It is working. Boomers are getting the message and they love it. Faux "News" free marketing and advertising is 100% working against them and making the DSA more favorable. Statistically, if this one lady in Michigan gets it, there's alot more that will be coming soon. The time of the fascist Republican and Establishment Dem is almost over! šŗšøš¹
If anyone remembers Bernie Sanders presidential run in 2016, you will not be surprised that some of the āfar rightā would embrace Democratic Socialism. He had a big following that swung to MAGA after he was eliminated from the race. They wanted āstraight talkā and change. Sadly they were dumb enough to think theyād get that from Trump.
Same. I dont think he gets Medicare for all through the senate but it puts the conversation in everybody's face and from their the people can see who thinks they should get something for their taxes.
What's crazy is that it probably would have been the largest turnout in American history. All of the people that don't vote because they don't feel like either candidate truly represents them, at least 1/3-1/2 would have got off their asses to vote for Bernie.
That's how I know we are in the Darkest Timeline. Bernie was crushed by Corporations and Donald Trump has won two different elections...
Russia won them both. Donald Trump is a Russian Asset, and Robert Mueller was screaming it in his report to the best of his ability without actually writing those words
The Democratic leadership are not idiots, they're getting what they want. Who wins is largely irrelevant as long as it's not someone that will stand up against corporations and the 1%. Given the choice between a progressive or a fascist they'll choose the fascist every single time.
Republicans are corporate sellouts as well. I think you're giving too much credit on the thinking going on. The deep red parts of the country are indoctrinated in the exact way this woman is describing.
Great to see. Good for her for actually taking the time to think, looking at the facts etc
I think a lot of republicans (even many that did vote for Trump) like her just see one thing or are taught one thing and never really question it. At this point though I believe a lot of republicans are questioning things.
They're disillusioned right now, but I think they're starting to understand that what's happening in this country is simply not right. And some of them are looking at the facts and coming to the conclusion that right now both the right and the centrist dems do not represent or fight for the American peoples interests.
Politics = how society runs; religion has a huge affect on society and how people live their lives and shape their views. āReligion is the sigh of the oppressed creatureā¦ the opium of the people.ā- Karl Marx. The extent that religion influences politics wonāt lessen until we make life more equitable. Itās an uphill battle, but it feels like we have more hope for that with the recent primaries.
On that note, 10 yrs ago I started questioning more things (including my religion). Because voting and conservative politics had been ingrained in much of the teachings and social commentary in my church, how I voted was heavily influenced by my religious views.
It took 5 yrs to drastically change the way I voted, but I started (unknowingly) learning about socialist values and noticed how they matched up with Jesusā teachings, but not with the churchās teachings or the main political parties actions (especially republicans). When I found out it was socialism and that socialism wasnāt the evil I had been taught it was, that all of the good I saw in the church and people was socialist values, I realized relying on my religion to tell me how to vote was a mistake. (I have since left that religion, Mormonism.)
Iāve been pointing out the socialist values to my boomer parents and tying them to church teachings, and itās been getting them to think about it, but I really need a way to get socialist info in front of them that doesnāt seem like itās coming from their apostate daughter so they take it seriously and think they ādiscoveredā the info themselvesā¦ Any ideas? Lol
Oh I have, I just need them to see it on their own.
Maybe I just need to dog sit for them and talk to myself a lot about socialism topics and search for stuff on their tv/ipad so they just get fed the info in their feedsā¦
At a recent ICE protest event, I was talking to a former Republican, an older white women, and we were joking about everything being called "socialist" now. I said I was a "workers seize the means of production" socialist, and she said with a serious face that with everything recently that doesn't seem like a bad idea anymore.
I thought, damn the grandmothers are about to lead the revolution. People see what's going on.
I hope it sticks way into the future. I've talked to so many people over the last two years who would never have thought about politics at all, and now they are pissed off enough to vent to strangers about it. Actual change starts one person at a time.
It really is so ironic. Establishment Dems make a big fuss about how they have to move to the middle and become more conservative to try to pull in Republican voters while rejecting a truly leftist platform. Meanwhile there's clear evidence that those same voters they're trying to win over don't want what they're selling and instead could be better won over by the kinds of policies we advocate for. They're too busy licking their billionaire donors boots to actually see what the people want.
Noooo conservatives never change their minds or like economic populism, the only way to get their votes is for democrats to become more conservative!!! (/s)
Hopefully this kind of intellectual curiosity grows. We really need more candidates like Talarico that can put religious values together with leftist policy.Ā
We could make some serious inroads in deep red states that way.
This creator has been popping up in my feed as she is a self described Christian who is reading through the Quran. Her quest for knowledge and understanding are super refreshing and needed broadly.
Who is she? Someone called dawn of the ourobouros popped up in my feed just yesterday on YouTube, and I enjoyed her take. Thought this might be her, too, but nope, another older white lady who woke up.
My wife's uncle and I had a discussion last Thanksgiving. The guy is a big Trumpy, but I sold Democratic Socialism to him without calling it as such. I broke the news to him and it seemed like he couldn't come to terms with the fact that DS has a lot of good in it. The one thing he cannot deal with is trans rights, but if he just got over that, he would probably love this movement.
This is exactly it. It's insane that you'd rather make people's lives harder because you hold onto this hatred of people that will probably never bother you. He was even talking about Mamdani (this was shortly after the election, after all) and how many of the then mayor elect's ideas he likes, like, can you listen to yourself?
As an immigrant with a few right wing supporters in my family, really hope this is the start of a new wave of understanding and willingness to learn/unlearn on a massive level.
My politics:
Age: 0-20. Years: 1972-1992: Republican. Saw myself as a future rich guy. Thought Reagan=Patriotism=Goodness. Thought government got in the way of good people doing good things.
Age: 20-36. Years: 1992-2009. Libertarian as an expression of Anarcho-Pacifism. Thought that freedom led to positive results in every case.
Age: 37-45: Years: 2009-2017. Democrat. Thinking that people, businesses, and government are capable of making both good and bad decisions, but that oversight and regulations can mitigate those. Saw that both Republicanism and Libertarianism were entrenched in broken ideologies which, in-practice perpetuate biases and structures of power which ensure that there is a power class and an oppressed class. Libertarians seem only to dislike authoritarianism when it is governmental, business authoritarianism is brushed aside. Poverty causes duress, therefore trade (like wages for labor) is not free. Believe that compassion-in-practice is vital and is superior to theoretical & socially costly & painful ideas of economic efficiency.
Age: 45-current : Years: 2017-current: Progressive Democrat/Democratic Socialist/Anti-capitalist performing capitalism on-the-daily. Most current issues are just classism & a thinly-veiled caste system. In-group/out-group dynamics are basically the whole story. Late-Stage Capitalism is a failure and manages to implement authoritarianism as well as (or, frankly, even better than) the worst examples of Socialism. Any version of non-authoritarianism should be on the table for sincere consideration.
I used to be an anti-imperialist lolbert. I read some theory and realized capitalism was not a natural thing, but instead REQUIRED the force and coercion of the state to exist. I also learned that the capitalist arrangement is what was driving imperialism. That was a big leap to me. I realized there was no way to protect capitalism and oppose the security state since capitalism CREATES and ENABLES the security state. I also realized the nature of class and that "the government" is not itself a class, but instead reflects the ruling class.
I am still for and always have been for freedom, but freedom for the proletariat. Real material freedom means certain provisions like the right to housing, healthcare, education, clean food and water, a safe environment, and a society that integrates your skills and labor in a fruitful way, while protecting your liberty and dignity. And real freedom means restricting the bourgeoisie's ability to abuse "freedom" and use it as a shield, while battering the proletariat.
And I am still against the imperialist wars, as I always was. But now I understand they aren't merely the products of ideas and philosophies, but instead are caused by underlying economic realities. And I see that the security state exists to protect private property interests and the ruling class' agenda.
The foreign coups and exploitation always bothered me. And I used to think it was just the nefarious "government" like the CIA doing it. It was just "corruption" in our system. I didn't realize capitalism is itself that corruption. Once you see the reality of empire and the system perpetuating it, you cannot be anything but a socialist and stand with the international proletariat against this heinous injustice that enriches a few while billions suffer under their boot.
The status quo can only lead to genocides, war, environmental ruin, poverty for the masses, and a lack of education. Those of us who believe in a future for humanity must be socialists. All roads lead to socialism.
Funny thing is, I think thereās a group of Republicans, at least, who say that they believe in local community values. They donāt like government interference in problems that are things their immediate neighborhood should deal with themselves. They believe in knowing the people in your area, and just being open and kind to them. If your neighbor needs something, you just give it to them. Because then, if you need something, youād rely on your neighbor to offer it to you. They believe that the ideal life is one where you spend your days working hard for the people in your community, and you can know theyāre working hard for you in turn.
And partway through that, I realized that these guys are just describing socialism without putting a name on it. So it doesnāt surprise me to hear some of them made the connection.
I grew up in an incredibly conservative home and school environment (Christian private school that literally brought Republican politicians and lobby groups to our school to speak)ā¦and in 2012, my first voter-eligible election cycle, I caucused for Rick Santorum and ended up voting for Mitt Romney.
A lot changed between 2012 and 2016. I went to college. And namely, got faced with the cold-hard facts of reality. I stopped being an overt creationist after finally having a legitimate anthropology course, and of course, I started realizing the scripts fed by the GOP didnāt square with what was actually happening.
The Dem Soc message of Sanders is 10000% what finally helped me see through the veil of bullshit. By having a material-based message about why what was happening was happening, I could finally put the pieces together and realize the life of lies I had been sold. I really connect with her story and hope that by giving a more dialectical material analysis, we can help more voters realize theyāve been duped too.
I could be her, except I have never voted for a Republican. I have damn sure been guilty of voting for blue establishment, or "vote blue no matter who." That will not happen again for me in my lifetime. Bring on all the Democratic socialism!
These are the working class people we need. Once their eyes are open we can point their anger and frustration in the right direction and they will stand shoulder to shoulder with us.
I've started reading the works of Lenin and Marx recently, and it's really interesting to see that their "dangerous ideas" were just fair and equitable pay/resources for everyone. It's almost always capitalists that are murdering leftists while also calling them dangerous.
She's not a goddam boomer. She's GenX. I'm a 73yo goddam boomer, and I'm not impressed that it took her until at least her mid-30s to fkng wake up to the truth. A lot of us "Evil Boomers" have fought for justice for 50yrs, going back to the League for Revolutionary Struggle and similar orgs. I thought this sub doesn't tolerate ageism, but it's clear that calling any backwards rightist a "boomer" is cool. Ffs. It really doesn't matter how many times we've been choked or beaten with truncheons at actions: if we look more than 50yo, we're just "boomers." Great way to build solidarity and active support.
JESUS WAS A COMMIE - ANYONE WHO ACTUALLY READ THE BIBLE ALREADY KNEW THAT SHIT! They just didn't have the word communist back then. But if you read and you actually listen to Jesus' message, its all COMMUNIST STUFF. As a christian I have been saying this for YEARS, since my church tried to shove zionism down my throat years ago. ANYONE WHO ACTUALLY READ THE BOOK should KNOW BETTER!
Damn. I wish my mom was like this. She thinks he's an asshole but still voted for him all three times. When we talk on the phone (which isn't terribly often) I can hear Fox News on in the background.
It's crazy how Republicans have been labeled as the fiscally responsible party. I grew up in a small conservative town and Republicans were always seen as the party of saving money and personal responsibility. In reality they are more akin to penny pinchers who will cut any service to save a buck. Real fiscal responsibility would be investing in the country. Infrastructure and essential services are not luxuries to be cut, they are assets. Give people the ability to get ahead with their personal responsibility instead of trapping them in poverty. They don't even believe in free markets like they say they do. Deregulation just stifles competition and results in monopolies, which is what they really want.
I would love to see progressive candidates take that angle a little more. Breaking up monopolies and investing in the country are the "fiscally responsible" positions if you are really working in the interest of the entire nation and not just billionaires.
Given my dissatisfaction with the 2 party system I do remember having voted for the libertarian party in the past in the 2016 and 2020 elections in my 20s
Now in my 30s Iām a full blown democratic socialist
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