• bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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    6 months ago

    Biden bragged about cutting social security, has no desire to reform healthcare, and doesn’t care about income inequality or labour rights. He looks at America’s race-to-the-bottom economy and he’s like “yeah. Everything is working just fine here”

    Also, many of the things you listed here are basically just “not Trump/not Republicans” in their own way. You really think “appointed competent people to run government departments” is a positive and not just a non-negative point (as compared to what his opponents would do)?

    Also, Biden is obviously fucking senile and I’m tired of people pretending he’s not just because they’re afraid it will give Trump power. It’s totally fine to vote for Biden because he was the lesser evil, but let’s not pretend he was ever a good option. When you ignore reality because it makes it harder to like your preferred candidate, you are doing the exact same thing the MAGA idiots do.

    Before you accuse me of anything, you should know I’m Canadian and have absolutely no dog in this fight. This is my unbiased outsider perspective. I could give a shit who wins the next election in the US, but I’m tired of people lying to themselves about either of the candidates not being a steaming pile of shit.

    • Tja
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      6 months ago

      Also, many of the things you listed here are basically just “not Trump/not Republicans” in their own way.

      • substitutes everything the candidate runs on to “I’m not the other guy”, because the other guy doesn’t run on those things

      • accuses candidate of running on “I’m not the other guy”

      • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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        6 months ago

        My point was “he appointed competent people to run some departments and gives them enough resources to do their jobs” isn’t a point in his favour. It’s only a neutral point. It’s the baseline that should be expected from someone in his office. You’re saying “Biden doesn’t actively strip the government for parts”. It only makes sense as a point in his favour if you assume that the alternative is “starve the beast” tactics (which TBF it definitely is). It can only be considered a positive as compared to his opponent.

        • Tja
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          6 months ago

          I disagree with you first statement. It is definitely a point in his favor because the election doesn’t happen in a vacuum, you must take into account who the alternatives are.

          • Zink
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            6 months ago

            Seriously. An election is a single event where people decide between some options they are presented with. It is not some kind of wide-reaching manifesto or affirmation of faith/loyalty.

          • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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            6 months ago

            The point is that you should hold the Democrats and Biden accountable for being evil and not doing good things that make people’s lives better (which they absolutely have the power to do). They sit back and watch the world burn, then when election time comes they say “at least we didn’t start any of these fires” (they just don’t bother extinguishing them)

            • Tja
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              6 months ago

              Again I disagree. They are not doing enough maybe, but they are doing something. Rescheduling pot, insulin prices, student debt cancelation… (I’m over in Europe so I only know about some things, I’m sure there’s more that I don’t know).

            • Blackbeard@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              not doing good things that make people’s lives better

              They sit back and watch the world burn

              They spent billions to upgrade drinking water infrastructure across the country, as well as roads and bridges. They protected and strengthened the Affordable Care Act by allowing states to extend postpartum coverage up to 12 months, by disallowing several state-level work requirements for Medicaid, by fixing the “family glitch”, by dropping the number of uninsured by 3.5%, by allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, by capping the price of insulin, and by banning surprise billing for out-of-network care. They raised the minimum wage for federal workers. They forgave billions in student loans. They expanded VA health care and benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic substances. They rescheduled marijuana. They established decade-long tax credits for everything from electric vehicles to direct air capture and sequestration of carbon dioxide. They ratified the international Kigali Amendment on reducing HFCs. They implemented drinking water standards for PFAS. I could go on, but I’m bored.

              Get your fingers out of your fucking ears, open your eyes, and stop repeating baseless propaganda. I’ll also echo what the commenter above suggested:

              kindly shut the fuck up. I’m an American, I’ve ACTUALLY had to live in this country with Trump and Biden as president, and it’s no contest for me.

              edit: Downvoting incontrovertible facts. Again. This community never ceases to amaze me.

    • Perfide@reddthat.com
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      6 months ago

      I’m Canadian and have absolutely no dog in this fight.

      Then kindly shut the fuck up. I’m an American, I’ve ACTUALLY had to live in this country with Trump and Biden as president, and it’s no contest for me. I’d take Biden at his worst over Trump any day. That doesn’t mean Biden is good, it means Trump is just that fucking bad.

      • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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        6 months ago

        I’d take Biden at his worst over Trump any day. That doesn’t mean Biden is good, it means Trump is just that fucking bad.

        Yeah I 100% agree. That’s exactly my point. The conversation here is whether Biden can stand on his own merits or whether the only thing he has going for him is that he’s not Trump.

    • nexguy@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      There are no good options. Right now it seems they either support Israel or don’t support Ukraine. No one is on the right side(imo) on both options. Sanders is the closest but even he wants strings attached to Ukraine aid.

      • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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        6 months ago

        IMO there should always be strings attached to military aid, lest the military industrial complex have too much of an incentive to pull strings and keep conflicts going longer than necessary.

    • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      It’s pretty rare for anyone to praise Biden on his own merits, especially on Lemmy. So maybe don’t get so irate because in comparison to trump, people praise him

      And yes you have every dog in this fight, the US is kinda fuckin important for global stability

      • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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        6 months ago

        The US is currently the world’s dominant Imperialist power, if “global stability” means extracting vast amounts of wealth from the global south then perhaps your idea of “global stability” needs to be reevaluated.

        • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          This is the laziest shit ever. It’s very convenient to say that things are as simple as that but they obviously aren’t.

          • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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            6 months ago

            I didn’t say things were simple. I said the US is the largest Imperialist power in the world, which is true, and suggested reevaluating your world view.

            The US is not holding onto hegemonic power for “stability,” nations can govern themselves just fine. The US is holding onto hegemonic power for profit.

            No, it’s absolutely not simple, but it is glaringly obvious that pretending the US is important on the global stage for “stability” is purely a western viewpoint that ignores the US’ contributions as a supporter of terrorism around the world whenever its profits are threatened.

              • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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                6 months ago

                What have I said makes me a tankie? Saying that the US is bad for the world, actually? That’s all forms of Leftism, whether they be Anarchist, Marxist, or so forth.

                If you’re just going to resort to Ad Hominem instead of defending your claims or addressing my counters to them, why even reply?

                • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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                  6 months ago

                  Any time someone wants to immediately move the conversation toward “us interests are evil” it’s pretty obvious there’s an agenda.

                  • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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                    6 months ago

                    What agenda do I have when you made the incredibly evil claim that the US is important for “global stability?” If you just walk through life making knee-jerk reactions every time someone points out something you said is wrong, rather than engaging with the points brought up, what do you hope to accomplish?

    • retrospectology@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      You’re never going to get these people to acknowledge any of this stuff.

      They’ll still be defending whatever Biden 2.0 clone is in office a few cycles from now because “He only sent half the number of people to the gas chamber compared to [Identical GOP Incumbent]!”

      • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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        6 months ago

        That is the thing, the GOP isn’t identical. It is pretty much worse every single time.

        • retrospectology@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          The technical distinction are becoming less and less compelling. The whole “Things will get better if you just vote for our chosen establishment democrat one more time.” starts to wear thin after decades of 0 substantial results and, more often than not, straight up complicity in the worst crimes of the far-right.

          Establishment democrats support the corporate aristocracy and banks just the same, they barely fight for really basic stuff like civil rights and only enough so they have something to point to, not to actually fundamentally change anything in a way that the right can’t just reverse. That’s why we are where we are right now, the Conservative Democrats’ greed and lack of spine has allowed the far-right to capture the courts and undermine our institutions, unopposed over the course of 40-ish years.

          The Democratic party is the only one with potential to change, but that’s never going to happen if they can just keep doing the pied piper shit and getting re-elected. For all intents and purposes they are identical.

          • Dark Arc@social.packetloss.gg
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            6 months ago

            Here’s the problem, people don’t vote down ticket, and they only vote every 4 years instead of every 2 years.

            The president is more of a cheerleader than a person of substantial power. That’s not to say the office of the president isn’t individually powerful, but you need strong margins in the house and the senate to actually get stuff done.

            We kind of had that for 2 years when Obama and we got the affordable care act… Even then the margins weren’t that great; I don’t think Obama was the problem so much as they couldn’t find the support to do something bigger in Congress.

            Even with those thin margins Democrats come across the aisle regularly to actually get governance done (e.g. fund fixing infrastructure). They’re not even close, we’ve got one party that actually governs, and another that prints money for the rich, attacks people based on their bedroom preferences, and doesn’t give a shit about the environment.

            • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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              6 months ago

              The president is more of a cheerleader than a person of substantial power.

              You’re literally using tactics developed by fascists in your argument here. Somehow, the president is little more than a “powerless cheerleader” if we’re talking about Dems but “the end of democracy” if talking about Trump/Republicans. Both can’t be true.

              We kind of had that for 2 years when Obama and we got the affordable care act… Even then, the margins weren’t that great; I don’t think Obama was the problem so much as they couldn’t find the support to do something bigger in Congress.

              Even with those thin margins Democrats come across the aisle regularly to actually get governance done

              The ACA was a plan written by Republicans. Obama and the Dems chose this over any sane single-payer option to allegedly “appease Republicans” and yet none of them voted for it (and then spent years trying to repeal it). This means we could have had single-payer all along instead of further cementing the private healthcare market that continues to bankrupt Americans to this day.

              In another attempt to appease Republicans, they allowed them to steal Obamas SCOTUS appointment while also allowing Trump to steal what should have been Biden’s SCOTUS appointment, stacking the Supreme Court with a 6-3 conservative majority which lead to the end of abortion rights in the country and who knows what else in the coming decades.

              Neither party is interested in fixing the absolute train wreck that this country has become. Both serve the rich. One party is just better about messaging and branding. There are many good Dem politicians but the party leadership and party as a whole is just as rotten as the other. That’s why we’re here with Trump having a 50% chance of being president for the third time in a row and why we’ll continue to have candidates like him in the future.

              • Dark Arc@social.packetloss.gg
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                6 months ago

                You’re literally using tactics developed by fascists in your argument here.

                [citation needed]

                Somehow, the president is little more than a “powerless cheerleader” if we’re talking about Dems but “the end of democracy” if talking about Trump/Republicans. Both can’t be true.

                They’re over simplifying the problem. Trump is a cheerleader for fascism inside of the United States, a vote for Trump is a vote for every Republican in congress to be emboldened to do Trump like things (and even if they don’t agree with them, fear their own removal).

                There’s certainly a different aspect for international issues and relations as well. However, ultimately, congress has all the power in this country. If Democrats had solid super majorities in the house and senate, or there was a super majority that was willing to side with Democrats to protect from Trump, there would be very little reason to worry.

                In fact, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion because congress would have held Trump accountable and convicted him during the impeachment hearings preventing him from holding office.

                Obama and the Dems chose this over any sane single-payer option to allegedly “appease Republicans”

                [Citation needed] see the majorities at the time, they could not get single payer past the majority of the Democrats in congress let alone Republicans. There was not a sufficiently progressive majority.

                In another attempt to appease Republicans, they allowed them to steal Obamas SCOTUS appointment while also allowing Trump to steal what should have been Biden’s SCOTUS appointment

                They “allowed” that to happen? What could they have done?

                They didn’t have control of congress.

                I’d go on but I don’t have time to say “they didn’t have control of congress” all day. If you want something done in this country, you need congress (either via super majority) or via a slim majority and an aligned president (and even then in the latter case, results may very due to personal votes/perspectives of representatives).

            • retrospectology@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              Here’s the problem, people don’t vote down ticket, and they only vote every 4 years instead of every 2 years.

              In no small part due to DNC suppression and interference. This is why people say the neoliberals need to be allowed to fail until they have no option but to tlstop suppression tactics (or leave and go to the GOP where they belong)

              The base cannot reform the DNC they can only starve the power structure until it’s desperate enough to stop sniping progressives. It worked after Clinton’s failure, we got a ton of progressives in office after that.

          • Zink
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            6 months ago

            You speak as if the democrats cooperating with republicans is a flaw on their part. They don’t exist in a vacuum — they have to deal with the American public. And when half this fucking country is voting for the disgusting shit the republicans are all about, the democrats aren’t going to stay in office if they always do the right thing. Politics sucks.

            And just to clarify: I’m not saying they’re innocent. They do protect a lot of the same institutions that drive inequality, etc.

            Also I don’t really hear "Things will get better if you just vote for our chosen establishment democrat one more time” much lately. It’s more like stopping the bleeding or putting down the gun against your head before you can start making improvements. Trumpism is just that bad.

            • retrospectology@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              You speak as if the democrats cooperating with republicans is a flaw on their part. They don’t exist in a vacuum — they have to deal with the American public.

              The majority of Americans are for basically all progressive policies, particularly when asked directly about a policy rather than a party or politician.

              The issue is not the American people (of who MAGA chuds are 30% at best) the issue is that Democrats and Republicans work in concert to rig the system and deny the people access to politicians who are actually willing to implement popular policy.

              This corporate circle jerk game (fueled not inconsiderably by Citizens United) is why the fascist roght is able to keep pushing our institutions further t9 the right. Establushment Democrats and Republicans are so busy gorging on lobby payouts and shoving AIPAC money ip their asses that they literally put up no resustance except when it comes to changing the status quo. Which is when they turn and will snarl and bite at anyone who tries to interrupt them.

              So no, it is not “dealing with the American people” it’s deliberately side stepping and suppressing them to loot our nation’s legacy.

              • Zink
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                6 months ago

                Yeah, and the media is complicit in all of it.

                But I still feel comfortable putting a chunk of the blame on the voters. You’re absolutely right about progressive policies being popular on their own, but the fact that people don’t vote accordingly is the fault of both the communicators and the public. The public who just rolls with the team sport of politics and don’t care to look into actual policies and their effects on people.

                I don’t think the public carries most of the blame though, because being ignorant is not nearly as bad as all the intentional bad faith bullshit done by those more involved in the system.

        • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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          6 months ago

          I wouldn’t dream of suggesting otherwise. My point above is simply that voting for the lesser of two evils doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hold your candidate accountable for being… evil.

            • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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              6 months ago

              No one is pretending that Biden is any good

              My initial comment in this thread was responding to someone claiming Biden is great and can stand on his own merits.

              Also, you can see from that comment getting downvoted to oblivion within microseconds of it being posted that lots of people think any kind of criticism of Biden is bad.

              • LucidNightmare@lemmy.world
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                6 months ago

                Yeah, no.

                It’s not that people think ANY kind of criticism of Biden is bad, no. Most of us are probably on the same page.

                Where we start rolling our eyes and downvoting, is when it basically sums up to “Genocide bad = Biden bad = Both sides are bad = Vote for third party = Trump gets into office”

                Let me tell you something, friend. When Trump was in office, it was some of the most miserable times of my fucking life. I truly did not see any hope if he got elected for another four god damn years. I’d rather kill myself than allow some little whiny ass, dictator wannabe bitch get back in office.

                • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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                  6 months ago

                  “Genocide bad = Biden bad = Both sides are bad = Vote for third party = Trump gets into office”

                  Woah calm down there with that slippery slope argument. I literally never said any of that. I said I have no horse in this race. I don’t care who people vote for. If Biden gets in, that’s bad. If Trump gets in, that’s worse. If I was in the US, I’d probably vote for Biden. But then I’d be out in the streets protesting him for being an evil, senile, scumbag.

        • retrospectology@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          In terms of establishment conservative Democrats and Republicans? Yes, they represent the same path to fascism. So it’s not both sides, more like same side.

          Progressives would be the only non-fascist side.