this post was submitted on 01 May 2025
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No, the Democrats are too blame. You can only run as "at least we're not fascists" for so long before you wear out the response. They didn't fight fascism, they didn't push for a better world, they tried to meet fascism halfway
They didn't jail Trump for attempting an insurrection, they didn't fix voting, they didn't listen to the voters.
They just keep insisting everything is ok. They actively adopt the language of maga. They refuse to use any power they do have - they just make slippery slope arguments and talk down to their constituents. Things are not ok, our lives are getting worse faster than they carefully tweak things to offer half measures
This is not the voter's fault. The Democratic party gave America an ultimatum - "take what we give you or you get fascists". They did it three times. It barely worked once
How is that not shared fault by your own definition? Like I get that democrats shit the bed due to greed and good old fashioned ineptitude but if the options are status quo or unbridled fascism I can't see how someone can choose fascism and expect to remain blameless.
Because one of these actions was a deliberate course taken by a group, the other is the reaction of the population
Someone has a gun to your head and tells you to march. Every time you slow or stumble they press the gun against your head and repeat the threat. How long do you march?
It's been hours, and your body barely responds to you. The adrenaline has worn out, you fall again and they repeat the threat. Do you march yourself to death? Do you just refuse to stand? Do you dare them to shoot you?
In none of these cases is it actually your fault. Maybe you could've survived the march. Maybe you were marching to your burial site. It doesn't matter, you weren't really given a choice
In other words, it's victim blaming.
Yeah, that would be a good argument if it wasn't a blatant case of emotional manipulation and a poor metaphor on top of that.
Like it or not your life comes with responsibilities, one of those responsibilities are to those around you. Your gun to the head metaphor implies that you are the only part impacted by the consequences of your actions, but that's obviously not the case here. If you imagine 100 gunmen have guns to 100 people's heads and then tell on the them to start marching or else they all get shot, then it would at least be a little closer. I can understand and even sympathize with the unfortunate situation the marcher is put in but that doesn't mean he still won't receive some of the blame when he decides for the entire group that enough is enough and he'd rather just end the whole thing then and there.
I think this is what the rest of us see as the core of the problem and what you all seem unwilling to see; refusing to vote for the lesser of two evils is inherently selfish, even if it is understandable.
I agree, it's basically a team of gunmen forcing a crowd of prisoners. I didn't want to make the metaphor too complicated, but that's exactly what it is
Voting for the lesser of two evils is obeying the gunmen. Meanwhile, others in the group have died of exhaustion, continuing to walk means more will drop
The best thing to do is to all unite as one and take the guns... But you have to act as one. People will get shot, and it might all be for nothing if we don't commit
What we have now is a tense standoff. Part of the group is negotiating with the gunmen to try to get them to shoot someone else, part of the group is making eye contact and getting into position, and the majority is just scared
You can talk about responsibility to the group... I'd agree. But obeying the gunmen isn't the morally superior choice, it just kicks the problem down the road so we can do it again, when everyone is more exhausted and more people have dropped already
Hey! I actually agree with everything you said so that's kind of fun for us! The big problem I see is that the people who decided to make a stand in the last election really had to plan to ensure group buy in so there was no real path to success, just moral high ground for those that refused to vote for more of the same.
Assuming that it's not too late at this point we need real leaders with a real plan to get real people behind a movement for change. If the next four years end in a vote that ushers in change with first destabilizing the entire world then I'll happily admit I was wrong but my fear and the fear of most everyone else who voted for Harris despite it being more of the same is that we won't get a chance for real change without a full on coup now that Trump is in control again.
Yeah, well we didn't manage to stop Trump when he wasn't in office, and I squarely blame Democrats for that. Maybe Harris would have been better in the long view, but maybe not...
Yes, Trump and co are going to try to rig the elections. Or more accurately, they're currently trying to rig state elections to work out what will work and what won't
But Trump is his own worst enemy... Well, second worst, after Musk. People are fucking livid with him, and they're about to be a lot more upset when they see empty shelves. People are demanding representatives do something, and Trump's actions haven't even really hit people yet... But they will
We are where we are, the gunmen are shooting people at random. They're demanding we march even faster.
Which is obviously bad, but they're also backing us into a corner. The sheer amount of malicious incompetence means that people are reacting, even diehard maga are starting to wonder if they messed up. Today we even had MTG go for a power grab
It's going to be an interesting summer