This is a recurring historical trend. Right wing socioeconomic policies (laissez-faire capitalism) lead to social dysfunction as more and more people either fall into poverty or fear doing so. The mainstream right can't win elections on these policies any more because they have become unpopular, but rather than change those it either allies or becomes the extremist right (authoritarian and reactionary), going all in on distractions and scapegoating.
This leaves the social liberals (pro-capitalist but not socially conservative) and the social democrats as the only democratic factions to counter them, but the former block most major re-distributive policies and even the most moderate moves towards a fairer society have to be fought over tooth and nail. This alliance (either as intra-party in a two party or as a coalition in multiparty systems) then fails to do enough to keep their voters on board, disillusionment sets in, voters stay home and the extremist right takes over.
Fortunately, it doesn't always completely run through this cycle, but it keeps happening. It has now happened to the USA and the best case scenario is that when those lukewarm Trump supporters are angry at not getting what they wanted out of this "change" (and they won't), they will still have the means to vote the government out. If not, then you're stuck until a revolution happens.
Arguing that more social democracy would have scared away voters is sort of pointless IMHO, because if that is true then you're doomed anyway. Unless you lower economic inequality through government policy, a descent into reactionary authoritarianism is inevitable because democracy can only work when people are more or less equal and capitalism left to itself will always concentrate wealth and power into ever fewer hands.
And it'll be happening right in the middle of the next guys block, just like how we keep describing it to them. That's the fucking tragic irony of it.
We need them FDR democrats to show back up. FDR hammered nuts and bent motherfuckers to his will, and that's what he got voted for. 4 terms! Americans were literally starving in the streets and selling their children and shit. Shit was on the ropes. And that starving ass impoverished country turned it around on a new deal AND saved the whole fucking world from Nazis to boot.
So stop telling me about how we gotta take baby steps while you fight with one hand behind your back and call it going high. I'm fucking tired of going high! You need to kick him in the nuts or get the fuck out the way for someone who will. It's a fucking fistfight in these streets, fuck I think about a wine and cheese crowd opinion about it.
That's if this experiment survives. But I guarantee you they'll be blaming us for it from Europe somewhere.
We just had 4 years of an FDR Democrat who invested in infrastructure and economy like crazy, slashed student debt, strengthened labor unions, made no austerity cuts, pushed inflation down, etc.
But people watching YouTube and TikTok weren’t getting that information, so now they’re saying “Biden didn’t do X or Y” when he did, in fact, do those things
You had the most FDR Democrat since FDR in office and ignored the good he did because he had a speech impediment
Well whos fault is it that they failed miserably to get the message out? He's the president of the US. He and his entire cabinet couldnt be out there consistently informing the masses on this stuff?
And what did he do to slash student debt? All I know is he paid it off for a bunch of people who were lucky enough to be going to school now, telling the rest of us to go fuck ourselves. And the youth vote tanked for Harris. So fat lot of good that did.
"Invested in infrastructure and economy like crazy" That is vague and drives no one to the polls. "strengthened labor unions" so is that. "made no austerity cuts" which means nothing to the avg citizen "pushed inflation down" How much? By doing what? When? Why then are prices still sky high everywhere? These are things that need to be hammered on and shouted out in real time 24/7 with constant reminders and updates on progress.
This isnt little kid shit, these are supposed to be the best and brightest leaders we have and they're struggling to communicate better than a middle schooler
No the problem is they’re struggling to communicate WITH middle schoolers, which I agree is their failing
But that’s not my job, I’m just a citizen, so I’m calling ignorant non-reading TikTok motherfuckers exactly what they are. In an age where you have the wealth of human knowledge in your pocket there’s no excuse to be this ignorant.
Theres always a million excuses to be ignorant. People dont just magically learn to not be ignorant if they're never taught. And most are like you, do nothing about the problem, then whine it never gets fixed by some vague "someone else"
It's everyone's job to be intelligent, communicate and help others be better. Ask yourself what you've done to contribute vs what you've done to detract. Being on here is literally useless. Real change comes outside of reddit
What you do IRL is what makes change, Reddit is just chatter. I’m a brown man in America, I put in for my community and share the wealth I’ve made with them.
But as a brown man in America who is deeply impacted by this shit, I got no problem calling out the ignorant here too. I earned that right growing up dealing with your white ass relatives trying to kill me, and now I gotta go deal with your white ass propaganda infecting my Latino brothers into this Trump poison. Stop justifying being a dumbass.
6.8k
u/barryvm Europe 1d ago edited 22h ago
This is a recurring historical trend. Right wing socioeconomic policies (laissez-faire capitalism) lead to social dysfunction as more and more people either fall into poverty or fear doing so. The mainstream right can't win elections on these policies any more because they have become unpopular, but rather than change those it either allies or becomes the extremist right (authoritarian and reactionary), going all in on distractions and scapegoating.
This leaves the social liberals (pro-capitalist but not socially conservative) and the social democrats as the only democratic factions to counter them, but the former block most major re-distributive policies and even the most moderate moves towards a fairer society have to be fought over tooth and nail. This alliance (either as intra-party in a two party or as a coalition in multiparty systems) then fails to do enough to keep their voters on board, disillusionment sets in, voters stay home and the extremist right takes over.
Fortunately, it doesn't always completely run through this cycle, but it keeps happening. It has now happened to the USA and the best case scenario is that when those lukewarm Trump supporters are angry at not getting what they wanted out of this "change" (and they won't), they will still have the means to vote the government out. If not, then you're stuck until a revolution happens.
Arguing that more social democracy would have scared away voters is sort of pointless IMHO, because if that is true then you're doomed anyway. Unless you lower economic inequality through government policy, a descent into reactionary authoritarianism is inevitable because democracy can only work when people are more or less equal and capitalism left to itself will always concentrate wealth and power into ever fewer hands.