Progressive Politics

Sun Tzu, The Art of War:

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” (That last describes the Democratic party to a tee.)

So yes, it behooves us to understand them if we want to win. If you want to rage and stick your fingers in your ears, good luck with the toddler approach.

And since 100 toddlers will take that statement to mean "appeasement" or "how to get on their level", fuck you, you're a child. Leave these discussions to grownups. In the mean time, go read a grownup book. (Hint: The Art of War is 100% applicable here.)

Here's one with far too much nuance for liberals:

“When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard.”

Not even going to explain that one in modern political terms. In any case, we lost, and goddammit we're not going to learn anything from it!

I'm about to be a broken record.

• People who vote for fascism are called fascists.
• A large majority of the electorate either voted for fascism, or couldn't be bothered to vote against it.
• Popularization of reality denial in favor of believing what makes you feel a certain way has been going on for decades.
• "Understanding" Trump voters is like "understanding" flat earthers, plus bigotry. The root cause is that they're fucking idiots.

All of this sanewashing and wanting to "understand" boils down to one thing: refusal to accept that America, and Americans as a whole, aren't "good." The assumption behind it all is that, well, if this is what the electorate said, there must be a good reason for it, right? America doesn't really want the fascism that they were openly promised and then voted for, do they?

Yeah, they do. America wants fascism. That's where we are. Hanging your hopes on that enough of the people who couldn't be bothered to vote against it are going to suddenly grow spines and put up a successful opposition to it is useless, unless you are personally willing to be part of that opposition, and in a more active way than just protesting or calling elected officials or signing petitions.

Resistance isn't futile, but it's going to be expensive. You will be better off getting prepared now, because shit's about to get real.

You should absolutely try to understand the rise of Trump voters, the mechanisms behind it. If you don't understand why Trump voters exist, then you can't hope to properly understand how to tackle that problem.

Mainly because understanding them is simple: they're a trail mix of NAZI's, barely functional illiterates, and main character syndrome.

And that goes for all the sniveling little pissants hiding behind their hurt feelings as the reason they’re still voting for Republicans: Fuck off. Every last one of you is a fucking liar.

You’re trash. You’ve always been trash. When liberals were polite, you were trash. When liberals got a little rude, you were still trash. Now that we’re tired of your shit and treating you like the trash you are, you’re mortally offended and blaming us for being trash? Get the fuck out of here.

I love this point about trash people being trash no matter how you treat them. When people say that being rude to Nazis only makes them Nazi even harder, I say fuck it. They're gonna be Nazis no matter what.

Quiz: what do you call someone who votes for a fascist but "doesn't fully agree with their policies"

Second question: when somebody shows up to a rally and there's a Nazi flag (specifically when the person is allowed to stay and is accepted) what is that rally, by extension what does that make the person

Third question: what do you call someone who "understands" fascists and sees nothing wrong with them

Fourth question: what do you call someone who is unwilling to do whatever it takes to fight fascism, both with the ballet box and the cartridge box

Fith question: what do you call someone who is actively "reaching across the isle" and working alongside fascists to achieve their fascist agenda

Final question: what do you do when you see a fascist, a Nazi, a sympathizer, a collaborator, a class traitor, or a coward

We do need to understand why people vote the way they do if we want to undo it. Might be too late for that though, seeing as we may have just elected the U.S. first dictator.

Trump voters are uneducated and/or fascist.

There you go, I understand them.

Isn't wapo bezos' baby?

High quality rant

The article expresses my feelings pretty well. I had subscribed to the WaPo for quite a few years, don't even remember how many. It's quality has been going downhill for some time. the clickbait headlines kept getting worse. I'd pretty much decided to not renew when the sub expired, especially after they installed Lewis as the new CEO. Then the pulling of the Harris endorsement was the last straw and felt like the best time to officially cancel along with a quarter million others. Democracy dies in darkness and WaPo has already been dead for awhile.

censored it just in case

Ah! He said it!

Now I said it! I just said it again! Gah!