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millie

@ millie @beehaw.org

Posts
10
Comments
955
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • Trump Argues With ABC’s Terry Moran About Photoshopped Image: ‘He Had MS-13 On His Knuckles Tattooed!’

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  • You can absolutely submit screenshots of text conversations as evidence in court. I've literally done this myself.

    Someone could challenge the veracity of the evidence if they wanted to, at which point you might want to prove that they hadn't been edited by doing something like showing the copies that are actually on your phone. But you can absolutely submit screenshots.

  • Brood Parasitism in Leftist Politics

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  • Absolutely. Conservatives have, unfortunately, sailed straight past us on political effectiveness in recent years. We're spending our time wringing our hands about doing the right thing and cajoling one another into doing the same. Unfortunately in a lot of cases modern leftism favors atomizing based on who a particular segment sees as having sufficient moral purity over solidarity. Meanwhile, conservatives don't really care about much of anything other than maintaining a socially conservative status quo. They'll even let people they hate pretend to be part of the club if they debase themselves enough to be politically useful. At the same time, they'll viciously attack anyone who isn't politically useful to them.

    I'm not saying we ought to abandon our principles or start viciously attacking anyone who doesn't toe the line of being politically useful, but we need to remember how to build coalitions and think strategically.

  • Brood Parasitism in Leftist Politics

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  • So, everyone actually doesn't have to do the same legwork. If most of the posters in a community block someone, that person won't be able to post in most of the threads in that community and won't get the engagement they're looking for.

    Whether they're trolls or whether they're useful idiots, I say block them. Not only that, actively encourage others to do the same. If we take to blocking these people on sight the moment they start spouting this bullshit, they very quickly will see threads full of "# additional responses" that they can't actually see or respond to.

    In some cases it might actually be worth reporting them, too. A lot of them go well beyond the rules of the communities they're engaging with, but I've also seen at least one instance where a very prominent cuckoo-poster got chased off the instance by the staff. He was basically told to knock it off or leave and he chose the latter. Good riddance.

  • Brood Parasitism in Leftist Politics

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  • So run for office or find a candidate who might and help them get to that position.

    Voting for a third party, unless it's in a small local election where they might actually have a shot, will do literally nothing but get us a Republican.

    If you're still sitting here in April of 2025 and saying that the Democrats are the same as the Republicans, though? Get the hell out of our nest.

  • Brood Parasitism in Leftist Politics

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  • Yep. It's a damn mess.

    I don't claim to know how to make them be honest about their motivations or, in the case of those few who are genuinely being taken in by this garbage, wake the hell up and realize what they're throwing away. But I know that having the idea out there in the open in a digestible way can at least help some people get a better view of what's going on. Maybe they'll follow suit and block some of the worst ones. Maybe they'll rely less on social media for their perspectives on the world and realize that Lemmy isn't the exception to its toxicity just because it's open source.

    We need to be more aware of them than we have been, though, because it's getting worse.

  • Brood Parasitism in Leftist Politics

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  • Sounds great. Vote them in.

    I would love to see a push to the left in US politics and in the Democratic party. I voted for Sanders, and I think the kind of arguments he's been making consistently for decades would be a great perspective to see gain traction. The rallies he's been putting together with AOC and the responses he's gotten at town halls even in very red districts have been encouraging.

    I fully support primarying Democrat politicians who fail to offer real solutions. 100% get them the hell out of office and replace them with people who will reconnect the party with the people and fight for affordable housing, medicare for all, and living wages. Let's chuck Schumer out on his ass.

    But our approach needs to be viable. It won't happen by splitting the vote. That's just math. I don't like first past the post, and I'd love to get rid of it at the first available opportunity, but it's the system we're working with right now.

    You can't play chess using only your knights because you like the way the horsey looks. You have to know what the pieces do and use them to their fullest extent. By all means, make your pawns into queens, but to do that you have to think about which moves you're actually capable of making on the board.

  • How to explain to libs in crisis that the US Constitution is antidemocratic

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  • It wouldn't be an effective strategy if it didn't sucker some people into playing along. At this point, though, I think it's more important to point out that this is happening than to make sure we tiptoe around the few people stupid enough to actually buy into it.

  • How to explain to libs in crisis that the US Constitution is antidemocratic

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  • Absolutely. It's just a way to demotivate the left and trick people with the best intentions into shooting themselves in the foot. These people are out en masse here literally because we're such a leftist space.

    If you see someone posing zero solutions but shooting down any possible way of moving any cause that might oppose authoritarianism forward? They're a fucking MAGA cuckoo.

  • How to explain to libs in crisis that the US Constitution is antidemocratic

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  • You believe words have power or you wouldn't be out here trying to sabotage us with them.

  • How to explain to libs in crisis that the US Constitution is antidemocratic

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  • These people who spend their days trying to prove how "leftist" they are by destroying every tool we have are literally right-wingers.

  • How to explain to libs in crisis that the US Constitution is antidemocratic

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  • The Overton window is anchored by a series of landmarks. The most effective way to lose one of them, like the Constitution, is to start discussing whether it has merit.

    Yeah. Why do you think that Lemmy, a markedly leftist platform, is so inundated with people talking about how useless all our imperfect tools for making the world slightly less authoritarian are? Why do you think they're trying to get us to abandon them rather than bolstering their support?

    I've been saying this for months. The people who are trying to get the left to abandon the effective means we have for shifting the overton window to the left are right-wingers or being manipulated by right-wingers.

    The people who spend their days banging away about how we don't have democracy, we've never had democracy, the constitution is useless, the democrats never accomplish anything, etc, are literally agents of the right whether they know it or not. But many of them probably literally do know it.

    Why do we see this more on Lemmy than in real life or on other platforms? Because we're being targeted.

  • How the U.S. Lost the Canadian Election

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  • I may at some point. It's one of my backup plans. I do like the area I live in, though. It's thankfully one of the better states. Maybe we'll secede and join you! :D

  • How the U.S. Lost the Canadian Election

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  • We definitely won the election. Canadian authoritarianism would have just made things worse. And at least we still have somewhere to go north of the border.

  • Congressman Shri Thanedar Introduces Articles of Impeachment Against President Donald J. Trump for High Crimes and Misdemeanors

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  • They have a damn good reason to want to impeach him. He's threatening the economy and the remainder of our relevance internationally. The Republicans have to live here too. If he yanks down all the load-bearing structures in our house, it's going to collapse on them too.

  • Congressman Shri Thanedar Introduces Articles of Impeachment Against President Donald J. Trump for High Crimes and Misdemeanors

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  • I mean, step one is not turning the entire opposition into defeatists via constant steeping in negativity and hopelessness. We need to get our energy up and keep it there so we can actually get some traction. We have to believe that we have a chance to change something before we can actually work up the gumption to do it.

    That won't happen if half the left is busy telling the other half we're cooked. It certainly won't happen if they convince more of us to become defeatists or to try to take our ball and go home as if our homes aren't literally in the country in question.

  • Congressman Shri Thanedar Introduces Articles of Impeachment Against President Donald J. Trump for High Crimes and Misdemeanors

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  • I would be surprised if it got that much support, but that's not the point. The vibes on Lemmy are absolutely terrible and actively cultivating helplessness. There are so many people here who immediately decided we're all cooked and spend their time trying to demotivate people and push any resistance to admit defeat that it's absurd. That's not how you push back, it's not how you make things better, and it's literally the kind of shitty helpless attitude that got us into this mess.

    Something isn't right? Don't take active steps to try to fix it or give your support to anyone who is. Stand on the sidelines preaching this loser shit. We're all doomed and there's no point fighting. Don't run new candidates, just refuse to vote. Don't create networks of support, tear each other down. Don't for a second allow a glimmer of hope to go unopposed.

    Seriously, how can anyone ever be expected to accomplish anything with that kind of attitude?

    I'm honestly starting to think this platform is just as toxic as Reddit or Facebook have ever been, without the help of any shady manipulative algorithm.

  • Congressman Shri Thanedar Introduces Articles of Impeachment Against President Donald J. Trump for High Crimes and Misdemeanors

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  • Despite the defeatist angles that are constantly posted on Lemmy, this is not what I'm seeing from actually reading the news.

    Congress could literally be voting to impeach with 90% of the house and senate in support and y'all would still be banging on about how nothing will ever happen. I'm over it.

  • Congressman Shri Thanedar Introduces Articles of Impeachment Against President Donald J. Trump for High Crimes and Misdemeanors

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  • 🤞

    I think there's a good chance. He's shown both parties that the result of him being able to do whatever he wants unchecked will be the crumbling of our alliances and our economy and the steady erosion of all the good things about our country. Even conservatives can see the damage he's doing.

    If there were an election today he wouldn't even come close to winning. Hopefully those who are responsible for his potential impeachment see that if they allow this to continue they won't have a shot in their next elections either.

  • John Lithgow Says He Was Surprised by Backlash Over Joining ‘Harry Potter’ Series

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  • Might as well end your career by burning any good will you've developed with the rest of it.