The DM was a DM asking us to change our no tankies policy and remove the fuck tankies banner as it was apparently upsetting hexbear users. Apparently tankies view the word tankie as a form of slur. The admin wants us to ally as a form of “left solidarity”

    • ToastedPlanet@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      8·
      11 months ago

      I am a social democrat. I think we should elect socialist politicians through our existing democracy. The socialist politicians will then vote on legislation to regulate the economy and ensure that corporations do not gain an outsized influence in the free market.

      • build_a_bear_group [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        56·
        11 months ago

        Looks at Allende, the Indonesian Genocide, ÖSDAP, and the US Civil War… I am sure, this time the ruling class will just say “aww shucks”, and peacefully give up power, rather than fight to retain power like every previous time.

        • ToastedPlanet@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          2·
          11 months ago

          Here in the US, the people rule. Since socialist policies are in the interest of the people, they will want to vote for politicians who support socialist policies.

          • jack [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
            62·
            11 months ago

            Here in the US, the people rule.

            This is literally objectively not true:

            https://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/princeton-experts-say-us-no-longer-democracy

            The US is not, and has never been, a democracy, because the people do not direct the actions of the government except on the margins. There is no democratic input on imperialism or capitalism. Those are invariate, and the system is designed to protect those from public influence.

            • ToastedPlanet@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
              1·
              11 months ago

              It’s crazy to see a far left news source be used to try to convince people that the US has never been a democracy.

              We have always been a democracy and we thankfully still are a democracy. We are in danger of losing our democracy to fascism however. If we don’t fix the flaws in our democratic institutions we will end up in a fascist dictatorship.

              I am well aware we are circling the fascist drain. I also know that the modern neoliberalism movement started by Regan and Thatcher is how we got here.

              • iie [they/them, he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
                15·
                11 months ago
                • 70% of Americans want singlepayer healthcare
                • 90% want universal background checks for firearm purchases
                • 75% want Citizen’s United repealed

                and yet these and other popular policies remain politically impossible

              • Grimble [he/him,they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
                6·
                11 months ago

                Ok, you know things. Cool. So why are you being so dodgy about hyperspecific political tendencies? Why is such a precarious, controlled, center-left (by ur standard) system like the US worth balancing?

          • iie [they/them, he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
            14·
            11 months ago

            Study: Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens:

            From the abstract:

            Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.

            further down:

            In the United States, our findings indicate, the majority does not rule — at least not in the causal sense of actually determining policy outcomes. When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites and/or with organized interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the U.S. political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favor policy change, they generally do not get it.

            What is it, like, 70% of Americans want single payer healthcare?

          • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
            12·
            11 months ago

            The people rule so effectively in the USA that the candidate with less votes has won 1/3 of presidential elections in the 21st century.

            How can you be a “democracy” if the candidate with the most votes loses the election? I thought that was the number one rule of democracy, the person with the most votes wins.

          • sapient [they/them]
            1·
            11 months ago

            If only. The US is almost a democracy in name only. It’s pretty oligarchic - not only is the election system itself very unfair, but one party is just openly fascist and most of the other are spineless neolibs 90% of the time (though the federality of the USA means some states can approach socdem sometimes, but definitely not demsoc, while others are just openly fascist and have been a long time :/ nya).

      • SoyViking [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
        19·
        11 months ago

        This has been tried many times and history shows that it’s a really effective way of getting yourself couped and get a brutal reactionary regime put in your place. The bourgeoisie is not burdened by any high-minded liberal ideals when it comes to preserving their wealth and power, they are going to do whatever it takes.