Gramsci wrote: Wed May 15, 2024 6:17 am

HeavenIsInYrBeard wrote: Wed May 15, 2024 6:11 am

Anthony Flack wrote: Fri May 10, 2024 7:23 pm

The thought occurred to me as well, but I've thought that before. Everyone deserves to outlive Donald Trump. To exist outside of his timeline.

And only last night we were talking about beautiful people we have known whose lives were tragically brief while all the people we might wish would drop dead just never do.

I wish Hunter S. Thompson had lived a decade and a half or so longer, if only because I'd love to have known what he'd made of Trump. That's probably a selfish wish on my part, given that he'd already felt compelled to blow his brains out when Bush Jnr. was still in power.

I’d worry he’d go full contrarian and go full Maga.

Even if he were a cantankerous old man before he died, I can't see him joining a circus like Maga. He didn't suffer fools gladly and I believe he would see Trump for what he truly is.

The hardest part of most politics in any developed countries now is we’re given a choice between centre right “progressives “ like the Dems or British Labour Party… or absolutely insane nationalist maniacs.

It’s hard not to get very disconcerted.

Gramsci wrote: Thu May 16, 2024 9:50 am The hardest part of most politics in any developed countries now is we’re given a choice between centre right “progressives “ like the Dems or British Labour Party… or absolutely insane nationalist maniacs.

It’s hard not to get very disconcerted.

Its a global effort to enforce authoritarian right-leaning governments and the failures of neo-libralism has been making it easy for them.

cakes wrote: Thu May 16, 2024 9:55 am

Gramsci wrote: Thu May 16, 2024 9:50 am The hardest part of most politics in any developed countries now is we’re given a choice between centre right “progressives “ like the Dems or British Labour Party… or absolutely insane nationalist maniacs.

It’s hard not to get very disconcerted.

Its a global effort to enforce authoritarian right-leaning governments and the failures of neo-libralism has been making it easy for them.

I find the self censorship of the centre left and liberals infuriating. Anything to materially improve the lives of working people is completely off the cards. It’s all rainbow flags and diversity training.

If you want to help the live’s of minorities and mostly everyone else you democratise the economy, you don’t send people on courses to teach them not to be assholes.

Gramsci wrote: Fri May 17, 2024 4:17 am

cakes wrote: Thu May 16, 2024 9:55 am

Gramsci wrote: Thu May 16, 2024 9:50 am The hardest part of most politics in any developed countries now is we’re given a choice between centre right “progressives “ like the Dems or British Labour Party… or absolutely insane nationalist maniacs.

It’s hard not to get very disconcerted.

Its a global effort to enforce authoritarian right-leaning governments and the failures of neo-libralism has been making it easy for them.

I find the self censorship of the centre left and liberals infuriating. Anything to materially improve the lives of working people is completely off the cards. It’s all rainbow flags and diversity training.

If you want to help the live’s of minorities and mostly everyone else you democratise the economy, you don’t send people on courses to teach them not to be assholes.

There it is. In the USA it's just obvious they can't piss off their donors. I don't know what the motivations are in countries without such a transparent system of graft.

The UK is the same. There is an insane self censorship that goes on here as well. It's partially bad acts on the right of the Labour Party, but many are on the soft left and left that just have been beaten down to the point where they think the only electorally viable position is centrist bullshit. One thing different here is the print media are far more important than in the US, and they are overwhelmingly rightwing trash, but even the liberal papers like the Guardian are gatekeeper organisations that set the agenda of acceptable leftism. And like all Liberals, they are against economic democracy.

It's all performative bullshit to make people feel good. If the centrists actually did anything, people would expect *gasp* more results. I hate the right with all the passion inside me, but at least they fight for something.

I forgot the comic, but this always makes me think about the one where bombs are landing on people in the middle east, with a rainbow flag on the plane, and the people who are running for their lives are remarking joyfully that the pilot is a woman.

Gramsci wrote: Fri May 17, 2024 4:17 amI find the self censorship of the centre left and liberals infuriating.

How do you reckon they self-censor? That implies that they want to do something but choose not to. To me it has always looked like they have no idea what to do (if they're at all interested).

kokorodoko wrote: Fri May 17, 2024 11:00 am To me it has always looked like they have no idea what to do (if they're at all interested).

I'd say that's more like it, yeah.

cakes wrote: Fri May 17, 2024 9:50 am I forgot the comic, but this always makes me think about the one where bombs are landing on people in the middle east, with a rainbow flag on the plane, and the people who are running for their lives are remarking joyfully that the pilot is a woman.

I was at a super bowl party in early 2023 (the first game I've watched in probably 25 years) and during one of the first intermissions was "..and now, we would like to introduce the first ALL FEMALE squadron of Blue Angels pilots.." and everyone at the party (a bunch of jaded old punks and goths, basically) just burst out laughing. What a joke. I can't believe someone can ..FOR HER the MIC with a straight face.