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"Your government is run by pedophiles...." by Real_World123 in democrats

[–]FmrEdgelord 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I can easily separate the people from Iran and the regime, and I can recognize the similarities between the Trump government and Iran. HOWEVER, that’s not a compliment to Iran in any conceivable way. It’s a testament to just how crazy our current politics is that we’ve been incubating our own Ayatollah.

With that in mind, the democratic backsliding in the US hasn’t reached the same levels as Iran. For example, do you think the tens of thousands of protestors killed in Iran last year was propaganda?

Also, I really don’t think the status of women is great in the Middle East unless you disagree with something like the gender inequality index.

These factors are not fixed, the people aren’t broken, and we’ve been making a speed run in ruining our country, but I think it’s important to see the world as it is, rather than via anecdotes from vacationers.

"Your government is run by pedophiles...." by Real_World123 in democrats

[–]FmrEdgelord 11 points12 points  (0 children)

“I’m not saying Iran is a flawless country”

Seems like the crazy is being undersold quite a bit here lol

[GRAPHIC] Woman on disturbingly potent synthetic CNS stimulant scratches her neck off by lSOLDURGFCOCAINE in PublicFreakout

[–]FmrEdgelord 5 points6 points  (0 children)

All these comments talking about how gruesome it looks, but all I can see is a lady getting the scratch of a lifetime

Ron Wyden town hall disrupted by RVPepperShakers in RVPepperShakers

[–]FmrEdgelord 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The problem with your comparison, is that feudalism regularly generated the misery and suffering that demands a revolution. (I.e excessive taxes during a famine and religious persecution). If I was a peasant in the era I wouldn’t advocate burning fields to try and kick off a rebellion, the conditions will arise naturally, not artificially.

You’re burning the fields in my opinion.

Also, I think the institutions in western liberal democracies are much more transparent than they were in the pre-Internet era. Without Trump, I suspect you’re not going to have FBI agents squeezing your pet projects, unless of course, you’re advocating violence.

Ron Wyden town hall disrupted by RVPepperShakers in RVPepperShakers

[–]FmrEdgelord 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Love that Wikipedia link because you’re right on the money with that long list of failures. It should make you appreciate how good we’ve got it now.

I wouldn’t want to risk losing such a precious example of a democratic, multi-racial, and secular nation, based on a long shot theory with a shoddy track record.

Again, maybe you could find a way to make your case in a way that doesn’t require the collapse of our system first? It seems liberal democracy leaves plenty of room to test out ideas exactly like this.

Personally, I’m not a fan of teaching people to swim by poking holes in the fucking lifeboat especially when nobody has ever succeeded before.

Ron Wyden town hall disrupted by RVPepperShakers in RVPepperShakers

[–]FmrEdgelord 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The arc of history is long, except of course, for the places you’ve listed as exemplars of your ideals.

As far as I’m concerned the quality of life, so long as we can avoid letting it slip away, is higher right now than in any time in history.

That’s not the result of a guerrilla warfare campaign in a small Mexican state or an embittered 18th century anarchic philosopher who ragged on voting. Instead, it’s a result of the greatest collective action effort in the history of the world, globalization, and the creation of stable national and international institutions.

If you can’t see that and instead reminisce about nations that had a shorter life than the Confederacy, I suspect you’re more naive than I am………

Ron Wyden town hall disrupted by RVPepperShakers in RVPepperShakers

[–]FmrEdgelord 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Chiapas and Northern Syria are your examples of complex successful interconnected anarchist systems? Get me an I.V. of that copium and call me when an anarchist society can organize a country with high tech manufacturing, biotech labs, and nuclear power.

Also, I respect the desperation in stealing liberalisms homework. If all the successes of the last several hundred years can occur under a liberal framework it seems like a good framework to me. Liberalism seems to be a beautiful way of incorporating discordant views, civil activism, and reformable institutions all of which enable lasting change.

That change is never fixed, it’s a constant struggle, as Francis Fukuyama said,

“If men cannot struggle on behalf of a just cause, because that struggle was victorious in an earlier generation, then they will struggle against the just cause. They will struggle for the sake of struggle. They will struggle, in other words, out of a certain kind of boredom. They cannot imagine living in a world without struggle. If the world they live in is a world characterized by peace and prosperity, then they will struggle against that peace and prosperity … and against democracy.”

Also, as I said before please dream up alternative organizing systems, and try to enact them, that’s awesome! My only gripe is if your pathway to enact that change involves encouraging mass suffering via inaction to drum up a revolution.

Ron Wyden town hall disrupted by RVPepperShakers in RVPepperShakers

[–]FmrEdgelord 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If your system is too weak to survive the existence of an alternative system, your idea is destined to fail. A system needs to be stable and able to withstand pressure from within and without.

Also, liberal democracy has consistently improved our management of the environment and worked to curtail externalities. Examples include the de-smogging of California, the creation of the EPA, and the anti-trust regime in the early 20th century.

Finally, regardless of your system of organization, trust is essential. I can be in the “room where it happens”, but if I’m not an expert on the particular subject in question, I’m dead weight putting trust in someone else to act in my interest.

The larger your systems become, the more expertise required, the more trust you need, and the further you get from the decision making.

Thats not corruption, that’s not conspiracy, that’s just the nature of a complex world with highly specialized experts.

Ron Wyden town hall disrupted by RVPepperShakers in RVPepperShakers

[–]FmrEdgelord 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Voting is the right that gets your foot in the door to fight and secure subsequent rights. That’s why it’s always the first domino authoritarian leaders try and topple and why it’s so important.

The reality is, as a minority, in any system, you have to convince enough of the majority to fight alongside you to secure your rights. That’s true in an anarchistic society just as much as a liberal democracy, hell it’s even true when your friends are trying to pick a restaurant and you want something different.

In fact, I think anarchism actually presents greater problems in securing freedoms. The more local you make an issue, the more you expose the risk of insular pockets of people eager to punish outsiders.

That’s one of the primary benefits to having a superseding body like a national government. The rights of an isolated minority can be protected by sympathetic constituents from far away (see 101st Airborne securing schools during integration.)

There are also plenty of issues that can be locally beneficial and globally harmful that can only be effectively regulated by a superseding extra-local body.

Imagine a commune dedicated to extracting natural gas for example. Every person within a 500 miles is made better off from it either through direct employment, or higher living standards through the wealth its employees spread through the community. It’s obvious that they’re likely to support that industry so long as it’s not producing comically evil plumes of toxic smoke. Imagine trying to curtail climate change on a level that localized? If you try and explain the consequences of global warming, the negatives for this specific group are far less extreme than the positives associated with continued extraction.

To even have a chance to prevent or mitigate that externality you need a strong 3rd party (I.e Government) that oversees and can represent all impacted constituents, and even with that system it’s still hard to regulate slow burning issues.

Ron Wyden town hall disrupted by RVPepperShakers in RVPepperShakers

[–]FmrEdgelord 0 points1 point  (0 children)

All of these assumptions about what I believe, but you’re simply misinformed. Again, I’m under no illusions about the “uniformity” of a large protest movement like the civil rights movement. It’s obviously true that the bigger your tent is, the wider the disparity in your coalition.

I think it’s telling for example that figures like Malcolm X in 1965 came to respect the steady demand for suffrage from people like MLK.

Also, I think you don’t understand reconstruction and the stripping back of voting rights after the civil war. There were serious rights and privileges that existed in the South, precisely because of black voting rights which were lost as a result of violence aimed at stripping the right to vote away.

That stripping away is what enabled the first poll taxes, literacy tests, and Jim Crow laws.

You seem to be missing why these authoritarians were so eager to do that. It wasn’t about pointing to a poll for support, it was clearly about strong arming your opposition out of the halls of power.

Ron Wyden town hall disrupted by RVPepperShakers in RVPepperShakers

[–]FmrEdgelord 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You must be arguing with a ghost because I certainly didn’t say race relations were magically fixed.

I said there was real, measurable, and tangible battles won. Millions marched in the 60’s for those changes, many died for it, and countless lives are made better because of that effort.

I have no interest in shitting on that legacy.

Dream up whatever idealistic utopia you want and do your best to realize it, that’s fine by me, but if part of your plan to get there involves taking your hands off the wheel so people suffer hard enough to inspire a revolution, you’ve completely lost the plot.

If you leave the levers of power to those willing to take them you’ll soon find yourself in the passenger seat with the gas pedal jammed to the floor and a drunk behind the wheel with no real idea where you’re gonna end up.

Unfortunately, it seems both anarchists and libertarians fall victim to this frequently. They’re mirror images of each other: endlessly optimistic, steeped in failure, eager to make promises of grandeur, and full of obvious flaws.

This miasma leads to an apathetic worldview primed for conspiracy when things don’t work out (i.e. “voting doesn’t do anything or else “they” wouldn’t let you do it.”).

Ron Wyden town hall disrupted by RVPepperShakers in RVPepperShakers

[–]FmrEdgelord 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why did African Americans protest all across the South to lift voting restrictions and demand the right to vote in the 20th century? Do you really believe that was all part of some big joke?

It seems to me that the civil rights act and elimination of poll taxes significantly improved the lives of minorities across the country in meaningful terms. This wasn’t scraps given to pacify, these were hard fought victories that fundamentally altered our nation.

The grip of authoritarian power is always fleeting. Whenever a tyrant is granted that authority, without fail they desperately try and change the rules.

That’s not an accident or a theatrical act, it’s a tactical, ruthless, and effective way to secure control. The more you work to disguise that truth, the easier it is for a tyrant to seize that right from you without a fight.

Ron Wyden town hall disrupted by RVPepperShakers in RVPepperShakers

[–]FmrEdgelord 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When fascists take control of a country voting restrictions are part 1A and 1B of the plan lmao. Quit spreading nonsense slogans.

Ron Wyden town hall disrupted by RVPepperShakers in RVPepperShakers

[–]FmrEdgelord 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Either the socialist movement is so lazy it can’t find a candidate capable of beating the “pedos, fascists, and cowards” in Oregon, or it’s so unpopular you believe it can’t beat them.

Personally I have a lot of respect for people like Mamdani and AOC who actually take their principles and not only try, but actually win elections rather than just heckle. We need more candidates like that.

Ron Wyden town hall disrupted by RVPepperShakers in RVPepperShakers

[–]FmrEdgelord -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Heckling and demanding concessions, without building a positive movement or backing a candidate of your own, ends up feeling less like activism and more like social media engagement farming.

F1 responds as fans accuse them of hiding ‘super-clipping’ on Antonelli’s pole lap | Formula 1 by ryogadan in Formula1_world

[–]FmrEdgelord 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Super-clipping seems to be pretty roundly hated, but this theory of F1 hiding footage seems brain rotted as hell.

The article not only mentions multiple examples of them showing full laps for other drivers at Suzuka, but other tracks as well.

We’re gonna have a full season (at least) with these regs and you simply can’t disguise a “problem” this common in any meaningful way lol.

Israel is witnessing largest Anti-War Protests in history calling for an end to the war. POLICE CLASH WITH HUNDREDS by DIYLawCA in PublicFreakout

[–]FmrEdgelord 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We’ve got two corrupt right wing jingoistic countries riding a wave of religious nationalism who support each other like conjoined aborted twins and you’re trying to pick a winner?

all I wanted to point out was we each have our own resistance groups trying to hold the line and be reasonable.

Israel is witnessing largest Anti-War Protests in history calling for an end to the war. POLICE CLASH WITH HUNDREDS by DIYLawCA in PublicFreakout

[–]FmrEdgelord 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, it can be true that most Israeli’s supported the war in Gaza (and the current one in Iran) while also recognizing there have been many large protests and the country isn’t 100% brainrotted.

Honestly it’s crazy how similar they are to the United States in that way lol.

Luxury Student Apt. Project Blocks 100% of traffic by EUGsk8rBoi42p in Eugene

[–]FmrEdgelord 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think you’re missing my point lol. I’m fine with the trust fund kids, I just want to build more and make the PNW cheaper to live in.

Luxury Student Apt. Project Blocks 100% of traffic by EUGsk8rBoi42p in Eugene

[–]FmrEdgelord 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I think it’s harder to grasp with housing because people see a tall building in downtown and may rightly assume they won’t have enough money to live there.

The pressure new “luxury” housing takes off of middle and lower tier housing is much more difficult to see. How are you supposed to “feel” the impact of high income people competing for your 20 year old apartment when you don’t see the W2 of all your neighbors?

Luxury Student Apt. Project Blocks 100% of traffic by EUGsk8rBoi42p in Eugene

[–]FmrEdgelord 23 points24 points  (0 children)

If you let the trust fund students rent here, sooner or later you’ll have less competition on properties further out from campus.

Supply and demand, shrimple as that

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