Enkrod

Because I hear these people make the masks don’t work argument

The thing is that they hear doctors say “Masks don’t reliably protect against disease” and go “masks don’t work”, but what the doctors say is “they aren’t 100% reliable, so don’t use it as the only method of protection”.

But if wearing a mask vs not wearing a mask lowers your risk of infection by 50%, that’s a huge deal! And with the way infections spread, that’s millions of prevented points of infection.

Oh Ukraine absolutely should be allowed to join NATO asap!

But the failure of many EU states to defend the rights of their citizens doesn’t mean we should let more people opposed to those rights join the Union. I firmly believe that the EU should be the shining beacon on the hill. That we come together to defend our rights, ensure peace and seek cooperation across the continent, but always, always in the pursuit of the lofty ideals of humanism, the enlightenment and social justice.

I am fighting the right at home, I have no intend to supply them with reinforcements.

If LGBTQ+ people serving to defend Ukraine don’t receive better legal standing than they have right now, I would be opposed to letting Ukraine join the EU after the war.

The supposed western values Zelensky claims Ukraine is defending imo. include equal rights for Gender, Romantic and Sexual Minorities (GRSM)

My support during the war though is independent of that. Let Putin eat shit.

Dude, just read their link. The Russian Soviet Republic from 1917 - 1933 (which also sported the hammer and sickle) was (for its time) extremely friendly to homosexual people.

They simply erroneously spoke of the precursor to the USSR as the USSR.

Given the topic it’s not a big issue, especially since soviet republics as well as the hammer and sickle iconography predate the USSR by quite some time.

Steelmaning peoples arguments is cool, strawmaning them not.

I absolutely support the right of Israel to exist and defend itself against Hamas. I just don’t think that this sanctions the bombing of innocent Palestinians in Gaza or to pursue an aggressive settlement policy.

I am in favor of Israel.

I am strongly opposed to Netanyahu. Fuck that guy and his entire government.

Okay, yes, I see what you mean and can agree. Still I believe that this can only bring about meaningful change if it’s part of an activist push for election reform.

The local level is important and easier to manage, because the power brokers, the keys to power are not that much more powerful than you are. But at a certain point the keys to power become way too influential. To reach the top in any party, you have to play by the parties rules and neither one will let you lessen their individual members influence. You would need wide ranging political agreement and cooperation (and good luck with that) or you have to change the game by redistributing power away from big players and back to the people. And that can imho. not be achieved in a highly partisan two-party system.

Or, maybe it can be, but the odds are incredibly stacked against you.

What’s hard to understand? Maintain the current level of badness to not reach worse levels before meaningful change can be achieved.

“I want to change the way voting works” only brings positive change in a future where voting is still a thing.

Any fledgling political organization that participates in the system in a traditional way is either

a) stupid or b) delusional or c) sacrificing vulnerable peoples actual needs in favor of ideology or d) a false-flag operation designed to weaken the side they are ostensibly closer to

Any meaningful change can only occur outside the standardized channels. Inside the existing structure the math simply demands a two-party-system that will always favor the side that can both form the biggest coalition and dissuade the opposed voters from voting. Both parties have had problems with the coalition forming for a long time, so they try everything to dissuade opposed voters.

If you want meaningful change in the US, find a way to invest your activism not into who people vote for, but into changing how voting works.

First: The “National Popular Vote Interstate Compact” is a band-aid that might help with warding against the worst excesses of far-right ideology, with it in place, it should be easier to ward against the white nationalist power grab and protect vulnerable people.

Second: Electoral reform in favor of ranked choice voting. With this in place, your goal to create viable alternative candidates will be basically met. Suddenly you don’t HAVE to vote for the lesser evil. The math suddenly doesn’t favor a two-party-system anymore.

Third: Implementing the Fair Representation Act to bring about ranked choice voting in then multi member districts. This counteracts gerrymandering and will make the representation much closer match the voters. No more taxation without representation for the plurality of citizens.

Fourth: Some form of true proportional representation. Open or closed list proportional representation would both help with SO many problems the US faces right now, it’s absolutely bonkers.

P.S.: But in the meantime… all these goals are may be more or less opposed by most democrats, but they will never be implemented when the republicans further erode american democracy. So vote democrat if you want to have any chance of bettering circumstances, at all.

Carlin isn’t wrong on the crucial parts.

The system is broken and cannot be fixed by voting. It must be dismantled and replaced.

But while we get started on the dismantling and replacing, maybe vote so that the current system doesn’t deteriorate, break down and gets replaced by something worse before you have the chance to bring about meaningful and positive change.

It is? I’m german and I’ve rented my entire life and never got anything like it nor needed anything like it to rent.

Hell yeah!

This is PATENTLY wrong. It’s 1.49% of GDP, not budget.

Defense budget is 10.9% of the governments budget, it’s the second largest budgeted item after social wellfare and in front of infrastructure (which is crumbling) and debt. To increase it to 2% of gross domestic product means spending an additional amount equal to the entire budget for education and research.

When the AfD marched through our cities with cries of “Volksverräter!”, I should have recognized it as a declaration of intent.

I like like like

oh, like Iran 1979, yeah that worked out great!

What’s Russia gonna do? Lose on two fronts instead of just the one?

Common (stupid) german anti-american proverb:

America from barbary to decadence without the detour through culture.

waren Sie

and also with the NATO members UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait.

??? Those are not NATO members!