absolute dream come true for China and Russia.
- tstrimple 1y ago
  There have always been shitty conservatives in the world. The US fought a civil war against them. Civilized people fought against them and won civil rights and women’s suffrage and the right for gay folk to get married. These assholes have always existed in society and unfortunately always will. This is not a problem of social media but of acceptable antisocial behavior and beliefs.
spankalee 1y ago
Our system is not set up to be able to resist things like this. Once one party has control over all three branches of the federal government, all we can do at the federal level is wait for elections. States can try to do some things in some cases, but the Supreme Court will get in the way and now the National Guard and Marines.
- thomasmg 1y ago
  Right. My fear is that the rules of the elections will be significantly changed as well soon, by this party.
  - hackyhacky 1y ago
    Already happening. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Texas_redistricting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Texas_redistricting
- clscott 1y ago
  The last time you voted in The United States of America may be the last time you get a vote in The United States of America. All three branches of The United States of America has been captured by a tyrannical government. Rights are being eroded for inhabitants of The United States of America, including its citizens. You have no right to: safe medicine, safe food, safe water, vote. The sooner the people recognize this and take action, the shorter it will be to reverse. Americans have a duty to act, and act quickly: what's already been taken will take generations to regain.
  - RoseRadecki 1y ago
    [dead]
cogman10 1y ago
> They are too easily distracted by hot-button issues. I disagree. The issue is there's about 1000 fires burning all with somewhat critical importance. But further, the left and the politicians ostensibly representing the left simply are not aligned (at least in the US). It's a rock and a hard place. Generally the politicians positions are better than the right, but far less than what the left actually wants. So they rely heavily on "what are you going to do, let the other guys win?". Meanwhile, the right has adopted nearly the opposite position. On most positions when the base says "jump" they say "how high?". A big reason for that is money in politics. What the rightwing base wants is generally pretty compatible with monied interests. It's no skin off the nose of a rightwing politician if they want to ban books, that doesn't ultimately harm Disney's bottom dollar. For the left, what they want in almost all ways will negatively impact monied interested. Better regulations makes rich polluters mad. Nationalized healthcare makes every business (except maybe small businesses) mad. That's why "left" politicians tend to only support initiatives which effectively do nothing like recognizing a MLK or saying it's ok to be gay. And even then, they are happy to ditch those positions to win more rightwing base support because, shocker, that rightwing base is likely to care less about their inaction on climate change. You are right, though, news is a big problem. And that's because mainstream media is corporate captured. That's why left policy positions no matter the channel are always framed in the absolute worst way possible. For example, whenever nationalized healthcare comes up I can guarantee you the framing will be "How will you pay for this very expensive program that will eliminate choice and cost a lot of money which might make everyone sad and probably will bankrupt everyone?"
ThinkBeat 1y ago
There is no left in America, in any historical or contemporary manner. If you look closely at the Ds they back Trumps policies, not that they come out and say so. Rather Bernie will come out and attack it. but Ds on so mnay fornts now remain silent and passive. “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
supportengineer 1y ago
If you were an elderly high ranking Democrat, would you risk it all? Your power, your status?
cardamomo 1y ago
I found this post useful in understanding this phenomenon: https://www.offmessage.net/p/how-liberalism-sabotages-itself https://www.offmessage.net/p/how-liberalism-sabotages-itself The basic gist is that the left is too generous in its understanding of others' intentions, assuming good intentions from all actors long past the point where that's rational.
- mlinhares 1y ago
  They're also coopted by their donors and the thinking they can't be mean to their "colleagues", look at all the democrats saying they're "waiting for the republican party to come back". They want the same status quo they had in the past because it serves those already in power there, they can continue to collect donations and salaries if it all stays the same without doing much work. Look at how desperate they all were to leave DC and go on vacation, these people are not serious and they don't think there will be any consequence to them.
UmGuys 1y ago
Currently, if there were any resistance, they would swiftly be gunned down in the street. Hasn't the orange goon made that clear enough to you? The problem is we didn't enforce justice after the civil war or the coup on January 6. The cult of domestic terrorists has a monopoly on violence. Edit: Also, most of the politicians in both parties get money from the same interests (oil, Israel, tech). So the leadership of Democrats basically wants the same thing as GOP, so there's only voiced resistance.
avidphantasm 1y ago
The just-released MAHA report[1] mentions PFAS limits for drinking water to be enforced by EPA. Hopefully the unusually extreme contradictions in policy force a change. [1] https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/MAHA-Report-The-White-House.pdf https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/MAHA-R...
kilroy123 1y ago
It's called anacyclosis. A long cycle that has repeated throughout history. The US is the final step before the cycle repeats, Ochlocracy or "mob rule". It blows my mind that people refuse to accept modern countries and societies still don't go through this cycle. I truly think the US will have a Putin like dictator by 20230. (I don't think this is good or want that)
softwaredoug 1y ago
I think because “The Left” in the US - The Democratic Party - is actually a big tent, center-left party with a lot of different issues and stakeholders. They look more like a political party has historically in the US (big, messy, inconsistent)

PartiallyTyped 1y ago

It’s okay though, as some brilliant minds have said, the price of a few deaths is acceptable for less regulation!