• 0 Posts
  • 38 Comments
Joined 3 months ago
cake
Cake day: January 24th, 2025

help-circle



  • Fascists are not empowered by political apathy

    Fascists are empowered by political apathy in a first past the post election system. Which we have.

    And its not just tankies. You guys are an influence but you aren’t the sole driver of this result of low turnout obviously.

    This is something many clownishly-apolitical individuals that aren’t tankies understand and still choose not to vote because they also, like tankies, think both parties are the same but for more low brow selfish small minded reasons. I live in a deeply rural area and commute to a small city and I’ve encountered these morons first hand in both places. Typically these are poorly educated impoverished people who feel left behind by perceived elites (not just rich people but basically any people smart enough to work low paying white collar like myself). Who don’t realize they’re letting things get worse for them and now will end up materially worse off and even some of them will end up dead as a result.

    And in so far that a person can deserve their own misfortune, they will. Because they either know or very much ought to know what was at stake and did not give a fuck.

    I actually think most tankies will be fine though. You guys are educated enough that you’re probably not on average nearly as impoverished as these types. It’ll just be the dipshit apolitical underclass of people who will start feeling things get noticeably worse.

    Maybe it wont be too late for them to be moved by their impending suffering and react to it in a productive way but at this point I’m kind of over it. I’m ambivalent at this point.





  • And why would you assume there aren’t some pro-Zionist Democrats that voted for Kamala BECAUSE of her stance on Gaza? Every decision a campaign makes both gains and loses them votes.

    Because the propaganda surrounding Zionism and the level of support for Zionism overwhelmingly is on the republican’s side. Zionist democrats are primarily in the leadership not voting base. Zionist democrats among the voting base who would legitimately not vote for Harris if she had said she intended to reign in Israel (which she implied non-noncommittally to anyway) is undoubtedly smaller than pro-palestinian activists. Netanyahu is not even a popular leader among Israelis.

    Even if the stance of reigning in Netanyahu was unpopular among Zionist democrats, there wouldn’t be nearly the same level of rage and zeal over such a move.

    Now, I would say this was a tactical mistake on the part of democratic leaders in terms of winning, but more than likely their allegiance to Zionism is strong enough that they were clearly willing to increase the risk of losing in order to keep the political discourse more favorable to Israel if possible and did not want to give in rhetorically. And they paid for it. We all are going to pay for it.

    Make no mistake, I fucking hate them for it. But I can be repulsed and disgusted by more than one group of people.

    I think the issue, in terms of its effects on the election, is largely a trivial matter that’s been blown way out of proportion, largely by AIPAC itself. I just don’t think there’s a very large population that cares about Palestinian issues that wouldn’t also vote vote for the optimal outcome for Gaza. Are there some? Sure. But I’m incredibly suspicious of anyone pushing the narrative that this had a substantial effect on the election. We’re talking about people educated enough on world affairs to care passionately about the plight of a small population on the other side of the planet, but also ignorant enough to go and vote for Donald Trump? How many people do you think actually meet both of those qualifications? It’s a tiny rounding error.

    It seems like a disinformation campaign by AIPAC intended to sour the public on the rights of Gazans. The people who care about Gaza are primarily on the left side of the political spectrum. What better way to alienate the American left to the plight of the Gazans than to convince people on the left that the Gaza issue cost Kamala the election? The whole thing absolutely wreaks of an Israeli propaganda campaign.

    If it’s not an AIPAC campaign, it’s largely just a self-serving story on the part of white voters. Trump won because white people voted overwhelmingly in favor of him. Even the concentration of Muslims in Michigan is completely irrelevant, as Trump would have won without winning Michigan. If it’s not an Israeli intelligence operation, blaming Kamala’s loss on Palestinians is ultimately just subtly veiled racism.

    The numbers bear this out. Muslim voters voted for Kamala 46% to 43%. White voters voted for Trump 56% to 40%. Muslims voted for Harris at far higher rates than white people did.

    Blaming Arabs and Muslims for Harris’s loss is just a way of scapegoating a racial and religious minority group. Trump won because white people overwhelmingly voted for him. Everything else is a rounding error. It’s just plain old racism, nothing more.

    You are making the grave mistake of overestimating people with in-group thinking. Most people who are voting around hot button issues like this are not deeply educated and even so being educated on world affairs doesn’t prevent irrational and emotional decision making.

    That said, I wasn’t blaming Arabs and Muslims in my post maybe you should reread it.

    I’m talking about the net effect of discouraging or demotivating non-arab & non-muslim democratic voters with “A vote for Harris is a vote for genocide” I’ve seen this type of propaganda first hand in real life.

    Guilt is a strong (de)motivator. Just as much as outrage (maybe more so). Palestinian activists utilized both to largely harm Harris’s campaign.

    Its not racism because I’m not directing my blame at a racial group. I’m directing my ire at dipshit white people who watch too much Tik Tok and decided not to vote because they did not want to “be complicit in genocide”. Just as much as dipshit Arab and Muslims who thought that it earnestly did not matter for Palestine who won. Or the portion that thought Trump might legitimately be better for Palestine. Even if most Arabs & Muslims who voted did in fact mostly vote Harris basically every minority group including them shifted towards Trump in 2024 compared to previous elections.

    And make no mistake, I’m well aware that most white people voted Trump. My antipathy towards them is much much stronger, but I don’t want to yell at them and call them stupid. I’ve said on this very platform that if Canada (or Mexico) and the US legitimately had some kind of war and I had to pick I’d fight on the Mexico/Canada side and probably seek out MAGA homes and do some very not good things to those people. Maybe things international organizations would view… poorly. Most MAGA are white.

    I just also feel zero motivation to assist people who helped the fascists win. Even if the blame on them is only partial. I wouldn’t commit violence against them but I’m not lifting a fucking finger for them either. They made their fucking bed.

    Same with the non-voter people who suddenly realized its bad for them personally that Trump won. Whether they’re moderate Republicans, Centrists, “apolitical”, or anti-electorialist labor.

    There are very few good people left by my count after this election.


  • Do you really think some white middle class middle Americans that only vaguely care about Palestine weren’t moved a notch against voting for Harris? There was percentage of them that was demotivated by a straw that broke the camels back.

    Or more significantly that young new voters weren’t moved in this direction by pro-palestinian tiktok?

    Sure, I wouldn’t put all the blame on that, but some of the blame goes there.

    Also I fucking hate Leftists who “never vote” anyway so fuck them regardless.




  • HalfSalesman@lemm.eetoGames@lemmy.world*Permanently Deleted*
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    25 days ago

    No. They buy Apple & Nintendo because of brand loyalty and their social significance.

    Have you not seen how deranged they get about those companies products? Nintendo fans lose their minds if someone dare criticize a Mario, Metroid, and especially Zelda games.

    Apple fanatics think every new product is a revolution even though some other company or organization has usually already beat them to the punch.

    Further, Windows, PS5, & Xbox are are not their only competition. And even then, they are enshitiffied now but that doesn’t explain Nintendo and Apple fans behavior before those competitors became this way.





  • I only ever played GTA2 during the 2D era. I remember loving it then though. Maybe I ought to emulate the classics on my Steam Deck.

    Of course I was obsessed with 3 when it came out. And Vice City and San Andreas were master pieces. I never played the PSP/DS games (those might also be good Steam Deck games for the future.)

    I did beat 4 and its stand alone expansions. They were all pretty great, I even kind of liked the driving when everyone else was hating on it.

    I have had GTA5 sitting in my Steam Library for a very long time with effectively 0 hours played. I’ll get around to eventually. It looks like I’ll enjoy it, though I hear its single player isn’t as good as 4’s.




  • I just beat Rayman legends (though not to completion) on my Steam Deck. Rayman Origins was better IMO. Next Steam Deck game is Disco Elysium, a friend wants me to play it so we can discuss it. Thus far it seems really well made but I’m extremely early (I just finished the first conversation).

    Also been playing Killing Floor 2 with some friends on my desktop here and there. Doing the whole spreadsheet analysis of the game’s weapons and classes. I often can’t enjoy casual coop and pvp games unless I can do in-depth analysis and theory crafting.

    Also about to start playing Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (PC) on my desktop in my quest to check off every Ubisoft game I own. I recently beat Advanced Warfighter 1 and 2 on 360 (XB1 emulation) and can say they’re solidly enjoyable semi-linear cover shooters of their era. I even played Ghost Recon 2 & Summit Strike on OG Xbox before that (I like to play through the entire series of games from original release). Look forward to seeing how they evolved the series before they turned it into open world Ubi-slop with Wildlands & Breakpoint.

    Also about to start my first playthrough of Last of Us Part II (PS4) in anticipation of the second season of the show. Technically restart, I’ve played the first 5 hours or so already, but lost my save file.

    And finally, I hope to try and get back into Skyrim VR. but I’m already pretty overloaded so I’m doubtful I’ll have time to continue my current save this week.


  • You do understand that any USA person who does that would have to check their head for attitudes right?

    Attitude as in instability or propensity to commit war crimes against MAGA people? I might fail that check admittedly.

    Responsibility for society starts at young adulthood, which is a fuzzy line because it varies per person. Bizarre that you would try to dissociate being a member of a culture and society without acknowledging participation and maintenance and responsibility…

    I’m not “trying to dissociate” anything of the sort. I’ve thought and read and debated about about the nature of human existence for an abnormally long time and what I’ve told you is simply a major piece of my current conclusions.

    If anything I’m ravenously seeking out someone to convince me my ideas are wrong. Partly because when someone does that it to me it means my beliefs become just that much more refined and accurate. Not enough people are willing to challenge their own beliefs or actively engage in defending them. They attach their ideology to their very identity and react emotionally to counters to their beliefs. I don’t do that or respect that. My loyalty is to reality, not my sense of belonging or identity.

    Another reason is a lot of my own beliefs about life and existence (and for instance the current political realities of the country I live in) are quite unpleasant and many of them I’d like to be rid of if I could find some counters convincing enough to break from them I’d honestly be relieved.

    If anything my lack of dissociation is making me cripplingly depressed and angry and probably part of why I’m on track for a high blood pressure diagnosis.

    but very “American.” It capitulates to authority.

    I can assure you that my specific beliefs are not the norm for Americans. Most Americans do not have any desire to think deeply about their own ideology at all, and even those that talk of ideology often just embrace some well developed “counter cultural” identity and call it their ideology without much further analysis.