• Nat (she/they) ( zea_64@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) 
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    12 days ago

    Ager says he gets “frustrated with the Democratic Party because they spent so much time focusing on identity politics and not on everyday people”

    I guess I’m not an everyday person then? He’s really almost saying the quiet part out loud.

    • Pelicanen ( Pelicanen@fedia.io ) 
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      11 days ago

      Genuine question: How would this be better? Isn’t the choice essentially choosing a larger evil to prevent a smaller evil, and all the consequences that brings, in hopes that the options will somehow be different in the future?

      What about the people suffering in the meanwhile who wouldn’t have been otherwise? What if it results in further voter suppression so that an ally candidate has a much harder time actually getting elected?

      I genuinely understand that it absolutely sucks when the options are awful or even worse, we should demand more from our representatives and we should do everything we can to remove those who refuse to represent all of their constituency, but I can’t see how letting the worse option win is better.

      • These are very reasonable concerns to have. It’s true that advocating against the Dems for this term may correlate with (not cause) more immediate suffering for vulnerable groups whose wellbeing the Party has been holding hostage for the better part of three decades now.

        The problem with liberalism, and particularly neoliberalism in this case, is that it very effectively assimilates, appropriates, and disarms dissenting politicial or social justice movements through attritional tractics like marginal concessions aimed toward longterm erosion. Liberal institutions like the US Democratic Party succeed with those tactics because attrition is most favourable to the party with the most resources, and with a substanital amount of power over the US state they have, they naturally have access to immense resources.

        On the other hand, we do not. Few trans people are in positions of power, our population is small, and most of our value to something like the Democratic Party is performative righteousness that comforts privileged liberal voters. The current moment of trans genocide and racial inequity in the US is very much a consequence of liberalism’s appropriation and subsequent disarmament of these respective social justice movements. These people are not our friends, and they clearly believe that they have exhausted our resources enough to more aggressively target us as they were always bound to.

          • I honestly don’t think it’s unfair to react that way, and I don’t think we can reasonably ask members of vulnerable groups to respond with patience when respectability is so obviously not relevant to the people who wish us harm – even if just passively. As patient as I may be here, I have this outlook not out of sympathy for the groups that support the Democratic Party, but due to the practicality in empathizing with other subjects of this oppressive system in order to discern between active and passive threats.

            Apathy is the engine of liberal oppression, which is why privileged groups like middle-class working people can be placated by so little when their own way of life is both precarious and compartmentalized from the violence this system requires to exist. Liberals use social justice rhetoric the same way they used labor and suffrage rhetoric; it works because most people are indeed uncomfortable with human suffering, but do not have the perspective or political literacy to understand when that suffering is arbitrary or what is actually required to end that suffering. I don’t think it is unreasonable to be frustrated or angry at people who do not develop that understanding at a point in time where so much information is literally at their fingertips, and I couldn’t in good conscience say that I don’t habour a deep resentment for people who can’t be bothered to try. Of course, I extend more sympathy to factory workers who work 50+ hour swing-shifts while raising children than I do white-collar suburbanites who feel entitled to define morality around the profitability of their rental properties.

            Another form of violence inflicted on vulnerable groups is the expectation of respectability or candor as they defend themselves, as though that is required by anyone who argues that their privilege should exist. If you feel uncomfortable with that anger, that’s also completely valid since, again, most people don’t like hating others. It does feel gross, even when it’s warranted.

      • Because it normalizes our oppression as a constant reality supported by all sides, like how it is in the UK. It’s defeatist, because it’s basically conceding that trans rights aren’t politically viable and all we can choose between are different degrees of subhuman treatment.

        You shouldn’t rely on the US government for your rights in general. We need to oppose the state by building our own power to prevent both parties from being able to fuck us over.

  • LadyAutumn ( LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) 
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    12 days ago

    Could you remove the embedded images? We have a rule in the community about not reposting bigoted content.

    Absolutely think its fine to discuss here, but people have expressed in the past some discomfort with bigoted media being shared.

      • LadyAutumn ( LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) 
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        11 days ago

        I think it makes more sense bearing in mind that this is first and foremost a supportive community for transfeminine people. Like the point is to give transfeminine folks a space to talk and share things with each other. What theyre going through, what joys and struggles theyre having, things that they value or are interested in, ask each other questions. That is the point of the community.

        I think its important that you be able to talk about things like this that are going on and affect our lives, but I dont think its necessary to share individual pictures of this bigoted asshole or his campaign here. There are other communities more oriented around trans news where I think that makes more sense.

        I dont think asking specifically for images to be removed is too much. The rule is in the sidebar and was created with this kind of thing in mind.

        I’m mostly referring to the image of the post itself. The screenshots of news sites are fine.