May 12
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"In the face of elite manipulations and lies, we must draw on the Socratic. The Socratic commitment to questioning requires a relentless self-examination and critique of institutions of authority, motivated by an endless quest for intellectual integrity and moral consistency. It is manifest in a fearless speech - parrhesia - that unsettles, unnerves, and unhouses people from their uncritical sleepwalking. As Socrates says in Plato's Apology, "plain speech is the cause of my unpopularity" (24a). His courageous opposition to the seductive yet nihilistic sophists of his day, expose the specious reasoning that legitimated their quest for power and might. His historic effort to unleash painful wisdom seeking - his midwifery of ideas and visions - was predicated on the capacity of all people to engage in a critique of and resistance to the corruptions of mind, soul, and society. We desperately need the deep energy of this Socratic questioning in these times of rampant sophistry on the part of our political elites and their media pundits." - @brothercornelwest
👂🏾
The weird radical/revolutionary politic larpers on this site are so allergic to political pragmatism I swear lmao. I am definitely left of the Democratic Party and I am certainly voting for Joe Biden in November. Not because I like him (I don’t). He is absolutely horrific on Gaza and that’s only the top (and priority considering there is a genocide going on there) of a list of complaints I have about him. I even voted uncommitted in my state’s presidential primary (the Pennsylvania one; I had to write it in) to protest. However, I’m still thinking pragmatically. Trump has said things that make me credibly think he will be worse on Gaza (insane that being worse on Gaza than Biden is possible but it is unfortunately), and that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Project 2025, the potential for him to appoint more deeply conservative justices, more of his aggressively screwing over poor and middle class people with his tax policies. And does anyone else remember the spike in hate crimes after the race was called for him in 2016? Before he was even inaugurated? Whether people vote or not in November we will still have to deal with one of these two men in office come January unless all of the internet ancom larpers overthrow the government by then (doubt), so I’d rather deal with the one who will be marginally less bad and who didn’t try to overthrow the government. Can’t have your revolution if nobody’s alive cause you kept pushing off politically participating because there was no perfect option. 👍
Political pragmatist anon, sorry for ranting in your askbox but I feel like I lose brain cells watching these people talk. The other day I saw someone say Biden is bad because Roe v. Wade fell under his administration… even though the reason for that was Trump appointed justices. 💀 (2/2)
Fucking insane. Sincerely.
It's a completely, flatly binary choice for anyone with a brain stem and sincerity. It's distilled into the two below images:
Where all major third party candidates are even on the ballot
How many electoral votes the largest of those (green party, a.k.a. Jill Stein) would win if they won every single state they're on the ballot for.
They are literally, legally, incapable of winning the election. They are not on enough state ballots to win and Jill Stein would need to somehow win California and Texas to even "win" all the states they're on the ballot for. Which, again, would still not be enough to win the presidency and throw it to the currently existing Republican House of Representatives. Which would put Trump in office.
It's that straightforward. That simple. That BLARINGLY obvious to literally everyone except these people.
On the one hand you have:
Significant and continuous support for Israel and it's genocide
Record levels of pardons for low-level drug offenses
the gearing up of the strongest anti-trust regime since the early 20th century
the most aggressive NLRB I've seen in my lifetime, with massive wins and institutional changes to help workers
Including getting Rail strike workers a week of sick-leave that gets paid out at the end of the year, which is better than NYC and LA sick leave laws
Millions of people (not enough) getting student debt forgiveness
Some trillion dollars (not enough)of investment in renewable resources and infrastructure
Proposed taxes on unrealized capital gains (a.k.a. how billionaires never have any money but can still buy Kentucky, Iowa, and Twitter)
Effectively an end to overdraft fees
The explicit support of leftist world leaders like Lula de Silva. Who he has explicitly worked with to expand worker rights in South America.
Has capped (some, not enough, only a tiny amount really but it's something) some drug prices, including Insulin.
Reduced disability discrimination in medical treatment
Billions in additional national pre-k funding
Ending federal use of private prisons
Pushing bills to raise Social Security tax thresholds higher to help secure the General Fund
Increasing SSI benefits
and more
vs
Said Israel should just nuke Gaza and "get it over with"
Personally takes pride in and credit for getting Roe v Wade overturned
Is arguing in court that the President should be allowed to assassinate political rivals
Muslim Ban Bullshit, insistently
Actively damages our global standing and diplomatic efforts just by getting obsessed with having a Big Button
Implemented massive tax cuts on ich people, tax hikes on middle class and poor people, and actively wants to do it again
"Only wants to be a dictator for a little bit, guys, what's the big deal"
Is loudly publicly arguing that the US shouldn't honor its military alliances after-the-fact
Tore up an effective and substantial anti-nuclear-proliferation treaty with Iran
Had a DoEd that actively just refused to process student debt forgiveness applications that have been the law of the land for decades now
Has a long record of actively curtailing and weakening the NLRB and labor movement, including allowing managers to retaliate against workers, weakened workplace accommodation requirements for disabled people, and more
Rubber stamped a number of massive mergers building larger, more powerful top companies and increasing monopolistic practices
Fucking COVID Bullshit and hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths
Openly supporting fascists and wannabe-bootlicks ("Very fine people" being only the beginning of it
It's really not fucking close.
This is a poll. The question is "If you can vote in the USA 2024 election, who are you voting for?"
If you can vote in the USA 2024 election, who are you voting for?
Joe Biden (Democrat)
Donald Trump (Republican)
Jill Stein (Green Party)
Chase Oliver (Libertarian)
Cornell West (Independent)
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
*Cannot* Vote (disenfranchised, inaccessibility, underage, etc)
*Will Not* Vote (deliberate choice)
Will Vote in a Joke (fictional character)
Will Vote in a Protest (some kind of message)
Someone Else not listed
Not American / Show Results
Seeing a lot of voter suppression in the tags so here is your reminder:
If you are someone who claims to care about democracy and fair voting and voter suppression the ONLY thing you should be doing is encouraging people to vote!
Voter suppression is when you discourage people from voting and that includes discouraging people not to vote for a specific political party. Because that is ALSO discouraging people from voting!!
So you should not be DISCOURAGING anyone from voting how they want by fear-mongering, mass reporting people, or anything else like that just because you don't like who they're voting for
If you're making posts accusing people of wasting their votes, saying they're Russian psyops/ 3rd party shills/Republican bots, fear mongering, or harassing people just because they are not voting how YOU want them to OR because they are encouraging people to vote for someone YOU disagree with: THAT'S VOTER SUPPRESSION.
You are suppressing their vote.
Everyone has a right to vote how they want regardless of how anyone else feels about it! You are allowed to debate and change minds, but if you're telling people to specifically NOT vote for Democrats or Trump or for third parties because YOU personally see it as a "wasted vote" or "immoral" THATS ILLEGAL. YOU ARE BREAKING THE LAW.
Anyone telling you otherwise is not to be trusted and is themselves participating in voter interference, voter suppression, and spreading misinformation.
Report them. Americans currently still have a democracy which allows us to vote for whoever we support. If anyone is telling you ANYTHING different, REPORT THEM.
That's all, thank you for coming to my TED talk
To the folks out there who are thinking about voting for Jill Stein or another third party candidate — look I get it, I don't like the Democrats either.
But Donald Trump back in July called for Liz Cheney to be tried for treason in a "televised military tribunal." And J.D. Vance has just signed on with it.
Trump's accusation of "treason" comes from Cheney allegedly communicating with a witness set to testify for the Jan. 6 committee, on which Cheney is the vice-chair. We need to be clear here: an ethics breach like that, while bad, is not "treason" nor cause for a military tribunal.
Military tribunals are the type of trials used with war criminals and suspected terrorists, and doing so for an American citizen like Liz Cheney would strip her of her right to due process.
I really need people to understand this. One of two candidates for president is demanding a "televised military tribunal" for "treason" against someone who is investigating him for inciting an insurrection, on the basis of claims of her allegedly doing witness tampering, which again, while bad if true, is not treason.
Televised military tribunals.
Televised military tribunals.
Reminder that the election is November 5th. If your conscience is weighing on you remember that the last time there were massive protests in DC, Trump was president and wanted to have the protestors shot. It's only because his own secretary of defense Mark Esper pushed back that didn't happen. If Gaza is your main issue vote for Harris and turn her inauguration into the biggest Gaza protest the world has seen, democrats respond to pressure. Good luck with that if the other guy wins, he won't have people like Esper around him this time.
