Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.

[...]

In the United States, our findings indicate, the majority does not rule — at least not in the causal sense of actually determining policy outcomes. When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites and/or with organized interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the U.S. political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favor policy change, they generally do not get it.

something like 70% of Americans want universal healthcare and yet it remains politically impossible.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

The people screeching about tankies constantly just learned the term in the last year and want everyone to know they know it

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

starting the timer to see how long it takes for this to be removed and for you to be labeled redfash or some such nonsense

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Leftist who want to fix this are by far the largest group of leftist. And there have been multiple successful leftist political victories. You can not get these victories without a considerable amount of leftist and left leaning voting. And it's your discourse that just wants to pretend that nothing can be done, it's too late, Democracy isn't real... That is undermining leftist progress in our current society. And this is the problem, tankies aren't interested in protecting, fixings or saving current society. They want everybody to suffer the breakdown of society in order to hopefully get a revolutionary uprising that magically turns everything into a communist utopia. It's poison and you're injecting it.

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

And there have been multiple successful leftist political victories. You can not get these victories without a considerable amount of leftist and left leaning voting.

The entire conclusion of the study I linked is that this is not happening.

There's nothing wrong with voting, I vote every two years, but it's dangerous to convince yourself that voting is enough. You need to also organize. You need to strike. You need to unionize your workplaces. If you really want to push the government into conceding real improvements in our lives, you need to apply direct pressure on a large scale. And when the crackdown comes, you need to collectively organize to help each other. Bail people out of jail. Help people pay rent when they're fired for trying to unionize. Doing this on a large scale is how you get actual fucking change, and it will never happen if people lie to themselves that voting alone is sufficient.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Vote harder next time

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Knowing what the "Dictatorship of the bourgeoisie" is so basic it almost doesn't count as reading theory.

[–] Gorilladrums 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think idiots like you fail to understand that having a flawed democracy doesn't justify violence, authoritarianism, or oppression. There will never be a communist society because utopias don't exist. There's a reason why this ideology is a complete failure. And no, it's not right around the corner and it's not going to come if we just genocide/censor/oppress another group or become a little more authoritarian. You'll never see the light of day because most people are reasonable enough to understand that pragmatic reform is infinitely better than blind ideological dogmatic tyranny.

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

“Utopia” is a high bar but “doing your best to help your citizens rather than corporate shareholders” is not. Despite the continuing embargo against them, Cuba houses, feeds, educates, and provides healthcare to all of their citizens. Recently Cubans democratically drafted their country’s new gay and trans-inclusive family code in over 80,000 citizen councils around the island, an exercise in direct democracy that would be almost unthinkable in America. Gender-affirming surgery and hormones have been free since 2008. Cuba obviously doesn't deserve the embargo or the ongoing regime change operations, but America is able to continue with both because so many Americans still believe all socialist nations are evil 1984 hellscapes.

[–] Gorilladrums 1 points 1 year ago

Reading this is giving me brain damage. Not only do you not know what communism is, but you actually tried to use fucking Cuba of all places to try and justify Marxism... How retarded do you have to get to reach this point? Cuba is quite literally the most authoritarian country in the entirety of the northern hemisphere. It is the polar opposite of democracy, it is the polar opposite of prosperity, it is, in fact, the closest thing to a 1984 hellscape in the the America's. You, like all Marxists, can cry, lie, and deny all day long but the reality is that Cuba is shit because of Marxism and nothing else. Want proof? Look at all the other Marxist states in history. They all found themselves in the same exact position regardless of external influence. There's a reason why millions of Cubans fled the country and why millions more despise the current regime.