Memes

Conservatives: "George Carlin is a Republican!"

Why do you stop at billionaires, and not include the politicians and the people that hold power?

I think, on average, we're too dumb as a species to keep it in mind. I would hate to say we deserve the system we've got, but here we are.

You all need to read gramsci.

If you think racism is an issue of "whites vs blacks" you either have never seen racism (good for you) or never really heard the people affected.

Hegemonial culture is a thing, and it plays a major role in keeping modern systems afloat.

Can't fight capitalism without addressing inequalities and fighting for a just society for everyone.

This is the literal concept of solidarity: also fighting for causes you are not personally affected by.

When you're a trans teen from OK getting beaten to death by classmates, the culture war feels a lot more urgent to focus on in the moment. Survival isn't something you can be passive about.

Some people partake in the culture war as part of manipulation by the rich... Some people are forced into it by defending themselves from the first group. And some people are compelled into it to protect the second group.

While you're not wrong about how we got here, it feels like it would be too easy for one side of the culture war to spin this as "Ignore my bigotry, Wall St is the real enemy!"

Political parties are part of the culture war too. The rich don't fit into a party. They like right wing economics because it keeps them rich, sure, but they push left wing culture because it gets people off their backs. As a whole, they play the two parties against each other, and we probably won't be able to stop that unless we can get more parties into the running.

Political hatred - probably the most prominent form of hatred in the US - is driven by the dichotomy, the "you're either with me or against me" that's made so convenient by the fact that everyone has to fit into one of two buckets anyways. Throw more parties into the mix, and it's harder to make that distinction because any given party works with you sometimes and against you at other times, and if you label them all as enemies, you're going up against the majority of the country.

It's easier said than done, though. Duverger's law states that the maximum number of viable political parties is the number of seats in a given election + 1. So we can't just will another political party into viability without booting out one that we already have. We have to change the voting structure. Proportional representation in congressional elections sounds good, and with fewer voting districts, it's also harder to gerrymander. But that's gonna be hard to push for.

Once we can accomplish that, the hatred will slowly subside (but not entirely,) and people will be able to see more clearly to deal with the class struggle. Plus, with more parties, we might even be able to vote in candidates who support the actual economic changes we want instead of just paying lip service to the lower classes.

Trying to comprehend the thought process:

I mean, that's true. It's not "white privilege," but it's still privilege.

Reminds me of my white dad talking to a friend of my brother's who's black about how he feels when a cop is around. "Not that different, maybe a little safer." And the friend said he has to be very careful about everything he does in that situation. My dad's not a conservative type, thank god, so hopefully it gave him some insight.

A few years ago, some cops were in my neighborhood looking for someone while I was sitting in my car. One ducked his head down to look at me and quickly left. I was VERY aware that my skin color might have just saved my life.

I was talking to my handyman the other day, he's a nice guy and likes to learn. I'm telling him about how much it sucks to grow up in car-centric suburbs, and he told me about childhood.

I told him how the freedom he had now gets people arrested for child neglect, and all of a sudden he goes "yeah it's so dangerous now with the crisis at the border"

It's like they've been through an "education" camp. You carefully lead them through understanding how the world could be very easily improved, and they're getting it... Then some phrase reminds them of their conditioning, and they snap back to step one.

It takes months of gently leading them to see that what they're saying makes no sense... It's possible, but it's depressing how many people are falling into the fox newshole

• Thanos

I disagree. We all enjoyed WandaVision.

Intersectionality is a thing.

It doesn't quell it. It redirects it. All of the negativity and animosity still exist in the world, but now it's aimed at the wrong target.

Right? Specially when those minorities have been abused into one of the low social classes.

These are two related issues.

Bradford?