what does Bernie stand for again? i watched his reaction to trumps thingy on that YT platform and his goals seem very reasonable and like basic human rights
bernie's been 'fighting the good fight' his entire life. he's a decent, compassionate, caring human who genuinely just wants what's best for his country and the planet.
but that's no good for corporate profits or the continued and unchecked accumulation of wealth, which is why the 'powers that be' wouldn't let him have a real shot at the presidency.
His policies would have long term pro business aspects that far outpace the current balloon and crash economy, but the accumulation of wealth would be unattainable at it's current level.
maybe the best that can be achived in the US, via reforms.
social democratic societies are better for their people than rampant capitalism, but they are still deeply hierarchical. they still leave state and capital with too much power, while apeasing worker with the sham of parlamentary democracy, and benefits, that are controlled by the state. this is already not a great end goal, but its also unstable, because capitalists still have enough power to take away the reforms that were made, and they will eventually.
he's basically what most of the rest of the world would call social democrat, democratic socialist, or green. basically he's one of about 6 sane legislators we have
He's self described as a democratic socialist that has to argue for the government doing stuff because he lives in America and we're not seizing any means any time soon.
He's been fighting his entire career for specifically universal healthcare. The other democrats are terrified of him.
My understanding is that the reason they're terrified of him is that he's not playing the same game as the rest of them. The career track for a Democrat on the national level goes something like this:
Have rich parents to fund your first campaign, or a politician dad with a recognizable last name.
Get funding for future campaigns through corporate lobbyists.
Be a fence-sitter so you never have to pass actual legislation and risk offending your corporate backers
When you get tired of politics, retire and become a lobbyist.
Bernie is doing none of that. He is as grassroots as grassroots gets. His campaigns are crowdfunded. People vote for him because he has repeatedly proven that he is honest and has integrity. If he ever gets his way, they can be sure their corporate backers will run for the Republicans as fast as they can, and then they won't be able to have that cushy retirement as a lobbyist! In contrast, Bernie is only beholden to the voters who he represents, so his game is all about performing honesty and integrity constantly for the rest of his life. He doesn't get to retire. He's going to die on Capitol Hill.
Slightly related- one of my favorite photos is of Bernie in 1963, being arrested in Chicago during a civil rights protest. He's really been fighting for other people his whole life.
oh wow, he really sounds like a genuine human in a political position. why have i not heard more from him?
i only knew him from that one meme...
i'm so happy someone like him exists, i thought in America politics it really would just be evil capitalists either going yeah, let's make moni or eh, living is important too i guess but apparently not! vrrrry happi to hear this <3
Something a lot of people are glossing over is that Bernie Sanders is an old Independent politician, which is very rare in our politics generally only 2 or 3 independents make it into the pack of 100 Federal Senators, but he often gets called a Democrat because he caucuses with the DNC to select majority leaders.
A manifesto with surgically specific changes you want done that will be guaranteed to permanently fix things (so healthcare reform along with a pre-prepared legal framework etc.). With as broad concensus as possible (so eg. with unions on board probably)
A general strike to force whichever party is currently in power to implement that manifesto.
Pros:
Still constitutinal. On paper it's the politicians that opted for this and nobody forced their hand.
A surgically specific manifesto will make it blatantly obvious whether your demands have been met or not – and hence whether the strike may cease. No space for watering down. This is why being specific is crucial.
Yes, it's what unions currently do over here. It's tax free but lower that normal wage.
During media coverage of negotiations you sometimes hear, "the union has a large strike fund" to imply they are in a strong negotiating position, because they could strike for a long time.
Going of the fact that Wikipedia only has articles on strike funds it in German and French, I think it's not done much in American.
Something a lot of Tankies don't understand, and I'm not accusing you in particular but a lot of general strike advocates certainly are, is that the US Government doesn't operate the US Industry. You're not going to do jack shit with a general strike, the Republicans are already beating the economy with a stick on their own, you don't need to pitch in.
remember when the world shut down for a few days because covid? The whole system nearly collapsed because apparently everyone is an essential worker.
a well organized general strike will bring them to their knees.
This guys gonna rot in jail. His best years of life - gone. Dreams and aspirations, destroyed. Worse than death isolation that will change handsome young guy to a traumatised mental wreck, permanently. All for a minute of feeling good, achieving nothing.
Instead of living fully, finding love and pursuing the dreams he chose bleak walls of concrete. Where other people have memories of familial warmth with their loved ones he will only have memories of rusty prison faucet and grey stone.
Instead of helping someone he ruined two or more lives. His own and the ceo family. Negative force in the cosmos. Nothing but the suffering is the result.
And of course internet people are amazed because millions of silent volunteers that actually work in healthcare and elsewhere, help every single day to make this world better place, are not as clickable and sensationalist as someone shooting smoking guns on the street “fighting the bad guys”. That girl that helps the old lady with the groceries ain’t no batman but every single day she does more than this Luigi guy will ever achieve.
He was very wealthy and could live however he wanted to. Or even use family money to do good. He chose this instead.
From all the things he could choose to do with his life he wanted to be a Batman. Not to really help anyone but for that sweet justice high. To get a toke of one of the most expensive drugs on the planet.
Because of the parading, its very likely a mistrial. Even if they get around with some fuckery, finding 12 people unaffected by claims denials will be very difficult. I can totally see people saying they have no conflict just to be on the jury to say not guilty.
There’s no timeline where the people who are in power let someone like Luigi free. They would sooner ruin the whole country than let him out of the prison any time soon…
I want to remind you that currently Trump is elected and he said “I think it’s really terrible that some people seem to admire him, like him," It’s obvious threat to his power.
You can kill a prostitute, homeless and get away with it but not a ceo of big leading company. Not challenge the very ruler of the country. I doubt he is gonna see the light of day outside of prison in his life ever again. They will make sure of it.
He is going to rot in jail. This is not a good thing. It's just the same complete monsters that built this evil system flexing the power on plebeians like us.
What you advocate for is nothing more than complacency, accepting one's lot in life and never complaining. And this is a lot more cruel than you realise.
I don't condone what Luigi did, but I understand. Whether he is rich or not, what Luigi did is a symptom of a broken society, just like someone who has to steal a diaper or milk for one's baby. And sure, even Trump getting popular is a symptom as well, not the cause. Many people are getting sick of an increasingly injust society regardless of background.
What we are seeing is a bottle gradually going to pop. We have been warned years ago of the growing excesses of a society becoming greedy and too individualistic, but we did not listen. We want to see how bloated and fat we can get before we all burst together.
I don’t understand you guys. We live in the best era possible in the best places of the world. First world, free of ailments of the poverty unlike other 85% of the planet. We don’t die out of hunger. We can earn money posting funny videos on the web and instagram or sitting in our chairs all day in AC temp controlled rooms.
We go back to home from work to watch milions of entertainment options, there are literally innumerable of them. You can import brushes made from animal living in some distant part of the world to your feet to paint some very intricate plastic works of art. You can get from one point of the globe to the other and back for a monthly wage flying in the skies. We squashed hundreds of diseases. We made an artificial network that lets you instantly communicate with everyone on earth.
Yet from the way you say things one could assume that we are in some kind of Middle Ages or worse.
I get the motivation to still achieve higher levels of civilisation and that’s what got us so far after all but I think some perspective is nice so you aren’t stuck in some crazy doomer bubble.
Patience. These things will come. they are as inevitable as the sun rising tomorrow. But they need time and people who work for them to happen. Women and general equal chances, justice and independence are all the things we work for. But they aren’t magic, they need time.
However the trends are unstoppable as the water in a river. a slight regression under trump is just a symptom of the reaction to the progressive change. Temporary bump on the road. Meaningless in the grand scheme of things.
I am proud to be a human. I am proud for us to pioneer cosmos one day. I am proud that we got so far and I am positive that we will achieve even greater feats.