www.scientificamerican.com
[archive.is](https://archive.ph/MslY5) > Climate scientists are in clear agreement that in order to avoid ever-worsening disasters and disruptions to our societies, the world must rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The policies put in place over the next few years will determine what the future climate looks like and what threats the world will face. The U.S. is crucial to this effort. And in the 2024 presidential election contest between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump, voters have a choice between diametrically opposed visions of what the country must do. “When it comes to climate change, the contrast between Trump and Harris could not be more stark,” says Leah Stokes, a University of California, Santa Barbara, political scientist who focuses on energy and climate. --- > To provide a broad look at how potential policies under Harris or Trump would shape future U.S. emissions, Orvis’s team at EI used its Energy Policy Simulator, an open-source computer model. The researchers compared current policies under the Biden-Harris administration with more ambitious policies that achieve a target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and with the policies laid out in Project 2025. They found that the latter scenario “basically stops the progress that’s been made,” Orvis says. And even if current policies aren’t enough to meet international climate goals, any progress that can be made is crucial because “each tenth of a degree [of warming] is more damaging than the previous one.”
alyaza
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Lesson 1: Nobody cares.
Initially, I was terrified of judgment. What would my friends think if I didn’t drink? What about a potential partner? Will they think I’m a loser? Wait. Stop. Nobody cares.
This is such a freeing reminder that whether or not you choose to drink, it literally does not matter. Sure, you might encounter 20 seconds of awkward dialogue with a new friend, a coworker, a potential partner, but ultimately, that’s it. Most well-meaning people stop caring very quickly. Which reminds me of one of my favorite facts: nobody is thinking about us as much as we think about ourselves. That’s a good thing.
Lesson 2: If it does matter, that’s not your problem. If someone makes a fuss about your lack of alcohol consumption, that actually has nothing to do with you, and everything to do with them. I know that sounds like a boring modern platitude — “that’s a them problem” — but it’s true. That’s a them problem. I’ve had a date or two who’ve been offended, “slightly confused” as they said, that I agreed to go out on a drinks date when I don’t drink. But just because I don’t drink doesn’t mean I’m not entitled to my fair share of swanky hotel lobbies and fancy glassware! This leads me to my next lesson…
www.theverge.com
msmagazine.com
> Women at the margins often face distinct challenges during the decades of their lives spent in perimenopause and postmenopause. For those living in poverty or affected by systemic racism, access to high quality healthcare is historically and abysmally low. With clinical menopause expertise in short supply (about 2,000 certified providers in the U.S.), access to quality care is further exacerbated. This is particularly true for those who rely on Medicaid, approximately 20 percent of all U.S. patients. > > Digital healthcare provides one opportunity to break through barriers in the traditional healthcare system. It is crucial to make high-quality menopause care accessible to members across a variety of insurance plans, including Medicaid. But the problem also comes from within the system: Medicaid health plans often express a shocking sentiment to us: “We don’t think this population will be interested.”
restofworld.org
> Back then, becoming Christian came with risks from Hindu vigilante groups who considered this an affront to India’s majority religion. But Bastar’s rugged terrain and low internet penetration meant that news about conversions often didn’t spread widely. Meanwhile, Jaldhar’s family found hope and solace in their new church; they also mortgaged their farmland to pay for his mother’s treatment. Her cancer went into remission. > > By the time the cancer returned and took Jaldhar’s mother this past May, India was a different country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who took office the same year the Kashyaps converted, had transformed the nation, emboldening the far right, and more members of Hindu nationalist groups were becoming lawmakers. That transformation, combined with expanded internet access, cheap data, and the organizing power of WhatsApp, supercharged attacks against religious minorities. > > Rest of World has documented in depth how such attacks have targeted Christians in Bastar — where a vigilante mob approached Jaldhar’s house. The mob had been coordinated on WhatsApp and had one goal: to prevent the Kashyap family from burying their matriarch, Radhibai, unless they converted to Hinduism.
> A hopeful and unexpected drop in U.S. drug overdose deaths appears to be gaining speed. Fatal overdoses are down 12.7%, according to data released this week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It marks another significant improvement from last month, when surveys showed roughly a 10.6% drop in fatalities from street drugs.
alyaza
2d ago
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the good news: the Texas Supreme Court just halted his execution, so hopefully it's the beginning of getting this whole case overturned
alyaza
2d ago
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the only reason this is being kept up and locked and not deleted is to make it clear where Beehaw stands on Richard Stallman, which is: stop defending him, he is an awful person and he completely deserves to be put over the fire for his words and actions.
> This year’s flu shot will be missing a strain of influenza it’s protected against for more than a decade. > > That’s because there have been no confirmed flu cases caused by the Influenza B/Yamagata lineage since spring 2020. And the Food and Drug Administration decided this year that the strain now poses little to no threat to human health. > > Scientists have concluded that widespread physical distancing and masking practiced during the early days of COVID-19 appear to have pushed B/Yamagata into oblivion.
alyaza
3d ago
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who knew that removing the block feature and "Twitter's new ToS says all disputes will be heard in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas located in Tarrant County (Tesla investor Reed O'Connor's court)" were not going to be winners among the remaining userbase
www.bbc.com
> The biodigester solution began as a means of managing food waste. In 2011 HECAF360 built a single-chamber, underground biodigester at Bir Hospital, Kathmandu. A culture of biogas has existed in Nepal for more than 40 years, according to a nationwide survey, which suggests 69% of the country's total energy demand is met by biomass energy. Homes and farms dispose of their animals' manure into small biodigesters on their land, which releases methane gas to fuel cooking. > > At Bir hospital, methane released by digested food waste was piped into the staff tearoom. But Nakarmi faced a new challenge at Kathmandu Medical College and Teaching Hospital, where he installed a biodigester in 2016. "After Bir, hospitals we worked with had maternity services which produce placentas as well as food waste," he says. "We modified the biodigester to make it suitable for both types of waste." --- > Before hospital staff began adding waste, constructors put in cow dung to "seed" the chambers. This contains bacteria the mix needs to digest the hospital waste and generate methane. Hospital workers throw pathological and some food waste into the first underground chamber through an inlet above the ground. The majority of the hospital's food waste goes into the second inlet and chamber. "You feed placentas and some food to balance that carbon and nitrogen into the first chamber," says Stringer. "Food, which is much bulkier but doesn't need such a long residence time – because there's no potential for infection – is fed into the second." > > The team trained hospital staff to segregate waste and ensure they only fed suitable organic materials into the digester. Staff also regularly pour water into the inlets to keep the mixture fluid. Gravity slowly moves it though the system. The digestate ends its passage by tipping out of the second chamber into a sewer, from where it safely washes away. By this time, any pathogens have died. "Most viruses can last maximum a week outside of the body," says Stringer. "There's no risk." > The methane gas produced by the biodigester at TUTH is piped out of the chambers into the staff room. It fuels a stove used for cooking, and has replaced some of the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) the hospital used to buy. The biodigester in Tribhuvan produces 1.5 cubic metres a day of methane gas – the equivalent of five standard-size LPG gas cylinders. One cylinder is enough for a family of five to cook two meals a day for a month and costs about £15 ($20), according to Nakarmi. --- > By replacing the incinerator, 4.6 tonnes of CO2 emissions were avoided in 2019, as well as all diesel fuel and methane gas emissions, the assessment estimates.
theappeal.org
> If Roberson’s execution goes forward, he will be the first person executed on the basis of the Shaken Baby Syndrome hypothesis in the history of the United States. > > Texas lawmakers say they passed a law to prevent miscarriages of justice like this from occurring. In 2013, they approved Article 11.073, known as the junk science writ law. The statute allows people to challenge their convictions based on developments in forensic science that “contradicts scientific evidence relied on by the state at trial.” --- > Several people testified at the hearing including Brian Wharton, the former lead detective on Roberson’s case. Wharton now says Roberson is innocent. > > “We should apologize to Robert and send him home,” Wharton told Texas lawmakers. “Don’t make my mistake. Hear his voice.” > > Roberson’s legal team says that his daughter died from a severe case of viral and bacterial pneumonia which developed into septic shock. Her condition was exacerbated by dangerous levels of promethazine in her system, which two doctors prescribed to her in the days before her death.
workdaymagazine.org
> There is a credible call for a general strike in the United States in four years. > > The call first came from the United Auto Workers after its fall 2023 stand-up strike, in which the union took on the Big Three carmakers simultaneously in rolling, surprise work stoppages. All three contracts that emerged are slated to expire on the same day: May 1, 2028, International Workers’ Day. This is not the first time UAW has aligned the Big Three contracts, but what the union did next is remarkable. It put out a challenge to the US labor movement: “We invite unions around the country to align your contract expirations with our own so that together we can begin to flex our collective muscles,” UAW announced on October 29, 2023. > > This appeal for joint expiration on such a meaningful day for workers opens up possibilities ranging from mass, simultaneous strikes that disrupt industries across the country to a tremendous number of concurrent contract campaigns that increase worker leverage. This kind of cooperation across unions and sectors—if carried out on a large scale—would be unprecedented in the 21st century United States. > There are signs that credible unions and labor leaders are taking this coordination and work seriously. The Chicago Teachers Union AFT-IFT Local 1 is working with UAW and other worker and training organizations to create an organizing institute for the express purpose of getting ready for May Day 2028. Some major unions, like the American Federation of Teachers, are formally supporting the effort to align contracts, alongside a growing number of local, regional, and labor bodies within the AFL-CIO. Labor activists say interest and momentum are spreading, including among rank-and-file formations like Unite All Workers for Democracy, a grassroots movement within the UAW.
> The event, scheduled for next week, will feature the construction of a sukkah as part of a "city of sukkahs" initiative by the Nachala movement, which is known for establishing illegal outposts in the West Bank. > > Social Equality Minister May Golan, along with MKs Tally Gotliv, Osher Shkalim and Hanoch Milwidsky, confirmed to Haaretz that they will attend the event. The invitation also mentions that six other Likud MKs are expected to participate. > > The Nachala movement stated that "the event is not just a theoretical conference, but a practical exercise and preparation for renewed settlement in Gaza." The movement added that "the return to settlement in Gaza is no longer just an idea but a process that is already in advanced stages, with government and public support."
> Regardless of whether they are ‘self made’ or ‘second gen’, the ultra-rich have unique psychological profiles amongst the general populace. In my experience, both categories of billionaire are dominated by interminable existential crises — although each displays nuance when it comes to confrontation. The ‘self made’ have a tendency towards aggressive megalomania, while ‘second gens’ demur in favour of nihilistic hedonism. > > My main observation is that for individuals born into extreme wealth, it is almost impossible to grasp anything about material or social reality. In Gatsby, Fitzgerald describes rich people as “clumsy” — instinctively “retreating into their money” to avoid ever facing the outcomes of their actions. This is certainly true for second gens. To inherit a condition of unjustifiable wealth means to never experience cause and effect. All external pressures are alleviated by capital: there are no consequences to missing a deadline, to not finishing a project, to dropping out or giving up. It is terrifically difficult to fail, in any normal sense. --- > When they travel, the ultra-rich do so through private means. The car takes them to the aerodrome, where the plane takes them to another aerodrome, where a car takes them to the destination (with perhaps a helicopter inserted somewhere). Every journey is bookended by identical Mercedes Vito Tourers (gloss black, tinted windows). Every flight is within the cosy confines of a Cessna Citation (or a King Air or Embraer). The amenities (even the menus) are identical in Marrakech, Monaco and the Maldives; in Como, St. Kitts, Zermatt and Oman. The ultra-rich never wait in line at a carousel or a customs table or a passport control. There are no accidental encounters. No unwelcome, unapproved or unsanitary humans enter their sight – no souls that could espouse a foreign view. The ultra-rich do not see anything they do not want to see. More accurately: these people simply do not see.
www.newyorker.com
[archive.is link](https://archive.ph/6xxfF) > **After the war in Gaza started and there were all these civilian casualties, we saw Israel intentionally denying humanitarian aid to people who were starving. What should the response from people have been at that point?** > > That’s not something I can say because I don’t know what my own response should have been. I trusted no one and I trusted no report. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t see some pictures on television. The BBC has been appalling. It just showed you pictures, unbearable pictures, heartbreaking pictures of dying babies every night, but any war would look appalling if you just showed the suffering of the women and children. > > So, I thought, Who am I to believe here? I read a lot of people; I believed some, and I didn’t believe others. It’s turned out very badly and the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu is contemptible. I have no doubt about all that, but that didn’t mean that something didn’t need doing. There was no alternative to it. Israel had to try and get Hamas. I thought Netanyahu’s belief that he could wipe out Hamas was stupid. So I felt that this war had to be prosecuted. If a war is prosecuted, it will be ugly. > **I asked you about the specific intentional denial of humanitarian aid, and your answer was something like “Well, I don’t know what to believe anymore when I read the news, so I can’t really comment on that.” Is that right?** > > Put quite like that it sounds as though what I said was stupid and ignorant. One got accounts and accounts and accounts and it was very hard to know what was the truth. --- > **So you’re saying the idea that twelve hundred Israelis were killed and now forty-two thousand Gazans have been killed—that comparing the two in itself is not any sort of argument?** > > Well, all right, Isaac, what’s the figure you’d choose? > > **I was just trying to clarify what you meant.** > > I don’t know how you do the mathematics of this, and I’m not going to say the “mathematics of revenge” because, while of course there was an element of revenge, and you wanted it not to be revenge, you didn’t want it to be a punishment either. I hated that word—“punishment.” I think the justification for what Israel did was to try to make sure that this never happened again. And I think in the attempt to make sure that this never happened again, the numbers were going to inevitably have to be high. If you’re a terrorist, you do hide yourself in schools and hospitals. So if the Israelis are going to get you, they’re going to have to attack those things. --- > Why should this be a matter of numbers? I’m not saying that the media should underestimate the number of Palestinian children killed. It’s a question of whether you choose to lead every story with children killed. Forty-five children were killed today. Thirty children were killed today. Fifteen children were killed today. It became an obsession. It became, and still is. > > **What should be the lead story on days when lots of children are killed?** > > I’m not talking about those days. This was every single night. I’m telling you I saw a dead baby every single night. You couldn’t look at a child, pictures of a child being killed every single night without thinking this is making my people, my kin, out to be child murderers. I’ve got two options for you. I can believe it’s true. O.K., it’s true. It’s true. That’s what we do. That’s what the Israelis, not us, but the Israelis, do. But we feel a kinship with the Israelis. That’s what they do. And so maybe there we are again. Maybe everything that they said about us in 1200 and 1300 was true. This is what the Jews do—kill children. I’m not going to buy it. I’m not going to buy it. > > **Howard, I think maybe we’re in a bit of a worrisome place if you see photos of dead children on television and your first thought is, They’re trying to make me, a Jew, hate my people.**
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This is pre-internet history, and I’m unable to find references, but when the company went out of business the rumor going around was that power companies were funding zoning lawsuits against Copper Cricket, and this eventually shut the company down.
sounds very plausible--zoning is awful and a perfect place to do concern trolling bullshit like that if you know your way around what's allowed and what's not.
www.semafor.com
> As horrific details about Oct. 7 spread last year, higher-ups at media companies debated whether they should join the chorus of corporations releasing statements condemning the attack. > > [...]Ultimately, the company’s statement pleased no one. Condé was one of the only news media companies to explicitly condemn Hamas in its statement. But some staff leaked to the New York Post their complaints that it didn’t go far enough. “People are pissed because it was a terrorist attack and Stan’s note is like, ‘Oh, both sides are being hurt,’” a Condé Nast insider told the Post, referring to a memo sent by the company’s head of human resources. --- > As the war intensified after Oct. 7, [Teen Vogue] ran sympathetic pieces pointing out the impact of military action on Palestinian civilians in Gaza, and how the conflict was playing out in the 2024 presidential campaign. It chronicled the crackdown on anti-Israel protests across college campuses in the US, as well as the celebrities who have come out in support of the Palestinians or a general ceasefire. > > Teen Vogue’s pro-Palestinian bent has particularly irritated the talent booking side of the business, which has taken issue with some of the writing and told other staff within the company that it is damaging relationships with celebrities. Earlier this year, Vogue entertainment director Sergio Kletnoy sent an email to Wintour, CEO Roger Lynch and Duncan that was deeply critical of Teen Vogue’s writing about Gaza. In February, Siri Garber, the president of Platform Public Relations, a Hollywood PR agency that represents celebrities who have been on Teen Vogue covers, sent a private letter to Condé Nast criticizing Teen Vogue’s coverage.
theworld.org
> Dachshunds are famed for their sausage shape, but their extra-long backs and extra-short legs can create crippling strain on their spines. This animal welfare bill would ban what it calls “torture breeding” — the breeding of animals with structural disabilities — not just of dachshunds with bad backs, but German shepherds with bad hips or French bulldogs with breathing problems. > > Dachshund owners say they’ve got the problem under control, and that a breeding ban, rather than helping, could doom the dachshund. More than 18,000 people have signed a petition against the bill, and the national dachshund club has mounted a pressure campaign on legislators. > The bill isn’t just about dog breeding. It is meant to protect all kinds of animals in places from livestock farms to circuses to slaughterhouses. Germany already has one of the world’s strongest animal welfare laws, with animal protection written into its national constitution. Some 90% of Germans support stronger legal protections for animal welfare. That makes the debate more complicated than a simple for or against.
alyaza
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Aside for all his pedophile view points, he is correct about infantilizing 12-17 year olds.
...you're just repeating my point back to me, and why Stallman is the worst mouthpiece for this position.
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It kind of reminds me of ASD symptoms, not reading social cues properly, etc.
i know you mean well but, respectfully: having autism or another disorder (if Stallman even does) is probably not the reason why Richard Stallman has historically defended what amounts to pedophilia; why he continues to defend bestiality and necrophilia; and why he has extremely malformed opinions on what constitutes sexual harassment and sexual assault. and even if it is, that's an explanation and nothing more. it does not excuse or make acceptable his behavior or the consistency with which it has skeeved other people out. he deserves to be strongly rebuked, as anyone else would, for his refusal to take accountability in this situation.
alyaza
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this is part of a growing trend of militia people (both acting alone and in unison) intervening in disaster areas--and it doesn't bode well for the future. the first real flashpoint that most people might be aware of is the 2020 wildfires in Oregon, where there were dozens of panics about "antifa infiltrators" that engulfed entire towns, led to militia checkpoints, and saw police officers have to be rebuked by their commanding officers for peddling conspiracies. but it's gotten significantly worse since then--pretty much every wildfire year there's been at least one story of one militia group or another going into a disaster area and causing problems or stopping people randomly.
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6d ago
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Agreed that he himself isn’t particularly relevant, but his supporters are still very influential in some areas of the open source community.
hilariously you can see some of the reflexive defense of him over in the FOSS thread of this article. way too many people feel obliged to run defense for this guy and it's just cringeworthy to watch
alyaza
6d ago
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FYI: if you are an active apologist for Stallman in this thread, you will be indefinitely banned from Beehaw. to the extent that Stallman has salient critiques of anything he's under fire for (as @t3rmit3@beehaw.org notes), his use of those critiques is almost exclusively to advance horrible, indefensible, actively harmful ideas. if you actually care about the merits of these subjects, nothing he argues is actually best argued from him. almost anybody else would be better served as a mouthpiece. and it is just incredibly silly to stand by the guy who took until 2019 to retract his belief that pedophilia isn't harmful to children just because, as a foundational belief informing that position, he reasonably thinks we infantilize people between the ages of 12 and 17 too much
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i mean, whom among us has not said such things, without retraction, as:
Cody Wilson [who at the time of his charging was 30] has been charged with “sexual assault” on a “child” after a session with a sex worker of age 16. [...] The article refers to the sex worker as a “child”, but that is not so. Elsewhere it has been published that she is 16 years old. That is late adolescence, not childhood. Calling teenagers “children” encourages treating teenagers as children, a harmful practice which retards their development into capable adults.
Mere possession of child pornography should not be a crime at all. To prosecute people for possessing something published, no matter what it may be, is a big threat to human rights.
A national campaign seeks to make all US states prohibit sex between humans and nonhuman animals. This campaign seems to be sheer bull-headed prudery, using the perverse assumption that sex between a human and an animal hurts the animal. That’s true for some ways of having sex, and false for others. For instance, I’ve heard that some women get dogs to lick them off. That doesn’t hurt the dog at all. Why should it be prohibited?
and whom among us has not had to retract such positions as:
There is little evidence to justify the widespread assumption that willing participation in pedophilia hurts children.
these are obviously positions that everyone would take the fall for if they had a blog.
alyaza
6d ago
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Not defending pedophiles, but
you are about to defend pedophilia. rethink this and stop talking.
there was a time when 13 was considered adult.
and? Stallman is not talking about a previous time at any point here. also: that previous time was bad anyways. why would we want to--especially with respect to age of consent--go back to considering 13-year olds and younger to be adults? they cannot meaningfully consent to sexual relations with adults; it's just child abuse. all of this is why Stallman's words are abhorrent.
It’s still legal for teenagers to marry in most countries.
Stallman is not talking about teenagers. he explicitly distinguishes children (again, people <13 for him) from teenagers (people 13-17).
alyaza
6d ago
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An anonymous hit job
it's literally his own words all the way down here. if it's a "hit job" it's entirely Stallman's own fault for being a freak with morally abhorrent takes. one of the first things mentioned here is that he had to retract the position that "voluntarily pedophilia" doesn't harm children (a category of person he defines as anyone under about 13)! any reasonable person would find this abhorrent and Stallman a horrible person for ever having defended said position in the first place, because it is genuinely abhorrent to defend something like that. that's just child abuse.
alyaza
6d ago
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he's not particularly relevant at this point, but even this one note (and its retraction) feel like they should put to bed whether or not Richard Stallman should have any influence over anything:
Dutch pedophiles have formed a political party to campaign for legalization.
I am skeptical of the claim that voluntarily pedophilia harms children. The arguments that it causes harm seem to be based on cases which aren’t voluntary, which are then stretched by parents who are horrified by the idea that their little baby is maturing.
[Many years after posting this note, I had conversations with people who had been sexually abused as children and had suffered harmful effects. These conversations eventually convinced me that the practice is harmful and adults should not do it.]
like, bro, what are you doing. beyond being abhorrent, this is the sort of nonsense Reddit used to be infamous for and it made the website fucking rancid. why would anyone want to share a political movement with Stallman when he has to be debated out of positions like "you should not have sexual relations with people under the age of 13."
alyaza
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Rent control primarily benefits renters who stay put for extended periods. While this does have some benefits in allowing tenants who would otherwise be forced out of gentrifying neighborhoods to stay, the problem is that it doesn’t benefit their kids or other less resourced people who didn’t get in early. Since the benefits accrue the longer you stay put, it’s usually older tenants who benefit the most and they often have higher than average levels of wealth among tenants. Meanwhile, tenants who don’t get in early can be harmed by increased prices overall.
there's also the fact that even when it works, it's still a stopgap measure. rent control alone obviously isn't going to bring down already high rent--it basically can't do that--it's just going to lock in a tenant's current current rent price or put a cap on the maximum increase in rent they can experience. and that's only so helpful if your rent is already $1,500/mo or $2,000/mo like it is in many major US cities. you need to do other things to make rent control maximally useful for tenants.
alyaza
7d ago
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(Mostly rhetorical questions, I just strongly believe that you have an incorrect analysis of this situation and what must be done to change it and am hoping to provide other perspectives because you are not getting it…)
your analysis of the situation is "kamala harris is promising a fascist dictatorship as well [...] She is also promising to purge us." which is, respectfully, a Charlie Brown had hoes level statement. it can be dismissed with prejudice because it's so obviously false.
alyaza
7d ago
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i have no idea what about this comment is objectionable to you, but whatever it is this is most certainly not the way to object to it.
alyaza
1w ago
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Republicans still get what they want.
respectfully, if you have any political knowledge at all, how are you surprised that the Bad Things Party can do bad things within the confines of a constitution literally written to facilitate the permanent existence of bad things? what Republicans want--a system where they can arbitrarily and undemocratically carve out the haves and have-nots--is completely in line with (and facilitated by) the existing undemocratic, federalist constitutional order. no shit they're able to get what they want while Democrats don't when this is the case; it's like a 100 meter race where only one person actually has to run 100 meters, and everyone else in the race has to run 200.
it's why complaining about the Democrats is dumb--you are incorrectly assigning blame and misdirecting people from the correct source of their ire. that doesn't mean you have to be uncritical of the Democrats, but the problem is you're not merely uncritical. you are an active impediment to the correct analysis of this situation and what must be done to change it (and sometimes you're just wrong, like below). no amount of railing on the Democrats will fix the system, because the Democrats aren't the system that needs fixing. they can't fix it with their current political power, and meanwhile if everyone took your advice (even though it is being posted on a small and irrelevant-to-the-national-conversation website like ours) it would from first principles undermine their ability to win the needed political power to change anything.
The thing is, the loss of Roe, the rollback of voting rights, the minimum wage, none of it seems to matter enough for Democrats to actually wield power when they have it.
this is incorrect and people in this thread have disproven it. continuing to repeat it indicates you are either genuinely very ignorant or actively malicious in the positions you hold. i don't know or care to disambiguate which--and in outcome it doesn't matter. it's not acceptable, and it undermines the value of having discussions in the first place. continuing this behavior of repeating falsehoods and ignoring other people when they correct you will have you removed from this section until after the election at minimum.
alyaza
1w ago
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your rights still depend largely on your zip code.
i mean: this sort of devolution is how all federal systems work, and especially the one established by the Constitution. your issue is very literally with the system here.
accordingly: implying that the problem is the Democrats for not unilaterally overturning the entire constitutional order when they don't have the votes to do that (or anything, for that matter!) is nonsensical. it's not a materialist way of looking at the world. there are obvious constraints that prevent them from doing this. if you want to productively change things, the goal should be to give them (or another faction i suppose, although i have no idea what faction this would be outside of democratic socialism) the political power needed to begin changing the constitutional order. i don't know what other strategy you adhere to which is capable of changing this at scale.
alyaza
1w ago
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?