Apparently I’m now a shitlib for not buying into this disgusting tankie propaganda that it was all the Wests fault and Stalin had to ally with Hitler.
For a mod who loves to ban others for bad jacketing, they sure have no problem doing it to other anarchists.
The Ban:
The Context:
I would have to very much disagree that this is equivalent to:
I’m not a party line supporter by any stretch, but equating what you posted against… This nonsense… is, at best, misleading.
More accurately though, its outright disinformation to encourage people to believe an equivalence in the cult behavior that just doesnt exist.
I will happily change my mind when I see something remotely similar to the randomly selected images that come up immediately in the results that I just posted.
Until then, “blue maga” is just nonsense.
You tend to see it as much on Lemmy, but on Bluesky there is constantly people posting in support of Newsom as the presumptive nominee and yelling at any trans person they meet for not toeing the party line. The difference there is that the Democrats do have some folks, like Mamdani, that are clearly on the right side of history. But you have way more Schumer’s that have absolutely zero conviction to call Trump out for what he’s doing.
That doesn’t make “blue maga” any more real though, nor does supporting Newsom (ew) in any way make them equivalent to the cult of maga.
I’m all for calling out the regressive policies and political figures who are clearly in the wrong on many topics, as well as pointing it out the truth to supporters, but I’m not into disinformation campaigns. That is the type of bullshit that got us here.
It fluffing does if you’re trans!
I can only quote my trans friend/former coworker - “At least he isn’t trying to have me killed”.
I’m not here to debate Newsom, who I think sucks, his position on trans folks being one part of that. But again, calling him/his supporters equal to maga… that I cannot do.
From the perspective of an Australian, where the Democrats would be considered right-wing, I just fail to see the distinction. If you want more information, go look on Bluesky.
I don’t do bluesky, but I absolutely agree dems are right of center. The difference though is like saying “Drive east for 2 hours” and “drive east for 5 hours, catch a plane for a 4 hour flight, then drive another 2 hours”.
Both terrible. One option is drastically worse though. There is a massive difference in policy (for the record, inclusive of the safety of trans folks) between the two, and it absolutely matters in FPTP elections. Unfortunately genocide isn’t a major differentiator… Which is why we need to get away from FPTP, which is how we’ve gotten Mamdani on the ticket, NYC mayoral race is ranked choice. This is completely atypical unfortunately.
You don’t have this problem in Australia, thankfully.
Also, there is zero equivalence in the images as shared. So I will continue to call out “blue maga” for what it is. Nonsense.
I’m not a member of those oppressed groups in the US that are aggrieved so I simply cannot put it eloquently. I really do implore you to go and read their stories. If not on Bluesky, there are other spaces. From where I’m standing though, it’s pretty clear they aren’t doing anywhere near enough to fight back against the complete destruction of institutions and the violation of the rights of millions of people and citizens.
My friend I mentioned is one of them.
She just moved this past winter, after more than 10 years of where she was. It was a purple city, she mostly felt that people accepted her or just ignored her if they didn’t. When Trump became president in 2016, she felt uncomfortable as the ones who didn’t accept her became more outspoken.
Those same people have become far worse, by February she told me she felt afraid at night. Terrified of walking alone, terrified of living alone, as the people who once ignored her started making absolutely awful comments. She became afraid that she would be beaten or worse.
She has since moved to a blue state in a blue city.
We agree, they aren’t doing enough. The part I don’t think you’re understanding is that “not enough” is better than “beaten and maybe dead”. With FPTP, we get two choices - shitty or horrifying. Suggesting that someone shouldn’t vote for shitty because they could be better, and letting the outright horrifying come into power, that is completely unacceptable.
So you fight for better before the general elections. You work to see RCV (or other options, RCV just has the most behind it right now) provide better opportunity, or to get someone better in a primary.
Once its election time, though, you pick from the options you have. Protest voting in a risky town/district/county/state is may just make that horrifying person you do not want in get the win - its literally risking lives. We’re seeing that right now with how the Trump admin, and the emboldened bigots, behave.
So, please understand that people who say “vote blue no matter who” are not saying “We can’t do better!”, but instead “We don’t want people killed or put into concentration camps”.
Just so you know, I chatted with my friend last night, and her direct response was - again - “They suck but they aren’t trying to kill me, you know?”. Personally, I’d rather her have a story to tell than to be disappeared or killed. She agrees, which is why she has worked with campaigns before and will continue to.
You can’t make things better if you’re dead.
‘shut up and vote blue if you know what’s good for you, minorities’
I see a flag for Ukraine, the american flag, etc.
I don’t see a picture of Newsom’s face on a giant flag. I see the kind of banner thats been getting hung on an overpass for half a century.
I can’t comprehend how you think those pictures look remotely the same.
I also don’t appreciate the bonus made up racism you decided to add in there.
Edit:
Just to be clear, is this palestinian maga?
Because it just looks like people supporting the Gazans to me. Your “bluemaga” example looks remarkably similar. Can you clarify?
the sign they’re flying says 'newsom’s [dick] is bigger ’ totally normal political messaging and nothing cult-like.
the trump overpass and the newsom overpass are both flying gadsten flags too, pretty much exclusively a right wing libertarian thing flown by chuds.
I agree thats weird, but its specifically related to what has been annoying Trump of late. Less about Newsom and more about trolling Trump.
Which I absolutely agree is weird messaging, btw. I hate this.
Thats not actually a gadsden flag though, if thats the one I’m thinking of. Note the extra text on top, that flag is poking fun at the gadsden flag wavers.
it’s so fucking weird, I hate it too
I think that’s just a Gadsden flag, libs have been talking about ‘reclaiming’ it for months
Sweet milky cheeses that is disturbing. Contextually, clearly a response to Trump’s use of AI, but what a shit choice of imagery…
What I’m afraid of is not “blue maga”, which I will stand behind my statement of “does not exist”. Still not remotely hitting that maga territory.
No, what I’m afraid of is this style of messaging taking over politics for the future to come. Where it isn’t about what the actual policies are, but memes and trolling bullshit.
I think the case I would make is that they are definitely emulating trumps style because they think it will help them ‘win’ same type of triangulation they always do.
we can set ‘blue maga’ aside as we’re probably not going to agree on that, but there’s absolutely a contingent of Democrats who see restricting trans medical care as a nonpartisan issue that they can work with Republicans on.
what worries me is how quickly they jumped to finding compromise positions with Republicans, at the expense of minorities who are expected to then vote for them or they get called 'pro Trump’s as I so often get accused of.
I would agree that is Newsom’s approach, and potentially the party leaders (though I think they are also incapable of doing it well, but thats a whole separate matter).
Edited to add: Btw, this is why I’m worried about the policy>soundbites>memes transition. Its going to lead to exactly the type of “fascist-friendly” compromises you’re referring to, imo.
Definitely agree to disagree :)
And disturbingly damn true.
I will say I agree with both here, depending on timing. If we’re talking at the general election - yes, a protest vote is fundamentally a pro-Trump vote. This is entirely a FPTP created problem, where the choice is between two dogshit options.
If we had proportional representation, ranked choice, approval, score, whatever, elections in the USA would be in a much better position for a whole host of reasons, but mostly because we wouldn’t have this A/B restriction.
Before even any primary has happened? No, screw that, rip into them. Replace them with someone better if possible. Thats what I’ve been working toward with the WFP, the only 3rd party near me with anyone actually trying to run. Didn’t work out last election but I’ll keep trying.
Which was a long-winded and rambling way of saying - when it comes to FPTP, timing is important, and protest votes can be effectively a vote for the (much, much, much) worse option.