"You guys"? I'm not going anywhere...

Yandex server back online confirmed.

We don’t live In a fucking democracy!!

Sure, bud.

The BothSidesBad comments have dropped by 70%, even in the thread about how much of a cunt Gavin Newsom is.

???

Your timing is not reassuring....

Yes. It is the fault of the electorate. The rich cunts are owed plenty of blame for buying up our media ecosystem and using it to propagandize the public, but ultimately, the public has the education system because they voted for it, and the public elected their leaders because they are assholes.

I sense your US-centrism. You don't want to be blamed, do you? Well how about Israel? Are Israelis not responsible for Bibi having power since 1996? Are Israelis great, blameless people as they vociferously support a genocide?

Think, dude.

None of these fights would exist despite Democrats, and yet. . .

Needs work but I appreciate the sentiment. Is the Yandex data center back up?

Oh shit the servers are back up!

We know Gavin is a cunt. We also know he's less of a cunt than whoever the GOP is going to nominate. In a #1 Cunt War, JD vs Gavin is hardly a contest. Don't nominate him and we won't have to have this discussion in 2028.

It's difficult to say.

I really don't think it is. Can you really look around at our current reality: an executive branch shamelessly enriching themselves, a Congress that has ceded all power, a SCOTUS that has enshrined corruption and abuse of power, military and paramilitary in the streets, etc., and think, "well who knows if Harris would have been worse?" Come on, dude. Don't let your urge to win interwebs arguments override your intellectual honesty. This shit is objectively worse than the alternative, and we don't have to speculate about it.

I'm reminded of a quote,

"Democracy is the worst system... after all the other ones."

I don’t think voting for democrats and expecting real change is a good tactic.

That would be a bad tactic, which is why I'm not espousing it.

The tactic is thus:

1. Primary status quo Democrats anywhere and everywhere we can with better candidates.

2. Whether or not that succeeds, vote for the person running on the Democratic ticket. (Hopefully it's a progressive.)

If we don't do #2, we'll get fascists. If we don't do #1, we'll get status quo assholes, but at least they are preferable to fascists.

No one has suggested a better alternative to me. I'd love to hear it, because #2 isn't fun most of the time. It doesn't give me or anyone else the warm fuzzies, but it's important.

That person who lied thousands of times before, and had a clear track record? The people that elected him should and could have known better.

We live in a democracy. What masters are you referring to? You never answered my very, very simple question. Every time I have this discussion with you guys, I'm disappointed further. You have no plan, but you want to criticize mine.

Voting strategically for the least bad candidate presented by the two major parties is the only thing that has been shown to work. It's how we have the DSA candidates in government that we actually have. None of them have ever won by running as a third party. Not a single one.

Which is why it's so important to turn out during the primaries. Make sure Gavin isn't the candidate by voting for candidates you actually like during the primaries. If he wins the nomination, and I sure hope he doesn't, I'd still vote for him over JD Vance or whatever sick fascist wins the GOP nomination. That's how it works.

Forgive my oversight. Running for office yourself is certainly one of the best things you can do.

There are a bunch of other actions you can take, of course. Phonebanking, doorknocking, etc. And once whoever wins assumes office, call them every day.

The solution to this is electing politicians who promise not to compromise during primary season, NOT allowing your political enemies to win general elections. Even in a worst case scenario where your candidate is prancing around saying, "I love compromise!", it's still preferable to have a candidate who supports 50% of what you want than one who wants nothing you want and everything you don't.

On one hand, I totally, wholeheartedly agree.

On the other, it is the duty of the people to maintain their democracy, irrespective of the attempts of the wealthy to subvert it.

"Enshittification" better be the word of the year.

If I ever invent a time machine, I'm making a few pit stops on my way back in time to cap Hitler, and Milton Friedman and his friends are on the list. He's the misanthrope who popularized the idea that the only duty of a company's leadership is to deliver profit, and any other pursuit is a disservice to the shareholders. This is known as the Friedman Doctrine.