chapotraphouse

Exactly. These peoples' opinions are incoherent because they're the product of a system designed to pump out incoherent, idealist workers. Do something to improve these peoples' material conditions, show them there's an alternative to what they've been stewing in for their entire lives, and a not-insignificant chunk of them will be in your Das Kapital reading group by the end of the year.

Louder, for those in the back

Also speaks to how Democrats can't even perform anti-war rhetoric. Kamala and Trump were both about equal in how they talked about the Gaza genocide (different styles, but still just gesturing that something is bad here without pointing fingers). But on Ukraine, you have Democrats absolutely cheering on the war.

Initial stage of the war? Sure, NATO support could've put Ukraine in a stronger position to negotiate peace and prevent as large an illegal land grab. But, no. All political/diplomatic possibilities were taken off the table, while Zelensky and Biden were possessed by WWI generals with a love of trench warfare and stalemates.

readsettlers.org

I think monarchs and lords make class distinctions a lot more concrete

It continually baffles me that americans can be this politically uneducated.

It is 100% by design. The entirety of the education system (what's left of it), media, and culture are grared toward engendering political illiteracy and false consciouness. Everyone is middle class. Baristas are cultural elites. Business owners with rural aesthetic signifiers are working class - even if they live in a large city. Also the working class are all round 40ish bald white men in hard hats. Businesses need profits so they can pay workers .

Its not an excuse, but this is the product of about a 100 years of propaganda and even longer than that of settler-colonial mindset

Lots of people who have tried to do exactly this and nothing more radical have been shot in the head in the USA

people in England think billionaires are working class if they have Northern accents

I’ve heard before that socioeconomic class is part of colloquial existence in the UK. Is this true? In the US our civil religion insists that the class fluidity found amongst white settlers throughout most parts of the country’s existence continues to exist, and now for everyone. So we just don’t talk about class as if it’s real. It’s seen as condescending and rude to act like someone doesn’t have the potential to become extremely wealthy just because they were born a certain way.

A 2020 Gallup poll found that 46% of American adults read below a 6th grade (11 or 12 year old) level. Many surveys have found slightly better but still worrisome reading levels in the adult population. This is not a matter of Americans being able to read what is on a page, but rather that they do not know how to take in and process information.

Any political analysis that does not start with this fact is fundamentally flawed.

Which is entirely reasonable when consensus reality has collapsed and the skills necessary to fact check dubious claims are completely absent from any American curriculum.

Nah, he's from California, too much of a 'disconnected coastal elite' (and they just lost with Kamala)

Time for a 'centrist' figure from the rust belt to reach out to people, someone who sheds the 'elitist' imagery...like a Fetterman ticket

The 2028 race is going to be between a creepy weirdo and an elitist ghoul, both of them extremely off-putting. At that time things will be worse than they are now so I think the elitist ghoul has the best chances, simply by representing the other team.

In April, the NYT did a poll (or archive) asking people what they remember most from the Trump presidency.

Voters who shared negative memories of the Trump years overwhelmingly mentioned aspects of his behavior and personality, while the bulk of positive memories were about the economy.

So the Democratic voters couldn't even articulate the material things that were bad about those years. Only 9% picked "immigration," and the quotes from people who gave that answer were 6-1 in favor of his immigration policies.

Things were better back then, he will bring the good times once more!

Pay no attention to the fact that things are worse now than then, there are brown people who need deporting!

I mean I guess. I think people just head trump talking about how things are bad. that part is true, things ARE bad. And Dems like to explain how things aren't actually bad

Attributed to someone else...

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

- Maya Angelou

My one warrior in Civ who's been set to auto-explore the world since the dawn of time

uh sweaty they don’t have to be LITERAL bots, but they sure act like ones 🙄🙄🙄 anyone can be brainwashed by putler. if it walks like a bot and quacks like a bot, it might just be a bot 🙄🙄🙄🙄