I'm quitting the conversation.

No, this isn't a "GBCW diary." All I'm doing with this post is admitting that there really is nothing more to say about Joe Biden or Donald Trump that I or someone else hasn't already said before. So I think I'm going to shut up about the Presidential race at least until there arises something new that needs to be said.

What brings this about? Well, over at Common Dreams the nice liberals with big egos and comparable resumes have put together an open letter: "Open Letter: Dump Trump, Then Battle Biden." 'Course, the ability to "dump Trump" is granted in our system to swing voters (i.e. voters who could "go either way") in the swing states, while the rest of us are allowed to cast votes in statewide races for electoral votes which are more or less decided beforehand. Are any of these swing voters in swing states going to say "hey this group of liberals signed this petition saying 'Dump Trump, Then Battle Biden," so I guess we'll vote for Biden in November?" I doubt it.

Now, I suppose that all the nice liberals with big egos could phone-bank for Biden, but they'd probably have to do it through MoveOn. (Does MoveOn phone-bank? Don't answer that -- I don't care. I have no idea what I'd say to tell people to vote for Biden. I'd probably screw up and tell the truth. Phone-banking is HARD!) As far as I know, Joe Biden's campaign doesn't knock on doors. You down with that, dog?

The point, as I've discussed previously, is that there is really very little of any sort of opportunity for liberals or leftists or for most anyone else to affect the Presidential race. We must, in short, go back to organizing for ourselves. We should focus on local races, issues organizing, and anarchist, horizontal organization building. To what extent is that happening? It certainly isn't happening in discussions of the Presidential race.

We are, in fact, invited to be really cynical about this open letter. Dump Trump, and then battle Biden. Is that what we're going to do? America had eight years of a Barack Obama presidency, during which Obama was held to account for nothing while the Democrats surrendered all branches of the Federal government, 12 governor's seats, and 900+ seats in state legislatures to the Republican Party. It was an underwhelming Left performance in a record-breaking sort of way. Now we're ostensibly going to elect Obama's feeble VP, presumably because we want some peace and quiet while society collapses and the rich make their homes in New Zealand bunkers. What is to prevent a repeat performance?

It's not like dumping Trump and electing Biden will create any real sense in which all the nice liberals with big egos are going to have the power to stop saying "we must support the Democrats because the Republicans are worse." The Movement for a People's Party would create that power, by creating a party which would empower us, which we could rationally support. But what is to prevent them all from saying "the People's Party is only a spoiler party so we can't support it"? They told the Greens to stand down. It is hard not to feel that a Biden victory will be devastating for anything that calls itself "the Left" today. That is, after all, what happened to the Left when Obama won.

There is, then, a philosophical contradiction at the heart of the politics of the nice liberals with big egos. I connect it to Trump Derangement Syndrome. Trump Derangement Syndrome is all there is left of the idea of dumping Trump. Of course, the fault with this, the reason for this fact, lies with Joe Biden, who promises us nothing more than a return to the conditions which gave rise to Trump, in a campaign designed to lose to Trump. And Trump Derangement Syndrome appears to me as a genuine mental disorder.

I am afraid to provoke it further for fear of losing more friends. In short, in the election run-up, a primary time of opportunity usually, everyone seems to have lost their heads, and thus the opportunity disappears. The Trumpies do it in in their usual way (I have a neighbor who posted a cardboard sign amidst the damage caused by a climate-change-fueled wildfire which destroyed more than a thousand buildings: "Climate change is a hoax!"), the anti-Trumpies, through Trump Derangement Syndrome.

This nonsense about how Trump won't respect the election results, for instance, is Trump playing the anti-Trumpies, as Snoopydawg pointed out. "Trump doesn't respect democracy, he's a fascist, he's mishandling COVID, he's destroying our society, he must go." Very few of the people making this argument are actually going to phone-bank Biden, or move to swing states and go door to door for Biden. (And to be honest, Trump is only a Teevee Fascist, he's doing it in the run-up to play the liberals, the Democrats in power actually support him, and his response to the COVID was to throw it to the states, more a matter of ineptitude than fascism.)

One of the big slogans for this year's Trump campaign is "Make Liberals Cry Again" -- it's not, then, about any sort of real Fascism, but rather about punking out the liberals, who are dutifully performing according to script, panicking, and energizing the Trump base in doing so. The state of panic I see everyday in my Facebook feed is palpable. "Trump's re-election will mean the end of the world!" says one TDS-sufferer. To which the Trumpies would no doubt say, "feel free to commit suicide in case our candidate wins re-election." Much as I might sympathize with the disgust the TDS-sufferers feel at Trump, I cannot agree with their arguments, because most of them are full of mischaracterizations, miscalculations, and other nonsense.

One creative argument is made in this regard by David Sirota, who had a piece up about how "the toxic slime will end us." Sirota, whom I respect greatly for his qualities of honesty, argues here (as I interpret it) that Trump must go because when Trump goes, so also will go Trump Derangement Syndrome and the things it freaks out against. Here is what Sirota argues that convinces me of this version of his argument:

Unlike the other leaders in our modern history, Trump aims to sow anxiety, fear, instability and division all the time. He is a troll, but more than a troll. He is a chaos agent. He is trying to hack into everyone’s brains to amp us up, worry us, scare us, freak us out and drive us crazy at every minute of the day — and not in service of any cause other than his own power and narcissism.

Perhaps dumping Trump would be a good thing for me, personally in that regard, because I would stop losing friends when I point out that they have Trump Derangement Syndrome. And perhaps it would be a bad thing, because the political quietude which will spread under a Biden administration might be just as deadly. Either way, as I see it, I have damn little in the way of a choice in the matter. My post of the last day of July stands. And my sig line stands: My slogan from here to November will be the one in my sig line: "Faith in philosophy means the refusal to permit fear to stunt in any way one's capacity to think." -- Max Horkheimer. Trump Derangement Syndrome, in this regard, grants its sufferers' fears a broad permission to stunt their capacities to think.

Okay? Okay.

Share
up
49 users have voted.

Comments

janis b's picture

literally shaking my hand as if to cool down a burn. Your commentary in singeing in a powerful and striking way. Thank you.

up
32 users have voted.
usefewersyllables's picture

That is all...

up
28 users have voted.

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Not only do I not discuss the election, I write essays of pure drivel about Couples Cooking just to get away from the horror.
Write about whatever comes to mind, Cass.

up
28 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@on the cusp

but only in the sense of its cultural and psychological impacts. IOW, I talk about what the election is really about--fucking up our culture, morals, and manners--rather than talking about it as a contest, which I'm not sure it is, or a fair and honest contest, which I'm sure it's not.

up
1 user has voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

thanatokephaloides's picture

No, this isn't a "GBCW diary." All I'm doing with this post is admitting that there really is nothing more to say about Joe Biden or Donald Trump that I or someone else hasn't already said before. So I think I'm going to shut up about the Presidential race at least until there arises something new that needs to be said.

There will be "something new that needs to be said". Count on it.

I, too, face the burden of being one of a very few people in my life who doesn't suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome. These people treat Trump as worse than Stalin, which he is not. Trump is a bloviator, yes. And an egotist. But when you exempt the image/style crap from consideration, Trump's only shortcoming in the Presidency boils down to mediocrity. As a Republican, he can't throw money at any problems; there goes any real leadership response to either infrastructure or the coronavirus. But Trump has started NO NEW WARS. O'Bomber started what, 19? Yet all I hear in "real" life (IRL) is that O'Bomber was our best President evah, and we need to be rid of Trump by any means necessary.

I'm weary of war. And with the (neo)liberal Democrats' invention of credentialism firmly established in our labor markets, forcing us ever further into non-bankruptible debts (thank you, Joe Biden!), I now need that social safety net into which I've paid for years. Right now I face taxation without representation, as there's no longer a Presidential candidate which can represent me and those like me. I've never made enough in a year ($100,000 after taxes) to afford conservatism.

Therefore, in my own humble opinion at least, Cass, you'll always have something to add to the Presidential election conversation. And a hearty "Thank You" for saying what you already have.

Give rose

up
39 users have voted.

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Pluto's Republic's picture

@thanatokephaloides

Even Stalin isn't worse than Stalin.

These people treat Trump as worse than Stalin, which he is not.

up
21 users have voted.

____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Unabashed Liberal's picture

to discuss some aspects of the upcoming election--especially, my concerns about Dems' further attempts to convert Medicare to a 'managed care' healthcare system.

That is the purpose that HHJ's (Hidey Hole Joe's) public option would serve. He's wanting it to compete with both Traditional/Original Medicare and Medicare Advantage. That should be of great concern to Medicare beneficiaries (if not Everyone).

Other topics--like COVID-19--are beginning to wear on me. There's simply too much disinformation and misinformation circulating about, at this point. Mr M and I are lucky to have two immunologists in our orbit, now, so, we're relying on them, and on our own physicians for all of our info. The rest--especially on Cable teevee--is mostly noise.

While I agree that talking about the Presidential horse race is pretty useless, I am concerned about the 'hysteria' being driven by the corporatist MSM--especially, CNN. Yikes! Regarding a possible "civil war," that is. Don't think it helps anything, in the event that there is a contested election.

Personally, I never take anything online all that seriously. That goes 'triple' for social media.
(I only read Twitter, anyway.) So, what I read and/or see rarely causes me distress. If something I read is concerning, I check out other sources, which is helpful.

Take care; stay safe.

Mollie

up
24 users have voted.

Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

after I asked her why she was giving Trump so much space in her brain and he wasn't even paying rent for it.

There's still a remote possibility that this election could present some surprises. So, I'm staying tuned in.

up
32 users have voted.

@Marie

I asked her why she was giving Trump so much space in her brain and he wasn't even paying rent for it.
up
11 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

vtcc73's picture

It’s easy for me to stay above the fray. I don’t have it blasted in my face all day and night everywhere I go. I have to go looking for something to get outraged about. I don’t though. It makes no sense to waste precious time when there is nothing I can do to influence this election or the people all caught up in the idiocy. I can be of more use doing what I can do to help people I live near. They actually deserve and appreciate a peaceful life and their neighbors.

Take care everyone. I’m not going anywhere. This, too, is a worthy community.

up
31 users have voted.

"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."

@vtcc73 and helping your neighbors is even better.

I am of the opinion that forewarned is forearmed, not in the shoot-em-up sense, but from the perspective that the only way to solve a problem is to be fully informed about all it's aspects.
I work for the public, listen politely, and am beginning to do that here, as well. At least people here understand the insidious influence of propaganda, unfortunately tagged by Trump as "fake news." It is fake, he just doesn't say from what sources, or the intended purpose, and he, too, gets the benefit from fake news that goes in his direction.
Bottom line: Cass is right about talk about the presidential candidates is going to be old news, day after day.
What we need to talk about is how to get people to turn off their tv, or to get them to stop cutting down forests.

up
28 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Pluto's Republic's picture

Quit the conversation.

I do not understand why people who are supposedly from the Left do not leave the Democratic Party to the Democrats.

The Democrats love their Party. They know who they are and what they want out of life and politics. It is to the detriment of the Left when they try to occupy that Party and twist that Party to serve their own political goals. By submitting themselves to the Democrats, the Left sabotages its own integrity. It's undignified and degrading.

To the Left I say: Stand up. Stand away from the two Parties that revile you. Declare yourselves sovereign and unattached to corruption and compromise. Be true to your ideals. Gather with others who share them and who share your vision for the future.

The Left must accept that they have no place in the 2020 election. The only choices offered are candidates who will betray the common people that the Left are committed to protect. They must stop certifying the legitimacy of the United States' non-representative democracy with their votes.

up
39 users have voted.

____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Cassiodorus's picture

@Pluto's Republic @Pluto's Republic There is a small fragment of the Democratic Party which has been "taken over" by "progressives." I was thinking of including a discussion of this group in my diary. Perhaps they are our last best hope, and perhaps AOC will become President in 2024. The problem, of course, is that the neoliberals still run the party, and the nice liberals with big egos are still sucking up to said (D) neoliberals. They are, after all, still better than (R) neoliberals.

& to be honest, the AOC vision of a better world is still not radical enough. But at least if AOC were in charge the government would care one shred about us. Currently our Congress contemplates going on vacation until after the election.

I'm not going to comment often in this diary, because I live across the street from a burn zone and a few dozen houses that were burned to the ground in intensely hot fires that blasted through southern Oregon two and a half weeks ago. So I am using the Internet of a friend.

(update: okay Internet is now back up at home. Next: waiting for neighbors across the street to remove burned-to-the-ground car from their driveway, the one I see several times a day)

up
16 users have voted.

"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Cassiodorus

she continues to vote for Nancy Pelosi--or anyone allied to her--as Speaker of the House.

up
6 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Trump Derangement Syndrome appears to me as a genuine mental disorder.

We are seeing the predictable results of covert manipulations of our electoral process through a pervasive and targeted effort to divide the population in such a way as to prevent any threat to those now in power from arising. Billions are spent every year to manipulate what passes for news today to keep the population divided and fearful. Our limbic system is being placed on high alert 24/7 by a barrage of subliminal cues that trigger fear, anxiety, hate and depression.

Trump Derangement Syndrome is the result of only one aspect of a larger campaign to keep the population in a perpetual state of divisive fear and uncertainty. Such a population is effectively neutered as a source demanding change or calling for revolution. Such a population is easy to control.

Those who continue to immerse themselves in the streams of manufactured narratives that pass for News and masquerade as The Truth today will have a very difficult time coping with one derangement syndrome or another.

Best to limit your intake and spare yourself the limbic system overload that so many are now suffering from.

up
30 users have voted.

Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

@ovals49 thinking: ODS, CDS (in the 1990s), Russiagate, etc.

up
9 users have voted.
Cassiodorus's picture

@Marie I am, however, not inclined to make a big issue of it. I recognize that my way of thinking about people emphasizes the fragility of the human brain, its susceptibility to various species of disordered thinking. Check out Cordelia Fine's book "A Mind of its Own."

I have a friend, a very good and loyal friend, who believes in Never-Trumper garden variety Republican politics and who has fairly good rationalizations for it. He also believes in a fair number of UFO and conspiracy theories. He's a citizen in good standing and contributes to the affairs of his local church. This mix of beliefs is, I suppose, his search for a rational posture toward life after, much earlier in life, he was briefly confined to a mental institution.

It isn't a mix of beliefs to which I subscribe -- but, then again, I am not interested in equating popular or "normal" modes of thinking with rational thought after, previously, "society" thought me insane. People are looking for rationality -- they don't always find it, however, and their tendencies to fool themselves are manifold, as Fine points out in the book I recommended.

up
11 users have voted.

"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

janis b's picture

@ovals49

"... a perpetual state of divisive fear and uncertainty ..." and a mental disorder. To me they seem one and the same?

up
8 users have voted.

@janis b
a condition caused by random circumstances beyond ones control and a condition caused by the intentional manipulations of others. The source of the trauma in the latter is, intentional and pernicious. It is more like ongoing psychological torture than a simple trauma. This differentiation may be irrelevant clinically but it is quite important if one is to understand the nature of the cause and find a path that brings some relief.

up
12 users have voted.

Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

janis b's picture

@ovals49

but I think they are equally significant, sadly.

up
1 user has voted.

Quitting the conversation regarding Identity Performative Presidential Jubilee made for TV
bs, makes perfect sense to me.

On the other hand, there are some topics still worthy of discussion. Here's some I thought of:

My state, New York, led by the atrocious Governor Andrew, the Lesser Cuomo, intends to delay counting its ballots for as long as possible. "Michael Ryan, executive director of @BOENYC, says during a City Council hearing that counting all absentee ballots in NYC could take up until early December.

He says the board currently does not have a shortage of poll workers."

That seems worthy of a mention.

It's also becoming clearer and clearer that "herd mentality/herd immunity" is a pipe dream right up there with unicorns and pink ponies. The Virus is mutating and you can contract it multiple times. OMG

up
20 users have voted.

NYCVG

Lookout's picture

Sorry you are losing friends though. May need them in the times that are coming.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW-ImCVDsWk]

up
17 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

The light at the end of the tunnel is Maine's ranked choice balloting.
Instead of organizing the Peoples' Party now, a futile exercise IMHO, the focus should be in getting ranked choice voting in all states. Imagine a 10% Green or Peoples' first ballot cut in California or Illinois. It would put fear into the (D) party, maybe pull them Left, maybe encourage more to vote (G). Ranked choice would pull (L) voters out of the (R) party too. A true multi-party system would result.
Thinking of IL which I am most familiar, I can imagine a first round 10% G, 45% D, 45% R. That would strike fear in those complacent Democrats. How about 11%G 44%D 45%R ? That would tell the Democrats that they cannot win without the Left. Now they know they can rely on the Left no matter how bad/corrupt the D's are because (fill in the blank) is even worse, a Hitler! Trump saying that Bill Clinton gave him the idea of running at a cocktail party tells you all you need to know about the duopoly.
Ballot initiative, that's the first step.

We don't agree on everything, Brother, but we are marching in the same direction. Just your goal is further Left than mine.

And for something other than Biden v Trump to think about, here's a link to the Greatest President Evah!'s response to a crisis. Smart Bird, here we go again

up
10 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

@The Voice In the Wilderness
It’s the only reason that might get me to the polls this year.

up
12 users have voted.

Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

@ovals49
Vote for the amendment. Leave the rest blank or do whatever you want with it.
I'm voting for the graduated income tax in Illinois, all Greens, then filling the rest with (R). Not because I want (R) but it's my only chance to vote "not (D)" Especially Durbin. I forget his opponent. I think it's some knuckledragger, but I refuse to let him win a large majority.

up
8 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

from Caitlin Johnstone-

Moderate Murder: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Kill millions in concentration camps and they’ll call you a monster. Kill millions with bombs and they’ll call you a moderate.

~

A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change.

~

Claiming a country attacked America’s democracy is like claiming they attacked America’s leprechauns.

~

America has slaughtered millions of human beings since 9/11 to facilitate global domination and the people who live there are saying this election is unique because this president is actually bad.

~

The only way to believe Trump is uniquely evil as a president is to believe that American lives matter far, far more than non-American lives. To believe it, you have to be an American supremacist.

~

Prediction: “We’ll elect Biden and then hold him to account” proves even more bogus than “We can promote Russiagate and advance progressive agendas at the same time”.

~

It’s crazy how Obama intervened in the Democratic primary to install a lifelong warmongering corporate whore who can’t think or talk and when he loses they’re gonna blame it on Ryan Knight.

~

There was a recent scandal where major tuna companies like Starkist and Bumble Bee coordinated with each other to inflate prices instead of competing. They found they could make more money by working together against consumers than by working against each other.

Anyway, that’s oligarchy in a nutshell.

If you’ve ever wondered why power tends to move in the same direction whether you’re talking about corporate, government or military dynamics, that’s why. It’s because cooperating with each other against common people works best for the powerful. It’s always easier to punch down than sideways.

~

If you just mentally muted the shrill verbal soundtrack which accompanies US politics and watched where the money, resources and weapons were moving instead, you wouldn’t have been able to tell a new president took office in January 2017. The same will be true after January 2021.

~

Robert A. Heinlein said “Man is not a rational animal; he is a rationalizing animal.” We act based on untold millennia of conditioning, then tell stories about why that action makes sense. This is as true of empires as it is of individuals. MSM narratives are rationalizations.

Imperialist elites are ultimately no more clued-in on why they do what they do than anyone else. They’re acting out the same evolutionary, cultural and personal conditioning as the rest of us–essentially just the seeking of security and control–and then telling fancy stories.

It could have just as easily gone any other direction. If things had been a bit different and Mexico had wound up being the unipolar hegemon and Saudi Arabia had refused to comply with its interests, all our plutocratic media would be calling for sanctions and explaining to us in Spanish why the House of Saud must go. If the interests of power were served by everyone wearing tinfoil on their heads, the oligarchic media would spend all their time explaining why that’s necessary and everyone should do it. The rationalizations come after the primitive impulses to act.

~

Killing people and selling their organs will get you labeled a murderer. Selling the weapons used to kill the same number of people for the same amount of money in wars you actively lobbied for will get you labeled a job creator.

~

My favorite hobby is watching Americans reaching around trying to come up with reasons why I as a foreigner should not voice opinions about their government.

~

I talk about how outrageous war is a lot because we should all be talking about how outrageous war is all the time. War is the most insane thing people do and the fact that it’s actively pursued by the powerful should enrage everyone. Don’t ever let them desensitize you to this.

If someone flips out and shoots a bunch of people it’s in headlines for days, but if powerful individuals calmly orchestrate the slaughter of many times more people overseas it barely makes the news. This isn’t sane or normal, and it’s so vital that we remain aware of that.

It’s so important not to let them rob you of your humanity by convincing you to ignore imperialist warmongering. Don’t let them put cataracts over your eyes and calluses on your heart like that. Mass military violence is a horror that should send shockwaves through your core.

up
27 users have voted.

@irishking
You compare it to an individual flipping out and killing strangers.
Wrong analogy. it's more like criminal gangs fighting over turf and dominance (hence money). In both cases theft and paying ransom are at the heart of the process. It's very rational from the power brokers point of view.

up
7 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

@The Voice In the Wilderness

It seems to me she says (correctly,imo) that our warring is not the same as an individual "flipping out", but is murder as a business tool.

America has slaughtered millions of human beings since 9/11 to facilitate global

domination

Selling the weapons used to kill the same number of people for the same amount of money in wars you actively lobbied for will get you labeled a job creator.

powerful individuals calmly orchestrate the slaughter

She does think that killing millions of people for money is insane.

thx.

up
20 users have voted.
shaharazade's picture

I've had it with so called progressives, Democrats who preach moderation, moderates and lying pols. Fear and hatred is every where. Meanwhile the rigged manipulated politcal beat goes on and on. Even local city and state Dem pols are all in the bag. Isnt it a pity. The electoral system is broken. It seems so obvious and yet I get grief if I speak my mind. Social media has lost it's collective mind. Fear and loathing are being manufactured to obtain consent. Thanks Cassiodoros.

up
25 users have voted.
Cassiodorus's picture

@shaharazade When I was evacuated from southern Oregon I took a drive through Portland on the way to Seattle. Ouch.

up
11 users have voted.

"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

I love Sirota's on-going efforts to push Dems left and call out their bullshit, but I disagree with him about TDS going away with a Biden win. Dems created TDS as a way to keep the spotlight off of policy or any analysis of their repeated failings to deliver relief to the working class. They basically created their own Tea Party centered around identity politics as a means of controlling the narrative on the "left." When Trump is gone, they will just find another boogie man to scare up votes and quiet dissent. TDS is too valuable a tool for them to give up.

up
25 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@AverageJoe42

Dems created TDS as a way to keep the spotlight off of policy or any analysis of their repeated failings to deliver relief to the working class.

I caught on to this right after Trump became president. Republicans were busy rolling back last minute things Obama passed as he was walking out the door and hadn’t gone into effect yet. This was during Trump’s 1st 100 days. But the democrats and the media only focused on the things Trump said and did and not many people knew about it. Lots of centrists still don’t know about it nor the many things he’s doing right in front of them. I haven’t seen one diary about Trump deregulating just about every damn thing. Of course democrats and the media won’t cover it either. Nothing about how much money the banks are getting either. Nothing like when Bush was president.

And of course democrats have failed us just as much as republicans have, but they don’t get blamed for it. Mean old 'Moscow' Mitch.

up
21 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg on the dismantling of government functions, how can we? By the time it's discovered and commented on outside of the media, it's old news and done deals. If we have anything it's conservative media derangement syndrome.

The problem with dems and the left is that they keep claiming the mantle of the left (FDR, blah blah blah) when it suits them, and turning on the left to please their donors at every chance. It's how they pretend to be the adults in the room. If the democratic party were a person, they would resemble that my pillow guy more than anyone else.

up
8 users have voted.
Cassiodorus's picture

@AverageJoe42 It allows their favorite scapegoats, liberals, to perform according to script. Just think -- a whole population you hate rather helplessly complaining about your candidate! Now, imagine how feeble it would all be if Bernie Sanders had been allowed the nomination.

up
17 users have voted.

"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

Unabashed Liberal's picture

@AverageJoe42

Dems created TDS as a way to keep the spotlight off of policy or any analysis of their repeated failings to deliver relief to the working class. They basically created their own Tea Party centered around identity politics as a means of controlling the narrative on the "left."

Excellent comment.

(a little late) Welcome to C99! Pleasantry

Mollie

"The leaders of this new movement are replacing traditional liberal beliefs about tolerance, free inquiry, and even racial harmony with ideas so toxic and unattractive that they eschew debate, moving straight to shaming, threats, and intimidation."
~~Matt Taibbi, The American Press Is Destroying Itself, June 12, 2020

"I know, I know. All passion; no street smarts."
~~Captain West, 1992 Rob Reiner/Aaron Sorkin Movie, A Few Good Men

“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die, I want to go where they went.”
~~Will Rogers, Actor & Social Commentator (1856-1950)

up
12 users have voted.

Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

@Unabashed Liberal n/t

up
9 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@Unabashed Liberal I don't comment often, but I've been around since the Ides of March decree at The Other Place and follow the discussions regularly.

up
5 users have voted.
Unabashed Liberal's picture

@AverageJoe42

to keep a low profile, off-and--on (lately)--probably why I didn't see you earlier. Don't be a stranger! Pleasantry

Mollie

up
4 users have voted.

Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

@AverageJoe42 Regardless if Trump or Biden wins, America is in a near terminal collapse. At this point neither democrats nor republicans will do even simple temporary UBI or even rent moratoriums with aid to landlords.

For democrats and their media allies and even for many gop establishment figures, I am afraid that under such circumstances the diversions of TDS will morph in Putin Derangement Syndrome.

It is not hard to imagine where that will lead.

up
3 users have voted.

Michelle Malkin
Standing ovation from Waukesha County GOP women for my special guests, @CaliKidJMP
& Wendy Rittenhouse, Kyle’s mom. Huge shoutout sent from all of us in WI to warrior @LLinWood
. I was able to talk to Kyle by phone & THANK HIM for his courage! #fightback http://Fightback.Law

In the posted photo, Ms. Rittenhouse is happy, happy, happy. Well, suppose at least she's not a hypocrite and is proud to have a son that kills people (and other living things).

Note, this is in Waukesha Co, WI -- a state that Biden needs to win.

up
15 users have voted.
Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

Unlike the other leaders in our modern history, Trump aims to sow anxiety, fear, instability and division all the time. He is a troll, but more than a troll. He is a chaos agent. He is trying to hack into everyone’s brains to amp us up, worry us, scare us, freak us out and drive us crazy at every minute of the day — and not in service of any cause other than his own power and narcissism.

If so, he sure seems to have a lot of help.

once again, I'm fighting Demogorgon, and the two heads won't admit they're attached to the same body.

up
21 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cassiodorus's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

up
8 users have voted.

"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

thanatokephaloides's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

If so, he sure seems to have a lot of help.

He does. That's the beauty of it: almost everyone in the mainstream media world helps him do this, and for free at that.

once again, I'm fighting Demogorgon, and the two heads won't admit they're attached to the same body.

[video:https://youtu.be/hbPWt5yzDLE?t=80]

Wink

up
1 user has voted.

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Yah, I am at this point watching and simply noting events. I don't believe any polls and read headlines to get a sense of latest propaganda drift. The proverbial die is cast and as Nader once noted, you can only choose how fast you hit the wall, and hit the wall you will.

up
4 users have voted.
jiordan's picture

I discuss the election, but at this point, only because others insist and I find myself doing what I never thought I would. I lie. To all of them.

"yes, Trump is awful" "of course we have to vote him out"

I don't say that it's a joke, Biden is just as bad (in his own way) and that I plan on voting Green even though I'm in a battleground state. My family and friends are deeply propagandized and legitimately terrified of another four years of teh Donald, so I take the path of least resistance. I love them and I don't want to be ostracized or hated for not having their world view. I don't actually say I'm voting for Biden unless I have to, but I'll even do that to keep the peace. They care so much about this election and I care so little..I feel like it balances out.

up
4 users have voted.

@jiordan
It grinds me up that people will vote Green only when it doesn't matter.
Battleground states are ground zero for stopping the DNC.

up
2 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.