FAQ
Q: why not organize and stop treating the bus as a legitimate entity? why aren’t you working to stop the bus?
A: do both. cut the fuel line. break windows. put oatmeal in the gas tank. but maybe your efforts don’t succeed this election cycle. and if so don’t fucking throw away your vote if it can help your neighbors fucking survive. “harm reduction” is not a political strategy for action. it is a last minute, end of the line decision to save lives, after all other resources have been exhausted.
The problem is that “moderates” are very conservative and fascist-leaning as well. The Biden administration is still funding genocide, still turning away asylum-seeking migrants, hell Biden hasn’t even followed through on releasing prisoners convicted of marijuana convictions.
And people ARE protesting now, but not as much as under Trump, and these things haven’t changed. Biden allows barely engaged liberals to think everything is okay, but Biden is still AWFUL he just has better optics to liberals.
Trump is literally a fascist. You’re damn right Biden has better optics…because he isn’t a fascist. So who are you voting for then?
Biden is also a fascist, he’s just not proud about it
No he isn’t and the fact you’re equivocating him to Trump is frankly ridiculous.
He’s a capitalist, imperialist, hegemonic proprietor. Sure. Fascist he is not.
He is funding Israel’s genocide, that is fascist. He is president of one of the most incarcerated nations in the world. Has he done anything to eliminate the prison industrial complex? He leads the most powerful army in the world.
Democrats do just enough to make it so that liberals don’t feel icky about their day to day lives.
According to this logic, the US has been a fascist state since WW2 due to its creation of and unwavering support for Israel.
… yes??? yess!!!
And when we had slavery?? (which we continue to have now in our prisons)
And we do torture,
and we assassinate black people when they organize,
we have a huge military worship culture,
and we have so many territories and military bases abroad and have funded so many horrible dictators
How are you not seeing it? Honestly?
Sure. So what do you propose to do next?
The context of this thread is that you’re specifically labelling Joe Biden a fascist. Why single him out if it’s the whole system and everyone in it?
Biden should be criticised for not demanding Israel stop unnecessary civilian deaths.
It seems like by this logic every western nation leader who hasn’t directly intervened to stop Israel is a fascist.
Plenty of countries have trade relationships with Israel and are funding their war indirectly.
What I have seen though is that as pressure is applied to Biden on this issue he is more likely to ratchet up pressure on Bibi to rein it in. The same could not be said if Trump were in office.
Again though I ask you, who are you voting for if not Biden?
Yes!!! They are all fascist countries! And there are a few that are taking steps to end it.
Biden is not “failing to stop unnecessary civilian deaths” - this is a Zionist framing that paints the genocide as a just war. It is a genocide and Biden is ARMING the military commiting genocide. Biden is actively involved.
Biden is not pressuring Bibi in any real way whatsoever.
Let me ask you how Biden and the Democratic party are supposed to be held accountable, how are they going to change if people keep voting for them? Because so far they have NOT changed. The strategy of continually voting in lackluster candidates has not gotten us anywhere.
You know fascism has an actual definition right?
If the United States does not seem like a fascist country to you, you are probably very privileged and politically undereducated. We are funding a genocide for an ethnostate. We have a hugely inflated prison population for whom slavery is legal. No country even comes close to the amount of money we spend on the military, look it up it’s not even close.
Sure, we have democratic elections, but so does Russia. When the “good guys” win the presidency, the United States is still doing all those things I mentioned.
Yeah, I agree that it’s a shit situation and an undesirable choice. But the unfortunate political reality we currently live in is that it’s either Biden or Trump.
Yes, the Biden administration is supplying weapons to Israel that are being used for genocide. Trump has commented that Israel needs to “finish the problem.”
Yes, the Biden administration is turning away asylum seekers on our southern border. Trump has said that migrants are “poisoning the blood” of our nation.
I challenge your last point regarding marijuana convictions: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/10/06/statement-from-president-biden-on-marijuana-reform/
But I will again will contrast that Trump rescinded the Obama-era policy of not pursuing marijuana charges at the federal level in states where it was legal. A clear and significant step backward.
https://www.lastprisonerproject.org/president-biden-issues-additional-cannabis-pardons-but-still-no-one-has-been-released
it’s optics
It’s not ”just optics”. Per your source he did pardon 6,500 individuals, which the Last Prisoner Project described as “progress for those eligible for relief.”
Now they do argue that the Biden administration should go further by pardoning 3,000 additional people, which I agree with. But to call this step forward “just optics” is at best disingenuous.
It’s not nothing, but it’s barely anything. He could also deschedule cannabis.
Tell that to the 6,500 people that got their freedom back.
And I reject your assertion that it’s barely anything: by your source’s count he pardoned 2/3 of the people caught up in these archaic cannabis laws.
Referencing back to OP, would you rather have 2/3 of an ice cream cone or go off a cliff?
No, he likely cannot unilaterally do that: https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/can-president-biden-legalize-marijuana-1220802/
Do you at least acknowledge that slow incremental progress, while admittedly not nearly enough, is definitely better than going backwards?
Here’s the fucking frighting thing, the moderates I know(relatives mostly) hate Biden because of the price of gas and groceries, that he isn’t killing everyone trying to cross the southern border, and believe Trump will be better for America in these crazy times. It’s fucking depressing to hear
This is what I’m saying - the moderates fucking suck and it’s not worth trying to win them over. Move the party left, the zombified vote-blue-no-matter-who Democrats will vote for a more leftist candidate just like they vote for a more moderate candidate.
I agree with your goal and the spirit of what you’re saying completely, but we’re kinda stuck between a rock and a hard place right now. Unless something completely unexpected like multiple age related deaths or a violent revolt happens there are only two candidates with any chance of attaining the office. Which means we have to make a choice. A choice I hate making but I want to continue to make choices in the future so it’s one I have to make.
I do understand that take and desire for harm reduction. I am a trans person and my and my friend’s rights are constantly politicized by both parties. But even under Biden, trans people are actively being targeted in certain states, and under Trump, trans rights were strengthened in other states. The president can only (or chooses to only) do so much. But things the president can change include foreign policy, military actions… so I think refusing to vote for Biden over the issues he has the most direct power over is absolutely appropriate.
I believe that voting third party could enable long term change, and that voting for Biden is perpetuating the system that is already causing so much harm.