Wait. People still play Pokémon Go? Oh wait, I shouldn't talk. I play a game which I'm fairly sure predates FarmVille.
North (as i recall) was argumentative - but at least he was following the sort of logics embedded in his own particular (albeit messed up) mode of thought about right and wrong. These people are just following whatever smell happens to be emanating from Trump's diaper on any given day? Kash Patel's idiot ramblings about not bringing guns to protests being the clearest example of this clap-trap I wonder did he phone these people himself to tell them they should have been shot??
https://religionnews.com/2026/02/03...-what-does-the-sacred-kiswah-cloth-represent/ Not sure if anyone posted this, but Epstein had purchased pieces of the kaaba, apparently a religious artifact that is sacred to Muslims. Kind of insane what’s being revealed and the extent of true.
Nothing to see here, peeps, move along! Attorney General Pam Bondi announced in a letter on Saturday night that “all” Epstein files have been released, Fox News reports.
I saw that Jon Ossoff started using "Epstein Class" in his speech a few days ago. Thomas Massie just called this the “Epstein” Administration. If this all goes down and leads to meaningful systemic change (unlike what we saw in the 07/08 crisis) those accelerationists on the left that stayed home or voted third party are looking kind of smart now. Real harms have happened and it’s still a risky bet, but if it pays out and these corporate Democrats lose control of the party—>a bright horizon could be coming.
Are you a straight white male? They don’t look very smart to @Sounders78 . He fled America, and I think he made the right choice given his specific situation and the options available to him. They don’t look kind of smart to Alex Pretti. Or Ukrainians. Or Gazans. Or subscribers to WaPo. I could go on for a long, long, long time like this. It’s very privileged of you to take this position.
Not disagreeing with you and it wasn’t my position. I voted for Kamala. I was talking about those in that camp. And By no means was I trying to downplay the harm that has already happened and the potential for what could come next. As for me being privileged? I’ve communicated a lot over the internet and sociali media, and in real life anti-capitalistic ideas which makes me a potential domestic terrorist by this administration. I’ve done that specifically because of whatever privilege I have. You might not take that seriously but you better believe people like Stephen Miller don’t want people like me living in this country.
The most conservative forecast is that hundreds of thousands of children worldwide will die from the dismantlement of USAID, and the most pessimistic forecasts say several million, just in the next few years alone. What bright horizon are you talking about.
Systemic changes to American life that don’t take us back to a time before Trump, but forward into a society that could never produce a Trump.Specifically those comments indicate that class consciousness is on the rise and we might finally start turning the tide in the class war that’s been waged against the American people since 1980.
Good luck with that. This is not going to eradicate the racism and homophobia that permeates throughout American society, especially among the conservative religious adherents, which is what led us to life under the orange idiot. Marxism does not have a good track record in the battles with racial and anti-LGBT+ prejudice. "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others". [edit: Marxism is idealistic, it is not realistic. Some of us live in the real world.]
I think a good deal of that can be explained by the fact that things often need to materially be so bad (as well as education) in the societies that have ended up adopting socialism, as well as having to put up with violent intervention from America in the form of direct warfare and economic sanctions. A correlation if you will, not a causation. You judge a system by its principles, not its adherents.
No, I judge a system based on how realistic it is. Idealism is wonderful, unless it doesn't take into consideration the real world; in which case it is simply useless.
Ok. A little history then. China and India post WWII were in very similar positions. Large populations, with little industrialization reeling from the effects of Colonialization. One chose Capitalism. One chose Communism. Which one is providing a higher standard of living to their citizens today? It’s China. Which one is more of a global power? It’s China. Now before you say China is capitalistic. It isn’t. It’s simply the only socialist system that was allowed to participate in the World’s economy without military intervention and economic sanctions. Now Nixon did this with the idea that China could be bought and turned into a Capitalistic country. A gamble the Boomers made racking up tremendous debt to our country in the process. And it failed. Miserably.
And which one is persecuting or committing genocide against the Uyghurs? I'm sure they're not at all impressed with your standard of living argument. "All animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others." Your potential systematic changes are not going to eradicate the racism and homophobia that permeates throughout American society, especially among the conservative religious adherents, which is what led us to life under the orange idiot. Your discussion of standards of living is irrelevant to that and your example of China demonstrates how it is irrelevant. You might live in an idealistic world, but humanity does not.
Most people calling the Uyghur situation a genocide can’t call the Palestinian genocide a genocide. Should tell you to maybe read for some non US state department sources about what’s happening over there. Also PS; in the context of the arguement and conversation the Caste system of India would like a word.
I know you see things though the lens of economic social order, but what happened that is covered in the Epstein files is only what is getting publicly exposed. The sex trafficking that occurred, and rape, and money laundering, and so on, did not start with Epstein and will not end even if every person in the files is held to account. Just look at the Nazi. Yes, they were held to account (to some greater or lesser degree), but that did not stop their ideas. And as Sounders said, and as dave said (how is it that I'm agreeing with both of them at the same time? ) the harms that people have suffered because of race or sexual orientation will continue even if there is a brand new administration holding everybody in this administration and past administrations to account. The utopia that you preach will never exist. It can get better, but I fully am aware that I will never be effected in the way that our minority posters here will be, so I know that I life a life of privilege relative to them. Just as I believe you do.
It’s not a utopia. And what I advocate for has racial justice untwined in it. No socialist in this country is calling for a rollback on LGBT rights, in fact I don’t know any American leftist that wasn’t rightfully upset with the Dems for bailing on trans people. I’m for improving the material conditions of the poor. Which is a disproportionately minority. You say utopia? A lot of what I advocate for would be paid by not spending the outageous amount of money on the military industrial system, as well as changing the idea of what makes you elite (now it’s how much capital can you obtain) to something more like (how much value are you adding to your neighbors). That isn’t idealism. It’s advocating that there is no set societal order and a different one can be obtained. I think a transition to a matriarchy as opposed to a patriarchy would make this stuff much more possible. And not unprecedented if you study human societies throughout the years. I care about the material because if you make everything equal, the other stuff tends to work out. Minorities are discriminated against on purpose to make sure we fight a culture war instead of a class war. Been that way since Bacon’s Rebellion.
Irrelevant and missing the point (especially raising the issue of the Caste system, which further reinforces what I am saying). You're so focused on class warfare and ideology that you're entirely missing the point of what I said in responding to your argument. Let me be clearer so you can understand: it was not an economic class warfare that gave us Trump 2. As such, relieving the class warfare will not bring us into an age of enlightenment where another Trump would not happen. It is completely irrelevant. Think of it this way, what percentage of the voters would have voted for Trump regardless of whether or not the economy was doing good for them? What percentage of voters would have voted for Harris regardless of whether or not the economy was doing good for them? The remainder is a very small percentage. I would further argue that those individuals were probably more motivated by racism and homophobia than they care to admit. You see, people lie. People are not always honest with surveys and pollsters. People sometimes say what they think the other person wants to hear, will say something "acceptable" to distract from their true motivations, and sometimes don't want to admit it to themselves. That is what distinguishes the anthropological ethnographic approach to the sociological or political science approaches: we generally practice participant observation, allowing us to understand the cultural beliefs and motivations on a more intimate level. That is why I don't buy your class warfare approach on current American society. I'm not saying it isn't happening, just that it is not primary. If you want to understand the American situation you have to dig deeper; you have to look at racism, sexism (patriarchy) and anti-LGBT+ prejudice. That is what gave us Trump.
It doesn't matter what economic system you have, they all practice the culture war - whether it is on the Uyghurs, the "Untouchables", LGBT+, blacks, etc. That is my point. Marxist ideologies did not alter that in societies that have adopted that approach. And it didn't alter it because of humans. This is why your idealism is useless because it ignores the reality of humans, and human culture (to include human cultural worldviews).
And I think you underrate how the accumulation of capital led to this situation. I’m not really going to argue about the meat of what you’ve said here because in a vacuum what you’ve said is correct. The argument I’ll make is that capital has been increasing their control over media. Local news stations are gone. Newspapers are dying. Algorithms are influencing people in a powerful way. And that has tilted the balance of power to capital and allowed for a situation where so many voters can be misinformed. Again. Reagan took away the fairness doctrine and started the tax cuts (creating the debt) as well as slashing social programs. First attack in the class war. Then they got Clinton to create the free trade agreement which killed whatever chance American manufacturing had. Citizen’s United in 2010? Do you think Elon Musk would have been able to do his election lottery before Citizens United? Hell no. And throughout America’s hey day no one would have had the capital enough to influence people in such a profound way. Do you get what I’m saying? All of this pushed the Overton window so far to the right and it was in that environment that a Trump could be created. Now to argue for why socialism could better treat these? You know maybe you’re right or it’s somewhere in the middle. But what I do know? If you have a better education and material situation you’ll live a better life than if you don’t. And it puts you in a better position to advocate for social change when you don’t have to be stressed out about making bills and affording the basic necessities.
Let's go back to pre-Reagan then and what do we see? A deeply racist and homophobic country. That is the thread that runs through the entire garment. Until that is addressed, you will always have the potential for another Trump because that is what is motivating his base and why he was elected both times. The items you mentioned just facilitated it, they didn't create it.