The DM was a DM asking us to change our no tankies policy and remove the fuck tankies banner as it was apparently upsetting hexbear users. Apparently tankies view the word tankie as a form of slur. The admin wants us to ally as a form of “left solidarity”

  • ToastedPlanet@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    2·
    11 months ago

    Here in the US, the people rule. Since socialist policies are in the interest of the people, they will want to vote for politicians who support socialist policies.

    • jack [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      64·
      11 months ago

      Here in the US, the people rule.

      This is literally objectively not true:

      https://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/princeton-experts-say-us-no-longer-democracy

      The US is not, and has never been, a democracy, because the people do not direct the actions of the government except on the margins. There is no democratic input on imperialism or capitalism. Those are invariate, and the system is designed to protect those from public influence.

      • ToastedPlanet@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        2·
        11 months ago

        It’s crazy to see a far left news source be used to try to convince people that the US has never been a democracy.

        We have always been a democracy and we thankfully still are a democracy. We are in danger of losing our democracy to fascism however. If we don’t fix the flaws in our democratic institutions we will end up in a fascist dictatorship.

        I am well aware we are circling the fascist drain. I also know that the modern neoliberalism movement started by Regan and Thatcher is how we got here.

        • iie [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
          16·
          11 months ago
          • 70% of Americans want singlepayer healthcare
          • 90% want universal background checks for firearm purchases
          • 75% want Citizen’s United repealed

          and yet these and other popular policies remain politically impossible

        • Grimble [he/him,they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
          9·
          11 months ago

          Ok, you know things. Cool. So why are you being so dodgy about hyperspecific political tendencies? Why is such a precarious, controlled, center-left (by ur standard) system like the US worth balancing?

    • iie [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      15·
      11 months ago

      Study: Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens:

      From the abstract:

      Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.

      further down:

      In the United States, our findings indicate, the majority does not rule — at least not in the causal sense of actually determining policy outcomes. When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites and/or with organized interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the U.S. political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favor policy change, they generally do not get it.

      What is it, like, 70% of Americans want single payer healthcare?

    • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      14·
      11 months ago

      The people rule so effectively in the USA that the candidate with less votes has won 1/3 of presidential elections in the 21st century.

      How can you be a “democracy” if the candidate with the most votes loses the election? I thought that was the number one rule of democracy, the person with the most votes wins.

    • KurtVonnegut [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      3·
      11 months ago

      Since socialist policies are in the interest of the people, they will want to vote for politicians who support socialist policies.

      Yes, you are right. People voted for Obama in 2008 because he promised nationalized healthcare. Obama also promised to shut down Guantanamo Bay prison. And people voted for Biden in 2020 because he promised student loan debt relief. Both presidents failed to deliver on their promises. Why? Because democracy in America is and always has been “bread and circuses.” Voting every two/four years is a distraction. Capital controls America, because it controls the American economy. How many elections do you need to see before you realize that it’s always going to be the same shit?

      And any actual socialist will be destroyed by the press. Jeremy Corbin -> anti-Semitic (he’s not). Bernie Sanders -> misogynistic racist (he’s not, and Biden and Trump both have dozens of sexual assault claims against them). Same shit, different year. Capital, the media, and special interest groups stop all progress from happening in American “democracy.” No one has ever voted their way to a revolution.