this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2024
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[–] [email protected] 79 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Both sides are a march to capitalism. Support Ranked Choice Voting.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 11 months ago (4 children)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago

Find your states organization for such, or start one.

I live in California so the organization I volunteer for is https://www.calrcv.org/

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (8 children)
  1. the voting system alone won't break the two party system.

  2. Approval Voting is a better voting method anyway.

  3. We're going to need to move to some kind of proportional system in order to get more parties, and sequential proportional approval is better suited for that task as well.

I'm only coming at you so strong because it's important that we get this right the first time. Approval is the way to go, both in the short term and the long term.

For those that don't know, approval works like this: vote for any number of candidates, most votes wins. That's it. It's dead simple while being one of the more accurate systems by multiple measures.

Link 1 Simulating Elections with Spatial Voter Models

Link 2 Simplified Spacial Model Example

Link 3 2012 OWS Polling

Link 4 Democratic Primary Polling

Link 5 2024 Republican primary

RCV has problems with spoilers, vote-splitting, and non-monotonicity. RCV is so messy we're not exactly sure how often an RCV election was influenced by a spoiler, but it could be as high as 14%, which would put around 75 people into Congress thanks to a spoiler. We know our happened in the Alaska special election, for example.

Anyway, if you want to help switch your local or state elections to approval (and you absolutely should) volunteer here!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Where did you get the 14% figure?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

So unfortunately I didn't bookmark that particular source, but the estimates can range fairly significantly. They're sensitive to your technique and your definition of a spoiler. For example, this article calculates both higher and lower probabilities of a spoiler. I don't think it's good for much more than saying that, all else being equal, RCV has fewer spoilers than FPTP (choose one). Contrast that with approval, where spoilers simply don't exist, and approval clearly takes the cake in that category.

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[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot 54 points 11 months ago (6 children)

The sky was the colour of a TV tuned to a dead channel.

[–] aulin 5 points 11 months ago

War of the ants, we used to call it.

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[–] [email protected] 52 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It’s the wealthy that have nothing to worry about, as Joe nothing will fundamentally change Biden has said.

[–] [email protected] 53 points 11 months ago (1 children)

He wasn’t lying, he knew he wasn’t gonna get much shit through Congress when he had a 50/50 split with two of those on his side being Sinema and Manchin and the other side having folks who possibly schemed in having his entire administration cancelled before it ever began

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (5 children)

Manchin and Sinema played their assigned roles as rotating villains. And if a rotating villain can’t be summoned, there’s always the Senate parliamentarian. And if not that, then there’s always splitting the bill, as was done for the impending rail strike last year.

The Democrats punk us over & over. football-lucy Both parties work for the capitalist class and against the working class.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 11 months ago (5 children)

Ok cool I’m still voting for Democrats down the ballot in November

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[–] Serinus 25 points 11 months ago (2 children)

The rotating villain thing gets way too much credit. When the Republicans have control, it's something like 56/44. When the Dems have "control", it requires the vice president to break the tie.

Manchin is the best thing you're going to get out of fucking West Virginia any time soon. It's time to stop counting on him as the 50th vote.

Sinema is different, and should absolutely go fuck herself. But she's just a regular, actual villain, not some rotating conspiracy.

[–] theangryseal 4 points 11 months ago

Meeting a democrat in West Virginia is like finding a dodo bird in the wild.

Well, more accurately, it’s like finding a truffle.

I mean, they’re there. They defiantly don’t take their politics out to town with them though. In some places it can even be dangerous. No way I’d put a sticker on my car that’s for sure.

Had a dude put a Trump sticker on my bumper once though. I was surprised when I kept suddenly getting “hell yeah buddy” everywhere I went haha. Peeled that off real quick.

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[–] TrickDacy 15 points 11 months ago (8 children)

You think they get together and decide who pretends to have beliefs that happen to fuck the whole party? This sounds like absolute bullshit from a BoTh SiDeS-er.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

I don't think they need to. For the most part, it's just convenient for the majority to not get anything done and it's campaign material for Manchin to betray the party. I think that by and large, it's a symbiotic relationship where both sides get what they want.

[–] Serinus 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I think it does happen once in a blue moon. Congress is more educated on their votes than the general public, and sometimes all the information isn't public. Once in a while they feel they're going to need to make a vote that isn't popular with their base, and might actually do the rotating villain thing. But that's also going to take into account how strong/weak they are in their districts, and would never be Manchin or Sinema.

We might even see this more in the near future, where Congress is being briefed by experts, the military, the FBI, and the CIA while the general public is being briefed by AI-powered social media propaganda campaigns.

Of course people like to blame the "rotating villain" every single time the party does something they disagree with, because obviously the user's opinion must be the majority opinion.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Americans are too busy trying to decide if they want to elect an orange king or keep the democratic experiment going a little longer to worry about small things like wealth distribution.

People are easily manipulated. A smart electorate is a very hard thing to sustain.

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[–] johannesvanderwhales 38 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Is it weird that my first thought was "because it's asbestos and you're not going to live much longer anyway?"

[–] tamal3 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I thought dry asbestos was harmless? Watch out for trying to remove it, though. The powder is terrible for you.

[–] Railing5132 3 points 11 months ago

Undisturbed asbestos is safe-ish... BIG emphasis on the "ish".

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[–] problematicPanther 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

my dad taught me how to do a lot of home renovation: installing new flooring, removing carpeting, painting interior and exterior walls, building screened in back porches, et cetera. one thing we did together was scraping the popcorn ceiling with a paint scraper, then tidying it up with the mud/putty/whatever it's called and painting it. I just wish i could buy my own place so i could renovate it.

[–] tamal3 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Be careful handling asbestos. Damn stuff was in everything.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I don’t get it. But I also don’t subscribe to mainstream media and news. Is this a play on media trying to sell bidenomics as good for common, or most, people?

[–] BradleyUffner 104 points 11 months ago (7 children)

I think the implication is that rich people don't have popcorn ceilings, so if you do, you don't make enough money that his tax plan will hurt you. The premise seems flawed to me, but I could be interpreting it wrong.

[–] jordanlund 63 points 11 months ago (6 children)

Ceiling types who NEED to worry:

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (4 children)

That second one is the one I want!

[–] Retrograde 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'm gonna make that shit in Minecraft

[–] dejected_warp_core 5 points 11 months ago

So. Many. Stair. Blocks. I salute you and what this will do to your free time.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Pretty sure people with those ceilings don't have to worry either, because they have plenty of tricks to hide their wealth from taxes. I get what OP means, but they really missed the mark, because it's pretty much only people with ceilings like the one he posted that actually have to worry: Rich enough to own a suburban home, but not rich enough to indulge in elaborate tax schemes.

[–] CaptPretentious 3 points 11 months ago

They all look tacky to me. Expensive, but tacky.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago

Nah you’re spot on.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Ah, I was thinking "it's probably asbestos so long term financial planning is not something you should worry about" but your interpretation makes way more sense.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

I was thinking "Should they worry about crumbling lead paint?"

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

will the tax plan actually "hurt" the rich or will it simply limit their means to get even richer?

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

"The media" isn't trying to "sell" Biden's tax plan. Some guy on the internet is saying via meme that if you have popcorn ceilings, you don't have to worry about your taxes going up under Biden. Biden has famously pledged that he will not increase taxes on people making less than $400,000/year, so the implication is that people with popcorn ceilings make less than $400,000/year.

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