Apparition of Jack

Vaush for moderator??

Ok, so I know I've said that we have to treat a Trump victory as inevitable and try to fight that, but as time goes on and more things go against Trump's direction I feel like there's actually a good chance Biden could win this (but remember, voting is how this will happen!!) I guess I have upgraded my prediction from "cautiously pessimistic" to "cautiously optimistic." However, that doesn't mean there aren't still dangers, the biggest of which is what Trump might do if he loses. I think it might be worth it to start thinking about how each of us can make a difference to help make the transition to a Biden presidency easier if Trump tries to start shit. There is a lot individual people can do if they're prepared and have actions in place to assist this transition. Please feel free to post ideas and resources here. Things like arguments that can be used for pro-Trump family members who are worried about a "marxist globalist takeover" if Biden wins. Maybe things like videos and links on how democracy works and the benefits of a Biden presidency. Things like how to write to congressmen about voicing your support for democracy and due process. I think America is in for a shift come November and, hopefully, if its a Biden win, then we can use that shift to create a more conscious world, rather than one of fear and division.

https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative How to find your representative who you can email. I think if enough people show support of the election results it'll help enough people in the government to take the results seriously.

https://joebiden.com/build-back-better/ This is Joe Biden's job plan. This should appeal to a lot of people who are worried about the economy and not having enough to pay for living.

I think he will try. Whether it'll work or not will be up to a lot of things. That's what this thread is about.

Here's a documentary by Vice on how mail in voting does work:

My thoughts exactly.

@Lindsay The problem is the first past the post voting system means that a vote for a third party is functionally a vote for your opponent. The FPPT system sucks but it’s what you have to work under right now, and the only way to change it is to vote for the higher conscious party out of the two majors (so in this case Dems) and then push them to implement ranked choice voting. Otherwise you’re letting the corporatocracy, conservative wing nuts and fascists consolidate more power.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3zynw/twitter-says-you-cannot-tweet-that-you-hope-trump-dies-from-covid I was going to post this in the Trump COVID thread but I felt it was important enough to highlight it in a new thread. This is good news IMO. It shows that social media companies are waking up to the impact they have on people's behaviours and are taking that responsibility more seriously. I feel like we could finally be learning the lessons of toxic unrestricted internet sites that lead to people committing suicide, ending political careers, getting authoritarians put into power, etc. and are putting rules in place to make the internet more conscious, healthy and useful.

@Leo Gura I agree with this to an extent, a pure moneyless classless utopia is out of the question at this stage, but at the same time I think it’s also important to note that in all the places where communism has been tried, it was usually in some of the most brutal places in the world (imperial Russia, 20th century China, etc) and/or deliberately undermined by capitalist powers. When the system you’re building from is already very corrupt and dangerous, it’s hard not to get corrupt and dangerous results. If, by some miracle, a democratic socialist party took power in the US, for instance, I find it very hard to imagine a repeat of the tragedies we saw in previous countries simply because America is too conscious and developed for that.

Apple pie gives you diabetes

I can't imagine being a conspiracy theorist. They seem to live such paranoid and tense lives. Imagine jumping at every shadow you see. It sounds horrible.

He'll be making a nature documentary about himself in that case

This is partly the social media company's themselves fault, since they designed their websites with the goal of rewarding the most clickbaity behaviour. It makes more money to constantly have two sides screaming at each other through endless tweets / youtube videos / etc. than it does to have a single group of people have a slow, calm discussion. Although this doesn't absolve the users entirely though. More people should be responsible with social media.

@Gidiot Cool, I'm going to watch that, thanks for the recommendation man

@Leo Gura Leo, American nationalism generally puts white people on top. The Proud Boys having black and hispanic people in it is the same thing as a racist misogynist redneck saying "I can't be racist I have black friends!" It's entirely possible to have close connections with people of other races whilst still maintaining an internal sense of your own racial superiority. It's also possible to have friends of other races whilst still maintaining an sense of your racial inferiority. Anti-minority bias in minorities is a real thing. My family comes from a migrant background and yet my aunt was literally complaining about people from our culture a few months ago. It's internalised racism. Watch the video again, you'll notice there's a part where they attack a reporter for being part of the "antifa media." WHen she says shes not antifa they just tell her "well you're still an Arab." That's white supremacy and racialism in a nutshell. If they had an Arab member of the Proud Boys, that wouldn't somehow make their remarks against her OK. They're a racist, white supremacist organisation that accept minorities as a way to deflect from criticism.

I feel the same way. I was watching Vaush today and he was upset that the Biden campaign isn't running negative ads while Trump is sick, and to some extent I can see where this is coming from, but at the same time I also think it could pay off by making the Democrats look level-headed and sympathetic, which is something I imagine a lot of Americans are looking for right now. I get the feeling more and more that this election isn't going to be decided by the extremes (extreme right or extreme left) but rather appeals to the center, which is what this strategy seems to be aiming towards. This is the way I see it - I don't think Biden will win in November, I think the Democrats will win in November, with Biden at their head. Biden is a weak candidate but if the Democrats generate enough good-will (and some divine luck) and keep letting Trump fall on his own sword then there's no reason why they shouldn't be able to take the election. "Playing nice" so to speak may be one way of doing this.

@Leo Gura I like the idea of them standing 50 ft away from each other and yelling better

Really liking the Emperor’s new clothes this time of year

Guys, we can't keep saying that Biden is going to win, because that creates a false sense of security that then takes away the motivation to fight tooth and nail to prevent a second Trump term. You have to treat a Trump victory as an absolute guarantee then work against that tirelessly in the opposite direction, regardless of whatever the positive polls show or any other trend. Also fascism has a weird habit of coalescing power come election time so this situation is still open to fluctuate drastically right up until election night. I'm not saying there isn't a good chance Biden will win, I'm saying that he'll only win if everyone gets off their butts and fights for it as if their lives depended on it, because in some cases it does. Don't get lazy.

MLK was 100% Green. He's like textbook healthy Green. In fact I would even say he had some Yellow in him. He understood that you can't just tackle racism by ending racist laws; you also need to address the economic causes of racism too (he was set to lead a socialist-oriented People's March a few days after he was killed.) Of course he had some Blue and Orange in him, he was a preacher after all, but there's no way his center-of-gravity was Blue. In fact that's the reason he was killed, his Green message of tolerance and equality was too triggering for the racially-divided Blue society he lived in.

Goddamn

Damn. A poor, hurt guy being suckered into voting for the same criminals and thugs who are making his life more difficult. This is why positive and effective messaging for high-conscious politics is so important, so that cases like this are avoided.

So he’s shilling propaganda for a millionaire talking head who takes cues from billionaires? Sounds about right to me

@Leo Gura What is your business exactly Leo? Is it just Actualized.org and things like your booklist and LP course, or is it bigger than that?