acknowledged — Xtrix

Your 'acknowledgment' - like democratic "acknowledgements" of BLM - are equally meaningless. You may as well be on here with Earth equivalent of a kente scarf.

'Not paying attention' - says the bloke who will literally ignore deliberate democratic "failure" and then pretend like 'being listened to' means anything at all, despite it quite clearly, by any and all evidence, being less than worthless.

So in your view they’re worse than Republicans on climate change — Xtrix

Idk what's worse. A party that is transparently shit on climate change, or a party that is semi-transparently shit on climate change, pretends not to be, and then helps secure victories for the party that is transparently shit on climate change, while staving off any actual change from the left on behalf of both?

Some of them. Not Bernie. Not Markey. Not Warren. Not on this issue, anyway. — Xtrix

Distinctions without a difference at level of results. This is democratic apologetics, sold to you by the democratic party and reproduced by you and the likes of you verbatim.

or less responsive to demands of their voters — Xtrix

Democarts are not just "less responsive to their voters" - they actively go out of their way to make sure their voters are irrelevant: https://xlauren-mx.medium.com/after-what-happened-in-buffalo-i-dont-want-to-hear-vote-blue-no-matter-who-again-765745b21eb1

The democrats are 'responsive' alright - they do the exact opposite and subvert the will of voters.

So they drag their feet on any action, predictably. — Xtrix

They don't 'drag their feet'. They actively make things worse. This idea of a 'reluctant'/'feet dragging' dem party as opposed to an outright malicious one needs to die.

Which is a shock to no one. — Xtrix

You say this like it's a defense. Which, of course, it is. Shill.

Vote against climate deniers and move on. — Xtrix

Ok. So not the democrats then? Got it.

Also yeah let's just plug our ears and la-la-la the fact that Biden has approved more oil and gas leases than Trump did, pace-wise, while saying with a perfectly straight face that "the democrats don't do enough". It would be a joke if it wasn't so pathetic.

It's very cute that, despite having no substantial reply to anything I said, you keep falling back on this idea that I've said that both parties are 'the same'. Which I haven't said, not once. Except there is a big difference between them - the democrats exist to kill left energy. Something Republican's can't do.

https://xlauren-mx.medium.com/after-what-happened-in-buffalo-i-dont-want-to-hear-vote-blue-no-matter-who-again-765745b21eb1

On climate change, Republicans say it's a hoax, Democrats say it's a problem. The Biden administration has appointed a Native American as secretary of interior, for example -- a very good move. They've re-established National monuments and regulations weakened under Trump, and put a moratorium on drilling on public lands. None of this goes far enough, but compare to the Trump administration when Scott Pruitt, an oil lobbyist, was the head of the EPA and Ryan Zinke, a former board member of a pipeline company, was head of the Interior. — Xtrix

Ooohh wooooow a native American wooooow yeah gosh pack it up boys, the planet is fixed job done. Take your identity politics and shove it so far up your - ok, moratorium hey?

The new president quickly announced a moratorium on the sale of drilling leases while the Interior Department conducted a review of the federal oil and gas program. But in the meantime, Biden’s Interior Department has been approving drilling permits for previously sold leases at a fast clip. It approved more than 2,100 permits in his first six months, a pace that surpasses monthly approvals during most of Trump’s presidency, according to the AP. 

https://grist-org.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/grist.org/regulation/whats-the-status-of-bidens-promise-to-phase-out-drilling-on-public-lands/amp

CEPP is dead - anyone with half a brain could see that coming - , and what looks to make it through is tax cuts for the rich and "green subsidies" - read: wealth tranfer - for corporations. Your shitty fucking democrat party is a shitty fucking party and supporting them will kill this planet but you get to feel good about the fact that you think you've "done something" when what you "done" is help shore up legitimacy for a bunch of fucking rats determined to end life on this planet for the profits of their masters and handlers. Oh and let's not forget handing your shitty fucking country back to the Republicans on a silver platter, but only after completely murdering any left energy in its cot - i.e. it's most important function in American political life.

You cannot pretend to care about this planet while supporting democrats. These things are mutually exclusive.

My post history is literally open for all to see. The forum even provides a search function. It's worth asking what it says about someone though, who cannot even fathom the idea that a critque of the democrats could be motivated by anything other than some conspiritorial foreign-agent red-scaring. Nonetheless your stockholm syndrome is not my problem. Ignore away.

Perpetuating a cycle of planetary death while pretending to do the opposite is less so.

If that’s the case, we’re toast. So it’s hopeless. — Xtrix

Your lack of imagination is not an indictment on hope.

The Dawn of Everything, David Graeber & David Wen — 180 Proof

I cannot wait to read this!!

Philosophical Investigations, Ludwig Wittgenstein — 180 Proof

Yay!! A qualification: alot of the time, Witty is also talking about words in language-games where they "don't belong". Words which, in one language-game work perfect fine, but, when employed in another with the expectation that it will 'work' in the same way as it's 'original home', makes for wild confusion (this is 'being captured by a picture').

But I do think that it's better in other ways to have biden in office even though not much seems to be happening. Maybe that just makes it worse, I don't know. It's really confusing to me. I think this is why a lot of people don't vote haha — John McMannis

That's fair! It's both confusing and not, in that if you do a little digging, it's not too hard to figure out where things stand with everyone. But alot of mainstream sources are not very good, and keep the important issues out of the limelight, which makes that "digging" a far tougher exercise than it ought to be. As for voting or not voting, you should absolutely make your own mind up. But don't be allow yourself to be blackmailed with the idea that you have to vote for the democrats because if you don't, the republicans will get into power. Anyway, someone came up with a handy-dandy graphic that's well worth posting:



Only problem with this image is that it makes it seem that the democrats only work to block things. That's not true. They get things done. Like handing enormous sums of public money to private interests.

Why? This seems a lot harder than voting and stuff, to me anyway. If I could vote for a different CEO I would, but that's not how it works. If I ask for more money, they can just can my ass. I live in a right to work state, so they're not big fans of workplace rights and unions. I guess I could just quit if I really hated it, but it's hard to get other work.

It is alot harder. And it's been made so it is that way. But it's also alot more effective! Check out what is happening with the John Deere strikers atm - their industrial action secured almost double the way raises they were being offered, and they're still striking for more. Or else look at the successes of the Chicago teacher's strike. Hard work in, good results out.

Obviously not everyone is in the position to take industrial action. And the very fact that industrial action is mass action speaks to how hard it is for any one person, alone, to get things done. Alot of the work involves preparation and getting your principles in order so that when occasions arise, you do make the right choices. That seemingly 'wild' ideas like striking dont't seem so wild, if it ever comes to that. And cultivating solidarity and class consciousness with others like yourself in your community. You won't change the world by yourself. And that's OK. To find joy in a world geared towards making you miserable is a radical act. Joy and self-care is radical. Moreso if its shared. Also, it took literal centuries to end Feudalism. We will win because our timescales are geographic!

Liberals like our blue MAGA friends in this thread have a time-horizon of whatever next big political conference is coming up, organized by the powers that be as they ferry themselves there in jets and private cars.

The standard rejoinder, of course, is that the Democrats would happily legislate a transformative program were it not for opposition from two intransigent blue dog senators. While arguably true at the margins, the current dynamic is ultimately a structural one born of the very basic contradiction at the heart of the Democratic Party as an enterprise — and, if Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema weren’t the villains of the week, we can safely guarantee other Democratic senators would emerge from the woodwork to take their place.

There’s no way to govern coherently with a legislative program that represents a one-sided compromise between the preferences of liberal voters and those of major corporations. This model of so-called compromise was hardly invented by the likes of Manchin or Sinema. It’s also the one embraced by Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and virtually every other major figure or grandee in the Democratic Party’s upper ranks.

In a big way, the Left’s critique in 2016 and 2020 wasn’t just that a new, more ambitious, and more ideologically coherent program was urgently needed. It was also that the Democratic Party is structurally unable to deliver even many of the softly progressive measures its leaders periodically claim to want — and that, by extension, an administration headed by a figure like Joe Biden was almost certain to yield a very predictable result.

https://jacobinmag.com/2021/11/joe-biden-democratic-party-elections-presidency-the-left-predicted

An article after my own heart :heart:

The democratic party functions as one-half of a two-part cycle whose overall effect is to ruin lives for everyone. The practical effect of what Xtrix calls 'doing something' is to perpetuate and entrench this cycle. What he calls 'activism' is, in fact, 'activism on behalf of the democratic party'. He'll pretend to acknowledge that it is corrupt to it's core, but then will defend it anyway. Which is exactly what the democrats do when they fly little BLM flags while funneling money to the rich and extending funding to cops. He's learnt from the best in that regard.

What to do? Break that cycle, and more importantly, break it from the left (the democrats are not a left party - they are a conservative party, just FYI). If that means not voting, so be it. People like Xtrix will try to hold you hostage and gaslight you: if you don't vote for the democrats, the republicans will come into power. But it's farce. If you vote for the democrats, the republicans will come into power anyway, because the function of the democratic party is defuse left energy (which the republican party can't do), and then, one that's done, actively pave the way for republican victories after that. That's their objective role in American political life. They're the rear-guard of republican political power.

Far more interesting that anything the Democrats have been doing is workers strikes all over the US. Capitalism is a wage relation, and it is over wages and workplace rights that anything will be won. Discuss your wages with your fellow workers. Join your union. Build networks of worker solidarity. Never hate on the poor or the uneducated, not matter how silly their antics can be. Power is always the enemy. Know that bosses are not your friends. Keep yourself informed. Refuse, at all costs, the fake distinction between liberal and conservative. Educate yourself, and, just casually, those around you when the opportunity arises. Also for the love of God never call yourself an activist. An activist is someone too non-committal and pussy to call themselves a socialist outright. Hitler's brownshirts were activists. 'Activism' is liberal code for: ineffective tinkerer of the status quo.

Maybe pick a couple of books - Thomas Frank's Listen, Liberal! is probably one of the better antidotes to Blue MAGA people like Xtrix. Or even something like Red State Revolt, which shows how worker movements can and do flourish in so-called red states. Or even Chris Hedges, who is a nice popular writer on these topics: https://www.amazon.com/America-Farewell-Tour-Chris-Hedges/dp/1501152688/

Keep simping for plutocrats. See you when Trump's in power again :blush:

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/01/business/reconciliation-package-taxes-salt/

"Democrats' $1.75 trillion economic and climate bill could end up delivering a tax cut for the richest 5% of Americans, a new analysis finds. Although it wasn't addressed in the framework, some observers expect the package will eventually include a repeal of the $10,000 cap on the federal deduction for state and local taxes, known as SALT. Some Democrats have said they won't vote for the legislation without action on the SALT cap, which has been a particular issue in California, New York, New Jersey and other high-tax states. The bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget found in an analysis released Friday that repealing the SALT cap would more than offset the planned tax hikes on the rich.

"A two-year SALT cap repeal -- if included -- would reduce taxes on the top 5% of earners by over $70 billion" in fiscal 2023, the CRFB said. After factoring in the planned tax hikes on the rich, the package would translate to a $30 billion net direct tax cut for those in the top 5% when the SALT cap repeal is in effect, the analysis said.... More than 96% of the benefits from a SALT cap repeal would go to the highest-income 20% of households, according to a 2018 analysis from the Tax Policy Center. "

Ahhh the hope, the hope is overwhelming what are we going to do with all this democratic hope ahhhh help drowning in all the hope we need MoRe AcTiViSsmmmm

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59144293

"Republican Glenn Youngkin has been elected as Virginia's next governor in a major upset, according to US media projections. He was 2.1 points ahead of Democrat Terry McAuliffe, with 99% of votes counted. Mr McAuliffe, who served as governor from 2014-18, saw his opinion poll lead vanish in recent weeks. The ballot has been widely seen as a referendum on Joe Biden's presidency, and defeat will unnerve the Democrats. Mr Biden won by 10 points in Virginia in the presidential election just a year ago".

What is the objective role of the democratic party? To stop the left at all costs, and then lubricate the way for Republican victories. Republican lighter fluid for Republican immolation. If, in the meantime, they can funnel taxpayer money to corporations while doing so, then all the better.

Democratic supporters are Republican supporters with extra steps.

Very cute to see two Trump supporters going at it up top.

Maybe the mistake I'm worried about is lumping together all religious speech; there are lots of different sorts of things one might say, that could count as religious, and some of them connect rather clearly to practice and some quite a bit less clearly. — Srap Tasmaner

That's fair. But I'd qualify this to say something like: "be good and you'll get to heaven" counts as an exhortation or something similar. That's the use to which it is put. But if you then go on to ask: "but where is heaven? What's it like?" - then you've disengaged from the 'rough ground'. So: one can 'make use' of religious language, and indeed, this is done all the time. But I wouldn't say it has any 'cognitive content'. Same goes for your own example which I think is exemplary: "Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead". Maybe it's got some value as a morality tale, but if you're then going to ask about the mechanics of resurrection and turn it into some philosophical or metaphysical debate, I'd tell you to pound sand.

Another way to put this is tautologically: if your religious discussion has some practical import ... then it has some practical import.

I guess the classic, albeit maybe exaggerated example is asking how many angels can dance on the head of a pin: it's not a question that can gain any traction in the realm of practice: whatever answer one furnishes does not guide or impact upon conduct. Or - to use an Austinian distinction, insofar an answer might matter, it matters as a performative, rather than as a constative: it determines in- and out- groups, it serves as a litmus test for communal bonds (a shibboleth): it's efficacy lies in its form, not it's content, as it were. It is a showing, not a saying. Which is different from say: 'pass me the slab' (which can also serve a performative role qua resisting or acceding to authority say, but is not only that). In any case it's why I'm of the opinion that God is a grammar mistake.

--

Also it is obvious to anyone with a pulse that Mad Fool has never read a word of Wittgenstein and has no intention of doing so. He's a poseur who asks questions whose answers he doesn't give a damn about. That he is literate at all is an open question.

What is lost in the straining to look for 'proper' language-games is the fact that langauge-games are practices: "language and the actions into which it is woven". And practises are more or less efficacious, more or less felicitious. A "use" is a use just to the extent that it plays a role in enabling practice. And if it doesn't, then it is not a use at all (it is use-less!). And while we can judge practices at an ethical or broadly normative level (should we be doing so and so?), the felicity of practice is indifferent to this.

PI§87: "The sign-post is in order—if, under normal circumstances, it fulfils its purpose".

Guys why are you fighting you are on the same side.

It's true that Biden is not hypocritical because by no measure does he gave a rat's about the environment.

It was a job guarantee for a South Australian electorate. It's the very thing by which the deal made sense at all.

Pig farms, likely. Also, I should have said: vote rewarding.

However, language-games are only language-games if they are language-games proper.... But, understanding which language-games are THE language-games, i.e., those language-games that are language-games proper, is what’s most difficult to discern. .. how does one know if a particular language-game is correct or not. — Sam26

I don't think there is any authorization for this line of thought in Wittgenstein.

t isn't clear to me exactly what foreign policy objects were being pursued in many instances. For instance, what did we have to gain in Ghana, Oman, Albania, Angola, Congo, Somalia, or Uganda and Kenya? How much effort and material were involved? How much effect did our involvement have? — Bitter Crank

A good rule of thumb is that if America was involved, a lot of people died as a result, resources were extracted on behalf of US-based corporations, and whatever misery that existed before-hand was most certainly amplified and made worse in its wake. On Somalia, for instance, to pick one arbitrary country from your list (2nd Tweet. Not sure how to separate it from the 1st, although the 1st is good and relevant too):

Americans, whose historical erudition extends to Black Hawk Down and no further, probably came away thinking that they were the good guys - because even American cultural products are designed to legitimate and excuse American murder in all its forms.

Not sure what the point of your other questions were. Yes, decolonization happened after the Western powers were responsible for the single largest man-made death toll on the planet and everyone thought hey maybe it is not a good idea to have these people running the show. Also: hey these people fought for 'freedom' maybe we should get ourselves some of that. As for why the imperialism of other countries than the US isn't centre stage in a thread on American imperialism hmm this is a big mystery no one will ever solve it how strange :chin:

This from a guy who sees everything so clearly that he actively helped Trump great re-elected. — Xtrix

Hey I'm not the democratic party don't be mean.

Anytime. Just happy to know that my pleasuring myself is something you think about :kiss:

This is about representative of the state of things.

I actually jerk off to democratic failure because that way I get off every hour. It's exhausting.

If only America didn't have a world complex in which they constantly kill, sabotage, or undermine anything good in it.

Strangely enough, the response from the Dems have been pretty calm... Otherwise I can't imagine them caving so easily and so quickly but that is what it looks like from the outside. — Mr Bee

A fun thought experiment to try on: for a month, treat the democrats (all the democrats, the entire party, not just one or two of them) as though they are a party actively hostile to progressive change. One that actively seeks to make things worse, on behalf of their corporate sponsors. You might surprise yourself with how often you will stop being 'surprised' and 'unable to imagine them caving so easily' and start seeing it as a normal pattern of behaviour that is totally in line with what they do on a day to day basis. Measure the democrats on a purely outcome-based metric, and bracket their self-stylings and the ways in which they portray themselves. Just for a month. See what happens to one's sense of constant surprise at their so-called 'failures'. Perhaps they will begin to look like what they are - achievements. Expect the worst from them and watch how those expectations will be fulfilled, rather than thwarted.

The delay is probably them looking for additional mechanisms to funnel taxpayer money into corporate hands.

https://www.liberationnews.org/right-wing-democrats-gut-social-program-budget-after-biden-refuses-to-fight/

"Biden’s shameful surrender stems from the fundamental approach he adopted towards this struggle. Instead of seeking to pile as much pressure as possible on the right wing holdouts within his own party, Biden voiced only the mildest of criticism. Biden remarked at a public event in Baltimore last week, “Joe [Manchin] is not a bad guy. He’s a friend.” And Biden did indeed treat Manchin like a friend, agreeing to his demands to cut from the budget a wide range of programs that would have provided major relief to workers.

...The Biden administration is heavily emphasizing that over $500 billion is allocated in his new framework for climate change related measures. But the majority of this would be spent in the form of tax credits that big corporations would be best positioned to take advantage of, and other subsidies aimed at bolstering “green” capitalists. It is unclear how much of this would actually make its way to concrete actions to reduce carbon emissions. 

...Biden and the rest of the Democratic Party had many tools at their disposal to force Manchin and Sinema to reverse their disgusting, anti-worker stand. They could have cut them off from campaign funds, removed them from their committee assignments, refused to consider any legislation they propose, supported primary challenges, or called for mass actions to add to the pressure. But instead they could barely muster the courage to even criticize the right wing duo in the media."

--

Huh would you look at that. Biden's green acheivement will have been to effect a giant wealth transfer of public money to corporations under the cover of environmentalism. This must have been what some people meant about "where they are on the environment". Who could have seen this coming? It's almost like he did the same thing as the plutocrat genital sucking democrat before him. And the one before him. My gosh, it's like this is the one thing the democrats are able to get done, ever. Also increasing funding to cops that kill minorities but who cares about that lol they wore kente scarves that one time. "Activism" lol. "Get stuff [wealth transfers] done" lol. "Hope" [for donors] lol. Clowns.

https://www.crikey.com.au/2021/09/16/christopher-pyne-submarine-deal-remember/

I knew there was something I was forgetting. They signed the French sub deal to secure a sub facility in South Australia with the promise of jobs, for one of their MPs. It wasn't corruption - well, I'm not ruling it out - it was vote chasing. I went with the wrong option of the two I mentioned. Can't go wrong with the axiom.

That same MP of course got a consultant role with a defense contractor after quitting politics.

--

Also the absolute drubbing that Morrison seems to be getting for his car crash apperance overseas is so, so heartening. I was worried it was just in my circles, but it seems like not even the mainstream press can ignore the fact that world leaders are actively treating that malignant fucking clown for the two-bit operator he is. His spit-the-dummy response to Macron - which someone aptly described as "throwing Australia in front of the bullet meant for him" - is yet another wonderful misstep too.

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/morrison-government-humiliates-australia-at-g20,15694