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:
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.
I don’t think most of the people talking about Blue MAGA think that they are currently in total control of the party the way that Trumpians are. I’d say it’s closer to something like the Tea Party during the Obama years. It’s the start of things, the pushing in the wrong direction, the cult of personality coalescing around people like Newsom, the abandonment of the fight for LGBTQ+ and especially trans rights. Heck, even things like doing absolutely nothing when they had the numbers to enshrine federal protections for Trans rights.
I think where the communication issue between you and I is coming from is you think I’m doing the “both sides are exactly the same” schtick. But what I’m talking about is other aspects. Yes, some policy stuff which is concerningly fascistic in nature, the march ever towards the right. But moreso the populism, the blind faith, and the lack of conviction for any meaningful message other than “we’re not them”.
I guess some of that has always been the case though. It’s always been wild to me how party politics work in the US. The diehard nature of partisanship. Over here, no one outside of party members themselves has so much faith in any one party. Even the fact you have to declare voting intentions when you register is absolutely insane to me, it feels like such a massive violation of the secret ballot. But I guess that’s what happens when you can vote third-party and still pick “the lesser of two evils” at the same time.