this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2023
669 points (96.9% liked)

politics

19123 readers
2685 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Stochastic terrorism strikes again. This is directly because of Moms for Liberty and Libs of TikTok.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 98 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Yet, those who incite this hatred, meet with no negative consequences.

We go high, they go low.

We turn the other cheek, they throw a temper tantrum for not handing them medieval torture devices.

"Owning the libs" birthed literal psychopaths, who want the state to torture people to death, as entertainment.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 year ago (5 children)

As it turns out, "winning the moral victory" is still just losing.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

True. If you really want to win the moral victory you have to take action to stop letting your peers across the aisle get away with inciting this shit. (Speaking to leadership in congress here). You have to take action against propaganda outlets like Fox and OANN and Alex Jones and so forth.

I'm extremely grumpy today... sorry for this rant.

I guess what hit me yesterday is Biden's statement about being friends with McConnell.

I cannot comprehend considering that man as anything but a villain and a lifelong enemy. And it got me wondering what kind of person could consider him a friend? And how seriously does someone like that really take problems in this country? Kind of feels like the life and death problems we peons face aren't life and death for those in power, ya know?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Exactly. Mitch McConnell has done more damage to this country than anyone besides Reagan.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

There is no moral victory just people in power telling you to be subservient and accept their behavior or you can't go to their imaginary billionaire land in the sky. I mean even the turn the other cheek is always misrepresented. Old slave laws prevented hitting someone a certain way or they could be released, you turned the other cheek to force them to hit you in an illegal manor and try to get released or force them into a position where they couldn't hit you that time. It did not mean turn and let someone hit you ffs.

[–] demlet 4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Well, would you be willing to do what they're doing in the name of "winning"? That's the real dilemma. How exactly do you maintain your own morality against an amoral adversary? Is it possible? It's the old trope of "becoming as evil as the evil you're fighting". I certainly admire pacifists for being able to hold to their ideals, but for me there's no easy answer.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, would you be willing to do what they’re doing in the name of “winning”?

Not in the name of "winning" no. But in the name of helping people that the conservatives are trying to hurt, absolutely.

That’s the real dilemma. How exactly do you maintain your own morality against an amoral adversary? Is it possible? It’s the old trope of “becoming as evil as the evil you’re fighting”.

It's not a dilemma at all. Conservatives aren't evil because they are willing to use underhanded to accomplish their goals. They are evil because their goals are evil. Fighting back against them is not even remotely the same.

While it is true that the ends don't justify the means, there has been this moderate liberal overcorrection where people only concern themselves with the "means" and think that it is wrong to ever focus on the "ends". But it's not, the ends matter. The process of government, the "means", isn't actually meaningful in-and-of-itself, it's a tool to manage disputes in a non-violent manner. But it is also a contract, and it only works when all parties agree to it and abide by it.

If the conservatives break the contract, and are hurting people, then upholding the "means" and allowing those people to keep getting hurt rather than putting a stop to it, is complacency and it's own sort of evil.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

You don't fight this by meeting it head on, letting them choose the battlefield. You fight this by aggressively bringing the fucking banhammer, both figuratively and literally.

You don't just throw the law book at them, you throw the library. You hit them with every possible charge, loitering, jaywalking, not carrying the right kind of insurance, w/e. All of it, and you don't let off, or give an inch. No fucking plea deals in the face of organizers of hate and stochastic terrorists. Sending bomb scares and death threats should be a mandatory five years, doubling if repeated (5>10>20).

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

My friend group in high school knew this. We'd always jokingly describe losing as winning a moral victory.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
[–] Kbobabob 86 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Imagine thinking you're helping society by blowing up elementary schools and libraries.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They notice the more educated you are the less likely you are to have the same views as them. They don't see it as education they see it as a affront to their way of thinking! So yeah I think it just started unfortunately.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago

The thing is, they do. They see public schools as "libtard woke factories". They want to move to a system where everyone homeschools their children with whatever bullshit idiocracy they believe instead of...you know....actual information.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago

Literally Christian Taliban...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

"Hold my vodka."

-Putin

[–] Nightwingdragon 71 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Schoolchildren.

These people are targetting schoolchildren for the love of fuck. These people are targetting pediatric cancer patients. I'm not even just talking about the (almost entirely nonexistent in most places) trans children that the GOP have decided are a good target for the internet hate machine, but just everyday schoolchildren. At what point do these fucking people sit there and think that not only is blowing up a random school of SCHOOLCHILDREN a good idea, but it will somehow bring sympathy and support for their cause?

THERE ARE EXACTLY ZERO SCENARIOS THAT COULD POSSIBLY EXIST WHERE THREATENING CHILDREN'S HOSPITALS AND ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS IS JUSTIFIED.

When is our government going to start hunting down these people like the dogs they are, charge them with all sorts of domestic terrorism charges, and throw them in jail for life? Because when you start to consider blowing up elementary schools as a viable idea, you are no longer fit to live in or even be welcomed in civilized society.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago

Thinking they want sympathy or support is a mistake.

They want fear.

[–] eran_morad 18 points 1 year ago

Lol, they’ll gladly look the other way while one of their zealots shoots up school kids. Dolla dolla bill.

[–] dragonflyteaparty 71 points 1 year ago

These people better see jail time. No one, fucking no one, should be able to attack children and get away with it. And all because they're scared that people are different from them. What childish bullshit that culminated in attacking the most vulnerable.

[–] eran_morad 69 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] postmateDumbass 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Gotta introduce trauma early in a child's life so they are more easilly bullied later on.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

That one can backfire. Some of us just learn to fight from a disadvantage.

[–] JustZ 47 points 1 year ago (4 children)

These Trump supporters are out of control.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago

They are domestic terrorists following an insurectionist. Let's not give them any more branding

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

All Trump supporters are terrorists in training, and some of them have graduated.

[–] eran_morad 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

These Trump supporters are ~out of control~ a waste of carbon.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

These Trump supporters are ~~out of control~~ a waste of carbon.

I think you need two of those little guys before and after: "~"

[–] NielsBohron 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I had this conversation a few weeks ago from your POV. It turns out that different apps and browsers use slightly different versions of markdown, so some apps see one tilde on each as struck through, but others don't.

Spoiler tags and numbering are also subject to weirdness; in that case, it comes down to whether there's a space in a certain place or not, IIRC.

[–] JustZ 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Mo9000 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)
load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Burn_The_Right 6 points 1 year ago

You mean conservatives. Trump is just a symptom of an infestation of conservatives.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago (1 children)

LEAVE OUR KIDS ALONE! Alright, now let's send a bomb threat to a public school. /s

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So... jail time? For inciting of violence as well as the threats. Lock them all up.

[–] SinningStromgald 7 points 1 year ago

The only reason the Overton window is going to shift left if because all the right wing nut jobs loose the ability to vote.

[–] Nightwingdragon 12 points 1 year ago (4 children)

And one more thing......I just don't understand the sudden hatred of libraries.

Even if you are the most racist, hateful person on the planet who believes that any book even mentioning a black person should be banned, there are ways to handle that if you really, really feel the urge to do something.

  • Step 1: Go get some mental health treatment, because you clearly have issues that need to be resolved.
  • Step 2: If you're stupid enough to skip step 1 and are hellbent on "doing something", go to the library with the bad evil books.
  • Step 3: Check out the books in question.
  • Step 4: Never return the books.

There you go. You've done your part for your white supremacy movement. You removed all the bad evil books from the library. You will go down in history for your patriotic actions on this day! Never again shall our schoolchildren be subject to the evil horrors of Hank Aaron's biography or reading about a rabbit with two dads, because of you! Rest. Go home, soldier, you deserve it. Problem solved. And look, nobody died!

*(we'll just skip over the part where the library just spends another $12.95 to replace the book. They don't need to know that.)

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (2 children)

They hate libraries for the same reason they hate public schooling, and every other public service. Because it's money they pay to help people who are not them.

[–] grue 21 points 1 year ago

The hate for libraries and schools goes further than that. Libraries and schools are places where people can learn things that contradict their indoctrination.

[–] eran_morad 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

They hate libraries for the same reason they hate public schooling, and every other public service. ~Because it's money they pay to help people who are not them~ Because they’ve been manipulated into doing so.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] dragonflyteaparty 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They hate libraries because it's part of education. They are seeking to dismantle education so people have no choice but to either pay out they ass to send kids to their religious school because the government vouchers don't cover the full cost or have to forgo education entirely and might as well send the kid to work because of relaxed child labor laws and rising costs of everything.

[–] TruTollTroll 5 points 1 year ago

God this is scary real...

[–] FlyingSquid 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Libraries are amazing. I'm a bit biased because my wife is a library administrator, but so many people don't know what libraries have available. Ours, and this isn't a big city, has free 3D printers, online ebooks, audiobooks and streaming movies, fun kits you can take home with you like a ukulele with an instruction book, a PS5 and an HTC Vive in the teen room, even a pancake printer. It prints pancakes in any shape you design in some simple drawing software. How cool is that?

They're opening a new branch and they're going to include, again for free, a room with a lockable door and a sign-up sheet that has a shower and a washer and dryer in it. One person at a time, but think about how many impoverished people could use a shower and some clean clothes. And the library is there to help them.

But these people think all libraries do is give porn to children or whatever.

[–] eran_morad 11 points 1 year ago

Libraries have long been a cornerstone of enlightened society. Only republican swine could oppose them.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The hate isn't new. The targetting of libraries just went quiet for a while.

https://theconversation.com/battles-over-book-bans-reflect-conflicts-from-the-1980s-177888

I keep saying, none of this is new, conservatives have always been awful.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

That's because Trumpism turned it into a domestic terrorist group.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Chaya Raichik (libs of tiktok) has broken the rules of every platform she uses. Just saying; the government is barred by the first amendment from considering what she's done to be a crime - this is organizing, though hateful.

[–] TheDramaLlama 6 points 1 year ago

wingcuckery and it's consequences

load more comments
view more: next ›