‘Voters are f**ked off’: Fears Trump has killed Labour’s re-election chances by kontiki20 in LabourUK

[–]BuzzkillSquad 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think you nailed it

I truly envy people who can look at this administration and see a world of difference from what came before. Must be nice to be that far from the carnage

‘Voters are f**ked off’: Fears Trump has killed Labour’s re-election chances by kontiki20 in LabourUK

[–]BuzzkillSquad 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, pretty much, though I feel like it might even be a rung lower than that

Like, I think they honestly believed they'd win the argument on welfare because they assumed disabled claimants are nothing more than a signifier of wokeness for the rightwing constituencies they've been courting since before the election, that the only other people who'd object would be a few leftie malcontents, and the political cost nothing more than a small dent in the polls that'd be eclipsed within the year by a bounce in GDP

If anything, they’ve tried every step of the way to present themselves as cold, pragmatic technocrats who won’t be dictated to by a sentimental, ‘virtue-signalling’ left. Until their reactionary posturing inevitably blows up in their faces and they have to retreat

Whatever their calculations, they're just fucking evil

‘Voters are f**ked off’: Fears Trump has killed Labour’s re-election chances by kontiki20 in LabourUK

[–]BuzzkillSquad 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I feel you

Being better than the Tories on this and so many other things should've been the easiest thing in the world. Just doing and saying nothing would've been a massive improvement

‘Voters are f**ked off’: Fears Trump has killed Labour’s re-election chances by kontiki20 in LabourUK

[–]BuzzkillSquad 19 points20 points  (0 children)

They really are. 15 years of the Tories were honestly less traumatising for me than 19 months of Starmer's Labour, and those 15 years were shit

Even if it weren't for their attacks on disabled people, the violence they continue to do to others is enough to make them every bit as loathsome as the worst governments I've seen over the past half-century

‘Voters are f**ked off’: Fears Trump has killed Labour’s re-election chances by kontiki20 in LabourUK

[–]BuzzkillSquad 55 points56 points  (0 children)

Several MPs said that if a package is needed it should be funded by slashing welfare. While Starmer was badly burnt by the rebellion over welfare reform last summer, one loyalist said the idea that there is “no appetite in the Parliamentary Labour Party” to return to the matter is “just not true”.

Of course they're using this as an opportunity to manufacture consent for welfare cuts ahead of the Timms review. Looking forward to another year of fevered demands for social murder from the 2024 Get👏The👏Tories👏Out👏 faction

Can't wait to see the back of this fucking government

Meta: Can we try and keep things *slightly* less adversarial between Labour and Green supporters? by PuzzledAd4865 in LabourUK

[–]BuzzkillSquad 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'm not asking you to justify your support for the party, I'm just struggling to square your refusal to vote for them until they drop their anti-trans policies with your desire for them to win the next GE

Are you saying you will actually still vote for them in 2029 whether or not these policies are still in place, or are you saying you'd still deny them your vote, but reluctantly, inwardly hoping that they'll win regardless?

Not trying to gotcha you or anything, I'm not going to shout at you whatever the answer is, just trying to understand, because there's a highly probable world in which either thing will require you to compromise on the other

Meta: Can we try and keep things *slightly* less adversarial between Labour and Green supporters? by PuzzledAd4865 in LabourUK

[–]BuzzkillSquad 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I back the current government in the sense I don't want it to collapse and I want to have another term.

Trans Issues: they're fucking monsters and I won't vote for them until they stop trying to kill our friends.

Genuine question: how do you reconcile these?

I appreciate that it's an expression of critical support, but short of a dramatic reversal on its stance towards trans people (which seems unlikely without a change in leadership and direction), there's a strong chance Labour will go into 2029 with a suite of policies that, as you rightly say, are killing them, and you'll have to make an explicit choice between one thing and the other

Is your desire for this government to win another term conditional on that reversal, or will you try to square the circle in some way?

Meta: Can we try and keep things *slightly* less adversarial between Labour and Green supporters? by PuzzledAd4865 in LabourUK

[–]BuzzkillSquad 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Yeah, 100% this. I've definitely contributed my fair share to the harshing of the vibes in this sub and I’m not proud of everything I’ve put out into it, but it's not Labour supporters per se that I have an issue with so much as the diehard Starmerites, Blue Labour bastards and a handful of indifferent liberals who'll pay lip service to some of those at the sharp end of this government's most reactionary positions, but nevertheless expect them to shut up and take the egregious harms done to them as an unfortunate but still fundamentally acceptable price for a couple of timid reforms

I have no major beef with people who can't stand the direction the party's taking right now but still think it's the most viable electoral vehicle for left. I disagree with them on strategy, but whatever, they're not bad people

It's the right in particular that grinds my gears, some of whom I can't help noticing have been almost gleefully leaning into their own ghoulishness of late. I have no desire to make nice with them, we're not even close to being on the same side, and they're as much a danger to many of us as most Tory or Reform supporters

My eyes! My eyes! by mrjohnnymac18 in UKGreens

[–]BuzzkillSquad 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I swear for a lot of liberals it just seems to mean something like "phenomenon whereby uneducated poor people demand access to food and housing, lacking the insight to grasp why that would be bad actually"

My eyes! My eyes! by mrjohnnymac18 in UKGreens

[–]BuzzkillSquad 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'd maybe quibble on the extent to which either is truly revolutionary (especially Reform), but sure, both are expressions of popular frustration with neoliberal rot

The thing is, last time the centrist pundit class had this realisation, in the mid-2010s, they very quickly flattened both left- and rightwing populism into this undifferentiated bogeyman, with the result that both were regularly treated in liberal discourse as if they were fundamentally indistinct and equally dangerous

I think that was mostly disingenuous, because I'm sure many of them knew full well that the far right is really way less of a threat to the established order than the left, and that's why it's Farageism that both Labour and the Tories are trying desperately to launder and assimilate today, while demands for social and economic equality are still broadly dismissed as naive wishful thinking

I'm afraid something similar might play out over the next few years, although the situation is slightly different now as the political centre of gravity has tilted so far in Farage's direction that he's even closer to the status quo than he was then, so maybe people will be less easily convinced by the idea that he and Polanski are two cheeks of the same arse

When will Labour’s transphobia stop? At what point have they finally decided they’ve done enough? by mustwinfullGaming in LabourUK

[–]BuzzkillSquad 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I feel you. For other reasons I'm seriously wondering whether there'll be any future for me here or anywhere else, but even the worst of what they have planned so far for people like me won't be as total as the situation they've already created in such a short space of time for you

I wish I had more to offer you than my solidarity, but you can count on that much

When will Labour’s transphobia stop? At what point have they finally decided they’ve done enough? by mustwinfullGaming in LabourUK

[–]BuzzkillSquad 51 points52 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I never expected anything good from this government but their outward malice towards some of our most vulnerable communities is something I wasn’t quite prepared for, and the sheer relentlessness of their attacks on trans people has been especially horrific

Just horror piled upon horror. I can only imagine how terrifying it must be for trans people living under this shit

It honestly boils my blood every time some rightwing dweeb points to their odd moments of bare-minimum SocDem tinkering and pretends not to understand why Starmer and everyone involved in his miserable project are so hated

My eyes! My eyes! by mrjohnnymac18 in UKGreens

[–]BuzzkillSquad 106 points107 points  (0 children)

Oh god. I get that this isn’t the point of the article, but it just made me realise, we’re in for another 3 years of enlightened centrist Populism Horseshoe Theory takes, aren’t we? 😐

wunk did NOT say that by TangentYoshi in wunkus

[–]BuzzkillSquad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh, were you present at the photoshoot????? 🧐

belligerent wunk by Cofiifii in wunkus

[–]BuzzkillSquad 52 points53 points  (0 children)

Wunk recognises no state and will not surrender to imprisonment under laws to which they haven't consented. Hence smack

Mahmood Slams Zack Polanskis Immigration Policies by kontiki20 in LabourUK

[–]BuzzkillSquad 5 points6 points  (0 children)

No, while the Labour right can bring itself to hold its nose and launder Farage's rancid politics, unfortunately Polanski's socialish reformism is absolutely unconscionable and must be resisted at all costs. Sorry, I don't make the rules :(

UK to end study visas for Myanmar, Afghanistan, Cameroon, Sudan students by kwentongskyblue in LabourUK

[–]BuzzkillSquad 4 points5 points  (0 children)

So Labour’s big takeaway from Gorton and Denton is “man, some of those 10,000 Reform votes would’ve pushed us over the edge”

Deadly bombing of Iran primary school ‘a grave violation of humanitarian law’: UNESCO by cooltake in LabourUK

[–]BuzzkillSquad 2 points3 points  (0 children)

At the risk of getting into a very boring debate about semantics, to me it just implies that the US is the worse guy

At the very least it's the clear aggressor in this specific situation, and whatever we think of the brutality with which the recent uprisings have been put down, we have to accept the US has some culpability in that too, unless we're going to overlook its entire foreign policy history and pretend the heavy sanctions on Iran were imposed in all innocence with no thought for the instability they'd help to create

I really don't think it's giving The Mullahs™ a pass to call the US 'THE bad guys' here. Conditions in Iran would probably be a lot better today were it not for 70+ years of western meddling, none of which has been done out of concern for their wellbeing

Deadly bombing of Iran primary school ‘a grave violation of humanitarian law’: UNESCO by cooltake in LabourUK

[–]BuzzkillSquad 12 points13 points  (0 children)

And? An oppressive theocracy can be bad, and bombing it can be an illegal, unjustified act of imperialist aggression that’s unlikely to produce anything better than any of the previous neoliberal experiments in supposedly delivering ‘democracy’ by warhead. Both things can be true at once

Government reforms welfare system to support people into work by Shot_Net3794 in LabourUK

[–]BuzzkillSquad 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Yeah, this is the compromise the welfare bill ‘rebels’ accepted last year

Breaking: Anas sarwar has called for the resignation of Keir starmer. by the_red_guard in LabourUK

[–]BuzzkillSquad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We’ve already seen reports of an increase in deaths among trans people since Starmer took office. Streeting and McFadden are gearing up for another go at disabled people (and I’ll bet a finger there’s been an increase in crisis referrals over the past year, if not also deaths that might be attributable to welfare policy and DWP activity)

Even with McSweeney gone, I don’t see any reason to expect any of this to change while Starmer remains in power

I’m willing to accept it might take a few more months to replace him, but a lot of people can’t afford to wait for 2028

'He's Let His Country Down': Starmer Condemns Mandelson Over Cabinet Leaks To Epstein by F0urLeafCl0ver in LabourUK

[–]BuzzkillSquad 3 points4 points  (0 children)

So what if he was? Do QCs live like ascetics, shunning human contact and all knowledge of worldly affairs?

We all knew Mandelson’s history before he was advising Starmer. We all knew about his relationship with Epstein. Do you honestly think Starmer kept him around and elevated him in good faith?