Original title was “A big Seattle name is in the election battlegrounds — helping Trump” which I editorialized primarily to better explain who Kshama Sawant is over the generic “a big Seattle name”.
The fact that this has not been taken down for editorialization is a huge indictment of this comm and it’s moderation
This is alex-jones level of mispresentation
I googled her thinking I’d find she wasn’t a socialist, but she is…
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kshama_Sawant
She’s got a huge Wikipedia, and I agreed with everything I skimmed till I got here:
Sawant said she rejects working with either the Democratic or the Republican party and advocates abandoning the two-party system.[108] She has called for “a movement to break the undemocratic power of big business and build a society that works for working people, not corporate profits—a democratic socialist society.”[109]
But its of note that she’s a crazy smart immigrant from India, which I’m sure we’re all aware is a hell of a lot worse than it is here.
But she went from computer programmer to economic professor, and if you read all her policies on Wikipedia, there’s not a lot to disagree with.
I think it’s just that she both understands the path we’re on, and knows it can get a hell of a lot worse and become much harder to change. Like when the grizzled survivor in a zombie apocalypse chops someone’s arm off when it might be a bite. When you’ve been thru some shit, your risk assessment changes, you play it safe long term even if it means short term pain. As bad as America is now, it’s not India in the 90s, especially for a woman going to school for computer programming.
She’s an accelerationist, and I dont agree with that. But fuck, if she had just a little more patience and restraint with her platform and coming out of Seattle with a progressive backing she’d have probably been an AOC level name in a decade.
She’s burnt any political future she’d ever have now.
Helping to elect a guy that straight up hates free and fair elections is a great way to get 3rd parties a seat at the table. /s
Genuinely curious: Has accelerationist theory ever worked out? Does the rise and fall of Nazi Germany count as an example where it “worked out”?
Successful accelerationists tend to be murdered by the people they help put into power.
In the example of Nazi Germany, the closest thing to modern left wing accelerationists helped create the domestic political chaos that Hitler promoted himself as an antidote to.
Shortly after WW1 you had the KPD (Communists/Revolutionary Socialists) and the SPD (Social Democrats/Union Workers).
After WW1 ended, Rosa Luxemburg of the KPD supported a revolutionary overthrow of the government, but was assassinated by right wing paramilitary groups collaborating with the SPD.
This led to the SPD remaining in control, mostly, tentatively, via coalitions, of the Weimar government, but created a whole lot of bad blood between the KPD and SPD.
Throughout the 20s and 30s, the KPD viewed the SPD as their primary enemy, and more than once allied with the Nazis to achieve the downfall of the SPD, though they now were less revolutionary and more electoral reformist.
In 1931, the KPD leader Thalmann declared 'After Hitler, Our Turn!" while instructing the KPD members to vote for a Nazi referendum that would overthrow the SPD government. Though this referendum failed, it caused much dissent within the KPD, as the Nazis grew in power and popularity.
In 1932, the KPD and Nazis both supported a series of labor strikes in Berlin which the SPD, normally aligned with unions, did not support.
This caused the SPD to lose enough seats in the Reichstag that the next government that formed was a coalition led by Nazis, after many months of Nazi paramilitary violence.
At that point, the KPD leaders mostly fled, Hitler was put into power with the SPD providing all the votes against him, and then the SPD and KPD were outlawed, and now we have the Third Reich.
…
So this parallels our current political reality broadly: Leftists (or left of center people) fight amongst themselves to their own detriment and ultimately accelerate the rise of a right wing authoritarian strong man who promises domestic stability, but ends up creating even more chaos and destruction.
If your leftist accelerationist goal is destroy as much as possible so the new world can maybe? rise from the ashes, then sure Germany is a good example of that working.
If your leftist accelerationist goal is get to communism as fast as possible by deft, 12-d chess political maneuvers including allying with fascists, then uh, no, Germany is a perfect example of that backfiring in the most horrible way imaginable.
Has accelerationist theory ever worked out?
Depending on your political leaning, the American Revolution comes to mind…
The French Revolution…
Pretty much any revolution makes modern “accelerationists” look like boring moderates on a long enough timescale.
Yeah, I think there’s some sort of survivorship bias going on to encourage accelerationists. They identify the successes and never hear about all the terrible failures. Sometimes making things worse does actually result in mass movements. It’s just that that’s pretty rare and usually it just makes things worse without an awakening, sometimes disastrously. But if it does happen it’ll cause a lot of change and end up in the history books. And in the event it doesn’t the accelerationists probably won’t even be mentioned in the description of the dark times they helped usher in.
And the big problem with all of this is that if people know you’re doing accelerationism, it’s a lot less likely to make people believe in your cause because it just seems like you’re playing a game and detached from people’s actual lives. Because to some extent that’s true and you are.
There is no such thing as a “crazy smart” accelerationist. By definition they don’t have a firm grasp of reality or the fate of most successful accelerationists.
There are a lot of smart people who don’t have a firm grasp on reality.
Bruh, IQ isn’t just one number, people are just talking about the average…
And risk assessment isn’t even part of it, but I think it should be personally.
Hell, for the last part I’d point out that most people with a really high IQ are considered not to have firm grasp on reality.
It legitimately doesn’t take that rare of an IQ until you’re at the point where Idiocracy has been happening for decades. It’s my main argument against a governmental system where the smartest lead. There’s a lot of human variation and ignorance is bliss is a saying for a reason.
Really smart people are often incredibly jaded and misanthropic.
From her point of view and the timeline she may be looking at. This could be like putting toilet water on the plants even tho it doesn’t have electrolytes.
Maybe she’s right. I don’t think she is. But I can see the argument
I never said anything about IQ. IQ is a bullshit measure.
I don’t think accelerationists are intelligent because they don’t understand the consequences of their actions.
So…
Do you think “intelligence” is real?
And do you understand that it’s not one thing that’s equally distributed, people have strengths in some areas like associative memory, processing speed, critical thinking, or long term memory?
Well she can GTFO then
Saying the quiet part out loud:
“We need to be clear about what our goals are,” Sawant said in a speech on Sunday in Dearborn, Michigan. “We are not in a position to win the White House.
“But we do have a real opportunity to win something historic. We could deny Kamala Harris the state of Michigan. And the polls show that most likely Harris cannot win the election without Michigan.”
So the goal is “fighting to defeat Harris, not just symbolically but in reality,” Sawant said. “This is ground zero to punish Kamala Harris and defeat her.”
If you admit Stein can’t win, and you claim Harris must be defeated, then you’re working to elect Donald Trump.
This whole effort is such blatant b.s.
“But we do have a real opportunity to win something historic. We could deny Kamala Harris the state of Michigan. And the polls show that most likely Harris cannot win the election without Michigan.”
I’ll recently read an article about Jill Stein saything this EXACT same quote. It’s really triggering my bullshit radar. I’ll have to find the article, give me a sec.
The DNC working overtime to smear any threats to their power.
What is the threat? Can Stein win the White house?
If they get 5%, not only do they get Federal election funding, they also have guaranteed ballot access so they do not have to fight for ballot access on each individual State every single election and they get a podium at the debates. Giving them legitimacy, which in turn creates a threat to the right-wing authoritarian duopoly we currently have
If they get 5% of what?
You are a liar, sowing disinformation and are either a foreign asset or straight up troll.
You know what would actually give these charlatans legitimacy? Running down ballot candidates in various states, getting elected in city councils, state legislatures. Getting a voice in naming and affirming state officials and judges. You know, actually functioning as a political party. What doesn’t do anything is running a No-Win Presidential Candidate.
Every single third party candidate for president at this point is a literal foreign agent whether they know it or not.
too bad they are so unpopular and incompetent! Only 20% of the way there!
You can’t even be self-consistent from moment to moment. So which is it. Are both parties fascistic, as you claimed above. In which case no matter how much any third-party garnered from the vote. They would never get any matching funds. Or are you suddenly acknowledging that you’re full of shit. And actively working to get actual fascists elected?
…Elections? After his next term? Would you put your life on the line to guarantee we will have any?
And on that chance we don’t…
Could you console me in the labor camps or take my breath away with your strategies before the gas chamber does?
No. Your social media empathy does not extend to those within your reach. The golden light of your halo is as inert as the neon gas inside it.
Disrupt as you see fit, create whatever new claims you need and just leave us alone to our death then. I will not play your game. I will not assist in any form, a Trump election victory.
If they manage to hit 5% of the vote this election, which of course would mean a Trump win, then they will in no way, shape, or form have guaranteed ballot access in the next election. They’ll be lucky if they aren’t in prison or worse.
This person who’s going around calling herself a socialist, and also risking Trump getting elected, is showing an incredible level of thick-headed cluelessness as to what he plans to have the police and military do to anything that looks any type of left-wing, over the course of his second term.
They also won’t hit 5%, but that’s not even the main concern here.
So you get 5%, then what? We know that Stein is trying to upset Harris, but let’s play along.
You get federal funding for the 2028 election. Say you win the White house, shit pigs could fly. They run damn near zero state or federal seats. They get in with a Democrat or Republican House/Senate and does nothing.
Defunding the military would be by congress, they set the budget. Funding overseas wars, congress. You could block them but run the chance of a veto. Third parties have zero desire for change. They want power but without a foundation.
Plan and simple, third parties are being pushed for a Trump victory. Most people claim to care what is happening. What about Syria, Yemen, Sudan, and Iran? Trump watched all of those places burn and still burning. I don’t hear Stein talking about a single one.
Yes, 30 days before an election, Democrats are fighting like hell to defeat Donald Trump. No help from progressives in opposing fascism this election cycle, and don’t think we’ll forget.
We forget…every 4 years a few super zelots crawl out of the wood work to siphon of a point or two of votes, then crawl back in the dark corners like the cockroaches they are.
No, I remember. It’s roach stomping season.
No help from progressives
These people are not progressives. They are accelerationsts. I considered myself a progressive and the only candidate in a position to further progressive goals is Kamala Harris. My goal is progressive change, I don’t give a flying fuck which politician we use to get there.
The people voting 3rd party/not voting are actively harming progressive priorities, I don’t think they should get that label.
These people are not progressives.
And it pisses me off to no end that they’re trying to co-opt the Progressive label. No. Fuck you, get out. Tankies, accelerationists, and bothsidesers are NOT Progressives.
Okay, this is fair. I consider myself a progressive too, and I said that in jest. I do stand with progressives. “accelerationist” is way more accurate, and I absolutely despise people who think that letting the system collapse and crush all the people at the bottom is somehow going to start a revolution. You have to be very privileged and certain that you won’t be at the bottom getting crushed.
This. 100% this. If you want progress, you have to stop and look at who will be in office in January. Donald Trump…or Kamala Harris. No other names will take that Oath of Office, and this was set back all the way in July. If you wanted Progressive McProgressivestein in office, that person needed to be ran in the Primaries for the Democratic Party in July, which meant that candidate needed to be introduced to people long before then, as early as January 2020. And if your idea candidate didn’t win the Primaries, that means you couldn’t convince enough Democrats to vote for your candidate, and if you can’t convince Democrats to vote your guy or gal, how can you convince enough AMERICANS?
You can’t oppose fascism by supporting it
You can’t oppose fascism by being unable to identify it either. But that’s never stopped you.
Fascism is very clearly able to be seen when you’re not wearing blinders in a shade of blue
You can’t even address what was said or what fascism actually is. And if you think the Democrats are Fascist for all their faults LOL the only fool here is you.
He defines “violence” as having to work for a wage.
This is such a dumb argument. Yes, what Israel is doing to Palestine is horrific. Yes, our government is tacitly supporting this by funding Israel and providing them with bombs. Yes, Kamala Harris is soft on Israel despite this.
I don’t like it, but this narrative that Harris is somehow in favor of Genocide, while her only viable opponent is not, is complete fucking bullshit. Trump is enthusiasticly pro-Israel is is having private meetings with Netanayahu as a civilian right now - and he’s openly fighting against a ceasefire. I wish Harris was stronger on this, and would make a bigger point of stopping what Israel is doing, but she’s still the obvious lesser fucking evil.
But right now she has little to no power to do anything about it because she has both President Biden and Congress between her and the issue, and she can’t do anything about it until she is actually President. Being too strongly anti-Israel before the election could cost her the election, so from her perspective, even if she did have stronger feelings on the severity of this issue, she might strategically have to hide it for the sake of actually winning the election (literally the only thing that matter if you want a chance at implementing policy).
All I know is that between Harris and Trump, we already know what kind of president Trump is, so anyone actively campaigning to hand him another term, especially after his promises of mass-deportations, mass-arrests, criminalizing criticism of the courts, and literally “being a dictator”, you are my fucking enemy.
So, quick follow up question: When Trump wins, fascism replaces our representative democracy, and we are forced to wage a war against those who brought us here to reclaim our rights and way of life, where will you hide?
She along with Biden has denied. There is an actual genocide going on. She has reiterated multiple times most recently in her 60 minutes interview that Israel will defend its right to exist and apparently at all cost with the assistance of the US
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Pretty shitty socialist if she’s trying to get a fascist elected.
These are petty participants, not Socialists. They’re only doing anything at all because they feel slighted. Ever been in a room with one of those people who is getting annoyed because nobody is paying attention to them? That’s this woman.
“Ummm, excuuuse mmeeeeee. I’m talking heeere, so pay attention pleeeasse” 🤦