- cross-posted to:
- leftymemes@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- cross-posted to:
- leftymemes@lemmy.dbzer0.com
In their moral justification, the argument of the lesser evil has played a prominent role. If you are confronted with two evils, the argument runs, it is your duty to opt for the lesser one, whereas it is irresponsible to refuse to choose altogether. Its weakness has always been that those who choose the lesser evil forget quickly that they chose evil.
-Hannah Arendt
This is such a rigid and literal way of thinking. This mentality explicitly idealizes and romanticizes black and white thinking. Life has shades of gray, no matter how much you wish it was as simple as literal Good versus Evil
“Erm acturally thats tankie propaganda, dont you know our Good Guy Candidate™ isnt Fascist he’s actually Fascist Lite™ which is totally different. Yes he’s going to blindly support genocide, yes he’s going to support imperialism, and no he wont do a damn thing to help the workers, but you see these silly graphs we made up say the economy is going and therefore our guy is qualified. Now blindly support the candidate and the party or I’ll downvote you and call you a Tankie or a Russian bot.”
- Average .world user
Liberals often call Leftists excluding liberals from the Left “purity testing,” as though the difference is merely in quantitative degrees, rather than qualitative. If the difference between Leftists and libetals is indeed merely quantitative, wanting the same thing but in greater or lesser extents, then the Liberals would be correct, however opposition to Capitalism itself and support for Socialism fundamentally represents a qualitative shift.
For Leftists, Social Democracy, or Welfare Capitalism, isn’t actually a solution. The countries seen as “success stories” like the Nordics rely on Imperialism, they aren’t closed loop economies. Further, their conditions are deteriorating as wealth concentrates. Leftists therefore aren’t letting “perfect” be the enemy of “good,” it’s that Liberalism is built on a brutal system of international plunder, and is on a death spiral as liberal countries increasingly pivot more to the right. Climate Change is still an existential threat. Liberalism isn’t a solution.
That’s why there’s friction between progressive liberals and Leftists.
Fuck the lesser of two evils. I choose good.
I’m not American but I probably would have voted Democrat if I was.
However, Democrats who are more mad at leftists voting third party than they’re mad at republicans or their own fucking party that simply could not be bothered to stop bombing children to gain the left-wing vote: Go fuck yourselves.
Anyone who didn’t vote against fascism is somewhat to blame.
I take it you voted 3rd party then
Why would I throw my vote away? I voted for someone with a chance of winning.
You said you voted against fascism, but you voted for lesser fascism. I’d probably do the same but I’m not gonna pretend like Democrats are the good guys.
I see you are a republican shill. I hope they’re paying you very well for that.
God you’re stupid if you somehow came to that conclusion after I said I prefer the Democrats twice
True. Sorry, your ideology lost so hard that half of it was Trump’s 1st term policy. Concede to the left for once in your god damn lives or suffer liberals.
You don’t understand, their support of lesser fascism is necessary to avoid the greater fascism, so by opposing them you’re actually supporting the greater fascism
I’d accept a viable alternative. Wake me up when we have one.
whoops, world ended
Damn, if only if I had been more moral.
proactive
Show me how I’m not being proactive enough.
Are you currently involved in trying to replace First-past-the-post voting in your state?
You don’t get to tell people they don’t get to vote how they want and then do nothing to fix the voting system that is the source of the spoiler effect. We’ll, you could if you didn’t really care about democracy at all and just want your preference to win at all costs.
So is it party over country or is your state going to stop using First-past-the-post voting?
I’m a huge advocate for first past the post. I’d love to see it happen in my state.
Weren’t you being facetious?
If the world was ending, it wouldn’t be because we lacked morals but because we lacked action. I think we agree on what’s moral, we just disagree about how much of what action is needed.
Oh yeah, you’re right. I lost the thread. Don’t mind me, sorry. Im seriously sorry.
Yup. We need lesser of two in red districts and vote for our ideals in our safe districts to move the part as a whole.
When a casual acquaintance asks my political leaning, I say Democrat to keep things simple. But, really, I’m a Bernie guy. I don’t want to talk politics, and trying to explain that Democrats are actually center-right is just too much effort to put into… well, just about everyone nowadays.
Okay, but Sanders isn’t on the left, either, despite calling himself a socialist. Sanders will say that It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism, and he’ll complain about “crony” capitalism and “über” capitalism, but as a liberal he’ll never question capitalism as such. He’ll never question private ownership of the means of production.
Socialism != Communism though
It’s okay to say you’re a socialist but too not like communism.
I for one really like socialist policies like national healthcare which I get in the UK etc. But I don’t think full communism is the way to go for a modern society. Plus the track record of every time a country tries to head towards full communism, the door is left wide open for a dictator, and someone takes it.
Anarchy is not left in the US unless they’ve all of a sudden come around on social programs.
As an Anarcho-Syndicalist we dont support government owned social programs because we prefer community based and worker ran solutions to issues like housing, food, and education. Furthermore most social ills that exist today are a direct or indirect effect of capitalism, the problems that cannot be solved by simply destroying capitalism can be solved with more syndicates.
come around on social programs.
Wat.
Anarchists are the ones who are consistently making social programs from scratch. Direct action is and has always been about feeding people as well as sabotaging bulldozers.
Yup, mutal aid and communal efforts are the cornerstones of real anarchism.
Welfare capitalism is not the left; it’s the leftmost part of the right. The left is socialism. Anarchists are socialists. Liberals are not.
The American Libertarian sects tend to loosely regard themselves as anarchist, which is frustrating as all hell.
Anarcho-capitalism is opportunistic enough to co-opt anything.
capitalism itself does that pretty well
Anarcho-capitalism is such an oxymoron too, capitalism is inherently an unjust hierarchy
Not dividing the left, just consolidating the right
Democrats are center right these days.
Always have been.
Center right? You’re giving them too much credit
Wow I didn’t know that “Glass Gaza Now Donny G” was the better option. You almost got me convinced, Eepy Joe was so much worse than “Remove the Gazans, let’s build a resort” DJT
You didn’t have an option moron. No matter what you losers do at the ballot box you get the same results. Maybe if your shitty party stood for something and all the people who didn’t vote for them actually cared enough to vote you’d have what you want. Instead you get what you fucking deserve.
Explain exactly why “kill the Palestinians, build a resort, send anyone who protests to a concentration camp” is a preferable policy.
The republicans and democrats have the same policy. The only difference is Trump has a big mouth. Maybe, just maybe, instead of fighting people on lemmy and guilting people for not supporting genocides you actually changed the policy of the party to make the Democrats accountable and had them state with words “We would not supply Israel with billions of dollars to murder people” then you would have won. You couldn’t do that. You can never do that because the policies of the parties are not different. The democrats have been in power for just as much time as the republicans or more this century and look at where that got you. You failed. This is your fault for supporting a party of losers.
If you live in a swing state and did not vote in this last election when you could have, you are complicit in the Trump administration. You OK’d everything Trump is doing, plain and simple :(
That happens no matter who you vote … So yeah sure, pretend voting 3p means you’re doing anything other increasing the chance of oppression
They said the same thing about every Republican as what they say about Trump. If you live your entire life in hyperbole people get desensitized.
Thank you for your input my Gen Z pal, but I don’t recall any other president destroying law firms for representing their political opponents, nor calling for blatant retaliation against journalists that don’t jerk them off.
Also don’t personally recall a president deliberately destroying the economy through sheer stupidity, but maybe someone older can check in, it may have happened historically.
No, no they didn’t. I’ve been through a number Republican presidents… Well 3 others … And not one of them was said to be a threat to democracy, not one of them was said to be a threat to the rule of law, and not one of them was it questioned whether they would leave office if they lost election.
It is a bullshit statement to say Trump is a standard Republican and what Democrats are saying is just hyperbole, and this is what they always say. The only way you can possibly think this is if you’ve only been exposed to Trump presidencies.
heeheehee! if only the world was as simple as the mind that made this meme
It’s not as simple as this meme. But it did, however, basically happen back in 2016
i wonder if that’s true.
Cringehallry wins
Trumpism dies in the cradle
Roe v Wade Stands
Joe Biden never president
No “sleepy president” movement
We don’t deport protestors
Being Trans isn’t illegal
People aren’t sent to torture prisons without trial
No exec orders against lawyers for disagreeing with the government
I don’t drink myself to death
Seems a better timeline tbh.
stay in your own thread, woody
Heeheehee! If only not voting brought us further away from fascism
Heeheehee! If only voting brought us further away from fascism
Heeheeheehee, don’t vote, it’s pointless!
-Donald Trump 2016, while making a winkie face, and Donald Trump 2024, also making a winkie face
“reach for the sky!”
“there’s a snake in my boot!”
“this town aint big enough for the two of us”
Good thing they lost the elections then, right?
I’m not sure I understand what point you’re trying to make.
Democrats are not the left. It’s bad that they lose so often. If they weren’t so clearly beholden to their corporate donors they would win more.