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Reminder: this is why they want a culture war; to distract from the class war. Starve class conflict and you feed fascism
- Smorty [she/her] ( @Smorty@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) English32•1 month ago
what does Bernie stand for again? i watched his
reactionto trumps thingy on that YT platform and his goals seem very reasonable and like basic human rights(coming from an EU background)
bernie’s been ‘fighting the good fight’ his entire life. he’s a decent, compassionate, caring human who genuinely just wants what’s best for his country and the planet.
but that’s no good for corporate profits or the continued and unchecked accumulation of wealth, which is why the ‘powers that be’ wouldn’t let him have a real shot at the presidency.
what’s best for [their] country and the planet
maybe the best that can be achived in the US, via reforms.
social democratic societies are better for their people than rampant capitalism, but they are still deeply hierarchical. they still leave state and capital with too much power, while apeasing worker with the sham of parlamentary democracy, and benefits, that are controlled by the state. this is already not a great end goal, but its also unstable, because capitalists still have enough power to take away the reforms that were made, and they will eventually.
Bernie goes by he/him
i reject the careless use of gender in the english language. there is no point in mentioning someones gender every time you mention them, other than implied sexism. bernies gender was not relevant to my comment, so i do not see a need to mention it.
he’s basically what most of the rest of the world would call social democrat, democratic socialist, or green. basically he’s one of about 6 sane legislators we have
He’s self described as a democratic socialist that has to argue for the government doing stuff because he lives in America and we’re not seizing any means any time soon.
He’s been fighting his entire career for specifically universal healthcare. The other democrats are terrified of him.
My understanding is that the reason they’re terrified of him is that he’s not playing the same game as the rest of them. The career track for a Democrat on the national level goes something like this:
- Have rich parents to fund your first campaign, or a politician dad with a recognizable last name.
- Get funding for future campaigns through corporate lobbyists.
- Be a fence-sitter so you never have to pass actual legislation and risk offending your corporate backers
- When you get tired of politics, retire and become a lobbyist.
Bernie is doing none of that. He is as grassroots as grassroots gets. His campaigns are crowdfunded. People vote for him because he has repeatedly proven that he is honest and has integrity. If he ever gets his way, they can be sure their corporate backers will run for the Republicans as fast as they can, and then they won’t be able to have that cushy retirement as a lobbyist! In contrast, Bernie is only beholden to the voters who he represents, so his game is all about performing honesty and integrity constantly for the rest of his life. He doesn’t get to retire. He’s going to die on Capitol Hill.
Slightly related- one of my favorite photos is of Bernie in 1963, being arrested in Chicago during a civil rights protest. He’s really been fighting for other people his whole life.
How did people get anything done if they always had to hold a cigarette in one hand?
How did people get anything done if they always had to hold a cigarette in one hand?
They got things done with their other hand. Obv.
How does Bernie have the money to not have to play the game that the other Democrats are playing? Can crowd funding really cover it all?
Yeah, actually. This is mostly because his decades of consistent integrity has earned him a cult-like fanbase of rabid superfans. Don’t get me wrong, he’s earned it, but I’ve met a suprising amount of fans of his IRL who seemed totally ready to throw hands with me after I made the mistake of saying that AOC might be a decent successor to him. A fanbase like that means money. Not anywhere near as much as his peers, of course, but combine the money from rabid supporters with the fact that word of mouth is the best kind of marketing and you get a very affordable campaign.
Also, the fact he’s not playing the game his peers are means he doesn’t have the lifestyle inflation his peers suffer. He seems to live cheaply.
- Smorty [she/her] ( @Smorty@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) English2•1 month ago
oh wow, he really sounds like a genuine human in a political position. why have i not heard more from him?
i only knew him from that one meme…
i’m so happy someone like him exists, i thought in America politics it really would just be evil capitalists either going
yeah, let's make monioreh, living is important too i guessbut apparently not! vrrrry happi to hear this <3
That’s pretty much it. But in the US, that makes him a commie bastard who not even the majority of the Democratic Party agree with much of the time.
He’s a normal human being and wants to help all of humanity
What I think you all need:
- A manifesto with surgically specific changes you want done that will be guaranteed to permanently fix things (so healthcare reform along with a pre-prepared legal framework etc.). With as broad concensus as possible (so eg. with unions on board probably)
- A general strike to force whichever party is currently in power to implement that manifesto.
Pros:
- Still constitutinal. On paper it’s the politicians that opted for this and nobody forced their hand.
- A surgically specific manifesto will make it blatantly obvious whether your demands have been met or not – and hence whether the strike may cease. No space for watering down. This is why being specific is crucial.
Is there historical precedent for unions hoarding money so that they can supplant workers’ pay while they’re striking?
Yes, it’s what unions currently do over here. It’s tax free but lower that normal wage.
During media coverage of negotiations you sometimes hear, “the union has a large strike fund” to imply they are in a strong negotiating position, because they could strike for a long time.Going of the fact that Wikipedia only has articles on strike funds it in German and French, I think it’s not done much in American.
I know the big old Unions like auto workers and railroaders tend to have deep strike funds, but I think the smaller ones tend to focus funds on recruiting and benefits.
Jokes aside, would his case be dropped if we voted for him to be president like Trump?
Yes. In fact, it seems to work pretty great. Something to think about
No, because billionaires don’t like him.
He doesn’t have enough money to be constitutionally protected.
He’s got a lot of ‘official acts’ he needs to do…
Oh I would vote for him
I wish but nothing’s gonna happen
This guys gonna rot in jail. His best years of life - gone. Dreams and aspirations, destroyed. Worse than death isolation that will change handsome young guy to a traumatised mental wreck, permanently. All for a minute of feeling good, achieving nothing.
Instead of living fully, finding love and pursuing the dreams he chose bleak walls of concrete. Where other people have memories of familial warmth with their loved ones he will only have memories of rusty prison faucet and grey stone.
Instead of helping someone he ruined two or more lives. His own and the ceo family. Negative force in the cosmos. Nothing but the suffering is the result.
And of course internet people are amazed because millions of silent volunteers that actually work in healthcare and elsewhere, help every single day to make this world better place, are not as clickable and sensationalist as someone shooting smoking guns on the street “fighting the bad guys”. That girl that helps the old lady with the groceries ain’t no batman but every single day she does more than this Luigi guy will ever achieve.
Truly a “hero” of the internet
He’s a martyr is what he is.
He is going to rot in jail. This is not a good thing. It’s just the same complete monsters that built this evil system flexing the power on plebeians like us.
What you advocate for is nothing more than complacency, accepting one’s lot in life and never complaining. And this is a lot more cruel than you realise.