this post was submitted on 17 May 2024
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[–] [email protected] 50 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Accelerationism can only ensure the US gets to fascism faster. Getting to fascism faster doesn't destabilize the resulting christo-fascist regime. A fascist government will not just make it harder to make the US and the world a better place. Once the fascists take power they will actively work to make sure it is a worst place. A christo-fascist United States will actively harm everyone living in its sphere of influence and do nothing to put a check on other authoritarian dictatorships' spheres of influence.

Republicans winning elections sets us back decades. In this current election, our democracy is at stake. Neoliberalism has been pushing us in this direction for decades. We need a socialist political revolution to fix this. We need to keep our democracy long enough to perform a political revolution to change things for the better.

Lemmy is inundated with accelerationist rhetoric. When I was still on Reddit, I saw plenty of conservatives. The most striking thing I've noticed from arguing with people on both Reddit and Lemmy is the similarity between accelerationist rhetoric and conservative rhetoric. Both accelerationists and conservatives assert the US has never been a democracy and that the US system cannot be fixed. Both of these assertions are contradicted by US history. This is not to say that these are the same group of people. What these false assertions highlight is that neither group values democracy.

These next months leading to the election are essential, as that as when people are going to start checking in to the current election cycle. Progressives cannot afford to be silent leading up to the election. Democracy, even one as flawed as ours with its undermining of majority rule, is our most effective vehicle for progressive change that we have.

People who do not value our democracy are going to troll, sea lion, and generally act in bad faith. The common internet adage, don't feed the trolls, is not going to help us. People will act in bad faith in a vacuum. They know they need to spread their message the farthest and the fastest to see their ideology realized in this election. Progressives need to spread our message further and faster than them if our political revolution is to succeed. Progressives do not need to interact with every internet troll they encounter. But progressives must find ways to be vocal which sometimes involves engaging with bad faith actors.

[–] makyo 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Bravo, perfectly said. And when you do engage bad faith actors, always keep in mind that you won't change their mind. And you don't need to, because you're engaging with them to help other readers come to the right conclusions about the future of democracy.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Yes, a major goal of our discussions in general is to help people reading the discussion. Ideally that would be pro-democracy conclusions. It's reasonable to assume we won't change bad faith actors minds in the short term. Studies have shown people reject new information that contradicts their beliefs. That's why we are in an information race. The initial opinion people form between now and the election is the opinion they are going to have on election day. But I do think anything is possible in the long term. We just need to get there with our democracy.