• Syrc@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    You either vote for the Bad Party, vote for the Very Bad Party, or organize a coup to overthrow the government and install a political class which frees the US from the two-party system and maybe implements ranked choice voting too.

    The third option seems kinda hard, so what you gonna do?

      • Syrc@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Last time that worked in a first-world country was over 200 years ago. And I’m pretty sure Louis XVI didn’t have 30% of the population hailing him as a god and putting his face on shirts.

        You can organize and pull up a movement but I heavily doubt you’ll manage one big enough in the next 14 months, so what you gonna do at the election? Stay home and let Very Bad Party win, possibly strengthening the power of state military and making a revolution even harder?

        • diprount_tomato@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          First of all, I’d be eating popcorn on a couch while your country plunges into chaos, just like I’m already seeing your country tearing itself apart and rotting. Second, what does Louis XVI have to do with I suppose Trump? Why do you have to bring that two-parties bs? Do you get brainwashed as kids to swear allegiance to the two-party system?

          • Syrc@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Not my country either. Not very enthusiastic at seeing what is probably the least bad superpower in the world narrowing the gap with the others though.

            I’ll spell it out for you: the French Revolution worked because pretty much the entire country was dead set on overthrowing the government. Current US is very different, you’ll never get all the population to band together because a large chunk of people actually like who’s in power (or has the potential to be). You (or rather, an American that thinks like you) have next to zero chance of changing the system with a coup, the best bet is still to keep voting the least bad candidate hoping that maybe one day someone actually good will show up.

              • Syrc@lemmy.world
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                10 months ago

                Which will be a 100% useless vote unless a ridiculously huge amount of people suddenly decide to do the same, because of gerrymandering and other shitty practices that ensure the two-party system stays in place. The third place at last election would’ve needed 40x the votes to get elected. It’s basically just giving a vote to the opponent of whoever you would’ve voted, unfortunately.

                I absolutely support voting smaller parties in parliamentary systems where even getting 5% actually amounts to something, but in the US system it’s just counterproductive.

                  • Syrc@lemmy.world
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                    10 months ago

                    Not if your other foot is under the mud. You’re still getting a gun injury, only now it’s infected too. All because you wanted to shoot in the mud pool that has your foot inside and is the exact same size of your foot, hoping you wouldn’t hit your foot.

    • irmoz
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      10 months ago

      That third option sounds like 4 steps forward, three steps back

      Overthrow the government in order to… change just one thing about how the government works??

      How about we overthrow the government, gut the whole thing and rebuild it with the proletariat in charge, and let it wither away once class is abolished

      • Syrc@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Changing the way future governments are elected is the most important thing. That way people can actually vote for what they like and not for what they dislike less.

        Then once that’s in place stuff will definitely get better unless the whole country is stupid and reelects people who bring back the old system.

        Not to mention, “the proletariat in charge” is a very utopic system and no country ever managed to successfully put it in place. The proletariat in charge of actually deciding who’s in charge is already more feasible.

        • irmoz
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          10 months ago

          You call revolution utopic. To me, what’s utopic is reformism doing anything but sliding back to where it started.

          And yes, countries have successfully put it in place. The US sadly didn’t allow them to continue existing.

          It baffles me that you don’t feel patronised when you’re told you have so much choice, when all you get to do is pick between two pre-chosen representatives of the ruling class. To choose which dick fucks you, but no choice in whether you’re fucked.

          • Syrc@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            You call revolution utopic. To me, what’s utopic is reformism doing anything but sliding back to where it started.

            …you don’t know what utopic means, do you? Nvm I can’t read

            And yes, countries have successfully put it in place. The US sadly didn’t allow them to continue existing.

            Give me one example of a country that actually did that then. I’m curious.

            It baffles me that you don’t feel patronised when you’re told you have so much choice, when all you get to do is pick between two pre-chosen representatives of the ruling class. To choose which dick fucks you, but no choice in whether you’re fucked.

            …I’m literally saying that’s bad. Breaking the two-party system and implementing RCV is LITERALLY aimed at obtaining actual democracy instead of the farce we call so. But we don’t necessarily need communism to do that.

            • irmoz
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              10 months ago

              …you don’t know what utopic means, do you?

              I can’t even imagine the depths of arrogance necessary to say this. You’re so convinced you’re right, so dogmatic in your belief that reformism is a realistic strategy, that your first response to a person doubting its possibility is to question their vocabulary. It’s almost funny.

              Give me one example of a country that actually did that then. I’m curious.

              The Chinese revolution achieved proletarian rule through the Mass Line.

              …I’m literally saying that’s bad. Breaking the two-party system and implementing RCV is LITERALLY aimed at obtaining actual democracy instead of the farce we call so.

              It’s aimed at it, but it will be woefully ineffective. Don’t get me wrong, if it’s proposed, I’d back it. I’m for the idea, not against it. But if you think the bourgeois state will allow a genuinely radical party into the system, you’re living in a dreamland.

              But we don’t necessarily need communism to do that.

              I’m not necessarily talking about communism.

              • Syrc@lemmy.world
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                10 months ago

                I can’t even imagine the depths of arrogance necessary to say this. You’re so convinced you’re right, so dogmatic in your belief that reformism is a realistic strategy, that your first response to a person doubting its possibility is to question their vocabulary. It’s almost funny.

                Ok, I’m very sorry. I somehow read the comment as “To me, what’s utopic is reformism doing something, but sliding back to where it started” and that was clearly someone that didn’t know “utopic” means something that would be good if achievable. I’ve argued with a lot of people with vocabulary issues so I erroneously assumed the worst, my mistake.

                The Chinese revolution achieved proletarian rule through the Mass Line.

                That’s still not the Proletariat in charge. That’s one single person in power, which may or may not accept suggestions from the Proletariat filtered through his cadres who are all trained to follow his ideals. If the entire population decided Mao had to die, he still wouldn’t have killed himself. That’s not what “being in charge” means.

                It’s aimed at it, but it will be woefully ineffective. Don’t get me wrong, if it’s proposed, I’d back it. I’m for the idea, not against it. But if you think the bourgeois state will allow a genuinely radical party into the system, you’re living in a dreamland.

                It can’t be ineffective at bringing democracy. In that utopic hypothesis that a coup in the US actually happens and the new government is all on board with making RCV work, there’s nothing stopping democracy from doing its course.

                But let’s not forget that this was all a gigantic what-if to explain what would have to happen to actually have an option that’s better than “vote for Least Bad Party”, I don’t think it’s feasible either.

                • irmoz
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                  10 months ago

                  That’s still not the Proletariat in charge. That’s one single person in power, which may or may not accept suggestions from the Proletariat filtered through his cadres who are all trained to follow his ideals.

                  You don’t know what the Mass Line is, then. Just google it.

                  In that utopic hypothesis that a coup in the US actually happens and the new government is all on board with making RCV work, there’s nothing stopping democracy from doing its course.

                  Yes there is. The exact thing that’s stopping it now: the neoliberal capitalist state. Changing how you vote for bourgeois parties doesn’t change the fact that you are voting for bourgeois parties.

                  If you want to get rid of the corruption that erodes our democracy, you have to get money out of politics. And to do that, you have to get rid of capitalism.

                  • Syrc@lemmy.world
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                    10 months ago

                    You don’t know what the Mass Line is, then. Just google it.

                    That’s exactly what I did. One thing is what the Mass Line is in theory, and another is how it was executed. Again, if the entire population decided Mao had to die, he wouldn’t have cared. He always was the final judge of every decision. Link me to a better source if you think that isn’t true, but considering all the dissidents he had to murder, I don’t think he was that popular among the whole country.

                    Yes there is. The exact thing that’s stopping it now: the neoliberal capitalist state. Changing how you vote for bourgeois parties doesn’t change the fact that you are voting for bourgeois parties.

                    I’m saying you overthrow the entire political class. The hypothetical resulting state would allow radical parties in the RCV pool, because it is only composed of people whose goal is to have the masses actually vote for what they want.

        • irmoz
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          10 months ago

          Wake up to the boot on your neck. That’s what’s whispering to you that change can’t happen.

            • irmoz
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              10 months ago

              Mate I’m no tankie. Swing and a miss. I’m not proselytising, and I have no religion. It’s just sad to see people simply accept that things can’t change. Such a defeatist mindset.

                • irmoz
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                  10 months ago

                  Lol what

                  What is my religion?

                  Who are my priests?

                  What is my doctrine?

                  What are its ethics and commandments?

                  What are the rituals? Is prayer involved?