this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2024
79 points (100.0% liked)

askchapo

22767 readers
374 users here now

Ask Hexbear is the place to ask and answer ~~thought-provoking~~ questions.

Rules:

  1. Posts must ask a question.

  2. If the question asked is serious, answer seriously.

  3. Questions where you want to learn more about socialism are allowed, but questions in bad faith are not.

  4. Try !feedback@hexbear.net if you're having questions about regarding moderation, site policy, the site itself, development, volunteering or the mod team.

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Don't you think it's democratic that he should be allowed to run again, given his approval ratings are so low?

Should you not be in the streets, fightng for democracy?

all 36 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] FlakesBongler@hexbear.net 71 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Having a popular president is populism

Doing popular things is populism

And populism is bad because too many people want it

All good ideas come from government think-tanks with names like the Apollo Congregate that only hire the whitest, richest graduates from Yale and Havard

[–] LibsEatPoop@hexbear.net 24 points 9 months ago (2 children)

TBH, populism is bad when that populism is just a cover for right-wing puppet governments who push austerity and anti-immigrant measures to please their billionaire backers.

[–] KobaCumTribute@hexbear.net 54 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

TBH, populism is bad when that populism is just a cover

"Populism" isn't a thing at all. It's an empty buzzword that doesn't mean anything but "thing that I, the smart and rational adult in the room, do not like and think is vulgar and cringe," and it gets applied to everything from things that are popular and appealing to the public to things that are intensely elitist and unpopular. For example, being against war is always populism, and thus bad, but being for war in too honest a fashion is also populism, and thus also bad. Civil rights are populism, and thus bad, but being against them is also populism, and thus bad. It's a framework that exists to defer all authority to a specific sort of tepid managerial technocracy where the government has to do bad and unpopular things because that's "pragmatic" but they have to be contrite about it instead of admitting they like being corrupt, bloodthirsty assholes because liking being the bad guy is bad populism stuff. And they're definitely not allowed to even try to be better, because trying to do good things and be popular is populism, and thus bad.

[–] StellarTabi@hexbear.net 12 points 9 months ago

Is popular, therefore wrong smuglord

[–] FlakesBongler@hexbear.net 30 points 9 months ago (2 children)

True that

But I do see libs who honestly believe that because an idea has popular support, that means it's populist and therefore bad

It's kind of weird

[–] LibsEatPoop@hexbear.net 25 points 9 months ago

Elitism, I'm gonna guess. That, and believing in meritocracy because they got successful and can't handle thinking it was due to luck.

[–] NephewAlphaBravo@hexbear.net 17 points 9 months ago (1 children)

when half your worldview is "the adults in the room are making the hard choices sweaty" you start to think that the easy choices, even if exceedingly obviously good and correct, are somehow bad

[–] TBooneChickens@hexbear.net 6 points 9 months ago

literally vanguardism

[–] kristina@hexbear.net 63 points 9 months ago (1 children)

worst place to ask, we ate all the libs and are now just 1000 sock puppets from a cabal of 20 trans people

[–] LibsEatPoop@hexbear.net 36 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Afaik, libs are of two flavors: Firstly, the ones that are libs because cons are worse and think libism is the only solution. For them, Bidoof may be a horrible person, and the Dems may be terrible and corrupt, but there's nothing you can do except vote So, they vote Because they hate Trump. They may even agree with us lefties on all the social issues. But they think cumminism is bad and evil like Drumpf because they grew up in a Cold War world and are scared of Russia/China. Eventually, some of them can come around to accepting socialism over capitalism, especially if they have a heart and see all the bad capitalists and capitalist countries do, and you answer their very basic questions around profit-sharing, investor risk, etc. They're not that invested in capitalism as an economic institution. But it's still a slow and gradual process.

Second, the ideological ghouls. These are rarer but they're in it for the money. There's no convincing them. In fact, they'll be the ones convincing the good-hearted libs that we are agents of Drumpf and Putin. They may be managers or owners or other people who have or want loads of money and power. Be wary.

[–] Nakoichi@hexbear.net 24 points 9 months ago (2 children)

More than a heart the deciding factor is still their material conditions.

[–] WithoutFurtherBelay@hexbear.net 8 points 9 months ago

Combination of both, I think. I like to think of it in terms of probability: A rich, white liberal probably has a 0.5% chance of realizing things while a poor, non-white liberal living in a poor neighborhood has a 95%+ chance

[–] LeylaLove@hexbear.net 3 points 9 months ago

I'm not voting for Biden, but will say loud and proud that I look down on anybody not voting in local elections. Material conditions definitely lean towards Biden. Trump policy-wise really wasn't THAT bad, it's more about what he awoke in the American right that's so worrisome. Local elections post-Trump are a night and day difference. It's like how we're seeing those bills from Oklahoma trying to declare hispanic people terrorists. These people's bigotry is emboldened by Trump. Maybe believing the dems make it better is just delaying the inevitable, but I will keep voting locally until there's no point.

Local (school board up to state) elections are starting to become the hypotheticals we've talked about for years. Openly genocidal people vs normal politicians. Pre-Trump, the dems would still win if the republican candidate was just too crazy. There was a certain candidate in my state that made national news with a shitty comment and lost to a dem solely because of how bad that single sentence was. If that same guy ran here today, he would have won.

[–] Frank@hexbear.net 17 points 9 months ago

I wish they hadn't cancelled the primaries bc llm images of biden as bidoof but with a hitler stache would make the libs sooooooooo mad.

[–] Alaskaball@hexbear.net 34 points 9 months ago (1 children)

If anyone here actually answers the question, you're outing yourself as a lib to the rest of the class

smuglord

[–] Dirt_Owl@hexbear.net 21 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)
[–] Commiejones@hexbear.net 5 points 9 months ago
[–] QuillcrestFalconer@hexbear.net 32 points 9 months ago

Not a single comment from a lib instance. Defederation and its consequences etc

[–] SexUnderSocialism@hexbear.net 27 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Since everyone here seems to be trolls shilling for Putin, I'll answer your question as an actual liberal.

The polls mean nothing. Biden has been a very good president so far. The economy has improved, and lots of new jobs were created. This is thanks to the success of Bidenomics. What else do you want him to do? Of course, Republicans don't care about his achievements and just want to spread lies. The far-left seems to have joined them, trying to paint him as some sort of war criminal. It's all nonsense based on a misunderstanding of the complexity and nuances of the situation he's in. I don't expect people with the mind of a child to understand. Just let the adults do their work.

What should I be in the streets for? There's a presidential election coming up. Get all of your friends and family to go out and vote for Biden. Convince them what's at stake. He stands for freedom and democracy, and we need to vote for him so we can stop the US from becoming a dictatorship under Trump. Is that so difficult to understand?

If you're not voting for Biden, you're practically voting for Trump to become president. You people are proof that horseshoe theory is correct.

[–] casskaydee@hexbear.net 8 points 9 months ago

Lol good bit

[–] EnsignRedshirt@hexbear.net 19 points 9 months ago

You have to understand that he can't just be popular while the Republicans have a majority in congress.

[–] timicin@lemmygrad.ml 18 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

he's always has been and will always be an establishment democrat who used to dunk on minorities for easy political points like trump currently does; but people do their best to whitewash his past to differentiate him from trump, making the farce more noticeable to people to pay the slightest bit of attention.

legalizing weed would give him an easy victory and the fact that he won't do it proves his establishment democrat character.

[–] principalkohoutek@hexbear.net 16 points 9 months ago (2 children)

My libs (white, wealthy, bay area) said they wish they didn't have to vote for him. They remarked they wish Peter Mayonnaise was in the driver's seat, but they "know they need to fall in line" to defeat the greater evil.

[–] invo_rt@hexbear.net 10 points 9 months ago

wish Peter Mayonnaise was in the driver's seat

dafoe-horror

[–] D61@hexbear.net 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

said they wish they didn't have to vote for him

whispers

I'm about to tell you all a secret... free-real-estate

[–] Ram_The_Manparts@hexbear.net 16 points 9 months ago

Obviously Putin is to blame

[–] chauncey@hexbear.net 13 points 9 months ago

We have to support Biden because Trump has concentration camps that Biden built

we have to support Biden because Trump is building a wall, which Biden supported enough to fund back in 2006

we have to support Biden because Trump is racist, unlike Biden who wrote a crime bill that decimated the black community

we have to vote for Biden because Trump is a misogynist, where Biden just sniffs little girls

we have to vote for Biden because Trump will put a conservative on the Supreme Court, unlike Biden who slandered Anita Hill and pushed through a hardcore conservative to SCOTUS

we have to vote for Biden

[–] voight@hexbear.net 12 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

We can't even see their damn replies from here the way this thing is set up

I can even post to lemmygrad despite the temp ban 🤔💭 I had to be notified personally 2 days later

[–] sovietknuckles@hexbear.net 16 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I could be wrong, but only allowed instances seem to receive Hexbear content now that we're on Lemmy 0.19.3, being a linked instance doesn't seem to cut it (sh.itjust.works, for example, used to see and respond to Hexbear posts after we defederated them, but no longer).

Similarly, this post doesn't show up for lemm.ee, aussie.zone, or programming.dev, even though they are still linked (but not allowed).

[–] voight@hexbear.net 5 points 9 months ago

I believe that is correct.

[–] jabrd@hexbear.net 11 points 9 months ago

Gretchen Whitmer could be walking the ball into the net right now but instead we have to have another old rapist contest to see which old rapist the country likes most

[–] Great_Leader_Is_Dead@hexbear.net 9 points 9 months ago

"Bad vibes from social media"

[–] sexual_tomato@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 9 months ago

Do you remember the South Park episode about voting for either a shit sandwich or a giant douche? It's like that.

[–] infuziSporg@hexbear.net 7 points 9 months ago

Biden is getting into Trump numbers but he still has a ways to go before reaching those Bush level troughs.

Here's to our hero overcoming the obstacle and "besting" all his predecessors in that respect.