politics

It's all about confidence. If you think you are infallible you will have perfect confidence no matter how wrong you are.

Conman is a shortened version of confidence man.

We really need to stop thinking of anyone as special and treat everyone with dignity and respect (excluding Nazis).

Lots of bears where I am. If you hit them head on, your car is usually totaled.

Most of the US hates the word socialism, but if you pitch an actual example through a lens of saving money or creating jobs or something, they fucking love it. Just don't actually say the word and your golden.

I think about this every time I talk to my "liberal" family and they don't even realize they're spouting conservative bullshit.

"I worked hard for my house, I deserve to live in it alone until I die" while their son who didn't ask for cancer or to not be able to afford his medications is on the verge of homelessness. I guess my hard work and being underpaid my whole life just doesn't count compared to theirs? I guess the fact that our country mercilessly exploited the rest of the world, preventing them from living such comfortable lives, to be able to achieve such comfort for ourselves, means nothing? Those people in other countries worked hard too and lived in multigenerational housing for, well, generations. But they don't deserve it somehow, they aren't American, and we're the best so we deserve it or some other fucking delusional shit I don't fucking understand it.

They don't get it and at this point I'm pretty sure they never fucking will because the poison of Individualism has gotten them and US citizens don't understand Collectivism or the sacrifices you make for society at all.

All the Boomers are just like Biden. No matter being the source of all our problems, they won't lift a finger to make a sacrifice at the end, because "they worked hard and they shouldn't have to." Sure, when all the queers are being lined up for the firing squad, I'm sure it will mean a lot to them that you just couldn't lift a finger to prevent it because "you worked hard" and "you deserved a calm end of your life" as if these other people being rounded up to be murdered didn't deserve that.

Biden could have done a fuckton for us on his way out, but not a single fucking person in charge is going to make a sacrifice for us. Not Biden, not Merchan, not anybody.

Nah dude, Bernie was WAY more popular than you’re giving him credit for. That’s revisionist history. He won multiple states in the primaries. That doesn’t happen for a Reddit echo chamber candidate. He even won important states like Michigan and Wisconsin.

He really did shake up the Democratic Party, which is why they panicked and did everything they could to push Bernie out. Both in 2016 and 2020.

Contrary to the circles we reside in, most of the US despises any act of “socialism”. It’s ingrained in the culture after 50 years of waging a cold war against an entity that was associated with everything on the left because of propaganda.

America's mainstream opinions on "socialism" were not caused by America's history of arms races, thermonuclear development, and proxy wars across the globe, nor do they persist because of it. Many Americans have experienced a rapid and shocking shift in opinion toward Russia - the great red enemy of the cold war. This is still happening despite Russia making no major political reforms in recent history, no significant revolution in government, and actively trying to reclaim soviet territories.

If this was possible within a single generation, it also should be possible for public perception to change on socialism. There is no need or purpose to wait for people to die - their ideas live on.

No, decades after the cold war ended, the cause of the hatred of socialism in this country persists for one simple reason: Americans have become convinced through a tremendous amount of propaganda that Government is bad.

Not just America's government as an entity - we could all find some common ground there if it were that simple. No institution in particular, not the Administration, the federal or state legislatures, or the town halls, or the mayor of the small village who's really just doing it as a part-time gig - no, all of these are but parts of the greater problem - Government itself is seen as bad.

Not the flashy boots on the throats of "radicals", not the ICE agents storming the hospitals - that's not governing, that's just violence. No, what's "bad" are the mundane, boring, tedious things the Government does because someone has to.

There is this wild knee-jerk reaction to governance itself that dates back to good ol' Reaganism of course.

"The most terrifying words are... I'm from the federal government, and I'm here to help." (Reagan, 1986, paraphrased)

Spoken by the man specifically in charge of the federal government.

America was supposed to have been founded for the people, by the people, and with the people in mind. But now the people believe not only that the government isn't here for them - it can't be.

They believe we shouldn't try to make things better through governance because governing can't be good. it's always "inefficient", it's always "stealing your hard-earned money". To them it's million dollar pens in space, and spraying cat piss on drunk rats, and paying for hormones and birth control and school "litter boxes" - in short, to many Americans, any money the Government spends is by definition theft and waste, especially if it's hard to understand.

Changing their minds on socialism involves first changing their minds on the government. Not the capital A capital G American Government, but the nature and purpose of governance itself.

But on the bright side, I believe our opportunities to change those minds are only growing from this moment. The hateful idealogies, the demagogues, the simple answers - they're all a net negative on society. But the fact remains that the government is being challenged and ripped apart both internally and externally. Institutions are crumbling as we speak, traditions are being broken, and precedents are being set and shredded left and right.

People have the opportunity to realize that government itself is malleable, and that if it can be changed for the worse so quickly and horribly, then it can also be changed for the better. We have the chance to convince them that we as a society can take all of this power and use it for our personal and collective good, if only the right minds and the right ideas take root.