Strictly speaking that’s not true. For example, business elites almost certainly favored Romney over Obama’s second term. But when it’s someone as wooden as Romney, it doesn’t matter how much money they pour into the race.

This time around Republicans are probably going to run some Trump stooge who’s planning on the third term end-around to put Trump back in office, assuming Trump lasts that long. I think they’re going to have a similar problem this time.

There’s definitely giant inadequacies in American democracy, but still I fail to see how voting isn’t good enough. If people voted for Gore instead of Nader, American history would be very different. We’d have avoided a giant tax cut for the rich l, withdrawing from Kyoto, and a trillion dollar unnecessary war. Wealth inequality wouldn’t be as bad, there would definitely be earlier progress against global warming, and we could probably afford real universal health care by now.

Ideally after voting in the right people, we’d fix all the democracy problems. But still I’d say voting alone would make a huge difference. Anything else meanwhile - protests (BLM, Gaza), violence (Matthew crooks, Luigi) has at best accomplished zero, and in reality seems to have done serious damage to the causes they were seeking. The one exception I’d give is boycotts - like the Tesla boycotts that have destroyed their sales numbers.

Well yeah, but part of the voter propaganda is telling people both sides are the same. I get that there’s pro capitalist media bias which at its root is caused by extreme financial inequality. But fixing that financial inequality requires government action, and that requires voting. For the people who will do the inadequate version over the people who want to make it worse. Incremental change through pressure + time, just like everything else on earth.

Voting caused the problem, it can solve it too. But here’s the thing: for voting to solve the problem, you have to actually do it and play the game.

Every 20-25 years some rightwing psycho wins and inflicts some horror on us because new voters don’t remember what happened the last time people said “both sides are the same”. You kids know that whole Iraq war and torture thing was avoidable, right? So was Reagan’s annihilation of the middle class.

I mean obviously, they tried in 2020. But they’re also very, very dumb. That being said, with the four years in-between, they may have figured out how to book a hotel room by now.

BlueSky may not be ideal, but anything is better than X.

X is just a machine for turning billionaire cash into political domination.

Let’s not forget “We need this right away!” then it takes weeks to deploy because the people who requested it weren’t actually ready for it yet (if they don’t change their mind and decide they don’t actually want it at all).

shutting out a significant portion of your community without seeking their input first isn’t a sensible move for such a foundational open source project.

Ironic when X shuts out anyone who isn’t logged in and shuts out anyone who doesn’t pay for a blue checkmark from having visible replies.

Having an X account isn’t consequence-free - if it becomes where updates occur, people have to sign up for an account and subject themselves to nazis everywhere and all manner of crypto spam just to see updates. And they have to pay Elon tribute to be heard in response. It’s crazy that anyone sees it as being friendly to users.

And if there was a disagreement about whose property was who’s? With no laws to settle it, it would just be determined by who grabs said property and runs off with it first. That’s indistinguishable from a free-for-all.

Home grown food from urban gardens. Your soil is probably completely untested, and the idea of “maybe I shouldn’t just pour chemical waste out of the window” is barely 4 decades old.

And let’s not forget that any soil near a road had a ton of lead released nearby throughout much of the last century, and that just stays there. As well as lead paint chips from buildings.

Eh it’ll be two years before he loses control of congress, and he’s also very, very stupid to the point where he will have a hard time accomplishing his worst ideas. Of course there will be lots of bad decisions and people dying of those bad decisions, but that’s just what we call America.

If the law said my car is no longer my property, then driving away with it would cease to be stealing, correct. What is property without legal, government-backed title? There’s no way to formulate a definition, because without government and laws property has no meaning.

All property is a social construct and is defined by law. So if the law says debt is no longer valid, then the loan agreements cease to be property and there is no stealing it.

Trump has promised a cabinet position to every insufferable asshole in the country who insists that everyone accept their own fringe views and talks over anyone who disagrees, while also knowing nothing about what they’re talking about. This is gonna be funny to watch, but painful to experience.

Behind door #1: Isn’t as one-sided as you regarding a war in another country that involves your religion.
Behind door #2: Tried to enact laws that openly discriminate against your religion just a few years ago. And is also totally one-sided against you regarding that same war.

It’s a tough choice.