I’m very curious to hear your thoughts on this topic. What can we do to fix this? If you’ve already tried something what were your results? What worked and what do you think could be done better?
My thoughts on this are that we keep electing politicians who support billionaires and elite instead of ordinary people like you and me. In addition people are loosing a sense of community and are isolated at home. I think these two things can be fixed simultaneously by getting out and talking about class and corrupt politicians in person and having mutual support networks.
These corrupt politicians typically get elected by exploiting people’s fears and biases. For example a corrupt politician might blame your problems on immigrants or minorities. Meanwhile people won’t notice that they are being robbed by the billionaires.
I read interviews of people who used to be part of hate groups. The consistent theme I noticed is that they had past traumas and issues which draw them towards hateful ideologies. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/12/opinions/former-white-supremacist-how-to-tackle-hate-buckley/index.html
When talking to people it’s important to listen and respect them first before you say your points. This article has a good technique for talking with people: https://www.vice.com/en/article/how-to-change-a-voters-mind-is-deep-canvassing/ I’ve been using myself and I can vouch for it.
Vote in your local elections, and never stop educating yourself.
This way we can vote for a neo-liberal dystopia instead of having a fascist one.
They say people tend to move on the right as they get older but as a middle aged man, I’m growing more cynical.
I’m not American but every government my country had in my lifetime has been working for corporations and big money instead of for the citizens. At every level.
I always voted progressive for the last 23 years but never once a progressive party won or had any significant influence on social politics. Vote for the major conservative party and we have the police violently displacing native protesters on their own land, or vote for the major alternative, a neo-liberal party that will also send the police to violently squash protests of natives against a pipeline going on their own land.
Whatever the party I vote for, oil is going to flow. The police will continue to happily apply the “necessary” violence to squash protests of people demanding better conditions or less corruption. The politicians will still collude with big corporations.
Everyone tells me to vote but my actual MP was a Greenpeace militant and is now bought and paid for, as the Environment minister, pushing for the oil industry to continue its operations for the good of the economy.
In the US you have the choice between a far right party and a party slightly less to the right, but still heavily on the right.
How the hell is voting for the lesser of two evil but still clearly evil party is going to help us out of this?
How would the Democrats fix this, if they have full control of the government? Will they give Americans free health care, or stop financing genocides? Have Obama brought the change he was supposed to? Guantanamo was closed? Was it because he/the democrats did not control enough of the government? Maybe if people vote more next time the Democrats will tackle social issues.
Just like every other government in every country. If we just all vote hard enough, the centibillionaires and their corporations will have no chance at buying our politicians?
I’m with you on the old and jaded bit, but that right there: they won’t do ANY of those things, they haven’t done any of those things when they 100% could have and voting for Democrats again, but with feeling! won’t get you any of them.
The only difference between the Democractic party and the GOP is that it appears the GOP would prefer to sleep with 16 year olds.
I haven’t shifted right the older I’ve gotten, I’ve shifted into accelerationist and must admit very limited give-a-shit about actions like what Luigi did and feel that maybe a few more might be more useful than another decade of me voting.
So much this! Voting is super important. I hope the recent election teaches everyone why it’s so important to get out and vote and not to stay home.