Ranked choice helped Mamdani get elected. It doesn’t have to favor moderate candidates if like-minded candidates form coalitions and campaign together, like Mamdani and Lander did.

The banana republic dictators were installed by the US and acted in line with US interests. It was only a matter of time that the repression tactics used there would find their way back home. Fascism is imperialism turned inward.

Nah, the DINOs are the good Democrats. They’re the party outsiders trying to realign the party. The real Democrats are these AIPAC shills. This is the true nature of the DNC as it stands and has stood for a long time.

There are photos of the rescued pilot out there. They’re not real of course (AI generated), but they are being circulated by high-profile politicians presenting them as real.

I wouldn’t dare speculate lest I end up as crazy as Professor Jiang.

Currently in flux, but it has been neoliberalism. Trump’s second term has been shifting the orthodoxy towards neoconservative fascism. When I say that someone is non-ideological what I mean is that they do not have a personal commitment to any particular ideology, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have an alignment. People who don’t have ideological commitments often align with the state and have a loosely connected set of orthodox views, and if they don’t then they instead have a loosely connected set of heterodox views.

So where are the majority of Americans, ideologically? Is there a majority ideological consensus? If so, what is it?

The majority of Americans are non-ideological in that they either align with the ideology of the state or have an incoherent hodge-podge of heterodox ideas.

The lesson that the Democratic party should have learned is that “only a little bit of death and destruction” is not an effective counter-message to maximum death and destruction. Harm reduction is a good practice, but if that’s the only moral argument you can make in favor of your candidacy you’re going to lose and have only yourself to blame.

A sustained general strike requires widespread strong unions with the ability to keep workers paid and fed for the whole duration of the strike. It’s not something you can just decide to do on a whim, it requires years of preparation by a disciplined labor movement that has already trained those muscles. This 1 day strike isn’t ground-shattering, but it’s a start.

He fancies himself to be a Hitler-style orator, but he ALWAYS comes off as just a Screeching Weenie.

Hitler also comes off that way to people who aren’t fascist morons.

Trump didn’t “kill” conservatism, he simply carried it through to its natural conclusions. It was always just a kind of fascism too timid to show its face.

When people are so quick to point an accusatory finger so frequently and unprompted towards them as you did commenting on this post is it any wonder that 3rd party and non-voters start to grow bitter towards their accusers? It would be far more productive of you to join their calls for a better Democratic party and not constantly chastise those with whom you agree on all except their choice to vote on their principles. Harm reduction is not a persuasive argument, it is a strategic decision to acknowledge your moral culpability in both action and inaction, informed by reality not ideals. It would be ideal if everyone understood this concept and voted to cause the least harm, but that is not the reality, and you will not convince them with finger-wagging and moralising. I am asking you to continue practicing harm reduction by keeping your frustrations with non-voters to yourself - knowing that voicing them only causes further harm - and instead direct them to dem electeds and primary candidates to be better at inspiring their vote.

Don’t wait for midterms, vote in the primaries for the most progressive candidates. We should want strong candidates in the general who aren’t compromised by corporations and who run on a progressive economic platform. This is what it will take to make a Democratic win a true victory rather than a brief respite from only the most visible aspects of fascism.

Jasmine Crockett being better / more aggressive in a debate doesn’t make her better on policy. She’s the establishment choice in this primary, an AIPAC-compromised ghoul with a snazzy coat of paint. Roasting Republicans with sick burns on fox news doesn’t wash the Palestinian blood from her hands, and she’ll keep up the appearance of fighting while caving at every opportunity to corporate interests.

Japan’s just lagging behind, they recently elected a reaganite/thatcherite to implement austerity policies. Fascism will soon follow, and they’re no stranger to it.

Please tell me you’re not from the US and our education system hasn’t failed you this horribly.

I agree, but I still think that as long as charities exist they should be tax exempt. I look at it similarly to USAID, which was a way for the US empire to project soft power, but also saved and improved lives. Ending 501c3 tax exempt status would be a disaster in the same way that the current administration ending USAID was. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.

By that logic, charities should not be tax exempt either. I agree that charity isn’t the ideal solution to poverty, hunger, homelessness, etc. and we should be funding social welfare to solve those problems, but in the meantime people who are working to alleviate these issues should not be tax burdened. I don’t like the religious exemption, but the 501©(3) exemption as a whole is a good thing.

The churches that would call him out are likely the same few that actually do something to deserve their tax exempt status, like feeding the homeless.

AI is new, the military industrial complex is not.