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Suppose They Threw a Cage Match Between Fascism and Democracy and Nobody Cared (slate.com)

submitted 11 months ago by spaceghoti@lemmy.one to c/politics@lemmy.world

26 comments fedilink hide all child comments

What if the media is actually covering the spectacle precisely because the stakes—casual brutality, violence, callousness, lawlessness, and the descent into anarchy—are perfectly visible, legible, and clear? It’s hard to read any other way the current threats by sitting senators who promise to beat up committee witnesses, or former speakers of the House who elbow their political opponents, or congresspeople who say they will impeach everyone who makes them mad while dabbling in the recreational threat to shut down the government. What if the problem isn’t that consumers of media fail to understand the actual stakes of losing democracy? What if the problem is really that watching this MMA smackdown between fascism and representative democracy is, in fact, the 2023 version of good, clean fun? As Bouie puts it in his New York Times piece on the subject this week, “The mundane truth of American politics is that much of what we want to know is in plain view. You don’t have to search hard or seek it out; you just have to listen. And Donald Trump is telling us, loud and clear, that he wants to end American democracy as we know it.”

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[+] Melkath@kbin.social -9 points 11 months ago

The correct course of action in a zero sum situation is to do nothing.

You're welcome. I invite you to do the same and actually help the situation.

[-] FrostyTheDoo@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

Oh I get it, you think it's a game or a theoretical situation without any nuance. Makes a lot more sense now.

[+] Melkath@kbin.social -6 points 11 months ago

No, I think it's real life, genocide is bad, and you shouldn't support it.

[-] b337@thelemmy.club 2 points 11 months ago

You are supporting it.

[-] Melkath@kbin.social -2 points 11 months ago

Wait. What am I supporting? And how?

Because I fancy myself identifying and resisting the social programming I've been subjected to as a born and bred American living under The Party (the 2 parties, insisting there absolutely cant be a third, or a sixth, and doing a fucking great job at perpetuating that. Together.).

PLEASE tell me that by not supporting either dystopia I support the one opposite you.

Also, please tell me which one you are supporting.

Back on point. The Party supports the curtailment of human rights, prejudice based on religion, genocide of non-whites for the purpose of enriching military contractors (I'm a blonde haired, blue eyed unrelenting American male, for the record) and the enrichment of the politician and the billionaire.

SHIT. BE. FUCKED.

We can put Bernie or AOC up there. We can stop Trump.

Biden will not and should not be allowed to stop Trump.

In summation, I currently don't intend to cast a vote in the upcoming presidential election. I hope the deepest of hopes that a change in context will let me change that intention.

Thanks for listening to my TED talk.

[-] FrostyTheDoo@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

You can vote for anyone you want to. Not voting at all is stupid.

I'm sure you're going to expend some personal effort to actually get those candidates you like elected? Or no, just complaining and throwing up your hands in 'protest'?

[-] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 2 points 11 months ago

The people applauding your TED talk are the ones who want Trump to win.

[-] b337@thelemmy.club 2 points 11 months ago

Your "Ted talk" is reciting social programming.

Actions and inactions have consequences.

[-] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 3 points 11 months ago

It's not a 'zero sum' situation.

When Obama won, people who voted against him got access to the ACA.

this post was submitted on 16 Nov 2023

125 points (97.7% liked)

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