Are you clothed and eat enough? Do live in a place that is basically comfortable? Do you never really fear for your safety? Do you have freedom of expression and choices and opportunities in the world?
On average, yes, it is better than the past, especially for people in North America and Europe. I could list all the reasons why, for me personally… like the fact that I’m not beaten or killed for my gender identity and that I can marry my partner who can have a successful career despite their race. But I suggest as an exercise you consider how your life would be in, say, 1924. If you can’t come up with anything, huge congrats on your privilege.
It’s easy to forget what it could be like and when we are relatively comfortable and complacent to get into the mindset of complaining that we only have a 55" TV and can’t afford to buy a house. It’s easy to forget that others don’t even have that level of comfort and that but for lucky circumstance we could be that “other”.
So we’re talking big picture across history and the entire species, and not within the scope of meaningful political power of the eminent global hegemon.
But the question is about a better future. Going back in time for context ignores that. There have definitely been pathways to better futures that were missed, but that appears to be disagreeable.
like the fact that I’m not beaten or killed for my gender identity
…yet. The fact that dems are backing an ethnic cleansing SHOULD clue people in that they’ll be working their way down the list soon but this “well MY life doesn’t suck complete ass yet so its BLUE NO MATTER THE CRIMES” attitude of rewarding them for continually sprinting further right keeps people from considering the reality of that.
Can you tell me who is next on the list of these evils dems exactly? I haven’t been on faux news or Trooth social in at least 3 hours so I can’t remember
Just to pick one small example, the last four years have seen an unprecedented increase in union membership in the US. This is in large part because under the Democrats the NLRB has made an absolutely ridiculous number of powerful pro-worker rulings that have seriously constrained union busting from the big companies.
Are things sunshine and rainbows as we live in a beautiful post scarcity utopia? No, not even close. It’s shit. Everything is shit. It’s shit up here in Canada and it’s shit for you guys down there. But the Democrats have, in fact, made things better, in some surprisingly big ways. If this huge growth in union membership is allowed to continue, it could make a huge difference to working conditions for the average person, while also building pro-worker political blocs that have an incredible amount of power to influence the government.
I’m sorry that you didn’t get Bernie. I’m sorry that you didn’t get the glorious revolution. I’m sorry that you’re still stuck with first past the post, just like us. But don’t go starving yourself to death because no one deigned to serve you fillet mignon. Reality is messy, and it sucks, and sometimes progress is slow and boring. Biden is a neo-liberal ghoul, but he’s put a lot of good people in positions where they can do good work. You seriously want to throw that away and put an actual fascist in power, for the sake of some imagined world where the fairy Godmother turns up to give you your glorious socialist utopia without you having to do any work for it?
You have a legit point about the labor movement, though much of that has been in spite of the involvement of a political party or executive action. We could have had a discussion there about how much help or harm the party has done and where it could have been better. You know, to plan for the future.
But then you for no reason got all worked up:
But don’t go starving yourself to death because no one deigned to serve you fillet mignon.
You seriously want to throw that away and put an actual fascist in power, for the sake of some imagined world where the fairy Godmother turns up to give you your glorious socialist utopia without you having to do any work for it?
Shit why even act like you’re sorry? There hasn’t had to have been the virtiolic resistance for multiple decades to addressing the crisises of our time, but case in fucking point what prejudiced resistance there is to basic shit like housing, healthcare, and most relevantly: women’s rights.
Acting like acknowledging failures is imagining a fairy godmother for some manufactured bullshit Eesh.
You can acknowledge failures. You should acknowledge failures, loudly and often. The Democrats are not your friends, and no one is asking you to cuddle them in your sleep. Yes, change often happens in spite of the government, but even when it does, that still relies on the fact that the government was easy to spite. You think it’ll be just as easy to make pro-worker changes under a Republican government that’s willing to destroy every norm and break every rule to get their way?
The fact is that it took people in power being willing to play fair in for those changes to happen “in spite of the government”, and it’s still true that a lot of those positive things happened directly because of the government.
The world isn’t going to fix itself over night. But if you start selling nihilism all you’re going to do is play into the hands of the people who want to make it worse. And yes, it would be far, far better if there were actual leftists in power, instead of a party of centrists and neo-liberals. But you can’t wave a magic wand. Biden is the Democrat nominee, the Dems are the only option capable of beating the Republicans, and while they are moving much, much too slowly, if given time they will continue to make things better. And with ever increasing pressure (say, from all those newly formed unions) that rate of change will continue to increase. The Overton window can be moved left as well as right. Years ago a Democrat president wouldn’t have dared propose a policy like Student Loan Forgiveness. Biden straight up did it, and it was only through desperate tactics and their control of the courts (oh, hey, another good reason to make sure the Dems stay in power) that the Republicans were able to stop him.
Things in this upcoming election would be a lot less scary (and yes, it scares us too, because what happens in your country affects the whole world) if a lot more people knew about the real good the Democrats have done instead of endlessly parroting this idea that all they’ve done is make things worse.
For clarity, if we’re switching to Biden: he isn’t the nominee yet, which has been an issue. There is a whole primary process and a convention that makes the nomination. People are trying to participate in that process for representation.
He is the presumptive nominee as the incumbent, but the public is increasingly aware he is likely a losing nominee and therefore by default: a threat. The presumption is then of concern.
Now there’s further issue here on whether his policies, versus his personal capabilities, are a liability for the party as a whole. I think they are an overall liability, but I think a larger pool of people just want a different candidate even if it means the status quo policywise.
This is the better future?
Are you clothed and eat enough? Do live in a place that is basically comfortable? Do you never really fear for your safety? Do you have freedom of expression and choices and opportunities in the world?
On average, yes, it is better than the past, especially for people in North America and Europe. I could list all the reasons why, for me personally… like the fact that I’m not beaten or killed for my gender identity and that I can marry my partner who can have a successful career despite their race. But I suggest as an exercise you consider how your life would be in, say, 1924. If you can’t come up with anything, huge congrats on your privilege.
It’s easy to forget what it could be like and when we are relatively comfortable and complacent to get into the mindset of complaining that we only have a 55" TV and can’t afford to buy a house. It’s easy to forget that others don’t even have that level of comfort and that but for lucky circumstance we could be that “other”.
So we’re talking big picture across history and the entire species, and not within the scope of meaningful political power of the eminent global hegemon.
But the question is about a better future. Going back in time for context ignores that. There have definitely been pathways to better futures that were missed, but that appears to be disagreeable.
…yet. The fact that dems are backing an ethnic cleansing SHOULD clue people in that they’ll be working their way down the list soon but this “well MY life doesn’t suck complete ass yet so its BLUE NO MATTER THE CRIMES” attitude of rewarding them for continually sprinting further right keeps people from considering the reality of that.
Can you tell me who is next on the list of these evils dems exactly? I haven’t been on faux news or Trooth social in at least 3 hours so I can’t remember
“Everyone I disagree with is a Trump supporter” find a new shtick, over halls blue MAGA bullshit.
Just to pick one small example, the last four years have seen an unprecedented increase in union membership in the US. This is in large part because under the Democrats the NLRB has made an absolutely ridiculous number of powerful pro-worker rulings that have seriously constrained union busting from the big companies.
Are things sunshine and rainbows as we live in a beautiful post scarcity utopia? No, not even close. It’s shit. Everything is shit. It’s shit up here in Canada and it’s shit for you guys down there. But the Democrats have, in fact, made things better, in some surprisingly big ways. If this huge growth in union membership is allowed to continue, it could make a huge difference to working conditions for the average person, while also building pro-worker political blocs that have an incredible amount of power to influence the government.
I’m sorry that you didn’t get Bernie. I’m sorry that you didn’t get the glorious revolution. I’m sorry that you’re still stuck with first past the post, just like us. But don’t go starving yourself to death because no one deigned to serve you fillet mignon. Reality is messy, and it sucks, and sometimes progress is slow and boring. Biden is a neo-liberal ghoul, but he’s put a lot of good people in positions where they can do good work. You seriously want to throw that away and put an actual fascist in power, for the sake of some imagined world where the fairy Godmother turns up to give you your glorious socialist utopia without you having to do any work for it?
You have a legit point about the labor movement, though much of that has been in spite of the involvement of a political party or executive action. We could have had a discussion there about how much help or harm the party has done and where it could have been better. You know, to plan for the future.
But then you for no reason got all worked up:
Shit why even act like you’re sorry? There hasn’t had to have been the virtiolic resistance for multiple decades to addressing the crisises of our time, but case in fucking point what prejudiced resistance there is to basic shit like housing, healthcare, and most relevantly: women’s rights.
Acting like acknowledging failures is imagining a fairy godmother for some manufactured bullshit Eesh.
You can acknowledge failures. You should acknowledge failures, loudly and often. The Democrats are not your friends, and no one is asking you to cuddle them in your sleep. Yes, change often happens in spite of the government, but even when it does, that still relies on the fact that the government was easy to spite. You think it’ll be just as easy to make pro-worker changes under a Republican government that’s willing to destroy every norm and break every rule to get their way?
The fact is that it took people in power being willing to play fair in for those changes to happen “in spite of the government”, and it’s still true that a lot of those positive things happened directly because of the government.
The world isn’t going to fix itself over night. But if you start selling nihilism all you’re going to do is play into the hands of the people who want to make it worse. And yes, it would be far, far better if there were actual leftists in power, instead of a party of centrists and neo-liberals. But you can’t wave a magic wand. Biden is the Democrat nominee, the Dems are the only option capable of beating the Republicans, and while they are moving much, much too slowly, if given time they will continue to make things better. And with ever increasing pressure (say, from all those newly formed unions) that rate of change will continue to increase. The Overton window can be moved left as well as right. Years ago a Democrat president wouldn’t have dared propose a policy like Student Loan Forgiveness. Biden straight up did it, and it was only through desperate tactics and their control of the courts (oh, hey, another good reason to make sure the Dems stay in power) that the Republicans were able to stop him.
Things in this upcoming election would be a lot less scary (and yes, it scares us too, because what happens in your country affects the whole world) if a lot more people knew about the real good the Democrats have done instead of endlessly parroting this idea that all they’ve done is make things worse.
For clarity, if we’re switching to Biden: he isn’t the nominee yet, which has been an issue. There is a whole primary process and a convention that makes the nomination. People are trying to participate in that process for representation.
He is the presumptive nominee as the incumbent, but the public is increasingly aware he is likely a losing nominee and therefore by default: a threat. The presumption is then of concern.
Now there’s further issue here on whether his policies, versus his personal capabilities, are a liability for the party as a whole. I think they are an overall liability, but I think a larger pool of people just want a different candidate even if it means the status quo policywise.